View Park, page 21
“You made an offer to Avery?” Michael asked, but Carter didn’t even look at him. He hated when his brother acted like this.
“Isn’t this good news?” Janet asked. “You wanted the shops, right?”
“That’s right, Dad,” Carter proclaimed. “You said you wanted the shops so I got them for you. Essentials is yours, so what in the hell are you so upset about?”
“Don’t want to get smart with me, boy.” Steven started for Carter, but Janet stood in front of him, placing her hand gently on his chest. She knew how to calm him and he stopped, taking a deep breath.
“At any cost,” Carter said. “Those were your words, right?”
Steven sneered at his indifference. “You’re pretty generous with money that isn’t yours.”
“How much did you give her?” Michael asked, beginning to feel like he wasn’t even in the room.
“I’m a Chase, too.” Carter was too angry to care that he was making it worse. “Isn’t it ‘our’ money?”
Steven wanted to clock him right now, but he wouldn’t. He knew Carter was going through a lot. Still, he wasn’t going to let his pursuit of a piece of ass hurt Chase Beauty’s bottom line any more than it already had.
“What did you pay her?” Michael grabbed Carter by the arm to turn him around, but Carter pushed his hand away.
“Tell him, Carter.” Steven held a smirk on his face. “Michael’s the one who has to answer for it. It’s his budget. Tell him that you paid her more than his last offer.”
Michael couldn’t believe that. Carter wasn’t that stupid. “No way. He wouldn’t do that.”
Seeing the satisfied look on Steven’s face only angered Janet. “Steven, I don’t know what you’re doing, but stop it now.”
“You better answer me,” Michael said. “What did you offer that bitch?”
Carter swung around to face him, feeling the anger inside heat up.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Michael asked.
“This is about more than money now,” Carter answered. “We can’t afford to have any enemies.”
Michael’s laugh was laced with his anger. “Forgive me, I was wrong. If she got you for that much, she’s not the bitch. You are.”
“Don’t call me a bitch.” Carter spoke just above a whisper, his hands clenched into fists.
Michael knew how much Carter hated being called that. It was the price you paid for pissing off the person who knew all your buttons. He leaned back against the table, folding his arms across his chest and widened his smile.
He had Carter’s full attention as he slowly mouthed the word again. “Bitch.”
Steven didn’t need this pressure from Janet right now. “This is business, Janet. Why don’t you just—”
Janet screamed as Carter slammed into Michael, pushing the table back about five feet. The china table setting went everywhere. Fists were flying. Michael kicked Carter away, hard enough to push him back into the vanity. Glass shattered and more china fell all over the place as Steven grabbed Janet out of the way.
“Stop it!” Janet screamed, but it was no use.
As soon as Michael was up, Carter came rushing back at him and slammed him against the wall. Michael aimed for Carter’s chest, but Carter dipped and the swing slipped over his shoulder. A hard blow to the stomach had Michael doubling over, evading the painting that fell off the wall, just missing Carter.
Janet couldn’t take it anymore. “Steven, please.”
When she looked at her husband, Janet was disgusted at what she was seeing. Steven was just watching them. Not like he was enjoying it, but just letting it happen as if it was supposed to. It was some testosterone insanity she would never understand and wouldn’t tolerate a second longer.
“Steven!” She grabbed his arm, jerking his attention to her. “Stop them, now!”
Steven watched as Michael hit Carter in his side. Carter groaned but didn’t miss a step as he kicked Michael in the thigh, sending Michael to the floor.
“Enough!”
Both men stopped, looking at their father. Carter backed away from Michael, who was still on the floor.
“Are you both insane?” Janet asked. “I didn’t raise you to act like animals. Look at this place, it’s a mess.”
“It’s okay, Janet,” Steven said. “I’ll get Maya to take care of it.”
“Is Maya going to take care of this family?” Janet came face-to-face with her husband, not understanding why he played these games with his sons; with her sons. “Because it’s a mess too! That’s not her responsibility is it, Steven? It’s your family, so I suggest you figure out how to fix it now!”
He reached for her, but she pulled her hand away, storming out of the room. He hated upsetting her like this, but she never understood the dynamics of his relationship with his sons and theirs with each other. At least, not in the way he did.
“If you’re done playing apes in the jungle,” he said, “why don’t you explain to me what you’re both going to do about this offer?”
“I’m not doing anything,” Carter said. “You want to change it, you do it. I’m out of here.”
Steven stood in place, blocking Carter’s way out of the dining room. He looked into the younger man’s eyes, knowing that Carter wanted nothing more than to push him aside and leave, but he would never do it. As strong as Carter was and as angry as he felt, Steven knew he knew who his father was. He would stand there forever if he needed to teach him that lesson.
Carter wanted to strangle this man standing in front of him. This was another one of his games and although Carter had enough fight in him to last a while, he knew Steven wasn’t his problem. It was Avery and the charges against him putting him on edge. So he stepped aside, like he always had and feared he probably always would and left the room.
