“Narek?” a familiar voice called from the head of the room and Nate turned to find Kazimir with his hand still on the door. He’d paused beneath the entrance and was staring.
“Did you follow me here?” Nate blurted, unable to hold back the accusation.
The receptionist glanced between the two of them and then broke the silence by greeting Kaz. “Good afternoon, Mr. Ambrose. She’ll be with you in a couple of minutes, if you wouldn’t mind waiting.”
Oh. Nate frowned. “You’re a patient here?”
“What about you?” Kazimir moved gracefully toward him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before. New?”
There was no reason for Nate to answer that, so he stubbornly remained silent.
Kaz rolled his eyes. “Cute. What, now you won’t even talk to me?”
“I didn’t want to talk to you before.”
“Touche. Too bad for you, sounds like I’ve got time to kill. So,” he tossed himself into the nearest chair. The room was filled with three rows of them, but right now it was just them and the receptionist, “What are you in for?”
He scowled. “This isn’t prison.”
“You sure about that?” Kaz clicked his tongue. “Guess no one’s forcing you to be here.”
“Someone’s making you come?” That sounded strange. “Who has the ability to do that?” And how did Nate get on their good side?
Kazimir’s expression soured. “My father.”
“Your dad makes you come to therapy?”
“Don’t get it twisted,” Kaz said, “I can tell you already are. He’s not doing it because he gives a shit about me. My father couldn’t care less if I dropped dead this very instant. We’re the furthest thing from close you could be. Hell, you and I have had more interaction in these past five minutes than he and I have all year.”
Nate cocked his head. “Then why make you do it?”
“It’s a power play. A reminder that even though I’m part of the Brumal in charge, I’m still beneath him.” He snorted. “As if.”
“Then why come?”
“Because daddy holds the key to the kingdom, so to speak, and I want it. Ambrose United is a major corporation.”
“You’re interested in business?”
“Not in the slightest. But I have to inherit my father’s company in order to burn it to the ground, right? It’s the only thing he’s ever cared about. Which means I want it. In order to achieve that goal,” he threw out his arms, “I come here once a month and pretend to listen to that crazy old bat’s drivel.”
“I thought she was nice,” Nate said.
“You would, Pretty Boy.”
“Your relationship with your dad sounds messed up,” he gentled his voice some. “I’m sorry.”
Kazimir quirked a brow. “What, that we’re not the perfect family?”
“No,” he shook his head. “That you have to do something you don’t want to. That sucks.” And for a guy like Kazimir? It probably drove him half mad.
The look in Kaz’s eyes shifted, but Nate couldn’t place whatever emotion he was now feeling. “Sounds like you can relate, Narek.”
“I didn’t want to come to this planet,” he divulged, the words spilling out of him for no comprehensible reason at all. Heblamed the therapy session he’d just come from. It’d loosened his tongue and somehow put him in a sharing mood. “I cried in the shower every day for a month leading up to getting on the ship.”
“Why the shower?”
Nate shrugged and glanced away. How embarrassing. What was he thinking talking to the Devil about such personal things? Fortunately for him, the door to Dr. Vera’s office opened then, and the woman stepped out with that same friendly smile plastered over her face.
