Nicolai:
The call gets transferred to my phone and I pick up. "This is Nick.", "Darling, hello. Thank you for answering." , "What's going on?" "It's your fath-Robert." She's quick to correct herself.
"What about him?" "He's going bankrupt and his..."
She didn't need to say the word because I knew she was speaking about his mistress, the twenty-something year old that he left us for. "She left him." I tip my head back and listen.
"What does any of this have to do with us than?", "He's sending threats..." Her voice cracks. "To you?" , Silence. "Mom?" I raise my voice and begin to pace.
"Yes. Nicolai, I'm concerned about you and your brother."
I crease my brow, "And why is that?", "Because, Robert-he's a mess, an absolute mess and I'm concerned that he might try and get hold of you and your brother."
"Eli and I can fend for ourselves." , "He's a sloppy drunk, there is not much that he could do that would be a cause of concern for me."
She sighs, "I am completely aware that you boys can take care of yourself but this is not something I want the two of you handling on your own.", "Elaborate?"
"I've hired security for you, Elias, and Tessa." I scuff and shake my head. "That is not necessary. " "Nicolai." Her tone of voice was stern.
"Have you gotten in touch with police about this?", "Yes."
"Then why the fuck are they not doing anything about it?" "Nicolai...they don't know where...he is." She trails off and I feel my pulse speed up.
"Listen to me, I've scheduled a meeting with the security team I've hired for the three of you-I want you to attend it in a half hour."
"And what about you? Who is going to be...watching after you?" She's silent again. "I'm leaving the city. I'm going to stay with your aunt Caroline in her home in Beverly Hills."
My right hand grips the phone firmly as my jaw clenches shut, every bit of anger was pulsing throughout my veins at this point. "You're leaving?","Nicolai-" I cut her off.
"I shouldn't be surprised." "Excuse me?", "Damn. This is so like our family. Nobody can stay around-somebody always flees at some point." Tessa eyes me, concern is written all over her face.
"I have to go, have a safe flight." My voice is cold and dry. She makes no movement to stop me from hanging up.
I slam my phone down on my desk, seconds later the feeling of hands on the upper part of my back makes me tense slightly. "What is going on?"
Her voice is soft and soothing. "Nothing, that I'm not already familiar with." I turn to face her, "She left? Why?" I don't respond, her palm touches my cheek. "We need to go." "What? Where?", "I'll tell you in the car."
Tessa:
I stand still for a few seconds before I grab my purse and follow him out of his office; he locks up and walks towards the elevator. "Nick, what is going on?" "I told you that I'd tell you in the car." I roll my eyes and climb into the elevator.
He looks straight ahead at nothing, his jaw is clenched and he looks to almost be holding his breath. We reach the parking garage and get into his Audi. "I have to go to work. You know that right?" I say annoyed.
"Tessa, you work for me-I'm fine with you missing a day." My mouth falls open then I shut it again and turn away from him. "Could you please tell me what the hell is going on? I feel like I'm part of some dramatic FBI based movie."
There is a hint of amusement on his lips as we drive through the city. "Please.", "Robert is sending threats to my mother." "And the police don't know where he is."
My brain begins to swarm with a thousand thoughts but the main thought on my mind was what the hell? "What does any of this have to do with you taking me hostage from my job?" I watch as he rolls his eyes.
"When did you become so melodramatic?" He asks keeping his eyes on the road. "When did you start kidnapping your girlfriends?", "Please, Tessa." I tilt my head back against the head rest. "Go on."
"She hired security for us. I'm not thrilled about it." "If you're not thrilled about it then why are we going?", "Because I want you to have security." "What?" My voice squeaks slightly.
"I don't need any." We reach a red light and he turns to me, a deadpan look on his face. "Do not hinder this." "I'm not."
We reach a large building and get out, he extends his hand for me to hold as we walk towards the doors. "Mr. Piercy?", A blonde woman with a cute pixie haircut asks from a receptionist desk.
He nods. "Great, Dante is expecting you. You can just walk down this hallway and his office is the one to the left. "Thank you."
Inside is a tall bald headed man, he's in a slightly tight fitting white t-shirt that makes his muscles evident. "Nick. It's good to see you again, man." Nick smiles and shakes his hand.
"Likewise." "Dante, this is my girlfriend, Tessa." He smiles, he has a beautiful full white toothed smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you." I nod.
I felt awkward as I begin to play with my hair. "Dante, listen-I understand my mother set this up, for your men to watch over us but I don't need that. However, I want them to look after her." I place my hands on my hips- I don't need this.
Dante assesses me and then Nick and then myself again before nodding. "Alright, and how about Eli?", "He isn't getting back to me. I assume he would feel the same as I."
