Chapter Fifty

Reid

“Who are you?” Carrie asks, staring across the island at my father, because while my father has been obsessed about her father and anyone connected to him, Carrie’s been sheltered, even by me.

“Just like your daddy,” my father says. “Playing coy, but really a cobra.”

“Let’s go to the other room and talk, father,” I bite out, motioning toward the door.

“Father?” Carrie demands, whirling to face me, but I’m already rounding the island to stand beside my father. “Let’s go talk.” I can’t look at Carrie. I can’t invite conversation that will allow my father to flatten her and destroy me with her.

But my father won’t look at me. He’s looking at Carrie. “You aren’t welcome here. No West is welcome in a Maxwell house.”

“She’s welcome in this house,” Cat snaps, “but I’m a Summer now, and you’re giving me yet another reason to be proud of that fact.” Cat turns to Carrie. “Ignore him. This is our house, not his.”

“You’re welcome here now, and you have an invitation to return,” Reese adds and Cat whirls on my father again.

“Why did I invite you?” she demands. “Right. You never come. That’s why. Leave.”

I feel those words like a punch, like it’s what she feels about me, but right now, I have to deal with the beast that is my father. He turns to me, finally giving me his attention. “Did you bring her here?” His voice is pure accusation and hate.

In this moment, looking into my father’s hard eyes, I know that if I don’t convince him that her presence makes sense for his reasons, not mine, he’ll target her. He’ll go after her because he thinks I’m not. “Carrie and I work together,” I say. “We’re an investment, making money for both families.”

“Investment?” Carrie demands. “You brought me here to make me more committed to the investment? You really are an ass, Reid Maxwell.” She looks at Cat and Reese. “Thank you for the invitation and the lovely evening up until this point.” She eyes Cat. “You’re most definitely a Summer, not a Maxwell.”

She turns and darts out of the room, which is exactly what I want and need, but it’s gutting me to let her go for even a moment. My eyes lift and meet Cat’s fiery stare that tells a story. She’s angry with me. She thinks I used Carrie. She thinks that I am no better than my father. “It’s not what you think. I promise. I’ll explain.” I don’t wait for her reply. Fuck my father. I can’t let Carrie go. I’ll protect her. I’ll back him down.

I’m already walking, rushing in the direction where Carrie departed into the living area. “Reid!” my father calls out, but I ignore him. I got Carrie away from him. I got her out of the range of his nastiness that would have buried me and her with me. Now I need to explain myself. Now I need to make this right.

I exit the kitchen to scan the crowd and catch a glimpse of her turning the corner toward the door. I cut through a group of people, and all but run after her. She’s in the hallway halfway to the elevator when I exit the apartment. “Carrie! Wait.”

She disappears around the corner leading to the elevator banks. I break into a run. I bring her into view as she waits for an elevator. “Go away, Reid,” she hisses the moment she sees me. “We’re done.”

“No,” I say, stalking toward her.

She points at me. “Do not even try to come near me,” she warns, her voice quaking with emotion.

I hold up my hands in surrender. “Okay. Just hear me out. Our parents hate each other, Carrie. I was going to talk to you about it after the party, after you saw that we are not a part of that war. That’s what tonight was. I wanted you to know that we, that I, am not your enemy. My father is another story. He is.”

“In other words, you did his bidding. You did what you told me you didn’t do. You went after our company to go after my father.”

“No,” I say, closing one of the at least five steps between us. “I didn’t lie to you, Carrie. That is not what happened and when I realized you didn’t know about our fathers, I knew you’d say just that when I told you.”

“You just told your father that I was a business deal.”

“That’s not what I said. I said we were making money together. I spoke his language, the only one that can get him past his hate. The only way I could pull him back in the middle of that party, one which was supposed to be special for Cat, and good for us, Carrie.”

“Do you know how that made me feel?” She shoves a hand through her hair. “And poor Cat. Tonight was supposed to be special for her and Reese.” The elevator opens and I’m beside her, shackling her arm, her in an instant. “Carrie—”

“I thought we were—I don’t know what I thought we were—it doesn’t matter. I don’t trust you, Reid. I can’t be with you.”

“I could just as easily have thought that you were setting me up because I’m my father’s son, Carrie, but you aren’t your father and I’m not my father. We’re us. I want you and us. I swear to you, I was going to tell you about their war tonight.”

“War? It’s a war and you didn’t think you needed to tell me?”

“I thought your father would have. When I figured out you didn’t know—”

“You hid it from me? Why? To get me to perform with Grayson Bennett, who didn’t trust you?”

“Glad to see I caught you both.”

At the sound of my father’s voice, I grimace and whirl around, quick to put Carrie at my back, where I can protect her from his direct onslaught of verbal abuse. “You need to step away, father. Now.”

The elevator behind me dings and damn it to hell, I know Carrie is about to leave, and I have to let her go. I still can’t risk him twisting his war into mine. “You need to explain yourself and her,” my father bites out.

I step toward him and I can hear Carrie step into the car. “You need to back out of this,” I say.

“I told you—”

“I’m sick of you telling me how to do anything,” I say as the elevator door shuts behind me, the idea that Carrie is gone igniting my anger. “Back away from this,” I repeat.

“I told you to ruin West and that means his offspring, too.”

“I never told you I’d ruin West. I made sure the debt was settled and it is. A debt that has nothing to do with Carrie.”

“It has everything to do with her. That man came at me, and us, after my stroke. He tried to sweep the stocks in four of my investments and two of yours. There’s no mercy here. You are my son. You will do this. You will ruin him and his daughter.”

“If you go after Carrie or her company, you will regret it. I am your son and you taught me far too well. I will make you hate life and regret the day you hurt Carrie and mom, for that matter. Mom’s biggest fear? That I would become just like you and I’ll make that fear come true in order to hurt you. Walk away now, and I don’t mean back to Cat’s apartment. You hurt her tonight.” I punch the elevator button and a car opens instantly. I hold the door. “Leave.”

He snorts. “You’d ruin me? You really think you have that in you, boy?”

“We both know you don’t really doubt that I do. Sacramento, father,” I add of the secret he never wants revealed, a dirty deal he did that not even Gabe knows about. “I’ll use it.”

He charges at me and pokes a finger at my chest. “You dare to go there?”

“With a smile on my face and I don’t smile much.”

He huffs out a breath. “That would hurt the firm.”

“The firm is about me and Gabe now. Not you. I want you out.”

“I’m not retiring.”

“Sacramento.”

“I’m not fucking retiring. You think I don’t have anything on you?”

“You don’t, asshole, because I don’t break laws.”

“This isn’t over,” he says, but he gets on the elevator. I wait for it to shut and then turn for the stairwell with one thing on my mind: getting to Carrie.