The anger inside me was rising, just as quickly as the alcohol was beginning to take effect.
I poured myself some more Scotch, and I could feel the marble floor shaking underneath my shoes.
How could I have been this stupid? How could I have not seen through Aubrey’s carefully crafted facade?
What did they think they were going to accomplish with this? Did they want her to spy on me? Did they want to use her to keep me distracted from my job so that they could keep stealing trade deals from under my feet?
Well, whatever it was, it had worked.
Every time I was with Aubrey, I forgot about the C Scape men and my beef with them. If we had gone on that date, there would be no coming back from it. I would have fallen for her, and fallen for her hard, and then I would be a goner. My days and nights would be occupied by her. I would find it difficult to concentrate on anything other than my desperate need to have her. To spend every waking moment with her.
I stood up from the couch, the whisky in the glass spilling from my hand onto the rug, and I smashed the glass to the floor.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her? Why couldn’t I get her out of my mind even though I now knew who she was?
I wanted to hate her. I wanted to despise her and never think of her again, but more than anything else, I wanted revenge.
***
I staggered to the telephone on the wall in the kitchen. It was a landline connection that I had never used before, but now that I didn’t have my cell phone—or at least couldn’t find if Chad had left it for me—the landline was the only option.
I was drunk and not making any rational, informed decisions. I was allowing the alcohol to do all the thinking for me.
It hadn’t taken me long to find Hunter Morgan’s phone number, even in my drunken state. The C Scape men were all about “accessibility.” They wanted to be easily accessible to potential clients and the media alike. Hunter Morgan’s personal cell phone number was a free-for-all, and I wrote it down on a piece of paper and carried it to the telephone.
I dialed the number, clutching a new glass of whisky in one hand and trying to keep my balance at the same time. I knew I’d had too much to drink—I was aware of my situation. Even while I was dialing the number, I knew that it was a bad idea, but it was done. The phone was ringing, and within a few seconds, I heard the groggy voice of a man who had been rudely awoken up from sleep.
“Hunter Morgan. How are you!” I was speaking too loudly into the phone and tried to fake a jovial tone.
“Who is this? Do you have any idea what time it is?” I heard his voice, and I twisted the landline’s cord around me as I turned to lean against the wall of the kitchen.
“Have you been sleeping well?” I asked and took a sip of the whisky. It burned my throat as it traveled down to the pit of my stomach. That jovial tone had not lasted very long.
“If this is about some article you’re writing, I suggest that you call me at a more decent hour,” he said, and I clenched my jaws. I was insulted, in my drunken state, that he hadn’t recognized my voice. If I was rational, I would have remembered that we had never spoken to each other before. I had only hated him from a distance, just like I thought he had hated me too.
“This is not about some article. I’m Gareth Gray!” I barked into the phone.
There was a silence of a few moments, and then there was a change in the tone of his voice. He sounded less annoyed now.
“Gareth, right, okay, give me a minute. My girlfriend is asleep, and I should probably step out of the room,” he said.
I scoffed at that. Was it all a part of the plan? To throw the fact that he had a girlfriend right at my face?
Nonetheless, I had the good sense to give him the time he needed to leave his bedroom, and I drank my whisky in the meantime.
“All right, Gareth, I’m all ears. It’s good to be talking to you finally. I was hoping we could set up a meeting soon. I’ve been meaning to get in touch with your offices,” Hunter said, and I gritted my teeth in ager.
“A meeting for what? So you could brag about what an utter fool you think you’ve made of me?” I growled. There was silence again.
“Look, Gareth, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but whatever it is, I’m sure it’s just a big misunderstanding,” Hunter said.
“You can drop the pretense now. I know. She told me who she is. I know you’ve planted her in my life, you bloody bastards!” I raged into the phone.
“Who are you talking about? Why don’t you just explain this to me? I really don’t have a problem with you or your company!” Hunter had raised his voice too, but I could sense that he was trying to keep his calm.
“Aubrey. I know about Aubrey! I know she’s your cousin!” I growled. I was about to bang the phone down on its hook again, but Hunter sounded strangely silent now.
“How do you know Aubrey? Is she in New York?” Hunter asked. My eyes were flitting crazily all over the place. I was beginning to get as confused as he sounded. If he was pretending to be confused, he was doing a very good job of it.
“Yes, she is in fucking New York, because you sent her here!” I snapped, and I heard Hunter sigh.
“Look, I don’t know what she’s been telling you, but trust me, I have no idea what the fuck is going on. You are mistaken. I have not planted her in your life, like you said. Jeez, I didn’t even know she was in New York! I haven’t spoken to her in ages,” Hunter said.
I shook my head in rage. I refused to believe a word of what he was saying. I was not going to fall for their lies and manipulations again. Of course he wasn’t going to admit his schemes to me on the phone!
“C Scape is going down for this. You have my word on that,” I hissed into the phone.
“Gareth! For fuck’s sake. I don’t know what’s going on!” Hunter argued, and now he was shouting into the phone.
