Dane - Book 3: A Foster Family Saga

by Phillips, Avery

  “Put me down!”

  I slung him backward into his chair. “What was it, Tom? Was it the money? I know for a fact I pay you a helluva lot more than the going median!”

  He yanked his jacket back in place and stood up to confront me. “You think it was about the money? This shit got way more personal than that a long time ago, and you didn’t even know it! That’s how far up your ass you’ve had your fucking head!”

  “What’d you do, Tom? Other than your job. You want a fucking gold star? A fucking pat on the back? How could you betray us like this?”

  “Annabeth, man! You fucked over the one thing in my life that was more important to me than my job, and you think this shit is about the fucking money?” He laughed maniacally.

  The news out of the blue through me for a loop. “What?”

  “You made her look like a tasteless tramp that you threw aside when you got tired of her. Yeah, you didn’t think you and I ran in the circles. I mean, look at you and look at me. You’re an immature playboy and I’m a responsible businessman. I’m worth two of you, and she knows it. She respects me. She loves me. You? You’re the fucking butt of this joke, and we’ve been getting a fucking kick out of laughing at you behind your back.”

  I took a step back, finger raised as my lips formed questions. He nodded like I should’ve known what he was talking about. I shook my head. “You did all this—tried to sabotage Excelsis, steal my clients, take them to the other side—because of…”

  “Annabeth.” He crossed his arms. “How does it feel knowing I was fucking her at the same time as you? We’ve been together for over a year now, and it’s taken some time, but—you know—I think I just about got the taste of you out of her memory. I worked hard at it, you know. The taste of asshole lingers a bit.”

  I chuckled in disbelief. “You have no idea how little it matters to me that you’re with Annabeth. I’m blown away. Really. She was a decent lay, but damn sure not piss-away-your-career good.”

  “I told her I’d make you pay for embarrassing her, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s better than what you deserve.”

  “Welp, Tom, looks like you’re the one paying. Congratulations on your new position with AmerExpand and tell Annabeth I said thanks for her part in helping me to take out the trash. You’ll be lucky to get out of this situation without having criminal charges pressed against you if I can find anything I can make stick, you son of a bitch.”

  “You still think you’ve won, don’t you?” He wheezed with laughter. Tears sprang from his eyes and he slapped his knee. “You do, don’t you?”

  I rocked back on my heels. “Anything else you want to share?”

  He cleared his throat and pulled himself together with difficulty. Hooting, he sighed and shook his head. “Don’t worry, old friend. You’ll find out soon enough.”

  He walked out of my office, where security was waiting to escort him out of the building. He flung off the hand that clamped around his upper arm and stormed to the elevators without their help. I sat back hard in my office chair with a lot of questions that I didn’t have the answers to. I picked up the phone and called in Gervais.

  “Yes, sir? Everything handled?”

  “Not quite. I don’t… I’m not quite sure where to start but…did you know Tom and Annabeth were seeing each other?”

  He hesitated. I scrutinized the man who had worked closest to me since taking the reins at Excelsis. I looked at him very closely.

  “Had no clue,” he replied, shaking his head. It didn’t ring true.

  I tapped the top of my desk. “Okay. That’s all.”

  Gervais backed out of my office, looking at me like he wanted to say more, but he changed his mind and turned around. He walked out, and I stared at the closed door for a long time before moving. Tom had done what he set out to do, but to know Gervais might be involved was too much to bear. I didn’t know whom to trust. A man in my position couldn’t afford to be surrounded by Judases.

  I called down to HR to make arrangements to hire a new COO. While I was at it, I called an outside agency to start vetting a new executive assistant. If it took replacing every single person in the building, I would have my peace of mind. I finished the calls and slammed the phone down with a fury there were no words for. It was time for me to get out of the city.

  The weight of the world was on my shoulders. I had two choices. Either I could drop the ball or hold up in the face of adversity. Actually, I had one choice. I was a Foster. There was no dropping the ball.

