“Yes, but there’s still a chance he’ll come at me and dad. And fuck, man, I’m engaged to Carrie.”
“You have to tell her whatever it is that you can’t tell me. She has to know because not only will she be dragged into it, dad will go after her father.”
“And you have no idea what that could mean,” I say, softly.
“I don’t like what that implies.”
“Me either,” I say. “Just protect yourself and the company. Be on guard.”
“What are you going to do about Carrie?”
“If I was the man she deserved, I’d walk away from her and stay away.” I hang up.
CHAPTER FIVE
Carrie
I pace our hotel room and pace some more. I try to call my father. I try to call my brother. I repeat. Reid is gone for what feels like an eternity. I even stand at the window and count lights and stars, because if I don’t do something, I’m going to lose my mind. I can’t marry Reid if I’m going to ruin him. I love him too much to be that selfish. I can’t marry him. This very idea knots my stomach and pretty much shreds my heart. No. What am I thinking? I am not being bullied into walking away from the man I love. Where the hell is my backbone?
I grab my purse and I head for the door. I’m about to exit when Reid, in all his big, male perfection, steps into the room and catches my arm. “Where are you going?”
“To end this. I’m going to see my brother and you need to stay here.”
He walks me backward until we’re both in the room and then kicks the door shut. “What did I miss? What happened?”
“Nothing yet, I hope. I just need to make sure it doesn’t. Let me go, Reid. I’ll be back.”
“Baby, where you go, I go.”
“I was just thinking that I can’t marry you because I’m going to ruin you, which is a load of crap. I need to deal with my family. They don’t get to take us from us.”
He cups my head and presses our foreheads together. “God, I love you, woman.”
“I love you, too,” I say, my hand flattening on his chest, his heart racing beneath my palm. Reid’s heart is racing and he’s always calm. I pull back to look at him. “Did something else happen?”
***
Reid
Did something happen?
That’s a loaded question. I considered walking away from her to save her, and in my case, it’s not as simple as just standing up to her father, but those are not words I want to say to her. But I won’t have to. She’s pure and good and she won’t be able to stomach what I’m about to tell her. She’ll leave, and this time I’m going to have to let her leave.
I link her fingers with mine. “I told you I’d tell you what was going on after I talked to Gabe. Let’s sit and talk.”
“Did you talk to your father?”
“No.”
I lead her to the couch and we sit down side by side. “My father is what we need to discuss.”
“Not my father?” she asks, twisting around to search my face.
I scrub my jaw and look at her. “No matter what your father threatens or does, my father is the one who has the real impact. He’s the one who endangers you.”
“I’m not afraid of your father, Reid.”
“You need to know what my father has on me, not because of how it affects me, but because it connects to me. And as much as I hate sharing this, you have a right to know before you marry me.”
“Before I marry you? Reid, your father has no influence on me marrying you.”
I inhale and release her hand, moving to sit on the coffee table in front of her. “My father linked me to some pretty bad things.”
“I know that’s not you.”
“The problem is that I’m linked, Carrie. If you marry me, then you’re linked, and honest to God, I’m a selfish bastard for even asking you to marry me.”
“Oh. I—Oh. I see.” She tries to stand up.
I catch her arm. “You don’t see. I want to marry you, Carrie. I love you more than life itself. You need to hear me out. Then you’ll understand.”
She draws a breath and eases back into her seat. “I’m listening.”
“My father pushed to get a series of buildings complete within a certain budget for a client. Rules were broken with the construction of those properties. Codes were not up to standard and someone in one of the buildings died as a direct result.”
“Oh my God. And your name is legally connected to the properties?”
“Yes.”
“We can fight that. You didn’t know. Just let me go talk to my brother and it won’t matter. I will make this go away.”
“I’m not done, Carrie. My father not only covered up the death, the private investigator working for your father found out and then ended up dead. A tragic suicide they called it.”
Carrie pales. “Suicide?”
“But of course it wasn’t a suicide, Carrie. My father had him murdered. Your father has proof. Bottom line, as you said, I was on the paperwork for that building project. I’m connected to a murder.”
“Murder,” she whispers. “That’s—unexpected.”
“I know, and fuck, baby, it’s killed me to stay silent on this, but I’m in the middle. I don’t have proof of an actual murder.”
“Well then, how can you be sure your father killed anyone?”
“When I confronted my father about your father’s accusations, he didn’t admit it or deny it. And granted, my father would stay silent just to fuck with my head, but this—I don’t think he would on this. Not unless it was true.”
“What proof does my father have?”
“A recording of my father talking to my uncle, who isn’t my uncle at all. He’s just my father’s best friend. They say some pretty damning things in that recording.”
“I thought you didn’t have the proof?”
“Your father gave me a transcript,” I say. “If it’s accurate, it’s damning.”
“Does Gabe know?”
“Hell no. I don’t want him involved and I don’t want you involved, but at this point, like I said, you had a right to know.”
