Black Thorns (Thorns Duet #2) by Rina Kent

I couldn’t give two fucks about his power. Either he lets Naomi go or we’ll both die while trying to free her from him.

The door of my office opens and my uncle comes in, his hard gaze taking in the scene in front of him.

Daniel grins. “Nate! I was just telling Sebastian that you’re my favorite boss.”

“Save the ass-kissing for Van Doren, Sterling.”

“Thanks for putting that weird image in my head.” Daniel makes a face and points at me. “I’ll throw you the best funeral when you get yourself killed, Weaver Prince. And then I’m taking away your interns.”

He leaves with an evil laugh that I shake my head to as I fall into the seat behind my desk.

My uncle doesn’t sit down. Instead, he merely places a hand in his pocket as he observes me closely.

“What is it, Nate?”

“I was told you came to work when you’re still on a sick leave.”

“I’m fine.”

“Die someplace else that isn’t my firm, Rascal.”

“You’ll get good press out of it.”

“Not if the cause of death is exhaustion.” He narrows his eyes at me. “What are you up to?”

“A lot of things and nothing at the same time.”

“Let me guess, it has something to do with Naomi?”

Everything has had to do with Naomi since the day I said yes to that fucking bet. I’ve fought it over the course of time, but that doesn’t change the place she currently occupies in my life.

Or that she should’ve been in seven fucking years ago.

Nate takes my silence as affirmation and sighs. “I knew you’d get yourself in trouble because of her the day you kissed her on TV without caring if Mr. and Mrs. Weaver saw you.”

I grin. “Remember how Mrs. Weaver clutched her pearls? Priceless.”

“Her reaction doesn’t make you less impulsive. Or stupid.”

“Stupidity is accepting that she was gone. Besides, getting back what was originally mine isn’t impulsive, Uncle.”

“It certainly is if you lose control of your head for it.”

“You’re only saying that because you’ve never loved someone so much that being apart from them feels like drowning and burning alive at the same time. You’ve never stayed up all night, staring at the fucking sky with the minuscule hope that she’s also staring at it from a different nook in the world. You’ve never loved, period, Uncle. You’re nearing your forties and still are a cold-blooded bachelor with no settling down in sight.”

“Why settle down when you can be free? And you’re right, I’ve never loved and I don’t plan to. It’s all a stupid idea of nothingness that fools like you believe in. It’s not real. Not tangible. And certainly not lucrative.”

“If Mrs. Weaver hears you say that, she’ll have a stroke.”

He smiles, but it soon vanishes. “What do you plan to do now?”

“The only thing I can do. Bring down Akira.”

“That’s not wise.”

“And neither is being hollow for seven years.”

“Akira has dangerous allies, Sebastian.”

“I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You don’t understand.” He places a palm on the desk and leans forward. “He has allies you should never cross paths with.”

“I won’t know until I take my chances.”

“You will stop this nonsense of going against Akira and that’s fucking final.”

“No.”

“Sebastian…”

“No, Uncle. I’m not going to stand back this time and then lose my mind when she fucking disappears again.”

“This is about your life.”

“I’m well aware of the risks.”

“No, you’re not. I didn’t want to tell you this, but you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“What are you talking about?”

Nate unbuttons his jacket and sits across from my desk. “Your parents didn’t really die due to an accident.”

“I kind of figured that out on my own. Mom embezzled something and she paid for it with her and Dad’s lives.”

“How do you know that?”

“The day they passed, I overhead them when we were in the car. As I grew up, I connected the dots.”

“That’s not the end of it. Do you know who Julia stole from?”

“Who?”

“The Yakuza. I don’t know if it’s the same branch Akira’s connected to, but it could be.”

My pulse quickens as the pieces of the puzzle start falling together. The fact that Ren knew about my tattoos and the accident back then all point in one direction, but I don’t want to think about its relation to Naomi.

So I say, “My parents already paid for it.”

“They did, but you were supposed to die with them. Instead, you were held prisoner in the hospital for ransom.”

“I was what?”

“You were kidnapped in Japan. They called Mr. and Mrs. Weaver and told them that if they didn’t pay, they wouldn’t be seeing their grandchild again.”

“They…paid?”

“Of course they did. They might have cut Nick off when he chose to be with Julia, but they always had this misconception that sooner or later, he’d come crawling back into their laps. So when they learned their precious eldest son had died, it devastated them. You were all they had left of Nick, therefore, they didn’t hesitate to pay the kidnappers.”