The Empire

by Lisa Renee Jones

  His hands settle on my shoulders, while my phone starts ringing again. “She was at a meeting with the mob boss. She attended with my father.”

  At this point, nothing I hear about my mother surprises me. I decline her call, one point puzzling me. “Your father met with the mob? Not Isaac?”

  “It was recent,” he says. “And I don’t think my father is stupid enough to get into this mess. I suspect he was trying to get out of it.”

  “And my mother was with him. She knows what all of this is about. Going to Denver is a good thing. I can make her talk. I will. I’ll end this.”

  “I’m not as convinced as you are that she knows the whole story.”

  “She knows more than we do, and she’s of the same mindset as Isaac. She didn’t want you in Denver. They must have feared you’d take over while they were weak. Gigi must have seen the writing on the wall, though. She must really see you as the answer. She saw you as the way to save the family.”

  “More like she saw my money as a way to save the family and hoped you’d make me open my wallet. Which, baby, you have to see means she could easily be behind your attack.”

  “I’m not looking at her with rose-colored glasses,” I say. “I get that she’s one of them and self-serving, but I’m not sure she’s with them. Not on this. My mother knows, though, and we will soon. After you close this NFL deal.”

  “This deal isn’t closing today. This is about pulling together the money to make sure it happens. We have competition now, thanks to an asshole trying to stab us in the back.”

  My hand flattens on his chest. “This is about your future and the future of everyone involved. The rest of this is not. I’ll get answers from my mother. After I watch your magic in that conference room.”

  His phone on his desk buzzes. “We’re ready for you,” Grayson calls out. “You need me to buy time?”

  Eric buries his face in my neck for a moment and then leans over the desk to punch a button. “I’m ready. I’ll be right there.” He releases the button and looks at me. “You’re about to see another side of me.”

  “The hard negotiator that knows how to cut through a room and make everyone bleed right up until the moment that he kisses them all better?”

  He laughs. “You’re the only person I’ll kiss all better, but otherwise, yes.”

  “I know him,” I say. “I’ve met him, but show me more.”

  He smiles, but it fades quickly, his eyes flickering to my lips, lingering and lifting. “Much more, Harper. I just hope it’s not too much.” I know he’s still talking about those parts of him he’s always seen as flawed, the savant, the genius, but he doesn’t give me time to assure him that nothing is too much with him. It’s never enough. He takes my hands and guides me to the door.

  We head down a hallway and I turn off my phone, not about to allow my mother to blow it up while we’re in this meeting. We meet Grayson at the door to the conference room. “I have a flight scheduled for tomorrow to meet with Jon Moore.” He glances at me. “He’s the CEO of a consortium with deep pockets,” he explains before returning to his point. “He’s supposedly fueling a competing consortium trying to bid against us on the team. I’m meeting him because he called and asked to see me. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, now would you?”

  Eric’s expression never changes. “I wasn’t aware Jon was involved.”

  “That’s why you have me,” Davis says, appearing in our little circle, also dressed in casual clothing—jeans and a company logo shirt. “To find these things out.” He doesn’t look at Eric, but I feel the vibe between the two men. This is somehow a set-up to get Grayson and Mia out of town, and I approve. “They’re ready for us,” Davis adds, effectively ending any further conversation on the topic. “And they don’t know about Moore. I think we should keep it that way.”

  “We’ll talk about Moore when we’re done in here,” Grayson says, his gaze meeting Eric’s. “Don’t you agree?”

  “I’m never very agreeable,” Eric replies. “Which is why you like me so damn much.” With that, he slides a hand to my back and urges me into the room.

  Once we’re in the conference room, Eric introduces me to six men, all of whom sit at a round conference table. “This is Harper Evans,” he announces, as the men stand up to greet me. “Harper has a strong corporate management background as well as experience dealing with unions that we know will be a part of the NFL operation,” Eric explains. “And she’s loyal to me. I want her to sit in and hear any feedback she might offer.”