“What about the information you have on my father? What was he trying to cover up by leaving the company? Surely that still keeps him silent.”
“He wanted to save face with you, baby. That’s over. He’s moved on and found his field of oil, quite literally.”
“I can’t believe this,” Carrie breathes out. “This is like a mob movie starring our families. Do you—are you sure the paperwork on the building project would take you down?”
“No,” I say, “but it’s not a war I want to fight. Proving I’m innocent would destroy our company. It would destroy you, Carrie, if you were married to me. Had I not asked you to marry me, you wouldn’t be in the middle of this.” I stand up and walk to the window, and damn it, I know this is how Carrie and I end. I know this is what her father knew would happen.
Carrie is suddenly in front of me again, leaning on the glass, her hands on my chest. “You didn’t do this, and as for the risk of marrying me, there are none. Marrying me protects you. Once it’s done, it’s done. My father won’t risk taking me down with you.”
“He’ll have a plan to protect you, and baby, if your father comes at my father, that’s bad. He killed someone. Remember?”
She blanches. “Are you suggesting that your father might kill my father? Is that why you don’t want to tell your father what’s going on?”
“Yes, Carrie. That’s why I don’t want to tell my father.”
CHAPTER SIX
Carrie
It’s all I can do to process the idea that Reid’s father would kill someone. That Reid believes that his father would kill my father. “You have to call your father,” I say. “You have to warn him before you end up burned. Before Gabe ends up burned.”
“The part where I said that my father is killer,” Reid says, “did that not compute?”
“If that murder even happened, my father hid it. They’re both
monsters. I’m worried about you and your brother, who I know you love. Call your father. You can control him. Tell him that if my father ends up dead, you’ll do something to him. You know what that something is that will work. I know you do.”
“Setting my father’s temper on fire is not the answer.”
“Fine,” I say. “Then I need to end this.” I stand up and before I can make it a sway, let alone, a step, Reid is in front of me, pulling me to face him.
“I tried to end this. This is not a simple conversation away from closure.”
“You did end it. And then I showed up. I opened the door to yet another war.”
“You didn’t do this, Carrie. Don’t put their war on yourself. We didn’t do this. We’re the peace between two families. We’re the change.”
“Would he kill me? Would your father kill me? And no, I’m not afraid. I’m angry that I even have to ask that question.”
His lips thin. “Not while you’re with me, and that’s the part of this equation that’s tormenting me. I didn’t think he could kill anyone,” Reid replies. “Now, I think he might have. If you’re with me though you’re connected to that nastiness, but my father would not dare touch you either. I protect you, but this also means that you have to deny knowing anything.”
“This is like a mob scenario over and over. If you protect me then this works in reverse. If you’re with me, my father won’t go after you. He’s just talking.”
“I don’t think it works like that, baby. He could still come at me to get me to divide us.”
“Then I have to talk to my brother.” I try to pull away. Reid holds onto me. “Damn it, Reid, don’t stand back on this. Be the bastard that you are. Motivate my brother to shut this down.”
“If you run to him now, you look desperate and reactive.”
I swallow hard. He’s right. I hate that he’s right. I hate so much about this night and the questions that come to my mind. “Would my father kill your father?”
“He’s given me no reason to call him a killer.”
“That’s not a no, and as I said if he can accuse your father of murder, and use that murder as leverage rather than turn him in. He might as well have been a part of the murder. If it’s even real.”
“This is not a topic that you make an assumption on, Carrie. Correction: You do assume, and you assume the worst. You have to deal with the jeopardy attached.” He cups my face. “Let’s order food, fuck, and go to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day. Let’s not give anyone the power to ruin that for us.”
My hands go to his hands. “If I’m with you, and you’re right, he wants to divide us, then he comes for you. There’s an easy solution. I walk away, at least for now until we find another way. I’ll go to my brother’s. I’ll play the wounded little sister. I have to. Reid, I—”
“No, Carrie. You will not leave me. Now or ever.”
“I don’t want to leave but—”
He kisses me, a deep, drugging kiss before he says, “No.”
“Reid, damn it—”
“When you leave me, you become a weapon my father can use against your father.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “But I don’t want you to stay with me to stay safe. Stay with me because you want to. Because we belong together.” He cups my backside. “I need you naked in a real bed.”
I press on his chest. “No. Do not even think about distracting me right now. I disagree with me looking desperate and reactive unless it’s by intent. Unless I make them think they’ve won.”
“I will pull out those cuffs right now if necessary. You are not leaving me. I will cuff you to the bed and fuck you until our meeting tomorrow. Fuck sleep.”
“Then we end this. We make it go away. Now, Reid. We have power tonight before we walk into the convention center deal tomorrow. I told my brother he gets a piece of the action. I haven’t given him the contract yet.”
Reid releases me, his hands settling on his hips. “All we’re going to do is make him an enemy who’s bitter.”
