“Do you think he could be planning something illegal? You said he stole Jenny’s trust fund. Maybe this has something to do with the money he took…” Leigh raised her eyebrows as if she was contemplating the idea.
“It’s possible.” I nodded. “He shouldn’t be hurting for money after stealing Jenny’s trust fund, but my father is a greedy asshole, so I wouldn’t put it past him. He’ll have even more money that he doesn’t deserve after my grandfather passes.”
Leigh and I bounced a few more ideas around, but we really couldn’t come up with anything solid based on what she overheard. It did seem to confirm that my father didn’t just fall in love with Leigh’s mother—he used his new marriage to get rid of my mother. He could have kicked her out at any time, but he did more than just expunge her from his life—he broke her. There had to be a reason for that, and it sounded like part of his plan involved my sister. I forced myself to bottle everything up for Jenny’s sake when I wanted to confront my father. Biting my tongue didn’t seem to help anything—my father still planned to come for her. It was bad enough that Leigh was living under his roof. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to allow my father to pull Jenny into whatever twisted game he was playing.
At least I know it’s coming, so I have an advantage. I should be able to get a few steps ahead of him—for once in my life.
Leigh and I stayed at the villa for several hours before I returned home. Jenny and my mother were asleep, but I had some things I needed to take care of—no matter how late it was. I had already consulted with an attorney, and I knew that the only way my father could force Jenny to move back to Sinn Manor was by gaining custody. My mother would be instrumental in making sure that didn’t happen. I just hoped she had enough willpower to stand up to my father—he might have broken her, but Jenny was still her daughter. There had to be some maternal instincts in there somewhere. She had to know that my father couldn’t have Jenny’s best interests in mind after finally seeing what kind of cruel monster he could be.
It took her a long time to see the man I always knew he was.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep after making preparations, and I really wasn’t in the mood for more meetings at work, but that was all my morning consisted of. I spent some time with my team after lunch to make sure everything was moving along—basically earning my check—and then I called Addison Regan to let her know there was a good chance we would need her services soon. She promised to draw up the paperwork and send it to me by the end of the day. The only thing that would be needed was my mother’s signature.
Rather than waiting for my father to file a custody suit, we were getting in front of it, and having my mother named as Jenny’s legal guardian. My father could challenge it, but it would stop him from being able to file for an emergency custody hearing. It was the start of having the case tied up in court until Jenny turned eighteen, and my father no longer had any way to get custody of her. It wasn’t necessary as long as my father kept his distance, but Leigh’s information had given me a damn good reason to antagonize him—otherwise, we would get caught with our pants down when my father made his move.
I hate the fact that Leigh is in the devil’s lair, but this information is very beneficial.
The rest of the afternoon was spent dealing with some stuff at work. I checked in with Leigh to see if we could meet after she finished her shift, but she had a few assignments that needed her attention. I’m sure she was behind because I had been consuming a lot of her time—not that I thought she minded. It was probably for the best. I needed to sit down and talk with my mother. I had to convince her to sign the paperwork, and the sooner it was filed, the better. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but it was unavoidable. I mentally prepared for it the entire way home. Jenny wasn’t there when I arrived, which was another positive in my favor. I didn’t want to worry her unless I had to.
“Mom?” I knocked on my mother’s door and pushed it open.
“Hey Damien.” She was lying in bed, but I got a half-smile when she looked up at me.
“Did you eat anything today?” I pulled a chair over to the edge of the bed and took a seat next to her.
“Yeah, a little bit.” She nodded and started to sit up. “I promise I’m not going to just lay in this bed all day for the rest of my life—I’ve just been so tired lately.”
“It’s okay.” I reached over and patted her hand. “I went through a tough time myself after Caroline’s accident.”
“You weren’t too stubborn to talk to someone about it…” She sighed. “Maybe I need to make an appointment.”
“I did everything I could, but the psychiatrist just wanted me to pop pills—ultimately, I had to find my own way to come to terms with it.” I looked down and exhaled sharply.
“What do you have there?” My mother motioned to the paperwork in my hand.
“Custody paperwork” I laid it on the bed beside her and reached for a pen. “For Jenny.”
“Do you really think that is necessary?” She picked up the paperwork and stared at it.
“You said yourself that he told you she was supposed to stay at Sinn Manor after you moved out.” I shrugged. “We can both agree that isn’t in her best interests.”
“I don’t know…” My mother flipped the page. “Maybe she would be better off with him—I’m not doing anything to take care of her right now.”
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “First, she’s perfectly fine taking care of herself. Second—how could you even say that? After everything he did to you?”
“He’s still her father.” My mother looked up from the paperwork. “I know you were never close with him, but he still loves you…”
Wow, this is going to be a lot harder than I realized. She still hasn’t opened her eyes—not fully.
“Mom, he’s a fucking asshole.” My words came out before I even thought about what I was about to say. “He treated me like shit my whole life!”
“He was hard on you because he wanted to make you stronger.” She grimaced. “He wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“How about when he convinced my grandfather to name him as the next CEO of Sinn Technology?” I growled under my breath. “How did taking what was rightfully mine make me stronger?”