  A grumpy old man with a belly says, “I’m sure you’re wonderful, Harper, but,” he looks at me. “let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have competition now. We have a back-stabbing son of a bitch trying to steal this out from under us.”

  From there the voices rise, butts get planted in seats, and Eric settles into a chair between Davis and Grayson. Mia is waiting on me and motions to an empty seat, giving me a warm squeeze of my hand under the table when I sit, her way of welcoming me, and it feels quite genuine. More genuine than any welcome I ever received at Kingston. There is no pause as I settle in. The debates and hot topics come lightning fast. I watch Eric’s face as he interacts, mesmerized by this man who settled deep in my soul years ago and never faded away. He doesn’t show emotion. He doesn’t show anger. I can almost see the numbers, the calculation of his answers in his eyes. I imagine them ticking through his brain and it intrigues me. There is nothing he doesn’t have an answer to and Grayson is quiet but shrewd, while Davis is outspoken and intense. The three of them are amazing together and I share a look with Mia that says she knows what I’m thinking and yes, she agrees.

  These men are friends. These men are brothers. These men belong together and I think of my mother’s threat to attack Eric, to bring him down, and perhaps destroy his life, and it angers me again. I meant what I said. I will make her talk. I will end this. I will protect this man, who is only involved for one reason: me.

  That determination fills me and expands as the meeting turns into three hours. When finally it ends, and there is more money on the table than I can hardly fathom, the room is standing, people are shaking my hand. We exit the conference room and Grayson eyes Eric and Davis. “My office, you two.” He takes off walking. Davis eyes Eric. “You know what this is.”

  “About you getting him out of town to keep him safe,” Eric replies, eyeing Mia. “Getting you both out of town and safe.”

  “I’m all in,” she says. “He’s not leaving you, though. Not unless you go with us.”

  Eric grimaces and leans in and kisses me. “This may take a while,” he says. “My office is your office, baby. Make yourself at home.”

  He and Davis depart and I turn to face Mia. “How about some coffee?” she asks. “We never really finished our last cup.”

  “I’d like that. I do need to make a call.”

  “Why don’t I grab Starbucks and meet you in Eric’s office?” she offers.

  “Perfect. Thank you.”

  I give her my order and head into Eric’s office, sitting down at the conference table, with the intention of calling Blake and checking on my mother. I have ten missed calls from my mother and a voicemail. I push play to hear her say, “I’m on my way to the airport. We’ll talk when I get there because you need to hear what I have to say. Your father—step-father—went there to warn you. Eric is not the man you think he is. This is all about him. All about him.”

  The line goes dead.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Harper

  There is no part of me that doubts Eric. There is no momentary unease, no question in my mind about his character, about my trust in him as a person or a man. Not even a fizzle of doubt. Not one ounce. It’s my mother I don’t believe, and if I’m honest, the distance between us has been built by her, not me. She didn’t want me to see who she was becoming, which was easy enough since I didn’t want to see it either.

  Right now, I’m irritated at my mother. No. I’m angry.
I’m sick of the way this family comes at him and honestly, the way it destroyed my father’s hard work, and stripped away all I knew of my mother as good. Now they want to take Eric. I’m not letting them have him. They don’t get to destroy him, they don’t get to shove the final knife in his back, and brutally use me to do it, as an added insult.

  My fingers hover over the call back button on my phone to redial my mother, but I stop myself. That message could simply be her baiting me, trying to get my attention, to get me to call her. Playing head games. I don’t like to think that of my mother, but she’s proving to be someone I don’t know as familiar, unless it’s familiar in the Kingston kind of way, which is disturbing. I’m not calling her. Not until I do some strategic positioning first, but I don’t even think about disturbing Eric. Grayson didn’t seem pleased when they left the conference room. Eric needs to focus on his career and life outside of this family. That leaves me one option. I dial Blake.

