Page 163 of Only Fools Rush

“The fuck you do,” I said, making a beeline for the bottles he kept hidden in his desk. One was already half empty. I held it up. “Hah! I knew it.”

Ciel crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat. “Everyone, sit down.”

The bodyguard and Wynn sat on the leather couch like the good little boys they were. Obi collapsed at his desk chair and swiveled to face the view of the skyline. Ciel narrowed his eyes at me, and I scoffed as I poured myself another glass and simply leaned against bookshelves. No need to get comfortable. I wouldn’t be here for long.

“So fucking difficult.”

“Yep.”

He flipped me the bird, and I barked a laugh. “I like the backbone you’ve grown, little brother.”

“We need to fix this,” he said, ignoring me. “Right now. Whatever bullshit is going on between you two”—he gestured to me and the bodyguard—“work it out.”

“He’s intolerable.” I shook my head with a lopsided smile. “And I hold grudges like a fucking champ.”

There was nothing to be said between him and I. We’d never mesh.

“And Obi?” Ciel continued, uninterrupted. Obi still stared out the windows. “You need to figure out how to talk to the rest of us, or all of this is going to fall apart.”

“We got what we needed,” he said. “It’s a step forward in the plan.”

The bodyguard snorted in disbelief, if you could even call it that. Maybe more like a choked whimper. “You got what you wanted at the expense of my relationship with her.” His eyes widened. “Is that what you wanted the whole time?”

At that, Obi finally turned around. “No, I wanted the both of you to act like fucking adults and do what needed to be done.”

“Obi and his goddamn plans.” Now, it was my turn to laugh. The scotch burned on the way down. He was no different from my oldoyabun, simply using me as a means to an end. “You took me to China to get me out of his hair, so he’d have the balls topropose, and he still didn’t even do it.Andyou offered me a 10 percent bonus to go—which I still very much expect, by the way.”

Obi leveled the glare at me, but I didn’t flinch, and he didn’t argue. His twitching fingers—like he was looking for a weapon—didn’t scare me.

“A bonus?” Wynn scoffed.

“Youusedme,” the bodyguard said. “Look where it got us. When all this falls apart, what’s next? Are you going to kill us? The deadly Shadows never let a mark go.”

I raised an eyebrow. Now that didn’t sound like the worst idea in the world, for him anyway. I’d never hurt a hair on Leona’s head.

“Enough!” Ciel shouted. All four of us blinked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you at that decibel before,” I said after a few moments of stunned silence.

“It’s because I’m so fucking angry with you guys,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Obi, you cannot treat us like pawns, especially not her. Especially not when that’s the only way she’s been treated her entire life. We’repartners.”

I swirled the remaining scotch in my glass, watching the amber liquid spin. I needed another refill.

In the past, I had barely cared about Obi’s behind-the-scenes machinations. They hadn’t mattered to me because I had my own plans, my own ideas about what I wanted for my future. I was happy to let him call the shots, if that meant I got paid and I could walk away whenever I wanted.

But now? He’d manipulated the shit out of me. Out of all of us. It left a bitter taste in my mouth that definitely wasn’t from the liquor.

“Our goals are worth the personal sacrifice,” Obi finally said.

“Is that right?” I tilted my head to the side. “Is that why you won’t touch her?”

His eyes flared with ire.

I looked at the rest of the guys. “He still won’t give in. He wants her so badly he’s about to tear the hair out of his beard, but he still won’t do anything about it. In LA, he said this was just a business relationship, anything more, and we risked ruining everything.”

“Fuck that,” Wynn said. I almost laughed.

“Look at what has happened,” Obi said. “Was I wrong?”