Page 215 of The Reluctant Hero

“What she does with the money is her business. What I do with mine is my business. This situation doesn’t need your involvement.”

“Then why did Jake bring my attention here?” He raises a brow.

It seems as if he’s had his attention here already for quite some time. I know he had Shade’s team here for at least a year investigating Fullerton. They were idiots but I refuse to believe they got nothing for their troubles. Not now, anyway. Does he know everything already? The players and the money movers?

If he chooses to blackmail me for the information, I could let him, but I won’t. He’ll demand Amanda leave, and I won’t be able to tolerate that. It would be better for us if he left the board.

“To piss me off,” I tell him blandly. “It’s working quite well.”

With us busy dealing with Father, it leaves Jake open to do whatever he wants with Amanda. He’s shutting us out to punish us in any way he can. It’s difficult to see where his mindgoes, but not impossible. He wants vengeance for her, and he’s going to get it whether we like it or not. Getting her attention in a positive way for it is just salt in the wound.

“He’s as concerned as I am about this situation,” Father reclines again with a flat expression.

“He isn’t,” I sigh in exasperation. “I’d say he’s a good deal more concerned than you are.”

“What does that mean?” He asks in a silky tone.

He’s trying to lead me into our usual argument that always ends with me broken and battered on the inside. I started breaking the patterns when I left New York. He hasn’t gotten the hint yet.

“It’s no longer my concern if you understand or not. You’re trespassing. Please leave.”

“You aren’t going to play the pity card?” He taunts me. “TheI was an innocent little boy argument?”

“How you see me is not my concern either.”

His brows begin to furrow at my refusal to follow our usual script. He doesn’t like that he hasn’t rattled me yet.

“I see. You think that refusing to mourn your mother’s death with me will ease your guilt.”

It all comes back to this.

His steadfast belief that I failed my mother as a child. As if I wouldn’t go back in time and change our positions. I didn’t know what was happening. I had the childish belief that my mother was impervious to damage. I was wrong.

Coming out of hiding would have seen me just as dead. He knows that. We’ve all seen it hundreds of times in different forms. There was no right answer to the situation. I suppose he expected me to stay by his side for his vengeance like Jake did with his father. I was too traumatized already to comprehend what he was doing.

I am not Jake. Or any of the other men around me, including my father. There’s nothing he can do to turn me into that. Amanda could if she wanted it. Not my Father.

I understand his feelings and motivation.

My Father wasn’t always clean. To make his fortune, he dealt extensively with various mafia types. Then, he decided to scam a little extra and got caught. Instead of facing the repercussions, he planned on leaving with us in tow. But not before he could say goodbye to his favorite mistress of the time.

He doesn’t know that I’m aware the night my Mother died, he was out with his mistress as a farewell fuck. My parent’s marriage was never a good one. With age came a lot of perspective. With Amanda’s influence, I found out a lot more.

He’s punishing me for not acting because he can’t accept that he fucked up. The whole cycle began withhim. The women weren’t a new thing that developed after Mother’s death. It had been going on all along. Now that Shade’s mom is in the picture and I’ve seen how he dotes on her, everything became crystal clear. He never loved Mother. In the end, their marriage was arranged, and I was the product.

It was never about my failures. It’s abouthis. And now he can wallow in that alone.

“You don’t mourn her,” I shake my head. “You use it as an excuse to keep me in line becauseIdo.”

“How dare you!” He begins with a low hiss. I hold up my hand wearily, waiting for him to stop.

“You didn’t care about Mother. Own up to it and move on. I’m not listening to your version of events. None of us can change the past, no matter how hard we will it. That leaves us all to move on or die wallowing. I’ve chosen the former. So did Ace, Cade, Jake, and Mikael. If I offered to takethemin, do you think they’d refuse?”

My gesture to the two men behind him surprises them.

“I’m not saying it for show. If you want out, you can get out. The only hold he has on you is in your head. Believe me.”

“You wouldn’t be livin’ here, though,” Ace assures them with a toothy grin.

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