Worth Any Cost: (Adam & Mia #4) (Gaming The System Book 6)

by Brenna Aubrey

  Fuck. I ran a hand through my hair, eyes glued to the ground. Jordan shifted where he stood, as if trying to see around Liam.

  “I’m not swinging a sword at him,” Jordan muttered. “But I wish he’d listen to some friendly advice. I can’t help him if he chooses to antagonize the board.”

  I closed my eyes and massaged them through my lids. “Understood.” Resisting the urge to reach out and pat Liam on the shoulder, because he didn’t like anyone touching him without a warning. “Thanks, man.”

  “Don’t thank me. Thank him for not hitting you,” Liam said. “He has a powerful left hook.”

  Jordan laughed. After an awkward-as-hell pause, I finally sucked it up. “Jordan. I’m sorry, man.”

  “You’re wound a little tight. Any man facing the impending doom of marriage would be, I’m sure.”

  I flipped him the bird, and we both laughed. That wordless gesture signaled that things were going to be okay with us. Eventually.

  Liam glanced from me to Jordan, obviously confused. Jordan stepped back and said he needed to go take a walk to unwind. I could have used one, too. I expected Liam to leave and go about his business, but he watched me with open curiosity instead.

  I met his gaze, and he didn’t jerk his eyes away as he usually did. He’d been getting much better about eye contact, in fact, though it obviously still wasn’t his favorite thing. I suspected it was Jenna’s influence in his life.

  “Why are you and Jordan fighting?”

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “It’s a long story. Boardroom stuff.”

  “Oh. Well, I meant what I said about you two fighting it out with swords if you need to. I can get my sword master to set it up.”

  I blew out a breath and turned to walk out of the warehouse. Liam fell into step beside me. “Thanks for the offer. I think we’re good.” I hoped we were good, anyway. That spat had solved exactly nothing.

  “Is that how you and Jenna resolve your disputes?” I teased. “Sword fighting?”

  “No, of course not.” He shook his head. “When we argue, we each present our side. Somehow, she’s the one who always ends up in the right, or I end up conceding. Then we have sexual intercourse afterward. So I end up not caring who won and who lost.”

  I laughed. Someone had discovered the joy of make-up sex.

  Later that day, not long before the board meeting, I met with my new lawyer in my office—and made no secret of it. But I didn’t bring him with me to the meeting.

  The agenda itself was clear and succinct. They were putting down an ultimatum that I was expecting. But they were going to allow me time to respond.

  That may or may not have been a good thing.

  Chapter 6

  Mia

  “There you are.” April answered her door with a big grin. “Long time no see. It’s not like you’re busy or anything.”

  I stepped forward to give her a hug. “Yeah, all that partying and drinking I’m doing.” I made a face. “And my wild social life and love affair with medical textbooks.”

  “Sounds like my life, only with econ textbooks. We’re living the dream, aren’t we? The Billionaire Girlfriends Club. They should start a reality show about us.” She motioned me into the home she shared with Jordan—a gorgeous beach house that sat right on the Wedge in Newport Beach and, conveniently for me, only a mile and a half down the road from our house.

  “Come in. I have your stack of magazines. Not like you could have ordered a ton on your own.”

  I shrugged. “The wedding planner offered. But I hate killing trees, and I wasn’t crazy about practically anything she showed me. Someone must have sent her the wrong memo, because she thinks the prince of the United Arab Emirates is getting married or something. I need a handle on a more normal-looking wedding.”

  Her dark brown eyebrows arched perfectly over clear blue eyes. She really was stunning. And sweet. And smart. Jordan had done a lot of stupid things in his short life, but April was the clever choice that made up for most of it.

  “Sid, my old roomie, passed these along to me. I think she was trying to hint that she doesn’t approve of Jordan and me living in sin. Kids these days!” She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Anyway, these were her sister’s. She had a lovely wedding recently, so there might be some good ideas in there.” Then her eyes gleamed with mischief. “I may be keeping those around just to fuck with Jordan, too. It’s kinda fun to start paging through Brides magazine when he’s annoying me.”

