Page 11

Ziggy

Holy shit! Ziggy braced against the wall to stop himself from revealing how furious he was at the fiasco of a press conference.

The fucker who had sneered his slur about divergents got thrown out, but the jab aimed at Taylin hit all the brothers.

Ziggy, who’d been watching Silas closely, had seen the wince and pain before he’d once more slipped his professional mask in place.

One that Ziggy was becoming intimately familiar with.

If he crossed the line Silas had clearly marked in the sand, then down would come the shutters.

It was maddening. He had no one to blame but himself for agreeing to the no strings sex.

Told you it was a mistake.

Now is not the time to have this debate.

There is no better time when I know how much you want to go slap that asshole around the head for hurting Silas’s feelings.

That might be so, but he’s not interested in us for more than sex.

Bollocks.

Ziggy, for his own sanity, stopped the conversation and shoved his hands into his pockets to stop anyone from noticing that they had balled into fists. The remaining conference was a blur to him as he stewed and seethed at the injustices.

Being a shifter hadn’t been all sunshine and roses for Ziggy.

His parents were selfish, self-absorbed assholes who hadn’t paid their one and only child any attention.

Getting his mother pregnant ended his father’s involvement and giving birth to him ended his mothers.

They had passed Ziggy about like an unwanted parcel to relatives, before they’d hired someone to deliver basic care so they could go off traveling.

At that young age, Ziggy had already learned he didn’t like the chaos of constant moving when life held no love or affection. He’d carried those hard lessons with him and they gave him a need to be in charge of his own destiny.

He’d envied others the ease of their relationships and for a time, had gone from one bad relationship to another, seeking what was missing from his life.

Only discovering in his early twenties, after a terrible break-up, that he needed to learn to love himself first. To believe that he was worthy of love.

Hard lessons, but he’d known they would be worth it for him.

From that acceptance had sprung an understanding about his own sexuality.

One where he discovered that with sex, he liked to be the one in control.

He didn’t need or want others dominating him, despite what society believed about the place of an omega.

Clubs like Hidden Desires gave him the freedom to explore his sexuality and figure himself out.

And at twenty-nine, he had his shit together—or as much as anyone did.

A flurry of activity in front of Ziggy brought him from his thoughts, and he straightened off the wall, watching the room empty.

“That was… something,” Wilder whispered as he came and nudged in next to Ziggy.

He glanced at Wilder. The raccoon was the epitome of cheekiness. He was so pretty, with a guileless smile that encouraged others to give in to any and all of his whims. It was a genuine talent.

“It was most definitely was.” Ziggy kept his tone light, holding back his anger.

He learned quickly that nothing was off limits for gossip between the PAs who were as close to family to each other as any Ziggy had met.

They were a loyal bunch who were there for each other and they’d included him without question.

“Poor Hollis. Do you think he told his parents about the mating?”

“Shit, I hope he did, for his sake. ‘Cause those fuckers will have it blazoned across the papers before the day is out.” Ziggy shuddered at the thought of his parents seeing his picture on the front cover of a tabloid. They’d love it for all the wrong reasons.

Their conversation halted when Monica came over and encouraged them to leave.

Ziggy cast one last look at Silas, who hadn’t looked at him since they’d locked stares at the beginning.

His expression was tight, along with the line of his shoulders under his suit jacket.

It looked like he’d shoved a coat hanger inside it.

To evade going into any of the other PAs’ offices, Ziggy feigned the need to use the restroom by ducking into the one on the floor the boardroom was on.

When he came out ten minutes later, after giving himself a stern talking to about steering clear of Silas’s office when he had no call to go there, he closed himself inside his own office.

He had a pile of work to catch up on after the fallout from Ven’s disappearance.

The man, it appeared, had run off, taking all the money from the company's bank accounts and the new secretary. He’d left his business partner, a mouse shifter named Felix, with a pile of debt and very unhappy customers, who wanted their products back, along with their money.

It was then that Ziggy had truly discovered Silas’s character.

He’d not raged, made unreasonable demands or threatened the poor man.

Instead, he’d invited him to the office.

At the start of their meeting, he’d asked for honesty, which Felix had seemed more than happy to provide, resulting in Silas finding Felix a new business partner, one who had the resources to get Felix out of the mess he was in.

It made good business sense when Felix offered to ensure Starling Enterprises would have priority haulage.