“I was keeping low all these days, but now I’m coming after you and your friends, and I’m going to make sure that your little company sinks to the ground along with all your ships,” I growled, and I banged the receiver down.
I threw my head back and gulped down the remainder of the whisky in the glass.
I couldn’t even remember anymore all the things I had just said to Hunter on the phone. I was drunk out of my mind, and I knew I needed sleep. Staggering and trying to keep balance, I walked toward my bedroom, but even before I could get anywhere close to the bed, I fell down on the rug in front of it and passed out.
Chapter Twelve
Aubrey
I was standing in front of an empty canvas, with a palette and a paintbrush in hand. It had been three days since the evening that Gareth had come to my apartment, and I had been dreaming ever since of a new painting.
I had an image in my head of two people lying naked on a messy bed, looking up at the sky. Only, instead of an actual sky, they were staring at a web, something like a fishing net that was strung with daisies and other wild flowers. The faces of the couple wasn’t that of Gareth and myself, but of two other people I didn’t recognize.
I had been dreaming about this image every night, and every night there were new details that were added to it, like the color of the woman’s hair—raven, nearly electric blue. The eyes of the man, red, like they were on fire.
I was filled with an incredible urge to paint, and I had locked myself in the apartment all day today, trying to get started on the canvas. Ira was at work, so I had the place all to myself. I was alone, with an opportunity to stew in my own misery.
But I hadn’t even begun to paint yet. I had the idea, I had the image in all its detail, but I just couldn’t put the brush down on the canvas.
When there was a knock on the door, I felt a sense of relief. Without thinking about who it could have been, I rushed to the door and swung it open.
My cousin Hunter was standing on the other side, with his arms crossed over his chest.
“You aren’t an easy girl to find, Aubrey. Even your pa
rents weren’t sure of your exact address,” Hunter said. I was too surprised to say anything, and he stormed into the apartment, pushing past me.
I turned to look at him with my mouth hanging open. We hadn’t seen each other in at least a year, maybe more. When I lived in Brunswick, I saw him around town sometimes, but it was never more than a passing hello. He and I had never had any sort of relationship, so it was weird to see that he had just barged into my home without an invitation.
Hunter stood in the middle of the apartment now, looking about the place.
How strange was it that two billionaires had stood in that exact spot of our humble little studio apartment in the span of one week?
“So?” he said, and I put the palette and brush down on a stool beside me.
“So, what on Earth are you doing here, Hunter?” I asked.
We had always been cordial and polite with each other, but today I could sense an aggression coming off him. If anyone had the right to be mad, it was me! Whatever he had done, he had ruined any chances of me and Gareth being together.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on first?” Hunter snapped, and I stuck my chin out at him. I couldn’t believe his attitude!
“You are the one who charged into my home without an invitation. So, if there is anyone who has some explaining to do, it’s you,” I snapped.
Hunter was glaring at me, and now I could see that he was working hard on trying to calm himself down. His nostrils were flared, and he kept running his hand through his long hair.
“Gareth Gray called me a few night ago, threatening me and my company. He didn’t give me any details, but he made it very clear that it had something to do with you,” Hunter said.
Just the mention of his name was enough to sink my heart. I hadn’t said his name aloud in three days in the fear that it would break my heart all over again.
“What did he say?” I asked in a quivering voice.
Hunter was still mad. He couldn’t deduce just how painful this conversation was going to be for me.
“He didn’t say much, Aubrey, except threaten me. What did you do? What did you say to him? How do you even know him?” Hunter was approaching me threateningly.
I got some sense of what he might be thinking of me. Did he think that I had stalked someone famous and tried to get close to him by name-dropping? Did he think I was a crazy person? Even though we were closely related, neither of us knew each other well enough.
“We met at the summer ball,” I admitted in a squeaky voice. Hunter’s brows furrowed.
“Organized by the New-York Historical Society?” he asked, confused, and I nodded.
“My friends Rhett and Owen were at that thing,” he added, and I took in a deep breath.
“I don’t know your friends. I didn’t know Gareth then or who he was. I had a pass for the event, and I went so I could try making some connections in the art world,” I explained.
Hunter seemed to be calming down now, and he was looking at me intently.
“You two hit it off?” Hunter asked, and I nodded but didn’t speak.
“So what happened? Why was he calling me in the middle of the night, threatening to sink my company?” he asked. I gulped. My throat had gone dry, and I didn’t know how to best explain the situation to him.
“He found out where I was from and that I was related to you. That’s it. That’s all that happened, and he stormed out of here like I’d slapped him,” I said, and I felt a cry rising up in my throat.
I wasn’t about to cry, not again in front of someone I hardly knew. I gulped down the tears and tried to keep my chin up while Hunter looked about him, feeling lost.
“He thinks I planted you in his life,” Hunter said resignedly. I watched him in horror as he walked over to the couch and plonked himself down on it.
“He thinks this was some kind of ploy? That I’ve been pretending?” I asked, walking up closer to him. Hunter nodded and then ran a hand through his hair.
