All Mine

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “Then a marriage of two families and two companies, and you and me. It’s official.”

  He rolls me to my back. “It’s official. We will be one in all ways. I hope you don’t need to sleep tonight.”

  “I can sleep on the plane,” I say, and with that, his mouth closes down on mine, and we indeed do not sleep until the wee hours of the morning.

  ***

  Reid

  Carrie and I have just settled into our first class seats the next morning when my phone rings. “My sister,” I tell Carrie, answering the line. “Cat, you never call me. Is something wrong?”

  “See that’s what’s wrong,” she says. “That you think if I call you something is wrong. We have to fix that, Reid. Once and for all.”

  Carrie is looking at me with fear in her eyes and I cover the phone. “Everything is fine.”

  “Oh, good,” she breathes out, sinking into her seat again and it hits me that I have this woman to share every moment, every fear, and every joy with and I like it. “You’re right, Cat,” I say, recognizing that Cat too, is a part of that equation.

  “You didn’t even call me after you gave her the ring. You did give her the ring, right?”

  “Yes. I did. And now we just need a date and location.”

  “Oh yay! I’m so happy for you. I love her and you, but seriously. Why didn’t you call me? Never mind. We’re going to get past this because I just feel like there’s more to us and why we’ve been wrong than I know. There is, right?”

  “Yes,” I say, my gut tightening. “But it’s not about you. It’s about me. It’s about something that happened.”

  “Bad?”

  “Yeah, sis. Pretty bad.”

  “Then that’s all you have to say. I know you enough to know if you say bad, it’s horrific. Anyway. We want you two to come to dinner Friday night. Gabe is coming, too.”

  “We’ll be there.”

  “Good. With the ring on her hand. Safe travels. Tell Carrie I said hi.” She disconnects and I sit there a moment.

  Carrie’s hand comes down on my leg. “Reid?”

  I look at her. “She helped me pick the ring and I didn’t call her after I gave it to you. I’m a real ass.”

  “No,” she says. “You conditioned yourself to shut people out to protect them from you. It was how you coped. Maybe though, just maybe, tell her everything. Think about it.”

  I should reject the idea. I do reject the idea, but I open my mind a moment later because Carrie has changed me. I will never fully heal with Cat if I don’t tell her the truth. If I don’t dare to tell her about that tragic night in a convenience store that made me decide everyone was safer if they didn’t have me in their lives.

  Carrie laces her fingers with mine and old demons flare, threatening to carve me up, but I don’t react by pulling away from Carrie. I simply can’t live without her. But I will not let her be hurt because of me either. I will not let anyone hurt her, not even my father.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Carrie

  Once Reid hangs up with his sister, his mood is noticeably somber, but I don’t push him to talk. He holds onto my hand. He’s not withdrawing as he has in the past from me and everyone else for that matter. I know how big the bombshell is about his past, and I’m not sure he has to tell his sister. I think it’s enough that he’s admitted to her that it exists, at least for partial healing. The problem is, I think, as the plane takes off and we head back to the States, he really was an ass to Cat. She’s human and wounded and I fear it would take his bombshell to truly have her understand why he pushed everyone away. I won’t push him to bare his soul to her, but I will gently suggest it when it feels appropriate. Anything more feels as if it would be a betrayal of his trust in me. Once we level off, we both decline drinks and ease our seats back, turning to face each other.

  Reid reaches across the divider and caresses my cheek, so much tenderness in the action, in his eyes, that I’d once thought him incapable of feeling, let alone sharing. He doesn’t speak, but there are a million words in his eyes: I don’t want to tell her. I have to tell her. Do you think I have to tell her?

  I catch his hand and kiss it. “You’ll know,” I say as if he’s asked all those silent questions. “When, and if, the time is right.”

