Читать книгу Scream My Name - Kimberly Kaye Terry - Страница 9

“I would like to get out of here early today, Judith.”

Brandan placed his balled fist at the small of his back and massaged his aching joints. He grimaced when the knot refused to loosen.

“Can I get you something for that?”

Brandan swiftly removed his hands from his back at her inquisition.

“No. I’m fine. Just a few kinks I can walk out.” He feigned nonchalance when he took a faulty step and stumbled before he quickly righted himself.

Actually his back hurt like a son of a bitch.

The ever efficient Judith opened one of the drawers of her desk and withdrew two pills, holding them out in the palm of her hand.

He was so used to playing off the pain, he automatically said no when asked if he was hurting. Judith, of course, knew better. Gratefully, he accepted the pills and swallowed them without the benefit of water.

“Thanks, Judith.”

“Well, let’s see, after the meeting with the partners, that’s it for your day. You don’t have anything pressing that can’t wait until Monday,” she replied after he nodded in gratitude. “They should be here any moment,” she finished.

“Good,” he replied, and just as he glanced at the large face dial on his Rolex, his door opened and both of his partners, Mateo Sanchez and Damian Reed, walked inside.

“Right on time, gentlemen. Let’s go in my office,” he said after greeting both men.

He’d known Mateo since high school, and the pair had met Damian while playing college football at Texas A&M, and the three men had become friends.

Brandan and Damian had been drafted right after their senior year to the same NFL team, while Mateo hadn’t.

Instead, after completing his bachelor’s and master’s degree in business, Mateo had returned to San Antonio and gone into business with his father, a wealthy local who was a residential and commercial real estate owner, with holdings spread throughout Texas.

Damian had played ball for several years, traded from the team he and Brandan had gotten drafted to originally, yet they all kept in touch with one another and remained friends. When Brandan had gotten injured was no longer able to play, and been forced to retire, Mateo had approached him about going into business together.

Damian followed soon after he’d retired due to an injury as well, and the men went into the commercial real estate business together.

By aggressively learning the market, paying close attention to real estate trends, anticipating up-and-coming commercial hot spots, and buying land before it was desirable in urban and downtown areas in various cities, they’d soon become one of the top commercial real estate companies in the state.

Mateo had grown up with money, while Brandan and Damian hadn’t, both having earned football scholarships to attend college.

Damian had grown up in a middle class home with both of his parents and a slew of younger sisters. Mateo had taken an instant liking to Damian, and the two had become close, nearly as close as brothers.

Brandan had grown up alone with just his mother, and nine times out of ten, unless he was in a football game, his mother had been too busy working to give him much attention. Had it not been for one of the ranchers his mother worked for as a cook, he would have never been able to attend the football camps as a teen that had helped him earn a scholarship for college.

When Brandan hadn’t had a place to go on spring breaks, knowing that it wasn’t really an option for him to stay with his mother once he’d graduated high school and was no longer a child, instead of staying around the dormitories, Damian had invited him to go home with him.

At first he’d been apprehensive about going home with Damian. He’d heard many stories about Damian’s father, who, from the pictures he’d seen, was his twin in looks as well as size, running off any man who looked twice at any of his daughters.

He’d been told many stories about Damian’s close-knit family, he being the only boy with five sisters, and a father who was hell-bent on keeping his daughters away from any man between the ages of eighteen and eighty.

Now, Mateo, first checking to see if anything was on the seat, lifted the tail of his suit jacket, fanning it away from his body so he wouldn’t sit on it.

After he sat, he brushed away imaginary lint from his gabardine slacks and matching suit jacket, and adjusted the gold diamond-studded cuff links on his shirt.

Mateo was the most fastidious straight man Brandan had ever met.

Every pleat on his pants was pressed to perfection, his shirts were always crisp, and although the office was casual, like Judith, Mateo chose more formal business attire than either he or Damian.

He walked into the office looking like he was ready for a damn formal event in near military precision.

He was like that in everything he did. From his personal attire, to the car he drove—a sleek metallic gray Aston Martin Vanquish—to the women he dated.

All were beautiful and unattainable for the average Joe…expensive and perfect.

“So, is everything a go with the Miller project?” Damian asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Although their main interest was seeking out potential lucrative land to sell later, when interest in the area was hot, they were involved in projects where they were investors in the new development as well.

At Brandan’s request, they’d become investors in a city youth center project, located near the downtown area.

“It’s a go. Demolition is set for next month. The architects’ plans were approved and the first rising will be in late spring. Just got the report from Bronsons,” Brandan replied, referring to the architectural firm that was responsible for the building plans.

