Chapter 12
The next day Peter had to go back to work. Chad was staying home, his friend Topher coming over to keep him company, and he’d promised to stay in the penthouse until Peter could arrange a security team to keep him safe in case he wanted to go out.
Peter had already called Aiden, his best friend, to ask him to take the job. It would mean hiring Topgrunder, but given his recent ownership stake in the company Peter didn’t mind.
“Mr. Tank, Mr. Merchant is waiting for you outside your office,” David, Peter’s assistant, greeted him at the elevator.
“Good.” Peter handed David his coat and speed-walked to his office, finding Merchant leaning against the wall next to his door.
He didn’t straighten up when Peter approached, arms crossed over his chest, and Peter found himself smiling.
Disrespect meant that Merchant wasn’t feeling apprehensive or nervous, and that meant that whatever news he had was good.
“What have you got?” Peter asked, walking into the office and gesturing for Merchant to follow. He sat down at his desk, Merchant taking the seat across from him. He could feel his blood thrumming with anticipation for the hunt.
“Has your father contacted you about the upcoming vote on Tank Industries’ merger proposal with Light Energy?” Merchant asked. Peter blinked, thrown by the question. shaking his head with a small furrowing of his brow.
“No, why? Does it have something to do with what happened with Chad?”
Merchant nodded.
“Yes. Apparently someone at Light Energy really doesn’t want this deal to go through. They were going to use Chad to pressure you into voting no when it came time for the board to vote.”
Peter was shocked. After all the shady jobs he’d taken—all the people he’d fucked over and hurt—it was Tank Industry that ended up putting Chad in danger? He couldn’t believe it.
“Do you have a name?” Peter asked, furious and wanting to sink his teeth into someone and make them bleed.
Merchant shook his head. “No, that’s where it gets complicated.
We know that someone on the executive floor of Light Energy ordered the job, but we haven’t figured out who.
Everyone from the CEO to the head of human resources publicly supports the merger, and they all stand to make a shit ton of money if it goes through.
Dawn is hacking into all their emails and social media to look for clues, but so far she hasn’t found anything. ”
“But why me?” Peter asked. Surely there were better people on the board to blackmail into voting their way.
“No idea. It doesn’t make sense. There are far better targets on the board for this kind of thing. Our best guess is that they wanted to humiliate your father by having you vote against him.”
“So this is personal,” Peter said. If they were willing to cross him to get to his father, they were either stupid or blindly furious.
“Dawn is looking for anyone with connections to your family, but she hasn’t found anything yet…” Merchant trailed off, and Peter narrowed his eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“We contacted your dad to ask him if he could help us narrow it down, but he wouldn’t take our call.”
Peter suppressed a growl. This was not the time for his dad to get prissy about Tank Security.
“I’ll head over there and talk to him. You’ll come with me.”
Merchant nodded, and Peter rose from his desk. He might as well get this over with now.
***
Peter had never liked his father, and sitting across the desk from him he was reminded of why.
His father embodied every negative alpha stereotype there was.
Selfish, arrogant and aggressive, the man had a sense of entitlement that was matched only by the size of his ego.
But that wasn’t why Peter didn’t like him.
Peter didn’t like him because he was weak.
Craven. He was the kind of alpha who would respond to a challenge from another alpha by hiring someone to fight for him.
Peter abhorred it.
“So what kind of trouble have you gotten into now?” his father asked when Peter sat down in front of his desk, Merchant standing behind him with his arms clasped behind his back.
Peter narrowed his eyes and his father swallowed nervously. Peter had only fought his father once—when he told him he was joining the military and his father had tried to forbid it—and there was no question about which of them was the most dominant.
“Something about Light Energy?” his father prompted, smoothing down his tie.
“Yes. Someone there is trying to get me to vote no on the merger. We think they’re targeting me to embarrass you. Have you pissed anyone off over there recently?”
“What? No, of course not,” his father said, his voice indignant. “And how do you know that someone is trying to get you to vote no. Have they contacted you?”
Peter shook his head, explaining what had happened with Chad.
“Oh, yes. I’d almost forgotten about that. Your mother tells me you’ve claimed him?”
Peter nodded.
“And you haven’t introduced him to us because?”
Peter looked away, feeling like a teenager again. He’d always known that he was more dominant than his father—ever since he popped his knot—but the man was still his parent. He had a unique ability to make Peter feel like he had to defend himself.
“I’m sure you’ll meet him at the wedding mother is planning.”
He still needed to talk to her about that. He wondered what had possessed her to put an announcement in the paper without asking him.
“You’ll allow that? I have to say I’m surprised.”
“Why?” Peter asked, suspicious. His parents knew him well enough to know that it was the claiming that would be important to him. The wedding was just an afterthought.
“It wouldn’t be the first time you decided someone should be yours even if they weren’t on board with it. From the way you’ve been hiding this boy I was beginning to wonder if maybe you’d reverted to your old ways.”
Peter clenched his teeth and counted to ten in his head.
He was furious. The ‘old ways’ his father was referring to wasn’t a pattern of behavior, but rather a single mistake that Peter had made when he was a teenager.
