Page 89 of Wretched Heart
It’s not as if she’s completely out of my life. Ours is now a working relationship, and emails have been pinging back and forth constantly between Corbyn Paper Merchants and Griffin Corps. The ones between Maddie and I have been professional, bordering on impersonal. Unlike the email thread between Maddie and Theo, which she just happened to forward because it contained information I needed. It was too fucking friendly for my liking. That’s the real reason she sent it. She wanted to fuck with my head and she succeeded. She isn’t going to make this easy for me, and I can’t blame her.
At least there’s enough going on to keep me occupied. After Theo refused to honor the verbal agreement to supply equipment and plant to John Cooper, Ray Forsythfinally crawled out of the woodwork. He’s threatening Theo with legal action, hence the reason I’m being copied in on his emails. Our lawyers have sent a response to Ray on Theo’s behalf, which not only establishes there’s no case, but it sends the message that Griffin Corps is calling the shots here, and we’re willing to throw all our weight behind the dispute.
Their response is swift, but not what any of us are expecting.
“Fuck. Have you checked your emails?” Mace asks, peering over one of his screens.
“I’m reading it now.” I have to squint because I don’t want to get too close to the poisoned words spilling out of my inbox.
Reid taps his keyboard. “What are you looking at?” he asks. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s from Alice Emerson,” I say. She’d only sent the email to me, Mace and Ash. “Barrett’s mommy wants to talk. I’ll forward it to you, but in summary, Alice doesn’t like the way things are escalating. She wants to call an end to our feud, and is offering to sell us John Cooper’s land – if we agree to meet her first thing tomorrow in New York.”
“So, I’m not invited?” Reid asks.
There’s a reason our half-brother hasn’t been included. He’s still a newbie, and in Alice’s eyes, will never be the equal of his brothers. But that’s her opinion, not ours.
“Do you want to be included?” I ask.
Reid stiffens. “Yes, of course I do.”
I forward the email. “Then you’re coming.”
“Thanks.” He’s skim reading the message when he adds, “We need to let Ash know. I think he’s still in his room packing.”
Ash is returning to Chicago because, once again, he’staking charge of my affairs. Maybe he doesn’t trust that I’ll deliver the divorce papers to our lawyers myself. Maybe he has a point.
“I’m here,” Ash says, striding into the room with his cell phone clutched in his fist like he wants to strangle it. “That fucking woman.”
“Do you think it’s a set up?” asks Reid. “She doesn’t say if Barrett’s going to be there.”
We all turn to Mace, who’d anticipated the question. “I picked him up on CCTV earlier outside their New York offices.”
Ash drops his cell phone onto his desk. “The fact that Alice clicks her fingers and expects us to come running makes me want to send her a big fuck you.”
“It might be interesting if we can get her alone,” I muse. “Since Barrett took over the company, her grip on him has been weakening. She won’t know half of what he gets up to, and now might be a good opportunity to enlighten her.”
“I’d be more than happy to give her a few home truths,” says Mace with a dark glint in his eyes. “It’s been years since we had a civil conversation with her.”
“Who says it’s going to be civil?” Ash remarks.
“Are we agreed then? We’re going?” I ask.
Ash perches on the edge of his desk. “She has piqued my curiosity, but let’s tell her to meet us in our offices in Chicago. Reid, can you fire off a reply on behalf of us all?”
Reid wheels his chair closer to his desk. “Sure. And I’ll update our flight manifest. When should I schedule the return flight?”
There follows an uncomfortable silence. I know what Ash is going to say before he says it.
“If Alice sells us John Cooper’s land, we don’t need tocome back here,” he says, his gaze pivoting to meet mine. “Connie can stay here to close up the house.”
Once again I’m being pushed in a direction not of my choosing. Once again I resist. “Even if we can solve the John Cooper problem, Barrett won’t respond well to Alice’s move to clip his wings. We know how that bastard works. Maddie doesn’t. I’m not leaving her here to fend for herself.”
“I still have eyes and ears on the Corbyn house,” Mace offers. As well as being able to access the CCTV at the main gates, he’d planted a number of listening devices on the day he’d hacked into Hugo’s laptop.
I shoot him a look. “The bugs in the house shouldn’t still be active, Mace. The least Maddie deserves is some privacy.”
“Don’t think for a minute that I enjoy listening to her fucking sobbing,” he hits back. And it does feel like a hit – a punch to the gut followed by a stab to my heart. “But that’s not on my conscience, Hunter. Do you want me to stop and leave her unprotected? Your choice. As always.”
