WHERE THE RIVALRY ENDS

The Price of a Name

Levi stepped into the room, and the very atmosphere constricted, as if the air itself recognized and recoiled from him. For a moment, it felt like everyone forgot to breathe. He carried himself with the predatory confidence of someone used to being the most dangerous animal in any room, eyes cold and calculating.

He didn’t waste a second on pleasantries. “Arthur’s daughter,” he said, his tone both amused and pitiless, as he began to circle around me. His steps were measured, deliberate, forcing me to turn so I wouldn’t lose sight of him. “Poor Arthur. Word is he’s so far down he’s selling off the family silver just to keep the heat on in that crumbling house of his. Pathetic, really. He never had the teeth for this world.”

Jayce took a single step forward, his posture rigid, voice low and sharp as a blade. “Leave her alone, Dad. This isn’t your fight. It isn’t about the company, or you.” He hovered protectively between us, refusing to yield even an inch.

But Levi only gave a wolfish grin, eyes flickering between his son and me, reading the tension like it was a ledger. “Isn’t it?” he purred. “You’re more like me than you’d care to admit, Jayce. You see something you want, you reach out and take it. But you never learned caution. You forgot that in this family, mistakes don’t stay secrets for long.” His voice dropped, and the words hung in the air like a warning.

He turned his attention back to me, the smile sharpening until it was all teeth. “So, Veda. Carrying a Colt. That’s something I wouldn’t have bet on. Your old man blames me for every wrong turn he’s made, and now here you are, tying his blood to ours. Life’s got a sense of humor.”

I forced myself to hold his gaze, even as my voice trembled. “It wasn’t planned. I’m not after your money, or anyone’s.”

He dismissed that with a flick of his hand, as if the very idea bored him. “Arthur’s too damn proud for that. He’d sooner starve than cash one of my checks, but pride doesn’t keep the lights on. A merger, though, he’d see that as a lifeline. He’d swallow his pride if it meant the Rossman name survived a little longer with some dignity intact. All his life’s work, reduced to a bargaining chip.”

Jayce shot a glare at his father, frustration written in every line of his face. “What are you getting at?”

Levi rolled his shoulders, as if shrugging off an old coat. “Thalassa was always a transaction, Jayce. You know it and I know it. But this?” He gestured at me, at the secret I carried, his smile becoming something colder. “This is bigger than business. This is legacy. I’m not letting the next Colt heir be an embarrassment, a stain on the Rossman name and ours. The press would feast on the scandal."

He stepped closer, lowering his voice so only the three of us could hear, the threat in his words unmistakable. “You’ll marry her. Bring her into the family. That child gets our name, not Arthur’s. We’ll sell it as a grand romance, the families reconciled, a new beginning. The best publicity we could ask for.”

Jayce’s jaw tensed, his eyes stormy. “I’m engaged to Thalassa,” he said, each word strained, as if just saying it cost him something.

Levi’s shrug was almost casual. “Break it off, or don’t. It doesn’t matter. By the end of this, you’ll be married to Veda Rossman. If you refuse, I’ll see to it Arthur’s thrown out of that dilapidated house before the week’s up. He won’t have a dime left, not even for the cheap whiskey he drinks to forget he ever crossed me.”

I felt the threat like ice water down my spine. “You can’t do that,” I managed, but the words sounded small in the space between us.

He met my gaze, his eyes as cold and unyielding as winter steel. “Try me, Veda. I’ve been winning this game for twenty years. I don’t intend to lose now, not when victory is this close.”

Jayce looked at me then, and the warmth he’d shown me in another, softer place was gone. He was haunted, a man seeing the walls close in, every escape cut off. He glanced toward the door where Thalassa had vanished only moments before, then back at me, as if weighing the cost of everything he was about to lose.

“Jayce…” I whispered, the plea barely audible.

But he didn’t answer me. He faced his father, shoulders squared as if bracing for a blow. “You’d really sacrifice the Combs merger for this?”

Levi’s eyes glittered with something dark and possessive. “The Combs merger is just money. Money comes and goes. But this, this is blood. And having the Rossman’s under my thumb? That’s worth more than every ship in their fleet. You can always buy another company. But legacy, family, that’s a different kind of currency.”

Jayce’s breath came in ragged, chest heaving once in defiance. He looked at me again, and I saw in his eyes the same fierce protectiveness that had drawn me to him in the first place, a flicker of the man I’d glimpsed behind the mask. He reached out, brushing my arm with a touch that was both gentle and resolute, as though he was making a silent promise.

“Fine,” Jayce said finally, his voice flat but unbreakable. “We’ll do it your way. But hear me, Dad, if we’re married, you stay away from her. My marriage, my house, my rules. Don’t test me.”

For a moment, Levi just looked at him, and then a slow, satisfied grin spread across his face. He looked like a man who’d just won a game he’d rigged from the start. “Of course, son. Of course. I’ll have the lawyers draw up the papers first thing. Veda, darling…” He paused, savoring the words. “Welcome to the family. I do hope you’re ready for what that means.”

The room was silent, except for the dull thud of my heart. At that moment, it was clear: this was no longer about business, or even revenge. It was about power, inheritance, and the lengths people would go for both. And somehow, I’d become the battleground where all those old grudges would be settled.