A Gentleman in the Street

by Alisha Rai

  Strength filled her, shoring up the parts she hadn’t known had weakened at some inexplicable point. I could love you.

  “Keep the bars,” she enunciated every word. “I’m not playing this game.”

  Confusion spread over her father’s face. Had he expected her to fall apart and take his ridiculous deal?

  He clearly hadn’t bargained with her in a long, long time.

  “You think I’m bluffing.”

  “On the contrary, I’m hoping you’re not. I remember how much you despised running a business. The constant demands on your time, the millions of boring minute details?” She gave him a nasty grin. “Buy the damn things. I give it maybe three months before you’re looking to unload them.”

  “Not to you, I won’t.”

  She lifted her shoulder. “I have more money and power than you could imagine, because I earned it. Because I know how to work my ass off.” She flicked her fingers at him. “Seriously. Keep them. I can easily crush you.”

  “This isn’t over—”

  “It is over. Because if you pull a stunt like this again, I swear I will call every reporter I know and tell them that delightful little story of how you forced my mother to give birth to me. That would be some lovely publicity when you’re gearing up for the birth of your new child, hmm?”

  He stilled. “What?” His thin lips barely moved.

  She smiled, but there was no amusement in the gesture. “Oh, yeah. She told me, about a year before she died.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Mei—”

  “Mei didn’t want children. But your clock was ticking, so you lied and told her she wouldn’t get pregnant. Then came me. Surprise.”

  Her father made a visible effort to bring himself under control. “I hardly locked her in a dungeon.”

  “No,” she said, a strange sort of calm settling over her as she cut this cancer out. There was no room for anything but complete control. “But she was nineteen. You were thirty-two. You knew exactly how to emotionally browbeat her, didn’t you?”

  He fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves, straightening the suit. “You have no proof of any of this.”

  “Maybe not. But you’d be surprised how ready the media would be to believe someone who has literally nothing to gain.” She paused. “I may also have a couple of Mei’s diaries. I haven’t read them yet. But how much do you want to bet they chronicle the life she had to live with you.” Her smile wasn’t pretty. “You could say a lot about Mei, but people respected the hell out of her.”

  His face mottled with color. His next words were the equivalent of waving a white flag. “I should have let her get rid of you. If my father hadn’t been harassing me for an heir—”

  “You didn’t want an heir. You wanted a brainless puppet.”

  “Better a puppet than a slut.”

  “Oooh.” Akira tilted her head and smiled. “Are we resorting to your pet names already? Frankly, Daddy, I’d rather be a slut for sex than a whore for fame.”

  Quick as a flash, his hand wrapped around her upper arm. His grip was too hard, the fingers digging into her flesh. “You listen to me, you little…”

  Blocking the pain, she glanced up at the unobtrusive camera in the corner of the elevator. “Careful, Daddy. Your cameras may not be in here, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched. How would manhandling your daughter play to your viewers?”

  He released her immediately and took three steps back, until he was plastered against the opposite wall. She looked at him, really looked.

  He was old. Old and pathetic. He thought her business was at the center of her heart, so he had attacked it. Dumb. She loved her work, but if she lost it tomorrow, she would recover. Rebuild her empire.

  The same couldn’t be said of Jacob.

  No, her father would never be able to hurt her, ever. He couldn’t know what was in her heart because he had no idea how to have a heart.

  Hiro breathed deep, his face mottled. “You’re an idiot. This is going to set your business plan back.”

  It probably would, but she could manage that. Contrary to what so many people believed, she was no stranger to rolling up her sleeves. “So it gets set back.” She pushed the emergency button to resume the elevator operation.

  “You think I don’t know how hard you’ve tried to prove yourself to me?”

  “Yeah. I’m done with that. We’re done,” she said, her voice so cold and stiff her father made no response. “You never contact me again. Never look at me again.”

  He was silent until they reached the ground floor. As the door opened, she heard his bitter words. “So self-righteous. You are no better than me. You can try for the rest of your life, but you’ll never be better than me.”

