CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – OTLEY #2
“You’ve got her scent all over you,” he says in my ear, twisting my captured wrist, “so I’m gonna give you a pass for that one.
But try to knock me around again and I’ll lay you out, fancy suit and all.
” He leans his weight on me a moment longer, then retreats a step, dusting off his hands.
“Besides, I thought guys like you had better ways of shutting people up.”
Jesus. There’s no missing the thread of humor in his voice, but I don’t take offence. I turn slowly, pushing my glasses up my nose even though they’re already in place. “You’re right. I need to call our lawyers.”
“Mmm-hmm.” He doesn’t repeat his warning, his attention turning to Cooper. “Now, give me a look at the plat map for this place.”
The bodyguard shoots me a questioning look and I nod. “Show him whatever he needs, then come find me in my office.”
I leave them to their plotting, my skin still tight on my bones as I make my way to the service elevator and head up to my office.
Losing control isn’t something that happens often, and I can feel the burn on the back of my neck as I grab a glass of whiskey and drop into my chair.
I have a private landline for video conferences, and I’m not surprised to find the screen lit up with missed calls.
I ignore them and dial my lawyers, even though it’s close to eleven in San Francisco.
“Maxwell, you’ve heard?”
“Of course, Otley.” The founder and managing partner of the law firm has been with me ever since I withdrew my trust from my parents’ pack at eighteen. “I won’t waste time asking how you are coping.”
“Good, because I’m not looking for your sympathy right now. I need you to let the dogs off their chains. Activate Broad Sweep, effectively immediately.”
“Are you sure?” he asks in his careful, measured way, but I can still hear the faint tic in his voice. “You don’t want to implement the first phase and take stock? If you go all in, you’re looking at a considerable cost.”
“I’m aware, Maxwell. All in.”
One of the unfair advantages of the mega-wealthy is that even if you spend every dollar you have, the interest from your investments will refill the coffers eventually. As it stands, I’d have to live multiple lifetimes before I got close to depleting my bank account.
“This might have worked with Tristan,” Maxwell cautions me, “but Ellis’ secret child is on a different scale. Most of the networks will do anything for a story like that.”
“I understand, but I want you to hit them with everything we have. Cease and desist for the official agencies, bribes for the biddable editors, and threats for the creeps and kooks. Whatever stories you can kill, I’ll give you a bonus.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Maxwell promises, even though we both know he’ll be fighting an uphill battle to squash the story entirely.
But the facts aren’t what I’m concerned about.
It’s the toxic turn the speculation will take in coming days, as the worst of humanity decide to mold the story in their own perverted images.
When I’ve finished with the lawyer, I call my Head of Public Relations and give her an official statement to distribute through my various businesses.
“I heard that Ellis let Tahlia go,” Becca says, more than a little smug at the news. They’re peers in their industry, but Tahlia always likes to lord her alpha status over my beta executive. Even though Becca is quite literally better at her job. “You must be happy about that, at least.”
“I want you to look into her, Becca,” I reply, thinking of the vindictive gleam in Tahlia’s eye as she was ordered off our porch. “I wouldn’t put it past her to engineer this smear campaign.”
“That woman is a walking red flag,” she mutters, sounding disgusted. “I’ll put out some feelers, and tell Ellis to hang in there, okay? Even if it feels like hell right now, it’s the best kind of story at the end of the day.”
“Indeed.” Because no matter how the media circus twists and corrupts his origin, Leo is a miracle, and I will do anything necessary to protect him. “Can you also send me some strategies around controlling this beast, if Maxwell can’t kill off the worst of it?”
“You’ll have it by breakfast,” she promises, and I’m still smiling as I switch over to my cellphone and start reading through my messages.
“You busy?” Tristan asks from the doorway.
“Never too busy for you,” I tell him, that burn in my bones fading as he crosses the room to slide onto my lap.
It’s exactly how I pictured Lily when she asked to sit in on one of my work calls, and I can feel my skin heating for a different reason.
“Are you alright?” I ask as I tug down the collar of his shirt and mouth my mating mark. “Still sore from earlier?”
He smirks at the question, grinding down on my erection with a teasing wiggle. “You mean when you fucked me in my sequined chaps, or when you snuck off with Ellis and kissed Lily without me?”
