Alexander (17 page)

~Chapter
17~

Alex woke alone in his bed. Pulling the clock next to his bed closer to him, he was surprised to see it was nearly nine o’clock. He hadn’t slept that late in years. Getting up, he headed for the shower.

His clothes were folded nearly in the chair by the fireplace, he noticed. Even his shoes were straightened up. Alex smiled when he thought of Heather’s son being just as compulsively neat. He was using the toilet when he realized something else.

The condom was broken.

Grabbing the counter for support, he closed his eyes against the implication of his find. He’d been inside of her, came inside of her naked, bare and without protection.

“
Mother fuck,” he murmured. He wondered if she knew, if she had any idea when she’d left his bed. He doubted it, but still, it grated on his nerves and mind.

In his heart, he knew she didn’t plan this. In his heart, he knew there wasn’t any way for her to have been able to tear the condom, but his mind was fertile with deceit and betrayal. He tore off the broken latex and actually toyed with the idea of confronting her with it when his cell phone rang.

“
You know, son, when we go shopping together it usually means we’re in the same place at the same time when it happens. Usually, but I could be wrong.”

“
Shit, Dad, I forgot. I’m getting in the shower now. I’ll be there in twenty minutes tops.” He tossed the condom in the trash and turned on the shower.

He was jerking on fresh jeans when he saw the envelope on his dresser. She’d brought up something after she’d left his bed. He had no idea why that pissed him off more, but he was sort of glad there was no one in the kitchen when he got down there. But he did want to speak to her. After he made love to her again…provided he didn’t strangle her first. He was nearly to the mall when his phone rang again. This time, it was Caroline.

“
The new pans came this morning. Did you know there are different types of pans for different kinds of ovens?” She laughed. “Seems I have a lot to learn about my own shop.”

“
I suppose, like you, I thought they were all the same. You slap some dough on them and pop them in the oven. I take it they’re not.” He parked his car next to his dad’s and rubbed his suddenly aching head.

“
Hummm, apparently not. Heather said that we need—”

“
Heather? Heather is there? Now? Why?” He took a deep breath when he heard the tone of his own voice. “Do you think I could speak to her, please?”

There was a shuffle of movement, a voice muffled. He waited for what seemed an eternity then he heard her breathing. His heart picked up the pace as he thought about her.

“
Hello,” she answered.

Alex felt his cock harden at the sound. He was wondering what the hell was wrong with him when he spoke again. “I didn’t know you’d been released to return to work. When did that happen and why wasn’t I informed?” Closing his eyes, he tried to regain control of his temper before he pissed her off. Too late, he realized when she snapped back at him.

“
Listen here, you arrogant, one-celled microscopic organism. I do not answer to you. I don’t answer to anyone as a matter of fact. I sleep with you. I fuck you. Period. And as soon as I can arrange it, I’m not even going to do that. Of all the…I’m hanging up now before I say something…Oh you make me so mad.” Then the phone went dead.

Alex had to set the phone down gently or risk shattering it and his window. When he felt he had a semi better hold on his anger, he picked up his phone and got out of his car. His dad was waiting in the food court.

“
So…do you want to talk about it or stew on it some more first?” Alex looked at his dad, confused. “We’ve been shopping for the past hour and all you’ve done is check your phone and mutter about women and sex. Which I might point out to you I wouldn’t repeat any of in front of your sister or your mother. Either one of them will take exception to it.”

Alex looked at his watch. Christ, he’d been here an hour and ten minutes. The woman was driving his insane. He started to say something to his dad and decided not to.

“
I don’t want to talk about it. I need someone to help me with a few accounts—do you know she had the nerve to call me an amoeba?” Alex glared at his dad when he burst out laughing. “I was just asking if…I don’t want to talk about her.”

Alex picked up a mixer and wondered if Heather would like it. She loved to cook. The dinner she’d made for them all last night had been wonderful. Of course he wasn’t sure he’d actually been supposed to be invited. Jack had insisted and he had joined them.