  Her fingers slipped over her purse. “That’s where you’re wrong.” As she spoke, the truth washed over her, filling her with confidence. “Listen up, Pops. You got lucky today, but for future reference... I won’t strike first, but I will strike back. Hard. Probably best for you to keep that in mind.”

  She dropped her sunglasses over her face. Her feet picked up speed, until she was running as fast as her heels would allow by the time she cleared the huge glass double doors and spilled onto the crowded sidewalk. Yes, she was better than that man.

  And she deserved the best.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “What do you mean, he’s not here?”

  Ben stared at Akira from inside the door to Jacob’s home. “Ah. I’m sorry. He’s not here right now.”

  Akira closed her eyes. This was not a part of the script. Jacob was supposed to be home when she came to her senses, like a steadfast rock. Rocks didn’t roam.

  “Well, where is he?” Her voice rose higher on the last syllable, despite her best effort to appear her normal, unflappable self.

  To be fair, that was probably already a lost cause. She’d hopped on a plane from New York to San Francisco, rented a car since Harris was now investigating her driver, and driven straight here. Her hair was disheveled, falling out of the bun she’d hastily tucked it into, and her clothes had definitely been far more crisp at eight a.m. eastern time. She supposed she could have freshened up, but all she’d managed to do for the past however many hours was repeatedly call Jacob’s phone—which went straight to voicemail.

  Ben cocked his head and studied her. “Do you want to come in for a minute?” he asked, not answering her extremely important question.

  No. She didn’t want to come in. She wanted Jacob. “Is he at his cabin?”

  “Nope.” He stood away from the door and gestured. “I think you should come in.”

  God, did she look like such a mess that the kid had to use that coaxing tone on her?

  Man, not a kid, she corrected herself. Her relationship with the other Campbells was different from her relationship with Jacob, simply because she didn’t see them as often. In her head, Ben would forever be thirteen, a pimply teenager she had been peripherally aware of.

  She’d always thought he was the easiest of the Campbells to like, an impression reinforced by the stories Jacob had recently shared with her about his siblings. A little less intimidating than either of his brothers, Ben was shorter and more muscular, with a ready gentleness in his eyes. The brawn, Jacob had called him, but it was brawn combined with a mischievous kindness.

  She scrubbed her eyes, prepared to throw herself on that kindness. “Ben—”

  “It’s cold outside, and you aren’t even wearing a jacket.” A heavily calloused hand closed over her elbow and guided her inside before she could protest further.

  She automatically looked down at her thin blouse and skirt, her suit jacket having been misplaced at some point during her frantic cross country return trip. It was chilly, but she’d been chilly since she’d left Jacob lying in her bed, so really, what difference did it make? “I was on the East Coast this morning.”

  “Ah, that explains it. Are they experiencing that spring I hear so much about?”

&
nbsp; “Yeah, I…” She trailed off, realizing Ben had led her through the foyer and into the kitchen so quickly she had barely processed where she was going or what the interior of the house looked like. She eyed him, reconsidering her initial impression of his smarts.

  Ben’s smile was innocent. “The others are right out back. Here.” He shrugged off his hoodie and draped it around her shoulders, before opening the back door.

  Others? She balked at the doorstep and clutched Ben’s well-worn sweatshirt, not eager to have to deal with Jacob’s entire family. “Ben, if you could…”

  “They might know where Jacob is.”

  “Do they know where he is?” she snapped.

  “They might.”

  She gritted her teeth at the stubbornness she could suddenly see underlying the man’s genial kindness. Ben wouldn’t tell her anything until he was good and ready.

  Sure, she could hop in her car and try the cabin, but what if Jacob wasn’t there? A wild-goose chase was the last thing she needed right now. “Awesome,” she muttered.

  He didn’t comment on the sarcasm in her tone, merely gestured for her to precede him.

  Like most houses in this neighborhood, the first floor was a full story up from street level. At the landing outside, she stopped, looking down at one of the most beautiful gardens she had ever seen. Small but lush, it was so riotous with color she was startled out of her one-track search for Jacob. “You did this?”

  Ben’s grin was pleased. “Yup. Me and Connor. Well, I did the heavy lifting, of course.” He leaned over the railing. “Hey, guys, look who’s here!”

