After the Storm

by Katy Ames

  Fucking over Mark and Jack.

  Sending someone to attack Mark and Grace.

  Capitalizing on Tessa’s job at the resort and blackmailing her into doing whatever he wanted.

  Putting a tail on Mark.

  Wait? Why tail Mark but not me?

  “You said you came up here when you got word Mark and the ladies landed. Why did you have a tail on them but not me?”

  “I didn’t say I had a tail on Mark.”

  “You did. Earlier. You said you knew I’d left because of how fast he’d flown out.”

  “No.” Max shook his head, his awful, dull smile back in place. “I said I knew because they flew out. Mark, Grace, and Tessa. I haven’t been watching Mark. I don’t need to. I knew he’d come to me when he thought it was time to do battle again. No, I was watching Tessa.”

  Tristan felt fury break behind his eyes, everything going red. “I don’t know what fucked-up game you think we’re playing, but you stay away from her. If you so much as lay one finger on her, I swear to God I’ll end you and no one will ever find your body. Doesn’t matter what Dexter’s fucking skill set is.”

  “The threats are beneath you, Tristan.” Max was utterly calm. “Besides, I don’t want to hurt her. Just keep tabs on her.”

  “Why?” Tessa said, stepping beside Tristan. He grabbed her hand and pulled her tight to his side. “What could you want with me?”

  “With you, my dear? I don’t want anything with you. I just like to keep tabs on things that are important to me. Things that provide the proper leverage.”

  “What leverage?” Mark was behind Max, Grace with him. The four of them standing, surrounding him.

  “You don’t have to say it like that. Like it’s such a dirty word. It’s just a matter of business. You really haven’t gotten it, have you?” Max glanced around, meeting their eyes. “It’s always been about business.”

  “Sorry, Uncle,” Mark said snidely, “obviously we can’t keep up. Take pity on us, please, and explain.”

  Max shifted, glancing up at the people surrounding him. “It’s so simple. I had a legacy. Him.” He pointed at Tristan. “And the family took it away from me. So I’m doing the same thing and taking the Hurst legacy—the company—away from the family. Like I said. An eye for an eye. Payback.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “No,” Max answered, eyes clear. “I’m determined. Two very different things.”

  “I have nothing to do with the company,” Tessa interjected. “Why would you want to keep tabs on me?”

  “My dear Ms. Armstrong, don’t you see? You have everything to do with it. Because you have everything to do with Tristan.” Max leaned forward in his chair, ignoring everyone but Tessa. “Do you know what you did when you let Dexter’s man into the hotel? Have you guessed?”

  When Tessa stayed silent, Max continued. “They weren’t the first bugs. Just better ones. Replacements for the shit audio device Dexter snuck onto Tristan’s laptop before he left New York. I thought the original was useless at first. I wasn’t getting anything I needed. Nothing to tip me off to what these boys were plotting. I needed to catch a conversation, to see if I could block their next move before they had a chance to strike. Dexter’s original device was useless for that. But, lucky me, I got something so much better.”

  Max glanced at Tristan before looking at Tessa and continuing, “You know, this boy has it bad for you. The conversations he’s had with himself.” He clicked his tongue, like he was scolding a child. “So determined to stay away. So desperate to get close. The things he did, the things we could hear….” Max trailed off, narrowing his eyes at Tristan, sending a warning shot straight down his spine. “He used to say your name, Tessa. Over and over. Groaned it. Like an animal.” Max shook his head, sneering. “What man tortures himself that way? What kind of man doesn’t just fuck the woman he wants instead of getting off like a shitty teenager too afraid to get some. I’ll never get it.”

  Tristan felt sick and the color on his neck was nothing compared to the flare on Tessa’s face. Everyone looked embarrassed, horrified, or both. Everyone except Max. He was completely at ease. Relaxed. “It didn’t take long to figure out the thing he was trying to ignore. Tristan’s in love with you. Ridiculously, head over heels. The kind that never makes a man. Only breaks him. The kind that forces him to make hard, hard choices.”

  “Really? Like what?” Mark asked.

  Max’s eyes narrowed. “The kind that forces a man to pick between the women he loves.”

  “Women?” Tessa sounded pained. Tristan stiffened.

