Chapter 15
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Andrea had a lot to think about, and, as their meal came to an end, she looked over at Hayden and asked, “Do we have a place to stay tonight?”
He nodded. “We do.”
“Where?” her father barked.
Hayden looked over at him, shook his head, and said, “I can’t tell you.” Her father glowered, and Hayden shook his head again. “You and I both know that the less you know, the better off you are, as well as your daughter.”
“She’s my daughter,” he snapped, glaring at Hayden.
“Yes, she is your daughter, and I’m doing everything I can to protect her. And part of that is to not let anybody know where she is, which is the best thing I can do to keep her safe.”
“It isn’t much,” he snapped, glaring at him. “Jerome is most certainly better at doing that kind of security than you are.”
“Maybe,” Hayden conceded. “He might absolutely be better than me, and, if you want him to join the club, I’m not sure that I’m against that. But you’re also visiting in this country, and, when you start killing people, it can get a little dicey.”
He glowered at him again. “I’m not afraid of anything that you guys can do to me here.”
“I’m sure you aren’t,” Hayden noted, “but why would you want to put everybody, including your daughter, through that?”
He shot a look at his daughter, and Andrea, who had been listening to the conversation, nodded at him.
“Dad, it’s fine. Hayden has kept me safe all this time, and we’ve had a pretty rough couple days,” she admitted. “Hayden is doing everything he can to keep me out of harm’s way, plus he’s not alone. There are others on his team.”
“You mean Mason,” he bit off.
“Mason is in the background,” she clarified, “at least as far as I can tell.” She turned and looked at Hayden, who nodded. “Yes, but he’s always there and has access to a lot of things that can help.”
Amir harrumphed at that. “I don’t like the idea of you leaving here. Just stay here in the hotel. Nobody’ll know.”
“Nobody’ll know,” she repeated, “but they’re likely to find out fairly quickly. You don’t go anywhere quietly, and you tend to like a lot of display when you travel.” She gave a half smile to Jerome.
Jerome winced but nodded agreeably.
“You and I both know that,” she stated, with a grin.
But her father was not interested in anything she might have to say at this point. He was still glaring at Hayden.
She smiled and added, “We’ll compromise. If there’s any trouble, we’ll come back here. How’s that?”
Amir frowned, considering that.
“If we can’t find a safe place, we’ll come back here. But you know, the hotel won’t like it if you cause a kerfuffle here.”
He waved his hand. “I really don’t care about that. If I have to buy the place, I’ll buy the place,” he muttered. “I always need a spot to come to when I’m here to visit you anyway.”
She laughed at his ridiculous comment, knowing full well he wasn’t kidding. “Dad, you can’t just get out of trouble by buying every hotel you go to.”
He shrugged. “Why not? Sometimes it’s just easier than trying to negotiate.”
“I know it may well be easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
” He turned that heavy glare her direction, and she nodded.
“I know. I get it. I’ve seen it. If there’s something out there that you want, you just reach out and take it,” she stated, “but that’s not an attitude I’m really willing to work with.
So that’s also something we’ll have to come to grips with, if you really want me to work on your foundation. ”
“What I have to come to grips with,” he snapped, “is the fact that you’ll be spending my money and may or may not particularly care about how well you do.”
Her hand went to her heart. She turned to Hayden.
“I don’t think he meant it to come out that way,” Hayden told her.
Andrea faced her father, sat taller in her chair, and began, “I will care a great deal about how well I do because I care a great deal about the people who are supposed to be getting the money. However, if you don’t believe in me, don’t believe in my work ethics, don’t believe that will work for you, that’s fine. Get somebody else.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Amir interjected, raising a hand. “Let’s not go there too quickly.”
She snorted. “What you mean is, if I won’t buckle right now—”
“No,” he countered, “it’s not that.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t want to lose you,” he admitted, looking at her intensely. “Is that so hard for you to believe? In so many ways, you’re very much like me. Yet, in so many ways, you are a complete conundrum, and I just don’t understand you.”
She stared at him in surprise. “Do you think anybody understands you?”
“No, of course not,” he snapped. “I keep them off balance for a reason.” Her lips twitched. He glared at her and said, “Don’t tell me that you do the same thing.”
“Consciously? No, I don’t think so. But subconsciously?
I don’t think I’m terribly happy with people knowing very much about my life,” she shared, “which is why I gave everybody, including Hayden, a fake name when we first met. I didn’t want people to know about you.
