Destined, page 14
“That means our house is going to be a disaster zone for the next couple of weeks,” she said.
“Two weeks, hopefully less,” I said.
I could feel Dale staring a hole into my face, but I refused to acknowledge him. After I made the announcement, no one minded that I busied myself sending texts to the travel coordinator for MIND by Bryn Blackstone, asking her to arrange a chartered flight for the extra help being flown in from California. I also sent an email to Jasper’s assistant, who handled family affairs, and asked if she could have the Vail estate prepared for later that afternoon. I tried hard to remain tuned out of their conversation. Eden didn’t mind. She, Alana, and Alex were discussing where in the master bathroom to put her claw-foot soaker tub and what sorts of windows would provide the most privacy. I ate as fast as I could so that we didn’t linger. The longer I sat, the more apt Eden was to ask about Jamison.
“You’re eating fast,” Dale said, his voice rising above the others. I knew he was talking about me.
The table grew quiet. When I looked up from my cell phone, all eyes were on me. My cell phone miraculously chimed and vibrated in my hands. Kat was calling.
“I have to take this,” I said as I shot to my feet.
“Tell Jamison we miss him,” Eden said.
My gaze passed over her and then Dale, who was watching me with narrowed eyes. He knew something was wrong.
I held up a finger, excused myself, and said, “By the way, I’m done with breakfast. We should get to work soon,” and went off to answer Kat’s call.
I tried to get as far away as possible from everyone. I headed toward the living room just as the doorbell chimed. I knew it was the construction crew—they’d called Alex while we were getting out of the vehicle and asked if they could get an early start—so I told Kat to hold on as I ran up two floors and hid in one of the six guest rooms.
“What are you doing?” Kat asked.
My problems were ready to come gushing out of my mouth, but I waited until after I closed the door and walked onto the balcony to tell her all about the last three days with Jamison and how he’d left me without leaving a word.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Bryn. You rarely open yourself up to love in that way and… Hey, I have someone I want you to meet. He’s handsome, kind, and a premier surgeon.”
I jerked my head back. “Is this a setup? Are you trying to set me up?”
Kat laughed. “Well yeah. You’re the perfect woman. It’s damn well time that you fall in love with the perfect man. His name is Dr. Edward Grey, and I am certain he’s the one for you. Hell, all the women in the hospital want him—patients, doctors, nurses, the lady who sells coffee from the cart. If you think about a romance-novel-hero guy, Dr. Grey’s it.”
My smile was lopsided and cynical. “Something’s fishy about that name.”
“He’s not fishy, Bryn.” She went on to say that she’d told him all about me, and he was in Houston for the conference. “Take a break and fly out on one of those private jets and have dinner with us.”
I smashed my lips together, and anxiety fizzled throughout my body. I wasn’t shocked that Kat believed one man could be so easily replaced by another. She wasn’t in my shoes. She stood on the outside, looking at my heart. That was the norm. She was only trying to make me happy because she loved me.
“Thanks so much, sis, but I’m fine. I have to get over Jamison first. And then…”
“You have to get over Jamison?”
I leaned over the balcony, and there was Dale, looking up at me.
Sixteen
BRYN BLACKSTONE
“Damn it,” I muttered and told Kat I had to call her back.
“Quick, are you coming?” she asked.
“No. I’m babysitting the kids this weekend,” I said in a rush. “Sorry, I have to go. Bye.”
I waited until she said goodbye. Then I looked down at Dale again, who was grinning up at me as if he’d just discovered he had winning lottery tickets.
I shook my head. “What the hell are you doing down there?”
“I live here. Then you’re no longer screwing that poser?”
Anger made my eyes burn. What gonads he had to refer to Jamison as a poser when Dale was the biggest phony I’d ever met. There was no use reacting to him, though. If he outed me to everyone else, then so be it. I was ready to tell the truth, anyway, but only if I had to.
So without another word, I turned my back on Dale and walked back into the house. I practically ran down three flights of stairs to rejoin my team, who were already working. Dale hadn’t beat me to them, and that was a relief. With my huge practiced smile and amiable disposition, I joined the gang, and we began placing orders for the new stone counters, Miele appliances, and kitchen furniture.
