“Oh, you do?” I slide a hand up the side of her shirt. “You really want to get rid of me that badly?”
She swats away my hand. “Never. But I just think, you know, you have a parent who actually wants to talk to you about something. He wants to see you for some reason. How bad could that be? At least you’re not invisible, which is probably the worst fucking feeling in the world.”
Little does she know I pray for a cloak of invisibility on a nightly basis.
So far, my efforts have been pretty damn futile.
“What if I don’t want to leave you? I mean, you just suffered something pretty traumatic. Don’t you want me to hang out here with you so you aren’t alone?”
Do I trust that she’ll be safe here on her own?
I sure as hell know she’s safer here by herself than wherever her bastard father is slithering around like the low-life snake that he is. Luckily, that’s away from here, at least for the moment.
I can always go to my dad’s office and come right back. The security booth is staffed and there are housekeepers floating around as always. I didn’t see Rolland on the way in, but he must be here, too, unless he’s driving the asshole somewhere.
“Listen, I am rattled as anything, Xan. But I have to stand on my own two feet. I won’t use you as a crutch because I’m scared. Yes, I want to find out who the hell that guy is and what he wants with me, but I seriously doubt he’s going to scale the walls of this place and ring the doorbell looking for me.” She takes a deep breath. “Besides, maybe you’re right. Maybe he said that stuff to scare me, using me to get to my dad. It kind of makes sense, but would work only if he cared about my well-being which…” She rolls her eyes. “We both know he doesn’t.”
“Char, he’s the last person I’d ever defend but I know when push comes to shove, he knows what’s important in his life.”
Charlotte slides a hand down the side of my face. “Oh, Xander. Where the hell did that come from? I mean, I know you’re a bullshitter, but that? You deserve an Academy Award for not bursting into laughter when those words came out of your mouth.”
I let out a snort. “There’s a tiny part of me that wants to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“He doesn’t deserve it,” she snips.
“No, he definitely doesn’t deserve you,” I say in a soft voice, my lips grazing hers. I wrap my arms around her, slipping my tongue into her mouth, drinking her in with a deep, aching need that has commanded me since the second she set foot back into my life.
“I love you,” I whisper against her mouth.
“I love you, too.” She pulls away a bit, gripping my t-shirt. “Now go and get back here so you can do that again, do you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I salute and slide off of her bed.
“Maybe when you come back you’ll be showered,” she says with a little twinkle in her eye.
“Maybe when I come back we can shower together,” I say with a shrug. “You know, just a suggestion. To save water and whatnot.”
I pull The Judge into the parking lot at my father’s office building on the other side of Ridgeview about half an hour later. Once I had a taste of Charlotte, I couldn’t let her go right away. There might’ve been some more kissing, some more touching, some more flicking—
Fuck. I want to be back in Charlotte’s bedroom with my face between her legs right now, not feeling as if I’m on death row being escorted to the electric chair.
I get out of the car and trudge up to my father’s office on the third floor. I never take the elevator, just the stairs. I have a fear of being in confined spaces, so I’d much prefer to be in control of my surroundings.
Ironic, considering my surroundings are usually out of my control in most situations.
I guess that’s why I always take the stairs.
I’ll always have the stairs.
I pull at the hem of my t-shirt, trying to smooth out the wrinkles before I see my father, but it doesn’t matter what I look like right now. He didn’t bring me here to judge my outfit. He brought me here to rail on my ass for not upholding my end of the bargain, that bargain being I take care of family responsibilities and he doesn’t have me terminated.
Maybe that’s a little dramatic, but the long and short of it is that I didn’t do my job and there will be consequences.
Ha. And I was just talking to Chase and Asher about the dipshits who don’t consider consequences.
I knock on the closed door, avoiding stares of the others cowering in their little cubicles, researching real estate investment properties or whatever the hell bullshit work he has them doing just to look busy.
“Come in,” he barks, and I push open the door. He’s all ready for me, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, his spine so straight, it looks like he might actually have a pole shoved up his ass to keep that ridiculous posture.
“Hey, Dad. When did you get ba—?”
“Do you think I have time to chase you down, Xander?” he asks. “Do you think I have nothing better to do than send you messages over and over again, waiting for a response that never comes?”
“Well, I was actually—”
“Save it, son.” He shakes his head, pressing his fingers against his temple. “I just wanted to confirm something with you before I make a decision.”
I blink fast, not expecting this turn in the conversation. “Confirm what?”
“I met with Phoenix earlier to get a status on things, and he mentioned you are planning to go to Chicago. Is that true?”
That motherfucker! Jesus Christ, I know I’ve always had to battle with Jase, but Phoenix? He’s my only goddamn ally in this business! And he sold me out to Dad! It wasn’t even Jase! My jaw drops and I’m not even sure how to navigate this.
Dad lifts an eyebrow. “Either you want to go or you don’t.”
“I, um, yeah, I do want to go, but, ah…” How can I tell him that maybe my feelings have changed? That maybe I want to stay put because being with Charlotte is more important to me than this life? Than my place in it? How do I speak those words, knowing my perceived commitment to the family is already suspect.
“But what?” Dad asks, folding his arms over his chest.
“Well, there’s still more to do here. I mean, we have the Moretti shit to deal with, plus Gio Rossi is moving in. He caused Charlotte’s accident,” I blurt without thinking.
Dad narrows his eyes. “What accident?”
“Oh, so Phoenix found the time to sell me out but didn’t tell you what’s been going on here?” I roll my eyes. “Rossi is sniffing around. I thought it was because he was looking for me, you know, to get to you for Moretti. But he ramrodded the car Charlotte was in the other day, mentioned something about Andrew, how his death wasn’t an accident.”
“And you were supposed to look into him a couple of days ago, before that accident happened, yes?”
I throw my hands into the air. “Fine! Yes! I was supposed to go with Phoenix to figure out what the hell these guys are planning in our territory and I didn’t go! I blew him off to be with Charlotte!”
Dad nods. Of course he already knows, for fuck’s sake. “So you chose not to fulfill your family obligations, the ones that keep all of us, including your mother, safe. Is that right?”