"Dayton, are you ready?" Alain Hurst asked him as he stopped in the younger man's office. He was the eldest Hurst at thirty-one and was his father's, Jim Hurst, right hand man.
Dayton logged out of his computer and shut it down. He threw a couple of files in his briefcase and closed the lid. "I am now."
He walked around his desk and met his friend at the door. They moved towards the elevator together.
"How's your case working out for you?"
He made a face. "I don't know what else I can do. Celia Vanderbilt wants $2.5 million dollars. The thing is she isn't entitled to the money. She has no claim. It was all her cousin's money to begin with. Since she didn't leave a will, everyone thinks they're entitled to it. I don't know how to tell her it typically goes to the immediate family."
Alain pressed the elevator's down button. "You just have to be honest. If there is no way you can get her the money, tell her such then explain why. It's one thing to not be able to get it and lying. It's another to be completely honest. Lawyers get bad reps for being liars. My dad built this company on honesty and integrity. He won't allow anyone to mess with that."
They stepped onto the elevator and pushed the lobby button.
"So how's the wedding preparation going?" Alain asked to break the tense silence that had come up between them.
He sighed. "Izzy's adamant about being married by the justice of the peace. She doesn't want a huge wedding, saying they are only for the faint of heart because the big spectacle ones don't last long."
"What do you want to do?"
Dayton shrugged. "I just want to make her happy. That's all I really care about. If you had asked me a year ago that I'd be marrying a girl from Brooklyn, I'd say you were crazy. But meeting Izzy again instills that I made the right choice in not marrying Caroline. I would be missing out on a wonderful woman."
Alain smiled. "At least you're certain."
It was Dayton's turn to ask his friend a personal question. "What do you want, a niece or nephew?"
"Nephew definitely. We have two girls already and only one boy. We need another boy." He cut his eyes to his friend as they stepped off the elevator. "What about you?"
"I don't mind as long as it's healthy. I think my brother agrees. He's never really been picky. Well, except about Tophyr but that's how he ended up with her anyway. They're a good pair."
"That they are." He stopped on the sidewalk once they were out the door. "Well, I'm heading home to my wife and son. I'll see you tomorrow."
Dayton waved as Alain hailed a cab. He turned away and started for the subway so he could head back to Brooklyn.
The last few weeks had been hectic. After Tophyr had been shoved by Izzy's older brother into a table and Derek had taken her to the hospital just in case, Dayton had pretty much forced her to move in with him. She had moved most of her stuff but as for sleeping in the house, she flat out refused. She was determined to stay in his brother's house until she was married. It didn't matter that her stuff was at his house. She was not moving in with him.
He gnawed on his lower lip as he descended the stairs to the subway platform. She was the most irritating woman he had ever met. Wait, no. He took that back. His mother was the most irritating woman he knew but Izzy was close second. She didn't listen half the time and it was like talking to a brick wall when her mind was closed to something. The fact that she hadn't moved into him wasn't the issue. It was that she was being even harder to get now that they were engaged.
He got off the subway and made his way up the stairs into the daylight. What was he going to do with his soon-to-be-wife? He couldn't throw her in a box like he wanted to do. She would shoot him. He guessed all he really could do was make sure she was completely happy.
His cell phone rang and he pulled it from his jacket pocket. It was the call he had been waiting on.
"Mr. Russell, it's good to hear from you. I was wondering if your secretary had given you that package I dropped off at your office." He waited as the man on the other line spoke for a few minutes. "Are you sure, sir? Yes, sir. I'll tell her. Thank you."
His pace picked up because he had to get to his house. Izzy should be getting back from the dog park with Ireland and Dublin pretty soon. He would tell her once he got her in the house and settled.
He came to his building and took the stairs two at a time because the elevator in the building was broken. He got to the third floor and turned left. His apartment was the third one on the right. His key was at the ready when he got to the door. After unlocking the door, he went in.
"Izzy? Are you here?" he asked as he dropped his briefcase to the island before walking to the fridge for a glass of juice. He heard a movement in the other room. "Izzy? Is that you?"
