Chapter 38
I toldher I love her.
I told her I love her.
Fuck.
I meant it, but I didn’t mean to say it, not right then in front of a room full of people. But I did say it, and she’s still here in my arms. She hasn’t run away from me. She hasn’t told me to go fuck myself. I didn’t scare her off like I was terrified I would for saying the words out loud.
“I shouldn’t have hit her.”
I blink at the sound of Hailey’s quiet voice. “What?”
“I saw the mark on her face before I did it, Kai,” she admits, her head tucked back on my chest, her legs folded up on top of mine. “I shouldn’t have hit her while she was down.”
“Fuck that. She deserved it.”
She shrugs. “Still.”
My eyes travel to the other side of the living room where Freya and Wyatt are sitting on the couch opposite us, both shitting themselves. My dad made us untie them before we snuck them out of the shop and back to the penthouse, not wanting any of Maverick’s lurking men to see us with them. They’re probably wondering where the fuck Wyatt went considering they didn’t see him leave. If they suspect we have him, there’s not much we can do about it now. At least they don’t know we have Freya.
When the two of them glance at each other, I cock my head at them. “Do you two know each other?”
“No,” Freya lies.
“Yes,” Wyatt says at the same time. Seems he’s not as stupid as I thought he was.
I direct my attention to him. “How?”
“Your uncle. Maverick Kingston. He pays us both.”
“Pays you to do what?”
“Spy on you. Report back to him.”
“How long?”
He averts his eyes. “A few months. He came to me not long after you started coming around and chasing after Hailey.”
At the sound of her name leaving his mouth, Hailey tenses on my lap, and I glare at him, tightening my grip on her. “Why are you giving him up so easily?”
He side-eyes Callie who’s holding her gun in her hand where she sits with Damon next to me, then at my dad who’s standing with James in the corner, both of them watching us talk. When Wyatt’s gaze meets mine again, he shakes his head. “I just wanna get the fuck out of here, man.”
I nod, and Hailey curls into me even deeper, her thumbnail digging into her daisy tattoo. She still won’t look at Wyatt—she’s too proud to show him anything but indifference—but I know she can feel his eyes on her, and it’s making her uncomfortable.
“If you look at her again, I’ll make you regret it.”
His eyes fly back to mine and stay there.
“What do you think Maverick’s gonna do to you now he knows we know about you?”
“How would he know that?”
“We were talking about you this morning before you showed up at the shop. He would have seen it all on that little camera you planted.”
He curses, dropping his head to rake his fingers through his hair. “How did you know about me?”
“We had someone follow you to Kingston Manor last night. Why didn’t you quit?”
“He told me not to. He said he’d deal with you.”
I laugh at that. “Deal with me? How? I’ve got so many guards on my ass, he’d be lucky to get within five feet of me. Plus I have Callie,” I add, tilting my head at her. “She’s more lethal than the guards.”
Wyatt pushes out a breath. “Yeah.”
“Do you know what he was planning on doing to Kai?” Damon asks, his voice low and threatening.
He shakes his head. “He didn’t say.”
For some reason, I believe he’s telling the truth, and I think Damon does too, which is the only reason he’s not pinned to the wall right now.
As for the girl sitting next to him, though…
“Freya,” Damon says. “Talk.”
She flinches at his tone, her tears staining her cheeks, mixing with her makeup and the blood that’s run down her chin. “I don’t know anything.”
“What does he have on you?” Damon asks. “You don’t need money. Your parents have plenty of it.”
At the mention of her parents, her head pops up. “He threatened them. He said he’d hurt them if I didn’t do what he told me to.”
“That’s a fucking lie.” Wren chuckles, shaking his head at her. “Same shit, huh, Frey?”
“What makes you think I’m lying?”
“Your parents are on the other side of the fucking country,” Levi bites out, gently running his hand through the back of Wren’s hair. “You’re supposed to be in New York with them. Why aren’t you with them, Freya? Why aren’t they dragging your ass home to them? Because they don’t give a shit about you or what you do with your life anymore. They gave up on your bullshit months ago. Maverick wouldn’t threaten them. Anyone who spends five minutes with you knows you’re too selfish to give a fuck about anyone but yourself.”
“Fuck you, Levi.”
He laughs. “Not in a million years, you little bitch.”
“I don’t actually want to fuck you,” she retorts. “You’re a dick sucking prick and I hate you.”
He smirks at her, his tongue sliding along his bottom lip as he grabs the dick he sucks through Wren’s jeans, making his hips buck as a curse leaves his mouth. “This dick?” Levi asks her.
Freya glares at him but doesn’t respond.
Elijah clears his throat, hitting the boys with a pointed look, but neither of them look remorseful as Levi removes his hand from Wren’s hard cock, resting it on the back of his head instead.
“What does he really have on you?” Levi asks.
