“What use are your damn guarantee when you can’t keep your dog on a leash?”
“I think we’ve debated, Ashlyn,” Ben said, narrowing his eyes at me. “Let’s just finish this and call it a day.”
“No,” Chance stepped in front of me, “we’re just getting started. I am going to leave, and I expect to hear from your lawyer soon. And you’ll be hearing from mine.”
He gestured to Miles, who took me by the arm and began walking me out.
Chance’s voice turned to a growl as he said, “And if you ever warn Ashlyn again, I’ll come at you with everything I have. And that’s not a warning, Mr. Greene. That’s a motherfucking threat.”
Come with me.”
We were standing by the limo, the driver already behind the wheel and the trunk packed with Chance’s things. There was a slight twinge in my chest at having to see him off, something I had hoped to avoid but found myself in the middle of despite my best intentions. If there was any doubt about how I felt about him, it flew out the window the minute I heard he had been arrested.
But I was still angry at him for lying to me, and now a little bit more because he thought that I would just drop everything and leave Ludwig.
“I can’t do that,” I said. “You know I can’t.”
“Ashlyn, you heard the man. They’re going to make your life miserable from now on.”
“I can take care of myself,” I said.
The look he gave me mirrored how much he didn’t believe that, and I had never wanted to hit him as much as I did now. The contradicting emotions I was going through were starting to take their toll on me.
“You can build a greenhouse in Austin,” Chance said. “Hell, you can open your own florist. I can move everything you have here in no time. It’ll be like nothing’s different.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” I asked with a huff. “I’d be in a completely different city, a huge city, one that’s foreign to me, surrounded by people I don’t know. How is that not going to be different?”
“You’d be with me,” he said softly.
“You’re not really that tempting at the moment,” I said. “I’m still having trouble dealing with the whole lying issue.”
“Ashlyn, my doctor –”
“Chance, just stop it,” I said, holding up my hands. “I’m not leaving Ludwig. Just, think of this as a fling or something, and I’ll try and do the same. You didn’t actually believe this would go somewhere, did you?”
He looked at me with a mix of shock and disbelief, and for a minute there, I felt like I had probably made a mistake. Did he actually think we could continue whatever the hell it was we were doing while he was in a different city? Was he as delusional as I had been last night?
“That’s not fair,” Chance said. “You’re not giving me much of a chance here.”
“A chance to do what?” I asked. “Chance, please, don’t make this harder than it already is. I’m channeling all my anger for what you did just so I don’t feel anything when you go. Let’s keep it at that.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Chance argued, and I could see he was getting a little frustrated. He pressed two fingers to the center of his chest and blew out a long breath. He gazed into my eyes, pleading, making me feel like a total shit for not doing what he asked. “Come with me, spend a couple of days in Austin, and then make a decision.”
“You have a company to win back,” I said. “Meetings, press, and now a lawsuit. I don’t want to be in the middle of all that. I can’t handle that. How am I going to be able to decide anything when nothing around me is stable?”
“You’re really not looking at the bigger picture here.”
“Actually, I am,” I snapped. “Listen, I appreciate what you said you’d do about the lawyers, and I’ll never forget it. But I really think that should be the end of it. I don’t see this going anywhere good.”
Chance scoffed and shook his head. “You know, a couple of days ago, I would never have expected to be begging a woman to be with me.”
I bit my lip and looked away. “Sorry to disappoint, Sabbatical.”
He took a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh, and then nodded. “This fucking town,” he said.
I smiled despite the sorrow I felt in my heart. “Yeah, Ludwig has a way of changing people.”
“Not everyone, apparently,” he said.
Our eyes met, and we just looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before he turned and climbed into the back seat. The door closed, and I half expected the window to slide down, but it didn’t.
I watched as the limo left the motel, turned the corner, and Chance Ridder disappeared from my life forever.
14
Chance
I arrived back in Austin just as the sun was going down.
The penthouse was spotless, courtesy of good old Pauline, and I dropped my bag by the door as I made immediately for the kitchen and the beer that waited in the refrigerator. I popped a bottle open, took a long swig, and stretched my aching muscles. My mind was spinning, thoughts of how I left things back at Ludwig weighing down on me like dead weight, and soon enough I decided the beer wouldn’t do it for me.
Within an hour, I was slumped on the couch, gazing out at the city with half open eyes, half the whiskey bottle gone.
The only lights on in the penthouse came from the kitchen, but they were enough to mirror my reflection in the large windows, and it came as no surprise that I looked like a fucking mess. I needed a shower, desperately, and my clothes made me look like I had just barely survived a rodeo and barely lived to tell the tale. With the bottle of whiskey in one hand and a dying cigarette in the other, I was the poster child for a heart attack advertisement, with the tagline ‘This Could Be You – Call 1-800-early-heart-attack NOW!’
“How the fuck did you turn into this miserable mess in just two days, Chance?” I asked myself, scowling at my reflection, getting angry at myself for just looking like shit, not to mention feeling pretty much the same.
