Chapter 10
How did I become a stalker again?
Devyn
It was scary the amount of information twenty dollars could buy. If I had more, I’d have given it to him, but that had been the last of my cash. And really, more cash than I usually carried. I didn’t need it, really, although I was second-guessing that now.
Hess. I wasn’t given a last name, but since he probably shouldn’t have given me anything and he did give me an addy, that was fine.
Hess lived in a small apartment and had a pretty low-end job for the son of the elite.
Had I not first seen him at the country club, I’d have never thought him to be from, as my father says, “the right kind of stock.”
I shivered at the expression. But really, I was no better than my father right now. I grabbed all the information I could get on the guy and boom, started to track him down. I wouldn’t say I was stalking him, but also… Fine, I was stalking him, and even I didn’t understand why.
He was just a guy. There was nothing special about him. At least nothing I’d seen. Sure, he smelled good, and objectively he was hot as heck, but there were plenty of nice-smelling hot dudes out there.
But this one called to me to the point of me waiting outside his home, and then following him to the freaking hospital.
What was wrong with me? Curiosity was one thing, but tracking down the guy as if he were my prey, even I had to draw a line there.
Only, I didn’t. I was still sitting outside the hospital wondering where he would go next.
I’d have stayed there far too long and probably gotten my ass arrested had it not been for my father’s “emergency” text.
He needed to see me in his office within the hour or “it will not end well.” My father was not a man to make idle threats, and as much as I longed to stay outside the hospital, I headed to my father’s house.
I hated the place. It had once been my home, but I’d been young. And even if I hadn’t been very young, it was nothing like it had once been.
When Father married Bea, she redesigned the place which was to be expected. No one wanted to live with the former wife’s sofa, cushions or curtains. Now I had no connection to the place which suited me just fine. I kept my memories in my heart, not in four walls and a roof.
I pulled up to the gate. Once upon a time, all I had to do was show up and the gates would open.
But ever since I graduated high school, I now had to play the game.
I rolled down my window and pressed the call button.
Exactly thirty seconds later, Alfred, my father’s household manager, would answer, asking me who I was.
It was always 30 seconds. I envisioned the man waiting there and counting Mississippis until he could press the stupid button.
More than once I wondered if that was even his real name or if my father desperately wanted to be cool as a fictional superhero that he made Alfred the title of the position, but in secret. That way he could always have an Alfred.
“It’s me. Rein’s son,” I called back.
“I’m sorry, but that doesn’t answer the question, sir.” Alfred was really pushing it today, especially since I was the one beckoned here. It wasn’t as if I was just randomly showing up.
“My father said he needed me ASAP and to come here, Alfred. Is that not the case? I was in the middle of something important that I’d like to get back to.
” I could easily have given him my name.
But for some reason, having extra hoops to jump through when I didn’t want to be here in the first place burned my ass more than usual today.
He didn’t answer with words, the gate opening instead.
I drove on in and parked right in front of the main entrance like the passive-aggressive asshole I was after having to play games at the gate.
Father hated when I parked out front. And it wasn’t only me.
He hated when anyone did it. He thought it was tacky.
The rest of the world thought it was convenient to park close to your entrance of choice. But whatever.
I jogged up the stairs and knocked… loudly.
On this, I was a bit surprised. Sure, playing games with me at the gate seemed pretty on brand for my family, but once I was permitted in, they usually had someone at the door, opening it before I could raise my hand to knock. Father was on a roll tonight.
I knocked for a second time, and Trisha opened up. “Sorry, sir, I was in the next room.” Poor thing looked frazzled. She’d worked for the household since my father was a child, and you could see every year of it in her eyes. She was broken, and I hated it for her.
“It’s no worries, Trisha.” I stepped inside and hugged her like I used to do. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too, sir.” She hugged me back. “Your eyes, they are so like your mother’s.”
“Thank you for the compliment.” For it was one. “Is my father in his study?” Because you couldn’t have an office at home. That was sooooo entry-level-remote-employee and unbefitting a man of his stature.
“He is.” She gave me a pat on the shoulder. “You come see me before you leave. I have some homemade cookies with your name on them.”
“I will. I promise.” I left off the part about if my father let me. That has always been the case around here and never needed stating.
I walked to the back of the house and down the corridor to his study. My father had to have googled “pretentious studies for assholes” when he redecorated his room, because that was exactly what it shouted the second you took a step inside. He even had the globe mini-bar. So… just so…
I knocked on the door frame, and the door opened. I knew better than to just walk inside, expected or not.
“Come in, Son. What took you so long?”
He knew full well that he had slowed me down, assuring I’d be later than he wanted. He did always like to make me the bad guy and never once cared if that was factually accurate or not.
“I got caught up at the gate.” I waited, and when he signaled me, I came in and took the seat in front of his desk. “I’m assuming this is about the job?”
“It is. I’m trying to snag a company that is on its way down. The merger will give us some real estate, as well as shoring up the market for two of our divisions.”
He explained the whys of this being important and how there were lots of bidders. I still had no idea what any of that had to do with me. It turned out that was because rationality had left the building and my father took a left turn into soap opera land.
“So the thing is, I need a leg up.”
“That’s what money’s for, Father. You taught me that.” Time and time again he taught me that, usually at the expense of being even a semi-decent father.
“True indeed, but they need more than money. People have been tossing that at them from left to right.”
I waited for him to continue, wondering what the heck this had to do with me. So far, I couldn’t see a single freaking thing.
“I need you to marry their kid. And before you turn me down, there are things to consider, the biggest being your personal welfare.” He leaned back in his chair, as if he just won the freaking lottery, not that he’d care about those peanuts. So, the lottery but better.
“It’s the only way to get it without overbidding. But if you don’t want to, I guess I can name Roy as CEO for a while.”
“Roy is a moron. If he takes over—”
“Stocks will plummet, all of my money will be lost plus the funds of thousands of investors who trusted us. It would be a shame to hurt so many innocent people, especially when there is a simple solution.” He was enjoying this too much.
More than anything, I wanted to make this a lose situation for him.
But I couldn’t. He would do it just to spite me.
They would bounce back, but not until after pesky things like my electric bill were due.
And he’d piled on the guilt. Me not agreeing would have many families losing money, people who couldn’t afford to.
I’m sure the guy I was supposed to marry didn’t want this any more than I did. We could figure out a way for us to live separately or something. I could probably even convince him to have an open marriage where we dated who we wanted.
Yeah, we could do that, and then maybe I could bolster the courage to approach Hess.
“Okay. You win. When’s the wedding?”