Irresistibly Undeniable

by Zoey Derrick

  “Which version do you want? The full, long version or the short and sweet?”

  “Long,” she states matter of fact and I proceed to tell Cami how Ireland and I were friends as kids until I moved away, right around the time that I broke her heart. Then I move into the present when we ran into each other in the lobby of my building, then Blu, and up to now.

  “Good,” she says when I’m done. She polishes off the last little swallow of her bourbon. “She’s going to need you.”

  “Now, will you please explain to me what in the hell is going on? And why are you here?”

  Cami’s eyes shoot to mine, searching for answers. I don’t know if she’s seeking out the truth or what exactly she’s hoping to see in them, but those blue eyes are burrowing deep and calculating what to say next. “Do you know anything about her father?”

  “Up until a few hours ago, I would have told you no, I know nothing about him, which I don’t, beyond his name. That was as far as Ireland would let Mick get before she ran out of my office.”

  “She knows?” Her voice is full of shock.

  “His name, yes, where he is or how to reach him, no.”

  “What do you know about her father?” She changes the direction of her questions, pointing at me.

  “I know his name. I know he slept with Ireland’s mother, knocked her up and paid her off to keep quiet, but now that Lauren is dead, secrets are crawling out of the woodwork and no one will give me a straight answer.” I huff in frustration.

  “Is she your girlfriend?” Cami asks. Avoiding the reason why she’s here.

  “Yes,” I tell her.

  “Do you love her?” she asks.

  “Yes, I do,” I answer honestly and without a second thought. If it wasn’t for the fact I’m dying to know why in the hell Cami is sitting here at my dining room table with some big, bad secret to tell me, I’d be freaking out over that realization.

  “She just turned twenty-five, didn’t she?”

  “Uh, no, next month, why?”

  “Huh?” she says as if she’s trying to figure something out, but she shrugs.

  “Does this have anything to do with her mother dying?”

  Cami’s eyes widen. “What? When?”

  “Uh, about three weeks ago, give or take. I don’t remember exactly.”

  “That’s why. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  “Why, what? I’m starting to lose my patience with this. Will someone please tell me what in the hell is going on?”

  “Her father is not dead. Gone, but not dead.”

  “What are you talking about?” This evasiveness is going to piss me off and cause me to break something. “Why would you know all this about Ireland?”

  “Because I’ve just found out from Mick that she’s my sister.” Cami’s words are so matter of fact, so cold and yet deliberate at the same time. I’m not sure how exactly to read this woman who’s explaining this to me.

  “Fuck me,” I breathe and sit down in the chair across from her.

  “Her mother and my father had an affair back in the early nineties. I was only about three or four at the time, but my mother was a cold hearted bitch. I don’t blame my father for cheating on her. In fact, in hindsight it was probably a blessing. But while he was in New York, working, he met Lauren McKidd in his office. They worked together for some time and Bobby did what he does best. Until she turned up pregnant and Bobby did the second thing he’s best at. Ran away and threw money at the ‘problem’.” She looks down at her glass, looking for more. I slam back mine as I take in what she’s saying to me. Ireland is the product of a clandestine love affair between her mother and her mother’s boss. Oh, the irony. I grab Cami’s glass and go into the cellar again. This time I don’t put quite as much in hers and much more in mine.

  When I come back, Cami has a few tears streaking down her face. I slide her glass back to her, but she doesn’t drink it. “I don’t know about throwing money at Lauren. They weren’t exactly rolling in it when we were kids.”

  “No?” She cocks her head. “Well, if you’re anything like me, you have a file on her?” She raises an eyebrow.

  I nod. “But I’ve never opened it. I couldn’t bring myself to look because I was afraid of what I would find inside. You have to remember, she was everything to me, though I didn’t know it at the time, I was a kid. It wasn’t until I wasn’t around her anymore that I realized what she meant to me. Once I did, and I had the means, I started looking for her, tracking her down so when I was ready to swoop in again, I would have everything I needed. But I was too afraid to find her married, having babies, or worse. So I never looked.”

  “You might want to look now,” she tells me with a pointed look. “I’m sure you’re going to find some more answers in there. But according to Mick, her mother paid a hundred percent of her tuition. She worked, but she received money from her mom every month while she was in college. My understanding is that Lauren McKidd banked that money and then disbursed it. Ireland, being the kind of daughter I get the feeling she is, didn’t say anything about it, other than knowing her mom wanted to do something, pay for her to go to school, or whatever the case was.”

  My mind is blank. I don’t even know what to say, how to say it or where to even start with all this nonsense. I guess it’s going to be good for Ireland, maybe, in the long run.

  “You said something about gone, but not dead? Where is her father?”

  “That’s a little more complicated and something that I can’t go into full detail about. If Ireland chooses to find out and tell you, that’s her choice, but there are other factors at work behind why he’s gone, and frankly, I’d rather him stay gone than go back to thinking he’s dead, or him truly being dead.”

  “God,” I grumble. “I can’t even begin to imagine what’s going through her head right now between the shit I threw at her, and then Mick opening up this big ass can of fucking worms on her too.”

