“You can tell me,” I say, and I hope to God he knows I’m telling the truth. “If you want. If you need to.”
“You’re sweet.” He kisses my crown. “But no, Lilly. I don’t want to burden you with the things that haunt me.” He starts to rise. “I need a shower. And then to work… to cleanse my mind of… bad things.” He sounds distracted. “There won’t be more sleep for me tonight, of that I’m sure. The gym? A workout would be nice. Somewhere I don’t need to think. Somewhere I can be utterly alone…”
He stops, and frowns at his words. Was he just thinking to himself? Maybe I’m not the only crazy one in this house.
He looks back at me. “Goodnight, Lilly. Until the morning.”
“Goodnight,” I whisper, and watch him go.
Chapter Eleven
Don’t touch me, Rose.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t get those words out of my head. They are on repeat as I drive with Jeremy to work. They’re all I think about as one of his assistants takes me away and shows me to my new office. They’re all I can focus on as some senior partner or other comes and lectures me on the details of my new job.
It feels good, albeit a little frightening, to be back amongst people. Particularly so soon after waking up in that unfamiliar room in Colorado with the first mention of brain damage fresh on my mind.
But my own concerns pale in comparison to what I feel for Jeremy.
It’s no secret anymore that we’re together. Everybody in the building knows it. They’ve seen the pictures. They’ve heard the chatter. And if they look at me a bit differently now that they know I’m sleeping with the most powerful man in the city, well, so be it.
Don’t touch me, Rose.
That’s what he screamed when caught in the clutch of his night-terror. That’s who he thought I was, when I brushed his arm.
Why? He said he dreams of the past. Of the time he still lived under his father’s shadow. Charles and Jeremy go back all the way to that time.
Could he and Rose have the same connection?
Halfway through the day, I find myself lingering by the elevators, in the exact same spot I was that time Hugh found me.
Hugh is his father, and he works in the building, I think. Hugh is his father, and Jeremy explicitly asked me if he had mentioned Rose when he came unannounced to my door in Boston.
There is a connection. I’m positive. But how far does it run?
I debate calling on Jeremy, and then decide against it. I don’t want to interrupt him at work. Besides, I have things I should be doing. Getting acquainted with all I’ll be responsible for.
I turn away—and am startled by the sight of Hugh, looking all the more like a sly, devilish bird, peering at me from the corner.
“Hello, my lovely,” he greets me. He strides forth and gently but firmly takes my arm. “My son’s paramour.”
I recoil inwardly from his touch. I try not to let my discomfort show. Now that I know exactly who Hugh is, and all that he’s responsible for, in screwing up Jeremy’s life from childhood and all the consequences of that upbringing, I want nothing to do with him whatsoever.
But I’m also not dumb enough to spit a gift horse in the face. Hugh might have valuable information for me. And it’s obvious he still wants something from me, or else he would not have come to seek me out on my very first day back.
“Does Jeremy know you’re talking to me?” I ask, pivoting smoothly to make it appear that the way he’s leading me is exactly where I wanted to go all along.
“I’m almost certain he has more important matters to attend to,” Hugh replies. “But despite that, yes. You’ve evoked some sort of curiosity within him. You’ve made him start to act like an unreasonable man. And my son, for all his flaws, was never anything if not reasonable.”
“So he allows you to call him ‘your son’ now, does he?” I ask.
Hugh shrugs. “The secret’s out. Not that it should have ever been one to begin with. It’s almost like he’s somehow…hmm, ashamed of me.”
“Gee. I wonder why that would be.” I don’t hide my disdain.
Hugh shakes his head. “Such a bratty child,” he says, half to himself. “Under my roof such remarks would not have been taken lightly.”
“Under your roof?” I scoff, and wrench out of his grip as we come into his private office. “The one you raised Jeremy under? Look what that got you. Such a spectacular success.”