  “Oh, don’t worry, dear. It’s not like that. As you were so eager to point out, Tristan doesn’t take after me in that way. Or Andrew, for that matter. I don’t doubt you’re the only woman he’s currently screwing. But you aren’t the only woman he loves.”

  “Mom,” Tristan whispered.

  “Ding, ding, ding.” Max smirked. “So glad to see you’re finally catching on. Not quite so dense, after all.”

  Mark leaned over the chair, getting into Max’s face. “Stop fucking around and get to the point.”

  “So sweet to see you defend your brother that way, Mark. Your father would be so proud.”

  Mark was about to swing, his hand in a fist, but Tristan caught his arm. “No. Remember what you said. He needs to talk. This ends tonight.”

  Max tugged a shirt cuff, rubbing a streak of blood. “It’s a simple negotiation, gentlemen. You back off, stop poking your noses where they don’t belong. You put a stop to whatever plan you think you’ve cooked up to ruin me. And you, Tristan, end your relationship with Jacob’s daughter. Dating within the company is frowned upon. Not to mention unseemly. Besides, you know her father. Is she really the type of woman you want to be involved with? End it. All of it.”

  “Or what?” Tristan asked.

  “Or I ruin your mother.”

  The air in the room thinned. In the back of his mind, Tristan registered a bird chirping outside. The first sounds of the world waking up. Tessa was frozen next to him. Her hand was cold. Tristan was pretty sure she wasn’t breathing.

  “No.” He didn’t have to say it loudly. Everyone heard.

  “No!” Tessa gasped, tugging his hand.

  “What?” Mark and Grace both said.

  Max looked at him before repeating, “No?”

  “No,” Tristan answered. “No, that’s ridiculous. Is that really how you think this works? You give me some far-fetched ultimatum and I bend to it like I would’ve done as a child? Things don’t work like that anymore, Max. My answer is no.”

  “You realize I can destroy her, right?” Max’s eyes were sharp, needling Tristan. “Don’t mistake patience for lack of opportunity. I’ve been biding my time, but only because I aim to make the highest return possible. Maximum gain, minimal effort. And the time, Tristan, is now. Everything is lined up perfectly. So, please, think this through. Do as I say, and your mother gets to continue her stress-free life, endlessly traveling Europe, a healthy bank account at her disposal. Because if you don’t, it will all be gone. Her money, her house, her reputation, her friends. Even her son. Because, let’s be clear, hurting your mother hurts you. And it might just be the thing that finally sends you over the dark edge, never to return.”

  Tristan heard Tessa’s small sob. He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed. “Is that the kind of power you think you still have, old man? You really think you control the world, don’t you? Then, please, let me be the first to break the bad news. You don’t.”

  “Tristan?” Tessa whispered. He saw her glance at him from the corner of his eye.

  “Let me see if I have this right,” Tristan continued, focusing on Max. “You want it all. Every possible cent—legal or otherwise—that you can bleed from Hurst. You’ve been planning this a long time. Capitalizing on shady deals and insider information for years. Slowly, meticulously, setting the company up for a fall. But making sure you appear blameless. Well,” Tristan said, smir
king, “maybe not blameless. But a victim, at least. A good man who fell prey to bad decisions made by people he thought he could trust. People like Jacob Roach. People,” Tristan emphasized, “who you’ve manipulated and twisted around and around until they don’t know up from down, right from wrong. Assuming they ever did in the first place. The same people who’ll take the fall for the crimes you committed.

  “But it doesn’t matter. ’Cause you’ll get the result you want. You have a nest egg tucked away. An obscene amount of money that you think will compensate for the life you believe was taken from you. Your legacy. Me.” Tristan jabbed himself in the chest with his free hand.

  “You’re close, aren’t you, Max? You’re so fucking close you can taste it. But you’ve encountered a snag. Because we”—Tristan looked around at the friends, at the family, surrounding him—“are about to ruin it. Because we have the information to bring the whole thing crashing down before you can jump ship. And that’s what you were trying to get on the island. You hatched that stupid plan, bugged my room, to find out what we know. But you didn’t get there in time, did you?”

