Page 13 of Obsession
“No.”
My smile flickers for a moment because even if I hate the idea of marriage, I hate that everyone seems to be angry at Oisín for this abrupt change.
Canon looks like he wants to strike someone and hasn’t decided who gives him the best political return. “You expect me to hand over my son because you found a loophole?”
I step around my chair and place both hands on the table. “I expect you to honor the contract you brought into my clubhouse.” Canon opens his mouth but I shake my head as I continue speaking. “I get it. You prepared your daughter to take over for the Rogues. Hell, you even prepared her for something like this so she wouldn’t bend at the first sight of something disagreeable. However, I’m not breaking any rules and if youmention he’s not suited for this or some other bullshit, it’s just going to make you look stupid.”
Canon’s entire face contorts in anger. “What?”
“See, your daughter just told me that Oisín is the one who prepared all of the routes. That makes him the most useful fucking person in the room. Varina might know how to do business but that’s the last thing I—Obsidian needs.”
Canon’s head snaps toward him. “Say that again.”
Moth doesn’t blink as he steps in for me. “Oisín compiled your financials, identified the route losses, and understands the corridor pressure points. Varina has political value Rogue-side. Moving her weakens your visible succession at the same time you’re trying to project stability. Oisín satisfies the blood requirement without removing your heir from your structure.”
Everyone shuffles a little bit, murmurs rumbling through the room as my father takes in the shift. Then he looks at me. “Is that your position?”
Beneath the calm, he’s asking whether this is impulse or strategy, and whether I’m making him defend a move I haven’t bothered to think through.
“Oisín gives us the blood tie and the operational integration,” I tell him. “Varina stays where the Rogues need her. Canon saves face by keeping his heir in-house. Obsidian gains someone who can actually read the numbers instead of another loud mouth trying to prove she deserves a chair.”
Varina points at me. “You almost had a decent argument before you fucked it up.”
Another chuckle comes from my right hand and I instantly decide I’m going to throat punch Bricks when we get out of here. “He does that.”
I just lean back in my chair, waiting for either Canon or Varina to push back. Maybe even Rook or one of the other Rogues who looks like they want to kill me. As much as Oisín seems tobe in the shadows, it seems like they’re still protective of him.Strange.
Oisín steps forward from behind Varina. “No.” The word is soft, but it cuts through more cleanly than the shouting did because no one expects it from him. Every face turns to meet his again. He’s still beet red, his fingers shaking slightly around the folder, but he looks at Canon first, then at Varina, then finally at me. “I’m not something you can argue over like a clause.”
For one second, the room has no idea what to do with him.
Canon says, “Oisín.”
Oisín flinches at his father’s tone, barely, but he doesn’t step back. “You were going to send Varina without asking whether she wanted it. Now he wants me because it suits him better, and everyone’s discussing the strategy like either of us are cargo. Am I wrong?”
Canon seizes the opening. “This isn’t about want. It’s about what the Rogues need.”
Oisín’s mouth tightens. “That’s what you always say when you don’t want to call something cruel.”
The room goes still enough that I hear Demo whisper, “Oh shit,” before Moth cuts him a look. Canon looks at his son like he’s seeing a stranger and an inconvenience at the same time. “You’re forgetting yourself,” Canon says.
Oisín swallows. “No. I think I remembered for once.”
The words shouldn’t affect me, and I don’t like that they do. I want to put a hand around the back of his neck and move him behind me, partly to protect him from the room and partly to remind everyone where I’ve decided he belongs. The instinct is ugly, possessive before it’s kind. I know the difference. I just don’t care enough to pretend I’m better than I am.
Canon takes one step toward him, making me see red.
“Don’t,” I push out through gritted teeth.
Canon stops, his eyes cutting to me. “He’s my son.”
“Then stop talking to him like he’s a dog you’re embarrassed to own.”
The sentence has everyone on their feet, both sides sliding hands to the guns on their hip, each person bracing themselves for a fall out. Varina steps in between her father and her brother, Moth talking over the sudden commotion about optics as Bricks just laughs.
This is getting out of hand.
Some part of me fucking loves it. The other part just wants to drag Oisín out of here, fuck him hard enough to make him pass out, and then enjoy the peace that comes after.
