Chapter Nine
‡
In his office, Grant leapt to his feet, nearly dropping his cell phone as he did. “What do you mean Asher found Stiles?”
Lance’s voice rose, revealing how worried he was. “I mean he tracked him to a town in Canada. I didn’t even know he was looking for him. All I know is Emily called me up in a panic this morning because Asher asked Andrew to go on a trip with him but wouldn’t tell her to where. The last thing Andrew needs is to have to pick between Asher and Helene’s uncle. I don’t know what Asher was thinking.”
Fuck. This is my fault for stalling on telling them. “Where is Asher now?”
“When I spoke to them they were heading for the airport.”
“Shit. Okay, call Ian and tell him we might need him. We either have to stop Asher from going or get to Stiles first.”
“I know. I told him not to go, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He’ll listen to you, Grant. I mean, we all want to find out what Stiles knows, but not like this.”
No, not this way. It’s time for me to tell them what I know.
“I’ll stop Asher, then we need to have a family meeting—without Mom and Dad. Are you free?”
“I can be. Willa will want to be there, too.”
Grant almost said that wouldn’t be a good idea, but she was family. They would all find out eventually. “Fine. Call Kenzi and Dax, also. I have to go now or I won’t catch Asher before he flies off.” He hung up before Lance had a chance to respond.
Following his gut, he called Marc Stone. “Marc, I need a specific private plane to immediately discover it has mechanical difficulties. Asher’s. He located Stiles. He has Andrew with him. After I hang up with you I’m going to try to reason with him, but in case that fails I want him stuck on the ground.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Marc said.
“No, make it happen.” Grant hung up abruptly again and dialed Asher’s number. When Asher didn’t pick up, he called Andrew. “Andrew, it’s Grant.”
“Grant, I’m with Asher. We found Stiles.”
“I know. Put him on the phone.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“I need to talk to Asher.”
“If you know something about Stiles I have every bit, if not more, of a right to know. Helene needs answers as much as we do.”
Grant sucked in a deep, calming breath. “Then put me on speakerphone.”
“Fine. We can both hear you now.”
“We’ll fill you in when we get back, Grant, but we found Stiles. Andrew and I are heading up there to get some answers out of him,” Asher said in a hardheaded, overconfident tone.
“Are you at the airport yet?”
“We’re pulling in now,” Andrew answered.
Come on. Come on. Just then a text arrived from Marc confirming landing gear issues had been discovered on Asher’s private plane. Plan B was a go. Now back to plan A. “Turn around and come to my office instead. I’m calling an emergency family meeting.”
“A what?” Asher barked.
“We need to talk. All of us without Mom and Dad. There is something I need to tell everyone.”
“No way. I’m not giving Stiles another chance to run,” Asher answered.
“He can’t run. I have people making sure he stays put.”
“How? We’ve only known his location for hours,” Andrew asked.
“I’ve known for a week,” Grant admitted.
“You knew where Stiles was and didn’t tell us?” Grant could picture Asher’s face flushing with anger. “What else are you not telling us? Probably not much or you would have said something. He wouldn’t talk to you, would he? Well, he’ll talk to me.”
“Don’t go see Stiles until after we talk.”
Asher made a frustrated sound. “Sorry, Grant. We’re going. If you want we can compare stories when we return.”
“Andrew, I want to speak to Asher privately. Could you take me off speakerphone please?”
Andrew started to say, “I don’t see—”
“I know, but do it,” Grant interrupted.
“Okay,” Andrew said in a tone full of both respect and trust. “Here’s Asher.”
“Asher?” Grant asked.
“Yes,” Asher answered impatiently.
“Wake the fuck up and listen to me. You’re scaring the shit out your wife, and you’re about to put Andrew, who we just got back from a dark place, into a very bad situation. You have too much to lose to continue to let your temper control you. You’re a father now. Your place is with your wife and son. Andrew’s place is with Helene. I said I would handle finding Stiles and I have. Come to my office now, and I’ll tell all of you what I know.”
A much more humble Asher asked, “Why would Emily be scared?”
