Page 11 of For Your Consideration

You know I’m in this message thread right, assholes?

Quinn

Ash…

I’m sorry.

But you are glaring more than normal tonight.

Noah

And I think I know why…

Will

Does it have something to do with Quinn’s new assistant perhaps…

I shoved my phone in my pocket and let out a sigh. It was going to be a fucking long night.

I stretched my neck, looking up from the puzzle spread out over the table to the snowy downtown landscape beyond. It was late March, and the city was still covered in snow but the sun was shining. I preferred it over the dark, dreary London winters.

Doing a puzzle put me in an almost meditative state that always helped calm my mind. Jane had been big into puzzles when we were growing up and I found they were a good way for me to shut things out. Plus, they helped keep my mind sharp and gave me a sense of accomplishment when I finished them.

It took the guys over an hour to stop bothering me last night. I just glared as they asked questions and poked at me, making jokes until Quinn stepped in and told them it was enough. We left the club not long after that.

Grabbing my phone, I dialed Jane knowing that if I didn’t, she might just show up here. The woman was a saint, taking in Knight at thirteen when his mum died and then me not even a year later. She never once complained, never made us feel like a burden, her husband Henry right there with her showing us what a good man looked like.

Jane answered with a laugh. “I knew guilt-tripping you through Theo would work.”

“Hi, Mum.” There was a small smile on my face. She was one of the only people who seemed to be able to pull them out of me.

“Good to hear you remember who I am.”

“I’m sorry.”

She let out a sigh. “You’re forgiven. Anything new in your world?”

“The same. Members club is coming along.”

“Theo showed me the architectural drawings. It looks incredible. Did he tell you about the ring?”

“Yes, and he’s put me in charge of coordination.”

“Well, better you than Noah. I love that boy but we all know he is terrible at keeping secrets,” she chuckled.

Without prompting from me, she launched into the updates on the community book club she was a part of and how she and Henry were thinking of a trip to Greece in the summer. She talked without much input from me. I’d never been much of a talker, but it got worse the shitter my home life became.

One afternoon when I was nine, I was sitting on the steps outside my school waiting for my mum. She was supposed to be coming to get me like she did every other day between the two or three jobs she worked to keep the lights on and food in the fridge. The school yard emptied out but I was just watching ants run across the pavement. It wasn’t until a school administrator came to get me that I found out my mum had died in a car accident on the way to pick me up.

That left me with my father. Well, he didn’t even deserve that title—I tended to call him the sperm donor. He was an abusive, drunk asshole that decided to turn his anger to me when my mother was gone.

I was fourteen when I finally left. I couldn’t stay in the house any longer. He didn’t like that I was bigger than him, that I could fight back, even malnourished. I’d been sleeping in cars on the street for a week before Knight and Noah found me.

When we started growing Knight Enterprises and I was making money, I looked my sperm donor up, always ready for him to come out of the woodwork. But he was in prison for aggravated assault against some guy in a bar. I’d deleted the file and never looked back.

Jane and Henry Hutchinson had saved my life. They were my parents in every way that counted. So if Jane wanted to talk my ear off with updates on her life while I grunted or mumbled a “yeah,” then I would let her.

“Did I tell you about the new hobby Henry’s started?” Jane asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. She didn’t wait for me to answer before she dove into Henry’s new label maker and the organization projects he was starting while I listened with a small smile.