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“I don’t think I should drink. I had one earlier”
He waved his hand. “Barely touched any in the bar. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But it’s red wine. You’re in France. Have just a little.”
He poured two glasses.
“Well, what the hell. It’s my wedding day.” I laughed.
“That calls for drinks, right?”
6
“There are always reasons to celebrate. Maybe we both can after today.” He handed me the glass, and I took it. Someone else might drink the wine in one big gulp. Zeke hadn’t poured very much. But I wasn’t that type, even if I wanted to be. I took a sip and then set it down. I knew from too much experience that chugging anything would make me sick. I had what a nanny had once called a delicate disposition.
The drama wouldn’t be worth the discomfort.
“You can’t possibly be done eating.”
I smiled. “Thank you. I am.”
He picked up the other half of my sandwich. “Are you sure?”
Zeke held it out to me as though he might feed it to me. That should have been a ridiculous thing. I wasn’t a child who needed to be fed. And yet…I found myself transfixed, staring at his big fingers holding that sandwich out to me like he was gifting me the food. All I had to do was take it.
I could say no. He wouldn’t shove the food in my mouth or choke me. I lifted my gaze to meet his own. There was a question in it. Would I take it from him? That’s what he wanted, to feedme, and just in that moment, although I’d never be able to explain why exactly, I wanted to please him.
I leaned forward just an inch and took a bite from the sandwich he offered me. It was the same savory, amazing taste as before, and yet it was so much more, too. Maybe it was the one sip of the wine. Maybe it was just the few more moments the mustard had been allowed to absorb into the bread. Maybe it was the fact that Zeke held it.
But, fuck, I loved it.
He leaned slightly forward. We hadn’t dropped our gazes since we’d held them. I was chewing, he was watching. It should have been uncomfortable. It wasn’t.
I was so sick ofshould.
“Another.” He lifted his eyebrows slowly. It was like an unasked question. Would I do it? Yes, I would. I took another bite. The slightest smile played on his lips. This was a different one than I’d ever seen him do before.
“Your father is stealing a lot of money from me. As I briefly explained before, half of everything he earns is mine and vice versa. I’ve kept my end of the bargain, even when I would have preferred otherwise. I wouldn’t have made that deal if I’d known what would come. I could have made anyone as rich as I made your father. And someone else would lose and make a fortune over and over again in as brutal a way as your dad did.”
I sipped my wine. No one had ever told me any of this. “He lost his money?”
“Over and over again. Stupid, poorly judged market moves. I used to wonder if he’d been possessed by a three year-old who had never read a market report.” He held up his hand like he was stopping himself from saying anything else. “He could have gotten out of this brutal work marriage anytime he wanted to, just by letting me out of it. But he kept us both stuck, and now he’s hiding money. So he can start up without me. Part of methinks I should just let him. We’re both brutally rich. I don’t need more, and I can finally take my talents and go elsewhere with them. But…” He rubbed his eyes. “Fuck me. I don’t have it in me to lose. Not like that. Not to him. Not while he thinks he got away with something.”
I took a much longer sip of my drink. Zeke held up my sandwich, and I bit into it, chewing and swallowing.
I’d finished the sandwich. I didn’t even realize I had. I’d absolutely eaten the whole thing and hadn’t even realized. I picked up my wine glass. It was like some sort of shield between me and the rest of this conversation I was about to have.
“I’m not sure how I can help you with that. You have the wrong sister in your house. I’m the one who couldn’t find the accounts or anything. I mean, that’s all virtual, right? Can’t you hire someone to hack him or something?”
Even one day earlier, I couldn’t have imagined suggesting that someone do that to my father. Today? I really couldn’t seem to bring myself to care. Did that make me a terrible person? Was that something I should be worried about?
“I have people on that. What I need is for him to slip up. When he gets frazzled, he makes poor decisions. One more bad one, and he’s going to have to go get money from somewhere. When he does that, I will have him.”
I was finally catching on. “Somehow, I’m going to make him make a poor decision? I bet he has already. Hope said she thought he was going to have a heart attack. I think I’ve done what you wanted without even knowing.”
The wine tasted fierce. It burned a little bit and had a kick to it, like it might lash out and destroy the drinker if given the chance. I’d drunk almost all of it now and wouldn’t mind more if he poured it.
Zeke grabbed the bottle and put more in the glass. “You did. You threw him right off his game, and today, our numbers tanked. I lost millions of dollars.”
I was so confused. Why was this good news? “I’m…I’m sorry….”
