Chapter Thirty-Four
Damion
I’m still standing next to the Walker SUV with Blake, Smith, and Joey, calculating my next move.
My first instinct is to go to the office where I can face my father, taunt him, and drive him to a completion of what is between us that allows me to end him and embrace Alana forever. But as Blake said, this is a dangerous game I’m playing, and it involves Alana. We have to be one with our actions, something I didn’t understand in the past. I removed her from the equation in the past, but that was never a real option. It’s impossible to remove the sun from the sky, and she was always my sun, my sunshine, the light in my life. I was never going to let her go, and my father knew that all too well. It’s why he kept talons dug into her family, into her life.
Into my life through them, through Alana.
My cellphone rings, and I look down to find an unknown number. I frown and answer the line. “Damion West.”
“This is Delilah, Alana’s director. I got your number from one of the assistants at the studio.”
My instant unease is a blade tearing skin and promising a deeper thrust. “What’s wrong? Did something happen to Alana?”
“No, no, sorry. Nothing like that,” she says quickly. “I told the studio I needed to speak to you about appearing on the show. And yes, they gave it to me way too quickly.”
She’s not wrong, but the studio is all about money, and after Alana’s interview, and the online buzz that followed, I’m not surprised they’d throw me under the bus. “What is going on?”
“The ratings for Alana’s interview were so hot, they want to do a special with her and fast-track it to viewers. Apparently, our production team is approaching Alana about the project, but it seems off to me that you’d agree to allow this to move forward. I mean, in the first interview, no one had any idea she was going to talk about your family. This time, we do.”
She’s right, and it’s shitty as fuck, but it might just help my agenda. “I need to talk to Alana.”
“I’m so sorry for all of this. It must be a heavy weight for you and her. I don’t want to be involved in something that is this dirty. I’m going to express my fears and delay the production. They may replace me, but I don’t want to go down this dirty, broken path.”
“I will not forget your valiant effort to be ethical in a wholly unethical business, Delilah. Give me a bit, and I’ll call you back.”
“What do you mean, give you a bit?”
“Don’t do anything yet. More soon.” I disconnect and glance at Blake. “I need to go home and talk to Alana.”
By the time we’re on the road, she calls me. “Morning, baby,” I greet, a mental image of her dark hair splayed like silk on her pillow, her slumber deep and relaxed. She was home, safe, and she knew it, and I wish like hell I would have been able to stay to accent that fact.
“Lana called me,” she announces.
“Delilah called me.”
“Oh,” she says, and I can almost see the cute quirk of her dipped brows. “Did she—what did she say?”
“You first.”
“I blasted your father on live TV. It was a big hit. The studio wants to do a recorded interview to play off the success and film this afternoon. I agreed before talking to you. I woke up in our bed, and I wanted to just be happy and be done with all of this. At the time that meant apply more pressure on your father. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said yes without talking to you, because it places attention on you, too. I didn’t think that through the first time, but I am now.”
“Delilah told me about the interview. She was concerned I’d be pissed that the studio went around me when I’m on the board.”
“Yes. Yes. I thought of that after the call. You would have told me before she did, if you knew. Why would they do that?”
“I’m not surprised. Money and ratings rule their world. It’s the philosophy of don’t ask and apologize later.”
“Surely they would think I’d tell you.”
“You told the world we broke up, Alana.”
She is silent a beat, her torment beating through the space between us. “I really was trying to protect you, Damion.”
“I know, baby. Just as I was you. I’ll be home in a couple of minutes.”
“I thought you had to go to the office.”
“I do, but we need to talk this out in person. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, I…I’ll see you then. Damion, I love you. You know that, right?”
“I think I’m the one who needs to ask you that question. I’m the one who took a damn lifetime to tell you, and I wish I could turn back time and change that. I’ll see you soon.” I disconnect and dial my assistant.
Naomi answers on the first ring. “ Damion. Please tell me you’re coming in, because I’ve had three calls from board members trying to find you in the fifteen minutes I’ve been trying to call you. What is going on?”
What indeed , I think, remembering my father’s words yesterday, urging me to attend a meeting that had meant nothing to me when Alana was missing. Which he knew. Which he took advantage of. “Set-up a board meeting,” I say. “Tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll try. Any alternate times?”
“Nine in the morning. Tell them they can come or don’t come. That’s on them, but tell them we’ll be talking about the liability related to their signed voting agreements.” I disconnect and dial Max, our ever so involved board member who knows too much about what is going on too often.
He answers on the first ring. “About fucking time. I’ve left you half a dozen messages.”
He’s not wrong, but the last thing on my mind since Alana went on TV was board politics. “And now you have me.”
“What the fuck is going on? Why is Alana Blue on TV accusing your father of killing her father? I’ve asked him, and he keeps telling me she’s lashing out at him to make you pay for breaking up with her. And why the fuck haven’t you been taking my calls?”
“We’re talking now,” I say, “and is there any part of my father’s explanation that makes sense to you? I didn’t break-up with Alana, she broke up with me to protect me, when she’s the one who needs protection at this point. Thankfully, I’ve talked sense into her and got her that protection. She believes he killed her father, Max.”
“Do you?”
My teeth grind together. “I do.”
He hesitates a moment. “Why? Why would he kill her father?”
“Oh, come on, man. I know you watched the interview. Our families grew up next door to each other. He was, and is, fucking her mother. Her father found out and was threatening to go public with some dirty laundry. Her mother is also the one hundred percent beneficiary of the life insurance.”
“Holy fuck. She didn’t say half that much in the interview.”
“Not publicly, but you can bet she’s telling the police.”
Again, he mutters, “Holy fuck. The police? This is not good for business. Clearly, one of you has to go.”
“I couldn’t agree more. I asked my assistant to set a meeting for tomorrow morning. You can waggle tongues all you wish in advance. And you can choose my father as your leader out of chicken shit fear over whatever crime he blackmails you with, and when he becomes a true crime story, hope the old adage, no publicity is bad publicity, is true. Or you can choose me, as I’m crime-free, and the holder of a written document from each of you committing to voting me in and him out. I’ll see you in the morning.” I disconnect, and my lips twitch as I decide I have him and the board by their sagging balls.
Alana’s live interview might just have been the end of my father, at least when it comes to West Enterprises, but my smile fades, and warning thumps earnestly in my mind. He won’t go down without a fight. Even if he walks out of that boardroom stripped of his power, he’ll come at me hard and fast, and if I know him well, brutally.
I glance up to meet Blake’s stare from where he sits across from me. “I need to get Alana out of town.”
By the time I’ve finished telling my story, Blake is in full agreement.
Alana already did her job, already pushed my father’s buttons, and he doesn’t yet know how well, but by tomorrow, he will. And he’s already shown the lengths he will go to in order to punish Alana for crossing him. She cannot be within his reach when he roars. If I could convince her to leave the country, I’d do it, but she won’t go without me, and I have to be stateside for the company’s transition of power.
I already know how this is going to go. It’s going to require an act of God to get her to leave at all, let alone another country, without me. But this is one battle I’m going to win, no matter how hard Alana wants to fight.