My wife. Likely carrying my heir.
Laws and blood bind her to me, wrapping chains around her so tight she’ll never be able to breathe without me.
It’s toxic. I know it is.
But looking at her sleeping form, soft and warm, I know I’d do it again. I’d do it in every lifetime from here until the last star burns out.
I move to the side of the bed and lean down, brushing a stray hair off her cheek. She stirs, murmuring something unintelligible, and nuzzles into my hand.
"Go back to sleep, little bird," I whisper.
Leaving her there, safe in the cage I built, is the hardest thing I've done all week. But the wolves in the Hills won’t kill themselves.
Silence fills the office,the view of downtown pretty through the glass with its holiday lights and soft falling snow.
Cohen sits across the desk, looking every bit the badass lawyer he is. Files are spread out on the glass surface representing the slow, agonizing death of James Thornton’s empire.
"Thornton is getting aggressive," Cohen says, tapping a file. "He’s approaching your commercial tenants. Offering buyouts. He’s whispering in ears, Gabriel. Telling people you’re distracted. That you’re losing your edge."
"Let him whisper," I say, leaning back in the leather chair. "Let him overplay his hand. What do tenants care if I’m distracted as long as their lease terms are fulfilled?"
"He’s also talking to your son."
My eyes snap to my friend’s.
"Still?"
He nods. "He’s funding Ryder’s legal counsel. If Ryder decides to contest the disinheritance or sue for access to the trust, Thornton is going to bankroll it. He wants to use your son to bleed you dry."
Rage flares to life, hot and bright inside me.
James Thornton isn't just a rival anymore. He’s a dead man walking. Using my failure of a son as a weapon against me is a fatal mistake on his part that there’s no coming back from.
"Ryder’s going to be just as much of a disappointment to him as he is to me," I say, my voice low. "The evidence we have against him is unshakable. The theft. The embezzlement from Blair’s company. The drugs."
"It doesn't matter if he wins," Cohen points out. "It matters that he drags you into court. It matters that it’s public. It weakens your position with the board and in Emerald Hills."
I stand up and walk to the window. The town looks even smaller from up here. Like it’s insignificant.
“Let him. We both know he can’t weaken me enough to matter. But life as he knows it is coming to an end. Soon.”
My phone buzzes on the desk, and I walk over and pick it up.
It’s a priority alert from my security system at home.
Everything in the room stops.
Blair.
She left the grounds.
"Get out," I tell Cohen.
“If you’re going to be a dick, gladly.” He grins when I growl at him and then he flips me off on his way out. I know he doesn’t take it personally, not after the way he pursued his stepdaughter and then married her.
He knows this level of obsession well.
The tracking app for the trackers I put in every pair of her shoes loads. The red dot’s moving. She’s in her car. Heading into town.