  I left the office late in the night after an unproductive day peering into shadows and wondering exactly what else was being kept from me. The fact that Gervais had clearly lied about being aware of Tom’s involvement with Annabeth did not at all speak well for him, and that was the hardest pill to swallow. Of all my employees, Gervais was my most trusted. I looked at him like a friend. He had been there with me through everything from start to finish. Was it possible that he would turn his back on me? And for what?!

  I couldn’t understand any of it, and my brain was weary of puzzling. I made it to the penthouse like a bat out of hell, gunning for sanctuary. My apartment offered a very stiff drink and a very soft bed, and I needed both. I stormed into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of bourbon from the freezer, drinking from the bottle instead of bothering with a glass. Knowing Hanna was nowhere close to help me talk through my problems was another problem. All the fuck I had was problems.

  I fled to my loft, bottle in hand, swigging mouthfuls of liquor as I opened the bathroom door. I kicked at the wastebasket in the master bathroom and watched it roll across the floor. I filled the deep-basined black tub with water while I pressed the cold glass of liquor to my head, trying to think.

  “Come on, Dane, what’s going on here?”

  I mulled over the conversation I’d had with Tom and gnawed at my bottom lip. When the tub was filled, I pulled off my clothes and sank into the heat, though it nearly took off the top layer of my skin. I groaned and took it slowly, but I felt a need to have my senses distracted, my focus sharpened to some complaint I could live with rather than the uncertainties plaguing my mind. With eyes bleary from the sudden infusion of alcohol, I lolled my head back on the edge of the tub and just sat there, soaking. I drifted off to sleep. It was a respite. It was a much-needed escape. I dreamed.

  Hanna walked into the bathroom and untied her satin robe, the fabric dropping in a whisper to the floor. Cloaked in steam and seduction, she walked as if I was allowed an eternity to watch her move. One dainty foot in front of the other, shapely calves and corded thighs drawing attention and leading it up to the V between her legs. Her hips swayed with each step, and her breasts bounced, and her eyes stayed on me, two burning embers.

  She sat upon the edge of the tub and dipped her fingers into the warm water, then drew her hand back to flick droplets into my face. I shook my head, and the scene shifted. I growled, looking for her. She was there in the water that had become a heated pool, and I was treading water, paddling lazily. I looked up and the sky was bright blue, with white, puffy clouds. The breeze was laden with the smell of honeysuckles and roses. She was smiling. I was smiling.

  I sighed and sank deeper into the tub.

  She wrapped her legs around me in the water and floated forward until my cock caressed her labia. She reached down and guided me inside. She rode me in the lapping waves. She used her body to take away my fears. She whispered in my ear that I was safe, I was loved.

  I woke up with my erection in my hand. The water was cool. My problems were waiting for me on the countertop, outside the door, within the next breath I took. They were everywhere. But Hanna wasn’t anywhere to be found. I took a bath and dragged my body out of the tub.

  I stumbled into my room and fell back on the bed without bothering to pull down the covers. Within minutes, my ravaged thoughts finally settled and I slept again, deeply, without dreaming, until the phone jarred me awake hours and hours later.

  “Yeah?” I
answered, not looking to see who was calling.

  “Sir, are you sitting down?”

  “Gervais? What is it? What time is it?”

  “It’s seven o’clock, sir. It’s Saturday morning. I have…some really bad news to break to you.”

  “Spit it out,” I said. I sat up in the bed, bracing myself for the worst.

  “Check your email. I sent over something.”

  “Stay on the line while I get my tablet.” I crept to the edge of the bed and levered myself to my feet, hunting around in the dark for my device. When I had it in hand, I powered it on and checked my email. I opened the one from my executive assistant with my heart in my throat, not sure what to expect. “Another tabloid report?” I asked, seeing the link to a familiar website.

  “Read it, sir.”

  I scanned down the page, eyes widening as I got to the meat of the article. Tom had said I would pay. He had meant it.

  “Gervais, get Lamont on the phone and make this disappear.”

