by M. Malone
I wiped the steam off the mirror and called out. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. But I think I hear your Dad.”
I sighed. “Oh Lord. Okay, you go ahead. I’m coming.”
I got dressed in record time. I’d forgone makeup and just opted for lip gloss, and I put my hair in a messy bun. I was only planning on working a half day today anyway. Despite how things had turned out, I still wanted to go in and congratulate everyone on a great job on Miriam and then give them all the rest of the day off. Hell, the rest of the week.
When I opened our bedroom door, I heard shouting from the conference room.
In my bare feet, I jogged down the hall, past the kitchen, and then to the conference room. “Dad, what is happening?”
He spun around and glared at me. “Do you know what they’re saying about your brother?”
Evan stood gazing out at the skyline, but his back was tense, his shoulders hunched.
“Dad, calm down.”
“I will not calm down.” My father slammed his hand on top of the table, and I jumped.
Oskar immediately stood and came over to step directly in front of me. I attempted to shove him out of the way, but much like last night, that didn’t work.
“Oskar, move. He’s my father! He’s not going to hurt me.”
The giant idiot just crossed his arms. “Well, your father needs to calm the fuck down.”
Of course, that just pissed Dad off more. He pointed a finger. “I brought her to you to keep her safe. And now what? You’re accusing her family of trying to hurt her?”
I slipped under Oskar’s arm. “Dad, no one is accusing anyone of anything. But Evan did approach me with a gun yesterday.”
It was as if I’d slapped him. He jerked back and shook his head. “What?” And then he turned to Evan. “Evan, tell them you didn’t do it.”
If possible, Evan’s shoulders sagged even more. “I can’t.”
“What the hell do you mean you can’t? Tell these people that you didn’t try to hurt your sister.”
My brother turned around slowly. “Well, that one I can say. I didn’t try to hurt my sister. I wouldn’t.” He lifted his gaze to mine, and I could see the shame there. But I could also see the love. “I didn’t try to hurt her, but I did have a gun.”
As always, I tried to mediate. “Daddy, it’s really just a misunderstanding. Evan had a gun. Blake Security was just doing their job.” I turned to the guys. “Thank you all very much. Now I know your team is extremely well-trained, and very cool under pressure.” I turned back to my father. “But someone did shoot at me yesterday, so I am concerned about that.”
My father scowled. “But to accuse your brother.”
“Dad, it’s not like—“
Apparently, Oskar had had enough, because he gently tugged on my elbow, pulling me back to his side, and he angled his body so that he was between me and my father.
“Sir, I need you to cool down your tone. We did as instructed. We kept Hailey safe. Evan is alive only because she requested it.”
My father liked that even less. “You people are fired.”
I sighed. “You can’t fire them Dad, they’re doing their job. And as it turns out, someone is actually trying to kill me.”
“Well, I will find somebody better.”
I tried to move Oskar again, and that was a no-go this time, so I peeked around him. “Well, Dad, I override you, because Blake Security has done a great job. I’ve never felt safer.”
My father scowled, but it was Evan’s voice that cooled everything off. “Dad, do you have any idea what it’s like to be the black sheep of this family? The fact that people would even think that I could try and hurt my sister isn’t surprising. Yes, I had a gun for my own protection. Because as per usual, I was an idiot.”
My father shook his head. “You’ve made some mistakes. It happens. You just need to get back on your feet.”
“No, Dad. I have a real problem. I pissed away my whole fucking inheritance. Pissed it away. And I need a gun to protect myself. Come on, we can’t pretend none of this is happening. Sooner or later, you have to see things for how they are, the whole truth, and see your part in it.”
My father frowned then. “See what part?”
“Dad, when the hell were you going to tell Hailey she’s adopted?”
Even with my father’s darker skin, I could see the red flushing up his face. “What are you talking about?”
“Dad, stop. I know. Hailey knows. We both know. Obviously, Mom knows, so maybe this whole family can stop fucking lying.”
I tried to scoot out from behind Oskar again, but he shifted right in front of me. “Hailey, stay put.”
I slapped his back, and damn him, I swear to God, he chuckled.
Noah stood. “Mr. Livingston, I know emotions are high at the moment. We’ll leave you and your family to talk this out.”
Noah, Matthias, Jonas, and Rafe stood to leave. Dylan followed, standing outside the door.
As they filed out, Oskar didn’t even look at them. I guess, it was unsaid that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Dad.” I shoved at Oskar, and when he didn’t move, I pinched his ass. That got him moving. He glared at me.
“Well, you wouldn’t move.” I moved out from around him. “Dad, why didn’t you just tell me?”
My father sputtered. “You didn’t—you didn’t need to know.”
Evan sighed and sank down to one of the seats. “Dad, we both know. So why don’t you just tell us. I don’t remember us adopting Hailey.”
My father sighed then. He still glowered at Oskar, but I could tell that he was beaten and was finally going to tell me what the hell was going on.
