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Chapter 2
Kincaid~
I had a life.
Honest, I did.
I had classes to attend, and I needed to pass them just like every other student at Hales University. It didn’t matter that my family had more money than a small country, my life had more purpose than flitting around like a vapid, vain, self-absorbed social butterfly.
My father was Merrick Black, the richest energies tycoon in the nation and probably the world. I’ve never bothered to do the math, so I wasn’t sure. My mother was Patricia Black, and she worked with the federal reserve board or was on it. Again, I’ve never absorbed the details. It wasn’t because I didn’t care, because I did. I had good parents, and they’ve always been good to me. I just hadn’t cared because neither career was supposed to have been a part of my job path or future.
All my life, I’ve wanted to be a computer systems analysis and engineer. I’ve always been good with computers, and they intrigued me. Their power was limitless. They were like the human mind almost. There was still so much untapped potential in technology, and I wanted to be the person who tapped into it. I wanted to discover new things and rediscover old things.
Besides, following in my father’s footsteps was supposed to have been my brother’s path. Apollo was supposed to have been the person to keep my father’s legacy alive. Now it was going to all fall on me, but that responsibility didn’t scare me. I wasn’t afraid of the challenges that came with running Black Enterprises. My computer science degree was going to go a long way into helping run the business when the time came. Luckily, my father still had a lot of good years left, so I was going to have plenty of time to learn everything that I needed to.
Given my choice in studies, there’d been plenty of other colleges better suited to get my degree from. However, attending Hales University had been part of a bigger picture. I was following in all of Apollo’s footsteps, and that included attending HU.
Apollo had been eight years older than me, which made me an ‘oops’ baby. Though my parents had chosen to view me as a blessing, an eight-year gap between children had been big. However, my brother had been thrilled to have a little sister. Apollo had spent more time taking care of me than our parents had, and as a result, our bond had been a strong one, regardless of the age gap. My first day of school, he’d been there. My first t-ball game, he’d been there. My first kick boxing session, he’d been there. My first heartbreak, I’d had to hold him back from killing the guy. However, in retrospect, an unrequited crush really hadn’t been all that much of a heartbreak. More like some dramatic heartache. At any rate, Apollo had been there for it all.
When he died, a huge piece of me had been buried with him. The remaining pieces had been such an unrecognizable mess that the damage was still very real. I had issues, and they weren’t going away anytime soon.
Saxton Voss understood this. When we’d first met, I’d been too young to realize it, but I’d met my soulmate in those grey eyes of his. Saxton was my person, though not in a romantic sense. There’d never been anything more than friendship between me and Saxton, but that friendship was close enough to be uncomfortable for some. Luckily, his wife and my good friend, Hastings, accepted our close friendship.
Growing up, if I hadn’t been with Apollo, I’d been with Saxton. It hadn’t been until about six months after Apollo’s death that all that had changed. Everything had changed, and instead of trying to lure me back from the dark side, Saxton had pulled up a chair and had joined me.
For eight years, Saxton has stood by me and supported me in everything. No matter how self-destructive, reckless, or impulsive, Saxton has never let me go it alone. Though the guy has tried to reason with me a million times, he’s still never bailed on me.
However, even though we weren’t keeping score, it was time for me to be there for him now. All that bullshit with August Remington was quickly spiraling out of control and attacking Hastings had been the final straw. Granted, the guys had already planned on doing away with him, but now it was Saxton’s privileged, instead of Stone’s.
While the entire thing was a clusterfuck of epic proportions, it was an unfortunate blessing in a horrible disguise.
The Order of the Cronus was supposed to have been Apollo’s future. Only the best of the wealthiest and most powerful families were invited to join the organization, and Apollo had been selected at a very young age. Something that he had embraced from the day he’d found out.
The organization was the ultimate boys’ club, and women had subservient roles within the organization. Even in this day and age, women could not be members unless they signed Hera contracts. Still, even then, they were only honorary members. Their voices matter, but not as much as that of their husbands’ opinions.
Though being a member came with a million stipulations, the rules and obligations weren’t all that complicated. There was a group of initiates every year, some classes large, some small. It all depended on the caliber of qualified applicants at the time.
This year’s initiating class had included August Remington, Ross Carmichael, Saxton Voss, Fox Harrington, and Stone Lexington, and the firepower within their class was the biggest to date. I knew this because I knew everything about The Order of the Cronus.
Everything.
When Saxton had first been told about The Order, it’d been a given that he would choose me for his supporter. Trusting me with his life, it’d been a no-brainer to trust me with his future. It hadn’t been until after Apollo had died that Saxton’s membership had become to mean more.
Taking a deep breath, I did what I did best; I compartmentalized.
This mess had started out with August having a thing for Rylee and losing it when Stone had stolen her right out from under him. Though, I supposed that wasn’t fair. Stone hadn’t actually stolen her from August because there’d never been anything between Rylee and August. August had an obsession with Rylee, and he hadn’t taken it well when she had signed Stone’s Hera contract, becoming his wife.
When he couldn’t get to Rylee anymore, he had tried his hand at harassing Ross’ wife, Sutton. When Ross had popped him one, August had backed off, but then he’d gone in a completely different direction in attacking Hastings.
Now, Stone had a PI trailing August’s every move during the day while the guys had become their wives’ shadows the rest of the time. No one was taking any chances anymore, and I didn’t blame them. It had done a number on me when I’d found Hastings beaten, so I couldn’t imagine what Saxton was feeling. Hell, even Ross and Stone, worried that it could have been either of their wives. Especially, Stone. After all, it was his wife that August was fixated on.
Everything was a mess, and Alexander, the head panel member for our initiating class, was aware that he was losing control of his initiates. His initiates were becoming more powerful than him by the day, and he could no longer protect August like he’s been doing. We were still working on trying to find out what was going on between him and August, but so far, we didn’t have anything concrete.
Crazy enough, everything that was going on right now had no impact on the bigger picture. At least, not for me. My plans haven’t changed. My goals were still the same. My objective hasn’t shifted. Whether confidence or recklessness, I had no doubt that I could still do it all.
Plus, the more of a mess August Remington created for us, the bigger the cracks in the foundation. The more doors came flying open. The more broken windows there were to crawl through. The impenetrable walls of the organization were slowly showing their weaknesses.
With only fifteen minutes left before my first class, I made my way to one of the coffee carts on campus. My semester was loaded down with a shitload of classes, but most of that was an illusion. Though I was doing well in each class, the extra loads were a smokescreen. I needed to look too busy to be bothered with other shit. Granted, this thing with August has taken up a lot of my time, but I was conditioned to handle a lot of shit all at once.
Luckily, there were only three people in front of me in the line for the Perk-Me-Up cart. I did my best to seem preoccupied because people had a bad habit of offering me free passes. I had a bit of a reputation, and I wasn’t even sure how it came to be. Sure, I was a bit relentless and didn’t give a whole lot of fucks about a whole lot of anything, but I didn’t behead people if they crossed me.
However, that’s how people behaved around me.
So, not needing or wanting to get cuts in line, I pulled my phone out and pretended to be exchanging text messages with someone. It was stupid, and I shouldn’t even care this much, but I wasn’t up for people interaction this morning. It’s been a long night with another midnight wedding, and I just wanted to be left alone.
When the two girls in front of me started talking again after giving their order, I almost just turned around and went back home. “Do you really think Fox Harrington was flirting with you?” one girl asked the other.
However, instead of going home, I just skipped the coffee, kicking off this craptastic day.
