Love's Confinement Page 5

  Theo’s head darted all around as he tried to follow that one. “Huh?”

  “Right, not a warrior,” I groaned. I quickly filled him in on the rules for warrior challenges, either over arguments or for rankings at a camp.

  Theo listened with wide eyes and then laughed so hard he was holding his stomach. “There’s no way a straight guy came up with that idea. I mean, no fucking way.”

  “I never thought about it like that,” I admitted, smiling at how funny he found it. Watching him laugh was amazing. He let everything go and simply was for a while minus the weight he carried from what he’d been through. It totally did me in just to watch him.

  “You promise not to lie to me and listen and I’ll get you to having lots of sex in no time,” Sam offered, rubbing his eyes.

  Theo shot him a suspicious glance and then looked at me.

  “Sam’s a straight shooter. If he makes a deal, he keeps it. He’s your best chance and he’s good at what he does so I’d put my chips on him.”

  “All right, straight shooter Sam,” Theo chuckled at his own joke. “I’ll be good. What can we do and what do you want to poke me with next?”

  I growled and didn’t realize it until every set of eyes in the room landed on me. I cleared my throat and picked up a fork. “Sorry.”

  “He was referring to the thermometer I kept trying to put in his ear,” Sam clarified. I nodded and leaned over the counter, glad Dottie wasn’t there for this conversation. Where was she anyways? “Answer a few questions first and I can answer yours. Have you been light-headed?”

  “No,” Theo responded and held up a hand when Sam opened his mouth. “The edges of my vision got a little fuzzy when I stood up fast that last time so I grabbed the chair just to be safe, but I didn’t get a head rush or feel woozy. I was being precautious because it was right there and nothing says goober like keeling over, so I grabbed the chair just in case.”

  “Fair enough,” Sam conceded. “How’s your stomach? Eggs and toast okay?” Theo thought about it a minute and nodded. “Thirsty?”

  “Not really,” Theo sighed, leaning his hip against the island counter. “Kinda feel like a balloon that might pop if someone sticks me with a pin. You did make me drink two pints of blood and that huge Gatorade.”

  “Dude, you were pacing all over the place. You gotta stop that and slow down.”

  “Sorry. Just excited that I can pace and I’m not chained up,” he mumbled, staring at his feet. “My muscles keep feeling weird like they might cramp up if I’m not using them or I don’t know so I just want to.”

  I dropped my fork and moved over to Theo, pulling him against me and hugging him as I kissed his neck. He wrapped his arms over mine and accepted the comfort.

  “You can walk around, Theo,” Sam agreed, his tone gentle this time. “I encourage it even, but no more with the manic pacing and motoring it around the room. Your muscles are trying to rapidly heal after not being used for so long and get you back to where you were. Slowly walking around and stretching will help, but some of that is mental. It’s understandable. I’d be thinking the same thing.”

  “Me too,” Wally murmured as I nodded.

  “We could blow the bomb shelter if it helps,” Roarke offered. I blinked at him, liking him better now. He shrugged. “Sounds backwards to blow up something made to withstand a bomb, but that’s from the outside. You put one in it and we could bring it down.”

  “Yeah, I want to do that,” Theo whispered, shaking against me. “After the work party thing, I want to blast that hellhole to shit.”

  “Wait, you’re still having the work function?” I hedged, moving away and turning him around. I hated to focus on that but it seemed odd.

  “I have to,” he sighed. “This is for Father’s human cover. I’m working on the story to tell but it can’t be prison or people would check with their contacts. If I say he’s sick, I need Lloyd to sell that, but we need the party. The council agrees we don’t need the scrutiny especially after I reported Lloyd’s suspicions of illegal dealings. That’s part of why I was manically pacing. I’m waiting for word on what the team they’re sending in found on a ship that docked this morning.”

  My eyes just about bugged out. “You’ve been busy.”

