For Her Son's Sake (8 page)

These were things he could attempt to find but his life had been dominated by hate and a thirst for revenge for so long that he suspected he’d never be able to settle down into any sort of domesticity.

He rubbed the back of his neck and realized that Allan had been talking. Saying something that he no doubt would expect Kell to respond to.

“I’m sorry, what’d you say?”

“I asked who the Lakers were playing.”

Kell had no idea. Playtone kept a box at the Staples Center. Most of the time they used it to entertain corporate clients but occasionally the Montrose brothers went there to kick back and enjoy a game.

“Not sure. I’ll check while you text Dec.”

“Okay,” Allan said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Kell was willing to bet the first text was to Jessi.

He surfed the net and found that the Lakers were playing the Dallas Mavericks. Allan had gotten up and walked to the hallway to talk on the phone. From the hushed sound of the conversation, Kell suspected he was talking to Jessi.

Since he had the internet up, he typed in Emma’s deceased husband’s name and did a Google search. A list of photos and articles about him popped up. He clicked on the first link and felt sick at Emma’s loss. Helio had been a decent guy who’d loved his young wife and his jet-set lifestyle. Most of the articles called Emma a video game heiress. He recalled that she hadn’t really been working full-time at Infinity Games until after Helio’s death.

“Dec’s in,” Allan said, walking back in the rom.

Kell closed the window on this laptop and looked over at his cousin. “Great. They are playing the Mavs. So it should be interesting.”

“Nice,” Allan said. “I’ll see you at ten for the meeting with Emma. She sent some updated figures just now. I’m going to plug them into the financial sheets so I have the most current projections for our meeting.”

“Sounds good. See you at ten.”

When his cousin left, Kell knew he should be checking his email and analyzing the information Emma had sent but instead he surfed the net and realized that he was never going to be the right guy for Emma. No amount of wishing or changing could make him into the kind of man she deserved.

Eight

“S
ammy said you had Darth over for dinner last night,” Jessi said, walking into Emma’s office like the badass Goth chick she was. She stood there in the doorway, in combat boots and a short plaid skirt, her arms crossed over her chest. “What gives?”

“We...we have to try to make peace. I’m the only one without a place in the new world order,” Emma said. No way was she getting into everything else that Kell brought to the surface in her. Like the way he’d held her all night. It had been the best night’s sleep she’d had in months.

She refused to dwell on it or give him any of the credit. It had been a long time since she’d had sex and it had to be down to the physical exhaustion she’d felt.

“You don’t have to have him to your house for dinner,” Jessi pointed out. She walked into the office, closing the door behind her. “Talk to me, Ems.”

“No.”

“No? Then something happened between the two of you,” Jessi said, arching both eyebrows at her. “I have a bet with Allan that you will never give in to Kell. Don’t make me lose.”

“I’m not worried about some dumb bet you made with your fiancé. Kell and I have history. More than you guys can ever understand.”

“I’m worried about the bet,” Jessi said. “What history?”

Emma fiddled with her pen cup, rearranging the neat Pilot pens in color order and then deciding they’d be better in her drawer. She didn’t want to admit to Jessi that she’d seen their grandfather be a Grade A jackass to Kell but then her sister already knew the truth about their grandfather.

“We were interns together. Remember when grandfather had that open call for students interested in going into the gaming industry?”

Her sister nodded. “I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction.”

“You did, but ended up here nonetheless.” Emma had always been a strong believer in fate. And it seemed that there was some higher power at work here at Playtone-Infinity Games as well. The long ago feud started by Gregory Chandler and Thomas Montrose was being settled by this generation. And not in a way either of the men would have approved of.

“I did. Gramps must be chuckling over that,” Jessi said wryly.

Emma shook her head. “And rolling his eyes that you called him Gramps and then having a fit that we let Infinity Games fall into the hands of his hated rival.”

“Definitely. So, back to Kell. He came here as an intern?” Jessie asked.

Emma nodded. She didn’t really want to talk about Kell Montrose. The more she and Jessi discussed him the more uncomfortable Emma was. She knew that Kell would hate it if he ever heard them talking about him.

“He’s more gutsy than I would have guessed. What was his play?”

Emma thought about it. Given what she knew of Kell, she suspected that Thomas Montrose might have been the reason why Kell came to work with them. That Kell had wanted to prove something to his grandfather and bring back some information on Infinity Games. “I think he wanted to learn gaming and check out his grandfather’s enemy. Kell grew up with Thomas.”

“Allan told me. He’s pretty much the only one who wasn’t screwed up by Thomas. Of course, he turned into an arrogant show-off instead.”

