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Yeah, right. As if she—
I cut the thought off, eyes floating back to the email. I never did go back to her townhome. My father would send me off, and I would find a friend to stay with. Never Myles — I didn’t trust Uncle Gage not to rat me out to my father in hopes of winning brownie points he didn’t need — but other kids from school, always wishing my father would just send me to a boarding school instead. I used to stay with Maverick, too, until he had joined the army and left me to my own devices.
I got away with it for about three months before he got wise to it — and finally,finally, he stopped insisting. I came home but didn’t come out of my room for days. Myles stopped by to check on me, but I didn’t want to talk. My father left food at my door. This email appeared in my inbox a few days later.
My finger hovered over it as I debated archiving it… or maybe even deleting it. Instead, my finger seemed to take on a mind of its own. I tapped the line anyways. The email opened. Before I could stop myself, I found myself reading the lines I’d read over and over.
Dear Eli,
I don’t knowwhat’s happening, but I can see you’re hurting. Whatever it is, I love you. That won’t change. It will never change. I love you more than anyone in this world, Eli. Whatever is going on right now, you can tell me. Even if you don’t want to talk about it now, that offer never changes. It could be twenty years from now — though I hope it isn’t — and my door will still be open. I will still listen. I will always listen.
Whenever you’re ready, Eli, I’ll be here.
I love you always,
Dad
My stomach rolled over,anger and anxiety warring in my gut. At the time he’d sent this, I was so angry that I’d almost thrown my phone out the window. I’m not sure why I didn’t. I’m not sure why I didn’t delete the email, either, but I hadn’t. It would aggravate me for a few days, then recede to the recesses of my memory and inbox until I did another purge, stumbled upon it again and started the whole cycle over.
Maybe one of these days I’ll get smart and delete the damn thing.I had no good reason to keep it, after all.
But ‘one of these days’ turned out not to be ‘today,’ and I closed the app, putting my phone on the nightstand. If the menial task had been lulling me to sleep, rediscovering my father’s old email had woken me up— no going back to sleep now.
I threw the covers off the rest of the way, staring into the dimly lit room for a moment longer before pushing myself out of the king-sized bed. Excessive? Maybe, but I enjoyed having the space to myself. I shed my boxers on the way to the ensuite, only waiting long enough for the water to become slightly more than ‘bitter cold’ before stepping into the massive shower. It seemed a bit extravagant — you could fit at least four people in this shower, maybe five if you squeezed — but frankly, most of Texas seemed a bit excessive.
There was just so much morespacehere. We barely had what one might classify as a yard in London, which was quite a luxury. While city living didn’t seem that different, flats in Austin had balconies or rooftop pools. This flat was larger than most condos in London; admittedly, it was a penthouse.
I was relieved Remus was happy to leave most of his furniture behind; trying to furnish this place would have been more stressful than was reasonable. I changed the desk because his was simply too much. Too austere. I needed a chair to match. And, obviously, the mattress had to be changed forreasons, but the rest?
The thought made me sigh. Turning, I tipped my chin to allow the water to hit my face as I tried to banish thoughts of Remus. I didn’t need my half-brother crowding my thoughts. Nightmare aside, I had an important meeting today. There was a new client who’d come in from Dallas to meet with me; he was interested in moving some — if not all — of his funds to Longbow Investments.
My father had been letting me handle all new accounts in the American South. After all, I was the one in charge of setting up our new office in Texas. It was entirely my operation. While Nic wasn’t capable of remaining totally hands-off, he’d actually done a fair job. I had to give him that.
Eventually, I stopped allowing my thoughts to wander and finished washing my hair, turning off the water so I could dry. Once I’d wrapped the towel around my waist, I leaned against the countertop, inspecting my closely kept beard.
Gray-blue eyes stared blankly at me while I worked, smoothing my hand over my dark facial hair. I was looking pretty sharp — but then again, I needed to. Harry Ríos had finally agreed to meet with me. He was the alpha of the Blue Creek Pack and was traveling from Boulder, Colorado. The man had made it very clear he was simply in the area to chaperon some of his younger pack members on their trip to the Moonmate ceremony — though I assumed that also meant no small amount of schmoozing with one Remus Silverstreak.
My half-brother had, after all, successfully unseated another alpha in the past year, taken over his territory, and restored a lot of the order to the area. It was impressive for any shifter, much less one just turning thirty.
The Blue Creek Pack only covered the northern half of Colorado, so it didn’t surprise me that Harry might want to be friendly with some larger packs further south. It also didn’t surprise me that he wasn’t particularly concerned about the Longbow Pack. Despite my father’s visits, we were still centrally located in London. Our numbers didn’t compare to some of these American packs, though we had centuries of wisdom.
Longbow Investments also had a long history of serving their clients well, though Harry seemed to have quite a bit of trouble seeing that.All he could see was the twenty-five-year-old alpha, who didn’t have a pack.
Not that I wished my father dead — I most certainly did not. That was the only way I’d ever take over the Longbow Pack, and I wanted nothing but a long and healthy life for the man. And even then, I still wasn’t entirely convinced that Remus Silverstreak wouldn’t make a bid for it. He was the eldest son, after all. He insisted he had no interest, and my father insisted that even with the discovery of Remus’ existence, my status within the pack wouldn’t change, but… why should I believe them? Remus deposed Marnet Claw when he decided the other alpha was unworthy and a threat to his pack. Who’s to say Remus’ opinion of me wouldn’t change?
I growled at my reflection, irritated that I kept getting hung up on Remus and my father when I should be planning the meeting with Harry later. Moonmate ceremony or not, he was still coming to Austin and taking time out of his day to discuss moving a portfolio over to Longbow Investments. This needed my full attention to ensure Harry could see I wasn’t “just” an associate. I didn’t have my job “just” because my father was the CEO of the investment firm.
I was accepted into London Business School on my own merit, and I had finished both my bachelor’s and my MBA on an accelerated track. Also, I managed my own money as soon as I could legally. Frankly, I was quite capable and needed Harry Ríos to see it, too. If I could get a new client while overseas, it would prove to my father that I was qualified to manage the firm’s branch here.
It would prove I could provide for our pack one day, both in the business sense and as alpha. No one would dare say as much to my face — and I still couldn’t decide if that bothered me — but I knew they thought it. I felt it. And I wouldn’t allow them to keep thinking it, either.
Steeling myself, I cleaned up, and tidied my counter before heading to the closet, selecting the perfect suit for the day’s meeting. Iwouldwin over Harry Ríos and the Blue Creek Pack — there was simply no other option.
IRIS
Austin Police Station 43rd
Austin, Texas