Steven looked down at his remaining son who was laughing while wiping a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth. “Get off that floor, boy.” Michael stood up, feeling Carter’s hits hard. His father was staring at him like he wanted a piece of him, too. “What?”
“Why do you always do this?” Steven asked.
“Do what?”
“Goad him into a fight when you know he’s gonna kick your ass. He always wins, so why do you do it?”
“Because one of these days,” Michael said, straightening up, “I’m gonna win.”
Michael saw a hint of pride in his father’s slow-forming smile, knowing that was what he was expected to say. That smile meant the world to him, but as soon as he smiled back, Steven’s face went flat.
“Well, that certainly wasn’t today, was it?” Steven met his son’s frown with a hard pat on his shoulder before turning and walking away. Janet had to understand, he knew what he was doing.
Besides, she wanted to decorate the room anyway.
“Don’t move,” Leigh whispered as her fingernails dug into Richard’s back.
“What about now?” he asked after a while with a cocky grin on his face.
She sighed, her entire body rushing with liquid heat, before pushing him up. “Are you making fun of me?”
“I’m not. I would never make fun of multiple orgasms.”
“Number ten on the list of one thousand reasons it’s so much better to be a woman than to be a man.”
He rolled over, lying beside her. “The rest of the equipment will be in tomorrow. We should all go out and celebrate.”
Richard took her away from her worries, but reality was always waiting for her when she came back. “Richard, you know that I love you.”
She felt his body stiffen in response to her words. This wasn’t going to go well even though she hadn’t done anything but rehearse what she would say to him since promising her mother this past Sunday.
“What is this about, Leigh?”
“I’m asking you a question,” she said. “You know that I—”
“Just come out with it.” He sat up.
“I can’t keep my promise to you,” she said. “About Leo.”
“Dammit, Leigh.” Richard got up from the bed and began putting his clothes back on. “You said you would end it with him.”
“I know I did,” she pleaded, “but you should have seen my mother on Sunday. She was—”
“You’ve known this since Sunday? How many times have we been together since then?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you. This is so hard on everybody.”
“Not too hard to have sex with me first, huh?” Leaning over his dresser, he used his arms to sweep everything off the top and let out a loud groan. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”
Leigh was horrified that he could think she would use sex to soften him, but she was more horrified by the fact that it might be true. “Nothing has changed about the way I feel about you. Remember what you told me last week?”
“Someone had just tried to kill your sister,” he said. “You probably used that too, right? You knew I couldn’t turn you away then.”
“Stop it!”
Anger and resentment showed in his expression, his posture, his voice. “You let your mother guilt you into being her little puppet no matter who else pays for it.”
“The clinic is going to open in a couple of weeks,” she pointed out. “Just until then.”
“Do you actually think there’s a time limit on my pride?”
“You know what’s going on with my family. I—”
Richard held up his hands to stop her. “I don’t want to hear it, Leigh. No matter what you say or do, the fact is you’re going to pick pleasing your mother before everyone and everything else; including yourself.”
She could never explain to him how thin the line on her mother’s sanity was. She could never explain to him how this need to please her mother had been driving her for her entire life.
“Just leave.” He turned his back to her.
“Richard, please.” Leigh rushed to him, grabbing at his arm, but he wouldn’t turn around. “I promise you—”
He pulled away from her. “You can’t make me any promises. I know you think what you’re trying to do is right, but I can’t be a part of it.”
“But you are a part of it,” she said. “You’re a part of everything, because I love you and you love me.”
“I’m taking a shower,” he said, without looking at her. “I don’t want you here when I get out.”
Left alone, Leigh felt humiliated and rejected, standing in the middle of his bedroom naked in more ways than one. How could something so good, so well intentioned, turn into such a disaster?
Charlie didn’t want to believe it when someone told him that Sean was working at his desk, but there he was. Sean was supposed to be on two weeks’ unpaid suspension after taking a shot at Rudio, which was only the beginning of his problems. He hadn’t taken well to Charlie’s suggestion he take this time to reflect and put his priorities in order. He wasn’t getting through to Sean. No one was and it was all because of that woman. A woman who slept with married congressmen.
He thought of the famous saying and found it almost biblical in its truth. It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son and another woman only twenty minutes to make a fool of him.
“What are you doing here, son?”
Sean didn’t turn around. “Don’t call me that.”
“There’s nobody around.” Charlie wondered if there was more he needed to do. There was a line you had to draw as a parent when your children became adults. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I’m not working,” Sean said. “Just doing some research. Can you please back off?”
Charlie grabbed him by the shoulder, swinging him around in the swivel chair. “You’ve gone too far with this woman.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You’ve made it everyone’s business, Sean. You’ve made the detective squad look bad and you’ve jeopardized the case against Rudio.”
“What case?” he asked. “Nothing is sticking. Davis isn’t doing anything and Haley is stuck in God knows where.”
“Why would you choose to get involved with…?”
