Secret Affairs

TEN

It was Monday morning and I couldn’t find a damn thing to do this early. I was always in the office by 8, and now that I didn’t have a job, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Over the weekend I did some online shopping in hopes that I could find a hobby. Today I was into yoga. I got the whole setup with workout clothes and everything. If I looked the part I could at least pretend like I knew what I was doing.

This was literally the most miserable I had been in a while. That was saying something considering recent events. I didn’t think I ever hated something so much. I kept slipping off the damn ball, and my arms felt like jelly after three stretches. Ten minutes in and I gave up and just laid down on the yoga mat playing with my phone.

Somehow I eventually ended up on my belly on the yoga ball. I was so focused on this little game trying not to get killed when I heard the doorbell ring. I looked up for one second and the son of a b***h I thought was my friend stabbed me in the back and ran off.

Giving up on the game I rolled myself off the ball with minimal injury and got up to see who was at the door.

As soon as I opened the door, I recognized this man. Or at least I remembered him from my father’s office that day I went in screaming. The same bright green eyes stared back at me and I wasn’t sure if I should feel threatened or comforted that he knew my father.

My eyebrows furrowed trying to figure out why this man was here. There were no words exchanged between us that day. I hadn’t seen him at the funeral, so why was he here now.

“Rowan Sommers, my name is Davis Buchanan. I worked for your father,” he introduced himself. Everything inside me told me that I shouldn’t trust random strangers, but for some reason my fight or flight instincts were not kicking in. He wasn’t a threat to me. Or at least that’s what I wanted to believe.

I stepped aside and opened the door further so he could walk in.

“You just trust strangers in your home?” His hands were in his jean pockets as he casually strode inside like this was an everyday occurrence. I stared at his back as he walked in. He was wearing a sweater and a wool coat, even through his clothing I could tell how built he was.

I closed the door and stepped over my yoga equipment to sit on the couch. “Worst case scenario you just put me out of my misery,” I joked making him smile. I wasn’t sure if he smiled because my joke landed or because he felt bad for me, but I’d take it either way.

Once we were settled, I didn’t know what to ask first. Should I ask about his relationship with my father, or why he was here? “What exactly do you do?” I asked.

“I do a bit of everything,” he answered.

That literally gave me nothing. Leave it to men to be so dense. “What did my father hire you to do?” I reworded my question hoping he wouldn’t find a way to skirt around it now.

“Keep you alive.”

“What?”

Davis turned in his seat to face me and placed his elbows on his knees leaning forward. After a short minute that had me on the edge of my seat, he took a deep breath. “Your father hired me to keep you alive. Someone was threatening him with hurting you. Instead of hiring me to go after the person, he paid me to keep you safe. I of course got curious and found some interesting information I think you could find useful.”

Someone was threatening my father.

With my life.

And he protected me.

Was the man who shot my father after me. I should have stayed away. I should have listened. He was right to keep me at a distance. I was nothing but trouble and look where he ended up.

I got my father killed.

It was my fault.

But this man sitting in front of me has information. Information that I need to figure out what the hell was going on. “And you’re here to sell it to me?”

“Think of it as a bereavement gift,” he said with a sad smile.

If this Davis had information and he wanted to give it to me for free because he felt bad that my daddy was dead, then who was I to stop him. “So, what’s the information?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I wanted out. I wanted to leave everything behind and pretend like I was happy. But not knowing was eating me up inside.

“I didn’t get far enough to find out who was threatening him, but I know it’s someone on your board of directors,” Davis responded.

That wasn’t possible. The board was like family to my father. We would even spend holidays with them and their families. My father had me calling a few of them uncle because that’s how close they were to bring brothers. He always said he preferred those men over his real brother anyways.

Now this stranger of a man is sitting in front of me telling me that one of them wasn’t trust worthy. That they were threatening my father by using me. If they knew any better they would have used the company instead, what he wouldn’t have done to protect his precious baby.

“There are ten members, all of whom my father trusted. How do I know you’re not lying to me? How do I know you weren’t the one going after him?” I voiced my concerns, which was very stupid of me. If Davis Buchanan was the one after him, then I just gave away that I suspected him. Who knew what he would do next.

I prided myself on being able to read people. I used it to my advantage during business deals, but I could get absolutely nothing from this man. It was threatening yet not really. I didn’t feel like he would actually pounce. I didn’t feel like I was in immediate danger.

If he was telling the truth, then he had been protecting me from afar at my father’s wishes.

“Because I was the one that tried to stop the shooter.”

“What?”

Davis leaned back in his seat before he started speaking again. “The man who was hired to kill you, didn’t kill you because I stopped him,” he added.

Someone was hired to kill me.

Someone was hired to kill me.

I kept repeating those words in my mind hoping they would sink in so that I could process what’s happening. Everything was finally coming together. The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

He knew. My father knew who was stealing from the company. He must have confronted them and that’s when they used me as a bargaining chip. But why now? Why send someone after me? They already had my father in their back pocket and they were doing whatever the hell they wanted with the company.

And they missed. They completely missed. Now my father was dead and Nate was barely recovering.

