Trevor was always stunned to hear Amari call him such a heady term. Father. He was somebody’s father! And his son was a good kid to boot. His mother, Jessica Lutalo, had raised him well.
Trevor pulled him into his arms, and father and son briefly embraced. Then Trevor pulled back and patted Amari a couple times on his stomach. “How have you been, boy?”
“I’ve been well. And yourself?”
Trevor smiled. Amari spoke the King’s English, and with such perfect diction that it made Trevor feel inferior. “I’m good,” he said. “Glad to be back.”
“Uncle Ham told me what happened in Little Rock.”
Trevor hated that Amari was still communicating with Hammer. Hammer was the man who recruited him into the Agency to begin with. Trevor was the man who got him out of the Agency and planned to keep him out of it as long as he had breath in his body. No son of his was going to live his life as a trained assassin too. There was no way. So far it was working and the Agency was respecting Trevor’s choice. Amari was young enough that he had not yet proven himself to be worthy of a lifetime commitment. The Agency still saw Amari as expendable. Trevor aimed to keep it that way.
“I’m quite glad you got out of there alive,” Amari said. “I almost hopped a plane to get you out myself.”
“And I would have kicked your ass if you had,” Trevor shot back. “You’re staying out of that shit. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“No more than the fifty times you tell me every day already,” Amari replied.
Trevor gave a slight lift of his lip which, Amari knew, was as close as he was going to get to a full blown smile. He stared at the father who abandoned him before he was born, and the father who rescued him when he knew his life was over. He loved Trevor. He was proud to call him his dad. He had the kind of swagger and money and respect Amari wanted, and was determined to have. Trevor was brave and courageous and tough. He was everything Amari wanted to be. If women would leave him the hell alone, he just might find time to figure out his place in his father’s world too.
“You remember we’re having dinner with Carly’s parents day after tomorrow,” Trevor reminded him. “I don’t want to have to remind you to show your ass up.”
“Have I ever not shown up, Father?”
“You don’t want me to answer that,” Trevor said, and Amari laughed again. “And make sure you show up for that interview with Carly.”
A look appeared in Amari’s eyes. Trevor saw it. “What’s that about?” he asked his son.
“Why do I have to interview to come work for my own father? I have my degree from University. I have field experience, and you know what I mean. And, on top of all of that, I am your son. Your son, Father! Why in the world do I, of all people, must interview to get a position at my own father’s firm?”
“Because your father doesn’t play when it comes to his business,” Trevor said bluntly. “I don’t care if my mother was applying. She would interview too. That’s why!”
“But what is the purpose, is what I am asking,” Amari said. “What will Carly uncover?”
“She’ll determine where you might fit at TRM. I trust her judgement above any human being’s alive. And what she says goes. Understand? You are not her equal, don’t forget that.”
Amari nodded. He knew Carly was always going to be top dog in his father’s eyes. Nobody, not even him, would ever supplant her place in his father’s heart. “I understand that, and I respect her, too,” Amari said honestly. “And speaking of mothers,” he added, “I know I am to have dinner with Carly’s mother and father in a couple of days, but when am I going to meet your parents? My other grandparents?”
An odd look appeared in Trevor’s eyes, as if he was upset with Amari for even mentioning those people. “Don’t worry about that,” Trevor said.
It was what Trevor always said whenever Amari would bring up anything to do with Trevor’s parents or his childhood. Amari respected that there was something about it that his father refused to even talk about, and he never pursued it further.
But he also never missed the opportunity to ask about it, either. He felt he had a right to know. He felt that if he brought it up enough that, in a weak moment, his father just might let him in. “But back to my issue,” he decided to say, “I thought that I had a job with you in the bag. I thought I would be spared from the dreaded interview process.”
“That’s what you get for thinking,” Trevor said, and Amari laughed again.
But just as he was feeling his father’s vibe completely, his Achilles Heel, a woman, came up.
