The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

Those nostrils had calmed, and his Adam’s apple moved up and down before he coughed to clear his throat. He ran a hand down his tie, then leaned forward in his seat. “Those restraining orders are a wake-up call.”

I sat back. “Restraining orders won’t do shit against my grandfather.”

“But they’re paperwork. Paperwork is—”

“Not currency my grandfather adheres to. He is in bed with corrupt government leaders. He’s here. He’s attempting to battle me in old-school ways, buying up shares in companies he thinks I want, trying to get shares of companies you and I both own. He’s trying to get to Bailey for the mere fact to scare her. He has not clued in, either, that I’m not playing that way. I am taking a page from Bailey’s playbook.”

Interest sparked in his gaze.

“I’m letting him underestimate me, but there’ll be a time where he realizes he’s losing. He’ll get angry and he’ll explode. I’m trying to cover all bases so when he does explode, everyone I love is safe.”

Peter let my words sink in.

I hated this. It made my stomach churn. He had helped raise me, but there were facets of Peter that were not there. Being monogamous and being proactive in areas outside of technology were two that he struggled with. It was unfair of me to expect him to know how to physically disarm an attacker or, if need be, to pick up their gun and shoot them in the head with it. I wasn’t asking that of him.

He let out a deep sigh. “What do you need from me?”

“I need you to be a father.”

His eyelids shuttered. He looked as if I’d struck him.

“Check in with Matt. That bender happened for a reason. Make it right with him. Check in with your daughter. She needs a father right now, and I know she’s walling off her mother, and I haven’t approached that topic with her yet. I looked into her schedule. She overloaded herself so she would finish within twelve months.”

“What? That’s too much, even for her.”

“Exactly. Figure out why, and tell me.” Though I had a strong guess as to why. “Then help her as her father. She just got you. Let her actually have you.”

He gestured to my computer, my desk. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

I wheeled back my chair, but just watched him.

He waited.

“When I have reports sent to you, read them or listen to them and move on them. I send them to you for a reason.”

He let that digest before clipping his head up and down. “Got it. You sent another one over this morning. I’ll listen to it on the way to check in with Matthew.”

That was it.

He came.

He tried to help.

I schooled him on how he wasn’t helping. And now we would see if he did.

Now he left.

If I were to guess, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bailey shared that she got a surprise call or visit from her father.

My phone rang.

“Yeah?”

“Kashton?”

This was a call I never wanted to take.

“Victoria.”

She was hesitant, but then asked, “Can we meet for lunch? There’s something I need to talk to you about. About … about your grandfather.”

I looked at my screen, seeing the latest report that one of my private investigators had sent me. It was the amount her grandfather was in debt to my grandfather, but I highly doubted this was what she wanted to talk to me about.

With that, I knew what I would do, and I knew I wouldn’t tell Bailey, and I could only hope it didn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

“Sure.”





TWENTY



Bailey


A week passed, and I fell into a routine.

Kash woke me up every morning, and after I fell back asleep, fully satiated, he left for work. I woke forty minutes later, went to Hawking. Hoda wasn’t there for the first three days. Rumor was that she found herself having financial problems. She got that sorted out, but I’d taken to sitting with Melissa and Liam. We ate at the same place for lunch every day, and because of that, other people and staff took note. It didn’t take long before my classmates’ pictures were being put on a couple social gossip blogs. Camille Story had remained quiet, but she was on the list for me to hack. Again. She was slippery, though, so I wanted to wait and figure out the best way to go at her.

Matt came over twice. He didn’t ask about Kash. He asked about school, and he had a look in his eye like he wanted to talk about something else, something important, but both times he never brought it up.

I was biding my time before I pushed to get answers from him.

I worried he would close up to me, so I wanted to wait until the right time.

I needed answers.

If he was going to Naveah. If he was going to see a new woman. If he was going to the Chesapeake Estate. But mostly, I wanted to know what was bothering him.

Until then, lots of studying. Lots of coding. Lots of reading.

I wanted to get ahead with my classes, so that meant even more reading and even more coding. Melissa dropped a hint that there was a big internship opportunity coming up. She looked at me as she was talking about it, got all squinty, and then clammed up. I asked Liam later about it and he told me that Phoenix Tech always offered a first-year graduate student in our program at Hawking an internship. That internship sometimes led into a job.