Page 58 of Tamed

“You lied to me,” Caleb said.

“Yes. I did. And I’d lie to you again if I meant I got to meet my family.”

A muscle flicked in Caleb’s jaw. “The Hamiltons arenotyour family.”

“But they are, Caleb. Theyare.Whether you like it or not.”

“They didn’t raise you. They didn’t do shit for you.” There was a growl in his deep voice now. “They wanted to kill Ten and they would have if he hadn’t hidden from them. And they would have taken you from him too.”

“Maybe that would have been a good thing,” I shot back unwisely. “Maybe I would have gotten a better childhood.”

As soon as the words came out, I wished I hadn’t said them. They echoed in the office, petulant and angry sounding, like a little kid’s temper tantrum.

Caleb was silent, letting those words sit there, letting me hear how awful they sounded. Letting me see how furious he was.

Dad had been eighteen when he’d had me. A boy, living on the streets. He’d been rescued by Sir George, the rich man who’d found him with a baby and had offered him a home and protection. But Dad had been mistrustful and the only other person in the entire world he’d trusted was Caleb, and so when he couldn’t be around to look after me, he’d gotten Caleb do it.

Caleb, who’d babysat me in his run-down apartment more nights than I could count. Who’d taught me how to play chess. Who’d let me sit beside him outside the club he used to be a bouncer at, and then, once he wasn’t a bouncer anymore, he used to take me out to do other things. The movies. Skating at Rockefeller Center. Trips to the Met. Central Park. Art galleries. Wherever I wanted to go, he’d take me.

It hadn’t been a normal childhood in any, way shape or form, and it had left its mark on me. I had a Dad I didn’t connect with, who’d distanced me for years, and had imprinted on a man who was wrong on just about every level for me. But….it hadn’t been a bad childhood.

I’d been warm and fed and clothed. I’d had a roof over my head. I’d been educated. And I’d had people who loved me, who cared about my existence.

It hadn’t been terrible, and it had been wrong of me to say that it had. It negated everything that Caleb and Dad had tried to do for me.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, flushing even redder. “I…didn’t mean that.”

Caleb said nothing. Abruptly, he turned and pulled open a drawer in his desk and got something out of it, before tossing it negligently onto his desktop. “Your phone.” He reached for his jacket hanging off the back of his chair and picked it up. “I’ll talk to you later.”

He didn’t wait for me to speak, heading straight toward the doors.

“Wait,” I said. “I thought you wanted to talk about it now?”

He paused and glanced back at me. “No. I don't have adult conversations with children.”

Then he walked out without another word.

16

Caleb

Ileaned against the decaying brickwork of the alley, ignoring the light fall of rain and the two junkies down one end, shooting up in the middle of a pile of empty cardboard boxes and other refuse. One of them was probably going to think of mugging me given that he kept looking in my direction, but I had a Glock — my favorite pistol — in a holster at the small of my back.

I was a real boy scout when I visited The Castle, the club Old Nick used to run his empire from. I always came prepared.

Livia was going to meet me tonight and she was already late, which did not help my fraying temper.

The shit with Isabel that afternoon in my office had gotten to me more than I wanted it to. I’d been briefing Ten and Atlas on the message I’d found on her phone, and we were supposed to be deciding on a plan for dealing with it, when Isabel had come storming in like a red-headed hurricane, laying waste to everything the way she always did.

I should have predicted it and perhaps part of it was my fault. But Ten had been even more uptight than he normally was and Isabel screaming at him hadn’t helped. It was something to do with that virginity auction and the virgin he’d bought in order to save her or some such bullshit. He wouldn’t say more than that and Atlas hadn’t known much more either. Apparently after the auction, Ten had gone to meet his new purchase and hadn’t come back.

Whatever, Ten had been pissed about the message on Isabel’s phone and well, join the fucking club. I was pissed too.

She’d lied to me. She’d told me she hadn’t had contact with the Hamiltons but she had. Worse, she’d been going to meet someone at the carousel in Central Park at eleven PM.Alone.

Who knew what the fuck would have happened if I hadn't distracted her in Arcadia? Maybe the sex had been a good thing after all.

Then again, considering my reaction to her the moment she’d come into my office, trailing sparks and fury, maybe not. Getting an instant hard-on with Ten standing not a couple of feet away from me was certainly a physical reaction I’d neither looked for, nor wanted. Yet my dick didn’t care what I wanted.

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