by Raven Scott
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around it. Whenever I think of this kind of thing, it’s not so... so inoculating. Like, I keep expecting Al Pacino to tell me to prove my loyalty or wake up in the trunk of a vintage Cadillac by the Hudson.” He sounded so stressed, and that stress showed on his face as he ran his hand through his hair. “I know that’s not how it is, but I... don’t get it. I don’t get why Carlyle asked me in person. He didn’t have to, but he did anyway.”
“David... if it bothers you that much, don’t take the job. You’ll be more than comfortable in Brass Herring. No one is forcing you and no one will be upset if you don’t take the opportunity. There’s other people lined up if you don’t want this job, you just have the choice if you want it first.” I stood up to round my desk.
He straightened a little as I braced on the arms of the chair. David’s clouded gaze glared with apprehension.
My heart ached as I leaned in close. “I know you basically went from being underemployed to this and you don’t know if you can do it... but even then, you’ll have trouble. And I’ll be involved enough to help you when and if you ask.”
“I’m really beginning to think all this misgiving I have is simply because... Carlyle scares me.” Ducking his head miserably, David’s ears burned red. “You said he was a sociopath... not that he was terrifying. I don’t know if I can handle being around him. I haven’t exactly thought on it, but what if I fuck up the project beyond repair? That feeling of wanting to hide like in a Western before a shootout aside... he can ruin my life. He can ruin my career. I don’t know if I can handle the pressure of working for someone like that.”
Sympathy clouded my eyes. “Then don’t take the job. You can work at Brass Herring, climb at your leisure... this contract job was offered to you because Carlyle saw you take a risk applying here, but not all risks are the same caliber.” I didn’t really know what else to say. I put a hand comfortingly on David’s shoulder.
He glanced up at me warily.
A small, warm smile twisted my lips. “Say you don’t think you can handle it, if you don’t think you can handle it. There’s no shame in admitting you can’t do something. And, sure, you may pull it off, but is it worth it? When you have this job, and your renegotiation coming up, there’s no need to risk yourself for Carlyle’s project.”
“Yeah... I don’t know. I don’t think I can handle it. Not right now. If my dad wasn’t coming back, and my sister…even if it was just, like, six months from now... maybe I’d take it? Right now... I just can’t.”
Surprise twitched my brows.
David’s eyes widened as the seconds slid by on pins and needles. “Oh, you don’t know about that, do you? My mom called my dad, so he’s coming here to help with Sarah.”
“Oh...” I leaned back against my desk to cross my arms under my bust.
Noticeably sitting up straighter, David nodded as he shirked the weight of the job offer for now. “Yeah. My mom’s exact words were ‘no one makes you feel more stupid and infantile than your dad’... which is true. He pushed me really, really hard so I could get into college on scholarships, and even though they’re divorced, my dad agreed to a stipulation in the alimony about helping my college costs. Anyway, he’s also really hard to lie to and he’s a hardass about punishment. You do the crime, you do an appropriate amount of time. When Sarah gets out of the hospital, whenever that is, she’ll go back home and Dad will be there. I also think that my mom secretly does worry that Sarah’s going nuts and may hurt her, and she wants Dad there because she’s got a convenient excuse.”
“He sounds okay. I’m sure it didn’t seem like it back then, but in hindsight...”
Nodding firmly, David cracked a little smirk as I trailed off.
“You kept your dad’s name, right?”
“Yeah. Sarah took Mom’s maiden name when Dad left, so I kept it because I was already enrolled in college and all that, but I also didn’t want to be associated with her crazy.” His phone buzzed softly, and
I walked back to my chair to sit.
He stood up. “I’m gonna head out, but I’ll text you later, okay?”
“Yeah. Have fun with Reece.”
David sauntered out of my office.
I propped my elbows on the desk to hold my chin on my fists. Staring at the place he’d just been, I couldn’t help but wonder why, myself. Why did Carlyle offer the job in person? He knew the kind of effect he had on people. How could he not? In fact, Carlyle relished his ability to kill with his gaze alone.
