8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Justin
Two fucking weeks of stewing...worrying...wondering. What an epic waste of time. What the hell was I doing with my life?
I was still dealing with Ramon in my head, arguing with me about what I should do next. I’d told him I wasn’t going to St. Louis until I had more of a handle on what the fuck he wanted me to do there.
Ramon got pissed at my resistance to his ideas and refused to talk to me, but I was sticking to my plan.
No way was I going to give Ramon what he wanted until I had a date for his exit from my psyche.
My head was so twisted at the moment with his bitching and moaning.
Hell, I wasn’t sure if I was coming or going, and I felt weaker in a way that was hard to define.
At Steve Korr’s insistence, I’d worked through his clients’ files to provide my best advice for their investment strategies.
He’d done right by all of them, though there were new products available he hadn’t considered.
I was scared to suggest he might be missing opportunities to grow his clients’ wealth, but it was my job to do it. Hopefully, he won’t hold a grudge.
When I returned Clay Fines’ file to Steve, my boss wasn’t happy.
I’d told him, “Mr. Fines is very nice, but I think he’d feel better about you managing his portfolio than me.
” Shortly after that meeting I was assigned the grunt work of reviewing his clients’ portfolios, which was something we usually had interns and junior analysts undertake.
I didn’t complain because who would I complain to?
I needed the job, and I’d make the most of the opportunity.
The spirit taking over my mind had been horribly aggressive with Clay Fines, a kind soul who didn’t deserve my—or Ramon’s—invitation for a quickie. I was desperate to do what I could to fix Clay’s perception of me. Short of getting Ramon out of my mind, I wasn’t certain how to go about it.
The knock on my doorframe had me glancing up from the files in front of me. “Hey, Viviana. Do you need something?”
“Steve wants to see you in his office.” Based on her worried expression, that wasn’t good news.
I closed the folder in front of me and stood, reaching for my jacket. If Steve was going to fire me, I wanted to feel my most confident as I was frog-marched out the fucking door.
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Viviana nodded before she left, closing my door behind her. Whatever Steve decided, I wouldn’t argue. Hell, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be there anyway.
I stopped to grab a drink of water in the kitchen before heading up the stairwell to the executive floor. As I rounded the corner, I saw Steve’s door was open and someone was sitting in the guest chair facing Steve, the two men laughing.
Make a break for it now. We can be in St. Louis in four hours. We do my thing, and I’ll leave you alone so you don’t lose your job. It was never my goal to get you fired.
“Not now.”
I walked down the hall and knocked on the doorframe. Steve looked up and grinned. “Justin, come in. You know Clay.”
I turned to my right to see Clay Fines in the guest chair. He stood and extended his hand, which I shook as my brain scrambled for an acceptable greeting.
“It’s nice to see you again, Clay.” That was the best I could do. I was surprised those words came out without a stutter.
“I’ll leave you gentlemen to it,” Steve said as he stood, leaving us in his office as he closed the door.
“I told Steve I want you working on my investments. My relationship with Steve’s son was a loving, beautiful thing. By now, we’d have gotten married and maybe have a couple of kids, but that wasn’t the way our story went. I need to move on but I can’t do that with Steve around.”
I could see unshed tears in his eyes that had my eyes stinging as well. The man wore his heart on his sleeve, and it was beautiful to see.
“Look, Clay, I’m so sorry about my behavior that morning over breakfast. Maybe I have an undiagnosed mental illness? I wasn’t sure you’d want me to manage your investments after some of the things I’ve said.” That was close to the truth anyway.
“After we had dinner and breakfast the next morning, it was the first time since Hunter died that I thought maybe I could care about someone else.”
See, my pickup line helped the dude see what a good-lookin’ guy you are, and he thought you could be the one to take his hand and lead him back to the land of the living. Can we put a pin in this and go to St. Louis?
I swallowed, ignoring Ramon. “That’s good, right?”
Clay reached up and wiped his cheeks where the tears had started to fall. “Yes. It’s good. Hunter wouldn’t want me to be alone. If I told you how I know, you’d have me put into a straitjacket.”
I laughed, hard. Maybe he saw ghosts, too? “I feel the same about some things I’ve experienced in life.” My comment brought a smile to Clay’s face that actually reached his eyes. God, he was handsome.
