Chapter Two
Jake
I leaned back in my ergonomic chair, completely comfortable with the man sitting across from me. The questions he was asking had been asked of me so many times in the past several years, I didn’t even have to think about what I would say.
“You’re thirty?” the interviewer asked.
I nodded my head. “Yes.”
“What inspired you to start your company?”
“Money,” I said with a grin. “No, no, don’t print that. Really, it started with an idea to fill a need. There were a lot of trials and a whole lot of errors, and then one day it worked. I created a program and the rest is history.”
“Your company has made it to the top one hundred on the Forbes list three years in a row. You are one of the youngest billionaires in the country. How does that make you feel?”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the stupid question. “I feel great. Of course I feel great. I don’t take any of it for granted. I work hard. I fight to stay at the top of the programming industry. I hope to stay at the top for decades to come.”
The guy smiled. “No chance of early retirement?”
I laughed. “You never know.”
When the interview was over and the aspiring journalist left, I pulled off my tie. I hated wearing the damn thing. I never wore a tie at the office, but when I was doing interviews or posing for whatever magazine or newspaper was knocking on my door that month, I put on the best business face possible. My clients and investors had to take me seriously. That wasn’t always easy when I was the youngest face in the room.
I checked my watch and realized it was almost four. That was late enough for me. It was officially happy hour.
“Meet me at Details,” I said when my best friend and right-hand man, Drew, answered his phone.
“Little early, don’t you think?” he asked.
I chuckled. “I’m the boss. I can leave when I want.”
“Fine. I’ll be there in thirty or so. I need to wrap up a few things.”
“Good,” I said, hanging up and strolling through the office. My office in my building. It was good to be wealthy and powerful. Good, but lonely.
I pushed the thought to the back of my mind where I kept it. I didn’t like to dwell on the fact that I was at the top of an empire all alone. I had no family to speak of to share it with. It was only me and occasionally Drew and whoever I decided to date at the moment.
I make a quick call to my driver, letting him know I was ready to leave. I paid the man a lot of money to sit around and wait for me. I expected him to be ready to go within five minutes of whenever I called. I had several drivers, but Bruce was my favorite. I trusted him with my life.
“Where to, boss?” he asked when I stepped off the private elevator.
“Details,” I said.
He nodded, and together we walked to the car, me climbing in the back seat. I looked out the windows that were darkened with a blackout tint. Being rich and powerful could be isolating. When I arrived at the exclusive, high-end club, I went in the back entrance as usual and was seated in a private VIP section.
I ordered a whiskey neat and scanned the small crowd below. I liked my perch. It gave me a clear view of the dance floor and the bar, which were where I liked to look for women. The women allowed in the club were not average ladies. They had money, clout, or were so damn good-looking, it didn’t matter who they were.
“I see you’re already on the hunt,” Drew said dryly. “Maybe you should give it some time. It’s still early. Any respectable woman is at work or knows better than to day drink.”
I chuckled. “It’s after four. It’s no longer day drinking. It’s happy hour,” I reminded him. “It even says so on the menu. Four to six is happy hour.”
He ordered a Jack and Coke and leaned back against the sofa to check out the happenings below. “Which one?” he asked.
I didn’t have to ask him what he was talking about. “I don’t know. Kind of like the blonde at the bar,” I said, motioning.
He laughed. “She’s not going to like you. That’s a good girl. She takes one look at your tats and she is out the door.”
I rolled my eyes. “What do my tattoos have to do with anything? She’s in the bar on ladies’ night, although she is a bit early. She’d go home with me if I asked.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Bet she won’t. She’s a trust fund baby taking a walk on the wild side. Your reputation will scare her off.”
I smirked. It was a challenge I was willing to accept. “We’ll see.”
My phone rang, stopping me from setting the rules of our night’s challenge. I never backed down from anything.
“Hello?” I asked, holding a hand over my other ear to better hear the woman on the other end of the line.
My heart stopped beating in my chest as the woman spoke. I jumped up from my seat. “Hold on, please. I need to move somewhere quieter.”
I couldn’t have possibly heard her correctly. I walked into the men’s room. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
The woman repeated her information. “The baby?” I muttered, not quite able to form coherent sentences.
“She’s in the care of Tracy’s best friend, my roommate, Avery Hampstead.”
“Oh.”
“The funeral is tentatively set for Friday. If you would like to take over the arrangements, you’ll need to call the funeral home,” the woman, who had identified herself as Sally, explained.
