And I also have to admit that Brooks might actually know what she’s doing in there.She might actually have a plan this time.
Though as usual, she hasn’t bothered to tell me what it is.
* * *
“You owe me an answer.”
I want to throw my phone at the wall and shatter it.Then kill someone.Maybe kill someone with my phone.Shatter it, take the glass, and slice someone’s throat.
God, that sounds satisfying.
Unfortunately, my father is the one I want to kill and he’s not currently within physical reach.
He is, however, wrong.
“I don’t owe you anything, Father.”
His silence tells me he thinks I’m incorrect, and technically, he’s not wrong.That doesn’t make any of this okay, though.
“You gave me until the end of the year,” I remind him, letting my voice go cold and brittle as ice.
Because that part is also true.Months ago, when my father decided it was finally time for me to start taking a bigger role in the family–leading his crews rather than my own–he came to me with some demands.
Demands that stemmed from the arranged marriage Brooks ran out on five years ago.
“And I’m changing my mind,” he says, his voice smooth enough that it makes me want to punch him in the face.
“You’re changing your mind?”I snap.“What do you think I’m going to do, just go out on the street and fucking find someone to marry?”
He chuckles, though it doesn’t hold any amusement.
My father is rarely amused, particularly when it comes to me.
“Oh no.I assume you already have someone in mind.I assume, further, that she’s someone you’ve already decided you’ll do anything to protect.And what better way to protect her than to pull her into the family and put your name all over her?Brand her as your own so no one else can touch her?”
My body goes cold so fast that I think I may have died.I can’t move.Can’t breathe.
Can barely fucking think.And that never happens to me.
“What’s wrong, Lucien?Can got your tongue?Or did that fiery redhead steal it out of your mouth already?Oh, you thought I didn’t know?Thought, perhaps, that I hadn’t heard she’s back in town, and that she ran for you the moment she arrived?Have you seen her, yet?I’ve heard she’s back in her father’s clutches.That must irk you.”
I hate him.
I actually hate him.
And though I might have been joking about killing him before, I’m now deadly serious.
“You leave her out of this,” I growl.“Brooks has nothing to do with any of this.”
His voice, when he replies, is a fucking purr.“But she has everything to do with it.Because she’s the reason you’re out running around the city, causing more trouble than I can cover up.She’s the reason I need to bring you to heel right now.I want you back in the fold, Lucien, and I want it now.So I’m calling in your chips.If you want to keep using my power, my money, and my men, you’ll take your place at the head of the family the way you’re meant to.And you’ll marry a woman to secure your inheritance.I want another heir, because at this rate, you’re going to get yourself killed before I die of old age.I want you married and stable, and leading the family.And I want it this month.”
This is such an escalation that I lose my voice for a moment.My father has threatened this with me before, but never on such a short timeline.He wants me to start a family and extend our line, and though I understand that, I also assumed I could either talk him out of it or buy myself more time.
Evidently I was wrong about that.
“Oh, and Lucien,” he adds before I can respond.“Not the Landry girl.I know you loved her once, but she’s tarnished, these days.I don’t want her in my family.Choose someone else.”
He hangs up with a sharp click, and I stare at my phone for several moments, letting my brain do what it does best.