“
What kind of accounts are we talking? Corporate or domestic? It’ll make a difference on who I ask to help you out. I take it this is about Brick’s murder.”

Alex nodded at his dad and picked up a food processor. “Mostly corporate, but one domestic. All of them moneyed. There are—she went to work today. All I did was ask her if she was cleared. She seems to take exception to every little thing I say to her.” He slammed the food processor down.

“
Hummm and what did she say to your asking? I’m just thinking, just thinking mind you, that if you snarled at her like you just did then she might have pointed out you’re sleeping with her and nothing more.”

Alex answered before thinking. “That’s just what she said. Then she hung up on me.”

His dad’s grin made him flush. Alex couldn’t believe what he’d just admitted. He picked up the first item he touched to keep himself from looking at him. He was a grown man, almost thirty-one years old, and he had just embarrassed himself like he was ten again.

“
She’s a lovely girl and has had a tragically hard time since her mother threw her out.”

Alex bobbled the box. “Threw her out? No. Mrs. Laird said…how did you hear she’d been thrown out?”

His dad picked up a platter and inspected it as if he was going to buy stock in the company. By the time he answered, Alex was ready to brain him with it.

“
Oh she and Wills had a long talk night before last. She told Wills about the rape on her birthday and everything.”

The box bobbled again, this time nearly hitting the floor. If not for his dad grabbing it up, it would have broken that and several others as well. Alex simply started at his dad.

“
Rape?” He realized he’d been a little loud when several people looked his way. He lowered his voice. “Rape? No, no, no. She was…damn it, why didn’t she tell me? I have a right to know she was raped. Was it Baxter? I’m going to kill the bastard.”

His dad picked up the food processor Alex had sat down and was reading the front of the box. Alex was reasonably sure he’d go to prison for murder if his dad didn’t stop shopping and talk to him.

“
I’m going to buy this for Heather for Christmas. I believe she’ll like it, don’t you think? And yes, it was Baxter. But you don’t have to worry about killing him, he’s dead. Killed in prison when Jack was a year old.”

Alex took the box from his dad. “No you won’t be buying my Heather this. Tell me what she told Wills. And is Jack really his?”

His dad took the gift back. “Yes, Jack is his child. Thank God he had nothing more to do with the boy other than to sire him. He might not have been smart enough to attend your alma mater. Kid’s a freshman at ten, do you believe it? I can’t wait to meet him. Anyway, Wills said that Heather’s mother kicked her out at fifteen. I can’t imagine your mom or me doing such a horrific thing, can you? Poor girl.”

Alex hadn’t known, hadn’t even tried to know. And instead of asking Heather her side of the story, he’d simply went with the one her mother had told him.

“
I’m a fool. And a jackass. I don’t deserve her.”

Edgar shifted the box in his arms. “Do you want her, son?”

Did he? He’d never been so unsure of something in his entire life. Not even his first wife had he felt like this. But he did know one thing, he needed to talk to her and very soon.

They did some more shopping while they talked about the real reason for them being there. His dad was going to give someone he knew the information about the accounts and see what he could do about them. Alex said he was going to keep it close to the vest and not to talk to Mik if he could help it.

