by Jen Talty
Now, he wondered why Preston did anything, considering he was in the middle of trying to steal the company.
“You can’t think straight when she’s around. You’re useless. And worse, you’re souring the mood with our team. They worked hard on this contract and you’re being a douchebag.”
“I’m just tired. It’s been a long day of drinking and being in the sun.” He held up his glass. “I’ll be more fun tomorrow.”
“You’re a bad fucking liar.” Preston clanked his glass. “She’s so far up your ass, she’s coming out your mouth. I don’t know what you see in her other than she’s hot. Does she give good head? Is she a really good fuck? Is that why you can’t get over her?”
“Just shut the fuck up. Don’t ever talk about her like that again, or I’ll beat the shit out of you.” Reid glanced over the railing, thankful he didn’t see Darcie, though it didn’t mean she hadn’t heard Preston’s hurtful words.
“She’s affecting your work.”
“Why would you say that now?” Reid asked.
“Seriously? You’ve done nothing but fuck up since she walked out of your life. Hell. It started the second she came into it. And you’ve left me holding the bag.”
There was no denying Preston was absolutely correct in his observation. But what puzzled Reid was why Preston randomly brought it up on their vacation.
“It’s been a year. The time to be concerned about it affecting our business was about nine months ago. But you said nothing. You literally told me to take all the time I needed.”
“I wanted to give you some space. You were in pretty bad shape when she dumped you. It looks like you’re still not capable of giving me and the company your all.”
“It was a mutual breakup,” Reid corrected Preston, though he had no idea why he thought that was important. “And you have nothing to worry about when it comes to where my headspace is at.”
“You’re drooling,” Preston said. “You’re practically foaming at the mouth, you want her so bad. It’s pathetic, and to be frank, man, I don’t see what makes her so fucking special that you act like you want to blow your damn brains out. Everyone on the team is commenting on it. They are all worried about you. They have totally seen a change in you just since we walked on this boat. One even asked me if we should be putting away the alcohol.”
“Now that’s fucking ridiculous. You’re the drunk one, and it’s clouding your judgment.” If only Preston could understand that he was the root cause of Reid’s foul mood, not Darcie. If anything, she made the entire situation bearable.
“Not even close,” Preston said. “To the judgment part. The drunk part, yeah. I’m there.”
“Maybe you should put down both the alcohol and what’s coming out of your mouth because you’re going to regret this in the morning.”
Reid took a swig of his whiskey. He had a decent buzz going, but he’d kept his drinking to a minimum. He wanted to be fresh for when he had access to the WiFi. Of course, he ran the risk that someone at the office would notice him poking around inside the email accounts, contracts that weren’t his, and whatever else he could get his hands on.
But it was a risk he had to take.
“I highly doubt that. The only regret I will have is not having the energy to hit on that hot Anastasia. Damn that chick has an ass. And her tits. I bet those babies are real,” Preston said.
“Have you ever loved a woman, Preston? The kind of love that makes your heart beat a little faster and your palms go all sweaty and reminds you of that very first time you realized that feeling was what you lived for?”
“Are you talking about thrill seeking or fucking? Because it sounds like they are one and the same to me.”
“Of course you would think that.” Reid didn’t know why he bothered. Maybe, once they hit dry land, he should just call Preston on his shit and draw the battle lines.
Fuck. He couldn’t do that. Not if Preston had gone full-court press already with manufacturing of a product that hadn’t been tested and could potentially cause more harm than good if it didn’t do what they said it would.
He had to figure this out. Protect himself before departing. There were things in the company that Reid was damn fucking proud of.
And he wanted them.
“You’re the expert on love,” Preston said. “Did you know Hans didn’t randomly call me up last-minute.”
Reid’s breath caught in his throat. He coughed. “No. I had no idea.”
“This charter is last-minute. I got lucky the boat was available. I paid a pretty penny for it. But the team and I always planned on meeting with Hans. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to include you.” Preston let out a short breath that sounded like a slight laugh.
“What does Hans want to do now? Was the jump at Deception Pass supposed to be for him? Were we helping him do something crazy?”
“He nearly peed his pants when he thought his parachute wasn’t going to deploy last year. I don’t know why he tries all these things. He doesn’t have the stomach for it.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Reid said.
“Yes. Hans wanted to bungee jump off the bridge. And that still might happen.”
“Hans is a wild card, and I don’t like the way he does business,” Reid said. “He’s constantly cutting corners. He had two products recalled last year.”
“Neither was his fault,” Preston said. “And if you’d ever actually sit down with the man, you might find you’d enjoy doing business with him.”
“I doubt that. He’s ruthless and not the kind of person who fits into our plan. The only reason we put up with him is the donations he made to our product development.”
“Did you ever think that might go away?”
“Sure. But I’m not about to be blackmailed by the likes of Hans Miller. But I guess you are.”
