Page 38

?

Fallon

“E xecutive summary?” I held up the packet James dropped onto my bed while I was pretending to be normal and studying for an upcoming test.

He sat in the reading chair across the room. “This document outlines your path to leadership, giving you important information in short summary format.”

Evans. That man was up my ass every other day about something or other. Now I had a document outlining my path to leadership. Flipping through the pages, there were timelines, responsibilities, and expectations. And those were just the first few pages. Very on brand for Evans.

“And here I thought my homework was almost done for the night.”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I do come with good news.” A paper bag containing my favorite fast food was held proudly in his hands. I had to have been growing on him—even just a little bit.

”Simultaneously bringing the worst and best news at the same time. You’re really something, James.”

Opening the bag, there was more than just food for me. He got himself food, too. While I still didn’t have many friends, James could be considered a friend in my life. Even if he was on my payroll.

“We have a meeting at the office in New York tomorrow. Mr. Evans wants to find a loophole for a power transfer quickly and will be outlining that to preface the meeting.”

Nothing would get in the way of me and my food first. If I was cursed to throw everything up, I would at least enjoy it before it was expelled. The meetings were boring business things and high level overviews of the company. This would change the scene of how I interacted within every meeting with the board. They would expect me to make executive decisions that affected the entirety of the company, and all the employees.

No pressure for a twenty-year-old girl, right?

”I’ll need a shower to clear my thoughts.” I eyed the door hoping he took the hint.

There was a clicking sound coming from the bathroom.

Scratch that, the window.

“Fal!”

“Garrett? What the hell are you doing here? You need to stop this.”

He seemed desperate. “You’re in danger. I’m hearing things; your head is up on the chopping block for your company.”

“And what? You want to protect me this time or you want a piece of the pie too?”

“My dad just went to jail. He wasn’t going to get dirty with the other families and they destroyed mine. More will be dropping if they don’t get in line. My family was a warning. You need to be careful around Brent. His grandfather is at the top and is a brutal man. I don’t know if you can tell, but Brent is pretty...cunning and brutal himself.”

Brent told me he wanted to help and protect me, but that could have also been a ploy. With how tied our families were, if mine went down, what would happen to theirs? They had a vested interest in keeping Montgomery Group afloat for their own interests. Unless...they wanted to integrate Montgomery Group into their conglomerate.

“I don't think it's Brent that would be my biggest worry at the moment.”

“The Whitmore family wants in with Chamberlain Industries. You pose a direct threat to them getting in with the Vaughns. Sloane wants a marriage into that family.”

Great . A man I didn’t even want was causing girl drama with me. If the extent of my problems was a girl wanting a guy that I didn’t want, that would have been the easiest time of my life. Instead, it was powerful families and the girl who wanted Brent was capable of killing me.

“Where do you fit in?”

“Keeping my head low. I’m leaving the college and staying away; I don’t think this will blow over anytime soon. I wanted to give you the heads up because I do care about you despite what you believe or have heard about me. I will be working on figuring out where I go from here–I have some help.”

My chest tightened. It made me feel guilty for tossing him to the side if what he said was true. If he was truly interested in me for more than my status, I just kicked him to the curb during the worst time in his life. But the rules we had to follow would forbid it unless I wanted to suffer the same fate as him. Because his family wanted to rise above the nastiness, they were being punished in true mafia style—takedown. If you didn’t follow the rules, you couldn’t play the game.

Unspoken.

Unwritten.

And yet, we were still beholden to them.

I couldn’t trust anyone in this world.

So, I settled on watching shit television and eating sour gummy worms on the couch after bidding goodbye for now to Garrett.

Kelly waltzed into the door like nothing had ever happened. “How was school this week?”

“How was your impromptu vacation?” Was I a bit sour? Maybe. She ditched me for Thanksgiving , and then acted like she didn’t abandon me.

What Garrett said earlier played in my mind with how she went missing over the week. I didn’t believe that it was a vacation, but I was happy to not have her looking over my shoulder while I was learning with James and whoever else Evans sent over to pull me forward in my knowledge. I was not up to speed, but each day I got better.

