Stock prices rise as Darius Holt returns to work and implements successful business structure.
Charities report receiving over $2 million dollars total in various donations from Darius Holt. It begs the question: What is Darius Holt celebrating?
Darius tried his best to keep Owen out of sight of the variety of media outlets that haunted his every step. He wanted to keep their relationship private as long as possible this time, preferably until long after their child was born. Both Owen and the baby would flourish best out of the limelight. No child should have to grow up with the constant pressure of the spotlight following their every move and criticizing their every choice, and Darius was determined to give his child an actual childhood away from the cameras.
Owen had joined Darius back at work, but he barely touched the work of an assistant. He kept things organized and double-checked important things, but most of his time was spent on the couch he had claimed as his nap spot. At eight months pregnant, he hardly had the energy to stand up anymore. If he did not have to get up, he would stay where he was, and he often slipped into sleep still sitting up.
Darius quietly got up from his desk, took the file out of Owen's limp hands, and set it aside on the coffee table before gently lowering Owen into a laying position on the couch. He grabbed one of the blankets off the back of the couch, shook it out, and draped it over Owen's body. He was unable to resist brushing his fingers over Owen's hair before returning to his desk. He worked in peace for almost ten minutes, and the only sound in the office was that of his fingers tapping out words on his keyboard.
Then a voice spoke out of nowhere. "Is that him?"
Darius jumped and snapped his gaze up to where Marlowe stood behind the couch, looking down at Owen. "Holy shit, Marlowe, you can't just materialize in my office!"
Marlowe took a step back from the couch, as if he knew that Darius would pounce on him for that next. "I just walked in."
"Without knocking," Darius pointed out.
Marlowe shrugged, lifting up the shoulders of the faded blue hoodie he was wearing today. "I needed to talk to you, and you said I could drop by."
Darius scowled. Marlowe was still too close to Owen for his comfort. He stood up. "Let's talk in the safe room."
Marlowe hesitated, glancing back at Owen. "Is that him, though?"
Darius walked around the desk, grabbed Marlowe's upper arm, and dragged him into the safe room, shutting the door behind them with a tap of his foot. "Yes," he informed Marlowe, "that's Owen Mitchell."
Marlowe pursed his lips and nodded. "I can see why you fell for him. He's hot."
Darius raised a singular eyebrow.
Marlowe continued like the threat in Darius' expression did not scare him. "Very cute, but also forge-level hot."
"Marlowe," Darius warned.
Marlowe cracked a grin. "I love how you always forget who I am." That was right. Marlowe was an omega who had been assaulted and abused enough times that he now disguised himself as a beta. His act was so good that even Darius, who knew practically every detail of Marlowe's past, sometimes forgot his true nature.
Darius sighed and shook his head. "My bad. It's not exactly my fault that you're good at acting, though."
Marlowe ran surprisingly clean fingers over the spines of a few of the books on the shelf next to him. "We could continue talking about my acting prowess or get down to business."
Darius made the carry-on motion with his hand. "What do you have?"
Marlow swung the black backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it, pulling out five brown folders from its depths. He handed them to Darius. "The police files I told you I was getting my hands on."
With shaking hands, Darius set the stack down on the small table and opened them one by one. Felix Carly, Thomas Wem, Nicholas Faber, Carson Hernandez, and Jacob Brown were the names given by the prime suspects of the cases. But when he arranged them in chronological order, including the Randall Dawson file, he could see the progression from Nicholas Faber to Owen Mitchell. It was a flawless timeline, even though there were some gaps of time in between the files. Darius leaned back against the wall. "Oh, god," he whispered.
Marlowe zipped up his backpack. "Yeah. That's about what I figured your reaction would be."
Darius scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand, but when he looked back at the table, the chronology of incrimination was still there. "What the fuck? How did he do this? Why?"
"All excellent questions," Marlowe said as if teaching a class on elementary detective work. "I think I can answer the how. You know how I said that the pattern was the same every time?"
Darus nodded, feeling like his soul was gone.
"Well, I looked into the guy who shut all of these cases down. It took some conniving and convincing, but I got a couple officers to talk. The man pulling the strings to keep our con artist out of trouble is Tyler Ellis."
Darius glanced up at Marlowe. "Tyler Ellis? The CEO of EX Tradings?"
Marlowe nodded. "The one and the same."
