Forbidden Love

“Pretty badly, actually. Lourde didn’t mean to hurt him.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“Is he okay?” I asked, noticing a change in my friend over the last few months since he stepped up at the Diamond Incorporated company.

“I don’t know. I wish he would just commit to something. Sometimes I wonder where I went wrong with him.” Alfred took a sip of his scotch and stared vacantly across the room.

“Surely you don’t mean that?”

“Absolutely, I do.” He held my gaze before shaking away whatever thoughts were going through his head.

“So I was just reading about you before you arrived or rather, your trainwreck of a week.”

“You of all people should know not to believe everything that's printed.” I widened my eyes, and he shot me a piercing glare.

“Shit, too far?”

Then he split into laughter. “I think you should be more concerned about your reputation at the moment and fixing this mess up you’ve got yourself into than what is printed out there.”

“I know you print what your reporters find, but honestly, Alfred, I think someone’s out to get me.”

He put his tumbler of amber liquid and leaned in. “How so?”

“I’ve run this business, taking it from the ground up, employing hundreds of people over the last decade, and in the last two weeks, my award-winning tower at 21 Park has a fire with the cause of suspected arson.” I paused, running my hand through my hair. “Then less than a week later, the crane braiding cable snaps.”

I shook my head.

“But who would put people’s lives on the line like that?”

“Someone’s out to get me.”

“Why? What are you hiding?”

I diverted my gaze at him, and he looked at me curiously. Hiding that my parents didn’t die in a car accident, hiding that I held the gun that killed my mother because I couldn’t fight off my father. And that my father shot himself in the head in front of my sister Evelyn and me.

No. That was something I could never divulge to anyone.

“You’re a businessman, Alfred. Not everything we do is entirely by the book, is it?”

He tilted his head and let out a chuckle.

“There’s always a sprinkle of gray in there. Always has to be when you become as successful as we are.”

“I can’t prove it, but I think I’ve pissed off the board members at the Hamptons deal that’s just gone through.”

“Ah yes, you mentioned something about that. What happened?”

“I know I can trust you, Alfred, so I will tell you this in confidence. The board was misappropriating funds while fucking around and laying off staff. So I did what any ruthless businessman would do with that piece of information. I asked for a hefty discount in the acquisition in order to keep their dirty secrets.”

He threw his head back in laughter. “So a little blackmail. No one fairs well to blackmail.”

I knocked back the rest of my scotch. “I'll sort it out. I have my team on it.”

“Do sort it out because now you're with my daughter, and we can’t have any smudges against her name.” His previous lighthearted tone had changed to a serious timber tone.

I blinked. He just said the obvious, so why was I surprised. “I know.”

“Good, so get your ducks in a row, Barrett, if you are as serious as I think you are with Lourde. Otherwise, this won’t end well.” He stood up, putting an end to the conversation.

The fucking relic was threatening me. Anyone else would be on the goddamn floor for doing such a thing. But Alfred was Lourde’s father, and I respected him. Still, I didn’t take to threats well.

That side of him that Connor always talked about had reared its head, and it was ruthless.