"Jimmy," Malik cut in, his voice patronizing as he glanced at me with a wink. "Please, allow me to speak to Gabriella."

As if I needed my father's approval or permission.

I was done with all of it, and I planned to make myself clear. It had been stupid of me to even agree to see Malik just to make my mother happy. There was nothing I could ever do that would earn me favor in the light eyes of the man in front of me. The man who was clearly annoyed with being asked to leave his own office.

With heavy reluctance and anger, my father finally nodded and stepped away from his desk. "Very well," he muttered. The door to the office closed behind him as he exited.

I was given no time to say my peace before Malik's hand, which was still on my arm, gripped me more firmly. I turned to him and wrenched it out of his grasp.

"Gabriella," he said. I jerked at the warning in his tone.

I pressed my lips together and took a step back, lifting my hand. "I will not be attending the benefit with you. I'm sorry, Malik, but you knew I was going to go with my father-"

"Your father has decided not to attend this year," he said, interrupting me.

I tried to maintain a rational and calm demeanor; the men in my life hated overly emotional women. I closed my eyes and inhaled a calming breath. This was not going to go over well.

"And while that's most definitely news," I said, rolling my shoulders back and lifting my chin to meet his gaze, "my plans have also changed. I'm sorry to tell you this, truly, but I only agreed to meet with you to appease my parents. I have no interest in the family business, Malik."

A muscle tightened in his jaw. I decided to deliver the final blow before he could speak. Might as well get all his anger out at once.

"And I have a date."

"You what?" His eyebrows arched in surprise. I took little comfort in being able to shock him.

"I recently reconnected with someone I knew when I lived here previously."

"You were a child then."

"And I'm an adult now," I said in a clipped voice, my patience wearing thin. "And able to make my own decisions. I will not be forced into a marriage that I do not want. I will not be used or manipulated. I made that clear to my father before I returned home."

A slow grin spread on Malik's face. It was calculating and calm and sent a chill down my spine.

"What you seem to fail to understand, Gabriella, is that you are this family. You, and any children you have, any legacy you leave, will forever be tied to the empire your father, and his father before him, built. It will be a very perilous choice if you try to separate yourself from it."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No. I'm pointing out the wisdom in knowing who you are and who you belong to."

My eyes widened and my blood chilled further. "And you're implying that I am someone's to own?"

"Bad choice of words," he said, dismissing my question with a wave of his hand. "But you have to understand that your father has many enemies. His stepping down will not be taken lightly. He has chosen me to protect you, and it wouldn't be a sign of your intelligence to turn your back on it."

I swallowed and looked away. I also couldn't help the sneer that lifted one side of my lips. Taking a few deep breaths, I paused to think for a few moments before responding.

"I will not marry you," I told Malik when I had calmed down.

A small hint of amus.e.m.e.nt eased the harshness in his features. "You have made that clear. But you must also understand that when I am in charge of the Detroit family, it will be my job and my prerogative to help keep you safe-from any and all threats."

I heard the slight edge of darkness in his tone and chose to ignore it.

"I really must go." I stepped away and toward the door.

"I would like you to consider something," Malik said when my hand wrapped around the door handle.

"What's that?"

"I understand you and Jimmy are not close. And I cannot fathom the sudden defiance of your own legacy."

I arched a brow and waited for him to continue. He didn't need to fathom anything, and I was done arguing with this man. Tyson was waiting for me and nothing had ever sounded better than a beer and his arms around me in his small home. It had more warmth than anything I had ever lived in simply because he would be there with me.

"I would still like you to attend the benefit with me."

I scoffed and he lifted a hand to silence me. "It would make your father happy and he's under enough stress. Between your mother's illness and the business, he's had enough to handle. There are stirrings in Chicago and Boston, families who have wanted to take control from him for years are moving in. They've discovered that your mother is sick, and they believe your father is growing weak. They're getting more aggressive and tensions are mounting, Gabriella. Now is not the time to upset him."

No one had ever spoken so blatantly to me about anything to do with the business. Still, I opened my mouth to refuse, but that niggling part of me in the back of mind reminded me of family loyalty.