  He answers on the first ring. “Thank God,” I breathe out. “My mother left me a message and said that she’s coming here to basically slander and torture Eric any way she can. Please tell me she’s just talking.”

  “I’ve gotten no word of movement on her end.” His phone beeps. “Hold on.” He clicks the line. I stand up and start to pace. That call is going to be about my mother. I know it is. Seconds tick by and finally, he comes back on the line.

  “She just rolled a suitcase to her car. Where is Eric? Does he know what’s going on?”

  I squeeze my eyes shut. “He’s in a meeting. Blake, I can’t interrupt him. He can’t have his life disrupted anymore because of my mother and this nightmare. They’re negotiating to buy an NFL team. He’s with Grayson and—”

  “Grayson wants to help. I know you’re in the building with him. Hang up. Go to him now and call me back. We have decisions to make about how we handle this. You can trust Grayson and Davis. Just go now.” He disconnects the line.

  There’s a knock on the door I don’t even remember shutting. I rush forward and open it to find Mia standing there. “I have a problem,” I say, taking the coffees from her and setting them on the conference table. “Can you take me to Grayson’s office? I need to see Eric now.”

  Her eyes go wide. “Of course. Come with me.”

  We hurry down a short hallway and stop at a set of double doors. Mia knocks twice and then peeks her head inside. “I have Harper. She says it’s urgent.”

  “Harper.”

  At the sound of Eric’s voice, Mia pushes open the door and hurries inside with me on her heels, and Eric greets me as I enter the giant, Ritz-Carlton-suite of an office that is Grayson’s personal space. “What’s happening?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you.” I glance at Grayson and Davis. “I’m so very sorry. Blake told me I had to come in here and—”

  “Harper,” Eric murmurs, his hand settling on my waist. “What’s happening?”

  “My mother—she’s—” I hold my phone up that I once again don’t even remember grabbing. I’m clearly running on adrenaline. “Listen to the message.” I push the speaker button and hit play, my eyes on Eric’s the entire time, while the room listens as my mother spews her threats and promises.

  Mia murmurs a soft, “My God.”

  Grayson and Davis curse.

  Eric just looks at me. “I know what I need to know about you. Nothing she can say—”

  “You think you know,” he says softly. “I’ve told you that.”

  “Okay, savant,” I say, ignoring the rest of them. “I get it. You’re dark. You’re layered. You’re a killer if you have to be, aka the SEALs. You keep driving me away and I’ll keep standing here. In the meantime, my mother is on her way to the airport to make our life hell.”

  Mia laughs and the room shifts their attention to her. “Oh ah, sorry, all. I just—I love Harper. That’s all. And to be productive here, is it safe for her mother to travel? Isn’t there an assassin we’re worried about?”

  “He’s gone,” Eric states.

  “He could be replaced,” I remind him.

  “Not to be an ass here, Harper,” Davis says, “but is there any chance your mother hired the hitman? She would inherit if her husband died, correct? She’s not coming here to finish the job herself, I assume?”

  I feel as if I’ve been hit by a two-by-four. “No,” I say. “No, it can’t be my mother.” I grab Eric’s arm. His hand firms on my waist and I turn into him. “Eric,” I whisper. “You don’t think—”

  “No. I don’t. This is all Isaac.”

  My eyes prickle as some part of me grabs hold onto this idea and won’t let go. “If it’s my mother—”

  “It’s not your mother,” he says. “But here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to let her get on a plane. We’re going to let her come here. You’re going to do what you said and get her to talk, really talk.”

  “What if she really blames you? What if she tries to—”

  “She’ll fail,” Grayson says. “Eric’s strong. He can handle accusations. So can we. I had my share at one point when an enemy came at me. Eric stood by me. I’m standing by him.”

  The cellphone in my hand rings with Blake’s number. Eric takes the phone from me and talks to Blake. I listen as they make arrangements to follow my mother, even on the flight she booked, but not let her know they’re watching. He disconnects and focuses on me. “You’re right. She’s how we end this. I feel that. Every instinct I own says your mother is the path to the end.”