“Don’t start with me about that wicked woman seducing me blindly.” He wasn’t the fool that everyone seemed to suddenly think he had become.
“That woman is no good. Look at what she’s made you do already. Makes me doubt that attacking Rudio is the first time you’ve broken the rules for her. The fact that you’re involved with her was the first.”
Sean didn’t care about the rules, values, and morals compromised in the quest for Haley. She had become some kind of an obsession for him over the last week. He was a young man, which meant he was basically always horny, but his desire to get his hands on that woman was taking it to a different level.
“If you don’t get out of here right now, I’m going to report you and you’ll get suspended for a lot longer than two weeks.”
Sean looked up at his father, his eyes wide in disbelief. He could see that man meant it and he couldn’t understand why he was turning on him. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“To help you get perspective,” Charlie answered, “I’ll do whatever I have to.”
“Fine.” Sean grabbed his keys, kicking his chair out of the way. He wasn’t there to do research anyway and with the room as empty as it ever would be, it was time to do what he’d really come here for.
The detective’s squad room was at shift change and most of them were at the lockers or downstairs. He had been keeping an eye on Davis for a few days now and he had to give it to him. Davis was a good detective when it came to protecting his information. He locked everything up even if he was just gone for a few minutes, with the exception of a bathroom trip.
Sean knew Rudio’s file was the blue one, major case squad file. He did a scan of the room. No one was paying attention when he slid the file off the table. Sliding it in front of his own file, he stood against the wall speed reading. He caught the words that mattered right away. High Security…Penthouse…Century City. The name of the hotel wasn’t listed, but Sean knew exactly where she was.
The Century City Villa. He had replaced the file and slipped out of the squad room in less than two minutes and not at one moment did he feel an ounce of guilt.
Carter was having one of those experiences when he felt like he was watching his life from outside his own body, trying to find perspective. Maybe it was the seven hundred dollar bottle of cognac he was finishing off, but he’d been feeling it all day. Looking over the balcony of his high-rise, he watched the sun set and wondered why his cab was taking so long. There was hardly any daylight now that November had crept up on him. He wondered how things might be now if he’d never walked into Essentials in September. He didn’t have time to think about the past; he had a flight to catch and it was all about the future.
Carter could tell someone had turned on the light in his living room because it lit up the balcony, disturbing his peace. He took one final sip of the cognac, hearing footsteps behind him. He stepped off the balcony and headed toward the bar.
“What are you doing here?”
Laid out on the sofa, Michael grabbed the remote. “Since when do I need a reason to come by here?”
“I’m on my way out,” Carter said. “You want a drink?”
He looked up at the cognac in Carter’s hand. “How much you pay for that bottle?”
“Seven.” Carter poured a glass for him, walking over to the sofa.
Michael sat up and Carter handed him the drink before sitting down.
Michael sniffed the glass; only the best. “I could get you that bottle for four hundred, you know that?”
“That’s because it would be stolen,” Carter replied. “You know that?”
Michael shook his head. “What is it, man? Why do you always worry about that shit? You’re the consumer. It’s not on you where it comes from.”
They both looked at each other, smiling. That was all there ever was to it. They fought all the time, but in the end it never mattered. They hadn’t talked since Carter had walked out of the house on Monday, and for both of them that hurt more than any blow from a fist.
“Thanks,” Carter said. “I’ll stick with my way.”
“You’re making a mistake, but that only figures. You’re making a lot of mistakes lately, Carter.”
“Dad must have sent you.”
“Dad doesn’t care about that Avery thing anymore.”
That wasn’t true, but Michael knew there was nothing they could do about the contract. Carter had handed Avery the check Monday morning and she cashed it on Tuesday. They had the twenty shops and would be able to launch the line at the first of the year. Michael wasn’t so sure about his promotion, but he was still hopeful. He worried about what Kimberly would do if it didn’t happen.
“Then what are you talking about?” Carter asked.
“I’m talking about that.” Michael pointed to the suitcase on the floor in the hallway.
“Avery is in Vegas.” Carter looked at his watch again.
“You finally tracked her down?” Michael asked, not at all clear what Carter was doing. “Mom told me you were looking for her.”
“I hired someone.” Carter was ashamed of everything he’d done, but he knew Michael wouldn’t tell anyone. “She’s staying at the Bellagio.”
“How do you know she’s not with her sales boy?”
“She’s not.” Carter didn’t know who she might be with but he had an idea what she was doing. She was looking for a sign and he was afraid she was looking in the wrong place.
“You’re not supposed to leave L.A. You were arrested for attempted murder, remember?”
“Since when have you given a damn about rules?”
Michael placed his glass on the granite coffee table. “I’m worried about you, Carter.”
Carter stood up, patting Michael on the head. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
“That woman isn’t right for you. You’re making a mistake.”
“That’s funny you should say that,” Carter replied, “because I remember about six years ago someone showed up on my doorstep to tell me he was marrying a woman he’d gotten pregnant on a one-night stand.”
