by Aiden Bates
So he agreed, and he agreed to bring wine because that was the kind of guy that he was. A side benefit to forcing himself to go through some kind of social engagement was that he had to focus on his work, and he had to work quickly in order to make his dinner appointment on time.
He picked up the wine and headed out to Lysander. Adam, Larissa, and Madison were beyond thrilled to see him. Paul was not. Paul was even crankier than usual, but Carter ignored the bad attitude in favor of the warmth and adoration of the kids. He played with them on the lawn, and he searched for turtles along the banks of the river. Maybe Paul would recognize that this kept the children out of his hair while he put the finishing touches on dinner, and maybe he wouldn't.
Maybe Paul couldn't get past the way that Tom creepily watched as Carter played with the kids. Carter could respect that, if he were being honest with himself. Had it only been a couple of months ago that Carter had found that behavior affectionate? Now it made his skin crawl.
"You're so good with the kids." Tom stuffed his hands into his pockets and watched as Larissa tried to skip a rock over the river. "It's really incredible. I think you've missed your real calling, Carter."
"Nah." Carter felt a pang as he remembered the bag of tiny receiving blankets, sitting useless in the guest room at his house. He should probably donate them to a needy family at the hospital or something, but he didn't have the heart. Not yet, anyway. "This is just the fun part of kids, you know? It's not the hard part. There's no tantrums or late-night feedings, and there's no sitting up with worry when the kid gets a fever that just won't quit. I get to hang out and look for turtles." He chuckled. "I don't even have to worry about potty training, and let me tell you that is something I don't envy you."
"Thanks for that." Tom grimaced. He looked like he wanted to say more, but Paul came out onto the deck to call them in to dinner.
Carter lifted the girls to carry them up, balancing a twin on each hip. Tom held his son's hand, a little awkwardly maybe but still in contact, and they all made their way back up to the house.
Carter did his best to keep up with his cheerful facade during dinner, and the kids helped with that. He read them a story after dinner, and he helped to put them to bed. When he followed Paul back downstairs, though, the whole atmosphere had changed. Paul went from artificially sweet and tense to thinly veiled fury as he poured more wine for Tom and Carter.
Tom's attitude had gone from content to predatory.
Carter froze. There was something unpleasant going on here, and he didn't want any part of it.
"So, Carter. I hear that you and that guy you were seeing have split up." Tom shook his head and swirled his wine in his glass. "That's a shame."
Carter scoffed. "There was no guy. Not that it matters." He kept his shoulders straight and his head high. "I'm pretty content as I am."
Paul scoffed, seating himself beside his partner. "We all know that's not true, Carter. An omega needs to be with someone. It's in our nature. We can't be alone. We need to be part of something, a family. We can't ignore that, even when we'd like to pretend we're better than that." He tossed his head a little.
Carter hummed, buying himself time to formulate a response. "It's true that omegas are biologically more drawn to social units. But we're more than just biology, Paul. We're not animals. We're full humans, adults, and capable of making decisions for ourselves."
Paul let out an affected little titter. "You keep telling yourself that. Of course, I'm the one with a husband. I'm the one with three kids, and another one on the way. You've got an empty house and no one to reach out to in the night."
"Paul!" Tom's voice was harsh when he snapped, and Paul shrank from it. Even Carter had to stop himself from jumping. "Apologize to Carter!"
Paul hung his head. "I'm sorry, Carter. That was mean-spirited of me."
Carter managed to smile, just a little bit. "It's okay, Paul. Everyone's entitled to his own opinion."
Tom cleared his throat. "Anyway, Carter, we invited you here today because we had a proposition for you."
Carter's mouth went dry. "A proposition."
Tom grinned and relaxed a little bit into his seat. "Yeah. I mean it's no secret that you shouldn't be alone. And you get along so well with the kids, you know? They worship the ground you walk on."
"They're great kids. I love them too. I love being their uncle." Carter's mind spun. He hadn't had much to drink; had someone put something into it? No, the implications of Tom's words were just too much for his brain to handle.
Tom leaned forward. "What if you could have a more… formal… role in their lives?" Paul's face darkened as his mate spoke.
Carter put his wine down. "I'm not sure what you're suggesting," he lied. "Are you trying to get me to be their legal guardian if anything happens to you and Paul? Because I'm on board for that, obviously."
"So innocent," Tom chided. "We want you to join our family, Carter. As my second mate."
Well, that was it. The other shoe dropped. Carter had just seen it hovering in the air, like a cartoon coyote, but it still shocked him to hear the words spoken out loud. "Tom—"
"You don't have to respond right away. In fact, we don't want you to. We want you to think this through. It's kind of an unusual arrangement." Tom wrapped an arm around Paul's waist. "But if you think about it, polyamory is really the best possible solution for you. Tell him, Paul."