He’d been sixteen and full of alpha confidence, and though he’d been just as horny and crazy to get his knot wet as his peers, it wasn’t omegas he was lusting after.
It was alphas—and one alpha in particular.
Marcel Williams.
The boy had been a year younger than Peter, his knot popping a little before his fifteenth birthday, and he’d worshiped the ground Peter walked on.
Everywhere Peter went Marcel had followed, and Peter had loved it.
He’d misread the admiration for lust, and when he made a move Marcel had been too intimidated to tell him no.
Thankfully Peter had been clued in before actually having sex with the younger boy, but it wasn’t a realization he’d come to on his own. It had taken Marcel going to his parents for help—who had then gone to Peter’s parents—for Peter to understand the fact that Marcel didn’t return his affections.
Peter had been furious and humiliated, and his father had never let it go.
“I can assure you, Chad is nothing like Marcel,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Not just Marcel,” his father scoffed. “You spent the entirety of your twenties coercing alphas into sleeping with you. The way you carried on with that friend of yours was disgraceful.”
He was talking about Aiden.
Peter rolled his eyes. He might have seduced his fair share of alphas who until then hadn’t had an inkling that being dominated and topped could be fun, but he’d never forced anyone. He’d always known when to back of.
“I’m not here to talk about Chad. I’m here to talk about Light Energy and who there might want to sabotage your merger.”
Peter wished Merchant wasn’t there listening to the conversation. This was not how he wanted the other alpha to see him.
“I have no idea,” his father said, like Peter was bothering him with these frivolous questions. “Light Energy has presented a unified front in all of our negotiations. If there’s dissention in their ranks it hasn’t bled through when they were talking to us.”
Peter clenched his fists and forced himself to calm down.
He shouldn’t be the one talking to his father.
Merchant was the one leading the investigation, and he should be the one doing the questioning.
Mind made up Peter rose from his seat, shoving the chair back abruptly and startling both Merchant and his father.
“Fine. I’ll be off. Merchant has a few more questions for you, and if you don’t answer them you and I are going to have a problem.” Peter looked his father right in the eyes, making sure he understood just how serious he was. Failure to comply now would result in violence.
“Very well.” His father’s voice was clipped, but Peter didn’t care if he was angry. He turned around and gave Merchant a look, getting a slight nod in return, and he knew that Merchant would get all the relevant information.
“I’ll see you back at the office,” he said. He didn’t say goodbye to his father, worried that if he tried talking to him again he might wind up ripping his throat out with his teeth.
***
Heading back to Tank Security headquarters, Peter distracted himself by focusing his attention on his work.
They were courting the nation's third largest oil and gas company, and Peter needed to prepare before meeting with them.
Immersing himself in the proposal his team had put together allowed him to take his mind off how stupid and aggravating his father was.
He was nearly finished reviewing the packet when his assistant called him over the intercom.
“Mr. Tank, Aiden Halsted is on the line returning your call.”
“Put him through,” Peter said, picking up the phone and leaning back in his chair.
“You called?” Aiden said, sounding out of breath. Peter wondered what he was doing.
“I did,” Peter said. “What’s your schedule like for the next couple of days?”
There was a pause. “I’m just finishing up a job today, but other than that I don’t think Topgrunder has me down for anything specific. Why?”
“I need someone to head up a security team for Chad. There was a kidnapping attempt and until I’ve dealt with it I want someone watching out for him.”
“Someone tried to take puppy? That’s crazy,” Aiden said, ignoring Peter’s repeated instructions not to call Chad puppy. “But yeah, if you set it up with my boss I’d be happy to take the job. You know you can count on me.”
“Thanks, Aiden. I appreciate it.” Peter let out a breath of relief. With Aiden watching Chad’s back he would feel much better.
“So what happened?” Aiden asked. “I mean… they obviously didn’t get him. Did he fight them off? Cause if so, I underestimated him.”
Peter grimaced. It wasn’t that Aiden didn’t like Chad—he just didn’t think very highly of him. Comparing their respective skillsets it was understandable, but it still didn’t sit well with Peter to hear Aiden talking about his mate so disparagingly.
“He kept calm,” Peter said, and Aiden’s responding silence spoke volumes.
“Be nice to him,” Peter warned, his voice suddenly coming out in a low growl.
“I’m always nice to him,” Aiden defended himself. “It’s not my fault he’s so prickly all the time.”
Peter sighed, but he didn’t contradict Aiden’s assessment. Chad had a tendency to get really defensive and easily offended whenever Aiden talked to him. He didn’t get that Aiden was just messing with him, and rising to the bait every time did him no favors.
Peter hoped he wasn’t making a mistake putting them together. But with Chad in danger and Merchant busy leading the investigation, there was no one Peter trusted more than Aiden to keep his mate safe.
“Just be professional,” Peter instructed.
“I will,” Aiden promised.
“Great. I really appreciate this, Aiden.”
They hung up the phone, and Peter had David call Aiden’s division head over at Topgrunder and request a meeting. Two hours later he was negotiating a full security package for Chad, his request to have Aiden in charge granted without hesitation.
It was a relief.
***