“Isaac and I talked last night. We agreed on terms.”
“Just like that?”
“It’s done. No meeting.” He hangs up without another word.
I frown and slide my phone into my purse as Eric disconnects, arching a brow at me. “What just happened?”
“The union meeting is cancelled. They agreed to our terms. So actually, I’m turning your question on you. What just happened?”
“Isaac deleted the union messages when I walked in the door. Now the meeting between you and the union is cancelled. Kingston’s obviously in bed with at least a portion of the union. My presence and history with the union has everyone spooked. Add to that the fact that my father just called and demanded to see me at the office right now and I’d say our plan is working. The one where we leave and you end up in my bed.”
Unless I don’t, I think. Unless he decides he doesn’t want me there, because I can’t go to New York City without telling him what I don’t want to tell him. What I have to tell him.
CHAPTER FORTY
Harper
Eric pulls us into the Kingston parking lot in his Jaguar rental after we decided to ride to work together, which is the part I’m fine with. The choice of car is another story. “I can’t believe we’re in a Jaguar,” I say. “I work for Kingston.”
“You’re making a statement,” he says yet again since we had this debate at my house. “The Kingstons don’t own us. They don’t own you. And that’s an important message. It’s the one that puts pressure on them. It’s the one that makes them feel relief when I convince you to leave.”
“Right,” I say. “I know you’re right.” But the idea that his father will be here today, and get in my face, is not a good one. Isaac I can deal with. He’s an ass that makes you hate him. Jeff is another story. My stepfather has a way of crawling under your skin and cutting from the inside.
Eric turns me to face him. “You’ve been their ‘yes’ girl for six years.”
I scowl at him. “I’m the one who’s been in their faces about the recalls and funny money. I’m the reason you’re here.”
“But for six years, you played a role in the company, you played the good little employee. And you did it so well that no one thought twice about using your trust fund.”
“My mother allowed that,” I say. “I still can’t believe she allowed that to happen.”
“Here’s what you need to remember, sweetheart. Your father didn’t believe she’d let it happen. He believed he took care of you. Your mother has changed, she’s inside the Kingston web.”
“Yes, but—”
“I know you want to save her, but you don’t save someone by ignoring what you’re saving them from. She’s brainwashed and that means she will act to protect them and convince herself that’s in your best interest even if it’s not. She burned you. She will burn you again if you let her. Understand?”
I flash back to the night I found out she gave my stepfather my trust fund. We were at one of our mother-daughter Sunday brunches we do once a month, sipping coffee and eating waffles:
“I need to share something exciting,” my mother says, setting her coffee aside.
I sip from my cup and do the same. “Exciting is good. I’m all ears.”
“Jeff is going to invest your trust fund and he’s assured me you’ll get a twenty-percent return.”
I blanch. “What? What does that mean?”
“He says that seven million dollars shouldn’t just sit when it could be earning money for the company your father helped build and for you. I gave him the money a month ago, and he says it’s already earning you ten percent more than the way it was banked.”
“You did what?”
“This is great news, honey.”
“How did you do this? That money is in my name.”
“I’m the executor and—”
“I’ll never see that money back again.” I lean forward and all but growl. “What have you done? How could you do this to me?”
“Harper?”
I blink back to the present and into Eric’s blue eyes. “Where were you just now?”
“Remembering the day my mother told me she gave my trust fund to Jeff and how great it was going to be for me.”
“What did you say?”
“I was angry. I knew I’d never see the money again. I started looking for a job then. I wanted out, but unlike her with me, I put her first. I stayed when the fatalities happened to protect her. But you’re right. She’s brainwashed. I think she really believes I don’t appreciate what Jeff does for me.”
“My father is a master manipulator and she wants to be manipulated by him.”
I tilt my head to look at him. “I’m surprised you call him your father.”
“My mother told me that I had to own what I wanted.”
“And you wanted him to be your father?”
“I wanted what my mother wanted. For him to claim me as his son, but that was a long time ago and he told me to call him father. Of course, he was trying to push Isaac to step up. He was using me.”
“And you still address him as father?”
“Every time I call him father, I remind him that my mother was never a person to be ignored.” Shadows flit through his stare before he refocuses on me and his cellphone buzzes with a text. He snakes it from his pocket and reads the message before replying and updating me. “Blake hacked all the recording devices in the building but didn’t install his own. He said after careful consideration and review of the camera placement with more detail, he has full access, which means whatever is said in this building he’ll hear.”
I know the answer already, but I just need to confirm. I need to hope. “My office was for sure recorded, right?”
“Yes,” he says stroking my cheek. “I know you hate that they saw you change clothes.”
“Yes, well, just another reason to kick your brother and father in the balls, even if it’s a proverbial kick.”
“That’s my girl,” he says, the endearment doing funny things to my belly. “Lead the conversations you have where you want them to go. Everything you get the family to say while we have access to the recordings could be useful if we need to protect your interests.”
“And innocence?”