“Why? Why would he think that?” I asked.
Hunter said nothing for a few moments. He was just staring into space, then let out a deep sigh.
“Gareth Gray is known in the industry as an eccentric. He is bloody good at what he does, but nobody quite knows what makes him tick. I’ve always looked up to him. I didn’t realize that he had a bone to pick with me,” Hunter explained.
In the little time that I had known Gareth, he had not come across as an eccentric to me. He seemed like a kind, rational, and straight-thinking man who was highly intelligent and smart at the same time.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“The reason why his company is in the position that it is in right now is because Gareth has been able to slowly but surely pick out and eliminate all his competition. It’s what he does best. He has monopolized the industry, and I respect him for that. I just didn’t think he was going to come after us,” Hunter said.
He sounded like a defeated man, like he was giving up.
“I don’t know what to say to you, Hunter. He hates me now. He clearly thinks that I was some kind of honeytrap,” I said, and my cousin looked at me, fixing his eyes on my face.
“I need you to solve this problem for me, Aubrey,” he said and stood up from the couch.
“Me? How? I don’t really know him. I’ve met him twice. We had a connection, but clearly we don’t have that anymore,” I argued. Hunter came toward me and shook his head.
“Whatever he thinks I’ve done, which I’ve not done, can only be solved if you explain the situation to him. He’s not going to listen to me or any of my friends. Gareth Gray is a very hard man to convince,” Hunter went on. I shook my head, aghast by what he was asking of me.
“Aubrey, I cannot have my company at loggerheads with a man like him. We are at the start of building our business. If he sets his mind to crushing us, he’s going to do it and he’s going to do it bad,” Hunter continued. In all the time that I had spent with Gareth, I hadn’t realized just how powerful he was.
“You need to fix this for us. You have to go and talk to him, otherwise we are done for. The guy has a temper he is well-known for,” Hunter continued.
What made him think I would be able to deal with that temper? I barely knew him, and he barely knew me. He had clearly formed a very harsh opinion about me, which I didn’t think I was going to be able to change easily.
“Look, Aubrey, I’m sorry that I barged in here like this and that I lost my temper at you. Please look at the situation from my perspective. I have nothing to do with this. I had no idea that the two of you knew each other. If he launches a personal attack on my company, it’s going to harm my family, my friends, and all our employees. I want to avoid that from happening at all costs.” Hunter was sincerely asking, and I had no other choice but to nod my head.
“Okay, I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises. I don’t think he likes me very much anymore. I don’t think he’ll even want to see me again. He thinks I’m some kind of evil person who’s been manipulating him all this while,” I said.
Hunter clenched his jaw and nodded his head.
“It’s going to be hard. If I knew the man at all, and if he hadn’t already threatened me, I would have done it myself, but he’s going to throw me out of the building if he sees me anywhere close to him,” Hunter said.
I sighed deeply and shook my head. What other choice did I have now? I couldn’t just leave Hunter and his whole company hanging on a threat because a man I’d slept with thought I had deceived him. It wasn’t Hunter’s fault, like I had been thinking it was—it was all mine.
“I’ll try,” I said.
Hunter’s hug came out of nowhere, and I sank into that hug. We were family after all, even though we had never known each other well. I pulled away from him, and he smiled at me.
“Cheer up, Aubrey. I’m sure it’s going to be fine. I hope the two of you can work it out. If he makes you happy, then you deserve him,” Hunter said.
I tried to s
mile, but I couldn’t. I was pretty sure that ship had sailed. No matter what kind of conversation I had with Gareth now, I was pretty sure that we were not getting back together. The scales had tipped out of our favor already.
I saw Hunter to the door, and he hugged me once more before leaving. It had been a strange week for me, and I couldn’t believe that I was now charged with the task to go have a conversation with Gareth, the man who didn’t want to set eyes on me again.
Nonetheless, I couldn’t help myself from wondering what if… what if things changed and he saw reason and we could work this out, like Hunter said?
Either way, I had to do this because people’s livelihoods were at stake. Unknowingly, I had caused a panic in Hunter’s life, and now that I knew about it, I couldn’t just let it go without doing anything about it.
Chapter Thirteen
Gareth
I had my eyes narrowed as I stared at the computer screen. I was in my office, going over every detail I could find on the Japanese company that C Scape had stolen from me. I had been so sure that I could sign a deal with them. I had taken our abilities for granted and underestimated the potential of C Scape. That was never going to happen again. I had a plan now, to oversee every potential client and trade deal. To make sure that we didn’t lose any more opportunities to C Scape.
My secondary plan was to steal every deal that they had made. I was going to offer their clients and business partners deals that they couldn’t refuse. Two years, that was all I needed to run C Scape to the ground, and I had every intention of doing it.
They had messed with the wrong nerd.
There was a knock on my office door, and Chad entered looking as stern as ever.
“Sir, there is an Aubrey Fort at reception. She is demanding a meeting with you. She is refusing to leave the building.” Chad, for the first time, seemed a little agitated.
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