Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

brADEN

My whole body was vibrating with nervous energy and simmering anger as I walked into the offices of Garman and Garman Public Relations with Malachi on one side and my attorney, Glenn, on the other. My hands were clenched into fists at my sides, I could hear my heart beating in my ears, and it felt like someone had my entire chest in a vise grip.

How the fuck was I supposed to share breathing space with Vicki fucking Preston without jumping across the table and strangling her? How was I supposed to act calm and professional when this woman had done so many evil, heartless, and unforgivable things not just to me, but to my infant son and both of his mothers?

"Mr. Hicks, Mr. Houston, Mr. Salinger," Becky, the secretary at the front desk, greeted us. "Come with me. Everyone's waiting for you in the conference room."

My heartrate – which was already dangerously high – kicked up another few notches as we followed this chick through the office. If I couldn't find some way to calm the fuck down, I'd end up turning desks over and punching holes in walls.

I just needed to hold my shit together for twenty fucking minutes so I could do what I'd come here to do, and then I'd never have to see any of these assholes ever again. I could go pound on my punching bag until my knuckles bled after this was over. At least until I had to meet Dani at Glenn's office to have him rip up that fucking contract and NDA, and to let her know that I was going to have him help me set up a trust for her and Isaac. Even if she didn't want anything to do with me from here on out, I wanted to make sure they would be taken care of.

"Becky, give us just a second," Glenn said just as she was reaching for the doorknob of the conference room. "We can show ourselves in if you need to get back to the desk."

Becky nodded. "I'll leave you here, then."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Malachi turned to me and put a hand on my arm.

"You ready for this?" he asked.

"No," I bit out. "You might have to bodily restrain me the second I see the bitch."

"That's why I'm here," he said with a humorless chuckle. "Well, that and to get these assholes out of my career too."

"Both of you, take a deep breath," Glenn said, ever the consummate professional. "I want you to let me do the talking, at least at first. Got it?"

I gave him a tense nod and took a long, controlled inhale. "Got it."

"Mal?" He cocked an eyebrow at my friend.

"Understood."

"Good." Glenn turned the doorknob and pushed the door to the conference room open, gesturing for me and Malachi to walk in first.

The second I caught a glimpse of the bottle-blonde hair and too-tight black dress that I was sure went against the dress code in this office, I saw red. My temples started pounding and I could feel my jugular throbbing as my heart started to hammer so hard that I thought it might actually fly out of my chest and splatter against the wall.

"Braden!" the snake exclaimed, looking almost elated, as she stood up and started to walk over to me with a serpentine smile pasted on her face. "Honey, I'm?—"

"Sit. Down. Vicki," I clipped out, low and deadly.

A stupid confused expression replaced the slimy grin, and it took every ounce of energy in my entire body to just quickly walk to a chair and sit down next to Malachi instead of throttling her with my bare hands. Under normal circumstances, I would never have hit a woman. Not in a million years. But for this evil bitch, I was a mere millimeter away from making an exception. I kept my eyes down, staring at the ugly-ass faux mahogany conference table and fidgeting with one of those stupid little black plastic hole covers that you could stick computer cords through just to give my hands something to keep them occupied.

"Lloyd. Louis. Bob. Vicki. I appreciate you making time for us this morning," Glenn said as he set his briefcase on the table.

"Of course," Lloyd Garman, the elder of the two brothers who co-owned this firm, said from behind his laptop screen. "It sounded urgent when we spoke on the phone."

"It is." Glenn opened his briefcase and removed several documents. "As I'm sure you're aware, shortly after signing with the Dragons and obtaining representation with this firm, Mr. Hicks elected to get a new phone number, as he had started to get several calls from newspapers, radio stations, and television stations requesting sound bites and interviews. At that time, he chose to forward calls on his old phone number to Ms. Preston so she would be able to field requests for interviews. He informed her that some personal calls might come through to this number by mistake and requested that she either provide those callers with his new phone number or take a message and pass it on to him."

He slid four copies of the same document – my full contract with Garman and Garman, including the addendum where all parties had agreed to the call forwarding – across the table, one in front of each of the people across from us. They all started thumbing through the pages with knitted brows, like they were trying to figure out how they'd been derelict in their duties.

"That is a full copy of Mr. Hicks's contract with Garman and Garman, including an addendum which outlines provisions for this service," he continued. "It has come to his attention that there have been several instances where she did not carry out those responsibilities."

"It was one phone call, Braden," Vicki whined like a small child who had missed naptime. "I told you how sorry I was, honey."

I raised my eyes from the table, pinning her with a deadly glare. If looks could kill, she would have been incinerated on the spot.