“They won’t frame you or me for their crimes. That’s not going to happen. Let them move things around while we watch. Then when we leave, they’ll make bigger moves.”
“We hope.”
“We expect,” he says. “My father flew back because I’m here. They feel the pressure. I’m going to ensure they feel it ten times over. And when he comes at you, you do the same. That’s our plan. Stick with it.”
“I know. I will.”
He kisses me. “I’ll come around and get you.” He opens his door and exits. I gather my briefcase and by the time I have my purse stuffed inside it, Eric is opening my door and offering me his hand.
I slide my palm to his, and I swear every time this man touches me, I light up. I’m alive in ways I didn’t realize I could be alive, in ways I want to be for the rest of my life, and that’s a scary thought. This man could hurt me, and that has nothing to do with the company or the family. It’s all about us and what I feel for him that I’m afraid to name. I need to just enjoy him and love the time with him. I need to live in the now.
“Whatever you’re feeling,” he says softly, walking me to him, “I am, too.”
My gaze rockets to his and he brushes his knuckles over my cheek. “I’d tell you what I feel if we weren’t here in this Godforsaken place.” He settles my hand on his elbow, and unlike me, he’s not wearing a coat. “There’s much to talk about, Harper. Alone. In New York City. Away from this place. Today helps us get there. Let’s go do this.”
“Yes. Let’s go do this.”
He turns us toward the building, and arm in arm we walk to the main entrance, our relationship on full display. Eric opens the door for me and nerves assail me. His
father is here. He’s going to confront me. My mother is going to confront me. Isaac and Gigi, too. But they’ll go at Eric as well, and that’s what we want.
I enter the lobby first but Eric is immediately back by my side. The receptionist stares at us a minute before she says, “Gigi wants to see you.”
I’d expected as much, but it’s then that I realize Eric and I haven’t talked about what I’m going to say to Gigi. “Tell her I’ll find her when I get settled.”
The receptionist clears her throat. “Sorry. I meant Eric. She wants to see you, Eric.”
“I’m sure she does,” he says, glancing first at a text message, and then at me, before motioning for me to step back outside.
I nod and follow him to the right and down the stairs. As soon as we’re behind closed doors, he turns and faces me, drags me to him and whispers in my ear. “Treat Gigi likes she’s setting you up. Get her to talk.”
“Yes. Yes, okay.”
The doors behind us open and Eric rotates us to face the door, where his father has just entered the room, no doubt having witnessed our embrace.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Eric
I stand toe to toe with my father, a man who we all know looks more like me than Isaac, and that hasn’t changed. He’s tall, athletic, his eyes the same blue as mine, his hair now streaked with gray, but still the same wavy brown. All details that feed Isaac’s insecurity and bitterness. As for my genius, per Gigi, that’s her doing, a detail I just don’t care enough about to research.
“Father,” I say, tightly.
“Leave us, Harper,” he orders without looking at her.
I grab her and meet her stare. “I’m here if you need me.”
“I’m here if you need me,” she replies.
Holy hell, this woman charms the fuck out of me. I barely contain a smile at her reply, but I manage to give her a nod and release her. She walks around my father and exits the conference room. “Are you going to tell me what you’re doing to get people killed while they’re driving your cars, or give me a few more days that might only take hours to figure it out myself?”
“You don’t belong here.”
“I’m family, blood, your son. If any of that mattered to me, I’d be offended. What matters is money. Gigi paid me to find out what you won’t tell her.”
“Gigi is old and senile and we both know you have more money than God. You don’t need her pathetic money.”
“Any man that makes money and keeps that money values it. She’s concerned enough to make it worth my while, but let’s get real here. Harper is why I’m here. You hurt her, I hurt you. That’s the bottom line.”
“Your stepsister.”
“Who I’m fucking, yes. Now that we’re past the taboo part of that equation, you’re in trouble. We both know you’re in trouble. Trust your son to help.”
“We aren’t in trouble, son. Harper’s pissed off about us using her trust fund and you’re letting her grab your balls and pull you around.”
“Harper doesn’t need that trust fund. She has me and you of all people know that I know how to turn money into more money.”
“We’ll pay you off,” he says. “Go back to New York City.”
“I’m a stockholder now. I’m not going anywhere, and with Gigi’s stock offered up for my purchase, if you push me too hard, I’ll take the majority, and you might be the one who’s gone.”
His lips quirk. “You had your chance. You walked away.”
“As if you ever wanted me to run this place.”
“I wanted the best man to win and the one that ran away wasn’t the best man.”
“I didn’t run,” I say. “I stepped outside your limitations. Now you’re confined to your mistakes and we both know you’ve made them. Suck up the pride and let me help while it’s still possible to save this place.”
“Just like your mother. You think you can arm yourself with some small weapon and control me. I don’t do anything I don’t want to do, including claiming you as my son.”
“You claimed me to fuck with Isaac. I wonder now if it’s him that got you in trouble or vice versa. Did your crown prince endanger your empire? Or maybe you two dared down this path on your own.”
