Page 93 of Hate Me

And a certain other coming from his phone on speakerphone mode.

Dante Mancini.

His new bestie.

They’d grown really close since I’d been gone.

I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t jealous. I wasn’t. There was definitely no attraction between them or anything at all along those lines. But he was close to him now, like he was with the three of us and that… unsettled me.

It was the first time, outside of Skylar, that anyone had come close to him beyond the brotherhood of me and Bastian. And it made me nervous, I guess. Worried for him too.

To develop that sort of connection so quickly—by Caspian’s usually extremely guarded and paranoid standards, anyway—was out there to begin with.

I knew I should walk away and let him finish his call, then come back later.

But, of course, I couldn’t.

God fucking dammit, I listened in instead.

“The timing will need to be precise for this to work, Caspian. Anything less than that and it will invite some truly dire consequences.”

“I’m aware of the complications.”

“You truly care for Miss Bennett, I see.”

“For all three of them. This is what they all need.”

“She’s your balance.”

“In a sense. She brings out things in each of us that I’d long thought lost by time and circumstance. Bastian’s humanity, his softness, his former happy-go-lucky nature. Caleb is lighter around her too, bolder and more independent from me.”

He was seriously telling this guy all of these intimate details about us? They were clearly even closer than I’d realized.

“And what of you?”

“That balance you mentioned? Her presence serves as a stabilizing agent of sorts. I don’t need to worry every moment about my boys, to monitor every little thing, to kill myself trying to be everywhere for them.”

“Well, a four-legged chair does have more points of contact with the surface it’s positioned on, than one with three.”

Cas laughed. “Not your best analogy, but it still conveys the point.”

“Well, I was up half the night poring over this change to our strategy that you’ve proposed.”

“Ditto.”

“Ah, but an all-nighter for a man in his twenties doesn’t take the same toll as it does upon a man of my age.”

“You’re still incredibly youthful and you know it.”

“Yes, I am rather impressive, aren’t I?”

Their blended laughter filled the room for a good few moments.

“We’ll set up a conference call once we’ve both had a little more time with this new strategy. Suffice to say, we can accommodate this change, but it must be done carefully. I’ll have my assistant reach out to Daria and determine a suitable time.”

“We’ll need to add in time to discuss the luxury lounges development proposal as well.”

“Yes, our first joint venture.”

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