His dad got Heather the food processor and Alex bought her mixer and all the attachments that went with it. All he could think about on his way home was now where was she going to use it?

~~~

Mik took his plane to Ohio. He’d been hearing from the idiots almost daily and he wasn’t happy with the way things were going. Alexander had visited the widow in the hospital twice, which might not have concerned him except for the fact that she had disappeared soon after. Idiot One had said he’d gone to the hospital to get rid of her when he’d been informed by the nurse on duty she’d been moved.

“
And there ain’t no budging her on more information either. She was scary.” Mik wanted to point out that he carried a gun, which by all accounts should have made him scarier, but didn’t. The headache forming behind his eyes was enough to deal with for the moment.

Alexander had also gone to the offices. That in and of itself should have been fine too, but he’d gone to a safe Mik didn’t know anything about. That pissed him off more because Brick, who he was supposed to trust, hadn’t told him about it. Mik wanted to dig him up and shoot him all over again. Mik had gone to a great deal of expense bugging and putting in cameras to have something like that go unnoticed.

He just knew the cock sucker wasn’t to be trusted. Now he had to figure out what, if anything, Brick had left his former partner. He didn’t like that he had been fooled. Nope, not one bit.

He had the driver take him to the best hotel then laughed out loud when he pulled up in front of the James Suites. Wouldn’t do to have his prey find out he was in town before he was ready so he pulled out another ID and checked in. He’d forgotten it was Thanksgiving the day after tomorrow and was glad he’d made a few calls before coming here.

Mik hated that he couldn’t find fault with the service thus far. And it pissed him off more that he couldn’t find anything wrong with his room. But it was early yet so he’d bide his time. When the porter left without a tip, Mik got a charge out of the man’s obvious disappointment.

Renting a car was easy enough. He’d had to lighten his cash a bit to get it, but he wasn’t out anything. The hundreds were counterfeit and the card he’d used belonged to the man’s house he was living in. Smiling for the first time in months, Mik drove to Alexander’s house where the gates were left wide open for him.

Construction workers were everywhere. It seemed the place was overrun with them. Mik had told several of the men that he’d encountered that he was there to inspect permits. He’d been shown all the work they’d been doing and each permit to do the work. He enjoyed the ruse so much he nearly missed one of the workers comment on how Mr. James wouldn’t be retuning until Sunday evening.

He drove back the hotel mad. The nerve of the bastard, Mik thought. Didn’t he have better things to do at home? Mik couldn’t find out where he’d gone no matter how much he’d tried. Stone Construction was very loyal to their clients—fucking assholes.

Prepared to wait him out, Mik found himself a nice place to have dinner and proceeded to make plans. As the night grew shorter, so did his temper and patience. By ten o’clock, Mik was ready to deal with Alexander on Mik’s terms and damn the man for fucking things up for him.

~Chapter
18~

Victoria Laird looked at the letter from her father again. He’d disowned her. And while that didn’t bother her as much as it did him, the man was going to make it public and that just wouldn’t do.

Victoria felt as if enough of her little issues had been made public, thank you very much, and she certainly didn’t want this little tid-bit to be out there as well. She shuddered when she thought about how she’d been treated in the public eye recently. Why should anyone care how her workers were treated? They were paid, were they not? If people would just leave her alone and do things the way she wanted them done, there would be no more problems.

First there had been the little incident with her first husband. Well, she’d never actually been married to David Wilson, but anyone who could remember that had been dealt with. Of course her parents, now just her father, didn’t know she hadn’t been, but that was just fine too. But when she’d found out she’d been knocked up by him after she’d thrown him out…well, she certainly wasn’t going to ask him to come back. Besides, he wasn’t worthy husband material anyway.

Then there had been Heather Colleen. She’d been a beautiful child, so malleable and easy to control and mold into the perfect daughter. Then she’d had to ruin it all by saying Steven had raped her. Victoria looked at the letter on her desk blotter. And now this.

Victoria had seen the way Steven had looked and watched her daughter. She’d noticed that he’d touch her in ways that made her daughter cringe. Even after Heather Colleen had come to Victoria, she’d done nothing about it except not allow him to spank her any more. Victoria chose, like she did all things she didn’t want to deal with, or didn’t like, to ignore it. Then when Heather Colleen had bought the lock, Victoria thought the matter was solved. And it cost her nothing.

Victoria thought back to the day she’d come home to find Heather Colleen’s door off the hinges. She’d been furious with her daughter thinking she’d locked herself out of her room and had had to break down the door to get in. But as she entered the hall outside the bedroom, Victoria had been shocked to silence by what she’d seen.