by Casey Hagen
He climbed in beside her, throbbing and uncomfortable. “Good night, Jack.”
Shit, was that really his voice? Her snicker told him it was. Jack had just turned the tables and taken control, and she damn well knew it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
What He’s Too Blind to See
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR the next few days?” Lathan asked.
Jack hummed low in her throat. Lathan ran his fingers back and forth over her skin, making her loose and happy all over. “I’m sleeping. And eating. I’m going to do lots of eating. Plus, I need to visit my dad. My next shift isn’t until Wednesday.”
He kissed the warm skin along the back of her neck. “You want company?”
She rolled over to face him. His hair stood up straight on one side, making her smile. She smoothed her fingers through the wayward strands. “I guess you should come, and at the very least meet my dad. He probably won’t understand what’s going on, but it’s the respectful thing to do.”
He bumped his forehead against hers. “I would be honored.”
“What about work? Don’t you have a big company to run?”
“I do, and the first order of business: fire my CFO.”
“What?” She shot up, and the blankets fell away.
He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger. “Listen, don’t judge me, but here…” he handed her his pillow, “put this over your lap.”
She laughed but did as he asked. “All covered. Happy?”
“Ecstatic.”
“So, your CFO…what’s happening with that?”
He scratched his chest. “He sold off an investment my brother made… probably assuming I wouldn’t notice it. Our profits have started to dip upwards of ten percent per quarter.”
Jack whistled. If anyone in her company crossed her, heaven help them. “He’s lucky he’s only getting fired.”
“Yes, he is. If he goes quietly, I won’t pursue fraud charges.”
She leaned over and glanced at the clock over his shoulder. “So, you have to go into the office?”
“I do. Want to come with me?”
“Mmm, I don’t know about that.”
“You can hang out with my receptionist while I’m in my meeting. She wasn’t able to come to the party, and I know she would love to meet you. You’d be doing me a favor; once she hears people talk about you, she’s going to grill me until I get you in there.”
“So, you’re saying you would owe me?” Jack asked.
“Well, within reason.”
“Oh, no. You owe me a favor. Anything I want. Anytime I want to collect.” She stuck out her hand just as she had the night before, only this time the sky was the limit, and she had him.
“Deal.” Lathan grinned. She felt the grin split her face. When he pulled her hand to his mouth and gently kissed her palm, her heart tumbled, and her smile slid away.
She had to be super careful from here on out because Lathan was finding little ways to weaken her resolve.
They both got ready for the day, separately. When they met in the kitchen, Jack had to laugh at the picture they made. She in her skinny jeans, tank top, and leather jacket. Lathan in his sharp black suit and crisp, pinstriped shirt.
Hot.
She’d never had a thing for suits. Women always referred to them as men’s lingerie, but she never got it. Well, she did now. She wanted to peel the suit away, piece by piece, with agonizing care, just to make him squirm.
Heat wasn’t an issue. They had that in spades, apparently.
Thankfully, her cell interrupted her heated thoughts before she could act on them and give Lathan something else to be smug about.
After speaking to her brother, Jack drove him to his office in San Francisco.
Jeremy had managed to get the parts sooner than he figured possible, and it looked like Lathan’s car would be ready by Wednesday.
So, for now they would go to his corporate office, and he would fire his CFO while she charmed the receptionist.
Totally normal. People did this kind of thing all the time.
“Do you know how you’re going to handle it?” Jack asked. Lathan had been silent since he climbed into the passenger seat of her truck.
“Hmmm…no. I guess I’ll see what he has to say first.”
“You have your evidence?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe—”
He reached for the volume knob to the radio. “I love this song.”
Sure he did. Didn’t all guys love Britney Spears? She left it alone; clearly, he was distracted, and maybe he was trying to get his thoughts together.
The sun played peekaboo around thick clouds that seemed to increase as the morning marched on. Jack’s life had gone off on one hell of a tangent. All of a sudden, her world had shifted, and she couldn’t figure out how she would go back to the way things were after a year.
Thank God her brother had planned a get-together with some friends tonight. She needed beer, classic rock, darts, and her boys bullshitting if for no other reason than to keep her grounded before even more of her slipped away.
She couldn’t recall a time she had been nervous, but rolling into the parking lot of Kincaid Industries, with its fifteen stories of glass and steel, put her on edge. She had always handled confrontation like a pro. She took her time, made her point in an articulate but unyielding way, and that was that.
This was something else entirely. Well, there wasn’t much she could do. She would walk in, chin up, smile, and she would support Lathan any way she could, and then she would hit the road and drag his cute ass to Tallulah Cove and put a beer in his hand.
He held the door for her and guided her inside a pristine glass and tile lobby with a wide security desk in the front.
A tall guard with military-cut blond hair nodded to him. “Good morning, Mr. Kincaid.”
“Good morning, Brian. How are your wife and the girls?”
“Excellent, sir. Thank you for asking.”
“You let Celia know that I’ll be at her game this weekend,” Lathan said as they sailed past the desk to the elevators.
Brian smiled. “I’ll do that.”