“Not even close. But I want you to listen to what Hans has to say. You’ve blown him off three times over the last few months. That’s not good. I need you more present in our business. It’s not fair to me or our clients.”
“I know I was distracted the first part of this year, but—”
“Distracted? That’s a fucking understatement. Until about three months ago, you weren’t even present in our business. If you did show up, you were drunk.” Preston held up his drink. “Isn’t it ironic you’re giving me shit now?”
“I know I screwed up. I’ve apologized, and I’m working my ass off. I don’t know what else you want from me. Hell, I didn’t even know you felt this resentful toward me.” Reid contemplated confronting Preston with his suspicions. Perhaps they could talk it through and work it out, but not when Preston was drunk.
Or this emotional.
And Reid really needed more information because all he really knew was that Preston planned on going behind Reid’s back in a business venture with a snake.
“I didn’t know either until you started pushing back so hard, and I realized I preferred it when you were off somewhere else licking your wounds,” Preston said. “No matter how wild and crazy I get with my need to push the thrill-seeking envelope, I’ve never left you in a position where you had to deal with everything by yourself.”
“That’s true. You haven’t.”
“And then, a couple of months ago, you finally started to get your shit together. You got super excited about the fire suits, which made me want to scream because I could see where that was going.”
“If the fire departments—”
Preston held up his hand. “Spare me. I know where you are going. That’s the kind of venture that will bury us. But, you have a way of making stuff like that work, and I figured if you did, then I could get you on board with my stuff since the two are so closely related. Or at the very least, keep you occupied so I could seal the deal. But now, you see that little tart, and you’re a walking, sulking, heartbroken moron. It’s like you can’t take a piss without wondering if she’ll think it’s okay. And now I’m back dealing with a mess of a man wh
o could singlehandedly ruin our company if I turn my back.”
“Wow.” Reid took a good shot, letting the liquid burn his throat while the words scalded his brain and heart. He set his drink down and flexed his fingers, making sure he didn’t make a fist, because he would have a hard time stopping himself from hitting Preston. He wasn’t sure where this pent-up resentment had come from, but there was some real venom in that last statement. “I don’t even know how to respond to that. I understand I let you down, that I let the people who work for us down, but you said you had it covered. I asked you if you needed me, and you flat out said ‘no.’”
“What the hell was I supposed to say? I’ve been dancing on eggshells for years. It was like I was dealing with my sister,” Preston said.
“You did not just fucking say that.” Reid clenched his fists. It was rare that Preston poked at Erin’s depression, but when he did, he went way low.
“Oh. I did. I’ve been jumping through hoops trying to keep you happy. During the negotiations with the production company, I thought you were finally back. I mean, the guy I knew before my sister and then this Darcie chick fucked him all up.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“My sister softened you. She made you weak. Once she died, it was like she sucked the extremist right out of you. I’d see sparks of it here and there and I’d try to feed the beast, but nothing. Then fucking Darcie. Oh. My God. It was like watching the worst romantic mush you could find on those stupid cable channels. I wanted to slit my throat watching the two of you fall in love. Only it went bad. And quick. And last night, she walked by, and everything changed. I don’t get the hold she has over you, and why you can’t shake it and get back to what’s important.”
“I think you’re the one who’s lost track of why we started all this,” Reid said, having a little better understanding of what drove Preston, but no clue how to deal with it all. “Darcie doesn’t have any control over me. It’s just weird to see her again, that’s all.” Weird wasn’t even close to the right word. More like intense. Surreal.
Perfection.
“Do you remember Erin’s memorial?” Preston asked out of the blue.
“What the hell kind of question is that?” Reid glared. When Erin died, he’d lost more than the woman he loved, he also lost Preston. It took Reid until this year to figure that out, but her death had put a wedge between them so deep that it could never be removed. Preston saw his sister as baggage.
Her depression.
Her mental illness.
Those were things he couldn’t tolerate. They needed to be hidden. Brushed under the rug, never to be seen by anyone.
He wanted to pretend that it didn’t exist.
It was part of the reason he’d never wanted Reid to become romantically involved with Erin in the first place, but Preston couldn’t ever voice it out loud.
“Of course I do, but why are you bringing it up now?”
“You loved my sister.”
“I did,” Reid said. Tears burned the corners of his eyes. A day didn’t pass where he didn’t have at least one thought of Erin. Their relationship hadn’t been very long, only about a year, but it had been passionate, and she’d taught him what love was all about.
She also showed him that loving someone sometimes meant letting them go, and that’s what her last words had been to him. He hadn’t known at the time that she planned on taking her life, making it look like an accident, in a bid to spare his.
To this day, that concept gave him goosebumps.
“I’ve never understood why. I mean, I get why she fell for you, but never got what you saw in her,” Preston said.
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know,” Preston said. “But I’m not sure I believe you.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“If you loved my sister as much as you say you did, you’d be doing what you promised her when you helped spread her ashes over East Buffalo Peak.” Preston stood and hovered over Reid. “Do you remember what that was?”