Paul glowered, but after a second he nodded. "You're not getting any younger. You need to be with someone. We won't make you move, although you can if you want. We can trade off with the kids, and with Tom. I mean, you've already got dedicated space for them at your house, right? So that's not a problem. It will be a great outlet for your nurturing side, and of course you'll be able to share Tom without it being an issue. You know. With me."
Carter only managed to hold back a snort by virtue of his mother's demands regarding manners. Paul would never fail to have an issue with Carter. Whether or not he assented to taking Carter into the family, he would never welcome Carter. "I suppose it would be useful, to have someone else helping out with the kids." He swallowed and wiped his palms on his jeans.
"You have no idea." Tom glared darkly at the stairs. A chill ran down Carter's spine.
"I'm… flattered, by your offer." Carter licked his lips. "I'll give some careful thought to what you have to say. I… I suppose you'll send a document, with your terms around employment and finances and everything?"
Tom waved his hand, darkness gone from his face. "Naturally. I'll have that to you within the week."
Carter stood up. His legs felt shaky underneath him, but he didn't wobble. He could handle this. At least, he could handle it long enough to make an exit. "Okay. Well, I'll review that document and give it some consideration. Thank you again for the honor you did me in even making the offer, no matter how things go. Okay?"
Tom walked him to the door, his pace easy and assured. It had obviously never occurred to him that Carter might decline his offer, even though Carter had refused to touch him since he'd gotten together with Paul. Carter tried not to cringe away from his touch as he left the big, beautiful house in Lysander and headed back to his own not-inconsiderable place in the Valley.
He drew himself a bath once he got there. He considered pouring himself a drink, but he decided against it. He wanted a clear head to process the Gearys' offer.
He wasn't going to accept it. He knew that even before he'd filled the tub. He'd seen the look on Paul's face. He knew, even if Paul hadn't been present for that conversation at all, that Paul didn't want Carter to join the family in that way. Paul didn't want Carter involved with his family at all. Carter didn't have a moral problem with polyamory, although he didn't think it was for him. What Tom was proposing wasn't healthy polyamory—it bordered on abuse, and it made Carter's skin crawl.
Of course, Tom might not have realized that Paul wasn't on board. Tom hadn't given much thought to Carter's needs when he dumped Carter for Paul, and it hadn't been
because he'd been so head-over-heels in love with Paul. No, Tom thought first and foremost about Tom. That was just who he was as a man. Carter knew that about him, and had known it about him for a while.
He also knew that only a few months ago he would have been devastated by the offer. He wouldn't have taken it, because it would have been unfair to Paul at any stage, but he would have been absolutely shattered by having to turn down a claim by the man he'd wanted more than anything. Now here he was, drawing a bath so that he could wash away his revulsion.
He didn't have to look far to know what had changed. Rather, he didn't have to look far to know who had changed.
He shouldn't want Finn, and he knew that Finn was about the last person to whom he could look for a claim in the world. At the same time, Finn made him feel more complete just in the few minutes that they spent together than Tom had made him feel in all of their years together. Tom and Carter never fought, but maybe that was because Tom hadn't ever inflamed Carter's passions the way that Finn did.
Before, Carter would have turned Tom down because it would have been wrong to accept. He would have turned Tom down because he respected Tom and Paul's bond, and because he respected himself too much to be the subsidiary omega to a man he'd given so many of his best years to.
Now, Carter was going to turn Tom down because he no longer wanted him.
He slid into the water with an amazed laugh. He'd traded one impossible dream for another, only to have the first come true in the form of a nightmare. At least he still had the power to wake up from that one.
He relaxed against the back of the tub and closed his eyes, decision made.
***
Finn got to work on Monday and his mood was already foul. He'd had to suspend Carter, and he knew that Carter understood that. He didn't have to like having suspended Carter. He didn't have to like the fact that Carter wasn't on campus. He didn't like having to face the fact that Carter wasn't somewhere nearby, where Finn could just pop in and see him.
Come to think of it, should Finn have just been able to pop in and see him?
Finding one of the auditors in his office didn't help improve his mood. "I honestly hope that you've brought extra sugar for my coffee," he told Johnston.
"You know that you could save hundreds of dollars a year if you got rid of those raw sugar packets and only served regular, cane sugar, right?" The auditor wrinkled his nose and held up a stack of papers. Who seriously did business on paper anymore?
"I've already had one rebellion on my hands, Johnston. I can't have another one this quarter or I will lose my job. That's a fact." Finn booted up his laptop and glared at his companion. "Now I know that you didn't come all the way from Cleveland to be here this early in the morning to give me advice about the hospital's sugar budget."
"You could just cut sugar packets altogether. That would save you even more, and you could use the excuse that hospitals are places of healing and shouldn't be serving poison." Johnston struck an angelic pose, but then he sobered up. "Actually, I stayed in town for the weekend. I wanted some time alone with the systems when the accountants weren't on site, to get a good look at what might be going on here."
