Rule's Obsession(24)

The words were so incongruent with the woman's appearance that Angie stumbled and began laughing.

"You think that's funny?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, it's true. He needs to realize that you'd be perfect for him, but in the meantime, come and meet Rick's son, Caiden. He's about your age, maybe a little younger, but he's absolutely adorable."

As Angie was all but dragged across a room full of people and they came to stand in front of Rick and his son, Angie said with a smile, "I already know Rick's son. I'm his stylist, also."

Caiden leaned in and kissed Angie's cheek and then his father followed suit.

"You cut his hair, too?" Mrs. Rule asked and then turned to Rick. "You didn't tell me they knew each other already."

As Angie and Caiden shared a look, she abruptly realized what this was about. Justine was trying to set the two of them up. Would the woman never learn? Finding herself on the receiving end of her manipulations, Angie suddenly realized why his mother drove Damian so crazy.

After chit-chatting a few minutes, the older couple excused themselves and Justine pulled Rick away, undoubtedly trying to give Angie and Caiden some time alone. Angie rolled her eyes and glanced back at Caiden, who she'd known for a good two years. "She's trying to set us up!"

"Actually she's been trying to set me up with every single woman who's here tonight."

"Why?" Angie leaned closer and whispered, "Doesn't she know you're gay?"

He looked taken aback. "Justine? Hell, my father doesn't know I'm gay."

Angie glanced back around the room, wondering if she should mind her own business, and saw Courtney speaking to a dark-haired young woman with familiar looking eyes. Caiden noticed her interest and said, "The blonde girl is Courtney, the goddaughter. The brunette is the actual daughter, and her name is Erin."

Angie looked away, not wanting to stare. "I've met Courtney but not Erin."

"Oh, you will. Justine is in her element tonight."

"Don't you like her?" Angie asked, referring to Justine Rule.

"Actually, I do. She's exactly what my father needs, but she is a bit of a match-maker want-to-be, and that's creating a bit of a problem for me."

Angie stopped just short of cringing for the young man and decided she would tell him what she knew, after all. "Hey, let's wander around a bit. I want to tell you something and you may need a bit of privacy for it."

He looked at her with a frown, but he turned and followed her. She stopped and snagged a glass of champagne from a side table, and he did the same. Glancing around as if about to mingle, Angie walked from the room as surreptitiously as possible and headed down a hallway that looked private enough.

She came to an open door that contained a library, and walked inside, Caiden following her. She shut the door and took a sip of the champagne to fortify herself.

"What's up?" he asked.

She attempted to broach the subject slowly. "How long have we known each other?"

He shrugged. "A couple of years, I guess."

She nodded her head and gave him a bittersweet smile. "I like you a lot. I always enjoy cutting your hair. You're cool," she said with a small grin. "I also like your dad."

He frowned as if bracing himself. "Okay?"

"I try to mind my own business, you know?"

Now he was looking really confused. "Spit it out, Angie."

She took a deep breath. "Dude, your father already knows you're gay."

His face paled and he looked cut to the bone. "No way."

She nodded her head sympathetically.

"How do you know?"

She held his eyes as a slice of compassion gentled her voice. "I don't remember the exact conversation. I know it was before I met you. I was cutting your dad's hair one day and he said he had a son who'd just moved back from college and asked me if I could take on another client."

"And?" Caiden prompted.

"I jokingly said something like 'for sure, if he's as good-looking as you are.'"

Angie studied him for a reaction. She didn't know him all that well, but she understood that coming out was something that many people struggled with, especially when it came to their parents.

He winced and asked, "And then?"

"Caiden," she soothed. "It was obvious to me, even then, before I met you, that your father loves you and is proud of you. All he said was, 'Well, my son looks just like me, but don't get your hopes up, the kid's gay." Angie gave him a smile to take away any sting her words may have imparted and then continued, "He said it with so much pride, like you were the light of his life and could do no wrong. It's never occurred to me before tonight that you didn't know that he already knew."

He stumbled back a step and fell onto the sofa. Angie followed to sit beside him, and picked up his hand, patting it gently.



