Bexley’s eyes narrowed. “Damn straight it is.”
“Listen, the heat is going to be on us. Mostly me, but you as an unintended casualty. You know my dad’s like a bulldog when he gets his teeth into something, but this time I’m going to outsmart him and fix this.”
Her head tilted to the side, and she looked at me in the compassionate way I craved like a starving man at a buffet. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
I started to nod, words of affirmation about to spill from my mouth, but then she leveled her gaze on mine, a truth serum if there ever was one. Eyes as green as the grass on the golf course pinned me, her dark blond hair swirling around her face.
“Don’t lie, Aston. It’s okay to say you don’t know. It’s okay to look for help. It doesn’t make you any less of a man to ask for help. Seriously, take it down a notch.”
She was right, but I’d never let my guard down. I’d been the strong one, resilient, and had developed my take-charge attitude after my parents’ divorce.
Unable to stay away, I made my way closer and turned Bexley’s stool so she was nestled between my thighs. “I wasn’t man enough years ago to fight for you. Now I have to be double the man. Understand that? I need to fight for you, my freedom, and my family.”
Her forehead met my chest, and I listened to her uneven breathing. “I’ve lost you once, twice, but a third time will kill me, and I have kids now. I can’t get them mixed up in this. The last few years haven’t been easy on them. Seth, he . . . he’s not always there for them.”
“Listen to me, Bex, nothing is going to happen to me. You have to know what I’m like. In a dog fight, I’m always the toughest, strongest mutt in the lot. My mom made sure of that.” I tilted her head with my finger and looked her dead on. “She wasn’t the best mom, nothing like you, but she made sure I was tough. Speaking of kids, I want to meet yours, and maybe you’ll meet mine. I’d like that.”
I didn’t call attention to her swallowing hard. She could pretend I didn’t see her do it, or wonder why I’d notice it at all.
“We’ll see,” she said, and then went back to eating her eggs.
Later that day, freshly showered, shaved, and suited up, I went to see my lawyer. After scouring hours and hours of security tape from my factory, his team still had no new leads. Nothing but a host of my employees coming and going, in and out of the factory.
Aidan, the lead lawyer on my case, paced back and forth. “There has to be something else we’re missing. The Feds claim their case against you is airtight, and there’s no way it is.”
Turning to his associate, he said, “Sniff around and see who fed it to them,” and then he looked at me. “You gonna go behind my back and put your guy on that too?”
“No, he’s back on Bexley.”
He blew out a long breath. “Aston . . . we’ve discussed this. She needs to stay out of this. And you need to stay away from her.”
“No can do.”
“No can do what? Keep your guy off her? Or you?”
“Both. My dad’s got his own guy on her, and I need someone on his prick. Stupid fuck thinks Bex has something to do with it, which is bullshit. And now he’s telling stories about her friend Milly fucking around and being a part of this. I need to watch what they’re doing.”
Aidan gave me an incredulous look. “For Christ’s sake, when did your life become such a soap opera?”
“The day I gave up Bexley for my dad.”
He nodded as if I’d made his case. “And that’s why you need to give her up.”
Shoving my hair off my forehead, I noted to book a haircut. “Are you my lawyer or my therapist? I’m not giving her up, and you know better than anyone why. I should’ve never walked away in the first place. Christ,” I said, slamming my fist onto his desk. “Why do I have to keep repeating myself to everyone? I have a shitty ex, my kids are a mess, and I’ve never loved anyone but Bex. Oh, and I’m being accused of a crime I didn’t commit. Back off of my love life and get me cleared.”
Aidan dropped into the chair behind his desk. “I’m doing the best I can. I have a whole team working around the clock on it.”
“Just fix this.” I slammed my fist onto his desk again. “Fast.”
He looked up, rattled. “Get a hold of yourself, Aston. Calm down,” he said, using a tone meant for a mental patient.
“No can do. This is as good as it gets.”
I didn’t have anything left to say to him, so I pushed out of my chair and headed back to my office, wishing I had eyes in the back of my head.
Every person who walked by my office in a suit or a warehouse uniform was a suspect. As if my day wasn’t shitty enough, my dad stopped by, knocking his knuckles on my door frame as he paused, giving me a salute.
“What’s up?” I smiled at him, his face still tanned from Hawaii. If I’d learned one thing from the Bexley situation, it was to never show my hand to my dad. Ever.
“Just running in to grab something from my office, then I’m heading to Vegas. Since you can’t go, I’m taking the meeting with the new hotel going up in Red Rock. They want to do all private-label soaps, men’s grooming kits, napkins, and possibly exercise towels with gold embroidering, mostly standard stuff, but also have an interesting idea for their exercise machines. Could be a big account. They have deep
