The conversation seemed to come to an abrupt halt with my thinly veiled threat, and we sat in silence as I fantasized about Karl Dreger suffering at my hands. My father’s closest friend, he’d been in my life from the day I was born. I’d seen him around the table on holidays, a younger, more handsome man then making my mother smile with his jokes and always eager to take my father away immediately after he’d finished eating for private meetings in his study. Taylor had begun joining them in his last year of college, but I’d never been invited into their inner sanctum on holidays or any other time.
I remembered the first time I stood in my office looking at the space where I was supposed to now lead an international business I’d never given a damn about. As I studied my father’s degree from Wharton School of Business and commendations from business associations worldwide that still hung on the walls, I felt small and inadequate. I’d never finished college, much less earned an M.B.A. like my father and Taylor.
I saw in Karl’s face all I lacked as he stood leaning against the doorframe watching me. The son who’d never amounted to anything. The one who’d never been a part of their meetings. I’d eventually shown him I was more than that, but from the first moment, he’d been an enemy I always knew I’d have to keep an eye on.
“Well, maybe it’s time for you to leave Shangri-la here and get back in the game,” Daryl said as he looked around at the mess of my home away from home. “We need to find what Karl wants before he does.”
“I’m not sure I want to join the world again.” I wasn’t. I wanted to be with Nina again more than anything else in the world, but the rest of it? I didn’t give a damn about that.
“Yeah, well I guess I can see how wallowing in your own self-pity is quite the life, but you don’t have the luxury of doing that. We need to get to the bottom of what Karl is looking for. The sooner we solve this, the sooner you and your lady are back together, and that means we need to get you back to the States.”
I knew he was right, but I’d let myself enjoy the life of nothingness I’d created for so long that I wasn’t sure I could do what I had to for Nina and me.
“And there’s something else. It’d probably be better for Nina if it seemed like you weren’t coming back for the time being. I’m thinking some kind of subterfuge would be best. You haven’t been gone long enough to be declared dead, but I think a good show of her moving on might throw Karl off the scent for at least a little while, which might give us enough time to find out what the hell is going on.”
“Declare me dead? What the fuck are you talking about, Daryl? I don’t want Nina to think I’m never coming back. This is only temporary.”
“Well, her looking like she’s moving on will only be temporary too. We’ll let the press see her with someone new and…”
Daryl stopped before he completed his thought and raised his hands to calm me as I leaned toward him, my face twisting as I thought about the words that would next come out of his mouth. The idea of someone new in Nina’s life made me want to kill someone with my bare hands. Even the mention of it was more than I could deal with.
“I know you might not want to think about it, but it would help if she seemed to be starting a new life. It could take the focus off her. I’m worried it’s only a matter of time before Karl turns his eye toward her. If she looks like she believes you’re not coming back, he might leave her alone.”
“You just said she wasn’t holding up well. Now you want her to act like she’s moving on?”
“Well, yeah. Just a few sightings of her with a new man would probably be enough.”
Jesus Christ. Every word out of Daryl’s mouth was like a punch to the heart. Even though I was more certain than I’d ever been in my life that I didn’t want to hear the answer to my next question, I asked anyway. “Since you’ve obviously given this some thought, who’s she moving on with?”
He got a sheepish look on his face, telling me he had thought about this. Quietly, as if saying the man’s name in a normal voice might set me off, he said, “I think Varo could work.”
Varo. Six foot four inches of brick shithouse Varo. Nina’s bodyguard I hired and now lived just feet away from her while I remained here thousands of miles away Varo. If he had said West, I might have been able to handle it. At least I could believe Nina would never want him. But Varo wasn’t as easily dismissed.
“No.”
“Before you say no, hear me out. He’s there already, so it wouldn’t be much to just have him move into the house. Once or twice out for dinner for the press and I think that would do it.”
“No.”
Sitting back in his chair, he let out a frustrated sigh and made a clucking noise with his tongue. “You’re not thinking clearly, Tristan. How do you plan to keep her safe? We’ve been lucky so far, but it’s only a matter of time before Karl begins to focus on her. With Varo, we know we can trust him, he can keep her safe, and it could buy us some time to do our own research into what Karl wants.”
“She’ll never go for it,” I mumbled, trying to convince myself as much as convince Daryl.
“She’ll go for it if I tell her you need her to. Unless you have a better plan in mind, I say we do it.”
I sat there unable to think of anything to replace Daryl’s stupid idea. My brain was filled with the thought of Nina and Varo. Even their pretending to be a couple made my gut churn with jealousy.
“Only if we set some ground rules. He doesn’t touch her, he remains in the carriage house, and they only pose for the press twice. No more.”
Daryl shook his head. “That won’t work. He has to move into the house with her if the deception is to be believable. He can stay in another room, but he has to be in the house.”
I knew he was right. Karl would never believe Nina had moved on if her new supposed boyfriend still lived in the carriage house with West. Somehow the press would find out, and then the whole thing would be blown. It’s just the idea of Varo living in my house, taking my place, acting like the man in her life now nearly drove me out of my mind.
“Tristan, don’t you trust her? After all she’s done to show you she’s devoted to your life together, you can’t believe she’ll be loyal in this?”
My demons screamed “No!” inside me, threatening to take over my thoughts until I couldn’t think straight. I’d never been the master of my jealous nature, and having another man living in my house filling my shoes when I should be there next to Nina wasn’t something I was able to handle.