30. Kash
Chapter Thirty
KASH
“The meeting is set for tomorrow night, sir,” Grayson said.
I nodded, my eyes trained on Naina through the window. She was in the kitchen with Samira and Kathleen, laughing over something.
When I left my room this morning and found her gone, I’d admittedly panicked a little. A quick search of the cameras had shown her leaving the apartment alone and that had eased the panic because Naina wouldn’t leave Sami.
Naina kept tossing glares in my direction when she thought I wasn’t looking. But I was always looking at her. I would sell my soul to the devil just to continue looking at her for a while longer.
She seemed to think having an expiration date meant we should stay apart. I was of the opinion that we should use the time to get each other out of our systems. Because once the six months were over, it was over. We weren’t going to get a second chance.
She accused me of driving her mad, yet she was the one driving me mad. I finally had her and she didn’t want to give me an inch of space. One night it was erotic video calls that were going to star in my fantasies for the rest of my life, and the next she was running off to her best friend without telling anyone.
I didn’t have to ask her to know she was having second thoughts.
Fine, she hadn’t been running around New York City, and I might have overreacted a little . Naina was a creature of safety and comfort, there was only one place she could have gone, and I was happy to be right when I found her at Kathleen’s apartment.
“Did you bring the package?” I asked Grayson.
It was a habit to double check, though Grayson was far from careless. His sharp brown eyes were always alert, even now when we were home and there was hardly any threat. He was also built like a linebacker, which was why I insisted Naina take him wherever it was she wanted to go.
“Yes, she sent an address where she wants it delivered.”
The cloak and dagger thing was a bit too much. The meeting was only happening because I wanted to see the person I was trading with, find out for myself if I could trust her.
“She can have it delivered wherever she wants as long as we get the information we need.”
Grayson looked up from his tablet and glanced behind him. We were on the terrace, and he was sitting with his back to the windows.
“Your father has people looking into Mrs. Sutherland,” he said, turning back to me.
“As I expected.”
The distraction wasn’t supposed to work long term. It just needed to buy us time, which it had. It went against everything in me when I got Grayson to make an anonymous leak about the New York property.
Everything being reported on the news was true, right down to my family’s involvement in hiding the crimes and failing to inform our investors about it. Again.
I had no idea how long my father had been doing this, but it was going to stop. This wasn’t what the Sutherland name was built on; this was never going to be my legacy.
He couldn’t fucking tell me that this family’s reputation was above all else and then turn around and fuck it all up.
Whenever Vera thought I was acting too much like my father, she would ask me what I was doing and if I was sure of it. I always told her the same thing. I was doing what I was taught to do.
“I trust there is nothing for them to find?”
“The team has scoured everything. They won’t find anything.”
I didn’t expect there to be anything for them to find. Naina’s family was nice. Her parents were the kind of people who lived quiet lives surrounded by their friends and family, and always followed the rules.
The only thing to be found was the mortgage Naina’s father took out against the Inn and I had already solved that problem before my father got to it.
Grayson’s tablet sounded an alert, and he sat a little straighter.
“Your mother is here,” he said. “She’s on her way up.”
Perfect. This was just what I needed.
To say my mother was surprised by Aunt Augusta announcing my wedding would be an understatement. On our last phone call, she spoke so fast I didn’t even understand half of what she said. My Spanish was already weak despite having lived in California my whole life and having a Mexican mother.
“Thank you, I’ll take care of it.”
We walked back into the apartment and Grayson went off to his office. The three women stopped talking and all turned to look at me expectantly. Well, two of them did. Naina narrowed her eyes at me.
I smiled at her, which made her scowl harder, as I walked past them to the foyer.
“Your face is going to get stuck like that,” Kathleen said.
“Maybe I’ll have some peace then.” Naina’s tone was clipped.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” I called back.
The elevator doors opened just in time, revealing my mother, dressed in white pants and a white blouse, her dark hair flowing down her back in waves. Her mouth split into the most radiant smile, the same one that graced billboards and magazines.
“ Mijo ,” she cried, enveloping me in a hug.
Sometimes, when she hugged me like this, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking what my childhood would have been like if she had gotten full custody of me instead of my father.
I didn’t spend too much time dwelling on those thoughts, not anymore. They used to plague me when I was a kid, followed me around constantly.
