Chapter 24

I burst out laughing. It was unintentional, but unavoidable. But really? I thought I was the designated crazy person in this pairing. He waited silently and I finally realized he wasn't laughing with me.

"You're serious?" I couldn't believe it. "You're serious. But you can't be serious. Bryce, you're delusional. Your kids won't ever touch this company. Cabal inheritance is very clear. It goes to the eldest—and then to his children, not yours. Naming someone heir almost never works." Sure, the CEO might try and claim otherwise but there had only been five cases in five hundred years where the Cabal had not gone to the oldest son...not while he was alive at any rate.

"What do you know about Cabal inheritance?" He sounded so amused I was almost offended.

"I know I read every book on it when Savannah wanted a way to get Lucas out of his situation. Every single book I could find, back from the Inquisition. I wrote stats and charts and even drew a pictogram. So yeah, I know about Cabal inheritance. And I know both your brother and your uncle have a much better claim, not to mention better suited personalities."

"You never do listen to me, Gillian. I didn't say I had any right to it, I just said my children are going to inherit. Before he lets himself die, Grandpa's going to ensure my kids are in line for succession."

"But he can't!"

"Why not?"

That was a very good point. CEO's were Pharaoh, Caesar, Emperor and God to their companies. He could do what the hell he wanted to do. That didn't mean the board wouldn't try and have him assassinated afterwards, but he could say whatever he wanted.

"Has he told you?"

"No. That doesn't mean I'm not right." He sounded defensive, but this time he didn't lash out. "He won't leave it to Uncle Josef and Sean—I'm technically next in line after him."

"Only because he hasn't had kids yet." And as dumb as it makes me sound, it was only after I uttered the words that I finally got why Bryce saw his descendents running the company, and not his brother's. There was only one thing worse in a company that passed from father to son than sleeping with the enemy—sleeping with someone who couldn't have sons. "Savannah must have told me a hundred times and I just never got it."

"Got what?" Bryce asked cautiously.

"He never looked down my dress, you know. Not even once."

"Not much to look at, is there?"

"Doesn't stop you."

Bryce grinned and took a long look before kissing the tops of my breasts gently. I tried not to tremble as he slowly worked his way up my neck. Again the room seemed to protest, something creaking upstairs. This time, I ignored it—I couldn't think about much besides how terribly talented his lips were. When he got to my mouth, he gave me a firm peck and then said: "Maybe you're just not his type."

"I'm twenty years old and have no obvious deformities. I should be everyone's type." He laughed and dragged me onto his lap. "Plus, your overt-heterosexuality clearly has to be overcompensating for something and Sean seems like the only one you'd do anything for."

"I'm not compen—shut up, Gillian." I giggled as he wrapped his hands around my waist. "I'd help Leech, if he asked for it. And apparently Savannah. And you."

"What about your nephews?"

"Depends whose kids they were. That's the problem with Sean, you know. You can't have kids if you're a fucking f—"

"Bryce."

"I say the shit in front of him all the time and I still don't think he knows I know even though he cringes every single time. I'm his fucking brother and he thinks I can't tell. I bet I knew before he did."

The Nast arrogance never failed to surprise me. "Really now?"

"Girls are all I can think about and he thinks Baywatch is boring? Yeah, I knew there was something different about him. Once you suspect it's the easiest thing to confirm. A flinch here, an inappropriate boner there...and I got 'Dira to do a little recon for me. So yeah, I figured it out pretty fucking quickly. But Sean's always been a little slow when it comes to sex."

"Yeah, brag about the fact that you're easy." He pulled me closer, so that there was barely an inch between us. "Your grandfather knows for sure about Sean?"

"A year after my father died Grandpa came down from breakfast one day and just asked me. I didn't say anything, but I think...I think he figured it out anyway. Grandpa's been giving me hints about getting married since."

I didn't ask how old he had been then; I didn't want to know. No wonder he considered the two of us having children a victory over his grandfather and not just a calamity of epic proportions.

"So you brought a witch to try and scare him?"

