Page 4 of Dirty Little Secrets
I glance up at Javier. “Problem solved then.”
“Potentialinvestors,” Javier enunciates as he sits across from me, fidgeting with his hand. “They…” He pauses, glancing at the various half-finished canvases sprawled around my living room. My attempt at therapy. “They’d like to meet you…face to face.”
“No,” I state, my stomach twisting at the idea. “We’ll find someone else.”
“Thereisno one else,” Javier notes, shaking his head. “Yannis and Marcus have been trying to find someone for months now, Damon. They’ve exhausted their resources.”
I scoff. “Hardly. I can list off twenty people who would kill to?—”
“Perhaps two years ago,” Javier interrupts me, “but things are different now, Damon. This company, your father’s company…” He closes his eyes. “Yourcompany… It…We…We need this. We need the Librothers. Without them,” he looks around the penthouse, “all of this can disappear.” His voice drops. “iCEF Technology is the backbone of Cavanaugh Industries. We can’t afford to lose it, Damon.”
“We will find another way,” I grunt, frustrated at his lack of innovative problem-solving. “I find it incredibly difficult to fathom that none of the executive officers whom I pay handsomely can think of alternative options that don’t require my involvement.” My jaw ticks. “Perhaps it’s time to adjust the leadership board, hmm?”
“Yourteamis not the problem, Damon,” Javier states in a tone that he's not paid have. “Youare the problem.”
“Me?” I scoff. “How canIbe the problem?”
“Because of this!” Javier stands up and motions around the room. “Because you refuse to leave these four walls! Because, despite what you think, Cavanaugh Industries needs a face! A trustworthy face. And whether or not you like it, Damon, that face is you!”
“You do not have the right to speak to me like this!” I bark, standing up, fury brewing in my veins. “Know your place, Javier.”
“This is my place!” he growls, slamming his fist on the table. “Your father was my dear friend, and I have been loyal to him and his family for half a fucking century! I will not watch his only remaining heir destroy the legacy he worked so hard to build!” Javier stands up and glares at me. Despite my towering over him, he doesn’t appear small. Not at all. “I understand that thesepast two years have been difficult for you. I am not undermining the significant loss you’ve suffered, but listen to me, my son, and listen carefully. Youwillmeet with the Li brothers tonight. Youwillshake their hands. Youwillentertain them. Youwillshow them a good time. And then, when the ink on the contract dries out, you are free to come back here and hide once again.”
“I am nothiding.” I grit my teeth, knuckles pained and clenched. “I am not?—”
“They arrive at eight,” Javier says, reaching for his cell phone. “I’d take them to Lux after dinner. Our sources say they’ve got a soft spot for naked women.” He raises a knowing brow. “If I recall correctly, you were a rather generous patron there, were you not?”
I glower at Javier. “You are skating on very thin ice right now.”
“If I fall in,” Javier says, “you are coming with me.” Javier waves over Josephine, my housekeeper. “Get him cleaned up before this evening.” He glances up at me. “That beard is two inches too long.”
“Hush.” Josephine gives me a sly grin as she pats my cheek. “I like the beard. It makes him look wise.”
Javier rolls his eyes and mumbles something under his breath. “Just make him look presentable. God forbid the press sees him looking like this.”
Josie clicks her tongue and smacks Javier’s shoulder. “Don’t you have someplace to be, huh? Leave.”
“With pleasure.” Javier glares at me. “Don’t be late. Got it?”
“He would’ve never dared speak to my father likethat,” I mumble as Javier leaves the room. “He doesn’t respect me. Not anymore.”
“I believe it’s calledtough love,” Josie says, pushing me into the kitchen for breakfast. She places an omelet in front of me. “At some point, Damon, you must rejoin the world. I think that time has come. Now eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” I say, pushing the plate away as nausea creeps up my throat.
When you’ve spentthe last two years only conversing with your staff, the idea of having to charm strangers and win their vote of confidence is worrisome. The weak part of my brain, the part that’s been viciously attacked by my conscience, actually thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. To act normal. To act confident. To emit the immense power that’s tied to the Cavanaugh name. What an idiotic thought. Almost comical. Evidently, I forgot that that power runs through my veins as it did my father’s and his father's before him. It’s a part of my DNA. The ability to swoon, to enchant, to fucking captivate. It’s a blessing.
And a goddamn curse.
This night needs to end.
Now.
“Another one!” Han shouts, slamming his shot glass on the table, nearly shattering it. His brother cackles, downing his own drink. “Join us, Damon!”
“Yes!” Pei chuckles, flagging down a server he’s beenogling since the moment we set foot in Lux. “Three more!”
“Just two,” I state, sickened by the stench of the spirits. “I’ll take another water.”