"You're manipulating me by using my mother," I stated, daring him to argue. He didn't. He simply shrugged and slid his hands into the front pockets of his pants.

"You understand that this is out of obligation and not for pleasure," I told him, feeling myself cave.

"I understand." He smiled. It felt like he was teasing me. I had no doubt that he was currently thinking of ways to change my mind, but he wouldn't. There was nothing he could do that would make me want to marry into this underground empire forever.

"Then I will go with you on Sat.u.r.day."

Victory sparkled in his eyes. "I will pick you up at six."

I nodded, feeling sick to my stomach at the thought. There was no way this could go well, but at least I had a few days to prepare myself for whatever he intended to do. "Until then. Good night, Malik."

"Good night, Gabriella."

I left my father's office, thankful that he wasn't loitering outside, listening to the entire conversation. Then I grabbed my purse from the kitchen, saddened that the room was empty and Clarissa was nowhere to be found. As I headed upstairs to kiss my mother good night, I wished that either of the women I loved and adored could wrap their arms around me and hold me.

Because I feared I had just made an incredibly huge mistake.

- By the time I pulled into Tyson's driveway, my eyes were struggling to stay open. It was almost eleven o'clock and I was wiped out.

Between a long day at work, finding an apartment, the meeting with my father and Malik, and a stop at my hotel for a change of clothes for tomorrow morning, I desperately wanted to climb into the closest bed I could find and fall asleep immediately.

Hopefully, the bed I'd be falling asleep in would contain Tyson as well.

It was that thought that kept me from canceling when I walked into my hotel room-the bed calling my name, enticing me to lie down for just a moment.

With an exhausted grunt, I reached around and grabbed my overnight bag from the back seat and forced my feet to carry me toward Tyson's door. It opened as soon as I reached the front step and I couldn't hide my smile. He'd been waiting for me. A jolt of something pleasurable hit my chest and as he stepped out and reached for my bag, that pleasurable jolt traveled farther south.

When he lifted his eyes and our gazes met, that jolt turned into a full body tingle.

"Hey."

He scanned my face and frowned. "You look tired."

I sighed. "I've had a really c.r.a.ppy evening."

My bag hit the floor with a thump. The door closed behind me, and then Tyson's hand was on my neck, sliding around to the back. I sank into his hold immediately, my head collapsing against his chest.

"Want to talk about it?"

I shook my head back and forth. "Drink first."

His lips brushed against my hair on the top of my head and he pulled me toward him, my chest hitting his. My hands immediately went to his waist and then around to his back. "Beer?"

"Please."

A low chuckle from his chest vibrated against my skin. "We're going to have to get out of the entryway, then."

I forced myself to pull back. It was a miraculous feat considering I really wanted that bed, and Tyson in it with me. Just having his arms around me, and the fact that the first thing he asked me was if I wanted to talk about it, made me want him more than I already did.

He really cared. I hadn't had much of that in my life.

My shoulders slumped at the thought and I finally pushed away from Tyson, slowly lifting my eyes to meet his.

"I've never seen you look so beat." His hand slid from my neck, his thumb brushed along my cheekbone.

"Not nice to tell a woman she looks like s.h.i.t."

He flashed me a faint smile. "You're beautiful, but you look ready to fall asleep."

"I am. But I really want that drink." I might need the small amount of liquid courage to bolster myself when I told him about my meeting with my dad.

Not only did I have to pull out of a date with Tyson, but I also had to tell him why. And hope he understood.

He led me toward the living room, pointed a finger at the couch and said, "Sit and relax. I'll go get us drinks." I listened and folded my feet under me in one corner of the couch while he walked straight through the living room into the kitchen. I watched as he took out two Shock Top ales from the fridge, popped the tops, tossed them onto the counter, and returned to the living room, handing me a beer before he settled on the couch next to me.

I adjusted myself, leaving my feet under me but turned so my knees rested on his thighs. His arm went to the back of the couch, and I put my head on his shoulder while he kicked his feet up on the table in front of him, crossing his ankles. I took a few small sips of my beer and ran my thumb up and down the bottle's label, not really noticing the Mohawk and sungla.s.ses of the logo that my thumb caressed. I'd had an hour to think about what to tell Tyson and how to explain the mess I had just put myself in. And I was still stalling.