Hugh gives a small, curious smile. “Isn’t it?” he wonders. “My youngest son, the largest shareholder of the stock market’s most coveted company. My youngest son, the darling of the country’s media. The roguish heir of a fortune he discarded to create his own place in the world.” His eyes focus on me, full of dark, sly understanding. “If you don’t call that a success, Miss Ryder, then I don’t know what it might be.”
“He didn’t do it because of you,” I sneer, my voice full of loathing. “He did it in spite of you. He did it to take back the part of the world that you stole from him.”
“Ah. Are things really so simple?” Hugh settles back into his chair across the table from me. “Do those distinctions really make a difference? What does it matter what the motivations are, if the outcome is the same?”
“It matters,” I say, but refuse to indulge him by elaborating on my stance. “What do you want, Hugh? Why did you bring me here? Is it to scare me with the collar once more?” I flash all my teeth in a vicious grin. “Because I’m afraid you’ll find me stalwartly immune.”
“No, no.” He shakes his head and waves my suggestion away with the most dismissive of gestures. “I’m not one for such theatrics. That last unfortunate incident was all Jeremy’s idea, I fear. I warned him against it too, you know. I told him you wouldn’t like it.”
“Whatever,” I say. “Tell me what you want so I can get back to my own work. I’m not paid to mince words with you.”
“No, you’re paid to warm my son’s bed,” he says while rifling through his drawer, not looking my way.
A violent spark of hatred blasts to life inside me at the accusation. I don’t rise to the bait. I just file it away as one more ugly grievance I have against the man.
“It’s sad, really, how hard you try to get under my skin,” I say. “Why? Is it jealousy? Are you envious that I get to share in your son’s success while you’re stuck playing your little games out of this hole?” I look around the darkened office. “You really are a rat.”
Well, so much for not rising to his bait.
“Here,” he says, ignoring my remark and emerging from his little cavern to extend an envelope to me. “You should take this.”
“Again?” I ask. The envelope looks identical to the one he brought to my room in Boston. “I said no the first time. Why would things be any different?”
“Take it, Lilly,” he says. “It’s worth more to you than you suspect.”
I lift my chin and turn away. Jeremy doesn’t want me accepting anything from Hugh. I’m not about to go breaking the rules now.
“Turning your back on me is a big mistake,” Hugh warns softly
I stop. The threat in his voice is undeniable. The words are also so eerily close to what Jeremy said last night that they bring me back to that frightening moment.
But I’m not about to cower before Hugh. He has no power over me. No influence. Whatever hold he has over Jeremy has long since expired.
So I spin back, defiant and even angry that he would dare threaten me now. “Why?” I challenge. “I’m not afraid of you, Hugh. I despise you. I know what you did to your son. I know how you treated your wife. I know the kind of man you are. You’re despicable. You’re not worth the dirt on the soles of my feet.”
“High and lofty words coming from one so preciously guarded,” he says. He shakes his head, unaffected by my outburst. “You don’t even know what’s going on around you. Do you? You’re truly blind to it all.”
I square my shoulders. “And what is it I’m blind to, precisely, pray tell?”
�
�Now, now, it’s not my place to do that,” he mutters. He lifts the envelope toward me once more. “You might find this a good starting point, however.”
“I don’t want it,” I tell him again. “I’m not getting caught in your web. You can stake your life on that.”
“Ah,” he smiles. “Don’t you see, my dear? It’s not my life that is at stake.”
I’ve had enough. I turn away and stride to the door. These types of threats are just meant to upset me. To make me more confused.
Well, the only one confused here is Hugh. I’ve dealt with worse. I’ve dealt with his son. Hugh doesn’t hold a candle to Jeremy in any way. He’s less direct, sneakier. The only way he’ll get what he wants—whatever that may be—is if I respond to him.
And if I simply shut him out? Well, that leaves him powerless. He’s bound by whatever rules Jeremy’s placed on him. If he’s trying to weasel his way out, somehow, through me, it‘s not going to happen.
At least, not with my willing participation.