  “I like how you think. Keep that man in line.” Glancing over at the stack she indicated, I sighed. “I need wedding ideas, stat.”

  “It’s getting kind of close to the wire, isn’t it? Doesn’t the resort have a planner? Why not go with what they normally offer? And, by the way, thank you for that. I cannot wait to go to St. Lucia for New Year’s. Best choice ever. I’ve always loved a destination wedding.”

  I plopped down on her couch and plucked a magazine from the stack waiting for me on the end table. Idly thumbing through it, I shrugged. “I’ve never been super big on weddings, you know? I have simple tastes. I’m glad we’re having it in St. Lucia. I love the resort, and we have some special memories there, but…I have to confess, I was relieved when he suggested it, mostly because I knew it would limit the guest list.”

  “You have your dress picked out, at least?”

  I smiled. “Yeah. It’s gorgeous. Wanna see? I have the final fitting in a few weeks.” I pulled out my phone and showed her a shot that I had snapped in the mirror.

  “Holy shit. It’s stunning. I love the silver accents on the white.” She looked at me and then the picture several times, her mouth growing round. “Oh em gee. I’m so jealous right now. I can’t wait to see Adam’s face when you walk down the aisle in this.”

  “He is being a lot more…detail-oriented…about the whole thing than I am.”

  April cocked her head at me as she handed me my phone. “That’s a funny kind of reverse. Usually the guy wants nothing to do with it at all.”

  “Yeah. It’s weird. He wasn’t this focused on it until recently. Like, in the last few weeks, he’s gotten kind of…obsessive about it. Says he wants me to have to have the perfect wedding. I keep trying to tell him it’s a party, and as long as we all have fun, who cares what kind of the flowers there are or how tall the cake is. Know what I mean? I want good memories.”

  She frowned. “You guys aren’t arguing about it, are you? I don’t mean to pry. I…” She shook her head.

  “No, it’s okay. I know it’s common to argue about weddings.”

  She nodded. “I was going to say, you two do remarkably well for how busy you both are. It would just be criminal if on top of all that you had the perfect relationship, too. I guess there always has to be bumps in the road. I honestly don’t know how you two make it work so well. You’re studying all day and all weekend long, and he’s off on business trips or working eighteen-hour days.”

  “We have our little tricks. We steal a lot of moments. Lots of text flirting.”

  “Ohh. Sexting. Jordan loves that.” She laughed.

  I grimaced. Figured he would. And I could have lived a lifetime without knowing that about him.

  “Adam actually forbids sexting because of the security risk. But flirting’s okay. We also do video calls when he’s out of town. We’re always in touch.”

  April made a face. “How boring. I guess computer nerds are paranoid about that kind of stuff.”

  Probably with good reason.

  “We do fine most of the time. Lately, though, he’s been a total stress case, and I don’t think it’s all about the wedding.”

  She blinked at me. “I wonder if it’s something going on at work, because Jordan is the same way.”

  I sat back a moment, closing the magazine and remembering the few times that Jordan had been brought up Adam had stiffly changed the subject or made a cryptic—and not often kind—remark. And that weird display a few weeks before, when Adam had stormed off to a dinner
meeting without even caring Jordan was coming, too. “Are they not getting along, do you think?”

  Her eyes widened. “Adam and Jordan? I—” She looked off into the distance as if thinking. “They haven’t gotten together outside of work in quite some time. They don’t run together anymore. I figured it’s because of all the new projects they’ve got going now that they are flush with stock market cash.”

  “Work stress probably has a lot to do with it but…I don’t know. I’m getting a weird vibe from both of them.”

  “I can ask my dad if he’s noticed anything when I see him next weekend. Only problem is that Dad is notoriously close-mouthed about work. But since it’s about Jordan, I might be able to wheedle something out of him.”

  I propped my elbow on the back of the couch, resting my chin in my hand. “Maybe we both need to suck it up and ask the men themselves.”

