I thought of all the connections my family had to powerful people in society and although it made me uncomfortable thinking about using those connections, I would to help us out of this. Fairchild thought he was untouchable, but for myself, for Rhys, and for Dean, I’d do anything to prove him wrong.

“I see I have your attention,” Fairchild said, sounding smug. “Good. I’ll be in touch about my fight, Morgan, so next time I call, answer the fucking phone.” He hung up.

Rhys’s fingers curled around his cell and seeing his knuckles turn white, I quickly extricated the phone before he threw it across the room. I set it on the desk and turned to him. “We can fight him. My parents have a lot of powerful friends and, although I’ve never thought about them in that way, Charles and Marion Brown are not people you mess with.”

“I thought the reason you wanted a fake relationship was to keep your troubles away from your parents?”

I stiffened. “Well, I’m not happy about the idea of going to them either, but I don’t think we should just allow this man to steamroll us. It’s better to ask for help from people who care about us than to let Colonel Dipshit blackmail us.”

Rhys’s eyes searched mine for what felt like eternity. Then he exhaled slowly. “Parker, you came to me—well, technically, Dean, but let’s not think about that—for help. This job means so much to you, you were willing to pay a guy to pretend to date you to keep it. I can’t let you jeopardize all that.”

I slid my hand up his chest, resting my palm over his fiercely pounding heart. “I don’t want to jeopardize it either. It scares me. A lot. But the idea of Fairchild using you, what that’ll do to you and Dean—that scares me too. Let’s just get through the charity fight. We don’t know what’s going to come of that. Once we know what cards we’re holding, we can deal with Fairchild. For now, we’ll just find ways to hold him off.”

Rhys continued to frown. “I don’t want you choosing me and Dean over your job. You’ve worked your ass off for that job. It’s important to you.”

“You’re important to me too, Rhys.”

Quite abruptly, Rhys wrapped his hand around my nape and hauled me up his body for a hard kiss. I whimpered in surprise, and he lifted his head briefly to growl, “You really have no idea, do you, Tink?”