Chapter 47

Connor

What the fuck was I thinking coming here?

“Get in the van,” I told my best mates, holding out the keys for one of them to take, but they didn’t. Instead the fob just hung in the air, spiralling slowly.

Just like my head.

Announcing what we were to each other to our whole families seemed like a good idea, but I knew it wasn’t. Bruce was gonna bluster and get all cranky. Heather was staring wide eyed. Maggie got to her feet and along with Phil, surrounded Gage, hugging him close but talking real damn fast. And my dad… I knew exactly what he thought, how he’d respond. The only way the other guys had managed to persuade me that coming here was a good idea was when Van insisted my parents weren’t invited.

But Heather…

She would’ve seen Dad up the street or Mum at the shops. There would’ve been this painfully awkward meeting where they looked down their nose at Heather and she just invited them anyway, because that’s what she was like. A heart as big as her son’s, maybe bigger, she’d be thinking family needs to be together, that getting everyone in the same room would be a damn fine idea rather than the horror show this was.

“I need everyone to get in the van now!”

I didn’t yell at my best friends, and I never intended to even raise my voice at Kendall. I fucking loved her, needed to pull her close and shelter her with my body right now, but I couldn’t. I willed Van to, or Gage, anyone but me, because the minute she got closer… As if summoned by my thought, Kendall did just that, appearing by my side as her eyes flicked from Dad to me and back again.

“Connor—?”

“Babe…” My voice shook on that, which had my jaw squaring. I clenched my teeth so tightly I feared they might crack, trying to get a handle on this. Then I sucked in a breath through my nose and spoke the words that needed to be said. “We need to go now. I can come back later, grab your new bowls—”

“So it is true?” Mum looked me up and down, her eyes narrowing the minute she did the same to Kendall. I shoved myself forward, feeling anger surge through me as I stepped in my mother’s way. “Connor? You’re… what, sleeping with all three of them?”

I let out a little bark of laughter. There was nothing wrong with being bisexual, but the thought of touching my best mates sexually made my mouth fill with bile.

“Sleep? Yes. Sex, which is what I assume you’re asking? Not with the guys, now—”

“And you’re just flaunting… whatever this is.” Mum waved her hand in the air. “To the entire world?” She didn’t wait for an answer, looking at Dad. “Mark, you know what this means.”

“I know, Jane.”

“If it gets out… If people find out…”

That was Mum’s constant refrain. It didn’t matter what happened behind closed doors as long as the right facade was maintained. I snorted, not meaning to, but it came out anyway. Where this snooty bullshit came from, I had no idea. Dad made damn good money, but he hadn’t sold this house and bought something more salubrious in a fancy inner-city suburb. As a family, we were more than comfortable but not truly rich.

And that was the problem.

Dad hit a glass ceiling early on in his success as a builder, finding that money only opened so many doors. There were parties he’d never get invited to and clubs he could never join, but that never stopped him trying. The problem was that Dad had become so successful in the construction industry because he was a cutthroat bastard, never afraid to cut someone’s legs out from under them if they got in his way. When he stared at me, then Kendall, I knew what danger lay behind that icy gaze.

Why the fuck wasn’t anyone moving?

“C’mon—” I grabbed Kendall’s hand, ready to tug her after me, because wherever she went, so would Van and Gage. We’d get back into the van and drive the fuck away from this street, from all of them. If we moved fast enough, we’d avoid this.

“Connor, you know I can’t support this.” Dad crossed his arms and stared me down. “I let you know beforehand what would happen if you were determined to pursue this insanity.” He shook his head sharply, just the once. “You’ve got a chance to walk away from the situation, Son.”

Son.

I only got called that when he thought he could use that title as a lever to pressure me into doing what he wanted, but as I stood there, meeting his gaze head on, I made clear it wouldn’t work.

Which meant I’d have to suffer the consequences.

“I can’t financially support this sort of relationship.”

“Financially support?” Van spat that out. “We’re not kids anymore, Mark.” He said my father’s first name like it was the worst of curse words. “You don’t pay our bills. We do.”

But that just made Dad smile.

“Shut up, Van,” Gage growled, smacking him in the chest.

“What? We don’t have to put up with his shit anymore. The prick thinks he’s someone fancy when he’s just—”

“The seed money,” Gage told him with a meaningful look. “The loan that got the business started?”

