“I need you to stop it.” I look my father firmly in the eye, daring him to say no.
He holds my gaze, even as he finally brings the glass to his mouth and takes a sip, keeping his eyes on me over the rim. It’s an appraisal. Nix, Caleb, and Kira hold their breath, but I force myself to breathe. I can’t show an ounce of weakness, just like James hasn’t shown an ounce of surprise. But that’s to be expected. As a criminal attorney, he wouldn’t be very good if he didn’t maintain a poker face.
But what isn’t expected is the Cheshire grin that reveals itself as he sets his glass down.
“Well, isn’t this a turn of events,” he says, as if pleased, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand.
He leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers, his posture that of someone who is about to win a case. But he hasn’t even read the metaphorical file yet. There’s no way he’s made his decision this quickly.
I’m missing something.
“In what way?” I don’t like the way my voice sounds. It’s too low to be confident, and I suddenly feel like I’m in a courtroom on the opposition, ill-prepared and about to be dealt a blow that crumblesmycase.
“Please, don’t insult me,” James uses that patronizing tone he reserves for lessers.
I grit my teeth and lock away the sudden surge of fury before I ruin Kira’s chances by flipping the fucking table.
“I don’t know what you’re referring to,” I say. “I’m not trying to insult you. I’m,” I swallow the bile, “asking for your help.” I nearly crack a tooth on the admission in an effort to remedy the situation, though I don’t know where it went south.
“You must really think I’m a fool.” Disgust lines his words, his pleasure morphing into malice.
I glance around the table in disbelief, wondering if I’m the only one who’s lost. But instead of finding my own confusion mirrored back at me, my brother has his head down, defeated already, apparently, while Nix shoots daggers out of narrowed eyes, and Kira’s pretty face crumples with pity for me.
“I thought you knew better by now,” James scoffs, “I’m always one step ahead,son.” He says the last word as if it’s an insult.
“Dad…” Caleb interrupts weakly, but James holds up a hand, not even sparing him a glance.
“Do you think this confession is news to me?” he asks me. “Did you think that I didn’t have this figured out weeks ago when you lied to my face about a bullshit drag race?”
Fuck.
He’s known this entire time. Since the night I brought Caleb home without his car. No wonder Arnold was able to pin us down so quickly. If I had known, I never would have attempted this. The bastard’s been sitting on this for weeks. And I just made him feel like I had one over on him.
“Come now,” James chastises me almost kindly. “You know that I keep tabs onallof my employees, and Marshal Wayne was no exception. I knew of his little pet project.” He motions with a dismissive hand to Kira and Nix. “It was only a matter of deduction to find out what happened to him, though I will admit, the Noland orphans were not my first suspicion.”
His eyes land on Kira, and something cold settles into my chest as he looks at her like she’s dirt under his shoe. “Who bites the hand that feeds you?” He tsks at her. “That’s just not very smart.”
I can feel the indignation flow through Kira’s hand into mine as her tendons tighten. Mine must do something similar as I shift into a protective stance, barely able to contain myself at the insult to her intelligence.
“And,” he continues with a sneer, “if you think I wasn’t already aware before the fact that my son,” he flicks his gaze toward Caleb, “was hanging around one of those girls, you would be sorely mistaken.”
I steal a glance at Caleb and catch the flash of realization in his eyes—that his life is not his own. It’s a hard pill to swallow, one I swallowed at about the same age he is now. I’m sure he thought his compliance kept him under the radar, that not being loud and brazen like I was at his age protected him from being watched like a hawk.
“Of course, I didn’tapprove,” James says, “but we all have to sow our oats, don’t we?” He twists his mouth into a smirk that makes my stomach curl. “But it seems I made an error in that gracious leeway. Because look what’s happened… Not just one, but both of my sons, dragged into the exact kind of thing the Landons don’t sully their name with. Do you ever wonder why we don’t live in the city? It’s so that we can avoid the riffraff,” he curls his lip at Kira, “that comes with it. But somehow you’ve managed—both of you,” he turns his vicious glare on Caleb, jerking his head toward Nix, “to find the rare scum of Cloverwick and share a bed with it.”
“The only scum in this room is you,” Nix spits.
My muscles tense, ready to stop him if he tries to touch her. But James gives a single laugh, a sound without humor.
“You see what I mean?” He shakes his head. “Did you really think, at the very least, that I wouldn’t be made aware that a warrant was going to be served on my property? I really thought I raised you two better than this. That’s why I let you spin your wheels with this charade. I assumed you would learn this lesson on your own, that you would see the error of your ways and, like men, fix it accordingly. But it seems I was wrong to let it go on this long, and now I have to fix it.”
In a move that pains me, Caleb lifts his head with hope. “So… you’ll do it?”
His question makes my chest constrict. Because Nix was right. My brother is too naive.
“If byit, you mean making sure that Mitchell Layton gets all his needs to put these two away so you two can think with your heads again and not your cocks, then yes.” He shrugs—the bastard.
“What?” Kira gasps. “But… it was just me. Nix didn’t have—”
