CHAPTER 27
Exhausted and filthy, Cole collapsed onto one of the booth benches, a bottle of Sam clutched in his freshly blistered palm. He and his small team of trusted workers had actually accomplished what he’d set out to do: they’d finished the interior remodel of the dining area in time for Myles’s investor dinner. Sacrificing all free time, Cole had worked around the clock, occasionally sleeping in the storage closet. A couple hours of shut-eye here and there had ensured he didn’t fall asleep with a power tool still on and in his hand.
Sensing Cole’s strain to make the deadline, Shaun had stayed away from the jobsite. Or at least he suspected that was the reason she’d remained absent. She hadn’t called him since Tuesday evening, when she’d made sure everything was all right after he’d hung up so abruptly, not even for a second round of phone sex, although the thought had crossed his mind.
She’d mentioned a meeting with Robert the following morning. Just the thought of her having to sit down with his slimy fuck of an uncle made Cole uneasy. His drawings were still in Robert’s possession. Robert had made no attempt to contact Cole the whole week, making him even more curious about his uncle’s intentions.
“I don’t believe it.”
Cole looked up and smiled at Myles, whose face appeared to be a more normal shade of pink this time around.
“And you were worried,” Cole quipped, taking a sip of his beer. Myles had neared nuclear meltdown when he’d discovered Cole in the closet he’d called home all week, stressed because they were behind schedule. But Cole had had no intention of screwing up his one account with the firm, not when Shaun had entrusted all creative freedom into his hands. He wouldn’t fail her like that.
“Will you and Shaun be attending the dinner this evening?” Myles pressed. Cole figured the inference had much to do with the dumb expression on his face at every mention of her name. He couldn’t help how she made him feel.
“I’m not sure about Shaun, but I will definitely be here. I expect the best Rosario has to offer.” Rosario, the executive chef, often snuck an occasional tapa out of the kitchen for Cole and his workers, captive guinea pigs that they were, to try.
“Of course,” Myles conceded with a nod.
“Well, I better run home and take a much-needed shower.” Cole smirked, collecting his tools and finishing the last of his warm beer. “See you tonight.”
“Tonight,” Myles responded before shuffling off toward the kitchen.
The elevator doors opened on the twelfth floor, and Cole nodded at Chelsea, who was filing her nails behind the reception desk. She smiled back and pointed toward the conference room. “Thanks,” he mouthed in return and headed for the gestured direction.
He spotted Shaun through the glass and felt a familiar heat spread through his veins. A feeling he found himself getting used to more and more, almost craving the anticipated reaction. She had her head down, focused on a folder in front of her, her dark hair falling loose over her shoulders. A portrait of perfection in a cream-colored turtleneck, until she looked up. Her face appeared sullen, dejected.
He moved a few steps closer and froze, understanding. She wasn’t alone. Two of the other chairs were occupied by none other than his uncle and Preston Wentworth Wright. He expected to see Robert, but why would her father be there too? He’d got the impression that Mr. Wright had handed his share of the company over to Shaun completely, for her to do with as she pleased.
Shaun caught sight of him as he stood there like a statue. Features still tight, she rose to her feet and spoke a few words to the ominous audience before exiting the conference room. Her eyes looked bloodshot and exhausted behind her glasses.
As she approached, Cole reached for a chestnut curl, but her hand shot up and pushed the lock behind her ear first.
“Hey,” he said, hesitant to drop his arm. He hated the idea of not being able to touch her after three days of no contact.
“Hey,” she replied, unable to look him in the eye. A knot twisted in his gut. Something was definitely wrong, likely care of the unexpected guest.
“Um, why’s your father here?” he asked, fighting the urge to envelop her in his arms and kiss the frown away.
She turned and quickly assessed the two men conversing in her absence. “It’s nothing,” she said, the lie unconvincing. He could tell there was indeed something serious going on. “I have a surprise for you.” It was a change of subject, with an attempt at a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“For me?” He played along. “Does it involve you naked?”
She laughed softly, shaking her head and stealing another quick glance at the conference room. “I have to get back in there.”
Shaun was hiding something from him, and not knowing felt agonizing, like a free fall off a cliff without knowing if you had a parachute.
“Can I see you later? Maybe we can go to the investor dinner together?”
She hesitated. “I’m not really sure when I’ll be done here, but I’ll call you.”
A voice inside Cole said she wouldn’t call. Not tonight, at least. He risked a dip forward to kiss her, but a small palm to his chest ceased his advance.
“Bye, Cole.”
“Bye? Wait, what about the surprise?” he asked.
“Later. I’ll call you later,” she replied with a ripple of agitation.
In defeat, Cole watched after her as she returned to the conference room and pressed a button, shading the glass walls opaque. She was shutting him out of this part of her life, and he couldn’t prevent the bitterness from taking hold. After he’d shared so much of himself with her during the weekend, he thought they’d turned a corner. Made some sort of progress toward a full-blown relationship.
Releasing a loud sigh, Cole spun on his heels and stalked back to the elevators, poking at the call button with the force of his rising anxiety, which all too often devolved into anger. Did he really have anything to be angry about? They hadn’t defined what they were. Not yet, at least.
