Page 17 of True Honey (The Hornets Nest #4)

SHORE

I felt strangled by my own tie as I opened Drew’s door and helped her out. Arlo had given me the mustang for the evening so that I didn’t have to put her on the back of the bike in dress clothes. I didn’t really see an issue with it, I rode the bike in a suit all the time…

Don’t make her ride that bike in nice clothes, Silas. He’d warned me that if I so much as started the engine, he’d know, and then gave me the hundredth rendition of the Arlo King Mustang Monologue.

Drew looked up at the house, her green eyes wide with what could have been mistaken for wonder but was definitely terror.

Her hair was pulled into a soft bun, a touch of makeup making her lashes impossibly long.

The new clothes she had picked out had been delivered at the end of the week and she had picked a simple long sleeve black dress that hugged to her hips in the most distracting way.

I was going to tell her how wonderful she looked but Dean’s Jeep rumbled over the gravel in the driveway and stole the sound from my lips. Josh climbed out of the passenger side in a sweater and his hair brushed back neatly off his face.He looked like he wanted to puke.

That made two of us.

Dean blazed over in a blue dress shirt barely containing his shoulders, his goofy grin as loud as his arrival.

“We haven’t been properly introduced, I’m Dean,” he said to Drew, knocking her from her trance. She smiled at him politely and shook his hand.

“Drew,” she said.

Josh looked us both over before introducing himself and extending his hand to her.

“I didn’t know you were bringing anyone to dinner,” he said, his eyes drifting down to the ring on Drew’s hand.

She’d taken it off the second we’d returned to Harbor, putting it away in a safe space until she was forced to wear it again.

“Didn’t he say family only?” Josh questioned.

“You brought Dean,” I said, quickly defending myself.

Josh’s jaw ticked, his eyes darkening; he didn’t have to say a word. He was violently protective of the safe space he had created and willing to ruin tonight early over it.

I didn’t want to lie to him, not after all we had been through to get to a place where I could be honest but I also didn’t expect him to lie for me .

“Okay, tough guy, grill him later,” Dean said to Josh, his eyes trailing up to the living room window.

My grandfather was standing in the window with a drink in hand and a scowl on his face.

“I don’t remember Seymour being so scary,” was the last thing he said as the four of us climbed the stairs into the house.

Drew curled her hand into mine without asking, her smile sweet and eyes softening with each step.

Logically I understood that she was putting on the show I had asked of her but the feeling of her hand in mine brought a small comfort as we wandered into the lion's den.

Dinner tonight was going to be a shit show but at least I had her to keep me distracted.

The stress of upholding a lie of that magnitude consumed all my thoughts and made it easier to focus on the current problem in front of me.

Getting the board to approve Grandpa’s move to sign the shares over to me was all that mattered. The phone call I’d had with Dad earlier that day had proven every dark suspicion I’d had about his motives.

“I heard he’s sick,” Dad said from the other end of the shoddy phone call.

“Who told you?” I asked, mostly because I needed to know if there was someone leaking information.

“He did,” Dad practically snarled, “just because I’m stuck in this concrete box doesn’t mean my entire family has shunned me, Silas. He wants what’s best for everyone. ”

What was best for everyone, was not best for my father. But for some reason he held on to the narrative that he was the victim in all of this. I had seen Josh’s scars, there was only one victim here and if I could prevent more damage at the hand of my father I’d do anything.

“I’ll be out in a few weeks and ready to take my position on the board.

I’ll need you to start running some interference with the press, force their hands and flip the story back on my side.

We can say this was all a misunderstanding, that there was a disgruntled lower level employee who pinned it all on me.

We have work to do with Harbor, it’s time our town sparkles again,” he was rambling as my heart raced in my chest angrily.

“I’ve been speaking with a developer about getting a new stadium up, one with the capacity for a casino.

We could be making so much more money on that team if we ran the gambling that flowed in and out of Harbor. ”

He wanted to…what? I swallowed tightly.

