“Very likely true, but somebody told Ashton that you knew, they might have said the same thing about her.” He leaned forward. “At any rate, Winston and Linda will see if they can learn anything about his early life. They’ve decided to pose as racing fans. It might amount to nothing, but we might get lucky. And anything to help figure out this guy’s angle will be useful.”
“This all sounds good. In the meantime,” Damien added, pushing back slightly from the table, “I’m going to go see him.”
Charles’s brows rose. “I’d advise against that.”
Damien shook his head. “No, you’ve convinced me. This is all just business. And you know perfectly well that I can handle myself in a business transaction.”
What Damien didn’t say was that he had to see him. Needed to stand right in front of his son and speak with him.
He needed to watch Ashton’s face and study his eyes and discover if it was respect that he saw there, or hatred, or something in between.
And if in the end he realized that he had to walk away and use his checkbook to build a wall around himself and the rest of his family, then he would do that.
He only hoped that he wouldn’t have to.
“What do you want?” Ashton leaned against the doorframe, his eyes on Damien.
“To be honest, Ashton, I’m trying to figure you out. On the one hand, you’re direct as hell. You stood up at my vow renewal and aired your grievances to the world.”
“Noticed that, did you?”
Damien bit back a smile. For better or for worse, he definitely saw himself in this man. “Hard to miss. But what I don’t understand is why you act like the bold, abandoned son in front of the world, but then sneak around in the dark texting threats and defacing my property? Are you confident or a coward?”
He’d been watching Ashton’s face as he spoke, and unless the man was a very good actor, there was genuine confusion in his eyes. “Threats? Defacing property? What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he pressed. “So why not just lay it on the table? What is it you want from me?”
“I don’t want a goddamn thing from you, Stark. Nothing except to take your business away, piece by piece, step by step, and with the whole world watching.”
“Not even your share of the trust?”
Ashton lifted his hands in what looked like an expression of genuine confusion. “Can you just spell it out for me so I at least know why I’m standing in the hall talking to you?”
And so Damien did. He laid out how he’d established a trust, the beneficiaries of which included all of his issue, which was legalese for all of his kids, by birth or adoption.
“Until I showed up, you only knew about the three,” Ashton said. “Expecting a slew of kids like me to start coming out of the woodwork?”
“I’m not sure there’s anyone quite like you, Ashton. And no. It’s just the way lawyers draft things.”
“Well, congrats to you for doing such a good job with your financial planning. But you can leave me out. I don’t want your money.”
Damien studied him, unable to tell if he was playing a game or not. “All right. Let’s say I believe you. Will you invite me in? I’d like to talk.”
“Talk? You’ve had almost three decades to talk to me. Why now?”
“Because I didn’t know you existed before Saturday as anything other than a racecar driver. I know you don’t believe that, but it’s the truth. And I think there are things we should talk about.”
For a moment, Ashton remained perfectly still, his face an unreadable mask. Then he pulled the door open, allowing Damien to enter the suite.
“Got anything to drink?” Damien asked, and Ashton actually chuckled.
“So we’re going to have that kind of conversation?”
“I figured a drink might do us both good,” Damien admitted.
“Bourbon?” Ashton asked.
“Perfect.” Damien crossed to the sitting area and took a seat on the sofa. As Ashton poured the drinks, Damien looked at him. “Who told you I didn’t want you?”
“My mother.”
“You mean Richter’s half-sister.”
“So? She adopted me. She loved me and raised me. I get that you may not have her on your favorite person list. After all, you killed my grandfather, her brother. Probably aren’t warm fuzzy feelings between you and the Richter family.”
He brought the drinks over, and put one in front of Damien before taking a seat in the chair facing the sofa.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I didn’t kill him. He fell off the roof. But I do take responsibility for not saving him. I think I could have. I didn’t even try.” He lifted his eyes and looked at Ashton. “I don’t regret that. The man was vile.”
Ashton’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t ask what Damien meant. It didn’t matter. Damien was certain that Ashton had heard all about the abuse.
“So who else knows that I’m your father?”
Ashton lifted a shoulder. “As far as I know, no one. Well, no one before yesterday. Now I guess the whole world knows. News about Damien Stark does tend to spread.”
“Why no one? Why was it kept a secret?”
Ashton sipped his drink and seemed to genuinely consider the question. “Honestly, I don’t know. It just was. I think my mother may have been scared of you, after what you did to her brother. Maybe she was afraid you’d find me and take me away.”
“In the beginning, that was hardly going to happen. I was a child, too.”
“But you’re not a child now, are you?”
“We both got the raw end of the deal, Ashton,” Damien said. “And your grandfather was the reason for it.”
Ashton studied him, but didn’t say anything. Damien waited for a moment, then finally said, “After so many years of not seeking me out, what finally made you do it?”
“I thought we’d been over that. It wasn’t the damn trust. I didn’t even know about that. And I don’t want any part of it. I’ll sign whatever papers you want. That’s why you’re here, right? To make sure I don’t get any of your precious money?”
“No. It’s yours if you want it. You’re entitled. I’m not disputing paternity. I’ve seen the evidence on paper, and I see it in your face, too. There’s no question that you’re my son.”
Ashton had a decent poker face, but Damien was certain he’d surprised the man.
“I believe you that it’s not about the trust,” Damien continued. “But if that’s not why you suddenly popped into my life, then why did you?”
“Maybe I finally have a way to get back at you. Maybe I’ve spent my life hating you, Stark, and maybe now I have the power to do something about that.” He smiled, then shrugged. “Or maybe I just wanted to get to know Daddy.”
Those words—said by a man who was his son—twisted in Damien more than they should have. He didn’t even know this guy. He didn’t know how he was raised or what kind of demons were taunting him.
Ashton Stone was a mystery, and letting him into the family could be dangerous. Dangerous in ways that were different from the way Jeremiah Stark and Elizabeth Fairchild had fucked with them over the years.