She’s right. He might. He’d have to dig, but he could find it and I have no doubt that man has been looking for ways to cut me.
“Be the calm, cool, calculated asshole I fell in love with,” Carrie adds. “The one that marched into my office and owned it and me. Do that to him.” She smiles and teases, “Minus the hot sex on the desk.”
I drag her to me. “God, I love you, woman.”
“I hope that means all of me, because I love all of you, even when you think I can’t.”
“You know I love all of you.”
“Then know that I love all of you, and if I didn’t—why would you want to marry me?”
“You really think you can handle just how dark I can get?”
“I know I can, but if you still need to ask that question, we have a problem. All or nothing, Reid.”
I lace her fingers with mine. “All. We’re going to war with Elijah and we’ll find out if you can handle what that means.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Carrie
War.
Again.
Reid leads me toward the door of Gabe’s office with that word in the air. Reid is going to war, we are going to war, and while this isn’t our first battle, no matter what, a war with family is different than war with someone who had no connection or motivation to protect you. Elijah wants to hurt, even destroy Reid. Reid will hurt him first, though. Destroy him first. Reid doesn’t lose no matter what that means. I know this about my soon-to-be husband.
Reid reaches for the doorknob, but a sudden thought has me pulling him back. “Wait.”
He turns to face me, arching one of his arrogant brows. “You want to fuck before we go out there?”
I laugh, relieved that he now officially seems to be more himself than he was even a few minutes ago. “No. I do not want to fuck before we go back out there. I swear you will say anything.”
“It’s all or nothing, right? This is the real me. I always want to fuck you.”
“Let’s hope you say that ten years from now,” I joke, but as I settle my hand on his chest, I sober quickly. “Maybe you need to tell Gabe about the shooting. Blake’s a hacker. He probably knows. Actually, how does Gabe not know? Wasn’t there press? Wasn’t that what your father worried about?”
“My father paid big to keep my name out of the press,” he says. “And Gabe had just broken his leg. He was in his own world at the time.”
“If you don’t tell him now, it could come out. Elijah could use this against you in some way. I’m not sure how, but you told me about his wife. He couldn’t shock me. How’s Gabe going to react to not knowing something this big?”
He looks skyward, seeming to struggle with this decision, his jaw flexing before he fixes me in a turbulent stare. “You’re right,” he says, surprisingly without resistance. “Cat knows. I can’t leave him on the outside. I also can’t have that conversation with him with Blake here. I can’t have it with you here either, Carrie.”
“I understand that completely. When Blake leaves, I’ll ask him to walk me home and I don’t think Blake’s going to bring this up, even if he knows, not unless it’s one-on-one with you.”
He takes my hand and kisses it. “Maybe if I tell Gabe this, he’ll tell me what the hell fucked with him, because something did.”
“Yes. Something did and maybe he will.”
He leads me to the door and opens it for me, and we rejoin Gabe and Blake in the kitchen. “What do we know now?” Reid asks as we step to the endcap of the island with Blake to our right and Gabe to our left.
“Aside from the banker,” Blake says. “Elijah has contacted several of your clients and from what I can tell, he tried to call your assistant, Reid. She didn’t take the call.”
“Connie wouldn’t betray you,” I say. “You’ve told me how loyal she is.”
“No,” I say, pulling my phone from my pocket. “She wouldn’t, which is why I need her to call him back.” Reid glances at Blake. “Do we have his phone tapped?”
“We do now.”
“Anything else I need to know before calling her?” I ask.
Blake looks at Gabe. “How loyal is your assistant? Because she’ll be next.”
“I trust her. She’ll come to me if it happens, but I’ll prepare her for it tomorrow.”
Reid punches in Connie’s number and places her on speaker. “Yes, your highness?” she answers.
I laugh, “Hi, Connie and before you reply, Gabe is here, too, as well as Blake Walker from Walker Security.”
