Chapter 38 Elijah
ELIJAH
This is all my fault, but there isn’t time to explain, not if everything is going to work out smoothly.
Calliope stares at me with an open mouth and I can see the shock clashing with the confusion in her eyes.
Trying to regain a handle on the mess created by Victoria has flipped everything on its head and I now can’t even tell whether my plan is going to work.
But I’ll find a way. I have too much riding on this, and more importantly, too much riding on Calliope.
“I–I don’t understand,” she says, her brows knitting together. “Promoting me? Are you kidding me? You think you can just throw that word at me and it will make everything okay? You fled my house yesterday after I finally told you the truth and now I—”
“Calliope!” I surge forward and lightly grasp her shoulders, silencing her.
“I know this doesn’t make sense. I know it’s confusing and crazy and I would explain if I had time, but I don’t.
I don’t have time so I’m asking you—no, I’m begging you, if any of the time we spent together these past two months means anything to you, then please, please trust me. ”
She withdraws from me slightly, curling her shoulders into herself as she gazes up at me.
An array of emotions flickers through her eyes as we stare at one another, and I pray with everything I have that I’ve left enough of a good impression on her that she will trust me.
There just isn’t enough time for me to sit her down and explain everything.
“Please,” I beg. “Just… trust me.”
Her lips press into a fine line and then twist, then she slowly shakes her head and my gut flips as I expect her rejection to come.
“Fine,” she bites out, surprising me. “Just this once. And if you’re screwing me then everything I just said, know that I mean it with every ounce of my heart.”
“I believe you.” Calliope’s shown me her heart. She will do everything and anything to protect her family, and I don’t doubt she’ll have my balls in a chokehold if I ever work against her. If only she could see that I’m doing everything I can to help her.
My grip slackens as she finally steps away from me and crosses her arms over her chest. “So, what now? Why can’t you tell me the truth right now?”
A jingle immediately rises up from my pocket and I pull out my phone. “This is why. Calliope, you should go home.”
“You’re sending me away?”
“It’s about to get crazy here and I don’t want you to get caught up in it, so yes, go home. I’ll call you.”
“Why don’t I believe that?” she mutters under her breath, but just loud enough for me to hear.
“Is this you trusting me?”
Her eyes narrow. “Fine. I’m going home, but only because I already called my friend to come and get me. Not because you told me to.”
“Of course.” My phone continues to ring in my hand and Calliope gives it one last disdainful look and walks right out of my office. I press answer.
“Buster, tell me you have good news.”
“Y’know, when we plan a takeover, there’s usually a bigger window than twenty-four hours,” Buster sighs.
“You’re driving me to an early grave, you know that?
You’re gonna have to look my kids in the eye and tell them why I died, why you worked me into the ground and patted me on the back as I fell into my grave. ”
“You… you don’t have any kids.” I snort.
“Not yet, I don’t. I’m a man of many talents, Elijah. I could have kids out there already.”
“Like you’d ever walk away from someone like that.”
“Dude, I have this cool, suave, uncaring rep I gotta uphold.”
“Does that rep help me right now?”
“Sure it does! I got your lawyers working overtime and the only reason they ain’t dragged you back here and shoved you in front of the board is because of me.”
“What did you do?”
“Honestly?”
“Uh…” I lean back against my desk. “Will this honesty make me an accomplice?”
“Nah. I just used Imogen’s tactic against her.
Cornered her father and swore to rain hell down on him and her for her lies, your arrest, the trauma it caused you, etcetera, and y’know, I guess she has a history of doing things like this because as soon as I mentioned her ex, David? Her father rolled over like a fat sow.”
“Holy shit.”
“So with his magic and the board’s trust, I think we can do this. And my friend should be with you soon.”
“Thanks, Buster. I know this is kind of insane.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Buster groans loudly. “Okay, gotta go.”
Just as I end the call, my heart jumps into my throat as my office door flies open and Jimmy storms in. “You bastard!”
“Excuse me?”
“We’re supposed to be in this together. I signed your shitty contract because it was supposed to be giving me quite the cushy life that would sleepwalk me into a rich retirement, and then you call that damned meeting and start talking about closing shit down?
” He storms toward me, sniffing hard like the air pressure is the only thing keeping his damn nose attached to his face.
