Page 1 of The Merger

ChapterOne

Sabrina

Seattle in the spring was a temperamental mistress. One day she smiled at you, the sun warmed your face, and the city teemed with life. The next day she wept, the skies opened and everyone hid under awnings and umbrellas. It matched my mood perfectly. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Except for the days I had to walk home in the rain.

I’d had a rental car for the last few weeks since my car died. That was until the mechanic said it would cost more to fix it than it was worth and my insurance cut off my rental allowance. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Spring in Seattle meant rain. Lots of rain. Sometimes it came down in torrents, turning the gutters into rivers, but most often it came as a relentless drizzle. Tonight was the latter, but I couldn’t imagine it would be possible to be more soaked than I already was.

Inside my apartment, a puddle formed around my feet as I dropped my keys and purse on the entry table. I was exhausted from a long week at work, enduring the weather every morning and evening as I walked to the office. It wasn’t just the long hours or the walk. Life just wasn’t turning out the way I had dreamed it would when I was in college.

I was twenty-six and working for my step-brother as an executive assistant. He paid me well, way better than the average, but Seattle was an expensive city to live in. Stubborn to a fault, I wouldn’t let him do more for me than pay my inflated salary. I accepted that because I worked my ass off for him. Especially for the last week.

Colter managed to not only marry my best friend in secret but also drive her away. She’d been gone for nearly two months, but finding her wasn’t the problem. Malcolm, my childhood best friend, told me where she was within days of her arriving in New York.

It concerned me because even though she hated Mal, she’d been trying to get a meeting with him. I could only guess what she was up to. She was far from stupid and it only took me a little digging to find out he was up to some shady shit. My guess was if I knew, so did Jana.

I didn’t idolize Malcolm. He was an asshole and a user to everyone, except me. I’d been disappointed in him plenty over the years, but he was also the one person who had always been there for me. For the sake of our friendship I’d long ago decided to neither interfere, nor stand up for him. Of course, that was before he was mistreating my best friend. I knew Jana had to be desperate if she was willing to deal with Mal. They dated briefly in high school, and it didn’t end well. None of his relationships ever did.

People have asked me over the years why Malcolm and I never dated. No matter how attractive he was, I wouldn’t let myself believe I was different from all of the other women he left in tears. I’d never been special. My own mother mostly ignored me. Accepting his friendship was safe, and honestly more than I expected to have after more than twenty years.

When I told Colt’s best friend, Beckett Anderson, where Jana was, we hatched a plan. He would work on sobering Colt up, while I kept tabs on her until he showed up. I showed up and played the carefree party girl, a persona I’d long since grown sick of.

During college I spent my time with my head buried in books, and I had very few friends. Being alone all of the time wore me down, and once I started pretending to enjoy going clubbing and flirting, I made friends. None of them were genuine, but at least I didn’t spend all of my time alone.

It wasn’t until I met Jana and Evie that I learned what having a real friend looked like. Even with them I kept up the ruse. It was exhausting having no one see the real me, but I was afraid to lose the people I had in my life by showing them who I was. What if they only liked the fun-loving Sabrina?

Beck’s and my plan worked, and Colt whisked Jana away to a private island so they could work through their issues. Of course, that meant I had to keep things running back at the office. Having worked with him since I graduated college, it wasn’t hard for me to clear his schedule and handle emergencies as they came up. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of work.

I groaned in relief as I finally slipped off my heels and changed out of my work clothes. While I was drying my hair with a towel, I heard the door squeak open, and I jumped. Everyone with a key to my apartment was currently out of the city.

“You left New York without saying goodbye.” I relaxed hearing Malcolm’s voice boom across my apartment.

“You were preoccupied with Waverly. I didn’t think you’d notice.” He’d never cared before, especially when my sister was around to keep him distracted. And, I left over a week ago. If he cared so much, why was he just showing up now?

Malcolm huffed, bringing my attention back to him. Waverly was always a sticking point between us. My sister and I weren’t close and not from a lack of trying on my part. As hard as I tried to form a connection with her, the only one she had any real affection for was Colter. He spoiled her and I didn’t blame him, not really. Out of the three of us, Waverly was burdened with two of the most self-absorbed parents on the planet. At least Colt had his mother and I had my father.

Sure, Waverly could have had me, but to her I was competition. She saw me as a threat to her relationship with our mother and to the attention of her brother. She established herself as the princess, and I was cast as the black sheep. What she never seemed to realize was that my mother’s love wasn’t a prize. It came with conditions, and I had no desire to play her games.

Waverly, though, games and manipulations were all she had ever known. For example, when I stupidly introduced her to my best friend, she made it her mission to take him for herself. Her worldview didn’t support my happiness. If she caught wind I might be even a tad satisfied with my life, she sought out to rip the foundation from underneath me. Only when I was miserable did she feel like her view of herself as being better than I was justified.

“You know it’s over between Waverly and me. We never should have happened in the first place,” Malcolm said, bringing my attention back to him.

“And Jana? Are you done chasing after her? She belongs with my brother.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call him that.”

I shrugged. Call it the Jana effect, but there was a familiarity that had grown between Colter and me since they got together. “We’ve gotten closer. A lot of that is thanks to Jana. I don’t know why you’re interested in her all of a sudden, but I’m asking you to let it go.”

“What makes you think it’s all of a sudden?”

I blinked and studied him for a moment. “Remember, I’ve known you longer than almost everyone. You’re my best friend and I love you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see you for who you are. If you cared about her, you never would have started up with that bitch Matilda.”

“I was eighteen for fuck’s sake. Show me a teenage boy who could resist a hot chick when she was throwing herself at you.”

“Like you’re so much different now. Don’t lie either. You haven’t maintained a relationship for more than a few months and they always end because you cheated.”

“It was never serious with any of them. You know that and you know why,” he said. His eyes held mine, saying all the things we’d ignored for years.

The thing was, Malcolm and I had bad timing. I knew he thought he had feelings for me, but I wasn’t about to be another woman who fell for his charm only to be discarded when the boredom set in.

---