Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ALEX
Sitting on the edge of my sofa, I cradled the coffee between my hands. At three in the morning, it was the dead zone.
Hours before, Kit had told me to go. He’d given me my fifteen minutes before he’d cut the lifeline.
He had to think, he’d said, about what he now knew about me, and whether he could live with that knowledge.
I didn’t protest, or ask for a chance of forgiveness because my gut told me that pushing him would be the wrong move.
But, he hadn’t told me he never wanted to see or hear from me again, and I had to cling onto that weak thread of hope with everything I had.
Now, I had to face Kelvin.
I’d always been the cautious one, the quieter, more reserved of the two us.
I knew I instilled respect and when I gave an employee an order to jump, they’d ask how high; but it was Kelvin they feared.
And that had been okay, that had worked in our favour.
I had to play that caution with Kelvin, I had to tread carefully.
Oh, there was still a massive part of me that itched to make my way to that Victorian monstrosity in Little Venice and smash down the door before I smashed in his face for what he’d done to Kit, but he’d have my arms pulled up tight behind my back and my face squeezed up against the wall before I could blink.
When it came to a physical show of strength with Kelvin, I was beaten before I even started.
I rubbed hard at my eyes. Christ, I was tired but I didn’t know if I’d ever sleep again.
Despite everything I’d said to Kelvin, he didn’t believe I wanted out.
He didn’t believe I wanted to bulldoze through the brick wall we’d built around ourselves, the wall that had once been our security but was now a prison.
He didn’t believe I could want a different life.
To him, it was all just words. That meant I had to show him, in black and white.
I glanced at my watch. I’d make the call at 7.
00am, because the man I needed to speak to had to be awake and alert as I told him what I wanted.
Kelvin was already at Euphoria when I arrived that evening, lounging in one of the desk chairs, twisting from side to side.
“Speak to you later,” he said into his mobile as I entered the office, before he ended the call.
I had a suspicion who it was he’d been talking to, but for now I had to leave it.
He smiled but there was a wariness in his eyes when I sat down on the opposite side of the desk.
He nodded to the monitors showing the heaving dance floor.
“Good turn out tonight. Lots to pick from. Might even go down myself, later on. See anything you fancy?”
He was goading me. I had to play it cool but with the anger still boiling in my gut about what he’d done to Kit, it was going to be more difficult than I’d bargained for.
I counted to three in my head, and leant forwards across the desk.
“I went to see Kit. He told me you’d dropped in on him. It was very rude of you to break in, Kel. Why didn’t you just ring the doorbell and wait to be invited in?”
“Well, I suppose I wanted the element of surprise, because we both know he wouldn’t have let me in. I don’t think Kitten likes me very much.”
Kitten. My jaw tightened. I hated that Kelvin called him that, but for now I’d let it pass. For now.
“What you told him, about you and me, the business—”
“His little suburban soul was rocked to the core. I’ve told you, Alex, Kitten or anybody like him, just isn’t for you.
Like it or not, no matter how many skinny blond club rats you fuck your way through, when it comes down to it, it’s you and me.
Always has been. What I did, I did for you.
Just like it was in the early days.” He raised his arms to his sides, and shrugged, as though already bored.
Under the desk and out of sight, I curled my hands into fists and they trembled, itching to strike hard. I didn’t know if I could hold on, if I could play what was to come cool and calm when it was absolutely what I had to do.
“You called him a clever boy. Yes, I think that was it.”
“Did I?” His eyes narrowed. If I’d had any doubts about having his full attention, I didn’t any longer.
“Yes, you did. A clever boy. As you can imagine, when I went to see him he wasn’t happy with me, not after what you’d told him.
” Happy? Jesus. Hysteria burnt in my throat and I swallowed it down.
“But he’s a clever boy, like you say. He’d already worked out that the business isn’t exactly kosher.
Can’t deny he was shocked at some of your revelations, though.
I filled in the rest, or put him right where you’d put a certain spin on it. ”
“I told him the truth, told him how it was,” Kelvin said, his voice dropping, taking on that intimate, inviting tone he used when he thought he had to talk me around or down, just as he’d done since I was a frightened teenager.
My fists clenched harder, my nails biting into my palms. “Yep, I told him that it would be best for him, for you, for all of us, if he just walked away. And you know that’s best, babe, if you’re honest with yourself.
I was only looking out for you, same as ever. ”
“He was shaken, no two ways. Thing is,” I said, feigning a casualness I in no way felt, “he doesn’t want to walk away.
Not from me.” Christ, but I hoped and prayed that was true but I had to play it like it was the most real, the truest thing ever.
“Your little stunt didn’t have quite the effect you were betting on.
Maybe he’s not quite as suburban as you seem to think. ”
Kelvin stared at me in silence. His face was impassive, but I knew him well enough to see the flicker of shock in his eyes. It was gone almost before it was there, but it was enough. And I was going to shock him some more.
I pulled an envelope from the inside pocket of my suit and pushed it across the desk to him.
“What’s that?” Kelvin jerked his head towards the cream envelope.
“It’s my resignation letter, I suppose.”