“Evan, that’s because you were too young. When you were three and a half, almost four, I guess, I had an affair. I wasn’t proud of it, and it was a short-term fling. Then the woman found me and told me she was pregnant.” His gaze met mine for only a brief second and then darted away. “She wanted money, lots of it. She wanted to make the whole thing go away and for me to pay for her silence. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her keep you out of my life, so I offered to adopt you instead. Your mother, Miriam… I didn’t know it then, but she’d already started drinking. I don’t think it was as bad as it is now. But, I’d started to notice her being off. I think my actions just exacerbated it.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “Where is my birth mother?”
He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. She took her $3 million check, and she ran. But I got you. It was all I cared about.”
“So, what? You just covered it up?”
“Your mother and I, we made a decision that for the company, the shareholders, for all of us, it was best that she adopted you. We made you part of the family.”
“Oh my God, so you lied? My whole life, you lied to me.”
“Hailey—" He reached for me, but Oskar stepped between us again. His voice was kinder this time.
“Mr. Livingston, you’ve just dropped a very large bomb on Hailey’s lap. And she’s going to have to diffuse it. So maybe we can just give her some time.”
I didn’t even have to be looking at my father to tell he was crestfallen. It was in his voice. “Hailey. Please—"
I shook my head and wouldn’t look at him. My gaze was on Evan instead. “Just go. I can’t look at you right now.”
I waited until my father’s footsteps became more distant, and then I met Evan’s gaze. “I’m sorry. You got caught up in this as much as I did.”
Evan sighed. “Yeah, but you know what? I was fucked in the head long before I knew. At the end of the day, they probably overcompensated and gave me whatever the hell I wanted. And I took advantage, so it was really my own fault.”
Oskar sighed. “Okay, let’s get this sorted.” He turned to the hall and called everyone back in. The guys piled in, and he met Noah’s gaze. “I think Evan can go, but with a guard dog.”
The others sat down, but Dylan stopped wh
en Oskar held out a hand to block him. “It seems I’m on guard dog duty.”
Oskar grinned at him. Dylan didn’t even flinch. “Why is it that I always get stuck with guard dog duty?” he grumbled.
When Evan left, for his own protection, he left with Dylan.
The rest of Blake Security stayed in the conference room while Oskar took me back to our bedroom. “Sweetie, maybe you shouldn’t go into the office today.”
Instinct had me protesting. “I’m going.”
“For what? You clearly had a long day yesterday. Someone shot at you. I know you want to celebrate with your team, but you can Skype them, or whatever. It’s safer for you here, and I think you probably want to avoid your Dad for a bit, right?”
He had a point there. “Okay, fine. I just need to find my laptop.”
“I’ll get it for you.” Before he left, he kissed me on the forehead. “Anything you need, I’m here, okay? You aren’t alone.”
I just wished I could believe that.
Oskar
I walked Elijah Livingston out. His back was stiff and his shoulders bunched. The guy was still pissed. I got it. But still, Hailey’s happiness depended on him, so he needed to stop being an asshole.
“We’re going to keep looking, Mr. Livingston.”
He turned on me and jabbed a finger on my chest. “You have to do more than look.”
“We are. We’re not going to let anything happen to her. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
I hadn’t said anything to Elijah about me and his daughter yet. We’d all agreed that it was probably the safest thing to not tell him about me and Hailey being married. Those kinds of details would get lost in translation and do nothing but cause pain.
“You have to do something. This is my baby girl. You don’t know the lengths to which I’ve gone to protect her.”
I sighed. “She knows. And we’re doing what we can.”
“I know how bad this looks, but Evan would never hurt her.”
“And I’m inclined to believe you because Hailey believes him. But we do need to keep an eye on him.”
“And we can’t ignore the fact that someone is out to hurt my family.”
“Getting at one of the kids is how they’re likely to do it. Not to mention it seems that Evan can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble, so we’ll get two birds with one stone. Dylan and Tyse will stay on him and help keep him out of trouble.”
“The real culprit is still out there.”
At the elevator, Elijah rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. I could sense his need to get the hell out of there. He was twitchy, fidgeting.
I made eye contact with Ryan, silently telegraphing that he was to stick with Elijah like glue until he was safely home.
Tyse was in the follow car. To make sure Elijah wasn’t a target. Both of them knew, they were done with the older Livingston, they needed to go give Dylan a hand with Evan. The dude was his own worst enemy.
If Evan somehow slipped Dylan’s net, Ryan would be on him, and he wouldn’t even know. Two-man teams were standard with Blake Security, but Evan didn’t know that, which suited us just fine for the time being.
“We have people on both of your children. Like I said, nothing is going to happen to them.”
Elijah squared his shoulders. “It had better not. I’m paying you people a lot of money. I feel like she should be safe by now.”
I clenched my jaw and glared at him. “She is safe.”
“Keep it that way. She might not want to speak with me right now, but she’s still my baby girl.” He shook his head. “I should have told her the truth. All those years I had plenty of opportunities. I tried to tell her so many times, but I just couldn’t.”
“Look, I don’t have any kids, so I have no idea how this feels. But knowing your daughter even a little, something tells me she’ll come around. Just give her time and space, and she’ll figure it out.”
