Always My Baby

“No. One night doesn’t change the people we are...what we want. Our friendship works because we don’t try to push our individual needs and wants onto each other,” China reminded him.

“That’s because for years our needs and wants have always been in sync.”

China twisted her neck and raised her left eyebrow. “Almost all of our needs.”

“You mean the kid thing.” Alexander placed his hands in his pants pockets.

“Yes, the kid thing. I want them and I’m building my life around having them, and you’re indifferent on the subject. That alone prevents us from going any further than last night.” China placed her right hand on her hip. “You can wait until whenever to have children. Women aren’t so lucky. I know firsthand what it’s like to have an older parent and I won’t do that to my child...hopefully children.”

China had been raised by a single mother in the military, and while she’d loved the travel and different adventures they got to experience, having an older mother with sensitive, fair Irish skin prone to wrinkles had made things uncomfortable for China growing up; people assumed that her mother was her grandmother. Her mother’s love of the sun hadn’t helped the situation, either. She’d died from an aggressive form of skin cancer before China’s twenty-first birthday.

“You’re barely twenty-nine years old, China, and you sound like you’re on some deadline,” he declared, his apathy on the subject clear.

I am. “I need someone who’s of the same mindset as me when it comes to having children, and I think I may have found someone.” China started gathering up her clothes.

“Have you, now?”

“I’m not discussing this with you right now, Alexander.” Between thoughts of her mother, China’s own desperate need to create a family and dealing with feelings that being with Alexander unleashed, the last thing China wanted was for Alexander to see her break down; his kind heart and big strong shoulders would be hard to resist. She was drowning in emotions and needed space to pull herself together. China disappeared into the bathroom.

* * *

Alexander watched China retreat to his private bathroom. “Dammit,” he said, as he pounded his right fist into his left hand. Even after a rambunctious night of lovemaking with China, Alexander’s body still craved her unlike any other woman he’d had. He wasn’t sure what this thing between them was, but he was determined to figure it out. He was not going to just give up. Alexander was moving toward the bathroom when he heard his office door open. He turned just in time to see his family’s matriarchs cross the threshold. Watching China walk away from him while his mother and aunt walked toward him as he stood in his office shirtless had Alexander wondering if the last couple of minutes had been a nightmare.

Victoria Langston Kingsley and Elizabeth Langston Kingsley, Alexander’s mother and aunt, had inherited their father’s floundering corporation, and with the help of their husbands—brothers Alexander and Harrison Kingsley—the sisters turned their struggling company into one of the most successful privately held oil and natural gas companies in the country.

“I told you he’d be here,” Victoria proudly declared, entering the office wearing a gray-and-white St. John suit with gray pumps. She wore a small amount of makeup and her hair was pulled back in a tight, conservative bun. Victoria was athletically built and looked nowhere near her fifty-plus years. She was carrying a white cardboard box with a large envelope on its top, placing it on the desk before Alexander could offer his assistance. “In a crisis, where else would he be?”

“That you did, sister dear. Like mother, like son,” Elizabeth said, brushing a long, curly strand of hair behind her ear and looking just as young and fit as her sister.

“Mother...Aunt Elizabeth, what are you doing here?” Alexander asked, briefly looking over his shoulder and grabbing his T-shirt as he moved into his office out of the lounge. He pulled the shirt over his head before kissing his mother on the cheek.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Victoria replied, tilting her head.

Alexander placed his right hand over his heart. “My apologies. Good morning, ladies.”

“Better!” Victoria said, her mouth set firm.

“Good morning, nephew. You do realize that you have a striking home, right? Try staying in it more often,” his aunt advised before pulling Alexander into her arms for a hug.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Alexander promised, stepping out of her arms. “Don’t you both look lovely this morning.”

“I look lovely.” Victoria pointed to herself. “In that long, flower-print dress, with its giant matching hat that’s in the car, Liz looks like a painting.”

“A Rembrandt,” Elizabeth snapped back before taking a seat at the conference table.

