“What can we do to help her?” Hawk asks. There’s a serious set to his jaw, and it would be impossible to miss the underlying anger. “I have tried getting her to talk to me, but all she ever says is that she’s fine.” He spits out the word like it’s acid on his tongue.
“Same,” Mason agrees, and West and Cam nod their heads as well.
I wipe my hand down my face, feeling exhausted and unsure. “I don’t know. I’m afraid of us pushing her too far and she snaps, or has a mental break or something, but it’s becoming pretty fucking clear that she’s not coping.”
Our conversation gets put on hold when the door opens and Hadley walks in. She pauses, seeing us all gathered in the living room, probably looking suspicious as fuck.
Her eyes narrow and she tilts her head slightly. “What are you guys up to?”
“We’re just trying to decide what to do about our parents, if they’re going to rebuild the compound,” Hawk explains, his lie coming out flawless.
“Oh.” She walks over to us and West moves over to allow her to squish in between us on the sofa. “What are you thinking?”
“I say we tell them to go fuck themselves,” Cam states, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his seat, like that solves the problem.
“Yeah, that will go over really well.” I roll my eyes.
“Any chance they’ll just leave us all out of it?” Hadley asks, optimistically, but the look on her face says she already knows the answer.
“No chance. We know too much, and it’s only our parents and Wilbert left.”
West scoffs. “Yeah, and my dad’s going to be fuck all help. All he gives a shit about is drinking and fucking.”
“We need to stand up to them and tell them we’re not taking their shit anymore,” Hawk snarls angrily. “Without the compound, what can they really do?”
“They still have the adult mercenaries,” Hadley wisely states. “They don’t live in the compound.”
“Lawrence was the one that dealt with them though, right?” Hawk asks her.
“I think so.”
“And you said the rest of our parents never really bothered with the compound or getting to know the mercenaries. So they are unlikely to have any of them in their pockets. It’s not going to be as easy for them to just phone them up, and ask them for help.”
“True.” Hadley chews on her lower lip as she thinks through what Hawk is saying. “It’s still a risk, though.”
“I don’t care. I’m fucking sick of them ruling over me.” Hawk shifts so he can lean forward in his seat, placing his arms on his knees and looking intently at Hadley. “The compound is gone. Lawrence is dead. I’m not going to let them be the next ones to dictate your life for you.” He looks at each of us. “I say it’s about time we all claim our lives back.”
Glancing at the others, everyone has a similarly determined look in their eyes as they nod in agreement. When my gaze fixes on West, he catches my eye, and with a steely resolve, he silently tells me he’s ready to get out from underneath our father and start his own life.
“Alright,” I agree. “I guess we’re telling them all to go fuck themselves.”
Cam whoops. “Told you that was an excellent plan.”
***
Two days later, we pull up outside the high-rise our parents’ legitimate business operates out of. It’s my first time here, and I optimistically hope it will be my last. I have no issues with the legitimate side of their business, but I want no part in any of it—legal or otherwise. This corporate world is not for me, and I’m more than ready to wash my hands of it.
We climb out of the car, and I follow the others through the glass door and across the lobby, into an elevator and up to the thirty-seventh floor.
“Boys,” a young receptionist purrs, her eyes bouncing over us, like she can’t choose which one of us she wants to focus on. The only one who doesn’t get a mental undressing is Hadley. “I didn’t know all of you would be stopping by today.”
“We’re here to talk to our parents,” Hawk says sharply, barely paying the girl any attention.
“Oh, well, they’re busy right now.”
“We don’t mind waiting.”
The girl pauses for a moment before she gathers herself. “Of course, follow me.” This time her smile is tighter, less flirtatious, as she leads the way down a hall.
We follow her into a large board room, with an impressive view over the city.
“Can I get you anything to drink?”
We all murmur, “No thanks,” but instead of leaving us to it, she moves over to Cam, placing her hand on his forearm. “I’m so sorry to hear about your father. If you need anything, just let me know.” She trails her long fingernails down his arm, making it clear exactly what she means by that, before giving him one last lascivious look and leaving the room.
Cam’s lip curls up in a sneer, and my gaze darts to Hadley, who is glaring daggers into the door where the girl disappeared. “Bitch,” she mumbles under her breath, making me chuckle.
The others move to take their seats along one side of the large boardroom table, but Hadley and I hesitate a second before taking a seat each on either end of the row. Despite being told they were busy, we aren't left waiting long before the door is pushed open and all three parents stride in, wearing various expressions ranging from confusion, to anger, to curiosity.
“What’s this all about?” Maria snaps. The three of them move to sit opposite us, and I don’t miss the way Maria nudges her husband out of the way so she can sit in the middle of the table. Interesting.
Her eyes assess each of us, lingering longer on Hadley, before she focuses on her son. Hawk takes the lead. Leaning forward, he rests his arms on the table and steeples his fingers as he eyes each of our parents.
“We understand you’re planning on rebuilding the compound—”
“That’s right,” Maria cuts across, sounding more enthusiastic than she did a second ago as she misunderstands where Hawk was going with his little speech. “We’ll be calling on all of you to help us get back on our feet. We will need to rebuild as quickly as possible. It’s great to see you all so ready to prove—”
Hawk smiles tightly. “I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood why we’re here, Mom.” Maria’s eyebrows lift and her lips thin. “We’re done with all of this. We don’t want a part in any of it. Taking over this company was never something any of us wanted, and we definitely never wanted to run some fucked up organization that snatches children off the street and forces them to become trained killers.”
Maria’s gaze roams over Hawk’s face. She never once looks away from him. Instead, she leans in, matching his pose. “Is that so, son? And what makes you think you can just walk away from your legacy? You have no money and no prospects, and apparently no common sense.” Now she turns her steel-cold gaze on each of us. “Have you all forgotten what we said would happen to West if any of you stepped out of line? Maybe you need another demonstration?”