The only thing I could think of was that Carlyle really wanted was David to turn down the job without being unfair to him and missing an opportunity.
“It is a lot to handle, I suppose.” I totally understood where David was coming from. I reached under my desk to grab my purse. His sister was crazy, he’d just started this job, and his dad was coming into his life... and his girlfriend openly admitted to murdering his would-be-brother-in-law. “It’ll be fine with some time.”
Turning off my workstation, I left my office to gesture to Igra lounging on the sofa in the receptionist area.
He popped up, his natural, languid gait making him seem large and in charge as he held himself up to his full 6’3” height without noticing he was doing it.
“So, as we were saying... What’s Ophelia’s plan for right now?”
Igra frowned at me.
I arched a brow quizzically at him. “If anyone else told me Alexander was going to run for Prime Minister, I wouldn’t believe them. Ophelia’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. Why do you think Alexander went through all that trouble to fuck her over?” Puffing out my lips thoughtfully on the way to the elevator, I punched the button with my thumb.
Igra smoothed his suit jacket in agitation. “My father’s strong in her. Alexander doesn’t know, of course, because if he did, he’d already have killed her. The point is that this situation has a timer, Vanessa. If Alexander becomes Prime Minister, I won’t be able to stop him.”
“Carlyle brought you to America to keep you from being killed, Igra. That’s the whole reason you came to us for help. When it became obvious that even Darren was going to jump ship, you became a target.”
Igra scoffed in utter disgust at the mention of Darren.
My lips twisted in silent agreement. Darren was all hype, but in reality, he was a lovesick little bitch. And Delilah’s a whiny brat. They’re perfect for each other. I hated Delilah, and I thought Darren was a raging disappointment, but... they were Carlyle’s charity cases, so I couldn’t say anything about it. Carlyle ended up wasting all that manpower and money on them, so he just cut his losses after Seattle. They were useless and so absorbed in each other that it was nauseating.
“Don’t talk to me about Darren. I know what you’re saying, though, Vanessa. At least you and David are sensible about your attraction.”
27
David
“I think I’m gonna ask Vanessa to do the whole ‘dinner with my parents’ thing since my dad is in town.” Speaking up through the two beers swimming in my skull, I nodded to myself. “My dad might like her. She’s awesome.”
“Please— everyone likes Vanessa.” Reece nodded. “She’s got that thing. She’s everyone’s idolized big sister, and it’s not undeserving, I guess. I dunno. I know shit about her from when she first started, though. So I know she’s a ruthless bitch for a reason.”
Curiosity rose in me at this statement.
Reece took a deep swing of his beer before sighing heavily. “Her parents were super-religion nuts. She ran away because she found out her dad was trying to force her to marry some dude in his 50s with a piss fetish. I’ve seen a lot of shit, but that one stuck with me. He was gonna let this guy rape her, so she’d have no choice but to marry him, which sucks even worse because it happened anyway. She doesn’t really trust anyone except Carlyle, as every wayward girl seems to remind him of his dead sister, so...”
“That’s awful.” Awful and sobering and I didn’t r
eally know what to say. When I thought of forcing someone into marriage, I didn’t think it happened here. Apparently, this kind of thing is way closer to home than most people realize. “How do you deal with all the horrible shit you know?”
“You get into it young enough and it’s just what it is. Like, take my sister for example. She’s a piece of shit, and I hate her fucking guts, but, like... it just is what it is, you know? I wasn’t necessarily surprised when she tried to sue me for her killing her kid. I was more surprised she found a lawyer to take her case, actually, than what the case was about.”
I winced at this.
Reece shot me an apologetic look over the rim of his beer bottle. “Sorry. Anyway…yeah, so I went down there and I wasn’t sure if I could keep my head on. Kids are just kids, and they don’t deserve rotten parents, but... the fuck was I supposed to do about it? I dealt with smarmy, shitty people growing up, so I guess I was kinda predisposed to knowing how to handle those kinds of situations.”