The center would be private, but because the city was involved, something Brandan himself had made sure of, scholarships on a sliding scale would be available to those who couldn’t afford the annual dues.

“How’s it going with the Santiago block?” Damian asked, referring to their latest project. “Any word yet on the tenants? How many have agreed?”

“Let’s see, I have it somewhere. Let me check,” Brandan replied and opened the black leather-bound notebook in his hand, flipping through it until he’d found the page he was looking for.

Though he really didn’t need to check. The project details, as well as Leila James, were firmly entrenched in his mind.

“It’s all good. Just waiting for one last tenant.”

“Same woman who sent us the letter protesting us ‘destroying her livelihood?’” Mateo asked and laughed.

“Yeah,” Brandan said, and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “Leila James. Owner of Aunt Sadie’s Café. In fact, she’s taking it up a notch. Says she going to fight us. Going to the city’s Hall of Historical Records to stop us from buying the land.”

“How in hell is she going to do that?” Mateo asked, his good humor rapidly disintegrating.

“She says there’s some tree on her property that has historical significance.”

“Damn, if it’s not one thing, it’s something else. She’s the only one holding out on us, and holding up the project. The other owners were more than happy to sell and get five times what their businesses were worth!” he replied, a frown creasing his brow as he glanced over the document. “What the hell does she want? You’d think she’d be happy to get it off her hands. Didn’t she inherit it or something?”

“Let me see it,” Damian asked. With a sigh of disgust, Mateo handed the document over.

Just the mention of the woman—Leila James—caused conflicting emotions for Brandan. He’d been the one “assigned” to deal with her. Over the course of the last few months, the woman had raised his blood pressure to soaring levels. He didn’t know what would happen if he were to actually come face-to-face with the woman, but it was something that admittedly—embarrassingly—he inexplicably got hard just thinking about.

Damn. Yeah, he needed a woman.

“I’ll contact her again,” was all he said to his partners.

“So that’s it, right?”

“You got plans?” Damian asked, handing the document back to Brandan.

“Yeah. A date,” Brandan replied absentmindedly, and placed the document back in its file.

“With who, Serena?”

“No, broke it off a few weeks ago with her.”

“This makes what? The third new woman in as many weeks, amigo?” Mateo replied with an easy laugh.

“And the problem with that is…?”

They all laughed. Brandan knew he wasn’t known to keep dating one woman much longer than a few months, but even for him, this was a lot.

“Looking for Ms. Right?” Mateo asked, and a small smile lifted one corner of his mouth.

“About as much as you are.”

“Yeah…right.”

“You guys never know, stranger things have happened. The right woman could come along, and you’ll be trading your sports cars for minivans with built-in TVs to keep the kiddies occupied while you take a road trip to Disneyland,” Damian laughingly warned.

A look of indescribable horror flashed across Mateo’s face, and Brandan barked out a laugh, only to have Damian turn to him.

“What are you laughing at? Out of the two of you, I’d lay my kids’ college fund that you’re the first one to be picking out a beige tricked-out minivan!”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Wanda would like you losing your kids’ tuition money on that one. I like the single life just fine.”

“Man, not every woman is the same.”

When his friend turned his dark-eyed gaze toward him, Brandan felt the slightest bit of discomfort, as though Damian was looking right through him.

He knew Damian was referring to his mother and their uncomfortable relationship. “The right woman comes along and man, it’s like BAM, that’s all she wrote. Tagged and bagged…the rest is history.”

“That would have to be one hell of a woman. And one big-ass bag,” Brandan replied nonchalantly.

Before Damian could respond, the office door flung open abruptly.

“Miss, I’m sorry, but you don’t have an appointment! You can’t just go in there—”

“I’m sorry Mr. Walters—gentlemen—I thought she’d left after I told her you were unavailable. I went to the restroom but when I came back, she was going inside! I tried to stop her but she—”

Surprised, all three men stared, each with varying expressions on their face, as a beautiful, tall, determined-looking woman stood towering behind Brandan’s small, very flustered assistant.

“Look, miss, I’ve told you—”

“No, that’s fine, Judith. She can come in. In fact, why don’t you head out for the day. I’ll lock up,” he said, never taking his eyes off the woman who’d moved from behind Judith, and was now watching all of them with an air of majestic expectancy. As though she had every right to barge into his office without notice.

It was the woman from the lobby.

Brandan barely noticed when Judith reluctantly took her leave. He saw both of his partners staring at the woman with just as much interest as he, and when he noticed a sly-ass grin cross Mateo’s face, something in him wanted to knock the man’s teeth down his throat.

He turned to the woman and asked, “We have an appointment, Ms…?”