  She raises an eyebrow at me and I explain the contest and what happened afterward. “Basically, she’s been a silent partner in Tigress from day one. I knew one day I would find Ivy Kidd and tell her she was rich and then, if necessary, buy her out of the business.”

  “That’s honorable of you,” she tells me with a smile. “I know she was going to school for marketing, business management…”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “She hangs out at my bar, remember?” she says with a slightly playful tone in her voice. “We’ve talked over the years. I’ve grown quite fond of her, which isn’t an easy feat when it comes to me, but I don’t know, there was something special about her. Now, I understand why. I guess it was just my way of looking out for my kid sister.” She lowers her head, shaking it. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

  “What do I do now?” I sit and put my head in my hands.

  “That might be a better conversation for Tristan. If she’s anything like me and what happened when I found out he was still alive,” she shudders, “then you need to find her and get to her fast because she’s about to spiral into a place you may never get her back from.”

  I slap my hand down on the table. “God! Dammit!” I shout and stand up, pulling my phone from my pocket.

  “Yeah, boss?” Byron answers.

  “Track her, everything, all her movements, her credit cards, all of it.”

  “On it, boss.” I press the red button.

  Cami’s eyes meet mine and I see what I saw in the bar that night. With the exception of the blue color of Cami’s eyes, they are the same as Ireland’s. “She’s smarter than that. If she doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find her,” Cami says and I nod. Not wanting to argue with her because she’s right. Ireland’s going to go off the grid and I just handed her everything she needs to do exactly that in the form of a bank account with more than nine million dollars and a means to disappear completely. Fuck.

  “I’ll put my crew on it too,” Cami tells me. “They’re pretty good about it. I’ll have Mill
s reach out to you in the morning. He’s the best I’ve got at tracking down people.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  She gives me a sad smile. “I should hate her, Dyson, and I really should. But how can I? She’s an innocent bystander in all of this. She was born into it and there is nothing I can do to fix what he did. But I can fix the fact she has family, she has a job if she wants it, and most importantly, she has you. Don’t let her let you go.”

  “I will die before I let that happen again.”

  She squeezes my arm. “When you find her, will you let me know? I’d like to introduce myself to her, as her sister, not just her friend.”

  I give her a reassuring nod and she smiles at me before she leaves my condo.

  Chapter 60

  Ireland

  “’Til Kingdom Come” - Coldplay

  With tears streaking down my face, I stand in front of Reese’s house. The lights are on and his car is in the driveway. The cab is waiting for me to pay him, but I need Reese to answer the door. I pound on it again. “Reese,” I scream.

  “I’m coming, baby girl.” I hear from the other side of the door and my heart starts pounding in my chest. I should have gone home. I should have gone to a hotel, anything, I shouldn’t be here. Being here means I have to explain everything to him and I don’t know if I can. The door swings open. “Jesus, what’s wrong?”

  His arms wrap awkwardly around me and all the shit in my hands. “I don’t have any cash,” I mumble through sobs. “The cab.”

  “I got it, go inside.” I nod and he lets me in and goes down to the cab. I drop everything in my arms on the couch. I don’t want to touch it anymore, and I don’t want to look at it.

  Reese comes back. I notice he’s shirtless, wearing nothing but flannel pajama bottoms. His chest is toned and gorgeous. His dirty blonde, normally perfectly styled hair is disheveled, his brown eyes bright with concern. “I’m sorry, is someone here?” I try to back pedal, reaching for the shit on the couch. “I should go, I shouldn’t have…”

  “Shh, baby girl.” He comes over and wraps his arms around me. “No one’s here, okay? Just me and you.” He pulls back and gives me a th9orough once-over. “You’re a hot mess,” he says with his typical flare.

  “Thanks, Capitan jackass.”

  He laughs, “Talk first or drink?”

  “Drink, lots of drinking.”

  “Is this one of those nights I should be calling in sick after?”

  I nod my head and new tears form. “You got it, baby girl. Alcohol, here we come.” He leaves the living room in favor of the kitchen and comes back with a bottle of something, vodka, maybe, and a whole half-gallon of orange juice.

  “Screwdrivers?” I raise an eyebrow. “How apt,” I tell him.

  “It’s all I got.” He smiles and pulls the glasses out from under his arm. I take one, filling it halfway with vodka and then a splash of orange juice before downing the entire thing. “Oh shit, this is bad.” He sobers.

  “It’s really bad.” I refill the glass. This time with a lot less vodka and a whole lot of orange juice.

  “Do you remember oh nine, twenty-ten?” I ask. He was two years ahead of me but he took part in the contest with me.

  “I remember a lot of shit, sweetheart, but you’re going to have to be more specific.”

  “The business plan contest for that charity out of Georgia?”

  “Oh, that, the one you won?” He winks at me.

  I try and fail to smile at him. “Well, did you know the school got a huge donation from that company for ASU having the student with the winning business plan?”

  “I remember something along those lines. That it was a school thing, so the school would profit from any money given by the company. What was it called?”

  “Home Together,” I remind him.

  “That’s it, it was a non-profit helping abused women and kids, and they were expanding into rebuilding the projects in Atlanta. What does this have to do with why you’re crying your eyes out on my front step?”