“Two times, now,” he says softly. “That’s some lovely coloring you’ve got on your cheek. Tell me. Did my son give you that?”
No.
I touch my face. I’d done an impeccable job of covering up the tiny bruise this morning. There’s no way Hugh could have seen through it.
I look over my shoulder. He has his hands steepled in front of him, fingers joined together to make an upside down V. He is the image of composure.
“Goodbye, Hugh,” I say. “Don’t seek me out at work again.”
“Goodbye, sweet Lilly,” he says. Just as I close the door, I hear him add, “We’ll be seeing each other much sooner than you imagine, I think.”
***
On the drive home, I make no mention of my encounter with Hugh. Jeremy, occupied by a telephone conversation, does not say anything about it, either.
It’s only when we pull up to the mansion that I decide to bring it up.
“Your father came to see me again today,” I say. “He tried giving me that envelope from before.”
“Damn,” Jeremy growls. “Really?”
“You didn’t know?” I ask. “I thought you…”
“No, I didn’t know.” Jeremy puts down his phone and looks at me. “Next time it happens, you come straight to me. You understand? I don’t care if I’m in a meeting or who I’m with. I don’t want him interacting with you. I’ll have to explain the rules to him again. It seems like your presence at Stonehart Industries has emboldened him.”
“Emboldened him to do what?” I ask. “Jeremy, I have a right to know, after all this time, exactly what sort of arrangement you have with your father.”
“It’s complicated,” he says off-handedly. He gets out as Simon opens the door. I follow. “I don’t want it troubling you.”
“I’m sure I can keep up,” I say dryly. “Not knowing bothers me more.”
“Ah, yes,” Jeremy says. “Always the curious one.” He strips off his jacket, hangs it up, and rolls up the sleeves of his shirt. “Fine. I don’t mind telling you. Where do you want me to start?”
“How about letting me know why the man you so despised in your childhood is a board member of your company?” I face Jeremy. “Doesn’t that strike you as a little bit odd?”
“No, it strikes me as practical,” Jeremy stresses. “I’m not one to waste talent. And say what you will about Hugh, he has good business sense. I mean, I inherited mine from someone. I don’t begrudge him that.”
“But you took over his company in court,” I say. “You told me that was your most triumphant moment.”
“True,” Jeremy admits. “It was when I first revealed myself to him and my brothers.”
“And then?” I ask. “What happened to them?”
“They don’t matter,” Jeremy says, in a way that leaves absolutely no doubt. “They had too much…” he searches for the right word for a moment, “…misplaced pride. They refused to accept that their youngest sibling stripped them of all they had. They thought they could bargain with me when I laid down the rules for their continued employment.” Jeremy sneers. “Selfish pigs. Both of them learned exactly how unyielding I can be.” He snorts a laugh. “Comical, really. It was a trait I picked up from them.”
“So they are…?”
“Completely ruined,” Jeremy says. “Living in absolute poverty. One of them was somewhere in South America, last I heard. Neither has a penny to his name.”
“What did you do?” I wonder.
Jeremy winks. “I gave both of them criminal records.”
“You forged them? How?”
“Sometimes I forget how little you’ve seen of the world I live in,” Jeremy says. “Money opens up many doors, Lilly. Corruption is not limited to the poorer countries. It’s ripe right here in America, through all levels of government, through all stages of the legal system. You just have to know how to ask for the things you want done discretely.”
“So faking criminal records, that’s one of them? Snap your fingers and it’s done, just like that?”
Jeremy gives me a sympathetic look. “It’s not quite that easy, but in essence? Yes.”
“Wow,” I say. “So you really are a crook, aren’t you? Morals and boundaries mean nothing to you.”
“I wouldn’t say they mean nothing.” Jeremy hooks his arm behind my back and leads me farther into his home. “I would just say that I respect them less.” A roguish smile. “Or perhaps that my boundaries are much less restricting than that of the average person.”
“You can say that again,” I mutter.