We’d needed tools, vans, worker’s compensation insurance, so many things when we just started. It’d been a company of just four workers, us, in the early days. Dad had helped us out with a loan, the terms set out clearly in a legal document. My advisor at the time pointed out the perilous position it put us in. Dad could demand his entire investment back at any point in time, but no one else was gonna lend that kind of money to a bunch of newly minted tradesmen. I had a vision, something Dad actually approved of, and that had led me to signing the deal. I’d worked hard to pay as much of it off as I dared, never wanting to put the company in jeopardy, but needing to get that monkey off my back.

How much were we up to now? My brain raced, trying to provide a number and failing, instead reminding me of the other financial obligation we needed to meet: paying Finn out. Could we swallow both of those costs? I didn’t know. My teeth ground together. I didn’t fucking know. But I needed to ,and that meant getting in the goddamn van and going home where I could hole up in my room and pour over our financial details. My father saw my indecision, sensing blood in the water, just like a fucking shark. His smile was as sharp as one as it slowly widened.

“We’re going now,” I said, my voice ringing out across the entire backyard. “You’ll get your fucking money.” I stabbed my finger in my father’s direction. “And so will you, Finn. I don’t know why all of you, the people who’re supposed to care about us the most, are being so fucking judgemental about a relationship that was always…” Words failed me as I stared into Kendall’s eyes, mutely pleading with her not to let their bullshit get to her. “It was always meant to be. There’s only ever been you for me, Kendall.”

“Same,” Gage said, stepping closer.

“You know it, beautiful,” Van added before looking back at the others. “Something I thought everyone here would be cooler about, especially as you had goddamn key parties, but… Fuck, if you can’t support the fact we fucking love Kendall, then…” He snatched the keys from my hand, finally doing what I asked. “Then don’t expect to see a whole lot of us because this isn’t going away. C’mon, babe.”

He wrapped his arm around Kendall’s waist and escorted her out of the party.

“Expect a call from my lawyers,” Dad said as I passed by and that stilled my steps.

“Wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Dad.” I let out a long sigh, then shook my head. “But if you’re worried about what your cronies will think of your son being in a relationship with a girl at the same time as his best mates, well, imagine how people will talk when I don’t turn up for your fancy Christmas parties.”

Mum let out a little gasp. There was nothing she loved more than holding lavish parties for Dad’s business contacts.

“You don’t need to sic your dogs on me. I’ll get you your money, but once that business relationship severs, so will everything else.” I met Dad’s eyes, then Mum’s. “You won’t see me again, ever. You won’t have to explain to your colleagues anything about your son’s relationship because as far as I’m concerned, you won’t have a son.”

Mum twittered something, and Dad responded in a low growl, but I didn’t pause to catch the content, striding back down the path and out of the backyard. The van was idling by the time I reached it, so I climbed in the back.

“Con—” Gage said, peering in the rear vision mirror at me.

“Just drive, please.” That last bit was tacked on to try and mitigate the harshness of my snappy tone. I didn’t do that either. “I need to get home and…”

Try and find a fucking way out of this mess. My heart clenched tight in my chest, like it was trying to squeeze every drop of blood out of it at the same time. I’d taken that loan from my father, knowing what strings were attached, but it was the only way I could see to go forward. To build something for the lot of us.

A life.

Gage nodded and did just that without a word, the van silent during the entire ride home. I stared out the windscreen as we pulled up at the house, filled with the knowledge that I’d pushed for the guys to buy this house rather than something more modest, in this suburb, rather than a much cheaper, but less safe one, further from the city. I’d pushed us to take on all of these financial burdens, investing our money in this rather than paying Dad out.

So I needed to find a way out of this.

“Connor—”

Kendall followed me as I strode through the front door, her hand going to my arm and it was her touch that stopped me. Just the feel of it, of her willingly reaching out to grab me filled me with a strange kind of light that threatened to dispel the shadows.

But I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“I need you to go with the others, just for tonight.” I pulled Kendall close, treasuring the way she fit against my chest. “I need…” I swallowed hard. “I need to sort this out, but come morning, I’ll have a solution, I promise.” Gage appeared over her shoulder, staring at me steadily, Van joining him moments later. “I’ll get this sorted.” I pulled back to look down at her, forcing myself to smile. “That’s why you have three boyfriends, babe. The other two can look after you while I—”

“No.” My heart sank as Kendall shook her head sharply. “No. That’s not how this is going to work, so”—she nodded to my bedroom door—“let’s go in and work out how big the problem is before we find a way to fix it.”