“Fuck you, dad,” I growl, not about to leave before Kelly’s funeral. I’m staying. I killed her. I am the weak asshole who let her die. I’m facing the hate that comes with that because I deserve it.
***
Carrie
Present day, thirty minutes before she showed up at Gabe’s door with Reid’s father…
I’m pacing the living room, worried about what Reid is doing right now. I dial Cat because I need to talk, but then I realize she’s pregnant. I can’t worry her and what if this sets her up for danger, too? Oh God. What if she’s already in danger? I want to call Reid. I can’t stop myself. I dial his number but he doesn’t answer. I press my hand to my head. Where would he go if not to Elijah’s place? The office? Gabe’s? Yes. Gabe’s. I think he went to Gabe’s. I rush to the bedroom, grab my purse and pull on a coat with the intent of going to Gabe’s place when my phone rings.
I answer without checking the number. “Carrie.”
“Dad?”
“Yes, why do you sound so stressed? Did Reid upset you?”
“No. Yes. No.” I press my hand to my face. “He’s trying to protect me at all costs. I’m worried about him. I need—”
“Protect you from what?”
“It’s a long story. Someone who hates him came after me today.”
“Elijah?”
My eyes go wide. “What do you know about Elijah?”
“He came to me when Reid took over the company. He wanted me to partner with him to destroy Reid and hand me the reins for the company again, but you already know that’s not what I wanted. And even if I did, I wouldn’t have partnered with Elijah. Personal vendettas like ‘he fucked my wife’ are dangerous and I had enough of that with Reid’s father.”
“He didn’t know who she was. She used him to rattle Elijah, and don’t tell me I’m a fool to believe that. It’s true.”
“I’m not going to debate the right and wrong of Reid Maxwell. That aside, Elijah struck me as erratic. His own board questions his stability. And what do you mean he came after you?”
“Followed me and confronted me about Reid’s action. He even grabbed me. Reid’s losing his mind. He wanted to go to him and hurt him but Walker Security, the team we use for investigative work, stopped him. They’re trying to figure out what triggered this sudden anger. They think he’s perhaps unstable, which means nothing Reid would do to him professionally to shut him down will work.”
“If Reid feels his hands are tied, that worries me. Let me make some calls.”
“Don’t do anything. Don’t set anything in motion.”
“I won’t. I’ll call you and Reid to coordinate. You have my word.”
“You’d call Reid?”
“To protect my daughter, yes. I love you, honey. I hate I’ve made you think differently. I’ll call you soon.” He hangs up and I don’t give myself time to analyze the emotion balling in my chest at his offer of support. I head for the door and dial Royce. “I’m going out. Is someone coming with me or just following me or what?”
“Savage will meet you at the door.”
“I’m going to Gabe’s,” I say. “Is Reid there?”
“Yes, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Thank you because I really think he needs me to ground him right now.”
“Agreed,” Royce says, “and it was all I could do not to call you, but he would have killed me.” We disconnect and I step into the elevator. I want to feel relief that he’s with Gabe, but Gabe is just as fucked up as Reid. I’ve seen that in his eyes. For all I know, he’ll push him to take destructive actions.
I arrive in the lobby and Savage steps to my side the minute I’m outside the building in the cold. “He’s going to do something he regrets later,” I say. “I feel it in my bones.” He meets my stare and nods and that’s all we say. We start jogging our way to Gabe’s place, the cold biting to my skin, but I don’t care. I need to be with Reid. He needs me to be with him for the very reason that he wants me to stay away: he can’t make a decision on Elijah driven by the past. He wants to throw himself or Elijah in front of a bullet so I won’t take it. I know he does.
We reach Gabe’s building and the minute we’re in the lobby, we’re confronted by the last person I want to see right now: Reid’s father. “What are you doing here?”
“There’s trouble in the air for my son,” he says. “And for you. Let’s go upstairs and talk about how to save him.”
“What trouble?”
