Snafu

Appraisal - Part 2

"Cole, what debt?" Gideon pressed.

Cole spoke into his hands, too afraid to look at Gideon or let Gideon see his face right now. "I wasn't working for Logan for shits and giggles. He...um...I made a mistake when I was younger and trusted him to help me out of a bind. My..." he paused to think about how much he actually wanted to tell Gideon, deciding on keeping it pretty vague for now.

"My family had some pretty big medical debt, and I ended up trying to take care of the bills. Impossible, really, but whatever. It's how I met Logan - trying to get a job after school. And Logan...he's good at conning people and I was dumb. Anyway, none of that matters really, I guess."

He laughed and dragged his hands over his ears and hair to the back of his neck, staring down at the floor between his feet. "I owed Logan a lot of money. That's why I was turning tricks for him. James paid Logan what I owed and then gave me the option of working it off for him or marrying you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Cole could see Gideon watching him closely through the whole explanation, expression not giving a thing away. Then, he put a hand over his mouth and looked up at the painting hanging over the mantle - crashing waves beneath storm clouds that gathered over the rolling ship. "How much?"

"Um." Cole ran his fingers through his hair, "About two-hundred and fifty grand. Logan never really showed me the books, but I think it was probably down to around two hundred by now."

Gideon kept staring at the painting. That had been a lot to unpack, so Cole let the silence hang between them and stared at the hole in his sock.

"Okay," Gideon said, "So you thought that by marrying me, the debt would be forgotten, but James told you that is not the case."

"Well," Cole shrugged. "It's not like I signed a contract or anything. He just told me I had the option to work off the debt or marry you. I guess he never explicitly said it would be forgiven if I chose to marry you."

"He implied it." Gideon could not sit still anymore. He stood and paced. "That snake. And then he cornered you when you were out on your own."

"It just shook me up a little, is all." Cole tried to back down. This had been a much more revealing conversation than he'd thought it would be. This whole time Gideon had not known that Cole was technically getting something out of the whole deal. He had just thought Cole was held at gunpoint and that was his entire motivation. Maybe he would take all this and start agreeing with his family that Cole was really here because of money. Maybe that was James's goal. "He's a bit unnerving."

Gideon gave him a look as he paced back and forth, like James was obviously more than a little unnerving. He had tracked Cole down for the sole purpose of threatening him, no matter how cordial and vague he had been about it. He was not just unnerving, he was dangerous.

"No, he's going too far." Gideon shook his head, jaw ticking. His hands were by his sides, closed into fists as if he were trying to prevent himself from knocking the stuff off his desk. He had launched off into a rage land, restless and probably seeing everything in tones of red and anger. At least his anger seemed directed at James instead of Cole.

"Gideon-"

"He's already threatening your life. He sure as shit doesn't need anything else to hold over you." He spun on his heel and shoved the study door out of the way to storm into the foyer. "You've done fucking enough for him, and he gave you to me, so he needs to get his fucking mitts off."

Cole should probably take issue with that kind of possessive talk, but he let it slide. Gideon was not in a rational state of mind. In the moments where he was level-headed and thinking clearly about their situation, he shied away from the concept of lording ownership over Cole, always carefully wording everything so that Cole knew he thought of them as equals stuck in the situation together. But he was feeling pissed off and protective right now, and Cole was man enough to admit that it sent a thrill down his spine.