Darius pinched the bridge of his nose in between his finger and thumb. "So the why behind this could be that Ellis is looking to take down his competition but doesn't want to directly tie his name to it."
"If you were destroying enemy companies from the inside, would you want your name attached to the case?"
Darius shook his head. "No. Definitely not." He ran his fingers along the edge of the picture of "Felix Carly" and exhaled heavily. "So you think, what? That Owen works for Tyler Ellis?"
Marlowe shrugged, his fingers fiddling with the backpack's zipper. He was probably coming down off a high, the drugs' effect wearing thin. "It's possible and, based on the evidence, even probable. I guess it's up to you now whether you want to just let stuff play out or confront him."
"I just got him back," Darius whispered, flipping the files shut one by one and sliding them into a stack. "How am I supposed to confront him? Hand him all this and see what his reaction is?"
Marlowe yanked on the dangling backpack strap, tightening it. "Don't know. Like I said, it's in your court now. Anything else you need from me?"
Darius shook his head, pulling his phone out of his pocket and sending money to Marlowe's account.
Marlowe waited until Darius showed him the digital receipt and then he pulled the door open. "Pleasure doing business. You know the drill. If you need anything, just call me up." He slipped out of the office like an assassin, his torn Vans barely making a sound on the floor.
Darius shoved all the files into a spot on a bookshelf, left the safe room, and made sure to shut the door securely before heading back to his desk and starting work again. His fingers typed out the words they were supposed to, but his mind was still reeling with the possibilities and probabilities.
If Owen had gone by those six different names in the past, was Owen Mitchell even his real name? Probably not. And if Owen was not his name, then was he there to make Darius' world implode? Was all the love fake? Or had he accidentally fallen in love? And if that was the case, was he still planning to destroy Darius' company?
Darius groaned and dropped his head into his hands. It physically hurt him to think about Owen as a cold-blooded con whose job was to systematically take down flourishing businesses and get away with it over and over.
Warm hands settled on his shoulders. "Do you have a headache?"
Darius lifted his head from his hands and glanced up at Owen, whose hair was adorably messy from his nap. "Yeah, just a little bit." Did this count as lying?
Owen bent and kissed Darius' hair. "How about now?"
Darius could not stop the smile that curved his mouth. "So much better."
Owen smiled back and hugged Darius' neck, settling his chin on Darius' head. "Good." He stayed like that for several moments and then kissed Darius' head again. "More proposals?"
Darius sighed and shut his laptop. "I was just making some edits." He stood up slowly, giving Owen time to back up. He stepped around his chair and hugged Owen. Was he just in denial? "Owen," he began cautiously, "what would you do if someone you cared about betrayed you?"
Owen looked up at him, confusion all over his face. "What do you mean? You're the only person I care about. Why would you betray me?"
Darius felt a dagger of ice slide into his heart. What if Owen was genuinely in love with him? And what if Owen was one of the best liars on the planet? He could not tell, and it hurt. "I wouldn't. It was a hypothetical situation."
The breath whooshed out of Owen's body in a relieved sigh. He held onto Darius even tighter. "Thank goodness. You were scaring me."
Darius bit his tongue to keep the whole truth inside, even though he had made a vow to himself to never lie to Owen again. "So?" he pressed gently. "What would you do?"
Owen did not look up this time. "I'd do something I'd probably regret, you know, like kill them." Cold. That reply was cold for the sweet boy Owen had played thus far. Cold like his threat to shoot Darius when they had broken up. Was this his true form, the personality he hid from Darius except in extremely tense moments? He shook his head and buried his face in Darius' chest. "I don't want to think about this any more," he said, his voice muffled. "Can we talk about something else?"
Darius swallowed his fear and nodded. "Of course. We can talk about anything you want, baby."
Owen made a happy, satisfied sound. "Can we talk about you taking me home to see your family?"
Darius froze. Was this Owen acting the part of the infatuated lover? Or was he planning to hurt Darius' family as well? He forced himself to relax so Owen would not find him suspicious. "Sure. But there's just my mom and my brother that you haven't met yet."
Owen propped his chin on Darius' chest and stared up at him with those eyes that Darius could never deny. "Do you think they'll hate me or something?"
"No," Darius replied before he could think. "They'll love you to pieces."
Owen's smile was so cute. "Yay."
Darius smiled back before he remembered that he could not trust Owen completely. Even then, he could not bring himself to hurt Owen's feelings. "I'll text my mom, see if she's okay with us visiting."