Finn nodded slowly. "Okay. I'm fairly certain that I don't want to know, but I probably need to anyway. What's the damage?"
"Whoever's doing it is good, Riley. I mean good." Johnston lifted his own coffee to his lips and winced. "I can prove what's going on. That's not going to be a problem. Once I figure out who's doing it, law enforcement will be able to figure out where the money's going and make the charges stick. The only problem, of course, is that I just have to tease out who the culprit is."
"That's not a change from before." Finn shook his head. "There's something you're not telling me."
"You're right. How many people in the Finance department came over with you from Regent?" Johnson bit down on the inside of his cheek.
Finn considered. "Four. We've got Robert Gerig, of course. Under him, we have our Senior Accounting Manager, our Senior Finance Manager, and our Senior Payroll Manager. Why?"
Johnston sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. "See, the accounts that are being hit, the ones that are showing the suspicious activity, aren't legacy accounts. They're Regent accounts."
Finn pursed his lips. "We haven't merged the accounting systems yet, that's going to be a huge project. None of the Silver Oak staff is at all familiar with the Regent accounts. As far as I know, they don't even have access to those accounts."
"No. They don't. There are basically two options here." Johnston held up one finger. "One—someone from Silver Oak is so upset with the acquisition that they've decided to figure out a way to hack the Regent accounts and embezzle that way, despite working overtime to try to keep their heads above water while learning the new accounting system and keep things moving along in the old one."
Finn made a face. "Or someone from Regent is getting away with something." He grabbed for his coffee again. He didn't need it, but he wanted to stop himself from exploding in rage again. He needed to do something with his hands that didn't involve a fist. "How do we narrow down which one of them it is?"
"Well, now my team and I get the unmitigated joy and thrill of sitting down, combing through those journal entries, and pulling the time stamp off of each and every one. Then we match them up with times that each employee accessed the system. We take it from there."
"That sounds frightfully dull." Finn drummed his fingers on the desk. "Johnston?"
"Yes?"
"When you make a recommendation in the future, could you do me a favor and either list the risks in big, bold letters right underneath or do something else to emphasize that it needs vetting by medical staff? Apparently I'm prone to running around half-cocked on these things." When Johnston blushed, Finn held up a hand. "Not your fault. I'm obviously anxious about the embezzlement, which isn't doing great things for my management style."
Johnston huffed out a laugh. "I can't exactly blame you. I'll keep you posted on my progress." He headed back to the audit team's room.
That afternoon, Finn texted Carter and asked if he could stop by. He expected to be told to screw off, or at best to get an if you must from the stunning omega. Instead, Carter texted him back right away. I'd like that. I'll order dinner.
Finn blushed at the burst of heat that ran through his body then.
He made it through the rest of his day on autopilot, hoping that no one in any of the meetings he sat through noticed that he was only half present. Then he got into his car and drove south and west, until he got to his favorite residence.
There would be no sitting outside and watching the world go by. Today was a rainy day, and they were forced to stay indoors. Finn didn't mind. He took a seat at the narrow, oak dining table and looked at the spread Carter had put on. "This is actually kind of incredible," he said, raising an eyebrow. "You said you ordered it?"
"Well, I went to the ready-to-eat section at the supermarket. Come on. I can make a salad, and I can function behind the grill or the smoker, but indoors? Nah." Carter brought out a bottle of wine and opened it. "How was today?"
"More audit fun." Finn opened his mouth, and then he closed it again. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Besides the three I'm already keeping? Sure." Carter poured himself a glass.
Finn drew his eyebrows together as he counted. "Three? Okay. Whatever. Um, the hospital-wide audit isn't routine. It's to cover up a different investigation. Someone's embezzling money from the hospital." He looked down. "They've narrowed down the list of suspects, but they didn't want—they don't want—to tip anyone off until they're ready to go to law enforcement."
"So they decided to do the greater audit to hide it." Carter nodded and scratched at his stubble. "That makes sense, actually. I kind of like it. I mean, I could live without a bunch of bean counters poking their heads into the supply room and saying things like, Do you need to give them this many pads to go home with, can't you just give them one? but I think it's
a good cover. And sometimes it's good to have a second set of eyes come in and tell us when we could be doing something more efficiently anyway." He dug into his salad.
"Really?" Finn put his fork down. "I thought you'd be mad."
"Are you the embezzler?" Carter asked him, in a reasonable tone.
"No!"
"Then why would I be mad at you about it?" Carter looked up at Finn. "Come on. I might be a bit of a hot head, but I'm not completely unreasonable. I hope they get the bad guy soon. They're taking money away from people who need it, you know?"
Finn softened. "How did the first day of your suspension go?" he asked, changing the subject.
Carter chuckled. "It went just fine. I finished writing an article for an upcoming book about fertility problems in omegas, and I started writing my speech for the San Antonio conference."
