“He was?” He jerked forward in his seat. “Did something happen? Is he okay?”

  “He was on a bender.”

  “You just said. Did you stop him?”

  “Why would I?”

  This was what I’d been worried about. I was at a crossroads, and I had to choose.

  Bailey. Her face on the sidewalk as my grandfather pulled up. That image flashed in my mind.

  I chose.

  “You’re fucking up.”

  Peter flinched, his head snapping back.

  I kept on. “You are my superior with age, with years, with expertise in your field, but you are completely fucking up when it comes to your family.”

  Peter closed down. A nerve was ticking out.

  I’d pissed him off. I was about to piss him off more.

  I leaned forward in my seat, knowing my eyes were dead as I delivered the rest to him. I should care, but fucking hell, I couldn’t.

  “You are not grasping that things have changed. I am no longer in charge of watching your family. Matt is fucking up. He went on a bender. He hasn’t done that in weeks. If I were to guess, I’d think it has something to do with Quinn.” Peter stiffened at her name. I ignored it. “I know you are sleeping with Bailey’s mother again, and Bailey knows this.”

  His mouth slackened. “She does?”

  “I don’t think Bailey’s talked to her mother about it. I don’t know if Bailey even has an opinion on it. She was almost kidnapped, four weeks ago. She refused counseling two weeks after. She started school a week later, and since starting school she’s been targeted by my grandfather twice and has been targeted by one of her classmates for the sole reason that her father is Peter Francis.”

  “What?” He jerked forward. His hands dug into the chair.

  “I get reports from the security teams. I get reports from all of your accountants. All of them. I get reports from your assistants. I get reports from your publicity team. I get fucking reports from everyone, and in the middle of all of that, I am finding out about another company my mother was running in secret, once every second day. I am also spearheading a war against my grandfather, and this is a battle that you don’t seem to give one shit about.” I rested my arms on the desk. “You should give a shit about it. He comes in and wins, I’m dead.”

  Peter winced. Again.

  I ignored it. Again. “He comes in and wins, Bailey is dead, or worse.” His face closed up, and I was content to let him sit on that, think on that. “It’s not escaped anyone’s attention you shipped Marie off for an extended vacation. Why?”

  He didn’t answer, his face shifting away.

  “Peter.”

  He remained quiet.

  “On Matt’s bender, he had breakfast at the estate. He noticed, even while drinking. He went to Hawking and shared his revelation with Bailey. She shared with me. She’s gone back to the house, something I know she’s in turmoil about, because she wants to see her little brother and sister but she does not want to see a Quinn look-alike there, and especially one standing in the back and lurking.”

  Now Peter looked up. His nostrils flared. “Payton does not lurk.”

  Why those nostrils flared on that point was something I would tuck away and turn over later. “She makes Bailey uncomfortable, and because I know the second reason for your visit, I’m just going to give you my report. Your daughter is still struggling. She loves school, something I’m assuming you understand, but she’s not keeping it together. She’s acting like she is. She’s convinced herself she is. She’s not, and it is killing me that I am unable to give her the attention she needs from me.”

  Those nostrils had calmed, and his Adam’s apple moved up and down before he coughed to clear his throat. He ran a hand down his tie, then leaned forward in his seat. “Those restraining orders are a wake-up call.”

  I sat back. “Restraining orders won’t do shit against my grandfather.”

  “But they’re paperwork. Paperwork is—”

  “Not currency my grandfather adheres to. He is in bed with corrupt government leaders. He’s here. He’s attempting to battle me in old-school ways, buying up shares in companies he thinks I want, trying to get shares of companies you and I both own. He’s trying to get to Bailey for the mere fact to scare her. He has not clued in, either, that I’m not playing that way. I am taking a page from Bailey’s playbook.”

  Interest sparked in his gaze.

  “I’m letting him underestimate me, but there’ll be a time where he realizes he’s losing. He’ll get angry and he’ll explode. I’m trying to cover all bases so when he does explode, everyone I love is safe.”

