The Billionaire's Twin Fever (MANHATTAN BACHELORS Book 1)
Page 5
They all laughed then, and dinner progressed into the evening. When it was done, Aleisha hugged them goodbye and took her babies home to her little apartment. It had been a long and incredible day, and all she wanted to do was sleep. The days to come weren’t going to be any lighter, but she could already see with confidence that they were going to be good.
She tucked Harry and Hailey into their cribs and stepped into a long, hot shower, letting all of her thoughts and cares and worries wash away down the drain. As the bubbles slid down her mahogany skin with rivulets of water, she found herself thinking offhandedly about Kyle and how he had stood up for her that day. She thought of how he had smiled at her and how his silvery blue eyes had shone when he told her he was proud of her. Then, she reminded herself that he was her boss and she had no business thinking of him while she was in the shower, or anywhere else.
She got out and toweled off, pulling her nightgown on and slipping into bed. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and told herself that she wasn’t going to let thoughts like that play in her mind anymore. She was going to focus on work, and nothing but work. She meant it, but then she fell asleep, and somewhere in the darkness of the night and the uncontrollable depths of her dreams, she found herself looking into his eyes again, his face, and then the dream changed and she was with her babies, and Kyle had disappeared from sight, but she could still feel him there.
***
When morning’s early light woke her, she opened her eyes and couldn’t remember her dream, but she woke with a smile, and she knew that it had been sweet and good. She pushed herself up from her bed and got ready for work.
She was ready to walk out of her front door when there was a knock, and she opened the door to see her babysitter standing there. She was a young college girl with sandy blonde hair to her elbows and warm brown eyes. There was a sprinkling of freckles across her nose, and she had a friendly and genuine smile. She wore jeans and a pullover hoodie and carried a bag over her shoulder.
“Good morning, Cara. How are you doing today?” Aleisha asked with a smile as she stepped aside to welcome the girl in.
“I’m good! How are the kids today?” she asked, turning the question back to Aleisha.
“They’re fine. Hailey is sleeping, and Harry is playing in the playpen with his toys. I’m sure that she’ll be up in just a little while. How are your classes going?” Aleisha asked as she slipped her coat on.
“Good. I’m ahead in most of my classes, but I’m falling a little behind in calculus. I’ll catch up.” She sighed a little and pushed her hands down into her pockets.
“It’s really important to keep your grades up as high as you can all the way through. Those numbers are going to follow you around for a long while after you graduate. I’m sure you’ll catch up soon. You’re a smart girl!” Aleisha smiled at her and headed for the front door.
“Well, I’m off. Thanks for taking such good care of my babies while I’m gone,” she said with a wave, and walked out.
The brisk morning air swept through the broken spaces between towers and buildings and rushed along the streets, and she pulled her coat tighter around her. The April blossoms on the trees had morphed into May’s green buds and leaves, but there was still cool air in the early hours of the day. Spring was a capricious butterfly, coming and going without much direction until it finally settled on something and paused in its erratic migration.
She didn’t take her coat off until she was in her office and the warmth there eased the goosebumps on her arms. Ten minutes later, she was seated comfortably at her desk with a cup of hot coffee beside her and the remainder of the stack of files from the day before in front of her. There were only four left in the group, and she was hoping that they would all be simple cases to close.
She wanted to focus her attention on the Henderson and New York Tech file, but she wanted to hear from the bus driver before she made another move on it. She knew that it was going to be vital to have all of the pieces in place before she was able to do anything about the case. Like a game of chess, all of the pieces needed to be strategically set before a checkmate could be called.
Her phone rang, and she reached for it and picked it up absentmindedly as she finished reading the paragraph she’d been focusing on.
“This is Aleisha.”
“Miss Kingston? This is Jeremy Flanders. You left a couple of messages for me.” The voice was soft and low. Everything in her snapped to attention, and she grabbed her pen and a notepad of paper.
“Mr. Flanders!” she tried not to sound as anxious as she felt. It was the bus driver from the New York Tech case. “Thank you so much for calling me back. I’m glad to hear from you. I’m working on the case with New York Tech, and I wondered if I could come talk with you about it as soon as you’re free. Today, if at all possible.”
Her pen hovered over the pad of paper as she waited for his response. He groaned. “Nah, look, I’m not signing any settlement with them. They fired me, and they have a lot to answer for, and I’m not doing anything with them until they do right by me. They’ve jacked me around enough. You’re not going to get me to sign a damn thing.”
