Zenith Fulfilled (7 page)

He was inside
Nick Lassiter’s empire: his building, his company, his office, and the people were all his employees. Now, too, Joelle was
his
wife. Rob ignored the receptionist, and headed towards Lassiter’s office as if he knew exactly what he was doing. When he came to Nick’s office, a tall, pencil-thin woman stood up to intercept his nonconformist entrance.

“Can I help you?”

“No,” Rob said, bypassing her, and opening Nick Lassiter’s closed office door. To his relief, it wasn’t locked.

Rob stood right in front of Nick. Nick was annoyed at the unscheduled interruption. His thousand-dollar suit looked neat and fitted him perfectly. Someone was seated in front of Nick’s desk, but Rob didn’t care.

“I need to talk to you.”

Nick’s lips pressed together. “Always a damn drama with you
, isn’t it, Rob? You could have called, knocked, or at least waited until I was finished here.”

“You’re the boss
, aren’t you, Lassiter? Act like it.”

Nick let out a breath. He nodded at
the pasty-faced guy with a wrinkled brown suit, whose eyes went wide at the sight of Rob, standing before his desk. The man swiftly passed around Rob without another word and Rob slammed the door behind him.

“What is this? What could you have to say to me?
It’s a few too many years too late to have it out over Joelle, isn’t it? I think her decision’s long been made.”

He rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “
This is about your sister.”

“My sister?
” Nick looked puzzled and frowned. “Which one?”

“Which one? Rebecca, the writer, who else?”

“Rebecca? You don’t know my sister.”

“I don’t?
I don’t know your mini-van-driving sister and her three-year-old daughter, Karlee? And they didn’t fucking stalk me at my jobsite today?”

Nick’s mouth opened in surprise. He leaned his hands on his desk and glared at Rob. “What are you talking about?”

Rob started pacing. “Well, shit, she really didn’t ask your permission, did she? Did they?” Rob stopped suddenly, smirking at Nick.

“They who?”

“They, as in your wife and sister.”

“Joelle? What is this, Rob? Quit with the smug innuendos. I know you had my wife first, and I have her now. You lost. Get over it.”

Rob threw Rebecca’s manuscript on Nick’s desk. Nick glanced at it and frowned. Then he looked up at Rob, his confusion evident.

“It’s good. Intelligent, kind, well written, entertaining, and damned if I didn’t learn something from it. You tell her that for me, and encourage her to keep writing. Just keep me out of it.”

“You?”

“Yeah
, me. She wants to write about me.”

Nick sat back down. His expression went from anger to astonishment. “Rebecca wants
to write about you?”

“Yeah
, imagine my surprise. She cornered me at Spencer’s wedding. I obviously said no.”

“And?”

“And she won’t take no for an answer. She showed up at my work today.”

“That’s... surprising. And disturbing, but it doesn’t explain why you’re here. What do you want me to do?”

Rob gave Nick a look. What didn’t he get about the situation? His sister was stalking him. He had to stop the situation before it went any further. “Stop her.”

Nick sat back
and shook his head. He sighed. “It’s not like that, Rob. You don’t have sisters, or at least, you don’t have my sisters. They never listen to me. And especially, Rebecca. She’s… surprisingly not as mild-mannered as she looks. She asked me how I went about my business and wanted to know what I’d do if she or my sisters didn’t like what I did for a living. I told her to go after whatever she wanted. Business was business. That must have been it. What she was asking me about.”

“Well, obviously, this can’t happen.”

“I never dreamed she’d pick you to write about. But well, you do fit right in with her idea.”

“She offered me
your
money, Lassiter.”

“And you didn’t take it? Just for that reason?”

“Fuck you. I don’t need your money. You can’t buy me.”

“You know, I didn’t buy Joelle either. She said the same words to me on about a dozen occasions.”

“So?”

“So. Thought it might make you feel better. My money was nothing to her. To us.”

“What are you saying? You want me to do this? Take your money? Hang out with your sister? That’s something you want?”

