I look up at him. "I'll call you and Fiona when I get settled."
Ethan closes my door, and I watch Ash as he waits for Ethan to get in his car before he drives away.
"What's going on?" I ask him.
Ash shakes his head.
"Please tell me. I think I have a right to know."
He sighs, and then looks over at me. "After Nick underbid Bigelow on the property he rented you, Bigelow started pulling the rug out from under us. And things have only escalated from there. The deal down in Miami is bad. It looks like the sale of the property is going to be frozen until the legality of the funds used can be determined."
"But Nick said he gave me a fair price for renting the property," I insist.
"Fair is subjective. Bigelow didn't see it that way, and so he took whatever deals he could from Nick. But Nick and Hayden didn't like the rug being pulled out from under them, and they slung it right back at him, tricking Bigelow into a property in Englewood."
Things are making more sense. "The one on Elizabeth Street?"
"Yes, the address that was written on your sign."
"But why did he attack me this morning?"
Ash looks over at me again. "To make it personal. Because he could. Who the fuck knows."
"Why didn't you want me to tell the police?"
"Because we can't be sure they're not on his payroll. It's better if Bigelow thinks you don't know what is going on."
"Better for me, you mean?"
He nods.
At that I turn and stare out the window, and only then to allow my eyes to close.
I've been a lot of things in my life, but I've never been this scared.
Nick
REGRET.
The word means different things to different people. It even means different things to the same person depending on the circumstances.
I regret not walking down the hallway of her apartment building Saturday night and fighting for what was mine. I regret making it look like I was blowing her off because I couldn't handle the rejection. But I don't regret for one single second allowing her in my life, forming an attachment, opening my heart enough to let her in.
I press the button for my floor, and then look over to Hayden, who is on the phone with his girlfriend.
"Alliecat, listen, I'm going to be fine. Just stay at your mother's until I come get you."
I run a hand down my face. Things have gotten way out of control.
Hayden scuffs the toe of his boot against the carpet in the elevator while she talks, then he softly says, "I love you too. Give munchkin a kiss for me. I'll be there as soon as I can."
After he hangs up, I look over at him. "She okay?"
He puts his hands in his pockets and leans back, looking just as exhausted as me. "She's fine. Just shaken up."
"When are you going to marry that girl?" I ask.
He lifts his gaze. "I don't know. Things are good the way they are, I don't want to rock the boat, you know?"
I nod, and we both fall silent.
It's been a rough couple of days.
The doors open and as soon as we step out, Ash storms toward us. "What the fuck is going on?"
Wanting to speak softly because Ash informed me when I landed that Tess was in my room asleep, I motion Ash and Hayden toward the kitchen.
Hayden speaks first. "We have a serious problem."
"No shit, Sherlock. What the hell happened to Tess?" Ash asks, thrusting the sign he already told me about at me. "Why is the property you had me scout out written on this?"
I take it and then stagger back to sit in one of the kitchen chairs. I bury my face in my hands and crumple the sign in my fist before I let it fall to the ground. After a moment, I look up. "Shut down all the deals you have going on. We're pulling our bid on Miami, backing down on all deals, and laying low."
Hayden's face is a mixture of shock and rage. "You're going to let him win?"
I blow out of breath. "Yeah, I am. Bigelow has people on his payroll all over the goddamned place. Even the FBI for Christ sake. If we continue to fight him, he's going to do something that ice and a few stitches can't cure, and I'm not willing to let that happen."
Hayden steps forward and snatches up the sign from the floor, stares at it, and sits down next me. "Hey, I'm on the same page. I am. I don't want anything to happen to anyone around us, but Nick, if you let the Miami deal go, the Feds are going to hold your deposit indefinitely, and then if you squash all the deals we have in play right now, there will be no cash flow. This could ruin you."
I lean down and put my elbows on my knees. "And if I don't pull my bid, Bigelow is going to ruin all of us. One way or another, he's going to keep coming after us. Miami was just the first step. I mean how the hell did he manage to include my old man, the realtor's office, and the company in his set up?"