“A car accident, so it was a real shock. We’d fought over my stepfather the night before as well. It was misery, guilt, and pain.” I am reminded of his father’s coughing attack. “Things I promise you are coming with your father, despite how you feel about him. Are you ready for that?”
“No. I am not ready for that and right now, I’d rather talk about you. You were telling me what happened when your mother died, in relation to this professor.”
“Right,” I say, because he knows I’m here for him, and he has to deal with this his way. “I went to the funeral with my brother, and that led to us fighting over him and his Gemini connections. I was a mess afterwards. I showed up at the professor’s house, and that’s when I found out he was still married. I lost it and made a scene and so did she.” I shake my head. “Why would I make a scene over a man that was clearly an asshole? That is not even the person I know myself to be.”
“You were in pain and it sounds like I was right. That moment helped define who you are.”
“You’d think, but I wasn’t done self-destructing. I barely dated for the rest of my undergraduate years and then I started law school. It was some kind of trigger, and I went off the ledge, like a really late rebound with the complete opposite type of man. A tattoo artist who was into hard rock, hard sex, and not a lot of anything else. I guess the appeal with him was that I knew what I was getting and I didn’t want more. There could be no heartache to come because there was no emotional attachment for either of us.”
“How long ago was that?”
“We dated for six months and it ended about a year ago.”
“And since then?”
“School took over and I lost myself in my studies.”
“Which explains your LSAT score Seth mentioned.”
“I’m very competitive,” I say, “which fed an obsession with winning every challenge presented and snagged me an internship at a top firm.”
“Which firm?”
“Norton, Mash, and Company.”
He whistles. “That is not a spot that’s easy to come by, but I can see why they chose you. And speaking of challenges: Let’s talk about my proposition.” He reaches under the table and produces a stack of files I didn’t know were there and sets them on the coffee table before reclaiming a spot on the couch.
“What is all of that?” I ask.
“Potential acquisitions,” he explains. “I want a clean slate for Brandon Enterprises, free of the often questionable ethics of my father. The acquisition of Brandon Pharmaceuticals was meant to produce large sums of money, thus allowing the painless shedding of those other divisions.”
“Has it?”
“It’s getting there, but it’s come with high risk and liability. We need to balance that out with a lower-risk, high-profit addition to our brand. That’s where you come into play.”
“Me?”
“You,” he confirms. “I don’t have time to look for that next venture. You’re smart and I trust you. I’d like you to help me narrow down the prospects to two or three, and then we’ll run numbers and do the due diligence.” He pats the folders. “These are the companies I looked into with my notes, but we’re not limited to these choices. They’re simply where I’ve begun looking.”
“I’d love to help,” I say, both thrilled and honored he wants me to do this.
“I have a private CPA to help with the back end. If there’s something you have a question about, and need answered, he’ll help.” He flips open a folder and indicates a card stapled in the front. “This is him and I’ll make sure he is accommodating.”
“Are you going to get rid of the financial division your father runs?”
“Everything that exists now will be replaced, but that knowledge is to stay with a small group of insiders, which includes Seth, Jessica, and the CPA.”
“Because people are going to be upset.”
“Yes. They will.”
My mind flickers to our morning and his abrupt handing off of the Bentley. “Did that black Escalade that showed up in the garage have anything to do with your plans to exit any of these divisions?”
“It was about exiting a bad business deal Derek got us into.”
“Since I’m looking for replacement investments, can you tell me what it was and why it was bad, so I don’t make the same mistake?”
“You are not Derek,” he says. “You would not have made this deal.”
“What was it?”
His hands come down on my legs. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“But I’m curious. I want to do a good job.”
“You will do a good job.”
“You don’t want to tell me,” I say, confused by his mixed messages. “Is it a trust issue?”
“I trust you. You know I do.”
“But obviously there are boundaries to what you feel comfortable sharing.”
“Don’t do this. Don’t put a wall between us that doesn’t exist.”
“I’m not trying to put a wall between us. I just want to know that there will be a point when we’re closer—”
“You are closer to me than anyone has ever been. I repeat. This isn’t about trust. I can’t say that enough times.”
“Then what is it about?”
“You are too good to be a part of Derek’s creations. That’s what it’s about. You’re the future, not the past. You’re the good that I need while I get rid of the bad.”
“You’re protecting me.”
“You’re damn right I’m protecting you.”
“Like I was protecting you, but I ended up telling you everything. You insisted.”
“And now I can keep you safe from everything.”
“Who keeps you safe?”
“I don’t need to be protected.”
“But you decide when I do?”
“In this? Yes.”
I have a flashback of my mother questioning my stepfather and him saying something similar. Only she accepted the answer. I won’t. “I don’t like secrets. My life has had too many secrets.”
“This isn’t a secret. You know this is about Derek’s bad business.”
The doorbell rings. “That’s going to be Seth. He’s bringing you the details on all the holes he plugged in your background. We’ll finish talking when he leaves. We’ll figure this out.” He stands up and walks away. I sink back onto the floor, pick up my wine, and instead of drinking, watch the red liquid swirl in my glass. Secrets. Lies. Trust. Love. Hate. Family. Sex. I guess I’d rather have silence than lies. Wouldn’t I? I down my wine and reach for the bottle, refilling my glass before opening the first file, which ironically appears to be a winery. This intrigues me, but is it low liability? Maybe, if we aren’t the ones doing the retail sales.
Footsteps sound behind me, and I shut the file. Shane reappears, and I twist around as he sits on the couch, placing a file on the table. “This has all the details about your past filled in. You’ll want to study it.”
“Of course.” I narrow my gaze, noting the hardening lines of his expression. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to head to a meeting with Seth and Nick, the person running much of our private security.”
“Is there a problem?”
“We’re working on a solution to last night’s security breach at BP.”
“Oh right. I forgot about that. What happened?”
“We don’t know and that’s unacceptable. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone.”