"Call me ‘honey' one more time ," I gritted out through clenched teeth while clutching the arms of the most uncomfortable office chair on the planet in a death grip, using a kind of restraint I never knew I was capable of. "And as unacceptable as that bullshit with my cousin was, you know it's not what he's referring to."

"Wh-what?" she stammered with wide eyes, trying harder than normal to appear like a dumb bimbo. "I-I have no idea… What are you talking about, sweetie?"

A growl rumbled in my chest as I started to press my fists against the table and rise from my chair. Malachi gripped my arm tightly, yanking me back down.

"Let it go, B," he said quietly. "She's not worth it."

But that was just it. Vicki might not have been worth a fucking millisecond of my time…but there was someone in my life who was worth it. Who was worth everything . And the Wicked Witch of the Southeast in front of me had done every conceivable thing possible to destroy any chance I had of ever having a relationship with that woman and the child she was caring for. My child.

And now that same vile, despicable excuse for a human being was sitting across a table from me, calling me by cutesy pet names and trying to act like she was completely blameless.

"As Ms. Preston has already admitted, one such instance was a phone call from Mr. Hicks's cousin, Jameson, attempting to inform him that his uncle, whom he was very close with, had passed away," Glenn said. "Due to not receiving this information, Mr. Hicks was unable to book a flight to travel to his hometown in Kansas and attend funeral services."

Lloyd and his younger brother, Louis, both turned to Vicki with narrowed eyes, wordlessly demanding an explanation.

"I…I…" she stammered, then heaved out an annoyed sigh. "How is that my fault? His cousin should have tried harder to reach him. And if Braden was really so close with his uncle, why was the only phone number his cousin had for him an old number? I'm sorry he missed the funeral, but that's not on me."

Breathing in through my nose, I held it for a count of four seconds, then exhaled for a count of four. And then I did it again. And again. Until I felt in control enough to be able to respond professionally rather than giving in to the anger that hadn't left my system for the past three days, ever since my entire world as I knew it had come crumbling down at my feet.

"It's your fault because I paid you additional money on top of my normal contract for a service, which you failed to provide," I clipped out. "And like I said, the incident with my cousin is the least of my concerns right now."

Glenn put a hand on my shoulder, which made me look in his direction. He gave me a slight shake of his head, reminding me to let him handle what was coming next. And I was grateful, because I wasn't capable of staying levelheaded enough to keep my words about what she'd done to Amara and Dani professional right now. It was too soon. I was too raw and angry and heartbroken for logic to enter this equation.

"Mr. Hicks was also made aware over the weekend that a young woman he had a brief romantic relationship with last summer attempted to call his old phone number several times to inform him that she was pregnant. When that young woman tragically passed away in the hospital from a postpartum infection, leaving her sister to raise the child alone, one final attempt was made to inform Mr. Hicks of the situation. Not only did Ms. Preston fail to notify Mr. Hicks of even one of the six separate phone calls, but she actually took it upon herself to attempt to pay this young woman off to terminate the pregnancy, and when that didn't produce the desired results, to threaten to have her arrested for stalking and harassment and sue her for defamation."

Louis looked over at Vicki, his eyes as hard and black as stone. I could tell he knew where this was heading already. To the place I hadn't wanted to go, but Glenn had talked me into: a lawsuit. Something that could destroy the entire credibility and reputation of this company.

"Vicki, what the?—"

"He's…he's lying! I never got any calls! I…I didn't…" Her voice was panicked, like she was trying to find any possible loophole to slither her way out of this. Just like the snake she was.

Glenn pulled the next documents out of his briefcase: screenshots that Dani had provided of Amara's call logs going back seven months, and records of the two calls she'd made on her phone. Complete with the length of each call.

"These are records of calls that were made to Mr. Hicks's old phone number, complete with time and date stamps and the length of each phone call. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you keep recordings of calls taken on office phones, do you not?"

"We do. Allow me a minute…" Bob, the in-house attorney for the company, looked at the call logs and then started clicking and typing on his laptop.

Not even ten seconds later, a loud electronic beep sounded from the laptop, followed by a recording of Vicki's high-pitched voice.

"Garman and Garman, Vicki Preston speaking."

"Um, hi," came Dani's hoarse voice, like she'd been crying her eyes out. "My name's Daniela Ramos. My sister, Amara Ramos ? —"

My throat closed up so tight that I could barely take a breath as I realized what I was listening to. This was Dani's final attempt to reach me. Mere days after she'd lost her sister, when she was still trying to wrap her mind around the enormous responsibility of caring for a baby who had been less than a week old at the time.

My baby, who Vicki had robbed me of the chance to bond with during the first month of his life.

"Oh, my God. What is with you people?!" Vicki screamed at the top of her lungs. "What part of harassment charges don't you understand?"

