Love Me: The Complete Series (58 page)

Lynn’s voice took on a steely tone. “David’s dad died in Korea. His mom struggled badly to raise four boys and he’s always had a chip on his shoulder as a result. There had to be a connection. He was bitter. It was odd that he clung to something for so long. Said his dad had died a hero—but someone else took all the glory.”

Jackson and Amanda spoke in unison. “Jacob Rickert?”

Jackson’s mother shook her head. “I don’t know. He has a picture in his office that was taken about a month before his dad died. It showed four of them. He said only one came out alive.”

Jackson sighed. “I thought I understood but now I’m lost. Why would this have anything to do with David’s dad? It’s business, a real-estate deal. That has nothing to do with family.”

Amanda scrunched her nose. “That land belongs to the man whom he believes killed his father. You’re doing a deal with them. People will do just about anything for family.”

“That’s a stretch. The only reason he’d want to do that deal would be if he was trying to exact some sick sort of revenge. It doesn’t make sense. Besides, if that’s what he wanted, he could just go out to Rickert’s cabin and wreak havoc in person.”

Lynn gasped. “What cabin?”

Jackson stopped moving. “You didn’t know? He’s living on the property with Caroline’s dad. The guy carries a shotgun and runs off anyone that comes around.”

Lynn was still clueless. “Who’s Caroline?”

Out of the corner of Amanda’s eye, she noticed Robert moving his hands in agitation. How awful to want to speak but your body betrays you such that words can’t be understood. “I think your dad wants to tell you something.”

Robert mumbled something to Lynn and she nodded. “We need to go to the office. All of us.”

Family is all that counts
. Those were David’s words. Amanda realized that in all the months of working together, she’d never learned a thing about him—nothing about his family. Nor about him.

She’d never asked. How self-involved was that?

It took an agonizing half hour or more to get Robert cleaned, dressed, and into the car. Impatient as Amanda was, she knew the time was well spent.

The walker would be an impediment as would the speech issue but she glanced at the elder Holstenar and knew he’d handle things well. This was what he did best. She may have never spent much time around him but she’d observed a few of his speeches at company functions. Enough to know she was about to see an event that she’d never forget.

Traffic was almost as slow as Robert’s walker but once at the office, they all piled out. Jackson retrieved the walker from the trunk and lifted his dad to a stand. They both stared at each other for a brief second and nodded.

Lynn had filled them in briefly in the car but Amanda was still confused. She cast a glance toward Jackson who returned her gaze. His eyes still held a small cloud of confusion as well. Good to know she wasn’t the only lost one.

Amanda was right about Mr. Holstenar. He strode into the lobby of their building with as much panache as possible. Hard to do with a walker that had tennis balls on the feet but somehow he managed. He sagged in the elevator but only briefly—once they reached the right floor, the man led the entire group to an office at the end of the hall.

Jackson rushed to clear the desk and hold the chair for his dad. So this was the executive office of the company president. Fifteen-foot ceilings, hardwood beams, floor-to-ceiling glass. She turned toward the window—and the most amazing view of downtown imaginable.

A strange beep brought her back to the new world. She hadn’t heard that sound in a while—almost two years. They still used an older-style pbx system for their phones. “Glad to have you back, Mr. Holstenar,” a voice greeted. “How can I help you?”

Jackson lifted a brow as if waiting for his dad to respond. The elder Holstenar pointed to his son and Jackson responded. “Please find David and send him into my office as soon as possible. Thank you.”

“Yes, sir.”

It took thirty-four minutes for David to slink through the doors of the Holstenar’s executive office. Amanda hid her smug feeling of satisfaction that he was finally about to pay for firing her—or “encouraging her to leave”—and misleading them all. Sure, it was mean to wish him ill but hey, what he had done was mean too.

In the meantime, Lynn called security and asked for something to be retrieved from the company vault. While they waited, Amanda’s phone buzzed a message. She glanced at the screen, then looked up. Jackson?

This bastard’s going down.

“Helloooo, David.” Lynn Holstenar spoke first. Amanda suspected she chose to do so for multiple reasons. Because she seemed a tad on the controlling side
and
she wanted him to believe her husband fully recovered. That would put the fear of God in David, right?