“Let’s go, Amari,” she pleaded. “Why are you holding me up like this? I have a corporation to run tomorrow. I can’t sleep in like you lover boys can. Hello, Trevor.”
“Hello, Karen,” Trevor said and looked at his son. He told him about sleeping around with his friends. But did Amari listen?
“I’m coming,” Amari said. “Give me one more minute with my father, and then I shall be there.”
Karen rolled her eyes, but Amari knew she’d wait. That meat between his legs was too thick for her not to be willing to wait. She gave him some privacy with his father, and she waited.
Amari shook his head. “They won’t leave me alone, Father.”
“They will if you leave them alone.”
“From everything I’m hearing, you were in the same boat not all that long ago.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Trevor said. But then he turned serious. Amari was his responsibility now, and he did worry about him constantly. “Be careful out there, son,” he said to him. “I didn’t buy you that car for you to drive like you’re on a speedway.” He purchased Amari a Camaro for his driving pleasure, a gift which only heighted Amari’s love for his father. And also his love of speed. “You’ve gotten three tickets already. Get another one and I’m taking it away from you.”
Amari was blown away. “How in the world did you know about that third ticket?” he asked. “Nobody knew!”
“This is my town. Don’t you forget that. I have spies all over this joint.”
Amari laughed. His father lifted one end of his lip again, like Elvis, as Amari saw it. But it indicated to him that his father was kidding around. Although he knew he was dead serious about those tickets.
“I shall be on my best behavior,” he promised.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Trevor said, walking away. He loved his son, but he needed to feel and touch and hold Carly again.
Amari watched him as he left. He felt lucky to have Trevor for a father. But Karen came back and interrupted his hero worship. “Are we going to do this, or what?” she asked. “Let’s go, Amari!”
Amari looked at her with a chilling look. His smile was gone. “I do not like anyone ordering me about,” he said.
That look in his eyes took Karen back a peg. She wasn’t used to seeing fun-loving Amari with such a cold, icy look.
Amari, realizing he was revealing a side of himself he had not intended to display, smiled to overcome his slipup. “Just kidding,” he said, placed her arm in his, and they headed toward the patio doors. Their goal was to slip out undetected from Drena’s jealous gaze. But Drena was watching Amari’s every move.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Carly didn’t realize Trevor had entered the big home at all as she stood in the middle of the massive room. She was too busy listening to the ladies go on and on about their tennis game and which one of them had the best stroke. Carly used to play tennis sparingly when she was a student at Harvard, but hadn’t touched the racket in years. She could offer little advice. But she listened attentively because that was what a good honoree was supposed to do. These people went out of their way to come to a dinner in her and Trevor’s honor. She was not dismissing any one of them the way Amari so easily could. They would forgive Amari anything. He knew how to work a room. It had been Carly’s experience in life that nobody ever allowed her to get away with anything. Except her parents. And Trevor
.
That was why, when she heard somebody say his name as they were greeting him, she turned quickly. Her heart soared when she saw him and she couldn’t help it. She broke away from those ladies and hurried to him. If she had been outside, she would have ran to him.
Trevor saw her coming and smiled, which wasn’t easy for a stern man like him. But Carly put a smile on his face. And he gladly swept her up and into his arms.
“My baby,” he said into her ear as he held her.
Amari saw their embrace from across the room, as he and Karen were making a quiet getaway by exiting through the patio doors, and his heart was glad for them. There was nothing like love, he knew, although he’d never really experienced it. But his father and Carly were obviously in love.
He was about to experience love himself. He was about to make love to the woman beside him. He’d heed his father’s advice tomorrow. Because tonight, he was about to get it on. He and Karen took off through the sliding glass doors like two teenagers in heat.
Trevor hadn’t noticed his son’s departure. He was too busy holding onto Carly. And as he held that familiar body against his, and began getting hard even in that crowded room, he looked over Carly’s small shoulder and saw Margo Robinet. Margo saw him, too, and began heading his way.
