Arranged love

TITAN

I pace the hotel suite. Luca sits on the couch with Tristan. Bones and Avery stand by the window with glasses of scotch in their hands. Nite and Kayn are perched on the other leather couch.

I look up when the door opens, and I see Emilee enter. My hands shake with the anger I feel toward her right now. She wears a black mini dress and her hair down. She can barely walk in her heels, but I expected that. Haven filled us in when we arrived back here, and the girls were missing. Luca called her, and she answered, telling us that she and Jasmine were on their way back to the hotel, but Emilee had left the club with a man. They didn’t get a look at who he was. Just saw her walk up to him and then they left together.

To say I’m furious is an understatement. “Where in the fuck have you been?” I snap.

She raises both of her hands in surrender. Like I’m a cop accusing her of a crime. “I told him you could help him.” She manages to get out.

“What are you talking about?” Bones demands, also standing. “Help who?”

Instead of answering him, she turns, giving us her back and stares at the door she left wide open.

And in steps the very man we’ve been searching for all night. Silence falls over the room as he walks over to her. He places a protective hand on her shoulder and pulls her into his side.

I see fucking red. Removing my gun from my waistband, I point it right at his motherfucking head. “Get the fuck away from her.”

“Titan.” She gasps.

He shoves her away from him and into Bones’s arms. He secures them around her, holding her in place. It’s the same scenario she was in when we went to George’s house and Grave brought her to his office. But this time, Bones has her, not me.

A cruel smile spreads across his face. “I told you, Emilee. The Kings don’t give a fuck about anyone.”

I look at him down my barrel as I hear the others get up from their seats. I hear someone cocking their gun behind me. I’m guessing Luca.

“What are you doing, Titan?” Emilee wails. “Please stop. He needs help.”

I snort. “Where was he when you needed help?” I ask.

His eyes go from mine to his daughter’s. She’s hysterical at this point. Bones has her arms pinned behind her back as she frantically tries to get to her piece of shit father. “Need help with what?” he asks.

I snort. “Like you give a fuck.”

He takes a step toward me, pressing the barrel of my gun into his chest. “You better answer me, son. You’re not the only one carrying a loaded weapon,” he warns.

I pull my lip back with disgust as he calls me son. I may love his daughter, but I hate this man. What he’s put her through. Now this-the fucker never was dead. She thought she had lost her father, then mother. Only she didn’t lose him. She’d be better off if she had. Because now we know he’s carrying a very big secret around. And it could put her life in danger.

“Please …” I hear Emilee sob. “Don’t do this, Titan. Don’t take him from me again,” she begs.

My chest tightens at her words. That she would want to save his sorry ass. So easily forgive him.

A cruel smile spreads across his face. As if this was a setup. He’s testing me. To see what she means to me. Do I kill her father and lose her forever? Or let him live and possibly take her from me? Either way, I lose because she will pick him. He’s her father that her mother cheated on and left. He has her sympathy. I’m just the guy she’s been fucking for the last month.

Making up my mind, I click my safety on and lower my gun, and say, “Yeah, babe.” His dark eyes narrow on me calling his daughter by a pet name. I’ve never done it until now. On purpose. “Tell your father how George forced you to fuck him after your father died to help pay your mother’s medical bills.” I may not be the person she loves in this room, but he let her down. She needs to remember that.

His eyes widen, and they go to her. “He what?”

She’s sobbing in Bones’s arms. But he’s no longer restraining her. Instead, she has her head in his chest. She’s so trashed that she’ll be passing out soon.

“You died. Left him everything,” I fill him in. “He shut off her cards and told her that he would pay for Nancy’s medical bills if she fucked him.” His wide eyes come back to mine. “Spoiler alert. She did. More than once.”

“Emilee?” He snaps her name like she did something wrong. He begins to walk over to her, but I slam my fist into his chest, stopping him. “Bones, put Emilee in bed. We have some shit to discuss with Nick.”

TITAN

BONES EXITS THE bedroom I’m staying in with Emilee and nods once at me, letting me know she is already passed out.

I sit on the couch next to Luca, and her father sits across from us on the other one. Tristan sits in the chair to my left next to Avery. Nite and Kayn lean against the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“We’re waiting,” I growl, glaring at her father.

He runs a hand through his hair. He has looked physically shaken ever since I announced his best friend and business partner fucked his daughter. But I don’t buy it. He faked his own death. He’ll do anything.

“I …” He lifts his head and swallows. “I was in trouble. And needed money. George suggested I fake my death. I had life insurance. He suggested we write up new papers that had me handing over everything to him.”

Bones snorts.

Nick ignores him. “I was to lay low while he waited for the payout. Then he was going to pay off what I owed, and I’d be in the clear.”

“When was the last time you spoke to him?” Luca asks.

“A couple of weeks,” he answers. “He called and told me that there were some issues with the insurance …” He stands from the couch and begins to pace the large open space between the couch and glass coffee table. “Said that his attorney informed him it could take a few months. But that it was handled.”

“And you believed him?” I question.

“I had no reason not to,” he snaps, getting angry. “I gave him access to my accounts in order to take care of Nancy.”

My eyes slide over to Bones for a quick second and then back to him. “For Nancy? Why?”

“Because she was on the company policy up until we divorced. She didn’t own any shares of the company. I was paying out of pocket.”

“Wait.” Bones lifts his hand. “You were continuing to pay for her health care out of pocket after you divorced two years ago?”

He nods. “Why do you sound surprised by that?”

I sit back in the seat. “Because three months ago, she remarried.” His eyes widen. “To your pal, George.”

“That motherfucker!” he shouts.

“Which he lied to Emilee about. Used her for sex …”

Nick picks up a glass bowl that sits on the end table and throws it across the room, breaking it into a million pieces and bringing Bones’s words to a halt. “I’m going to murder him,” he growls, fisting his hands.

“Get in line,” I say.

“Where is he?” Tristan is the one who asks. I’m pretty sure he and Avery are up to speed by now. They’re smart guys.

“He was here in New York.”

“You sure?” I ask. Last we heard, he was in Paris.

He nods. “I saw him. He was at Kink with me.”

“He has a membership?” Avery questions.

He nods, shoving his hands through his dark hair. “The next morning, he boarded a private plane back to Vegas.”Têxt © NôvelDrama.Org.

I sigh. “I doubt he’s still there. Even if that is where he went.”

“He’s probably long gone by now,” Bones says. “Nancy left him everything in her will. That was why Emilee set the house on fire. Even if she won’t admit it, I know why she did it.”

Nick falls back down onto the couch. “She’ll never forgive me. Not like I deserve it.”

I stand, done with this conversation. I’m tired. It’s almost four a. m. I want to curl up in bed with her and get some rest. “She will, but you’re right, you don’t deserve it.” I walk past the couch and toward the bedroom.

A hand grips my upper arm and pulls me to a stop. I turn to face her father. “Thanks.” He sighs. “For taking care of her.” Letting go of me, he takes a step back. “When she told me that you and her …” He clears his throat. “I thought-”

“I know what you thought,” I interrupt him and lower my voice. “Just know that you were wrong.”