“I still can’t believe she tried that.” Granted, Reece obviously felt scummy about his nephew dying, but he’d said it himself— what was he supposed to do about it? Reward his sister for bad behavior, as he put it? “I’ve never felt really, truly lucky, growing up unremarkably, until I hear shit like that.”
“It’s not a bad thing, for sure. What about your sister? You said your mom went to see her in the hospital.”
Draining the rest of my own beer, I set the empty bottle on the table to drum my fingertips on the wood. Whatever Reece’s girlfriend had made smelled good, lingering in my tipsy mind, and I hummed softly. “She talked about killing Vanessa and all this crazy shit that Vanessa ‘stole’ Sam and shit. I mean, I don’t understand how someone can twist things so much. When my parents were divorcing, she lied to my dad about being accepted into college so he’d have to pay my mom more and then she’d just siphon it, and he exploded. He knew damn fucking well she didn’t ever even apply for colleges, let alone get accepted into one. He kicked her out. Said as long as he lived there, she wasn’t allowed back. She wasn’t gonna disrespect him anymore. My dad’s not violent. He’s a nit-picker and anal retentive about being the best, but he’s not a violent guy. But he literally picked her up when she refused to leave and threw her out the front door.” Inhaling deeply, I bit my bottom lip hard as a smirk threatened to tilt my mouth. “I wish I saw it because when he moved out, she moved back in and obviously had no plans on leaving until my mom put her foot down when Sam stole $3,000 from her. Even then, it was a battle.”
“Yo, Vanessa would kick her ass without even having to put her hair up.” Reece scoffed.
Snorting a laugh, I nodded before grabbing another beer, and a little snigger escaped me at that image. Vanessa looked so bedraggled and confused immediately after having broken my sister’s arm. It really was cute.
Reece spoke again, “I’ve been friends with her for, like, eleven or twelve years, and I can’t really tell you anything about her. It’s weird. I mean, obviously, there’s business things and I take her out for her birthday every year, but...”
“She’s awkward when she’s not at work, I noticed. It’s cute.”
Reece rolled his head at me, lifting his brows with unbridled curiosity rampaging on his face.
Pursing my lisp thinly, I cracked open my beer to take a swig. “Seriously. It’s nice that I can go over to her place and just hang out without much expectation. We agreed to take it slow and I’m glad it didn’t mean getting to know each other stalled completely and we only met up for sex.”
“I remember the first time I saw Riley.” Reece’s face broke out into a tender smile, and he glanced drunkenly over his shoulder before leaning closer to me. “I’m gonna get her a ring. We’re not getting married or anything, but I thought she could still wear it.”
“Oh, congratulations.”
His smile widened.
My brows creased as I scrunched up my nose in thought. “I don’t know. It feels like life is just shitting on me right now. I like things with Vanessa. I don’t wanna fuck it up by panicking, but I feel like that’s what I’m doing. I’m gonna decline Carlyle’s job offer and try to move out by, like, March. My mom said it’s not my job to keep her safe from my sister, and she’s right, and I may feel guilty, but I did what I could. Especially, with my dad coming up here... the only person my sister can’t try her shit out on is him.”
“Yeah, I totally get that. The only person I’ve ever heard of, not even really met the chick, was Carlyle’s wife. She’s not afraid of him, never has been. It’s fucking weird.”
Grunting lowly in agreement, I frowned as I lifted my beer bottle to my lips. Anyone that wasn’t afraid of Carlyle Santino was weird for sure and maybe, a little more.
Reece nodded. “I’m sure he was just doing that as his way to look out for Vanessa, though. She was his personal secretary for like six or seven years, and they’re close. He’s a good guy somehow.”
“Maybe I should invite Carlyle over for my mom’s homemade sauce when Sarah gets out of the hospital. He’d scare her into a heart attack.” We both sniggered at that, and I set down my beer to twirl it around and around on the coaster. “Thanks for this, Reece. It sounds really pathetic, but I don’t have a lot of friends. Sarah made sure of that.”