He whispered in Carly’s ear. “My ex is here,” he said to her.
Carly was surprised to hear him say that. “What ex would come to a dinner honoring their former lover and his new wife? Who does that,” she asked him.
“She does,” he said. “And she’s heading this way,” he added, and they slowly stopped embracing.
Carly, anxious to see just who this ex might be, and if she had already held a conversation with her, turned in the direction in which Trevor was looking. And she realized at once she had not held a conversation with his ex. She realized at once that his ex was Margo Robinet, one of her favorite actresses. She was stunned.
“My darling Trevor,” Margo said as soon as she made her way up to the couple. “How nice seeing you again.”
But Trevor wasn’t as kind. “Hello, Margo,” he said dryly.
“Oh, you can do better than that, darling. Surely you can do better than that!”
It seemed to have a double meaning to Carly, especially since Margo was staring at her when she made the comment.
“I didn’t expect you to show your face here,” Trevor said.
“No, I’m certain you didn’t. Why would you think I would have the time? But it just so happened that I did have some free time on my hands this evening. So I came!”
Trevor was angry, but not with Margo. He was angry with himself for still having even the slightest feelings for the woman. He should have cussed her ass out right then and there and told her to get out. He should have treated her the way she treated him. He was deeply in lust with her once upon a time. Never in love with her. Carly was the only woman he’d ever been in love with. But he was, he thought, as he looked down the length of Margo’s body, definitely in lust with her.
He didn’t even want to introduce her to Carly. But he also wasn’t going to give her any inkling that he was willing to ignore his wife for anyone. Especially her.
He placed his hand on Carly’s lower back. “This is Carly,” he said. “My wife.”
Margo grinned.
What the fuck was so funny, he wanted to ask her.
“The idea of you with a wife,” she said, answering his unasked question. Then she extended her hand. “Hello, Carla, is it? Nice to meet you.”
Carly shook her hand. “It’s Carly,” she said, “and nice to meet you too.”
“Let me guess: you’ve seen all of my movies, haven’t you?”
Trevor was staring at Margo, daring her with his intense eyes to disrespect Carly.
“I can’t say that I ‘ve seen all of them,” Carly answered honestly, “but probably the vast majority of them, yes, ma’am.”
Margo smiled. “She calls me ma’am,” she said. “How old are you? Nineteen?”
Carly knew she was being offensive now, so she didn’t respond.
Margo didn’t wait for a response anyway. She turned to Trevor. “Robbing the cradle much?” she asked. “I’m going to have to spank your little fine behind for being such a bad, bad boy,” she said to him with a smirk on her face.
Wait, what? Carly immediately looked at Trevor. That kind of talk was the talk of a woman to her lover. To a lover she was well-acquainted with. And suddenly Carly wondered if Trevor and this woman were still involved? Her heart knew it couldn’t be. Trevor wouldn’t do that to her. But the heartbreak hotel was lined with the hearts of ladies who thought their cheating men wouldn’t do it to them either.
Carly wasn’t naturally a doubtful person, especially where Trevor was concerned, but she did feel a sense of doubt at that moment.
Trevor’s response to Margo, however, dispelled it quickly. “You lay either one of your slimy paws on me and I’ll show you what this bad boy is capable of,” he said to her.
Carly looked at Margo. Trevor one, she thought. Margo, zip.
But Margo didn’t win that Academy Award for no reason. She continued to smile like the pro she was, only she turned her venom back to the easier target: Carly. “But your youth isn’t your only problem, is it? Because it’s funny. The only thing I thought black was still good for was a cute dress, and street tar,” she said.
Before Carly could respond, Trevor did. “And you can kiss her tar ass,” he said.
But Margo, again, was ready for the comeback. “And you can kiss my ass,” she said angrily.
“What ass?” Carly asked, this time taking the reins from Trevor before he could respond. “You mean that flat thing at the bottom of your back? That ass? You don’t have an ass to kiss.”
