by Lacy Hart
“Kelly, please,” Shannon said to me. I saw she was trying to hold her composure, “I have worked for Damian for a few years now. There is nothing romantic at all between us. There never has been. He was hugging me… well… because James and I had just told him that we are involved with each other.”
James came over and put his hand on Shannon’s shoulder.
“It’s true, Kelly,” James said to me. “I know it looks like horrible timing and coincidences, but you have to believe me. Damian didn’t do anything and has nothing going on with Shannon.”
“Then how come I hadn’t seen her at the house?” I asked, trying to figure all this out. “I saw you plenty of times, James, but I never saw her there.”
“I can’t explain it,” Shannon told me. “Like James said, it’s just timing. I have been there the whole time James and Damian have been there. Please, I’m telling you the truth. Damian… he’s not the type of guy who would do that… see multiple women, or cheat on someone that he really cares about.”
I didn’t know what to believe at this point. Were they just giving me a story at Damian’s urging to smooth things over? Or was it the truth and was a series of bad coincidences that led to a misunderstanding? And did Damian really care about me the way I felt about him? It was all very confusing.
“Even if what you say is true, that doesn’t change the fact about your business forcing me out. The letter is pretty cut and dry about that.”
“I know,” Shannon said to me. “Damian didn’t have anything to do with that. His lawyer has the power to make deals and acquisitions on behalf of the business. Damian came down here to get away from the business for a bit. He hasn’t answered any phone calls, emails, messages or anything since he has been here. Honestly, he has spent more time with you than doing anything else. What happened with the buyout was out of his hands. I don’t have all the details yet, but I am working on getting them. And Damian took off to go back to New York to find out the truth. He’s probably just about there already. I’ve tried calling him, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“Why… why should I believe any of this?” I said softly.
“Because it’s the truth, Kelly,” James said to me. “Look, I know you’re probably confused about all this. Hell, I’m still confused about the business end of it, but I know one thing for certain – Damian wouldn’t do anything that would hurt you in any way. “
I stood up and took my apron off and walked over to Mom.
“What do you think, Mom?” I said quietly. I needed her input now more than ever.
Mom looked me straight in the eyes and gave me her gentle smile. She took my hands in hers.
“It doesn’t matter what I think right now, Kelly. This is all about you. I will say, though, that if it were me, I would want to hear what Damian has to say for himself. You need to have a heart-to-heart with him, so you know what happened, how he feels, and how you feel.”
I hugged Mom tightly, and after we broke the hug, I turned and stared at James and Shannon.
“Okay,” I said, wiping my eyes one last time. “If this is true, then I need to go to New York.”
Everyone in the room said “What?” at the same time, including Jodie and Alex, who had been listening just inside the kitchen doors.
“I need to talk to Damian, face to face. I have to hear it from him about everything – the business deal, what I saw, and how he feels. It’s the only way I am going to be able to decide what the truth is.”
“You’re going to drive your crappy old pickup up there?” Jodie asked. “You haven’t driven that thing more than five miles in years. Who knows how it will be?”
“I’ll take you,” James stated. “We can take the Lexus, and I’ll drive you up there. It’s the fastest way to get there.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” I told James.
“It’s fine, I do it all the time,” James told me. “Besides, I know where to go and the best way to get there in a quicker time. Let me take care of it.”
James wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so I nodded in agreement. Alex had darted into the kitchen to grab my bag. James leaned over and gave Shannon a kiss before we left, and I could see the smile creep across her face as he did. They certainly looked as if they were with each other.
There is more to this that I need to know, I thought to myself.
James held up his keys and opened the bakery door for me, and I walked out onto the boardwalk to head towards Damian’s house where the car was.
I didn’t say anything to James the whole walk to the house. I kept myself focused on trying to figure out what I was going to say and do once I got to New York, and what kind of answers I was going to get from Damian.
22
Damian
I sped the Mustang all along Route 1 and across the Delaware Memorial Bridge, weaving in and out of traffic like I never had before. I didn’t even care if the police were going to stop me for speeding at this point; I just needed to get back to the city, confront Paul, and figure out what was done and if there was a way to undo it. At least if I could fix this part of the problem then maybe I could explain it all to Kelly and get her to see everything that was going on.
Traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike naturally slowed me down. I had managed to reach the Turnpike by about noon, and I thought I could get to the office in plenty of time, but between a glut of traffic and then a jackknifed tractor-trailer near Exit 9 that brought everyone to a halt, I stewed about the situation and how everything had gone from wonderful to horrible in the span of about ten minutes. I repeatedly tried to call Paul on his cell phone or at the office, but I couldn’t get through to him.
