by KB Winters
“Okay, that was Debbie, the field agent correspondent from channel six. She said she’ll send someone out to cover the protest. They’ll also do an interview if you want…”
“No. No interviews. I just want them to see the protesters standing there with the proof that everything they’re arguing against is wrong, there, taped inside the window. Kylee told me we haven’t had any customers all day. No flight tours either?”
Lana nodded. “I’m sorry, Mr. Rosen. I would have called…but I didn’t want you to worry. Jack told me to leave you alone and filter things through him first.”
“What?” I shook my head. “So, Jack knows about these protesters?”
Lana nodded again. “I called him this morning. He was at Carly’s getting breakfast with Holly.”
“Of course.” I rolled my eyes. “Why should my business getting flushed down the crapper interrupt his vacation…”
“I don’t think that’s fair—” Lana started, but quickly stopped, at the flash in my eyes. “What do you want me to do? How can I help?”
“Send everyone home. There’s no point in them all standing around here when there’s no work to do.”
As much as I hated to admit defeat, there was nothing I could do to fix the problem. At least not immediately. No point in fucking up everyone’s day.
“Okay. Should I stay?”
“No, that’s fine. Go ahead and go.”
“What about the news? Who do you want to talk to them, if you don’t want to?”
I grinned. “Oh don’t worry, I have just the perfect person…Mr. Congeniality himself.”
Chapter Eight
“Why aren’t they leaving?” I asked, peeking between the horizontal blinds on my kitchen window.
“I don’t know, man. I told them everything you wanted me to,” Boomer replied.
“Your Captain America persona might be wearing thin…” I said, only halfway teasing. I’d sent Jack out to be my mediator between the media and the protesters, hoping that the combination of my licenses and passed inspections for all of the planes in my hangar and the word of America’s hero would be enough to get them to go away.
And yet…hours later…they were all still camped outside my museum.
“Sorry Player.”
I shrugged and dropped the blinds. “Not your fault.”
“What are you going to do next?” Holly asked.
“I have no idea…” The news vans had come and gone. They had my side of the story. I could only sit back and hope things would improve by morning.
The problem was that sitting back and waiting was not my favorite thing.
“You want to go out to eat?” Jack asked. It was his and Holly’s last night in town. In the morning, the plan was to get breakfast at Carly’s and then they’d be on their way up to the airport to fly back to Germany.
“Sure,” I replied, knowing that if I didn’t go with them, I’d end up staring out the window all night, willing the protesters to go home and never come back.
Jack got up from the table and clapped me on the shoulder on his way out of the kitchen. “You treating tonight, Player?”
I laughed. “First round’s on me.”
Holly gave a little whoop and we headed out to Harvey’s Bar and Grill, the best place to get a burger, beer, and chill.
Which, is exactly what we all did.
“So, Aaron, what’s up with you and Gemma?” Holly asked, once we were all seated, and halfway through the first pitcher of beer we’d ordered up. She gave me a wide smile.
“Damn, Boomer, I didn’t think anyone could give you a run for your money in the stubborn department, but you really met your match here, haven’t you?”
Holly laughed. “Like you should talk!”
I held up my hands. “All right, all right. Fair enough.”
“So…” she prompted.
Jack laughed and wrapped an arm around her. “She’s not gonna let it go.”
“I don’t know what you expect me to say. Is she hot? Sure! That’s about as much as I know. She’s a cool chick.”
“Cool chick?” Holly wrinkled her nose.
I laughed and dropped my head back, reveling in the easy, carefree atmosphere between the three of us. There was a band on stage, playing some unfamiliar—but pleasant—tunes, and it was packed with people who provided a backdrop of white noise with their chatter and laughter. After the stressful day spent in the confines of the empty museum, it was the break I needed.
“Holls, I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m not like you and Boomer here. I’m not gonna fall head over heels for some woman I just met.”
Holly didn’t look convinced. “So, what? You bang her and that’s it?”
I choked on my sip of beer, surprised by her blunt question. Jack laughed, obviously content to sit back and watch the show. “Damn, Holls. Trying to kill me? I’ve done enough of that recently…”
As soon as the joke left my mouth, the mood shifted, and I regretted the throwaway comment.
Jack sucked the foam from his second glass, and Holly dropped her gaze to the pile of fries in the middle of the table. She picked one up and dragged it through the puddle of ketchup on the side of the tray.
“You know what I mean,” I added, hoping to lift the tension.
Holly brought her eyes back to mine. “Have you ever been in love? I mean, I get it, you’re “The Player” and all that, but has it always been that way?”
I grimaced. This was turning into a not-so-fun conversation.
“You know what, never mind, I overstepped,” Holly said, gaging the expression on my face.
“No, no. It’s fine.” I pushed my good hand through my hair. “Yeah, I was, once. I think.”
Jack’s eyebrows shot high.
I flicked the tip of my tongue over my lips, trying to sort out how to unpack the full story. I hadn’t told anyone about Kimber, not even Jack. “It was back in high school, so I don’t know if it even counts, but there was this girl, her name was Kimber Westlake. We went to school together. She was a cheerleader, straight A’s, volunteered at a dog shelter on the weekends. I mean, she was practically a fuckin’ angel.”
