Rebels and Roses (Winslow Heights #2)

Chapter 12

12

J oel Winslow was not a happy man. He didn’t care so much about that; his measure of a good day wasn’t predicated on his mood. But today he had work to get done, important work. Bringing his children back into the family was the goal.

Today it was Cooper. His second eldest was probably the most stubborn of all of his children, although Francesca gave him a good run. Piper acted all tough, but she had the softest heart of all of them.

But Joel didn’t get to where he was in life by being a quitter. He wasn’t ever going to give up, and tonight he just may have found a path to Cooper - his ex-wife Fiona.

“You wanted to speak to me in private? I really should be out there with Erica.”

“Kim will keep Erica company. It will be fine. We have some time before the others get here.”

Fiona was sipping a martini, sitting on the leather sofa in his office. She had that haughty look and tone, but he knew better. He’d made sure to know more about Fiona Kemp Winslow than she even knew about herself. She might act like she didn’t care about what he had to say, but she did care. Very much.

It was fine with Joel if she wanted to play the princess. As long as by the end of the evening, she realized he was the king. He made it a point to always win.

Instead of sitting behind his desk, Joel sat down on the sofa with Fiona but at the other end so he could easily take in her expressions and body language. He didn’t want her to view him as a threat, but as a…friend. Or perhaps “benefactor” was a better word. He could help her. He had what she wanted. All she had to do was cooperate.

“I did want to talk to you,” Joel said, his gaze intent on her face. “I’d like to propose a little business deal.”

“Business?”

“Business…and personal. For you, anyway. I think we can help each other.”

“Why would I help you?”

Yes, she wanted to know what he was offering. She didn’t want to seem too desperate, however. But he wasn’t fooled. He could see that her fingers had tightened on the edge of her glass, the knuckles white. He was in the driver’s seat. Just the way he liked it. He’d chosen her well all those years ago - a money-hungry little bitch who could be bought by the highest bidder.

“For money, of course. That’s what you want, correct?”

“Mr. Winslow, I come from a wealthy family which you very well know. Why would I need your money?”

The Kemp family was richer than hell, the patriarch Andrew a financial genius who always seemed to know where to invest his money wisely and profitably. Andrew’s own father had been the same.

“Because you and your now-late brother Tom spend to the yearly limit of your trust funds, and your parents aren’t inclined to give you any extra. Joyce and Andrew are also in excellent health, so you won’t be inheriting anything any time soon. You’re in debt due to your extravagant spending, and you need a nice cash infusion for all those designer handbags and shoes.”

Fiona’s eyes narrowed, his nostrils flaring in annoyance. Did she actually think he would offer her a deal without knowing exactly where his opponent stood? Joel liked to have all the information at his fingertips. He never went in without having the upper hand.

“I am not in debt?—”

“Come now, Fiona,” Joel said, interrupting her denial. “Let’s not play games here. We both know that you’re deeply in debt and next year’s portion of your trust fund isn’t going to cover it. You might have to get a job or something even more unseemly. But I’m here to make sure that you don’t have to do that. I can help you dig out of that hole. We’ve helped each other before, after all. That didn’t work out as I expected it to, but these things can happen.”

“There was no way I could talk Cooper out of the divorce,” Fiona bit out, her lip curled in derision. “Your son can be a total asshole and is hell to live with. We needed to separate for our own sanity.”

“But now both of you have grown up. You’re older and wiser. And you could be richer, too.”

“If I do what you want me to.”

She didn’t make it sound like a question. Good. It wasn’t one.

Joel leaned forward slightly, a smile on his lips. This wasn’t even going to be a challenge. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

“Ten million,” he stated, watching her expression change from neutral to greed and then back to neutral in mere seconds as she tried to cover her avarice. “And all you have to do is a simple job for me.”

“Ten million for a simple job? Just how simple is it?”

Inwardly chuckling, he could see that she was practically vibrating with excitement as her foot shook up and down, and she shifted several times on the leather cushion. Even her voice had risen an octave in excitement. He could almost see the wheels in her brain turning as she mentally calculated how long the money would last her. He was betting about three years, give or take a month or two.

“Reconcile with my son. Keep him in Winslow Heights. I won’t tell him I gave you the money, and he’ll get a chunk when you two remarry. And there’s more where that came from as long as he stays put and in the family. That will be your job. Bring Cooper back to the Winslows. If you do that, you can practically write your own ticket. I’m sure your mother and father would also be happy to see you settled down, maybe even have a family.”

“A baby? You want grandchildren? Do I get more if I have a boy?”

Her tone was mocking, but his gut was telling him that she was serious.

“Any grandchild - boy or girl - will be handsomely rewarded, Fiona. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Now do we have a deal?”

