Orphic//H.S.

Chapter 11

//hey besties...what do we think of the new cover? yes..no? I honestly don't know//

Harry

"Styles, my boy, glad you decided to take me up on that offer." Julian walks around his office, pouring a glass of bourbon while taking me into the space. It's been three seconds and he's already managed to piss me off.

He always begins with this nice, caring man act. The one that got me to blindly trust him as a child. A fucking child. He took advantage of that, using me as his scapegoat, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, what I would do to be able to go back and tell that innocent boy not to take the dinner offer of the first nice man in his life. I was stupid then, and I'm finally at a point in my life that I have the control that I want.

No, need. I need the control, so I don't fall back into that state ever again.

"Did I have a choice, Julian? Because it definitely didn't seem like it over that phone call last night." He just chuckles at my evident irritation, the sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"No, I suppose you didn't." He downs the rest of his glass before continuing. "Well, you could've declined, but you know the faults of that decision, don't you?" His dark eyes tilt in a menacing glance, the nice guy act washing away into the man I've grown to know in these long past years.

"Can we get this done with? I've already ruined part of my day by having to get here this early, let's make this quick." He sighs, I sigh. Despite my hatred, I can't help but notice some kind of fucked up family dynamic between us.

No matter how much I deny it, he's more of a father figure than I've ever had before he found me. Not a good one. Just the only one.

Julian crosses the room again, his formal suit too pristine for this situation. "Fine, fine. I've gotten insight on the first target. Lucky for you, I believe he's only across the river in Jersey. So no serious traveling."

I motion my hand in a continuing wave, trying to get him to the point. He just rolls his eyes, plopping down in the leather chair behind his desk. "Timor Roddine. Owns half of Brooklyn's restaurants and millions of dollars of drug cartels underground." Drugs? Seriously? Is that all these people do here? At least in London, crime was more interesting.

"We're not able to get his exact location, only that he lives ten minutes on the other side of Holland Tunnel. My other men are attempting a phone number, so with that, that Horan boy can get the rest, right?"

"Niall."

"What?"

"His name is Niall, and you really should learn names. It'll be hard to keep bossing us around if you don't even know us." This makes him a bit pissed, but that's kind of the point. I should definitely give him the answer he wants though. "But, yeah, he can figure it out."

Julian digs through a drawer on his right, pulling out a manilla file. He stands from his chair, leans over the desk, and drops the papers in my lap. The weight makes me remember this morning and the reason I was almost late.

Waking up with Toni's head in my lap is something that'll be imprinted in my head for at least the next six months. She looked so peaceful asleep. Definitely not like the woman who held a gun to my head about seven hours prior.

I debated on skipping out on the meeting, staying there a little longer. I would've attempted to make breakfast, although I don't know my way around any kitchen, let alone hers. No matter how great that sounded, I didn't want to overstep my boundaries.

We've been around each other for the majority of the past twenty-four hours, and it's not the fact that I didn't want to be. I would've stayed as long as she wanted, but it was too much. For her. I could tell she didn't want to see me last night. Her curiosity got the better of her, so she met me and probably felt bad leaving afterward.