“We know that under normal circumstances you can take care of yourself, but this isn’t a normal circumstance,” added Aiden.
“I think he should hire more guards. For God’s sake, there’s a killer out there just waiting for the opportunity, and that’s why Aiden and I…” Spencer paused.
“Yes?”
“We both thought you would be safe in Melbourne.”
They were doing it again, she realized. Ganging up on her. She couldn’t blame them. The tactic had always worked on her. They were used to wearing her down until she agreed to whatever it was they wanted. She wasn’t upset. In the past, she had always caved. But those days were over. Her brothers just didn’t know it yet.
She couldn’t wait to enlighten them.
“You think I’ll be safer in Melbourne?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “We’ll fly back together, and we’ll find a nice, safe, secluded place for you to stay.”
She smiled. “And it will be safe because killers don’t get on planes. Is that what you think?”
“No need to be sarcastic, Regan,” Spencer said.
“Spence, why don’t you tell it like it is? You’ve already found that nice, safe, secluded place, haven’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I have.”
“I’m not going.”
Before he could argue, she turned to Aiden. “What made you think you had the right to get rid of my car?”
“Didn’t he buy you a BMW?”
“Stay out of this, Spencer.”
“The only reason you kept that piece of junk was to irritate me. Isn’t that right?” Aiden asked. Before she could answer, he plunged ahead. “If you had had a new car when you left that seminar, you could have pushed the panic button on the key, and maybe, just maybe, someone would have come to your aid when that maniac was chasing you.”
“When I think what could have happened to you,” Spencer said with a disapproving shake of his head. “You’ve got to know how important you are to us.”
“Running from him… look what you did to your knee,” Aiden said.
“Are you suggesting I shouldn’t have run?”
“Don’t be a smart…” Spencer started and then stopped.
“You had surgery,” Aiden reminded her. “And when did we find out about it?”
“After the fact,” Spencer answered. He was getting angry now. “You should have told us.”
“It was a minor surgery,” she said.
She walked over to the desk and leaned against it. “I didn’t want it to become a big production. I didn’t even tell Cordie or Sophie.”
“We’re your family,” Spencer said. “You should have told us.”
“Look, Regan, I know you want to be independent, but you take it to the extreme.”
Spencer dropped down on the sofa, but Aiden continued to stand. He looked as if he wanted to tell her something but wasn’t sure how.
She sighed. Now she was trying to read his mind. “About the car…” she began.
“We’re finished talking about the car,” Aiden said.
There was a time she would have backed down. Not today. “No, we aren’t. I’m only just getting started. I’ll admit that I was being childish. I kept the car because I knew it irritated you, so, yes, Aiden, you were right about that. However, I don’t agree with or like what you did. You should have asked me before you had my car towed away.”
“You would have said no.”
“Aiden, you had no right-” she began.
“I agree with Aiden,” Spencer said.
She glared at him. “When don’t you agree with him?”
He looked shocked. He wasn’t used to her arguing with him. “When I don’t agree with Aiden, I tell him I don’t agree.”
“It’s done,” Aiden said. “Let it go.”
“We’ve got some important things to discuss,” Spencer added. “And I want to get to them.”
“Maybe we should go into the boardroom,” Alec suggested as he gathered the papers and slipped them back into the file folder.
“Do you want to have the annual meeting now? Are you prepared?”
Spencer stood and walked forward. “Actually Aiden and I already did that.”
She was furious. “When?”
“Early this morning. You’ve got so much on your mind that we didn’t think you would want to be bothered,” Spencer said. “Everything we went over is in that black binder on your desk. Take your time looking it over.”
She didn’t say a word, but she was so angry with the two of them she thought steam might be coming out of her ears.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Spencer looked relieved. Then she asked, “Did you allocate funds?”
“Yes.”
“What’s my budget?”
“Same as last year.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Spencer asked. “It’s done.”
“No, it isn’t done. We’re going to talk about this. I want to triple my budget.”
She was looking at Aiden when she very calmly stated what she wanted. He shook his head. “That’s out of the question. We’ve already slotted money for most of the charities in the city because you wanted us to-”
“And because it was the right thing to do,” she interjected.
“Yes,” he agreed. “But we can’t do any more than that, at least not this fiscal year.”
“We have to think about the bottom line,” Spencer said. “We’re trying to make a profit.”
“You are making a profit, Spencer.”
“The budget’s set,” he said. “And we’ve got a new hotel going up.”
“Yes, I know,” she said. “In Melbourne.”
“Yes, in Melbourne,” he agreed. “But we’re just now finalizing plans for another one.”
“Oh? Where?”
“Sydney.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Now you do,” Spencer said. “We’re hoping to break ground within six months. We’re on a tight schedule, and we’re really moving ahead on this one.”
“And did Walker vote for this?”
“Of course he did. You know Walker. As long as we don’t interfere with his racing, we can pretty much do what we want.”
She picked up a pencil and began to twirl it between her fingers like a baton.
“I’m not a real important part of this organization, am I? Did either of you ever think to talk to me about this expansion?”
“No,” Spencer said. “You’ve been under tremendous stress.”
“Yes, right. Stress.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Spencer said. “I’ve never seen you so antagonistic.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
She waited for one of them to ask her what she had been thinking about, but neither one of them did. She wasn’t really sure Aiden was even paying attention to the conversation. He seemed far more interested in the paper he was reading. The pencil twirling got away from her, and the pencil went flying. It landed at Aiden’s feet. Regan immediately reached for another one.
As she turned, she spotted Henry. He was standing at his desk. What was he doing here on Sunday? He should be out, having some fun, she thought. And who was he talking to? She couldn’t quite see.
“Why are you so nervous today?” Spencer asked.
“Why do you think I’m nervous?”
In answer, he looked at her hard. Her pencil was going at Mach four speed. She made herself stop.
Aiden picked up the pencil from the floor, handed it to her, and then pulled out the chair behind her desk and sat down. He opened the folder and said, “Regan, you need to look over these contracts Sam sent over.”
“For the new hotel?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“If our attorney sent over contracts, you two must have known about the expansion a long time ago. Odd that you never mentioned it to me.”
“Would you have been interested?” Spencer asked.
“Yes, I would.”