  Peter let my words sink in.

  I hated this. It made my stomach churn. He had helped raise me, but there were facets of Peter that were not there. Being monogamous and being proactive in areas outside of technology were two that he struggled with. It was unfair of me to expect him to know how to physically disarm an attacker or, if need be, to pick up their gun and shoot them in the head with it. I wasn’t asking that of him.

  He let out a deep sigh. “What do you need from me?”

  “I need you to be a father.”

  His eyelids shuttered. He looked as if I’d struck him.

  “Check in with Matt. That bender happened for a reason. Make it right with him. Check in with your daughter. She needs a father right now, and I know she’s walling off her mother, and I haven’t approached that topic with her yet. I looked into her schedule. She overloaded herself so she would finish within twelve months.”

  “What? That’s too much, even for her.”

  “Exactly. Figure out why, and tell me.” Though I had a strong guess as to why. “Then help her as her father. She just got you. Let her actually have you.”

  He gestured to my computer, my desk. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

  I wheeled back my chair, but just watched him.

  He waited.

  “When I have reports sent to you, read them or listen to them and move on them. I send them to you for a reason.”

  He let that digest before clipping his head up and down. “Got it. You sent another one over this morning. I’ll listen to it on the way to check in with Matthew.”

  That was it.

  He came.

  He tried to help.

  I schooled him on how he wasn’t helping. And now we would see if he did.

  Now he left.

  If I were to guess, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bailey shared that she got a surprise call or visit from her father.

  My phone rang.

  “Yeah?”

  “Kashton?”

  This was a call I never wanted to take.

  “Victoria.”

  She was hesitant, but then asked, “Can we meet for lunch? There’s something I need to talk to you about. About … about your grandfather.”

  I looked at my screen, seeing the latest report that one of my private investigators had sent me. It was the amount her grandfather was in debt to my grandfather, but I highly doubted this was what she wanted to talk to me about.

  With that, I knew what I would do, and I knew I wouldn’t tell Bailey, and I could only hope it didn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

  “Sure.”

  TWENTY

  Bailey

  A week passed, and I fell into a routine.

  Kash woke me up every morning, and after I fell back asleep, fully satiated, he left for work. I woke forty minutes later, went to Hawking. Hoda wasn’t there for the first three days. Rumor was that she found herself having financial problems. She got that sorted out, but I’d taken to sitting with Melissa and Liam. We ate at the same place for lunch every day, and because of that, other people and staff took note. It didn’t take long before my classmates’ pictures were being put on a couple social gossip blogs. Camille Story had remained quiet, but she was on the list for me to hack. Again. She was slippery, though, so I wanted to wait and figure out the best way to go at her.

  Matt came over twice. He didn’t ask about Kash. He asked about school, and he had a look in his eye like he wanted to talk about something else, something important, but both times he never brought it up.

  I was biding my time before I pushed to get answers from him.

  I worried he would close up to me, so I wanted to wait until the right time.

  I needed answers.

  If he was going to Naveah. If he was going to see a new woman. If he was going to the Chesapeake Estate. But mostly, I wanted to know what was bothering him.

  Until then, lots of studying. Lots of coding. Lots of reading.

  I wanted to get ahead with my classes, so that meant even more reading and even more coding. Melissa dropped a hint that there was a big internship opportunity coming up. She looked at me as she was talking about it, got all squinty, and then clammed up. I asked Liam later about it and he told me that Phoenix Tech always offered a first-year graduate student in our program at Hawking an internship. That internship sometimes led into a job.

  I understood why she clammed up.

  Liam added, “Though I don’t think anyone will get too excited about it this year. It’s pretty obvious you’ll get it.”

  But he didn’t know, and I didn’t know, and I realized then that I hadn’t heard from my father for almost three weeks. And I further realized I was okay with that. As for Chrissy, she’d been quiet, too. She had texted a couple mornings ago.

