Chapter Forty-Seven
TYLER
I sit in my office, phone in my hands like a giddy fucking teenager texting his girlfriend. A smile pulls my lips thinking about that label with Sunny, despite the fact it feeling and sounding way too juvenile for people our age. My girlfriend. It’s simply too casual a term for what I feel for her.
I send her a text.
Train tonight?
It’s only been a week since New Years Eve, but with the time off for the Holidays, we’ve both been buried deep into work.
I place my phone down on my desk and look out the window to the gloomy January day. Footsteps catch my attention. Looking up, I see my father walk in.
“Tyler,” he says, giving me a nod.
I put my hands in my pockets and lean back against my desk. “What can I do for you?” Mitchell always likes to drop in unannounced to check on me.
“I wanted to see where you’re at with Shelby.
The campaign is in a few weeks, and we really need to start making it our main focus.
” He makes himself comfortable in the chairs in front of my desk.
“You know your duty. You know why the two of you have been arranged. I need to make sure you hold up your end of the bargain. Since you haven’t yet.
The campaign would be a great way to announce your engagement or even propose. ”
“I never said I wouldn’t invest in his campaigns even if I didn’t marry his daughter.” I cross my arms over my chest, keeping a blank look on my face despite my suit feeling tighter than it already is.
I’m already drawing up the contract as we speak. A contract like this takes deliberate precision. There cannot be any loopholes in which Matthew can get through. Both our lawyers will review it as many times as it takes until every word is memorized and recited perfectly.
This not only gives Matthew a set number of campaign money funneling into him, but it gives the Caddell Company political gain without having to reap the repercussions.
He will question it because in our world something isn’t so easily given without something being taken.
An exchange. But the only thing I want is Sunny, and this is how I’m going to get her.
If this doesn’t pan out, I have my other ways. I figured I’d do the professional route first. Give Matthew the chance to make the right decision without my use of force.
“Tyler, what the hell happened? This has been in the plan for twenty-nine years. Now you’re unwilling to follow through on your part.
You two should’ve been married by now and with a child here or on the way.
The easiest and best option is to marry her because that’s the only contract we need.
If we need to change things, do what we want, we don’t have to live by the rules of a real legally binding contract.
Do you realize that? You can fuck whoever you want after you marry Shelby. ”
“Is that what you do? Fuck whoever you want outside of mom?”
“What I do is none of your business. I have myself established. And while you have your spot in this world, you need to make yourself a man of your word or else you will lose all that.” He pinches the bridge of his nose.
“People will think you’re flakey, unreliable, not loyal.
Every day that you don’t have a wife and don’t produce an heir, our family weakens.
It leaves all we have built left to no one. ”
“I know what I’m doing, Mitchell. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not marrying Shelby. I already have a contract drawn up. I’m just waiting on Matthew’s lawyers to get back to us.”
“Tyler,” Mitchell snaps. “You are twenty-nine years old and have no heirs. No wife.”
“It’s done, Mitchell. Leave it alone. I have it covered. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to get to.”
I’m working on Leo’s second restaurant. Business is doing well for him. I made it a note to take Sunny to his second restaurant opening. She loved the first and Leo loved her. He’s the one who taught me how to make pasta from scratch and offered for us to come in to teach Sunny.
“You better hope this fucking works. If not, you’re marrying Shelby. Even if I have to drag you down the aisle and tie you to a chair to do it.” he seethes and leaves.
I lean back in my chair and laugh. How quickly Mitchell forgets who he made me to be.
My phone buzzes on my desk, making me smile when I see Sunny’s name light up my screen.
Sounds good to me.
The things I do to be with you, Sunny.
Pulling up outside of Sunny’s apartment complex, I see her waiting on the steps for me. I shake my head as I put the truck in park, because she knows that I hate it when she waits outside.
She stands up, wiping off her pants and walks over to the truck. I get out immediately and open the door for her. She gives me a weak smile, but something seems off.
When she gets into my passenger seat, the silence looms over us like the standstill of a storm on the horizon. I brace my arms on the truck, ready to break the heavy rain cloud above us.
“Are you okay? We don’t have to train tonight if you’re tired,” I offer. “A storm looks like it’s coming in anyways. We can have a lazy rainy day. Books, Friends, blankets, hot cocoa, and a fire.” I smile, hooking a curl behind her ear.
She shakes her head. “I’m fine. Let’s do it. I need to train.”
“Okay.” I smile, closing the door. I’ll find out what’s bothering her.
I put the truck in drive and pull away from her apartment. The silence maintains, because if anything I’ve learned about her is when she’s quiet, her mind is very loud. She seeks asylum in the silence when things are too loud in her own mind.
My own thoughts start to fester, asking all the what if’s she won’t give me right now. From what I gather, it’s been awhile since she’s had any update on Ryan.
“Have you heard from the detectives at all?” I ask.
“No.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” I glance at her. She’s staring outside the truck window with a sadness I haven’t seen on her in awhile. It hurts. It fucking hurts.
“I honestly don’t know,” she whispers.
I know how it goes with these things. After a few months of inactivity, there is only so much law enforcement can do. He becomes just another name on their list. The police will still always be “looking” and there will always be a warrant out, but it’ll never be the man hunt I could make it.
It’s my obsession, but their profession. They won’t waste their time and resources on a man who doesn’t seem to pose a threat anymore and doesn’t want to be found. He isn’t a priority criminal for them, but he is for me.
Let me find him, Sunny.
“Tyler…” She looks at me.
“Yes, baby?” I ask, glancing at her again. “What is it?” I brush the loose strands of sunshine hair from her face.
“Us.”
I see her running already. She’s sitting here but she’s already fucking mentally running.
We were so close.
So close.