  “I tried that, sir. They dropped us from their client list as of yesterday.”

  “Are you fucking shitting me?” My yell was loud enough to wake the dead. “What the fuck do you mean they dropped us from their client list?”

  “Apparently, sir, Tom—”

  “Tom!” I spat. “Motherfucker!”

  The tablet dropped from my hand and hit the floor. I stumbled back and fell onto the bed, dragging my hands down my face in horror. “Okay. Okay. It’s up to us now. Tell me how to fix this. How the fuck do I fix this, Gervais?”

  “I’m doing what I can to get another team assembled. I also have an investigator determining the veracity of Annabeth’s claims. If she says she’s pregnant and it’s a lie, it will just come back to bite her in the ass, but if it’s the truth—”

  “It can’t be.”

  “If it’s the truth, you might want to prepare yourself for things to get really ugly, really fast. Judging by the photos, she’ll be having that baby any day now. I was hoping you’d be able to say the math didn’t add up.”

  My hands shook as I began to understand what lengths Annabeth would go through to see me fail. “No, it might. Holy fuck, there was one time. It was just one time, but…” She had linked up with the one person at the company with the power to do me harm, and together they could very well ruin everything I was building. “Why is this shit happening to me?” I muttered.

  “I’ll have everything under control before the day is out. I needed you to know what was going on before I started making moves.”

  I swallowed, coming back to my senses, going into survival mode. “How do I know I can trust you? This goes deep. They’ve been planning this, and I don’t think I can trust anyone in my inner circle.”

  “Sir! Dane, you can trust me. I will do everything in my power to make you know that.”

  “You hesitated earlier when I asked you about their relationship.”

  “I didn’t know she was seeing him, but I did know she was seeing someone at Excelsis. I spotted her leaving the building a few weeks ago while you were in the gulf, but I didn’t put two and two together. Sir, if I had, I would’ve told you immediately. Even with a close eye on Tom, I saw nothing to indicate that he was seeing someone, which leads me to believe that Annabeth is pulling the strings. She’s controlling when and what the media sees.”

  “Then getting another media relations team in place is paramount. I’m going out to Prodigal. I need a better vantage point so I can see where the next attack happens. This finding out shit all belatedly is not working for me.”

  “Yes, sir. I understand. We’re upping the ante, and I’m ready to bring my battle face.”

  I found a way to laugh at the hilarious way he sounded. “Thanks, Gervais,” I said, chuckling. “I needed that.”

  “Are you leaving today?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “Can it wait another day? I got a call from Kent. He told me he and your judge friend have made some arrangements that will need your approval. I think it’s in regards to Sissy. Should I set up a business lunch? Or would you prefer to go on out to the country and I send him there?”

  “Fuck. Well, his office is here. I’ll go ahead and meet him for lunch. See if you can schedule it around one or two-ish.”

  “Will do.”

  “Gervais.”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you. I’m trusting you. Do you know what that means? It means a fuck ton. Don’t screw this up.”

  “Watch me do what I do. I have yet to let you down, and I’m not about to start now.”

  He hung up, and I rose from the bed trying to keep the anticipation on the good side instead of the nervous, antsy, terrified side. I got dressed and went to the gym to work out. By the time I made it to my lunch meeting with Kent, I was more prepared to handle what life threw my way. When I was growing up, my mother would always tell me that life was a Ferris wheel that took you up and down. Just as sure as you went up, you’d come down. I kept telling myself I was on the downswing. Which meant any minute now I was due to go up.

  CHAPTER 6

  I stared at the woman sitting across from me in my office at the Prodigal Manor, my brows knitting together over the bridge of my nose in studied confusion. I idly rolled a pencil between my fingers as minutes ticked away. The sound of the perpetual pendulum balls on my desk clicking against each other made a thunderous clack as the balls swung outward and in, connecting and ricocheting. I dropped the pencil and pressed my fingers to my temples, wondering what to do with her.