“I think you have your wires crossed.”
“Do I?” he roars, prodding me in the chest with a stumpy finger.
“You’re sleeping with an employee? You know how fucked that is?
I’ve got books of rules upon rules that fuck you right up the ass, you know that?
I’m going to bury you for… for disrespecting me, for breaking God knows how many HR rules and worker laws, for screwing over the entire company, for bringing your lewd relationship into my office! ”
A disgusting, subtle spray of saliva lands on my cheek as Jimmy rages, and it takes all of my control to remain calm against my desk.
“And that whore you’re fucking?” Jimmy sneers. “I’m going to sue her too. I’m going to take her to court and rob her of everything she owns until her and that blasted kid of hers end up begging on the street, and then we’ll see if she sucks my cock for—rhk!”
He trails off as both my hands grip onto his shirt and I haul him upward, bringing his face so close to mine that he has to balance on his tiptoes.
“Say that again,” I growl low as anger seeps through me like molten hot iron.
“Day in and day out, I’ve had to listen to your fucking sniveling, acting like you have power to lord over the poor people who work here.
Every damn day poring over your terrible bookkeeping, your even worse attitude to your workers, and that sickening line you toe between polite and offensive.
It’s a wonder this place is still standing after your thick-headed business decisions.
But you know? I could have overlooked it all if not for the fact that your fucking coke habit has destroyed your nose to the point that you can’t even breathe without sounding like a snotty fucking toddler.
It grates on me so I say this with my whole fucking heart. ”
“Let—me go!” Jimmy gasps, struggling against my hold. Behind him, my door opens once again, only this time, several police officers walk in.
“Mr. Baird?” The leading officer glances between the two of us.
“Yeah,” I mutter. “Buster’s friend?”
“Yes, sir.”
My eyes slide back to Jimmy as he cranes around, trying to glimpse who I’m talking to. “Fuck you, Jimmy. I hope you rot.”
Twenty-four hours later, I arrive on Calliope’s doorstep with a large bouquet of flowers and a prayer. Jimmy, of course, didn’t go quietly, which turned into yet another fiasco, and before I knew it, time got away from me. Knocking quietly on the door, I cradle the flowers to my chest and wait.
The sound of running footsteps up the stairs catches my attention, followed by a distant cry of ‘I don’t want to’, and then silence. A moment later, the lock clicks and the door slides open.
“Listen, I don’t care—oh.” Calliope’s face falls immediately. “It’s you.”
“Calliope.”
“Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.”
As she moves to shut the door, I hold out my hand to block it and wince as the impact sends a shock of pain up my wrist. “Sorry. Calliope, please let me explain.”
“You said you’d call.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t. I’m done. I’m not here to be trailed around like some idiot. Find someone else to mess with, Elijah.”
“No, please. I’m here because I wanted to explain in person. I would have called but I ended up spending hours talking to the cops, and time got away from me.”
That catches her attention and she looks at me with a distinct warmth of concern in her eyes. Seeing it gives me hope that she still cares about me. “The cops?”
“Yeah. It’s… it’s a long story. Please, can I come in?”
Calliope chews on the edge of her lip for a long moment, studying me, then she sighs deeply and steps aside. “Fine. Wait in the living room.”
Per her instruction, the living room is where I head and I settle onto the couch as I wait for her.
Her footsteps track upstairs where muted yelling comes from her, Nick, and her mother.
An argument of some kind ends with several doors slamming, and then footsteps rush down the stairs.
Calliope walks into the living room with her hair now scraped back into a ponytail and she crosses her arms just under her bust.
“You have five minutes.”
“These are for you.” Standing, I offer her the bouquet and when she doesn’t move to accept it, I lay the flowers down on the table.
“Four minutes,” she says stiffly.
“Right. Calliope. I’m sorry for the past few days. I know they must be insanely confusing and make it seem like I don’t care, but I swear everything I’ve been doing is because I do care about you, deeply.”
Her expression doesn’t change.
“When you… when you told me about Nick… I couldn’t breathe. It felt like the world was spinning but somehow, I had stuck staying still. You know that falling sensation you get in your chest sometimes when something is just… too much? It was like that but amplified.”
Calliope’s brows waver slightly.