Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (32 page)

Alex was swallowing when he dropped his latest
bombshell and started to cough as her food went down her windpipe. She swung
her head around to look at Ty, trying to judge his reaction. He just sat there,
appearing unaffected. Obviously Ty wasn’t surprised by Max’s job offer. Alex
hated his control as she grappled with why he wasn’t railing at Max. Just once
she would like to see the man lose his cool like everyone else did around him.
He always made Alex want to kick him because nothing Max did seemed to rattle
him.

“Easy, honey,” Ty said, rubbing her back. He
pushed her water glass towards her. “Forget it Max. I told you earlier that I
wasn’t interested. I'll take care of Alex. Rest assured I can support her
without your help. Besides, you disowned her remember?” Ty pointed out smugly.

“Blast it all! Son, see reason for once in your
life. Alex will still inherit from me when I’m gone. For now, I want her
running the production company!” Max exclaimed. He was watching his plan fall
apart! He needed Alex to get in line also. It’s why he went through all of this
rigmarole.

“I told you I can’t take over the production
end of the business! I don’t have time. Maybe later, but right now I barely
have time to breathe!” Alex said hotly. She and Max had been over this a
million times. Max never seemed to listen. He just wanted things his way.

“Then quit! Stop dilly-dallying around with the
band. Start taking on some responsibilities for a change, your mother left this
mess!” was Max’s hostile reply.

“She can’t quit!” Steven broke in, not about to
sit by and watch his livelihood go up in smoke. If it wasn’t the threat of Ty
making her quit, Max was trying to get her to. Steven felt his life slipping
through his fingers. There had to be something he could do to stop it.

“Why not?” Ty asked turning to Alex. “You don’t
have to work for Max. I’m not broke. I’ve got enough in the bank to keep us
comfortable. There’s no reason you have to keep working. I won’t allow you to
take money from him anymore!” he commanded. He wasn’t going to live off his
wife, he had his pride. Her Grandfather was not going to dictate their lives
ever again. There were more security jobs if he needed them, but he wasn’t
going to be dependent on Max’s charity.

The only thing in that statement that seemed to
resonate through Alex’s brain was the word “allow”. Taking a deep breath to
calm herself, she informed Ty of a few hard facts. “I haven’t taken a dime from
Max since I was eighteen. I do not take orders from him, or from you. If I want
to continue working I will.” Alex shot a harsh look at Ty, daring him to
disagree. She could not believe this was happening. He was as bad as her
grandfather. What did he expect her to do? Stay home and wait meekly in the
kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, for him to return from whatever job he was out
doing? She never stayed home. She was a gypsy, always traveling. If she wasn’t
on the road with the band or on a plane, she could feel herself becoming antsy,
itching to move on. She was staggered as she thought about leaving and realized
she hadn’t felt the usual urge to take off. Something had changed inside her
after being with Ty again.

Because he knew nothing about her real life, Ty
was totally clueless. She had been struggling to figure out a way to explain
who she was. She just hadn’t had the time or enough courage worked up to tell
him the truth. Plus, she didn’t want to disturb the contentment she felt when
she was with him by bringing it up. The way Ty was behaving, he was not going
to be overly thrilled at learning she was wealthy in her own right and didn’t
need Max.

“That’s it honey, give them hell!” Steven
encouraged, deciding to show her he was behind her. She couldn’t quit, he
wouldn’t let her. The band needed her too much. Hell, his ego needed her too
much. He didn’t want to go down as a “has been” before he even reached thirty.
Just the thought of it had his body breaking out in a cold sweat.

Ty, glaring at the other man, warned, “Alex is
my wife and she will do as I ask, stay out of this Steven.” He wasn’t about to
let either of them interfere in his marriage. The sooner they got it through
their thick heads that she was not a part of their world anymore, the better.

Sam could see where the conversation was headed
and knew that soon Ty was going to force Alex into a corner and he would not
like the outcome. “Ty, she can’t give up everything she’s worked so hard for.
She is really gifted. For her to throw it away would be criminal,” Sam
reasoned, trying to make Ty understand what he was demanding of her sister. She
knew how much Alex’s music meant to her, she was consumed by her music. It was
a standing joke in the family that she could live on nothing but her music.

“I am not quitting! I won’t give it up and if
you can’t accept that, then I’m sorry.” Alex stated forcefully, shifting to
look at Ty. Judging that he wasn’t happy with her decision, but she didn’t
care. Allowing her grandfather or Ty to make up the rules concerning her life,
and abandon everything she knew, was not an option. She didn’t trust her
grandfather or Ty. He still hadn’t explained why he had agreed to marry her.
Could she really trust him with her heart again? She loved him, but his
feelings remained a mystery, locked somewhere inside him. If she gave in to his
demands, what would she have left if he decided to walk away from her?

“Alex, I can’t live in L.A., I have a ranch,
not to mention my business. I have employees that count on me to supply them
with a paycheck, remember?” He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through
his hair in aggravation. If Alex wanted to work, fine, but she would have to
find another job in Oregon. She had to see there was simply no other choice in
the matter. He refused to live in Oregon while his wife lived in California.
The adjustment would be tough on her, not having all the luxuries she took for
granted, but he would be there to make the transition easier for her.

“Yeah, Alex, do you really want to see me on
the unemployment line?” Parry joked in attempt to lighten the mood. He felt
uncomfortable viewing the two in a fight. He couldn’t understand why they were
both being so stubborn. There had to be a way to make it work. They just needed
to calm down and discuss it rationally.

“Speaking of unemployed, after this job I know
you have nothing else lined up, Ty. Take the blasted job and be done with it.
I’m not letting all my hard work go to waste!” Max demanded gruffly.

“And what ‘hard work’ are you talking about?”
Sam asked, straightening in her chair.

