“What’s your grandfather done to put that look on your face?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mark’s expression is smug. “Sure you do. Want to know how I know? Because I used to have that same expression after he’d cut me off at the knees. I knew you’d eventually be in the same position. I’m actually surprised it took this long.”
Mark Battle has never truly acted like my father. He makes an effort with Giselle, mainly because she’s a woman and Mark sees her as weaker. He’s completely wrong but Giselle no longer cares enough about him to let it get to her.
“Do you have a purpose for being here? No, wait. Even if you do, I don’t really give a shit.” I turn to my computer and dismiss him. “You know where the door is.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see him settle more deeply into the chair. I swallow a frustrated sigh but I’m pretty sure he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“You know,” Mark continues, “I once thought I wanted the seat you sit in. I thought if I worked hard enough and kissed his ass enough, my father would love me. I know how pathetic that sounds now. I also know that there are some things that just aren’t worth the hassle. Are you finally learning that being his lackey is one of them?”
If I ignore him, eventually he’ll get bored and go away. I try to concentrate on the rows of numbers on the computer screen but, as hard as I try, I can’t get them to come into focus.
“So I’m curious.”
Mark settles one ankle on a knee, his suit perfectly pressed, pant leg pulling up to show a sock that perfectly matches his suit. Today, that annoys the hell out of me. I’ve learned to dress and act like all of this matters, but I’m beginning to realize it doesn’t, not at all.
“Did he finally ask you to do something that goes against your morals? Or has he finally shown you where all the bodies are buried?”
My head rears back as I glare at him and I realize immediately that I’ve made a tactical error. The conversation with Olivia left me unsettled and Mark has seen an opening to attack.
“I knew it had to be something like that. Want to talk about it?”
“Why the hell would I want to talk to you about anything?”
His smile takes me off guard. “Because we’re a lot alike.”
I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off but he continues on before I can.
“I was just like you at your age. Thought I knew everything. Thought I could handle anything he threw at me. And then he got my mother killed.”
The shock I can’t hide makes Mark’s mouth curve with bitterness. “That man has no soul, Aiden. You have to have figured that out by now. You’re a smart man. I also know how loyal you are to him. And that’s my fault. When your mother dumped you on me, I had no desire to be a father.”
I shake my head. “Are you dying? Are you trying to atone for being a shitty parent?”
Mark laughs and shakes his head. “No, though I can see why you might think that.” Then he stands and I stare at him like he’s an alien and I’ve entered some strange alternate universe. “I have been a shitty parent. But you are still my son, Aiden. We will never see eye to eye but here’s a little fatherly advice you probably won’t take. Get out now, while you still can. You’re smart enough to do whatever the hell you want in life. Get out from under his thumb and get the fuck away from here. And never look back.”
Then he walks out like he entered, in no hurry and as if he owns the place.
Leaving me to stare after him with questions I never expected to have.
Chapter Four
Olivia
I arrive at Aiden’s dressed in black but not my normal working clothes. Black slacks and a mostly black top with metallic threads running through it, cut low enough to reveal the tiny bit of cleavage I have.
Show a little tit and most men immediately lower your threat level. Yes, many men are that stupid. Especially men who think they’re smarter than everyone else.
Aiden opens the door to my knock, sweeps his gaze down my body then back up to my face.
Aiden is not most men. He’s smart but he’s not easily distracted. And he knows what I’m capable of.
Still, his gaze lingers a second longer on the bare skin of my chest than anywhere else before he meets my eyes again.
“I’m still not convinced this is the right course of action. Are you sure you want to do this?”
I hear what he’s saying but I’m distracted because… Holy shit, Aiden in a suit is stunning.
He’s wearing black, as well, with a white dress shirt but no tie. As if he came home from the office and I caught him in the act of undressing. Since I’ve seen him naked, I don’t know why I find this sight almost as breathtaking.
It’s like getting an illicit peek at a stranger.
And with his hair pulled back, I see what he’d look like if he would decide to take this whole businessman look seriously. And he’s still seriously hot.
“Olivia?”
My gaze shoots back to his and I nod. “Absolutely. Are you ready to leave?”
He doesn’t move. “You look beautiful.”
My eyes widen at his bald statement and my lips part but I’m not sure what to say.
“Thank you” is what finally emerges but now I’m flustered.
That’s not something I normally hear from men, at least not ones who aren’t trying to pick me up in a bar. And then those are usually drunk and trying to get in my pants.
He nods and waves me into the house.
“I’ve called my grandfather to let him know I’m coming.” We walk through the house to the kitchen, where he opens the door to the garage and waves me through. “I told him I needed to speak to him about something urgent and that I’d have a date with me.”
Opening the passenger door to a big-ass Buick SUV, he helps me in, though I don’t really need it. I take his hand because I’m an idiot and I have a thing for his hands. They do wonderful things to my body.
When he climbs into the driver’s seat and shuts the door, I get a whiff of aftershave and my mouth starts to water.
