by Amy Daws
The look on Ivan’s face was one of absolute determination. “Get your pointes.”
CHAPTER 22 ~ Leo
As I swerved effortlessly through the Sunday traffic, I mulled over different ways to convince Adeline to take back the key she gave to Ivan. That ink-stained dance partner of hers was really getting on my nerves. Friends or not, privacy was crucial. And I so did not appreciate the contemptuous glare he shot me while I was kissing my girl goodbye.
I might just have to get a guy over there to change her fucking locks. I smirked, imagining Adeline yelling at me for doing something like that without her consent. She was independent and feisty as hell…hopefully she’d yell at me. I loved that sound. Her voice got kind of raspy and scratchy when she shouted. It was so different from the quiet, controlled voice that I’d heard from her all the other times. Damn she was sexy.
At the risk of sounding like a complete girl, my favorite part of our whole night/morning together wasn’t the part where she went down on me and rocked my fucking world. It wasn’t the part where I inhaled her until she screamed herself hoarse. Even though both of those activities were shit hot. My favorite part was when we fell asleep gazing into each other’s eyes.
Waiting at a stoplight, I tucked my nose into my jacket and breathed in deeply, catching a whiff of that tropical, fruity smell of hers. I loved having her scent on my jacket and on my face. Fuck, cool your jets Leo, you gotta drive your bike right now, not ride it.
I pulled up to a giant white Manhattan high-rise next to Gramercy Park. It was ten to eleven and I sighed with relief that I wasn’t about to be late. Being late to these meetings was so not accepted here.
I parked my bike and jogged up to the doorman at the entrance. I quickly flashed him my “brand of honor” and he blinked, subtly clearing me for entrance. As I rode the posh elevator to the top floor, I rubbed the scar that my brothers had referred to as dueling scars. A badge of honor showing your willingness to fight for your rank…whatever the hell that meant.
I used to care. I used to think the meaning behind this brand was enthralling. To be a part of a society bigger than anything I had ever imagined. The men in this secret club that I shared this scar with were leaders. Pillars of our community. They were running New York City with fat wallets, hot women, and the world at their fingertips.
As a freshman Gamma Phi pledge, I’d thought it cool just to be in a member of a fraternity. To know that there was a secret even bigger than Gamma Phi sounded like I had finally arrived. I allowed it to consume me. I let their ideals be my ideals, and I saw myself change rapidly into who I thought they wanted me to be.
The elevator dinged and opened to the top-level penthouse. A doorman, who always refused to look me in the eye, opened the dark double wood doors, and I walked into a foyer full of men. Some were my current Gamma Phi fraternity brothers. Others were older, like my father. They all turned and gawked at me as I strolled past them in my black boots, dark scuffed jeans, and black leather jacket.
The dress code for these secret meetings was expensive tailored suits. We actually had a list of designers we had to pick from. These guys gave the phrase “power tie” a whole new meaning.
“Leo,” Micah scoffed, standing directly in the center of the foyer, blocking my entrance into the grand room. “What are you wearing? You’re breaking code.” He sneered at me and adjusted his tie with an air of condescension.
“It was either this or miss the meeting all together. I figured this was the lesser of two evils,” I replied, looking around him for Chase, but instead caught a glimpse of Blake standing next to my father.
My father, Douglas Richards, was dressed in one of his classic grey tailored suits. We were the same large, muscular build—my father instilled his love for fitness in me at an early age. He had salt and pepper hair and had only recently started looking older than forty, when in reality he was pushing fifty.
Good genes, Sasha used to say with pride.
Blake leaned in and spoke to my father in hushed tones. I did not like the look of that one bit. Blake stopped talking when we locked eyes. His chin dropped to match my death glare. Finally I broke my glower and gazed questioningly at my father whose brow was furrowed with worry. I was certain Blake had been relaying the drama from last night, but my bigger question was…how he was spinning it. Before I could make my way over to them, a voice from the other room cut over the low murmurings going on all around me.