"Okay, hold on just a second." We watch as he leaves the room and then returns with three burly men, two have buzz cut hair while the other was also bald.
They wore all black and each had a gun in a holster on their hip.
I felt queasy. "Is this really necessary?" "Tessa." Nick's tone of voice is belligerent. "Nick could I speak to you for a second?" We leave the room and stand in the vacant hallway.
"Nick, I get that you are on edge about all of this but look at me. This is excessive."," You yourself know so." He looks to be processing my words.
"If you were to get hurt it'd be on me." "I could never ever live with myself knowing that you were hurt when I could have done something to prevent it from happening."
My eyes soften and I grab his hand. He sounded like he was reciting lines from a cheesy romance novel...but a part of me found it cute.
"I'm careful and smart and capable of taking care of myself, hell I've been doing it for almost nine years."
"Look, right now Robert is not a threat to us. He hasn't even made any motion to reach out to either of you.", "Unless that day comes then we don't need this. We don't need a swat team." He purses his lips and leans his head back against the wall.
"Okay?", "Yeah, okay." "Now, could you please take me to work? I have a project to tend to."
We go back into Dante's office and discuss-what we just talked about-with him, he thankfully understands and agrees to this verdict, leaving and getting back into Nick's car.
"Thank you for hearing me out." "I guess I should have considered your proposition earlier."
I sit back and feel rather oddly pleased with myself as he drops me off at the office. I open the door and lean across my seat to him. "I love you." The look on his face changes, his eyes soften and he smiles.
"I'm still not used to hearing that, though it provides me comfort when I hear you say it.", "Good."
"Tess, I love you too." I smile. Climbing out of the car I walk towards the doors and inside. How did I go from disliking him so strongly to falling for him so hard in such a short period of time?
I get to the floor and walk inside, Naomi who was now co-manager of this field approaches me. "Coffee?", "Thank you. I needed this."
"Where have you been?", "Oh-it's a long complicated story. I'll tell you later." She nods. "Here" I get handed a cream colored folder, opening it up I see a picture of a young looking blonde haired, blue eyed girl. "Her name is Stella."
I nod as I read off her information, she looked to have just turned twenty-three, and she was from here in New York.
"She's interested in a position here, now that Jenna left-we need somebody to fill her spot." I nod and continue to look over Stella's information.
"Wow, she's smart too." Naomi nods. "She had a 4.0 GPA. That's impressive." "I've scheduled a meeting for the three of us." "Great. When?" , "Today, in an hour."
"What? Nay, I don't even have questions written or-" I let out a sigh of relief when she flashes me a piece of paper with exactly what I needed for this meeting.
"Where would I be without you?", she smirks "I'll keep that one to myself." "So, please do explain what's going on and why you were so late...are you and Nick alright?"
Define alright.
"Yes, it has to do with his father and mother and brother. It's complicated." , "I can do complicated. What's going on?", would he be upset if I told her? She's been my best friend for almost five years-I've told her worse.
"His father-Robert, is sending his mother threats, and she's concerned that he's going to come after Nick and Eli too."
Naomi stares impassively at me, "Wow, you guys sound like you're in a action movie with like Dwayne Johnson...mmm Dwayne Johnson." I roll my eyes.
"Naomi." , "I'm sorry. Are they all okay?", "I guess so. Except his mother is fleeing and they can't get a hold of Eli and oh-the police don't know where Robert is." Her eyes widen.
"She fled? Wait where is Eli?" I sigh "Yes and he doesn't know. Naomi. When Nick was speaking to his mother on the phone, he told her that nobody sticks around."
I frown. "What did he mean by that?", "I feel that Nick has opened up to me about himself...but there's a part of me that feels like I don't know everything." She leans back in the chair that sits just across from my desk.
"Do you mean his family or his past?", "Both." I knot my fingers together, another nervous habit of mine. "What if I don't know him at all?"
~*~
Thanks for reading! Two more chapters are left in this and soon to come! I hope you enjoyed this chapter though and I hope you have liked the rest of this story. The next chapter will be up next Friday! Please do feel free to vote, share, and comment-I appreciate hearing (or reading I guess) what you think.
Also the revised verison of The Billionaire's Son (as you know) is in the works to be sent to editors and publishers...in the revised version you will get a deeper insight into who Tessa, Nick, Eli, Kirsten, and Naomi are-and why they are the way that they are.
There will be so much more added in and so much more bakcground with Tess and Nick! I am considering posting a...I guess (if it was a movie (oh my gosh can you imagine if Nick was real..insert heart eye emjoi here...) )
Okay back to what I was saying...I was considering posting a "sneak peak" of the revised version at some point before I send it out, let me know if you'd be interested in that?
Again thank you for reading, voting, and being just plain awesome! :)
~ Kiana