David drew a long sip of coffee from the Starbucks cup in his hand. He’d stopped for coffee on the way? Not good. He kicked one foot up on their expensive-looking coffee table, then crossed it with the other.

Amanda bugged her eyes. “Hey. Have some manners.”

David snapped his eyes her way, and narrowed them to slits. “What are you doing here?”

Jackson stepped forward and shoved David’s feet to the floor. “She’s with me.”

David showed a split-second flash of panic but recovered quickly. Sliding up tall, he smiled and nodded at Robert. “Good to see you, sir. You look well.”

Robert nodded and smiled but Lynn spoke. “Well enough to give you what’s needed. Or required. David, it has come to our attention that you took on a contract last year that had been assigned to Amanda before she hastily left our company. This particular contract was to build a warehouse/production facility for BookMyss.”

“Yes, that’s correct. We split up the cases among the remaining staff and I ended up with that one.”

Lynn pulled a pair of abalone-rimmed glasses from her handbag and perused a stack of paper in her lap. “How convenient. Tell me, didn’t you think that would be considered a conflict of interest?”

David’s eyes widened. Amanda forced her face somber but inwardly she was clapping.
Go get the asshole, Lynn.
“Why would I think that?”

“Because your mother has a vested interest in the company that has been contracted for the work. In fact, that company has already submitted three invoices and been paid for preliminary groundwork. Haven’t they?”

David’s mouth popped open. He darted a glance between Jackson’s parents then to Amanda and Jackson. “I wasn’t aware, I—”

Lynn tossed the stack of paper on Robert’s desk and it slid a few inches on the shiny wood surface. “You seriously want us to believe that? Look, David, we already
knew
about your mother. We also knew about your father. Do you really think we wouldn’t check these things out before we started working on a new project that has this sort of financial impact on our company? We can’t afford to deal with deadbeats.”

David readjusted in his chair then raised his chin. “Seems to me you can’t afford
not
to. I’ve seen your financials for the past few years. You need this deal. Desperately.”

Amanda darted a look at Jackson but he stayed focused on David. Was their company in trouble? Had she judged right in the beginning? It
was
about money?

Lynn sighed. “David, why do you think we hired you years ago?”

David blinked. “Because I’m good at what I do. I have a long-standing—”

Lynn held up a hand to silence him. “We hired you because we know who you are—who your parents are. Your father served bravely with a friend of ours. He was an honorable man and had it not been for his efforts, our friend would not have made it home.”

That got his attention. David leaned forward. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“We promised we wouldn’t. Your mother said you had a chip on your shoulder the size of Mount Everest. She said if we gave you enough time, you’d come around. That you’d eventually see us as friends and perhaps even see our friend as family.”

Amanda watched as a confused look slid across his features. “What friend would that be?”

Lynn tapped the pages. “The very friend that you’re trying to kick off his land in order to make your mother a rich woman.”

David’s features stilled, except for his eyes. He blinked, Amanda could see the glassy look of his eyes. Was he close to tears? No way. “My mother has worked her ass off to take care of us without Dad around to help. She deserves better. She deserves to retire like all the other women and men her age. She works at BookMyss as a damn cleaning lady during the day and at the hospital nights. That’s no place for a woman that old. The only good thing is the fact she was smart enough to buy into their stock.”

Amanda gained a whole new level of respect for Lynn Holstenar when she rose from beside her husband’s desk and grasped David’s shoulder. “Do you really think she wants to be at home doing crossword puzzles and watching soap operas? She loves helping people, and you might want a better life for her, but I’d bet my socks she’d tell you to piss off.”

David looked at Lynn’s feet, then shot her a look.

Lynn huffed. “Okay, I’m not wearing socks so that was a bad metaphor but you know what I mean. The only person who’s unhappy with our current situation is, well, you.”

A tiny droplet ran down his cheek. “The one thing I remember about my dad before he left was what he said to my brothers and me. ‘Family is everything. Take care of your mom, boys.’ I was just—”

Lynn nodded. “We know. That’s why we’re going to go against your mother’s request to keep this to ourselves and show you something that was found during the archeological study.”

