The board managed to reschedule the meeting twice before Alan sent them a letter to politely remind them that they were legally obliged to stop fucking around when a majority shareholder called on them.

Jayden knew it was just a tactic to put him on edge, to try and throw his balance. His own dad used to do this shit all the time, and he was immune to it by now. It was their own time they were wasting, not his.

Instead, he managed to get another meeting with Lottie and Tamsin out of the delays, which lifted his spirits immensely. Watching Lucas with Tamsin was a much welcomed reminder that, for all his bluster, the big guy knew exactly how to listen to his heart, and he was the best damn father Jayden had ever seen.

Sure, his sample size was small, and technically Lucas wasn't a father, but that made little difference.

He sipped coffee while he watched through the kitchen door as Lucas sat down to help Tamsin with her schoolwork, and only looked away when he felt the couch beside him dip a little under Lottie's weight.

"I saw you both in the news," she said, her voice soft so that it wouldn't carry. "All over the gossip rags. Is this a thing, or an act?"

Jayden gnawed the inside of his cheek a little as he looked to her. "It's a thing," he admitted.

She nodded at that. "If you break his heart," she said calmly, "I will skin you alive and wear your face as a mask."

Jayden blinked slowly. Maybe he'd misheard her, or maybe she meant it as a joke. Or... "You... what?" he squeaked.

Lottie flashed a humorless smile at him. "If you hurt him, I will end you. He's my brother, and if you so much as make him cry I will break your fucking arms, is that clear?"

"Wow," he breathed.

She was dead serious.

And why shouldn't she be? This was her brother. She must've lived for years worrying she might never see him again, no matter how much training or how many muscles he had, and now the guy she had every reason to hate was swooping her brother off his feet, taking him to fancy restaurants, maybe even changing his life.

He swallowed and gave her a serious nod. "If I make him cry," he finally answered, "I'll deserve whatever you dish out, because he's the best thing that ever happened to me, and I'd be an idiot to let anything happen to him."

Lottie eyed him a moment, then smiled. "You're okay, Jayden. You know, for a spoiled little rich brat."

"I'll take any and all compliments. I'm not fussy about the gift wrap they come in," he countered with a grin.

"Very wise." She chuckled.

Jayden looked toward Lucas again, and rested his elbows on his knees. "He's so good with her," he breathed.

"He's a great surrogate dad," she agreed. "I'm so proud of him."

Jayden sipped from his coffee and almost asked her more, but it felt like it wasn't his business. He barely knew Lottie, he couldn't just start grilling her about her lost husband, or her own parents. That wasn't right. If she wanted to tell him sometime that was her choice.

Watching Lucas, though, Jayden was forced to admit that his own father was just bad at it. He didn't seem to have any interest in what he would have called 'women's work', whether that was raising children or taking care of the home, and while Jayden was growing up his only example of how to be a man showed him that it meant shutting down your heart, leaving the feelings to women.

It wasn't until his rebellious teenage years that it even occurred to him that Dad could be wrong.

It wasn't until now that he truly realized that parents were just people too, and were capable of mistakes.

That was a hard thing to swallow, the most bitter of pills. He washed it down with more coffee and tried not to let Lottie see how shaken he was by this epiphany.

All these years Jayden thought it was his own fault somehow. His fault for being gay, or his fault for having feelings, maybe even his fault for siding with his Mom in an argument. But it wasn't.

He wasn't sure it was so easy as to be his dad's fault, either. Someone raised him the way he was. Someone taught him his toxic masculinity, his white middle-class privilege, his homophobia. Kids didn't have those ideas, they were handed down. Jayden could hate that all he wanted, but that didn't undo the fact that his dad was who he had been shaped to be, and that shape was a flawed individual who made for a lousy parent.

But he was a human being, and whatever choices he had made were his own. Just like Jayden, now, whose life wasn't his father's, whose struggles would never be like anything his dad had faced.

He drew a deep breath, and as he exhaled, the breath took his anxieties away with it.

It had been so easy to accept that Dad was some tyrant, a monster, this awful parent who had outed him to the board for no discernible reason and then died out of spite, but really, maybe Dad thought he was finally doing something good for his son.

Maybe he was trying to be a good father the whole time, even though he was crap at it.

Jayden would never know for sure. Not now. And sooner or later he was going to need to find a way to be okay with that. To let go of the things he couldn't ever control. To accept that his father had flaws and that nobody was perfect.

Watching Lucas with Tamsin was a good start, he figured.

His cell rang, and it seemed to break through the contemplative silence like an ax through a cloud. He grabbed for it and barely had time to note that it was Alan before he picked up. "Alan?"

"Jayden," Alan said. "Is this a good time?"

"As good as any." Jayden mouthed 'sorry' to Lottie and stood up to wander away to the far corner of the room. He almost went to the window, then remembered Lucas' words about such things and instead tucked himself away against the wall. "What's up?"

