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Damn it. His brother was recently out of rehab and lived life on a knife’s edge. A full-time sober-living companion would take so much pressure off Dare. His father always knew how to keep him on a damn string. “And Gina?”
“What about her? She’s not a junkie who needs a mommy to keep her safe,” his father said with a nasty chuckle and then a sigh. “Ah, you’re talking about the play thing. Fuck all. I don’t think anything is worth sitting through a bunch of teens doing Romeo and Juliet.”
Not a surprising attitude from the man who’d missed his valedictorian speech because it sounded like a bore. “Then I guess you don’t mind me not getting close to Huisman.”
“I’ll send Lauren,” his father countered. They were in full-on negotiations now. This was his family life.
His stepmother was only a few years older than he was, but she actually did seem to care about Gina. Johnny was another thing altogether. She was always complaining about him, but she was okay with Gina. “All right, but she has to buy the recording. They’ll sell it at the snack bar. If you do those things, I’ll stay, but Brian stays with me, and he gets his per diem for the whole time.”
He didn’t want to do this alone, and despite last night, Brian was actually a pretty charming guy. He was a guy’s guy and might have some good insight on how to handle Huisman.
Maybe she’d left a note. He hadn’t thought about that. Something could have come up and she left a note.
“I’ll let HR know,” his father agreed. “Get this done for me, Dare. I want this, and you know what can happen when I don’t get what I want.”
His siblings suffered. Always. “I’ll get it done.”
“And when you get back, I’ve got a couple of women I’d like you to meet. You fucked things up with Audrey, but you’re not getting any younger,” his father said. “I want you married to a proper wife within a year, and this time no fucking around. She needs to be pregnant shortly after.”
His gut tightened and he wanted to punch a wall, but that wouldn’t help things. “Sounds like fun.”
Any argument wouldn’t hurt him. An argument would mean Johnny was out on the streets or Gina would be pulled out of the school she loved. His father had learned a long time ago they were the best way to control him.
“I know you hate me, son, but one day you’ll thank me.” His father hung up.
Dare threw his cell phone across the room, barely missing Brian, who was walking in.
“Whoa.” Brian was dressed for the day and looking picture perfect. “That feels like a statement. I take it the date didn’t go as well as I thought it had.”
Dare shook his head, trying to regain control. “Not at all. The date went fine. How are you in here? When did I give you a key?”
Brian smiled and walked over to the couch, throwing his big body on it while he held up a familiar-looking card. “Convinced the lovely lady downstairs I left something in here and desperately needed it. I knocked twice and when you didn’t come, I used this. I was worried. Don’t get her fired. I’m convincing when I want to be. Now if the date went so well, why was our luscious Tasha sneaking out at seven a.m.?”
“How did you know that?” He didn’t ask the question he wanted to ask. How did she look? Happy? Sad? Where did she go? Did she say anything?
“I was down in the lobby when her cousin showed up. I might have followed her from a distance,” Brian admitted. “Kara showed up around six thirty, and she and Tasha left just after seven. Do you think they were in here? Do you have anything they could have taken?”
He hadn’t even thought about that, which proved what a moron he was. No wonder Brian had gotten a key. He probably thought Tasha had rolled him and he might have been looking for a dead body. “I’ve got a couple hundred in the safe. Everything else is credit cards.”
“I’m not worried about them rolling you for cash, man,” Brian replied. “You have access to some big bank accounts on that laptop of yours. You have information on some of the wealthiest men in the world.”
The thought made his stomach roll. He hadn’t thought of that either. “You think they were corporate spies?”
“I’m merely going through scenarios, Dare. I was surprised she didn’t stay, and I watched her drive off with Kara, her sister, and some guy.”
Some guy.
“Or she’s a nice woman who wanted a fun night and then her family came and picked her up,” Brian offered. “It’s the more logical reasoning.”
“My laptop is in the safe, too.” She wouldn’t have been able to get to it. Even if she had, it was encrypted. She would have needed way more than thirty minutes to break through his security.