  “I think I’d rather eat a peanut butter and mustard sandwich.”

  I grinned. “I’d rather gargle with hot sauce.”

  “I’d rather take his surfboard out at high tide after a tropical storm.”

  And the conversation ended there, with us laughing and thinking of things we’d rather do than get between two man-babies having an emo standoff.

  After that, we moved on to more important matters…like how I would be wearing my hair. What shoes and jewelry would best compliment the gown?

  All that girly stuff.

  Later I tossed that stack of magazines into the passenger seat of my car and went to study at the university library for most of the afternoon before landing over at Heath and Kat’s place after dinnertime.

  Heath greeted me, stone-faced and silent, as Kat squeezed her way out the door, deserting me almost immediately. Minutes later, she sent me a text. Sorry, I can’t even with him right now. I think he really needs to talk to you alone.

  From that small bit, I surmised they weren’t seeing eye to eye.

  Was it in the air or something?

  I frowned as Heath led me wordlessly over to his computer and logged it into Dragon Epoch.

  “You need to see this,” he said when I asked him what he was doing.

  Fragged, his mercenary, was located in the newbie zone—that same old city gate where most characters in Yondareth begin their adventuring life.

  “Check out this new character next to General SylvenWood.”

  “The Town Crier?” I bent over his shoulder to get a better look at the monitor. “What the hell is that? Is this for a special holiday event or something?”

  “No, wait. Check out what happens when you hail him..” Heath maneuvered his character to stand before the Town Crier.

  Fragged says, “Hail, Town Crier.”

  Town Criers says, “The high lord of all the land is about to be wed. His lucky bride? The princess Emma.”

  Huh… I read the screen again and then turned back to Heath. “How’d you find this?”

  “It hasn’t been advertised yet. It wasn’t as hard to uncover as the goddamn secret quest we did last year. I have a feeling it’s been implemented and won’t be publicized till the next official update. Check this out—once I follow the dialogue chain, he offers me a quest.”

  Town Crier has offered Fragged: Lord Sisyphus’s Wedding Quest.

  I straightened. “Wait, Lord Sisyphus. That’s Adam’s public game persona.”

  Heath turned to watch me closely. “Yeah, and he’s getting married, right? To ‘Princess Emma’…”

  My mouth dropped in shock. “He put a special wedding quest into the game? He didn’t even tell me about this. Do you think he meant it as a surprise?”

  Heath shrugged exaggeratedly. “No idea. He’s full of them…surprises, I mean.”

  I mock-glared at him. “Is that some kind of warning?”

  Heath shook his head emphatically. “Oh no, you don’t. No Bridezilla McColdFeet that he can blame on me. I mean…he’s secretive.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “Since when is that news? I still have no idea where we are going on our honeymoon.”

  “How do you know what to pack for? Bikini or ski suit or city walking shoes?”

  “He’s having our shopper take care of it and pack for both of us.” I rolled my eyes, and he muttered something about first-world problems.

  “He’s really into the wedding.” Heath rubbed his jaw, thinking. “Kind of playing the bride part, huh? Damn. I still say it’s a waste and a shame that he’s not into men.”

  I stretched my back, the muscles tired and sore. “He likes boobies too much.” I patted my chest. “Mine, to be specific.”

  Heath held up a hand in front of his face. “Didn’t need the visual. Thanks.”

  “So? Are you going to pop us some popcorn? This is movie night, right?”

  “As milady commands.” He bowed. I followed him into the kitchen, and he plopped a bag of popcorn into the microwave while I grabbed a bottle of beer out of the fridge for him and a mineral water for me.

  I was settled on the couch, remote in hand, when he showed up with the bowl of salty, buttery goodness. I began scrolling through the options listed. “So what are we in the mood for? Classic rerun? Marvel blockbuster? Romcom?”

  Heath snorted at the last choice. “As if.”

  “How about the latest Jack Eversea action flick? He’s so hot.”

  “Watched it last week.”

