I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. "Karl, what can I do for you today?"
"You know what I'm here about. It's the same thing every day. Your time is running out. We've been patient, son."
"Don't call me son, Karl. My name is Tristan Stone. My father was Victor Stone, not you. So remember who the fuck you're talking to."
"Fine. And you remember who the fuck you're talking to, Tristan. You aren't all-powerful at Stone Worldwide. The Board has power too."
I knew he was baiting me, but I took it all the same. "Power to do what? This company has never seen better days. Everyone's making money, Karl. Are you saying the Board isn't happy about that?"
"You know what we're unhappy with. If you don't want all this to come to a screeching halt, you have to take care of the loose ends. She can't continue to be a risk to this business."
Ten o'clock in the fucking morning and I already had a splitting headache, thanks to this asshole. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I repeated to him what I'd said so many times it was like the words were tattooed on my tongue. "Karl, she has nothing. She knows nothing. She would never do anything to hurt me, and that includes anything that would hurt this company."
"And what happens when she finds out the truth? What happens if she finds out that her father died because he couldn't keep his damn nose out of other people's business?"
"She knows her father's dead. Why would she find out anything about how he died? That was years ago. There's no reason for her to go digging about it. It will remain as it always has—an unsolved murder. So you and the Board can rest easy. Nina cares nothing about that."
Karl lurched off the couch and moved to stand in front of my desk. "You don't have any silly romantic plans to tell her yourself, do you? You can't imagine that would be a good idea."
I nonchalantly pushed a pen back and forth across the top of my desk, praying to God my plans to confess everything to Nina weren't written all over my face. After her show of honesty about Cal the night before, I didn't want to go on lying to her anymore. I could make her understand that no matter what my father had done to hers, we could be happy together. I knew I could.
"If you're done with your daily visit, feel free to let yourself out, Karl. And don't feel the need to come back tomorrow. Nothing is going to change. Nina is the woman I love—the woman I intend on marrying—so she's going to stay a part of my life."
"Son, you're not going to win this. We helped your father build this company into the gem you now get to claim as yours, so we won't be cut out."
"Nobody's trying to cut you out, Karl. You and the Board members are safe."
He sneered at my comment, and in a flash, my patience was all used up. Standing from behind my desk, I approached him until we stood toe-to-toe. "I'm going to warn you just once, Karl. If I get the sense that you or any of your friends in this even think about going through with your plans to hurt Nina, I'll kill you myself. I'm not like you old men who won't get their hands dirty. So remember that when you go back to them today. Let what happened with Victor Stone and Joseph Edwards end with their deaths."
Karl chuckled, but I heard the nervousness in his voice when he spoke. "Your father always said you were the one not to cross. Everybody thought Taylor was the piranha, but your father believed otherwise. I guess he wasn't wrong. Fine. You should know, though, that this isn't over."
I turned away from him and waved him off. "Yes, it is."
He stormed out, barking something at Michelle as he passed her desk, while I thought about his comment about my father. Never close to me, my father had always favored Taylor. They'd sit for hours talking about business, sharing his favorite brandy and smoking cigars in his study as they plotted their takeover of some helpless company one of them had spied in distress that day.
That world had never appealed to me. Even now, I remembered the stink of their cigars as I passed that room on my way out at night, never asked to join them and happy for it. They were like strangers I was oddly related to but had nothing in common with. I couldn't imagine sitting around in leather high backed chairs playing like some captain of industry in their private, real life game of Monopoly.
I wasn't a saint, but I wasn't the kind of men they were. Maybe it was because I'd never wanted this. I was happy living a life of excess and good times, hurting no one but myself. Well, that wasn't exactly true, but I certainly wasn't guilty of the things my father and brother were.
"Mr. Stone, Mr. Knight is here to see you," Michelle announced over the speaker, tearing me from my daydreams about the past.
What was Daryl doing here today, a day early? "Send him in, Michelle."
I prepared myself for Daryl's report on Nina's ex and more importantly, what had happened with her father. Daryl came in with a bounce in his step he always had, like the world's biggest leprechaun, and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of my desk.
"Tristan, I know I'm a day early, but I thought you'd want this information ASAP."
My heart pounded against my chest at the thought that Daryl was about to tell me something about Cal and Nina. I took a swig out of my water bottle and sat back in my chair as I worked to calm my nerves. "What did you find out?"
"Which do you want first, loverboy or the father?"
"Give me the information on Cal Johnson first," I answered with a lump in my throat.
Daryl reached into his suit coat and pulled out a notepad. Looking up at me, he smiled. "Loverboy it is. Let's just say your guy has gotten around. I don't know how he does it, but on what amounts to a clerk's salary, this guy has seen more ass than a toilet seat."
Fucking fantastic. This day was just getting better and better. Forcing a smile onto my face, I said, "Love the way you describe things, Daryl. What are we talking about this for?"
"I thought you wanted to know who he was fucking."
Leave it to Daryl to make this amusing. I had said I wanted to know that, but only because I was afraid the answer would be Nina. Chuckling, I said, "Okay, is he fucking anyone interesting?"
"Not in your league, but he does like women who have money. He's piss poor, but the women he sleeps with aren't."
"What is he, some kind of Casanova, Daryl?" I asked, sure my jealousy was obvious.
"Not as far as I can tell. Used to be some kind of college athlete. Rugby or something like that. Now he's just some guy who runs numbers at an insurance company."
"Then I doubt he's piss poor. Actuaries make good money. I think your detective skills are getting rusty, Knight."