  Everyone was watching Tristan, silent. “The hurricane. It threw you off. Because your guy was delayed and got there too late.” Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Because it was too late, Max. By the time you tricked Tessa into letting him in, Mark, Jack, and I already had everything we needed. The last nail for your fucking coffin. And you know that, don’t you? That’s why you panicked, why you’re here. Why you’re trying to drag me back into that frigid, awful place where you live. All by feeding me the same lie your father gave you: that the life I want isn’t possible. That I can’t be the man I’m supposed to be while truly, selflessly loving another person, let alone a woman. The lie that I’m exactly like you.

  “Sorry, Max.” Tristan shrugged. “Again, you’re too late. Because I know it’s not true. I don’t have to give up Tessa. I don’t have to fall in line to save Mom. I don’t have to do a goddamn thing you say. Want to know why?”

  Tristan toed Max’s chair, looming over him. The older man barely bobbed his head. “Because it’s over. You’re ruined. Mom is safe and will stay that way. And the power you’ve held over me all this time? It’s gone. Destroyed. Expelled by the very things that terrify you. By kindness, compassion. By love. The love I feel for Tessa and that I pray to God she feels for me. By the hope that we’ll learn to do it better, to try harder. By the simple fact that I know now, deep in my soul, that I could never be like you.

  “So, your threat is null and void. Tessa’s mine, if she’ll have me. And nothing you can do or say will change that.”

  “You arrogant little shit!” Max shouted, throwing himself into Tristan. He stumbled, Tessa with him, but Mark pulled Max away before they all fell to the ground. Max was heaving. “You don’t win this game, Tristan. You will never win this game.”

  “This isn’t a fucking game!” Tristan roared. “This is my life! And Tessa’s, and Tamsin’s, and Mark’s and Grace’s. We are people, you heartless prick. Not pawns to be moved around and knocked off the board because you feel like it.”

  “Tristan.” Tessa put her hand on his chest, drawing his attention down. “What do you mean, it’s over?”

  Tristan glanced out the window. The sun was starting to peek through the trees. “The annual Hurst Corporation audit,” he finally said. “The official report will be published in two weeks. But the auditors already have a pretty clear picture of what Max has been up to.” Tristan laughed suddenly. “It took us so long to figure it out. Mark, Jack and I kept trying and trying to find a way to trip him up. Kept searching for the smoking gun, the one tiny indiscretion that would start to unravel the rest. We should thank you, actually, Max. For the incident with Marcus.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” Mark jumped in. “It gave us the idea that finally worked.”

  Grace looked between the men, her eyes getting wider and wider. “Prostitution,” she whispered.

  Tristan and Mark nodded in unison. “Exactly,” Tristan confirmed. “Like Max said, he has a lot of women he likes to fuck. But not all of them come free. And not all of them are cheap. It fact, a small handful are very expensive. And you got sloppy, didn’t you, Max? Maybe the stress got to you. Maybe you got too confident, too sure you’d never get caught. We all know you managed not to for a very long time. Whatever the reason, you fucked up. You started paying those expensive escorts with money from company accounts. Smaller ones, yeah, but ones that could still be traced. Especially by a guy with a certain skill set. A guy like Dean.”

  “What have you done?” Max growled, his composure gone.

  “Oh, it wasn’t much,” Tristan shot back. “I just made sure that the auditors received certain payment records and transaction details. Enough to get them poking around, uncovering some of the dirt you’ve been sweeping under the rug.”

  “So, thanks, Max,” Mark said. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Tristan tensed, expecting Max to fly at his cousin—no, brother—but the older man didn’t move. He just stood there, eyes dimming.

  Tessa shifted again. Her hand was clammy in his. Tristan was done. He wanted Max gone. Mark and Grace, too. There was a lot he needed to discuss with Mark. Shit, so much. But, more than anything, he wanted to be alone with Tessa.

  “The auditors will report to the board of directors in a few days. They’ll fire you, Max. With cause. It will prompt further investigations into the company. Hurst isn’t publicly traded, so the SEC will be less interested in the shady internal dealings. But I don’t doubt they’ll want to know about all of the insider trading you participated in with some of your equally corrupt cronies. Just like I don’t doubt they’ll find enough to bring criminal charges. It’s over, Max. This”—he waved between them, a single gesture that spanned years of guilt and manipulation and neglect—“is over.”

