The Billionaire's Pet

5. Ash

The board meeting was a tedious exercise in dominance. Men in suits that cost less than Leo’s new piano sat around a table, arguing over percentages and market shares. Normally, I found the cold logic of an acquisition stimulating. Today, I found it distracting.

My eyes kept drifting to the secondary tablet resting on my lap, hidden from their view. On it was a steady, rhythmic pulse.

72 BPM.

Leo was playing. I could tell by the slight elevation in his heart rate. When he reached a difficult passage, it spiked to 85. When he settled into a melodic flow, it dipped back down. It was like having his pulse in the palm of my hand. It was the most beautiful data I had ever collected.

"Mr. Sterling? Your thoughts on the logistics merger?"

I looked up. The CEO of the shipping firm was sweating. He should be. I was about to dismantle his life’s work, and he was looking to me for mercy he wouldn’t find.

"The merger is inefficient," I said, my voice cutting through the room like a scalpel. "You’re bloated. You’re sentimental. I’ll be absorbing the assets and liquidating the management. You have until Friday to clear your desks."

I stood up before they could protest. I didn't care about their livelihoods. I cared about the fact that Leo’s heart rate had just jumped to 110 BPM.

Something was wrong.

I walked out of the boardroom, my security team falling into step behind me. "Get the car," I snapped.

"Sir, you have a lunch with the Minister—"

"Cancel it."

The drive back to the estate was a blur of rain and speed. My mind was a chaotic loop of possibilities. Had he tried to remove the ring? Had he hurt himself? The tracker showed he was still in the conservatory, but the heart rate was erratic now.

When I burst through the glass doors of the music room, the sound hit me first.

It wasn't Rachmaninoff. It was nothing.

Leo was sitting on the floor next to the Steinway. The room was dark, the storm outside having finally blotted out the sun. He wasn't crying, but he looked shattered. His hands,my beautiful, expensive hands,were tucked into his chest, and the silver ring on his finger was glowing with a faint, pulsing red light.

"Leo," I said, my voice lower than I intended.

He didn't look up. "It won't stop."

"What?"

"The ring. It started buzzing. Then it started burning." He finally looked at me, and his eyes were wide with a mix of terror and betrayal. "I just wanted to call the hospital. I found a phone in the bench. I just wanted to hear his voice."

I froze. I hadn't put a phone in that bench.

I stepped toward him, kneeling on the cold marble. I took his hand,the one wearing the thorned band,and saw the skin around the silver was red and inflamed. The ring was designed to "protest" if it detected unauthorized signals or tampering.

"Who gave you a phone, Leo?" I asked, my voice vibrating with a quiet, lethal rage.

"I don't know! It was just there!"

I realized then that my house wasn't as secure as I thought. Someone,the Morenos, or perhaps a rival within my own firm,was using Leo to get to me. They had planted a device to trigger the ring’s security protocols, knowing I would come running.

But as I looked at the welts on his pale skin, the "Mr. Perfect" mask didn't just slip. It shattered.

I didn't think about the security breach. I didn't think about the trap. I only thought about the fact that he was in pain because of a device I had put on him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

Leo froze. I had never said those words to anyone. I don't think I even knew how they felt until they left my throat.

I pulled a small, magnetic key from my pocket,a piece of black obsidian,and pressed it to the seam of the ring. With a soft click, the silver band fell away.

I took his hand in mine, my thumb gently stroking the injured skin. He tried to flinch away, but I held him firm. Not with the cold grip of a captor, but with a desperation that terrified me.

"I'll kill whoever did this," I promised him, my forehead dropping to rest against his.

"You're the one who did this, Ash," he sobbed, his voice breaking. "You're the one who put it on me."

I didn't have an answer for that. Because for the first time in my life, I realized that my obsession didn't just protect him. It was destroying him.

And yet, as I felt his pulse racing against my thumb, I knew I couldn't let him go. I would just have to build a bigger, safer cage.

***

The boardroom, the mergers, the billions,it all felt like static noise. The only thing that was real was the trembling of the man on the floor. I didn't call for Hendricks. I didn't call for the house physician. I didn't want anyone else’s eyes on him.

"Stay still," I murmured.

I hooked one arm under his knees and the other behind his back. He was lighter than I expected, a fragile bird made of bone and wasted potential. He didn't fight me. He was too exhausted, his head falling naturally into the crook of my neck. His damp hair smelled of the storm and salt, a scent that cut through my usual clinical detachment like a blade.

I carried him up the grand staircase. My private wing was a place no one entered,not even the cleaning staff when I was home. I kicked the door open and bypassed the bedroom, heading straight for the master ensuite.

I sat him down on the edge of the marble vanity. The light was harsh here, unforgiving. I grabbed the first aid kit from the hidden cabinet, my movements jerky and uncharacteristically frantic.

"Let me see," I said, reaching for his hand.

Leo pulled back, his eyes red-rimmed and fierce. "Don't. You’ve done enough."

"Leo, the ring was shielded. It reacted to a frequency it wasn't programmed for. If I don't treat the skin, it will blister. Give me your hand."

It wasn't a request this time. It was a plea disguised as a command. Slowly, tentatively, he placed his hand in mine.

The red welt was a perfect circle around his ring finger,a brand of my own making. I took a sterile cloth, soaked it in a cooling antiseptic, and began to dab at the skin. Leo hissed, his fingers curling instinctively.

"I've got you," I whispered. I found myself blowing gently on the skin to dull the sting, a gesture so intimate it felt like a confession.

"Why do you care?" Leo asked, his voice raw. He was looking at me now, not with fear, but with a devastating kind of confusion. "You bought me. You locked me in. Why does it matter if I'm hurt?"

I stopped. I looked up at him, my hands still holding his. In the reflection of the vanity mirror, I saw myself,a man who had spent his entire life building walls, now standing exposed in front of a boy with nothing.

"Because you were supposed to be the one thing the world couldn't touch," I said, the truth tasting like ash in my mouth. "I thought if I put you here, if I surrounded you with everything you ever wanted, the rot couldn't get to you. I didn't realize the rot was already inside the house. I didn't realize it was me."

Leo’s breath hitched. For the first time, he didn't look away. He saw the crack in the porcelain.

"You're not perfect," he whispered.

"No," I admitted, my thumb grazing his wrist, feeling the frantic rhythm of his pulse finally beginning to slow. "I’m just the man who won't let you go."

I finished bandaging the finger with a soft, breathable gauze. I didn't put the ring back on. I tossed it into the trash can, the silver clinking against the metal with a final, hollow sound.

"I'm going to find out who put that phone in the conservatory," I said, my voice returning to its lethal chill. "And when I do, they will understand exactly what happens to people who touch what belongs to me."

I stood up, but before I could pull away, Leo’s fingers,the uninjured ones,caught the sleeve of my shirt.

"Ash?"

"Yes?"

"I still want to call my father."

I looked at him,pale, bruised, and yet still brave enough to ask. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my own personal phone, the one with the encrypted lines that no one could trace. I unlocked it and handed it to him.

"Five minutes," I said. "I'll be right outside the door."

I walked out and closed the door, leaning my back against the heavy wood. My hands were shaking. I looked down at them, the hands that had built an empire, and realized they were covered in the invisible blood of the man I was trying to love.

I was a monster. But as I heard the faint, muffled sound of Leo’s voice saying "Dad? It's me. I'm okay," I knew I would do it all over again. I would burn the whole world down just to keep him in this hallway.