The Proviso (16 page)

“And then Leah suddenly stepped in front of Giselle,
too, so she became the priority threat.”

“Right. The day after the funeral, Giselle told him
she’d kill him regardless of what I wanted.”

“What do you want?”

“I want Fen on death row. I’m not interested in
having him dead before the world knows what he did. I’m not going
to hide behind Giselle’s skirts and I’m not going to let her have
her head. Whatever happens to Fen, I’m the one who needs to do
it.

“After Giselle got shot, Sebastian doubled his stake
in OKH and began going to the shareholder and board meetings just
to make sure Fen knew he was on the warpath. Sebastian’s blocked a
couple of major business decisions just by having such a large
voting share.”

“Causing the stock price to fall.”

“And Sebastian picked up more shares. The SEC got
very upset with him when he refused to explain and stopped
approving his buys. Everybody in the country’s selling OKH short
now.”

“So Fen decided to run for office and put Taight’s
head on the block since Roger Oth is already running his mouth
about the way he shut down Jep Industries.”

“Right.”

“That’s what I figured. After Leah was murdered,
Wall Street pretty much gave up on you fulfilling the proviso. How
much does Blackwood know?”

“Not sure. Sebastian usually doesn’t explain
anything to anyone ever, but Jack’s the one steering the takeover
because it’s just so complex. He’s taken out long odds in Vegas on
me actually fulfilling the proviso, so I suspect Sebastian hasn’t
told him anything. He has a reputation for being crazy like a fox.
Nobody’d bet on me at all if Jack hadn’t.” Knox harrumphed. “Not
that it’d do
me
any good.”

“So what was Taight’s next move or has he made it
yet?”

Knox paused for a moment as if trying to decide how
to articulate it. “This has thrown Sebastian for a loop. He doesn’t
think politically because he’s never had to. He thinks in terms of
the principles of capitalism and he’s always had the money, power,
and leverage to do what he wants without really coloring inside any
line he doesn’t like. Too, he has people to clean up after him when
he goes a little too far. He doesn’t know what to do when he runs
into someone with more authority and power than he does, because
there just isn’t anyone like that. The only idea he could come up
with was to block Fen’s fundraising efforts as much as
possible.”

“That’s weak.”

“Yep.”

“So he has no plan.”

“Oh, he has one now. Blocking Fen’s access to money
is the first part. Second part: Kevin Oakley’s going to run against
Fen on Sebastian’s dime.”

Bryce chuckled. “Sebastian Pendergast. Okay,
next?”

Knox smirked. “Have you been watching the news? Oth
has been forced to start answering questions about why he called
Sebastian to fix Jep Industries in the first place. Sebastian’s
people refer the reporters to me and I very subtly imply that once
Sebastian got to Jep, he found that the employees’ pensions were at
risk. He rode to the employees’ rescue and, being the longsuffering
and altruistic citizen that he is, decided to take the publicity
hit instead of embarrassing or otherwise demanding Oth account for
himself. And, oh, damn, I said too much and this is off the record,
right? Oth’s going to have to shut his fat mouth about Sebastian’s
villainy if he wants to save himself, but by then, the bell will
have been rung.

“Add me to the mix as the attorney representing the
man who’s trying to rip my inheritance out from under me, and the
whole thing becomes this tantalizing mystery. Either way, it’ll
start to make Fen stink to high heaven, not to mention Oth and any
of the other five senators who have it in personally for Sebastian.
By the time the handoff rolls around, I’ll look like the underpaid
little public servant and college professor who was almost cheated
of his inheritance by his evil uncle-slash-stepfather.”

“And Taight will look like the genius saint who
decided that if you couldn’t have it, neither would Fen—and spent
millions of his own money to take it down.”

“Yes. It won’t keep Sebastian out of the hot seat
forever, but it only needs to work until after OKH is settled for
good. Once that’s out of the way, Sebastian can recruit his
similarly disenfranchised pals to help him fight any future
anti-Taight legislation on their terms instead of letting Sebastian
try to do it alone under the Senate’s terms—and with one hand tied
behind his back, to boot. Obviously, none of them can step in while
OKH is smack in the middle of it because they’re as in the dark as
everyone else is, but that won’t keep them from contributing to
Oakley’s campaign.”