  “That’s not the half of it,” he chuckled darkly. “The council agreed to have their finance people review all my father’s books for all the companies to make sure everything else is on the up and up. I asked to make sure I’m clean in their eyes and we can do it faster than humans. They took it as a sign that I’m dedicated to the council above all else and I just got word that there’s talk about maybe offering me my father’s seat on the council.”

  “What?” a few of us exclaimed.

  “But you’re like a kid,” Roarke continued.

  “Great, I’m an infant then,” Wally drawled.

  “No, babe, he’s really not, and you’re all man,” Roarke corrected, throwing his arm around his mate and kissing his cheek. “I meant in the eyes of the council. He’s only a hundred and three. That’s like nothing in the council’s eyes.”

  “Except I’m an Ashton,” Theo sighed, leaning back against me. “My father’s seat was passed down from his father, and from his father, and so on.”

  “So it’s one of the few lineage seats,” Sam muttered, rubbing his hands over his head. “While not a set-in-stone rule, the council does like its traditions and you’ve gotta be an old bloodline family then.”

  “We are,” Theo confirmed. “Plus, I’m now in charge of Ashton, Inc.”

  “Right, your family’s company,” I hedged. “You talked about this with Lloyd.”

  “We were speaking in code because I didn’t know if you’d like me if you knew the whole thing,” he admitted, pulling away. I watched as he hurried around the kitchen, cleaning up the coffee I’d spit everywhere I’d missed, putting empty pans in the sink… Being manic again.

  “Theo, stop,” Sam gently reminded him.

  “God, I need like a shock that reminds me,” he bitched.

  “How about a heart rate monitor?” Wally offered. “Can’t you set those to beep above a certain level?”

  Sam shook his head. “Not a bad idea but for right now I don’t want him getting worked up at all over barely resting.”

  “Theo, whatever’s going on, don’t worry about me, okay?”

  “I told you I’m not playing or just having fun here, Evan,” he snapped, tossing a pan in the sink harder than it needed to be.

  “That’s not what I meant,” I assured him, closing the distance between us and cupping his cheek. “I’m saying I can handle it. What I can’t handle is watching you stress after all you’ve been through, all you’re going through, because you’re worried about telling me something. I’m not just having fun here either. I like you. I still like you even after hearing you might become a councilman.”

  “What is he talking about?” Wally muttered. “I would think most people would want to date someone with that kind of power and prestige.”

  “Not me,” I said at the same time Theo went, “not Evan.” We smiled at each other and I leaned down and kissed his forehead. “It means a lot to me that you know me well enough to have figured that out. You don’t act like some douche councilman and that’s all that matters to me. We just met and we’re seeing where this is going if I understand our conversation last night.” Theo nodded. “Then lay it on me because I’m going to find out so there’s no point in stressing.”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through his shiny hair. “It’s not just a blood bank company. That would be too conspicuous especially if none of the blood ever ended up with humans. Ashton, Inc. is the parent company for Ash Tree Pharmaceuticals, Evan, and that’s not all.”

  There was a loud crash behind me and I slowly turned around to see Sam staring at us with eyes so big I was shocked they were staying in his head. I glanced at the floor and saw it was his glass of juice that had shattered. “You’re fucking kidding me? Council
man Ashton built Ash Tree Pharmaceuticals? That asshole helps all those people?”

  “It makes money,” Theo chuckled. “Helping people was just a side effect my father didn’t care about.”

  “Um for those of us without medical licenses who don’t know what this means?” Roarke hedged. I felt the same way, but once again, he beat me to asking the question.

  “You know all those rare super-fruit vitamins like acacia berry, green coffee bean extract, garcinia cambogia, and all of those? Ash Tree Pharmaceuticals found them, tested them, and made them popular, the next big thing every other company copied off of,” Sam explained.

  “I love those green coffee bean vitamins,” Wally gushed, glancing at Theo like he was a rock star. “All the post-trans were taking them so we could have enough energy to study. They’re amazing. No shakes or withdrawal like energy drinks.”

  “It’s not like Theo invented them,” Roarke chuckled.

