The Sound of Secrets (The Monsters Duet #2)

Chapter 17

Win

“They’re my client. I’m the one who brought them on board. I’m the reason they went with Halliday Inc. I refuse to hand the development over to her. I don’t need this shit, Win.”

I pressed my palms against my eye sockets to ease the headache pounding in my skull. The pain was a daily occurrence when dealing with the constant animosity between my brother and Bellamy. Regardless of what I said, the two of them were bound to fight like cats and dogs. They were constantly trying to one-up and undermine each other. In this instance, one of Alistair’s long-term design partners wanted to make the move into the international real estate market. Logically, he should be the point person, but the advancement plan Bellamy put together for them was show stopping. Her contacts overseas were even better than mine. In an ideal world, they would work together and create an immensely profitable project, but neither could see past their own wants and needs .

“She worked overseas for years. She was practically banished and considered a pariah in the industry after the lies my mother told about her. She’s highly capable and incredibly connected. She’s been doing this longer than you. Instead of being angry, you should learn from her. She’s worthy of admiration. They’re your client, so you should want the best for them to build long-lasting cooperation. Throwing away everything at the first step because things didn’t go the way you wanted is not how you run a business. I know you know that, Alistair.”

The younger man paced angrily in front of my desk. I could feel the frustration pouring off him in waves. I doubted I’d ever been as passionate and invested about my work when I was his age. I copied what my father did nearly to the T. I spent most of my days sleepwalking through business deals and corporate goings on. I did what I had to do. Not what I wanted to do. But the time for that was ending, which meant I had to get this wayward younger brother of mine on the right course. I couldn’t leave if he was ready to jump the tracks every single time he encountered failure or opposition.

“I suppose it’s too much to ask that you respond like my brother rather than my boss in situations like this.” Alistair’s voice switched from frustrated to forlorn.

I rubbed the back of my neck to release some of the pressure squeezing my brain. “As your brother, I want you to succeed. I want you to grow and learn. I want you to take Halliday Inc. to the next level because I believe you are talented and innovative enough to do so. I want you to have a team that has your back, because you’re going to need it to fight against those gargoyles on the board. Bellamy is an asset and the best gift I can give you before I go.” I rolled my head and heard a pop loud enough it made Alistair cringe. “As your boss, I only care about the money, not who’s responsible for earning it.”

Alistair paused his frantic pacing. He stopped in front of my antique desk and stared at me with his eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s the first time you’ve called me your brother . It’s usually half-brother or bastard.” His tone softened. “I’m touched. I’m still pissed about her stealing my clients, but I feel less like you’re taking her side.”

I grunted. It didn’t serve a purpose to use the half anymore. I wasn’t sure when I started to view Alistair as my younger brother, the same as Archie. All I knew was that he was my family, and he was taking on a task far bigger than he realized. The least I could do is set him up for success. “There are no sides. There’s only who can close the most lucrative deal and earn the most profit. Business goals should stay separate from personal ones. Don’t let what happens in this concrete coffin become your entire life the way I did.”

He threw himself into a chair across from me and tilted his head back so that he was looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know why that woman irritates me so much. I’ve always considered myself laid back and easy to get along with. I feel like every word I say and every move I make is the start of an argument with her. I’ve never met anyone so combative.”

“Bellamy is a woman in a male-dominated field. She built her business in a country that still holds extremely patriarchal views. She’s someone who has had to claw her way up the corporate ladder, avoiding others trying to kick her back down. She’s not battling against you. She’s fighting for herself.”

Alistair sighed and shoved his fingers through his dark hair. “When you put things that way, it makes me sound like I’ve been a misogynistic asshole toward her.” I heard the instant regret in his tone.

My cell rang, and I frowned when I saw my niece’s information on the screen. She was supposed to be in class and only called me during school hours when there was an emergency.

I held up a finger to halt the conversation with my brother and picked up the call. “Winnie? What’s wrong?”

Her laughter came over the line. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m calling to tell you that my dad called and asked me to visit him today after school. He’s got a meeting with a surgeon for a new procedure and he wants me to go along with him. I told him I needed to run it by you first.” I could hear how happy she was to be included in a major decision concerning her father’s health. Archie was still trying to navigate his hard recovery and often acted like he was the same age as his daughter.

“I haven’t heard about an appointment with a surgeon.” I was still monitoring my brother’s day-to-day activities and taking care of his medical needs as they arose. He wasn’t getting any procedure done without me vetting the doctors and the facility involved.