He wanted to close, but he was pushing her. She wasn’t ready to sign on the dotted line. And he did have a contract waiting in his desk drawer. He wasn’t stupid enough to take Fiona’s word for anything. He’d get it in writing.

“What makes you think I want Cooper back in my life? Or that Cooper wants me back?”

She wanted to play a bit? He could do that. But not for long. He’d negotiate…up to a point.

“Is there something wrong with my son? He’s handsome, well-spoken, well-traveled, and he’s at an age where he needs to settle down. You could do much worse. As for whether you want him, we both know that the only thing you truly love is money. If you and Cooper reconcile, you’ll have plenty of it.”

“That still doesn’t answer the question about whether Cooper wants me back.”

“Cooper doesn’t know what the hell he wants,” Joel scoffed. “You’re a resourceful young woman. Persuade him that he wants you. Use sex, if you need to. Get him in bed. How hard could it be? You did it once already. Just make sure to keep him happy. You two had fun together once. You could again.”

“Do you care if Cooper is happy?” Fiona laughed. “You didn’t care before.”

Joel didn’t like it when people questioned him. He knew what the fuck he was doing and why. He didn’t have the patience for those who couldn’t see his end goal. Too many only thought and planned for the short term. Joel was playing the long game. This was about more than getting Cooper back in line. This was about a legacy.

“This is a one-time offer,” Joel replied, ignoring Fiona’s queries. “Null and void at midnight tonight. That’s it. I’ll find someone else that can deliver, and probably for a cheaper price.”

“You think you’re doing me a favor,” Fiona said, her tone heated as she jumped to her feet. “You’re acting so fucking smug. Just because we had a deal a long time ago, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it again.”

“I thought we did good business back then. You made good money, and you got a husband out of the deal. It isn’t my fault that you fumbled the ball later.”

In Joel’s opinion, Fiona wasn’t all that special. She was a cheap tramp who slept around and liked to spend huge sums of money - preferably other people’s. He’d met plenty of others that were the same. If anything, she was as generic as they came. Perhaps he needed to remind her of that.

“How old are you now, Fiona? Thirty-two? Thirty-four? Your beauty won’t last forever. With all your partying, forty will hit you hard. You’ll find that men won’t be as enamored of you as they once were. Getting a rich guy to buy you diamonds and champagne is going to be tough when all of your competition is in their twenties. The women your age wisely settle down with a wealthy husband and ignore his affairs.”

He’d hit her where it hurt. Fiona’s face was screwed up with rage, but there was also a recognition that he was right. She could go on the way she was. She had a trust fund, after all. As long as she lived within its confines, she could play all she wanted to. Her problem was that she couldn’t seem to live in the manner that she wanted without someone else footing the more extravagant bills.

Her parents might live another forty years, and that was a long time to only get to live rich but not obscenely wealthy. Andrew was a smart man, and he’d made sure that the money for his kids would last. He wasn’t going to allow them to blow it all before they were fifty. Sadly, neither Fiona nor the late Tom had ever had a productive day in their lives. At least, Joel could point at his children as being gainfully employed.

Except for Cooper. That’s why he had to be Joel’s first priority. That boy was blowing off his whole life chasing some sort of dream of being a hobo. Eventually, he’d need money…for something. He’d need his father to help him.

“Are you in or out?” Joel levered to his feet as he drained his whiskey glass, slapping it on the coffee table. He had no more patience or time for Fiona. His dinner guests would have arrived by now. She either wanted this opportunity or she didn’t. “Time to make up your mind, young lady. What will it be?”

He could see that she didn’t want to say yes. She was trying to find a way - any way - to dig in her heels and tell him to go fuck himself. She was mentally calculating her debt and trust fund balance, desperately trying to make two and two equal something much more than four. She was rehearsing in her head the pitch to her parents for more money, wondering how she could be successful. She was going way back into her memories for rich men that she’d partied with, thinking that one of them might be an easier way to get the cash infusion she needed.

“I’ll want to read the contract before I sign.”

“Of course,” he replied, walking around his desk and sliding the middle drawer open. “Take your time. It’s all in order. Just like the last one. It’s a straightforward business, Fiona. Nothing more.”

She accepted the contract from him, her gaze perusing the contents.

“Do you always get what you want, Joel?”

“I make a point of it. And call me…. Dad.”

He’d placed a bet on Fiona Kemp.

She’d better deliver, or she’d be in big trouble. Failure was not one of her options.

Cooper didn’t want to be here. This entire dinner party idea was a nightmare waiting to happen, but sadly, no one had asked his opinion. Jane had made a good point when she’d asked him why he would even attend at all. He hadn’t been inside his childhood home in years.