Choosing to get it over with, I blurted out, "My mother and father have someone they want me to marry."

Next to me, Tyson's body tensed. It didn't take a genius to figure out I had just p.i.s.sed him off.

I twisted so I could meet his eyes. They were dark, narrowed, and his lips were pressed into a white line. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

"And?"

I nervously ran a hand through my hair, fidgeting with the fine hairs at the back of my neck. "Perhaps that wasn't the best way to begin."

His slowly arched brow was his only response.

Inhaling deeply, I blew out a breath from puffed out cheeks.

"So, my mom is really ill. When I first got into town, the day my dad stopped by my hotel room," I paused and waited for recognition from Tyson of that morning. When I got nothing from him, my pulse spiked further. "Okay. So that day I went and saw my mom to check in on her and everything. She requested that I give a man they had chosen for me a chance. Said she wants to make sure that I'm taken care of when she pa.s.ses."

I blinked away the quickly forming tears in my eyes and looked to my beer.

"And you said yes," Tyson said. His shoulders pulled back as if trying to push away from me even though I was leaning on him. "Of course you would."

He ran a hand ran down his face and dropped his head to the back of the couch, eyes closed. I reached out and rested my hand on his chest, right above his heart. I could feel the strong thump beating inside him.

"Only to appease her, and I didn't say yes to the marriage, just that I'd consider it. We had only just seen each other."

"He's playing you."

There was no need to clarify who he was talking about.

"My father is," I admitted, nodding. I took my hand from his chest and went back to picking at the bottle label. "Can I tell you something important? About my family?"

He turned his head, narrowed eyes on me. His lips twitched, like he couldn't figure out how to respond. I took that as my cue to continue. I shifted so I wasn't leaning on him, but still facing him. I was close enough that his hand rested on the back of my neck, fingers trailing through my hair.

"My dad is stepping down." Those fingers tensed in my hair. They dug into my scalp slightly but not enough to sting. "I don't know why, but I think that because of my mom, he's just had too much to deal with. Or maybe it's time. I don't know. I heard something tonight about other families thinking he's growing weak. Anyway, he's handing down everything he's built to someone else. They want me to marry the man who's going to take over to keep someone from the family still connected..." I paused, bile rising in my throat as I continued with a scoff, "They want to ensure another Galecki can someday take over."

"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l," Tyson groaned and slid his hand out of my hair.

His feet dropped to the floor, his elbows. .h.i.t his knees, and his head hit the palms of his hands. He scrubbed his hair wildly while he visibly shook to stay in control. "He's using you like f.u.c.king cattle."

The thought made me sick. He wasn't altogether wrong.

"I went on a date with Malik, the man who's stepping up to lead."

His head snapped toward mine, and those dark blue eyes turned absolutely glacial. "When?"

The inside of my cheek found its way between my teeth and I chewed on it nervously. "That Monday you were out of town," I admitted with a quiet voice.

Tyson pushed off the couch and paced the living room. I sat there, wide-eyed and stunned at his demeanor and the way his hands kept flying to his hair. He growled indecipherably except for the curse words falling from his lips.

I managed to take a few sips of my beer, before disliking the taste while he ranted and raved to himself, continuing to pace back and forth.

"Tyson?" I finally asked when his anger seemed to be a reaching a boiling point. "I told him I wouldn't do it."

He froze mid-step and spun to look at me, hands falling to his hips. "When?"

"Tonight. When my father said Malik has to take me to the benefit."

His nostrils flared and his chest heaved. "And you said?"

The question lingered in the air. From my silence, Tyson figured out the answer. "f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, Blue."

He shook his head, and I clambered from my perch on the couch to walk toward him. "I'm sorry," I whispered, lifting my hand and placing it on his chest. His heart was beating much too fast. I knew this would upset him, I just hadn't realized how much.

"I made it clear to Malik that Sat.u.r.day night is only for my parents' sakes and that I won't have anything else to do with him after. I just..."