Addicted After All(152)
I pocket my cell. “What you’re feeling now is self-inflicted,” I shoot back. “You can end this—”
“Fucking stop,” he growls lowly.
I shake my head. “All you have to do is tell her. Just say it, bro. You’d rather the position go to me than her.” He thinks he’s subjecting me to hell, but he’s not. It’s not unbearable. This is where I was always supposed to be.
“I can’t f*cking choose her over you, or vice versa.” Darkness sweeps over his face like a passing storm.
It’s like this is a sin he refuses to commit. “It’s not a sin,” I tell him outright. “I’m not going to hate you for choosing a better life for the girl you love. I’m not that f*cking guy.” Not anymore.
He stays silent, his muscles constricted.
So I lick my lips and add, “Let’s do this together. You and me, like we were supposed to do from the beginning. It’ll be a fair fight. We’re even right now. Just get Daisy the hell out of this.” And then I’ll find a way to win. There is no way that I’ll let my brother live this kind of life. It’s not even remotely something he’d want.
He’s just too selfless to let me have it without a fight.
Ryke opens and closes his fists. Even when he’s in deep contemplation, he looks aggressive. After a long moment, he says, “Fuck.” He lets out a pained laugh. “She’s not even a Hale.”
“Neither are you.”
His face contorts in a cringe. “Don’t justify what you’re doing, Lo.”
I grit my teeth. “I’m just stating a goddamn fact. Another fact—she’s beating our asses. So unless she self-sabotages, she’s going to be handed the company. You and I both know that’s a darker f*cking world for her than it would be for us.”
Ryke rests his hands on his head for a second and then drops them. He just shakes his head, over and over.
“This isn’t going to break me,” I tell him. “But it’ll ruin her. Do you want to live with that?”
He looks sick to his stomach. “No…but—”
“There is no but,” I force, setting a hand on his shoulder so his gaze lifts to mine. “This is it.”
A full minute of pure silence passes between us, the type that vacuums the air. And then he says, “I need you to come with me.”
I frown. “Why?”
“If I’m going to convince Daisy to self-sabotage, we need to gang up on her.”
{ 50 }
LOREN HALE
I just barely wrap my head around this plan before Ryke adds something else.
“Don’t expect me to f*cking lie down and give this to you,” he says quickly. “If you really f*cking want this, Lo, you have to beat me for it.”
He doesn’t think I can. At the start of this, I would’ve agreed. Years ago, I wouldn’t have even tried, knowing the end result would be the same.
Fuck that guy.
There is nothing that says I can’t measure up to my older brother.
I may be a bastard, a failure, a natural-born loser, but I can win in the end. For once in my goddamn life, I’m going to do it.
* * *
“Hey, guys…” Daisy says hesitantly. We’ve dragged her away from Irene to the lobby outside of the hotel’s ballroom. It’s quiet, except for the occasional server that passes through with empty trays of food.
Ryke and I have our arms crossed, towering over her. Even so, she stands straight, unflinching. “Let’s try this again,” Ryke tells her. “I don’t f*cking want you taking this position.”
She sighs. “Ryke—”
“I’ve thought about it,” he cuts her off, “and I’ve decided that I’d rather Lo become CEO than you. So you can stop fighting for this and start cheering on my brother.”
Daisy laughs like he’s joking, but our no-nonsense postures never change. Her laughter dies. “I don’t want you to choose me over him.”
My ribs constrict, and I expect this to pain Ryke enough to retract his statement.
Instead, he says, “Too f*cking bad, Calloway. I chose you.”
She hesitates, and so I interject. “Come on, Daisy. You’re not a Hale. It’s weird if you steal this position from me. It’s mine.”
Her shoulders drop and begin to curve inward. She meets my edged features still. Not scared off by them. “I worry about you and…” She can’t finish that statement. But I get it.