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“No,” I say, tilting my head to the side. “Did you instruct the management team to shut me out?”
He blinks so rapidly, for so long, I know I’ve hit on something.
“Why would I do that?” he asks finally. “I’m the reason you’re back here in New Haven in the first place.”
I nod. “That’s what I can’t figure out,” I agree, taking my seat behind my desk just because I know it’ll piss him off. “Unless me coming back here wasn’t your idea at all.”
His eyes narrow. Bingo.
“It wasn’t,” I say, shaking my head. “Unbelievable. Let me guess. Grandmother wanted me back here, but you thought you could handle it on your own. Is that it?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, boy,” he says, his voice sharp. “I don’t know what that old bat’s been telling you—”
“Nothing,” I say. “Not a damned thing.” That explains why Grandmother informed my assistant she had to be copied on every goddamned piece of paper that went through the department, though. She was acting as oversight, which means she doesn’t trust her own son. Which means I’ve got a hell of a lot more work ahead of me than I thought.
“Let’s just clear the air, shall we?” I say, thinking fast.
“Oh, sure,” he says, looking smug as hell. “Tell you what, why don’t I go first.” He pulls a second manila folder out from under the first one he threw on my desk. “Take a look.”
It’s photos. Pictures of me and Raleigh and Callahan. The first couple are from the beach a few weeks ago—Callie and me on the balcony, the three of us at the bar. Nothing incriminating, really. The next few are more recent—Raleigh and me making out in the front seat of my car, Raleigh with his hands all over Callie’s body just outside the door at Hale House, plus others.
“I warned you,” says my father.
“It’s hardly porn,” I say, keeping my voice as even as possible, raising an eyebrow at him. “If you’re looking for something salacious, I can direct you—”
“Shut up,” he shouts. He looks over his shoulder, seeming to remember where we are. “Fine. You’re right. I didn’t want you back here. Are you kidding? I had this place running like a goddamned top. Your grandmother decided you needed to be brought back into the fold. Who even says that?” He rakes his hands through his hair. “I had retail under control. We’d had a bad run, but things were looking up.”
“I’ve seen your books,” I point out. The only way things were “looking up” is if he held the damn charts upside down.
“I said shut up.” He paces over to the window and back to the desk, pointing at the photos again. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Back off. Management knows how I want things to run. Hell, they’re all answering to me anyhow. So back. The fuck. Off.”
“This is the part where you try to, what? Blackmail me?” I ask, leaning back in my chair and folding my hands over my stomach. Not a care in the world. Still trying to piss off my old man.
It still works like a charm.
“Oh, I can do better than that, I think,” he says with a greasy smile. “Your grandmother would have a stroke if news of your… perversion got out. But I don’t think you care about that so much.”
“You got that right,” I say, checking my watch idly. If he doesn’t get to the point soon, I might have to physically throw him out.
“But your little boyfriend might,” says Dad. The hair on the back of my neck rises. “Got that new internship at the middle school, doesn’t he? Don’t think they’d look too kindly on perverts working with kids.”
“You asshole—”
“Oh, I’m not done yet,” he says, the greasy smile full of glee now. “Pretty Callahan Hale. Who knew she’d grow up to look like that, huh? But you always did like them chunky. Be a shame if somebody turned her in to the ASPCA. Again.”
“It was you?” Callie never could find out the source of the complaints, but she’d worked things out with the city council, though I knew she’d been told Hale House was on thin ice.
“Pillar of the community, you know,” says my father, straightening his tie and sneering. “So what was it you were about to say? Ah, yes, I believe it was something about asking me to take over retail. It’s a big commitment, son, but you know. These things do happen.”
“Grandmother will have your head for this,” I say. Dad just laughs.
“She’ll be dead soon enough,” he says, naked bitterness in his tone. He glances down at the photos scattered all over my desk. His lip curls. “I think we’re done here. Make sure you copy my assistant on your official resignation letter.”
The door clicks shut behind him.
Fingers numb, I scrape the photos together and put them back in the manila folder, locking them in the bottom drawer of my desk.
Callahan has worked too goddamned hard to let some creep take her business away from her, even if that creep is my father. And Raleigh… he’s just finding his feet. There’s nothing that man can’t do or have.
