Chapter 7 – Alec
ALEC
I stare out my office window at the lights of the city below me. My city. My empire that I built from the ground up, that I raised from nothing. I worked so hard to build a legacy that mattered here.
It was all I ever wanted. All I ever dreamed of.
But that was before her.
“So,” I say, fury radiating off me, as I turn my back on the view, glaring at my brothers. “Dante is alive.”
Alive, and after the only woman who matters to me.
Sebastian looks even worse today. He can’t stay still, can’t keep himself from shifting anxiously from foot to foot. Even Viper—knife in hand, flipping it idly as he lounges in his seat—looks on edge.
Sebastian’s icy blue eyes meet mine. “Maybe,” he admits.
“Maybe?” Ashton laughs from his place on the couch. For once, he’s not glued to his phone. The second Sebastian called us in here to tell us Sydney might be in danger, he became laser focused. Determined. “You’re in denial. You get that, don’t you, Doc?”
Sebastian turns to glare at him.
“You were there that night,” Sebastian reminds him. He turns that glare on me. “Both of you. He took two bullets straight to the chest. You really think anyone gets back up from that?”
“Maybe you missed,” Ashton throws back with a shrug.
“I don’t miss.” Sebastian’s voice is cold as ice.
“Yeah, well, maybe this time you did. Maybe you—”
I stop Ashton with a look. He’s been in a mood all day, sulking around the house, snapping at everyone. He glowers at me but shuts up. “Did he give you any other information?” I ask Sebastian. “Anything that would confirm that it’s really Dante we’re dealing with?”
He hesitates. “Unfortunately,” he says, choosing his words carefully. “He was…indisposed, soon after we extracted that piece of information.”
Viper, lounging sideways in his chair, laughs like a hyena.
“Aren’t you supposed to keep him in check, Doc?” Ashton asks, curling his lip. “Aren’t you down there to stop him from taking shit too far?”
“Yeah, Doc,” Viper coos, grinning from ear to ear. “Aren’t you?”
Sebastian doesn’t answer, but a muscle in his eye twitches.
Christ.
Sometimes I think Viper might not be the only one who needs to be kept in check.
“We’re getting off topic.” Sebastian doesn’t look at any of us as he says it. “The fact is, we don’t have any real evidence Dante survived.”
“Even if it’s not him, someone is sniffing around our Sydney.” I tap my finger on the surface of my desk. “Why?”
“Easy,” Sebastian answers. “Because of you. Because of us.”
Ashton’s leg bounces with nervous energy as Sebastian continues. “Right now, someone thinks they can get to us by getting to her.”
And they’re right.
Dante or not, that’s what matters here.
“We should bring her to the compound,” Ashton says quickly. “That’s the safest place for her, right? We can protect her here. Keep an eye on her.”
“Two problems with that.” Sebastian raises a single finger—his middle—at Ashton.
“One, the second we do that, we confirm to anyone watching that they were right to target her. It will only make them double down, not back off. We’d have to keep her under watch 24/7.
And two.” He raises his index finger. “Do you really think she’d agree to that?
She won’t set foot in this house right now.
Not with us. She wants nothing to do with us. ”
“And whose fault is that?” Ashton says, glaring at his brother.
“What do you mean it would make them double down?” I press.
Sebastian adjusts his glasses before continuing.
“If someone can gather intel on Sydney and leave without us interfering, it tells them one of two things. Either our position here is so weak that we can’t sense a shark in our waters, or Sydney means so little to us that we wouldn’t bother keeping the sharks away from her.
Either way, they back off. But the second we move in, the second we protect her—he’ll know we care. And that gives him all the power.”
Fucking great.
“But we can’t… We can’t just leave her unprotected,” Ashton insists, an edge of panic in his voice.
“We won’t.” I drum my fingers on my desk.
Never. I’ll never leave her unprotected, never leave her side. Even if she hates me for it.
“Since she won’t allow any of us near her at the moment, she needs better protection. Without alerting anyone to it,” I tell Sebastian. “Real protection. A lot more than you leering at her from the bushes, Doc.”
Sebastian shifts his shoulders back, almost imperceptibly, and his eyes dart away from mine.
“You have been keeping an eye on her, haven’t you?” I ask, eyes narrowing.
A hesitation, and just a flicker of something in those cold blue eyes. Then, “No.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Ashton spits. “We’re finally in a situation where your fucking…proclivities might be helpful to us, and you’re not even watching her?”
“Big word for Elmo,” Sebastian counters, cutting a sharp glance at him. When he looks back at me, he continues. “She asked for space. From all of us. She deserves to have that respected. So, no. I haven’t been watching her. Unlike you, I’ve left her alone.”
I slam my fist down on my desk.
Anyone else, any other person in the world, would have flinched. Hell, even Viper jumped at the noise, startled out of whatever fantasy he was lost in. Sebastian just looks slowly from my desk to my face, raising a single eyebrow.
“Keep an eye on her,” I demand. “Christ, I shouldn’t even have to ask this of you. Watch her, Sebastian. That’s a fucking order.”
There’s a flash of anger in his blue eyes, invisible to anyone who doesn’t know to look for it.
“And if I refuse?” he asks quietly.
This fucking asshole. This is when he decides to question me?
“Are you?” I ask in a deadly voice. “Are you refusing?”
That muscle in his eye twitches again.
“She asked for space,” Sebastian repeats. “And you are asking me to violate that. After I already vio—” He stops. Takes a breath. “I’m respecting her decision by not reaching out, not stalking her. Unlike some of us, I have that self-control.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ashton asks, voice sharp.
“It means that you are pathologically incapable of leaving her alone,” he sneers. “Where were you today, huh? While Viper and I were downstairs working? Does Sterling even know that when we were dismembering the man helping to potentially hurt her, you were at her place of work?”