"Yeah. I don't think it really worked until you ran your mouth, so I guess I should thank you for that." He didn't look thankful, though, as he played with the tendrils of blonde hair that were draped on my neck. "He still won't hurt you, though. Sometime tonight he'll talk to me, try and talk me out of it. I'll agree, promise you're just a stage, and you'll be safe."

"And you'll marry someone you can't stand at all." Because he truly thought it was the best thing to do.

"Eventually." He gave me half a smirk. "Someone whose genes won't birth midget cult leaders."

I giggled, though I couldn't help asking: "Why doesn't your grandfather just name Josef?"

"Because Uncle Josef is the most qualified, the most talented and the one with the best attitude. He's pretty much desperate to be named heir and he's paid his dues to the company." Bryce smirked. "And yet...he doesn't quite understand our real estate sector. And he has no vision. Hand him a plan and he's a hundred times more efficient than anyone else on the planet. Ask him to come up with an original idea and he couldn't do it if his life depended on it. But all that would be nothing except..."

He took his time, distracting himself by kissing me, and I let him because it felt nice and I trusted he'd get to the point eventually. "Six months after my dad died I got arrested. Drunk and disorderly. Grandpa got me out of it and then locked me up in his house. For the next two years, I didn't leave, but that's—my uncle came over about a month after. He wanted to go over some deal, confirm with the Nast CEO like a good employee should. And Grandpa lost it. Not that he ever raised his voice, but he just got dead quiet and told my uncle he was an utter failure and that he would never, ever inherit. Because he just wasn't as good as Kristof."

Older siblings were like that.

"He was just angry."

"And drunk. But he still said it."

"Bryce, that doesn't mean—"

"Yes it does."

"Who thinks like—" I didn't need to finish the sentence. Thomas Nast's stubbornness was legendary.

"Plus, Grandpa promised the company to Dad. He promised and it wouldn't be fair to take it back just because Dad did something as inconvenient as die. That means Sean has to inherit."

"And once Sean inherits, someone else has to provide the heirs."

"Exactly."

"It would have been better for everyone if your father's sons didn't hate working for the Cabal."

The fact that Sean talked to Savannah meant he was nowhere near cold enough to run this company. While I did think Bryce could play the sociopath well enough to survive being in charge, I was getting the distinct impression he would rather being playing the piano.

"Sean doesn't really hate it. He just gets squeamish sometimes." It took him another long moment before he realized he hadn't bothered to defend himself. "Just because I've been alternating between actively trying to quit and waiting around to get fired since I was sixteen doesn't mean I'd hate working for the Cabal."

"I hear CEOs actually have to do work. You might break out in a rash or something if you tried."

"You're not funny." He sighed. "I wouldn't mind the work if I wasn't shit at it. But I've never been good at business. I'm good when it's one-on-one, when I can see the person I'm supposed to be ordering around. But when it's just me and sheets of paper with numbers on them...I suck. That's why grandpa wants me to have kids so fast, so the company can go from Sean to them."

"I'm sure you're not that bad."

"I'm pretty bad." He perked up a little. "I am pretty great at hiring people who can cover my ass for me, though. If you can't be good at something, pay the people who are to do it for you."

"I still don't get why you can't just quit before he asks you do to all this."

He glanced down, unable—unwilling—to explain this last little bit to me. I remembered the eagle on his arm, remembered how he talked about his grandfather and sort of suspected I knew.

"Gillian, it's—"

He shouldn't have to say it if he didn't want to. He didn't owe me that. I kissed him instead, grinding against him, hands tangling in his hair, making him kiss me back until I couldn't breathe. He groaned under me and when we broke apart, he was pouting.

"I've always wanted to screw someone on this piano."

"Too bad knocking up the witch leads to being dead, right?"

"It really might be worth it," he said with a smile. He closed the piano and lifted me up, placing me onto of the closed keys. He began kissing his way down as I tightened the legs I had wrapped around him. His hands were everywhere, running up my legs, over my body, brushing my hair away so he could kiss me even harder. Still..."We really can't."

