Damage Control

“It’s not your fault, Shane, though what is also poorly timed is the lunch with your mother I forgot about. I’m going to be wondering if she knows, and considering this is your mother, she’ll just tell me.”

“You don’t have to do the ‘make nice with my mother’ thing.”

“Have you told your mother that?” She holds up a hand. “It’s fine. Declining your mother’s invitation will only ignite the chase with her.”

“You figured her out pretty fast.”

“She’s not hard to figure out, but I should probably go get my coat.”

“I’m going to go to the apartment to work for a little bit until I clean my office of bugs. What time are you leaving? I’ll bring it to you before you leave.”

“One, but I can walk down with you.”

“I’ll be back long before you leave.” I study her for a few beats, amazed at how cool and collected she is, considering everything that has happened this past week. “But again, you don’t have to play nice with my mother.”

“You said that. And contrary to the example I just set, I can handle myself just fine. And I’ll be ready for Derek next time.”

I want to grab her and kiss her, but instead I say, “Call me if you need me.”

“And you call me if you need me.”

“Sweetheart, I was already needing you sixty seconds after you left my office.” I wink and push off the desk at about the same moment my father rounds the corner, the two of us stand toe-to-toe.

“Did you look at the paperwork I had Emily bring you?” he asks, as if the encounter in Derek’s office never happened.

“Is that a bribe or an offering to Mike?”

“In my office,” he says, and he starts to walk around me.

“I’m not following anymore,” I say. “Not to your office. Not to hell.”

I suck in air and he levels me with a stare. “In my office, son.” He turns and walks into his office, and that’s when the hacking ensues. Deep, gut-wrenching hacking. I can feel Emily staring at me, willing me to follow him into the office. Damn it. I walk forward and find him standing almost in my face, anger burning in his bloodshot stare. I shut the door and he blasts me. “We don’t talk this kind of business in front of others. Even if you’re fucking her.”

He’s volatile in a way I do not know him to be. Vile, yes. Rude, yes. But not volatile.

“That proposal,” he continues, “offered you good, clean business the way you like it.”

“But what you’re using it for isn’t good and clean, now is it?”

“Why will it matter once I’m gone?”

“That’s not a no,” I say. “And it matters because whatever deal you’re using it for will still exist. Besides, a deal that big will take investors.”

“Just sign the damn paper.”

“Does Mike know about this?”

“No one knows about this but you, and it needs to stay that way.”

“You think Mike won’t approve.”

“I don’t care if he approves.”

“You want to own him and his vote.”

“Just sign the damn papers, Shane.”

He walks to his desk and when he faces me again, I say, “I’m not doing anything to give you all of the power.” I face the door, my hand going to the knob.

“I have investors to do this on my own. I will do it on my own.”

The meeting with the bankers that never happened. He’s bluffing and I’m done being a token in his game. I exit the office and shut the door. Emily looks at me, and the moment she sees my face, disappointment fills her. I think she’s fallen into the same trap I always have. The one where I think my father will change but he never does. I give her a nod. The door behind me opens and I start walking, but right as I round the corner, I hear my father ask Emily, “How much influence do you have over him?” and I stop dead in my tracks.

One hell of a lot, I think, but she replies, “Seriously?” as if he’s crazy, before laughing and asking, “How much do I have over you?”

“Some,” he says thoughtfully, “or I wouldn’t drink that damn tea you bring me.”

“You ask for that tea,” she points out.

“Because you made me drink it the first time, and no one but Maggie makes me do anything. So I ask again: How much influence do you have over my son?”

“I couldn’t make Shane drink the tea.”

She knows damn well I’d drink the tea if she wanted me to try it, but her loyalty to me shown in this response is golden in ways no one else in my family is. And my father is no fool. He knows she’s loyal to me, not just because she told him she is, but because it shows in her actions and words. And yet, curiously, he wants her by his door. I cut through the lobby and exit, quickly grabbing an elevator alone, repeating that thought. He wants Emily by his door. It speaks of him protecting me, but my father protects no one but himself. “What are you up to, Father?”

Exiting the elevator, I punch in Seth’s number, and he answers on the first ring. “You need to sweep my office,” I say.

“I swept it yesterday.”

I enter the elevator to the garage. “Well then, it got bugged last night,” I say, punching my floor.

“I won’t ask how you know,” he says. “But I can’t get there anytime soon. Right now, I’m meeting with the team we discussed last night, but I have another situation. I don’t have a certain woman under control. She’s not taking my calls. I’m hoping she’s sedated from the stress. Once I finish this meeting I’m headed there.”