Page 140 of Lust & Lies

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah. It’s a bastard kid who usually handles his dad’s grunt work. Work that required him to get his hands dirty so that Junior wouldn’t have to. He’s a year older than Junior. His mother was the family’s maid, so the Clarks kept his identity a secret and hired him on as a guard. His name is Scott Pollard. Looks like he sees this as his chance to make a move. Though Clark Construction isn’t open for business, he was in his father’s office, making calls, trying to convince some of his father’s business partners that he would be the one taking over the family business.”

“Did he think it would be that easy to convince them?”

“He quickly learned that it wasn’t. Since asking nicely didn’t help, he decided to use force. He wants to go after his old man’s enemies to prove he’s really the one in charge.”

“Let me guess. He’s starting with me,” Julian stated.

“Cattaneo Concrete Solutions is first on his list.”

Our hotels were next. But Tristan was already working on that and searching for Scott Pollard. He wouldn’t be the first or the last person to try to go against us. People like him were the reason we had the Watchdogs in the first place.

If my grandfather knew about this, he’d want to send Noe after Scott. Luckily, he didn’t know, and to him, Noe was now dead. She was no longer someone he could order to take care of the family’s dirty work.

“He’s bold,” I told Julian. “He’s not as smart or conniving as his father, but he also isn’t as reckless as Junior. I don’t know him personally. However, after listening to him talk, it seems this is something he’s wanted to do for a long time to show his father he’s better than Junior, that he should be the one who inherited the company. He’s holding a grudge and carrying years of pent-up rage. He’s like a ticking time bomb. That makes him dangerous.”

“I’ll deal with him. Alone. You work on making sure Aaron Clark and his son go down for what they’ve done. I’ll make sure the bastard doesn’t get a chance to prove anything to his father.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Julian told me. “I’ll handle him. Thanks for the update. Let me know if anything else comes up.”

“Will do. You know I can help you take care of this guy, right?”

“I know. And thanks. But I’ll handle it.”

“Alright.” I ended the call.

I’d tell Tristan to hold off on approaching Scott Pollard. Julian wanted to handle it. But if Julian failed or took too long, we’d take care of it. We had too, before my grandfather found out about this and started meddling.

If he started investigating, he’d want to look at the hotel footage from where the bodies were found. And if he found thefootage missing, he’d start asking questions I didn’t want to answer.

Damn. I’d hoped to have this shit wrapped up by the end of today. It seemed it would be a while before this was done. There would be no leaving the country for me and Noe anytime soon.

Which meant I had to beef up security around the estate, just in case Noe tried to leave me. I knew Noe well. Her silence meant she was definitely planning to leave me. Or kill me. But to me, those things were two sides of the same coin. Not having Noe was like dying a thousand deaths.

I never wanted to experience that type of agony again.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

AIDEN

YAWNING, I STARED ATthe security feed, watching Noe eat. She’d taken her food to the bedroom, along with a bottle of water and a bag of chips, which I assumed was for later. She was doing a great job of avoiding me.

One more night, I told myself. I would give her one more night to rest. That’s it. And then she was mine. I’d been the gentleman for her. I’d given her the space she asked for. I didn’t pressure her into talking to me.

I waited, in hopes that she would seek me out and ask for answers, demand them even. Or at least tell me what she remembered that was making her distant. She hadn’t done any of that. Instead, she was avoiding me, avoiding the issues.

I had no choice but to close the distance between us before she did something foolish. My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten all day, and it was well past lunch. I stood to prepare myself a plate.

As if on cue, my fucking phone rang again.Tristan. What was the point of having an assistant if no one called that motherfucker? Sighing, I answered and listened to my brother talk as I headed to the kitchen to eat.

Seated at the counter, I ate but tasted nothing as my brother went over how he would smooth things over with the board once the news hit that the murders had occurred at one of our hotels.

The PR team was working hard to prepare for the blowback. We were being hush about it, because the news hadn’t been revealed yet, and our knowing ahead of time would raise suspicions.

We had to prepare for a drop in our company's stocks and be ready to answer questions from our board members overseas. Most importantly, we had to get ready to show our grandfather that we could handle this. I yawned again as I listened to him talk.