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“Hello, boys.” Silas’s voice booms as he rounds his desk. Finding his own seat opposite us. Face slick as ever.
I notice how Finn’s hands grip the arms of the chair. The hold most likely the only thing keeping him from jumping right across the desk. The tapping of his knee like a sledgehammer to the ground now.
Whereas Silas keeps his face jaded, Finn’s is the complete opposite. Visibly wearing his every emotion.
“I would like to keep this brief,” Silas starts. “Seeing as I have work to do, and you both have school to get to.”
I snort, and Silas’s eyes crinkle a minuscule amount catching the sound like I intended him to. Since when has the man ever cared about anything other than himself?
Never, is the answer.
This, whatever it is, is a ploy. Make it seem like our time is limited, adding more pressure to an already tense situation. It’s used to make the consumer crack and give in more easily. It’s a business tactic, but for him, it’s mostly become a habit.
One that Finn is giving in to freely. I nudge my thigh to his, shooting over a stern look. He needs to cool it. He’s being too obvious in his despisal. Silas has a gift for sniffing out weaknesses, but he doesn’t need it with how easy Finn’s making it.
The foot tapping slows, but his tight-lipped frown deepens. Showing me his fake enjoyment, like I approve of this any more than he does.
So far, our plan to go in as a solid unit has gone to crap. No thanks to Finn and his lack of willingness to calm the fuck down and check himself.
“As I said, I planned on keeping this brief.” Silas cranes his neck toward Finn. “How did you manage to take the shares from my half of the company?”
I could snort again, and so I do. He’d saidmyinstead ofours but is anyone legitimately surprised? Honest, I’ll wait for the show of hands.
“Your age is making you go delusional, old man.” I say stepping in before Finn gets a chance to respond. “You think either of us had anything to do with this?Knewwe shared the same sperm donation?” I hiss.
Slowly, Silas pulls attention away from him and leans back in his chair all smug-like. I am now taking the brunt of the misfortune, but it’s not anything I’m not used to. The inferno of resentment goes both ways.
“No one outside our families has access to make such changes.”
“And you not keeping a tighter handle onourhalf of this company is our fault how?” I rebut calmly.
The longer the air suffocates between us, the more the tension builds.
The strain that’s starting to show along Silas’s jawline is laughable. The mockery of my grin spiritless.
My original plan of us coming in as a solid front may be backfiring but the fact that we aren’t willing to give anything away about Hardin working in a similar favor. It also helps that we’re as clueless as Silas is in the matter.
He doesn’t need to know that though, and I can tell he doesn’t believe me. He never has with anything else so why start now?
We’re using him as much as he is us. Like understands like.
“How long?”
“What?” Silas’s eyes are charged as they move back over in Finn’s direction. Him speaking up for the first time since he’s arrived.
“How long have you known I was your kid?” Finn’s tone is unforgiving.
Fatigue claws its way up my neck the longer Silas’s posture stays foreboding. Loaded and lethal even in his inclined state.
His lip twitches, loving every second of Finn’s further building callousness.
This is not the agenda we’d come in with, but I go with it. Something telling me Finn needs this answered more than anything else.
“Answer him,” I demand when I spot the hellfire burning from Finn’s eyes. “Be a half-decent human being for once and give him this one thing.”
The shallow tilt of Silas’s head is as hideous, as it is alarming. It makes my chest thunder while he seems completely calm. I can only imagine what Finn’s is like beside me.
“Roughly around the time Lorna found out she was pregnant,” he confesses.
