Page 55 of The Villains We Make

“Actually, I need to run out.”

“What? Where? It’s late.”

“I left my laptop at the office and a client just sent his contract over.” I walk down the hall and grab my coat.

“Silas, wait.” She catches up with me.

I turn and take her face in my hands. “I’ll be back very soon. You eat.”

“I don’t understand what can be so important you’d have to leave now.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but this can’t wait. Lock the door behind me. I’ll call Hamish?—”

“I don’t need a babysitter. Just stay.”

The hurt in her eyes twists my gut. I remind myself why I’m doing this. “I’ll be back soon. And he’s not a babysitter. It’s for my own peace of mind. He won’t bother you.” I tug her to me, tilt her chin up. “I’ll be back soon. Trust me, there’s no place I’d rather be than with you. And when I get back, I’m going to make it up to you. You just think about all the ways I can do that for you.”

She rolls her eyes, but smiles. “Hurry up. And I’m not saving you any chicken.”

I kiss her, and it does take all I have to walk out of that house, but I do because I need to tie up this loose end.

The drive to Sly’s office takes a little under twenty minutes, and just like the last time I was here, the building is mostly empty. I ride the elevator up. Not even the secretary is here tonight, and the lone light that’s on is the one in Sly’s corner office.

I make my way to it. The door is open, and I enter to find him standing at the window watching the city lights below. I see the similarities in us as he stands here, back to me. Tall, broad, same hair. I look more like him than Ethan does and I fucking hate it.

“Ever wonder about all those little lives down there?” he asks. Of course, he knows I’m here.

“Never thought you noticed or cared.” I close the door behind me.

“Well, I don’t care, but I do notice. What separates us from them? Do you think about that?” He turns to me. The red eyes of the ring on his little finger stare at me as gold clinks against the crystal tumbler. “About how little it would take for us to be down there. One of them.”

“What makes you think you’re better than them?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m better as in a better human being. Just better off.”

I fucking hate this man.

He gestures around the opulent office. “Look around you. Money, boy. Money makes the world go round.”

I remember saying similar words to Ophelia.

“And you’re about to lose yours to me.” I take a seat in the same chair as last time I was here.

He sits down behind his obnoxiously oversized desk.

“When you signed that contract with me, you thought Ophelia and Ethan would be married. Thought you’d have access to all that Carlisle-Bent money to save your ass. It’s why you signed without putting up much of a fight. Makes sense now. But you miscalculated and you lost this one, Dad.”

He gives me a tight smile, refilling his tumbler and holding it up in mock toast before swallowing it down in one go.

“What do you want, son?” he asks.

“I’ve changed my mind.”

There’s an infinitesimal raising of his eyebrows, but otherwise he doesn’t react.

I take a piece of paper off his desk and pick up his pen, a fountain pen that’s probably worth several thousand dollars. Who the fuck pays that much money for a stupid pen?

I start to write.

---