“Maryanne, good to see you,” I say. “No need to announce me.”
She follows me as I make my way to the door, puts her hand on my arm to stop me.
“I’m afraid you can’t go in there just now. He’s in a meeting.”
I smile, remove her hand. “I’ll let him know you tried to stop me,” I say as I open the door to find my father sitting behind his desk and Jonas leaning his weight against the floor-to-ceiling window.
“What the…” my father starts, then stops as soon as he sees me.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Montgomery, I tried to tell him you were in a meeting, sir.”
“Dad,” I greet, walking inside.
“Should I call security, sir?” Maryanne asks.
“Maryanne, I thought we were friends,” I say, my tone mocking as I move to close the door in her face.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jonas asks.
My father is leaning back against his seat watching me.
Two birds, one stone, I think to myself. I take a seat. “Had an interesting meeting with Dominic Benedetti today.”
Jonas snorts. He works for dad. He has since he came of age and dad’s been grooming him to take over the family business. Or what will be left of it when I’m through.
“You working with the mob now?” Jonas asks.
“You’d know more about that than I would,” I say to him, keeping my eyes on my father. “When did you get involved with Angus Scava?”
“That’s privileged information. You chose not to be a part of the family business, remember, son? You lost your privilege,” my father answers. “And now that you stole controlling shares of Abbot Enterprises from poor Quincy’s daughter, we’re competitors.”
“Poor Quincy?” I have to chuckle. “You two were friends?”
“Why are you here?” he asks.
“I want to know your business with Scava.”
“Like I said, that’s privileged. Unless you’re here to discuss the sale of the property Abbot stole out from under me, we have no business.”
“Did you have anything to do with Abbot’s hit-and-run?”
There’s a flicker, the smallest twitch at the corner of his eye. If I didn’t know my father so well, I wouldn’t notice. I doubt most people would.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he answers, a millisecond too late. “That was an accident. A tragic accident.”
“He was your enemy.”
“He was my competitor. There’s a difference.”
“But him being out of the picture would have worked out fine for you and your partner, Angus Scava.”
“It would have but you stepped into Abbot’s shoes, didn’t you? Maybe you were driving the car that hit him.”
“Not my M.O. As you know, I like for my enemies to see me coming.” I give him a wide grin.
My father glares.
Jonas walks toward us, leans against the desk and folds his arms across his chest. “How’s Percy? You knock some sense into her?”
I get to my feet and step to him. “If I learn you laid a finger on her—"
“We were engaged,” he interrupts. “I laid more than a finger on her.”
I grit my teeth. He’s egging me on. It’s not true. I know that for a fact. “If you ever hurt her, I will kill you, do you understand me?”
“Are you threatening me? I thought we were better than that. Letting pussy get in the way of our brotherly love and all.”
I take him by the collar because I can’t not. “Be careful, Jonas, be very fucking careful.”
“Today was your sister’s birthday,” my father says, interrupting. “Let’s honor that by not killing each other, shall we?”
Jonas’ expression changes, the fight goes out of him. It’s like his whole body seems to cave in on itself.
“Don’t tell me you miss her,” I say.
He looks at me. “Some of us are human. With feelings.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you.”
The door opens then, and two security guards enter.
My father is on his feet. “Let’s not cause a scene here too, son.”
“Yeah, son,” Jonas mocks.
One of the guards puts a hand to my shoulder. I shrug it off.
“Stay away from Persephone,” I tell Jonas once more before turning to my father. “Have you signed off on my bid yet?” I put in an offer to buy a part of the company. It would save him, but it would give me control.
“Fuck your bid,” he says.
I grin but it’s forced. “You’re almost out of money.”
“You’ve got bad information.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll give you twenty-four hours.”
“Sir, come with us,” the guard says.
“I’m on my way out,” I tell him, turning to the two men and pushing through them.
“Follow him. Make sure he leaves the building,” I hear Jonas tell them as I make my way back out of the offices.
26
Persephone
I pick up the bottle of vodka and I pour myself another generous glass. Half the bottle is gone because no matter how hard I try I can’t stop going over what happened with Hayden this morning. How he dismissed me afterward.
I feel humiliated and used and I know it’s my own fault. I asked for it, but I couldn’t think of any other way to distract him.
On top of that, today is October 31st. Nora’s birthday.
I was sixteen when she died and back then, it was hard to get to the cemetery with having to rely on my stepmom or dad for a ride so every year on this night, once everyone had gone to bed, I’d sneak out to the chapel ruin to spend a few minutes talking to her, letting her know I hadn’t forgotten her. The last couple of years I wasn’t sneaking anymore, but I still only went after everyone was in bed.
My dad always got weird when I brought up Nora. Grew quiet. I know better since the accident why that was.
Drinking the rest of the vodka, I stand up. I turn around to take the painting off the wall and set it on the floor. Behind it is my father’s safe. I have the combination. Our lawyer gave it to me in a sealed envelope after dad’s accident and I’m the only one who knows it.
I enter the numbers which I’ve memorized, my heart heavy as Hayden’s words come back to me.
“If you knew what your own father was capable of—”
The door feels heavier than usual and I stumble backward once before finally getting it open. Inside are files containing deeds and original copies of contracts, etc. Exactly what you’d expect. After the accident, when I first opened it, I found a second compartment inside the safe. A hidden one.
Lifting the folders out, I reach back and slip my hand into that compartment now. I feel the velvet wrapping. I pull it out and set the folders back in place.
Looking down at what I know is a book beneath the velvet, I brush away a speck of dust.
I look at it for a long minute, remember the last time I saw it. It was also the first time. I haven’t been able to look at it since.
It was two days after the hit-and-run. When we were just glad he was alive, even if he was unconscious. Dad had left me in charge of Abbot Enterprises. I wonder if he ever considered that something might happen to him and that I’d be the one to find this. I don’t think so. I think he would have destroyed it if he’d given it a thought.