  “Oh, okay.” I bit my lip and sent him a look out of the corner of my eye. “Well, here’s a travel documentary on Dublin.”

  Heath stiffened next to me, but didn’t say anything. Ugh…real smooth move, Mia. About as subtle as a hand grenade in a frilly doily tea shop.

  I chanced a glance at him, and when I caught his eye, he said, “Something with lots of car chases and explosions.”

  I shook my head and tsked. “Such a boy.”

  But I didn’t scroll away from that Dublin travel show. We both sat and stared at the screen. “Have you…heard from him lately?”

  Heath grabbed an impossibly huge fist of popcorn and shoved it in his face, crunching loudly. I waited.

  Finally, once he’d swallowed down the mess, he shoved the bowl at my chest, and I took it. “No,” he muttered.

  “He’s busy.” I shrugged. “I’m sure if you Skyped—”

  “His mother’s house has shitty Internet, and he can’t seem to find the privacy he requires to Skype me from an Internet café. He’s not out of the closet in Ireland, and I’m sure the world will end if anyone in his circle finds out he’s been carrying on with an American man.” Heath’s voice was dry, emotionless, edged dark and as bitter as pure unsweetened chocolate.

  “Not everyone is as brave as you are, Heath. It took a giant pair of balls to risk what you did—given how your parents are. And you were only sixteen when you came out.”

  Heath took a long pull from his beer, but didn’t say anything.

  “You should go to Ireland.”

  “No,” he answered quickly.

  “Why not?”

  “If he can’t even bring himself to Skype me in private, how the hell do you think he’s going to handle me showing up at his door? With his very Catholic mother hovering over his shoulder and his six younger siblings all crowded around him? I’m not going to force his hand, Mia. I’m not going to force anyone to go through what I went through when I came out. And I’m most definitely not going to force someone out of the closet.”

  I shook my head. “Of course not. But can’t you just be his friend? Go to Ireland and be there for him while he mourns the loss of his dad and gets his family back on their feet again?”

  Heath’s jaw tensed, and he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “If he wanted me there, he’d ask.”

  I turned to him, plunking the bowl of popcorn onto the couch between us. “Heath, he wants you there. I know he does.”

  “Oh?” His entire body tensed. “You have an in with Connor that I don’t know about?”

  Shifting to face him, I took a deep b
reath. “I called him last week, yeah. Wanted to give him my condolences. We sent a basket, and I followed up to see how he and his family are doing. He’s my friend, too. And he asked about you. In detail.”

  Heath scowled. “Then why are you asking me how he’s doing? You have more recent news than I do.”

  “He misses you.”

  Silence.

  “And you miss him.”

  He muttered something and rubbed the back of his neck. “And your point is?”

  “Heath! Don’t be a stubborn idiot. Take it from someone who almost lost the man I love because I was a stubborn idiot. You were a firsthand witness to that catastrophe. Please learn from my mistake and don’t repeat it with Connor. Go to Ireland. I know you have the time off.”

  “I’m saving those vacation days for your wedding.”

  Oh. Shit.

  I sucked in a breath and let it go. “You have my permission to skip my wedding.”

  He looked at me like I was insane, folding his thick arms over his broad chest. “Oh really?”

  I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. The thought of him not being there when we got married made me almost nauseated and want to spontaneously burst into tears. But…it was a sacrifice I could gladly make for his happiness. “Yes, really. We’ll take lots of pictures. I can video-chat you right after. It’s okay.”

  “No. It’s not. I’m not missing your wedding. At the very least, I have to make sure you get there in one piece and fucking get married already. It’s taken you two long enough.”

  “Heath.” I shook his shoulder. “You need to go get Connor.”

  “I can’t get him if he doesn’t want to be gotten.” That powerful shoulder turned to rock under my hand. “He’s staying in Ireland.”

  I blinked. “Temporarily—”

  “No. He’s looking for a job. He didn’t tell you? He needs to make money to help out with the family. He’s got young siblings still.”