  He doesn’t reply but he draws in a deep breath as if he’s drawing in my words. There is much before us when we return home, but as we lay there staring at each other there is more than his torment or his father between us. There is our first Christmas together. There is our wedding. There is our dog and our cat, who I can’t wait to meet. Those things pass between us and I can almost feel Reid’s tension slide away as his lashes lower. My heart squeezes with just how close we’ve become and just how well I know and understand this man, as he does me. I close my eyes and flashback to the day I let him read the email I sent my father. After work, Reid and I had gone to dinner and later, while in bed, sipping wine and talking about our work project I’d sent him the email.

  I have no idea why I’m nervous as Reid reads my email. Or then again, maybe I do. My father blackmailed him and threatened to connect him to a murder charge. It’s got to be hard for him to read my pleas for the man who did that to him to accept us. God, I call him a hero.

  I rotate and sit on my knees facing Reid, my hand on his knee. “I know what he’s done to you, Reid. That email was not to condone his actions. He was my hero. He’s not now. You are. I do think those abandonment issues I have showed in that email but I wrote it for us.”

  He looks up at me and sets the computer down. “Come here,” he says, his voice a low, rough timbre. A moment later I’m flat on the bed and he’s leaning over me, his leg between my legs.

  “All those things you said about me. God, woman, you affect me in a way you can’t even understand.”

  “You’re not upset?”

  “Upset? Baby, I’m floored by your capacity to forgive and love. You make me better. You don’t go easy on me either and thank God for it. I will find a way to make peace with your father for you. And I believe he will for you. Now, will you marry me?”

  I laugh. “I’m pretty sure the ring on my finger says I already said yes.”

  “I just want to you to know that every day I’m with you, I’d ask you again.”

  The plane hits a bump and I come back to the present to stare at Reid, his lashes lowered, his breathing steady. I reach up and trace his cheek and my lips curve when he doesn’t move. He trusts me and I don’t believe Reid Maxwell has trusted much in his life.

  ***

  Reid

  I wake halfway through the flight and decide I need to get the bad behind me and Carrie. I need nothing but good left. I need that with my sister, too. I’m going to tell her everything when the time is right, just as Carrie said. But right now, I need to make sure Gabe knows the real threat that my father and even Carrie’s father represent.

  I message him from the plane and setup a meet. “I don’t want you to go,” I tell Carrie. “You don’t know what I told you. Denial, denial, denial. You understand me?”

  “Yes. I do. When you’re back, we’ll go get a tree.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes. It will be afternoon when we land. We need to stay up to get used to the time change anyway and we’re not letting my father or yours screw up our Christmas.”

  “You’re right, baby,” I say, leaning in to kiss her. “We’re not.”

  “When was the last time you had a tree?”

  “When I was a kid.”

  Her eyes go wide. “That’s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. And,” she turns her computer to face me. “What do you think about this kitty?”

  I stare down at the sleek, thin white cat with green eyes. “It looks hungry.”

  She laughs. “She’s an Oriental Shorthair and they’re skinny and sweet. They act like dogs. She will like a dog. Her owner just died. She needs a home. Let’s go meet Snowflake.”

  “Snowflake?”


  “She already knows her name so our dog can be Sunshine or Summer.”

  “A boy dog is not going to be Sunshine or Summer.”

  “Boy dogs hump and mark.”

  “Boy dogs are heroes and I’m not being outnumbered with all women in the house.”

  “Lassie was a girl.”

  “I’m not going to win, am I?”

  “Maybe,” she says, but she means no.

  “Set it up. We’ll go meet Snowflake.”

  She grins so big that I swear she brings a little bit of sunshine with her, no, a lot of sunshine, the kind my heart hasn’t known since my mother. God, my mother would have loved her.

  ***

  Carrie

  Hours later we finally step into our apartment and we both sigh. “Home sweet home,” I say. “I love being here. And that,” I add, pointing to a corner by the fireplace, “is our tree spot.”

  Reid turns to me and kisses me. “Are you sure you don’t want to put the tree off until tomorrow? That way we can fuck all night in our own bed?”

  “We can fuck all night under the tree.”