Holly smiled, but her eyes were boring into mine, hanging on my every word.
“Anyways, she was all wrong for me. Or, more accurately, I was all wrong for her. Everyone knew it. Everyone told her to leave me alone, that I was trouble, came from the wrong side of the tracks, whatever. But, I don’t know, there was something about her. I couldn’t get my mind off of her, and when the chance came to spend more time with her, I took it.
“See, I was failing my American Lit class and was in danger of not graduating. I knew my father would kick my ass if I got held back and couldn’t join up on schedule. Hell, I woulda kicked my own ass. So I asked Kimber to help me. She was the smartest girl in my class and she’d always been nice to me. By some miracle, she agreed, and we spent every afternoon together for an hour in the library. I don’t know who fell for who first, but over the course of a couple of months, we did. After that, we couldn’t get enough of each other. We snuck out to movies, made out in the janitor’s closet, went for long drives, stayed out way too late, drank too much, and fell in love. It was unlike anything I’d ever had before.”
Holly made a cooing sound like I was reading some lovey-dovey princess book for her bedtime story.
“Yeah, it was great, until her dad found out who she was sneaking around with. He told her to stay away from me, that I wasn’t good enough for her, and that I’d only drag her down.”
“That’s crazy!” Holly said. Her indignant tone made me smile.
“I don’t know. If it was my daughter, I can’t say I wouldn’t have said the same things. I loved her, but I was definitely influencing her away from the things she’d been doing. She’d never had a drink before she met me, and she’d never fucked a guy either. When we got together, her grades slipped, she stopped volunteering. I don’t know…maybe I wasn’t good for her. All
I knew was we were having fun and living life. The other stuff didn’t matter much at the time.”
“So how did it end then? Her dad told her she couldn’t see you and that was it?”
“No,” I shook my head, wishing that had been all it took. “We kept seeing each other. We just got better at keeping it under wraps. One night, I was taking her home. It was super late, her parents thought she had been at an out of town cheer event, and I dropped her off out front. When I was walking back to my car, some guy jumped out of the bushes and attacked me right there in her driveway.”
Holly gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth.
“He beat me up, right there in front of Kimber. She screamed, but by the time her parents got down there, the guy was gone. Later on, she told me that she couldn’t see me anymore and we broke up. I never got her to tell me, but I’d be willing to bet my life, that the guy in the bushes had been hired by her dad to scare me off.”
“Fuck. That’s messed up,” Jack said.
I nodded, and dropped my gaze to the melted foam in the top of my beer. “A few months later, I went off to Annapolis, she went off to college, and we never saw each other again. I’m sure by now she’s married with a pack of kids, living a normal life. I hope she is.”
“Wow. Aaron, I’m so sorry. That’s awful.” Holly was still shaking her head as she processed everything I’d said. “And after that you just never wanted to date anyone?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem worth it. I moved around a lot. Deployed a lot. My way is easier. No one gets hurt. It’s a lot of fun. No strings.”
Jack was still staring at me like he couldn’t believe it.
“What?” I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just crazy that I’ve known you for all these years and you never told me that story.”
I laughed softly. “Well you were never as stubborn about it as your girl here,” I jerked my chin towards Holly, still grinning.
She laughed and shrugged. “What can I say? I knew there had to be more under the surface than a…” she faltered.
“A pig?” I offered.
“No!” She laughed. “Okay…well maybe a little…”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “At least we can be honest with each other, huh, Holls?”
“I’ll drink to that,” she said, raising her glass. “To brutal honesty!”
We toasted glasses and after we downed the drinks, Boomer went to the bar to get a refill. Holly tore her eyes away from him and brought them back to me. “He misses you like crazy, you know.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I answered, a sting in my heart warned me to not get too deep into the topic.
Holly reached across the table and placed her hand over the fingers sticking out of my cast. “I’m sorry I stole him away.”
I gave a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not holding it against you. I’m happy for you guys. Hell, with things spiraling out of control like they are, I might just jump ship and come join you in Germany. I’m sure there are plenty of single woman I can ravage over there.”
I wiggled my eyebrows at her and she slapped my fingers lightly.
“Now, now. You two need to be nice,” Jack teased, sitting back down at the table again.
“Yes, dad,” I joked.
Holly giggled. “Well, I know two little furballs who would be very happy to see their Uncle Aaron again.”
“You coming back with us?” Jack asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I thought that was fairly obvious by now.”
He rolled his eyes but before he could object to my statement, our server came over and set a fresh pitcher on the table and informed us she’d be back quickly with our meals. After she left, we all turned our attention to pouring our glasses and polishing off the tray of Irish nachos we’d ordered as an appetizer and then got too busy eating to talk.
