98. Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter ninety-eight
Reid
Idon’t even try to process reasons why my father would be standing at Gabe’s door with Carrie beside him. I grab her, pull her inside the door and shut it again. “How the hell are you with my fucking father?”
“I guessed that you would be here and when I arrived he was standing in the lobby waiting on me. I have no idea if it was a coincidence or he somehow knew I was coming. I don’t think so, though. I didn’t even know I was coming until I made the last-minute decision to come after you.”
“Who knew?”
“Just Walker Security. I called them. I wasn’t going out alone. Savage is in the hallway, too. He didn’t want me to ride up with your father alone.”
“I didn’t want you with him at all and if you were home, he wouldn’t be.”
Her cheeks burn red. “I’m not a kept woman,” she snaps. “I don’t hide while you solve problems. If that’s what you want, a yes girl who you can shut out when you don’t want me to tell you you’re making stupid decisions, then you’re engaged to the wrong person.”
Gabe laughs from the other room and I ignore the little prick. “I’m engaged to the right woman who put herself in the wrong place.”
“No comment on the part where you wanted me at arm’s length and I couldn’t talk you out of something you’d regret tomorrow?”
Damn woman knows me a little too well for my own good right now, but I’m too pissed to appreciate how good that probably is for me. “I have plenty to say to you, Carrie. Just not here and not now.” I don’t give her time to reply. “Gabe!” I call out, and I’ve barely said his name before my brother is by our sides. I release Carrie and turn to face him. “What the hell is dad doing here?”
“I have no idea,” Gabe says. “He’s not even on the security list.”
“He walked to the elevator without being stopped,” Carrie counters, folding her arms in front of her, her anger at me, not my father, damn near palpable. Well, I’m fucking angry, too. I don’t want her around my father. I don’t want her exposed to another encounter with Elijah. “He’s clearly still got access,” Carrie adds.
“Or the guards thought he was with you,” Gabe says. “You have access.”
The doorbell rings. My jaw clenches. “Damn it, I do not want to deal with him right now.”
“He knows about Elijah,” Carrie says. “He said something is in the air and he’s not letting you go down. I think you have to listen to him.”
I scrub my neck and glance at Gabe, who gives a hard shake of his head. “It could be a ploy to get back into the company,” I say. “He could be working with Elijah.”
“Either way,” Gabe says. “We need to know why he’s here.”
He’s right. I don’t like it, but he is. I look at Carrie. “I’m stepping outside. He’s not coming in.” I reach for the door and she grabs my arm.
I turn to face her and the tension between us crackles hot and sure. “He really could be working with Elijah,” she says. “My father called. He could tell I’m upset and I told him we had an enemy we were dealing with. He immediately knew it was Elijah. He said Elijah tried to get him to partner with him to take you down and take back the company, but he didn’t want the company, as we all now know. If he tried with my father, he might try with yours.”
“Agreed.” I pull her to me again. “I don’t want you near him. I left you behind for a reason. To protect you.”
“Funny thing,” she says. “I feel safer by your side than alone in a big apartment.”
“If you were there you wouldn’t have just been with him because I guarantee you, if he said something to you, I won’t like when I find out about it.” Her eyes flicker and she cuts her gaze. “Of course he did.” I set her away from me. “I’m putting some space between him and you because if he goes at you, I might just punch him tonight.”
“That would be one of those bad decisions.”
“You sure about that?”
“Actually, no, I’m not in this case.” She turns and walks away as if giving me permission to punch my father and I wonder what he said to her before she made it to this door.
I turn and share a look with Gabe before I open the door and face off with my father. He arches a brow. “Done debriefing your woman?”
“What do you want?”
“Invite me in.”
“What do you want?” I repeat.
He turns and starts walking, playing a game that I’m not going to play. I shut the door. I’m not going after him. Gabe steps in front of me and arches a brow like dad did. “What just happened?”
“I’m not inviting him in.” I start walking to the kitchen.
“I’ll invite him in,” Gabe says, walking to the door.
He disappears outside and I find Carrie removing her coat and laying it on a barstool at the end of the island, her eyes on me. “You should have let him in,” she says. “We need to know what he knows.”
Blake rotates to face me. “Elijah’s presently talking to a reporter at a coffee shop near his house. I’d let your father in because I can tell you that the meeting is happening, but so far there is nothing in writing that tells me why.”
The door opens behind me and my father and Gabe walk in. I claim a spot at the island next to Carrie, my mind racing over that press meeting. Is that bastard going to out me as a cheat? I wouldn’t care if not for Carrie. My father walks toward us, a snide look on his face I want to smack off, but the press meeting has my attention.
“What do you know?” I demand as Gabe claims the spot next to me.
He eyes Blake. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare if you try to screw anyone in this room,” he says. “But feel free to ignore me. I like it that way.”
My father studies him for several beats and then looks at me, dismissing Blake. “Elijah came to see me. He wanted me to help take you down, to regain my spot in the company. I declined.”
“Why tell me now when you didn’t tell us then?”
“Our banker called me,” he says.
Blake punches in a few keys on his MacBook. “Confirmed.”
Our father smirks and continues. “He heard murmurs that Elijah was going after you. From my read on Carrie downstairs, you’re already aware of this problem.”
“He confronted me today,” Carrie says. “He tried to turn me against Reid, but he can’t turn me against the man I love.”
“If that’s supposed to impress me,” my father says, “it doesn’t.” He looks at me. “She’s a weakness and not only does she know it, he knows it.”
My jaw clenches. “Don’t be a bigger prick than you already are.”
“My point is,” he says, “that the women in our lives, the loves of our lives, become targets we must manage.”
“What do you know about love?” I ask.
“I loved your mother,” he says. “And when I let that be known, I was attacked. I almost lost the company over your mother.”
My fingers curl in my palms and Carrie grabs my arm. Gabe presses his hands on the island endcap and says, “Get to the point and leave the insults to mom out of this.”
“The point,” he says, his gaze meeting mine, “is what are you thinking about tonight? Carrie or the company? If your answer is Carrie, he won. You’re distracted. You’re not looking for the ways he’s coming for you. You’re thinking about protecting her, not the company.”
I inhale and he smirks. “I’m right. He outsmarted you tonight. He won. Make sure he doesn’t continue to win.” He turns and walks toward the door.
The minute the door shuts, Carrie turns to face me. “Say the first thing that comes to your mind.”
I don’t say a word. I ignore Gabe and Blake, lace my fingers with hers and start walking toward Gabe’s office where we can be alone and I can tell her exactly what’s on my mind, which is not for anyone else’s ears but hers.