“No. But she won’t listen to me. I control two things in this world, Rob: my company and my money. I don’t control my sisters. I can’t stop her.”

“Your wife agreed to this?”

Nick nodded. “So what do you want me to do? Forbid her? Yeah, that
’d get me a week on the couch. No, thanks. Joelle likes you. She forgives you for everything, and always wants me to do the same, which I say fuck no to. But there it is.”

Rob stared in surprise. He was sure Lassiter could persuade his wife and sister to stop and this would be over.
He eyed Nick. “I could fuck her, you know, just to get back at you.”

Nick
bristled just as Rob intended. Then he shook his head and laughed. “Good luck with that. Really, you don’t know my sister. Look, I don’t like you. But Joelle does, and she’d never let you near one of my sisters if she thought you’d do that. Rebecca’s been through some stuff lately, so please, don’t fuck with her, Rob. I mean it. I won’t interfere on her books, or her ideas; any of that is her business. But you mess with her, Rob, and I’ll fucking bury you. And don’t, not even for a moment, think that I can’t do it.”

“What more could you do to me?”

Nick shook his head. “This about Joelle? I don’t believe you. Not anymore. You’re over her. I saw you at the wedding. You don’t want her anymore. You want to sing. You want to resurrect
Zenith.
You might even want another marriage. But you don’t want her anymore.”

“Don’t tell me what I want, Lassiter! What I really
don’t want
is your sister, writing about me.”

“Agreed. I agree. But
again… what do you expect me to do?”

He frowned at Nick and finally fell into a chair. “I had no idea you were such a pansy with women.”

He leaned forward. “You’re here asking me to save you from my sister and your ex-wife. And you think I’m the only pansy when it comes to them?”

Rob didn’t like that. Maybe he had it coming by running there to get Nick to stop them. He sat up straighter. “
If you don’t do something, I’ll tell her that her writing sucks and I don’t trust her to write about me.”

Nick
lifted up an eyebrow. “But you don’t think that?”

“No. But I’ll do it anyway.”

“She doesn’t deserve that.”

“Not my problem.”

Nick nodded. “No. It’s not. I’ll talk to her.”

Rob let out a breath and
nodded. “Good. That’s all I wanted.”

“You could have just called me.”

“You wouldn’t have taken my call.”

“Probably right about that.
”

Rob got up and Nick stood up too before coming around his desk. He stopped and asked Rob, “Y
ou ever wonder why we can’t ever get away from each other, no matter how hard we try?”

He nodded.
“Between Spencer, Erica, and Joelle’s friendship, it seems like we can’t, or won’t.”

The door swung open
suddenly and Joelle came in. “What’s going on? Bev called me and said some angry-looking guy with lots of tattoos came barging in. Figured it had to be you, Rob.” Joelle looked from her ex to her current husband.

“You still work here?” Rob asked, surprised. He assumed that after marrying a guy with millions, she would have quit long ago.

“Yes. I still work here. Part-time,” Joelle said, her tone annoyed. “What’s going on?”

“Something about a book my sister wants to write. Know anything about that, Joelle?”

Joelle leveled a gaze at Nick. “Don’t use that Nick Lassiter, Ruler of the Empire-voice on me. Sure, I know. Rebecca wanted Rob’s address. She came to me, and for once, was actually nice.”

“Yeah, she only used you to get to me,” Rob
added.

“She admitted that
without any hesitation. But I think it was more than that. She seemed to take another look at me… finally.”

Rob didn’t know this Joelle. When she was married to him, Joelle was quiet, contained, and almost silent around him. She never would have talked to him in such an annoyed tone. She never shared how she felt with Rob, not when she was angry, or annoyed or anything. And that was half the problem with them, which existed long before his drinking became the issue. Joelle could never feel comfortable being herself with him. Not like she did with Nick Lassiter. They, Rob and Joelle, were so young when they got married, she at nineteen, and he at twenty-three. They jumped right into it, fast and furious, and perhaps skipped a few essential steps, like first creating an honest, open companionship based on trust. He loved Joelle, but never took the time to listen to her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nick asked Joelle.