Her heart and her breath caught, and she spoke in a slow and calming voice. “Mr. Flanders, I realize that there is a lot more to this case than just the settlement. I’m actually investigating it much deeper than just the surface settlement that they want. I know that they may have been neglectful in maintaining their buses and keeping them safe for the drivers and the passengers.”
“May have been?” he shot back in irritation. “No, they downright ignored it. They look the other way; they let everything go to hell, and then they blame everyone else. That’s what’s going on here.”
She felt her heart begin to pound, and her voice was reassuring and gentle when she spoke again. “I believe you, Mr. Flanders, but I need to come talk with you about it. We can’t fight them unless I know all of the facts, unless I know just what was really happening behind the scenes.
“That’s what I need to speak with you about. Please… if you have any time today, I can come talk with you. I can get your side of it and help you try to make this right. You aren’t the only person who has refused to sign off on the settlement, and now, that may be turning in your favor. Will you talk with me, please?”
With each passing second, her heart banged against the wall of her chest, and her pulse raced as she waited. He had to do it. She needed him to make it work, and she couldn’t lose him because he was holding a grudge against the company and wasn’t willing to have anything to do with them.
The silence on his end stretched out an interminable length, but she waited, and her patience was finally rewarded. “Fine. You can come by my house at two this afternoon. I’ll be home. We can talk about it then, but I ain’t signin’ nothin’ until I know exactly what’s going on, and I’m not settling with them.”
“Fair enough. I won’t bring the settlement with me. That’s not why I want to talk with you. I’ll leave that at the office, and we’ll talk about what’s really going on behind the walls there.” She breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Thank you, Mr. Flanders. I really appreciate it. You’re doing the right thing.”
He said goodbye, and she set the phone back into its cradle and slumped in her seat. She might very well be getting just what she needed to find out what was really going on. She was close to being able to help the Hendersons and everyone else who had ridden on that wrecked bus, and anyone who might step foot onto a New York Tech bus in the future. With a big smile, she turned her attention back to her work and tried to focus on the file in front of her.
Aleisha had just gotten to the last file when Kyle walked in and gave her a direct look. “Come to my office now, please,” he said evenly, and then turned and walked out.
Sighing, she closed the file she was working on and went to his office. He asked her to close the door behind her and take a seat. Her curiosity about what he was calling her in to speak with him about didn’t last lon
g.
“We’ve got a sticky one to go over today.” He handed a file to her and sat down on a chair across from her, his eyes on her as she opened it and reviewed the pages inside of it.
“This is the Charleston case. Alexander Charleston has hired us because he’s inheriting his father’s portion of their family company. It’s the controlling portion. The board of the company is trying to do a takeover, claiming that Alexander’s father was senile when he changed his will and left the company to his son.
“It seems that the two of them had been estranged for years, not speaking to one another at all, and then, six months before Alexander’s father died, they reconciled, and the controlling half of the company was left to Alexander. The board is going to fight this tooth and nail. They want Alexander’s part.” He lifted his hand to his mouth and ran the side of his forefinger over his lower lip thoughtfully.
“We need to prove that Mr. Charleston was sane?” Aleisha asked. “Shouldn’t they have to prove that he wasn’t?”
“He signed a power of attorney over to one of the members of the board, as well as to his son, and he gave them both individual authority. They don’t have to act in conjunction with each other. He trusted that they would work together because he had brought his son back in and his son would be acting in his best interest. He believed that the board would act in his best interest as well.” He dropped his hand to the arm of the chair he was sitting in and set his full lips in a thin line of disapproval.
“But they didn’t,” she answered as she watched him. He was almost enrapturing, sitting there before her, speaking quietly with her, his eyes stormy with the situation, and his mind going swiftly in several directions as he tried to work out the tangled nuances of the case. She caught herself gazing at his lips and had to look away, reminding herself that she was in his office to work and she could not allow herself to be distracted by him.
“No, they didn’t. The other board member with power of attorney is stating that for the six months prior to the old man’s death, he was senile and getting worse daily and that he wasn’t himself when he took his son back in. He’s claiming that the son never should have been given power of attorney and that he never should have inherited any part of the company. He’s arguing that the son weaseled his way back in when things were bad for his father, after his father had gone off of the deep end, so he could get the inheritance.” Kyle frowned darkly.
“You think the board member is the one who is after the inheritance and control of the company, and he’s trying to block Alexander for nothing more than money and control over the company?” She felt her stomach tighten.
Slime balls like the board member who was fighting Alexander made her nauseous. She shook her head. “And on top of losing his father not a mere six months after reconciling with him, now Alexander has to fight for his father’s company, which should be his rightfully, anyway. That’s awful!”