I didn’t want people to have an idea of who they thought I was, solely based on your being my father.
I didn’t make that money. You did. I’m not running a massive enterprise. You are.”
He sat back, looking troubled. “Does that bother you?”
“God knows I don’t have the temperament for it,” she muttered.
“No,” he agreed, “you don’t.”
“I’m not as ruthless as you are,” she pointed out. “And I don’t wish to be, but I also will not get stomped on.”
He looked at her, eyebrows raised. “Do you really feel as though I’ve stomped on you?”
“Absolutely,” she declared. “Anytime I wanted to do something you didn’t agree with.
” The thunderclouds started brewing in his expression.
She shook her head and added, “Brutal honesty is really the best answer at this point. You know perfectly well that, anytime you want something, you just put your foot down, and nobody argues with you. That style may have worked well for you, but it doesn’t work for me, and it’s certainly not how I deal with people. ”
He groaned. “You’ll be a bleeding heart and giving money to everybody, won’t you?”
“You tell me how much money is in the fund,” she stated, “and I’ll distribute the funds equitably to the people I believe are most deserving.”
“And what if I don’t agree?”
“In that case we’ll have an issue. If you think that your disagreement will override what I’m doing, think again, because then there’s no point in my doing any of it.”
He harrumphed at that, then glanced over at Jerome.
She followed his gaze and saw the grin on Jerome’s face. Her father grumbled ever-so-slightly, then he looked over at Hayden.
“That’s between the two of you, so have at it,” Hayden stated. “Now, as to our current situation, if anything goes wrong, we all need to be on the same page.”
“If anything goes wrong?” her father asked, giving Hayden a sideways look.
“Yeah, if anything goes wrong, it’ll be a whole lot more wrong than any of us will be ready for.
And considering that you’re here,” Hayden noted, as he shot a look over at Jerome, “confirm you’re ready for all kinds of surprises.
” Pointing to the glowering, towering Galanis, Hayden added, “He seems to have a habit of pissing people off before he gets very far.”
Jerome didn’t say anything. He just gave a brief dip of his head in acknowledgment.
She had spent a lot of time with Jerome over the years, and she knew that there was no way anything would happen to her father. Now, that didn’t mean any other employee would get the same treatment, but she hoped there would be nobody getting hurt around here for the moment.
When they got up, she leaned over and gave her dad a hug. “It’s nice to see you.”
He rolled his eyes and sputtered, “What do you mean, it’s nice to see me? I’m your father. You should always be happy to see me.”
“You tend to roll in with a lot of bang, an awful lot of presence, not necessarily peacefulness,” she noted. “So, sometimes when you come in, it gets to be a bit much.”
He glared at her.
She smiled. “You know very well that I’m right.”
He shrugged. “It’s not that I come in expecting all that, but often people just do that fanfare without even thinking about it,” he muttered. “It’s really not my fault.”
She chuckled. “It might not be your fault, but it really is something you cultivate in a way,” she explained, with emphasis on the word cultivate.
“I do not,” he muttered, glaring at her.
She smiled, gave him another hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“And what about working for me?”
“Send me a contract.”
“What? I have to send you a contract?” he asked.
She turned to him and nodded. “Oh, absolutely. I need a contract because it is you whom I’m dealing with.”
“You think I’ll fire you?”
“You could try,” she teased, “but, once I start this job, you and I will end up having at least a few conversations that you might not like.”
He grumbled at that and frowned. “You’re getting awfully cheeky.”
“No,” she corrected. “I’m just finally getting a chance to be me.”
He stared at her in wonder and frowned back at her. “You really are growing up, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I really am. I know it’s a little late,” she admitted, with a smile, “but better late than never.”
“It’s not late,” he stated. “It’s right on time.”
“Good,” she replied. “I would hate to disappoint you and to miss your little milestones.” And then, with half a laugh, she turned, looked over at Hayden, and asked, “Are you ready?”
“Been ready. Just waiting for you and Dad here to get through your stuff.”
“Yeah, we’re through it,” she confirmed, with a wave of her hand, then turned and walked away.
He smiled at her father and added, “She’ll be just fine.”
“She’ll be just fine, or you won’t be,” her father vowed in a very low voice.
“Oh, I got the message. Don’t you worry.” And, with that, he followed her out.
As they got into the elevator, she noted, “He’s really not that bad.”