Damian walked through the airport parking lot and climbed into his car. He started the motor just as his cell phone rang.

He let the engine idle as he answered the call. "What's up?" he questioned shortly, wanting nothing more than to get back to Angie as quickly as possible.

"And good-fucking-evening to you too, big brother," Nick snarled sarcastically.

Damian blew out a breath and attempted a more reasonable tone, even as he put the call on speaker and began to drive. "What's going on, Nick?"

"Where are you? Still in New York?" Nick asked in his usual bored tone of voice.

Damian glanced at the clock on the dash. "No. I'm home. Leaving the airport now."

"Very good. You can handle this shit," his brother said curtly.

Irritation bled down Damian's spine. "What shit, exactly?"

"Our dear mother is having a party right about now--"

Irritation turned into frustrated anger. "Fuck, no."

"Give me a minute. You're going to want to hear what I have to say," Nick replied as if privy to something of importance.

"And what would that be?" Damian asked with little patience.

"Your woman is here," Nick announced blandly.

"My woman?" Damian asked with a snarl.

"That's what I said, yes."

An edge of aggression raised his hackles. "How do you know about my woman?"

"I saw her here at the last party. She's the one you brought who apparently has you so fucked up that you think nobody notices when you drop off the face of the earth?"

"You're imagining things again, Nick," he denied, not wanting his brother butting into his personal business. "And you weren't even at the last party."

"I may not have shown my face, but I was there. And I saw your woman. I'm referring to the little gothic chick who's not a gothic chick anymore?"

At that spot on description, Damian's nerves took a leap. "What about her?" As he boarded the freeway, sudden tension made him head toward his mother's house instead of Angie's. Even though he didn't care for it, he acknowledged that Nick obviously knew more than Damian thought he did.

"As I was saying, she's here and she is, at this moment, sequestered in the library with a man who, as we both know, isn't you," Nick said in such a over-exaggerated, know-it-all tone that Damian wanted to plant his fist in his brother's face.

Coupled with the need to smack Nick, Damian felt such a vicious jolt of jealousy that he almost swerved the car. He took three deep breaths and concentrated on his driving.

When Damian was silent, Nick continued, "Are you on your way?"

"What do you think?" Damian snarled.

"All right then. I'll see you in a few."

"Nick, wait," Damian interjected.

"What?"

"What exactly were you going to do if I was still in New York?"

"That's an easy one, big brother. Whatever the fuck you instructed me to do. I've got your back."

Damian let out a breath. "Yeah."

His brother ended the call and Damian did the same.



Damian walked through his mother's home without giving anyone time to engage him in conversation. He saw Nick hovering over Courtney with a pissed-off expression on his face. He continued trekking across the room with a solitary purpose. He met his brother's stare only briefly, but it was long enough for Nick to motion with a tilt of his head toward the library, telling Damian that Angie was still in there.

He cracked his knuckles and continued crossing the carpet without breaking stride. He came to the library door and without knocking, twisted the handle and stepped inside.

He walked all the way into the room on silent feet and came up behind the sofa. Angie and the unknown man were sitting side-by-side, holding hands, heads together, engrossed in low-pitched conversation.

Rage, unlike any he'd ever experienced shot down his spine and then clawed back up his throat. He paced around to the front of the sofa and stood, his muscles braced for attack.

Angie glanced up, and more slowly, so did the young man she sat with. He was a good-looking kid, ridiculously so, and Damian about came unglued. "You have two fucking seconds, Angie. Start talking, now."



Angie paled when she saw the look in Damian's eyes. She'd seen him angry before, of course, but nothing to compare to this. There was no other word for it; he was incensed. Alarm trickled through her veins. "I thought you were out of town."

He took a step forward, aggression in every line of his body. "Wrong answer, babe."

At Damian's mounting fury, Angie felt Caiden jerk beside her and begin to stand up in a bid to extricate himself from her. But she continued to hold his hand, pulling on it, trying to keep him seated. Absolutely nothing good could come of him standing up in front of an enraged Damian, even if only to try to sidestep him. She attempted to speak, "This . . . this is Caiden. He's Rick's son."