"There are other things we can do."

I liked the sound of that. "Like what?"

"I'm sure you can think of something."

I pushed him backwards, just a little. "Like my shoes?"

He laughed and placed a kiss on my ankle. He didn't need much encouragement to start kissing his way up.

"God, could you two cut that out?"

Bryce jerked upright and I almost slipped off the piano. My leg went down and I just barely managed not to ruin the piano bench with my heel. Bryce took a step closer as we both looked up to see Savannah storming down the staircase. She was all dressed up, wearing the black dress from the store. And she looked rather upset.

Which was nowhere how angry I was at that moment. Because Bryce had a very talented mouth and she wasn't supposed to be here in the first place.

Bryce recovered first. "What the fuck are you doing here? Where's Leech? How did you get in? How—how long have you been fucking there?"

He was furious. Great. I was going to get to witness another fight. And they both looked so nice, too.

"I'm researching time tears. Leech is guarding the door and he's the one who got me in here. I've been up there since before you came in. By the way? Gillian was right. You were being way too defensive about the being nice thing."

Eager to avoid rehashing, I changed the topic, "I didn't see Leech."

"He'd be by the door upstairs," Bryce dismissed. "Only the inner family's allowed the way we came in. The nonfiction books are upstairs too. I could have just brought them for you."

"But what fun would that be?" Savannah asked. "Besides, I wanted to wish Gramps happy birthday in person."

"He really would have you shot. Even with Leech, there's no way in hell you could sneak in. We have a clairvoyant."

"They're doing a shitty job then, because I'm clearly here."

I slipped off the piano and tried to smooth down my dress. "Did you find anything?"

Savannah shook her head but said, "They have some really cool elemental spells in this one book. I've been copying some of it out and I think we could get it to work. Maybe create a little twister or something."

"I cannot be listening to this," Bryce muttered. "You cannot be saying this. They'll have to kill all of us."

"Couldn't you just order them not to? I mean, if you're going to—" She broke off when her brother glared, but recovered quickly enough. "Hey, I'm not going to forget you said you'd help me."

Bryce started to look annoyed, so I figured now would be the time to tell Savannah about the more unfortunate news. She wasn't nearly as happy to hear my body was recuperating as I had been, but she couldn't think of a reason for the visions we had seen either.

"Leech can look that stuff up later. At least that means Gramps won't be around to annoy me. Express vision from the future and all that. Though if before was the two of you refraining from making a huge mistake, I hate to see what the alternative was."

"We should have fucked on the piano," I muttered. Savannah pretended to gag and I flipped her off. Further conversation was cut off by a knock on the door. Bryce waved her back upstairs and Savannah nodded, gave me a tiny salute and raced quietly upstairs. Bryce dragged me to the couch and then went to open the door.

The door creaked opened and Bryce relaxed. It was only Sean. I crossed my legs and tried not to wish Kirstof Nast had just never had any children.

Sean leaned against the back of the chair nearest to them, beside Bryce's jacket. "I knew I'd find you here."

"I'm a predictable guy," Bryce agreed.

"Grandpa wants to see you in the study. Alone."

Bryce sighed and looked at me; I tried not to let onto how scared I was at the thought of being left by myself, but he figured it out anyway. "I can't leave her. She's liable to run away."

"I only tried to do that once, thank you very much. And you were being a jerk," I muttered.

"Oh, come on. That was probably the nicest I ever was to you."

"I thought we weren't talking about how nice you were anymore." Remembering our previous argument just served to remind me I was still angry at him. "You declared it off-limits, remember? It's bad enough you dictate everything, but you could at least be consistent about it."

"Bryce," Sean hissed. He had been watching our discussion with a nervous expression and now he gave me a pained smile. "You didn't...pay her to come tonight, did you?"

"What is with your family and calling me a whore?" I glared at Bryce, it clearly being his fault. But I told Sean. "He actually kidnapped me."

"I'm being helpful," Bryce protested.

