Chapter 17 Noah
Chapter Seventeen
NOAH
I know it's going to be a shit morning when Robert storms into my office, slamming the door shut.
"You need to kill Summer."
The hair on the back of my neck stands straight up.
"You need to kill her, and it's time you stop pretending that you can keep her around as your little plaything. This needs to end. Now."
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I'm calm when I speak, at least outwardly.
Inwardly, I'm thinking about pulling his teeth out one at a time until he learns how the fuck to speak to me.
He paces back and forth across the floor, looking out the window before turning to face me.
I glance up from my computer, raising one eyebrow. Whatever this shit is, it's going to piss me off. "I'm waiting for an answer!"
Robert stops and leans forward, his hands coming down hard on the desk. "That bastard just burned down another warehouse and sank a fucking yacht filled with drugs."
"He sank a ship?" I lean back and pinch the bridge of my nose, a headache already starting to form. "How the fuck did you manage to let him get close to the boat when you know he's looking to cause problems, and you're supposed to be making sure those problems don't happen?"
Robert pales and walks over to one of the cabinets, pulling out a bottle of rum and pouring himself a large glass. "Because I had no way of knowing this was going to happen."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't have a fucking crystal ball, Noah. I knew they were going to attack, but who the fuck would think they're going to go out and sink a yacht? That draws a lot of attention. A lot of people looking who might not just look the other way."
I lean back in my chair, arms crossed. "Which is why you should've been thinking about every possible angle they could've come from. What did we lose?"
"A few hundred thousand dollars in arms. Crew recovered what they could, but until I can get a dive team down there..."
I press my lips into a thin line, glancing at the emails sitting on the computer.
There are a thousand things going wrong with one of the casino chains I own. It's a shitstorm coming at me from every direction, and I don't know what's going to come next.
"Get a dive team down there immediately. Recover as much as you can and see what's still good. Sell anything we can't use. Get shit figured out. It's what I pay you for."
Robert downs the rum and slams the glass down on the cabinet. "Damn it, Noah. You're not thinking clearly. If you'd just listen to me about going to Chicago, we wouldn't have to deal with any of this."
"And what do you suggest?" I keep my tone low and dangerous as he starts to stalk around the room again.
"Kill Summer."
I arch a brow, waiting for more.
It drives him insane when I don't respond, don't give in to the goading. His eye twitches, and he shakes his head. His face goes red, and he stares out the window, everything about his body tense.
"You have to kill her." Robert's hands curl into fists at his sides. "She's distracting you, and you're going to end up like all the others who turn their backs on the family."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know that you keep saying you have a plan for her and then no plan ever comes to light. I know you keep talking about the future and all that's going to come, and nothing ever comes of it."
I should've killed him. I should've killed him when he was in that fucking cell, and then I could've been done with this shit.
"You're overstepping. And you keep overstepping. I'm tired of it. Figure out what the fuck you want, and if it's to stay alive, leave me the fuck alone."
He takes the dismissal for what it is, storming out of my office and slamming the door shut behind him. The pictures on the wall rattle, one falling down and the glass shattering.
"For fuck's sake." I get up and clean up the mess, dumping the glass into the garbage.
Not killing him was a mistake, but keeping Summer alive is the right choice. She's been good for the last few days, staying in the house or out on the property. There's a notebook she keeps with her at all times.
I glance out the window, and there she is, sitting in the garden with the notebook balanced on her thighs, feet drawn up on the edge of the chair, her pen drifting across the page.
Whatever she's doing has got to be better than sitting in here for the rest of the day.
The problems are still going to be there in an hour. I can go out, spend some time with her, see if she's willing to tell me anything Zoe said to her last week, maybe find out what's in that notebook of hers.
I head outside, the sun shining and birds chirping from the trees. A soft wind blows, rustling Summer's hair. It's not the first time that I've thought she's beautiful, but this time feels different from the others.
The way the sunlight is hitting her hair, bringing out the lighter strands, the way she drags her bottom lip between her teeth when she's lost in thought. There's nothing that isn't appealing about her. Not a single damn thing.