I consider the question as he leans back and hooks his arm around my neck. It gives my roaming hands access to his perfect chest, and I dig between his buttons, tweaking a pert nipple. “Both,” I finally reply. “Tell me where it hurts and I’ll kiss it better.”
He hums at the heated promise, but then collapses back against me with a sigh. “Logan and Lily are locked in her room. Ellis isn’t taking it very well. He’s down in the gym, pounding the treadmill through the floor.”
I wince, because Ellis’ way of dealing with trauma is usually to make his body break, one tortured muscle group at a time. “I’ll go down and talk to him.”
“Not yet,” he pleads, squirming around so he can face me. “Do you really think Lily will leave us?”
I sigh. “I think she might need a break, sweetheart.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he whispers, his hazel eyes shadowed. “I think maybe this has broken us.”
It’s a fear that aligns with my own, but I can’t bear seeing my beautiful boy so hurt. “I think she’s already half in love with you. She’s acting on instinct right now, but when the dust settles, she’ll need you. Same way Ellis and I can’t live without you.”
He melts against me, the beginning of a smile returning to his face. He bites his lip and looks up at me through his lashes, exactly how he knows I like it. “I smelled all three of you in her trailer. Talk about a headrush. I nearly came on the spot.”
I grunt and reach down, squeezing his thickening cock through his jeans. “You better let me take you to bed, or you’ll be coming on this spot, too.”
Tristan smirks at my lewd prediction, but hops happily off my lap, gripping my hand all the way to the door. We’re on the landing outside my bedroom when Ellis strides up the stairs, a towel around his neck and his bare chest gleaming with sweat.
“I’m going to LA,” he says with a combative gleam in his eye. “I’m going to do a press conference.”
I wrap my arm around Tristan’s neck and cock a brow at Ellis’ flushed face. “In the middle of the night?”
“I can be there in time for the morning news cycle.”
And avoid Lily’s devastated face over the breakfast table, although I don’t say that out loud.
“Okay, but I think you should give it a couple of hours,” I say carefully. “Becca is putting together some strategies for us.”
“I don’t want this thing blowing up any more than it has,” Ellis argues, gripping his hips so tight I can see the white of his knuckles.
“I need to shut it down before Leo gets hurt. As for Lily…” He rubs the back of his neck, exhaustion and regret etched into his face.
“Everything we have, all the things I can offer, and I’ve still made things worse for her. ”
Tristan glances up at me, looking helpless, but this isn’t the time for hollow reassurances. I have no idea how Lily is going to react to this in the long run, but I know for certain that Ellis isn’t going to come out of this unscathed.
“At least let Becca meet you in LA,” I say gently. “As a friend, if you don’t want her acting as your agent.”
A tiny smile touches the edge of his mouth. “Can you imagine Tahlia’s face?”
Tristan makes a soft humming sound while I make a mental note to ask my LA investigator for a report on Tahlia’s movements. Becca might be able to pump her network for information, but not everything can be discovered over cocktails and yoga mats.
“The roads are going to be a problem,” I tell Ellis, since Cooper has confirmed Logan’s concerns. “Right now, they’re at least ten deep at the front gate, and as soon as they realize it’s you, they're gonna block you in.”
“There's always Della's balloon...” Tristan snickers, and I give his ribs a warning squeeze.
“I don’t think we're that desperate yet, but I can charter a helicopter out of Boise.”
Ellis nods, but it’s clear his attention is wandering. He looks around the landing, his gaze roaming over the wall paneling and furnishings before landing on Lily’s door at the end of the hall. “Do you think we made a mistake? Coming here and messing up their lives?”
I think that the mess was always coming, whether we were a part of it or not.
Maybe they could’ve lived out their lives none the wiser, but as Leo grew older and wanted to know more about his birth father, how hard would it be for him to connect the face in the mirror with Ellis Castle?
“Nothing about this feels like a mistake. Not to me.”
“Or me,” Tristan adds, reaching out to take Ellis’ hand.
He smiles down at our beautiful mate. “Then come shower with me while Ot finds me a ride.”
“You need a ride, Alpha?” Tristan purrs, hips swinging as he saunters towards the bathroom door. “Then I have just the thing you need.”