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I could see Ashlyn reflected in the window, with her blonde locks, beautiful eyes, and soft lips stretched wide in a loving smile. She was laughing, probably at something stupid I said, and biting her lip in that way I had fallen in love with.
Fallen in what the fuck?
I shook my head and blinked rapidly, trying to push the image out of my head. I was being ridiculous. I was Chance Ridder, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t fall for anyone. People chased me, goddammit. People wanted to be with me. People didn’t wait for me to ask them to come back to Austin with me. People just did whatever the fuck I wanted them to do!
And I definitely did not fall in love. Not with Ashlyn, not with anyone. She chose Ludwig over me. She could rot there until the maggots crawled out of her eyes and devoured her beautiful, milky, soft skin.
I laid my head back and cursed the gods above. The alcohol swam through me like poison, reaching into the deepest recesses of my brain and tugging at whatever strands of sanity there were left. It was like a living essence, merging with every molecule inside me, turning every emotion I had into spite and hatred. I looked at the bottle in my hand, felt even more disgusted at myself for what I was doing, and angrily threw it across the room.
It shattered into pieces above the window, the whiskey pouring down and turning my reflection into a blurred mess. I looked even worse than before.
Pushing to my feet, I stumbled and fell, fighting through the haze in my mind as I made my way upstairs and to my bedroom. I needed a shower, and coffee, and Ashlyn.
I fell face first onto my bed, the mattress enveloping me and holding me in its warm embrace. I pictured Ashlyn by my side, stroking my hair, telling me everything would be okay. I could almost feel her touch against my skin.
I rolled onto my back, realized that I was actually all alone, and closed my eyes.
I woke up to the sound of incessant buzzing from downstairs. With a groan, I pushed myself up to a si
tting position and tried to clear my head. I had a massive headache that made me wish I could just shoot myself, and my vision was blurry enough that, for a few seconds, I thought I was still in my motel room in Ludwig.
The buzzing continued, and it was only when I began to register that I was back in Austin, in my bedroom, with a debilitating hangover, that I realized the buzzing was the sound of my doorbell. I ran a hand through my hair, cursed the asshole who had decided to pay me a visit and was only adding to my discomfort, and forced myself to my feet. It took me the better of ten minutes just to get downstairs.
When I opened the door, Alice took a step back, her eyes wide and her mouth open. She was taking me in, and I could see from the look on her face that shocked would be the understatement of the year.
“Why didn’t you just use your fucking key?” I snapped.
“Jesus, you look like shit,” Alice said. “And I forgot my key.”
I nodded, turned away and trudged back into the penthouse. I heard her follow me and close the door.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asked, rushing past me and dropping her purse on the kitchen counter. She quickly set up the coffee machine, switched it on, then turned her attention back to me. “If you were hoping to dismiss any rumors about a drug addiction, you definitely can’t do it like that.”
“I just need a few minutes to get my head straight,” I said. “Coffee and Tylenol, and I’ll be fine. An hour max.” My words slurred, and I heard my voice as if it were coming from far away.
“The board meeting is in an hour,” Alice said, “and you have to be ready for that. Here, take these.”
I took the pills from her and downed them without thinking twice, washing them down with large gulps of water that ran down my chin and drenched my shirt. When I looked up at Alice again, she was regarding me with a look of complete distaste and hint of pity.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I said.
“You’re in a mess,” Alice countered. “It’s a good thing I decided to pass by before you showed up at the office. If you had come in looking like that, they would have asked security to escort you out.”
“Security won’t escort me anywhere,” I said. “It’s my fucking company.”
“It’s Chance Ridder’s company, for now,” Alice replied. “I don’t know who the hell you are.”
I shot her an annoyed glare, then looked away when I couldn’t hold it for too long. I felt heavy, as if the ground were pulling me towards it, promising peace and rest if I just laid down and never got back up. It was a tempting notion. One that I knew, though, that Alice would not allow.
“Get cleaned up, we need to get moving,” Alice said.
“In a minute.”
“Chance, seriously, this isn’t a joking matter.”
“In a minute!”
My outburst took her by surprise. She was used to the composed version of me, the one that didn’t care if the sky fell all around him because he knew that he was too special to be touched. I always gave her the appearance of a man who had his shit together, and the fact that she was the same was why we worked well together. Sudden bursts of fury were unlike me, and it shocked me as much as it did her.
“Sorry,” I said, scratching the back of my head and sighing. “I’ll get dressed.”
She didn’t reply as I got off the stool and made my way back upstairs.
We rode to the office in silence, and I could feel the tension in the air like a black shroud of distaste and dissent. Every now and then, I’d catch Miles looking at me in the rearview mirror, and although my impulse was to yell at him to keep his eyes on the road, I fought it back. I needed to keep my cool if I wanted to have any positive effect in today’s meeting.