  Checking in, sweetie. How’s everything going?

  I didn’t respond to her. I didn’t know why, but as soon as I put the phone away, my mind was moving on to other things.

  I was leaving our afternoon class when my phone started ringing.

  Torie calling.

  Melissa was with me. We were both watching Hoda, who’d been back the past two days. She stuck to herself, only talking once with Liam, who walked away, looking annoyed. Melissa asked what the conversation was about but he didn’t say. He just got that same annoyed look and left us, too. So we were standing, eyeing Hoda, who was sitting at a table in the hallway, acting as if she didn’t know we were mostly glaring her way. But she did, and we knew she did, and we were still doing it anyway.

  I answered, “Hey, Torie.”

  Hoda’s head snapped up. Her eyes jumped right to me.

  “Bailey,” she breathed into the phone. “Tamara called, and her man broke up with her. We need a girls’ night, stat.”

  “Torie—”

  She overrode me. “Kash gave me the night off. I’m calling in reinforcements. Get over to our apartment in an hour. You got any girlfriends from school?”

  I opened my mouth.

  Melissa had heard. She piped up next to me. “She totally does! Me!”

  “Well, whoever you are, get Bailey and your asses to our apartment. Just let one of those hottie guards know you’re going to Torie’s place. Now, I have a question. Are you the type of girls who want food before drinks and dancing? Or are you the Taco Bell after drinks and dancing type of girls?”

  “Uh…” Melissa looked clueless.

  I took the phone back. “We’ll bring something to tide us over—”

  Melissa grabbed the phone. “No! Drinking. Dancing. Taco Bell. That’s what we’re doing tonight.”

  Torie chuckled, still sounding all smooth and seductive but I was wondering if this was how she was, off duty. “Add in shots, and I’m not talking shots where they can be added into the drinking section. Shots get their own category. Trust me, Tam will be hurting a little less by the end of the night.”

  She hung up.

  I turned to Erik. He was the closest. I didn’t say a word. He nodded before I could. “We know her place. We’ll get you there.”

  “You’re off duty soon.”

  “Scott and the new guys know it. You’re covered.” He looked at Melissa, then back to me. “Are we giving your friend a ride to get ready, too?”

  Melissa’s eyes got big. “That would be amazing.”

  I guess we were now, and I didn’t mean that in a snarky way. I meant that in a belated, I-feel-like-shit way, because I hadn’t even thought about offering. I was glad Erik did, and I felt his eyes on me as I was thinking all of this.

  “Where are you going?” Liam had migrated over after the call.

  Melissa shot straight up. “Girls’ night. You’re not invited. And I hope we go to Naveah at some point.” She leaned into me, her side brushing my arm. “That would be amazing.”

  I gave Liam a grin as we started to head out. “This’ll be awesome.”

  He grinned back. “Have fun.”

  We went outside and got in the waiting SUV. The guys all sat in the front while Melissa and I were in the back.

  “Where to?”

  Melissa gave him directions to her apartment and my phone was buzzing as we started going. Kash.

  You’re with the girls tonight?

  I reiterated about Tamara.

  That sucks. How was your day?

  He asked the same thing every day, once I got into the vehicle. And it always had the same effect; pure golden warmth washing through me.

  Day was good. Did you catch any more Calhoun moves and counter them?

  I asked every day. This was another routine I’d fallen into.

  Every day. I’ll be working from the Naveah office tonight if you’re there.

  My heart fluttered.

  I’m sure that’ll happen. Torie said dancing.

  And Naveah was one of the hot spots to dance at in Chicago.

  If you go to Octavo, tell me. I know the owners, but I want extra security on you if you go there.

  Me: Okay. I’m sure we’ll stick to Naveah tho.

  Kash: Still.

  Me: Okay. Love you.

  Kash: Love you. Have fun tonight.

  Me: Please don’t work so hard.

  Kash: I won’t. Love you.

