The anger, as if it were just yesterday, begins to rebuild. One after another, my feet smack onto the moist sand, until I can no longer push forward. My legs buckle and my knees smash into the ground. Fuck her. Fuck Trevor. Fuck everyone. I’m done. I’m taking him down now.
* * *
Four days later…
An issue with the Cleveland transports delays me from the office for four days. A company decided last minute they weren’t ready to sell, which demanded my presence in Ohio to convince them they were indeed ready to fucking sell.
I finally walk into Four Fathers on a mission.
“Is Blackstone in?” I ask the receptionist.
“He sure is, Hayden. He’s in his office.”
I storm past, but halt, whipping around to her. “It’s Mr. Pearson. Know who you work for…and take that red crap off your lips or leave. This isn’t a whore house.” I turn, not bothering with her reaction, my feet slamming down the hallway as I hit Trevor’s office, throwing open his door.
“I see knocking isn’t something that applies to you,” Trevor says. He’s not the only one in the office. Sitting on his desk is Lucy, and to the right is Katie.
“Clear the room. I need to talk to your master.”
Trevor’s eyes light up. He begins to stand, preparing his defense. “I suggest you watch your tone. This is still my company as well, and I will not stand here and take shit from a fucking punk like you.”
“Fuck you, Blackstone. You’re done here.”
His fists slam on his desk. “I’m over putting up with your shit. Your father may have been my best friend, but I’ve had enough of you.”
Fuck him. “Good, because this is the end of the road for you, asshole.”
Katie slides off the desk. “Jesus, Hayden, stop this!”
“Shut the fuck up and mind your own fucking business. This has nothing to do with you,” I snap, my eyes shooting daggers of betrayal at her. I pull them away and lock them back on my enemy.
“Spit out what it is you want and get the fuck out of here.”
I toss the file onto his desk. “I want to talk about Jameson Vincent.” Trevor’s eyes go wide. Fucking got you, asshole. His body stiffens at the name, and I know I’ve won. Lucy looks confused and turns to her husband.
“Who is Jameson Vincent?” she asks. She’s about to find out.
“I need a moment with Hayden. Alone,” Trevor says, his tone blank. Lucy looks as if she’s going to argue but thinks twice. She nods to Katie, who I refuse to make eye contact with, and they exit his office.
“You can thank my mother and her fondness for holding onto memories for ruining your perfect plan.” I toss the old photo on his desk. He picks it up and eyes it, flipping it over to the back, then back to the front. “As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The day in the hospital, when I mentioned the paternity test for Nixon, you looked shocked—yet you were the one who had that fucking manipulated. I found the real one, motherfucker.”
Trevor drops the picture and sits back in his chair. “What do you know?”
Is he fucking kidding me right now? He’s not even going to deny it? “I know everything, you motherfucker. I know all the lies, the fake identity, the money transferring. I know you are, in fact, Nixon’s father.”
Twice now, I catch him in a shocked stare. “Is this what you’ve been obsessing over? All these months? Wasting your life, ruining everything? For this?” He thrusts the papers across the desk and they fall off the ledge in front of my feet.
“Ruining? I’m exposing the truth. Your lies. How did it start? Did you and my mom meet in college? On the streets? Did you conjure up this scam back then to befriend my father with the plan to eventually take what was rightfully his?”
“You have it all wrong, son.”
I rush forward and slam my palms on his desk, causing him to jump up. “I am not your GODDAMN SON! But this proves Nixon is.”
“You have it wrong,” Trevor repeats, and red filters my vision.
“No, asshole, that’s one thing I have right. You’re going down, Blackstone. I want you out of here by today. I’ll give you a few hours to pack your shit and hide before I tell the entire world and your family what a con artist you are.” I turn my back and head to the door when his words hit me.
“You’re right. That man in the photo is Nixon’s father. That’s the only thing you do have right.”
I stop and turn, though I’m not sure why I’m even giving him stage time to talk himself out of this. “Your father did his diligence when starting this company. He wanted to know anything in my past wasn’t going to ruin an ounce of what we were creating, so he had an investigator look into my background.”
“And?” I growl.
“And he didn’t find much, apart from some uncle only twelve years older than me. He was just getting out of prison for some DUI at the time. He’s a gambler, not someone I wanted in my life or around my family—you guys—but your mother found the information years later in your dad’s files and couldn’t leave it alone. She felt sorry for me being alone, so she sought him out.”
“I don’t believe you. I used to watch the way my mother looked at you. Flirted with you.”
“Hayden, your mother had issues, we all fucking know that. She flirted with anyone who gave her some attention. And that ain’t my problem. Despite what you think of me, I wouldn’t sleep with another man’s wife—especially my best fucking friend’s.”
I throw my hands through my hair, my agitation growing. He’s lying. He’s lying. “You’re not going to convince me of this bullshit. I know about the money! I have fucking proof!”
“Proof of what? That I send him money? So fucking what? I do it to protect Nixon, and before he died, I was protecting your father. Your mother came to me about Nixon when she was worried about Eric getting paternity tests done for insurance policies. She panicked, and I told her I’d help her, but Eric could never know it was me who helped her if he ever found out.”