Surprisingly, Dale hadn’t rubbed my misery in my face. However, he remained close. But unlike two days earlier, he offered no opinions. If I looked, I would catch him staring at me as if he was trying to telepathically let me know how much he wanted to bang my brains out. But I kept my mind on whatever task was at hand, not allowing my mind to wander to the place it wanted to go, which was Jamison Cox. I worked efficiently and joylessly.
Alana made a funny comment about the current beam in the theater room resembling a sex tunnel. “All it needs are feathers, furs, and flashing red lights,” she said with a laugh.
“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Eden crooned.
I realized there was a mood I needed to capture if I wanted to pretend everything was okay with me, but I couldn’t attain it. And the fight to be jovial had suddenly made tears roll out of my eyes.
“Bryn? What’s wrong?” Alana hurried over and took me by the shoulders. “What’s going on?”
I closed my eyes, and my chin quivered as I shook my head. When Alana initiated our hug, and I embraced her back, I broke down crying.
“Eden, could we have a moment, please?” Alana asked.
“Um… sure.” Eden sounded worried.
After a few seconds, Alana told me we were alone. “Is this about Jamison?” Her tone was sympathetic but demanded that I, for once, tell her the truth about my heartache.
I sniffed. “He’s gone. He left without even telling me.”
We sat on the floor, facing each other with our legs crossed. “Damn it,” she spat. “I thought he was one of the good ones.” Alana narrowed an eye. “Are you sure? Because he was totally into you. I would have bet everything I owned on that.”
I bit down on my back teeth to stop my chin from quivering again.
“Breathe, Bryn.” Alana took my hands in hers.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Take your time to breathe. Relax. It’s okay.” She sounded as if she were taking me through a meditation session.
I inhaled deeply and then slowly released the breath. That felt better. I did it three more times before I opened my eyes and smiled faintly.
She raised her eyebrows.
I nodded. “It’s complicated.”
Alana studied me. “You’re the most perceptive person that I know, so when you say it’s complicated, then I have to believe that it’s really complicated. But how is it complicated?”
I took another deep breath. “I think it’s his father, Boomer.”
“Boomer?”
I snorted a chuckle. “Precisely.”
“With a father named Boomer, it sounds like you dodged a torpedo.” We chortled together. “Okay, then, what next?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s over.”
“It’s really over?”
“It’s over.” I sighed.
“Is your heart going to make it through the rest of the day? Because I can handle this if you want to go back to bed.”
“I think so,” I whispered.
She turned her head slightly. “Think?”
I smiled. “I know I can.” The longer we stared at each other, the better I felt. I had some good people in my life, and Alana, my best friend, was at the top of the list. “Sorry I’ve been such a serious and intense killjoy today.”
“That’s not how I saw you at all. I mean, serious and intense, yes, but killjoy? Never.”
I simpered. “Thanks.” I never wanted to think about being disappointed by Jamison again, at least not if I could help it. So I patted Alana on the knee. “By the way, what’s going on between you and Alex?”
Her eyes were alight as she smirked. “A lot. A whole lot.”
Suddenly, Alex bolted into the room. “Hey,” he said, looking at me. “How are you?”
My mouth fell open. Eden must have told him that I was having a breakdown in the theater room.
Alana dipped her head as she looked up at me. “You are fine?”
I winked at her. “I’m fine.”
She beamed at Alex. “She’s fine.”
Seventeen
JAMISON COX
“She said she was fine,” Alex said.
“Fine?”
My voice echoed, so I checked over both shoulders. The hallway, which looked like a setting from The Shining, was empty. I held the phone closer to my ear. “Is that what you saw when you looked at her? That she was fine?”
“No, that’s not what I saw, but that’s what she said. Look, Jamison, I don’t know why you did what you did, but it doesn’t feel right, you asking me how she’s doing. And I’m talking to you, and you’re the one who hurt her. You should be saying something to her, not me. She thinks you’ve blown her off. Why can’t you just tell her what’s going on?”
I loosened my collar and ran a hand through my hair. I was in Washington, DC, about to meet with James Rally, one of the billionaire brothers of the notorious Rally Fund, which they used to pay an army of lobbyists to look out for their business interests. The other brother was John Rally. I’d long considered them both rapacious old assholes who’d always been at the top of my list of people to never work with. However, that had never stopped James from approaching me on several occasions, imploring me to manage the campaign of one of his political tools. Rule one in my business was to never let them know that you thought they were scum. I always gave an excuse for why I couldn’t take them on as clients. Not even after Jasper had dried our well did I take them on. But James had come knocking again.