Jesus, this has got to stop.
We’re on the road seconds later and I realize I’ve been staring at him the entire time. Shaking my head, I tear my gaze away from him and stare out the front window.
“So you’re going to keep him busy while I do my thing?”
His short laugh sounds a little sarcastic. “Exactly.” He shakes his head, his mouth a straight line. “My grandfather is old school, wants everything on paper. He keeps everything related to business in his office at the back of the house. He has a computer but I’ve never seen him use it, and the only other person who has access to it is his personal assistant and I know she’s only allowed access when my grandfather’s in the room with her. He trusts no one.”
“I thought he trusts you.”
“He does.”
But Aiden no longer sounds as sure as he had before.
“I’m sorry.”
He spares me a glance, his eyes narrowed. “What for?”
“That you no longer trust him. I know how that feels.”
When he glances at me again, he’s frowning. “What do you mean?”
“When Dad told me that he wasn’t my biological father, I was devastated. He’d been lying to me my entire life and I had a hard time with that. I hated him and my brothers. I even hated Maylyn because she actually is his biological daughter. It took me a while to realize that sometimes you hurt the people you love by keeping things from them that will hurt them.”
“And you think that’s what my grandfather does? That he hides things from me so I don’t get hurt?” His laughter is definitely sarcastic now. “I gave up the idea that my grandfather has actual feelings years ago. When my mother dropped me on my father and he passed me off to my grandparents, I knew the only reason they kept me was because of my grandmother. She had a heart. The old bastard doesn’t. But I’m grateful he didn’t send me to foster care. H
e gave me everything I needed. Sent me to school, gave me a job. Hell, he gave me an empire. And when he’s gone, it’ll be mine. So he wasn’t warm and fuzzy. I’m okay with that.”
“And if it turns out to be true? That he’s the reason your grandmother died?”
Aiden pauses and I’m not sure he’s going to answer. Finally, after at least a full minute of silence, he glances my way again.
“Then I’ll put him in a dark hole and take his company. And I’ll make sure he suffers every fucking day for the rest of his life.”
I’m not shocked by the vehemence in Aiden’s voice. I know how much his grandmother meant to him, even if he’s never said the words. I can hear it in his voice every time he talks about her, in the look in his eyes.
He may come off as a stone-cold bastard but he does have feelings. And I’m probably a huge fool for thinking he has feelings for me other than lust.
Blinking, I tear my gaze away from him and stare out the front window.
“Have I frightened you?”
His question isn’t exactly a surprise but I don’t know how to answer. “No, I’m not frightened of you.”
At least not in the way he thinks. I’m frightened that my growing feelings for him are going to make me even more stupid than I already feel.
“Then why do you look scared?”
I roll my eyes and hope that moves him away from that line of questioning. “I’m not scared. I’m thinking about what I need to do. Tell me more about the layout of the house.”
As we drive, Aiden gives me the rundown on the layout and I force myself to focus. By the time we pull up to the ostentatious mansion only a few miles from Aiden’s home, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I need to do.
But when I actually see the house, I’m a little awed.
“Damn, did he really build this to look like a castle?”
“He always told people he built it for my grandmother. But I’m pretty sure he built it for his ego.”
I’ve pulled high-profile jobs before, broken into a few Society Hill homes that made my apartment look like a homeless person’s makeshift tent. This place is on a totally different level.
“How the hell much money is he worth?”
“More than any person needs. But when you come from nothing, you get greedy. And you start to think you’re owed it. So you push and you push and you never stop. You never get to the point where you think you have enough. You always want more.”
“That’s…sad. And a little sick.”
Aiden’s eyebrows rise and I realize he’s talking about himself, as well as his grandfather. Then he shrugs.
“You’re not wrong. It is a kind of sickness. Remember what I told you about the security system. The office has its own and you’re going to have to disarm it before you can get in. Once you’re in, the safe is in the floor in front of the desk. Unless he’s had it replaced in the past year, it’s an old-fashioned dial.”
While they’re not the easiest to crack without any of my usual equipment, they’re not the hardest, either.
“I’m ready.”
Aiden nods but doesn’t get out of the car. “Don’t get caught, Olivia.”
“That’s the plan.”
“I’m not finished with you yet.”
I’m not exactly sure if I should be flattered or pissed. I settle for confused and silent.
In the next second, he turns and gets out of the car, leaving me blinking and shaking my head. By the time he opens the door to help me out, I manage to transform my expression into what I call bored socialite.
I’ve never been one but I’ve seen enough of them to fake it. Just act like you don’t give a shit about anyone or anything but yourself and are bored with everything around you.
It’s a good trick. People automatically dismiss you. Especially rich men.
“Don’t stare.” Aiden wraps his hand around my arm as we walk toward the front door.
“I’m not.”
What I am doing is checking out the security setup. Cameras covering all angles, windows wired. And if I’m not mistaken, bulletproof glass in the windows.