Insecurities bounced around Cole’s mind while he rode the elevator down, giving him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. When the doors opened, he realized he hadn’t yet reached the ground floor, but his eyes locked onto an impressive pair of legs performing a balancing act on heels much like the ones Shaun wore. He followed black silk stockings upwards, stopping at a slate-gray knee-length skirt cut close to soft, feminine hips. When Cole’s vision finally ended the trip north, he barely recognized Violet as the woman standing in front of him. He registered a similar look of surprise on her face, which was adorned with carefully applied makeup but no glasses. She was absolutely amazing, and nothing like the girl he’d run into his second day at the firm or thereafter.
“Violet?” he asked, holding his hand in the way of the closing doors.
“Cole!” She glanced around nervously, arms folded over her midsection like a shield.
“Going down?” The elevator binged, tired of Cole’s obstruction.
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” With an awkward bobble, she stepped inside with him. She made no attempt at her usual quirky conversation.
“You look, great. I didn’t even recognize you at first. Got a date or something?”
She chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah, something like that.”
Cole frowned. Both the woman who was dangerously close to claiming his heart and the one friend he thought he’d made in Mason were treating him like a complete stranger. The knot in his gut increased in volume and density. He started to say something else, but they reached the first floor, and Violet nearly leapt through the elevator doors while they were still working open. She tossed a “Bye, Cole” over her shoulder, but kept walking.
Confused and needing to take the edge off, Cole stopped at the closest bar on the way back to his empty apartment. Once he’d parked his ass on the wooden stool, he realized that this was the exact bar where he’d met Shaun for the first time. The night she’d publicly broken up with Olivia, draped in a killer red dress that had haunted
his dreams all that night. In that one moment, he had lost himself to her and hadn’t even known it. How could he have known that, after multiple asinine moves on his part, she’d become the one woman he imagined spending his life with?
Halfway done his second pint, Cole noticed a guy at the end of a bar staring at him. Ready to give the asshole his middle finger, Cole stopped himself when he took a good look and recognized Henry. The office assistant motioned for Cole to join him, and with a shrug Cole rose.
“How’s it going?” he asked, trying to remain polite even though Henry was next to the last person he wanted to talk to.
“I’m on my third.” He pointed to a highball glass filled with two fingers of clear liquid. Vodka would be Cole’s first guess.
“Tough day?” he asked, although not really caring.
“You haven’t heard?” Henry asked, seeming surprised.
Cole furrowed his brows. “Heard what?”
Henry took a long sip. Cole nearly jumped from his stool to shake the answer out of him.
“Shaun’s had several closed meetings with the board.”
“Yeah, so what? She’s a partner. Isn’t that what partners do? Speak to the board?” Cole turned to face the assistant, setting his beer down. He had no knowledge of corporate dealings, so he wasn’t sure if he should be worried or not.
“I don’t know all the details. Only a few whispers here and there.” Henry leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice. “But her father has stepped in.”
“I still don’t understand. What’s it all about?” Cole feared he knew the answer already. “He stepped in to help her?”
Henry looked down at his glass, where a lone cube of ice circled the shallow pool. “I doubt it. He is one mean fucker, excuse my French. I don’t know what it’s about, but word around the office is that your uncle is behind it.” He studied Cole’s face, waiting for a reaction. “Everyone’s afraid to get involved. You know, fearing for their jobs if they choose the wrong side.”
“The wrong side of what?” Other patrons looked in Cole’s direction in response to his raised voice. “Henry, what the hell is going on?”
“Mr. Wright is taking his shares back from Ms. Wright’s control.”
Disbelief turned to pure anger. Anger at himself. Anger at his uncle. Cole jumped to his feet, dropping a twenty from his wallet on the bar. He wouldn’t let Shaun go through this alone, no matter what she thought of him after he told her the truth.
He hurried out the door without saying goodbye to Henry and hailed a cab, not wanting to wait the time it would take to walk. Once again inside the Jacobson-Wright building, he pressed the elevator call button repeatedly and paced the small space like a caged lion the whole way up.
As soon as the door opened, he made a beeline for the conference room. The glass was still opaque, but the door had been left wide open. Cole barged inside and found only his uncle and the stuffy assistant he’d met once or twice.
“What did you do, you son of a bitch?”
A sinister calm stared back. A spider admiring the trap he had expertly designed.
“Good evening to you too.” Robert gave the assistant a nod, and she made quick work of collecting her things to leave. “I do suggest you show more respect when speaking to your superiors,” he continued once they were alone. “If you wish to leave here with any ounce of a reputation.”
“Fuck you,” Cole shot back, not caring one bit. He clenched his fists at his sides to keep himself from doing something rash, like punching the emotionally contained asshole in the face.
“On the contrary, I feel the need to commend you on a job well done.”
“You’re lying. I didn’t do shit.”
“Oh, but you did, my dear nephew.” He reclined in his chair, grinning over steepled fingers. “Preston keeps Shaun and his money on a very short leash, and you gave me just enough ammunition to prove that the one he cared more about stood in jeopardy. Too bad for Shaun, though. Has to hurt finding out that your dad doesn’t care about you all that much. Well, not as much as a substantial investment.”
