“I too took a lot of risks when I was younger, against men that were more powerful, richer and supposedly a lot smarter,” he says.
“Are you sure you want to travel down this rabbit hole with him. Mrs. Scott?” he says, his eyes now on me. No I don’t want to go down any freakin' rabbit hole! Even though it doesn’t matter now since my name might as well be Alice at this point.
“You talk to me. Only me,” Collin interrupts him.
“Okay Collin,” Mr. Crestfield says calmly. He makes a signal and a moment later a woman approaches the table.
“Could you bring me a pen and paper please,” he asks her.
“Right away Mr. Crestfield.” She’s back in an instant, handing Mr. Crestfield the items he requested and disappears right after.
“Would you like a drink darling? You look so nervous,” Mr. Crestfield chuckles.
“She’s fine. You have,” Collin looks at his watch, “about two minutes to give me your answer.”
Mr. Crestfield just smiles, scribbles something on the paper and then holds it out to Collin.
“What is this?” he asks, irritated as he looks at it. I look at it too. It’s an address.
“You may not be very interested in it but Cal is,” he says, smiling so widely you'd think he’d just won the lottery. A look of realization comes over Collin’s face. He stands up abruptly.
“Let’s go, Lauren,” he says, grabbing my arm, almost pulling me out of my chair and dragging me across the floor.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask him, tired of being clueless in all of this.
“It is Clayton’s Rice address,” Mr. Crestfield calls out. I look back at Mr. Crestfield, my eyes widening in horror. The grip Collin had on me has completely loosened. I look at his face, the taut expression that he’d worn before gone, relaxed and a smirk replaces it.
“Hey Gorgeous, you look especially sexy tonight.”
“Cal?” I ask, hesitantly afraid to hear the answer. Out of all the times for me to want him here, now is not one of them. He walks back over to the table where Mr. Crestfield sits, looking especially pleased with himself.
“It’s been a while Cal,” he says, a grin on his face.
“Yes it has. You are a lot easier to do business with than your son,” Cal says, happily snatching up the address on the table. I rush over to Cal and grab his arms.
“You cannot do this,” I tell him tightly. He rolls his eyes and sighs as he continues walking away from me.
“Mellissa, can you make sure that Mr. Scott’s car is brought around ASAP,” I hear Mr. Crestfield say.
“Cal, this will destroy you. You cannot do this. Cal!” I plead with him. He lifts me off my feet and kisses me, and puts me down
“It’s going to be fine. Don’t worry,” he says simply and gives me a wink. I try to keep up with him but it’s hard in these five inch heels. I stop to take them off as we’re near the entrance and as his luck may have it, our car is pulling up. He walks to the driver's side and hops in. When I run to open the door it’s locked. He lets the window down.
“I’ve got to do this babe. It’s all going to work out. I promise,” he says and pulls away. I throw my shoe on the ground and rush back into the restaurant to where Mr. Crestfield is.
“Tell me that was a fake address!” I say desperately.
“I have a dinner to finish, if you don’t mind my dear,” he says dismissively as his companions approach the table.
“You’re welcome to join us. However, I think you have more pressing matters to attend to,” he says condescendingly. How dare he? How the fuck dare he? Every bit of intimidation I felt has gone out the window. I pick up the glass of water in front of me and toss it in his face before quickly heading to the exit.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what the hell to do! I don’t know who to call, who I can trust. Dexter’s father just gave him the exact location of the man he wants to kill. I don’t know who can help me. I settle on calling his mom, who doesn’t pick up. I groan and call Mr. Scott.
“Lauren. I’m so glad you called,” he says hopefully. It’s funny how much he’s changed.
“Mr. Scott. Do you know anything about Cal’s birth parents?” I ask him desperately.
“What. Why are you asking that?” he stutters.
“Collin told me that Cal wants to kill his dad named Clay because he thinks he killed his mother, and we ended up meeting Mr. Crestfield and Collin asked for a third of his company and somehow he knew how to trigger Cal and I think he gave Cal this Clayton guy's address and I’m pretty sure he’s on his way there to kill him.”