Grant sighed. “Because she loves you but also knows you’re a hothead with things like this. You have a good woman, Asher, but you’ll lose her if you don’t start thinking like a team with her.”
“Emily knows—”
“She called Lance because she was so upset.”
Asher was quiet for a long moment. “I hate that this has hung over our family as long as it has. I just want us to be free of it.”
“I feel the same way,” Grant said calmly. Unfortunately, things would likely get worse before they got better, especially when everyone heard Stiles’s version of Kent’s death. “But you need to go home, apologize to your wife, hug her if she’ll let you, then come to my office.”
“I love Emily. She and Joseph are my life. Nothing is more important to me,” Asher said quietly. “Nothing.”
“I believe you. Emily does, too. Now prove us right.”
“I suppose I should tell my pilot we’re not going anywhere.”
“He knows,” Grant couldn’t resist adding.
“What did you say?” Asher asked.
“That plans can change at any moment,” Grant added only because revving up Asher more was the last thing he wanted to do. One day, when all of this was a distant memory, he’d tell Asher he wouldn’t have made it off the runway.
Or not. There was sometimes an advantage to being underestimated.
After hanging up, Grant plunked himself down at his desk and rested his head in his hands. There were so many ways this meeting could go wrong. He couldn’t demonize Stiles because it would hurt Helene. On the other hand, keeping the truth from his family had just proven more potentially destructive than telling them.
Stiles had believed Helene and her parents would be in danger if he hadn’t cooperated. He needed to stress that part. Stiles had used that as an excuse again regarding why he’d left Helene in Andrew’s care. It was a weak excuse at best, but it might lessen the conflict for Andrew.
If all of that somehow went well, they would still need to decide how to tell their mother that her sister had hired someone to kill one of her babies. He was at a loss for how to do that.
Grant’s secretary buzzed his office phone. “Whoever it is, Sue, take a message. And clear my schedule for the morning. The only ones I want to see are my family when they arrive.”
“It’s not a phone call, Mr. Barrington. There’s a woman here to see you.”
He raised his head and tried to remember who he’d made appointments to see that day. Nothing. His normally flawless memory failed him. “Tell her I’m sorry, but we’ll have to reschedule. I’m not seeing clients today.”
“She—”
“Not today, Sue.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Sutton, but he isn’t seeing anyone today,” the secretary said with a polite and somewhat apologetic smile. “If you leave contact information I’ll look for an opening in his calendar later this week.”
I should have known he wouldn’t see me, he didn’t even have the balls to answer my phone call. He’s probably in there shaking in his shoes, hoping I’ll go away.
Well, I’m not going anywhere. Not until I say my piece.
“Later is not good enough.”
The secretary’s eyebrows furrowed. “I wish there were something I could do, but he asked me to clear his schedule for today. He doesn’t sound like he’s in a very good mood.”
“And that’s unusual?” Viviana asked sarcastically. He probably treated her like crap.
“It is. I have worked for Mr. Barrington for six years and couldn’t ask for a better employer. He’s fair, he listens, and whenever I’ve needed—”
“I’m not leaving without speaking to him,” Viviana said abruptly. She couldn’t stomach listening to someone sing the praises of him while she was still so angry.
“Maybe if I gave him your name?” the secretary suggested tentatively.
Losing patience, Viviana walked past her desk and opened the door herself. “I’ll tell him myself.”
“Sue, I thought I made myself clear—Viviana!”
At least the bastard still remembers my name. “I wouldn’t be here if you returned phone calls.”
His secretary rushed in on Viviana’s heels. “Mr. Barrington, I’m so sorry. She just—”
“It’s fine, Sue. Close the door on your way out.”
As soon as the door closed behind Viviana, she marched toward him until she reached his desk, then stopped and planted her hands on her hips. “I don’t care how rich you are, it doesn’t give you the right to treat people the way you do. I’m not a piece of trash to be tossed aside when you’re done like I’m nothing. Regardless of how you feel about me, even if all we were ever going to have was a weekend, you didn’t have to end it the way you did.”
“You’re right.”