She sighed. “Wonderful. I really needed to decompress and spend some days at the spa.”

”I’m heading to the baseball game tonight. You coming?”

That caught her attention. “Did you also go and schmooze at the parties while I was gone too? You are becoming a social butterfly. I would love to go to the game with you and watch your boyfriend wipe the floor with their competition.”

While schmoozing wasn’t the term I would have used, she was correct in her guess to going to a couple of parties to play nice and pretend I was playing with the rest of them. Montgomery Group needed to have a presentation of upcoming strength—they all wanted my company and potentially head on a platter. Sloane was playing nice in front of others, but I saw the look in her eyes when she spoke to me in passing.

Alexander was another pile of problems. He wanted to dance and drink and go to the back rooms. Avoiding him was a full time job. I obliged a few dances and drinks to make nice but he was always asking for more and more. There was only so long I could go before something major happened.

And Brent wasn’t there at any of them. My only protection was James or someone else assigned to me. Could they even prevent some things that may happen to me?

I distracted myself with schoolwork, studying my own company, and staring into the abyss while trying not to throw up daily from the anxiety. The unknown text I got remained unanswered.

“He’s not my boyfriend. Are you feeling better after the news?” The news of Shane. She never really addressed it when the news came out, but that was yet another secret we kept from each other.

She plopped down with a cup of coffee and kicked her feet up. “It doesn’t feel real yet, you know? I tried to come to terms with it this week, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. We spent a lot of time together and I liked him, but he had secrets of his own.”

The secret iceberg struck again.

“It’ll be weird dating someone again I bet.”

She shifted in her seat. “Yeah, it will.” She wasn’t able to keep her full composure this time.

The lights were bright against the faded sky. Everyone was excited to see the Sharks take home another victory, sealing us with a win streak to party about until summertime. Crowds formed around the players as they made their way out for their warmups.

And there was Brent Vaughn, dark star of the baseball team, eating up all the attention. It felt like a repeat of the last time I saw him garner the attention from the girls, but everyone wanted a handshake or a high five from him to bring home the win they knew he could secure with the team.

He searched across the sea of people before him looking for something—or someone. I wanted to say that he was looking for Sloane, but I didn’t think it that likely. He was looking for me because I haven’t reached out since I kicked him out of my house after sex. When I asked for space, I didn’t think he would be the type to give it.

I caught sight of Sloane sauntering out there to see him. She wanted me to see her parading him around like he was a prize. Just an object for her to use in whatever manner she desired. Leaning into him, she planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered something in his ear. A gross feeling settled into the bottom of my stomach watching the two.

We stood in line for gross stadium food. Pretzels and nachos sounded not horrible, but maybe tossing in a corn dog would mix it up a bit. “I think I want to stuff myself with nasty baseball food.”

“When else would you want a corn dog?”

I held out my plate to her when the order came back. “Hold this while I use the restroom?”

The mirror caught my eye when I entered and with the new instincts I had, I went to ensure my eyeliner and mascara were still intact.

“...we used to be friends! Can’t you do me, like, a tiny favor?” Was that Sloane’s voice?

“Absolutely not. She’s—"

Someone started the hand dryer, cutting off my eavesdropping. I ran into a stall close to the door to see what I could make out.

“...and we haven’t been friends since middle school.”

“I bet my father could offer yours something he can’t refuse.”

More hand dryer. Can’t these people just walk out with wet hands like normal people did?

“...it’s in your job description. Just tell me what happens. Kisses!”

I didn’t hear anything else. Quick to finish up, I made it back out to her pretending to have fixed my face up a bit.

She looked incredibly guilty.

“Did they forget your mustard or something?”

“Something like that.”

The game played and dragged on. We were up points, but that never meant much because there was plenty of time to even out the score or pull one up on us. I hated to admit it, but sports were growing on me. The anticipation. The fanfare. All of it was fun to get into and we had great teams at the school.

Football might be a sore spot for a while, though.

“I know the game is basically over,” Kelly started, looking over at me, but not truly looking at me, “but I’m hungry again. Do you want to come get another crappy pretzel with me?”