Cole lingered just outside the door of Shaun’s office for several minutes after her father left. Mr. Wright’s stoic expression had been just as intimidating as Cole remembered. He had considered ducking behind a bush again like a douchebag, but the proud businessman had walked right past him without so much as a sideways glance. Maybe he hadn’t made the impression he’d thought he had at the party.
Figuring he’d given Shaun enough time, Cole stepped through the open door. She was sitting back in her chair, glasses tossed on the desk, eyes searching the ceiling.
“Shaun?” His voice cracked saying her name.
Shaun shot up abruptly and shuffled some papers around. “What are you doing here?” The shake in her voice shredded his insides. Her eyes glistened from tears threatening to fall against her defiant will.
“What happened? Why was your father here?” He didn’t want to believe the cryptic version his uncle had given was the truth. He hoped it wasn’t the truth.
Shaun stood and walked toward him, chewing her lip, considering her answer. “I screwed up, Cole. I let someone get close to me, and it turned out they fed Robert information that convinced the board to question my abilities as a partner. So much so that they brought my father in. Like I was some petulant child, running rampant with company funds, and needed scolding.” She paused, and Cole could see her fight for control of her emotions. “I mean, he literally stole my files right out from under me. Some he changed, purely to undermine my ideas. I could spot his uninspiring designs a mile away. Others somehow disappeared completely.”
One breath. Two. “Shaun, I’m sorry. I meant to tell you.”
Every word he spoke sounded warped and twisted. Spineless.
She took a step back, eyes narrowing. “Tell me what, Cole?”
“It was before everything. Before I knew you. Robert asked me to. I mean, he told me to.” Shit, even his words were cowardly, unable to leave his lips in coherent sentences.
Somehow she pieced together his jumbled jargon, and her head tipped back from the unsuspected blow. A sucker punch thrown by his betrayal.
“You? You were the one?” She steadied herself, the recognition transforming her soft features. “All this time you were playing me for … for Robert?” She covered her face with a hand, fighting for composure. “I should’ve known. I suspected. God, I’m such an idiot.”
“It wasn’t me. I mean, I had nothing to do with the files at first. I had no idea what my uncle intended. Shit, I still don’t.” He felt his grip on reason slipping. There was no excuse for any of it.
“I trusted you. I showed you things I’ve never–” She paused as if still trying to make sense of Cole’s words.
“I know, Shaun. And I tried to tell you. I tried to come clean.” He made a step toward her, but she retreated backwards.
“When?”
“Sweetwater.”
The mention of his hometown only seemed to make her angrier. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be me? To go through life wondering if the people around you are there because of who your father is or what they can gain from you? Constantly looking over your shoulder, waiting for their knife to pierce your back?” She wrapped her arms tight around herself, fists clenched. “All this time I thought you were different. I thought you actually cared about…” Tears trickled down her cheeks, leaving tracks of mascara behind.
“It wasn’t like that, Shaun. I do care about you.” Cole threw down the final card he held in his hand – his heart. “Christ, I love you.”
Shaun’s resulting gaze turned violent. “Get the fuck out of my office. Now!”
“Shaun, please. Let me make this right.”
She rubbed the moisture from her face in two rough swipes, smudging the mascara further. “Did you hear what I said? Get out! Get out before I call security and have you thrown out.”
CHAPTER 28
Cole reclined in his office chai
r for the last time. He’d spent his final two weeks in Mason finishing up his part of the restaurant. He’d owed Shaun that much. And now he was leaving the big city for good. He stared down at the small box of belongings balanced on top of the desk. His bus back to Sweetwater left in a little over three hours. Not sorry to be leaving, he did, however, wish things would have ended differently, but he had no one to blame but himself.
Shaun had resigned from her position as partner by email the Monday after Cole had confessed his betrayal, and she hadn’t been back to the office since. Preston Wentworth Wright had subsequently sold his shares of Jacobson-Wright Contracting back to Robert, and all parties continued on their separate ways. Cole wondered where exactly his uncle had come up with the kind of money it would’ve taken to buy the Wrights out, but that was no longer his problem. With their arrangement fulfilled, he hoped to never see the bastard again, family or not.
As for Shaun, he’d tried calling her, but she’d never picked up. He’d even attempted a visit to her apartment, but the doorman had made it pretty clear he had no chance of getting in to see her. He had no right to think it would be otherwise or to get mad. If only he had told her, said something sooner. If only, he thought.
“You know, I’m going to miss hating you.”
Cole looked up at Henry, who was propped against the doorjamb, and laughed. “I knew it! You did hate me.”
The office assistant chuckled, smoothing back an imaginary hair that dared be out of place. “I didn’t really hate you,” he admitted nonchalantly with a lift of his shoulders. “More like I envied the instant attraction between you and Shaun. Like two magnets. I knew the moment you stepped off that damn elevator. After Marcos mowed you down, anyone could see Shaun was an absolute goner.”
“Jeez, thanks for the reminder.” Cole chuckled, straightening himself in his chair. “Henry, I’m really sorry. If I’d known you liked Shaun, I never would have…”
Drawn Through You Page 23