The bottom gave out in my gut and my legs felt quite wobbly then. My first instinct was to fight back, to slap him off his bloody high horse. But it was what he said, that last bit there, that had me thinking. It was my fault. My mother was a great person, but she could be a killjoy sometimes. And the fact she’d caught me with my pants literally unzipped with Tanith was reason enough for her to go deep freeze and hyper controlling. To be fair to Tanith, before she’d gotten the internship and things were first starting with us, she hadn’t known who my mother was. So, there was that.
I’d never thought to bring it up because it didn’t matter. But Mum had been Mum. And I’d done what I had always done, fix it in the most efficient way possible. But this was about Tanith. She didn’t need my efficiency. She needed my love, and I’d treated her like she was Felix. A problem to be solved. I realized to fix this now, I had to lose something too. Not just her.
Rhys was right. It was irritating that I’d fucked up. My method of fixing things had only made matters worse. Now Tanith thought I didn’t love her. And she wasn’t coming back unless I did something to stop it. If I didn’t at least fight for Tanith, I was going to lose her.
I glowered at Rhys and he shrugged. “Eh, don’t be mad at me. As you say, you’re the fuckup here. God, we’re goddamned Hellfire Club. We’re emperors among kings. And so far, fucking Keaton, fucking Lennox, who’s an actual prince, and fucking you have each taken a goddamned arrow to the heart. Weak. You might know about van Doren, but she’s never taking me down. I keep her at a nice, safe distance. That weak part of me that wants her? I will manage to kill it one day. Just to save me from being common like you idiots.”
I chuckled. “You know, Rhys, I see beyond you. I see you pretending to be the beast, but you’re not. And I know why you’re the way you are, but you’re not the devil you want to be.”
“Fuck you, Owen.”
I grinned at that. “Yeah, mate, I love you too.”
That only made him scowl. I knew better than to touch him. He might be an inch shorter than I was, and we were built the same, but he was meaner than a viper snake when he wanted to be. And any suggestion that he had feelings was enough to make him angry enough to win. I didn’t feel like a broken nose or a black eye.
“Fair enough. Go on pretending you don’t care. But one day, van Doren will come for you, and I just might sit back and laugh while I watch it play out.”
He scowled more and then turned his back, flipping his collar back into place, and his shoulders hunched slightly. He really wasn’t the devil he thought he was, but that wasn’t for me to tell him. That was for him to figure out on his own. In the meantime, I knew exactly what to do to get Tanith back.
* * *
I hadn’t been able to leave school that week, and my schedule was brutal as I had several tests. But as soon as they were done, I sent for the car and headed for the city. Tanith still hadn’t spoken to me. And every Thursday and Friday, she was gone, so I hadn’t really seen her for over a week. Still, I searched for her in the hallways, longing to get a glimpse of that ash-blond hair and that smile that I had to work for to see.
My mother was unrelenting when it came to getting what she wanted, but I didn’t care. What was she going to do to me? She needed me. I mean, of course, there was Felix. But he wasn’t good legacy material. And so, I was it. And while it would be a fight, she had no choice but to give me what I wanted.
The tricky part was, I did want Preston Media. It was my legacy, and I craved it. I was good at it. Push came to shove, while I had a lot to learn, I was ready to take over one day. I could run that business and I had ideas for it. Most of the work I did was remote. I wrote some articles, but where I really thrived was on the business side. So, a few mornings a week, I was on calls with Preston Media in London going over finances and projections traffic. Making the numbers make sense gave me such a buzz.
Whenever Mum let me help on planning meetings, I flourished, so she knew of my interest and intent. But I couldn’t let that thwart things because if she smelled fear, I was dead in the water.
I went directly to Preston Media, not bothering to go home first because my mother was barely there. I wouldn’t catch her. I was waved in without so much as a security check because, hell, my middle name was on the damn sign outside, and I was in and out of here often enough, security knew who I was. One of the guards, Charlie, with a big round belly and a cheerful face, waved at me.
“Owen, my man, how is it going?”
“What’s up, Charlie? How’s it, mate?”
He gave a thumbs-up with a smile. Charlie and I once bonded because he’d been watching Premier League and I’d been waiting for Mum to finish work. He was a huge