  Max dropped into a chair, staring the far wall. He’d checked out. Maybe he was plotting, trying to find a way out of yet another hole he’d dug. But Tristan didn’t care. He wanted him gone.

  “Mark.” Tristan waved him over. “Can you get him out of here? I need to talk to Tessa, and I’d rather not have an audience.”

  “Sure,” he answered. Mark frowned, his eyes skating across Tristan’s face like he was seeing him for the first time. “So, uh, brothers, huh?”

  Tristan smiled, something wet gathering in his eyes. He blinked a few times. “You always did feel a little closer than a cousin. You definitely were annoying enough.”

  “Hey!” Mark slapped him on the chest. “You were the pain in the ass. And the younger one. No wonder you irritated the hell out of me when we were kids. Makes so much more sense now.”

  They grinned at each other before the reality of it sank in. Mark looked away first. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. About any of it. I swear.”

  “I know.” Tristan nodded. “And part of that’s because I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

  “No, no fucking way. Don’t apologize. I should have been there. Wanted to be there. Maybe….”

  “Stop.” Tristan grabbed Mark’s shoulder. “I’m done with it. What could’ve happened, what should’ve happened. It’s over. Time to move on. Time to start something better.” Tristan looked over at Tessa, who was huddled with Grace. She still looked pale. “Speaking of, do you guys mind clearing out? Tessa and I—”

  “Yeah, yeah. No problem. We’ll talk later.” Mark directed Grace towards the door as he hauled Max out of the chair. The older man went without protest, his mind far, far away from the cabin. Just before the trio headed out the door, Mark turned back to Tristan. “And, hey. Bro. Welcome to the family.”

  26

  Tristan didn’t wait for the door to close. He pulled Tessa into his arms, kissing her before it clicked shut.

  “Oh my God,” she got out against his mouth. “I’m so, so sorry. Tristan, I’m so sorry.”

  “No, sweet.” Tristan wrapped his fingers in her hair,
groaning as he tangled in the softness. “I’m sorry. My fault, my…family. You were just doing what you needed to.”

  “You left.” Tessa’s voice wavered.

  Tristan swept her up in another kiss. He still couldn’t quite believe she was there, with him. Letting him kiss her like she was his. “I didn’t.”

  She pushed against his chest. “You did.”

  “Okay, yes.” He pressed his lips to her forehead and filled his lungs with her. “I did leave. But not how you think.”

  “You ran away. From me. Because of me.”

  Tristan bent, tipping her face to meet his. “I left. But I didn’t run. And definitely not because of you.” He tracked his thumb across her bottom lip, his eyes following. He could feel both their heartbeats in the simple touch. “Besides, it would be impossible. I can’t run from you, Tessa. I don’t want to. Not anymore.”

  Tessa tilted her head in question.

  Tristan let the emotions he’d locked away for so long fill his eyes. “I didn’t want to like you. I didn’t want to love you. I was so fucking scared, Tess. I still am.” She tried to speak, but he quieted her, a finger across her lips. “Because I’m not sure I’ll know how. Not even now. Not after everything.”

  He glanced around the cabin, trying to encompass all that had happened, all that had been said, in one gesture.

  “I haven’t felt it in a really long time, Tess. I know Tamsin loves me, but we haven’t seen each other in years. And Mark, well, that’s been complicated for just as long. Even more so now, I guess. Or simpler. Fuck, who knows.” Tristan rolled his neck, the ache a ghost of what it’d once been.

  “What I’m trying to say, badly, as always, is that none of it ever has or ever will come close to what I feel for you. For what I think I started to feel for you that first time in the kitchen.” Tristan drew his finger across her hairline, sending some of her sweet scent into the air.

  “You put me on edge instantly. I was fascinated but knew I needed to stay away. I wanted to be around you all the time, but I couldn’t process everything I felt when you were close. I wasn’t just out of practice, Tessa. I was out. Gone. Barely here on earth, barely living. Shut off, closed down, however you want to put it. And every time I saw you, or talked to you, or ate your food, or, God help me, touched you, you brought me closer to shore. Closer to solid ground. Every time, you brought me back to life, just a little bit more.”