“So why are you sending him money?”
“He came here…when your mother left—or should I say disappeared? He saw a missing person’s ad for her, and he saw Nixon. Just by looking at him, he knew he was his. He also knew how rich Eric was. He showed up here and I intercepted him by accident. I managed to convince him to go away. A small fee each month to keep your father from knowing about Nixon and to keep Nixon from spiraling. This will break him, Hayden.”
“What about the name on the photo? Why give her a picture of him with his name?”
“Because he changed his name. He rotates between five aliases. He gets himself in debt and has some warrants for violent crimes, so he changes between names. That was his real one he always went back to.”
“That’s why my investigator found nothing on him,” I fume.
“Actually, your investigator found me. And I convinced him not to tell you. I assumed you found the image and were curious who it was. I didn’t suspect you’d come up with this whole fucking scenario that it was me.”
“You fucking what!”
“It seems money will convince anyone to switch teams I see,” he says, throwing himself back in his chair. “Hayden…I kept this from you all because it was the right thing to do. If you feel otherwise, then you do what you feel is right. But know that this information won’t fix anything for you. It won’t bring your dad back. It won’t justify anything for you.”
His words are true despite not wanting to believe them. Telling Nixon will do nothing but hurt him and bring up the past. He’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him, and this could threaten that. And without Rowan and Erica, I don’t know where he would be. His darkness far exceeds mine. It scares me most times.
“Your father loved you.”
“He didn’t love anyone,” I spit. “He only loved you.” Uncle Trevor. That’s who he showed the most affection to. He may have acted hard and collective, but Trevor was his best friend. His brother, his partner. When my mom left, he was his ro
ck. He didn’t lean on his children who would have loved to lean back. No, he had him.
“I know you only see it one way. But you have no idea how much he loved you all.”
I can’t be here any longer. My hands are shaking, and my throat is beginning to lock. Emotions I refuse to acknowledge are starting to boil, and I need air. “I’m done.” Turning, I throw his door open, storm past the two women, and head straight into my office. I slam the door so hard, a few paintings fall from their hinges and crash to the ground. I feel like I just ran a ten-mile marathon and can’t catch my breath. My eyes are stinging. I can’t reel in my emotions. “Fuck him. Fuck him—”
“Hayden, are you okay?”
I whip around to see Katie standing in my office.
“What the fuck do you want? To gloat? No need. Get out.” I turn back to face the windows, needing to rein in these unfamiliar feelings.
“I just want to know you’re okay. I still worry about you.”
Her words trigger a deep emotion I have buried so far down, it releases a darkness I try to keep caged. I turn around and rush her, barricading her between my body and the bookshelf. “You’re worried about me? How so? Are you as worried as you should’ve been when you walked out on me? Left me like you promised you wouldn’t?” Her body trembles under the force of my words.
“You drove me away, you know that.”
“And you left as soon as it got tough.” She tries to push me away, but I only eliminate the space left between us. Her tits are pressed against my chest and the way they brush up and down as she breathes heavily causes my cock to grow.
“I left because you were out of control. You were obsessed with a theory that didn’t exist.”
I lift my hand quickly and startle her. She thinks I’m going to hurt her. Her reaction fucking guts me, but thrills me all the same. I gently wrap my hand around her neck, then lower my head until I know she can feel my warm breath hitting her flushed cheek. “The only thing I was obsessed with was you.” I slide my fingers down her neck, between her breasts. “You were the only thing I wanted. Needed. I thought I made that clear every moment we were together when I poured my heart out to you like a goddamn whipped pussy boy.” She inhales quickly at my words. I expect her to stop my hand from traveling, but she doesn’t. I move past her taut belly, past her navel and her too short skirt, until my hand is massaging her inner thigh. “Since when do you wear skirts? Thought my girl only wore shorts.”
“Since I became not your girl anymore,” she whispers, and her eyes fall shut as my hand works up and inside her panties. Fuck. Soaked. As always. I always did that to her. I should stop myself. This is just going to fuck me up by getting a little taste of her. But I was never good at keeping my hands off her.
“Hayden…”
My name is a soft whisper off her lips, followed by a sweet as fuck moan when I pull her panties aside and insert a finger inside her. I almost lose my shit the moment my finger reaches deep into her cunt. The warmth. Tightness. I can smell her sweetness. My mind is foggy, and I can’t stop. I pull out and replace one finger with two. She squirms in my hold. I love how much her body succumbs to my touch. I always had that control over her. It was like a fucking drug I couldn’t get enough of. I pull out and begin finger fucking her against the bookshelf. There is no lenience in my thrusts. I can’t stop. I need this. Her soft moans fill my office, and it may take an army to force me not to turn her around and fuck her hard and viciously over my desk.
“Hayden…” My name again drives me mad.
“Is this what you wanted, Kitty Kat? You wanted me to get you to purr my name as I do what I want with your cunt? Always a willing cunt. Is it still mine? Or have you been letting other men touch what belongs to me?”
Her body freezes. She lifts her hands to push me away from her, but I just slam my fingers harder inside her. “Do you think of me when other men touch you like this?” In and out, in and out.