“Damn it,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
I suddenly remembered that I had told James I was taking on Pedro Santiago as a client. He, along with Boomer, must have figured out a way to convince Pedro not to do business with me.
Boomer had managed a candidate for the Rallys on his own, though. I refused to get involved. Their guy had run for governor of Maryland. The Rallys wanted to stop the state from banning fracking. Their candidate lost big on the one hand, but on the other hand, they learned decisively that my father wasn’t the reason Cox and Cox was successful—I was the one who’d put us on the map.
“What is it?” Alex asked after I cursed the air for remembering that I’d told James about Pedro.
“Nothing. It’s just, I can’t say anything to her right now. I’m working things out.” I needed my old man to believe I was shaking in my boots. He’d said he had me in checkmate. James was supposed to enlighten me.
Alex’s sigh was loud, but then he paused. “Okay, but hurry up. I don’t like seeing her this way. She’s such a great person, you know.”
I knew he would understand. Our fathers were cut from the same cloth. I could set the world on fire, and Boomer would only point out what he thought I’d done wrong.
“I know,” I said.
“And I don’t like lying to her either.”
I loathed having to go about doing what needed to be done in such a stealthy manner, but I had no other choice. “How about we cut off all communication until I’m in a better place?”
“Yeah, that sounds like the right thing to do,” he replied without pausing.
I said goodbye to my last lifeline to the woman I loved. My strong legs weakened, and I leaned against the wainscoting. The heater made the air too hot, and it was hard to breathe. I glanced up and down the hallway. There was no way out. Boomer couldn’t make the meeting with James Rally. For a man with Rally’s kind of wealth and prosperity, having an office two stories beneath the ground floor said a lot about his character. Under any other circumstances, I would’ve turned around and gone back the way I came, but instead, I pulled my shoulders back, checked the time on my watch, and knocked on the door.
“Get in here.”
My shoulders tensed up. It was James, but he sounded like Boomer. As I put my hand on the knob, I knew for certain that I was done dealing with men like them. They felt like winners, but they weren’t. They were bullies, willing to use their advantages to get whatever the hell they wanted.
I opened the door. James, with his light-blue eyes, white hair, and permanent frown built from decades of bitterness, scowled at me. “What the hell were you doing out there in the hallway all that time?”
My eyebrows pulled. I’d checked for cameras before I made the call to Alex. I hadn’t seen any. “You heard me?”
“Barely. Sit,” he snapped as if I’d already done something to piss him off.
I knew his demeanor was his first power play. He was setting the tone, letting me know I was the whipping boy and he was the man with the strap.
There were four chairs spread in front of his desk, though. I sat in the one directly across from him and hunched my shoulders, making myself appear vulnerable. I couldn’t say anything. I had to let him go first. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long, though.
“So…” His right eye narrowed to a slit. “You’re going to be our next president?”
I readjusted in my seat. There was no chance in hell that was going to happen. “Apparently.”
“‘Apparently’ is a weak answer for the most powerful man on earth.”
“What Boomer wants—”
He interrupted with a loud snort and then studied me for a few seconds. James’s chair creaked as he leaned back. His old furniture and stuffy office made him seem like a normal asshole who, even though he had more money than God, was still slogging through crap to make ends meet. He was the kind of person who penny-pinched on the crap that mattered and spent elaborately on toys and cunt that didn’t belong to his wife.
He steepled his fingers against his chest. “Forget about Richard. You’re the one with the plan. I want to hear it.”
“It’s too early for that. I just learned about all of this yesterday.”
“You don’t have a lot of time to get moving, though.”
He was right. They were cramming their plan through, ensuring I didn’t have too much space to change my mind. The messed-up part was they were squarely counting on me to orchestrate my own funeral.
James tapped the top of the table. He was nervous, probably wondering if Boomer actually had the juice to make me pull off a victory.
“Give me a few preliminaries, something to chew on,” he said.
“There hasn’t been an unmarried president since James Buchanan.”
“You’re marrying the Lovell girl.” He threw his hands up. “At least she’s a hot piece of ass. Getting her to part her thighs might be hard. But sex is cheap for guys like us.”