  I noticed Melissa watching me as I put my phone away.

  “What?”

  She had a weird look in her eyes, one I’d never noticed before. She shook her head, her mouth twitching. She kept looking at where I’d stowed my phone away. “Nothing.”

  I saw the grin. I also saw the fight to keep it back, and I rolled my eyes. “He’s my boyfriend.”

  “He’s one hot boyfriend.”

  Melissa’s grin was wide. It kept widening until we got to her place.

  She lived in a cute smaller apartment building that housed ten units. There was a buzzing system. The front door was locked, but once we got inside, the only other security was the apartment door. As we walked in, two doors opened and I was staring at two elderly residents. One was a man wearing suspenders, a stained white muscle shirt, and baggy jeans that were only held up because of the suspenders. His hair was a mess, with two days’ worth of beard on his face. The other resident was an older woman. Her hair was wrapped up in a fancy up-do, dyed black, and she had a heavy dose of makeup on her face. Her mouth had eight coats of red lipstick and there was an equal number of coatings of blush on her cheeks. Unlike the guy, she was dressed to impress. A suit jacket and skirt, both a lavender color with white lace fringe. She was just missing lavender high heels. She had pink fuzzy slippers and cotton between her toes.

  She was getting a pedicure.

  “Liss, who’s this?” From the woman.

  “This is a classmate of mine!” Melissa was bouncing, still grinning, and her elbow jostled me. “Get this, Esther. We’re going drinking, dancing, and Taco Bell. I’m going on a girls’ night.”

  The alarm faded from Esther and her smile softened. “You deserve it, Liss. You’re a good girl. A night out having fun is something you should’ve been doing for ages.” Her sharp eyes went to me. “You take care of our girl. You hear?”

  I opened my mouth.

  Melissa got there first, saying, “No. We’re totally covered. Bailey’s got guards on her at all times. I thought it was only three, but we got in her car today and I saw she had a driver too, so four. It was two before, but this week’s been four. We’re safe. Totally.”

  Esther’s eyes had started to wander, but at the mention of my guards, they were razor-sharp again. “Four?”

  The guy harrumphed, “Guards? Why the fuck you need guards?”

  “Harold,” Esther hissed. “Language. They’re still young.”

  “Excuse me.” His hands went to his suspenders and he arched his back, then bellowed out, “Four fucking guards? Why the fuck you need four fucking guards?” He aimed a glare across the hall. “That better for you, Est?”

  She sucked in a breath and looked to be counting under her breath. After a bit, she nodded at me. “You keep her safe or you’ll deal with us. Don’t care who you are. We’ll get to that another time, and why you need four guards, but I got bridge tonight and need to head out of here.”

  Her door was closed and Harold guffawed. “Don’t know why she’s in such a hurry. She’s only walking to A2. It’s the building next door. We’re the B building. And she don’t need to dress so hoity-toity. Only does it to rub it in the other ladies’ faces that her husband was a banker. I know she does it to piss Gail off. She’s married to Henry, who once made a play for Esther. Esther wasn’t having it, but she doesn’t want to quit bridge. You play bridge, and you learn it’s the social hour around these parts for us. Every Friday night together. Damned ruthless over there sometimes.” He took a beat and focused on me. “Why do you need guards on you?”

  I was sensing a pattern, so I didn’t even try to speak.

  Melissa stepped up. “Because she’s got a hot and rich boyfriend, and her pops is Peter Francis.”

  At that, Harold’s eyes widened, and he even stepped back a foot. His hands flattened over his chest, the suspenders smashed in the middle. “Peter Francis?” He paused again, his eyes narrowing on me. “Know the boy who came out that was being half raised by Francis. Kashton Colello.”

  Oh, crap.

  I swallowed. “That’s him.”

  “I follow the sites, know who his grandfather is.” He took in Erik and Connor, who hadn’t changed shifts yet and were standing just inside the apartment building door. Fitz was outside. “You need more guards.”