They must be friends. They had to be, right? “How do you know Brian?”
He tilted his head and gave her a strange look. “He’s an employee,” he said, drawing the words out.
The elevator door slid open, and they stepped inside. “Who’s Celia?”
“Brian’s daughter.”
“Wait… if you’re not friends, how do you know his family, and why would you be going to his daughter’s games?”
“I know the families of all my employees. Besides, I’m the one who taught Celia most of her moves on the soccer field, so I like to see her in action.”
The doors slid open on the fifteenth floor. He waited for her to precede him, but before she did, she held her arm to stop the door from closing. “How many employees do you have?”
“Three hundred and seventy-four.” He slid his hand into hers and nudged her along. Using his index finger, he pushed up her chin. “Close your mouth, Jack. I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet.”
He stepped up to a massive desk dominated by a pint-sized, purple-haired young woman. “Gina, this is my fiancée, Jack Price. Jack, this is Gina, the woman who keeps everything in my corporate world running like a well-oiled machine.”
Jack reached out a hand, but Gina jumped up and was already coming around the desk, engulfing Jack in a tight hug.
She pulled back but held Jack’s arms. “You are just fabulous! It’s so nice to meet you. The office has been buzzing with talk of you all morning.”
Jack looked at her watch. “But it’s only nine.”
“Doesn’t matter. You made quite the impression on Saturday. Anyone who can charm Edie Kincaid earns notoriety. Come sit, and let’s talk,” Gina said as she led Jack to an expensive-looking brown leather sofa. “Lathan, Mr. Conroy is waiting for you in your office.”
“Thanks, Gina.�
� He hooked a hand around Jack’s elbow. “Not so fast, Jack.” He pulled her in, cupped her face, and kissed the air clean out of her lungs. A self-satisfied smile curved his lips when he let her go. “For luck.”
“Umm, glad I could help,” she muttered, tingling from head to toe.
Lathan took a deep breath and reminded himself that he had this. His brother would do what had to be done if he were still alive, and Lathan would honor him by doing the same. Everett confirmed that Conroy’s replacement was willing to take over at the beginning of the following week. Everett’s lawyer had already started undoing the mess Conroy had made. By the time Conroy’s replacement stepped in, he should have Liam’s investment back and a CFO he could trust implicitly.
He just had to get rid of the old one.
Opening his door, he greeted Conroy with a nod, then took a seat at his desk.
“I hear congratulations are in order. I wish I could have made it to the party Saturday, but something came up.”
Lathan leaned back in his chair and crossed an ankle over his knee. He eyed the man who had served Kincaid Industries for thirty years. He remembered him from his childhood as a fit man who played tennis on occasion with his father. Now, his hair had receded, gone snow-white, and he’d put on at least fifty pounds, most of it at his waistline and chin. “It’s okay; you weren’t missed.”
Conroy did a double take, setting that chin to wobbling. “Come again?”
“You have some explaining to do.”
Conroy hooked a finger in the side of his collar. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“You sold an investment my brother made.”
“Well, I—”
“You committed fraud; you made a decision you had no right to make, and you’ve cost this company a significant profit.”
Conroy shot out of his chair and started to pace. “We never should have been part of that project. This company has always been headed in a certain direction. Vacation properties are a distraction from the ultimate goal.”
“You were the CFO; the direction of the company was not your call.”
“Were?”
“You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me!”
Lathan stood. “I can, and I did.” He pressed the intercom button. “Gina, please send security to escort Mr. Conroy from the building.”
“You can’t do this. I’ve been a part of this company for thirty years. I’ve been making decisions for the good of this company since you and that brother of yours were playing in the dirt.”
“And you ruined your reputation here by going behind my back and committing fraud.”
Security arrived and stood in the now-open doorway. “I saved this company from a huge mistake your brother made. You think you have this all under control, don’t you? You don’t know a damn thing. If you did, you wouldn’t be marrying some woman you picked up from a roadside truck stop.”
Rage surged through Lathan’s blood. He bolted around the desk and grabbed the man by the throat. Hooking his fingers in Conroy’s collar, he twisted and squeezed. “One more word about her and I’ll make sure you can’t find a single job in the state. Understand me?”
Conroy’s face turned a dark shade of red. His eyes widened, and he jerked his head in affirmation.
“Good.” He turned to the men at the door. “Get him out of here.”
What were the chances she didn’t hear that cheap shot? Shit. There was only one way to find out.
She stood there at Gina’s desk, her hip cocked on the edge, looking at pictures from the Christmas party that Gina had pulled out. Lathan had let the women teach him that stupid whip and nae nae dance. It wasn’t his proudest moment, or most sober, and like most embarrassing moments, someone hovered nearby with a camera.
A laugh bubbled out of her, but the amusement didn’t reach her eyes.
So, she’d heard.
How many other people were thinking the same thing? And how the hell was he going to keep comments like that from reaching her?
The silence was killing him. They had been on the road for twenty minutes, and she still hadn’t said a word. Traffic lightened up the farther they got away from San Francisco. He shed his jacket and tie and dropped them on the seat.