“Your grandfather’s scheming was to get me to
work for him. Max had this all planned out, the dang marriage license was dated
weeks ago!” he explained hotly.

He watched Alex closely as she started to
figure it out, he saw the emotions race across her face. He watched as she came
to the same conclusion he had; Max had set them up. Her face went paper white
and she swerved her astonished eyes to her grandfather.

“You planed this, why would you do something
like this?” Alex wailed. She shook her head at the enormity of what Max had
done. He had deliberately married her off to Ty! Why! Then Max’s comments
throughout dinner rang in her ears. He kept trying to get Ty to take over the
security for the company. He had been working so hard to manipulate him into
it. There was no hunting trip; he had been conspiring against her to force her
into assuming control of the production company! Her emotions and feelings did
not seem to matter to Max, or to Ty, it seemed. She felt like a bone between
two arguing dogs.

“Because I’m tired of the blasted money! Once
the two of you take over the production and the security, Frank can retire and
I’ll have less to worry about!” Max blurted out.

“Did you ever think that I might not want to
get married? That maybe I was in love with someone else? You had no right to
decide my life for me. I’m a grown woman, not a child Max!” she shouted at him.
Trying to stop herself from bursting into tears at the humiliation of knowing
how little Max had cared about the life she had built.

Ty felt himself go still as he heard her shout
that she was in love with someone else. He swung his gaze to Steven, who didn’t
seem affected by Alex’s words. He returned his gaze unflinchingly. He had hoped
they had a future. Now, he wasn’t so sure. He fought the need to get her away
from Steven, once and for all.

“Well, I wasn’t going to let you marry the pin
up doll!” Max stated, waving his hand at Steven.

“Thanks a lot. I’m glad you care so much, Max,”
Steven said, fixing him with a cold stare.

Alex raised her hand to her temple, bumping her
glasses. She could feel her head beginning to pound. Had Ty married her knowing
Max’s plans for him to take over the security for the company? Or, had he
married her just to get back at Max somehow? She didn’t know anymore. Her mind
was reeling with all she had learned tonight. She was being pushed to the
brink, the tears she was holding in were threatening to break free and she
couldn’t handle any more.

“When we’re done laying the rest of the
sensors, I’ll be leaving with my men. Alex will be coming with me. It should
only be a couple more days,” he said to Max. He wanted the old man to
understand he would not be taking the job and that Alex was now his
responsibility.

She was starting to comprehend that they had no
future; their marriage would never make it. He wanted her to be something she
wasn’t. He didn’t want to understand how much her career meant to her. The
particulars didn’t factor in to it, even if she had only been a secretary, she
would still feel the same way.

He was trying to protect her by wanting to take
her back to his ranch and keep her locked up there, safe and sound. She
couldn’t live like that. Maybe she should have expected it. He believed she was
hiding, based on her actions at the ranch and when she had been seventeen. The
way she dressed around him and the others just reinforced those beliefs. She
had stopped hiding, stopped running, from the world a long time ago. When Ty
hurt her, she had forced herself into the limelight to face her fears. She knew
she could never go back to being the shell of the person she had been at
seventeen. He probably thought it was what she would want.

Ty watched as emotions crossed her face. He was
becoming uneasy.

“What do you mean you’re leaving? Did you
forget we’ve been invaded? Even if we wanted to leave, we couldn’t!” Max said
angrily.

Alex, starting to stand, drew everyone’s
attention. “I can’t do it. I’m sorry. I can’t do this right now.” She left the
room before she could say or do something she would regret.

Ty felt his blood freeze in his veins.

Steven, after seeing how upset she was,
questioned, “Are you going to let her keep working?”

Ty sent an irritated look his direction, slid
from his chair, and threw his napkin down on the table with more force than was
necessary. He shot Max one more unforgiving look before following Alex.

“Blast!” Max bellowed to Ty, “Come back here,
we’re not through yet, Son!”

Entering the den and seeing it empty, he made
his way toward Alex’s room. Noticing that someone had taken the time to fix the
door enough to get it to close, he started to raise his hand and knock but
decided to just open it. He walked into the room and didn’t see her, but he
could hear the sounds of the shower running in the adjacent bathroom.

Sliding toward the window to look out, he began
to rub the muscles in the back of his neck, not seeing anything but his
reflection in the glass. He knew he had to figure a way to get them off the
ranch. If he didn’t, Max would keep hammering him about the reporters and the job
he was hell bent for him to take. He knew Alex was distraught by what she had
learned tonight about Max’s scheming, but the fact remained she was his wife
and together they would figure it out.

If she wanted to keep working they would have
to find some kind of compromise. If she worked on the sets, fine. She could do
the groundwork at his ranch and fly out to the set location if they needed her
there. He would have to juggle a few things so he could go with her, but Alex
could keep working if they planned it right. They would just have to figure it
out. Hearing the door open, he looked up. She stood in the doorway wearing a
terry cloth robe. Her wet hair hung around her pink face that appeared blotchy
from crying. He started toward her but slid to a halt as she held up her hand.

Her throat tight, she said, “Don’t, I don’t
want to talk right now. I don’t know what you’re doing in here, but I’m tired
and I’m going to bed,” she informed him stiffly, crossing the room to reach the
dresser that sat near the window. She didn’t trust herself to even look at him
as she started to pull out clothes to wear to bed.

“Alex, we need to talk,” he stated curtly. She
was upset, but he wasn’t going to spend his wedding night with his wife
sleeping in a different bed. Hell would freeze over first. He wouldn’t start
his marriage this way. He intended this marriage to begin the same way it was
going to remain; with them spending their nights together.

“There’s nothing to talk about. You and my
Grandfather have it all figured out. I’m just a pawn on the chessboard
remember? What I want doesn’t matter!” she slammed the drawer closed in
frustration.