Ashton’s jaw drops open in shock.
“The fact that you’re surprised that I know that speaks volumes since you know you have a tracker on your phone,” Sebastian continues, shaking his head. “You might be pretty, but goddamn you’re so thick-skulled it’s an embarrassment to our entire ancestral line.”
Fury radiates from every muscle in Ashton’s body as his fists clench.
“And how many gifts have you sent her?” Sebastian asks mockingly. “I have access to your personal accounts, don’t ever forget that. I know down to the fucking penny how much you’ve spent on flowers.”
“I sent a few roses.” Ashton scoffs. “Big fucking deal.”
“Two thousand eight hundred dollars’ worth of fucking gifts,” Sebastian counters. “Just in the last week.”
“Who cares!” Ashton throws up his hands. “It’s a drop in the bucket, anyway. It’s not like we don’t have the money!”
“They’re not even her favorite flower, did you know that?” Sebastian asks, raising an eyebrow at his brother. “She likes orchids.”
“She likes roses,” Ashton growls.
“How would you even know what she likes?” Sebastian counters. “You never bothered to get to know her.”
He’s pushing Ashton too far, and he knows it. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had to break up a fight between the two of them. I brace myself, ready to intervene.
Sebastian takes a breath and runs a hand through his hair. “Look, I know this is difficult for all of us,” he says, choosing his words carefully and turning back to address me.
“You don’t know shit,” Ashton snaps. “You aren’t dating her, are you? You had one fucking moment with her. That’s it. And remind us, how did that fucking end?”
Sebastian’s jaw clenches.
“Don’t think we’ve forgotten that you’re the whole reason we’re in this mess,” Ashton continues. “You and psycho over there. You scared her, both of you.”
Viper looks up as Ashton gestures toward him.
“She was scared, boss,” he agrees. “So fucking scared.”
“And at least we’re respecting her wishes,” Sebastian argues, gesturing between all three of us. “We’re letting her set the pace, giving her time to decide what she wants.”
“What she wants,” Ashton sneers. “And you were so concerned with what she wants before, huh? This is all your fault!”
“You think I don’t fucking know that?” Sebastian hisses.
“Ashton—” I start.
“New rule,” Ashton says tightly. He points at his brother. “You don’t get a say in any of this.”
“And why would I agree—”
“Next rule, I don’t give a shit if you agree to anything,” Ashton says. “You’re the reason she’s not talking to us. You’re the reason she doesn’t trust us. So you can shut up, and—”
“At least I never lied to her,” Sebastian fires back. And for a moment, my heart stops.
He knows.
“How long were the two of you planning on pretending to be the good guys?” Sebastian asks. “Taking her on dates? Wooing her? Pretending the whole time we don’t have blood on our hands?”
“Shut up,” Ashton warns.
“Or what?” Sebastian mocks. His lips curve into a cruel smile. “What will you do if I don’t?”
I put out my hand, halting Ashton as he stands up and takes a step toward his brother, violence dancing in his eyes.
Sebastian’s lip curls. “At least I was honest with her. I may have scared her, but nothing I’ve ever done has been to sugarcoat who I am.
And I’m the only one respecting her wishes by staying away from her,” he says.
Lost in his own world, Viper cackles. My palms are pressed hard against the desk as he turns to me. “And you want me to violate that.”
He is driving closer and closer to crossing a line with me, and I don’t tolerate insubordination or disrespect. Not even from my brothers.
I stand up but keep my palms pressed against the wood. I need to regain some of my control and get through this before I punch a hole in the wall.
“I don’t give a fuck about your motivations right now,” I seethe.
Sebastian doesn’t move, barely even blinks in the face of my anger.
“Don’t contact her, don’t let her see you, fine.
But you will keep an eye on her. That is an order.
We can’t be leaving her unprotected. Not if someone is after her. Do you understand me, Doc?”
He doesn’t answer, not at first. He just stares at me, eyes cold. Glancing between the two of us, Viper shifts in his seat, a dog torn between two masters.
“Whatever you say, boss,” Sebastian says, finally, lips pressed into an angry, straight line.
“Go.” I motion toward the door, dismissing him. Viper follows. But when Ashton moves to leave, I shake my head. “Not you. You stay.”
He stops in his tracks and slowly turns back to me.
“You need to stay away from her,” I warn him. “If Dante is alive and watching and Doc is right about how he’d play this, we can’t bring more attention to her.”
Ashton’s shoulders sag. “Save your breath. She already threw me out today, okay? She wants nothing to do with me thanks to that asshole.” He gestures at the door Sebastian slammed as he left. “And I can tell you right now, she wants nothing to do with you either.”
“Right now, we both stay away from her. For her safety,” I insist. “We fix this mess we’re in before any of this shitstorm comes raining down on her.”
It takes a while, but the words finally seem to sink in. “Fine,” Ashton murmurs. “Can I go now?”
He’s angry. And, childishly, he’s not doing the one thing that would help him focus this anger into something useful.
“No.” I lean further over my desk. “You’ve been missing sessions with your trainer.”
Ashton stares at me like I just told him the sky is pink. “Who the fuck cares?”
“I fucking care,” I snap between clenched teeth. “You’re no good to me, or our company, when you’re this wound up.”
The look Ashton gives me lets me know exactly how little he cares about me and our company right now.
“I spoke with Jacob this morning.” Ashton rolls his eyes at the mention of his manager. “And I assured him there would be no more missed sessions, no more missed weigh-ins. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” Ashton replies, tone laced with sarcasm.
I wave him toward the door, finally dismissing him. When he leaves, my fingers twitch with the effort not to check my phone.
Maybe today will be the day she finally calls.
Just maybe.