I bent over with my head in my hands. This couldn’t be happening. It was me. They were after me and my dad was dead. He was right when he said I would be the death of him.

“He still killed my father and hurt Nate, so you’re obviously you’re not very good at your job,” I angrily shot back. It was unfair of me to do so, but I had nowhere to direct my anger towards. And he should have done a better job if he was getting paid.

Davis sat forward obviously annoyed with my comment. It didn’t seem like he was ever back talked. He didn’t seem like the type of man that allowed it. “Yeah well, there was a struggle when he shot off the first bullet. It was intended for you. A couple centimetre changed the course. Your father always said to keep you safe no matter what,” he replied.

My father did care about me. He may not have shown it, but he didn’t have to protect me either.

No.

Don’t do this.

I couldn’t keep attempting to decipher all of my father’s unspoken words. It would only drive me crazy to try. He could’ve told me. He could’ve said something, anything. But he waited until he was a f*****g bloody mess to tell me. He was never going to tell me; he just didn’t want to die with unfinished business.

I focused on the matter at hand, I’d wrack my brains about my father later. “How did you know it was meant for me?” There was no way he could have just assumed the bullet was meant for me. You couldn’t know intention. But that would explain the second shot that hit the sidewalk near me.

“I got the information I needed from him once he was subdued.”

The shooter was found in a dumpster. It had finally clicked that the man who was sitting in front of me casually spilling all this information was the one who took care of the shooter. “You tossed him off the roof!”

“He accidentally slipped,” he corrected my outburst.

There was no way that I was misconstruing this, or overreacting. Davis had killed a man. Davis had killed a man who was attempting to kill me. Davis killed the man who killed my father. “You killed him,” I whispered more to myself.

“He was going to kill you, a thank you would be nice.”

“I— this is just too much.” My head was throbbing with all this newfound information. I couldn’t make up or down. Did Nate know I was being threatened? Did Daniel?

“Take your time,” he nonchalantly responded as he leaned back on the sofa. He made himself comfortable crossing one leg over the other as he looked around. He was expecting me to come to terms with everything right now.

How could I possibly do that? This was a f*****g mess. I was a mess and Mr. Buchanan here was expecting me to grasp this new reality in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t however babying me, or patronizing me either. He knew his audience and knew I would lose it if he had.

“So now what?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I gave you the little information I had, now it’s up to you to decide what you want,” he told me.

I wanted so many things that they were all melding together and I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. But they all led back to the same conclusion.

“I want to know who gave the order.”

I needed to know who sent the shooter after me. The person who caused my father’s death. The person who was stealing from the company. They were all the same person. They were a threat that needed to be eliminated.

I’d take care of this. I’d do this one final thing for my father and then I would leave. I would leave everything behind; I was done giving my time away to people who didn’t appreciate it.

My father and Nate couldn’t figure out who it was, but I would. I’d do it just to spite them for underestimating me. I had no clue what I would do once I found out. All I knew was that they would pay for everything they’ve done.

“That might not be as easy as it sounds,” Davis responded.

“You could do it.” I knew he could. The only reason he didn’t figure out who it was before it was too late was because he was busy protecting me. Now if he invested all his time and energy into finding out who it was, he could do it.

Was I stupid to trust this man? If he wanted to hurt me he could have done it at any point. Right?

“I never said I would accept the job,” he said shaking his head.

Would the men in my life ever stop being a disappointment. I just needed one of them to do as they were told. To follow simple orders as they’re given. If I have to buy their loyalty then so be it. I’d buy Davis’ if I have to. But I would get the answers I wanted one way or another.

“I know your kind. Once you start something you have to finish. It’ll eat you up inside to not know who killed the man that signed your check. That’s why you’re here.” If it were simply a job for him, he would have just let it go and cashed his check. And here Davis was. He could have easily searched for the answers himself, but he had to justify it to himself. He needed a reason to look into it, not just out of curiosity.

He needed to rationalize the risk he was going to have to take. And of course, get paid for finding the answers was always a bonus.

He sat up with a lazy smile on his face. Davis knew I was right; he probably didn’t think I would come to the conclusion. “Speaking from experience?”

I stood up and stepped over my yoga mat to get a drink. I needed to drink to the death of my hobby and my father. I poured one shot of tequila and one of whiskey for Davis. He seemed like a whiskey man and I didn’t need a grown man bitching about his liquor preferences. “We’re not so different.” I told him as I handed him the glass.

I took the shot of tequila, as Davis stared at the amber colored liquid in his glass. This gesture wouldn’t have been thought twice of if I were a man. He would have happily accepted the drink, if it were my father offering it to him. I’d have to show him how to respect me.

“Make me a cup of coffee, I’m going to shower,” I ordered him pointing out the kitchen and walking towards my room.

I now understood why Nate asked me for a cup of coffee. It was such a small thing, but it proved a point. It was an asshole move, but if I wanted to make it then I would have to take a page out of their book.

“You order all your employees around like this?” He called out from the living room.

“Only the ones I’ll be paying hundreds of thousands to,” I yelled back.