“More like a Warhol,” Victoria countered.

Alexander laughed. “What brings you two here on a Saturday morning?”

“If you’d checked your messages you’d have seen I’ve been trying to reach you,” Victoria explained.

Alexander retrieved his phone from his desk. “What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until I got back to you?”

“Or at least until after our board meeting this morning,” Elizabeth added, checking her watch.

“Board meeting?” Alexander’s eyes danced between his mother and aunt.

“At the Children’s Museum,” Victoria clarified.

“Yes, of course. You did mention that,” he said, nodding.

“Son, you seem to forget anything I say that’s even remotely related to children. You automatically assume it would lead me to requesting grandchildren.”

“That’s because it usually does,” Elizabeth said as she examined the nails on her outstretched hand. “Do you think this lime-green polish is too much?”

“For you, no,” Victoria replied.

Alexander stifled his laugh. “Where was I?” Victoria asked to no one in particular. “Oh, yes, grandchildren.”

Alexander ran both hands down his face. “Not you, too.” Alexander was in no mood to deal with another one of his mother’s lectures on the importance of him having heirs, especially with China in the next room thinking basically the same thing, only about herself.

“Not me, too...what?” Victoria frowned at Alexander.

“Never mind. I assume all this is for me,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the box and envelope as he leaned against his desk.

“Yes, but Alexander, why did you stay here last night?” Victoria glanced around the room. “I know this is like a second home, but really, son, how can you get any rest on that thing?” Victoria questioned, pointing at his sectional sofa.

China’s face, her body and the smell of her skin flooded his mind. Alexander felt his body start to stir and he quickly moved away from his mother and took a seat behind his desk. “It’s fine, Mother. What’s in the box?”

“My source came through early,” she said, smiling and handing him the envelope. “You might want to call China. She’ll need to help us on this one.”

“I already did. We’re just waiting for this.” He tapped the envelope.

Elizabeth rose and ran her hand down the front of her dress. “Now that that’s done...”

“I could stay and go over all of this with you and China,” Victoria offered.

“No, you can’t,” Elizabeth chastised. “We have other pressing business to attend to.”

Victoria turned and faced Elizabeth. “Sister dear, this is our company we’re talking about.”

“And we have four of our six extremely intelligent and very capable children helping us run it, too.” Elizabeth went and stood next to her sister. “Children that you trained, I might add, all being led by your handsome husband’s clone. Our company is in excellent hands.”

Victoria released a quick breath. “You’re right.” She turned and faced Alexander. “I’ve done my part...now you do your job, son. Find out what the hell is going on and put a stop to it. Quickly!”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I don’t expect anything less.” Victoria picked up her purse and followed her sister to the door.

Alexander heard his aunt ask his mother, “Did you see it?”

“Of course I did.” Both sisters laughed, closing the door behind them.

Alexander dropped his head and sighed. “You can come out now,” he called, breaking the seal on the envelope with a letter opener from his desk.

“Victoria’s something else,” China said, taking a seat on the edge of the high-backed chair in front of Alexander’s desk.

“Yes, she is.” Alexander marveled at China. He always thought she was a ravishing woman, but never more than when she was in such a relaxed state, free of makeup and with her hair down, still wet from the shower.

China was wearing last night’s clothes and had a pair of Alexander’s socks on her feet. “So, what do we have here?”

“I was just about to find out.” Alexander slid the contents of the envelope onto his desk to find several smaller ones, a set of legal documents and three flash drives. He opened the box to find several binders and a number of different-colored folders.

China reached for the legal documents and began flipping through the pages, reading each word with blinding speed. “We’re going to need to bring everybody in on this,” she said, frowning. “And I mean everyone.”

“Why? What is it?” Alexander got up, walked around his desk and came to stand next to China, reading over her shoulder. He had to fight hard to focus. His shampoo, which China had used, mixed with her own sweet scent, was assaulting his senses, sending his hormones into overdrive.