“Did I eat at my desk one too many times or what?” Connie says with so much seriousness that I give another silent laugh. No wonder this woman has been with him for so long. He can’t intimidate her.
“You got a call tonight that you didn’t take,” Reid says.
“I did?” Connie asks. “When and who?”
“Yes,” Reid says. “You did. Did you get a voicemail?”
“Hold, please,” she says, and a few seconds later, she’s back. “No message. I repeat: Who called me and why is it a problem?”
“Elijah,” I say, aware that Reid keeps her prepped on anyone who’s a problem and since this isn’t the first time Elijah has been a problem, or even the second time, she knows him well. “And,” I add, “he’s not only trying to ruin Reid and all of us, he decided to start with me. He followed me to a wedding venue today. He even grabbed me.”
“My God,” she says. “Why exactly is this man so damn obsessed with you, Reid?”
I grab Reid’s arm because I know he doesn’t want to have this conversation. He inhales a slow breath and I know he knows what I know; Elijah will tell her about his wife. In the past, he might have wanted it to be hush-hush but now, that’s changed. Reid doesn’t debate with himself long and without preamble he says, “I fucked his wife several years back. I didn’t know she was his wife. He’s trying to say I did and I even fucked her in his bed. All lies.”
I wait for the bombshell reaction that doesn’t come. “Good Lord, does he not have another woman yet to get him over this?”
“Amen to that,” Gabe says. “But he’s still with his wife.”
“And he’s suddenly obsessed with Reid again?” Connie asks. “Is this over the merger? I mean, it can’t be the wife after years have passed, so why now?”
“Good question,” I say. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“Maybe I should call his wife, not him,” Connie suggests. “If anyone knows a man, it’s his woman. Anyone got a number?”
Call the wife.
This idea intrigues me.
Reid obviously knows it, too, because he pulls me round to face him. “No. The end. You’re not calling her.”
“Yes, but—”
“No. I will send you away and you won’t be able to stop me. I swear to you I will hire whoever it takes to kidnap you and take you to another country.”
“You’re being an asshole,” I say. “Who isn’t even listening to options.”
“Enjoy, baby, because it only gets better,” he promises and then turns his attention back to the call. “Connie, call him back and then call us back.”
“Will do,” she says. “Do I hate you for being such an asshole, which you are by the way, or am I in love with you and wish you’d have sex with me?”
“Connie,” Reid warns.
“Yeah, yeah, boss. I’ll wing it like I always do.” She hangs up.
Gabe clears his throat. “I think Carrie should call the wife.”
Reid whirls on him. “Office. Now.”
Gabe casts him a hard stare. “Want to throw down, brother? Bring it on.”
The two of them start walking and my heart squeezes with the certainly that Reid’s about to tell Gabe about the past. I look at Blake. “You know about the shooting, right?”
“Yes. I know.”
“Gabe doesn’t. He’s going to tell him. Objectively, do you think I should try to make contact with the wife?”
“I’m pleadi
ng the fifth because my wife is an ex-FBI agent and I’d still be worried about her. He loves you. He won’t survive you getting hurt. That’s clear.”
The idea that losing me would destroy Reid isn’t a good one. Being loved that much is special, but I love him back too much to want him to ever feel such pain. My cellphone rings and I walk to my purse where I set it with my coat and grab it to find Cat’s number on the caller ID. “Oh God. This is Cat. What if Elijah went after her, too?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Reid
The minute Gabe and I are in his office, I round on him. “Do not fucking make a suggestion that puts my woman at risk,” I snap. “Do you understand me?”
He shuts the door. “I’m trying to help, brother. I’m trying to end this.”
“By ending her? Because I swear to you, Gabe, I will end you.”
“We both know you don’t mean that and you’re obviously out of your fucking mind right now, so I’ll let it go. Carrie influences you. Cat influences Reese. A conversation with Elijah’s wife, a plea to her for help could end this. But that can’t come from any of us. That has to come from Carrie, who’s likable, smart, and the right person to do this.”
