Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Tris gave him a what-the-hell look. “Are you trying to help me or bury me, man?”
“How much business gets done at Sanctum?” Aidan pointed out. “How many things do we decide sitting around in the lounge at The Hideout?”
“Dad says good point. He takes back his previous dumbass comment,” Kala supplied helpfully.
Aidan ignored her. “My point is a club like The Court is as much a social club as anything else. Do you remember the week I was in New York for training on robotic surgery? You had a patient with preeclampsia and you almost lost her and the baby and you needed stress relief. You didn’t go drinking with your friends. You didn’t have anyone to sleep with, so you went to The Hideout and Gabriel Lodge took care of you.”
“It’s not the same, and you knew about it,” Carys said with pure stubbornness. “You know what? I think I’m going to bed. This is the last straw.”
And it hit him. What his father had said.
Has anyone talked about what Carys did wrong?
His father had told him they would face this again and again until they all acknowledged what had gone wrong.
Carys wasn’t being Carys. Carys wasn’t willing to fight.
But suddenly Aidan was.
Carys started to walk to the bedroom, but Aidan got to the door before she could, putting a hand on it so she couldn’t open it. “You’re really going down without a fight?”
Her eyes went startled and then stubborn. “What is there to fight about? He lied. You lied. I’m done.”
“Years, Carys. Fucking years I’ve loved you. Did you realize this is our first real hurdle?”
“Of course it’s not,” she argued.
He was right about this. “Yes, it is because we’re still dealing with Tristan making the decision to pursue his own career. I’m going to ask you what if it had been the other way around. What if I had wanted to go into the military with him? Would you have given up your dreams to follow us?”
Her chin came up. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I wouldn’t have given up college to follow you around the world. That’s not what we asked him to do.”
“No, we asked him to stay when we could give him very little attention. We asked him to take a job he didn’t want at the time, to not explore who he is and what he wants,” Aidan said.
“I didn’t ask him not to go into the military. I knew it was something he needed. It was the Agency I had a problem with,” Carys replied.
“And yet not once did you fight with him. You accepted everything with a sigh like you kind of expected it to blow up all along. You fight for everything, Carys. You don’t stand down. You literally kicked your cousin in her pussy because she pissed you off, but when Tris told us to get married, we let him push us into it when we weren’t ready. There’s a time to be a sub and a time to tell our Dom he’s full of shit.”
“Oh, yeah, you should know Dad’s stealing that one. He’s writing a book of helpful advice called Ianspirations,” Kala said.
He was done with Kala. He pulled his cell and hit the number for Adam Miles. “Hey, Ian’s being an ass and listening in on an important conversation and it would irritate the fuck out of him if you turned off their superspy glasses.”
He knew how to get Tris’s dad to do what he wanted.
Kala sat up straight. “Hey, he can’t do that. Can he do that?”
Carys looked over where Tristan stood, staring at the both of them. He had a grave look on his face.
“I didn’t… I wasn’t being submissive,” Carys argued.
“Then you don’t feel the same way I do,” Tristan said. “Because I feel like I’ve been fighting for us for years.”
Carys’s brows rose. “Fighting? Was it fighting for us when the Agency hacked into my socials and took down any reference to you? Did you give Aidan a heads-up at least?”
“I did not because I didn’t know they were doing it. I expected to have some time, though I can see why they did it,” Tris said calmly. “I thought I had another week or so, but they moved quickly after I took over The Jester project. I can imagine how it felt. It had to feel like someone took important time from you. I do have a copy. If I can get out of this, I promise I’ll restore it all.”
She stared at him stubbornly. “Can you restore the last two and a half years, Tristan?”
“What would he have done, Car? Did you want him here getting your coffee while you studied for a procedure?” Aidan knew he was poking a sore spot, but he was suddenly sure his father was right and if he lost this fight, he would lose the war. “He fucked up, but he didn’t mean to. Tris, did you go into the military with the idea it was a way to get out of a relationship you didn’t want?”