That made Bryce burst out laughing. “What do you
mean he doesn’t think politically? That’s brilliant.”

Knox looked up at him sharply. “Sebastian didn’t
come up with this. This is Giselle’s brain child.”

Bryce stared at Knox for a moment, his mouth open,
before he closed his eyes and sat back, taking a deep breath. He
could feel every last drop of blood in his body rush to fill his
cock. He didn’t even care enough to keep his reaction from Knox’s
not-so-observant eye and he figured he deserved it when Knox
started to laugh at him.

“Heh. She just gave your IQ a blow job and she’s not
even here.
Priceless!
”

Bryce couldn’t deny that. On the other hand, he
wasn’t sure why that surprised him once he’d finally figured out
she’d dropped from that particular family tree. Bryce took another
deep breath. “Okay, so you can cross me off your list of people you
need to convince to stay away from Fen.”

Knox grimaced. “Yeah. About that. You got crossed
off the list at Fen’s fundraising party. That’s why you’re here
wanting to know if Giselle and I are lovers—besides the fact that
you stuck your ears where they didn’t belong.”

It took him a couple of seconds before he
understood, before anger exploded in his gut. His jaw clenched. His
nostrils flared.

“Oh, simmer down,” Knox drawled. “It was the only
idea Sebastian could come up with on short notice. All he knew was
he had to keep your money and Fen separated. I didn’t think you’d
take a call from me and you’d be suspicious of Sebastian calling
out of the blue. Given that you were the only serious money
possibility he couldn’t talk to personally beforehand, he sent
Giselle in to get you the hell away from Fen and fuck your mind.
She didn’t know your name and we didn’t know she’d met you before.
How was I supposed to know you’d evolved from Peter Priesthood into
alpha male? You haven’t talked to me in, what, twelve years?” He
shrugged. “You were my best friend and you know my history.
Sebastian respects your reputation. We didn’t know you’d figure out
Fen killed Leah and that I
didn’t
.”

“There are a lot of things you two don’t know,”
Bryce said, his eyes narrow.

“Yeah,” Knox snapped, now obviously impatient.
“Like, we don’t know what happened that night between you and
Giselle because she hasn’t said a word about it. Sebastian said you
followed her like a wolf in heat and made sure every male in that
room knew she was your territory. Then a half hour later, she came
flying through the gallery looking like she’d been thoroughly
fucked. You ran after her, missed her, and went back in so pissed
that you punched Sebastian when he wouldn’t tell you where she
went. Since she didn’t shoot you, we figured there was something
else going on.

“What we
do
know is that something happened
between you, what—a year ago?—you kissed her or something? And she
was fidgety for months. We’ve never seen her like that before. When
she came home alone from the Nelson that night, she was a hot mess,
and she’s been a hot mess ever since.”

Bryce thought about that, thought about how fidgety
he’d been after that kiss in the parking lot, the mess he’d been
when he’d gotten home from the gallery. Thought about the fact that
she wanted him as badly as he wanted her and had from the moment
they’d met at Hale’s.

He
needed
to know.

“So
have
you fucked her?”

Knox looked at him speculatively and waved his fork,
not answering Bryce’s question. “What happened to you? You’re
dropping the F-bomb like it’s the Word of the Day and you took
Giselle on and won, which is—amazing—especially for the Bryce
Kenard I knew way back when.”

Bryce grunted. “I don’t know why you have to ask.
Michelle. Then it was the fire and my kids dying.”

“I can understand that, but I think there’s
something else. What?”

Bryce paused for a long time, then said, “I don’t
know. I lost some memories after the fire; don’t know if it was the
fire or the coma. I think something happened early in my marriage
and I think it was significant.” He shrugged. “Then I read
Atlas
Shrugged
.”

Knox burst out laughing and he laughed until he was
coughing and wiping tears from his eyes. “Oh, damn. That’s our
family manifesto. If I’d known you were going to go that nuts, I’d
have shoved it in your hands in college. You were a downright
prude.”

“I would’ve been horrified. Attracted, but
horrified. It took what little sex I got—all of it bad—and no
outlet for my anger with Michelle to make me accept that you were
right.”