  I laugh. “Negotiation won and only you could make me laugh at a time like this, considering what I’m about to tell my brother and Royce. Where do you want to go to get the tree?”

  “Rockefeller Center, of course, and oh wow, that would have been a cool place to get married at Christmas.”

  “We aren’t waiting a year. So, Rockefeller Center, yes. Christmas is too soon and too far away depending on the year.” He kisses me. “Let me go get this damn meeting over with. I’ll be an hour at the most, I hope.”

  “It’s still early.” I cover his heart with my hand. “If it takes longer, it takes longer. The tree can wait if it needs to.”

  “God, I love you, Carrie.” He kisses me. “I’ll put the bags in the bedroom and take off.”

  A few minutes later, he leaves me to unpack and he’s been gone all of a few minutes when the doorbell rings. I frown because it can only be Reid or his siblings, and Gabe is meeting Reid, and Cat wouldn’t just stop by, but Reid isn’t one to leave his key behind. However, we did just travel across the world and everything is scattered. Certain he’s eager to get to his meeting and needs something he left behind, I rush through the living room and fling open the door only to gasp at the sight of the one person I forgot has a clearance to get to the door: Reid’s father.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Carrie

  “Mr. Maxwell,” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”

  He holds up a bottle of booze that I suspect is as expensive as his blue suit. “I brought you an engagement gift,” he says, his blue eyes—eyes so like Reid’s—fixed on me. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  “No, actually,” I say. “I don’t think that would please Reid, who I’m certain you know is not here.”

  “And why would you say that?”

  “Which are referring to? Why your son wouldn’t want me to invite you in or why I know you know he’s not here?” I hold up a hand. “I’ll answer both. ‘You’re an ass’ could be used in both cases, but you’re also calculating and do nothing without a manipulative reason.”

  “I suppose your father told you this about me?”

  “Your son told me. Actually, both of your sons and your daughter.”

  He arches a brow. “You do know that your father called me, correct?”

  “My father is going to suck it up and deal with Reid being his son-in-law,” I say, making darn sure I present my father as angry and reluctant. “And he’s doing so,” I add, “because he loves me more than he hates you. You won. He’s defeated and he gives up. I’d say that I’m upset I helped you beat him, but he played dirty, too. He lied. He wasn’t the man I thought he was and he deserves what he got, but it’s over.” Which is the truth. I’m making peace with my father, but those realities still exist.

  “Then invite me in and prove it.”

  “We both know you would hurt me to hurt my father so, no, I won’t invite you in.” I step forward and take the bottle from him. “You owe this to Reid for being such a shitty father. I feel sorry for you because you’re going to die old and alone.” I start to shut the door and hesitate only a moment before I add, “Unlike my father, I don’t blame you for breaking him and my mom up. She left and never looked back. She was beneath him and you two deserve each other. Maybe you should look her up.” Now I step inside the apartment, shut the door, and lock up.

  I lean against the door and consider calling Reid, but he’s in hell right now. Okay, but he’s in hell over his father. I have to call him. I inhale, stare at the bottle of booze and then google it. It’s worth twenty-five-thousand dollars. I walk to the coffee table and set it down before I drop the damn thing and break it. Then I sit down on the couch, only I don’t have my phone. Great.

  I stand up, rush to the bedroom and find it lying in a suitcase. I snatch it up, return to the living room and stare at that booze. What was the point in bringing that bottle? Maybe it means something to Reid? I dial my future husband. “Carrie,” he answers, sounding concerned, because of course, he knows I wouldn’t call while he’s in his meeting unless there was a problem. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes. I had a situation, but it’s handled and I’m perfectly fine.”

  “What does that mean?” he demands, his tone sharp in that way Reid can be sharp, not with anger but the need to gain control he doesn’t have and needs with some degree of urgency.

  “Right after you left, there was a knock on the door and I thought you left your key because of course, none of your siblings would be visiting and only they had access.”

  “Oh, fuck. My father.”

  “Yes, your father.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t let him in.”