“You were in no condition to run that company.” My mother looked down, and I saw tears forming in the corner of her eyes. “After Caroline’s accident—you…”
“Sinn Technology was the only thing I cared about after Caroline died.” I narrowed my eyes. “I lived and breathed that company because I didn’t have anything left!”
“It wasn’t healthy…” She shook her head back and forth. “You were hurting—you needed time to mourn.”
“Well I certainly got it, didn’t I?” I tried not to lose my temper, but I was getting close. “Five years of it…”
“You could try talking to him.” My mother tilted her head slightly.
“Really?” I bit down on my tongue and kept my composure. “He just threw you out of your home and married someone else. You’re still defending him…”
Frustrated didn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling. I don’t know why I thought my mother would suddenly open her eyes—they had been shut for too damn long. He stomped on her heart, and she still thought all three of us should drag ourselves back to Sinn Manor and ask him to kick us again. If she wasn’t going to sign the paperwork or do anything to keep Jenny away from the devil, then I needed a new plan. I walked downstairs and called Addison. I was hoping for a miracle. She didn’t have one. If my mother wasn’t on board with it, then there wasn’t much I could do on the legal side of things.
“I’m home.” Jenny leaned her head into my office. “And so are you. No hot date tonight?”
“I was just about to head out.” I looked up at her and smiled.
“Okay, I’ve got homework anyway. Mom okay?” She raised her eyebrows inquisitively.
“About the same.” I shrugged.
I didn�
�t have plans with Leigh, but I couldn’t sit at home. I was too angry and frustrated to do that. I drove around for a little while before finally deciding to stop in at the Chateau Prime for a drink. I needed the kind of distraction that a stiff drink could offer. I regretted that decision as soon as I walked through the door because there was an executive from Sinn Technology sitting at the bar—and he noticed me before I had a chance to make my exit.
Fuck, I really didn’t want to spend the evening with someone who knows my father—I was looking for the exact opposite.
“Damien.” He stood up and offered me his hand. “It’s been a while, man.”
“It has.” I nodded. “Good to see you again, Jordan. How’s the family?”
“They’re doing well.” He motioned for me to join him at the bar. “My daughter is in high school now—I think she has a few classes with your sister.”
“Damn, I didn’t realize they were the same age.” I took a seat and ordered a drink.
“Yeah, she’ll be leaving for college before I know it. I don’t know what I’m going to do after that.” He took a sip of his drink. “How are things going for you over at Alcott Inc.? Still not ready to come back to the family business?”
“No—and you know why.” I reached for my drink as soon as the bartender put it down in front of me.
“That’s too bad. The two of you would be a force to be reckoned with.” He chuckled. “Your father is a tough man to work for, but he gets results—it’s a little more intense than it was when your grandfather was running things, but we’ve adjusted to it.”
“I adjusted too.” I nodded and sipped my drink.
I fucking left.
Jordan only stayed long enough to finish his drink, and I got to spend the rest of the evening in peace. I had something gnawing at me that the alcohol couldn’t stop. The universe seemed to be sending me signs that I didn’t like. The woman I cared about more than anything else in the world was living at Sinn Manor. My father was making plans to bring my sister back into the fold. My mother was telling me that I should try to reconcile with my father, even after everything she went through. Then along came Jordan—hinting that things would be even better at Sinn Technology if I was there—working alongside my father to take the company to the next level. It was a damn good thing I stopped paying attention to that sort of thing because it would have made me question my direction if I didn’t know any better.
I don’t forgive and forget that easily—not when it comes to him.
I spent the next morning nursing a bit of a hangover from the drinks I had at Chateau Prime and trying to come up with another plan for dealing with my father. The only direction that would work was blockaded by my mother. I decided that the only option I had was to try again—and bring reinforcements. I hated to put the weight on my sister, but she needed to know there was an option my mother refused to consider. I didn’t know if my mother would listen to Jenny, but I had to try something. My mother just saw the bitterness in me, but Jenny had her own reasons to despise our old man, and being his emotional punching bag didn’t make either of us stronger—despite what my mother thought.
Damien: Are you going straight home after school?
Jenny: I can. What’s up?
Damien: I need to talk to you about something.
Jenny: Okay, I’ll see you this afternoon.
Leigh had the evening free, but I wasn’t sure that I would get an opportunity to meet her at the villa. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to convince my mother to sign the paperwork—I gave up too easily the day before because I got frustrated. Jenny wouldn’t be able to hold back her frustrations if my mother balked a second time, and maybe that was the right direction to take. If my mother saw how upset Jenny was over the prospect of returning to Sinn Manor, she might be swayed to sign the paperwork. Either way, every day that passed was one that we wasted—and my father would be steps ahead of us before we realized it if we didn’t do something quickly. I drove home after work, and I was dreading the conversation after the last one I had with my mother, but it was unavoidable.
“Jenny, are you here?” I walked in the door.
“Damien!” Jenny came running down the stairs. “Mom’s gone!”
“What?” My head snapped back in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I mean gone! I went upstairs to check on her as soon as I got home from school, and she’s not there. There’s a lot of stuff missing from her closet…” Jenny stared at me with panic in her eyes.
