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Tasha came over to stand next to me without having to be asked, both of us scanning the article before the blood drained from her face, too. Finally, when we were finished reading, she looked over at me, her voice hushed with shock.

“Did you know?” she asked.

I shook my head slowly from one side to the other, suddenly feeling like I couldn’t breathe. “No, I didn’t. I feel like I should’ve, but I didn’t know about any of this.”

CHAPTER 33

HOLDEN

With Alicia out for the night, I should’ve gone home and waited for her to get back. Or maybe I should’ve gone to see my mother, but instead, Alex dragged me to an expensive, old-school type of gentlemen’s bar with leather booths and brass fixtures.

“This place is ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head as I tossed back another generous gulp of my drink. “Next time, I’m taking you out for a whiskey at a normal place.”

“You’re drinking a whiskey right now.”

“Yeah, but this whiskey would charge me fifty bucks a sip if it could.”

Alex chuckled. “You still wouldn’t be paying.”

“It still wouldn’t have mattered. It should be illegal to pay this much for alcohol.”

“Hey, at least it’s good alcohol.” He laughed, leaning back against the rich maroon leather with a crystal tumbler in his hand. Right now, he looked every inch a Westwood and Sons CEO, yet there was something easygoing about him tonight.

Alex had always somehow known when to push and when not to, but he let me shoot the breeze about his taste in bars and restaurants for another few minutes, acting like he’d brought me here for nothing more than a catch-up session.

Both of us knew that wasn’t true, though. He’d brought me here because he was worried after I’d called earlier. It had been a while since I last had, and clearly, he hadn’t forgotten what that meant.

Eventually, once we were on our second round and he’d loosened his tie, he circled back around to what we’d talked about earlier, but his tone didn’t change, still light and easy. Like this didn’t really matter any more than whether or not bars required actual window treatments.

“So, Court’s been on your mind, huh?”

I took a drink. “Unfortunately.”

“Have you seen the news today?”

“It was pretty hard to miss, don’t you think? His face was plastered on every third corner.”

It would be getting worse, too. Today, some publications had led with other stories. One had only photographed the prison gates and speculated about the parole system in general. Another had been more concerned about what it called the recent spate of early releases.

Soon, however, it would be constant. As soon as he set foot outside those gates, it would be everywhere, all the time.

“People are already talking, but that was to be expected, Holden. News of his release was never going to be kept under wraps until after he got out.” He turned his glass between his fingers, glancing down at it for a moment with a thoughtful expression crossing his features. “You need to know that Court won’t be coming back into the family like nothing happened, though. That’s not how this is going to go.”

When he lifted his gaze back to mine and I realized he was completely serious, some of the tension that had been wrapped around my chest eased. “What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what I said. He’s your father and I can’t tell you how to feel about him, but I can guarantee that the family as we’ve built it, all of us, will still be here when he gets out. Nothing is going to change that.”

“Really?” I arched an eyebrow. “How do you know? You’ve never been around us when my father is in circulation. Trust me, he won’t be easy to ignore.”

“No, but that won’t matter. We’ve all done plenty of stuff that’s been hard and we’re still sticking together. Things have changed while Court’s been inside and he’s either going to have to fit in or fuck off.”

Well, I definitely wasn’t expecting that. “I don’t want him back. I don’t want to see him, or talk to him, or have him involved in my life or my marriage.”

Alex’s eyes widened just slightly when I said the M-word, but he nodded anyway. “If that’s how you feel, then that’s how you feel. Again, I can’t change it, and frankly, I’m not even going to try. Court doesn’t deserve to have me advocating for him, and as it happens, I think I would’ve felt the exact same way you do.”

“What about Jane?” I asked. “Colin told me she’s considering letting Dad have some involvement in the company.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean she’s considering giving him any sort of control,” he said, his voice completely earnest. “I’ve talked to her, and as always, there are two sides to every story.”