“Now that we’re all here, we can begin,” stated a deep booming voice.
I recognized the voice as Sedric Rossi, Blake’s father. He was the one who ran the show at these meetings.
These meetings were what my entire family was built on. These meetings were what linked me permanently to Blake and everything I hated about him. These meetings were all a part of a secret society called the Gold that had been a part of Columbia Ivy League since the 1920s.
Sedric was the third generation of Rossis to over-see the order of the Gold. The Rossis and the Richards were two of the original founders of our secret club. Thus, my legacy status, both with the fraternity and with the brotherhood. Sedric was currently Master of the Gold and we were required to refer to him as such. With the huge Rossi Netmapping GPS conglomerate, they were major heavy hitters on the island of Manhattan. They had government connections that they used to their advantage, a lot. It also meant they could really mess up your life if they wanted to.
In other words, the Rossi’s were a big fucking deal.
In other words, kicking the shit out of Blake last night probably wasn’t the wisest decision of my life.
I bumped shoulders as I moved past Micah into the grand room and locked eyes with Master Rossi himself, dressed head to toe in a sleek black Armani suit. A lethal expression flitted over his tan face as he took in my scruffy jaw line and haphazard appearance. Sedric motioned with his hands and the huge room of suited men all stood and raised their right hands.
“Secret Society of the Gold, I call to you all,” Sedric began, tearing his murderous gaze off of me and addressing the room.
I, along with everyone else raised our right hands chanted:
“Upper, middle, lower and gold.
A desire we knew was foretold.
We breed the society we strive to be.
Marriage remains anything but free.
A brotherhood, unlike any other.
In death and secrecy, we promise to one another.”
Sedric then added, “Secret Society of the Gold. You are here of your own accord. I welcome you and call this meeting to order.”
I attempted to contain my scoff and then finally locked eyes with Chase who sat at a high top table adjacent to the sitting room. He eyed me questioningly, and I made my way over to him.
“You good?” he asked quietly.
I nodded and settled into the open seat next to him. Chase always felt like such a lifeline to me at these meetings. I looked around for his old man but didn’t see him.
“Your dad couldn’t make it?” I asked.
Chase groaned. “No, apparently he had a last minute business deal go down for his antique car-line and had to miss his flight up from Florida. And I quote, it’s the Shelby Mustang of car deals, son. So I’m stuck here representing our company while he is test driving vintage vehicles down south. Dude, I’d kill to be on the beaches right now. New York is already getting colder and the babes are taking refuge in sweaters.”
“Business and Transactions,” Sedric barked, smoothing his perfect black slicked-back hair and commencing the meeting with the usual order of business.
“First on our agenda,” Chase said mockingly under his breath. “Business and Transactions, a.k.a. Insider Trading.”
I rolled my eyes in agreement. The majority of the men in this room were a part of, or owned, huge fortune 500 companies. They would share their stock secrets and company information to the group and the treasurer would formulate a plan of attack for share purchasing that wouldn’t raise any red flag
s.
I mindlessly rubbed the initiation scar on my hand. It was the shape of a tree branch with various breaks meant to symbolize a hierarchy. What a joke. Looking back on it now, I couldn’t believe I let these fuckers brand me.
I tuned out this part of the meeting. I wasn’t interested in partaking in insider trading, even if my father may have been. Dear old dad was on his phone, no doubt taking notes that would better our advertising firm, Richards & Brown Advertising. That thought made my skin crawl.
My father inherited R&B when my grandfather passed away nine years ago. I was named after my grandfather but the only ones that actually called me Leonardo were the pretentious pricks in my family’s circle. My grandfather basically lived at R&B once he became the sole owner. His partner, Thomas Brown, died of brain cancer when I was just a baby and my grandmother passed before I was born. Essentially his entire life was R&B. It came as no surprise when the doctor said the heart attack was caused by stress.
It pained me that my family was so into the Gold’s bullshit. Because the truth was, I liked the vibe at R&B. I enjoyed the accounts and the projects we oversaw. The people we worked beside. R&B employed nearly 400 people and all of them looked up to my father, Douglas Richards.