“Damn straight I’m right. We’re both adults. We had sex. And a lot of it. I wasn’t expecting a relationship out of it, but I didn’t think you’d brush me off as coldly as you did. Or that so much of what you’d told me would turn out to be a lie.”
He rubbed his hands over his face like a man suffering from exhaustion and trying to focus. “I was planning to call you and explain.”
“Really? What were you going to explain? That you’re an arrogant, entitled asshole who doesn’t have the balls to have an adult conversation the next day?”
Grant tented his fingers beneath his chin. One side of his mouth twitched, and she stepped closer. If he smiled she really would belt him. “Something along that vein but worded differently.”
She jabbed his chest with a finger. “You think this is a joke? Maybe that I’m a joke? I’m not. I might have been the best thing to ever happen to you, but you’ll never know that because you’re—”
His kiss took her by surprise and sent her senses haywire. His ability to arouse her even when she was imagining strangling him infuriated her but didn’t make the kiss any less soul-shattering. When he lifted his head, he held her to him in a tight hug. Her body was literally shaking as it attempted to shift from angry to turned on and back to angry. After a few minutes of weakly savoring the feel of his arms around her, the tickle of his breath on her neck, and the rekindling of a heat that no one else had ever lit in her—she pushed herself out of his arms.
He turned his back to her, and she opened her mouth to tell him off again but the slump of his shoulders confused her. He walked over to the window of his office and stared out over the city. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Which part, she wanted to demand but there was something heart-wrenching about seeing the cocky, strong man she’d slept with looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Is it an act?
Why wouldn’t it be? Everything he said was a lie. Maybe this is how a liar of that magnitude looks when he’s confronted.
But it felt like more.
She didn’t want to, but she cared. She walked over to stand beside him. “Are you okay?”
He glanced at her then shook his head in disgust. “You’re too nice. I’ve been a complete ass to you. You have every right to be angry.”
There was something in his tone that pulled at her heart even as she fought against it. “I’m still angry, but that doesn’t mean I would celebrate anything bad happening to you. Compassion is something decent people offer one another. It’s right up there with honesty and respect.”
“Ouch,” he said, turning to look at her. “I’m fine. Just family issues. How are you?”
It was a moment of connection, sincerity. At least it felt like it. “Honestly? Hurt and confused. You could have told me you wanted it to be over. You didn’t have to promise to call or act like you felt something toward me.”
He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his hand over his eyes again. “I do feel something for you, but I have a lot going on in my life right now. Things I’m not ready to tell anyone—least of all someone I just—”
Screwed for a weekend? Viviana sucked in a breath audibly. “Please stop. I have one last question then I’ll go. And if you’re rich why act like you’re not? Why take me to a cheap hotel? Was it some kind of sick game to you? If so, it wasn’t a kind one.”
His expression tightened to one of pain, then he said, “In full disclosure, I found pretending to be poor exciting. It had come to my attention that I was out of touch with regular people. I went jogging by the river that night to meet some. Then I met you. You were just the kind of average, ordinary person I was looking for.”
Average. Ordinary. Fuck you. Anger rose in her again, pushing back both her attraction and her sympathy for him. “There’s a term for that. It’s called slumming.”
“That makes it sound—”
Viviana took a step back. “Of course, you probably have a much more polite word for rich people fucking regular people for fun. How crass of me.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he said, taking a step toward her.
“Stop lying. God, have the balls to be honest about what you did. That’s all I want. I picked you out of a crowd because I wanted to sleep with a stranger to make myself feel better. You wanted to taste average. Look me in the eye and just say it.”
“I did. I wanted to see what it would be like, but then—”
She covered her ears. “I don’t want or need the lies.” She lowered her hands. “I’m sorry I barged into your workplace, but I needed answers and now I have them.” With that she turned and strode toward the door.
“Viviana,” he called out.
Before she had time to turn, the door opened and Sue stuck her head in. “Your brother, Lance, is here, Mr. Barrington, along with his wife, Willa. Should I have them wait?”
“No need,” Viviana growled. “We’re done.”
She heard Grant call out after her again, but she bolted through his secretary’s office, past people she didn’t spare a glance at, and to the stairs. The way she felt required immediate escape, no time for an elevator.