By the time traffic got moving again and I crept by the accident site, it was closing in on in almost four, and I was getting worried that it was taking me too long to get to the city. I felt my foot getting heavier on the gas as I passed car after car like they were standing still. All the traffic became just a blur to me before I got to my exit and made my way through the Lincoln Tunnel and into the city.
As I sat impatiently in traffic in the city, the ringing of my cell phone jolted my mind away from Kelly. I pressed the answer button on the steering wheel and heard that it was Miranda.
“Mr. Woods, Paul just called me and told me he is on his way to the office. I told him you were trying to get in touch with him, and it was urgent, but… well, he didn’t seem too responsive.”
“What do you mean he wasn’t too responsive?”
“It sounded like… I don’t want to say anything bad about him…” Miranda said with hesitation.
“Miranda, just tell me what’s going on.” There was a clear tone of aggravation in my voice.
“I think he’s been drinking. There was a lot of noise in the background, so I’m not sure where he was, but he sounded like he was slurring his words.”
“Miranda, if he gets to the office before I do, just make sure he stays in his office. I should be there in about twenty minutes or so.”
“You’re in the city?” she said with a worried lilt to her voice. “Yes, I’ll do what I can to keep him there.”
“Do more than what you can, Miranda. If you have to call security to hold him in there, then do it.”
Miranda was quiet for a moment before she answered me. I’m sure she had never heard me this angry and wasn’t sure if I really meant it about security, but I certainly did.
“Yes, Mr. Woods,” she said quietly.
I hung up the phone and began tapping my palms on the steering wheel, trying to urge the traffic to move along faster so I could get to our building. My phone rang a couple of times, and I could see it was Shannon trying to reach me, but I was too busy concentrating on this problem to deal with whatever might be going on in Delaware on her end.
One catastrophe at a time, I told myself as I could finally see our building up ahead.
I moved quickly into the underground parking garage and pulled up to the security gate. Walter, one of o
ur older security guards, was operating the booth and peered over at me, unaccustomed to seeing me driving and in a Mustang.
“Mr. Woods?” he said with surprise. “I thought you were away on vacation. Nice car,” he said, admiring the vehicle.
“Thanks, Walter, I said hurriedly. “Walter, has Paul Austin come through yet?”
“Yes, he just entered about ten minutes ago. He practically drove through the gate. Is everything okay?”
“I hope so,” I said to Walter as I the gate rose and I drove off to get to my parking spot.
One of the perks of being the boss is having a private spot right near a private elevator so that I could get up to our floor quickly. I parked the car and went straight to the elevator, swiping my security card so the doors would open. I tapped my foot all the way up to our floor, trying not to pay attention to the music coming out over the speakers so I could focus on what I was going to say to Paul.
The elevator opened and was right near my office. Paul’s office was just down the hall to the left, and I quickly paced my way over there. A few heads turned when they saw me walking down the hall, wearing a pair of shorts and sneakers. I turned right and saw Miranda sitting at her desk. She had a little bit of a panicked look on her face.
“Is he in there?” I asked her.
“He is Mr. Woods but…”
Before Miranda could say anything else, I breezed past her and opened the door to Paul’s office. There was Paul, with his feet up on his desk, a glass in his hand that looked like it was filled with booze. Music blared in his office, and when I looked to his left, I could see two women sitting on the leather couch, both in various stages of undress, smiling and laughing. Paul recognized it was me in his office and smiled at me.
“Damian!” he yelled, holding up his glass to me. “What are you doing back? I thought you were on vacation.”
Paul spun his chair around and got to his feet, wobbling a bit as he did. He walked over to the couch and held his hands out to the ladies that were there, helping them to their feet.
“Damian, this is Lola and Brianna. They were celebrating with me last night, and I thought I would bring them in to keep the party going. We were just playing a little game of Truth or Dare. Care to join us?’
“No, thanks.” I peered at Paul and saw him put his arm around the waist of one of the girls, pulling her to him and planting a kiss on her neck.
“Ladies, you need to leave… now,” I ordered.
“Oh, come on, Damian. We’re just having some fun. Lola there is a real spitfire if you’re interested, but Brianna here is mine today.”
“The party is over, Paul. I need to speak with you about business matters, alone.” I walked over to the office door and held it open so the ladies could exit. Both girls picked up the purses from the table, and Brianna went over and gave Paul a kiss on the cheek.
“Just wait for me outside, honey,” Paul said to her. “This won’t take long, and then we can get back to things.”
The girls walked past me, and I shut the door as they went out. Paul had already gone back behind his desk and picked up his glass. He reached down and picked up the bottle of scotch and poured himself more so that it overflowed the top of the glass.
“Paul, what the hell are you doing?” I barked.
