Page 38 of Desperate Victory
Fuck that was so weird offering up the defense for Bodhi, almost like a damn endorsement.
“Is that so?” Leopold glared at me. “I take it you don’t approve of my choice in Hardigan then?”
“I don’t care about your choice,” I admitted, not shying away from that heated look. Fuck, I’d stared my own father down. Leopold was intimidating as hell, but this was bullshit. Hate Harper Reed all you wanted but leave Adam out of it. He was a far better man than I would ever be. “Milo’s fine. In fact, he’s better than fine. But you don’t care about my opinion, so why should I care that you approve of him over everyone else?”
Eyes narrowing, Leopold studied me. “No defense for yourself?”
“You don’t like me because I’m Adam’s friend.” Before, I wouldn’t have cared to figure out why he didn’t like me. The old man was really important to my kotyonok though, so it was better for me to win him over now rather than put her through the need to defend me. “You also didn’t care for my drinking or carousing over the years. That’s on me. If I need to earn your respect, then I’ll work on it.”
Rather than respond to me, he shifted his gaze to Bodhi and Milo. “Nothing to say?”
“I think he’s doing fine, sir. He’s also correct. None of us are our parents. Not me. Not Milo. Not Adam. Not Ezra. The same can be said for Lainey… wouldn’t you agree?”
Goddamn, I envied Bodhi’s directness.
Rather than being put off by it, Leopold met him stare for stare. “One could argue that Melissa was never her parent.”
“One could,” Bodhi agreed with him. “Yet, you raised both Melissa and Lainey, sir. So, I think at least fifty percent of the problem and the accolades could be attributed to you.”
While Milo didn’t wince outwardly, his expression took on a firm neutrality. It was a mask. One he did really well. It kept his opinions and thoughts to himself.
“Do you think couching insults in speculation will gain you something?” Leopold countered with an attack of his own.
“An insult, sir?” Bodhi made the inquiry sound deeply puzzling to him. “I didn’t think we were insulting at all. No more than you were in your observations. Is this not talking as men do? Putting all our cards on the table?”
“All your cards are not on the table,” Leopold pounced on that fact.
“Are yours?” Bodhi dared him.
The silence stretched out almost painfully. Adam’s absence had also grown a little more noticeable. I had to wonder if Leopold guessed what I suspected. Adam needed Lainey at the moment. We all needed her, but sometimes we needed her more than the others at different moments.
“I’ve made my feelings clear,” the old man said decisively. “No one will be using my granddaughter for her inheritance or her reach.”
“No sir,” I said, in absolute agreement. “No one will. We would never allow it.”
“While I appreciate your confidence in me, sir,” Milo added, his respect clear despite the hardness of his tone. “My father is Julius King. If you disapprove of Adam because of his father or Ezra for his, you can’t possibly like me because mine is one of the worst people I’ve ever met. He’s despicable on every level. He doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Mayhem or anyone else for that matter. He’s a bottom feeder in a ten thousand dollar suit.”
“They aren’t that expensive,” Bodhi said. “He uses cheap tailors and moderately priced cloth to make himself look more important than he is.”
“Five thousand dollars then?” Milo checked with him.
“Give or take.” Bodhi nodded. “Doesn’t matter, the clothing can’t disguise the man inside.”
“Precisely my point.” The two shared a long look of understanding. Bodhi and Milo seemed to get each other.
Resentment reared its head as they nodded to each other then faced Leopold Benedict with the exact same expression. They barely knew each other, but they were already tight. Or as tight as two guarded people could be.
A part of me protested. Milo was my cousin. The two of us should be on this same page. Yet he was tight with so many people who weren’t me.
And whose fault is that? The nasty little voice crept out to taunt me. You’ve been an asshole to him from day one.
Only I hadn’t known he was my cousin then. Em was a cousin too, but I’d never been a raging dick to her. Fuck, I was such a jackass.
“You can’t judge them by their parents rather than the content of their character if you won’t judge me on mine. Besides, Ezra and I are cousins, so you could say we were cut from the same bolt of cloth. Doesn’t mean we’re as bad as the layers that came before.”
Surprise jolted me. We’re cousins. Milo made it sound so simple. Maybe it was, but at the same time…
“Since when are you cousins?” Lainey’s grandfather pinned me with a look like it was my fault and I shrugged.