And that's why I'm in trouble.
I know it as I walk over to her and drag a chair closer, getting a look at the cramped handwriting that fills the page. "What're you doing?"
She taps the end of the pen on the notebook. "Working on a novel, I think. Something to do while you hold me hostage."
"You write?" I tilt my head to the side, trying to make out her writing, but it's hard to read without being up close and personal with it.
"Used to when I was younger and shit got too hard to handle. Then life got better and more manageable." She drags her bottom lip between her teeth again before blowing out a big breath and looking at me. "I guess things are just a little more fucked than normal now."
"What're you writing?" I move the chair a little closer. It's close enough to kiss her neck if I wanted to.
And the thought is tempting, but after that conversation with Robert, losing myself in Summer is exactly the kind of ammunition he's going to need for whatever it is he's planning behind my back.
She closes the notebook and sets it to the side. "Psychological thriller."
"Wants to escape a family of career criminals, is writing about them." I chuckle and lean back in my seat, crossing my arms so I don't have the urge to reach for her. "Why would you do that?"
"No other way to escape this hellscape. I'm going to be horrifically behind in school after this."
"Got a computer for you, actually. Locked down. You can do your schoolwork, but that's about it. Waiting in your room."
Except it's not her room. It's my room that she seems to have taken over.
It's not like it's occurred to her to go sleep in another room, and I can't bring myself to mind.
Not when I spend each night in one of the guest rooms, staring at the ceiling, maybe fisting my cock and getting off to the thought of her naked in my bed.
Summer whips around to look at me, her eyes wide. "Why would you do that?"
"You said it yourself. There's nothing else to do in this hellscape." I smother the smile and reach out to tap the notebook. "Is this what you want to be doing instead of law school?"
"Not really. I like writing, but I really like law." She takes the notebook from me, tossing it well out of my reach. "And writing is a hobby. It's like what I do to get away from it all, but law is what I want to do with my life."
"Don't think I've ever had a hobby."
Summer's eyebrows climb high as she twists in her seat to fully face me, making herself comfortable. "How the hell are you as old as you are without having a hobby?"
"Spent a lot of my life learning to kill people and preparing to run the family one day. Wasn't much time for anything else while I was doing that."
She gets up and holds out a hand. "Come on."
"What the hell do you think we're going to do?"
"We're going to go find you a hobby." She grabs my hand, trying to drag me to my feet.
I resist at first, finally getting up with her. "I don't know what you think is going to happen, but I don't have the time for hobbies. Not right now."
Her hand stays in mine as she grabs the notebook before dragging me back into the house. "Well, maybe you'd feel less tired with everything if you did have a hobby and something else to do. Your first hobby is going to be watching movies."
"I really don't have time to sit down and watch a movie."
She scoffs, her hand squeezing mine tighter like she's afraid I'm going to let go of her and leave. "Everybody has time to sit down and watch a movie, and since I can't picture you as being the kind of guy that's going to like laser tag, this is what we're doing instead."
I bite back a smile as she marches us through the house and to the home theater. Though I had it put in a long time ago, I don't think I've ever watched anything in here.
Summer hauls me to the front row of seats, pushing me down in one before taking the other one beside me. She pulls the lever to get the footrest up before snagging a remote off the little table between us.
"We're going to watch this one. She's got no short-term memory. He wants to go study whales. It's perfect."
"His head looks like an egg."
She gives me a smile like I said exactly the right thing before hitting the buttons on the remote to black out the rest of the room. As soon as it's dark and the lights are synced to the movie, she presses play.
And I sit there for the length of the entire thing, chuckling every now and then.
There's something about someone getting beat up with a bat that's just funny. Or maybe it's the way Summer laughs with her whole chest at the movie, tears leaking out of her eyes even though she can quote it line for line.
That movie ends, and she puts on another. Something with far too many men in tights.
I lean back in my seat, spending more time watching her than watching the movie.
When that movie ends too, she turns to me. "So, what did you think about the first foray into hobbies?"
"Movie watching doesn't seem to be too bad."