Page 45 of Alpha Bait

I reached into my pocket for my phone, prepared to bring Donnie back when Ames raised his palms in surrender.

"Indie, it's me, Ames. Don't do anything rash. Rich sent me."

"Rich sent you?"

"Yes. Are you alone?"

"I'm alone."

"Good."

He rubbed his hands together and shoved them into his pocket.

"Cold night, eh?"

"Too cold. Where's Rich?"

"He's coming. He should be coming. He got held up. He didn't want you to wait alone."

"So you're helping him?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because none of this matters."

"What do you mean by that," I laughed.

Of course what we did mattered. Our family companies controlled the direction of global technology. It didn't get more important than the tech boom.

"I mean at the end of the day, love trumps money."

"So you have every intention of leaving this feud behind?" I asked.

My face betrayed my disbelief.

"Not at all."

"Ah, there's the Carmichael I know."

"If your brother refuses to put the past behind him, anything I'm doing is simply self-defense."

I snorted, "It's easy to put the past behind you when you aren't the one getting stomped on."

"And I'm truly sorry for what my father did. But he is dead. And I am not my father."

I pursed my lips, avoiding Ames' gaze, not so much out of anger with him as frustration. Where was Rich? He was now five minutes late and my minor verbal tussle with Ames hadn't done enough to distract me from the fact that he was supposed to have been here.

"Where's your brother?" I asked.

"He's never this late," Ames agreed, eyeing the Hermès watch on his wrist.

"Something's wrong."

Ames' brow furrowed. If he was in on it, he appeared to be every bit as surprised as I was.

"Something must be wrong."

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