“In a nutshell, the government alleges that we systematically and purposely misled the EPA with our ongoing practice to dispose of gas cylinders. They state that we did so in order to save money.”

“That’s ridiculous. We submitted our disposal plans for approval, which we received, and we’ve been following them ever since.” Alexander’s jaw tightened.

China shrugged and shook her head. “They claim to have proof that we submitted false plans in order to get the approval, then changed the procedures to save money. They claim to have a witness and documentation to this change, a whistle-blower, so to speak.”

“A whistle-blower? There’s nothing to blow,” he said, slamming his palm against his desk.

“Stay calm, Alexander,” she said, as she continued to examine the papers on his desk.

“We pay you to stay calm.” Alexander returned to his desk and powered up his computer. “Let’s see what’s on these flash drives.”

China looked around the room. “Where’s my phone?”

“It’s on the conference table. By the way, they know you were here.”

“Who?” she asked, rising to go collect her phone.

“Mom and Aunt Liz.”

China’s face was marred by confusion. “How?”

Alexander laughed at the shocked look on China’s face. “They saw your phone. Not many people have a pink diamond-encrusted phone case exactly like the one that they had specifically designed for you and gave to you.”

“Oh, no...” China dropped her face into both hands, and her hair fell forward.

Alexander had to force himself to concentrate on the problem at hand, when all he really wanted to do was lower her hands, brush China’s hair to the side and kiss her senseless. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure they figured it was a business-related visit,” he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

“Yeah, right, and how do I explain not coming out and greeting them like always?” China flopped back down in the chair and started dialing her phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Joyce. We need her here and I want her to stop by my house and bring me a change of clothes.”

Joyce was China’s legal assistant and good friend.

“Clothes?”

“Yes, clothes, pants, a shirt and underwear—”

“Underwear.” Alexander smirked.

China rolled her eyes. “Stop it. I’m not going commando the rest of the day.”

Alexander felt his sex spring to life and was relieved that he was sitting. He reached for his desk phone. “I guess I’ll call in the rest of the cavalry. They won’t be happy about us interrupting their Saturday.”

“Too bad. It’s either us or your mother.”

“Good point,” he agreed just as his computer beeped and several documents popped up on both of Alexander’s screens. He stared in disbelief.

China leaned over the desk to get a better view of what had captured his attention. “Call Morgan...” she ordered.

Alexander shook his head. “I don’t know anything about this—”

“Call your brother...right now,” China said, her voice icy and emotionless.

Chapter 3

China sat at the conference table mulling over all the papers that lay in front of her, her face contorted. “I don’t understand any of this.” She picked up a spiral booklet with the word Approved stamped in red across its cover. “This is the procedure manual that was submitted.”

“It’s also the exact procedure we put in place,” Morgan confirmed, standing with his feet apart and arms folded across his chest.

Morgan Kingsley, the ruggedly handsome and athletically built second eldest of the Kingsley boys, was vice president of field operations for their company and was quickly running out of patience with the mess they found themselves in. “There is no way in hell these procedures could have been changed without our approval or my direct knowledge and supervision,” he explained, his mouth set in a hard line.

“Dammit.” Alexander slammed his fist against the conference room table. “I didn’t sign off on any changes, and I certainly didn’t authorize any money transfers. Why would I jeopardize everything to save a few bucks?” Alexander asked the flabbergasted room.

“We know,” everyone said in unison.

“Well, according to the whistle-blower’s statement and these financial records—” Brice Kingsley, Alexander and Morgan’s younger brother and the company’s CFO, held up a ledger and a spreadsheet “—we’ve saved more than just a few bucks.”

“If that’s the case, where the hell is all the money?” Alexander asked.

“Good question. My financial records are on point and all of our audits have been clean,” Brice informed them confidently.

“Everyone just calm down,” China murmured, keeping her eyes on the pages of the procedures manual.

Alexander frowned at China. “Calm down? This is our reputation at risk...my reputation. We’re talking about claims that could turn into charges if we can’t provide evidence that not only proves whoever this whistle-blower is lied, but that everything we’ve done is legal and above reproach.”

