Starting the engine, I shift into gear and head down the driveway, idling as the gate opens, my brother’s words repeating in my head. I know who’s in my corner. I wonder if you do. My mother is telling me she’s in my corner, but I wonder. Is she telling him the same? And does she have any side but her own? I pull through the gate and the rain erupts again, a prelude it seems to the battle brewing in the heart of the Brandon family empire that I intend to win. I’m just not sure there will be a family left to back the name.
Once I’m on the highway, with my phone attached via Bluetooth, I dial Seth. “The woman’s name is Ashley Johnson,” he informs me. “She’s twenty-four—”
“And a med student,” I supply.
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“My mother hired her to keep an eye on my father.”
He whistles. “Every time I think your family can’t get more fucked up, they prove me wrong.”
“That’s what I told my mother, who assures me my father has blackmail material on every member of the board. She’s working on getting it for us but I’m not counting on her.”
“Like I said, I have dirt on everyone to push them out, should you so choose, with the exception of Mike. I’ll have those files to you today.”
“The security feed?”
“A few concerns I’m not ready to voice yet. I’ll have answers this afternoon.”
We’re about to hang up when my mother’s remodeling job comes to mind, followed by my own words yesterday. Blood divides as easily as it unites, especially when money and power are involved. “My mother’s cozying up to the mayor,” I say. “I need to know if he’s got any connections to Brandon Enterprises other than her, especially my brother.”
With the realization that my briefcase is at my apartment, I decide that the plan is to hole up there with my files I still haven’t finished reviewing and a pot of coffee. In other words, far away from the family drama distracting me from my focus on building BP profits by way of creating the strongest team of experts in the industry. Only that drama feels front and center as I arrive at the Four Seasons, hand off my car to be parked, and enter the hotel, my encounter with my father ever present in my mind. As is him being here to fuck a woman my mother hired to sleep with him. The many ways that is insanity can’t be counted, but of major concern is a woman who will sell herself for money, having intimate knowledge of our family, which she can then sell as well.
By the time I step off the elevator on my floor, I’ve vowed to shove all of this aside for a few hours of work, except my phone rings. It’s Jessica. My said “family drama” proves it will hunt me down with a damn hammer in its hand.
“Your father is in a mood,” she announces. “I mean the man is terrorizing the entire building. Not just our staff. He went off on Karen at the coffee bar for getting his order wrong. He is such an ass.”
If this were anyone else, I’d suggest it were cancer-or medication-related, but this isn’t my father’s first attack on everyone around him. Not by a long shot. “What do you need from me?” I ask, suspecting my father’s wrath has turned in my direction, most likely to punish me for this morning, when he’s the one who instigated it.
“He’s having a conniption over a deal memo he wants reviewed,” she says.
“Tell him to e-mail it to me,” I say, entering my apartment and shutting the door.
“He doesn’t have it on e-mail. He says he needs to know if he’s being bent over before he’s screwed, not after.”
“He said that to you?” I ask and quickly add, pressing fingers to the bridge of my nose. “Never mind. Of course he did.” I unbutton my jacket and settle my hands on my hips. “If I go there, it’s not going to end well. Bring it here.”
“I’ll be there in half an hour,” she says, ending the call before I can change my mind, clearly just wanting out of that office for a while.