He turned around to set his glass back on the counter. When he turned once again, something smashed into his head. His body crumpled to the floor and he curled up instinctively to protect his middle region.
When no further assault came, he looked up.
Drake was going through everything in his house. He must have been looking for the safe Dayton kept in the study in the desk. There was no way he was going to figure out the code because he didn't know all the birthdays in his family and that was what he used, changing it from time to time.
"Hey!" He looked over at the door. Izzy and Percy stood in the doorway. It was bad enough that it was Izzy but with Percy at her backing, Drake better watch himself.
Izzy stepped over Dayton as she walked into the apartment and surveyed the destroyed room. Percy helped the downed man and pulled him to the bar so he could sit down.
"What the hell's your problem, Drake? I said you weren't getting any money out of me or Dayton," she snarled at him.
Drake turned to her briefly then continued destroying the room. "All I need is three thousand more. Then my debt is paid. You can't spare three grand, Izzy?"
"Last time I spared a hundred you came back for a thousand more. I'm not giving you any money, Drake. Now get out before I throw you out."
He turned to her. "You can't throw me out. This isn't your house."
She snorted inelegantly. "Yes, it is. I will be moving in here once I get married."
A slow smile pulled at his mouth. "I forgot. He will be your husband and you can afford to give away the money to your poor older brother."
Izzy stepped forward, crowding his personal space. "You will not be getting any money out of me, Dayton, Derek, Tophyr, or any of the family."
Drake closed the distance between them, getting nose to nose with his shorter sister. "You will give me the rest of the money or I will take it from you."
Annoyed at his arrogance, Izzy snagged his wrist, pulled it over his shoulder, hooked her leg around his and threw her hip into it. Her brother flew over her shoulder and landed hard on his back. He grunted at the impact but didn't have time to get up as she straddled his waist and gripped his throat.
"Get out of here, Drake, and don't come back. If you do, I will call the cops and testify against you in court until you are put away for life. And don't think I won't do it. This is the last time you try to embezzle money out of me or my family. Now get out." She stood and planted one well placed kick into her brother's hip as he scrambled to his feet and out the door.
Once she was certain he was gone, she walked over to Dayton to check his head. He was better than he looked. Head wounds always bled worse than other flesh wounds. Percy had staunched the bleeding and had gone about cleaning up the broken vases all around the room. He picked a painting up and sighed.
"Tophyr's going to be pissed once she finds out this was destroyed. She worked so hard on it," he said. He threw it in the trash pile. "I hope that jerk gets arrested."
"Don't worry. He will. He always does," Izzy said as she moved to help him. "I can't believe his audacity. Didn't he think I would lay his ass out?"
"I guess he just assumed you would just let it go like you normally do," Dayton replied as he found his composure. He picked up the painting Percy had tossed. "I really liked this painting too."
"Why were you home so early, Day?" Izzy asked.
He stopped moving ad looked at her. "I heard back from Eric Russell. He is enamored with this book he read. That book was yours. He wants to publish it."
Izzy stopped moving and looked at him. "Don't be playing with me. This is my dream and if you're playing with me about it, I will punch you so hard you won't be able to see straight."
He made a face. "Considering I just got hit in the head, I'm not looking to get hit anymore. I'm not playing with you. I turned your book in to someone and she put it on the desk of Eric Russell. He wants to publish it. I just have to tell him the author."
She turned to her friend. Percy shrugged and continued picking up debris. She was going to get her books publish. She couldn't believe it.
"Dayton, you're not lying to me, right?" she asked just to double check.
He tilted his head and looked at her. "I would never lie to you about this. It's your dream and I told you I'd stand behind you no matter what you did."
As a smile erupted on her face, Izzy launched herself at him. He grabbed her before she knocked him on his head. That had already happened once before and he wasn't too keen on it again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tightly.
"I could just kiss you," she said.
"Then go for it," he laughed.
Percy made a noise. "And on that note, I am out of here. Have fun love birds."