  “I don’t like what I’m thinking.”

  “I know, baby. I know.” He strokes my hair and eyes Grayson. “Harper and I need—”

  “To get the hell out of here,” Grayson supplies. “We’re done here.” He glances at Harper. “I’m looking forward to you showing up here on Monday, and claiming an office for your own. I’ll let HR know you’ll be stopping by.”

  I don’t decline the offer. “I’ll be a good investment,” I promise. “You’ll never feel like I’m inherited luggage.”

  “I’ve already seen enough to know that to be a fact,” Grayson assures me.

  “As have I,” Davis concurs.

  “Me three on that one,” Mia chimes in, and rushes over to hug me, whispering, “You’re good for him. Hang on tight.”

  I nod, and I swear I could tear up again because it feels like I need to hang on. It feels like everyone is trying to rip us apart. We hurry out of the office and Eric leads me down the hallway into his office, where he shuts the door, and in a blink, I’m against the hard surface and he’s in front of me, his hands on my waist.

  “You didn’t doubt me at all.” It’s not a question. It’s a statement.

  “Of course I didn’t doubt you.”

  “But you doubted your mother, who you came to me to save?”

  “Yes. I—I think—Eric—” My eyes burn all over again, a hollow spot I’ve denied inside me opening wider, refusing to be ignored. “I think I lost her when I lost my father. I just didn’t want to admit it.”

  He cups my cheeks and steps into me, tilting my face to his. “I know you need her.”

  “I need the woman I used to know. She’s not herself anymore.”

  “You need her. Just like I needed my fucking father, despite the fact that I hated him. We’ll try to save her. We won’t give up.”

  “What I need,” I say, emotion welling in my chest, my hands gripping his wrists, “is you and us. I can’t—”

  “You will not lose me,” he says, reading my mind in that way he does, in a way no one else can. “And I will not lose you. Say it.”

  “I will not lose you and you will not lose me.”

  “That’s right, baby. Don’t forget that. No matter what comes next, don’t forget that.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Harper

  A sea of sharks.

  A sea of emotions with shark fins, and sharper teeth.

  That’s what it’s like to find out that my mother is a part of this hell we�
�re living inside. “Let’s go pick out your office,” Eric says, stroking my cheek. “That way, come Monday you’ll feel like you have your own place here. You’ll feel like you have feet on the ground.”

  “I’d rather go home, and have you line up your cubes, and then give me a brilliant, insightful plan to deal with my mother being a complete bitch.” I can’t help it. This is eating me alive. “She was why I stayed.”

  He cups my face. “You stayed for your father. You told me that over and over.”

  “And she took every step she could to wash away his legacy.”

  He tilts my face up, forcing my gaze to his again. “You are his legacy. I will tell you that as many times as you need to hear it until you believe it.”

  “Like you’re your mother’s?”

  “Yeah, baby. Like I am to my mother, which is the only reason this family lived to see as many days as they have. I didn’t go where they led me. I went where she led me. And you. You kept me from forgetting her wishes. You kept me on the straight and narrow.”

  “And Grayson?”

  “My mother is why I connected with Grayson. He’s like her. He’s like her in ways he doesn’t even know and I’ve never told him.”

  “Good. Good like her.”

  “Incorruptible. That man will never care about money more than people. And neither will I.”

  “That’s why you saved them. To save me, even before we were us.”

  “Us, huh?”

  “Yes. Us.”

  “Harper,” he says, stroking my cheek. “We were always us. We were always going to end up here.” He laces the fingers of one of his hands with mine. “Let’s go find an office.”

  “Eric, I want to go home.”

  He leans in and kisses me. “Trust me, baby. You belong here and you need to feel that. We’re picking your office. Then we’re going home, and just so we’re clear, having you say the word home makes me want to take you there, get you naked and keep you naked the rest of the weekend. Say it again.”