“What? You told me to relax and have some fun, so that’s what I’ve been doing. You were right Damian; I’ve been missing out on a lot of life. It’s been a blast the last few days, one party after another. Can I pour you a drink?”
I sat down in the chair across from Paul’s desk, trying to maintain my composure, but it was getting more difficult for me to do.
“Paul, I need you to focus for a few minutes so you can tell me about this business deal you made this week.”
Paul gazed at me, his pupils wide and dilated. I couldn’t tell if he was just drunk, on something, or some combination of the two.
“What business deal? I do deals all the time Damian. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“The one in Delaware, on the boardwalk. What did you do?”
“Oh that one,” he said as he shuffled paperwork and folders on his desk that were piled up.
“That was the one I am celebrating the most,” he said proudly. “I figured since you said you wanted to spend time down there and had a house there now that it made sense to have some office space there too. I looked around and saw that this space was close to your house, contacted the company that owns the land, and made them an offer. They jumped at the first one I gave them. It probably saved us millions. It was a great score and making the arrangements to turn it all into office space, well that was a masterpiece as well. It took greasing a few palms along the way, but money opens a lot of doors. But I don’t have to tell you that.”
Paul smiled at me and drank some more.
“What do you mean greased some palms?”
“Come on, Damian, don’t be naïve. You think these real estate transactions happen without any backroom deals? I do this stuff all the time. Everyone always wants an extra piece of pie for these things to happen. I just quietly make some “donations” or whatever to help move things along. What are you all upset about? This was a great deal, and now we can have an office on the beach. Think of the marketing we can do. We’ll have enough space to have a research area where we can do stuff and have the ocean right there. This is big for us. I thought you would be happy about it.”
“Your deal is putting a lot of businesses down there out. You sent letters evicting people already. You should have at least run this by me before you closed it all so quickly. And the fact that you have been doing things illegally to get it done, well that’s another problem. What were you thinking?”
“I thought that this was a good opportunity and that you told me not to contact you,” Paul told me. I could see he was starting to get defensive now. “I tried to reach you a few times, but you and Shannon ignored my calls, so I just went ahead with it. Why are you taking this so personally? So, we close a t-shirt shop, surf shop and a bakery and some other places. Big deal.”
“I have… friends that the deal is affecting, closing their business. They came to me, and I knew nothing about it.” I was trying to be delicate about the situation, but the more we talked about this, the more anger welled up inside me.
“Hey, we offered everyone a buyout to move. They could just take the money and go. A couple of places already did. It will save us a ton in trying to get them out of there so we can start on demolition. Which business came to you? I’m sure I can deal with them.”
Paul shuffled some papers, looking at information about the deal. “Was it the bakery?” Paul held up a file folder in his hand and opened it up.
“Yes, it was the bakery, in fact,” I said to him.
“Hmmm,” he mused as he looked at the file. “Family owned business for a few years. All women I see. Kelly Barton, she’s the owner listed. I did some background info on everyone involved in case I needed to do some work.” He held up another folder and opened it. This one had pictures of Kelly and her family, and what I assumed was background information on her.
“Wow, she looks cute,” Paul said with a smirk. “Is she the ‘friend’ you were talking about? I can see why you would want to keep her happy. Don’t worry, I’ll up the offer to her to give her some extra cash to vacate. I’m sure she’ll jump at it. She doesn’t seem to have much going for her. It’s not like she has the means to fight us on anything.”
Paul closed the folder and started drinking again.
“Okay, I’ve had enough of this,” I said standing up. “How can we undo this?”
“Undo it?’ Paul said with a laugh. “Damian, you can’t undo stuff like this. I signed contracts, money has already changed hands. It’s a done deal. We own the property. Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t want an office there? Fine. I’ll turn around and sell the property to someone else. We’ll make a ton of money. Either way works for me. Don’t get yourself all worked up over th
is because some woman you’re crushing on comes crying to you. Go back to Delaware, give her a tumble, throw some money at her, and it will be done, and you’ll feel better.”
“I never realized what a complete dick you are, Paul,” I said to him.
“Hey, I’m the dick that has helped you along the way to get richer. You should be thanking me instead of giving me a hard time.”
You’re right, Paul,” I told him. “I should be thanking you for this conversation because it has made me see what’s been going on.”
I walked over to the office door and opened it a bit.
“Miranda, call security up here,” I said to her and closed the door again.
“What do you want security for?” Paul said, finishing his drink.
“To escort you out of the building. You’re fired, Paul. I’ll give you time to collect your personal belongings, and then security will escort you out. Anything business related stays here – your computer, your files, business information, all of it. If you take one piece of paper, one pencil that doesn’t belong to you, I’ll have the police at your home.”