Ziggy had subsequently gotten tasked with realigning their business model when it came to haulage. Not something he’d have expected to be doing, but the faith Silas put in him meant it was an easy yes.

At his desk, his phone pinged repeatedly, making it impossible to concentrate. He loved the group chat he was in with the other PAs, one that Lane Starling had created, and Ziggy had suggested a re-name because seriously, delicious and vicious fit the group of men much better.

Ziggy had quickly discovered some of their quirks through scrolling back through the conversations.

He picked up his phone and opened the WhatsApp group chat.

Delicious & Vicious

Frey: Did you see what Booker did!!!!!

Wilder: We were right there, remember? Or did seeing the big bear getting all protective blow a fuse in your brain… or slacks…

Ziggy laughed aloud at Wilder’s comment and typed: I’m sure Hollis doesn’t want to read a blow by blow account of the shit storm. He was front and center.

Bowie: I made banoffee cheesecake, do you think I should leave a slice for him in his office? They’re all locked in the boardroom. Who knows how long that’ll take?

Lennon: Rehashing and trying to figure who spilled the beans on Taylin and Hollis being together. Did anyone talk about it outside of work?

Ziggy’s belly clutched at the possibility it was one of his friends before he added a comment, wanting them to know he’d never speak out of turn. Not that he had any friends in Hazardville, except for them.

The replies eased the tension inside him until Frey replied to Isley and made him build back up a head of steam that had nothing to do with Hollis or Taylin, more how he’d seen Silas react.

Unable to voice that, he added: They’re elitest assholes that know fuck all about it!

And I’m sure everyone picked up on what that weasel was implying.

I’d also say that no one could miss the measure of those men when they all stood with Taylin and formed a wall to protect Hollis.

About to make another comment about a kiss he’d not witnessed because he’d gotten lost in his own head and completely missed it, he paused when Hollis replied, adding at the end in capitals, BACK TO WORK… NOW!

Ziggy chuckled and shut the app. Putting his phone to one side, he dragged his keyboard closer and reached for his mouse to open up his computer. His mind strayed back to Silas as it tended to do, despite how often he worked to resist thinking about him.

Resistance is futile.

Enough!

He continued to circle around what had happened in the boardroom. Was Silas alright?

Hollis and all the brothers had remained behind in the boardroom, meaning the likelihood was they’d be there for some time and Ziggy would have no excuse to go check in on Silas. None whatsoever.

Yet, he wanted to. To see if, from the limited conversations they’d had about his new position in the company, Silas was doing okay. Surely it wasn’t overstepping to want to make sure someone he worked with was doing alright after that shitshow?

He rolled his eyes at the feeling coming from his snake.

Silas is most definitely reluctant about being the new face of the business. We would have to be blind not to pick that up.

Stop looking for excuses.

He grumped at the truth of it. He’d suspected, even before he’d seen Silas wince at the barb about divergents, it would be hard to fill those shoes of Derick Starling, his shifter father and the driving force behind Starling Enterprises.

It didn’t matter that Derick had married a non-shifter, or that Lane was an equal partner in the business.

No one ever used Lane’s name in the press.

That was something Ziggy had noticed with his research of the company.

The couple had been shunned, then proved to the world that their differences made not a jot of difference as they had created a brand and an empire built on acceptance.

This ethos was why, when Ziggy had seen the advert for the role, he had applied.

You also researched all the brothers, too…

The slyness of his snake made him shift uncomfortably in his seat.

He avoided thinking about how he’d known who Silas was when he’d stepped into the room at Hidden Desires.

Had he confessed to knowing who Silas was?

No, he most definitely had not. Ziggy got the impression Silas would somehow see the situation as a setup, which it wasn’t. Far from it.

He’d noted the pictures had not done Silas justice.

None of the man’s true charisma came through.

His passion for the business that he worked for as hard as everyone else.

He didn’t coast on his good fortune. And that added to the growing list of appealing things he learned about Silas while working together.

It made him harder to resist, that was for sure.

And that was dangerous with how Ziggy struggled to resist asking for more.

Silas, after work, was an addiction… the combination was lethal.

Even now, sitting alone, his body reacted, warming at the dirty things that Silas allowed him to do… to say to him that got them both off, frequently.

He glanced up, cursing at the knock at the door. His heart skipped a beat until Wilder poked his head around the door. “Do you have a minute?”

Glad of the diversion, despite his heavy workload, he grinned and beckoned Wilder into the room as he hovered by the door. “Whatsup?”