“Because it has nothing to do with us. You’d probably tell Rebecca not to do it. But that isn’t your choice. It’s between them, Rob and Rebecca.”

“And I’ve been pretty clear to her that I don’t want to do it.”

Joelle turned towards him. She still wore the lip ring they got together when she was twenty and he was twenty-five. She had the tattoo on her arm that matched his, however, removed. The one that was their wedding gift to each another: a long script of their initials. He still kept his and
chose not to remove anything, since all of it symbolized a part of him, no matter how painful. “Why not, Rob? I think it would be good for you. It would let you put it all to rest. You’re still moping around, afraid to do anything important. Afraid of becoming the monster again. Maybe letting it go would free you up to start over completely.”

“You don’t get to comment on my life anymore, Joelle Lassiter,” Rob said snidely.

“Why do you want to comment on him? Why do you still care?” Nick asked from behind Joelle.

“Oh, for God sake! Both of you, grow up! Did you know my best friend, Erica Mattox, used to have sex with Nick before I met him? And I used to with you, Rob, before I met Nick. Erica and I are still best friends despite all that. Why can’t you two get over it? You know why I care, Nick Lassiter, and you also know that you have no reason to ever be threatened by it!”

Get over it
. Rob knew there was a lot he should get over, and a lot more he had to be sorry about. And that’s what kept him so frozen, so paralyzed in life. At least, he wasn’t hurting anyone and that counted a lot to him. He was terrified of reliving his past mistakes. How could Joelle, his most precious victim, tell him to just get over it?

Nick didn’t look any happier with Joelle th
an Rob did. But Rob knew that he and Nick would never get past it or be able to tolerate each other. That was about the only thing they could agree on.

“B
ecause we’re not you and Erica,” Nick said, his voice tightly controlled.

“Well
, because of me and Erica, now Erica Mattox, you two will have to learn to tolerate each other since you do occupy the same planet.”

Rob looked from one Lassiter to the other. “Not going to happen. Look, just get your sister off my back, and we’ll leave it at that.”

Turning on his heel, Rob ignored the large, panoramic views of Nick’s office. He couldn’t wait to get out of the place that clearly, and rather harshly, showed what a success, class act, and a powerhouse Nick Lassiter was; while he, a lowly, construction worker, and manual laborer, wearing sweat-stained, sawdust-sprinkled clothes, was nothing.  

Rob stopped before the desk where Bev, the assistant
, stood glaring at him.

“Sorry about barging past you.” Rob stuck out a hand. “I’m Rob Williams.”

“Ah. As in Joelle Williams.”

“Yeah. As in.”

“Well, next time, please stop.”

“There won’t be a next time, Bev, the assistant. Just wanted to say sorry. Sometimes, I forget my manners. Bad temper, especially around Nick Lassiter. Although I’m trying, albeit sometimes in vain, to stop.”

Bev nodded. “Yes, I see. Layers of history there.”

Rob nodded. “Yeah, multiple layers.”

Rob exited the office, the building, and the empire now belonging to his ex-wife. He made his way through Downtown Seattle. It was already evening and the setting sun’s rays streaked over the waters of Elliot Bay, reflecting off the windows of high-rise offices and condos that occupied the hill over the wharf. Rob started walking aimlessly with nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there.

He walked past the Seattle Aquarium, then along the docks, up the hills, finally
joining the crowds at Pike Place market. The strong smell of fish filled his nostrils as various trinkets and flowers caught his eye. He wandered through the crowds; then to a park that was small and grassy, where homeless people milled about, resting in the rare warmth of the dying day. Finally, he was looking over a concrete ledge, where he observed the cars on I-5 as they zipped by. He raised his eyes past the city, looking beyond and towards the water and sky, while listening to the city noise all around him.