“Noah’s generation.”
“Yes,” she says while looking at me. “You see, each family has a set of responsibilities, if you will, to head or be a steward over. The Kings have always been at the forefront. They’re area is the growth of wealth, you know, the money. Acquisition of land, territories and everything that encompasses, that’s their domain.”
I could see that as clear as day. It’s so Alex. I roll my eyes, thinking of the next time I’ll tease him.
“The Eastons deal with power, politics, influence—which I pray Emmett will take over one day, because I don’t trust that girl, George’s baby mamma.”
“You know about her?” I ask, shocked. I thought all the revelations from the cabin at Christmas were never to be mentioned anywhere until we all got to the bottom of the issue?
“There’s nothing I don’t know. Besides, how could no one know that Syrus had another child? Seriously?” She shakes her head as she visibly shudders. “Anyway, then there’s, of course, the Beaumonts. Knowing what I know now about Eli and the immense, immeasurable power he has, let’s just say the Phoenix Corp and everything else that’s in the underbelly of this country is their territory.”
“And the Montreals?”
“Well, we are the family that brings balance to the entire thing. But more than that, we provide the cover and the protection that’s needed for us to keep running in plain sight with no one the wiser.”
You see, all three families have to stay hidden just a bit so as not to raise suspicion. The dealings are…”
“Shady?”
“If it makes you feel better about the struggle you’ve had to face in your life, sure,” she shrugs. “We’re like the restaurant drug cartels use to front their money. We have fashion houses, famous brands, sports teams, arenas, hotels, resorts and islands. We have so many companies under our umbrella.”
“And Noah is supposed to be the CEO of all this?”
“For the public, yes, but behind the scenes, each family has an equal stake, everything has to be equal. The hand-off from one generation to the next happens at the same time.”
“Wait, how on earth does that work?”
“Haven’t you wondered why the boys are all about the same age?” she asks, tapping her chin delicately. “I mean, it didn’t occur to me before when I was young and naïve, but I realized when Noah was born that David—”
“That man that hurt Noah!” I grit out and she looks at me, shocked. But just as quickly, her face mellows and becomes so… vulnerable that I feel like I’m intruding by looking at her.
“He told you?” she whispers.
I look down at my lap, tugging at the one skull ring on my pinky finger that Noah gave me for my birthday…
“I know a bit.”
“Well, I guess if he ever told anyone about the past, it would be you.”
“Is that why I’m here? Because of Noah?”
She doesn’t look at me as she answers.
“You’re here because I need help.”
“Help? What makes me qualified? I have no idea how to run a business.”
“You won’t be running it, you’ll be me. Which means you have a stake in the company.”
“But you said each family…”
“That’s reserved for the private, highly secret Blues meetings that are really none of your concern. However, the public perception of the company is equally as important because if this company is not run well, the results will be devastating to everyone involved.”
“And I assume each family needs Montreal Inc. to run smoothly because they also benefit.”
“There you go! Catching on quickly.” She grows serious, watching me with a calculating eye. “You see, I’ll teach you everything you need to know, but that won’t be so hard seeing as you’re secretly trying to get a higher education by taking up free business classes offered by the local college?”
“How do you even know that?” She cocks her perfectly shaped eyebrow at me. “Never mind.”
“Now that I’ve told you this highly sensitive information that you’ll never, in your entire life, repeat to anyone in this world, not even to Astraea—though she knows too—I’ll require you to sign this NDA.”
She puts down a thick document on the table in front of me, as well as a fountain pen.
“Wasn’t I supposed to sign this before you told me everything?” I ask.
“Yes, but I doubt you would’ve listened if I came at you with an NDA first.”
Well, then. Very perceptive.
I don’t see how I could ever repeat this information, when it could be used against the people I care about, so without any hesitation, I pick up the pen and sign the NDA where my name has already been drafted. She really was ready for this.
“Good. Now, if you take the job, this will be your starting salary.” She passes another thick document with my name on it.
Highlighted in the middle of the page in a yellow color that should be red—for fucking red flags, blood, hell, even danger—is a figure that I’ve never seen in my life.
“What?” I screech, getting up from the couch. The number of zeros on this… it can’t be legal to pay someone this much. Someone like me!
“You’re me. And if you read further down, you’ll see the advances and bonuses you might receive if you work hard enough.”
“B-bonus?” I stutter.
“Also as discussed before, your sisters’ education will be taken care of from now to wherever they want to take it. If you flip to page five, section H, you’ll see that your medical insurance will be covered by the company. And as you know, we offer the best of the best.”
When I look up at her, I can see that she knows everything about me. Everything about my sisters and their health complications.
“I can shove money at you, but that’s not what you care about, is it?” she says softly. “You care about your sisters. You’ve repeatedly told everyone in your life, including my son, that you’d do anything for them. Well, now I’m offering you a chance to offer them more. More stability and security.”
