Page 12 of Securing His Obsession

He mentally scoffed at that thought, because what he’d done by saying nothing, he’d given her every reason to turn her back on him.

If Margot didn’t want to have anything to do with him today at work, it was what he deserved.

“Right. So, you still aren’t stewing over what Marian said to you yesterday?” Of course Wilt would bring up that conversation. He’d tried to engage Damon about it after Marian had left, but he’d fobbed his friend off saying he was busy and had other things he needed to do.

“Nope.” He tossed his towel in his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

“I call bullshit. You have a family member turn up. One you’ve never met, who tells you you’re the sole beneficiary of a trust set up for your father, and it’s worth millions, and you’re not thinking about it at all?”

“No, I’m fucking not. Why would I even care about having that money? Not once did my grandparents or anyone else attempt to get in touch with my mum and dad to try and mend what was broken. To get to know me. So why should I give them the time of day?” Damon still couldn’t believe his father had come from a wealthy family. His parents had both worked and had provided him with a good home life, and he hadn’t wanted for anything. He’d only asked once why he didn’t have grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins like the kids he’d gone to school had. His parents had said their families weren’t happy with them marrying, and he’d accepted their explanation. Why wouldn’t he? He’d been a kid at the time, and he loved his parents. It had been the three of them, and they’d been happy.

“Maybe they did, and your parents were the ones who stonewalled them. Did you consider that?” Wilt asked, pushing him in a way he didn’t want to consider.

“If that was the case, then my parents had their reasons for maintaining the distance.”

“But you could change it. You could get to know your family. Whatever happened between them all was over thirty years ago. Don’t you think it’s worth trying to get to know them? Nothing good ever comes from holding grudges.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Wilt was making sense. He just didn’t have the capacity to think about it now. Not with the one good thing that had happened the previous evening with Margot.

Their kiss.

He could still feel her lips against his, even though it had only been a light touch.

“I don’t know,” he finally admitted as they’d reached their cars. He was aware that Andy and Reed were walking behind them, no doubt listening to what they were talking about. There weren’t many secrets between the four of them. Five, if they included Steve, their boss and their former supervising officer in the SAS. Steve didn’t join them for PT as often as he used to. He spent a lot of time with his wife at her café. He didn’t like her being there first thing in the morning when not many people were around.

Now they all knew that there were millions of dollars waiting for him.

“Do you have any of your folks’ things still?” Reed asked.

On his parents’ death, he’d inherited everything. The house where he grew up, which he still lived in. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, but as he got older, and saw how others struggled with home ownership, he realized he was very fortunate.

“Yeah, I still have some of their stuff in one of the spare rooms.” Packing up his parents’ lives had been hard. His mum had kept every single birthday card they had given each other. She had boxes of them under their bed. He’d piled them up, not able to look at them or give them away. Even after all these years, their loss still cut him deep.

“Maybe there’s letters from the family that they kept?” Andy suggested.

“Given Mum kept a lot of things, it’s possible, but also given the strained relationship between them it would be strange if she did.” Even as he said it, he had a feeling his mum would’ve hung onto the correspondence. She may have told Dad she’d gotten rid of them, but had only said it to appease him.

“It’s worth checking it out. If you need help, just let us know,” Wilt said.

His friends’ offer was sincere and he appreciated it. “Thanks, but I’m sure you’ve all got better things to do with your time than go through boxes at my place. You know, you have wives and daughters.” He looked at Reed with his last comment. His wife Lauren had a daughter, Charlee, from a previous relationship, and Damon was well aware that Charlee adored Reed and he adored her back.

“You’re family too,” Andy insisted.

“I know.” And he did. The three men and their boss Steve, had gone through a lot. Not only during their days in the Army, but in the time since they’d left. They did more than general security work. They worked with the Australian Federal Police, a security company in LA, and some private clients to retrieve people who’d been kidnapped, along with eliminating people that needed to be eliminated.

Thinking about all that they did reminded Damon of a message he’d received overnight from Bayden Price, their contact within the AFP. “I got a message from Bayden, he wants to meet with us this morning at ten.”

The other men nodded. “How’s he doing?” Wilt asked.

“Still recovering, but I think he’s getting better,” Damon said. “He went back to work yesterday after his injury.”

“And he wants to meet with us already?” Andy shook his head. “He’s more of a workaholic than us. He must have hated having time off.”

“Probably.” Damon chuckled, knowing he’d have been exactly the same as Bayden if he’d been injured and sidelined for a couple of months. “I’ll see you at the office.”

He gave his friends a chin lift and got in his car. At least talking about Bayden and the other shit with his parents and their families had taken his mind of Margot and what he was going to say to her when he saw her.

Damon walked into the office, noting that Margot’s desk was still as neat as it had been when they’d left the previous evening. Her screen was dark, which meant she hadn’t arrived yet.