  Sissy Griess sat with her head bowed, lustrous curls falling over her forehead to hide her expression, and she tore at the handkerchief in her lap with nervous energy. She delicately coughed. I heard a sniffle and wondered if she was crying. It made me sigh in frustration and sit back in my leather chair. Finally, I broke the silence.

  “The arrangement I was able to make with the judge requires you to do six months of house arrest for your involvement in Darien’s criminal activity. Consider yourself lucky. It took considerable negotiations to get you moved to New York instead of having to linger in Texas or Louisiana. Your prison sentence was reduced to time served.”

  She made a sound between a laugh and a sigh, shaking her head as she looked up at me with a smirk. “What do you want me to say?” she asked. “Thank you? Thank you, Dane Foster, for using your wealth and position to keep me away from my lawful husband. There. I said it.”

  Her face twisted and she looked away. A torn sob flew from her lips, and she brought the much-used handkerchief to her face. Her shoulders were hunched and shaking. It took everything in me not to rage at her, not to throw back in her face every terrible treason she had committed against me, but the instantaneous spark of old raw anger dissipated as quickly as it came.

  I was trying to understand this woman who had spit me out of her loins and girded me in a life that threatened to kill me with its unfairness and despair. The years of lies weighed on me, but they were nothing to the anvil of knowing she would chose Darien over me, and I knew that it was my ego, my pride that made it cut deeper than a blade. I was her child, for God’s sake. At every turn, she had rubbed my face in Darien’s supremacy. Whatever he commanded, willed, or compelled would come to fruition, even at my expense.

  But it was the most recent events that drew fresh blood. She had willingly helped him drug me and try to ransom me for money. She had assisted him in kidnapping Hanna and had almost had a part in her being traded to the Mexican drug cartel. It would take divine intervention to transform me into the kind of man who could forgive Sissy for her dark deeds, but I was trying.

  Words she had flung at Hanna during the fateful yacht voyage rang in my memory like shots fired.

  “…His real father ran off and left me to fend for myself. You weren’t there! You don’t know what it was like being nineteen years old and taking care of a baby with everybody lookin’ at you like you was some kinda home-wrecker for falling in love! So don’t tel
l me about myself…I know what I done and why I done it!”

  There was so much of my origin that I had no clue about. Had I been unfair to her? Had I ignored the damages to her psyche that had turned her into the woman she had become? I swallowed thickly and shifted forward, resting my elbow on the desk, fingers drumming the desktop. “Tell me what happened between you and my father, Sissy. Tell it plainly. As God is my witness, I’m doing my damndest to put the pieces of this awful puzzle together to see some redemption for you, but I’m having a hard time.”

  “You were always looking for a reason to blame me,” she said bitterly.

  I tamped down on my frustration, biting back a sharp retort. Instead, I calmly responded, “I’m not here to blame you.”

  “Why haven’t you asked Cornelius, if you were so desperate to know?” she spat.

  “First of all, I’m asking for your side of the story, but if you must know, I did ask him. And he wouldn’t talk. Listen, Sissy, I need to know what would change the woman I knew, the sweet, loving mother of my earliest years, into a woman who would sacrifice her only child for a man as vile and heartless as Darien Griess. Maybe I don’t understand love. I admit I’ve always had a hard time wrapping my brain around something with that much power, but I do know this. You would’ve followed Darien to the ends of the earth and off the sides, if he told you to go. Now, please…tell me…what did my father do to you?”

  I stared at her, lips set in a firm, straight line and jaw clenched. With each word of my final question, my fingertip thumped the desk in punctuation. Her unlined, still beautiful face went devoid of expression, as if she had nothing further to say. I waited an interminable amount of forever, though the minute hand probably didn’t even fully turn, for her to say something. When nothing was forthcoming, I sighed and reached for my phone to call Gervais and have him come and take her away.

  I had set up an apartment for her in the same complex as my penthouse where I knew she would be safe, and where I could easily watch her comings and goings. He could call a car for her and have the driver take her over. I was done with her.