"Mm." Owen released Darius and went back to the couch. "Why do my feet hurt so much?" he complained as he sank down onto the cushions.
Darius followed him and sat on the floor, untying Owen's shoelaces and pulling his foot out to rub. He might be suspecting Owen of double crossing him, but he knew Owen was not faking the pregnancy. He could let himself care about this. But just this. Anything more would be toeing the line marked danger. He could do this. He could make Owen think he cared about him while actually only caring about his condition.
Owen flicked his foot away from Darius' hands. "Don't do that. You don't belong on the floor."
Darius gently pulled Owen's foot back. "I'm not your kid," he replied softly. "You can't tell me what to do or not do. I want to be here, doing this."
Owen dropped his head back against the cushions. "Fine," he muttered, like he was annoyed and not obviously enjoying Darius' care. Just like he pretended to not be impressed by Darius' childhood home. "It's a little bigger than the apartment," he said with a shrug, but Darius could see the shock in his eyes when they pulled into the driveway.
"Just a little?" Darius teased as he parked the car and got out to open Owen's door.
Owen gave him a look. "Just because I was poor before we got together doesn't give you an excuse to talk down to me." Where had that venom come from?
Darius drew back. "What? That's not what I was doing at all!"
Owen's face relaxed at those words. "Oh. I'm sorry. I guess, I don't know, that you were showing off or something."
Darius pulled him out of the car and tucked his hand under his arm. "I would never show off to you, not unless you asked for it." He led Owen inside, where they were immediately ambushed by Sario.
"Hi!" Sario slid across the hardwood floor in front of them, stopping with a grin. "You must be the boyfriend!"
Owen seemed slightly intimidated at first, but then he smiled. "Yeah. You must be the brother."
Sario laughed. "I like him," he said to Darius in a stage whisper.
Owen laughed too, a genuine laugh that had Darius' heart melting. "Well, that's a relief."
Darius looped his arm around Owen's shoulders. "I told you, didn't I? You'll only get love from my family. No one's going to hate you."
Sario pulled a very dramatic face and gasped extremely loudly. "You thought I'd hate you?" He mimed stabbing a dagger into his heart. "I'm wounded!"
Owen giggled, and the sound set off butterflies in Darius' stomach.
Never in a million years would he have thought that his annoying little brother would make Owen so comfortable and happy.
Darius' mom, Gabriela, poked her head out of the kitchen. Her face brightened the instant she saw Owen. She stepped out into the foyer, still wrapped in her apron, and pulled Owen into a hug. "Hello," she said softly.
Owen's whole being sank into the embrace. "Hi," he replied in a matching tone.
She pulled back but held onto his shoulders. "It's nice to finally meet you, Owen."
Owen's smile was soft, and his eyes were sparkling. Darius had never seen him so at ease. It had to be an omega connection thing. "It's nice to meet you as well, Mrs. Holt."
She patted his shoulder. "Come on in. Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes." With that, she hurried back to the kitchen. Darius' mom was never anything but the perfect host, always cooking the meals for guests herself even though she could have very easily let their family cook take care of it.
When Owen glanced at Darius, Darius offered an encouraging smile. "See?"
Owen ducked his head, suddenly shy.
Sario grabbed Owen's hand. "Come on! I'll show you everything!"
"Sario," Darius started to caution, but they were already gone. He sighed and trailed after them, finding his dad already sitting at the dining table and reading what looked suspiciously like Sario's advanced physics textbook. "Brushing up on your physics?" he asked playfully, pulling out the chair next to his dad's.
Daniel looked up with a faint smile on his face. "Yes, in fact. It's so I know what Sario is talking about. It's been decades since I touched this stuff, and Sario isn't the best at explaining things."
Darius snorted. "I doubt he's any more eloquent at explaining his feelings."
Daniel shook his head, but the smile stayed on his lips. "I suspect the same."
Darius patted his dad on the back. "Well, don't expect another in-law anytime soon then."
With another shake of his head, Daniel returned to reading the textbook, but Darius did not feel ignored. Only his dad was able to end a conversation without dismissing the other person.
Darius had no idea where Sario and Owen were until they showed up for dinner, snickering about something said before they entered the dining room. Despite his raised eyebrow, Owen did not elaborate, but Darius could not be mad, not when Owen was so happy here. And when his mom sat down with them, Darius had never felt more at home.