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“Then, why can’t you look me in the eye?” It was true. At my words, she’d hung her head, suddenly fascinated by something on the floor.
She pulled her gaze up reluctantly to meet mine, and I almost wished she hadn’t. She was right, she was nothing like my ice-cold father, and the web of lies and deceit he’d created to further his personal interests, and fatten his bank balance. She had feelings. And if the look on her face, and the emotion bleeding from her expressive brown eyes as I stared down at her was anything to go by, she was all fucking heart, and it was breaking.
I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. She wasn’t the only one with heart. My mother had it too. Too much, in fact, and hers had been broken for as long as I could remember. I needed to keep my eyes on the prize and focus on what was important—protecting her in any way I could.
“There are no good or bad lies. Lies are lies, and they tear people apart. How are the lies you’re telling different?”
“You’re right, they’re not. But the intention is. I hate that I live a lie, and it kills me every day, but I do it for my dad, and in some ways for all the people Cavanagh Corp has screwed over—hurt, maimed, killed—families destroyed like mine. I don’t want to further my own interests and I don’t want to live a lie, but I do to it try to make a difference.” Words surely never to be uttered by Victor Cavanagh.
“I want to put an end to your father’s reign of terror, and make him pay for the hundreds of gross lies he’s told.” Maybe we had more in common than we realized. “If that means doing some things I’m not one hundred percent proud of, I can live with myself. As far as I’m concerned, the means justify the ends.”
“Destroyed your family? I know about your dad, but what else is there?”
“You’re my wannabe landlord, not my therapist, and given you’re not even that at this point, it’s the definition of none of your fucking business.”
“What if that was to change?”
“How? Are you a therapist in your spare time as well as a bully, a stalker and a slum landlord?”
“Funny. No, but what if I was your landlord?”
“We’re going around in circles again. I already said I’m not prepared to step away from doing the right thing to meet your demands. If that means Dad and I have nowhere, then it is what it is. We’ll survive. We always do.”
“So what if I change the terms of your tenancy?”
“Change them how?” She cocked her head as she considered me and the words I’d just uttered. Why something as simple as turning her head while looking confused had me wanting to drop my toga and introduce her to my moral standards, I had no idea.
“You stay in your place, and do whatever it is your conscience is telling you to do, and I’ll do the same.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
“I mean that I’ll be trying to take you down at every opportunity, and I warn you, if you can’t bring yourself to play this my way, I can’t promise to play nice. Or fair. In fact, the only thing I can promise is that you need to expect the unexpected. Playing dirty is woven into my genes.”
“Well, I should probably let you know that I’m not a quitter. I’ve come this far, and I have no intention of backing down or losing this fight.”
“And I should tell you that I have the might to crush you, both figuratively and literally, and I’m not opposed to using whatever’s within my means to get what I want.”
“Is that a threat?”
I threw my head back and laughed long and loud. “Not at all. Threats are for weak people who have no intention of doing what they say they will. I’m not that guy. Never have been. Never will be.”
As her jaw dropped in shock, I pushed my lips back down onto hers, kissing her hard, without stopping to wait for her to kiss me back. Then I pulled away, turned on my heel, and headed back inside the hotel room, not bothering to turn around. I’d almost disappeared when I threw my final words over my shoulder at her.
“Your car is with the valet. The new keys to your apartment are in the glove box. Enjoy... Oh, and Kik?”
“Yeah?” I could hear the uncertainty in her voice, although she was trying her best to sound cool, calm and confident.
“You should probably keep your bedroom a little tidier, you never know when your landlord might swing past for an impromptu rental inspection.”
Chapter 16
Kik
A few weeks later
With my dad out of the hospital, and Drew seemingly out of the picture, despite his threats to the contrary, life had settled back down to a manageable and comfortable rhythm, and I couldn’t have been happier about that fact. I didn’t do drama—at least not knowingly, anyway.
With my history, I’d learned from a young age that drama led nowhere but downhill…fast. Instead, I kept my head down, my nose clean, and my eyes totally focused on my goals—to keep a roof over our heads and put food on the table, to stay on top of Dad’s health and be able to manage any issues if they arose, to put myself through pre-law, then law school, and eventually, to bring down Cavanagh Corp.
