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Cole wisely let it go. “How much does he know?”
“I told him we were estranged.” I tossed my hand in the air, running off the list of excuses I’d given Daniel on the fly. “Separated by a misunderstanding, the severing of family ties, and building our careers on opposing sides of the map.” I worked my jaw. “I gave up your name in a moment of weakness.” A moment when I thought I’d lose Daniel due to my lies and omissions.
“He was supposed to respect my decision to make amends with you on my own terms.” Daniel had obviously assumed that day would never come, and that my dejection would always be the third wheel in our relationship, and so decided to take matters into his own hands.I should love him more for it.“Wait, what didyoutell him?” Had our stories been conflicting? Panic surged, coating and burning the back of my throat.
“I told him I’d show up, but that our past history would have to be explained by you.”
My shoulders loosened, and I turned to the view of the city again, giving him my profile as he leaned a hip against the ledge.
I braved another glance at him after a minute of tense silence, noting, again, how otherworldly well-bred he appeared. But Cole was an animal with a suit as his cage, and no forged piece of jewelry on my hand or legal document binding me to Daniel would keep him from what he wanted, if what he wanted was me. I couldn’t afford to forget that. I couldn’t afford to forget we were one and the same.
“My therapist thinks us being friends is a great idea,” he said half-smiling, the stitching of his tailored suit straining as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. The pose added a bit of youthfulness to his stern exterior. To others he’d seem almost human, less intimidating. The stance reminded me of the one he’d take whenever I’d call him my Coley-bear. Only thing missing was the pout of his full lips.
My manic laughter rumbled through me. “Does she happen to know about the bodies we left in our wake? And not just the dead and buried one, because Franklin was added to the pile of the deceased the moment my mother took her last breath.” According to the local papers and news outlets, Selene Kincaid had died from a failing heart. Cole and I knew the truth, though. She’d died from a broken one.
The mention of his father decimated the tiny speck of levity his comment had won him, proving we were in over our heads by being this close to each other. We needed mountains, oceans, fucking worlds between us.
“We can’t see each other again. You leave now, and we avoid each other at all costs,” I said anxiously. Shouldn’t have been too hard. New York was a big city. And Cole and I didn’t run in the same types of circles. He also wasn’t the kind of man you’d bump into on the subway or out running his own errands.
“Didn’t Daniel tell you?” he asked, genuinely taken aback. “Nexcom has retained Parker & Mitchell’s services. The contract was signed this morning. It’s tentative on Daniel sealing an important deal for us. One we haven’t been able to effectively negotiate with prior counsel. One he promised he could make happen. We agreed to bring them in-house, if so.”
Parker & Mitchell was the high-profile law firm Daniel worked for. Hiring them out was one thing, bringing them in-house meant they couldn’t take on other clients. They’d take up office space with Nexcom. Cole would be their sole interest. “You can’t possibly need their whole legal team under your roof,” I said, flustered. Daniel’s firm was one of the largest in the city. I had no doubt Nexcom needed a whole roster of attorneys who could and would provide the business with their undivided attention, but Cole didn’t need them all.
“For now we only need one, but if Daniel makes this deal happen that will change. He’ll then have the option to take lead on our account,” Cole said, cutting down my rising hope that maybe after this dealhad been buttoned up,Daniel would be cut loose. That someone else would be chosen from the firm’s attorney pool to live and breathe all things Nexcom. But if the choice to stay on and oversee the team handling Nexcom’s affairs would be up to Daniel, I knew what he’d be making.
The rest of Cole’s words filtered into my brain through a vacuum as I turned to the party heating up through the glass doors behind us. I spotted Daniel through the viper’s nest of “friends” and “colleagues” surrounding him in a tight circle, scenting his new upward trajectory.
With a look of jubilee, he raised his flute to the room in the gesture of a toast. It was then I realized the ostentatious party wasn’t just for me.
If it was ever for me at all.
Jasper
A RAGE HOTTERthan lava erupted inside me as I stormed into the living room, aggressively rolling up my sleeves on my way over to the bar.
“I didn’t want the good news to overshadow your night,” Daniel said, hot on my trail but smart enough to maintain a healthy distance.
“Good news?Good news?” I scoffed, pouring myself a hefty drink before knocking it back. “You call being betrayed good news?”
“It all happened quickly,” he proceeded to explain in that pompous way of his, like if I only listened for a moment, I’d see reason. It was a defense mechanism. One I wouldn’t indulge him in. Not tonight. “I thought I’d leave a message with his assistant, and at best I’d get a return call or email from her stating he’d graciously declined my invite. You made it seem as if things were left irrevocable between you two. But I had to try. For you I had to try.”
I guzzled my second drink as he continued, the brown liquor scorching everything in its path on the way down. I aimed to be numb before the completion of his excuse.
“I got a call from him instead, and he agreed to attend the party.”
“Attend? You mean ambush.”
“What do you want from me, Jasper?”
“I want you to stop meddling in my life!”
“Meddling?”His head snapped back. “Is that what you call wanting to get to know my husband?”
“You know me,” I answered weakly, mulling over the time-saving advantages of drinking straight from the decanter.
“Do I? I learned more about you by Googling your long-lost brother—”
“Stop calling him that—”