“I know you heard what he said.”
She shrugged and kept her eyes on the road. “Doesn’t matter.”
Lathan turned in his seat. “Yes, it does.”
“Let it go, Lathan. I’ve never measured my worth by the opinions of others, and I’m not about to start now.”
“I never expected you did, but what he said was out of line. I’m sorry.”
She flicked him a glance, her hands tightened on the wheel. “Why are you sorry? You didn’t say it.”
“He was my employee, my responsibility.”
She tossed her head. “Oh, please. He’s a human being with a big mouth. You can’t control everything, Lathan.” She sucked in a breath and lifted her chin. “And since you can’t, you need to think long and hard about whether or not you really want to get into a marriage with me. If he said it, others are thinking it, and that could cause even more problems for you.”
“I’ve made my decision.”
She slanted him a look. “Why, because I’m willing?”
“Because you’re the one I want,” he said.
“If you say so.”
“I do, and I would appreciate you not questioning it.” Her comments hinted at her doubts as to his feelings. If Conroy were here right now, Lathan would kick his ass for stirring up trouble.
She gave him a grin. “You would, huh? Can I tell you a secret?”
“Absolutely.”
“I wanted to punt him in the balls when they hauled him out of there. Here, he committed fraud but was taking my inventory. Pissed me off.”
Lathan laughed. “I would have loved to see it.”
She flexed her fingers on the wheel. “I’ve never been ashamed of what I do.”
“You shouldn’t be. You work hard; you have a successful business.”
“But for a split second…” she trailed off.
“What?” He smoothed a wayward hair from her face. “What were you about to say?”
“Nothing. Look, do you mind if we stop and see my dad now? We’re close to the rehab facility.”
He let it go for the time being, but one way or another he would banish that seed of self-doubt that Conroy had planted with his tantrum. “Let’s do it, Jack.”
They pulled into Mid Point Rehabilitation just a short time later. Lathan took her hand and walked her inside. Nerves skittered through his system. He’d never met someone with Alzheimer’s before. Not knowing what to expect, he watched for cues from Jack and held on to her.
They checked in at the nurses’ station. “Hi, Fran, how is he today?”
Fran, a round woman with rosy cheeks, smiled. “He’s having a good day so far. No outbursts and the occasional smile. Why don’t you go on in.”
He expected the smell of antiseptic and illness but didn’t find it; if anything, the air smelled of a hint of vanilla. Living plants hung in the windows where sunlight filtered through gauzy curtains.
Jack led him all the way down the hall where she pushed open the door. A husky man with curly red hair and a thick red mustache and beard sat in an easy chair, looking out the window.
“Hi, Daddy.”
Her father didn’t speak, but he reached out his arms to her. “Does he know who you are?” Lathan whispered.
“Not usually, no,” she said as she let go of Lathan’s hand and hugged her father.
“Peanut,” he whispered into her hair.
Jack drew back and searched her dad’s eyes. “You know who I am?”
“Of course I do, girl. You’re my little sidekick. Such a handful you were.”
“He remembers,” she whispered. She gave Lathan a radiant smile before turning back to her father. “Daddy, I want you to meet someone. This is my fiancé, Lathan. L
athan, my father, Patrick.”
“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Lathan said and shook the man’s hand. His rough grip was solid. A handshake Lathan could respect.
“Fiancé?”
“Yes, I’m getting married.”
“To a suit?” Patrick said.
She laughed and patted her father’s hand. “Yes, Daddy, to a suit.”
“I hope he knows what he’s getting into,” Patrick said with a snicker.
“I’ve got an idea, sir,” Lathan nodded and turned his smile on Jack.
“Brave man. I like him,” he said with a nod. “Sit, let’s chat.”
Her father tired easily, and within fifteen minutes of their arrival, he started fading. When he looked at them with confusion, Lathan took that as a hint to get out while they could still call the visit a good one.
“How often is he lucid like that?”
“Last time I saw him lucid like that was at least a month ago.”
“So, today was a good day.”
“It was. Thank you for agreeing to stop. When I think that I might have missed that...”
He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her skin. “Anything you want, Jack. Anytime. Just say the word.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Clash
JACK AND JEREMY’S HOUSE WAS hopping with friends and coworkers. Classic rock poured out of the speakers, and beer and wine were in large supply in the kitchen. Jeremy had called and asked Jack and Lathan to pick up barbecue and wings, creating quite the spread on the dining room table.
Lathan had been accosted by the guys and was currently getting his ass kicked in darts. The humiliation was nothing another beer wouldn’t fix. Jeremy, his main man, was on it, too. The minute he finished one, another cold one was in his hand.
“So, Lathan, when are you marrying my sister?”
Kurt and Dave both stopped with the darts and looked at Lathan expectantly.
Ah, so this is how they were going to do it. On Jeremy’s turf, when he had people surrounding him to back him up. Not entirely surprising. “A week from Saturday.”
“Is your rich family going to stuff her into some poufy dress that’s nothing at all like her?” Jeremy gave him a hard look.