I just wished the man they idolized wasn’t corrupt.
I didn’t even know the Gold existed until I started at Columbia. It was then that I learned just how dirty my grandfather’s business actually was. Whether I liked it or not, I was a part of the corrupt family business.
“There’s a huge trust fund collecting interest for you if you join,” my father had said after I first learned about the Gold my freshman year of college. “Joining the Gold will give you opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise.”
What a load of shit. Joining was the biggest mistake I’d ever made. After my little park bench epiphany sophomore year, I tried to press my dad about us getting out of the Gold, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
Growing up, I loved my dad like any son would love their father. I remembered waking up at five in the morning just so I could work out with him in our penthouse-gym before he left for work. He was my idol. But as soon as he took over my grandfather’s advertising firm, our relationship changed. It became strained and nonexistent. Unfortunately, it was right around the time that I was becoming a teenager, so being a selfish, elitist, entitled shithead felt pretty damn good. Since my father was so busy running the company, anything I wanted, I got. I wasn’t even grateful for it either, because no one ever explained to me that it wasn’t like that for everyone.
My phone buzzed noisily in my pocket, snapping me out of my walk down memory lane. I instantly brightened with the hope that it was Adeline. I fished it out of my pocket and immediately deflated when I saw it was my mother, Evelyn Richards, number illuminating on the screen.
Chase gave me a quizzical look, and I just rolled my eyes, indicating it was nothing. He smirked and returned his focus back to Sedric.
Damn my mother was relentless. I knew being splashed over the newspapers last week pissed her off, but I didn’t give a shit. I was in a bubble of sexiness with Adeline, and I did not want to break out of it. If I could have gotten out of this meeting today, I would have. Watching Adeline in her pointes sounded like a much better way to spend my day.
The fact that my mom was still so upset about those tabloids made no fucking sense. She was in so damn deep with the politics of the Joffrey Ballet Company that she had turned into the biggest fucking snob. Where was the woman who campaigned to set up a scholarship program at Joffrey with my dad’s sacred stamp of approval? What the hell did she have against Adeline?
“So by making this military deal, not only will it benefit NetMapping, but your companies will benefit …” Blake said loudly, jarring me back into reality.
Braden, Blake’s brother, piped in, “In order not to raise any red flags by the IRS, all you need to do…”
The two were fucking identical in personality and looks. The sound of both of their voices was like gravel being scraped over an open wound in my ears.
After nearly an hour of charts, graphs, and discussions, I nudged Chase awake. He’d fallen asleep some thirty minutes into Blake’s lecture about how their GPS was the greatest invention of all time, but was now beginning to snore.
When Blake and Braden shut up, I had hoped that the meeting would be over.
Looking at the agenda on his iPad, Sedric barked out. “Social Issues.”
Blake abruptly stood up. He strode right toward me, fastening the buttons on his expensive pin-striped suit.
“I have one,” Blake said loudly. “Master Rossi, if I may have the floor again?”
Blake’s father gave a tight nod for him to continue. I accusingly glanced at my father to see if he had any idea what this was about since he and Blake were chatting it up before the meeting started. My father refused to meet my gaze.
His shameful expression gutted me.
“Brothers,” Blake started, and then turned to me with a smirk. He extended his arms out dramatically. “Last year, you helped me out of a grave mistake I made. A mistake that I knew all along was simply that…a mistake. A meaningless lapse of judgment that was so far beneath me that I still feel shame for it to this very day. Well, the time has come for us to help another brother.”
His eyes flicked to mine again and squinted with a sense of evil enjoyment. I wanted to strangle him.
“Our very own Master Legacy, Leonardo Richards has broken the vow of our mission statement. He is associating with class that is beneath him, and he needs help before he slips into trouble just as I did,” Blake said, faking gratitude.
I stood quickly, the legs of the stool scraped loudly on the shiny dark wood flooring. “That’s enough, Blake,” I shouted, slamming my fist onto the buffet table behind the couch.