“He’s got a new nurse. Her last patient recovered enough to go home, so they moved her over to help Dad because of her background. She used to work for a plastic surgeon who specializes in burn victims. He’s super busy and has a year-long waitlist. Fortunately, there was a cancellation today, and she moved Dad up the list.”

“How come I’m the last to know about this?” Why wouldn’t he want me there? I didn’t want to treat Archie like a child or interfere with their father-daughter bond, but I was hesitant to let Winnie handle something of this magnitude without supervision. “Let me send Rocco to take you.” Channing was my first choice. However, I knew she had obligations today, and I wasn’t certain if she and Winnie had smoothed things over yet. I didn’t want my niece to do something stupid just because she was angry at her aunt. And I fully intended to call Archie and find out why he suddenly wanted to have Winnie by his side for such a personal and painful experience. I didn’t think she was emotionally mature enough to deal with this type of situation, be the prognosis positive or negative.

Winnie wanted to argue. She didn’t have a leg to stand on, though. Sending Rocco was the next best thing to having me there. The bell for her next class rang and Winnie hastily ended the call. I frowned at my phone until a message from Archie came through. He had to use voice-to-text because his hands and dexterity were worse than mine.

~ I asked Winnie to meet me at the doctor’s office because she needs to hear what a professional has to say about my condition. She has unwavering hope that my appearance can become slightly less gruesome. She needs to know the truth.

I messaged back.

~ I can come with you .

Archie immediately refuted the idea.

~ If you’re there, the doctor will promise the world and exaggerate what the outcome might be. It’s better for both of us to let me handle this on my own.

I didn’t like it, but he had a point, and Winnie was his daughter. I’d gotten too comfortable being the only person in charge of making choices for her. That privilege was Archie’s before it was mine. I had no idea how hard it would be to let go.

I agreed with his request after he assured me he wouldn’t let Winnie out of his sight and would defer to Rocco for any safety issues. Once the issue was settled, I messaged Channing to let her know Winnie wouldn’t be home directly after school. She sent back a thumbs up and nothing else, indicating she was still busy.

Alistair got to his feet and made a big deal of straightening his suit and tie. I pointed to the messy hair he’d been pulling at while talking about his nemesis. He finger-combed it back into place and offered, “I can go meet with Archie and Winnie if it’ll make you feel better.”

Archie knew about our father’s illegitimate son. I don’t think he quite processed how integrated in Winnie’s and my lives the younger man was. He’d never been interested in what happened at Halliday Inc., but he might have other opinions relating to his child.

“Archie doesn’t do well with anyone he didn’t know before the fire.” In his mind, the people who knew him before could remember what he looked like before he was burned beyond recognition and left to rot like a spoiled vegetable. Even though I’d introduced Alistair, he was still a stranger in Archie’s mind. “I appreciate the offer.” The man was busy as hell and constantly doing his best not to be bested by Bellamy. It was a sacrifice for him to give up time and effort to help me out.

He knocked his knuckles on my desk and headed out of my office. “We’re family.”

In his mind, it was that simple. We were family, so we helped one another. That’s how things should be. It’d never been that way in the Halliday home. I guess there was no time like the present to change the precedent.

I called Rocco into my office and sent him off on the side quest to take Winnie to see her dad. I trusted the man with my life, so I didn’t think twice about entrusting my niece and brother to him for the afternoon. As soon as Rocco went on his way, I was pulled into another meeting with the CFO. With both Bellamy and Alistair acting and interim directors, the double salary had to come from somewhere. I was happy to relinquish my pay to cover the cost, as well as all the bonuses I promised Bellamy. Paying them out of my pocket was another tactic to keep the fogeys on the board out of my hair. None of the men who had gotten where they were by appeasing my mother for years wanted me to exit gracefully. They fought me every step of the way and wanted to drag the process out as long as possible. I knew they were going to give Alistair hell. My hope was he could weed them out one by one once he took over. He was still so young and was going to outlive all of them. He needed to toughen up before things got really ugly. Eventually, he was going to realize what an asset Bellamy was. She could run circles around those old men. She and my younger brother would be an unstoppable team if they combined their powers and worked together instead of against each other.

I didn’t get away from lingering obligations until it was time to shut down for the day. Alistair had already left and there was no sign of Rocco. I called Channing to see where she was and asked her if she wanted to meet me somewhere for dinner since we had a rare evening alone. Unfortunately, she was across town, and by the time we could meet, it would be too late and we’d have to turn around and get back to the brownstone to meet Winnie.

I told her not to worry about it and decided to stop and grab something to make. I was an okay cook, but I always had someone on hand to take care of the task for me. I thought it would be nice to show Channing that I had another skill up my sleeve to take care of her. I had no problem being the one to feed her and keep her company on her darkest days.