I think my mind is stuck on the insurance part, but she really gets me hook, line and sinker when she brings up my sisters like that.
“What are you thinking, Kimberly?”
“That this is too good to be true.”
She cracks a smile. “You really are smart.” She steps closer to me, holding my gaze. “Kimberly, over here, money is not an issue. What is more important and invaluable though is loyalty. It’s trust, fidelity and secrecy. And I know I didn’t just open up to someone who will ever betray me or mine. Am I right?”
I hold her steely gaze, seeing the truth in her eyes.
“And your son?”
“Noah won’t be an issue for a while, but you know what, I’ll give you three days. On Sunday, I’ll send a car to your place and then you can give me an answer.”
Almost on cue, there’s a knock on the door. Christina walks over to the glass desk and presses some kind of button. The doors open.
“Christina, he’s here.”
“Good. Kim and I are done. Is her car here?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Christina looks at me expectantly. “You can go with that. Read it thoroughly. If you have any questions or requests that you’d like added or removed from the contract, we’ll discuss them on Sunday.”
I clutch the thick document in my hand and also grab the black envelope that she had laid on the table that I assume held the contract.
“You know, this sounds a lot like Fifty Shades of Grey. The whole contract and let’s discuss stuff.”
“You also read smut? God, can I like you any more than I do now?” But her smile melts just as quickly. “You know what, no! I don’t want to know what you read because that will force me to think of the kind of smut you and my son have do—”
“Uh, have a good day, Christina! See you on Sunday!” And I literally run out of there like my ass is on fire.
* * *
True to her word, Laura was so happy and excited when I picked her up after school that first day that I knew attending Westbrook Blues Prep School was what she needed.
I’d never seen her so animated and so… happy.
She told me all about the school, the new friends she made and that she debated about fish and whales with a silly boy that she thought might cause her some trouble down the line, but she shook it off and didn’t let him ruin her day—that’s my girl.
She fell head over heels in love with the huge, vast library that literally has every book in the world, Kimmy!
I wasn’t shocked when Casey immediately said she also wanted to attend the school because she was, and I quote ‘tired of being around basic kids who didn’t know how to add.’
I just blinked at her before bursting into laughter on the car ride home. It was a bit premature for me to tell Casey that she also got a place at the prep school but at that point, I could see tears welling in her eyes as she clutched her sister’s hand with a tight grip.
They missed each other and I just couldn’t take keeping them separated. So, the next day, the girls went to Westbrook Blues Prep School together with the most beautiful smiles I’d ever seen on their faces.
Both of them were given all the school materials and somehow, the school uniforms for both girls were delivered to the apartment with a note that only said: See you on Sunday.
I guess Christina had her answer after all.
So, when Sunday rolled around after what was one of the best weeks my sisters and I had ever had, I was in a pretty amazing mood and so were they.
I dropped the girls off at Ivy’s, promising to be back within the hour.
I wasn’t expecting anything at all to go wrong, but just like a fucking horror movie, the evening started out on a happy note.
Christina doesn’t even ask about my decision. She just raises an eyebrow at me and I just pass her the envelope with the signed contract.
I still wasn’t sure what was expected of me or what my duties were. All I knew was I could trust Christina.
When I talked to Astraea yesterday, she assured me that Noah had no intention of coming back to Westbrook Blues and that he was struggling with something pretty bad at the moment.
My chest hurt for him, but standing there in his house, with his mother, I promised myself a few steps that I was going to take so long as I was employed by Christina.
Step one was pretty fucking simple: Don’t give a damn.
That’s it!
I wasn’t going to concern myself with Noah’s life. What we had was over and the fucking on the 13th ritual of drinking and fucking through the night, that too, is done!
Of course, there is a chance that I’m going to see him at some point, but my plan is to work for as long as I can for Christina, save all the money—since I’m literally not paying for a damn thing anymore, including rent as it’s now covered by the company where I’m now an official employee under the reigning queen herself, Christina Montreal.
And if I’m still in danger from Larry’s people, I’ll have the money to take my sisters and disappear.
It was a pretty good plan. I mean, the rest of the steps were pretty easy to follow, or so I thought until…
“You have got to be fucking shitting me!” he bellows from behind me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
For the first time in a while, the lightness I felt since leaving Christina’s office three days ago evaporates like a drop of water in the desert.
Chapter 16
NOAH
Past
ME: What turns you on?
K.P: Well then, that’s a big skip from our last chat. Hey Fairy.
ME: Answer the question, smart mouth.
K.P: Dying to know what makes me cream my panties? Say hello back.
Me: You don’t wear panties, at least, not all the time.
K.P: Is that why you’ve decided to go commando? I’m still waiting for my hello
ME: I’m fucking packed like a stallion and you know it, Kim Possible. And stop playing with me. What turns you on?
K.P: Smut books, my dildo and the way you growl when you come.