The look on her face made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. Alarms were going off all over my body. If there wasn’t someone threatening us with a gun, I’d be surprised.

Agreeing felt like a bad idea, but I did it anyway.

My gut feeling was right when Alexander popped into my field of view and he grabbed me and dragged me into a private bathroom.

“Hey baby girl.” He planted sloppy open-mouthed kisses on my neck and it felt like a dead fish was attached to my skin.

I shoved but he didn’t budge. ”What are you doing, Alexander?”

Scary blue eyes met mine. “You didn’t think I would just accept your teasing forever, would you? You’re mine and it's time you start acting like it. We’re going to be the next power couple, baby.”

My hands were pinned above my head while his free hand lifted up my shirt to get a better view of what was underneath. “Stop that,” I hissed.

”Hush. I’m taking a look at what’s mine. I heard that Vaughn bastard stained you, so I want to see where I can erase him off of your skin.” That didn’t sound any kind of good.

If there was a good time to throw up, it was while Alexander was trying to grope me in the bathroom locked away from everyone else who could see—and potentially hear from the crowd being too excited over the game. It was my unlucky day .

“No one has a claim over me but myself.” I stomped on his foot to get him off of me, but that was no dice.

He slapped me across the face with a nice crisp smacking sound. I would be red any moment and he ruined my makeup for the evening. There was no way to wiggle out of his death grip on my wrists above my head. I was trapped with a rapist.

“I didn’t know you had such a temper, little girl. You’re going to be tied to me for the rest of your pathetic little life. I made sure of that.” My shirt went up and tied around my wrists while he ogled my body.

“Pray tell, how am I going to be tied to your sorry ass?” If I was going to be stuck here and prodded, I might as well get information while I could. Everything felt like it was slipping away again and I felt sick.

His hand grabbed my bra and shoved it away from my boobs. “The deal is done. You may as well enjoy what I’m giving you. No one likes an ungrateful brat.”

The deal was done? What the hell was he on about?

“There’s no deal if I didn’t sign any paperwork. You know just as well as I do that’s the facts of deals and contracts.”

The smile he had on his face turned dark. “And you, my beautiful flower, have no idea what I’m capable of. Now hush and show me how much you want to please me.”

Teeth grazing over my skin, the feeling of throwing up wasn’t quite coming to me. I wanted so desperately to projective vomit on this sick fuck. Bracing for whatever he wanted to do, I held my breath when he clamped his mouth over my nipple.

No way this was happening.

Knocks started on the bathroom door. “Open up!”

“Ocupado, my guy!”

He continued banging on the door. It got louder and louder until it stopped. Maybe they gave up.

Alexander turned back to me. “Where were we?”

Click! The lock opened and the man busted through the door, locking it again behind him.

“Miss Montgomery is coming with me.” He blocked the door and crossed his arms. “You’re in deep shit now.”

I covered my bare chest as well as I could when Alexander released me from his grip to threaten this guy with whatever money his daddy had. It happened quickly. The man took Alexander in a move that had him yelping from how his arm was held and expelled him from the restroom locking himself in with me again.

Me with no shirt on.

“Who the hell are you?” I backed into the wall again.

He turned around, continuing to block the door. “Go ahead and make yourself presentable. My name is Dave, and I work for Mr. Vaughn.”

“This is what I get for dismissing my bodyguard for an evening.”

“He should have never agreed to it. If I hadn’t been watching, who knows what may have happened to you. Are you decent?”

“How do I know you are who you say you are?” I sorted out my shirt and any sanity I had left in this world.

I heard him chuckle from where he stood. Good to know he thought this was funny. “You’re learning a bit more lately, aren’t you? Good to know. Mr. Vaughn was worried you’d run into trouble and sent me out to keep an eye on you.”

Sounded like Brent.

I patted myself realizing that Kelly had my bag and my phone. There was no way to call for help even if I had the chance to. An ugly feeling crept up inside me and it made me wonder if I was set up by my best friend.

