AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterEighteen
Dominik
As I sat back down at my desk early Monday morning, I felt on top of the world.
I unbuttoned my suit jacket before I eased myself into my soft leather chair and I relegated myself to a long week of work. I had already sent over the itinerary to Miss Rochere for this coming weekend, and her lack of response was just as juicy as anything she could’ve ever said.
Her anger fueled me, and it only filled me with an urge to break her down until she was no longer saying no when she really meant yes.
I turned toward my desktop and found multiple emails waiting for me. There was another practically empty file on the young man from the banquet. There was a plethora of files on the Beauregard Family I was keen to look through simply because the patriarch of their family sat on my board of investors. There were even a few more files on Eden and her sister, which I was keen to devour at my earliest convenience. I didn’t see much in the way of their parents in my emails, which felt off, even though I didn’t know why. But, we were down to the wire and we needed information quickly. The Beauregard Files had the most information in it, and my team seemed to be digging it up the quickest, so to me it made sense to focus our energies on where the volume of information came from. I mean, with my company still in the crossfires of a very dangerous man, it wasn’t just the Rochere Family that was in a pinch.
So was my company.
And as I started double-clicking like wildfire within the Beauregard Files that were emailed to me, you wouldn’t believe the extraordinary thing I found.
Apparently, Thaddius Beauregard and Eden’s father knew one another.
“Interesting,” I murmured.
I clicked through the pictures my research team had dug up and I was shocked to find that the faded images reached all the way back to high school days. The picture that caught my eye was a picture of a young Thaddius and a young Clyde, standing beneath a cockeyed sign that said, “Happy Homecoming!”
I found myself lost in their world as the massive number of still-life memories that weren’t my own unfolded before my very eyes.
There were pictures of them huddled up on the same football team. Images of them holding a conference trophy up, side by side. There were even images of them within a throng of people wearing sunglasses and popped collars while jumping up and down to a band in what looked like the school’s gymnasium. And when I took to the internet to do a bit of research on the high school, I found pictures of them beside trophies on the Denver, Colorado high school’s website.
Seems that the two of them were a fucking dynamic duo in their earlier years.
“Intriguing, to say the least,” I whispered.
It was a fact I never thought I’d come across, but the proof was directly in front of me. When I questioned the entire Beauregard Family about what happened at the banquet, Thaddius failed to mention that he knew the caterer of the yearly event. Something in my gut started churning. Something that always pointed me in the direction of trouble.
And if there was anything my life had taught me, it had taught me that my gut was usually right.
I picked up my desk phone and dialed the number three. I held it to my ear as the phone rang, but it didn’t ring long before the head of my research department picked up.
“This is Angelica Hou--.”
“Angie, it’s me.”
She paused. “Mr. Drake. Is everything all right?”
I turned myself around to face the view from my office. “The team that’s focusing on the Beauregard-Rochere files.”
“Yes?”
“Have them focus on this connection between the two patriarchs of the families. Figure out all of the ways those two families were intertwined before this all goes any further. And tell them to abandon looking in on Clyde’s side, at least for now. Something in my gut tells me they’ll just keep coming up with dead ends. If you’re going to find what I need, you’ll find it on the Beauregard side.”
“Of course, sir. Right away. I’ll let them know immediately.”
As I dropped the phone back into its holster, a delicious smile spread across my face. It had been a very long time since a job contract had me on the edge of my seat. But this bullshit that had erupted had some seriously juicy cards that I wanted to keep close to my chest. I practically burst with delight as I swiveled back around and continued flipping through the endless pages of research my teams had dug up.
And just as I came up for air before lunch time, Jackson burst into my office with a smile of his own to share.
“Welcome back,” he said as he flopped into the chair in front of my desk.
I folded my hands in my lap. “What’s the reason for your smile?”
He locked his hands behind his head, as if he were hanging out on a couch or some shit. “I took Emily out for a date Saturday night.”
