Her light-blue eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“It was an open-ended debt. He gave me what I needed, and I agreed to repay the favor when he called it in.”
“You didn’t.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I said, briefly meeting her horrified gaze. “I was out of time, and he had what I needed. A way to find you. That’s all I cared about. Any debt would be worth the price as long as I got you back.”
She chewed on the inside of her lip. “And now he’s wanting to collect.”
“Seems that way.”
“Do you have any idea what he might want from you?”
“I have an inkling,” I admitted. “He likes to keep me guessing, likes to maintain the upper hand. It’s a power play.”
“I don’t like this,” she muttered, genuine fear creeping into her voice.
Neither did I. But she didn’t need to know exactly how deep that truth ran or how worried I actually was about what my father might demand.
Her eyes flashed up suddenly, tracking our route through the windshield. “Wait. This isn’t the way to your house. Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to Brock’s house first. You’ll be safer there.”
“I didn’t ask you to drop me off.”
“Are you saying you want to come with me to my house. My dad is going to be there,” I stated the obvious with one eyebrow raised.
Her answer came without hesitation. “I’m not ready to let you out of my sight, Kreed Corvo. Not after everything.”
“You sure you want to do this? You know how my father can be, not to mention what he is capable of. I’m just not sure it’s good for you to see him just yet. I can swing by and drop you off at the house. You don’t have to come with me.”
Her jaw set in a stubborn way I both loved and found irritating. “I’m not scared of him.”
“You should be,” I said quietly, meaning every word as I flicked on my blinker. I had to admit I wanted her in my sights, not that I didn’t trust my brothers to protect her. I just felt better when she was with me.
And in the most random time, I realized…
Fuck, I’m falling in love with her.
This hadto be a bad idea, especially when Kaylor dismissed my suggestion of her staying in my car. This fucking girl. She was killing me. She wanted to grab a few things from her old room while I talkedto my father, and against my better judgment, I agreed. Why was it suddenly so hard to deny her anything?
Kaylor disappeared up the grand staircase the second we stepped through the double front doors, her soft footsteps fading quickly against the polished hardwood. I tracked her movement, watching the way my hoodie hung loose on her frame until she rounded the corner at the top and vanished from sight. Only then did I force myself to turn and face the direction I really didn’t want to go.
My father’s study waited at the end of the hall like a tomb, or a throne room, depending on your perspective.
The door stood halfway open, spilling amber lamplight across the Persian runner. I paused at the threshold, my hand finding the door frame and gripping it hard. The familiar scent hit me immediately: expensive cigar smoke layered over leather-bound books and the faint chemical tang of wood polish.
My father sat behind his massive mahogany desk. Every surface in the room gleamed, not a paper out of place. Everything was precisely where he wanted it, exactly as he demanded.
He didn’t glance up when I entered, just kept methodically flipping through a stack of papers in front of him. “Sit,” he said, his voice smooth as aged whiskey. Gray strands of hair were peppered near his temples. He was dressed casually, well, casually for Donovan Corvo, in a muted, dark-green sweater and black tailored pants.
I chose to remain standing and leaned against the door frame, crossing my arms over my chest in a posture I knew would annoy him. “You’ve got what you wanted, old man. I’m here. You can stop pretending to care about anything beyond a return on investment. What do you want?”
He looked up then, slowly, and a familiar smirk carved its way across his face, reminding me of Mason. They shared the same sly grin. His pale green eyes found mine. I was the only one of my brothers who hadn’t inherited them. I’d gotten my eyes from my mother. “You think so little of me, Kreed.”
“You make it too easy,” I shot back, my jaw tightening.
Lacing his fingers together on the desk, he said, “I’m glad you brought Kaylor along tonight. She’ll be considerably safer here than anywhere else you might have hidden her.”
