His exact words were: You’re invited. Guest Night, Masquerade Ball, Dress- optional.
The last bit was telling. The question was if I would go. The better one was if I should.SeventeenConnorI hated myself for perpetuating the lie that Striker and Connor were not the same man. A part of me used the excuse that Lizzy had stopped me from telling her, which was true. The other part had decided early on that there would be nothing more between us than a good fuck she wanted, so why would I care if she knew the truth or not.
My phone rang, and I answered, “Speak.”
“Aye, boyo,” Kalen said.
“Brother. Mixing your Scottish and Irish?”
He muttered something in Gaelic I didn’t understand.
“Say what you want. I have a busy day.” Lack of sleep had thinned my patience. I had a feeling I knew why he was calling me. I had expected this conversation.
“I would think being on top would put you in a better mood.”
With my eyes closed, I breathed through my mounting anger. “I never asked to be king of the castle. You can bring yourself back to New York and I’ll happily sign over my duties to you.”
Kalen thought of himself as the forgotten son. After his mother took him back to Scotland, Dad hadn’t forged a relationship with his firstborn.
“Why would I do that when the prodigal son is where he belongs?” he asked.
Kalen’s return to the US after Dad had a mini stroke a few years back had been my first chance at a relationship with my brother. If I’d thought we’d forged a better relationship over the past couple of years, I was apparently wrong.
“I don’t know what Griffin’s said, but I’ve never lied to you. I told our father I didn’t want to be the next CEO, and he called you.” After it had come out of my mouth, it was too late to take it back. Though I’d meant to exonerate myself, I’d unwittingly made it seem like Kalen was second choice. “I didn’t mean that. I did tell him that, but he’d thrown it in my face that you were his firstborn.”
When Dad had called for him to help run the company, despite their differences Kalen had come. What Kalen didn’t need to know was how Dad continued to try and groom me to be the next CEO. Kalen was better suited to running the company than I was.
“Didn’t you graduate from Wharton Business School?”
“Yes, you know that.”
“Yet you’re happy with only being a club owner and not the CEO of a Fortune Five Hundred company.”
I had other business ventures Kalen didn’t know about. We all had our secrets and I had plenty of them.
“I am,” I said.
“Maybe it’s best you get a taste of CEO life before you answer that.”
“I don’t need to,” I said.
“Well, I’m not coming home.”
“Are you staying for the curvy redhead who keeps your dick up at night?”
“That’s none of your—”
“My business. I get it. I’m making the point that some things are more important. I know you got a raw deal from Da and he won’t be winning any prizes for Father of the Year. But he isn’t the monster you think he is. You could speak to him.” Even I was surprised I’d said that.
“I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. You had boarding school. I had the streets.”
Dad, being Dad, had left his first wife a destitute single mother because she’d chosen to leave him and not the other way around. One of the richest men in the world, he hadn’t paid a dime for child support until he needed my brother. But that didn’t make Kalen’s experiences worse than mine.
“Yeah. You have no idea what my life was like. Stop making assumptions. I would choose your childhood over mine any day.”
Kalen laughed darkly and said something else in Gaelic. “Stay away from Lizzy.”
It was my turn to chuckle. “I know you would have preferred Griffin as your blood brother, but he lost this round. Lizzy doesn’t want him. She and I are adults and can fuck each other senseless if we choose.”
“You’ve touched her?”
“That’s none of your business. I’m ending this call, but you say nothing to her. Come back and take the throne or not. I don’t care.”
Dressed in a Roberto Cavalli suit I’d had sent to my home last evening, I headed to my first meeting of the day. Suit delivery was one of the perks of being the son of Royce King. As a rule, I didn’t wear suits, but as acting CEO, I was obligated to dress the part. I had a suit or two in my closet, but they weren’t the latest. The men and women I would be meeting over the next couple of days would notice if Royce King’s son was wearing last season’s fashion.