Overkill much? Jesus, this guy must think he’s a king.
By the time Aiden rings the bell, I’m convinced I’m about to come face-to-face with royalty.
The arched wood door opens without a sound and a woman in a pressed black dress with white trim, looking straight out of a movie about England in the ’50s, curves her lips just enough to suggest a smile.
“Mr. Knight. Mr. Battle is waiting in the white sitting room.”
Oh hell, she even has a British accent. I find it hard not to laugh or shake my head. It’s all so ludicrous. And Aiden grew up here? No wonder he’s screwed up.
Why do you even care?
Trying to keep in character is going to require all of my attention so I force thoughts of Aiden out of my head and pretend to glance around the room. What I’m really doing is watching to see where the housekeeper goes.
According to what Aiden told me in the car, the housekeeper has her own rooms behind the kitchen, on the other side of the house from the office, which is where we seem to be heading.
I glance at Aiden, but he’s staring straight ahead. His pace never falters and he makes no concession for my shorter legs or the heels I rarely wear.
I don’t say anything, just let him pull me along.
When we reach our destination, I want to roll my eyes because, holy shit, she wasn’t kidding. The room is almost completely white. It’s like an anal retentive’s wet dream.
The white furniture sits directly in the center of the room. The white walls are a shade darker than the furniture. The glass side tables are perfect squares.
The place gives me the serious creeps.
And the man sitting on the black leather wing chair staring at the television on the far wall is so not what I expected.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect but it’s not a thin old man who looks too frail to walk. He doesn’t immediately drag his gaze away from the television where he’s watching what looks like a business news channel. I can’t tell if he’s watching the stocks scroll across the bottom or if he’s listening to the talking head, who I’m pretty sure is speaking Japanese.
“Aiden. It’s late. What do you want?”
No warmth in the man’s voice at all. Nothing to indicate that Aiden is his grandson. Aiden doesn’t seem put off at all. I’m cringing.
“We need to talk about the Saudi deal.”
His grandfather’s gaze barely glances over me before he says, “Send her out.”
Aiden releases my arm but doesn’t look at me. “Wait outside the door. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
I blink, caught off guard by the coldness of his voice, but quickly fall back into character. With a shrug, I teeter back through the door, barely wincing when the door closes loudly behind me.
In the next second, I make a beeline for the closed door across the hall. To the office. Exactly where Aiden said it would be.
If someone’s watching, it’s game over anyway, so I don’t even attempt to hide.
I head straight for the office.
Chapter Five
Aiden
“Are you here to complain about Mark again, Aiden? I told you, you need to handle him. I’m not interested in your petty disputes with my son.”
It was the perfect opening and the perfect distraction. And standing here staring at the man who’d raised me in his shadow, I knew what Olivia was going to find in that safe.
Nothing.
Because this old bastard was too smart to leave something so incriminating where I might be able to find it.
I haven’t been blind to the fact that he’s a heartless bastard. I realized somewhere in my teens that he had very little capacity for emotion of any kind. The only things he loves are power and money. Things. Not people.
“Aiden.” His voice snaps but he’s lost the strength that had kept me in line as a child a
nd that made me think I wanted to be like him when I was a teenager. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Why the hell are you wasting my time staring at me?”
Jesus, when the hell did he get so old?
“No, it’s not about Mark.” I realize exactly what I need to say at this moment, what I should have said years ago. “It’s time for you to step down.”
His expression freezes, as if his brain is taking a second too long to process my statement.
Then he begins to laugh and I’m struck by the weakness in his voice. And by the hacking cough he develops that forces him to stop laughing and reach for the glass of water on the table beside him.
When he finally turns to glare at me, he looks even more pale than he did seconds ago.
“You forget your place. This isn’t your company. This is my company. You’re too damn cocky for your own good. I gave you too much responsibility and now you think you can just force me to the side.”
Sitting on the couch across from him, I stare at my grandfather and let myself really look.
He’s close to ninety years old although, until a couple of years ago, you would’ve thought he was closer to seventy. Tonight, he looks his age.
Why the hell have I allowed him so much control over my life? My only excuse is that, for so long, he’s all I’ve had, the only remaining tie to my grandmother. And because I just didn’t care about anything.
“It really was your fault, wasn’t it? You’re responsible for her death. What did you do that got my grandmother killed?”
His face goes slack for several seconds before his eyes widen in shock. In the next second, he’s sneering.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t get to question me. You don’t have the right! You’re nothing. The bastard son of a drug addict and a stupid rich boy. Anything you have I gave to you. I made you, Aiden.”
I shake my head, forcing back my rising anger as much as I can. “You didn’t make me, old man. I took every scrap of shit you gave me and I turned it into gold. You haven’t made one decision in the past five years that I haven’t handfed you. You would’ve lost this company twenty times if I hadn’t been here to stop you from making one awful deal after another.”
Consummated (Aiden & Olivia Book 4) Page 3
