Boss (26 page)

“I never knew my dad.”

It wasn’t something he told people. It was something he had turned into a fact so he could detach himself from it. He didn’t want to be bothered that his mum had never bothered to narrow it down from the list of suspects.

“I can’t really say I knew mine either,” Joshua sipped the drink, “after my mum – well – we just went in different directions. I think we both hit self destruct but mine took me around the world -,”

“And his took him to
Silverton Tower
,” Ezra was finally starting to get it.

“Exactly,” he nodded, “now I don’t have any parents. I just have Violet. What about your mum?”

A slow and deep chuckle left Ezra’s throat. The less said about mother dearest, the better.

“She’s a drunk and a whore,” he said the words lightly, “I don’t think she ever wanted children, we were just a bi-product of her mistakes. When I was about fifteen, she looked me in the eye and she said ‘
Ezra, you were a split condom
’. I told her she should have bought more expensive ones and she agreed. I moved out soon after that. Felix is seven years younger than me, so he was only a kid but the second he wised up, she kicked him out and he came to me.”

“Shit -,” Joshua sighed, “I had no idea.”

“Why would you?” he attempted to shrug it off, “I don’t talk about it. I don’t even know why I told you. I’ve already told you more than I’ve told anyone and -,”

Joshua took the glass from Ezra’s tight grip and put it on the floor with his own. Half of his face was in complete shadow as he turned to face him but that didn’t stop his piercing blue eyes shining in the dark.

“I got you wrong,” he said, “there’s more to you than just sex and suits.”

“Is there?” Ezra straightened up his tie, “I want to know who’s spreading these vicious lies.”

Joshua smirked, lowering his eyes to Ezra’s lips. Almost like a reaction, Ezra licked them as he felt his heart start to tremble. As Joshua closed his eyes and leaned in, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

When their lips connected, Ezra felt himself slowly falling back into the couch. Joshua’s fingers fumbled with the tie around Ezra’s neck, ripping it out so he could work on the buttons. He exposed Ezra’s chest and his kisses started to direct their way down his body. It was awkward and inexperienced, as if he wanted to kiss every part of him all at once. That innocence instantly turned Ezra on.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Joshua’s tongue running along the body he had spent hours perfecting in the gym. The dark blonde stubble on his jaw grated against his soft skin, sending a hot shiver running across the surface.

He was so in the zone, he ignored the sound of a door opening and closing. He heard laughter and giggles but he convinced himself it was coming from the street.

When two figures burst into the room, locked in each other’s arms, Joshua collapsed onto Ezra’s body and his hand clamped over his mouth. Ezra tried to look, to see who it was but Joshua’s hair obscured his vision.

He heard a girl giggle and a guy with an American accent whisper something. Light filled the room and Ezra noticed that Joshua was clenching his eyes shut.

“Joshua?” the American accent cried, “What the-,”

Joshua quickly jumped off Ezra, but that probably wasn’t the best idea. He awkwardly smiled up to Levi as Levi’s eyes danced across his chest and down to the solid mass snaking in his trousers.

“I can explain,” Joshua mumbled.

The week passed by and Friday came around but Joshua didn’t have that Friday feeling people always talked about. He was dreading the weekend because it brought Violet’s wedding. It wasn’t the wedding that he was concerned about, it was what happens afterwards.

Levi was less concerned about what Joshua and Ezra were doing and more concerned that it put their plans even more at risk. Along with Ezra, he hadn’t stopped asking him ‘
what’s your next step
.’

As he pulled the hood over his hair, he lowered his head to keep the rain from extinguishing his cigarette. When he was outside
Silverton Tower
, he quickly puffed as hard as he could to get his nicotine intake before he had to face the day.

Ezra was throwing work at him from every direction and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t finding it difficult to keep up, even if he was enjoying the new challenges. He never thought work could be something he enjoyed –
But maybe that’s because I’m doing it with Ezra by my side.

He was about to pull down his hood and head into the tower, already fifteen minutes late but he saw Tobias running through the rain towards him. He had his briefcase over his head, not that he had any hair to protect anymore. His trench-coat was already soaked through.

Can I get away before he sees me?

Tobias wasn’t going to let that happen. When his eyes met Joshua’s, he gave him a look that said ‘
don’t you dare fucking move
’.

“Tobias, what are you doing here?” he cried over the rain, glancing through the revolving doors to the safety of the inside –
Who thought I’d ever feel safer in this tower than outside?

“Looking for you, of course,” he cried back, “you won’t answer my calls so I had to come and see you. Lucky that you’re here.”

“Tobias, I can’t talk now,” Joshua looked to his wrist but he wasn’t wearing a watch, “I’m already late.”

“There’s a coffee shop on the corner,” Tobias was already walking away, “if you know what’s good for you, you’ll follow me.”

He was torn between the lawyer and the building.
I’m already late, what does another ten minutes matter?
He knew Ezra would he waiting for him but he had been avoiding Tobias long enough. He must have rejected at least one hundred calls from him over the last week. Tobias had even come around to the house a couple of times but Violet had reluctantly lied for him, saying that he wasn’t in, when he was really hiding in the bathroom under the stairs.

Running after Tobias, his mind was running overtime and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what he had to say.

“Is there a coffee shop on every corner now?” Joshua pulled down his hood as he adjusted to the cosy warm heat of the already full coffee shop.

“What do you want?” Tobias pointed to the counter.