China rose and moved over to where Alexander stood. She looked up at him, placed her right hand over his heart and said, “You pay me to worry...remember, I got this.”

Alexander’s shoulders dropped. “What do you have in mind?”

“Yeah, what do you have in mind, China?” Morgan echoed.

China turned and faced all three brothers. “We’re going to let the whistle-blower tell us where, why and how.” The corner of her mouth rose slowly.

“Wait, you know who this person is?” Brice asked, frowning.

“We all do,” she said confidently.

“What?” the brothers cried out.

China moved back to the table and gestured with her hands at all the documents that lay spread out over the conference table. “All of this information was provided by someone we know or came in contact with. What we have to do is go through every inch of this material and figure out who it could be. We’ll make a list—”

“A list?” Brice asked.

China leaned across the table and selected one of the statements that had been provided. She flipped through the pages. “Here.” She tapped the page with her index finger. “It says the whistle-blower was present doing an operations meeting in January with you, Morgan.” She looked up from the document, her eyes lasering in on his confused look. “That you were discussing the various ways to save money in the area of waste disposal. Did any such meeting occur?”

“Yes, but nothing came up about changing the way we handle gas cylinders,” Morgan assured her.

“Do you remember who all was in the room?” she inquired, dropping the document on the table.

“Everyone,” Morgan said.

“What do you mean?” China asked.

“It was our first meeting of the year.” Morgan placed his hands in his pockets. “There were over three hundred people in attendance.”

“Any senior-level management executives?” China questioned.

“Not really?” He shrugged and shook his head.

“Think, man,” Alexander ordered; his voice rose.

“I am!” Morgan responded, with an equal amount of force in his voice. He pulled his hands free and started rubbing them together as he started pacing the room. “Mom was there, along with my three lead foremen, Danny, Roger and the new guy, Big Usher.”

“Big Usher?” China asked, frowning.

“Yeah, he’s the new junior assistant. We hired him six months ago,” Morgan explained, stopping his movement.

“Just about the time the whistle-blower started providing information to the government,” China concluded.

“Usher’s a good kid...he’s not the whistle-blower. Besides, there’s nothing to blow,” Morgan reiterated.

“Who else was there?” China reached for a bottle of water.

“I can’t think of everyone. I don’t have your photographic memory, China.”

China laughed. “That’s for what I read, but you don’t need one. We can just pull the minutes from the meeting.” China picked up her phone and pulled down the recorder app, tapped it on and said, “Have the January operations notes pulled.” She sat the phone down. “This is the process we’ll have to follow with all of this information.”

“Mom’s contact really was efficient in pulling all this together,” Brice said.

Alexander raised his left eyebrow. “Are you really surprised?”

“Not at all.” Brice shook his head.

“What do we do after we get this list together?” Morgan asked.

“We go fishing,” Alexander replied. “Once we have our list of targets, we divide and conquer. Figure out who’s trying to sabotage us.”

“And?” Brice questioned, frowning. His eyes cut to Morgan, who stood with a menacing look on his face.

“Then you let me do my job,” China said, glaring at all three brothers. The last thing she needed was for them to take matters into their own hands. “In the meantime, I’ll work up our initial response to the complaint, which is basically a clear and precise denial. We have forty-five days to submit it. Hopefully we’ll figure out what’s really going on, too, sooner than later.”

“What if we don’t know what happened in forty-five days?” Morgan asked.

“We have a hundred and twenty days from the initial response to file our final one that will either substantiate our denial, as long as we provide solid evidence to back up our claim, or we can request an administrative oversight ruling.”

“An administrative oversight ruling...what the hell is that?” Alexander’s eyebrows stood at attention.

“It’s the EPA’s way of giving some companies an out without having to admit guilt to anything. It’s like saying we simply made a mistake. But...” China raised her right index finger. “Companies still must pay fines and clean-up expenses if necessary, and their reputations usually take a pretty big hit and...”

