Saving Her Billionaire Vigilante

Six: Ransom Tanager

Six 

Ransom Tanager

            I buried my father. It was on a Sunday morning. Piper stood next to me, a footstep away. It was too far, almost. The casket was lowered into the ground while my father’s colleagues and friends stood nearby watching. My father had been an only child, and so had my mother. So, I had no extended family there. Only Piper.

            I saw tears streaming down her face, but she was crying quietly. Across the way, I could see Oliver Oswin focused not on the funeral but her. I was going to have to have a talk with him. I couldn’t have him interfering in my plans, and I didn’t need him interfering in Piper’s life again.

            Piper thought that I was the villain in her story with Oliver. Because I’d kissed her, and almost seduced her. What she didn’t know is I did that to stop her from getting hurt worse by the person I thought was my best friend. Oliver, I’d discovered in our first year of college, hadn’t really been my friend. He’d befriended me because his father had ordered him to. So that he could collect secrets about Oswin Inc. It was the same reason that he’d pretended to be in a relationship with Piper.

            He’d hoped that by dating her, then eventually marrying her, he could convince my father to give the company to them. He’d even spent the better part of my high school and college career making me look like a drug addicted, rich boy asshole to the point that I even had to go to rehab. He’d ruined every shot that I had with Piper too.

            Since Piper would be back in my life again, I couldn’t let him ruin things with her. I’d have to do something to keep the two of them from interacting. The other problem would be Christian Cardinal.

            Oliver hadn’t really loved Piper. He’d been using her. But Christian was different. He’d been her first, real boyfriend. He’d ended up being a stalker, but he was charming and was no longer a teenager. As far as I knew, he’d spent the rest of his years at the psyche ward after high school. But I did know that he had been released within the past several years and was working as a representative for mental health with some charity he’d founded.

            But Christian wasn’t at the funeral. I’d deal with him when he showed up, which I had no doubt that he would. Now, I had to focus on Oliver and keeping him away from Piper. If they reconnected, there was a chance he could still try to take her and my company. My father’s will stipulated that the company was supposed to be left to whichever of us provided the first heir.

            I think my father hoped that one way or another we were going to be together. But Piper still hated me, and I couldn’t risk anything.

            The funeral passed in a daze. I didn’t remember the priest’s words, or the words that were spoken by one of my father’s old friends for eulogy. When the funeral finished, I noticed that Piper had disappeared from my side. I didn’t know where she would be. But I did know who she would be with.

            Off in the distance, I saw Piper standing there talking with the last person that I wanted her to talk to. Oliver Oswin. They were laughing, and she was touching his arm. And he was touching hers. Anger swelled in my chest. I stormed across the field to where they were both standing, lost in their own little world.

            “Oswin,” I said curtly.

            He glanced up at me, looking like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Ransom.”

            I saw Piper glancing at me, with her wide, green eyes. “I see that you’re reconnecting with my Piper.”

            Again, Piper focused on me, her eyes getting even wider.

            “Yes,” said Oliver, “I was just telling Piper how nice it was to see her again. Granted, under terrible circumstances---”

            “Of course, the circumstances are horrible,” said Piper, “but reconnecting with old friends is always nice. I was just apologizing to Oliver for how things ended between the two of us. We were both foolish young people.”

            “Yeah,” said Oliver, “we were foolish. But we’re older, and wiser now. I was just saying how nice it would be to get in touch with her again.”

            “Yes,” said Piper, “and I agreed. I told Oliver all about Mr. Tanager wanting me to be Vice President, and that I would be back here. So, it might be nice to reconnect.”

            I saw her pointed gaze. She didn’t want me to interfere with whatever this reconnection was. “Well reconnecting with old friends is always nice,” I said, “especially if they’re real friends.”

            “Yes, real friends are always great to connect with,” said Piper, “and real family, too.”

            She looked pointedly at me, and I scowled at her words. Fine. I would let Piper have her moment with Oliver at the funeral, and then I would find Oliver after to remind him that he wasn’t supposed to go near her.

            “Oliver,” I said, “how’s that girlfriend of yours? I saw you two at the Tanager memorial charity event last year. The two of you looked so lovely.”

            “Francesca is fine,” Oliver answered, “she’s off in Milan right now getting ready for a fashion show.”

            “I’m sure she’s lovely,” said Piper, “maybe we could all have lunch sometime. You, me, and Francesca.”

            “I’d like that,” said Oliver, “or it would be nice for us to just…. reconnect, at lunch, as old friends.”

            “I’d like that,” said Piper with a smile.

            I hated everything in this moment. If it weren’t for the fact that people were there for my father’s funeral, I would have punched him. I would have told Piper the whole, wretched truth that I had found out about Oliver. I never had when I first got that information. It had ruined things even more between Piper and I. But I didn’t want her to think that her whole friendship with Oliver had been a lie. She’d lost too much in her life. I couldn’t let her lose the one person she thought had actually cared about her. Even though I had messed things up completely between the two of them.

            “Come on,” I said, “I’m certain that Oliver has things to do, and the lawyer is waiting for us at home you know.”

            “I didn’t know,” said Piper, “the lawyer is coming today? Ransom, we just---”

            “The sooner we get this done, the better,” I said, “come on.”

            I put my hand on her back and then I pushed her in the direction of the car. Once we were both inside, I could see Piper looking at me with so much anger I half expected that she might shoot lasers from her eyes. I couldn’t stop thinking of Kathleen Kore’s words. Were our parents really such monsters they would have experimented on both of their children? I knew my father had been a monster. But I didn’t think that Piper’s parents had been monsters. In fact, I’d always wished that her parents had been mine.

            “Come on,” I said, “I didn’t do anything rude.”

            “Of course not, but you were being territorial. You might as well have peed all over me, like a dog marking its territory. Honestly, Ransom, I’ll never understand you. I’m not family. But you’re not in love with me. But no one else can have me? You’ve made it perfectly clear I’m not a Tanager, but you won’t let me have a life outside of you either.”

            “I’m sorry,” I apologized.

            Piper let out a gasp. “What?”

            “I’m sorry,” I said through gritted teeth.

            “Did……”

            “Yes,” I grunted, “and don’t expect me to repeat myself. Come on, we’ve got a long year ahead of us. The least we can be to each other is civil.”