Jeremy laughs. I eye him sideways. “Why are you in such a good mood all of a sudden?”
“Aren’t I allowed to be? I just came home with the woman I love perched on my arm. I’m telling her things I never thought I’d share. It feels…liberating, Lilly!”
Without warning, he pulls me into him and kisses me passionately.
I’m left with my head spinning when he lets go. Damn! But the man can kiss.
“So, then what?” I ask, smiling at him in a crooked, loved-drunk way.
And he hit me only yesterday! Dammit, I’m way too receptive to the physical sensations he makes me feel.
“Then…nothing. I gave them both a choice to surrender to me, metaphorically speaking. They did not. The greatest irony is that Hugh helped me take their lives away.”
I hate how he can speak so nonchalantly about such awful things. But, at the same time, I can’t deny the thrill I feel when he does it. It’s like I know he’s bad, but I love him all the more for it.
Ridiculous, I know.
“Your father accepted your conditions, then?” I ask. I think back to Hugh’s allusion today that he was proud, in his own way, of Jeremy’s success.
“He saw the writing on the wall as the takeover was happening. He could do nothing to stop it, in the end, and I think that made him grudgingly respectful of his opponent. Of the man at the opposite helm. He just did not know that it was me until the ink had dried on the acquisition papers.”
“Okay, so I’m trying to picture it in my mind,” I say. “There you are in court. Your father is seeing, for the first time, that it’s you who is his undoing. And he just…accepts things? There was no resentment, no anger? No sense of betrayal?”
“Betrayal?” Jeremy muses. “Nobody was betrayed, Lilly. Deceived, yes. Most definitely. That is what made it so exciting, so satisfying for me.” He chuckles. “’The only person who didn’t see it as a happy family reunion might have been the judge.”
I raise an eyebrow at him.
He winks and continues in good humor. “My father was never one for outright confrontation. Not with opponents who were stronger. At home, with my mother?” Jeremy’s eyes darken, and he seems to step in himself as he finishes in a subdued tone. “At home, it was very much the opposite.”
I touch his arm. “Jeremy?”
He shakes his head gruffly and comes back to himself. “What? Oh. Right. No, Lilly. My father knew
he was beaten, and he jumped ship the first opportunity he got. He was always like that. Sly. Lurking in the shadows. Intelligent, of course. He had to be. But he would never put his own neck on the line.”
“And you just took him on? You accepted his word that he wouldn’t undermine you?”
“I took him on. But with restrictions, Lilly. I told you before. I didn’t want to waste his talent. At the same time, the only place where he would be close enough to me that I could oversee what he did was on my board.”
“You made him change his name.”
Jeremy gives a cruel smile. “Yes. Just the way he made me change mine.”
“You did it of your own accord, I thought?”
“I did, but it was because I wanted separation from him. He was the root cause. Names are powerful things. What better way to ensure he always remembered who is in charge than denying him that which has been his from birth?”
“But what does he want with me?” I wonder.
“That, I do not know,” Jeremy admits. “I’m afraid that he’s been biding his time waiting for an opportunity like this.”
“What opportunity?” I ask.
Jeremy stops and looks at me. “You,” he says. “Hugh has seen that you’ve become important to me. I tried to hide it for as long as I could. With you…” he touches my cheek, “…I’ve become vulnerable.”
I cross my arms. “How?” I ask, somewhat skeptically.
“I would go to the ends of the world for you, my precious Lilly-Flower.” His fingers move down the outline of my jaw. “I would give up all I have if it meant I could have you forever. None of this…“ He glances around us, at the spectacular mansion. “…matters in the least when we’re together.”
I think back to the incident last night. And to all the other strange, erratic, and unusual things Jeremy has done since declaring his feelings for me. “You have an unorthodox way of showing it sometimes,” I mumble with a touch of sadness.
“Are you talking about the virtual reality simulation? I’ve apologized for that already. But, you know what? Let me explain. You have me in an indulgent mood.”
Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) Page 89
