Chapter Fifty-One

Carrie

My taxi is stuck in stand-still traffic and it’s all I can do to hold it together. Reid keeps calling my phone and I can’t talk to him. I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t even want to listen to his messages. I’m going to melt down and cry. I’m not a crier or a fool, but Reid apparently wants to make me both. I trusted him. I was falling in love with him while I was an “investment” to him. I feel so foolish. I hurt. God, this hurts. How did I get to a point this quickly that this man could hurt me that badly? And his father—well, I know where the asshole in Reid comes from. Two peas from the same pod.

I dial my father for the fifth time, and this time when I get his voicemail I don’t hang up. “You need to call me back. Now. Stop dodging my calls. This is important. I need to talk about you about Maxwell Senior. I need to talk to you about you.” I disconnect.

The cab hasn’t moved in five minutes. Unmoving traffic surrounds us. I can’t sit here like this, with my emotions clawing their way out of me. I can’t do it. I only took the cab in the first place to be able to use my phone, which isn’t doing me any good. I eye the meter and throw a ten at the driver before opening my door and getting out, the crush of fumes and that dirty city smell Manhattan is famous for attack my nose and lungs. Once I’m outside, I dart for the nearest subway and replay Maxwell Senior saying “You aren’t welcome here” in various ways, over and over. By the time I’m in a subway car, my thoughts go to a place that my mind is avoiding, to the place I know I can’t get past; Reid and his “investment” comment. Reid letting me leave when his father arrived at the elevator. He could have gotten into the car with me. He had that opportunity, but he didn’t. Just like he didn’t come to me in the kitchen. He went to his father.

He was using me for some financial mark. He still is, and I have to let him. I want the company back. I can’t walk away and he knows it.

He was just plain using me.

When finally the subway ride is over, I exit to the street, and I scan, making sure Reid isn’t anywhere in sight. If I see him, he’ll try to pull me back under his spell. It won’t work. Not this time. But he’s not here. He’s not. I don’t know why this upsets me. I don’t want to see him. Anything he would say now will not erase what just happened. I hurry into my building and wish for my things that are in the hired car, where I’d left them. There are things in there I need and now I’ll have to buy them again.

I enter my apartment and press myself against the door, the only thing holding me up right now. I was falling in love for the first time in my life, with someone using me. I really don’t know what to do with that. Tears leak from my eyes and I swipe them away. He doesn’t deserve my tears. And as for my father? Why would he not warn me about a war? He never said there was a war. Reid called it a war and after what just happened, on that, I believe him. My cellphone rings again and I grab it from my purse to find Reid’s number, not my father’s. I hit decline. My phone buzzes with a text from Reid that reads: Please talk to me. I can explain. I want us. I need you.

My heart squeezes. He can explain. I don’t even know what “us” means and as for needing me, I get that now. I’m part of his investment. My phone rings again. It’s him again and I want to take comfort in him trying to reach me, but nothing with Reid feels real anymore. I walk to the couch and sit down. Being home alone feels off. How is that possible? I love this place. This is my space, but mentally, I was ready to be in his, perhaps more than I even realized. My phone buzzes with another text from Reid and I lay down and hold my phone above me to read: I’m downstairs. Come down. Let me come up.

I type one word: No.

It hits me then that Reid has the money and wherewithal to get past security and when my phone rings, I answer this time. “Go away,” I breathe out.

“Never,” he promises, his voice low and gravelly. “I’m not ever going away. Let me come up.”

“No.”

“Carrie, we need to talk.”

“You said it all with that investment talk with your father, who is my enemy, and I didn’t even know.”

“I was going to tell you tonight.”

“After I met the family and you made sure if I bolted I’d stick around professionally?” I shut my eyes, emotion welling in my throat.

“That’s not how it is. Please. I need to see you. I need you to look into my eyes and see the truth.”

“Of course you need me to look into your eyes. When I’m with you, you’re the snake charmer, but then that makes sense. I’m the cobra. I’m just like my father, and we both know there are things about him you could tell me, too, but I guess that doesn’t serve you well.”

“I’m not leaving. I’ll stay here until you come down.”

“Then you better ask them to bring you a pillow and blanket.” I hang up. He calls back. I dial my father.

He answers this time. “Carrie,” he says. “What’s happening? I just heard your message. I was about to call.”

He’s lying. I realize now that I know this. That he has this weird pitch to his voice when he lies that I’ve always ignored. “You and Mike Maxwell are enemies.”

“That is, in fact, accurate.”

“You didn’t think I needed to know that?” I demand.

“I’ve been that man’s enemy for years. It’s never affected you.”

“I’m working with his son.”

“Who I told you was a problem. I told you to get out.”

“And you knew I wasn’t. You should have been specific. He hates you. Why?”

“We go back a long way.”

I think of Elijah and how easily personal hate drives professional anger. “You’ve gone after him. You’ve tried to hurt him.”

“Of course I have. Every fucking chance I got.”

“And his family?”

“Carrie—”

“That’s a yes. I’m working with his son. You didn’t think I needed to know that you’d tried to hurt him?”

“I told you, you need to come here. Now.”

“No. No, I have a chance to save the company and I’m going to.”

“He won’t let you.”

“I have a contract,” I say. “He will. He has to.”

“There’s a loophole or a plan to destroy you after he gets whatever he wants out of this. I promise you.”

“You underestimate my legal expertise and my ability to hold my own with anyone.”

“This isn’t about your skill. It’s about your morals. You have too many to survive a Maxwell.”

“In other words, you don’t? Who are you?”

“A man who holds his own, even with the nastiest of them all.”

A man I don’t know, I think. “What else don’t I know?” I ask.

“I have no idea what that means.”

“There are people who will work with me now that you’re gone.”

“We all make enemies.”

“We all make enemies? I never knew we had enemies.”

“I have enemies.”

“Apparently, that means I do, too. Can I get a list or is it too long?”

“You’re going too far with this.”

My phone buzzes with another call that I ignore. “What’s in Montana?”

“Money. You know that.”

“My money,” I say. “I put so much of my money into your investments and I’m tired of not knowing what I’m really getting. Blinded, I trusted you. No more. I love you, but I clearly don’t know you. Are your morals why mom left?”

“That’s uncalled for. She left. She left you, Carrie.”

“Right. It was my fault.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I want details on the Maxwell war.”

“You’re not getting them.”

“They took over our company.”

“Walk away, Carrie.”

“This is my life.”

“I will take care of you.”

“I’ll take care of me. I need to go.”

“Not yet. Talk to me.”

“Now you want to talk? Are you sure about that? You avoid me.”

“What happened? Because obviously, something did.”

“I met Mike Maxwell. I’m waiting to meet you, too. The real you. When this is over, when I get the company back, I need that to happen.”

“You’re blowing this out of proportion.”

“We lost the company to a hostile takeover by your enemy. I’m not blowing this out of proportion. I need to go.”

“Carrie—”

“I’ve already said things I’ll regret later, even though you deserve to hear them. Don’t push me to say more. I’m not in a place to show my normal restraint right now. We’ll talk later if you actually take my calls.” I hang up.

My phone buzzes with a text from Reid: It’s not our war. I didn’t go after your company to destroy it. The stockholders were taking him down anyway.

I don’t answer. I now know that he is a part of the war. My father tried to hurt him and his family. I flashback to the party and the kitchen and squeeze my eyes shut as the tears start to flow.