The same green that’s in my hair.
What the fuck?
“I said the room was too big,” Kim says with a fake smile. “But are you sure your meds are…”
“Kimmy, please go check. We’ll be right down and we won’t get lost because Green head lives here.”
Green head? Ouch.
Should I tell them it’s their sister who did this to me.
“Okay well, I want you both downstairs in three minutes and on your way to school in five.”
And with that, Kim gives me a withering look, but then she looks up at my hair and smirks! She fucking smirks.
“Also, Mr. Montreal, don’t forget you have a meeting in the city today at eight.”
Then she turns on her heel and leaves. I watch as she struts away, her hips swaying from left to right seductively because she knows she just screwed over my day. I totally forgot I had a fucking meeting today and now I have to go with green fucking hair.
“Okay, coast is clear! What’s this secret nickname?” Casey demands.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me two things first,” I say, looking straight at Lolo. She nods, her gaze unwavering at me. “First, what’s going on at school, Lolo?”
She looks away again, starting to fidget.
“Is someone else giving you a hard time?”
She grows still and BINGO!
When I glance at Casey, she gives me a big nod, her eyes wide as if begging for help. Well, say less.
“Okay, second question, why do you take medication, Casey?”
“Oh! We don’t really know what’s wrong with me. I feel a lot of pain sometimes and it breaks Kim’s heart.”
Oh God.
Something in my fucking chest just breaks, but I can’t help the onslaught of anger that drenches down and settles over my head. Why can’t the fucking doctors tell what the issue is? Is this why Kim wants this job so bad?
“Well, whatever it is, you’re going to be just fine because you are strong,” I say seriously, wanting to fold both girls in my arms and hug them close. I swear just one accidental meet and they have me wrapped around their tiny fingers.
“I am?” Casey whispers.
“Yes!” I say seriously. “And you know why? Because my secret is… I grant wishes.”
“Wow,” they both gasp. “Like a fairy?”
“Maybe,” I say with a shrug, feeling damn proud of myself.
“That’s so interesting,” Lolo says, not believing me at all. “Tell me, do you believe in psychiatry intervention?”
“Whoa, how old are you?”
“I’m ten.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“She reads. A LOT!” Casey says, looking at her sister with pride.
Well then.
“Girls who read are pretty incredible.”
“Kimmy says the same thing!”
And because I’m a nosey piece of shit, I ask about her. “Does your big sister read books a lot as well?”
“Every single night she’s always reading,” Casey says dramatically. These girls are something special.
“Yes, especially now that she has time to actually read and relax,” Lolo says.
Hmm, so Kim Possible is a bookworm. I can actually see that. Her curled up on a comfortable chair, wearing nothing but my shirt and some fuzzy socks on with her crazy colored her in a messy bun while she drinks her favorite red wine with a book on her lap.
Fuck! Don’t get hard in front of kids, asshole!
“So do you still want to know my nickname? Only a few people know it,” I whisper.
“Please tell us!” Lolo whispers back. “We’re good at keeping secrets.”
I didn’t doubt that, thought I bet the secrets they keep are more innocent than their older sister-guardian keeps. A little less scandalous and not at all deadly.
Good. They should keep that innocence.
“See, if you want me to tell you…” I trail off dramatically.
“Yes?” they both say in perfect unison.
“Then we all have to become real, true, best friends.”
Casey and Laura look at each other, as if a silent agreement is forming between the two, then they both look at me and nod enthusiastically.
“No, you have to verbally swear to be my friends.”
“How do we do that?” Casey asks.
As serious as ever like our lives depend on this very moment, I promptly stand up, walk over to the armoire in the hallway and grab the wooden ruler I left there some weeks back.
“Repeat after me ladies,” I say seriously and they nod, looking just as serious. “I, Noah Ethan James Montreal… say your names.”
“I, Casey Maya Allory.”
“I, Laura Natasha Allory.”
“Do solemnly swear on this day to be a true friend.” They repeat. “Who’s always honest, always there in times of trouble and to cause mischief.” They giggle but repeat after me anyway. “And to always stay committed to the mission of friendship which is to have all the fun in the world and everything in between to the very best of my ability and naughtiness, from this very second to forever.”
They repeat every word, huge smiles on their faces.
“I now pronounce us best friends!” I announce, feeling so damn light in a way I haven’t in a very long time. The last time I felt like this, I was with Kimberly. Fuck.
“Wait! We have to promise!”
“We just made a vow, though, Casey,” Lolo says softly to her sister.
“I know but still, come back down here, Noah.”
Stunned by the power these little girls wield so effortlessly, I sink to the floor until I’m eye level with them.
“Pinky promise?” I ask.
“Yes!”
It feels like I am surrendering more than my fucking pinky fingers to them. It’s like I am giving them my heart… and I don’t mind.
“There, pinky promise all done! Are you good with that, Casey?”
“Yes!” she squeals.
I have no idea how what happens next happens or when they decide to move in unison but suddenly, they launch into my arms, knocking me down to the floor on my back.