“Hayden, stop.” She pushes again, but I know what she wants. I always have. The way she’s riding my hand tells me that’s the last thing she wants me to do. Thank god, because I can’t stop. I’ve lost sense of right and wrong and can’t stop until I make her come and she remembers who she once belonged to. “Hayden.” Her plea finally breaks through just as she squeezes around my fingers, orgasming. Realization strikes me, and I practically drop her as I pull out and throw myself a few feet away from her. We’re both breathing heavily. I must look like a madman. I make the mistake of looking at her. Her eyes are glossy, the aftermath of her orgasm mixed with unshed tears.
“Just leave me alone. Don’t come back here. Ever.”
She doesn’t say another word. For the second time, she turns and walks away from me.
Chapter Seven
Katie
One week later…
The sun in Tampa is no joke. The temperature doesn’t faze Lucy, but since I’m not used to it, I keep having to take breaks inside and drink a gallon of water so I don’t dehydrate and crinkle up. I walk inside to find Trevor in the kitchen. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be at work?” I ask, opening the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water.
“Yeah, but this week and next tend to be quiet in the office. It’s the anniversary of Eric’s death, so everyone kind of handles it in their own way.”
“Oh yeah, I’m sorry. I should have known.” I knew the anniversary was close. Mainly why I chose this time to visit. It seems to be hard for Trevor, which makes it hard for Lucy, so I want to do what I can to ease the time.
“No need to apologize. It’s a hard time for a lot of people. We manage to get through it.” He finishes signing some documents and starts clearing up the table.
“Hey, Trev, can I ask you something?”
“Have at it. But no more bondage talk. My ex is a liar and needs to stop filling your heads with weird shit.”
I laugh. “That was actually my second question. But…how’s Hayden been lately?”
He lifts his head to observe me, not happy I’m even inquiring about him. “I wouldn’t know. He hasn’t shown up for the past week.”
What? That surprises me. “Why not? I thought he loved throwing his weight around at work?”
Trevor shuts his briefcase and places it on the edge of the counter. “Hayden has a rough go around during this time. I’m not surprised he’s gone MIA. You’ve seen him at his worst. He doesn’t handle certain situations well. This is one of them. Eric dying was a blessing and a curse all the same for him. He wanted to hate his father for all the lacking he did as one. He would say he was glad he was gone, but deep down, he hates him more for being gone and leaving him with the company he never wanted to run and responsible for his three brothers…even though two are of age. Being the oldest, he left a lot of baggage for him to handle. So, it’s a struggle for him.”
Everything Trevor says is true. Hayden was never good at expressing his feelings toward anyone but me. It seemed like I was the only person he was able to open up to. But when it came to his issues with his family, he shut down—went to that dark place he talked about only when he had too many drinks. He was troubled and lost. But he wanted to be saved so desperately.
I always thought that’s why I stayed. Instead of knowing he needed to save himself, I was going to be the one to pull him from his dark place. But in the end, he just drove a bigger wedge between us. A part of me hoped me leaving would help him figure his shit out. But being back here only proves he’s still broken and alone.
“I’m not sure I like the look on your face right now. Don’t do anything stupid. Katie, he doesn’t deserve you. He’s proven that time and time again.”
I won’t deny that. He doesn’t deserve me. But he deserves to be loved and understood. He deserves to be happy and feel at peace. And I know at one point in his life I offered him that. “I know. It’s just…we all deserve something more, ya know? He can’t continue being so hateful, and it hurts to see someone be so hard on themselves. We may not be right for one anothe
r, and what he did, I won’t forget, but love doesn’t shut off just because of our wrong doings, ya know?”
He looks at me for some time, then with nothing else to say, he nods. He understands. And he may not agree, but he accepts my decision. His last words are to be careful as he heads out back to his wife who’s going to have to explain why she’s sunbathing on the beach with no top.
Avoiding that shit show, I go change into a cute little summer dress and text Camden, asking for his new address. Cam and I kept in touch even after Hayden and I went our separate ways. His love for politics interested me like no other, and he promised me a tour of the White House when he made it there one day. He responds with the address, then keeps on going, asking for advice.
Cam: This watch? Or this one?
Both pictures look obnoxiously expensive.
Me: First one. Do I dare ask how much that one is?
Cam: Too much, but definitely worth it.
Me: Special occasion?
Cam: Spoiling myself is always a special occasion.
Me: You’re ridiculous.
Cam: You love me. Good luck. I won’t be there to run interference but call me if I need to beat his ass.
I silently thank him knowing I’m going to need it.
* * *
I spend thirty minutes talking myself in and out of this plan before I finally walk in and give my name to the bellman. If he wants to refuse me, that’s that. A simple he’s not in or does not require your presence from his fancy butler will do and I’ll be on my way.
When the bellman states my name through the phone, I’m surprised Hayden allows me access. I was certain he would tell him I was an intruder and to shoot me on the spot. I thank the man and hit the button for the twenty-third floor. Each floor that reaches closer to my destination puts me in a panic. Is this a bad idea? Should I have just let it rest? Should I have gotten the hint when he gave me the best orgasm I’ve had in the past three months before insulting me and throwing me out of his office?
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