K.P: And yes, I have a recording of you, groaning my name. Fuck, it’s so fucking hot but see…
ME: What?
KP: I could swear you growled my name! I listen to it every night, now, say hello back!
ME: Pick up this fucking call and let me growl your hello in your ear, Kimmy.
Present
Just so we’re all fucking clear, no one really knows someone else and that’s a fact.
You can spend your whole life with a bumfuck, abandon everything you’ve ever known, move to God only knows where to ‘start a life together’ but the thing is, you’ll be doing that with someone you hardly know.
I know this, not because I hardly know people.
On the contrary, I can fucking read people like their bullshit is written in large as fuck bold letters that you can see from halfway across the country.
People are predictable.
They are easy and they always repeat their shit.
Still don’t believe me? Let’s do a case study and after that, don’t fucking come at me with a touchy-feely rebuttal.
If an asshole is a sleazy cheater who never keeps his fucking word, trust and believe no amount of therapy or prayer or ‘dire consequences’ will make him stop or change.
That fucker will always find a way to cheat. If it’s not in one way, it’ll be in another just as messed up way.
Some say, it’s in their fucking system and they can’t shake it off.
But I know better.
People don’t fucking change.
They fucking choose their bad habits and their particular brand of bullshit and no matter what anyone tells you, it’s never because they were born with it.
No one is born an asshole, a liar or a conniving shithead.
They choose to be that way.
Just like I never chose to be this... fucked up and broken.
I was made this way.
And one of those lying, conniving people is standing in my house, looking as if nothing ever happened! Like she didn’t shatter me all the way to hell.
The fuck?
“Noah, dear...” my mother starts, but I cut her off.
“You can’t be serious,” I mutter, staring at my mother, feeling like heads are about to roll right fucking now! “When you said you had someone who will be taking over for you—literally taking your place in the company—you meant her?!”
“Sweetheart,” mom starts, her voice soft as she looks at me and I can’t look away from her. “This is important to me.”
“Like hell!”
“Noah!”
“Do you know who the fuck she is?” I seethe, the thing in my chest going haywire crazy.
“I do, Noah, and that’s why—”
“That’s why you brought her here? To my house?”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Kimberly has never seen the inside of my house before, but the thing is, the first time I invited her in, I thought she was someone else.
Someone who saw me.
Someone I could trust and show the ugly parts of my life and still feel safe in the knowledge that she’d never do anything to hurt me; so, like a fool controlled by his hard-on and how fucking hot the new girl was, I invited her into my ground zero. The place that molded me into a smiling, destructive asshole with secrets behind my every smile and joke.
It didn’t take her long to prove my sinister side—the dark part of me that no one knew—right.
I’d made a fucking grave mistake with her. Just like I did by trusting fucking George the liar, believing Emmett the silent killer and riding life or death for King—the assholes who I’d do anything for when in actual fact, those fuckers lied to me and kept me in the fucking dark.
Then there’s Baby Blue. She’s another story, but she’s a happier part of that shit.
This conniving, pathetic liar on the other hand...
Seeing her does nothing to quiet down the mayhem and hell going on inside of me from everything I’ve been piecing together for the past two weeks since I was last with her.
That night, all I wanted was to get her out of my system, and now here she is?
Mom lets out a frustrated sigh, but I can see the beginnings of defiance in her eyes as she looks at me. I narrow my gaze at her in response.
There’s a reason I’m successful at being this stubborn. I get it from her. I guess we both needed some couch time to determine whose shit was more toxic.
We’re alike in so many ways but she’s the last person I thought would play me like this.
Why the fuck does she think liars can change?
They never do. She should know that better than anyone. After all, she’s the one who left a life she was building—against her better judgement—to follow a man who hurt her and then abandoned her.
“You do know she’s nothing but a two-faced, poverty-stricken mess that will probably scam you in some way?” I snap, feeling an intense, livid gaze on my back. Good.
“I’ll disregard everything you just rudely said and tell you that the contract has already been signed. This is happening,” Mom says with a finality that echoes the sound of the final nail to my coffin.
A coffin I constantly see in my fucking nightmares these days.
“You can’t be fucking serious,” I repeat, feeling the hole in the middle of my chest widening.
I’m too sober for this shit.
“I am serious and—”
“No fucking way!”
I don’t care that Kimberly’s standing right there, listening as I dismantle her character in front of my mother.
It doesn’t matter that there was a time I wanted my mother to love her, to one day accept Kim as part of the family, but as far as I’m concerned, those days never happened.
As far as I’m concerned, I never had those thoughts, and she’ll never be welcome in my home.
“She can hear you,” Mom whispers hotly.
“I’m aware that she can hear me! She grew up in a fucking trailer, Mom! I expect her hearing is fucking spectacular at this point!”
Petty Rage: Westbrook Blues Book 4 Page 20