But dammit, he couldn’t let Fiona go to dinner with his dad and aunt alone or even with Erica, too. There was no doubt that Joel was up to something. Cooper didn’t know what it was, but he was damn sure he was going to find out. His father didn’t do anything socially without a reason.

Joel Winslow didn’t have friends in the usual sense. He had people that he could leverage for something he wanted. Sometimes, he’d “befriend” a person not knowing if they would be beneficial to his business or career, but he had a feeling that they might be useful in the future. Joel didn’t waste his time eating and drinking because he was hungry or thirsty. At least not when it came to doing it with other human beings. Every action or reaction had a purpose whether immediate or down the line.

Cooper couldn’t imagine living his life in such a cold and calculating manner, but to his dad, it was simply another day. Joel had to “win” at all costs. Whatever he was up to tonight with this dinner was for something he wanted.

He wants me. Back in the family fold.

Joel was destined to be disappointed. Cooper didn’t have any intention of playing happy family with Joel and Kim. Did his father believe that Fiona, of all people, could somehow convince him? It couldn’t be that. Joel wasn’t that dumb. It had to be something else, something even more sinister and selfish.

“Cooper?”

He’d zoned out as they’d pulled up to the front of his childhood home. He’d insisted on picking up Jane, although she’d said she could get there on her own. Fiona and Erica were both staying at the inn, and they had taken a cab. It wouldn’t have been out of the way, but they’d said it was no trouble. They’d agreed that it would be nice if he drove them home afterwards since then it would be dark.

“Sorry, I guess I was somewhere else.”

He’d been about thirty years ago when he was just a kid, playing ball with Zack out on the front lawn. His mother would have brought out popsicles for them if it was a warm day or maybe hot chocolate if it was cold. She’d sometimes sit on the front porch, sipping her coffee and watching them while they played. Later, she’d shoo them into the house when it was dinnertime.

Cooper hadn’t been here in a long time, but the pain of losing his mother so abruptly and with no answers was as keen today as it had been so long ago. He could feel the crushing weight of loss on his chest, barely allowing him oxygen.

“We don’t have to go inside,” Jane said softly. “We can just turn around and leave. You don’t have to do this.”

“I think I do.”

“You don’t.”

“Do I look that bad right now?”

“Like you’re dying inside.”

That was how he felt. Jane was an excellent reader of expressions. It was almost killing him to do this. He wanted to rail against the universe, shake his fist at the heavens. It wasn’t fair or right that his mother had been taken away, and so young, too. She’d been a good person. The kind that liked to help people. She loved her family, and she’d been a devoted mother. But she was the one chosen to die. Why?

Joel should have been the one to disappear. He should have met an untimely end. He didn’t do anything positive for humanity, but somehow, he was still standing causing fucking chaos wherever he cast his fickle eye.

Cooper wasn’t a child who expected the world to be fair. He wasn’t that naive. Yet it always confounded him how the good die young, and the assholes lived to a ripe old age.

I guess I’ll live forever.

“Dad is up to something,” Cooper said. “I don’t know what, but I need to find out. There is no good reason to want Fiona here. I’m not buying this whole wanting to comfort Fiona and Erica. He has ulterior motives.”

“He might just want to piss you off,” Jane countered. “Make you crazy like this.”

“He’s succeeded,” Cooper replied. “But there’s more than just messing with me. Dad wouldn’t bother with that. It’s bigger.”

“He wants you back in the family.”

“Yes, that’s probably it, although he’s delusional if he thinks Fiona can convince me.”

“Maybe he’s just using her presence as a way to get you here. It worked, right?”

“You’re probably right. It did work. Fuck me anyway.”

Fiona and Erica stepped out of the front door and onto the porch, waving at Cooper and Jane. Fiona already had a cocktail in her hand.

“Should we stay out here?” Jane asked. “We can eat in the car just like at Steak N Shake when I was a kid.”

“Unfortunately, my childhood home doesn’t employ any carhops. We’ll have to go in.”

“Okay, but you’re not moving.”

He wasn’t. His body and heart rejected the mere idea of going inside that house. But his brain was firmly on the side of entering and finding out what Joel was up to tonight.

Reluctantly pushing open the car door, he stepped out into the night air. The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping. By the time they finished dinner, the lightning bugs would be flying around the large front yard. How many times had he and his siblings run around on a summer night trying to catch them in their hands?

Whatever Joel was up to tonight, Cooper would figure it out. His dad always thought he was the smartest person in the room, but he was getting sloppy in his old age. Ten or fifteen years ago, Joel wouldn’t have been this blatant. Either way?

Bring it, Joel. I’m watching you.