I didn’t want to watch anymore shit TV, not with so much better outside to be looking at. I wrapped up warm in one of Lucian’s designer sweaters from his wardrobe, then tried to find some gardening equipment in the garage. It surprised me to find a set of spades and trowels ready and waiting. Maybe he did have a tiny streak of gardener in him. Maybe I’d even find out.
I was outside on the nearest flower bed on the lawn, dredging up weeds with a trowel when I finally condemned myself for what I was doing. Surely I couldn’t work on Lucian Morelli’s countryside garden? But I could. I did.
In one of the most bizarre and surreal choices of all time, I, Elaine Constantine of the Constantine family line, turned her back on escaping from the Morelli monster’s backwater prison and tended his goddamn garden instead.
Go fucking figure.28LucianI was usually well at work at my desk before the office day started, not sitting in a meeting room suite with my father, discussing my failures as a Morelli heir. His eyes were piercing as I stared across the table. Suspicious. I knew Trenton Alto had been a snake reporting back every little whisper he heard on the NYC corruption grapevine. Thank fuck Elaine had been crazy enough to condemn the Power Brothers in my stead.
“Another lapse of a morning,” he seethed. “Where the hell have you been going? I’m well aware you haven’t been in central.”
I leaned back in my seat, eyes firm on his. “I’ve been busy.”
“Busy chasing down the Constantines?”
I didn’t understand his logic. “Excuse me?”
“Are you tracking down more of the Constantine bitches now that Elaine has been taken already?”
“Is that what Alto told you?”
He leaned back in his seat to match me. Two Morellis in the same pose, staring across at each other with the same scowl on their faces.
“Alto said it’s likely. He heard people are chasing after Tinsley. He thought it may well be you and not the Power Brothers. They wouldn’t be chasing her so soon.”
A wave of annoyance at Trenton twisted in my gut. I could have throttled 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’m being serious now, boy,” Father said. “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. “Seemingly, you’ve had fuck all to do with Morelli Holdings, either.”
“I’ve been busy on plenty of things.”
“Hanging out with your buddies on the BDSM club circuit doesn’t cut it. It’s hardly an investment worth tending to.”
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 and enjoying the club along with Clark Ventana, happily focused on indulging my thrills with the bitches in there, and just how much I could buy them for.
“Are you done with me today?” I asked him. “I’ve got more important things to be doing than justifying my BDSM 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.
“I mean it, son. 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 to the family name.”
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. There was more. His jaw was as gritted as I’d ever seen it as he gave me the ultimatum.
“It’s your choice, here and now. You step up to the plate here at Holdings, or you step down until you can sort your shit out. Your call. Holdings or out. Fuck off overseas to play your bullshit games, or hang out at your shitty club all you like, but don’t make a mockery of Holdings. Seamus and Duncan can take hold of the reins easily enough until you get your damn act together.”