Tristan snorts lightly and shakes his head with amusement. “I’ll never compete with Qiang for Qi’s time. I didn’t mean I wanted you to replace Qi, so much as I just really think it’d be good for Qiang if you were their person. Not just because I think you’re one of the best people ever, but because I know how serious you are about them, and I see the way they look at you when you aren’t looking at them. They need you, and they know it, and that terrifies them, and I just really hope that they’ll overcome their fears enough to see you’re a prize, not a punishment.”
Tristan’s words floor me. To be honest, we haven’t really talked much about this since the beginning, when I said nothing would come of this. Tristan’s observations tell me that I didn’t do any better convincing him that I wouldn’t pursue this than I did myself.
Tristan has always been the type to internalize his thoughts and observations and share them only when asked or when he feels it’s absolutely necessary, so sometimes I forget how much attention he actually pays.
There’s also something huge in knowing that someone you look up to and think the world of sees you the same way. We may be cataclysmically different, but it’s never changed the fact that we’ve been brothers since the moment we met.
Kairos is a Greek restaurant run by the heir of the Starr family. The Starr name is well known in the business circuit, but I don’t really know much about them aside from that, and the fact that the head of the family is currently moving more towards politics.
Delios, the heir and restaurant owner, is an alumnus of ISU, and his little brother Psyche is a current student there. We don’t run in the same crowd, but I’ve seen Psyche around campus here and there,and I know there are rumors of him dating a rather popular soccer player.
It’s a high-end restaurant I normally wouldn’t be huge on, but my mom has developed a bit of a guilty pleasure for eating here whenever she’s in the area. However, right now, my biggest reason for choosing this place is to show off a bit. Cade Murphy is the heir to a powerful family and is well known for surrounding himself with equally powerful, if not more powerful, people.
The last names Donovan and Bauer were enough to convince Cade to agree to meet us for dinner. We still need to get him to agree to help us, though, hence the bells and whistles of presenting the more elitist sides of ourselves that we aren’t exactly famous for showing off very often.
We aren’t waiting long before Cade shows up. As usual, he is completely composed. There isn’t a single thing about him that is out of order, from the perfectly arranged luxury brands he wears to the slicked-back hair that wouldn’t dare to fall out of place.
His icy blue eyes are cautious as he greets us, his demeanor polite but closed off, as he takes us in, since this is the first time we are actively seeking his company. I know there is some warmth hidden beneath his cold exterior, mostly from the rare smiles that have appeared during the few times I’ve seen him around Gio and Holt.
Doesn’t mean I trust him, though. He could be as terrible as his reputation suggests, and his being friends with Gio and Holt is his one redeeming quality. I find that hard to swallow because there’d have to be more to him to have achieved their friendship in the first place, but I haven’t been around them long enough to really know.
There’s also the fact that the disdainful mask Cade wears is almost identical to Tristan’s. If their physical features weren’t so different, they could almost be twins with their matching expressions.
Observation without emotion. Disdainfully unapproachable. Completely perfectly in place to take everything in without giving an ounce of themselves back.
But knowing how vastly different Tristan is beneath his maskleads me to believe the Cade Murphy I’m looking at right now doesn’t come close to resembling the real person underneath.
“So what do I owe the pleasure of your invitation?” Cade asks once the pleasantries have been exchanged and our order has been taken.
“What do you know about Kingston Adair?” I ask, getting straight to the point.
Cade cocks his head a bit to the side at the unexpected question. “What gives you the impression that I know anything about Kingston Adair?”
I shrug nonchalantly at that. “Nothing aside from you being rather famous for knowing a little bit about everyone.”
Cade lets a flicker of confusion cross his face before lifting an eyebrow at me. “I see. So the dinner invitation was to see what I may or may not know about someone who I may or may not even knowexists?”
“Pretty much,” Tristan pipes in, his tone as inflectionless as Cade’s.
Cade looks between the two of us with an unreadable expression. It’s a ridiculous conversation to have from the question he asked, but his reputation precedes him. He’s simply one of those people who knows almost everything about everyone, while almost no one knows a damn thing about him.
However, being close to people Cade is close to means he’ll be more likely to open up to us on some level as opposed to most people. Clinging to that belief, both Tristan and I hold his steady gaze as he decides whether to entertain our curiosity or not.
After several moments of the silent staredown, he lets out a sigh and a small shake of his head. “I don’t really know much about Kingston. The fact that he has equal reputations for collecting penalties as fast as he collects yards on the field and for being a football golden boy leads me to believe his stellar reputation has been bought more than earned over the years.
“There were some rumors of sexual misconduct at Pine Meadows University that led to his father pulling him out and transferring him here, but other than that, there isn’t much.
“His father, Sterling Adair, however, is an evil son of a bitch.Whether his son is just like him, or a bullied pawn waiting to be pushed centerstage like a next-generation puppet, I don’t know.”
“His father is evil, how?” Tristan leans in.
“The Adairs are old money, but by the time Sterling inherited the legacy, he inherited more debt than profit. From there, he rebuilt their empire from the ground up by soaking his hands in drugs, prostitution, weapons distribution, illegal gambling, you name it.
“Some of the stories I’ve heard of that man’s dealings could make the sun shiver. One of them was how he was arrested under suspicion of murdering his own wife. Supposedly, the witness conveniently died before they could testify, and Sterling walked free,” Cade explains.
“Wife? As in Kingston’s mother?” Tristan asks, his mask dropping a bit at the unpleasantness of the conversation.
I think he was thoroughly expecting some serious ick from Kingston’s family, but I doubt he expected it to be that deep. Not gonna lie, I’m a bit surprised it’s this dark too.