“Erm, whatever,” he shrugged, not knowing what was ‘
the in thing
’ to drink.

Tobias unbuttoned his coat, dumping it on the back of an overstuffed armchair. Joshua sat in the chair opposite, wondering why the table’s surface was made up of pictures of cats.

In typical lawyer fashion, Tobias returned with two bland black coffees. Joshua slurped the hot drink but it was bitter and devoid of any flavour.

“You’ve been a difficult man to reach,” Tobias settled into the armchair with his briefcase on his knee, “I was beginning to think you didn’t want to talk to me.”

He shot Joshua a stern look over the top of his briefcase before looking back down at the papers he was rooting through.

“I’ve been busy,” he decided to keep it simple, “it’s not easy to adjust.”

Tobias pulled a thick slab of paper out of his briefcase. He dropped it onto the table between them, narrowly missing the cups.

“It seems that Mr. Steele is a persuasive man. First your father, now you -,”

“What’s this about?” Joshua cut him off before he could finish his sentence, “Like I said, I’m late.”

Tobias didn’t like being interrupted. He was a typical lawyer in that he liked to control the conversation but Joshua wasn’t in the mood to play along. They had spent enough years in courtrooms together to know that it was difficult to offend the other but he could see the shift in Tobias’ eyes.
He doesn’t trust me anymore.

“You told me to dig, so I did,” he pushed the paper towards Joshua, “this is everything I could find on Ezra Steele. Once I started looking, things fell easily into place.”

Joshua flicked through the paper. The first one was a copy of a birth certificate. His mother was listed as ‘
Chantelle Steele
’ but there was no father. The rest of the papers were more difficult to understand. He flicked through them, waiting for something to catch his eye. He stopped when his eyes landed on the flames. It was a news article pulled from the
Hackney Citizen
website, dated 2010:

FLAT BLAZE KILLS TWO YEAR OLD

Local residents are distraught after a fire broke out yesterday in flat 4b in the Winston Block of the Trelawney Estate, killing two-year-old Lily Steele.

He scanned through the article, skimming over a statement from Jade, saying how devastated she was. He waited for his eyes to land on Ezra’s name:

Lily’s father, Ezra Steele, was unavailable for comment but it is believed that he wasn’t in the flat at the time of the fire. Jade and Ezra Steele have been questioned about the fire but it’s too early for police to comment on the cause of the fire.

He stopped reading. Joshua had never doubted Ezra, it was just a shock to see it in print. He scanned over the words again.

Jade and Ezra Steele.

They were married?

Had Ezra told him that? If he had, he couldn’t remember. Dropping the papers onto the table, he sat back, still clutching the newspaper article. He wasn’t sure why it was making him feel so uneasy.

“What does any of this have to do with my father?” Joshua asked.

Tobias gritted his jaw and snatched up the papers.

“Do you know how difficult it was to get hold of this stuff? I’m not charging you for my time, Joshua. I’m doing this because I’ve known you your whole life.”

“Sorry,” Joshua passed the article back.

Tobias snatched it and slotted it back in with the pile. He sipped his coffee and settled back into the chair.

“It might not seem like a lot but this is the kind of stuff we use to damage his character in court. His grades were terrible in school, he has a couple of petty crime charges and he even has an ASBO for smashing a woman’s plant-pot when he was thirteen.”

Joshua didn’t want to damage Ezra’s character.

“There’s also the fire. Did you know he had a daughter? It’s all rather suspicious. We can definitely use that and kick -,”

“We’re not using any of this,” Joshua interrupted, “nobody is taking anybody to court.”

Smoke practically billowed out of Tobias’ nostrils, “What has he said to you? What does he have on you? You can tell me.”

He leaned in to listen to Joshua’s secrets but he didn’t have any to share.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Joshua shrugged, “there’s nothing. I don’t deserve this inheritance anymore than he does, but at least he was here. Where was I?”

Tobias let out a deep sigh and planted himself back in the chair.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this guy,” he mumbled, “maybe it wasn’t a good idea getting you close to this guy. It appears he’s a master manipulator. If he can manipulate Bill Silverton-,”

“He’s not manipulating me,” he snapped.

“Are you engaging in,” Tobias coughed, “sexual relations with this man?”

“What?” Joshua laughed.

Glancing uncomfortably around the busy coffee shop, he couldn’t remember where the exit was.

“It’s just something Violet said,” Tobias waved his hands, “if it’s not that, he certainly has some hold over you.”

“There’s no hold!” he cried, standing up, “Thank you, for everything you’ve done, Tobias. I appreciate it but I’m not taking this any further. It’s dead and done, so let’s leave it that way.”

Yanking his hood over his head, he hurried through the coffee shop, not giving Tobias a chance to say anything else to him. He tripped over a girls bag and screamed out at her, making her drop her cup. It smashed and the coffee doused her lap.

“Shit, sorry,” Joshua mumbled, not sticking around.

He burst into the rain, running until he reached
Silverton Tower
. Standing outside Ezra’s office, he let his clothes drip on the tiles for a minute before he knocked.

“Where’ve you been?” Ezra’s face lit up when he walked in, “I was about to send out a search party.”

Joshua pulled off his hoodie, tossing it over a plant. It was like he was being drawn across the room to Ezra and he couldn’t avoid it. When he straddled Ezra in his seat and kissed him he couldn’t stop thinking about Tobias’ words.

‘He certainly has some hold over you.’