There was no use in telling him that Bree had tried to have sex with me on several occasions. Just last weekend, when I was staying at the Lovell estate in Jamestown, she had snuck into my bed, straddled me while I slept, and rubbed my cock. I almost succumbed to the temptation. It had been a long time since I’d had sex. My cock to engage with her vagina. But a man didn’t sink his junk into a woman like Bree Lovell without a condom, period. She’d make it mean more than casual sex. She’d blow up my phone twenty-four seven and spread lies about how I told her I loved her, along with getting herself pregnant and saying I was the father. She was insane, and there was no way in hell I was going to marry her.
“Right,” I said passively. “Also, I look too opportunistic. I’m the guy who’s been getting others elected to office.”
“You don’t think I already know that? I don’t like that you’re telling me what I already know.”
I pressed my lips together. It took every ounce of energy to remain seated. “Because that hurdle is huge, James.”
He thrust himself forward. “I don’t want to hear problems. What’s the solution?”
Stay calm and lie. “There is no solution. I need to win despite my two disadvantages. I’ll be newly married to a Lovell and my job.”
“Solutions,” he reiterated.
“I’m working on them. It won’t be overnight, so you guys can hold your horses.”
James’s laughter slowly built. Once his bitter laugh reached its crescendo, his eyebrows pulled close together, creating deep creases in his forehead. “You think I was born yesterday? I know about you and the Blackstone girl.” When he smirked, a lustful glow gripped his eyes. It was the sort of look that made me want to punch him for thinking of Bryn that way. “That’s grade A twat for you. One dive into that, and you lose all your common sense, all your survival instincts.” James calmly opened the top desk drawer, took out a manila folder, and tossed it in front of me. “Read it.”
Finally, we were getting somewhere. James and I stared at each other. I was waiting for him to show me why he had the upper hand. When his smirk finally appeared, I frowned as if in distress and lifted the folder. I’d been waiting a long time for the moment when I’d find out what Boomer would use against me to keep me in line. I read the top page, then the one beneath it, and then the next and the next. When I was done, I calmly closed the folder and glared at James.
He hadn’t stopped smirking. “I’ll ask you again, what’s your plan? And stop the BS. We have a meeting in…” Just as he checked his gold watch with diamonds around the face, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” James barked like a grumpy pitbull.
The door opened, and in walked Bree, Alice Templeton, and Boomer. Boomer whacked me twice on the shoulder. “Did you get him all softened up for us?”
“Two weeks, hopefully less,” I said.
I could feel Dale staring a hole into my face, but I refused to acknowledge him. After I made the announcement, no one minded that I busied myself sending texts to the travel coordinator for MIND by Bryn Blackstone, asking her to arrange a chartered flight for the extra help being flown in from California. I also sent an email to Jasper’s assistant, who handled family affairs, and asked if she could have the Vail estate prepared for later that afternoon. I tried hard to remain tuned out of their conversation. Eden didn’t mind. She, Alana, and Alex were discussing where in the master bathroom to put her claw-foot soaker tub and what sorts of windows would provide the most privacy. I ate as fast as I could so that we didn’t linger. The longer I sat, the more apt Eden was to ask about Jamison.
“You’re eating fast,” Dale said, his voice rising above the others. I knew he was talking about me.
The table grew quiet. When I looked up from my cell phone, all eyes were on me. My cell phone miraculously chimed and vibrated in my hands. Kat was calling.
“I have to take this,” I said as I shot to my feet.
“Tell Jamison we miss him,” Eden said.
My gaze passed over her and then Dale, who was watching me with narrowed eyes. He knew something was wrong.
I held up a finger, excused myself, and said, “By the way, I’m done with breakfast. We should get to work soon,” and went off to answer Kat’s call.
I tried to get as far away as possible from everyone. I headed toward the living room just as the doorbell chimed. I knew it was the construction crew—they’d called Alex while we were getting out of the vehicle and asked if they could get an early start—so I told Kat to hold on as I ran up two floors and hid in one of the six guest rooms.
“What are you doing?” Kat asked.
My problems were ready to come gushing out of my mouth, but I waited until after I closed the door and walked onto the balcony to tell her all about the last three days with Jamison and how he’d left me without leaving a word.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Bryn. You rarely open yourself up to love in that way and… Hey, I have someone I want you to meet. He’s handsome, kind, and a premier surgeon.”
I jerked my head back. “Is this a setup? Are you trying to set me up?”
