The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4) Becca Steele (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

in my lap, angling her phone so I could see the screen. There was a message from James Granville.

James: I’m glad it’s over. Let’s agree to never get dragged into anything like this again

“I hate to say it, but I agree with him.” I dropped a kiss on my girlfriend’s head. “I’d like to just enjoy being with you for a while. Without all the other shit. No more fighting or chasing down shady guys. Just you and me.”

She laughed. “A quiet life is overrated.”

“Yeah. You’re probably right.” Stroking my fingers down her arm, I smiled as she settled back against me. “Promethium will probably have something else for us to do soon enough, anyway.”

“I hope so.”

I laughed at the enthusiasm in her voice. “Maybe not just yet, huh?”

She twisted around to face me, suddenly serious. “Not just yet. We have our appointment to get through, and that’s gonna be…” Her words trailed off.

“Yeah.” We’d booked an appointment with her therapist. Two, in fact. We were seeing the therapist together, to talk in more depth about her assault and what I could do to support her, and I had my own appointment in addition to that. I hadn’t had much of a chance to come to terms with the fact that my mum’s death hadn’t been as it seemed, and while I’d been able to push it aside with everything else that had been going on, it had kind of hit me all over again. A couple of days ago, I’d had a long talk with my dad and brother which had helped a lot, but I wanted to talk to a professional to get things straight in my head, to work through my thoughts.

“I’m gonna be here for you,” I promised her, running my fingers through her silky hair. “Whatever I can do. I just want to make you happy.”

“You do. People keep asking what’s wrong with me, because I’m smiling all the time.” She pulled a face, making me laugh.

“I fucking love you. My badass girl.”

“Is this in reference to the chain again?” Humour danced in her eyes. “Look, Jaroslaw used that chain on the dogs. It was poetic justice that I used it on him.”

“You’re right,” I agreed.

“Anyway,” she continued. “You’re the one who broke his nose.”

“That was so fucking satisfying.” I grinned. “He deserved it.”

“He did.” She reached up, curling her arms around the back of my neck and tugging my head down to hers. “A kiss before we have to go?”

As soon as her lips met mine, nothing else existed.

Only her.

Just over fifty minutes later, we were walking through the front door of my dad’s house, only ten minutes late.

It wasn’t my fault that my girlfriend was so addictive.

“Nice of you to join us.” Caiden smirked at me over the top of his glass. My dad, seated at the head of the long dining table, shot him a warning look.

“Take a seat.” He indicated the empty chairs on either side of the table. Lena slid into the seat next to Winter, and I dragged the chair out next to my brother.

“It’s not like you’ve ever been late to anything because you’ve been too busy with Winter.”

“Yeah, alright.” He shrugged. “You might have a point.”

I grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes. Watching us both from over the top of his wine glass, my dad cleared his throat pointedly, but he was unable to hide his own grin.

The staff began serving up our food. When we were all eating, my dad told us how they’d manage to trace the Alstone Holdings discrepancies after the police had raided Martin Smith’s flat and recovered sensitive information, including a paper trail that led back to Alstone Holdings. We spoke about the situation for a bit, then my dad turned to me and said something I hadn’t expected to hear from him.

“Our systems have always been handled by an external company, as you know. Now, nothing is set in stone, but perhaps we should consider bringing it back in-house when you graduate, Weston.”

“What?” Everyone turned to stare at him, and he smiled widely, clearly loving our shock.

“It’s about time Alstone Holdings had its own proper IT department. Maybe you’d be interested in something like that? Who knows, maybe you could even come up with security systems for our properties, as well as making our own system secure.”

I gaped at him, unsure of what to say. Lucky for me, he continued speaking. “I know and you know that you’ll be taking your place at Alstone Holdings when you graduate. But I get the feeling that you’d much rather work with computers than with business dealings. Am I correct?”

“Yes,” I managed, then, “Fuck, yes.”

“Language,” he said automatically, before turning his attention to Lena. “You too. I hear that you’re very handy with computers.”

“I am,” she stated confidently, grinning at him. “Count me in.”

“We still have plenty of time to put things into place, but I want you to know that if this is something you’re interested in, we’ll make it happen.”

“Thanks. I’d like that.” A smile spread across my face, my head already filling with ideas. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to graduate.

“Proud of you, bro.” Cade squeezed my shoulder.

“Cheers. Same.” I leaned over and gave him a hug, which was kind of awkward because of the angle we were sitting at, and also for the fact that he clearly wasn’t expecting it. After a couple of seconds, though, he hugged me back, and then Winter was joining us, then Lena and my dad, and yeah…it turned into one of those cheesy as fuck moments where everyone hugs each other and congratulations get thrown around.

Secretly, though, I loved it.

EPILOGUE 2

TWO MONTHS LATER

Somehow, Portia had managed to get out of a jail sentence, thanks to her highly paid lawyer spinning a story of her being an impressionable young girl seduced by the older man. Maybe that was true, but she was still guilty of facilitating things. My