David swiped his cheek and stared. “There was really something there? I thought that was all just a ruse to stall the project.”

Lynn laughed. “Well, you’re right about that. What we found wasn’t any big thousand-year-old Indian burial ground or something equally magnificent. Instead, we found things left behind by a soldier who honored the men he’d served with. According to his son, these men asked to be buried by the river and just happened to know someone who could get the job done.”

Lynn hit a button on the phone. “Bring those boxes in now, please.”

The door burst open and a squeaky dolly rolled forward with two aluminum boxes. There was a man behind pushing, but he was barely visible.

David ran a hand across his face. “What’s that?”

Amanda wanted to ask the same question but stayed silent. She realized she wasn’t even supposed to
be
here, but since she was a witness, she’d stay in the background.

Lynn snapped some latches on the top box. “This, David, is your past. Your father’s belongings. You see, once we located Jacob Rickert, we also found these. They had been sent back with him to disperse to the families. Unfortunately that never happened. I’m not sure why.”

David’s voice was deadpan. “We moved a lot—it’s hard to find a place for rent that’s cheap and can handle four boys.”

Lynn nodded. “I’m sorry that was so hard. But we found you and when Rickert
couldn’t
be found—because he has an affinity for traipsing off and looking for his dead wife—we thought you’d be the right guy to manage that contract so that the Rickert family doesn’t lose their legacy.”

Amanda noticed that David could no longer meet their gazes. He stared at his hands, working them one against the other. “You should have told me. I tried to demolish him.”

Lynn kept going. “Yes, but we wouldn’t have let you. Like you said, David. Family is everything.”

He did look up at those words and another droplet trickled down his cheek. “Your company
needs
that deal—you’ll lose a fortune. My mother—”

Robert Holstenar chose that moment to slam his hand on the table. “No. F-f-f-famlee f-f-first.”

The entire group jolted. Amanda was amazed at how well he’d articulated the words. His eyes looked fatigued but he’d sat through the entire conversation without interruption. Until now.

Lynn walked to her husband and squeezed his hand. “That’s right. David, look in the boxes. Read the things your dad wrote to your mother. Jacob Rickert was his friend, and while he died and Jacob didn’t, he would never have wanted you to ruin the man.”

David shrugged. “The man’s a vagrant who walks the streets and goes in and out of mental institutions. You think he really cares?”

“Not anymore. Not now that his son-in-law and granddaughter found him—he stays at the cabin.”

“My mother could have
used
the money. Still can. If her company doesn’t get this contract, she’ll get laid off.”

Lynn stood and squared her shoulders. “That’s not going to happen because you are going to help us make this deal.”

David’s eyes looked hopeful. “Rickert’s going to sell?”

Lynn shook her head. “Nope. We’re going to revise the contract to encompass the tracts of land surrounding theirs and leave Rickert alone.”

David shook his head. “They wanted the whole thing.”

Lynn smiled. “I’ve already spoken to them and we’ve created a three-phase plan that will ensure that the last part of the construction, conveniently on Rickert’s property, won’t occur until Rickert leaves. In the interim, he will be paid a lease rate that allows him to continue living on the property but signs the property over to BookMyss upon his death.”

David looked like he’d just been released from prison. “They’re willing to do that?”

Robert smiled. “We all have family.”

Robert Holstenar beckoned David to come forward as he pulled a frame from his bottom desk drawer. “For you, son.” He pushed the frame toward David.

Lynn smiled. “We had it framed when you first started working here but realized it wasn’t the best of gifts at the time.”

David looked at a picture of four soldiers with arms crossed over each other standing in a field of dirt. They smiled. Amanda felt her stomach clench. Behind their lithe frames was a field of destruction and they had shovels at their feet. Holy shit. Were they digging graves?

• • •

Amanda and Jackson walked out of the executive suite an hour later. They held hands but said nothing. Amanda felt exhausted and it wasn’t even
her
story. Inside the elevator, Jackson braced his hands on either side of her head and stared into her eyes.