Kat laughed. “Well yeah. You’re the perfect woman. It’s damn well time that you fall in love with the perfect man. His name is Dr. Edward Grey, and I am certain he’s the one for you. Hell, all the women in the hospital want him—patients, doctors, nurses, the lady who sells coffee from the cart. If you think about a romance-novel-hero guy, Dr. Grey’s it.”
My smile was lopsided and cynical. “Something’s fishy about that name.”
“He’s not fishy, Bryn.” She went on to say that she’d told him all about me, and he was in Houston for the conference. “Take a break and fly out on one of those private jets and have dinner with us.”
I smashed my lips together, and anxiety fizzled throughout my body. I wasn’t shocked that Kat believed one man could be so easily replaced by another. She wasn’t in my shoes. She stood on the outside, looking at my heart. That was the norm. She was only trying to make me happy because she loved me.
“Thanks so much, sis, but I’m fine. I have to get over Jamison first. And then…”
“You have to get over Jamison?”
I leaned over the balcony, and there was Dale, looking up at me.
Sixteen
BRYN BLACKSTONE
“Damn it,” I muttered and told Kat I had to call her back.
“Quick, are you coming?” she asked.
“No. I’m babysitting the kids this weekend,” I said in a rush. “Sorry, I have to go. Bye.”
I waited until she said goodbye. Then I looked down at Dale again, who was grinning up at me as if he’d just discovered he had winning lottery tickets.
I shook my head. “What the hell are you doing down there?”
“I live here. Then you’re no longer screwing that poser?”
Anger made my eyes burn. What gonads he had to refer to Jamison as a poser when Dale was the biggest phony I’d ever met. There was no use reacting to him, though. If he outed me to everyone else, then so be it. I was ready to tell the truth, anyway, but only if I had to.
So without another word, I turned my back on Dale and walked back into the house. I practically ran down three flights of stairs to rejoin my team, who were already working. Dale hadn’t beat me to them, and that was a relief. With my huge practiced smile and amiable disposition, I joined the gang, and we began placing orders for the new stone counters, Miele appliances, and kitchen furniture.
Surprisingly, Dale hadn’t rubbed my misery in my face. However, he remained close. But unlike two days earlier, he offered no opinions. If I looked, I would catch him staring at me as if he was trying to telepathically let me know how much he wanted to bang my brains out. But I kept my mind on whatever task was at hand, not allowing my mind to wander to the place it wanted to go, which was Jamison Cox. I worked efficiently and joylessly.
Alana made a funny comment about the current beam in the theater room resembling a sex tunnel. “All it needs are feathers, furs, and flashing red lights,” she said with a laugh.
“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Eden crooned.
I realized there was a mood I needed to capture if I wanted to pretend everything was okay with me, but I couldn’t attain it. And the fight to be jovial had suddenly made tears roll out of my eyes.
“Bryn? What’s wrong?” Alana hurried over and took me by the shoulders. “What’s going on?”
I closed my eyes, and my chin quivered as I shook my head. When Alana initiated our hug, and I embraced her back, I broke down crying.
“Eden, could we have a moment, please?” Alana asked.
“Um… sure.” Eden sounded worried.
After a few seconds, Alana told me we were alone. “Is this about Jamison?” Her tone was sympathetic but demanded that I, for once, tell her the truth about my heartache.
I sniffed. “He’s gone. He left without even telling me.”
We sat on the floor, facing each other with our legs crossed. “Damn it,” she spat. “I thought he was one of the good ones.” Alana narrowed an eye. “Are you sure? Because he was totally into you. I would have bet everything I owned on that.”
I bit down on my back teeth to stop my chin from quivering again.
“Breathe, Bryn.” Alana took my hands in hers.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Take your time to breathe. Relax. It’s okay.” She sounded as if she were taking me through a meditation session.
I inhaled deeply and then slowly released the breath. That felt better. I did it three more times before I opened my eyes and smiled faintly.
She raised her eyebrows.
I nodded. “It’s complicated.”
Alana studied me. “You’re the most perceptive person that I know, so when you say it’s complicated, then I have to believe that it’s really complicated. But how is it complicated?”
I took another deep breath. “I think it’s his father, Boomer.”
“Boomer?”
I snorted a chuckle. “Precisely.”
“With a father named Boomer, it sounds like you dodged a torpedo.” We chortled together. “Okay, then, what next?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s over.”
“It’s really over?”
“It’s over.” I sighed.
“Is your heart going to make it through the rest of the day? Because I can handle this if you want to go back to bed.”
