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He laughs, and the deep rumble of masculine perfection is a balm to my soul. “Elijah is refocusing on Tabitha and Mick. We’re all good. I’ll explain everything to you and Gabe at the same time.” He walks across the room and opens the door.
Gabe enters the office and looks between us. “Jesus is right. Both of you need to get the lipstick back on her lips before the press conference. It’s all over both of your faces and for the record, Reid, I need more than a minute to finish.” He looks at me. “Sorry, Carrie. He’ll get better I’m sure.”
It’s in that moment that Cat walks in the door. “Reid, damn it. Why can’t you answer your phone?”
Reid, Gabe, and I all look at each other and burst into laughter, and I don’t know all that Reid will share with us all now but I know this: These people are now family, the family I’ve always wanted.
Chapter one hundred nine
Carrie
The press conference starts at noon on the dot in the lobby of the building, and no matter how completely Reid has assured us all that Elijah has been leashed, I’m terrified about some sort of bombshell. The three of us—me, Reid, and Gabe—take the podium, and as we all discussed and agreed upon, Gabe takes the microphone and announces the merger.
He goes through the financial details and data, keeping it short and sweet. “Now,” Gabe says, “if you have questions directly related to the merger—”
“Reid!” A reporter shouts. “Did you kill your girlfriend?!”
I can feel Reid stiffen next to me and I grab his arm. From there the shouts begin, one after another, all directed at Reid and the scandal. Reid squeezes my hand and then looks at Gabe, giving him a nod before kissing me and then taking the lead spot at the podium.
“Let me just cut to the chase,” Reid says in the microphone, his voice strong, unwavering. “Yes, my college girlfriend died in a shooting. Yes, I was there. Yes, she took a bullet meant for me. I knew the shooter was going to shoot the store attendant. I saw it in his eyes and felt it in his energy. I taunted him to get him to point the gun at me, giving the clerk time to call for help. The minute that happened, Kelli panicked and bravely flung herself in front of me and the shooter reacted by pulling the trigger. Kelli’s parents are now deceased, but in the days after their daughter’s death, I got to know them over the years. I stayed in touch with them and I can tell you, they wouldn’t want her used as a weapon against me or anyone.”
He stayed in touch with her family? He hadn’t told me, but I love him all the more for this new detail.
“Are you seeing Carrie West?” A reporter shouts. “Is that how you managed to pull off this merger?”
Anger flares inside me and I step next to Reid and speak. “I’m his fiancée, and for the record, I asked him to consider the merger. We as people, and companies, balance each other out with the kind of perfection that is magic, which is exactly why our first deal together was record-breaking for both companies.”
From there, the questions come hard and fast, darting back and forth between business and personal, but we let them at us because as Reid said before this event, the sooner they get tired of us, the better. After forty-five minutes of pounding questions, Reid calls it to a halt and Blake’s team intervenes to get us out of the lobby. Reid, Gabe and I all end up on an elevator alone.
We all stand there in the moving car in silence, that speech Reid gave between us, and I don’t hug him the way I want to. I know him. That’s not what he needs or wants right now. He needs to move on. He needs to deal with it later when we’re alone, but Gabe hasn’t had the opportunity to ask him the questions I have and he’s living this with us right now. “You kept in touch with her family?”
“I did,” he says. “And every time I talked to them I felt like I was the one who killed their daughter.”
“Did they blame you?” he asks.
“No. Never. But I did. I blamed me.”
Gabe scrubs his jaw. “Fuck, man. You should have told me.”
“We both know you had shit of your own to deal with,” Reid says. “We both know you still do.”
Gabe’s jaw hardens and he cuts his stare, obviously hiding his reaction, and it’s then that the elevator dings. He glances our direction again. “As soon as Walker clears the reporters, I’ll go deal with pops. You two just plan a wedding or get drunk, or both. I damn sure have a date with a bottle of vodka.”
The doors open and he exits the car without waiting on a reply. Reid takes my hand and we share a moment of understanding. Reid is okay. He really is, but Gabe is carrying a boulder on his back and we can only hope he now knows that we’ll help him carry it. We exit the car side by side, and random staff members stop to speak to Reid on the way to his office. Suddenly, the asshole they’d all feared is human and what I see in each person’s eyes isn’t sympathy for Reid, but rather respect. They respect him for his humanity, and for his courage to face this today. The truth is he tried to take a bullet to save a life that day. He was courageous then, too, but it just wasn’t his time.
When we’re finally inside his office with the door shut, I lean against it while he walks to the bar in the corner. “Vodka, wine, or whiskey?” he asks. “Gabe recommends the vodka.”
I push off the door and walk toward him. “Wine,” I say, but he’s already pouring it. He knows me. I love that he knows me.
He hands me the glass. “Let’s drink and talk until we can do exactly what Gabe suggested and get out of here.” He pours himself a whiskey. “We have a dog and a cat waiting on us.”
“Are you really okay or are you banking it all until you can explode later?”
“I’m better than I’ve been in a long time,” he assures me, motioning to the couch.
“Why is that?” I ask, as we sit down and I kick my shoes off and curl my feet onto the cushion. “I mean, you told the world what you wanted to tell no one.”
“And by doing so I used it as a weapon I armed myself.”
