Page 5 of The Lawyer
For the first time in eight years, I’ve let the person I’m working for get to me. Even the hour home didn’t give me enough time to clear my mind. After the coffee, the rest of the day was uneventful. Nina talked me through the most critical projects that Mr Broderick was involved in, the responsibilities that I need to ensure he’s covered, and a few other things. Nothing too difficult. But I couldn’t shake the dismissive attitude Mr Broderick had. Like we were truly beneath him.
“Ash, I’m home,” I call out as I finally make it through the door.
“Great. I’m out.” He lumbers down the stairs, grabs his jacket and shoves past me to leave.
“Hey, watch the attitude.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The door slams in my face.
After the day I've had, dealing with Ash is the last thing I want. He’s my little brother. A grown man, but still a baby at twenty-one. He comes and goes as he pleases, despite my repeated pleas to get a decent job. Of course, he has no incentive to. I pay for everything.
The mortgage was paid off when Mum and Dad died, and I’ve been working since then to cover the rest. Sure, Ash does the odd run in a job when he wants something, but he doesn’t have anything permanent or stable, and I've given up trying to force him, as long as he's safe.
The lure of a hot bubble bath is too much. I climb the stairs, place my shoes back in their home, and set about drawing a bath. Maybe then I’ll be able to forget the drawbacks to my new job and concentrate on getting through the next year.
Chapter Three
LANDON
“What do you mean you didn’t think it was the right time?”
I glare out the open window in my home office, not remotely interested in my father’s opinion on my plan. “She won’t come willingly, Father. It needs considered management, not forced intent. Just leave it with me.”
“This cannot happen any longer, Landon. You get her back here now.”
“Why?”
“What?”
I turn slowly, determined to get this conversation out in the open if he’s going to be so damn pig-headed about it. He’s dodged me for two days at the office since I've been back,regardless of Nina arranging meetings with him. And now, after a full day of numbers, contracts, constant fucking headaches and problems, I’ve barely made it through the door this evening, and he’s already on my back. “She’s happy. Why should I wreck that just because you say so? I'm about done doing what you say.”
He baulks at me, eyes bulging out of his damn head because I ventured to question something about the Foxton-Broderick situation, let alone challenged him about authority.
“What the hell was that?” he shouts.
I half chuckle at his attitude. “Calm down. You look ready for a heart attack.”
He stands, rounds my desk to get to me. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, Landon, but get your head straight. This company is not going to run itself, and I will not have—”
“Give it a fucking rest, will you? I’ve done everything you’ve said since I got back here. Every damn thing. In the exact order you deemed applicable, but this is tiring the fuck out of me.” The drink goes to my lips, the next one in the line I’ve been draining liberally for the last half hour, and I sink that too. “Enough, Father. Give me a little credit for knowing what I’m doing. And if you can’t be frank about whatever the real problem is, I’d rather you get out for now.”
My body swings back to the window, my back in his face. I need to move out of this house. I only came back to this place because of the quickened nature of his insistence I take over. This last near argument is enough for me to know I need space. Fast.
“Landon, stop drinking and think. This is not the son I raised.” He wouldn’t have a fucking clue who the son he raised is. Certainly not after the years I’ve been away. “Look, you’re clearly not in the right frame of mind for sensible conversations about this," he says,quieting his tone. "I suggest we leave it until tomorrow.”
Not one part of my intentions regarding my sister will have changed by tomorrow. I want the truth behind this whole seemingly scandalous thing that keeps interfering with my sanity. Maybe then I’ll change direction. Until then, nothing is any different than it was before. He wants a new head of this family, he's got it.
By the time I turn around to look back into the room, he’s gone from sight. Good. It probably wasn’t the right time to have discussions descend into aggravated confrontations, anyway. He might be a bastard, but Sir Anthony James Broderickis also my father. It’s something I should be respectful of. At the moment, I’m not respectful of a fucking thing around this house—his opinion most definitely included.
Picking up the phone, I call Nina and tell her to find me a selection of properties by tomorrow morning. I’m past caring too much about what it is. It just needs to be away from here. Having him in my face day in and day out is driving me insane. I don’t like it. Nothing makes sense. There’s no quiet or calm to find actual thought in. This crap with Persephone is bad enough, add in the pressure that’s now on me permanently to do things his way, and I might fucking strangle him at the next available moment.
Another shot drunk, and I grab my jacket and head out to the garage to get my car. It isn’t until I remember I’ve probably consumed a quarter bottle of brandy that I stand and stare rather than actually get in and drive. Fuck, I need a break from this place, maybe from this country. Two days in Paris clearly wasn't enough.
I storm back into the house and call through to Geoffrey. He’ll have to take me there. Or at least take me close to there.
The drive is quiet, enough so that I start to find an element of rational thought again by the time we arrive at Hoxton. I get him to pull over outside one of the better parts of town and then send him on his way. I’ll taxi back, or stay at the office. I don’t know. I’m too busy aiming at the only thing that’s going to make me feel slightly more relaxed to care for now.
