Breaking into Sky | Book Two

Five

Photo of Donna

The two hour drive down to his mother's house was uneventful.

He'd returned to New York the previous day, convinced that the Intel from the developer was legit, so much so, that he was considering putting forth an offer to buy the rights to the research and get it patented as quickly as he could, considering, the developer was already courting several offers.

Such a strategic move would drive up the base price for the bids on his company, and he could resell the rights at a later date, at an equally exorbitant price.

There was one major drawback to his plan. For whatever reason, one of his investors was as desperate to sell LivePrint as Mr Barowitz was in buying the company off his hands.
Thus, he'd spent the major duration of the drive coming up with ways to tell his investor, to go fuck himself.

He made two stops, one to the florist to pick up the flowers he'd ordered for his mother, and the other to purchase a bottle of wine.

He hoped his efforts would distract her from digging into him about settling down, which was mostly the direction their conversations steered towards, these days.

He was sadly mistaken.

She went straight for the kill after they exchanged hugs and other pleasantries and immediately they sat down for dinner.

'I ran into Jayden the other day, at one of your fancy events,' she began, as they dug into the delicious meal of spaghetti and meatballs that she'd prepared.

'Oh?' he raised an inquisitive eyebrow, glaring at his sister Brianna who was also present and currently doing a bad job of stifling a smile.

They both knew where this conversation was heading.

'Yes,' his mother continued, ignoring the looks that passed between her two children, 'we had a lovely discussion about this girl he's dating. He seems pretty serious about her if you ask me, and I must say, she sounds just delightful.'

As far as he and the rest of the guys knew, Delphine was the only woman Jay had his eye on and she had yet to forgive him for his past actions, and so, he didn't believe he would go so far as to call what they had going between them, 'dating,' however, he would keep that knowledge to himself and allow his mother as well as Jay, their fantasies.

Neither he not the rest of the guys really believed that those two would ever work past their differences, not if Del had something to say about it.

He nodded and stuffed his mouth with another forkful of food to avoid giving a response.

That didn't work either.

'Have you met her?' his mother pressed pointedly, watching him chew until he could pretend to chew no more and was forced to swallow.

Bri snorted indelicately, earning a withering look from her mother.

'Delphine? Yes, I've met her...several times actually, she's...nice.'

His mother nodded, 'that's what I'm saying,' she continued, 'he said her company takes care of some legal work for him and that's how they met.'

'Mhmmn,' he murmured as again he contemplated how different this story was from the one Jay had narrated to him, Max, Evans and Jax.

He believed it had involved Donna, and some very raunchy sex.

'I was just wondering why you don't meet nice girls like her in your line of work.'

His sister masked another snort with a cough. He ignored her.

'Have you met any of her friends?' his mother asked, 'I mean a girl like her with a good head on her shoulders should have a couple of friends who have something in common with her. You should have her invite some of her friends to one of your functions Brian.'

He opened his mouth to give a reassuring response, but was cut off by his sister's exasperated sigh.

'Leave him alone mom, I'm sure he'll find someone when he's ready to settle down.'

She received a grateful look from him and a disapproving glare from her mother who now turned her attention to her.

'And what about you Briann?' she asked frowning, 'you know twenty-six is not too young to seriously start considering settling down.'

'Oh shit.' His sister swore under her breath, most likely regretting her decision to step in and save him.

It was his turn to mask his smile.

His mother huffed, 'Mind your manners, young lady, you know I'm right. Unlike your brother, you have a biological clock to consider.'

Brianne rolled her eyes, annoyed, 'You may be wrong ma, I read somewhere that women are not the only ones who have to worry about that now, they say the older men get, the less inclined their little swimmers are to power through.'

Brian choked on his food as his mother's cutlery clattered down to her plate.

'Brianne Regina Parker! That is the most absurd and indelicate thing I've ever heard you say.'

'Not to mention incorrect,' Brian chimed in, taking a sip of water to recover from the food which had traveled down the wrong pipe, as Bri shot him the same withering glare he'd gotten used to seeing from his mother.

He spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between assuring his mom he'd channel his efforts into finding someone to settle down with and engaging in playful banter with his little sister.

•••••••••••••

The following week held quite a few uncertainties for Sky. She'd committed to tentatively move forward with the offer from Denise, assuring herself that if at any point she became uncomfortable with the offer or it's process, she'd bow out gracefully.

So far, her resolve was still intact.

She'd held another meeting with Denise who'd brought along another representative of the mysterious establishment. She'd spent an entire morning filling out forms with her personal details, after which several medical appointments had been booked with a general practitioner, a gynecologist and a dentist.

She'd protested the gynecologist appointment, but they had insisted that they needed her examined to be absolutely sure that her current form of birth control was the most appropriate for her body.

She'd grudgingly acquiesced and by the end of the week, she'd gone through the required medical tests and dental treatments and had attended another meeting, this time with new faces, where she'd been presented with a nondisclosure form, which she'd thoroughly perused before signing, along with another form requiring her bank details and a final form detailing a code of conduct.

It was on this last form she'd finally been introduced to the name of the establishment, Donna.
Later that evening, she'd received an email with an address and directions and an invitation to a private residence the following day.

Upon arrival, she'd given her full name and a few seconds later had been buzzed in at the gate by a muscular security personnel who had escorted her down a long driveway and into what seemed to be a side entrance where she'd been met with a lady who'd proceeded to give her a tour of the place.

It was beautiful to say the least, the mansion - for that was the only name that seemed fitting for the huge property - had a warm and inviting atmosphere, yet smelled of wealth and class.

She was guided through the hallways and the few currently vacated rooms, whose design aesthetic were surprisingly minimal, yet elegant and no doubt expensive.

By the end of the day, she felt like she was a part of an exclusive community of people, unknown to the rest of the world.

She wasn't sure how to process that feeling, and, she didn't have much time to ruminate on it, as she'd signed up for her first appointment that weekend.

Filler chapter, but, wait for it...