SEVENTEEN

This day couldn’t get worse.

Or at least that’s what I thought, until I saw Kash’s scary grandfather exit his vehicle, making a beeline for my building. He looked so dignified, too, almost like a diplomat, and he was getting the attention to warrant that impression. Like this morning, I saw Goa and Busich, but unlike this morning, Wells wasn’t there. She was replaced by a bunch of other official-looking older people. That’s when I clued in on the students. The sorority and jock groups weren’t there. They were replaced by more serious-looking students, ones wearing pin-striped suits and dress shirts, or dress skirts and high heels in a nude coloring, so you’re still edgy but it’s not really edgy.

Calhoun never saw Kash.

It was one of those surreal moments, where you can’t believe you’re watching it but you are, because it’s happening in front of you. It’s one of those moments I’d always remember, and not because of my memory but just because it was that awesome.

Maybe this déjà vu case wasn’t so bad.

Calhoun was looking toward the Hawking staff.

He had this pompous look on his face, straightening his suit jacket as he started for them. He got only a step, but they took the signal and approached. He stopped, his head up, his nostrils going wide as he was breathing this in, and an arrogant smirk was on his face. He was expecting them to come to him, and so he was going to wait and watch them, as if they were beneath him.

Seriously. So narcissistic.

He never took in the crowd. Not once. The way he was at ease with them there, this clearly was something else he was expecting.

He thought they were there for him. To his credit, maybe they were. Maybe the staff rounded them up because the groups were different than the ones congregating earlier this morning, but Kash was cutting right through the crowd, the staff, and going straight to his grandfather.

His face was granite. His eyes hard. His jaw clenched.

He was seething, but he didn’t give his grandfather attention.

I thought that’s what he was going to do. He didn’t. That made it even more awesome, because he cut in. His grandfather’s security never stopped him. I didn’t know why that was, but only one saw him coming, and his face twitched. His hand dropped to his side, but after a second’s hesitation he moved it back in front. He shifted, his face going forward so he, too, wasn’t seeing Kash coming.

Then Kash was there, his back to his grandfather, and he was speaking in low tones to the Hawking staff.

To their credit, they didn’t look like they wanted to be there. Their faces were reluctant, wary, but resigned at the same time. Seeing Kash suddenly in front of them, his eyes locked on them, they sucked in their breaths.

Then they leaned in.

They were listening to whatever Kash was saying. So was Calhoun, whose face was storming up. It was twisting, and rage was showing—steam could’ve been coming out of every hole on his face. He opened his mouth, his hand raising, but even with his back to him, Kash knew his grandfather’s move. He shifted an inch to the side, effectively cutting him out, and he was still speaking. Low. Calm. Contained.

The staff’s heads jerked back when he was done. Their eyes cut to Calhoun, to Kash, and then back again to Calhoun.

Kash spoke, and this time I heard, “You decide now, or I walk. Peter Francis walks. Bailey Hayes walks.”

The threats impacted them. One swallowed tightly. Another one looked terrified, her hand shaking at her side. But the head guy, the one in the lead, he was more together, and he looked at Calhoun, extending his hand. His voice boomed out, “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Bastian, but as you can see, your business is no longer welcome at Hawking University.”

Just like that.

Just. Like. That!

He was out.

The crowd hushed, and a surge of volume ripped through everyone, even though most didn’t know what had happened. They just knew something happened, something big.

Calhoun Bastian was rooted in place.

His fury was clear on his face. The lines around his mouth were white, and he slapped the university staff member’s hand away. He grabbed for Kash—or he would have. His hand was going up. Kash turned, as if he was expecting it, but he wasn’t the one who stopped Calhoun. It was the security guard who had seen Kash coming. He moved in and merely stood between grandfather and grandson. He folded his hands together, the same Secret Service stance. Then he spoke, a low baritone, but one with patience. “You should remove yourself from these premises, Mr. Bastian.” He paused a beat. “For your safety, sir.”

Kash stepped to the side, squaring against his grandfather.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t move again. He was simply waiting for something.

Then Calhoun exploded.

That’s what Kash had been waiting for.

Calhoun looked from the security guard to Kash and back, then back to Kash, and his restraint vanished.

He didn’t say a word. That was the scary part of it. He simply lunged for his grandson, but again he was blocked—by his own guards. His own guards! Not even the one that moved in the first time to block Kash, but the other three around Calhoun. One barked a command. The door to Calhoun’s SUV opened. The three guards caught their employer and half carried, half guided him to his SUV.

Into his SUV.

They closed the door.

The SUV took off; the one before it, too. The last one waited.

The first guard looked at Kash and I heard Kash’s one word. “Stay.”

The guard nodded, moving to the driver of that SUV. They exchanged words, and then that SUV moved on, too. The guard remained, stepping back onto the sidewalk, but waiting.

Those guards, Calhoun’s guards, were Kash’s. Not Calhoun’s.

They worked for Kash!

And now Kash was coming to me.

I realized it with a jolt. I’d been watching the guard, and then he looked at Kash and I looked at Kash, and Kash wasn’t as contained now. His face wasn’t granite. The seething I saw in his eyes was all over his face, and the crowd felt it. People moved back a step. The path was cleared right up to me, and he turned, said something to the university staff. Their gazes moved to me, back to him, and they nodded. The man shook Kash’s hand before all of them left.