She spoke to Sloane earlier about how they used to be friends, and I realized there was no soul I could trust in the world. If my closest ally was plotting against me, what hope was there for anything? Nothing was safe. Nothing was sacred. At this rate, I believed she killed her own boyfriend. Nothing made sense.

The crowd cheered outside signaling the Sharks winning the game while I stood in the bathroom, a mess, after being betrayed, assaulted, and left for dead in the sea of sharks who wanted to eat my boat as it sank to the bottom. Dave escorted me out of the restroom after giving me a hoodie to wear to hide my face along with his sunglasses. How hard I was hit made a mark that would last, so I kept my head down while we moved through the complex and out to get me home.

Screw my belongings. Screw my keys. Screw it all because I was being moved around like someone’s pawn and I was tired of it.

“Do you need a bath?” James was tending to my face while Dave sat in the living room. “I shouldn’t have let you dismiss me, but with other security...It‘ll never happen again. You have my word, and you’re stuck with me until I take my last breath.”

”That’s romantic, James, but don't feel bad. It was my order that you take a day off.”

Dave scoffed at the two of us. It was abundantly clear that he was one of Brent’s men just from his attitude and affinity for a leather jacket. He was judgmental and rude—the requirements of working with Brent. He pulled a package out of his jacket and placed it on the table. “From that no good friend of yours.”

My phone and my wallet.

“What do you mean that no good friend of mine?”

“Stupid girl. Do you even know who the Wilder family is?”

I didn’t. James threw him a look that said don’t even right now. James seemed to know what he was on about and I was left out of the loop like I usually was.

“The Wilder family is responsible for reporting back to their side of the group and plays both sides every time until they can decide where they want to place their bets. They also directly silence those who get in the way of progress. It makes sense why she wouldn’t have told you. I wonder what information she was feeding her daddy while she lived here all this time.”

Anger warmed my skin and I set my jaw. “You don’t get to make assumptions about my best friend like that. I’m going to run a bath. You two can fuck each other for all I care right now. Don’t bother me.”

Stomping down the hall, I slammed and locked the door so I could take a bath in peace. Kelly was gone and she left my things with Dave. Where would she have gone that she couldn’t give me my things or offer me an explanation for what happened earlier with Alexander? Or why she looked so guilty since she got back? It would be a simple conversation where she explained herself and we could rectify it easier. If she was in danger and was being threatened, would she come back to explain? People killed each other over almost nothing in our world.

She held secrets for a reason, but I needed to know what for. The warm bath soothed my aching body, helping me breathe and think. I wanted to lay in it for an eternity so I never had to deal with any of the drama or death again.

Then, my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Fallon Montgomery?”

“Wrong number, sorry.”

“Wait! My name is Jason Haines and I’m calling about your company. Your aunt Sylvia fucked me over and she’s coming for you next.”

“How did you get this number?”

I was tempted to drown myself right then and right there at the mention of Sylvia. Never did I think I would hear her name again. She booted me out without as much as a sayonara.

“I’ve had you under surveillance since you were eighteen. I’ve always known what you were up to, but I don’t anymore. Can we meet privately?”

What?! “You just admitted to stalking me and now you’re asking me to meet you privately. You must be out of your damn mind if you think I'd agree to that.”

My bath became not so relaxing. I was naked and some man on the phone just admitted to surveilling me. A growing concern I had was how many people had seen me naked. Were there cameras in my house?

“I’m willing to meet at the Vaughn compound.”

Of course he was. “What the hell do the Vaughns have to do with this? Tell me what the fuck you know about my aunt.”

“She’s my—well, was—girlfriend.”

“My aunt is your ex-girlfriend,” I repeated. My disbelief dripped from my tone. This had to be a joke or something. Someone would pop out and tell me it was a funny joke they were playing on me. The nightmare couldn’t be real. She was supposed to be long gone, far away where she couldn’t contact me anymore.

“Yes, and she plans to usurp your company just like she did with mine. I’m in hiding and I at least want someone else to have warning before that ruthless woman gets the chance to get her claws into something else.” He sounded genuine, desperate. Like a man who just lost everything, but I knew I couldn’t trust what was being presented to me.

“Fine, but we’re doing this my way.”