Chapter Nineteen
Aiden
The bright sun shining through my window did not reflect my mood as I woke up. My day was already planned for me, and as a person who’d come to enjoy not having any responsibilities, I loathed the very idea.
I growled as I stretched, but then a thought of Lexa softened it to more of a purr. She’d done that to me a lot lately. Buffing out my roughness, shining me into a new man. I scratched my beard and scooted closer to the nightstand to reach my phone. If I was going to make it through this day, I needed to start it off right.
I dialed Lexa’s number and relaxed against my pillow as she answered. “Good morning, Aiden.”
Her voice was as warm as the sunlight, and I smiled as the soft tone hit my ears. “That’s debatable, but you’re making it better already.”
“Not a morning person, are you? I have no choice but to be. I’ve got a shift in an hour, so there will be plenty of patients to smile at.” I could hear the sound of shuffling clothes and things being dropped to a countertop.
“I’m jealous.”
“I’ll let you be the nurse for a day, and I’ll do whatever it is you do, then. You can have my patients, especially the ones who come in bleeding.” I thought about what she was saying for a moment and wondered how she kept her sparkling personality in check. I had a feeling I would need that knowledge later in the morning and considered asking for lessons.
“No, I don’t want to be a nurse. I’m jealous of all those patients who get to see your smiling face. It’s a hell of a lot better than what I get to face in another hour.”
“Rough day already? Maybe I don’t want to do whatever it is you do.” She gave a soft chuckle as I heard the sound of a spray bottle. Whatever she was doing, she was laying it on, and I imagined her hair pulled back in that tight bun, how I much preferred it down and flowing, or better yet, spilling around my hips. The thought made my cock twitch, and I told damned the thing to behave as I adjusted it.
“Yeah, but I didn’t call for that. I wanted something nice to think about, like our date. I thought maybe we could make plans. I want to make sure you have a good time, but I didn’t know what you’d like to do. I’m open for anything.”
“How about a nice dinner and then we can do something relaxing, but fun.”
“Dinner and a movie type of thing?” I made a face and was glad she couldn’t see it. I couldn’t imagine either of us sitting through a movie.
Her breath vibrated through the phone as she shuffled around, and by the sounds, I imagined she was getting dressed. “No, I think you can find something better than that. Call around, be creative. I’d like to see if you can find something in this town that I haven’t done before.”
“Sounds like a challenge, young lady. But I have news for you: I’m up for it. Only you have to promise me that you won’t be too hard on me if it sucks. You said to be creative, so I could get a little crazy.”
I hoped to intimidate her a bit, but then I remembered this was the woman who cut off my clothes and tended my wounds before saying hello, the one who spread out on my car let me tie her to my showerhead. I had my work cut out for me. I wished Allison had been around to ask advice. She’d know the perfect place. I made a vow to make her proud.
“I’m not afraid of you, Mr. Walker.”
“Let’s hope you’re the only one. I need to be my most intimidating on a day like today.”
“That bad?” Her tone had dropped a few octaves as her voice steeped with concern.
“Yeah, I could use a little luck.”
“Oh, Aiden, I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke and then she went quiet.
“Yeah, I guess distracting myself with our date isn’t working, but I do feel better after talking to you. I was going to ask if you had your schedule.”
“I’ll be off on Thursday, so you don’t have much time to plan something that will blow my mind.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “No pressure, huh? However, if you want mind-blowing, maybe we should stick with what we do best and skip the date. I’ve got a few tricks I haven’t shown you.”
“I bet you do.”
My phone buzzed out a text reminder from Layne, and I released a heavy sigh. “Well, that’s my cue; I can’t stall any longer. It’s time to get dressed and go meet the assholes who are suing me.” Lexa began coughing as if she were choking. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, my water went down the wrong pipe. Did you say you’re meeting them?”
“Face to face for the first time. I wanted to reach out after the accident. My sister’s boyfriend was a nice guy. We got along okay, and he seemed to make my sister happy. But I was dealing with losing everyone and spent weeks in a fog.”
She was silent on the other end, and I wished I hadn’t said anything about it. I didn’t want to bring her down with my problems. “Well, I better go. Layne, my lawyer, will have a fit if I’m late, and I’ve got enough skulls to crack as it is.”
She sniffled as we said goodbye, and I hoped she wasn’t upset. The last thing I wanted from her was pity, but she knew that. She had a good heart and cared, and I hated that I might have brought her mood down, too.
I dragged my ass out of bed, showered, and threw on the clothes I had laid out the night before. I was prepared, even though my mood wasn’t quite in check. I had already decided it would be good to show these people a little bit of my temper, but when I arrived at the office forty minutes later, Layne had other ideas.
“You let me do the talking. The last thing I need is your temper making things worse.” He’d been pacing the room since I came in; it was a wonder he hadn’t worn a hole in it.
“Are we doing this here?” I knew it was standard practice to meet in the boardroom and figured that’s where Layne would prefer. There wasn’t anything to throw in there, other than the chairs, and if he thought for a moment I wouldn’t, he was wrong.
He straightened his cuffs. “No, I’m giving you time to cool down, and besides, they aren’t here yet.”