“We’re now best friends!” I hear them squeal in delight.
“Oh, and by the way, you need to go brush your teeth,” Lolo whispers nervously.
I can’t help the boisterous laugh that bursts out of me. Fucking Allory girls.
Chapter 23
NOAH
Past
DANGEROUS K: You never said a word.
ME: And your cheek was red.
DANGEROUS K: I was flushed.
ME: She’s being abusive, isn’t she?
DANGEOUS K: I got it.
ME: I swear to God, one day she’s going to pay…
DANGEROUS K: Happy new year, Noah. Let’s just go back to being strangers.
ME: We were always fucking strangers. It’s you who forgot. Have a crappy year.
Present
I wanted to take the girls to school myself, but because of fucking Kimberly, I had to take care of this glaring emergency first, my damn hair.
I shampooed, I fucking conditioned, I did every fucking thing some random YouTube video said but it didn’t work. And for that, I clicked the thumbs down thingy and became that internet asshole that leaves scathing comments with no provocation whatsoever.
I’m running late and just as I’m trying my best to tie this fucking tie, that’s when I hear a knock at my door but before I can tell whoever it is to fuck off, the door swings open and in struts Kim fucking Possible with what she might classify as a victorious smirk on her face.
“Your mother would like to talk to you,” she says sweetly, knowing damn well that I look like a fucking clown, and I might not make it to this fucking meeting.
I give her an icy side-eye, but she has the audacity to wink, then crosses her arms as soon as she passes the phone to me.
“Yeah?”
“Noah Ethan James Montreal!”
Fuck! Kimberly put the phone on speaker phone! Sneaky eavesdropper but since she wants to listen in on this call and she doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, I’m going to accommodate her.
“Yes, mother?”
“Why aren’t you at the office, Noah? Do you know what time it is, baby?” Mom questions, her voice strained.
“I actually have no idea, let me ask your stunt double,” I mutter, looking straight at Kim with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s 7:51 a.m.,” Kim says woodenly. I smirk.
Even though she has a considerable advantage on making my day fucking horrible, I still have the ability to grate on her nerves and that’s a win for me.
The tides will shift in this war, they have to. I won’t lose to a girl who comes to work wearing clothes from Walmart.
“Noah, I know you don’t need me to tell you how important this meeting is,” Mom goes on, her voice still low with stress. “You need to make sure that you get those old hags on your side.”
“Old hags?”
“The board members that are aligned with your—”
“That piece of shit is not my father,” I snap.
Mom blows out a breath. “Okay, sweetheart. Here’s the thing. We both know David has been trying to get a foot in the door and now that it’s almost your birthday and the company will be yours, he’s going to do his best to thwart that possibility.”
Fuck.
From the corner of my eye, I see Kim watching me. If there’s anyone in the world who knows just how much I fucking hate my sperm donor of a father, it’s her. And since she’s my mother’s proxy, she’ll be voting in my fucking favor.
“That’s not going to fucking happen,” I bite out, holding Kim’s gaze. I can only imagine what she sees in my eyes right now. Because fuck, I feel like setting this fucking world on fire.
“But you’re going to be late,” Mom stresses.
“Mom, they won’t fucking start without me,” I grit out. “I’ll let you know what happens.”
“Go with Kimberly.”
“That’s the plan.”
And with that, I hang up, still holding Kim’s gaze.
We’re silent in the room, the tension spiking like never before but Kimberly has never been one to cower, no, that’s not her style. Instead, she steps into the fucking storm.
She walks over to the bed where I laid out the suit I’ll be wearing. Removing it from the custom hangers with my initials on it, she strides over to me, holding my gaze, then she helps me shrug it on.
Next thing I know, she’s standing right in front of me with her finger burning a path from my collar around my neck as she starts adjusting and knotting my tie with expert and steady fingers.
“Where did you learn that from?”
“When Laura was eight, she was obsessed with Olivia Pope from Scandal and so she started asking to wear suits, but she insisted on the ties because then the kids at her school would take her a bit more seriously when she gave her smart answers without giving her a hard time for being a know-it-all.”
I can’t help but ease up just a tiny bit, but still tense with having this girl this close to me.
“And you being you, you got her the suits and ties.”
“Her logic was far better than mine,” she murmurs, then she looks up at me through her thick eyelashes. “I wanted to scare the hell out of the kids that were saying all that shit. So, she’s far better than me.”
I smirk. Of course, that’s what she wanted to do. But the difference between us is, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Later on, after this damn meeting.
“Is that what you plan on doing today at the meeting?” she questions. “Scaring the board members into aligning with you?”
“I don’t see how scaring a bunch of board members—that don’t really know the underworkings of the company whose board they sit on—will work, seeing as you fucking dyed my hair green.”
She mock gasps, echoing what I did to her about her tires. “My goodness, someone did this to you? And here I thought you wanted to try out something new.”
I stare pointedly at her fingers that still spot a bit of green. She quickly hides them behind her, such a shitty attempt too.