“I’ll discuss that with my son, but you are a problem. You’re his weakness and you’re already being used against him. I don’t like it.” He turns and starts walking toward the elevator.
“I’m riding up with you,” Savage says. “I’ll stay in the hallway once we’re upstairs but you’re not going anywhere alone with that man.”
No, I think, I don’t want to be alone with Reid’s father, but if he can help Reid, I’ll get on that elevator with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Reid
I don’t even try to process reasons why my father would be standing at Gabe’s door with Carrie beside him. I grab her, pull her inside the door and shut it again. “How the hell are you with my fucking father?”
“I guessed that you would be here and when I arrived he was standing in the lobby waiting on me. I have no idea if it was a coincidence or he somehow knew I was coming. I don’t think so, though. I didn’t even know I was coming until I made the last-minute decision to come after you.”
“Who knew?”
“Just Walker Security. I called them. I wasn’t going out alone. Savage is in the hallway, too. He didn’t want me to ride up with your father alone.”
“I didn’t want you with him at all and if you were home, he wouldn’t be.”
Her cheeks burn red. “I’m not a kept woman,” she snaps. “I don’t hide while you solve problems. If that’s what you want, a yes girl who you can shut out when you don’t want me to tell you you’re making stupid decisions, then you’re engaged to the wrong person.”
Gabe laughs from the other room and I ignore the little prick. “I’m engaged to the right woman who put herself in the wrong place.”
“No comment on the part where you wanted me at arm’s length and I couldn’t talk you out of something you’d regret tomorrow?”
Damn woman knows me a little too well for my own good right now, but I’m too pissed to appreciate how good that probably is for me. “I have plenty to say to you, Carrie. Just not here and not now.” I don’t give her time to reply. “Gabe!” I call out, and I’ve barely said his name before my brother is by our sides. I release Carrie and turn to face him. “What the hell is dad doing here?”
“I have no idea,” Gabe says. “He’s not even on the security list.”
“He walked to the elevator without being stopped,” Carrie counters, folding her arms in front of her, her anger at me, not my father, damn near palpable. Well, I’m fucking angry, too. I don’t want her around my father. I don’t want her exposed to another encounter with Elijah. “He’s clearly still got access,” Carrie adds.
“Or the guards thought he was with you,” Gabe says. “You have access.”
The doorbell rings. My jaw clenches. “Damn it, I do not want to deal with him right now.”
“He knows about Elijah,” Carrie says. “He said something is in the air and he’s not letting you go down. I think you have to listen to him.”
I scrub my neck and glance at Gabe, who gives a hard shake of his head. “It could be a ploy to get back into the company,” I say. “He could be working with Elijah.”
“Either way,” Gabe says. “We need to know why he’s here.”
He’s right. I don’t like it, but he is. I look at Carrie. “I’m stepping outside. He’s not coming in.” I reach for the door and she grabs my arm.
I turn to face her and the tension between us crackles hot and sure. “He really could be working with Elijah,” she says. “My father called. He c
ould tell I’m upset and I told him we had an enemy we were dealing with. He immediately knew it was Elijah. He said Elijah tried to get him to partner with him to take you down and take back the company, but he didn’t want the company, as we all now know. If he tried with my father, he might try with yours.”
“Agreed.” I pull her to me again. “I don’t want you near him. I left you behind for a reason. To protect you.”
“Funny thing,” she says. “I feel safer by your side than alone in a big apartment.”
“If you were there you wouldn’t have just been with him because I guarantee you, if he said something to you, I won’t like when I find out about it.” Her eyes flicker and she cuts her gaze. “Of course he did.” I set her away from me. “I’m putting some space between him and you because if he goes at you, I might just punch him tonight.”
“That would be one of those bad decisions.”
“You sure about that?”
“Actually, no, I’m not in this case.” She turns and walks away as if giving me permission to punch my father and I wonder what he said to her before she made it to this door.