Kept me up at night after my father had applied some ointment to my back when he had been the one to cause the hurt, whispering to me how he didn’t want to be hurt me but he wanted me to be better.
I only saw my mother one week during the summer, and only under my father’s supervision.
“Mom, I thought you had a shoot today,” I said.
“We wrapped up early. It happens sometimes,” she said. “I thought I will come see my daughter-in-law before you hide her away again.”
“I wasn’t hiding her.”
Mom pursed her lips, the corners of her eyes pinching. My mother had the same complaint from me that everyone else did. That I was too secretive, and I didn’t tell them anything.
Being lonely was easy, they didn’t understand. They surrounded themselves with people. Vera understood, somewhat.
We were Sutherlands, emotionally damaged and utterly useless.
My mother had been a Sutherland for seven years before she realized she couldn’t live under my father’s thumb.
I didn’t know what their relationship was like, but she got this tightness in her eyes anytime his name was mentioned.
“My only son got married and I found out through my ex-sister-in-law’s social media,” Mom chided. “How could you do this, Kassius? You won’t even let me meet her.”
“Kash?” I turned at Naina’s soft approach.
Recognition filtered in her eyes when she saw my mother. There were very few people who didn’t recognize Ava Alvarez, the movie star. It was a fact my father always hated. He had certain expectations from his wife and one of them was not being recognizable and being chased by the media.
Naina wrapped her hand around my arm, holding me close. I looked at her curiously, but her eyes were on Mom.
“Mom, this is Naina, my wife. Naina, this is my mother, Ava Alvarez.”
Naina’s hand tightened on my arm.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Alvarez.”
“You can just call me Ava.” Mom shifted her eyes to me. “She’s just lovely.”
Yeah, she was.
“Is everything okay?” Naina looked at Mom and then back at me, her gaze lingering. When I realized the meaning behind her words, my heart leapt out of my chest.
I wasn’t sure how much Naina heard that night. Like many things, I refused to talk about it because I didn’t want Naina to know the details. That wasn’t something she should have to carry.
The worry in her eyes now told me she had heard enough. My eyes dropped to her tight grip on my arm.
This was concern.
She was trying to protect me in case my other parent was just as cruel.
And she wanted to know why I wanted her. Why it wasn’t just a want but a need.
I kissed her temple, breathing in the scent of her shampoo.
“Everything is fine, I promise,” I whispered. “Mom is upset she had found out about you through Augusta.”
“Which is why I am here to steal you away,” Mom said. “We’ll have a girl’s day, go to the spa, and get to know each other.”
“Oh,” Naina breathed. Her lashes fluttered as she tried to think of something to say. “Um. That’s…”
“Take Sami and Kat with you. It will be fun.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Naina mumbled.
“Wonderful!” Mom clapped her hands together. “I’m going to call Abigail and tell her it will be two more people.”
Before she walked away, she squeezed Naina’s hand, her eyes beaming.
“I’m really looking forward to this.”
Naina turned to me as soon as Mom was out of earshot.
“I don’t know how to relax.”
I laughed at that. “Trust me, I know. It’s why I’m sending you to the spa. Go get pampered, you deserve it.”
“That sounds like my worst nightmare.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I hate to interrupt this lover’s squabble, but is that Ava Alvarez?” Kathleen appeared next to us.
“Yes,” Naina sighed. “We’re all going to the spa.”
“She says with all the enthusiasm of a martyr doing the death march,” Kathleen quipped.
I ushered them all out of the apartment.
Mom’s timing had been oddly perfect. With my wife around, I was always distracted.
I stalked down the hallway that led to Grayson’s office and found him behind his desk. The bank of monitors in front of him displayed every square inch of the apartment except for my office and the bedrooms.
It’s where I watched Naina sneak out of here like a burglar. Did she really think getting away from me was going to be that easy? That I went to Windfield’s restaurant only for Sonia’s amazing cooking?
Naina wasn’t that naive. Just a skillful liar.
“Do you have the footage?” I asked Grayson.
He nodded. “It’s old and grainy, but it’s definitely him.”
My heart thundered.
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.” He typed on his laptop and a grainy footage loaded. It was black and white, taken from a street camera, but it was unmistakably my father walking into a restaurant with a man who was never seen again after that meeting.