Page 10 of Absolution (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 3)

He walks around my desk and pulls me up by shirt. We’re the same height; I’m bulkier, but he’s still fit and strong. He grabs the back of my head and rests his forehead against mine.

“I am so sorry that I didn’t protect you,” a tear runs down his cheek. “We will make him pay. For you. For Michael and Lilith. For what he tried to do to the girls. For every-fucking-thing.” He pulls me in for a long, hard hug. “I love you, Connor. I will always have your back.”

“I love you, too, Dad.” I wipe away a tear that I didn’t even realize had fallen. It feels so good to finally tell people. To ease this lifelong burden. I only have two people left to tell. Lily and Lev. “I think we should sit down with Lake and come up with a solid plan.”

“Yeah, there’s a big party in St. Petersburg the first week of October. All the main families will be present. It could be our best opportunity to surprise Ivan. I’ll set up another meeting with Lake a couple weeks.”

5

CONNOR

“It feels reallyweird without Levi at home,” Lily drops between Griff and me on the couch in our Cambridge townhouse.

“Yeah, I can think, and food stays in the kitchen longer than a day,” Griff quips. Living with Levi was like living with an overgrown puppy. Always making noise. Always eating every-fucking-thing. Barging into our bedroom whenever he felt like it.

“Well, I miss him,” she pouts.

“Are we not enough for you, Lilith?” Griff asks with a smirk aimed in my direction.

“Do we not keep you entertained?” I ask, catching on to what Griff is planning.

“Do you need more laughter?” he shifts a bit and looks at me.

With a slight nod from me, we both attack her with tickles.

“Oh my God!” she yells through laughter. “You guys fucking suck,” she gasps, trying to wiggle off the couch. “I will beat both your asses!”

We’re all laughing in a pile on the floor a couple minutes later. I’m going to have a bruise on my abs. Griff’s glasses are across the room. Lily is sprawled across us, her head on his chest and her legs tangled with mine.

There have been moments over the past years where I’ve thought I’ve seen him look at her with something like longing. It only lasts for a second, and then it’s gone. The night her father was murdered, I was willing to do anything to make her feel something beyond her profound grief. Before Lily, Griff, Lev, and I would occasionally share girls. I’ve never shared her, but that night, I would have.

He’s never dated anyone seriously. He and Grant, a friend who graduated from high school a few years before us, recently opened a dungeon in New York. He’s been spending every weekend since we’ve back in Boston down there, helping out. I’m starting to wonder if he doesn’t have someone he’s seeing down there.

I disentangle myself from the pile and stand up to see if Lake’s called me yet. I check back with a glance over my shoulder, and they’re still laying on the floor, he’s running his fingers through her hair but looking at the ceiling. Now’s a good time, while they’re both talking about who knows what and distracted.

I take the stairs two at a time up two floors to the level Lily and I have as our personal space. We have our shared bedroom suite and bathroom, an office, and a living room area. Griff and Lev shared the level above us, but now it all belongs to Griff.

I gently close the door behind me and pull my phone out. Lake hasn’t called yet, but I decide to call him regardless. He answers on the first ring.

“Con, I was just getting ready to call you,” he says.

“Good. I have time and privacy right now, where are we at with the plan?”

We spend the next forty-five minutes going over the next steps that Dad worked out with him this week. We’re going to Chicago for Lily’s birthday in a few weeks, and then she and the girls are staying back for her bachelorette party. Dad, Lake, and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to sneak away while we know the girls are protected and safe. They’ll be staying with Zion, Lily’s best friend, in his penthouse.

Lake is already planning on sending a team of his guys to do undercover security for me on the group while they’re in Chicago. I can’t risk anything ever happening to them again. Normally I would use in-house security for VI or from Lily’s company, but she’d know and put up a fight. She doesn’t know all of the guys on Lake’s payroll yet.

Dad has called Ivan and set up a meeting with him in St. Petersburg under the guise of possibly opening up the oilfield. We know Ivan won’t be able to resist the possibility of that much money lining his greedy pockets. Hopefully he comes alone, but from the surveillance, it seems as though he’s usually surrounded by at least five men, likely security of some sort. It’s not surprising considering how dirty he’s done half the oligarchs and crime lords he associates with.

I hear a shuffle of feet and quickly end the call with Lake. Lily pokes her head in with a questioning glance at me. She walks in as I set the phone on the desk.

“Who were you on the phone with?”

“Just a guy from one of my classes. I’m giving him a copy of my notes for a class.” The lie tastes bitter on my tongue, and I hate myself a little more for how easily it slides from my lips.

She narrows her gorgeous blue eyes on me, and I can tell she doesn’t believe me. She isn’t one to nag though, and she trusts me, so she drops it. I let my eyes wander down her body; she’s standing in front of me in her tiny pajama shorts and a cropped tank top, no bra or panties.

My dick immediately stands at attention. Her body is exquisite, a feast for my eyes, lips, and hands. I often think about how lucky I am to have her. There are so many times I fucked up, so many awful things I said to her. I could spend the rest of my life groveling before her and still not feel like I deserve her. Not that I will ever let her go, she’s fucking mine, deserved or not. I pull her to me and set her on the edge of the desk.

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