  Left with little choice, movement restricted by her narrow skirt, Akira followed Ben down the metal staircase.

  The rest of Jacob’s family was sitting around a sturdy but inexpensive patio table tucked under the overhang of the stairs. Kati stared at her, her pretty round face slack with surprise and curiosity. Connor’s reaction was more restrained. He sat back in his chair and crossed his ankle over his knee, watching her with an assessing look.

  There was a third person sitting there, a skinny, young kid wearing a bow tie. The boyfriend. Damon? Darrell?

  She dismissed him. He wouldn’t know where Jacob was, so he could officially be classified as Not Important.

  Lemonade sat in a pitcher on the center of the table, a tray of cookies next to it. Akira had no doubt this was a common event at this cozy home, the family gathering around a table in the beautiful backyard as they ate and chatted.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Kati’s borderline-rude question startled Akira out of her introspection. The query arrowed into her, making her wonder. What the hell was she doing here? This sort of domestic familial bliss was not her thing.

  But Jacob is your thing.

  That was right. Still, her voice was more subdued than she hoped when she answered. “I’m looking for Jacob.”

  Kati’s eyes narrowed. “Well, he’s not here.”

  Steel in your backbone. Ice in your veins. Just for now, until she found Jacob. She straightened and gazed down at Kati. “So I hear. Where is he?”

  “I’m not telling you. And I know your tricks now, so don’t think you’ll be able to figure it out on your own.”

  “Kati,” Ben said, a gentle sting in his voice. “Relax.”

  “Why do you want Jacob anyway? He already gave you my jewelry box.”

  Akira raised an eyebrow at that. “Your box?”

  Kati had the grace to flush, but she lifted her chin. “It was Mei’s. She gave it to me. It was mine.”

  The kid had potential as a worthy adversary. Her words contained a good deal of sense, pricking the part of Akira’s conscience bothered by the fact that the girl did have a valid claim to Hana’s box. So she nodded. “You can come over next week and pick something out of Mei’s jewelry collection. I was going to sell it and give the money to charity, but a piece or two won’t make much of a difference.”

  Kati blinked. “Uh—”

  “That won’t compensate you entirely,” Akira continued smoothly. The box was worth more to her than any single piece of Mei’s jewelry. Hell, it was worth more to her than all of Mei’s jewelry. “But it’ll be a stopgap measure until I can work something else out.”

  Connor linked his hands over his flat belly. “That’s not necessary.” He shot Kati a stern look when she stirred. “None of it. We were happy to return it to you.”

  Ugh, these men. Why wouldn’t they just let the women deal amongst themselves? Everything would be so much easier. “Excuse me,” she said coolly. “My business is with Kati.”

  “Kati’s only seventeen.”

  “I can contract with a minor.” She paused, not looking away from Connor. “But if that’s really a problem, when do you turn eighteen, child?”

  “In two months.”

  “There.” She gave Connor a thin smile. “In two months, she and I can deal with each other as adults.”

  Connor returned her smile. The brain, Jacob had called him, and Akira didn’t doubt it. There was something calculating in his gaze that none of his siblings shared. “Hey. Darren.”

  Darren. That was right. The boyfriend.

  “We have some family business to take care of. You mind excusing us?”

  “Darren can stay,” Kati protested.

  “Nah, it’s cool, Kati,” Darren said, shooting wary looks at Connor. “I gotta go home. I’ll pick you up for ice cream later?”

  Connor broke their gaze to turn narrowed eyes on the boy. “Are you asking us, or are you asking her?”

  “Um. Both of you, sir.”

  “They don’t have any say in whether I go out or not.” Kati glowered. “Pick me up at seven.”

  “Where are you going for ice cream?” Ben asked mildly.

  Darren swallowed, shifting his gaze between each brother as if he were unsure which one might attack. “Mabel’s?”

  “Hmm.” Ben clucked his tongue. “Really? Are you sure about that?”

  “Uh—that is…”

  Kati let out a low growl, sounding so much like Jacob, Akira hurt. “Oh my God. Stop teasing him. Come on, Darren. I’ll show you out.”

