Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
STONE
“Do you think this is a good idea?” Adam asks from my side as we pull up to the building Hazel’s sperm donor works at.
“Probably not, but she hasn’t been the same since she saw him.” I pull the handle of the door as we come to a stop and step out onto the sidewalk. “I can’t leave the city without doing this.”
I stroll into the lobby bustling with people coming back from lunch or meetings. Whatever the fuck corporate workers spend their days doing. A security guard stands to greet us.
“Who are you here for?” he asks before doing a double take. “Are you Stone Tyler?”
“Yes,” I answer quietly. “I’m here to see Elliot Archer.”
“Do you have an appointment?” he stammers.
“No. I’m here on business, though.” Hazel is my business.
“I’m not supposed to allow anyone up without an appointment.”
I look down at his name tag before meeting his eyes. “I get that, Matt. I don’t want to cause trouble. I was just thinking about moving here, and I hear he’s the best guy in finance.”
“He is great at what he does, but policy?—”
“Are you a Blue Sunday fan?” I interrupt.
“Yes.”
“What if I gave you two tickets to the concert tomorrow night?”
“Four?”
I chuckle. “Sure.”
He slaps a guest key card on the desk and gives us the floor we need. After Adam gets his information, we walk over to a bank of elevators and wait for the next car. To gain access to his floor, we have to use the key card. The elevator lurches and then starts its ascent.
“What are you going to say to him?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my arms out, working the agitation through my fingertips. “Figured I’d just wing it.”
“Solid plan.” He nods. “Let’s do this.”
The elevator stops, and we step out into a lobby area with Calcutta marble floors and walls. On either side of the lobby area are glass doors with the name of the financial company etched onto them. We go to the left where an administrative assistant sits behind a desk. He looks up as we enter.
“Hello, can I help you?” He gives me a double take that’s identical to the security guard downstairs and scrambles out of the chair. “Mr. Tyler. Hi, hello.” The longer I look at him, the younger he looks. “I’m just an intern, Heather, the receptionist, stepped away from her desk.”
“It’s okay,” I wave him off so he relaxes. This is actually perfect. “I’m just here to see Elliot Archer.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. His office is just down that hall and to the right. You can’t miss it.” He points us in the right direction. “I love your music. I’m actually going to the concert this weekend.”
“Oh yeah?” I reach out a hand.
“Yeah.” He grasps it and gives it a shake. “I’m excited.”
“Great. Thanks, that’s always nice to hear.”
“Sure, yeah.” He’s still star struck as we turn down the corridor.
“That was lucky,” Adam murmurs.
“No shit.” I reply quietly.
We come up to the door, and I rap my knuckles on the wood twice before grabbing the knob and twisting. It doesn’t open, but I can hear movement inside the office. A male voice calls out to wait a second. I look over at Adam with an arched brow.
After a minute of waiting, a petite brunette opens the door, her blouse just the slightest bit askew. “Can I help you?” she asks.
“No. I need to speak to him.” I bypass her, noting the lingering scent of sex in the air.
Funny that Hazel mentioned his wife being a willowy blonde. The woman with a gaping mouth doesn’t fit either of those descriptors. I’ll use that to my advantage.
“Who are you?” Elliot Archer stands behind his mahogany desk with anger flashing in his eyes. “Get out before I call security.”
“Tyler Stone. Hazel’s boyfriend.”
At my use of her name, his demeanor changes. “Heather, it’s fine.” He dismisses the woman standing in the office doorway. “I’ll speak with him privately.”
“Screwing the secretary. How unoriginal,” I say as the door closes behind her.
“What do you want? I already told Hazel I’m not interested in a relationship with her.”
“Don’t worry, she’s not interested in that either. I’m just here to make sure you understand that if she wants a relationship with her siblings, you’re going to stay out of it.”
“I’ll do no such thing.”
“It’d be a shame to tell your wife about Heather. Then again, what’s the phrase,” I look at Adam briefly as I search my mind for it. “Oh yeah, lose ‘em how you get ‘em. She probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out that you’ve been cheating.”
He sighs and sits down. “I don’t even understand why she’s here. What would make her think about coming after all these years.”
“She’s on a book tour. Have you not seen her on television over the past few months?” What rock does he live under? I don’t think he recognizes me, but that’s not too surprising, given his age.
“A book tour?” He looks genuinely surprised. His eyes, a perfect match to Hazel’s, widen a bit.
“Christ. You might want to google your daughter at some point.” I don’t mask a bit of my disgust at him. “She wants nothing to do with you, but if and when she reaches out to Sara and Nate, you’re not going to interfere.”
“They don’t know about her. It’ll hurt them to find out they’ve had a sister all this time.”
“Yeah, it probably will. Imagine how much worse it’ll be if she’s the one to tell them.”
I’m willing to throw money at him, too, if it comes to it, but I’m not going to offer unless I have to. He seems like the type to happily accept a payout.
“You’re her boyfriend?” he asks, steepling his fingers against his face. “Would she take a payout? Most publishing deals aren’t that big.”
“She doesn’t want or need your money.”
“Everyone wants more money than they have.”
I shake my head in disgust. “Not when their integrity means more than the number of zeros in their bank account.”
“What did you say your name was?”
“Tyler Stone.”
“Well, Tyler, it’s time for you to leave. You’d be wise to remember I don’t respond well to threats.”
“Likewise.”
He sneers at me as I walk out into the hall and rejoin Adam.
“Done?” Adam asks.
“Yep. He’s exactly what I expected.”
“A dickhead?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to tell Hazel?”
“Eventually. I don’t want to bring it up right now, though.” She’s been off. We’ve talked about our mental health struggles, and I can tell she’s fighting through hers. Her dad has already caused her to spiral once, I won’t risk a second time.
“Hopefully the girls' night will give her something else to focus on.”
“They should be back from her signing by the time we’re at the hotel. Who’s going with them tonight?”
“Dan.”
“Just Dan? You should go, too.”
“I don’t know if they want that many guys crashing their night.”
“Their safety is more important than their girls' night.”
He lifts his eyebrows as step onto the elevator. “You want to tell them that?”
“I’m not scared.”
I probably should be.
Jade stands in front of me, arms crossed over her chest and scowl on her face. “Absolutely not.”
Xander grins at me from over her shoulder. I tried to get a read on her mood from him on the way home, but when I asked him, he just told me she was in her usual hellcat mood. Which means he did something to piss her off, as usual.
“I’m not saying you should take the entire security team, just more than Dan and Adam.”
“Who’s going to keep an eye on you, then?”
“Me,” Xan says, deliberately stoking the fire.
She snorts and turns to him, jumping when she sees how close he is. “That sounds like a PR blitz to save your careers if I’ve ever heard one.”
“None of us are going out. We have sound check all day tomorrow.”
“Darren will be here to keep us in line,” Xan says. “Hazel is beginning to be recognized out in public. It would make Dan’s job easier if he had someone assigned with him.”
A tense standoff ensues between the three of us, but she finally relents. “Fine, but we’re just doing a fitness class and then grabbing dinner. It’s not like we’re going out clubbing.”
I wrap my arms around her, binding her arms to her sides and rock back and forth. “Thank you.”
Now I won’t spend every minute they’re gone spiraling into an anxiety fueled crash out over the worst case scenarios.
“Ugh, let me go.” She gives me a devilish smile as I drop my arms. “I’m surprised you want more men watching us spin around on poles, but we’ll make sure to give them a good show.”
“Wait, what?” I ask as she walks past me, her ponytail swinging.
Xander steps up beside me, just as curious.
“Night, boys,” she says over her shoulder as she walks out of the room.