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When we were all stuffed, Jack and Holly played a game of pool while I watched the end of a basketball game on the big screen. All the reminiscing over the first round had me in a weird mood and stirred up some emotional shit I’d been trying to push down to my subconscious.
Back when Talia and I had first met, there was a spark to her that had left me wondering—if only for a brief moment—whether or not we could end up being more than a hot fuck. She was the type of woman I potentially could have seen myself wanting to be with for more than a few hot hookups.
But she was gone now, and all I was left with was an even bigger hole in my heart.
Or the place where I supposed my heart should go.
It felt as though it had been missing for some time.
Jack and Holly interrupted my soul searching, whooping and hollering at each other over their game. Holly had won, and Jack was arguing that it was only because he had let her. She wasn’t having it. They tried to draw me into their easy banter, but between the conversation, the beers, and the painkillers wearing thin, I wasn’t able to gather my thoughts.
“Hey, come on, man. Let’s get you home,” Jack said, sensing my low mood.
Jack and Holly drove me back up to the house, and before I got out of the car, we finalized our plans for the morning. I got out of the shotgun seat and waved goodbye as Jack pulled the car around to leave.
I watched the brake lights fade from sight and turned to go up the three steps to the front porch. I set my foot on the first step when a voice from the shadows rumbled, “Alone at last.”
21
I would have recognized that slimy voice anywhere.
“What the fuck are you doing here, O’Keefe?” I demanded, whirling around.
At my question, he stepped from the shadows and squared up with me in the middle of the walkway as I turned to face him. I barely kept my teeth from snapping at him. The guy rattled me more than anyone had in a long time.
He flashed his—likely fake—teeth back at me in a wide grin. “I’m a businessman, Rosen. I’m here to make you a deal.”
“I’m not interested. Now, get off my property before I call the police.” I turned back and started up the steps.
“I assure you, you’re very interested,” his silken tone echoed through my ear, turning my blood to molten lava in my veins.
I clenched my hand into a tight fist and briefly wondered what would happen if I bashed him upside the head with my casted arm. Would the impact hurt him or me more? I was very tempted to find out…
“You have five minutes,” I said, turning to face him. “Actually, no, let’s make it three. If I look out that window,” I gestured behind me, “and see you still standing here, I’m calling the cops.”
“Tsk, tsk, such a temper. Then again, you did have quite a bit to drink tonight,” he tossed the fact out like a fishing line, waiting to see if I’d take the bait.
“So Talia was right? You were having her followed?” I growled. “And now that she’s gone, you’re following me?”
O’Keefe spread his hands wide and innocent. He clearly wasn’t going to admit to anything until I listened to his deal.
Every cell fought against me, but in the end, I caved. “What do you want?”
“You already know what I want, Rosen. I want the museum, I want this land, I want to build my condo building and make a shit ton of money. At heart, I’m really a very simple man.”
I snorted. “Well you’re going to have to get a little more creative than threatening me, following me, and popping out of my bushes. I’m not going to sell you the museum and there’s no way you can convince me otherwise.” I set my jaw and hunched my shoulders forward, daring him to argue with me. To cross the line I’d drawn between us.
“I know business isn’t your world, Rosen. That much is obvious.”
“Is it now?”
“Well how else should I account for your recent failure to see what’s going on around you? Your business is failing. There’s no way you’ll be able to come back from this scandal. A woman died in one of your planes. Don’t you see that as career suicide?”
The fingers inside my cast started to twitch. It had been a helluva lot of fun kicking his ass in the parking lot outside the charity auction. It would be even sweeter to do it now. Now that I knew what a piece of shit he really was.
“I saw it on the news tonight. They showed the story half a dozen times in three hours,” O’Keefe continued, his voice nonchalant, as though we were discussing our last round of golf. “The protesters, the media coverage, the canceled tours. What a headache.”