“I thought you didn’t call him names anymore,” Emma said.

“Old habit. Plus I don’t want him getting too complacent.”

“Good plan. How’s Hannah doing? Still teething?” Emma asked.

“Yes. We tried every over-the-counter remedy. And then I talked to Patti’s mom. She was having a very lucid day where she knew who I was and everything,” Jessi said. “She suggested rubbing rum on Hannah’s gums. I know, I know, it’s not the accepted thing but we were desperate and tried it. Guess what? It worked.”

Patti’s mom suffered from Alzheimer’s and most days lived in a the very distant past when Patti and Jessi were teens, so often when Jessi talked to her it was a struggle.

Emma admired her sister for not only taking on raising Patti’s daughter but also caring for her mother. Patti had been so much more than a friend to Jessi and Emma knew her sister still struggled with the loss.

“Speak of the devil,” Jessi said.

“Allan, Kell or the actual devil?”

“Haha. Allan. He wants to hang out with his cousins tonight. What do you say to a girls’ night? I’ve missed hanging out with you and Cari. There isn’t enough time to see everyone,” Jessi said.

“Sounds great to me. I’ll get Mrs. Hawking to stay late and watch our kids so we can go out.”

“Love it. I can’t believe we all have kids. I was never going to have them,” Jessi said.

“I always thought you were just saying that to make Dad mad.”

“Partially. But I also saw how screwed up he was and how hard it was for me to fit in at home and just never wanted to put another person through that.”

“You turned out okay,” Emma said.

“Thanks to my big sis,” Jessi said. “You sure you’re okay with the Kell thing?”

“Yes,” Emma said. “On another subject I’ve got the meeting with the board this morning. Did your team finish the mock-ups of the game so we can use it in the demo?”

“Yes. And I did go talk to the kids in the childcare area yesterday. So I have some initial focus group feedback for you, too.”

They discussed the results and made a few tweaks to the reading app prototype. When Jessi left, Emma sat back in her chair and contemplated how fate might have a different plan for her than the one she had seen in her future just a few days ago. A plan that involved Kell Montrose more than ever. The only problem with that plan was she had no real idea of how Kell would react.

* * *

The boardroom at Playtone-Infinity Games didn’t have that old world boys’ club feel to it. It was hip and young. At one end of the conference room, there was an Xbox One connected to a huge forty-inch flat screen television. The latest PlayStation was at the other end, and the common area outside the boardroom featured the Wii. The company developed games across all the platforms; they were mainly known for their first-person shooters, massively multiplayer online games that had gamers from all over the world competing against each other.

Kell sat at the head of the table thinking about how long and hard the road to get here had been. But it was so worth it. It hadn’t only been about the vengeance. They’d had true success in their industry. When he sat here surrounded by the awards they’d garnered and the corporate portraits of his cousins and him hanging on the wall, he felt a sense of satisfaction knowing he’d done what his grandfather hadn’t been able to.

But that feeling faded as Emma walked into the room. She wore a wide-legged pantsuit with a fitted jacket and a jewel-toned shirt, and her hair was pulled back in a conservative style. When she noticed him, she gave him a forced smile.

“I was hoping to get here early to set up,” she said as she put a large portfolio on the table and set her big leather bag on one of the chairs.

All business. But then he shouldn’t have expected anything else. She wasn’t going to suddenly want to talk about last night. He hoped his note was enough. And he was torn. A part of him knew one night in her arms wasn’t enough but another part wasn’t sure it was wise to ever go back again.

“Do you need my help?”

“Sure. I’ve got some foam core boards in the portfolio. Would you put them up on the credenza while I get out the tablets and cue up our prototype?”

“I’d be happy to,” he said, getting up and walking over to her. Her perfume surrounded him and he closed his eyes as memories of the night before assailed him.

He turned away to get his body back under control and then took the portfolio and began setting up her boards. If he’d needed proof that last night had been a mistake then he had it. There was no clearer evidence than the fact that he was still obsessing over her. He had the feeling he always would be. There was something about Emma that affected him that deeply.

He shook his head and focused on the task at hand. As he looked over the boards, he had to admit she’d really made a lot of progress from their initial chat about her future with Playtone-Infinity Games. He was impressed but knew he shouldn’t be. He’d always thought of her as a worthy adversary and her work here proved that maybe if she’d been given enough time she might have been able to turn Infinity Games around. Then again, that had never been an option, given that he’d been gunning for her.

She sat at the end of the table near the door with a small pile of tablets next to her. She was setting up something on each device. He knew that Allan was going to have the financials for them all to review. Once they had a product they could decide if they should have a for-profit educational arm or if they’d release the games through a non-profit foundation as Emma had originally suggested.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked without looking up.