“I’m as good as I’m going to be, and I don’t know what you expected since these dicks are trying to ruin my life.” I looked across the room to where Layne stashed his mini bar and wished I could have a drink to take the edge off, but that would have to wait until after.
“These pricks lost their son. Try to remember that when you go in there guns a blazing in full ‘beast mode.’” He straightened his collar and smoothed down his pants like he was prepping for a photo op.
I stood to close the distance between us. “You’d do well to remember who you work for.”
He held his hands up in front of him. “Aiden, please let me do all the talking. You don’t have to say a word, and you know it would be better if you didn’t.” I pegged him with a hard glare as his secretary opened the door.
“Gentleman, the Pattersons and their lawyer are here and waiting.”
“Thanks.” He turned and met my eyes releasing a long breath. “Are you ready?” What he was really asking is would I remain calm and let him do the talking.
“Yeah, let’s do this.” I headed out of Layne’s office, glancing at my father’s door on the way, and then headed to the boardroom.
Inside were the Pattersons, an aging couple whose body language spoke volumes about their moods. Mr. Patterson was relaxed in his chair with a look of boredom, like he didn’t want to be there. But Mrs. Patterson was sitting up taller, posturing herself as if she were a noble queen waiting to be crowned with my riches. I sat right across from her, edging forward in my seat to show her I was prepared to fight. She looked away as my eyes met hers. Nice try, lady.
Layne took his seat next to me and across from the Pattersons’ lawyer, Stephen Blanc, whom both Layne and I knew quite well. He had always been a twitchy little fucker, and my father had hated him.
“I don’t think introductions are necessary, but as a formality, I’m Layne Connor, and this is my client, Aiden Walker.”
Blanc shifted forward in his seat. “These are the Pattersons, Greg and Vicki, the parents of the deceased Shawn Patterson.” I didn’t move a muscle, but I wanted to remind them that their son wasn’t the only one missing from the table. “It has us concerned that you’re not finding the dollar amount acceptable. We feel that this is a fair deal, one your client can afford, and we’d like to get this thing settled.”
“We’d like you to explain the amount in question and see if we can work out something a little bit more reasonable. The amount you’ve asked for is quite well over half of my client’s estate, and while we do sympathize and mean no disrespect, we can’t quite figure how you’ve come to such an amount.”
“My son’s life is priceless, Mr. Connor.”
I met the woman’s eyes, and she stared down into her lap. There was something in her eyes for a fleeting moment that reminded me of Lexa, but I banished the thought. I wouldn’t let the resemblance distract me. I took a deep breath and glanced toward Layne.
He straightened a stack of papers he’d removed from his briefcase and slid them across the table to Blanc. “We feel this is more in line with proper respect to your son’s memory. Please understand this is not my client’s way of taking blame in all of this, but he’d like to offer this amount with his condolences.
Blanc sifted through the papers and then nodded toward Vicki, who shook her head and passed them to Greg. “This is not acceptable.” She folded her arms in a stubborn way and then straightened her posture.
“Could you explain why?” Layne addressed her directly.
Blanc spoke up and shook his head but then motioned to her not to speak. “Please do not address my client. I’m more than happy to explain-”
“Then do it.” My voice was so rough, it was as if I’d gargled acid. “You know, I knew Shawn. He was a nice guy, and I can’t imagine he’d like any of this, but know something else about him, too. He was a dreamer, and he wouldn’t have seen this much money in his lifetime. So unless you can prove to me that he would, I’m not settling.”
“How dare you make this about Shawn’s experience in life? If anything, this has to do with his life being cut short and those experiences, as you call them, being ripped away from him. He was a dreamer, but he had big plans for a bright future.”
“You mean sucking off the Walker tit? We both know that Shawn wanted to marry my sister. How am I to know he would have gotten a decent job and supported her on his own?”
Mrs. Patterson clutched her neck and leaned away from me. “My son wouldn’t want a dime of your family money.”
“But you would?” Layne placed his arm on mine to call me off of her.
She turned to her lawyer. “I’m not taking less than I’ve asked for.” She stood and dragged Mr. Patterson up by his arm. “I don’t have to sit here and take more abuse from this spoiled brat. It’s a good thing my son isn’t around marry into your awful family.”
I rose to my feet and glared across the table her. “You’re no prize sow yourself, lady. And, I’m glad he’s not here to see what an embarrassment his own mother is.”
Things heated up from there with Blanc and Layne trying hard to intervene, but I wasn’t going to sit back and take it from the old bitty. She gasped again and then stormed to the door where she paused to glance over her shoulder. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Way to go; you’ve made things worse.” I pushed past Layne and stepped in front of Blanc.
“You know this is wrong, and you won’t win this case. I realize they’ve lost a son, but I’ve lost my entire family. I will not lose my home, too.”
“I’m trying to reason with them, but they believe this is necessary. Good day, men.” He went around me and headed for the door. I could sympathize; they had him a tight position, but I wasn’t about to let him win this, and he knew it.
“I told you not to talk. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
“Because you’re a pussy, and if you don’t work this out, you can pack up your office along with the whole building because this is what’s going, do you hear me? This fucking place!” I turned and hurried out, hoping that the Pattersons weren’t still in the parking lot.
She doesn’t need this shit? Well, neither the fuck do I!