Page 17 of Tamed

Perhaps I should have told Dad about the texts I’d received. Perhaps we could have a mature conversation about them… Then again, considering his and Caleb’s automatic reaction to any threat was to double-down on their protective instincts, perhaps that wasn’t a good idea after all. I hadn’t told him before because I hadn’t wanted him to interfere, and nothing had changed.

I still wanted to meet my mother’s family. Caleb had said they were only after Fox, but what did he know? Mom was Charlotte Hamilton’s daughter, and I was desperate to know more about her, more about her life.

I was desperate to know more about my family, period.

Growing up, all I’d known was Dad, Sir George, Caleb and a bit later, Atlas. I had no brothers or sisters. No cousins. No grandparents. I had no female relatives at all, and I felt the lack like a strange kind of ache.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Dad and the rest of my weird little family of sorts. But I wanted more. I wanted to know whose blood ran through my veins. I wanted to know whose history had influenced mine. And I…. I just wanted to know my mother. Was that so very much to ask?

Apparently, according to the fucking patriarchy, it was.

I needed to do something, assert my agency in some way. Get out from under their collective thumbs. I needed to follow up on that contact I’d had three weeks ago, and I needed to keep the three assholes from finding out.

Unfortunately, I had a sneaking suspicion that the only way to do that was to fly under their radar and not attract their notice. Which, double unfortunately, meant doing what they said for the time being.

Ugh.

My mood wasn’t exactly awesome when I slipped back into my cubicle, though it got slightly better when I saw the bagel and coffee sitting on my desk, waiting for me. Zara was an angel, a saint.

“Thank you, goddess,” I murmured with feeling as I sat down.

“No problem,” she said from her own cubicle. “Got a minute? I need to go over a spreadsheet with you.”

I was still trying to puzzle out why Zara would want to go over a spreadsheet with me when she didn’t have anything to do with spreadsheets or, indeed, numbers of any kind, when she suddenly appeared beside my desk and sat herself down on the edge of it.

I pushed my chair back, cradling my coffee, and gave her a look. “What spreadsheet?”

She grinned. “There is no spreadsheet. That was just a cunning ruse.”

“Ah.” I took a sip of my coffee. Man, it was good. “So, what do you actually want to talk about?”

Her expression was expectant. “You coming with me on Friday.”

Oh, that's right. The auction. The sexy auction.

Suddenly escaping J, J, and M to go to this super exclusive club and watch Zara auctioning off herself off seemed like not a great way to fly under the radar. In fact, it seemed like a great way to actively encourage the kind of attention from the three assholes that I was hoping to avoid.

“Oh.” I hoped she wouldn’t pick up on my reluctance. “That.”

“Yes, that.” She folded her arms. “You’re having second thoughts, aren’t you?”

“No,” I lied. “Not at all. This coffee is really good, by the way.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s the perfect strength and it’s just the right temperature—”

“I’m not talking about the coffee.”

I sighed. Zara was no fool, worse luck. And now I felt bad because I had promised her….

You should tell her.

I should. Then at least she’d know the reason why I’d always been so reluctant to go out, and that it wasn’t her. It would mean revealing who my dad was, not to mention my connection with Caleb, but maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It wasn’t fair to keep things secret from her, especially since she was my friend.

I took a breath and met her gaze. “Okay, here’s the deal My dad’s Tennyson Fox, the Fox in Fox Tech.”

Zara’s expression betrayed nothing. “Uh huh.”

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