When we were all stuffed to the gills, Jack and Holly played a game of pool while I watched the end of a basketball game on the big screen. All the reminiscing over the first round had me in a weird mood and stirred up some emotional shit I’d been trying to push down to my subconscious. Back when Talia and I had first met, there was a spark to her that had left me wondering—if only for a brief moment—whether or not we could end up being more than a hot fuck. She was the type of woman I potentially could have seen myself wanting to be with for more than a few hot hookups.
But she was gone now, and all I was left with was an even bigger hole in my heart.
Or the place where I supposed my heart should go.
It felt as though it had been missing for some time.
Jack and Holly interrupted my soul searching, whooping and hollering at each other over their game. Holly had won, and Jack was arguing that it was only because he had let her. She wasn’t having it. They tried to draw me into their easy banter, but between the conversation, the beers, and the painkillers wearing thin, I wasn’t able to rally.
“Hey, come on, man. Let’s get you home,” Jack said, sensing my low mood.
Jack and Holly drove me back up to the house, and before I got out of the car, we finalized our plans for the morning. I got out of the shotgun seat and waved goodbye as Jack pulled the car around to leave.
I watched the brake lights fade from sight and turned to go up the three steps to the front porch. I set my foot on the first step, when a voice from the shadows purred, “Alone at last…”
Chapter Nine
I would have recognized that slimy voice anywhere.
“What the fuck are you doing here, O’Keefe?” I demanded, whirling around.
At my question, he stepped from the shadows and squared up with me in the middle of the walkway as I turned to face him. I barely kept my teeth from snapping at him. The guy rattled me more than anyone had in a long time.
He flashed his—likely fake—teeth back at me in a wide grin. “I’m a business man, Rosen. I’m here to make you a deal.”
“I’m not interested. Now, get off my property before I call the police.” I turned back and started up the steps.
“I assure you, you’re very interested,” his silken tone echoed through my ear, turning my blood to molten lava in my veins.
I clenched my hand into a tight fist, and briefly wondered what would happen if I bashed him upside the head with my casted arm. Would the impact hurt him, or me, more? I was very tempted to find out…
“You have five minutes,” I said, turning to face him. “Actually, no, let’s make it three. If I look out that window,” I gestured behind me, “and see you still standing here, I’m calling the cops.”
“Tsk, tsk, such a temper. Then again, you did have quite a bit to drink tonight,” he tossed the fact out like a fishing line, waiting to see if I’d take the bait.
“So Talia was right? You were having her followed?” I growled. “And now that she’s gone, you’re following me?”
O’Keefe spread his hands wide and innocent. He clearly wasn’t going to admit to anything until I listened to his deal.
Every cell fought against me, but in the end, I caved. “What do you want?”
“You already know what I want, Rosen. I want the museum, I want this land, I want to build my condo building and make a shit ton of money. At the heart, I’m really a very simple man.”
I snorted. “Well you’re going to have to get a little more creative than threatening me, following me, and popping out of my bushes. I’m not going to sell you the museum and there’s no way you can convince me otherwise.” I set my jaw and hunched my shoulders forward, daring him to argue with me. To cross the line I’d drawn between us.
“I know business isn’t your world, Rosen. That much is obvious.”
“Is it now?”
“Well how else should I account for your recent failure to see what’s going on around you? Your business is failing. There’s no way you’ll be able to come back from this scandal. A woman died in o
ne of your planes. Don’t you see that as career suicide?”
The fingers inside my cast started to twitch. It had been a helluva lot of fun kicking his ass in the parking lot outside the charity auction. It would be even sweeter to do it now. Now that I knew what a piece of shit he really was.
“I saw it on the news tonight. They showed the story half a dozen times in three hours,” O’Keefe continued, his voice nonchalant, as though we were discussing our last round of golf. “The protesters, the media coverage, the canceled tours. What a headache.”
How did he know about the canceled tours? There was no way he would know what my bookings calendar looked like. Unless…a shiver squirmed up my spine. Did he have someone on the inside? God, I’ve gone full blown paranoid.
“It’ll pass.”
O’Keefe shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows…tomorrow you might wake up and find even more of a shit storm on your front walk. There were what? Thirteen protesters today? What if that were to double tomorrow? What would it take to get you to see that this isn’t going away?”
My eyes went round. “You put them there?”
O’Keefe’s wolfish smile answered my question while his lips stayed clamped shut.
“Son of a bitch!” I raised my casted fist.
His throaty laugh stopped me from swinging. “Rosen, you are a delightfully simple man. So primal.”
“Get. Off. My. Property.” I grit my teeth, desperately tugging on the last bond of self-control.
“Listen, I’ll make this quick. I’ll double my original sum. That is a staggering amount of money for someone like yourself.”
I bristled at his assessment. “It’s not about money. You can’t buy me.”
“You’re really willing to walk away with nothing?” O’Keefe folded his arms and arched a perplexed brow at me.
“I have everything I need. Everything I want.” I looked around the property, the hulking shadows in the moonlight. “This place was my father’s legacy. I don’t expect someone like yourself, to understand. But my father was a man of honor who fought and served his country all his life. When he was done, he came here, and built this so that he could leave me something when he was gone. There is no dollar amount you can put on that, and any attempt to do so will only insult me further.”