100. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter one hundred
Carrie
War.
Again.
Reid leads me toward the door of Gabe’s office with that word in the air. Reid is going to war, we are going to war, and while this isn’t our first battle, no matter what, a war with family is different than war with someone who had no connection or motivation to protect you. Elijah wants to hurt, even destroy Reid. Reid will hurt him first, though. Destroy him first. Reid doesn’t lose no matter what that means. I know this about my soon-to-be husband.
Reid reaches for the doorknob, but a sudden thought has me pulling him back. “Wait.”
He turns to face me, arching one of his arrogant brows. “You want to fuck before we go out there?”
I laugh, relieved that he now officially seems to be more himself than he was even a few minutes ago. “No. I do not want to fuck before we go back out there. I swear you will say anything.”
“It’s all or nothing, right? This is the real me. I always want to fuck you.”
“Let’s hope you say that ten years from now,” I joke, but as I settle my hand on his chest, I sober quickly. “Maybe you need to tell Gabe about the shooting. Blake’s a hacker. He probably knows. Actually, how does Gabe not know? Wasn’t there press? Wasn’t that what your father worried about?”
“My father paid big to keep my name out of the press,” he says. “And Gabe had just broken his leg. He was in his own world at the time.”
“If you don’t tell him now, it could come out. Elijah could use this against you in some way. I’m not sure how, but you told me about his wife. He couldn’t shock me. How’s Gabe going to react to not knowing something this big?”
He looks skyward, seeming to struggle with this decision, his jaw flexing before he fixes me in a turbulent stare. “You’re right,” he says, surprisingly without resistance. “Cat knows. I can’t leave him on the outside. I also can’t have that conversation with him with Blake here. I can’t have it with you here either, Carrie.”
“I understand that completely. When Blake leaves, I’ll ask him to walk me home and I don’t think Blake’s going to bring this up, even if he knows, not unless it’s one-on-one with you.”
He takes my hand and kisses it. “Maybe if I tell Gabe this, he’ll tell me what the hell fucked with him, because something did.”
“Yes. Something did and maybe he will.”
He leads me to the door and opens it for me, and we rejoin Gabe and Blake in the kitchen. “What do we know now?” Reid asks as we step to the endcap of the island with Blake to our right and Gabe to our left.
“Aside from the banker,” Blake says. “Elijah has contacted several of your clients and from what I can tell, he tried to call your assistant, Reid. She didn’t take the call.”
“Connie wouldn’t betray you,” I say. “You’ve told me how loyal she is.”
“No,” I say, pulling my phone from my pocket. “She wouldn’t, which is why I need her to call him back.” Reid glances at Blake. “Do we have his phone tapped?”
“We do now.”
“Anything else I need to know before calling her?” I ask.
Blake looks at Gabe. “How loyal is your assistant? Because she’ll be next.”
“I trust her. She’ll come to me if it happens, but I’ll prepare her for it tomorrow.”
Reid punches in Connie’s number and places her on speaker. “Yes, your highness?” she answers.
I laugh, “Hi, Connie and before you reply, Gabe is here, too, as well as Blake Walker from Walker Security.”
“Did I eat at my desk one too many times or what?” Connie says with so much seriousness that I give another silent laugh. No wonder this woman has been with him for so long. He can’t intimidate her.
“You got a call tonight that you didn’t take,” Reid says.
“I did?” Connie asks. “When and who?”
“Yes,” Reid says. “You did. Did you get a voicemail?”
“Hold, please,” she says, and a few seconds later, she’s back. “No message. I repeat: Who called me and why is it a problem?”
“Elijah,” I say, aware that Reid keeps her prepped on anyone who’s a problem and since this isn’t the first time Elijah has been a problem, or even the second time, she knows him well. “And,” I add, “he’s not only trying to ruin Reid and all of us, he decided to start with me. He followed me to a wedding venue today. He even grabbed me.”
“My God,” she says. “Why exactly is this man so damn obsessed with you, Reid?”
I grab Reid’s arm because I know he doesn’t want to have this conversation. He inhales a slow breath and I know he knows what I know; Elijah will tell her about his wife. In the past, he might have wanted it to be hush-hush but now, that’s changed. Reid doesn’t debate with himself long and without preamble he says, “I fucked his wife several years back. I didn’t know she was his wife. He’s trying to say I did and I even fucked her in his bed. All lies.”
I wait for the bombshell reaction that doesn’t come. “Good Lord, does he not have another woman yet to get him over this?”
“Amen to that,” Gabe says. “But he’s still with his wife.”
“And he’s suddenly obsessed with Reid again?” Connie asks. “Is this over the merger? I mean, it can’t be the wife after years have passed, so why now?”
“Good question,” I say. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“Maybe I should call his wife, not him,” Connie suggests. “If anyone knows a man, it’s his woman. Anyone got a number?”
Call the wife.
This idea intrigues me.
Reid obviously knows it, too, because he pulls me round to face him. “No. The end. You’re not calling her.”
“Yes, but—”
“No. I will send you away and you won’t be able to stop me. I swear to you I will hire whoever it takes to kidnap you and take you to another country.”
“You’re being an asshole,” I say. “Who isn’t even listening to options.”
“Enjoy, baby, because it only gets better,” he promises and then turns his attention back to the call. “Connie, call him back and then call us back.”
“Will do,” she says. “Do I hate you for being such an asshole, which you are by the way, or am I in love with you and wish you’d have sex with me?”
“Connie,” Reid warns.
“Yeah, yeah, boss. I’ll wing it like I always do.” She hangs up.
Gabe clears his throat. “I think Carrie should call the wife.”
Reid whirls on him. “Office. Now.”
Gabe casts him a hard stare. “Want to throw down, brother? Bring it on.”
The two of them start walking and my heart squeezes with the certainly that Reid’s about to tell Gabe about the past. I look at Blake. “You know about the shooting, right?”
“Yes. I know.”
“Gabe doesn’t. He’s going to tell him. Objectively, do you think I should try to make contact with the wife?”
“I’m pleading the fifth because my wife is an ex-FBI agent and I’d still be worried about her. He loves you. He won’t survive you getting hurt. That’s clear.”
The idea that losing me would destroy Reid isn’t a good one. Being loved that much is special, but I love him back too much to want him to ever feel such pain. My cellphone rings and I walk to my purse where I set it with my coat and grab it to find Cat’s number on the caller ID. “Oh God. This is Cat. What if Elijah went after her, too?”