“You’re playing with matches, Eric. Don’t light the match because you’ll be the one who burns. I brought you into this world, I quite literally can take you out.”
“Who will end who?” I say. “Is that the new game you’re playing and are you really sure it’s one you want to play with me?”
“I might not be able to beat you, son, but I don’t have to beat you. There are others that will do it for me.”
He turns and leaves. I stare at the door as it closes. I stare after the man who’s supposed to be my only living parent, yet he just threatened to end me. And unlike my pussy brother, I believe he’d act on that threat, but there’s a theme here between the two of them. Someone else is involved. Someone who will kill me. Someone who thinks they have the skills to do it despite my skills. They don’t, but I want Harper the fuck out of here and then I need to end this family before they have the chance to come after her.
My cellphone buzzes with a text and Blake taps me into Harper’s office and I know why. Gigi enters her office.
***
Harper
I’ve barely sat down at my desk when Gigi walks into my office and shuts the door, her red hair a mess she never allows it to be. “You told him?” she demands. “Did you tell him?”
I stand up and lean on my desk. “Why didn’t you tell me? Wires into your account that you pulled out and gave Isaac. It looks like you’re helping them and setting him up. You made it look like I was setting him up.”
“I did what I had to do!” she shouts, shocking me with her outburst. “He wouldn’t have come here to help if I told you because you wouldn’t have helped me and gone to him.”
“Why would you pull cash and give Isaac that money? What is really going on here?”
She charges toward my desk but I don’t miss how unsteady she is as she does. She presses her hands on the opposite side of the desk. “I thought I was helping my grandson.”
“Like you tried to get rid of your other grandson? You hurt Eric. Now you want him to help you without knowing the facts?”
“I can’t undo the past. I can’t. I told you. I regret what a bitch I was to him and his mother. I have nightmares about her suicide. I know what I did to her.” She starts crying, deep sobs. “I don’t know how to fix any of this.”
“Start by walking up to him and telling him you’re sorry.”
“That won’t matter to him.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve it. He deserves it.”
“And when looking at me disgusts him so much he leaves?” she demands. “Then what? He’s going to take me down with them, isn’t he?”
I could tell her no, I could tell her how honorable he is, and how much his mother inspired his actions. How much the Bennett family grounds him, but I don’t. She doesn’t deserve that security and I don’t trust her not to repeat it anyway. “Holding back information from him certainly isn’t the way to inspire his kindness.”
“You’re the only one who can inspire his kindness. I know you’re seeing him. I know you were with him years ago at the party. I saw you go to his cottage. Protect me. Please.”
I feel manipulated. I feel used. “Tell him everything. That’s how you protect yourself. I can’t. I won’t. He deserves more than me using our relationship as a tool or a weapon.”
She stares at me for several long beats and then walks toward the door. She pauses there and then exits without another word. The door shuts and I pray I’ve done my job right. My cellphone buzzes with a message from Eric: I was watching and A) you scared her. That’s good. What she does next could tell a story, but most importantly B) I really want to come in there and fuck you right there on your desk but there would be too many perverts watchi
ng. That doesn’t work for me. I don’t share. Not you. Ever.
I smile and reply with: Then I guess we’ll have to use your desk in New York City when I go there with you.
His reply is instant: Yes, fucking yes, and if you keep talking like that I’ll fire up a private jet and take you there now, tonight.
Warmth fills me and for the first time, I really let myself believe that maybe, just maybe, we have a future and I’m willing to walk away from my past to make it happen. I’m willing to walk away for him. I want to walk away before this family does something to ruin us.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Harper
It’s nearly lunchtime and I’ve avoided any more encounters with the Kingston family. I spend the quiet time digging through every record I can find that might hold that fourteen-digit identifier we were given last night. It’s noon when Eric appears in my doorway. “Want to grab lunch?”
“Yes, please. I’m suffocating in this place.” I grab my purse and cross the office to greet him. He grabs my coat from the coat rack right inside my doorway, helps me into it, and then uses the lapels to pull me to him, kissing me soundly on the lips.
“How the hell does it feel like a year since I did that?” he murmurs against my mouth, his hand a warm branding on my lower back under my coat.
“Because it has been, right?” I ask sounding and feeling breathless. I live breathlessly with this man.
He laughs a low, sexy laugh that I feel from head to toe before he takes my hand and leads me toward the front desk. We enter the lobby at the same moment that Isaac walks in the front door. “Aren’t they cute,” he says dryly. “Fuck break or lunch break?” he asks in front of the receptionist.
Eric looks at me and arches a brow. “Lunch, right?”
His nonchalant, unruffled reply guides my equally unruffled reply. “Can we decide in the car?”
“Whatever you want, sweetheart,” he says, leaning in to kiss me before he lifts a chin at Isaac. “Later, brother,” he says, and we step outside into a gust of wind.
Eric pulls me under his arm. “Sorry about that in there,” he says, glancing down at me. “He was looking for a reaction I didn’t want to give.”
The Bastard (Filthy Duet Book 1) Page 19