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“She know you’re coming?” Tony looks over his shoulder at me as we lean against my car.
“What the fuck do you think, Tony?” I ask, motioning around us. “We’re just hanging back this far for shits and giggles?”
He just laughs and shakes his head. “Smart-ass.”
The funeral procession winds its way through the cemetery until it stops by the mausoleum. “Back in a bit,” I say, patting Tony on the shoulder as I walk the short distance to the very back of the crowd. I make sure to still keep a few yards between me and the others and bow my head as the priest leads us in prayer.
I’ve never been a religious man. I guess that makes sense with my life choices. There’s no denying I’d be first in line at the gates of hell when I died if I believed in it. Still, to make my mother happy, I attend service a few times a year, usually holidays with her, and I still honor the traditions of the church when I’m in the presence of a priest.
The vigil is short. A few prayers are said, a few dedications made, and then slowly, the crowd begins to disperse. Several people hang back to offer hugs and I assume condolences to Emery.
She looks stunning. It’s fucked up to notice it at her husband’s funeral, or should I say the man I murdered. Her hair looks more vibrant, the sun radiating off it as it falls in thick waves over her shoulders. Her figure is hugged by a black dress that hits just above her knee. I’m lost in admiring her when she reaches up to slowly remove her glasses. Her eyes meet mine and I take a step back.
“Mads.” I hear my name in her voice, but I keep walking. “Mads!” She says it louder, anger now present.
“Let’s go.” I motion toward Tony as I approach my car. I get in and shut the door just as Tony hits the gas.
“You running from a woman?” He laughs.
“You’ve seen her pissed off. I’m not about to be on the business end of that.” He says something else that makes himself laugh, but I don’t catch it. My mind is already back on Emery. I hated seeing the sadness in her face at the vigil; that’s why I skipped the service and have made myself nonexistent to her since I last saw her the morning after Dane’s death.
Selfish, considering I created this mess, but it had to be done. I’ve replayed the conversation in my head where I tell her that I did it, but that I did it to save her and she would have to understand, but the fact is, I’m not sure a sane person would understand. Besides, I can’t be the person to tell her that her husband was not only a liar and a fraud, but a psychotic narcissist who wasn’t capable of love. That not only was her entire marriage and life with him a lie, but he also wanted her dead.
I don’t need her to know that he deserved to die. I don’t need people to see him as the bad guy instead of me. I just want her to be happy and safe.
That’s what I keep telling myself as I walk through my house and head straight to the bar in the corner of my living room.
“Five o’clock somewhere,” I mutter, a heavy pour of scotch in my tumbler. My phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s my older brother, Foster.
“Hey, how you holding up?”
“Great.”
“Figured as much. I wanted to let you know Tokyo is a go. I fly out there tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, they’ll fly out here to finalize the deal in a few months.”
“Sounds good. Let’s keep this as private as possible.”
I hang up the phone, finishing my first tumbler of scotch already. My fingers dance around the rim of the glass as I think about the next steps for our deal with Tokyo. I never understood when people say,it isn’t personal, it’s just business.To me, it’s very personal. To Dane, it was very personal. He died having no idea I was the reason his reverse takeover of a public company failed. He didn’t want to put in the time or work to go through the IPO process so his answer was having his private company become public by buying an already public company. It’s a process that works but I’ve seen more issues than success with it. I tried warning him, but he didn’t want to listen, or rather, he was running out of time. He had investors knocking on his door for months and his answer was to go public.
It was a good plan for the shitstorm he got himself into and it probably would have worked… had I not intervened. Just a simple call to Tokyo to let them know that small tidbit of information about his financials and poof, the deal walked off the fucking table.
Sure, you’re supposed to keep factual records, but I had proof that Dane didn’t. The books and records he gave to Tokyo were a fucking joke. He was a grifter, a soulless scam artist who would have taken Emery down with him. So yeah, it wasn’t just business for me; it was goddamn personal.
“Sir, Emery is here.”
“Here? As in downstairs?” I stand and walk toward Tony. “Or here as in on her way up?” He doesn’t have to give me an answer. I hear the gentle tapping of high heels across the marble foyer of my penthouse. “What the fuck do I pay you for?” I mouth to Tony who shrugs and scurries away to avoid the hell storm coming our way. “Coward,” I say after him.
“Mads, I know you’re here.” I hear her voice echo in the foyer. My eyes drift toward the scotch, questioning if I should just drink from the bottle to ease the sting but decide against it.
“I am here.” I walk through the entrance of the foyer toward her. “What can I do for you, Emery?”
She’s changed out of the figure-hugging black dress from earlier and into a silky white dress that hangs seductively over her body. Her long waves are pulled up into a ponytail that accentuates her almost severe jawline. Her shoulders look more delicate than normal; she’s probably lost some weight from the stress of losing Dane.
“You know what you can do for me.” She crosses her arms over her chest, pushing her tits together, making my focus even worse.
“Afraid I don’t.” I lean against the doorway casually, letting my eyes take in her body as I slowly drag them upward from her fuck-me heels.
“Seriously, cut the shit, Mads. Where have you been? Your best friend dies and you disappear? You barely show up to the vigil. You refuse to answer any of my texts or calls. When he was—” She stumbles over her words. “Alive, I couldn’t seem to get rid of you, and now when I’m at my lowest, you’re nowhere to be found?”
