14. ASH
14
ASH
I intended to go straight home from Eve’s, but a text from my brother pulls me back into reality and the deal I need to close soon. I drive over to Ford’s house, where I find Hardy pacing back and forth on the veranda. When I pull in, he practically takes two steps at a time to reach my car.
“What’s going on?” I say as I swing my door open.
“Dad’s in town and wants to meet the client.” Hardy’s eyes slant down in disappointment, but his skittish behavior makes me think he’s hiding something.
“When?”
“He’ll be in the office tomorrow.”
I immediately think of Eve and how that affects her when my focus should be on this deal. This is my chance to stand out from my brothers and perhaps have my father’s approval on something.
“There’s something else.” Hardy’s voice is shaky, and his gaze avoids mine until he nods toward the house.
“Ash.” My name coming from her lips gives me goose bumps. I didn’t need to turn around to see who it was.
“Sorry, man.” Hardy slaps my arm, then slinks back to the house.
I follow behind him, my mind racing about why Sasha would be here. I reach the top of the steps just as Hardy walks past her into the house. She leans against the railing, wearing a long back pea coat, similar to the one she would wear with nothing underneath back in the day.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” The sound of her voice immediately triggers old memories I’d rather stay buried.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I shove my hands in my pockets, afraid they will automatically wrap around her neck if I don’t hold myself back.
“You would know if you answered one of the many texts and calls I left on your phone.” She looks too comfortable in my presence.
“No need to.”
“Oh… there is a need.” She pushes herself from the railing and walks over to me, dragging her feet, just like she used to do to tease me when I’d tell her to come closer.
I sighed, my concern growing that neither of my brothers warned me she was anywhere near here. They knew the pain and humiliation she had caused me. “Get to the fucking point, Sasha.”
An evil grin spreads across her face. “Still as impatient as ever, Ash. I missed you.” She attempts to touch my face, and I swiftly grab her wrist. “Ooh… reminds me of our bedroom games. I thought it would be a little harder to get you into being my Dom again.”
“Fuck off.” I’m tempted to walk past her and go inside, but something didn’t seem right. My nosey brothers weren’t even listening at the door.
“I guess we aren’t reminiscing first.” Sasha’s lips draw tight, and her hands fall to her side.
“Just say whatever the fuck it is.” I wave my hand in a forward motion.
“I’m your new client.” As she drops that bomb, a smile spreads across her lips, her eyes shimmering with delight.
“Client?”
“The deal you’re working. I’m the new contact.”
I stood silent, not wanting to provoke her in case she wasn’t lying. This must be why my brothers are conspicuously absent from us.
“Carl is my uncle and wants me in the family business.”
I knew she was related to Carl, but I thought she was an ocean away in London. Carl was brokering the deal and doing the cleanup. We need to get the financials off the books and pay off everyone who was owed something before we took over the business. We would get the casino once we paid off their debts.
“Carl mentioned nothing to me.” I glance over to the window, where I see the curtain move and the shadow of one of my brothers.
“He mentioned it to your dad. I’m sorry. I stepped in after that happened. I know you wanted to handle this on your own.” As her hand brushes against my arm, a wave of old memories washes over me, causing me to withdraw. She knew how much my father bothered me. She’d seen it when we were together.
“Is that why he’s coming back?” With a slightly calmer voice, I turn back to her, channeling all my anger toward him.
“Yes. Tomorrow we will all meet at your office. I wanted to see you before, to hear what you want. I will favor you.”
I was perfectly fine without her favor. She didn’t give a shit about me. All those years ago, she betrayed me, and I’d never let her do that again. “And Carl?”
“He debriefed me. I’m aware of the terms and deadlines you want to meet.” She pulls a piece of paper from her pocket and passes it to me.
“What’s this?” I take it from her hand and open it.
“This is a cleanup list. My uncle wasn’t very good with the books. There are more names.” She points to the bottom of the list, where unfamiliar names are listed in red. “Thirty more.”
“I can’t pay thirty more, Sasha.” I step back from her as if the paper had lit my hand on fire.
“I know it’s a lot. And Carl didn’t do his due diligence. But I promise you, this is the full list.” She steps back, sensing I need my personal space after this news.
“This changes the deal. I don’t have the money to pay thirty more people off. This deal is no longer viable.” I pace back and forth, my heart racing from the number of new payoffs and having to see my father in the morning.
“We will try to work with what we have and renegotiate. I’ll do my best. But you can’t get out of the deal, Ash. They won’t let you.”
“What do you mean, won’t fucking let me? We’re the fucking McKenzies, Sasha.”
“Well, that once meant something, but not anymore.” She doesn’t care that her comment will set me off. “Admittedly, there’s been no one to challenge you. But there’s disarray between you and your brothers.”
She’s right, but how the fuck did she know about our business? One of us would take over when our father steps down, and it should be Hardy as the oldest. But he didn’t want it or care. He was too busy with his clubs and girlfriends and was nowhere near settling down. No one would take him seriously if he didn’t.
“So, what do we do?” My stomach churned at asking her that question, at needing her help after she had cheated on me while engaged. She treated me as if I meant nothing to her while being with the man I despised the most behind my back for over a year.
“We have a plan. Part of that plan is your father. He needs to come back full-time and take some control, if only in name.”
I shake my head. Conceding to my father was the last thing I wanted to do. “He won’t do it in name only. You remember him, right?”
A smile creeps on her face, and a hint of wistfulness lingers in her expression, hinting at the memories of our past. “He will. We will handle him with care. I have a plan.”
“Are they aware of this?” I gesture toward the house where my brothers hid.
“No one will know as much as you.” She places her hand on my arm. “I promise, Ash. I want to make up for everything I did.” She walks past me and down the stairs. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
I don’t reply but watch as she walks to her car in her dainty high heels, the ones I loved seeing her naked in. I shake my head at the memory. She didn’t deserve my thoughts.
“Hey.” Hardy steps out and waves to Sasha as she drives out of the driveway.
“So you know about as much as I do.” My hands grip the railing, turning my fingers white.
“That’s a shitty deal, Ash. You gonna listen to her?”
“Sounds like I have no choice.”
“Just stay away from her as much as you can. Remember—”
“I don’t need you to remind me what she did.” I cut him off and head back down the stairs.
“Come inside and chat with Ford and me. We should prep before seeing the old man in the morning.”
“No need.” I bounce down the steps to my car, needing to get as far away from everyone as possible. Tomorrow morning, there would be more surprises, no doubt. Plus, I’ll see my father for the first time in three years. I might need a morning drink.