“You’re welcome. You’re a good guy, David. Your crazy sister doesn’t take away from that. Do you think they’re gonna release her before your dad gets here?”
“I don’t know. My sister told my mom she was gonna kill Vanessa or whatever, but when my mom talked to the doctors, they weren’t all that invested in the threats. I may have exaggerated things on the completely valid if not diminishing hope that Sarah freaks the fuck out somehow and gets admitted to the psych ward.” I ducked my head, feeling guilty that I’d basically lied to Vanessa, even though what I said was true. My sister really was inching towards a psych stay, it was just a matter of whether or not the doctors would witness the breakdown themselves. “We’ll see. My dad flies in on Monday, so there’s a long way to go before then. From what my mom said, his wife all but pushed him out. She’s about done with his demeaning and criticizing, too.”
“You know what’d be insane?” Reece paused, then went on, “If your dad cheated on your stepmom with your mom while he was here.”
Stiffening at this, my heart leapt into my throat.
At my horrified expression, Reece laughed rambunctiously and threw his head back. “That’d fucking suck!”
“You fucking suck! Why would you— what— come on!” Reaching over to shove him, I put far too much oompf into it, and Reece went tumbling onto his ass.
He froze— I froze— but a drunken choke of a laugh bubbled up from deep in my chest.
He snorted mid swig, spitting out some of his beer.
I couldn’t contain myself—I bent over laughing.
Every time I hung out with Reece, despite the topics we brought up, bitching and moaning and complaining made me feel so free. He wasn’t going to criticize me to try to offer a solution or even sympathize. He was just gonna bitch back.
And it was good.
28
Vanessa
I stepped out of the elevator and into the ground floor lobby, almost instantly finding David with his head buried in his phone.
My phone pinged shrilly in my purse, and I smiled as I walked over to him.
He glanced up at me.
Butterflies fluttered in my belly when his whole face lit up. “You look good. How was your boy’s night last night?” I knew he got really drunk because he butt dialed me at some point, and all I heard was uncontrollable laughter.
David blushed a little and nodded sheepishly as he wrapped his arm around me.
My smile widened. “I’m glad you had fun.”
“I did, yeah. It’s one of my better hangovers...” He trailed off as we stepped out into the bitter, early December winter.
I pulled my coat tighter around me.
“My mom texted my
around ten this morning saying the doctor was discharging Sarah.”
“Okay. I’m not afraid of her.” Flipping my hair back away from my face, I stamped my heel on the concrete hard and turned to David with stern eyes. “Your sister has no bearing on your life unless you let her, David. People like her incinerate their bridges on their own. You don’t have to do anything but ignore her like you’ve been doing.”
“Not without going out with a bang.”
Puffing out my lips, my eyes narrowed.
David held his hands up in surrender. His grumble was lost in the bitter breeze, and he shook his head before hooking his arm around my waist again. “Fine. Ignore her like I’ve always been doing. Gotcha.”
“Good. From now on, we’re going to be us, not you, me, and Crazee.”
David cast me a quizzical stare at my outburst.
I flipped up my coat collar on the way down to the sidewalk.
“Did you listen to a podcast about shitty family members or something last night, Ness? Yesterday, you were all like...I don’t know. Hesitant... to talk about my sister.”
My brows rose, a little laugh escaping me to condense into a white puff that disappeared almost instantly. Shaking my head, I sniffled and blinked as the cold bit at my face. “I didn’t get riled up with a podcast, no. Let me rephrase. I don’t give a single shit about your sister, what she says, where she is, or what she feels.” Staring David dead in the face, I really didn’t enjoy his shock at my firmness. “I have never allowed a toxic person into my life since I restarted it and your sister won’t be the first because we’re dating. If she wants to crash into me, she can, but she’ll lose. Again. And she’ll be lucky if all she gets out of it is a broken arm. I know a lot of lawyers and judges, and I have a lot more money than her.”
“... Okay... what did rile you up last night, then?”
“Last night, you butt dialed me, and I was really glad that you were laughing and having a lot of fun. But...”
