Chapter 234 - I've Got Nothing
Lacy Knighton was not in a good mood. She heard from her father that Aaron apparently called his absentee fiancée multiple times a day. Alistair Hale had mentioned it offhandedly as they met up to discuss business in his office.
What was so special about that tramp? She wasn't any prettier than Lacy! She was sorely tempted to go down to Boston and rip the chit's stupidly red hair out.
Unfortunately, Max, her usual source of information, had been sulky lately. He wouldn't do her any favors. After the humiliation she endured at her birthday party he honestly thought she would marry him just so she wouldn't end up old and alone. Ha!
She had no shortage of marriage proposals. She certainly didn't need one from the man she saw as a brother.
Even that playboy Graydon wouldn't stop flirting with her. That was probably in his nature though. He was still trying to help her get close to Aaron.
It was slow going. Their last several meetings he had primary been asking her about Aaron's habits and personality.
"Why does this matter?" Lacy asked in a huff.
She didn't want to admit that she didn't know much. He hardly spoke to her and when he did it was always derisive. Everything she heard these days came from other people but even that wasn't much. Aaron had almost completely vanished from their circle.
What was he up to? He would have to come back as soon as his fiancée moved to New York so he could show her the ropes.
Not that Lacy would even give him the chance to do that. She was the Queen—she controlled all those vapid little socialites. One word from her and they would tear Bethany Carlisle to shreds.
Secretly though. Subtly. It was the way things worked. Nobody would outwardly oppose a Hale but there were ways to make a woman feel unwanted in high society.
Aaron wasn't the most observant person when it came to feelings; he wouldn't be any the wiser. Any society girl knew not to complain, even one from Boston. Bethany wouldn't be able to have her man support her, no matter how powerful he was.
Graydon swirled his drink around in its glass and looked at her like she was stupid. "It matters because unless you know what he's like and what he's up to these days, we won't be able to formulate a plan to trap him."
She pouted. "It doesn't require that much foresight—I'm gorgeous. All I have to do is slip a drug in his drink at the next event and find a way to get him alone."
He sniffed in disdain. "Is drugging people all you know how to do? I heard about that little incident back in high school. It screams of your handiwork."
How on earth had he known about that? Keeley Hall was such a non-entity that Lacy would have forgotten all about her if she hadn't run into her at the bridal shop earlier this year.
"What do you know about that?" she said haughtily, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"I know you hate anyone who gets close to Aaron. That poor girl didn't even like him if I heard correctly."
"Who have you been talking to?" she demanded. "Who's your source?"
"Someone who wishes to remain anonymous," Graydon said with a sinister smile.
Humph. Lacy really wanted to know where he got all of his information. He knew too much both about her and about Aaron. It had to be someone from their circle who had gone to their school and also had ties to Hale Investments, unless he had multiple sources…
It would be nice if he trusted her more. They were accomplices after all. He had said more than once that he didn't want to put all of his eggs in one basket. That paranoid loser!
"You said your source is positive that Aaron is working to destroy Alistair…but why would he do that?" she asked.
She still didn't understand it. She wasn't particularly close to her father either but she wouldn't do anything to deliberately harm him. Alistair Hale was a cold, terrifying man and it was no secret he was a sore spot of Aaron's but why was that?
"You're the one who's madly in love with him. Shouldn't you know that?"
Lacy gnashed her teeth. This man was infuriating. He kept shoving it in her face that Aaron didn't want anything to do with her. Whose side was he on, anyway?
How was she supposed to know? Aaron's brain was an unfathomable mystery. His true thoughts were locked away behind at least five different steel safes. Nobody ever knew what he was really thinking.
She always thought he was the perfect high society man but his actions lately seemed to indicate otherwise. What was actually going on in that gorgeous head of his?
"Tell me what your source knows," she said reluctantly. "I've got nothing."
Graydon flashed a heart-stopping grin and gave a roundabout answer. "Don't you find it a little strange that nearly half of the board of Hale Investments these days seems to have a direct connection to Aaron?"
Lacy frowned. She knew who was on the board because she might need to suck up to them one day. She hadn't thought about it before but he was right.
Alice Kelly had been their high school classmate, plus Aaron's prom date, and was a member of their social circle. Roger Clark, Kyle Griffith, and Cameron Singleton were all at Harvard in overlapping years with him. If he knew them in college, it was more than a little suspicious.
"I have a theory. I think that all of those shareholders are dummies planted by Aaron to hold onto shares he acquired without his father's knowledge."
"How on earth did you come to that conclusion?" Lacy asked in awe. It made sense but she never would have thought of it on her own.
"Simple," Graydon said with a scoff. "I've looked into those shareholders."