Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(37)

My mother’s head looked like it was retreating from her body—sliding ever backward until she’d given herself a few extra chins and her eyes were wide as saucers. My father was watching me with a tight jaw and clenched fists.

“But,” I continued, “there’s a point where I think it’s good to give you two a reminder. You don’t have any say in who I date or what I do with my life. You’re spectators.”

Cade was leaning in with an eager, amused look on his face. “This is fucking awesome,” he whispered.

My father took a step closer to me, eyes intense. “Spectators? Maybe it’s time to give you a reminder. You think your mother and I are some crusty, useless old bastards. I know you do. But all our ‘frivolous’ socializing means we have connections. Deep connections. Cross us, and I think you’ll find yourself meeting unexpected difficulties at every turn.”

I met his stare. “If you’re going to blackmail me, why don’t we make the terms crystal clear.”

“Find a way to make it work with Stella, or you’re going to find we have more than enough clout with the mayor and the federal government to delay the construction of your headquarters. We’ll hamstring you as much as we see fit when it’s finally done too. We’ll make moving to West Valley the most costly mistake Sion Enterprises has ever endured. I guarantee it.”

I laughed. “That sounds great. I’ll be interested to see how long Cadwick and Nick continue funding your lifestyle when you start fucking with our company.”

My mother was sneering. “We take their money because it’s convenient, but we aren’t fools. We’ve set aside plenty to get us comfortably by. We don’t need you. Any of you.”

Cade whistled. “Damn. This went from zero to a hundred really fast. So, just to be clear, does this mean I should cancel the check I was supposed to get to you guys for that west wing you wanted to add to the house?”

As much as I wanted to spit on their little threats and dismiss it all, I knew I wasn’t just putting my own interests at risk. Calling off my relationship with Stella would put her directly back into her father’s dating pool of eligible, rich bastards. I had the misfortune of knowing pretty much all of them, and I knew they’d be pawing endlessly at her, no matter how much she chose to disclose about her sexuality. I’d be selling her to the wolves for my own pride, but there was no reasonable endgame in this for us. Stella and I were never going to marry. We were only buying time.

Either way, I needed to give her a warning before I pressed the detonation button on this thing with my parents.

I gritted my teeth. “I’ll think about your threat, and I’ll talk to Stella. We’ll see what she thinks.”

Cade pursed his lips. “Very gentlemanly of you. Sorry, Mom and Dad, but I’m just kind of along for the ride on this one. Besides, odds are you two are going to die first—no offense—and I’ve got to pick allies with more . . . vitality.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “Seriously? That’s your argument? They’re going to die first?”

“Statistically,” he said. “I mean, they’re—oh, they’re gone.”

He was right. My parents had stormed off. I blew out a long breath. “Fuck,” I said.

“Yeah. You kind of blew a gasket on them. What happened to you being the rational one?”

“It was a few dozen years of pent-up fuck them, I guess?”

He slapped my back. “It was good. Next time, though, give me some kind of signal so I can join in. We could’ve tag teamed it or something. Good twin, bad twin.”

I grinned. “Well, now we get to see if Dad was full of shit, or if he’s really as connected as he says.”

“What, you’re not willing to just shack up with Stella to shut them up?”

“Stella is a lesbian,” I said.

“Dude. That’s so politically incorrect. You can’t just call somebody a lesbian because you don’t like them.”

I laughed. “No. She’s actually a lesbian.”

“Yeah, you’re actually a dick, but it’s not okay to just go around saying shit like that. Jesus.”

“Stella prefers women over men.”

Cade raised his eyebrows and threw up his hands. “I know what a lesbian is, dickweed. Oh, wait. You mean literally? If she’s a lesbian . . .” Cade leaned in very close and scanned me from head to toe with his eyes. “Why is she dating you?” His eyes fell meaningfully to my crotch and then widened. “You do have a dick, right?”





Chapter 13





KIRA


I sat with my arms crossed and hoped I didn’t look as much like a pouty teenager as I felt. I was in my classroom after school, and both Iris and Miranda had decided to get off work early to be my chaperones when they learned Rich was meeting me here.

“This is seriously ridiculous,” I said.

Iris pulled out her nightstick and gave it a little twirl. She was getting better at that. “No. Ridiculous is putting your tongue down the throat of the enemy.”

“My tongue isn’t even that long,” I said. I stuck it out. “The little connector thing on the bottom is super tight.”

Miranda rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to get out of this with your weird anatomy. What matters is you kissed him. You kissed Rich. Remind me about the special clause in our promise that said it was fine to make out with the King brothers as long as we came clean and said we regretted it a few hours later?”