I was elbow deep in homemade pasta with red sauce simmering on the chef-grade stove when Channing came home. Her smile was bright and she was full of giggles, a sure sign she’d hit up her favorite happy hour at her ex-husband’s bar. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of me in a messy apron. She stepped close and brushed flour off my face and out of my hair. Her entire demeanor softened as she stepped behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist in a tight hug. Her cheek rested on my back as she hummed, “You smell amazing.”

I chuckled. “You mean dinner smells amazing? ”

She squeezed me tighter, making it hard to work on the counter in front of me. “The food does smell good. You smell better.”

I looked at the digital clock on the microwave and frowned when I realized how late it’d gotten. It was well past dinnertime. Winnie and Rocco should’ve been home over an hour ago. I wiped my hands on the apron and fished my phone out of my pocket to see if I’d missed any messages. There was nothing.

“Have you heard from Winnie?” I asked as I turned around and switched so I was the one embracing her in a gentle hold. “I talked to Rocco not long ago, and they were on the way back.”

She clumsily dumped her purse out on the counter and pawed through the mess. “My battery died on the way home.” She suddenly seemed aware of how late it had gotten. Her coppery brows drew together with concern. “Shouldn’t they be back by now?”

Her slightly slurred words were the harbinger of my worst fear.

Before I could call and ask Rocco where they were, my phone rang.

“Boss, it’s bad. Winnie is missing.” In all the years we’d worked together, and with all the horrors he’d seen, I’d never heard Rocco sound so shaken.

“What do you mean, she’s missing?” I tried to keep calm, but the words were strangled. Channing paled to the point she looked like a sheet of paper, and all the good humor and tipsiness faded from her face.

“She wanted to take Archie back to the care facility so she could say hello to Channing’s mom. I didn’t see the harm in it since it’s on the way.” He swore, and I heard metal being kicked or punched on the other end of the call. “Your brother needed to make a quick stop. He said he wasn’t feeling well. I pulled over to a gas station and Winnie went inside to grab some stuff. I followed her in just to be safe, but Archie looked terrible, like he was gonna pass out any minute. I was trying to monitor both of them. Winnie said she needed to use the restroom. I couldn’t follow her in, and she swore she couldn’t hold it.” I could hear the anxiety and frustration in his voice and sirens in the background. “I waited ten minutes, and once Winnie didn’t come out, I sent a female employee in to check on her. The bathroom was empty.”

I went cold. I had to hold on to the counter to keep upright. Channing grabbed my arm, her face as frantic as I felt.

Rocco swore again, and his voice dropped. “It was Channing’s dad. He’s been in contact with Archie all along. Your brother still considers him his father-in-law. He has no idea the guy is a scumbag and a criminal. He convinced Archie you wouldn’t let him see Winnie because of greed. He told him you don’t want to relinquish control of her trust and lose guardianship. He painted himself as a concerned grandfather who just wants the chance to know his granddaughter. They planned this ambush. Archie didn’t know Winnie was going to get kidnapped. He’s inconsolable. The police are on their way.” I heard Rocco kicking something again. “Winnie’s backpack is in the car, along with her phone. I don’t have any way to track her, Win.” He sounded as helpless as I’d ever heard him .

“Where are you?” All I could think was I needed to get there as quickly as possible. I had to see with my own eyes Winnie was missing. I needed to confront my brother and ask him how he could betray his family like this.

“There’s nothing you can do here. The police and the FBI are sending people to the brownstone. He’s going to call you and ask for money in exchange for Winnie. This is beyond a scam or smear campaign. You need to prepare Channing. He’s going to prison for a long time for this stunt.”

“Unless I find him first.” I never considered myself bloodthirsty, but at the moment, I could rip apart Channing’s father with my bare hands.

“I’m so sorry, Boss.”

I grunted because I couldn’t tell my long-time head of security it was okay. “Bring my brother to me, Rocco.” He had more to answer for than the bald man.

I hung up the phone and gave Channing the condensed version of what was going on. She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth and bolted for the kitchen sink, where she was sick for a solid five minutes.

When she was finished gagging, she rushed around until she found a phone charger to power her cell back on. She was shaking so badly, I had to plug it in for her.

She kept muttering over and over again, “This is all my fault.”

I hugged her tightly and assured her it wasn’t. Deep down inside, I knew that if I just gave the bastard the money he wanted, he would’ve gone away and not kept hurting the women I loved .

It was so unfair that every adult in my niece’s life was fucked up beyond imagination. How was she supposed to grow up and be the best of us with the terrible examples we set for her?