“That woman, his wife, tricked me, used me, and created this situation. She’s a bitch who could turn on Carrie and make this worse.”
“You need to step back, brother, and take a deep breath. Take a night. Whatever works, but we both know why. We both know you’re letting your past fuck with you.”
I go still, my eyes narrowing on him. “What past?”
“I know about the shooting. I always knew. I figure you knew I knew. You just didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Cat didn’t know.”
“She was young and protected when it happened. I wasn’t and I knew damn well that’s why you pulled back from everyone. I get it. I understand it.”
I breathe out and walk to the window in the corner, staring out of it without really seeing the brilliant view of the water and the Statue of Liberty before me. I see that night. I see the blood. Gabe steps to my side but he doesn’t speak. He gives me space. He’s good at space, the way I’m good at space. “I didn’t love her. She sacrificed herself for me and I didn’t even love her.”
“I don’t know this part of the story,” he says. “Sacrificed how?”
“Threw herself in front of the bullet. I tried to save her. I gave her mouth to mouth. I tried to stop the bleeding. Fuck, Gabe, I was going to break up with her that night.”
“Ouch, man. I had no idea or I wouldn’t have stayed silent.”
“Dad wanted me to leave immediately. He didn’t even want me there for the funeral. He was afraid I’d dirty our name. The asshole that let his girlfriend take a bullet for him.”
“He’s the one who dirties our name.” He studies me a moment. “You’re afraid if Carrie goes to the wife, it’s equivalent to her stepping in front of a bullet.”
“It pulls the attention to her. It needs to be on me.”
“I’ll go talk to her.”
“No. I don’t need you ending up worse off in this.”
“I can handle myself and talking to the wife is smart,” he argues.
“Let’s let one of Blake’s people do this.” My cellphone rings and I pull it from my pocket. “Connie,” I say, answering on speakerphone. “I’m here with Gabe.”
“He offered me a job that includes a fifty-thousand-dollar sign-on bonus. And don’t ask me if I’m going to take it. Just buy me a Chanel purse and we’re good, but I told him I’d think about it. He wants me to go to an interview. What do you want me to do?”
Gabe and I share a look and nod. “No,” I say. “As much as having you get an inside look at this would help, we’re concerned about his stability. I don’t want you to become a target.”
“Declining him could do that, too, don’t you think?” she asks.
“Take a cruise,” Gabe suggests. “Tell him you have a family thing and can’t interview until you get back.”
“I’m not leaving with all the transitions and merger going on,” she says. “Think of another plan and talk to me tomorrow. I told him I’d call him at my lunch hour tomorrow.”
We disconnect and Gabe and I stare at each when there’s a knock on the door and Carrie sticks her head in the door. “I’m here. So is Blake.” They both enter the office and Gabe and I turn to face them.
“Nothing happened,” Carrie says, “But Cat called just to see if we’d talked about the wedding location. It made me think about her safety.”
“We automatically put a team with them,” Blake says. “They don’t know but they’re safe.”
“How badly is Reese going to freak out at the risk to Cat?” Carrie asks. “Maybe bringing him here with all of us waiting to drop this bomb on him isn’t the right move.”
“He was pretty fucked in the head when Cat was threatened,” Gabe interjects. “And that wasn’t that long ago. He didn’t even know she was pregnant last time.”
“I’ll go to him.” I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Reese. “Have you left to come over here yet?”
“About to leave now. Why?”
“I’ll come to you, but I still need you one on one. I have a personal liability in this a particular legal scenario and I don’t want to upset her.”
He’s silent a beat, in which I know he’s dreading whatever I’m about to hardball at him. “The bar in the lobby of my building in thirty minutes.”
“That works,” I say, and when we disconnect, I get right to updating Carrie and Blake on the developments. “Elijah offered Connie a job and a fifty-thousand-dollar sign-on bonus. She told him she’d think about it and call him at lunch tomorrow.”