Elijah nodded his thanks. When they were gone, I turned to find Rafe leaning against the kitchen counter and giving me a shit-eating grin.
“Oh, so Papa Don’t Preach over there doesn’t know that not only are you boffing his daughter, but you’re his new son in law?”
I glared at him. “Shut the fuck up.”
Rafe grinned back. “No way. This is going to be awesome.”
“It already is awesome. I married the prize.”
Rafe shook his head. “Yeah, but you didn’t know you were marrying the prize then. Hell, you didn’t even know you were married until just a little bit ago.”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, because I’m winning this game of awesome here.”
He just chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve been waiting for your comeuppance and—man, I can’t wait.”
“You just keep talking shit. That’s never going to happen.” Only problem was I knew he was right. I knew a reckoning was coming, and it wasn’t going to be pretty for any of us.
5
Hailey
Priya belly flopped on to the massive couch. “God, I can’t believe I have to fly back to California before this is cleared up.”
“I know. I’ve gotten used to having you here. It’s been really fun.”
“Well, you just have to come to Cali next time. Um, don’t bring your murderous stalker though, because you know, it’s kind of a thing trying not to get your bestie killed.”
I tossed a pillow at her.
She popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth and ducked easily. “Still too soon for you? In all seriousness though, don’t do that thing.”
“What thing?’
“You know, the thing. Don’t push away a man who loves you.”
A flush crept up my face. I was convinced fire was leaking at my ears. “He doesn’t love me.”
“Oh my God, are you blind? The way that man looks at you, if that isn’t love… Shoot, he’s so madly in love with you he doesn’t even know what to do with himself. It’s why he goes all caveman, ‘let me club you with my big stick.’” She added a little dance for emphasis.
I stifled a giggle. “I only pushed him away because he broke my heart once.”
“Well then, let him put it back together. You closed yourself off too much.”
“I do not.”
“You do too. You’re so afraid someone is not going to love you back. I could kill your mother for that.”
I groaned and flopped back against the pillow. “Please, let’s not talk about my mother.”
Priya munched on another piece of popcorn. “What, something else happened with her?”
“Oh my God, how did I not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
After this morning’s debacle, I’d had three Skype calls. I rushed to lunch, and then I convinced Oskar to at least take me to my office to thank my team and give them the rest of the week off. Then I came back here, and team Blake Security had dinner together, so this was the first time I’d seen Pryia alone all day. “Yeah, I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Begin with the most scandalous part, of course.”
“Well, that’s easy. It turns out I’m adopted.”
Priya sat up, upending her popcorn. “What the fuck?”
“Oh yeah. Good times. Evan sort of held me at gun point last night and then broke it to me that he found out six months ago that I was adopted. This morning, Dad admitted he’d had an affair, and when the woman came to him to extort money from him, he paid her and made her give me to him. Then my adoptive mother, the one who has had a drinking problem since I was old enough to remember, adopted me. So, I think that pretty much covers all the basics.”
Priya shook her head. “Wait, go back to the part where Evan held a gun on you.”
“It was a misunderstanding. He wasn’t really holding a gun on me, but he did have a gun because he’s in trouble with some bad people for gambling debts.”
Priya groaned. “Oh my God, I missed so much at that gala. Stupid gun shots. All I knew was Ty
ce dragged me out of there like my hair was on fire. Then he handed me off and the next thing I knew, I was being locked up here at the lair. Unfortunately, being locked up here at the lair did not involve me being tied to a bed naked by Tyce, which I should file a complaint about, honestly.”
I choked out a laugh. “Oh my God, he doesn’t even know what he’s in for.”
“Oh, I think he does. The way he eye-fucks me all the time, I’m convince he likes creative bitches.”
“What happened to the TA you were doing?”
Priya waved a hand. “Oh, he’s just for exercise. Tyce looks like a man who knows what to do with a woman like me.”
“Who knows? Maybe he does like crazy.”
“Enough about my crazy. Back to your crazy. Okay, so all I knew was that you were safe, and Tyce told me as soon as he had confirmation that they were coming back with you. Then he told me to get some sleep because you were already down for the night.”
I nodded. “I fell asleep in the car. Oskar carried me up.”
“Jesus. So, you’re fucking adopted?”
“Yeah because Dad had an affair, which is… whatever. But the great news is my birth mom, she’s a real gem. She just took the money and ran. No “How are you, I hope you’ll be safe and loved.’ She just took her money and disappeared.”
“Hey, you were safe and loved. You father adores you.”
And I couldn’t deny that, but he lied to me my whole life. “I know he loved me, but that’s not the point. The point is he lied to me and he was trying to make up for one mother who just didn’t want me and another who also really didn’t want me but was forced to take me.”
She winced. “And Evan knew?”
“Yeah, he found out about six months ago. I didn’t even want to ask how. But that’s when shit started to get worse with him. Yeah, he’d been sort of a wastrel before, but the gambling, the extra-hard partying, the women, the just general, overall not-giving-a-fuck, got really intense then. He thought I was trying to screw him out of his inheritance or something.”
