“But we’re not the only firm he’s looking at. We need a hook to reel him in.”
Gods, he needed to stop with the “we” business. I was a pawn in all of this, whatever this was.
“Go on.” An image of me on the end of a reel luring fish to their doom flashed before me. There was my overactive imagination again.
“Rein Hayes, owner of a multinational company, Planet Partners, has a real estate arm, and he also has a son, and I have it on good authority he wants him married off.”
I leaned my head on the bathroom door, not liking the direction the conversation was taking.
“What’s that got to do with me?” Surely he didn’t expect me to sleep with the guy, get pregnant with the heir’s child, and what? I couldn’t see any further, even though that thinking was more like Dad’s soap operas than real life.
“You marry him.”
“What?” Shit, even if my dad was snoozing, he’d be awake now.
“It’s the perfect solution. We’ll be swimming in money, and I can get rid of that damn monstrosity of a company.” He sighed. “Do you know how many times a day I sign my name?”
Oh, to have a job where I was only expected to scrawl my signature. But Father had done much more, and a kernel of worry formed in my belly.
“You must be out of your mind, Sebastian. No way am I marrying a stranger so you can get even richer.” Maybe Father’s death had affected him. I’d always considered my stepfather to have a heart of stone.
“Then dear old dad will meet his maker sooner rather than later.” He ended the call.
“Heston, are you in there?”
Shit, Dad was outside. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands.
“Sorry. I’ll start dinner.”
He pushed the walker back into the bedroom, his pale brow furrowed in confusion.
For the first time since my dad became ill, I was pleased he slept so much. After dinner, I sat in the living room, googling Rein Hayes and his family. He had two sons, one of whom had a girlfriend, so it must be the older one, Roy.
He was good-looking, but there was something in his eyes I couldn’t pinpoint. A harshness, perhaps? No, more brutal. I shivered, as if his hand was gripping my arm, and goosebumps crawled over me, not getting any sense of kindness or warmth. His haughty expression reminded me of the people at the club today.
A thump from Dad’s room alerted me he was awake again, and I went in. His covers were on the floor, and he’d squashed one pillow against the wall. But it wasn’t the bedding that worried me; it was his breathing.
We’d done plenty of late-night runs to the ER and tonight would be yet one more.
As I sat in the waiting room after Dad had been whisked away, I got out my phone and weighed it on my palm. It was my life or Dad’s, and that was a straightforward choice.
I’ll do it, I texted Sebastian.
Chapter 10
How did I become a stalker again?
Devyn
It was scary the amount of information twenty dollars could buy. If I had more, I’d have given it to him, but that had been the last of my cash. And really, more cash than I usually carried. I didn’t need it, really, although I was second-guessing that now.
Hess. I wasn’t given a last name, but since he probably shouldn’t have given me anything and he did give me an addy, that was fine. Hess lived in a small apartment and had a pretty low-end job for the son of the elite. Had I not first seen him at the country club, I’d have never thought him to be from, as my father says, “the right kind of stock.”
I shivered at the expression. But really, I was no better than my father right now. I grabbed all the information I could get on the guy and boom, started to track him down. I wouldn’t say I was stalking him, but also… Fine, I was stalking him, and even I didn’t understand why.
He was just a guy. There was nothing special about him. At least nothing I’d seen. Sure, he smelled good, and objectively he was hot as heck, but there were plenty of nice-smelling hot dudes out there.
But this one called to me to the point of me waiting outside his home, and then following him to the freaking hospital. What was wrong with me? Curiosity was one thing, but tracking down the guy as if he were my prey, even I had to draw a line there. Only, I didn’t. I was still sitting outside the hospital wondering where he would go next.