“That’s insane,” Carrie says. “He’s blatantly going after you and everyone around you.”
“I don’t want her anywhere near him.” I look at Carrie. “Like I don’t want you near the wife”
“The wife does yoga three nights a week,” Blake says. “My wife is going to try to connect with her at tonight’s session. She’s already there. She has a good read on people. Our hope is that she can access where her head is right now. Even a glimpse of stress, of an on-edge mood, can tell us things are rough at home.”
“I still think me talking to her gets us the furthest,” Carrie adds. “She can help. She can tell us what he’s up to and she will have a connection to me.”
“That she fucked me?” I snap. “Seriously, Carrie? Tabitha lied and fucked me to get to her husband,” I say. “What else will she do? No. The end.” I look at Blake. “I’m not playing these games. I don’t want to know what mood that bitch is in. I want to know how to ruin her. We’ll make her help us.”
“If you’re expecting pushback,” Blake says. “You won’t get it. I’m already working on her dirty little secrets.”
I think of the shooter in that store. “Let me be clear,” I say, “I’m over that talk earlier about him being insane. He’s a sick bastard. Check. Got it. All the more reason to put him down now. Those offshore accounts you found aren’t enough. Why do they exist? Who’s in on it with him?”
“Three board members with offshore accounts,” Blake says.
“I need everything you have in my inbox by the time I get done talking to Reese.” My cellphone rings and I pull it from my pocket to frown. “What is it?” Carrie asks, urgently, crossing to stand in front of me.
“Our building security,” I say, answering the line on speakerphone. “Reid Maxwell.”
“You have a guest here that insists it’s urgent.”
“Who is it?” I ask.
“Tabitha Woodson.”
At the mention of Elijah’s wife, my eyes meet Carrie’s. There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to meet her in my apartment. “Hold on,” I say, pushing mute and looking at Blake.
“Keep her in the lobby,” Blake says. “And buy time. I’ll wire you.”
I nod and unmute the call. “Tell her I’ll be right there.” I
disconnect and look at Carrie. “Stay here with Gabe.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Carrie says. “And if you think that’s happening, we’ll be divorced before we get married. You aren’t meeting that woman without me. The end.”
Blake interjects. “It could be a set-up meant to look like another hookup. Take your future wife with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Reid
I grab Carrie’s arms and pull her to me. “No. You are not going with me.”
“You heard Blake. I need to be there. It protects you. We protect each other.”
“Carrie, damn it.”
She pushes to her toes and kisses me. “I’m not a naive fool, Reid, but you’re pissed. Do you really want to do this without a buffer?”
“Yes. I do.”
“I’ll get that wire on the way,” Blake says, turning and heading out of the door.
Gabe follows without a word and Carrie grabs my shirt. “I’m going. The end.” She turns and tries to walk away.
I grab her arm. “Carrie—”
She steps into me and flattens her hand on my chest. “I said fight back. That means step away from the past and into the moment. We’re here, right now, and we need to do this together. You know it. I know it.”
I tighten my grip on her arm, my jaw tensing. “She will taunt you. She might even try to make you think I’m fucking her now.”
“You’re too busy fucking me to have anything left for her. If you’re worried about what she’d make me believe, we need to do this, and then go fuck this out of your system so you can focus.”
My anger notches down and my lips quirk. “Is that right?”
“Yes. Very. I think we both just need to be home fucking like rabbits and hugging our kitty, but we can’t. Not yet.”
I soften my voice and stroke her hair. “Anything she says that you don’t already know is a lie.”
“Understood.”
I know she can hold her own, but I also know from my reaction to Tabitha being at our place that she and I are both going to have to face the cold, hard facts. I’m not going to have the clear head I need with her and my sister in town. I’m not going to fight the real fight. A topic for later and perhaps those real handcuffs. I lace my fingers with hers, kiss her knuckles and lead her toward the door.
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