Kelvin’s brows creased hard as his mouth gaped. I’d never seen him at such a loss and I’d have laughed if it were remotely funny.
“Read it. I’ve spent hours and hours with Henry Parker. Not at his firm, of course. I visited him at home, just the two of us, with strict instructions not to be disturbed. He was surprised when I told him what I wanted.”
Henry Parker. Kelvin and I were private clients, who never contacted him at his office, had no connection at all with his respectable legal practice.
“What do you want, Alex?”
“You already know. Read it. The first couple of pages will you give you more than the gist of it. The rest is the detail you can go over later. You know, when everything’s laid out on paper—the property and other physical assets, all the stuff we have in our joint names—it’s a bit of a shock to the system how much of it there is, and how much it’s worth.
I mean, we both already knew it, but there’s something about seeing it all listed out in black and white.
And that doesn’t even include the cash.”
Kelvin drew the envelope towards him, all the time keeping his gaze fixed on me, and pulled out the wad of papers, every bit as cream and heavy as the envelope itself.
His gaze dropped from me to the first page, the heavy V between his brows growing deeper as he read.
I knew exactly what it said, I knew it almost word for word, but the essence of it was contained in one paragraph, everything else was details.
I sat back, and braced myself for the explosion.
“What the fuck is this?” Kelvin, his face whiter than I’d ever seen it, let the stapled together papers fall from his fingers.
“It’s exactly what it says it is. It’s all there in black and white.
I’m making over my interest in the business to you.
My half of the physical assets, my half of the cash, my half of everything.
Put your signature to the paper and it’s done.
But if you don’t,” I said with a shrug, “it makes the process a bit more complicated, but it doesn’t stop it from happening.
” I met his eye. Christ, but I was shaking inside.
Never had I thought anything like this would or could ever happen, not to us
“You’ve forced my hand, Kel. This,” I nodded to the document, lying on the desk, “is all your fault, all your doing.”
“No.” Kelvin shook his head hard. “You’re willing to give it all up and walk away from everything we’ve sweated blood over for him?”
Kelvin shot up, his chair toppling over behind him.
He glared down at me, breathing hard. My muscles tensed and my heart rate jumped as I waited for the onslaught.
I half expected him to make a lunge for me, but instead he swung away from me and faced the row of monitors showing the packed dance floor.
His shoulders were heaving and his head was bowed and for a moment I thought he was crying, until I remembered I’d never, not once, seen Kelvin cry.
He straightened up and turned to face me. His composure was back, but I knew it could only be surface deep. He pulled the bottle of whisky from the shelf, slopped some into a glass and knocked it back in one.”
“What is it about him, Alex? I don’t get it.
What is it about him that makes you want to turn your life on its head and walk away from everything we’ve built up together?
” He looked down at the papers; picking them up he stared at them as though it was the first time he’d seen them.
A slow smile spread across his face. Cold, hard, yet sly, my stomach twisted as his eyes met mine.
“Oh, babe,” he said, his voice falling into that familiar purr I knew so well. “You know as well as I do I can’t sign this, or anything like it.” Slowly, deliberately, he tore the papers in half, before letting them fall from his fingers.
If push came to shove, if he was standing on the edge, he wouldn’t choose you.
He might think he would, but he wouldn’t.
The words Kelvin had said to Kit, the words Kit had repeated to me.
Here and now, with Kelvin in the place where it had all began, I was standing on the edge.
I turned away, making the only choice I could.
“Parker’ll be in touch.”
I pushed myself up from the desk, and made for the door. I’d taken no more than a couple of steps when heavy hands fell to my shoulders and swung me around.
“What do you think—”
“Alex, Alex, Alex,” Kelvin said mockery lacing his words.
“Did you really think a scribbled signature on a scrap of paper was going to make any difference to us? If you did, well, that’s some pretty major delusion you’ve got going on.
Sweet little Kitten’s corrosive influence has been stronger than I gave it credit for.
Thing is, you made your real choice about your life, about what and who you are, years ago.
We both did. That means it’s you and me, babe.
Always has been, always will be, whatever lies you tell yourself.
You can spend hours, days, weeks with that bent little lawyer.
You can have a hundred documents drawn up. None of them will make any difference.”
I tried to shove him away, but I might just as well have been pushing at a brick wall.
He cupped his palms either side of my face, his thumbs striking up a slow stroke across my cheekbones.
Tilting his head, his gaze slowly took in every inch of my face as, suddenly, he used all his weight and strength to push me into the wall, winding me as my head hit the plaster.
His face was a hair’s breadth from mine. My world, already knocked from its axis, went into free fall.
I was aware of him in a way I’d never been before.
Of his dark eyes, the darker stubble which always shadowed his olive skin, of his full, smiling lips.
The woodsy, heavy scent of his cologne drenched my senses.
My breathing, my heart beat, the rush of blood racing through my veins, all of it was deafening.
If anybody came in now, they would think we were about to…
Shoving him away with everything I had, I lurched and stumbled for the door, only wanting to outrun everything that had happened in that hot and airless room, and everything that hadn’t.