“Just marveling over how much you’ve done in such a short time,” he said.

She glanced up at him with a cynical look. “I know you didn’t expect it.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. And that was my mistake. I think I underestimated you, Emma.”

“You were blinded by your thirst for Chandler blood.”

“I’ve certainly changed my focus.”

“Have you?”

“I think so,” he said. But he wasn’t a hundred percent sure. It was easy right now when everything was going well to say he’d given up his quest for vengeance but it had been a part of him for so long that he felt it’d be stupid to assume it was all gone.

“Not sure?” she asked. “Me either.”

“It’s complicated.”

She nodded. “I said as much to Jessi earlier when she asked me why I had you over to dinner at my house last night.”

“You did? How did she find out about that?”

“Sammy mentioned that Darth had paid us a visit,” Emma said with a rue smile. “Sammy doesn’t know it’s not a nice name.”

“It’s growing on me,” Kell said, but the truth was he didn’t want Emma or her son to think of him as the bad guy. Hell. He wanted something different now but still wasn’t sure if he could pull it off. He knew he had to let go of the past; he’d won the battle over Infinity Games so there was no reason to keep living with the resentments that had motivated him. But he wasn’t sure how to move forward.

Sex with Emma had been great, but he wasn’t sure that was the way forward either, because sleeping with her had made his life even more complicated than before. Still, he wanted her, now that he knew just how hot her kisses made him. And how perfect she tasted and how right she felt in his arms.

But he wasn’t the right kind of guy to hold a woman in his arms forever. He hoped she realized that because he didn’t want to hurt her. She’d had enough of that in her romantic life. She needed a white knight. A hero. A man who wasn’t broken.

* * *

Emma made her presentation to the Playtone-Infinity Games board then answered their questions. She’d put in the hard work so she was ready for the tough topics they brought up.

“I know you mentioned doing this as a charitable foundation,” Kell said. “Have you considered possibly using this first game to launch a for-profit educational division?”

“I hadn’t considered that. I just tried to find a place in the merged company where my leadership skills were needed. The foundation model was the first thing that came to mind.”

“And I appreciate that,” Kell said. “But based on the focus group feedback—thanks for that—Jessi—I think we should look at the numbers if we opened a new division. It could be based out of the Malibu campus, which we were talking about selling off.”

“You were going to sell it off?” Cari asked. “Why wasn’t I notified?”

“We don’t need two offices with two staffs,” Dec said. “You knew that the five year plan had closures in it.”

“Did I?” Cari asked. “I don’t remember that being mentioned, but I like the idea of using Infinity’s old offices for an education division. I think that market is exploding and we could be on the cusp of capturing a huge audience.”

“I agree,” Allan said. “The numbers I ran were based on setting everything up as a nonprofit. But I can easily come up with a new set of projections. We’re going to need more information and a fully developed demo before I can commit money.”

“Okay. Seems like we should meet back here in three weeks. Emma, get a working game and some video of the game being tested by our target audience. Jessi, maybe set up a focus group with parents to get their feedback as well. We know what kids want but we need to ensure parents will buy it,” Kell said.

Emma felt better than she’d expected to. She marked the date in her planner. She knew in the digital age she should be putting it in her phone but she preferred pen and paper.

When the meeting was over, everyone gathered their things and left except Kell. She was surprised when he got up and gathered her boards.

“I want to be hands-on with this project. I’m going to rearrange my schedule so I can be at your office on Friday to spend some time with the kids.”

She nodded. He was the boss but she felt as if he didn’t trust her to do her job. “But I can take it from here if you’re busy.”

“I know. But I’m used to being involved with everything that we develop. I don’t think I could step back now.”

“Fine. If that’s what you want,” she said, shoving the tablets in her bag and trying not to feel as if she’d been sent to the principal’s office. But that was hard. She knew that he was in charge. He’d made that quite clear. But she didn’t like micromanagers. She was grateful to still have her job, but she thought he’d come to trust her at least a little bit.

“It is,” he said arrogantly.

“Why are you being so jerky about this?” she asked.

“Am I? I’m not going to just let you go off and spend money unsupervised, Emma. It’s my company no matter what happens between us—”

She stood up and walked over to him. “I know I’m still on probation and the same conditions are still in place. You don’t have to prove yourself on that score.”

She put her hand on his back but he flinched. “It’s not you who I was proving myself to.”

“Then who? Our family has no idea that anything has happened between us,” she said. And if she had her way, they never would.