The Risks we take

Twenty Seven

Reed

He hadn't called. I waited. And waited. Slept, ate, went to the gym, drank a little, ate again, got ready, met Paige and by 8pm we were sitting in the restaurant smiling still having not had a call from him. He had to know. It was everywhere. It was going viral online about her dropping everything over the weekend. Abandoning everything. Everyone was saying she was scared of hard work, spoiled, another nepotism baby who'd be living on daddy's money forever and never actually work for it.

I stared at the pictures Sloane had been posting on her stories, making it very obvious she was home. Each picture her smile reached higher than it had in any at home. Apparently she was an actress too. I couldn't even text her in case her phone was tapped. I was relying on pictures and updates from Drew. At least until Sloane got a temporary phone. I miss her.

"She looks like she's having fun." Paige leaned over her sofa behind me. "She always does with Eden." I grumbled, rewatching them for what had to have been the hundredth time since we got back from our 'date'. Logan was tapping away on his keyboard, writing up tomorrows article about it. That ever-present frown glued to his face. He hated this as much as I did. But it was killing 2 birds with one stone. They were kept private and me and Sloane weren't together. Because no one with any common sense would date Paige Hawthorne unless they had intentions of marrying her.

London Eye. Flowers and wine. Her and Eden. Her and 2 other friends. A girl and a guy. She'd purposely put herself beside him, wrapped his arm around her and she was laughing. And then the one of her facing Eden with their tongues out, captioned 'drinking on a work night🥴'.

That was the thing that I kept focusing on. Sloane didn't drink. She'd told me that before. I'd got it out of her yesterday that she didn't drink on her meds because it messed with her head. So, either she was past caring or was really not handling any of this well at all. Or she wasn't taking her meds because she didn't need them at home.

I don't know which one made me feel worse.

"Babe, can you read this over?" Logan pushed the laptop across the table and I blinked at my phone.

"Calvin's calling." Silence. No tapping of keys. The music playing in the background stopped and I could feel their eyes on me as I answered. "Hello?"

"You did it."

"Did what?"

"You got her to leave. She's back home. Sold Rise. Not to me but she doesn't own it. What do you think I'm talking about son!" I put him on loud speaker and Paige put her phone down beside it, recording the conversation we'd been waiting for all day.

"I didn't do anything. I don't know what you're on about."

"For 4 months Reed, I've been asking you to do whatever needed to get Sloane to go home and get their sticky little fingers out of the US market."

"I told you I wouldn't do it and I haven't. None of it is my business. Why Miss Windsor is back in London at the drop of a hat isn't anything I should be concerning myself with." I pierced a knife into my own heart. It was my business. Sloane is my business.

"Zak said you were there last night. That you're the one who's covered him in bruises. You know I had to increase the pay I gave him for that."

"You were paying Zak to date Sloane?" I knew the answer, I just needed it on tape. I needed him to admit what he did. He caused 3 people to die in that bar. Not fatal shots. I'd looked at it. But blood loss and shock afterwards. But he'd hired the men. He'd paid Zak. Probably told Zak to do whatever.

"Of course, I was." I closed my eyes, taking a slow breath. "I needed something to give you a push. What did you do after Zak left? He said she had friends over? Was it someone important? There's rumours about Pa-"

"It was just two people she worked with at Rise." I cut him off. "What else did you do to push me dad?"

"Nothing to push you. Nothing against you."

"Dad."

"I just reminded her how dangerous life in New York can be."

"The bar. On valentines day? It was you wasn't it?"

"You think 5 guys just so happen to wonder into the bar she in with her friends and miss every shot?"

"3 people died dad. Because you wanted Sloane out of the country. Are you insane?" Paige waved frantically telling me to calm down and I forced a slow breathe out of my lungs. "All over something stupid I have no doubt. If the Windsor's want to buy out every paper in the US, who are we to stop them? They and anyone else can do what we please dad. This isn't the mafia in some novel. You don't try to kill people to get them to leave the country."

"It's fine. She didn't get hurt. It scared her and she went home. No big deal."

"No. No big deal. No big deal at all. You killed 3 people, paid a guy to date her and led to her needing me to go pick her up at 1am when things turned sour, you then sent him back to her house and now I've lost the one girl I've ever cared about because she's gone home and left me here and you're only thought is it's no big deal." Calvin sighed down the phone.

"I told you Reed. Love does not exist in business. Nice guys-"

"You're not a nice guy though. A nice guy doesn't do this. Doesn't force his son to do all of this or face losing his job or being disowned. I told you I wanted nothing to do with this. I left The Echo because I wanted nothing to do with this. Sloane Windsor leaving had nothing to do with me. This is all on your hands."

"Of course, it wasn't you. You're too wrapped up in the girl to do anything that needed to be done."

"It didn't need to be done."

"Yes it di-"

"No. It didn't. I'm done talking about this. Don't call me again. I'm busy."