I turn and share a look with Gabe before I open the door and face off with my father. He arches a brow. “Done debriefing your woman?”
“What do you want?”
“Invite me in.”
“What do you want?” I repeat.
He turns and starts walking, playing a game that I’m not going to play. I shut the door. I’m not going after him. Gabe steps in front of me and arches a brow like dad did. “What just happened?”
“I’m not inviting him in.” I start walking to the kitchen.
“I’ll invite him in,” Gabe says, walking to the door.
He disappears outside and I find Carrie removing her coat and laying it on a barstool at the end of the island, her eyes on me. “You should have let him in,” she says. “We need to know what he knows.”
Blake rotates to face me. “Elijah’s presently talking to a reporter at a coffee shop near his house. I’d let your father in because I can tell you that the meeting is happening, but so far there is nothing in writing that tells me why.”
The door opens behind me and my father and Gabe walk in. I claim a spot at the island next to Carrie, my mind racing over that press meeting. Is that bastard going to out me as a cheat? I wouldn’t care if not for Carrie. My father walks toward us, a snide look on his face I want to smack off, but the press meeting has my attention.
“What do you know?” I demand as Gabe claims the spot next to me.
He eyes Blake. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare if you try to screw anyone in this room,” he says. “But feel free to ignore me. I like it that way.”
My father studies him for several beats and then looks at me, dismissing Blake. “Elijah came to see me. He wanted me to help take you down, to regain my spot in the company. I declined.”
“Why tell me now when you didn’t tell us then?”
“Our banker called me,” he says.
Blake punches in a few keys on his MacBook. “Confirmed.”
Our father smirks and continues. “He heard murmurs that Elijah was going after you. From my read on Carrie downstairs, you’re already aware of this problem.”
“He confronted me today,” Carrie says. “He tried to turn me against Reid, but he can’t turn me against the man I love.”
“If that’s supposed to impress me,” my father says, “it doesn’t.” He looks at me. “She’s a weakness and not only does she know it, he knows it.”
My jaw clenches. “Don’t be a bigger prick than you already are.”
“My point is,” he says, “that the women in our lives, the loves of our lives, become targets we must manage.”
“What do you know about love?” I ask.
“I loved your mother,” he says. “And when I let that be known, I was attacked. I almost lost the company over your mother.”
My fingers curl in my palms and Carrie grabs my arm. Gabe presses his hands on the island endcap and says, “Get to the point and leave the insults to mom out of this.”
“The point,” he says, his gaze meeting mine, “is what are you thinking about tonight? Carrie or the company? If your answer is Carrie, he won. You’re distracted. You’re not looking for the ways he’s coming for you. You’re thinking about protecting her, not the company.”
I inhale and he smirks. “I’m right. He outsmarted you tonight. He won. Make sure he doesn’t continue to win.” He turns and walks toward the door.
The minute the door shuts, Carrie turns to face me. “Say the first thing that comes to your mind.”
I don’t say a word. I ignore Gabe and Blake, lace my fingers with hers and start walking toward Gabe’s office where we can be alone and I can tell her exactly what’s on my mind, which is not for anyone else’s ears but hers.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Reid
I pull Carrie into my brother’s home office and shut the door, pressing her against the hard surface, my legs framing her legs and I swear that sweet floral scent of her cuts through the edge of my anger. I want to drink her in, I want to be drugged by all that she is, and all that I love about this woman. My hands come down on her face as I slant my mouth over hers and kiss the hell out of her, making damn sure she knows that’s my answer. This kiss, and how much I love her, is the first thing I thought of when my father left. A kiss that is meant to tell her that I won’t lose her, I won’t let her go, and my father can go fuck himself.
She moans and sinks into the kiss, her arms sliding around me and my hand settles between her shoulder blades, molding her closer. I can never get this woman close enough, not now, not ever and the idea that my father was with her, feeding her head with bullshit, sends a surge of hot new anger through me. “You are not a weakness,” I say, tearing her mouth from mine. “Do not let him fuck with your head.”