“And what?” Alexander asked.

“Someone usually has to resign,” China said, staring into Alexander’s eyes. She could see past the bluster of his anger to his vulnerability, and all she wanted to do was help him find his place of calm. In that moment, China’s body was reminding her that what was happening between them was much more than she’d ever expected.

“But everyone stays out of jail, right?” Brice asked, his whole face lit up.

“Right.” China smirked.

“There was no damn administrative oversight. It didn’t happen and I certainly didn’t steal from my own damn company,” Alexander insisted. She could almost see the anger radiating from his body.

“Of course not, but something happened, Alexander. We just have to prove what that was and that we’re innocent of any wrongdoing,” China explained.

“If we can.” Alexander ran his right hand through his hair.

“When we do, they’ll close the case and issue a letter clearing us,” China promised.

“If not?” Morgan questioned, pulling out his cell phone to silence the ringing.

“Things get a lot more complicated. The courts get involved,” China explained.

“What do we do about the media explosion that’s coming? Life is going to get really crazy...very quickly,” Morgan warned.

“It’s not like we’re not used to the attention,” Brice reminded him, offering a nonchalant shrug.

“True, but Mom usually nips it in the bud before things get out of hand. She won’t be able to stop this runaway train,” Alexander said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, the EPA thinks they’ve got us by the balls, so they’ll turn up the heat big-time.” Morgan cracked the knuckles of both his hands. “We have to give KJ and Travis a heads-up.”

Keylan James Kingsley, or KJ, was Victoria’s youngest son and a professional basketball player in the NBA. Travis Kingsley, the youngest child of Elizabeth, was a successful cattle rancher who preferred a private existence and had little to do with their family’s business.

“Travis is really going to love this,” Brice said mockingly.

“We’ll deal with that next week. Right now, let’s start going through all this material that Victoria bought...I mean, brought for us to review.” China’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on anyone as she started distributing the different stacks of paper.

“There go my dinner plans,” Morgan said, taking a seat at the conference table.

“Dinner? We’ll be lucky to get through all of this before the sun rises Monday morning,” Brice countered, picking up a stack of papers.

China took the seat offered by Alexander. His hands grazed her arms and a warm shiver ran down her spine. “Th-thank you.”

“Anytime,” he said, in a tone that garnered his brothers’ attention. He met their stares. “What?”

“Nothing,” both brothers said in unison, passing a look between them.

China kept her eyes on the documents in front of her. The last thing she needed was for the other Kingsley men to figure out something was different between her and Alexander.

“Let’s get to work, gentlemen,” China ordered.

* * *

Alexander sat at his desk reading over the list of names he’d been given to follow up on. After a painful two-day review of documents accusing him and their company of malicious malfeasance, Alexander didn’t feel any more confident in their plan to find the culprit behind the unsubstantiated accusations. He was reaching for his coffee cup when he heard his office door being opened. Alexander looked up to see his cousin Kristen almost bounce into the room.

Kristen, Elizabeth’s eldest child, was vice president of general operations and in line to take over Alexander’s role as COO upon his promotion to CEO.

“Good morning, Alexander,” Kristen called out cheerfully as she entered his office, holding an electronic tablet in one hand and a large travel mug for her coffee in the other. The black-and-white Chanel suit that covered her petite body was much like something his mother would wear, and her mother would revolt against, and it made him smile.

Alexander turned and faced his computer. “Kristen, you really should cut down on the caffeine.”

She took a seat in front of his desk and rested her cup on its corner. “And you, my dear cousin, really should focus on the problem at hand. Sorry I’m late. I got here as fast as I could.”

“Late for what?” he asked, his brow puckered as he tapped the keys of his computer.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t get my message.”

The night before, Kristen had left Alexander a twenty-minute-long voice mail outlining her plans for a press conference and the message she felt they needed to convey. She’d even followed that up with a detailed email.

“I got it,” he assured her.