"She's dead," Dani choked out. "She died from a postpartum infection four nights ago. After she gave birth to his son. Can't you just pass on a message ? —"

"I don't care if she was abducted by aliens! Braden isn't interested! He had her calls forwarded to me because he didn't want to deal with this! Now, if I hear from you again…"

Tears started to blur my vision and I choked down a sob as I shoved my chair back from the table, rose to my feet, and stormed out of the room. I couldn't hear any more of this. I couldn't listen to a woman I'd trusted to help me manage my career shattering the already-broken spirit of the girl I'd come to care so much about. I couldn't sit here and watch her try to justify what she'd done.

As I looked for somewhere – anywhere – I could go to hide from the rest of the prying eyes in the office, my eyes landed on the sign for the men's room. Clearing the distance in three long strides, I threw the door open and marched directly into one of the stalls, sliding the flimsy lock into place behind me.

" Fuck!" I choked out, slamming the side of my fist into the weak door, then leaning both elbows against it as my forehead met the cool metal.

There was nothing I could do that would even begin to make up for what Dani had been through. No gesture I could make to help her understand the depth of my grief and regret. She hated me, and she had every right to. Because someone she had thought was speaking for me had completely shattered her already-fractured spirit.

I had no idea how long I'd been in here when I heard the creaking of the bathroom door opening again and a single set of footsteps walking across the tile floor.

"B?" Malachi called quietly. "You in here, man?"

"I'm here," I sniffed, taking a deep breath and scrubbing the back of my hand across my face to dry my tears before stepping out of the stall. "Sorry. I just…I couldn't do it. I couldn't listen to any more of that call. Or hear her trying to justify it."

"Oh, she tried. But they shut her down within three seconds. Told her she was fired and called security in to escort her to her office to pack up her shit. Glenn served them with the paperwork to terminate our contracts, and with the lawsuits against Vicki and the company." He clapped me on the back. "You ready to get out of here?"

I nodded tensely.

The lawsuits against the company and Vicki personally – for negligence and emotional distress – had been Glenn's idea. I hadn't wanted to do it because no amount of money could bring Amara back from the dead or give me back the time I'd lost with my son, but he'd wanted to impress the gravity of the situation on everyone involved. He'd also pointed out that the money could go into the trust I was setting up for Isaac, so at least some good could come out of it.

"Okay. Come on. Wash your face, and then we'll get the fuck out of here and go pound on some punching bags until you have to get ready to meet your girl," he said with a sad smile.

With another nod, I went and splashed some cold water on my face, then grabbed a wad of paper towels to dry my face and hands before following Malachi out the door. Glenn was waiting right outside, and the three of us started to head to the elevator.

And I immediately wished I'd spent just two more minutes in that damn bathroom. Because Vicki was standing there with a big file box full of random-ass shit, a security guard right next to her.

"Let's take the stairs," Glenn said quietly.

But it wasn't quiet enough. The devil's spawn turned toward us, a smile forming on her face the moment she saw me.

What the fuck did this bitch possibly have to be happy about? She'd just lost her job and gotten slapped with a million-dollar lawsuit.

"Braden, honey," she said with an exaggerated snivel.

" Don't fucking talk to me, Vicki," I growled.

"I did it for you ! That girl was obsessed with you. I had to protect you," she whimpered. "If it hadn't been for me, you would have had another stalker to deal with."

Bile rose in my throat as my brain slammed on the brakes…too late to avoid the oncoming crash of thoughts that flew through my mind.

How the fuck did Vicki know about my stalker? I'd never told her about the emails I'd been getting. I hadn't trusted her enough to disclose that information to her. Granted, maybe she'd figured it out because she had access to my emails, but there was just something about the way she was acting – the way she'd always acted around me – that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

And if I was right, it finally made sense why she would have kept the truth about Isaac from me. Why she would have been so unbelievably cruel to Dani and Amara. It even explained why she hadn't told me about my uncle's death. It had nothing to do with her trying to protect me or manage my image in the press, or with her just being a fucking flake who couldn't do her job. It was because she'd been trying to isolate me. Cut me off from everyone who cared about me. Take away my family so I had no one to turn to. It was a move straight out of the obsessive stalkers' handbook.

"You and I have nothing to talk about," I bit out, doing my best to keep my voice even. "If you have anything to say to me, do it through my attorney."

As I turned on my heel and headed toward the staircase, I could hear her muttering under her breath, and it made the blood in my veins turn to ice water.

"I fucking told that bitch to stay away from him."

Once we were outside, Malachi and I said our goodbyes to Glenn before heading back to my car. And only once we got into the vehicle with the door locked did I pull my cellphone out and scroll through my contacts. Pressing the call button, I held the device up to my ear.

"Bobbi Franks," came the chipper Southern drawl.

"Bobbi, hi." I took a deep breath. "It's Braden. I need you to run a background check on someone for me."