I sat across from him, leaned back, and met his eyes.
“You’re having a fucking mental breakdown,” he said.
“Hardly. I’ve just been busy.”
“Busy chasing down the Constantines?”
I pretended that I didn’t understand his logic. “Excuse me?”
“Are you finding more Constantines to fuck now that Elaine has been taken?”
“Is that what Alto told you?” I didn’t move, other than to release a breath. I wasn’t going to let him think he was making me nervous. A strange fucking feeling, being nervous.
He leaned back in his seat to match me. Two Morellis in the same pose, staring at each other across the meeting table. “He heard people are chasing after Tinsley.”
A wave of annoyance at Trenton twisted in my gut. I could have killed him right there and then. Still, I should be grateful. The accusation had fuck all of a Morelli criminality to it compared to the true extent of my crimes.
“I didn’t come here to discuss Trenton’s rumors with you. Is there something you wanted to say? If you don’t, I have other things to attend to.”
His jaw clenched, face reddening. His irritation was palpable. Something else, too. “You need to come back to Morelli Holdings.”
“Or else what?” I was flippant. An asshole. Just like him.
“Or the board will know you’ll leave whenever you damn well please.”
“Then the board would be right, because that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
He swore. “Christ, Lucian. You’re lucky you can’t feel pain. I’d whip you fucking raw.”
“If you laid a hand on me, you’d regret it. But I’ll make the decision much easier for you. As long as I’m gone, I’m not a threat. If you want me to come back? Make me CEO.” I didn’t think he’d actually do it, no matter how desperate he was for me to come back. It was more about smoke and mirrors. Let him think that I wanted to be CEO, when what I really wanted was to fuck my Constantine doll. She was only a short ride away.
“You leave the Constantines the fuck alone. We team up with the Power brothers or we do nothing at all. No fucking thing. No digging, no chasing, no attempting to tear them down.”
Part of me wanted to laugh in his face and say he had no idea what the hell I’d been doing. Instead I used the opportunity to use my truths as my strengths. “I’ve had fuck all to do with Tinsley Constantine,” I told him. “I can assure you of that.”
He paused for long seconds, our eyes fixed firm and cold on each other’s. “Good. You’d better keep it that way.” He leaned in closer. “What the fuck are you thinking, Lucian? What the hell is going on with you?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Hanging out in the BDSM club?”
“Something like that.”
It struck me in that moment just how distant I’d grown from my family. He was referring to a point in the past where I’d been heavily involved with Violent Delights, happily focused on indulging my thrills with the women there. “Are we done with this little father-son conversation? I’ve got more important things to be doing than justifying my sexual interests.”
I knew there was a whole world of questions in his throat that he wanted to lash out at me, but he didn’t. Our lack of closeness had destroyed any bridges into my privacy he’d ever managed to build.
He gestured to the door, as though this was still his kingdom and not mine. I was already up and leaving when he spoke again.
“You go anywhere near any more of the Constantines without Power brothers’ approval and I’ll make an example of you. You’ll wish you’d never been born.”
It was another threat in the same vein, the Constantine vein. The vein that was turning me into the biggest fool I’d ever known. Still, it didn’t even touch me.
I smiled. “Are you upset because I’m not obeying your orders? Or because the stock prices for Morelli Holdings are down more than they’ve been in years?”
“You step up to the plate here at Holdings, or you step down until you can sort your shit out. Play your bullshit games or hang out at your BDSM club, but don’t ruin Morelli Holdings.”
“I’m not ruining anything. You’re doing a great job of that by yourself.”
I wasn’t interested in what my father was threatening. It didn’t even bother me that Morelli Holdings was struggling. Well, it did bother me. Because it harmed more people than just me and my father. It impacted my mother and my sisters. It impacted the board. Our stockholders. And it really impacted the thousands of employees.
So yes, Morelli Holdings mattered to me.
But it was less important than Elaine Constantine.
The truth was a hard one to accept, and it took my breath away before I made it back to the elevator. I’d never been floored by emotion in my life. I’d never known such a rush of conflict, never mind how to fucking deal with it.
I forced myself into the elevator and selected the lobby. It was the slowest descent of my life.
I couldn’t walk the line between Morelli Holdings and Elaine. There was no way I could juggle the two of them. I couldn’t indulge the temptress and my wants for her and still wrestle control away from my father. It was impossible. The whole thing was fucking impossible.
I had to make my choice.
It should have been Holdings. Of course, it should’ve been Morelli Holdings.
I could take that sweet virginity of hers and revel in her pain and dismiss her into the trash where she belonged as a Constantine. Only it wasn’t Holdings I wanted.
It was her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Elaine
When Lucian’s car pulled up in the driveway, I was still outside with a trowel in the flower bed. My heart leaped as I realized just what the hell I’d done by staying in this place and risking my life every second I was around him, but it was too late.
My decision had already been made.
The sun was still high in the sky, the afternoon barely half done when he’d parked up in the garage and was heading to the front door with his keys in his hand. I could have hidden in the bushes and pretended I’d already run away from him, but I didn’t.
“Over here, honey!” I waved my trowel in the air.
The monster stopped and stared, fixing me in his piercing eyes as he stomped in my direction. I carried on digging the soil and pulling the weeds out, like it wasn’t the most insane decision I’d ever made and I wasn’t kidnapped in a hole of a place belonging to my archenemy.
“What the hell are you doing? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
His tone was blunt, but it wasn’t aggressive. His eyes were wild but not full of hate as he stared down at me.
I shrugged. “Does that surprise you?”
He couldn’t hold back a smirk. “You’re doing alright on that. I would’ve expected a lot more wallowing and begging on the coke front.”
Yeah, I would too. I’d surprised myself there. I was firmly on the same page as him on expecting the wallowing and begging for lines of powder. That and bottles of fizz.
Lucian tossed his keys in his hand as he scoped out the pile of weeds I’d been digging up. I did a silly little bow from my knees and waved the trowel in the air like some kind of superstar as I spoke again.