Page 23 of Black Hearts
I’d never had to deal with him. I’d only worked here a few years, so I’d only had to deal with Markus. Still, I’d heard a lot about Johnathan. Not many good things, unsurprisingly.
He looked at me, the faint amusement on his face disappearing just like that. “You understand that, don’t you? Sometimes we must… clean house, so to speak. I hate doing it, but it’s been done. Sometimes it is necessary to cut the rot off at the root.” His head cocked at me, those eyes of his boring into me as if he knew every single sin of mine. “I don’t appreciate doctors going behind my back with anyone in this house.”
“I wasn’t aware I went behind your back at all,” I said, stopping myself from saying anything more. Had he approached Stella about this, or was this talk just for me since I wasn’t technically a Scott? He’d much rather get rid of me than Stella, I’d bet.
“I’m not stupid, Theodore. I know there are quite a few members of this estate that are gone, men who should be here, ready to take any order I give them.” He walked closer to my desk, moved his hands flat on its surface as he leaned down to glare at me. “I know you and a certain woman have been, shall we say, keeping the peace ever since I arrived. While I appreciate that sentiment, I do not appreciate you covering for William, Jaxon, and Bennet. Those three had no right to leave the house, let alone no right to go after a worthless girl I got rid of.”
Something in me snapped at hearing Johnathan call Juliet worthless. “She’s not worthless,” I said, moving my hands beneath my desk to hide the fact that my fingers had clenched into knuckles. “She’s worth more than everyone in this house combined.” How badly I wanted to wipe that haughty, superior attitude from his face. If I did, I’d be signing my own death warrant, but it would feel really good doing it.
Never thought I was the violent type, but here I was.
Johnathan let out a dark chuckle, pushing off my desk and giving me his back as he shook his head. “That, I highly doubt. She is simply a girl. There are countless like her on this earth. If you and the others are so fond of her, why not find someone else who doesn’t have a rogue serial killer as a father to occupy your time with?”
He turned to face me once more, openly glaring. He didn’t give me a chance to respond, continuing, “Juliet Osborne has nothing special about her. Nothing remarkable at all. She is nothing more than a frightened little girl. Whether Fred kills her to feed his darkness is none of your concern—and yet you made it yours. I’m not happy with you, Theodore.”
I thought about telling him that I wasn’t happy with him, either, but I kept that to myself. What I couldn’t swallow down was what I said next: “I don’t care.”
Johnathan blinked. “What?” The word was spoken slowly, deliberately, almost in disbelief, as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard me right. Like no one else had ever dared to tell the man off before. Always so in control, everyone bowed to his command like he was God himself.
But he wasn’t God. He was just a man, and men could be killed.
“I said I don’t care that you’re not happy with me,” I repeated, slow to stand, doing everything I could to relax my hands and get rid of the fists I wanted to pummel him with. How I’d gone after Will would be nothing to how I’d go after this man. “I love that girl, as do the others. If you think for one second they’ll sit back and let you take her from them, you’re stupid.”
He chuckled, though it was a mirthless sound. “Am I?”
Too late to back down now. Far too late. “You are. If that’s what you think, then you’re nothing but a washed-up old man whose best days are behind him. This is a new day, a new dawn, and they are a new generation of Scotts. My father might never have stood up to you, but I am not my father, just as Markus isn’t you.”
Johnathan didn’t say anything right away. He simply stared, stared to the point that the air grew thick with tension. Finally, after things had grown uneasy and almost uncomfortable, he muttered with a frown, “That, I am beginning to see more and more with each passing day.” That stare of his sized me up, but he said nothing else, turning on his heel and walking out of my office.
I didn’t let myself relax, even after he was gone and I was alone. That… that whole talk made me concerned. Would he try to kill me himself, or seek to have one of the others kill me because he blamed me for Jaxon’s, Will’s, and Bennet’s absence here? Ironically, it was Stella who sent them off, Stella who had warned us all about what had happened.
Whatever. If he wanted to blame me, fine. I’d just have to watch my back, because I’d be damned if I let a Scott get the best of me without trying to take him down with me. I probably wouldn’t, not unless I got lucky, but I could try.
A minute passed, and I heaved a sigh, slow to sit back down. It was one thing to know Johnathan was here in the house, another thing entirely to have a talk with him. And to be threatened by the big man himself? His threat hit differently than one from Markus. Though I knew Markus was capable of the same destruction and mayhem, I was more concerned with Johnathan’s threat.
As much as I sought to focus on what I’d been doing before, I couldn’t wipe that conversation from my mind. I wouldn’t say I was confident in the face of Johnathan Scott, but I wasn’t a cowering wimp, at least. It might come to bite me in the ass, and call me selfish, but I didn’t want to die. Obviously, I wanted to live, and I wanted to see and hold Juliet again.
I tapped my fingers on the desk. Maybe it was fate, or maybe it was some kind of reward for the karma I put out in the world, but my phone buzzed right then, and I was all too quick to answer it. Whoever it was, it would provide a welcome distraction from what just happened.
The moment I saw who was calling, my heart constricted. I didn’t dare hope… and yet I found myself doing just that.
I answered the phone: “Jaxon. Any updates?”
The voice that greeted me wasn’t Jaxon. It was a much softer, much more feminine voice that sounded like honey to my ears. “Theo.”
I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on my face. “Juliet.” Simply hearing her voice gave me a sense of peace, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t instantly wish I was there with her, beside her, comforting her in what must be one of the worst times in her life. Being stabbed and left for dead by the man you revered above all others; I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling right now. “Let’s switch to FaceTime.”
“I don’t know how—” I heard her start to fumble with the phone, but I managed to switch it over before she had to ask for help. Not sure if Jaxon and the others were in the room with her or if they’d given her privacy to talk to me.
Knowing the guys, they were probably still in the room, just giving her a tiny bit of space. I couldn’t blame them. If I was with her, I’d never want to leave her, either.
Juliet’s face greeted me, a shy, small smile on her face. She looked pale and exhausted, and my heart went out to her. I wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and keep her safe and warm, protect her from the world—although, that was the same excuse Fred had given her, too. Keeping her safe. The difference between us was that I would truly do it, while he had used that excuse to shelter her to the point she was oblivious and naive to the way the world worked.
I wouldn’t keep her locked up. I only wanted to love that girl.
“Hi,” she spoke the greeting again, and I couldn’t tell if she blushed or if it was simply the light in the hospital room.
I grinned. “How are you?” Juliet’s big, blue eyes darted away from the phone for just a moment, and I could tell the others were still in the room. What they were doing, however, I clearly couldn’t see. “How are you feeling?”