“It is awful, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and we’re going to do all that we can to ensure that Alexander gets what is rightfully his. We’re going to find a way to prove that his father was sane and that this board member is just after the money and the business.” Kyle’s eyes met hers, and she felt a warm spread through her. She knew that he meant what he said, and she liked that he was so determined to find the right in the situation and bring about justice.
“I’ll see what I can find out about this board member. There’s got to be something he’s up to if he’s fighting so hard. There’s always more that they don’t tell you about. I’ll look for it,” she said with a widening smile. “We’ll get him.”
“Good.” Kyle lifted one corner of his mouth a little as he studied her. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
Just then, Grace knocked on the door and walked in.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but Aleisha, you have an emergency phone call.” She looked more concerned than her voice let on. “It’s your babysitter, Cara.”
Her heart went straight into her throat, and her first thoughts went to her babies. She panicked that something had happened to one of them. Shooting straight up out of her seat, she went for the door, but Kyle stood and reached for her arm, stopping her.
“Use my phone. Take the call in here,” he urged her with widened eyes.
With a single nod, she went to his desk and picked up the receiver. “This is Aleisha.” She planted her hand on the top of the desk to steady herself, and everything in her began to pound relentlessly.
Chapter6
Cara’s voice was in a panic. “Aleisha, I’m so sorry to have to make this call to you, but my father had a stroke. I have to go to him in Boston. He’s at the hospital. I need to leave right away, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry, Cara!” Aleisha felt as if her own heart had just departed her chest and gone out to the young girl.
“You’re going to have to come home right away or send someone else over here to take care of the kids. I have to go right now,” she pleaded miserably.
“I know. I understand. I’ll be right there.” Aleisha sounded empathetic and in complete control, but her mind was going in several directions.
They hung up, and she turned to look at Grace and Kyle, who were standing near her, waiting to hear what had happened and waiting to know if they could help at all.
“That was my babysitter,” Aleisha began as she lifted her hand and pressed her fingertips against her temples, stemming the stress headache that was slowly beginning to form there. “Her father just had a stroke, and she has to go to Boston to help him.”
“What other options do you have besides your babysitter for your children?” Kyle asked, eyeing her with concern.
“None.” Aleisha frowned in frustration. “I have a meeting with Jeremy Flanders, the bus driver from the New York Tech case, in an hour and a half. I don’t have enough time to find anyone else to take care of the kids, and she wants me there right now.”
“You don’t have any family or friends who could step in at a moment’s notice?” he asked, his eyes steady on her.
“Not this time. My sister and my grandmother are on a cruise together in Mexico. I can’t believe this is happening right now. Normally, I could call them, and they’d be right over there. I wouldn’t even have to leave the office, but they’re gone, and now I have no other choice or option.” She rubbed her hand over her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to think of what she could do.
Kyle reached his hand out to her elbow and touched it gently. “I’ll watch them for you,” he said quietly and comfortingly.
Everything in her stopped, and she dropped her hand and looked up at him. “What?” she asked, certain that she hadn’t heard him correctly.
“I said, I’ll watch them for you. That’s no big deal. It’s just while you’re meeting with this Mr. Flanders, right? How long could that be, a couple of hours at most? I can do it. I have no problem looking after them. This is an important meeting and an important case.
“So, we can leave here and go to your place, your babysitter can leave, I’ll stay with the kids, and you can go to your meeting. I’ll see you when you get back, and we’ll figure it out from there.” His voice was reassuring and steady. Calmness radiated from him, as if it wasn’t the big deal she was worried about, but rather that it was nothing more than an easily handled bump in their daily road.
She stared at him, and at first, no words could come to her. She couldn’t imagine him looking after her children – he didn’t seem the type to want to be around kids – but then again, perhaps he was, she thought to herself as she looked back at him.
“You’d really be okay with watching nine-month-old twins…” she trailed off as she furrowed a brow at him.
He shrugged and nodded. “Of course! They’re small. How much trouble could they be?”
She laughed unintentionally and crossed her arms over her chest. “Have you ever spent time with kids before? Little kids?”
Kyle gave his head a shake and turned his body toward the door, moving his hand from her elbow to her back as if to guide her out of his office. “Get your things, and let’s go. We don’t have a lot of time. She needs to get to her father, you need to get to your meeting, and you don’t have another choice. Luckily for you, I’m a good choice. So, let’s go.”
Grace raised both of her eyebrows and grinned, holding back a chuckle as she turned and went back to her desk. Aleisha blinked and tried to wrap her mind around what was happening. She knew that he was right, they had no time and they had no choice, but he was the last person she’d ever have expected to jump in and help her out with her babies.