Page 85 of False Evidence
“Is that why you’re selling? Because you’re tired of being on the outside?”
He tilted his head toward the couch. “Can we sit?”
She nodded.
He sat and was surprised when she chose to sit right next to him. Not touching, but within easy reach when there was plenty of couch to go around.
He lifted the bottle of red wine, silently offering her another glass. She nodded, and he poured for both of them. He raised his glass and twirled it, staring into the swirl of red. “That might be part of it. But mostly I’m tired of living other people’s plans for my life. Or trying to redeem people’s opinion of me.”
Her eyes widened. “But you love running T&D.”
“I haven’t loved it in years. Not since we learned what Drake and Dad were doing. I felt like I had to make things better. Prove that the company was good. ThatIwas good. Not my father’s son and not Drake’s puppet.”
“No oneeverthought you were Drake’s puppet.”
“Sure they did. I was twenty-five when I took over. No one believed I was really running the company. I spent twelve years having to circumvent that asshole, working twice as hard because I had to work around him, not with him. Anyway. I’m done. I’m proud of the work I did. I’m selling for twice as much as it was worth when I started. It’ll be someone else’s headache.”
“What are you going to do after the sale?”
“I’ve got six months of transition—they wanted two years, but I refuse to be on the hook that long. After that…who knows? Maybe I’ll travel.” He glanced around the living room. “Or move here and be a hermit. I’ve always wanted to be a hermit.”
“Who’s buying the company?”
“A competitor. Moss & Delano Architects and Engineers.”
Lex was about to take a sip of wine, but she jolted. Red liquid sloshed from the glass and splattered over her and the sofa. “Shit! Sorry!”
“I don’t care about the couch, what’s wrong?”
She grabbed a napkin from the coffee table and patted at the red drops on the cushion. “Russ Spaulding works for them.”
“Not possible. Ichecked.”
She shrugged. “That’s what Kendall said the last time we talked.”
“His direct employment is a deal-breaker.” Spaulding had never paid a legal price for his attempt to assault Lex, but JT always made certain the man wasn’t working for anyone he did business with.
“They hid it, then. He must be a contractor.”
“Motherfucker.” This workaround had been used more than once over the years, but there wasn’t much JT could do after the subcontracts were signed.
“Another thing to have Raptor look into. I don’t like that his name is crossing paths with Kendall’s again. All this must be connected. It feels like, I don’t know, Drake’s ghost or something.” She leaned toward him, her elbow on the couch cushion, her fist pressed just below her ear, supporting her head. “Drake hit on me, you know. One of the company parties—not a Christmas one—he said something pretty disgusting about if I ever got sick of you as my sugar daddy, he’d show me what a real man had to offer.”
“What thefuck?”
“I kneed him in the balls and told him if he ever came near me again, I’d see to it that both you and Senator Talon knew he’d hit on me, and I’d make sure a call was put out through HR for women employees to come forward if he’d ever been inappropriate with them.”
“Shit. Why didn’t you tell me this then?”
“At the time, you were having enough problems with him, and a game of he said/she said with me wouldn’t have made anything easier. Then later, when he was arrested…well, you were having a hard enough time. Confessing I hadn’t told you something that you might have used to oust him sooner felt like a bad idea.”
He heard what she didn’t say. He might have blamed her instead of being horrified for her.
“I’m sorry you went through that and felt you couldn’t share it with me.”
“We were both bad at communication then.”
“Fair.”