Chase was behind me in a flash, placing a calming hand on my shoulder. “Dude, cool your jets.”
I ignored Chase’s warning. I’d put up with enough bullshit. “What you’re bringing up is an issue between you and me.” I glared at him, my jaw and fists clenched in fury. “This does not involve the Gold.”
“I’m afraid it does, brother. You see, when you drag your good name all over the headlines of society papers with trash, it becomes very much a Gold issue.”
I shoved the table as I tore across the floor to get right in Blake’s face. No way in hell was he going to pull the shit he pulled last night here in front of everyone.
“Do you need another reminder to shut the fuck up, Blake?” I roared and two guys stood up between us. One of them shoved me hard against my chest as another slipped his arm around mine, pinning my hands behind my back. I glanced back and saw it was Dominic, Blake’s fucking follower from last night. I struggled to free myself from his grip.
“You need a reminder too Dominic?” Chase said from beside me. “I seem to remember dropping you to your knees last night.”
“You caught me off guard then. I’d love for you to try it again.” Dominic’s grip tightened with his words.
“You’re out of line, Leo!” Braden yelled, coming to stand by his brother. “And Chase! Surely you can do better than defend the likes of him.”
Braden and Blake side by side with their smug fucking expressions just infuriated me more. Blake grabbed the lapels of his jacket and cracked his neck, his black hair shiny with product, his green eyes twinkling with mirth.
“This situation is not dissimilar to the one I was faced with last year, Leonardo. But I am glad to see you’re such a fan of my throwaways.” He shot me the tiniest of winks and I wrenched forward determined to pummel him to the ground.
“Enough!” my father’s voice boomed and it stopped me dead in my tracks. “We’ve all seen the papers, Leonardo. We know something is going on.”
“This isn’t any of your concern,” I shouted to the entire room but only looked at my father.
Dominic relaxed his grip as my tense stance evaporated at the cold, hard look in t
he eyes of Douglas Richards. Betrayal was ugly as fuck. My father raised his hand to deter me from continuing, reducing me to a tiny nothingness in front of an audience of alpha males.
His jaw muscle ticked angrily. “Adeline Parker was an issue for Blake last year. She is trouble for you. It’s best you stop it before it goes too far so we don’t have to use valuable resources to cap another scandal.” My father finally looked me in the eyes for the first time since he cut into this argument.
His glower softened ever so slightly as he saw horror on my face, clearly displayed for all to see. Hearing him diminish Adeline like that broke me. This can’t be my father. This can’t be the man I desperately tried to out-run on treadmills every morning as a young boy. The man who laughed and challenged me to sit up races.
The man looking back at me right now was a stranger.
“It’s not a fucking scandal,” I cried loudly shaking out of tweedledum’s grip. My hands scrubbed through my hair as I bent over in utter frustration and agony. This isn’t what we’re about. This isn’t what Adeline is to me. “Adeline isn’t some kind of—”
“Order!” Sedric bellowed banging his gavel on the coffee table. He set the gavel down and walked slowly toward me, staring me down the entire way. “The Gold’s vows are all that matter. Your relationship ends now.”
My jaw muscles ticked violently and I clenched and unclenched my fists, attempting to decide who I wanted to beat on more. Blake, Sedric, or my father.
“The Brotherhood of the Gold meeting is adjourned,” Sedric added without breaking eye contact with me.
Letting out a hard sigh, I turned on my heel and ran the fuck out of there before I tore apart a 27 million dollar penthouse. I heard Chase calling my name on my way out, but I never looked back. I couldn’t possibly.
CHAPTER 23 ~ Adeline
The million dollar dance.
Tuition, fees, rent, food, travel, costume costs, plus the thousands of dollars my parents saved to send me to the best schools all led up to this point. Honestly, I had no clue how much money my parents pinched and saved to get me to this point, but I knew every dime I made was all for this moment. This was the moment that would make or break my career.