  “Actually, that one I found,” Theo corrected. I looked at him and his cheeks heated up. “I tried to run from my father and found out about it in a small village that used it for energy and weight loss. When his men tracked me down, I lied and said I’d been following up on rumors of some human weight loss thing. He freaked out and decided I was finally accepting my place in the family. My whole plan backfired because that’s when he started really pushing for me to mate.”

  “So you’re worth a lot of money?” I asked, needing to hear him say it. “That’s what you’re trying to tell me.”

  “Yeah, like gobs of it,” he muttered, staring down at his feet. “It’s also why I woke up so early in a cold sweat because there’s no way the import business is worth more than Ash Tree. Lloyd’s up to something. I got on the phone with someone I knew was trustworthy at the council. Lloyd might be willing to fuck with me but not the council. It’s safer to have them involved even if it means opening my life and family’s everything to them.”

  I opened my mouth to ask more but the phone rang. The caller ID announced who the call was from, and I flinched, knowing it was a councilman.

  “Time to learn what they found on my father’s cruise ship,” he muttered as he pulled away.

  Talk about not getting a break.

  4

  “I’m heading to the office now to pick up the list,” Theo confirmed as he walked back through the kitchen about twenty minutes later, still on the phone. He had stepped outside to take the call, and even though it was a cold morning, I had a feeling that was fine with him given I could see the anger in his eyes as he’d answered the phone.

  I was pretty sure he knew there wasn’t going to be a good outcome to the team’s findings.

  “You emailed the pictures?” I followed after him, waving everyone else off. “Yes, thank you, Councilman. I appreciate the immediate notice. I will go over all of his property holdings as soon as I can and let you know of possible locations.” There was a pause as he ducked into a room and closed the door behind him, over twenty feet ahead of me.

  Now wasn’t the time to leave him alone though. He was obviously upset and still recovering. I didn’t knock, slowly slipping into the room and closing the door again before just leaning against the wall next to it. I watched him lean over a large oak desk and look at a monitor as he clicked a mouse, the printer on another table firing up while the fax was already coming through.

  “I am grateful for the council’s dedication to this matter and faith in me to clean up this mess. Yes, sir, I was told of the interest of me taking my father’s seat, and while I’m flattered, it’s not something I’ve had time to think about just yet. Until we know the scope of the damage he’s done to our people and the risk of exposure, I think we can agree that needs to be put on hold.” He nodded as he stood up and closed his eyes. “Yes, Councilman. I will of course do my duty. I think I’ve already shown that.”

  The call ended shortly after and Theo didn’t say anything as he shoved more paper into the printer and pulled things off the fax. Then when the machines died down, he stuffed it all into a folder and clicked a few more things on the computer before hurrying to the door.

  “What’s going on?” I murmured when he finally saw me.

  “I-I can’t,” he rasped, shaking his head. “Not yet.”

  “Okay.” I rubbed his back with one hand as I opened the door. He walked out and I followed him into the dining room where he opened the file and started spreading things out amongst the piles that had already been there. I hadn’t even seen all of this yet, eating in the kitchen while he’d taken his call. He was acting pretty manic, his chest heaving as he took item after item out of the folder.

  “Theo, what’s going on?” Sam asked as he moved up behind me, standing in the doorway. “You look like you’re having a panic attack.”

  Theo looked at me with wide eyes and nodded before he plopped down in the chair clutching his chest. We rushed over to him and I wrapped my arms around him as Sam checked his pulse.

  “Jesus, his heart is about to beat out of his chest. Theo, what’s going on?”

  “Found—boat—Father,” he answered, gasping in between each word, slapping his hand on the papers he’d been spreading out. I glanced over and saw now that it wasn’t papers but pictures. He must have received documented proof of what was recovered on the ship.

  “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” I murmured as I kissed his cheek. “You didn’t do anything wrong and reported it. You’ve got help and we’ll fix this.” He nodded as he grabbed my hand, squeezing it hard enough that I was shocked at the force behind it given how weak he’d been.

