Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
“Yes, it is,” Cat says. “Because I’m still angry about him making a scene at Reese’s party.”
“Anyone want a drink while he comes up?” Gabe asks, looking at Cat.
“Stop trying to make me announce that I’m pregnant,” she says. “And why would I drink? I need to be here and present for this.”
“I’ll go get him,” Gabe says. “He should be at the door any minute.” The bell rings. “And there he is.” He rounds the island and I step further into the kitchen to allow him to pass. Once Gabe is gone, I look at Cat. “Let’s go to the living room. I don’t want us all trapped in this small space with him. I actually think he will find that empowering, a place he can throw his power around and have it bounce off the walls onto us.”
“Good idea,” she says, hurrying forward and out of the kitchen, down the stairs.
I follow her and right about the time we’re standing on the far side of the couch facing the door, Gabe and our father walk in the door. They join us, the two of them facing us until Gabe steps to the opposite side of Cat, the three of us facing him. “Isn’t this cozy,” he says. “My three children, whom I love.”
“They’re with me,” I say. “You’re out.”
His lips twitch and he looks at me. “I’ll leave the firm, but my payout will be substantial.”
“It’ll be what I say it is,” I say. “And we both know why.”
“I don’t think you have the balls to act on that threat.”
“You don’t believe that or you wouldn’t be here trying to recruit Gabe to your side. You’re out.”
“Maybe later, when work isn’t everything to you,” Cat says, “we can try to be a real family.”
He looks at her. “You have no place in this conversation. You walked away from the firm. Stay out of it.”
“Perhaps the only one of us that was smart about her life,” Gabe replies dryly.
“All this for West’s daughter?” my father demands, turning his attention back to me.
“It’s for all of us. It’s for mom and yes, for me, it’s also for Carrie. The war is over. There’s closure. West Senior is out and so are you. A new generation now runs both companies.”
He stares at me, his eyes glinting hard. “I’ll send you my terms. Meet them and I’ll leave quietly.” He turns to walk toward the door but stops short turning to pin me in a stare. “But I’m never out, boy. Remember that.” This time he rotates fully and leaves.
When the door is shut, the three of us stand there, seconds tick by before Cat says, “A new generation. Mom is cheering from above.”
I scrub my jaw, thinking about Carrie. “I need to go.”
“To Carrie?” Cat asks.
“No, but I have an idea to get her back.”
I head for the door, and then the elevator. The minute I’m on the street, I call Carrie’s father. He doesn’t answer. I leave a message. “I want to make a trade. Call me.” I start running for the return home and I’m halfway there when he calls back.
“If that trade involves my daughter, forget it.”
“If I push my father out, you tell her everything.”
“Never. I did this the way I did it, so she’d never know everything and I will never let you be with her. Never.”
“I’m giving you my father’s demise in exchange for you telling her everything.”
“You won’t admit it, but you wanted his demise. I gave it to you. Thank me by staying the fuck away from my daughter.” He hangs up.
There's only one way I can force Carrie's father to talk. I'd have to get new dirt on him and blackmail him and he deserves it, but I can't do it. Not if I want her back and I do. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
Chapter fifty-four
Carrie
Iwake Sunday morning on my couch, where I ended up after tossing and turning in my own bed. I actually couldn’t sleep in my own bed alone. I tried. I even took a double dose of melatonin because why wouldn’t I let Reid turn me into a druggie? Not that melatonin is really a drug, but still. I’m not a person of excess, unless it’s related to that man. Which is why I had laid in my bed thinking about being in his bed and all the things he would have done to me, including just sleeping with the man. Then, thinking about him standing with his father on the other side of that kitchen island. The two versions of Reid contrast in my mind to such an extreme that it’s confusing me.
Sitting up, I cup my head, which is throbbing from all the crying, and I head to the kitchen where I start a Keurig pod brewing and then pop two Excedrin with a swallow of water. I reach for my phone in the pocket of my sweats that I wore to bed—because I just needed to be ready to do something, though I have no idea what—and I remove it. I actually check it for messages from Reid because I’m the pathetic girl who is obsessing over the man who’s using her and who humiliated her less than twenty-four hours ago.