Trevor smiled. He couldn’t help it. Carly did that to him! And then he laughed.
But Margo, refusing to be outdone and the consummate pro, laughed too. “You’re good,” she said to Carly, as if giving her a compliment. And for a second it felt genuine to Carly. But then she remembered that Margo Robinet was a world-class actress, and got real.
“Anyway, darling,” Margo said to Trevor as if they were still great pals, “congrats again on your nuptials. Have a good life,” she added, although Trevor and Carly both saw a sudden sadness appear in her eyes.
Then she left, and Trevor was relieved.
But when Margo was some distance away from the couple, she quickly pulled out what turned out to be a loaded revolver, turned back toward her ex-lover and his wife, and aimed her weapon.
As soon as she aimed it, loud screams from others around them broke out and there was a mad dash to dive to safety. When Trevor saw the gun, and realized he and Carly were targets of her aim, he knocked Carly down to the floor with a hard thrust that slammed her down with him on top of her. He was determined to save Carly’s life if no life was saved that night. His body was going to take every bullet if it had to.
But there was only one bullet. One shot. And Trevor realized, after the shot was heard, that it had missed him.
He turned quickly, and realized Margo was moving her arm downward, with her smoking gun projected downward, and he didn’t hesitate. He pulled out his own gun.
Then Margo looked at him. “I’m going to need a good PR firm,” she said, and looked past him. And then the tears appeared in her big eyes as if she’d just realized what she’d done, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
And that was when Trevor realized who she had looked away from him toward. He turned and saw one of his friends, Greg Shaughnessy, lying flat on his back with a bullet in his chest. And Trevor realized at that moment that Margo hadn’t missed at all. She hit her target alright.
Then Margo dropped the gun.
As soon as the gun dropped, the screaming stopped and another friend of Trevor’s, a doctor, hurried to Greg’s aid. He was still alive, but in bad shape.
“Call 911!” the doctor ordered as he hurried to the downed ma
n, but most of the people there were too busy recording the event in hopes of going viral.
“Idiots!” Drena yelled at her friends and guests, and she did call 911.
As Trevor helped Carly to her feet, she was shocked by how easily the partygoers returned to normal. They were taking video of Margo and the downed gun. Tears were streaming down their supposed friend’s face, but all they cared about was getting it on their cell phone cameras.
But Trevor knew why they weren’t bothered. Greg, a supposedly happily married man, had been rumored for months to have been carrying on an illicit affair with Margo. His poor, unfortunate wife, the one they all sided with in the turmoil, was left twisting in the wind. He had it coming, was how they saw it, and Trevor wasn’t sure if he didn’t feel the same way too. He was a member of that circle for a reason, after all.
“You aren’t hurt?” Trevor asked Carly after he got her back on her feet.
“I’m not hurt, no,” Carly said. “You?” She was brushing dirt off of his tux.
“I’m alright,” Trevor said. But unlike his friends, Trevor wasn’t contend to have that gun anywhere near Margo’s reach. He went over to Margo and picked up her dropped gun. Margo, crying almost uncontrollably after what she’d done, looked at him. And he looked at her. Then she fell against his chest with a hard thump, with her body begging for him to hug her.
Carly watched as Trevor stood there. Because she knew his dilemma. Do you kick a dog when she’s down, or do you help that dog even though she was a dog to her core.
Trevor had a heart. That was why Carly knew what the answer would be.
Trevor placed his arms around his distressed ex, and held her, as those cell phone cameras flicked away.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The next day at work and her husband became her boss, and he treated her the way he treated all of his employees: with no nonsense.
Carly and Bridgette were standing behind her desk, with Carly pointing out a few corrections they needed to make to some of the contracts she had reviewed. Carly wore reading glasses, as she was careful to get the language in the write ups absolutely right, and both ladies were hunched over the second page draft. When the office door flew open with a wide sweep and Trevor walked in angrily, they both looked up.
Trevor Reese: His Protective Love Page 9
