Slipping my fingers through his hair, I brushed my thumb across his temple and tried to tamper the irritation I felt swelling beneath my rib cage. The last thing I wanted was for him to note my exhale and blame himself for sharp, uneven motion.
What the fuckwas he even doing here?
Silas worked from home. Six goddamn years he’d worked for Ben and notoncehad he’d ever been ordered to step foot outside of his apartment.
“Kingston.” Ben stepped forward, the tone of his voice like a boulder—solid and brutal as it tore through the room. Cold eyes assessed me where I stood, and though I was a bubble of impending rage and unanswered questions, I kept my fucking mouth shut until he spoke again. “Would you like to explain to me what the fuck is going on here?”
“Actually, sir, I was hopingyoucould explain. Perhaps, you could start by telling me what the hell Silas is doing here.”
My words pummeled him the same way a fist to the jaw would. Disrespect wasn’t a habit of mine, and I didn’t miss the fists he held at his sides or how heavy they looked. When he palmed the place his gun was stored, I knew I’d fucked up.
I just couldn’t seem to give a shit.
“If you wanted Silas in this meeting, sir, I would’ve brought him myself.”
“Silas is my employee, Kingston, I don’t need your fucking permission to call him into my office.”
“Silas ismine. He belongs tome. As far as I’m concerned, you need my permission to breathe in his fucking direction.”
Silence swept the room, and for a moment, all I heard was the sound of my blood pumping violently beneath my skin and my boy’s uncertain whimpers. With a flick of his feeble fingers, Silas reached for the edge of my sport’s jacket and lifted it just enough that he could bury his head beneath it.
“The last man to speak to me in that tone found himself rotting at the bottom of fucking Pacific. Tell me, Kingston, do you have a death wish or are you just stupid?”
He studied me with the click of his tongue, his frigid gaze roaming over my figure while he waited for me to provide him with an answer that wouldn’t completely piss him off.
“I think we’re both well aware of my intellect, sir. If you didn’t trust my judgment or my ability to make covert, level-headed kills, then you wouldn’t have tasked me with taking out the man who vies for your life. My loyalty to Silas does not negate my loyalty to you, but make no fucking mistake, if your threats force me to choose, I will choose him.”
Silas sniffled softly beneath the thick fabric of my jacket, his tiny fists holding handfuls of my shirt as though he feared the moment I disintegrated between his knuckles.
“I’m not certain what happened in that hallway, nor do I understand why Silas is even in this fucking room tonight, but what I am confident in is his ability to find this ghost before he finds you.Six yearsSilas has worked for you and not once has he fucked up.”
Ben’s lips remained flat, bulging only when he ran his tongue along his teeth. His head cranked slowly over his neck, eyes stoic and blinks violent as he raked his gaze over Silas, calculating every square inch of the space we stood.
My boy emerged from his hiding place, crawling carefully up my chest to peer over my shoulder. The grip I had on him was likely crushing the curved bones of his rib cage but he arched into me as though he was begging for more—more force, more security,more pain.
Tears stained his pale cheeks and coasted down his features like a fountain of sadness but his voice was absent of fear, and it possessed nothing but resolute certainty when he opened his mouth and started to speak. “If you throw my Daddy in the ocean, I will ruin your life with one click of my keyboard.”
Fuck.
It was a struggle not pin him to the nearest wall and kiss the fuck out of that naughty mouth. I wanted to spank his ass for talking back like that, buthell, I wanted to praise him more.
My kitten’s claws were sharp, and though he was afraid, he sunk them into Ben’s chest the only way he knew how, and if I let him, he’d tear at the flesh until there was nothing left but shards of bone and scraps of skin.
Ben remained passive, but I knew by the subtle arch of his eyebrow that my boy’s outburst had caught him by surprise.
“I didn’t know the ghost was a secret, and I’m sorry for making Toby cry but I promise I’m going to find that ghostly bastard and then I’m going to watch my daddy blow his brains straight out his ears.”
I slipped my hand beneath his shirt, rubbing my palm up his spine.
He shivered when my palm met his skin. “It was an accident, Mr. Thomas, and I’m sorry. I like my job very much, but if you try to hurt my Daddy, I’ll—”
“I suggest you choose your next words very fucking carefully, kid.” Ben’s gaze thinned. “Threatening me is not wise.”
“I wasn’t going to threaten you, Mr. Thomas. Maybe I would've before, but not… not since I met Toby. He loves you a lot, and even though you’re mean and I don’t like you all that much, I wouldn’t want to take Toby’s daddy away from him.”
The bite of his nails was familiar now, and I reveled in the sting when he sank them into the nape of my neck. A shiver ran through him when he dragged his thumb through a shallow pool of my blood and spread it across his lips.
“Please, Mr. Thomas, don’t take my daddy away from me.”