“You aren’t getting those shares,” I said bluntly, “and you aren’t getting out of prison.”

“Those shares are already mine, kiddo and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it so if you want to keep living your cushy life as a second rate doctor at the University that I funded to hire you, then you’re going to start following orders and get me the hell out of here.

” He threatened, his voice low and promising.

“You don’t feel remorse for a single thing you did, do you?

” I asked him, my mind wandering back to the images of Josh’s apartment that were burned into my memory.

The smell of his mother, the garbage… the locks on his bedroom door.

The shame and guilt my mother felt every time she had to leave the house only to be hounded by the press about her adulterous husband.

The way no one could enjoy anything anymore without it being tarnished by Charles Shore.

“I didn’t do anything.”

I hadn’t even realized I stopped walking before we even got into the house, Drew paused beside me watching my face cautiously as I ran through the conversation again. Tonight was the most important step toward protecting everything we had built.

“Are you okay?” Drew asked me and it took me a moment but I nodded at her, another lie to add the mountain that was forming.

She squeezed her hand in mine and I forced a weak smile to my face.

I went to step inside the house but she stopped me, angling her small body in front of mine and letting go of my hand.

Her fingers fidgeted with my tie. She hesitated, clearly debating whether to say anything, then looked up at me and spoke.

“Two rules,” she whispered just for me and I met her gaze. “Rule one, if you want to leave at any point tonight, we go. No questions asked,” she said and I couldn’t help the smile that curled on my lips.

“What if?” I said and she shook her head.

“Don’t immediately break rule one,” she mocked my voice and I chuckled, letting her continue. “Rule two, no more being mean to your brother to make yourself feel better. He’s nervous too, his hands are shaking.”

I wanted to tell her that it wasn't from nerves, but from touching her, but I wasn’t about to dump ten years of trauma into her lap ten minutes before dinner.

“Seems someone has been doing their research,” I said to her as she fixed the tension on my tie. The ring on her left hand glinted in the sunlight and reminded me what we were going through hell for.

“Ella is a very sweet girl and made me a study sheet,” Drew said, “we spent a lovely morning together going over everything. I’m ready.”

“She won’t say a word,” I said quickly, trying to head off whatever worry flickered behind her eyes.

“Is that better?” She asked me, ignoring the statement.

“ Better ,” I said.

It was odd how quickly our anxieties mirrored each other and how the roles were reversed.

I didn’t feel like I was being strangled alive anymore so yeah, it was much better.

I continuously forgot how observant she was, she had spotted me that day at Hilly's with such eloquence I should have been prepared for how smooth she could be when she actually got to know me.

“Are you ready?” she asked me, stepping back to admire her handiwork.

I took her hand again and led her inside the massive house, her eyes widened in shock as I took her through each room, showing her the history of a family that would soon be hers.

No , not hers. Not for real.

Josh was already being bored to death by business conversation that he wanted no part of but Seymour didn’t give a shit what anyone wanted. He just liked to talk. Dean looked uncomfortable sitting on the sofa in the lounge holding two glasses of whiskey. I wandered over and took one off his hands.

“Seymour poured it for Josh even after he told him no,” Dean said quietly, lifting his cup to his lips. It was no different than the last few dinners that Josh had joined me for, Seymour didn’t believe anyone could be an alcoholic, let alone be a recovering one.

“Can you believe that I was gifted two grandsons and neither of them give two shits about the business?” He held up two shaky fingers with a scowl on his face as he exclaimed in dramatic fashion.

“Are you going to introduce me, Silas?” he snapped at me and I turned to Drew who was all smiles for the old man.

“Seymour Shore.” He held a hand out for her and Drew stepped into it, leaving me alone and feeling her absence like a tidal wave.

“Drew Courtney,” she said sweetly, holding out her left hand for him. Clever .

Grandfather’s eyes flickered up from the ring to me and back to Drew.

“How much is he paying you?” he asked her.

“Seymour,” Mother sounded appalled as she strutted into the lounge with a drink in her hand. “Where are your manners?”