  Roarke and Wally leaned over the table and started looking at the photos. It didn’t take a genius to know it was bad from their expressions. I was dying to see but Theo was my concern.

  “That must be Dottie,” Sam told Theo as if that would help when we heard the front door. “She brought your lunch you wanted. Everything’s fine, getting back to normal. Nothing you can’t handle. Slow, deep breaths, Theo.” He nodded, focusing on Sam, and while it felt like forever, I knew it was only a few minutes until Theo’s breathing and heart rate evened out.

  “What happened?” Dottie asked, her tone calm even as her eyes looked wild.

  “The warriors found more than we could ever have imagined on the ship,” Theo informed her, nodding to the photos. “The council sent proof to me and I freaked as I saw it in color. Hearing the highlights and being told there was a tentative inventory was different than seeing pictures and I panicked. It’s bad, Dottie.”

  “Drugs?” she inquired as she set down a catering tray on the corner of the table before glancing at Wally. “There’s a lot more to be unloaded in the truck, dear.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Wally agreed and headed out. Oh, I liked her.

  She looked at Theo and waited until he nodded. “You own a pharmaceutical monster that can find a practical, medical use for them besides frying human brains. If not, they’ll know how to dispose of them.”

  I really liked her. She made it sound so simple and she was so confident about it that I felt Theo relax slightly.

  “Guns? Weapons?” Again, Theo nodded. “Wonderful, now we have something to donate to the camp these gentleman are from to thank them for saving you and staying on to protect you when whoever’s drugs those are comes looking for them. Plus some for that team that investigated the ship.”

  Wow. She’s good. Roarke smirked as he leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest and watching Dottie work.

  “What else?” Dottie demanded. Theo shook his head, reached over, and slid a few photos to her. She picked them up, swallowing loudly but keeping it together. “Fine, we’ll work on getting these girls work visas and a new life if they want to stay here, helping them get home if they don’t. I’m sure that’s small potatoes to the council.”

  “It’s not that simple, Dottie, and there’s—”

  “It is that simple, young man,” she informed him, leaning over the table and staring into his ey
es. “This is not on you, so get rid of those thoughts that you should have tried to talk to the council sooner instead of run. What would you have told them? He was an asshole to you? Wonderful. They would have laughed you out of there and he would have killed you.”

  “Is that why you got so upset?” I murmured, sighing when he nodded. “Oh, Theo, Dottie’s right. This isn’t on you.”

  He nodded again and looked at Sam. “Can we have sex yet?” I wasn’t the only one who made a shocked sound at his choice of conversational change.

  “No.”

  Wally came in before anything else could be said, loaded to his teeth with paper grocery bags and arms full of catering trays. Roarke helped him set it all down and then I watched Wally lean over the pictures as Theo and Sam started arguing quietly.

  “Why would he have to smuggle in candy? Can I snag some of that?” he asked Theo, shooting him a bright smile, probably thinking he was lightening the mood in the room. “That would totally help the next time I get assigned overnight watch duty. I could just ride it out on a sugar high.”

  “Oh, you’ll be riding it out high all right,” Sam drawled, shaking his head. I snorted as Theo bit back a smile.

  “I don’t get it,” Wally hedged, glancing around the room.

  The rest of us looked at each other and burst out laughing—even Dottie. Theo was laughing so hard that he was wiping his eyes of tears, and honestly, even if it made Wally feel like an ass that it was at his expense, I wanted to thank him for the comic relief moment.

  “Dude, they’re most likely laced with pot like funny brownies,” Sam explained when we calmed down. “Or who knows what else. We’d need to see what the inventory was Councilman Ashton expected to get or have them tested.”

  “Oh.” Wally nodded but still stared at the picture.

  “You’re not trying the candy,” Roarke growled.

  “What? I’ve never had pot,” he defended. “Can’t blame me for being curious.”

  “Kids,” Theo chuckled, snuggling up against me as I sat down in the chair next to him. “Here I would have thought someone would ask for the crates of money that were found, but Wally wants the candy.”