“Fucking hell, let me call her.” I pulled my phone out.
“Hold on; I was texting her when you got here.” Jenny held her phone up. “She just responded.”
“What did she say?” I leaned over to look at the phone.
“She said that she needed to get away for a while. She went to spend some time with her sister.” Jenny had a perplexed look on her face. “Mom—left us?”
“Damn it!” I turned away from Jenny and tried to hide the anger on my face.
This is my fault. I pushed against her emotions too hard, and she couldn’t handle it…
“At least she’s okay.” Jenny sighed. “Maybe some time away will be good for her.”
“No.” I shook my head. “She left for a reason. Fuck!”
“What do you mean?” Jenny took a step forward.
I didn’t have any choice but to tell Jenny why our mother left. I just needed a moment to reign in my anger so that I didn’t say something I would regret. I didn’t get a chance to do either. A car door slammed—followed by another one. Jenny walked towards the door, and I put my hand out to stop her. A few seconds later, there was a loud pounding on my front door.
“Damien, open up. We’re here for Jenny.” The voice was rough and rugged—I still recognized it even after not hearing it for several years.
“Pennington,” I growled under my breath.
“Dad’s bodyguard?” Jenny blinked in confusion. “Damien, what is going on?”
“Go to your room and lock the door.” I pointed towards the stairs. “Now!”
Jenny was normally rather defiant when I gave her a direct order, but she must have sensed that something wasn’t right. She quickly ran up the stairs as I tried to figure out how I was going to deal with the problem on the other side of my front door—technically, it was two problems. If Pennington was outside, so was Martinez—my dad’s personal security detail, and they had come to take my sister back to Sinn Manor. I couldn’t call the cops. My mother wasn’t there—which meant my father had every right to demand that his daughter return to her so-called home. I was officially stuck between two enormous rocks and the fucking impossible.
“Open the door, Damien.” It was Martinez’s voice. “We don’t want to hurt you—but we aren’t leaving here without Jenny.”
The knocking got louder—then it got heavier. They weren’t asking politely anymore. They were coming through it shoulder first. Pennington was a giant. Martinez was a behemoth. Fighting either one of them on my own would have been a death wish, but fighting the both of them was just asking to nail my own coffin shut. If it was an early grave or my sister’s future, I was choosing the former. I took off my jacket, unbuttoned my sleeves, and prepared to get my hands dirty. The only choice I had was to catch them off guard. I grabbed the closest thing to me—a large glass vase that was way too expensive to smash over someone’s head, but it was all I had.
“This is it Damien—last chance.” Pennington’s words were followed by an enormous thud on the other side of my door.
I didn’t respond. I just waited. My front door was solid, and it would have taken someone the size of Pennington or Martinez to break it down without heavy-duty equipment. Unfortunately, they didn’t need it. The hinges were started to give. The lock wasn’t going to last forever. The door was already bending, so I couldn’t even give it some extra support with the deadbolt. My father sent them on a mission, and nobody failed Edgar Sinn, especially not the two that were the most loyal to
him.
Several harder thuds landed, and I saw the door breaking—then it gave them the last struggle it had before it opened. Pennington was the first one through, but he didn’t have his balance due to the momentum required to break through the door. I ran at him and drove the vase into his skull so hard that it shattered, and the pieces sliced into my hand. I ignored the pain. I grabbed a piece of it off the floor and came up ready to face Martinez as Pennington collapsed at my feet. He wasn’t out, but he was woozy enough not to be able to stand up.
“Damien, don’t do this.” Martinez held up his hands. “Your father just wants Jenny to come home.”
“Fuck what my father wants.” I squared off with Martinez with the piece of broken vase digging into my palm. “This is my house—you don’t come in here making demands.”
“I really don’t want to do something that will make it hard for me to look into my little girl’s eyes.” Martinez sighed and raised his fists.
“You shouldn’t be able to do that anyway. You work for the fucking devil.” I advanced with the piece of broken vase and forced him to take a step back. “You two need to leave; otherwise I will defend my home.”
I had never seriously hurt anyone before, much less maimed them—I certainly hadn’t ever killed anyone. I just wanted to be threatening enough to make Martinez decide it wasn’t worth the fight. His loyalty to my father was too strong. He charged me, despite the weapon in my hand, and I defended myself. The glass jammed into his arm and broke. I wounded him, but I didn’t stop him—and I no longer had a weapon.
Fuck. This isn’t good.
Martinez’s other hand connected with a right hook that I wasn’t fast enough to duck. It startled me, but I swung back and got him with one of my own. He was fighting with one good hand, and his other arm was gushing blood. That was the only advantage I had. He charged me again, and I tried to sidestep him, but something grabbed my leg. I looked down to see Pennington with two large hands clamped around my calf. He gave Martinez just enough support to catch me with another stiff right hook—then a knee slammed into my gut. I was doubled over and felt an elbow smash into the back of my skull. I was going down—it almost knocked me out.
Devious Intentions (Carson Cove Sandals Book 3) Page 15