Kash was coming my way, striding over in a few steps.

He reached forward, his hand grabbing my arm, and he led me briskly and with purpose to his car. The front passenger door was opened. He was not messing around, and he set me inside, waiting while I quickly pulled my feet in. Then he was rounding the car for the driver’s side. Calhoun’s guard shut my door. Erik and Fitz descended on Kash, listening and getting orders.

Erik nodded, and both he and Fitz hurried away.

Kash’s hand went to his door handle but didn’t open it. He spoke over the hood of his car to Calhoun’s now ex-guard. I couldn’t catch what he said, but the guard moved away. He disappeared into the crowd of students who were still lingering. A third of them were watching the guard that was heading into my building. The rest of our audience was gawking at us, some with phones pointed at us, others with their phones pressed to their ears.

Kash took a pause. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but then the door was opened. He was inside, and he didn’t say a word before he pulled away.

I knew he was furious.

I was bracing myself, because I didn’t know if he was mad at me, mad I was there, or just mad at his grandfather. I was guessing the last two were definites, but I wasn’t sure about the first and I was holding my breath, waiting. A sick feeling was in my gut.

He waited until he was on the freeway before starting.

His voice was low, back to being controlled, but he didn’t look at me. “I knew he was coming to your school today. Knew he was going to make a move to approach you again. I knew all this because those guards on him work for me. He knows about the one, but I gotta make the decision to pull the rest or risk him figuring it out and executing them all.” He swore, and it was savage. He punched a button on the car’s phone.

The dial tone filled the car, and then it was ringing.

“Boss?”

Kash was grimacing as he spoke. “Pull everyone. I can’t risk him doing anything to you guys. Everyone, Connor. Everyone.”

A moment of quiet on the other end, then, “Got it. Disperse, or new job location?”

“Disperse, except you and Monty. Both of you come in. I want you at the estate.”

“Got it, boss.” Another beat, and then we could hear his smile when he said, “Have to say it was a pleasure holding him back from you today. I’ll send the word and we’ll dump him. He’ll get picked up within minutes, but the guys will take off and wait for your new orders.”

“Good.”

The call ended, and without blinking, Kash was filling me in. “I had six men guarding Calhoun. He thought they were a gift from a family friend. They weren’t. They were sent by me, and through them, I was told his plans for today. I’ve known about his plans for the last week, and even before that. His stop at the apartment was not announced to his team or I would’ve been told that ahead of time, too.”

He flashed his turn signal, smoothing his car over two lanes of traffic and onto the exit ramp.

I was half taking in our surroundings before he started again. “I didn’t want to lose my guards on him, but he upped his trip today. I had to move in, drop my news to your school, and he would know that the first time might’ve been a coincidence but the second time was not. He would’ve known. I had to burn six guards I had on him. The trip to Brazil was a calculated guess and a move to strike a better relationship with who I think he might pull a brand-new security detail from. It’s a guess. He won’t trust anyone else from this country, since your father and I are the two people who most want to be aligned with, not aligned against. I guessed at who he’d approach, just didn’t know it’d be so fucking soon.”

A nerve was pounding. A vein stuck out from his neck. He was speaking again, the car sidling up to a stoplight. “My grandfather wanted to hurt me through you, so he was moving to hold a claim over your school, and then therefore over you. After he thought that would be cemented, he wanted to see you again. That fact alone had the sole purpose to scare you, to let you know he could get to you whenever he wanted, wherever you went. I took out both those options because I told your university that if they accepted his thirty million donation, Peter Francis would pull his seventy million donation that they were set to receive later this month. Like I said before, money aside, they do not want to align against myself or your father, and that was them choosing. They chose our side.”

The light turned green and we moved forward.

We weren’t going to the apartment. I recognized our surroundings. We were going to Naveah.

Kash was still speaking. “I lost one of the edges I had on him today. I don’t know if my trip will work out to give me that same edge on him, so that means after we go to Naveah, after I fire your classmate, after I shower with you, I have to keep making moves on him. I have edged out ahead of him and I cannot lose that. I could lose you, but that won’t happen, because I know his last play and that will be to hurt you.”

We were slowing, turning in to the basement parking lot of Naveah. Kash stopped talking until he had parked. The door leading to the elevator inside opened and two guards were standing there.

Kash ignored them and turned to me. His eyes were glittering and fierce. “He wants to destroy me, even more now, and the one way to make sure he shatters me is to touch you. I will never let that happen.”

I was breathless, my stomach was in knots, and I was reeling all at the same time—and yet I wasn’t. I knew Calhoun was coming for me, but seeing Kash in action today changed everything. It all got a bit more real, a bit more surreal, and I reached for his hand.

I had to touch him.

He grounded me.

As soon as my fingers grazed his skin, I felt the roots sink into the ground.

I felt stronger.

I also had a feeling I was getting a few more guards.

I whispered, “I believe you.”

Some of the fierceness lessened, and a softness came over his face. His hand lifted, cupping the back of my head, and his fingers slid through my hair. He tugged me to him. “I need to kiss you, then I’m going to fire your classmate. You can watch if you want.”

I would be delighted to watch him fire Hoda.