Reid nodded. His insides trembled, and his chest hurt when he tried to take in a deep breath.
“The fire-retardant line is something my sister would want us to press hard with, and not just with the fire departments. That’s the no-brainer. Of course she’d want that. But you know how she felt about safety for the masses.”
“I think you’re missing the point in what your sister wanted.”
“If she could save the life of a man running from a burning building, she’d do it.” Preston wiped his upper lip and let out a short breath. “Hans wants to partner with us. He knows we have a fire suit that withstands temperatures hotter than anything else on the market. He also knows we’ve been working on technology to reduce the weight and weave it into fabric.”
“Why the fuck would you tell him that?” Reid jumped to his feet, knocking over the table that held his drink. The glass shattered on the fiberglass floor. “That technology hasn’t been tested for that use, much less even brought down to that level. We have no idea how it will work or if it will be approved. You promised me we’d do this right.”
One of the girls on the interior crew made a comment and came running, but Reid ignored her and kept his focus on Preston.
“I promised after the fact. And frankly, I lied,” Preston said. “Hans would be a good partner. He can do things we can’t.”
“What have you done?” Reid asked. “Have you already cut a deal with Hans?”
“Excuse me,” Milia said quietly as she cleaned up the broken glass and scurried off inside the main cabin.
“That’s what this meeting is all about.”
“Cancel the fucking meeting.”
“Not on your life. I’m doing what is necessary,” Preston said, giving Reid a little poke in the chest. “And you need to get your fucking head in the game and start honoring my sister and what you promised her. This would have been the project she got on board with, and you know it.”
“You’re really going to use your dead sister to manipulate me to do what you want?” Reid swallowed the bile rising in the back of his throat. Preston could be shallow and self-absorbed. In business, everyone would describe him as ruthless but brilliant.
However, Reid never expected that Preston would blatantly stoop so low.
But he should have known.
“I’m simply reminding you of a promise you made to the person you once told was the only woman in the world, at least for you.” Preston ran his hand through his blond hair. “Or did you forget you professed such a profound love, and said that you’d always honor her wish, no matter what happened?”
“You’re fucking drunk.” Reid took a step forward. “If Erin were alive and listening to you she’d—”
“Don’t you dare lecture me on what my sister would do if she were here.” Preston stood two inches away. He puffed out his chest and narrowed his stare. “Now, do what you promised Erin before and after she died.”
“Good evening, gentlemen.” Captain Jim strolled through the doors to the outer deck. “Is everything okay out here?”
“I was just heading inside to get myself another drink.” Preston took his glass and downed the last gulp. “You have an amazing chef. Dinner was fantastic. See you in the morning.”
Reid turned and gripped the railing. A water taxi cut through the channel as it went from yacht to port. Reid took in a few deep, cleansing breaths. Preston hadn’t been wrong, and he had every right to be pissed as hell. But to use Erin’s death…that was a new low, even for Preston.
Something else was going on, and it made Reid wonder if there were other problems in the company.
All the more reason to get a better look without Preston knowing what he was doing. Maybe he should do that tonight. The boys were all drunk enough. No way would they be logging into anything.
Except for the alerts.
He needed to deal with the those, and that would be complicated.
“My chief stew sai
d things were getting a little heated,” Jim said. He leaned against the railing about two feet away. “Do I need to have someone cut him off?”
“He’ll pass out soon enough.”
“Half of your team has turned in.”
“The two who are still up are just waiting for Preston to say he’s had enough. He knows how to party, but he’s not usually this bad. I apologize for his angst.”
“We’ve had worse, trust me.”
“I’ve heard stories from Darcie.” Reid turned and folded his arms across his chest, but he made sure he kept Preston in his peripheral vision. No way would he let that man out of his sight until he went to bed. “She told me what you did, and for the record, I think you’re an asshole for it.”
Jim ran a hand across his face. “You’re the jerk who let her get away.”
“I guess I am.”
“She and I never would have worked. We both had one foot out the door,” Jim said.
“She’s good at that.”
“I know,” Jim said. “She’s not very good at commitment. Nor was I. But you and she, you two belong together. It’s obvious.”
“That’s funny, coming from you.” Reid wasn’t about to argue the point because in part, he agreed. He just wasn’t sure how to make it happen.
“If you need anything at all, just let me know.” Jim strolled back into the main cabin.
Reid pulled out his cell phone. Time to take a big risk.
Chapter 8
Darcie finished hosing down the lower aft deck. She glanced at her watch and yawned. Preston and his young team knew how to party, and someone had to stay up until the last of the guests was asleep. Tonight it was her, Kirk, and Milia.
“Everything is cleaned up by the hot tub,” Kirk said. “Milia is just finishing up in the galley.”
“You can go to bed,” she said.
“Thanks. What time do you want me on in the morning?”
“Take the last shift.”
Kirk nodded, taking the hose from her hands. “Only if you let me finish up here.”
