“I like the sound of that.” He takes me by the hand and drags me back inside to face the rest of the music.
ChapterFifteen
Jacinta
When I push through the curtains, the sight that greets me has me wanting to turn and leap off the balcony to get away from what’s about to happen. The rest of my guys and Hope are still waiting for us, but Dad, Nana, and Poppy are sitting there too, drinking coffee and talking with them all. I feel a small rush of anger, but it all disappears when my eyes meet Riku’s. I can see him bracing for it, and that look in his eyes throws me back to my own childhood, to the moments where I would try to steel my spine so I could withstand one of my mother’s tirades. God, I’m such a bitch. All he’s been doing is looking after me this whole time, going above and beyond the requirements of his job because he cares for me.
“Ah, there you are, sweetheart. It’s lucky you two came in. Nana was just about at the end of her polite patience, ready to come and drag you in.” Poppy grins and stands up, coming over to give me a hug. Ash lets go of my hand in favor of finding a spare section of wall to lean against.
“We love you,” Poppy whispers into my hair as he kisses me on the temple and pulls away. He’s always been an astute man, so he must know something is wrong for them to have been summoned here.
He leads me over to the sofas and helps me take a seat across from Nana and Dad. Both give me a kiss.
“Hey, honey. What’s going on? Cole called and asked us to come in before we went to the office this morning.” Dad’s looking a little confused, but Nana has a grin a mile wide on her face.
“Does it have anything to do with the rock on your finger?” Trust her eagle eyes to catch sight of that before anyone else.
Dad’s eyes widen in surprise, then he looks around at the six men like he’s trying to figure out which one gave me the ring. It would be comical if the next part wasn’t going to be so hard to admit.
“Yes and no. The ring is from Ash, a part of the plan to keep his grandmother off his back. She issued an ultimatum last night, and his sister was going to pay the price of his failure.” Nana’s glee turns to anger in an instant. Let me tell you, the woman is the most easygoing person until you fuck with her family or friends, and she’s obviously decided that Ash counts as one of them.
“Howard, get Forrest on the phone. We need his best family court lawyer. We are going to get this sorted once and for all. Maybe we need a PI to investigate if Elizabeth has anything that excludes her from being a good guardian. A drinking problem or gambling? The money for the estate has to have gone somewhere, and Ash’s dad has been dead for years.”
“I’ll call him when we are done here,” Poppy assures his wife, and she nods, appeased for the moment.
“Okay, so what’s the other thing you wanted to talk about?” Dad asks now that my grandparents are on Ash’s case.
Before I can answer, Cole jumps in. “I’m afraid the next thing is completely my fault, and I have my letter of resignation for you. I had no idea the trouble it would cause when I asked Jacinta to help me with something, and for that I am truly sorry.” He hands a piece of paper to my dad, who accepts it with a frown.
“Okay, but that still doesn’t tell me what’s going on. Care to elaborate?”
“When I came on with the company, there were some pretty persistent rumors being bandied around the business community—how Neighpalm Industries is in trouble, the Summers are fighting, that Harlow had led the boys astray with their illicit romance, and it was just the start of the company’s downfall. All of these rumors stemmed from one person, Urie Sokolov, but it was enough to scare shareholders into selling, and the shares were being snatched up by Diamant Unlimited. I came up with a plan that would take the spotlight off all of you and put it firmly on Jacinta so we could have focused damage control efforts instead of being spread so widely and so thin.” Dad’s frown deepens. “I was under the impression that it wouldn’t be a problem since she appeared in the gossip columns on a regular basis. She stepped down as CEO of Couture, and by drawing the public’s eyes to her, they wouldn’t be paying any attention to the rest of you.”
Nana, Dad, and Poppy exchange confused glances. “So what’s the problem? Why have you called us here?”
Cole starts to talk, but I need to put on my big girl pants and admit what I’ve been doing to get through it all. Wringing my hands, I look down at my lap, unable to meet their eyes.
“Since the kidnapping, all my issues that I worked on with my therapist came screaming back. The feelings of uselessness and worthlessness that my mother screamed into me. On top of that, there was the fact that I wasn’t able to do anything to help Jax and Harlow, being responsible for what they went through with Peter. It was all too much. When I was out in public, I was conscious of all the gossipy whispers that surrounded me, of the people using me to get ahead in life. Of the fact that I have no real, genuine friendships… And, well, I started using cocaine to cope with being surrounded by all of this.”
“Oh, Jazzy.” Nana reaches over and grabs hold of my hand. “What were you thinking? Why?”
“I was thinking that I could finally be of use to my family! I could finally be the one that was saving all of you. That, for the first time in my life, I wouldn’t be a burden. If I needed the coke to do that, well, it was only when I went out. I was fine any other time, or that’s what I kept telling myself, but the guys have helped me see I have a problem, and I need to do something about it.”
Dad stands up and runs a hand through his hair.
“Shit, I wish you’d come to see me about this.” He doesn’t sound angry, just resigned.
“In Cole’s defense, I thought it was a good idea too. I helped fuel a rumor that Jacinta was on the outs with you, that her partying wasn’t family approved. But then the Ash situation came up, and we decided that it would be good cover for both of them.” I’m not surprised Hope is admitting her part in this. She’s never been one to let anyone else suffer for her mistakes.
Dad paces across the room before whirling back to face us. He starts to say something when Poppy puts his hand up. “Easy now, Brad. We are partly to blame for this because we’ve been trying to handle it quietly. Maybe we should have shared what we’ve been doing with the others. They are adults, but we weren’t including them as they should have been. Fortunately, or maybeunfortunately in this case, you raised kids who will stop at nothing to protect their family and your legacy. We should have trusted them with what was happening.”
It’s my turn to look confused as Dad takes a deep breath and blows it back out, nodding at my grandpa.
“We knew all about the rumors, of course, and what they have been trying to do to the company.” Poppy sighs. “While they have been distracted by trying to buy us up, we’ve been doing the same thing. They have been so distracted they haven’t noticed that a small company by the name of Incendiary Unlimited has been buying up all their shares. As of yesterday, Incendiary Unlimited, which is a nicely hidden subsidiary of Neighpalm, is the majority shareholder in Diamant Unlimited. Urie Sokolov is not going to be particularly popular with them anymore. He’ll be too busy worrying about keeping himself alive to mess with what we’re doing.”
“Dad and I plan on doing a complete overhaul of that company and rebranding it. It has a horrible reputation with its blood diamond business, and we want to distance ourselves from any of that. We’ve actually been in talks with the FDOC about sending in an undercover operative to help clean out all the bad. So, really, you don’t need to worry about any of that. We are on top of it even though we kept it quiet to limit the risk of it getting out.”
“Again, I apologize for overstepping my duties. I should have spoken to you about what we were planning.” Cole sounds contrite, and I feel so bad for him. He’s now jobless, which means he will be asked to leave his apartment, and that will undoubtedly affect his ability to get full custody of Cole. I squeeze Nana’s hand and nod subtly at him.
