Page 116 of Crown of Thorns
“Good evening.” Zachary smiles. “I’m so glad to catch you all in this unexpected meeting.” The bandage around his neck issloppy and self-made, but he looks way too alert. What’s worse, he’s not alone. There are four others. Two are carrying a gun.
Arthur, who was busy untying Louis, looks up in bewilderment.
“What the hell is going on?” Jean-Luc’s voice cuts through the chaos like a blade. He enters the room with thunder behind him, no longer the elegant patriarch, but a man whose kingdom has been violated. His eyes sweep the scene: Louis bloodied, Arthur crouched over him, the projector still pulsing. Me. Zachary. The video.
For the first time since I’ve known him, Jean-Luc looks shaken. Not uncomposed, but deeply, dangerously still.
“Zachary,” he says at last. “Brother.” A pause sharp as steel. “What happened to your neck?”
“A misunderstanding to be solved. Nothing for you to worry about.” Zachary smirks my way. “Right, Professor? The truth hurts.”
The video starts to play. The clip is short, grainy, and soundless. Louis isn’t visible, but he sits slumped back in my seat as I climb on top of him. That was after he punched Arthur, and I told him to come and see me in my office. Our first time together. The memory is vivid, more detailed than the video. He’d been jealous of his brother. The pleased whimper he let out when I bent him over my desk and fucked him. The mischievous sparkle in his golden brown eyes. Those damn lashes fluttering his cheeks as he wrapped his arms around me.
“There’s a good boy.” My voice is a low, breathy murmur, thick with arousal. I see it in the clip, our bodies flush together, his mouth ghosting mine.
“N-Noah…I’m so close…”
The room has turned ice cold.
“Professor Montague’s family and mine have a history,” Zachary says. “It seems the whelp has a similar reputation tohis granddad. I thought you should know what’s been going on behind your back, Jean-Luc, especially since you were so eager to recruit him in the first place. You know I’ve always been skeptical about modernizing a brotherhood that represents all that this country stands for, but judging by the actions of our new hire, I'm voting outright against your proposal. Though I guess you agree with me on this one. Unless you want to keep him on for appearances? That is, after you punish him for what he’s done to your boy.” He clicks his tongue. “A disgrace.”
I can’t move. I can only stare in horror at the video.
My thoughts have formed a cocktail of self-destruction. Maybe it was always going to end this way, like my grandfather, devoured by the very secrets he tried to expose. I thought I was different. I thought I could balance truth and desire. But I was wrong.
This is what I’ve feared all along. The end of my career I worked so hard for. I gave everything to my work. My blood, my sweat, my name. But right now, that’s not all I feel. A loss weighs heavily on my heart. Louis. To see another day without him by my side. To wake up without his limbs curled around mine, to feel his warmth, hear his smiles, smell the coffee he brewed me, to believe that another day of laughter and sun rays has begun. Together.
“I can explain…” I start weakly, but my words get caught off.
“Not only did he lure your son into his bed, but he’s also written a paper that accuses the Brotherhood of dirty power play. Of abusing their influence in their group dynamics.”
“I would never have used that against you.” I blink, forcing my gaze away from the screen. “I was angry.”
Always angry. Look where it got me. I had everything in my palm, only to let it slip.
“Thank God our network is strong enough to keep outsiders where they belong.”
“Stop that video,” Jean-Luc orders. “It’s distracting. I knew of my son’s relationship with Professor Montague. My boys are close with each other and with me.”
My jaw drops at his words. He knew?
Jean-Luc doesn’t look at me, but I can only stare. His eyes never leave Zachary, and they are cold. Calculating. The security flanking him now shift subtly, hands hovering near weapons they don’t yet raise. He saw everything, and now he’s made his move. It feels heavy, weighing enough to throw me off balance. I’m completely flabbergasted. Zachary is, too, judging by the way he presses his lips into a fine line.
“The Board would like to see the paper that Professor Montague wrote. I also wish to receive a formal explanation and apology for why my son was drugged and injured. My legal team will contact yours.”
“Jean-Luc—” Zachary starts, but Jean-Luc holds a hand in the air.
Régis lingers, his eyes darting between me and Zachary. “What about him?” he mutters toward Jean-Luc, nodding at me. “You’re not seriously leaving him here with?—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Jean-Luc cuts in sharply. “The Board will evaluate what will happen to both of you. In the meantime, I am taking my family home. Make sure to clean everything up for the next gathering.”
He turns slightly, the finality in his posture more commanding than a shout.
“Escort them both out,” he adds without looking back. “Zachary first. The Professor stays under supervision until the Board decides.”
“He’s not a threat,” Régis adds, voice low, but no one corrects him.
Two masked men appear from the shadows. One takes Zachary by the arm. Another hovers behind me. Their handsnever touch me, but the message is clear: I’m done here. For now.