  “I didn’t, but I did take the twenty-five-thousand-dollar bottle of scotch he brought us as an engagement gift. Why would he bring you a bottle that expensive? Does it have some meaning to you?”

  He’s silent a few long beats before he says, “He once told me the day I bought a bottle of twenty-five-thousand-dollar scotch and didn’t blink, I would know I’d hit the jackpot. I need to go, baby. Don’t go out and lock the door.”

  “I’m confused. What was he telling you?”

  “That I’ve given him the ultimate weapon in you, baby. That I’m finally successful enough with this move to deserve that scotch. I’ll handle it. Just stay there. Understand? Stay there. I need to know you’re safe.”

  “I’m safe. I’m fine. He didn’t threaten me or make me feel threatened.”

  “He wouldn’t. That’s not how he operates. I love you. I’ll be home soon.” He hangs up.

  I drop the phone to the couch and stare at the bottle of scotch and I swear, now I want to drop it and break it the way Reid’s father is trying to break his family. I fight the urge to call Cat. I’d love to have someone to talk to that understands what Reid is facing with his father, but I decide Reid wouldn’t like that. He’s very private and he’s spent a lifetime hiding these things from his sister to protect her. This realization drives home how strong my bond is with Reid. He trusts me. He’s bared his soul to me. I need to wait and talk to him, not Cat. Perhaps that will change in time, as he dares to bare his soul to her, but for now, Reid needs me to just wait, and wait I will.

  ***

  Reid

  I hang up with Carrie as Gabe and Royce sit across from me in a booth in the coffee shop not far from our house. “I caught enough of that to know dad visited Carrie,” Gabe says.

  “And brought her a twenty-five-thousand-dollar bottle of scotch.”

  “I caught that as well,” Gabe says. “And what you think it means, which I agree on, by the way.”

  I look at Royce. “He sees her as a weapon against her father. I need a weapon against my father to shut this down and so far, you haven’t given me anything.”

  “I gave you a laundry list of bad deeds the man has done,” Royce proclaims.

&
nbsp; “Nothing that will faze him,” I say. “Because most of it is tied to me or Gabe. He knows we have to protect ourselves and each other which is why he keeps us both in the mix.” My lips thin. “Me more than Gabe.”

  Gabe narrows his eyes on me. “What does that mean?”

  I lower my voice and tell them both everything there is to tell about the accusations of murder and the dead private investigator. Gabe looks stunned because, like me, he’s always wanted to believe some good existed underneath all the bad that is our father. Royce doesn’t react, remaining his normal, stoic self. “No wonder you were worried about him showing up to see Carrie alone,” Gabe says softly. “I don’t even want him with Cat alone anymore.”

  “He knew she was alone,” I say. “I’m certain of it and the minute he chose to play with Carrie’s head was the moment he pushed me too far.” I look at Royce. “I need to shut him down once and for all, and I’m sure you now understand that the laundry list of sins you found on my father are not enough.”

  Royce leans in closer. “I have friends in the right places. What if I can get one of them to work a plea deal with you that never gets turned in? It’s just on file. Should your father make a move, it’s put into play. You can show it to him and use it to control him.”

  “Why would anyone on that level of law enforcement do that for me?” I ask.

  “Because when you do big favors, you get big favors in return, and my team is intimately involved with the right people to make this happen.”

  Gabe and I share a look. “What do you think?” Gabe asks. “Will he believe you’ll turn on him?”

  “It needs to be both of us,” I say. “Just like when we shut him out of the company.”

  “Can we ship him to another country already?” Gabe grumbles. “But yes, of course, I’m in.”

  I glance at Royce. “I have a board meeting Friday and I need him on a leash by then. Can you do it or do I need to push the meeting?”

  “I can do it.” He glances at his watch. “But let me go make some calls now.” He stands up. “I’ll be in touch.” He leans on the table and looks between us. “You can’t bluff with this. He has to know you’ll turn evidence on him.”