“He’s already an enemy. He’s the one who sent me that document and tried to convince me that you screwed me and my family.”
“Carrie, baby,” he says, backing me against a wall. “This is not a subject that we’re reacting to tonight. We need sleep. We need food. We need each other.” His cellphone rings and he grimaces.
“Watch that be my father,” I say. “He’ll call you but not me.”
Reid grabs his phone from his pocket and grimaces. “You have no idea how much I want to ignore this call.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out. “My father,” he says. “Fuck,” he murmurs, and hits decline.
“Why’d you decline?” I demand. “Reid—”
“I need to talk to Gabe and find out if something just happened. I need to know what he knows first.” He punches in his brother’s number and I grab my phone from my purse and scan for messages I don’t have. My father and brother have shut me out.
“Dad just called me,” Reid says. “What do you know?” He listens a minute. “Right. I’ll call you back.” He disconnects and looks at me. “Nothing to offer.”
“I thought you said Gabe doesn’t know about what’s going on?”
“I told him about the agreement, but not what was at the heart of it. I didn’t plan to ever tell him, but after tonight, he has the same right you do to know.” He closes the small space between us and kisses my temple. “Let me get this over with.”
I inhale a breath and let it out, a choppy nod all I can manage. Reid’s hands are back on my shoulders and I now realize that this is his way of making sure I know he’s right here, holding me up if I need him to. “Our fathers are brilliant and brutal. You don’t respond to brilliant and brutal without a brilliant and brutal strategy. Without making them show their hands. My father’s about to show his and you’re right, I did end this once before. I did that strategically. Be patient, baby. Our next move will show itself. And we’ll handle it together.”
“Together,” I say.
“Yes, together,” he replies then kisses me and hits the redial number for his father.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Reid
I don’t leave the hotel room to dial my father. Carrie deserves to read the tone of the exchange that we both know will be about our engagement. I stand at the window overlooking the city where Carrie joins me, and I punch the callback number. My father answers immediately. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he says.
“On which point are you referencing?” I counter cautiously.
“Finally landing a blow that West can’t stomach. You did well, son.”
He’s such a dick. Only my father could turn his son finally getting married into revenge. “What exactly are you referencing?” I ask again, because despite my assumptions that I know what he’s talking about, my father’s range of nastiness is vast.
“I know you proposed to his daughter. West called me. He promised me deep, unbearable pain if this moves on to become marriage.” He chuckles. “It was amusing, to say the least. Are you really going to marry her?”
“Yes, father,” I look at Carrie, “because I love her.” Her lashes lower, tension sliding over her face with the confirmation that this call is about us. I cut my stare and focus on my father. “She’s off limits. You understand?”
“So says her father, but he won’t be a problem. I’ll handle him.”
“You will not handle him,” I bite out.
“He’s coming for me over you,” he says. “So you handle him or I will. And don’t wait too long. I don’t play sitting duck well. Tell Carrie welcome to the family. I look forward to all the good things she brings with her.” He hangs up.
My jaw clenches and I slide my phone back into my pocket. “Well?” Carrie demands, stepping back in front of me and against the window.
My hands go to her face. “I love you.” I kiss her, a deep, claim-her kind of kiss meant to distract her. I press her against the concrete pillar running up the center of the window, one of
my hands sliding under her shirt.
“Reid,” she hisses, catching my hand. “Reid, wait.”
I don’t wait. I kiss her again, cupping her breast and dragging her bra down to tease her nipple. She moans but presses on my chest. “Stop. Damn it, stop. I need to know what just happened. Then feel free to fuck me until I temporarily forget, but I need to know.”
I suck in air and press my hand to the pillar on either side of her head. “Right. Fuck.” I scrub the one-day stubble on my jaw and straighten, my hands settling on my hips. “I’m going to need to go back to the States and deal with this.”
“What? You can’t leave. We have a huge project to navigate.”
“Which you are capable of handling.”
“Reid,” she compels. “What is going on?”
“My father welcomed you to the family. Your father called him and threatened him.”
“Threatened him how?”
“He said that if this continues, he’ll make my father pay in a painful way.”
“What?” Carrie drags a hand through her hair. “Who is he? Really. Who is this man I call my father? What did your father say?”
“He loves how pissed your father is, but he said that your father will come for him and that if I don’t handle him and quickly, he will.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Her hands go to my chest. “I have to go back. You have to stay.”
“Baby, I’ll handle this. You can’t deal with my father, but I will.” I cup her face again. “Listen to me. I will handle this. We’ll go to the meetings tomorrow. I’ll stay a few days, in which I’ll make plans to deal with our fathers, and then head home to deal with all of this. I’ll fly back and we will go to Paris.”
“I can’t go to Paris. I’m going to worry the whole time. Are you okay with that? Can we just have Christmas in our home together?”
My heart softens with those words our home.
“Yes, baby, we can. Of course, we can, but there won’t be anything to worry about when I’m done with our fathers. I’m going to handle it.”
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