Sean looked both oddly touched and ready to strangle his brother. "You're not even really dating her?"

Bryce shifted closer to me. "No. But Grandpa won't know that. I plan to stand up for our love for ten whole minutes before letting myself get manfully persuaded that she's just in it for the money."

Sean sighed. "I love you but you're such an idiot."

"You're not pissed?"

"I can't be. It was sweet. Stupid, but—"

"Shut up. You'll look after her while I go get my ass handed to me?"

Sean nodded and gave me an apologetic smile. I guess after Kristof gave all the manners to Sean there were none left for his other children. I fixed Bryce's tie as he pulled down his sleeves, trying to smooth out the wrinkles, rubbing off the lipstick and any other signs of my presence. I guess it was a good thing we had started fighting—visiting his grandfather post-coital was probably too much even for Bryce Nast. Maybe.

"Remember you can't hit your grandfather!" I called as he left the room.

He flipped me off as he went out the door, because he was mature like that. I felt guilty grinning when I looked at Sean so instead I said, "I suppose you'd prefer to be back in the hall?"

"Only if you feel comfortable." I didn't and it must have shown on my face because he followed it up with, "Has Bryce shown you the garden?"

I shook my head and he offered me his arm. I took it and was surprised to realize the brothers were exactly the same height—the fact that I knew that made me worry. I had to look too far up to look Sean in the eye.

"I'm really sorry about dinner. Bryce should have known better than to bring you."

"He shouldn't have to 'know better.' He should be allowed to bring whoever the hell he wants."

"You know you've been hanging around him too long when you start sounding like him. He must have given me that speech a hundred times. How long have the two known each other?"

"A while..." I said breezily. I almost wished we hadn't given away the game. Sean looked gullible enough. It could have been fun, creating a fictitious relationship with someone much too kind to be Bryce. I could have made it quite romantic. Oh well.

We talked about Savannah—as I distracted him from looking around and seeing Savannah—because really, what does the heir to the biggest Cabal in North America have to talk about to a penniless witch almost ten years his junior?

It was cool outside, now that it was getting late. The sky was now black—save the twinkles of tiny stars. There were a few couples talking strolls and a few others...enjoying the scenery. I think I even saw an exotic pink headdress through some of the bushes.

There was only the faint light of the house and a few lamps along the path as we strolled along the main grove. With all the little alcoves along the way, it was the perfect place for secret deals, which was probably the whole point.

We were out there a long time, still walking long after I just wanted to end the conversation. Sean was good at asking polite questions, but I hated talking about myself and I wasn't sure what to ask him about. There wasn't much he could say about his work that I wanted to hear and his personal life was completely off limits. I have to admit I was tempted to go there, to make an offhand comment about a possible girlfriend, but realized I couldn't actually do that. Sean was too nice.

We turned down a side path, feet brushing along the small stones, and almost ran into a couple coming from the other direction. Couple may have been the wrong word. They were a man and a woman, walking steadily beside each, perfectly in time, but neither was looking at the other. In fact, tension was radiating off of both of them.

"Mr Nast," the man said as soon as he saw my companion. "May I have a word?"

I recognized the man as Hollis, the necromancer Bryce had been avoiding all night. He was a tall man—almost reaching the great heights of Leech, with short hair that had once been black but was now salt-and-pepper, heavy on the salt. He was radiating power, but it was undercut by a complete self-consciousness. He wanted people to fear him and that sort of desperation made him much less scary. There was also the most ridiculous sort of worm on top of his upper lip that seemed to move as he glared at the women beside him.

She was much shorter—finally, someone closer to my height. A middle-aged woman, she wasn't slender and the dress she was wearing did nothing to disguise that fact. Her hair was beginning to frizz out of its tight bun, giving her a much more thrown together look than most of the women I had seen tonight. Still, frumpy or not, she looked tough. And I had a long time to study both of them, as they came at us in the night, calling for Sean. They both looked so upset that I wished the trees that lined the path were just a little less thick.

