Page 6 of Ashes of Us
“So, you’re an amateur grease monkey.” There was a faint hint of teasing in his voice as he caught up to her and she glanced over to see him smirking at the idea.
“My foster father was a mechanic,” She shrugged as she stepped onto the elevator and swiped her card for the administrative floor. “I spent a lot of time in his garage “earning my keep.” Her foster family hadn’t been abusive in any way, shape or form, but she was expected to do chores and help around the house. When they realized she was much better at taking things apart and putting them back together then she was at chores and cooking, she was sent out to help her foster father in his home garage.
“Earn your keep?” She could hear the faint note anger in his voice and looked at him in surprise as the elevator came to a stop. “You were a child in their care, they were paid to look after you, you shouldn’t have had to earn your keep.” Danica shrugged again, not sure how to respond, but wondered what the hell she said in her sleep for Alex to be suddenly coming to her defense.
“There were six of us, we were all expected to do our fair share to help keep the house running smoothly.” She explained as she headed to her office. “I was good at mechanics.”
“So why did you do hospitality?” Alex came to a stop in her doorway, leaning on the frame and folding his arms over his chest. “Why not become a car mechanic?”
“Because I enjoy it as a hobby, and it wasn’t what I wanted to do for a living.” she said absently as she sat down and started her computer. “I did hospitality because I wanted to become a flight attendant, but I started here and just… stayed.” She opened the schedule to see who was working and divided them quickly into two groups. She knew rumors were going to travel fast among the staff and mentioned that to Alex.
“I’ll take care of that, don’t worry.” He came in and sat across from her. “Set up an appointment with a notary asap so we can get that paperwork signed.” Danica nodded and began making a list of staff she was going to have Marcy call in for an emergency meeting.
“Do you want me to clean out your father’s office, or will you handle it?”
“We’ll work on that next week.” He was watching her work intently and it was starting to make her uncomfortable. “Let’s get through the announcements and meeting first.” He pulled out his phone, do you have the paperwork for my father’s estate so I can get started on the memorial stuff?” Danica nodded and got up, going over to her filing cabinet and pulling out the paperwork. She laid it on the desk in front of him along with the card the coroners office had given her and the keys to his office. He picked up the file and leafed through it while she called Marcy asking her to get in touch with the off-duty staff to come in for a meeting at four. Glancing at her phone, she saw she had a few missed messages from Jasper and Nigel, Jasper asking if she got back okay and Nigel asking her to phone him.
She quickly responded to Jasper and then called Nigel. “Hey, are you back yet?” She asked when he answered, sounding annoyed and stressed.
“Yeah,” He paused, and she could almost picture him running his hand over his face in exasperation. “He asked meto take him to his parents’ house and locked himself in. He’s refusing to leave.”
“Oh.” It was Danica’s turn to pause, and she looked up at Alex, who was busy going through all the paperwork she had given him. “Well, there’s nothing you can do there, come back to the hotel and give Marcy a hand with getting all the staff in. I’ll let Alex know and see how he wants to handle that.” Sounding relieved, Nigel hung up and she explained the situation to Alex.
“Son of bitch!” Alex growled and pulled out his phone. “How did he get in?”
“I guess he had a key?” Danica watched him as he began scrolling frantically, not sure why it was a big deal. “At least we know where he is.” Alex rolled his eyes and must have found what he was looking for, because he put the phone to his ear, drumming his fingers impatiently on the desk as he waited for an answer.
“Marco, Alex West. I need a security team patrolling around my parents’ house immediately, no goes in, understand?” He was quiet for a minute, and Danica watched as his face grew red. “I don’t care what it costs or who you have to reach out to, make it happen.” There was another silence and then he gave a terse “thank you” and hung up. “The bastard is gonna try to sell everything not nailed down.” he grumbled as he stood up. “I’ll have the police get him out of there after we finish up everything here.” Danica nodded and followed him to the main conference room, instantly feeling guilty that she hadn’t pushed for Alexander to change the locks on the house when he moved into the penthouse.
Chapter Five: Seeds of Discord
The meetings with the staff went about the way Danica expected them to. Alexander was a great boss and was loved among his employees, so there were tears and condolences. Alex explained there would be no changes to staffing and while policies would be reviewed, there wouldn't be any changes unless he found them to be outdated, but when he announced that Danica would continue in her role as executive assistant to the CEO and to direct any inquiries to her, she saw Marcy visibly deflate and glare at her before looking away. Danica could only assume that she expected to be rewarded for being Alex's spy and maybe that was what Alex meant when he said “for now” but she really didn't care, as far as she was concerned, Marcy wasn't trustworthy and she would make sure she treated her as such going forward, polite but distant and indifferent.
Alex finished the meeting with a stern warning not to spread rumours or misinformation to other staff members, the guests, or the media and that Danica was setting up a rotation work schedule so everyone would have a chance to pay their respects at the memorial. “And finally, I will have a grief counsellor on site for the next three months if you need to speak to someone.”