“Let’s straighten out this business matter first. I liked your suggestions about diversifying my investment portfolio, and I’d rather you manage it than Steve. I’m sure he’s very good at what he does, but I’d prefer to keep my financial business private.”
If I managed his investments, did that mean we would remain business-only friends? I wasn’t sure I liked that idea. “Does that mean we can’t get together for a drink sometime?”
There ya go! See, I’m rubbin’ off on ya.
God knew I didn’t want that to happen. I couldn’t imagine myself becoming as crass as Ramon.
Clay smirked. “No. It doesn’t mean that at all. Will you manage my portfolio?”
I grinned in return. “Yes. I’d like your permission to consult Eve or Steve on occasion, but I won’t give away any of your personal information.”
Yeah, yeah, let’s get on the road, man.
“Sure. I mean, I’m not that much of a stickler that Steve shouldn’t know anything about my personal financial situation, but generally, I’d rather he has no say in your advice or my decisions. So, uh, is there anything I need to sign or...”
“Oh, uh, yes. I’ll prepare a letter of engagement that outlines the fees associated with our managing your financial plan. Would, uh, will you come with me to my office and we’ll discuss it?”
“Sounds perfect. Maybe after, we can get lunch?” Clay strolled over to the office door and opened it, letting me go through first.
“That would be great.” I turned to Steve’s assistant, Sharmaine. “Tell Steve I have Mr. Fines in my office to sign the letter of engagement. I’ll copy him on the executed document.” She nodded and handed me the file I’d given to Steve, and I led Clay to the stairwell.
Can we go to St. Louis after this?
I ignored Ramon and turned my attention to Clay. “What brings you to town? Not just this, I hope. We could have handled this over email.”
“Oh, no. I mean, I didn’t come to KC just for this. My mother’s a potter, and some of her pottery is being showcased at Octoberfest on Crown Plaza. I brought the things to town for my mom. I’ll be dropping them off after we finish lunch.”
Thankfully, Ramon was silent on the matter.
After we finished hammering out the engagement letter details, I had Viviana notarize Clay’s signature and deliver a copy of it to Steve’s office for approval.
With that handled, we walked to Smokehouse Q KC, which was two blocks from our building.
It was a warm day, but not as sizzling as late September could be, so we opted to sit on the patio.
“Are you staying in town this weekend?” If he was, then I’d happily take him out for anything he wanted.
“No, but I’ll probably be back next week to bring more pottery if Mama’s creations sell as well as I expect they will.
Probably Tuesday. I’m in the middle of harvesting the sorghum, and it’s supposed to rain on Monday, so I can’t harvest on Tuesday because it needs a day or two to dry.
I could, uh, plan to stay Tuesday night if you want to do something.
” Clay retrieved his phone from his pocket and scrolled for a second. “That should work.”
He glanced at me, and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. “That would be great. Do you want to call me if the weather changes?
“I’ll do that.” Clay grinned as our server delivered our food order.
While Clay and I ate, I noticed a man walking down the street with two of the biggest dogs I’d ever seen in all my days. He seemed to be studying me, which was unsettling. When the dogs stared at me, that was even worse.
Oh, fuck! Get outta here. We gotta go!
I was pushed aside by Ramon. “I’m sorry to break this up early, but I really need to get back to the office.
” He stuck my hand in my jacket pocket and pulled out my wallet, peeling off a big chunk of money and tossing it on the table.
“I’ve got this. I can write it off my expense account. I look forward to hearing from you.”
Ramon leaned forward and kissed Clay on the cheek as his fork was midway to his mouth.
All I could think about was how could I possibly ever explain these abrupt departures?
Ramon raced through the restaurant, stopping somewhere close to the kitchen, based on the stronger scent of smoke I could smell. “Where’s the back door? Thanks.”
I couldn’t see what the fuck was happening, but I felt myself running like hell. At this pace, I was likely going to die of a heart attack. Who are you running from? I asked him.
“EZ. We gotta go to St. Louis. I think he knows where I am. He’s just waiting to trap me.”
EZ? He’d mentioned someone named EZ before. Wasn’t he a demon hunter. I really needed to get my head examined.
Why’s he after you again? Trying to comprehend this bullshit was driving me to the brink of sanity.