“I think so,” I whispered.
She turned her head slightly. “Think?”
I smiled. “I know I can.” The longer we stared at each other, the better I felt. I had some good people in my life, and Alana, my best friend, was at the top of the list. “Sorry I’ve been such a serious and intense killjoy today.”
“That’s not how I saw you at all. I mean, serious and intense, yes, but killjoy? Never.”
I simpered. “Thanks.” I never wanted to think about being disappointed by Jamison again, at least not if I could help it. So I patted Alana on the knee. “By the way, what’s going on between you and Alex?”
Her eyes were alight as she smirked. “A lot. A whole lot.”
Suddenly, Alex bolted into the room. “Hey,” he said, looking at me. “How are you?”
My mouth fell open. Eden must have told him that I was having a breakdown in the theater room.
Alana dipped her head as she looked up at me. “You are fine?”
I winked at her. “I’m fine.”
She beamed at Alex. “She’s fine.”
Seventeen
JAMISON COX
“She said she was fine,” Alex said.
“Fine?”
My voice echoed, so I checked over both shoulders. The hallway, which looked like a setting from The Shining, was empty. I held the phone closer to my ear. “Is that what you saw when you looked at her? That she was fine?”
“No, that’s not what I saw, but that’s what she said. Look, Jamison, I don’t know why you did what you did, but it doesn’t feel right, you asking me how she’s doing. And I’m talking to you, and you’re the one who hurt her. You should be saying something to her, not me. She thinks you’ve blown her off. Why can’t you just tell her what’s going on?”
I loosened my collar and ran a hand through my hair. I was in Washington, DC, about to meet with James Rally, one of the billionaire brothers of the notorious Rally Fund, which they used to pay an army of lobbyists to look out for their business interests. The other brother was John Rally. I’d long considered them both rapacious old assholes who’d always been at the top of my list of people to never work with. However, that had never stopped James from approaching me on several occasions, imploring me to manage the campaign of one of his political tools. Rule one in my business was to never let them know that you thought they were scum. I always gave an excuse for why I couldn’t take them on as clients. Not even after Jasper had dried our well did I take them on. But James had come knocking again.
“Damn it,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
I suddenly remembered that I had told James I was taking on Pedro Santiago as a client. He, along with Boomer, must have figured out a way to convince Pedro not to do business with me.
Boomer had managed a candidate for the Rallys on his own, though. I refused to get involved. Their guy had run for governor of Maryland. The Rallys wanted to stop the state from banning fracking. Their candidate lost big on the one hand, but on the other hand, they learned decisively that my father wasn’t the reason Cox and Cox was successful—I was the one who’d put us on the map.
“What is it?” Alex asked after I cursed the air for remembering that I’d told James about Pedro.
“Nothing. It’s just, I can’t say anything to her right now. I’m working things out.” I needed my old man to believe I was shaking in my boots. He’d said he had me in checkmate. James was supposed to enlighten me.
Alex’s sigh was loud, but then he paused. “Okay, but hurry up. I don’t like seeing her this way. She’s such a great person, you know.”
I knew he would understand. Our fathers were cut from the same cloth. I could set the world on fire, and Boomer would only point out what he thought I’d done wrong.
“I know,” I said.
“And I don’t like lying to her either.”
I loathed having to go about doing what needed to be done in such a stealthy manner, but I had no other choice. “How about we cut off all communication until I’m in a better place?”
“Yeah, that sounds like the right thing to do,” he replied without pausing.
I said goodbye to my last lifeline to the woman I loved. My strong legs weakened, and I leaned against the wainscoting. The heater made the air too hot, and it was hard to breathe. I glanced up and down the hallway. There was no way out. Boomer couldn’t make the meeting with James Rally. For a man with Rally’s kind of wealth and prosperity, having an office two stories beneath the ground floor said a lot about his character. Under any other circumstances, I would’ve turned around and gone back the way I came, but instead, I pulled my shoulders back, checked the time on my watch, and knocked on the door.
“Get in here.”
My shoulders tensed up. It was James, but he sounded like Boomer. As I put my hand on the knob, I knew for certain that I was done dealing with men like them. They felt like winners, but they weren’t. They were bullies, willing to use their advantages to get whatever the hell they wanted.
I opened the door. James, with his light-blue eyes, white hair, and permanent frown built from decades of bitterness, scowled at me. “What the hell were you doing out there in the hallway all that time?”