The last part surprised Danica, and she quickly made a note to find a grief counsellor willing to come in and work for three months, feeling like Alex was testing her. When the last meeting was finished, she stepped out of the room and quickly made a few phone calls while Alex answered questions from the staff. By the time she saw Alex walk past to his office with a chattering Marcy close behind him, thirty minutes later, she had one arranged to start the next day. She was working on setting up a press conference for after the meeting with the North American Hotels. When she was done, it was past six o'clock, and she was mentally and emotionally done for the day.
She still had a bunch of things to do, like setting up Alex's American email and contacts, writing up the press release and getting in touch with the social media team to update the website's about page with Alex's bio and picture and the European team to update that website with Kieran's information, as well as having them do a memorial page for Alexander, but it was going to have to wait until tomorrow, she wanted to go home, spend time with her husband and relax for a bit. Gathering her things, she walked out of her office just as Marcy walked out of Alex's office. She gave Danica a smug grin as she walked by. Danica raised her eyebrow but otherwise ignored her and knocked on Alex's door. When he told her to come in, she opened the door but didn't move to step inside.
“I have a grief counsellor scheduled to be here tomorrow and will have them set up in one of the single rooms downstairs, and the press conference is scheduled for one-thirty tomorrow afternoon.” She informed him. “Everything else I have to do can wait until morning.”
Alex leaned back in his chair and looked at her with an impassive face for a long moment, then nodded and stood up.“Before we go home, we need to go to my parents' place and see if we can get my brother out.”
“We?” She raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised he wanted her there. “Why we?”
“Because I said so.” He gave her a look as he passed her and headed toward the elevator, leaving Danica scrambling to keep up with his longer stride.
“Don't you think this is a family matter?” she asked as she caught up. “I've spent even less time with Craig than I have with you.” She really just wanted to go home and not think about the West's or her job for the next eight to ten hours.
“My parents trusted you to look after things, did they not?” he asked as the doors opened. He got on, pressing the button for the parking garage as Danica followed him.
“Your Dad trusted me with the hotel.” She corrected him, annoyed that he was dragging her along because if Jasper felt like she was spending too much time with Alex, she would have to deal with his jealous demands for her to quit. “And even then, he still made the decisions; I just carried out his orders. I haven't set foot in the house or on the property since he moved out.” Alex didn't respond and stayed silent for the entire ride down to the parking garage, watching her with no emotion whatsoever. She was really over the way he stared her, feeling like he was waiting for her to react and do or say something he could use to fire her. When they reached her car, she unlocked the passenger side door for him so he could get inside. Then, she walked around and found he had leaned across the seats and unlocked her door for her. When she was in and ready to go, she glanced at him. “You really want me to help you get Craig out?”
“It's more that I want a witness so he can't make any false claims against me when I inevitably have to call the police tohave him removed,” Alex responded after a moment. He sighed and his whole demeanour changed again; his body slumped back in the seat, and he ran his hand over his face. “Look, Craig has had problems with drugs, alcohol and sex addictions since high school, and since he moved to Vegas, he's added a gambling addiction, or maybe he always had it and it went unnoticed, I don't know.” He shrugged, his frustration with his younger brother evident. “He's always been hyper-sensitive to criticism, especially if it came from me or Dad, and if I go there alone, he will lie and do everything in his power to get me in trouble with the law so I won't be able to stop him from cleaning the house out and selling everything he can. He knows now that Dad's dead, his free ride is coming to an end because I'm not going to tolerate his bullshit.”
“Right.” Danica nodded. Alexander had told her he only wanted one child, and Cassandra had agreed until Alex turned one, when she began begging her husband for more children. He gave in when Alex was three but made it very clear he wouldn't have a third. She got pregnant with Craig a few months later, and he was born shortly after Alex's fourth birthday. She coddled and babied him his entire life, never letting him face consequences and always coming to his rescue. Alexander told Danica he sometimes regretted not giving her more children because of the way she ruined Craig, but knew that if he gave in to her, she would be begging for another child the minute the previous one showed the slightest signs of wanting independence from her.”She loved babies, being needed and looking after people.”She started the car and pulled out of the parking garage. “So, what do you need me to do?”
“Watch and record it on your phone.” Alex seemed to relax as Danica agreed to help him with Craig. “I'd rather not call the police on him. I'm hoping you being there will make himbehave, and he'll just let me get him a taxi to the hotel without making a fuss, but it's not in his nature.” She saw him pull out his phone from the corner of her eye as she drove toward the West's house in Beacon Hill. “He's been sending me increasingly frustrated texts about the security guards outside all afternoon, saying they won't let his 'friends' in. I told him no one was supposed to be in the house, including him, and if he wanted to see his “friends,” he could do it at the hotel, which he ignored and just told me to call off my guard dogs.”