“Says the man who’s letting Elijah mess with your head?” she challenges.
My lips thin and I press my hands on the wall next to her head. “I’m not going to tell you that he didn’t fuck with my head, but the entire reason I left and came here was that I needed space to get my head right.”
“You needed space from me? Why, if you’re worried about me, would you need space from me?”
“When I’m with you I want to go beat him to a pulp for what he did today, and you won’t let me do that.”
“Beat him to a pulp or worse, Reid?” she challenges hotly.
Fuck. She sees too much and I cut my stare. Her hand comes down on my cheek and she forces my gaze to hers. “We both know where your head was and that you wanted to do a whole lot more than beat him to a pulp. If that’s your reaction to this, then your father is right. I’m a weakness.” She tries to move away and I cage her legs.
“You are not a weakness, Carrie. Damn, woman. You made me human again. You’re why I have a relationship with my sister. You’re why I have a damn Christmas tree this year. So yes, you’re the reason I want to hurt him, but you’re also the reason I haven’t. Yet. I haven’t yet but I’m not promising it’s not coming.”
“You’re thinking about me, not what Elijah is really up to which is exactly what your father said. He’s right and you need to get focused on the right things.”
“You are the right thing. My father is too much of an empty monster to even see that. If he was a real man, he’d have been here trying to figure out how to protect you and me. Instead, he used this to try to separate us. That’s all that was in there. Him trying to divide us. Him trying to seem righteous, and that asshole and his talk about my mother—fuck him.”
“Nothing you said changes the part where he was right about where your head is right now. You’re thinking about hurting Elijah for me. Maybe that’s exactly what he wants. Maybe he’s not insane but smart. He’s outsmarting you and you don’t get outsmarted.”
“He’s not fucking outsmarting me. We were already starting to look for real answe
rs and I was wishing like hell I hadn’t left you at home.”
“You shouldn’t have had to wish I was here. I should have been here.” She grabs my shirt and balls her fist around it. “Listen to me, Reid Maxwell, I wanted to be in business with you for a reason. I know how hard you are. I know what you’re capable of and I know I am not capable of those things. Sometimes I’m too soft. Sometimes you’re too hard or cold. We complement each other in business and in life.”
“I know that. You know I know that.”
“And yet you shut me out. You didn’t want me to see what was there, under the surface. If that’s how this is going to be, then it’s not, we’re not, what I want. All in, good, bad, and ugly. If you can’t—”
“There is no can’t with us, Carrie, but, baby, this stuff with Elijah, with him confronting you, hits nerves, you know it does, but what my father did, showing up here and trying to shut you out, that’s part of that history. He’s a part of it.”
I push off the door and walk to the desk, pressing my hands on the wooden surface, my mind going back to the night of the shooting, back to that call with my father and what a cold-hearted prick he’d been. Carrie appears by my side, her hand on my back. “He knows about the shooting,” she assumes.
“Yes. He knows.” I push off the desk but I don’t face her. “I called him and his immediate reaction was to get me out of there and demand I change schools.” I scrub my jaw and turn to face her. “He didn’t even want me to go to the funeral. Her death was bad press.”
“Did you?”
“Hell yes, I went. She saved my life. I was the one who called her parents and holy fuck, Carrie, I will never forget her mother’s screams. She dropped the phone and just screamed at the top of her lungs. I was there when they arrived. I acted like a son. I spoke at the funeral. My father was furious, but I didn’t care.” I pull her to me. “He wants me to turn my back on you, too. That’s not going to happen, but I’m not always going to be worthy of you, Carrie, you need to know that, especially now, with Elijah breathing down our throats.”
“If worthy means letting him hurt you, then don’t be worthy. Just don’t take actions when your head is in the past. That’s when your father is right and Elijah wins. Maybe Elijah even knows about the shooting. You would if it were in reverse.”
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