The following day, I left the house early to get to my meeting. I watched Jax as he stood beside me, leaning against the car and chewing a piece of nicotine gum. I glanced at my watch. ‘Carmichael is late,’ I snapped. I fucking hated lateness.
He nodded his head. ‘He’s a prick, amigo. You already know this. He’s playing with you.’
I looked around the waste-ground we’d agreed to meet at. Foster Carmichael had offered to stop by L.A on his way back from Vegas, but I didn’t want him anywhere near my wife. He may have been her father but he had given up any right to her love or her loyalty when he sold her to a monster like me.
I looked at the SUV parked nearby that contained two of my men. I didn’t expect any trouble from Carmichael, at least none that I couldn’t handle myself, but I didn’t trust this Cabrón one bit.
‘Looks like he’s decided to show up,’ Jax nodded towards the distance and we saw the two black Sedans pulling onto the dirt track and rolling towards us.
A few moments later, my father in law, Foster Carmichael climbed out, with his security detail by his side. He smiled as he crossed the empty space between us and we met in the middle of the circle of cars.
‘Alejandro,’ he said with an outstretched hand and a smile that was as fake as his personality.
‘You’re late,’ I snapped.
He shrugged. ‘Traffic.’
I didn’t shake his hand and a few seconds later, he dropped it. ‘How is my beautiful daughter doing? I hope you’re looking after her,’ he said.
‘Alana is fine.’
‘Is there a reason that I’m meeting you here and not at your house? Does she know we’re even meeting today?’
‘No, she doesn’t and she’s not going to. She stays out of any business between you and me. You got that?’
He scowled at me. ‘What’s crawled up your ass this morning?’
I resisted the urge to punch him in the face. My father still needed his services and for that reason alone he was valuable to me.
‘My father needs your help with some permits. The city are blocking some of the proposals for our hotel expansion and he needs you to fix it,’ I said as I pulled an envelope from my inside pocket and handed it to him. ‘Everything you need to know is in there.’
He nodded and took it from me. ‘Feels a little light,’ he said as he held the envelope in his hand.
‘Well, it’s only a small favor I’m asking. Besides, I gave you three million bucks not so long ago. Remember?’
He grinned at me. ‘I bet she’s worth every cent though, isn’t she?’
I lunged for him, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket causing two of his bodyguards to run towards us.
‘Get your hands off me,’ he snarled. ‘I think you forget who you’re dealing with.’
I let him go before I did something I regretted. ‘No. I think you forget who you’re dealing with, Cabrón,’ I hissed. ‘You seem to think you’re untouchable, but I’ll remind you that my family have much more important men than you in their pockets.’
He started to laugh. ‘Maybe so. But we’re family now, aren’t we? And if you want it to stay that way, I’d suggest you keep me on side. My daughter might have been your wife for a few months, but she will always be my daughter first and foremost. And that means her loyalty will always be to me. How do you know I haven’t already had her finding out all of your little secrets for me, Alejandro? All I’d have to do is snap my fingers and she’d come running back home to me.’
‘You really think?’ I laughed at him now. ‘You have no idea who your daughter is.’
‘You think you know her?’ he shouted at me. ‘You know nothing about her. Nothing!’
‘I know that she’d disown you if she ever found out about Bethany Cooper.’
I watched the color drain from his face and even his lips turned white. ‘What?’ he stammered.
‘You heard me. Bethany Cooper. Remember her? Of course you do. Tell me, Foster, did you tie the noose around her neck or did you have one of your hired help do it for you?’
‘I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,’ he snarled as he regained his composure.
‘Well, your daughter is a smart woman. I’m sure if I presented her with the evidence, she’d be able to figure everything out for herself.’
‘Fuck you!’ he snapped. ‘You do that and I’ll blow your whole New York hotel scam wide open.’
I shrugged my shoulders. ‘That would hurt my business, but we’d recover.’
‘So, what the hell do you want from me?’ he snapped.
‘I want you to stay out of your daughter’s life. When we have children of our own, I want you nowhere near them, you sick fuck!’
‘She’ll never accept that.’
‘She will. I’ll make sure of it. But I won’t tell her about the schoolgirl you raped and murdered. Deal?’
He scowled at me. ‘You think that she belongs to you, but she is my daughter, Alejandro. And for that reason alone, you will never be able to trust her. I taught her well, my friend. My Alana is a chameleon. You will have to live every day not knowing if she is speaking the truth or lies. You will always be wondering if she is spying on you and reporting back to me.’
I glared at him. ‘Well, I guess I’ll have to take that chance. Make sure the permits are approved, Carmichael,’ I said and then I turned and walked away from him.
Jax opened the door to my car and I climbed inside. My jaw was clenched so firmly that I thought I might grind my teeth to stumps.
‘Drive,’ I snapped to my driver as soon as Jax was inside the car too.
‘Everything okay, amigo?’ Jax asked.
‘Carmichael is a fucking snake,’ I hissed.
‘Well, I could have told you that,’ he said. ‘What happened?’
I leaned back in my seat and relayed most of my conversation with Foster Carmichael, all except what he’d said about how I would never be able to trust Alana.