Knox, still chuckling, said, “The sweetest sentence
in the English language: ‘You were right.’ Congratulations on
getting in touch with your dark side and for picking the right
woman.”

“I didn’t pick her,” Bryce admitted after a long
silence. “She picked me and she made sure I knew it. Well?”

“No, I haven’t. Neither has anyone else, might I
add.”

“Don’t split hairs with me. You’re a prude of a
different color and I know how you differentiate.”

Knox snorted. “Okay, no. No making love, no having
sex, no fucking, no whatever you want to call it. Not even close.
Bryce, she’s my cousin. We grew up together. We’re all members of
the church or used to be. What, you figured out we were related,
but it didn’t occur to you she might actually be sitting in church
on Sundays?”

“Neither you nor Taight are in there with the
program and she hangs with you both. Why should I believe she’s any
different?”

“Well. I see your point, but Sebastian just up and
left.”

Bryce raised an eyebrow. “And you were
excommunicated.”

“Yeah, so I didn’t feel obliged to sleep alone
anymore for the temple marriage I wasn’t ever going to get. Giselle
does what she wants and what she wants is to save it for marriage
like she’s supposed to.”

“And she’s how old?”

“Thirty-six.”

“I call bullshit.”

Knox paused, his tongue in his cheek. “Well. She’s
not pure as the wind-driven snow, no. She owns stock in Duracell
and has a shelf full of erotica—and her taste runs to kinky.” He
shuddered. “But for a woman her age with raging hormones, she’s
holding out as well as can be expected. Whatever happened at the
gallery with you was completely out of character for her. Sebastian
was shocked. Now he’s just seriously annoyed.”

Bryce had ceased to think. It was too— Too much. Too
good, too bad, all at the same time.

I’ve never done this sort of thing before.

So she hadn’t—and not only had he not believed her,
he’d thrown it back in her face for daring to say it. No wonder
she’d looked so horrified. He sure as hell hoped he’d made no other
dead-wrong assumptions he’d be obliged to account for.

“So are you done with the church?”

“Maybe,” Bryce answered slowly, low, “I don’t know.
I think so. I don’t fit. I never did.” Knox sighed, but said
nothing. He didn’t have to; Bryce knew his opinion and it wouldn’t
have changed in twenty years. “Do you really expect me to believe
Giselle’s a virgin?”

“Yes, I do. If she’d have given it up for anybody,
it’d been for me—” Bryce flinched. “But no. She’s been . . . how do
I put this? . . . waiting for someone to sweep her off her feet.”
He waved a hand. “Congratulations.”

“She ran away from me.”

“You scared the shit out of her, and not your face,
either. She’s always been too invested in her fantasy man to know
what to do with a real one. She’s had the law of chastity beaten
into her for the last thirty years, same as we all did, but she
also has a turbocharged libido
and
she’s heading to forty.
It’s not like there are a lot of single LDS dudes her age who know
the drill and would keep their hands off, right? So she doesn’t
date outside the church much at all in case she falls off the deep
end with the first guy who strokes her just right who would then
treat her like shit in the morning. She has almost no control and
she knows that.”

So do I.

“She doesn’t know I’m a member,” Bryce muttered.

“Yeah, she does. She went in thinking she’d get a
nice evening of philosophical discourse with an unthreatening male
about her age she could relate to on a cultural level.”

Bryce couldn’t help his wry chuckle. “Now, if you
and she are that close, why haven’t I ever met her?”

Knox abruptly stopped chewing and stared at him for
a moment with an expression Bryce couldn’t decipher, which was rare
enough that it made him uncomfortable. “Huh,” he said after another
few seconds. “Well, you were married by the time we got to BYU, so
what difference would it have made? She’s exactly what you’ve
always liked in women, and I wasn’t about to put
her
between
you and Michelle, since
I
wasn’t having a picnic being
between you. Not to mention what that would’ve done for the state
of your soul. You’re welcome.”

“I hate it that you know me that well.”

“And I hate it that you didn’t know me well enough
when it counted.”

That found its mark and Bryce’s mouth tightened with
guilt. He looked at the tablecloth and fiddled with a fork. “I’m
sorry,” he said for the umpteenth time tonight, not knowing how he
could really make it right.