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“Why until?”
“I don’t know. She was a young mother, seventeen when she had me, and instead of dividing us, it brought us closer together. But since she married your father, there’s been a slow divide.”
“But you don’t know why?” he presses.
I hesitate. “I don’t want to say this and have you judge her harshly. I’m terrified you’ll act against her.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Harper. And the best way to keep me from acting against her is honesty.”
“I’m trying. It’s just hard not to be protective.”
“And I respect that in you. Family is supposed to protect family.”
“But yours never protected you.”
“I don’t need protection. Tell me about your mother. Why the divide?”
“I think it’s because I push back and fight for what I think is right in the company, more so this past year when I felt that there were things that didn’t add up. I felt it even before the recalls. That pushback has not been well received. My mother just wants me to appease your father and brother.”
He leans in closer. “What don’t I know?” he asks, those blue eyes glinting with intelligence. “You said you needed time and privacy, but that there were things you hadn’t told me.”
“You already know I’m aligned with Gigi. That was the thing I dreaded telling you the most, but I did tell you. I knew I needed to tell you.”
“Aligned?” he asks, his mood darkening with whiplash speed. “You didn’t use that word and I do not like it. How fucking aligned?”
“Not against you. I swear to you, not against you. And between you and I, I don’t believe Gigi is fully repenting for her sins. I believe she’s worried about losing the company. She doesn’t want her legacy to go down in flames.”
“You do know that I hate that woman enough to want to burn it to the ground, right?”
“You said you came for me, not her.”
“Ididcome for you, Harper.”
“Then please, I beg of you, don’t burn it to the ground. My father’s world was half that company.”
“Your father is gone. His legacy isyou. You don’t need that place.”
“So that’s it then. You’re going to ruin Kingston,” It’s not a question and I try to turn away. He catches my arm, turning me back around.
“Nothing about those people affected my life. I don’t need to do that. I don’t need them at all.”
My fingers catch his lapel. “But you thought you did. You told me that in the past.”
He draws in a breath and turns away from me, facing forward, his fingers laced in front of him on the table, seconds ticking by, while I hold my breath, not sure what comes next. Are we leaving? Is he leaving? Finally, he rotates back to me, more thoughtful than angry at this point. “I had a need for family after I lost my mother and the Navy filled that void. I came here to Denver the night I met you because I’d lost that connection. I thought I needed family but these people were never family.”
My gaze goes to one of the tattoos on his right arm, a black and gray skull with an anchor that I assume represents his years as a SEAL. “Harvard graduate. Genius IQ. Navy SEAL. Self-made billionaire. You are so many things that thisfamily is not.”
“My fellow SEALs, and anyone with the Bennett name, that’s real family to me, the kind that would bleed to protect you. This family will kill you to get ahead. You’d be smart to remember that.”
“If I didn’t know, Eric, I wouldn’t have come to you. After that night,” my hand falls away, “it was embarrassing. I thought you’d think I used sex to get to you. And you did. It was one of the first things out of your mouth.”
He catches my hand and lays it on his powerful thigh, a silent message in the action. He doesn’t regret the physical connection, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold it against me. “Money is power, sweetheart, but once you have it, you swim in an ocean of sharks and snakes.” When I try to recoil and remove my hand, he closes his around it. “I’m not talking about you. I’m simply telling you where I come from.”
“I don’t have money, Eric. That will always be between us.”
“It’s not between us.”
“It is. You don’t trust me and I don’t know how to make you trust me.”