  I swallow more alcohol, the burn of the orange juice is enough to keep me in check and I nod at him. “Well, Home Together is owned and operated by one Mr. Dyson Cole.”

  “No fucking way?” He leans back, giving me a look like I’ve lost my mind.

  “One Mr. Dyson Cole took my business plan and incorporated it into his current business, also known as…”

  “Tigress,” he finishes for me.

  I nod.

  “Wait, can he do that? Wouldn’t he owe you some type of payment for that? I mean, if he were a decent human being. Shit, is that why you’re here, he’s not willing to pay you…”

  “Reese, shut up.”

  He claps his hand over his mouth and I explain. “Legally, no, he owes me nothing. He took an existing non-profit business plan and turned it into something that would work on a for-profit company. Morally, it’s the right thing to do.”

  “So let me guess. You’ve now got some bank account stuffed full of cash and you’re freaking out about it?”

  I glare at him. “Not just some bank account, Reese, multiple accounts. Everything from liquid assets to stock market shares…”

  “Fuck me, how much you talking, girlfriend?”

  “Liquid?” I ask and he nods. “Nine million and some change.”

  Reese literally falls off the stool he’s sitting on.

  I laugh despite myself. “That’s how I looked when I saw the figures.”

  “Shit, baby girl, that’s a hell of a lot of fucking money.” He rights himself and drinks the rest of his drink before going back for more. I polish off mine and hand him my cup. “Are we sure he didn’t do this because you’re his girlfriend?”

  “Well, between Dyson, his lawyer and his financial advisor guy, no. There were contracts put in place back in oh nine and twenty-ten. So I don’t think so. I think they honestly believed Ivy M Kidd was a real person and one day they would find her. What they didn’t realize was the school fucked up the submission and my name got messed up. So Dyson made Ivy a silent partner in his company and Ivy has been receiving royalty payouts every year since then. When the company went public she received a percentage of shares. How many, I don’t know, I haven’t been able to see straight long enough to look.” My eyes wander over to the accordion file folder on the couch that looks like it’s about to explode.

  “Well, if you came here for advice, sweetheart, I ain’t got none for you because you’d be stupid as fuck not to take that money, you earned it.”

  I snort, “Hardly, I wrote a business plan, nothing more.”

  “But didn’t Dyson say something about you going to work for him? What if you did that? Would it feel like a total cop out then? I mean, I know you’re working for Wellington and all, but, hello? Nine million dollars.”

  “That is the nine-million dollar question,” I tell him before downing my new glass of alcohol.

  Reese and I drank into the night, discussing Dyson’s antics and I even got into what happened earlier in the night between my boss and Wellington. When I told him what I did, Reese flipped his shit with laughter. I’m not sure if it was his reaction or the alcohol, but after that, things seemed to settle some. It was after two before I passed out, completely hammered. The only thing I didn’t tell him about was the information Mick saw fit to put on me about my so-called father. That is something I won’t be able to be talked down from. I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to that. Most importantly, for the first time since her death, I’m truly angry at my mother.

  I wake up to the smell of bacon cooking, my head pounding and my stomach rolling. I lurch off the couch and dash to the bathroom. What’s left of my stomach contents comes roaring back. The acid burns the back of my throat and if I ever drink orange juice again, it will be too soon.

  I clean myself up, throwing my hair up into a bad twist in search of my bag and my beanie. “Morning, baby girl,” Reese hollers from the kitchen and I flinch. He laughs.<
br />
  “You’re an ass.” Ugh, I grab my head. “It hurts,” I groan.

  “I’ve got drugs, come here.” I throw my hair into my beanie and head into the kitchen where he has a huge glass of ice water, two Tylenol and a couple ibuprofens waiting for me and I give him a silent thanks, down the pills and finish off the glass of water.

  “I haven’t been this hungover since sophomore year,” I groan as I sit down at the breakfast bar while he whips up some eggs and bacon. “What time is it?”

  “Just before eleven.”

  “Oh shit,” I say, panicked.

  “What?”

  Then I laugh, “You know what? Fuck it.”

  “Fuck what, baby girl?”

  “I’m pretty sure I’m getting fired right about now for not calling in and it’s only my fifth day of work,” I tell him and he laughs.

  “You can afford not to work, unlike some of us lowly people.”

  I roll my eyes. “Ouch,” I groan. “Don’t make me do that again,” I tease him, feeling lighter today about yesterday, until I catch a glimpse of the folders on the coffee table and it all comes rushing back to me. “Wanna help me with some stuff?” I ask him.

  “Sure, ain't got anything better to do today. Except my date tonight.” He smiles wide. He’s positively glowing at the prospect of his date with Andy and I’m happy for him.

  “Good.” I walk over and I grab both folders.

  “What is all that stuff?”

  “This,” I hold up the biggest one, “is all about my silent partnership with Tigress.”

  “And the other one?”

  I sigh. “I’m not ready to talk about that one just yet.”

  “Whatever, baby girl, but you’re going to have to talk about it sometime.” He points his spatula at me, and then sets out two plates, putting eggs on each plate then a handful of bacon for each of us.

  “Toast?” I remind him.