“I’m dying,” he said, like it was a reasonable excuse to be rude.

“Dying men can have manners,” she scolded him.

Mom walked around the room, coming to me first, “Happy birthday, love.” She wrapped her hands around my face and kissed my cheek. “You look nice, are you sleeping better?” She asked and I nodded.

I could see the surprise on Drew’s face as Mom backed away. It’s your birthday? It was written all over her face but she shook it off just as smoothly.

“Sylwia Shore.” She offered Drew a hand.

Technically she was in the progress of reclaiming her maiden name, Kott, but she had given me a speech about how it was easier to continue with her current introduction.

It was less confusing, she said, but I could see the hurt on her face every time she was forced to use it.

“Drew,” she said again. My mother held onto her hand, her eyes casting over to me in the same way my Grandfather’s did.

“Interesting,” she hummed, “it’s beautiful. ”

“Silas deserves all the credit,” Drew recovered quickly, straightening her shoulders and holding my mothers intense stare.

“I’m sure he does,” Mother cooed with a knowing smile before turning to Josh. “You look handsome today,” she said to him, and Josh nodded a quick thank you.

Their relationship was still weird, tense at moments but both were doing their best to adjust while working through their own issues caused by the same man. A rapture in our family that no one really knew how to handle.

“Dean,” she said hello to him, her hand brushing his shoulder in passing. “Dinner is ready,” she added.

Grandfather disappeared through the archway after her, leaving the four of us in limbo. Josh cut me a sharp look, his eyes demanding answers.

“Later,” I said to him and the denial of any information in the moment infuriated him.

“This family loves secrets more than an alcoholic loves a brewery,” Josh said, shaking his head angrily before starting to walk away from me but Dean stopped him with a flat palm to the chest and whispered something in his ear that made Josh’s shoulders relax and his jaw unclench.

When the two of them disappeared into the dinning room without another word, I leaned my head back and dumped the remainder of the old whiskey down my throat in a single gulp. It warmed my chest and stomach but did nothing to help the anxiety that was coursing through my bloodstream.

I’d known going into tonight that it was going to be bumpy but I hadn’t expected everyone to question my decision that loudly. Drew watched me, her hands folded together in front of her like she was trying to become smaller to give me space to be angry.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized to her quickly, not wanting her to feel unsafe or uncomfortable just because I did.

“You didn’t tell me it was your birthday. It wasn’t in the binder,” she murmured.

The hurt was evident.

“I’m not really big on it,” I said, “we don’t really do birthdays in my family.”

“Everyone should do birthdays,” she said softly, relaxing just slightly into the moment. She looked around me at the entrance to the dining room at the sound of Grandfather laughing loudly at something.

“When you want for nothing, birthdays are irrelevant, what do you get a man who has everything?” I said, mocking my father but feeling the serious implications behind his words.

It had never been about not knowing what gift to buy, it had been about not wanting to put the effort into spending time with me.

“Enough birthday talk,” I said, forcing a smile to dodge the raw spot my childhood had left behind.

“Alright,” she said, “we should go in before they notice we're whispering in the other room.” It surprised me when she stepped forward and tucked her hands into the lapels of the jacket I was wearing, her face closer to mine in a strangely intimate way that made the breath catch in my throat.

“Put your arms around me, Silas,” she instructed.

I listened, pressing the palms of my hands up her back and resting on her shoulder blades.

I could feel the heave of her breathing and in the momentary silence of everything, it slowed my heart rate as I mimicked her breaths and calmed down. I opened my mouth to thank her for being so kind but was cut off.

“Are you two joining us or?” Josh snapped from the archway and I looked over my shoulder with a nod. She had been putting on a show for him without a second thought.

It stung as she pulled away and left my mind screaming for her comfort.

It was just situational , I reminded myself.. If we were having the same conversation in the kitchen of the Nest none of the secondary stuff would have happened. I’d begged her to play the part, and she was nailing it, so well, in fact, she was starting to fool even me.