As always, I slipped out of Nina's room after she fell asleep and returned to my room. I'd grown used to my nightmares since the plane crash, but I knew tonight would be filled with more than usual. Over and over, I was haunted by the image of Taylor and my father standing over two dead bodies. I got less than an hour's sleep total, tossing and turning until I woke up in a cold sweat twice before I just gave up and got ready for work.
I stood in the kitchen hoping coffee would undo what my lack of sleep was working hard to accomplish, but even the caffeine in the special blend Rogers bought for me wasn't able to do the job. My eyelids drooped heavily as I leaned against the center island, my day ahead and all that I'd learned in Pennsylvania weighing on my mind.
My eyes closed, but I felt a hand touch my arm and I looked around to see Nina standing in front of me, her expression full of concern.
"Hey, are you okay?"
I shook the grogginess from my head and forced a smile. "I'm fine. Good morning." Bending down, I kissed her softly on the lips. "Sleep well?"
She stroked her fingertips down my tie. "Better than you, I'm guessing since I'm not sleeping standing up. I thought only horses did that."
"I'm fine. Long day ahead of me."
Nina wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her. "I'm worried about you. Why don't you ever stay with me all night?"
I couldn't tell her the truth—that I wasn't sure she was ready to see the real me, the man who suffered through each night with nightmares, sometimes just one but other times dozens. Would she even want me if she knew I was so fucked up?
"I'm one of those workaholic types. My brain never shuts off, so a lot of times I get up and do work when you're sleeping. I don't like to bother you, so I go back to my own room."
She squeezed me in her arms and looked up at me with a smile. "It wouldn't bother me and it would be nice to see you there when I wake up."
I couldn't say no when she looked at me like that, with those blue eyes so sweet. "Okay." I didn't mean it. There was no way I could stay with her all night feeling like I did now.
Nina turned to pour herself a cup of coffee. "I'm going to do some work on the Atlanta suite today. I have some good ideas, I think. How's your day look?"
Atlanta.
"I need to move up our trip there. Be ready to leave this afternoon," I said before I took my last sip of coffee.
Spinning around, she splashed coffee down the front of her shirt and rushed to pat it dry with a towel from the counter. "What? I'm not ready. I need more time."
"I have things I have to take care of there, and they can't wait. I'm sure whatever you choose will be great," I said calmly. "Be ready to go by three. I'll be back in a few."
I left Nina stunned in the kitchen and quickly got away from the house before she could ask any questions. I wasn't ready to explain everything yet.
Michelle was waiting for me when I got to my office, along with Daryl and Karl. While I would have liked to make both of them disappear, I had to deal with them. As I breezed past them on my way in, I decided Karl and his threats would be the first hurdle of the day.
"Karl, how nice to see you. Join me in my office."
He barely let me sit down before he began. "Is there anything you want to tell me, Tristan?"
I looked up and saw him standing in front of my desk. He held his chin high, as if he was looking down on me or had something over me.
"Other than what I told you last time, Karl, no. So if you're here with some bullshit bluster, I'm not in the mood. Go bother someone else."
He stepped forward and placed his palms on the edge of my desk, pushing the platinum nameplate aside. The symbolism wasn't lost on me. His meaty, rough hands with their thick knuckles shoving me out of the way.
Leaning forward, he jutted his face toward me. "Made any trips lately, Tristan?"
I'd been foolish in thinking he hadn't had someone watching me. Faking nonchalance, I leaned back in my chair and laced my fingers behind my head. "None recently, but I'm planning to head to Atlanta right after New Year's. Would you like me to bring you back some peaches, Karl?"
His expression changed as he mentally filed away the nugget of information I'd just given him, and then he grinned. "Speaking of peaches, how is your young lady? Feeling well?"
I bristled at his reference to Nina. "Have you taken to caring about Nina's welfare now, Karl?"
"I'm just here to remind you that if there is anything incriminating, she would be in grave danger."
I couldn't help but chuckle at him. "You been watching A Few Good Men recently? Your threat might work better if you sounded like Nicholson."
Karl didn't seem to understand my joke and continued, "This is almost at its end, son. Remember that."
He turned to leave as the triumphant victor of our lame battle of wits, mumbling something as he flung open the door and stalked past Michelle. This was a hell of a way to start the day. And now I had to deal with Daryl and his pictures, which would require more playacting on my part to avoid looking like a boyfriend who was in the dark as to what his woman was doing.
"Tristan, I have so much I want you to see," he announced as he entered my office and closed the door behind him.
"Take a seat, Daryl. Let's see what you have."
He sat down in front of my desk and pointed toward the door. "Before I begin, I should let you know that I saw him watching your lady while I was watching loverboy."
I couldn't hide my surprise at hearing that Karl himself was watching Nina. Thank God I had two bodyguards on her. But he was beginning to be a real problem. Stalking me was one thing. Stalking Nina was an entirely different thing and one I didn't like.
"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you didn't know. He didn't get close to her, but he was there and watching her."
"Thanks, Daryl. Did you see anyone else there?"
"Just the two giants who are always around her. I'd keep them with her at all times. That guy is no good, Tristan."
"So what do you have for me, Daryl?"
He handed me the pictures he'd taken as he watched Cal. "Pics of him with a handful of women. That boy gets around. Pics of your lady with loverboy. He's a real player and unless I'm reading her entirely wrong, she's way out of her league with him. You need to make her realize he's playing her. Got a decent amount from her the other night."
I sifted through the pictures of Cal Johnson and his catalog of women, stopping when I reached the few of Nina and him at the restaurant she'd told me about. I couldn't help but stare at her expression as she sat listening to the lies he spewed about a girlfriend breaking his heart and whatever other bullshit he told her. She looked so innocent sitting there next to him, her blue eyes intense as she sympathetically listened to his tale of woe, her mouth turning down slightly as the pictures went on and she heard how awful his life was. Did she look like that next to me, I wondered? In many ways, Cal resembled someone like me. I'd been accused of being manipulative many times by women. Had they seen me like I saw him now?