"There's no need to bother Mr Nast over domestic issues, Hollis," she admonished. "You should know better."

I could hear the threat in her voice, even if I didn't understand it. Sean looked between the two of them and waited for them to decide amongst themselves who was right.

"I don't need you to remind me of anything, Mariah. Certainly not in this instance. I merely wished to go over the particulars of the Corey-Stirling deal with Mr Nast before the night was out."

Mariah bristled, like he had slapped her across the face. "The Corey-Stirling deal is under my jur—"

"Then I assume you have informed Mr Nast of the changes I had to make to it this morning."

They glared at each other. Mariah...wasn't she the one who had tried to kill Hollis? The Cabals, I had to admit, were good that way. One day you might be mortal enemies, but the next, if business required, you were the best of friends. Or at least, talking to one another semi-civilly. Sean cleared his throat and addressed Mariah. "Is there something I need to know?"

Something twitched above her eye. But one look at Hollis's face changed her mind. "Yes, sir, if I could just have a moment."

Sean glanced down at me helplessly. He better not— "Hollis, could you stay with Gillian for a minute? I'll be right over there."

And with that he moved away with Mariah, leaving me alone with a scowling necromancer. Because I wanted to keep my mouth open in case I had to scream for help, I asked, "Is your partner a necromancer too?"

"My subordinate," he corrected fiercely, "Also carries that distinction. It is not polite to ask after someone's race."

I blushed and was silent. But Hollis wasn't. "You're here with the younger Mr Nast, are you not?" I confirmed this and a calculated look came into his eye. I tried to see if Sean was still in visual range. He was, but unfortunately he looked completely engrossed with what Mariah was saying. Damn.

"I haven't had the good fortune to speak to him tonight. Where is he?"

That wasn't a request, it was a demand. I figured the truth could only piss him off. "Discussing important business with his grandfather."

"You're not important," Hollis said. I was surprised he had said anything, but I guess insulting the witch pretend-girlfriend wasn't against the company rules. "If you were important he would have introduced you to his friends."

"Bryce has friends?" I said glibly, trying to remember if Bryce had told me anything about Hollis that would help me understand what the hell he was getting at. Unfortunately, mentioning Hollis had Bryce going off into an incoherent rant every time, which meant I knew nothing about what the necromancer could want as he stared at me expectantly. "I didn't know anyone but Leech could put up with him."

I belatedly remembered Paulson, how he was faintly uncomfortable around Leech, and wondered if mentioning him to an actual necromancer was a good idea. But Hollis didn't scowl. All he said was,

"You've met Martin?"

It took me a second to realize Leech must be a nickname and Martin sounded like a good enough first name as any. I nodded.

"You need to storm off, heading down the path for thirty feet before turning right, then left and then right again. And you should hurry."

"No thank you." At least I was polite.

Something close to desperation ran across Hollis's face. "Did Bryce tell you why he hates me?"

And here I thought Bryce had been subtle. When I shook my head, Hollis groaned. Yet even as the grunt of frustration tore past his lips, he came to a realization. "He must have told you Martin is unwelcome here."

"He might have mentioned something like that."

"Then you know it would not be a good idea for you to stand here while security deals with him."

I stared at him, unsure that he meant what I thought he did. Could I take that chance? Bryce said I wasn't valuable enough to kill yet, so I should be safe even if Hollis was just trying to get back at Bryce. I turned to go.

"Good. Like I insulted you. Like you don't want to stay near me for a second longer."

Since I didn't really want to stay anyways, it wasn't that hard to pretend.

I had barely gotten twenty feet when I could make out the sound of flesh hitting flesh. I turned to look behind me, but Hollis was busy arguing with Sean and Mariah. Jackass. I turned the corner, sprinting as fast as I could in heels, wondering what was wrong with all these people.

I turned right, then left, then right again and found myself in a small clearing among the tall bushes. In the center, Leech was crouched as four men—the only way anyone could hope to take on the mountain that was Leech—kicked the everlasting shit out of him.