I had the element of surprise on my side, which was a good thing. Alice had tried to keep my ‘return from the dark side’ as much of a secret as possible. It was a smart move, something that would give me the edge when I walked in on the board members while they decided the fate of my company without me. If Dennis had even caught wind of the fact that I was coming back, he’d be prepared. The son of a bitch was always fucking prepared.
Alice briefly told me about the paperwork I would need to fill once the meeting was over, and she already had a memo regarding Dennis’s dismissal ready to send out once I took the company reins once again. She had called a meeting with the company lawyers, had not told them what it was about, just so we can legally kick Dennis’s ass and make sure he stayed down. He had shares in the company, something none of us could really do anything about, but when this was all over, he’d be getting his information on Ridder Technology just like every other shareholder did; through email.
We drove into the garage, the tinted windows hiding me from the security guards as they waved us through. Miles chose to park in a spot other than my regular one, a little closer to the door. I brushed my fingers through my hair, straightened my tie and looked at Alice.
“How do I look?”
Alice only glanced at me before she stepped out. “Like a million dollars. Which is sad considering you’re worth a million times more.”
She said with such disgust, it made me cringe. I brushed it off quickly, making a mental note to talk to her after this was over and clear the air. She had been by my side for years, and I wasn’t willing to lose her now.
For a split second, Ashlyn’s face flashed before my eyes, and I realized I had not checked my phone since last night. There were no messages from her, no missed calls. Nothing.
Keep your head in the game. One shit storm at a time, buddy.
I stepped out of the car and followed Alice into the building.
The security guard by the elevators froze when he saw us, his eyes wide for a few seconds before he smiled at me. “Welcome back, Mr. Ridder.”
“Good to be back…” I squinted at the name plate on his chest. “Roger.”
I gave him my best smile and stepped into the elevator.
We rode most of the way up in silence, and just before reaching the top floor, Alice turned to face me. The scowl on her face had not changed, and it made her look much older than she really was.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” she said, “but this has to be handled with some sort of finesse. Whatever’s got you on edge, forget about it until after the meeting. You need to win everybody back to your side. Just explain your medical condition and refute the drug charges.”
“That should be easy when they realize Dennis has been lying to them,” I said.
“Not really,” Alice replied. “Some of those suits have been waiting for a chance like this forever, but have been too scared to try and do something.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on, Chance,” Alice said in exasperation. “Who wouldn’t want to sit on your throne?”
“This board has been loyal to me from the get-go,” I shot back. “I handpicked every member.”
“Like Dennis?”
I didn’t answer.
“Just try and charm them back to your side of the battlefield,” Alice continued. “Dennis is a bit of a hero right now, and even if you have the power to fire him, you still need the board to nullify his contract. Don’t push them to a point where they still vote you out despite the lies.”
“Fine,” I said. “I can’t believe I’m actually trying to save my position in my own fucking company.”
“The bigger the rise, the harder they fall,” Alice mumbled.
“What?”
“We’re here,” she said, ignoring me as the elevator doors opened.
I got pretty much the same reaction from all the employees as I did with the security guard downstairs. Apparently, everyone had believed the lies Dennis had fed them, and with the media riding the wave of deceit right along with him, it was like everyone was looking at a dead man come back from the grave. It made my blood boil.
Two days. Two fucking days, and this shit happens!
A few of the employees came up to me to
welcome me back, and before I could thank them, Alice was brushing them aside and leading me towards the conference room. It felt odd being back here, as if I had been gone for weeks and not just a few days. Not much had changed, but I was looking at it all in a completely different light. There was so much I hadn’t noticed before and was only taking note of right now.
I’m going to need to make a few changes.
After the mess was cleaned up. All that other stuff could wait.
As we neared the conference room, I could see that the board was already inside, with Dennis at the front of the table where I usually stood, talking to them excitedly, his arms moving about as he spoke. He caught sight of me, did a double take, and froze in the middle of whatever it was he was saying. His reaction made everyone in the room turn in my direction.
I hardly registered the look on their faces. I was focused on Dennis, and only him. My fists balled up, and a sudden rage burned inside me. There he was, my best friend, trying to throw me out of my own company and acting like he had already taken my seat at the head of the table.
During the drive back from Ludwig, I tried to conceive how in the world he had thought he might get away with this. I wasn’t outside the country; I was in the same fucking state. What part of that asshole’s twisted mind actually thought that I would not accidentally turn on the news, or that Alice wouldn’t call me and give me a heads-up?
But I knew Dennis. He had probably been planning for something like this forever, concocting the perfect plan, just waiting for a chance to dig my grave and push me into it. He had moved as soon as I had disappeared, and he was working fast. If the meeting had gone as planned yesterday, I would have probably been fighting this battle from a completely different stand point. The mere thought of him sitting on this backstabbing scheme, waiting patiently, pretending to be my friend, angered me even more. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I had fallen for it.
At that moment, I hated myself more than I hated him. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fucking kill him if his lies cost me my company.
The Most Eligible Bachelor Page 12