My eyebrows pulled. I’d checked for cameras before I made the call to Alex. I hadn’t seen any. “You heard me?”
“Barely. Sit,” he snapped as if I’d already done something to piss him off.
I knew his demeanor was his first power play. He was setting the tone, letting me know I was the whipping boy and he was the man with the strap.
There were four chairs spread in front of his desk, though. I sat in the one directly across from him and hunched my shoulders, making myself appear vulnerable. I couldn’t say anything. I had to let him go first. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long, though.
“So…” His right eye narrowed to a slit. “You’re going to be our next president?”
I readjusted in my seat. There was no chance in hell that was going to happen. “Apparently.”
“‘Apparently’ is a weak answer for the most powerful man on earth.”
“What Boomer wants—”
He interrupted with a loud snort and then studied me for a few seconds. James’s chair creaked as he leaned back. His old furniture and stuffy office made him seem like a normal asshole who, even though he had more money than God, was still slogging through crap to make ends meet. He was the kind of person who penny-pinched on the crap that mattered and spent elaborately on toys and cunt that didn’t belong to his wife.
He steepled his fingers against his chest. “Forget about Richard. You’re the one with the plan. I want to hear it.”
“It’s too early for that. I just learned about all of this yesterday.”
“You don’t have a lot of time to get moving, though.”
He was right. They were cramming their plan through, ensuring I didn’t have too much space to change my mind. The messed-up part was they were squarely counting on me to orchestrate my own funeral.
James tapped the top of the table. He was nervous, probably wondering if Boomer actually had the juice to make me pull off a victory.
“Give me a few preliminaries, something to chew on,” he said.
“There hasn’t been an unmarried president since James Buchanan.”
“You’re marrying the Lovell girl.” He threw his hands up. “At least she’s a hot piece of ass. Getting her to part her thighs might be hard. But sex is cheap for guys like us.”
There was no use in telling him that Bree had tried to have sex with me on several occasions. Just last weekend, when I was staying at the Lovell estate in Jamestown, she had snuck into my bed, straddled me while I slept, and rubbed my cock. I almost succumbed to the temptation. It had been a long time since I’d had sex. My cock to engage with her vagina. But a man didn’t sink his junk into a woman like Bree Lovell without a condom, period. She’d make it mean more than casual sex. She’d blow up my phone twenty-four seven and spread lies about how I told her I loved her, along with getting herself pregnant and saying I was the father. She was insane, and there was no way in hell I was going to marry her.
“Right,” I said passively. “Also, I look too opportunistic. I’m the guy who’s been getting others elected to office.”
“You don’t think I already know that? I don’t like that you’re telling me what I already know.”
I pressed my lips together. It took every ounce of energy to remain seated. “Because that hurdle is huge, James.”
He thrust himself forward. “I don’t want to hear problems. What’s the solution?”
Stay calm and lie. “There is no solution. I need to win despite my two disadvantages. I’ll be newly married to a Lovell and my job.”
“Solutions,” he reiterated.
“I’m working on them. It won’t be overnight, so you guys can hold your horses.”
James’s laughter slowly built. Once his bitter laugh reached its crescendo, his eyebrows pulled close together, creating deep creases in his forehead. “You think I was born yesterday? I know about you and the Blackstone girl.” When he smirked, a lustful glow gripped his eyes. It was the sort of look that made me want to punch him for thinking of Bryn that way. “That’s grade A twat for you. One dive into that, and you lose all your common sense, all your survival instincts.” James calmly opened the top desk drawer, took out a manila folder, and tossed it in front of me. “Read it.”
Finally, we were getting somewhere. James and I stared at each other. I was waiting for him to show me why he had the upper hand. When his smirk finally appeared, I frowned as if in distress and lifted the folder. I’d been waiting a long time for the moment when I’d find out what Boomer would use against me to keep me in line. I read the top page, then the one beneath it, and then the next and the next. When I was done, I calmly closed the folder and glared at James.
He hadn’t stopped smirking. “I’ll ask you again, what’s your plan? And stop the BS. We have a meeting in…” Just as he checked his gold watch with diamonds around the face, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” James barked like a grumpy pitbull.
The door opened, and in walked Bree, Alice Templeton, and Boomer. Boomer whacked me twice on the shoulder. “Did you get him all softened up for us?”