  “Okay.” Darren folded his hands together and inclined his head slightly. “Namaste.”

  Ben gave an audible groan. Though Akira had just found herself annoyed by the brothers, she couldn’t help her smirk when Connor crossed his hands over his chest, stared at Kati’s boyfriend, and shook his head once. “No.”

  Ben coughed. “See you later…Darren.”

  It could have been a cheerful sendoff, if it weren’t for the silky menace in his voice. Darren looked more than a little worried as Kati dragged him out, giving Ben and Akira a wide berth.

  “Aren’t one of you going to follow them?” Akira asked dryly. “He could be trying to take advantage of your sister right on the front stoop.”

  “I would, but Kati’s still cranky I sat between them during the movie last night.” Ben wiggled his eyebrows.

  Akira pounced on the kernel of information. “So Jacob’s been gone since yesterday?”

  Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “Jacob’s been gone for a couple of weeks, Akira.”

  Akira froze. Jacob wouldn’t have up and left his family on a whim, not for that length of time. Unless he had desperately needed to be alone. Maybe because he was in pain?

  Had she hurt him so badly?

  When she had sat in the guestroom that morning, she’d stared at the bedspread as she waited for Jacob to leave and told herself she was letting him go for his own good. So he could be happier, so he could have what he deserved.

  Of course you hurt him. If you felt like you’d ripped your arm off, imagine how he felt, writing you a note telling you he could love you.

  Akira clutched her purse, lead weighing in her belly. “Please tell me where he is.” Unaccustomed as she was to pleading, her words were halting, unsteady.

  Connor was silent, but Ben fixed her with a sympathetic look. “
Akira, see…I don’t know if we can. He’s in a strange mood—”

  “Strange how?”

  Ben shrugged. “Grim. I mean, he’s always serious. But this is extra dark. Even for him.”

  “Dark?” she asked faintly. Jacob only appeared taciturn at first glance. When he brought a person into his world, he was warm and funny and clever… He brought her dinner and perfect roses and gave her his socks.

  Darkness had no place in his soul.

  Connor was studying her with an intensity that would disturb her if she weren’t already so disturbed. “We know you guys had a run-in a while ago when he came to you about Mei giving Kati that thing.” He cocked his head. “Do you know anything about why Jacob’s acting this way?”

  Unable to say anything, Akira looked away. She couldn’t lie to Jacob’s brother, but whatever was between them felt far too new and unsettled for her to open up to the man either.

  Jacob had kept their unusual relationship from his family. She had suspected he would, and she didn’t fault him for it. But it didn’t feel right to come clean to them without him here.

  “See, the reason I ask is because it’s really out of character for him to call us with no warning and tell us to come stay with Kati for an extended period of time like this. So if you did have something to do with him running off…”

  “Connor, this isn’t our business,” Ben interjected.

  “It’s absolutely our business,” Connor shot back. “We’re the ones who had to put our life on hold to take care of Kati.”

  Satisfaction mixed with anger. Satisfaction Jacob was putting himself first for once, even if she was the reason he had to take some time away. Anger at these dumb, thickheaded oafs. “Really?”

  “Really what?”

  “Really. You had to put your life on hold for a couple of weeks?”

  Connor set his jaw. “Yeah, we did.”

  “That must have been hard.” She nodded so furiously, her hair bounced. “So hard for you to do that.”

  “Your tone is conveying sarcasm, but it was hard. We have a business, and personal lives and—”

  Oh. No. He. Didn’t. Akira stepped right up into Connor’s face, crowding into his personal space, exposing him to her most ferocious glare, the one that made grown men run for their lives. This young pup didn’t stand a chance. “Jacob has put his life on hold for you since you were born,” she hissed. “For you and your brother and your sister. He has a career, and he could have a personal life, if he were able to have some fucking time to himself, if he weren’t always worried about his precious babies at home. So shut your goddamned whiny mouth. If he needs you to pull some duty at home on short notice, you do it. Hell, if he needs a kidney, you rip it out with your bare hands and hand it to him. It’s the least you owe that man.”