“Will he be there?” she finally asks seriously. My jaw clenches and the thing in my fucking chest starts raging both from her nearness and from the rage that’s coursing through my blood. That man might be the one who murdered my brother then disappeared, and now, he wants back in? No fucking way. “Noah, breathe.”
I hadn’t realized that I was literally bristling with rage until now when I feel Kim’s touch on my hand. She has this uncanny ability of reaching me when there’s nothing but high tides and violent rage brewing in me. But it’s her tentative yet electric touch that silences everything and makes me stand at attention for her.
“I’m fucking breathing,” I grit out.
“Like a dying pig, sure.” I shake my head, moving away from her. She’s always been dangerous to my fucking well-being, but when she did me one better, she showed me her true colors. I can’t fall victim to her again. That’ll only make me a damn fool. “You can’t let him antagonize you. You don’t even know if he’ll show up at the meeting or not.”
“True,” I mutter, looking out the window as a plan starts coming together in my head. “But you’re going to find out.”
“What?”
“You’re going to go downtown,” I say simply, turning around to look at her. “Of course, you’ll have to fucking change out of that mess.”
“This mess?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, let me rephrase that,” I say sarcastically. “You’re going to change into better clothes appropriate for the role you’re keeping via proxy, then you’re going to go down there.”
“Me?” She steps back, a cute frown marring her beautiful face. “It’s your meeting, at your company and you heard your mother, you have to be there.”
“Yeah, well she isn’t here now, is she? But seeing as you represent her now, you’re going over there and you’re going to stall the hell out of them.”
“Noah!” She shakes her head. “I can’t stall them.”
“Yes, you can and you fucking will,” I stalk over to her slowly. “If I made any of this sound like a fucking request then I take it back. I’m not asking. You’re going to make them wait for me.”
“Telling me what to fucking do, huh?”
“Don’t act like this is fucking new,” I whisper, watching as her flimsy shirt reveals her hardened nipples. “I seem to recall you loving the hell out it when I told you to spread those legs and take me.”
The storm in her grey eyes starts swirling, matching her hair that I’m sure will make waves in front of those old, stuffy board members in a few minutes.
“So, while I stall a bunch of people that don’t even know me all in the name of Christina Montreal, what in God’s name will you be doing? Because that green hair won’t wash out for weeks.”
“Ah, so you did do it, little devil,” I purr.
“It was just a fact, Noah, but seriously, what will you be doing?”
“I have something urgent to take care of,” I say, grabbing my phone as I leave the room. “And one more thing, Kim. If I get back and my furniture is not in my wing, you’ll regret it.”
Proper girls who know when to heed the warning would jump and quickly nod their heads in agreement, but not Kim Possible. She senses the danger with much sharper senses, but she doesn’t blink. She gets sassy.
“The movers are booked, Noah,” she says, ducking under my arm so she can escape. “Why don’t you make a wish and have them make you a priority?”
My fingers wrap around her wrist, and I pull her back until her back is plastered to my front. I’m sure she can feel my hardness and the annoyance in my voice when I lean in to whisper in her ear, “The only wish I’d make right now would not be in your favor, Kimmy.”
And apparently, she gets seriously turned on.
* * *<
br />
After making sure Kimberly is gone to the office—with an attire ready to make people stall—I do my own wardrobe change.
I grab a pair of ripped jeans, a random black shirt, a black hoodie with a huge skull on the front and then get into my G-Wagon and drive over to George’s mansion. I leave my car running and run up to his front door.
I know the jerk is already up so when I ring the doorbell—there’s no fucking way I’m going in this fucking house and he knows it—he answers within seconds, holding his baby in his arms and my breath catches.
“I’ll give you one thing,” I say, looking down at the sleeping bundle. “Baby Claire is beautiful.”
The smile the man has on his face as he looks down at his child is one of the most purest smiles I’ve ever seen on his face.
That’s the look a parent should give their kid.
One of love instead of hate, envy, jealousy and fucking disappointment. David did damage on me that I don’t think I’ll ever shake.
“Love the new hair,” the asshole says as he looks at me warily.
“Yeah, yeah, thanks,” I mumble, pissed off at Kim for this. She could’ve picked a better color.
“I’m not stupid enough to believe you came here for tea,” George mutters seriously.
“I need your help.”
“Anything.”
I give him the CliffsNotes version of the plan and with each word, his eyebrows rise inch by fucking inch until they’re both up to his hairline.
“Seriously?”
“It could be you soon, consider this as a practice run.”
“When you put it like that…”
From there, it doesn’t take long for him to run upstairs and change into an outfit similar to mine, but it’s darker and fucking intimidating, but there’s something about his… “Wait, that’s my t-shirt I got from that Goo Goo Dolls concert, isn’t it?” I call from my car as he heads to his fleet of fucking Phoenix Corp rides on the circular driveway.
The jerk has the audacity to side-eye as he flips around the damn bat he has in his hands.
“Choose your battles wisely, Noah!” George calls out. “I’m the one who grabbed the shirt. You took it after we fucked that chick.”
Petty Rage: Westbrook Blues Book 4 Page 28