"I thought I'd see what had gotten into you." Alan sighed. "As your friend, obviously I have to high five you for finding a hot dude to date at last, but is it me or is this dude your bodyguard?"

"Uh." Jayden stuffed a hand into his pocket and frowned. "Yes, he is."

"Yeah, I never forget a pretty face. You know this could jeopardize our case, right?"

Jayden's frown deepened. "How?"

"Because it makes you look unprofessional," Alan said bluntly. "It makes you look like a guy who will sleep with your staff, and Deus Pharmaceuticals' lawyer will use that to tar and feather you with. I mean, if they know what they're doing, they will, because I sure as hell would in their shoes."

Jayden hissed softly. "I don't care. This isn't some office fling, Alan. I'm not taking advantage of him. I love him, and I will take that fight to their lawyers myself if I have to!"

"Woah. Hang fire there." Alan tutted. "If that's the case, we need to be watertight."

"Yeah. We have a plan."

He could almost picture the way Alan's eyes would narrow at a statement like that. "Okay, hit me with it."

Jayden glanced toward Lottie to make sure his conversation was private, and found she had left the room and gone back to the kitchen with Lucas and Tamsin. "We figured out who would benefit if I was killed," he murmured into the phone. "And we don't think my mom would want to kill me just for some shares."

"I'd have to agree," Alan said slowly.

"Right. So we think it's either about control of the company, or something more personal. Like homophobia."

Alan was silent.

"I've called a shareholder's meeting with the board. They're trying to dodge me on dates but we're set for tomorrow now. We showed our faces over the weekend where they'd be seen, so if anyone on the board has either motive, it should shake them enough to make 'em a little bit more obvious."

He heard Alan take a sharp breath.

"You're seriously telling me that this genius plan of yours is to light a fire under the ass or asses of one or more people who not only want you dead, but are willing to take action to make sure that you get dead? That's your plan?" Alan's cursing was muffled, like he'd covered the microphone. "Are you crazy? I thought the NYPD were handling this?"

"My case isn't gonna be important enough to solve until I'm dead," Jayden spat, "and maybe even not then. Some cases just never get solved. I don't wanna get shot on the sidewalk and have whoever was responsible get to walk free for the rest of their lives. I'm not gonna sit by and just let this all happen to me. We're walking in there tomorrow and we're gonna find out who's behind this."

"And then what?" Alan sighed. "What if all you have is suspicion and supposition? You need proof, buddy. Evidence. Admissible in court kind of evidence, not tampered with by enthusiastic amateurs’ evidence."

"It'll work," Jayden insisted.

Alan sighed. "Just be careful, will you? You are playing games with someone who is willing to kill you to get what they want. What if all you do is push them to take action more swiftly than they'd intended?"

"Then we'll nail them." Jayden flexed his jaw. "I don't have a single bodyguard now. I have a whole team. They're on my tail day in, day out. It won't be like last time when Lucas was on his own. They're like an entire SWAT team. You haven't seen the way these guys work together."

"I don't need to. I just need them to keep you alive. Don't you dare wind up dead, Jayden. I won't forgive you."

Jayden huffed softly, and shook his head. "Honestly if I wind up dead, I won't forgive me either. But they're gonna drag the legal fight out for years and years, aren't they? Hell, they'll probably all die of old age before we fix this. We need them to make a mistake, Alan." He sighed. "Tell me I'm wrong on that."

Alan was quiet a while. "You're not wrong," he conceded. "I just don't know if that makes you right."

"Yeah." Jayden nodded. "Me either. Can I record the meeting tomorrow?"

"Yes. New Jersey is a one party consent state for recordings." Alan paused. "You're having the meeting at the Deus Pharma offices, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then yes. New Jersey law applies. So long as one person present - that would be you - consents to being recorded, then your security firm is legally allowed to record the meeting."

Jayden glanced to the kitchen as he nodded again. "Okay. Thanks, Alan. I'll call you tomorrow, let you know how it went, and send you a copy of the recording."

"Be careful."

"I will."

He hung up and pocketed his cellphone as he made his way to the kitchen, and made sure he was all smiles as he passed through the doorway.

"Trouble?" Lucas looked up as he entered.

"No. Just Alan worrying." Jayden waved his hand through the air like it was all about nothing. "It's what he does."

"Okay then." Lucas tapped Tamsin's worksheets. "Because we've got a question we think you can help with here."

"Oh?" Jayden grabbed a chair and pulled it closer, then sank into it and leaned forward. "My knowledge is all at your disposal, Tamsin. What do you need?"

She laughed and read the question out to him, and he realized that while it was simple enough, Lucas had probably left it for Jayden so that Jayden could feel included.

God damn it, Lucas was perfect, and there was no way Jayden was gonna let him down, so he launched into answering the question in as entertaining a way as he possibly could.

Yeah. This was perfect.