“Avery?” I asked, the name familiar. My brain felt sluggish. The news of my sister’s death had sent me into a bit of a tailspin.
“Yes, Avery. She’s been friends with Tracy for years—since high school she tells me. Tracy asked her to take care of her baby should anything ever happen.”
“The baby. Is it a boy or girl?” I asked, feeling stupid for not knowing.
The woman made a sound of disgust and irritation. “She’s a girl, four months old.”
“Oh. Uh, thank you for calling. Can I reach you at this number?” I asked.
“Yes.”
She hung up the phone. I stared at my phone for several long minutes. My sister was dead. My only living relative was dead. I hadn’t spoken to her in six months. I hadn’t seen her in years. I had lost my chance to make things right. She died thinking I wanted nothing to do with her, thinking I was ashamed of her for getting pregnant with no man in the picture.
“Holy shit.” I breathed out deeply.
I splashed cold water on my face and headed back to where Drew was seated on the couch.
“Damn. You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.
I shook my head. “I did.”
“What?”
“My sister was killed in a car accident,” I said, still in disbelief.
Drew sat forward. “What? Your little sister?”
I nodded. “Yeah. That was some woman on the phone who is taking care of the baby.”
“I’m so sorry, man. That’s terrible. Are you going to go down there?”
I flopped down in one of the chairs and took a long drink from my glass. “I have to.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll call your assistant to make the arrangements. Do you want to go tonight?”
I shook my head. “There’s nothing for me to do.”
“Your parents are dead, right?” he asked softly.
I nodded. “Yes. They died a long time ago.”
“Jake, you’re her only living relative. You need to plan the funeral. You are going to go to the funeral, right?”
I looked at him. “I don’t know.”
He gave me a stern look. “You have to go. You can’t keep hiding from your family’s tragedies. You didn’t go to your parents’ funeral, and that has messed you up,” he said softly.
Drew was my one and only true friend. He’d been with me since the beginning. He wasn’t a “yes man.” He called it like he saw it. He kept me in line and reined me in when I spun out of control. My parents had died when I first moved to California some ten years ago. They had been pissed I’d dropped out of college and had cut me off. In turn, I’d cut them off.
Then one day, I got the call they had been killed in a boating accident. I had been a stubborn little shit back then and refused to go to the funeral. Tracy had only been fifteen. I was asked to take her in, but I had been twenty years old. I wasn’t prepared to raise a teenage girl. She moved in with some distant relatives and stayed in Phoenix. I visited her on several occasions and went to her high school graduation.
That was when I had met Avery for the first time. She had been a little spitfire and let me know in explicit detail what an asshole I had been for abandoning my family. I had been immediately attracted to her and ended up taking her virginity the night before I left to return to California.
“I’ll go,” I muttered, snapping myself out of the walk down memory lane.
“Do you want me to go with you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I need you to keep a handle on things here. I’ll take the jet down there tomorrow afternoon. I have a meeting in the morning I can’t miss.”
“What about the arrangements?” he asked.
“Avery can handle them. She knew Tracy better than I did and would know what she would want.”
Drew nodded. “Okay. Let’s get out of here.”
I shrugged. “Why? We’re here. I could use a couple drinks.”
Drew didn’t look convinced, but he finally agreed and ordered us another round. After three rounds, I was feeling far more relaxed.
“Who’s Avery?” Drew asked.
I grinned. “A hot lay. The kind you never forget.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “I should have known. Is there a woman you haven’t screwed?”
“Plenty, but I’m still young.”
He chuckled. “No rule says you have to sleep with every woman in the country.”
I laughed. “It isn’t a rule. It’s a goal.” I winked.
“Is the history between you and this Avery girl going to be weird?”
I shook my head. “It was one time, a long time ago.”
I remembered how hot Avery had been. I wondered what she looked like nowadays. She’d be twenty-five now, same age as Tracy. The thought of my little sister never seeing thirty threatened to pull me into a pit of despair. I quickly pushed it out of my mind and focused on the blonde staring at me. I knew the game: she made eyes at me, I made eyes at her and invited her into the VIP section. She’d fawn all over me and pretend she was really interested in me. I’d take her home. We’d fuck like rabbits. I’d call her a car, and she would leave and never return. I could already tell she wasn’t someone I would want to call again. One night. That was all.
“I’m ready to go. Want Bruce to give you a ride?” I asked.
“Drew shook his head. No. I’ll call a cab. You sure you’re going to be okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said while looking at my phone and sending Bruce a quick text.