Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Deborah appeared then with a laugh as she pulled Patricia’s door closed. “I see you met Jem.”
“I sure did.”
“She’s a handful. They can never keep her in her room.”
“I think I’ll do it,” I told Deborah. “I’ll help out. I can volunteer here at least once a week, and I think I can plan a party to raise money for the hospital.”
Deborah’s face split in two. “Oh my god, really? That would be so amazing, Katherine. We would just love to have you on board.”
And for the first time in a long, long time, I felt like I was really doing the right thing.
19
Camden
Every Monday at three o’clock in the afternoon, I left work early and went in for my weekly meeting at the gentlemen’s club, Height. It was a members-only bar and lounge for the most elite in the city. People jokingly referred to it as a secret society, but that was just the mystery surrounding it. So far, I hadn’t been inducted into a cult… as far as I knew. Not that any of us said anything to dispel the notion. It gave us credibility.
I flashed my member’s card—a thick, clear card with a skyscraper etched in twenty-four karat gold, an H the only indicator of what it was for.
The female attendant allowed me to pass, and a second took my coat with a timid, “Welcome back to Height, Mr. Percy.”
I knew it wasn’t that sort of gentlemen’s club. Though nothing was far from our fingertips if we so much as asked. I had never asked.
I strode through the long burgundy-carpet-lined hallway and up a short flight of stairs to the main sitting room, complete with a dark mahogany bar that only served top-shelf and exclusive imported liquor. There were a dozen men in equally tailored business suits scattered about the room.
While I went to Hank’s to be invisible, I came to Height to be seen.
The bartender poured a glass of scotch before I even had to ask for it.
“Mr. Percy,” she said, passing the drink to me.
“Thanks,” I said. I didn’t even know her name. They changed much more frequently than at Hank’s.
I shook hands and made small talk with the men here. I knew them all. Though none of them all that well. That was the way of this place. Court could have come here, but he found it too uptight and oppressive. Gavin hadn’t been inducted yet. There was no hope for Sam. None of my friends would be here. Just business associates and potential business associates.
Phones were supposed to be off when we entered the sanctum, but it was the one rule that no one adhered to. None of us could afford to be unavailable.
So, when my phone buzzed in my suit pocket, no one blinked as I pulled it out and excused myself. My father’s name appeared on the screen. He knew I was here. Why the fuck would he be disturbing me? Yes, I was always supposed to be free, but this was the one time that he usually let me be. He knew it was good for the company for me to be seen among the wealthiest in the city in whatever way that came to be.
I stepped aside and answered the phone, “Yes?”
“What did you do?” my father asked, his voice cold and menacing.
I thought of all the things that he could be referring to. The fact that Katherine and I were definitely not trying to have a baby. The flight I’d put my sister on to get her the fuck out of Manhattan for a while. Or worse. Deep down, there was something much worse. Something he’d never forgive. The reason I had befriended the police chief in the first place was to locate my mother. I’d never found her. Everything had led to a dead end. As if Helena Percy had just disappeared off the map.
It wouldn’t matter to my father whether or not I’d found her. Only that I had been looking. But I didn’t know how he could have discovered that. It was just latent fear bringing the thought to the surface. It had all ended almost two years ago. There was no way he would know that now.
“I don’t know. What have I done this time?” I asked him.
“You ruined the deal.”
My heart stopped. “What do you mean, I ruined what deal?”
“Ireland,” he spat at me. “It’s done. Gone. They pulled out this afternoon.”
My stomach dropped out of my body. Fury singed through me. “They did what?” I shouted, ignoring the looks from the other men in the room. “How the fuck is that possible? We already finished negotiations. We were just waiting for them to fly into New York to sign the paperwork. I laid that in your lap.”
“It seems you didn’t do a good enough job,” he said. “Or else they wouldn’t have told me that they couldn’t work with you. That you didn’t seem fucking competent enough for the job. That they wouldn’t risk this property on someone like us.”