Chapter 62 #2
“Tsk, tsk,” I said with a smile. “If you want to play with the big boys, Jameston, everyone knows you have to drink something that requires a waiting list.” The corner of my mouth lifted. “This?” I looked at the bottle again. “This says you still have something to prove.”
I set the bottle down as Christian stared at me.
“God, you’re an arrogant bastard,” he finally said.
I poured myself a drink. “I’ve been called worse.”
“I heard you were released,” he said, colder now.
I walked over to the leather chair across from his desk and sat. I took a sip while staring at the man who watched every move I made.
“Yes,” I finally spoke. “As of this afternoon, the federal government no longer considers me a subject or target of its investigation.”
“Meaning?”
“Oh, right. How could you know what legal terms mean? You spend millions to hire assholes to handle that for you,” I said, finishing my sip quickly. “It means I walk out of this a free man.”
“Then what the hell are you doing here?”
I fixed my eyes on him, taking a slow sip of the bourbon. “In this business, I’ve made plenty of enemies.” I leaned forward and rested both elbows on my knees. “But none have made it their obsession to spend millions digging into my company.”
“And?”
I could easily hear he was nervous.
I sat back again and brought the bourbon to my lips. “I want to know why,” I said, finishing with a sip. “Why you hired investigators? Why you dug through my company, my family, my entire goddamn life?”
I looked directly at him.
Christian leaned back with a hard expression, “You really don’t know?”
“Trust me, we’d be having a very different conversation right now if I did.”
A humorless laugh escaped him. “Your father destroyed my family.”
I said nothing.
“He blacklisted us.” Christian stood. “He ruined our reputation on the West Coast.” He laughed again. “Nobody wanted to be associated with us.”
He pointed toward me.
“Suddenly, investors disappeared, business relationships disappeared, invitations disappeared.” He took a long gulp of his scotch and slammed the glass on the desk. “Everything disappeared.”
I watched him, seeing he was no different from my old man behind a desk, drinking himself into a monster that would eventually trip and fall into its grave.
“My father spent years trying to rebuild,” he said, pouring himself another glass. “Years.” His jaw tightened. “It wasn’t until your old man died that people slowly started taking our calls again.”
He shook his head and looked out of his window.
“But by then?” He spread his hands and looked at me. “The damage was already done. So don’t sit there in your arrogance and pretend that one day the favor wouldn’t be returned.” His eyes met mine. “The name Hawk has cost my family more than you’ll ever understand.”
“And I was supposed to pay for your family troubles in business with that man?”
He looked at me. “You inherited everything.”
I almost smiled. “No.” I shook my head once. “I inherited the mess that man left me.”
“You inherited an empire,” he scoffed. “A goddamn fortune.”
“I inherited a father who spent his entire life burning people to the ground. You should be thankful your family survived him and left you able to rebuild.”
He eyed me and sat back in his chair.
“I spent fifteen years cleaning up after Herbert Hawk,” I said.
Christian’s expression didn’t change. “I don’t really fucking care about your sad story, Hawk.”
“I never asked you to,” I said flatly.
“I also don’t care what you knew, and I don’t give a fuck what you didn’t know.” I watched him take another big gulp before he pointed his glass at me. “I don’t care that you spent years fixing things.”
I simply stared at the man, seeing the same misery I saw in my father. They were both sad, wretched little men who couldn’t succeed in business by being honest.
“When people looked at you…” His voice dropped. “They saw success. When people looked at me… they saw what was left.”
Jesus. This wasn’t about facts. It wasn’t about me. It wasn’t even about Herbert anymore. This man needed someone to blame for his inability to survive in this world.
I looked at him for a long moment, then picked up my glass.
“A shame that you look at business as something personal because—”
“I should’ve known,” he interrupted me, still on his own train of thought, “that you’d walk away a free man. You people always land on your feet.”
“You think that’s what happened here?” I said, standing and setting my glass on his desk.
“I think money buys a lot.”
“No.” I looked him directly in the eye. “You see, the difference between you and me is simple, Jameston. After I discovered my father’s hidden structures, I dismantled them.
Every single one.” I took a step toward him.
“I spent fifteen years trying not to become that man. But you?” I looked around his office.
“You spent fifteen years becoming exactly like the man you hate.”
I checked my watch.
“You should call your attorney.”
Christian frowned. “For what?”
“The federal agents will be here any minute.”
His smile disappeared.
“What the hell are you talking about, Hawk?”
“Jim Mitchell has been building a case against your family for weeks.” I buttoned my jacket. “They’re coming for you.”
He stared at me.
“You spent months trying to destroy me over crimes I didn’t commit.” I opened the door. “It’s unfortunate you’ll answer for the ones your family actually did.”
I walked out of the office as the elevator chimed. Three federal agents stepped into the corridor. None of them acknowledged me.
Instead, every one of them walked toward Christian.
I kept walking without looking back once.