Freya huffs. “He threatened Derek,” she says, her eyes full of feigned sadness as she looks at him. “He threatened the guy I love, okay?”
I scrunch my nose. Derek sighs and digs his fingers into his eye sockets. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard. If I was in love with that manipulative snake, I’d want to gauge my own eyes out, too.
Levi blinks at her. “You’re joking, right? Are we supposed to fall for that?”
“Excuse me?”
“You were about to take the guy you love back to his dad today. The dad who wants to hurt him,” Levi reminds her. “He didn’t threaten Derek. He threatened you.” He laughs again. “But you don’t want to tell us that because you know we won’t do shit to save you from him.”
Her nostrils flare as her temper rises, along with her fear. This isn’t working. She hates Levi for stealing her guy—the guy she really wanted to be with. He’s not going to get a damn thing out of her.
Just as I think it, Wren leans forward, softens his eyes, and gestures to the mark on the right side of her face. “What did he do to you, Frey?”
Her chin wobbles. More tears well in her eyes, and she lifts her fingertips to her cheek. “He caught me eavesdropping on a conversation he didn’t want me to hear. He backhanded me, told me to do my job and go bring his son home.”
“What conversation?”
“I only caught a little of his side of it, but I’m pretty sure he was talking to her mother on the phone.” She tips her head in Callie’s direction, and the rest of us go deadly still.
“My mother,” Callie echoes, not an ounce of emotion on her face.
“Katherine,” Freya says. “I heard him call her Katherine.”
Callie’s eyes darken. “What did he say to her?”
“That all is going to plan. All he needs is for Derek to fall in line. It’s going to happen soon.”
“What is?” I ask, my hackles raising as I tighten my grip on Hailey. “What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does he need Derek for?” Damon asks.
“I don’t know.”
His jaw clenches as he fights the urge to go off on her. “What do you know?”
Her eyes flick to Derek before she says, “I think I know what he wants.”
“Which is?”
“Everything,” she says simply, gesturing around at the room we’re sitting in. “Your life. Your penthouse. Your empire. Your money. Your power. He wants to take it all away from you, and in order to do that?—”
“That’s enough, Freya.”
All heads turn to Derek, who’s subtly shaking his head at Freya with a warning look in his eyes. When he catches my brothers and I glaring at him, he rubs his face before peeking up at our dad, who doesn’t look surprised at all, just furious.
“Get them out of here,” he says to James.
James gestures to two of the other guards with his fingers. “What do you want to do with them?”
“Get a room downstairs and do not let them out of your sight,” our dad orders the guards.
“Wait.” Wyatt rears back before he’s pulled up off the couch by his arm. “You’re keeping us here?”
Our dad sets his dark eyes on him. “Would you like to leave? You’re safer here than you are out there.”
Wyatt swallows and shrinks back. He doesn’t look so sure about that.
After he and Freya are taken away, I turn my attention to the backstabbing asshole sitting beside me, not missing the way Hailey hasn’t looked at anyone or said a single word, her body tense as she fists my shirt with her good hand.
“Is what she just said true?” I ask my cousin.
Derek nods, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his head dipped. “More or less, yeah.”
“How long have you known about this?”
He shrugs. Sighs. “A few years,” he mutters.
I scoff out a laugh, unsure why I’m even surprised. I already know Derek’s main goal in life is to fuck us all over. “That’s your big plan, huh, D? You and your bastard daddy want to take what’s ours and make it your own? You want to sleep in our beds and live like kings?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “Why do you think I’m here with you instead of Maverick? I don’t want it. I never wanted it. Not really.”
“Bullshit,” I bite out. “You haven’t been here for years. If you don’t want it, why did you turn on us?”
“Because he forced me to.”
“Forced you how? Did he hurt you?”
Derek hesitates, starts to nod, but then shakes his head. No, Maverick might have hurt him, but that’s not what convinced him to betray us. Maverick threatened to hurt us.
My jaw ticks. “You abandoned us to protect us?”
His eyes shine despite himself. “Kai?—”
“No. Fuck you, Derek. We could have been in this together this entire time. We would have had your back. You know we would have. But you didn’t give us the chance. You just fucking left us.”
He left me. The four of us were always tight, but he and I were best fucking friends. More than that. He was like another brother to me, my partner in crime, my ride or die, and he left me. I was fourteen years old, and it crushed me more than I ever let on. I never admitted that to anyone. Not even my brothers. Not even to myself until now.
Hailey’s hand flattens against my chest, and she touches my chin, tilting my head down to look at her. Her eyebrows pinch together as her pretty eyes search mine. I know she sees the hurt there, but I don’t try to hide it from her. Never from her.
“I might have met you sooner,” I whisper, touching my forehead to hers. “You might have liked me.”
“I like you now.”
My grin is huge against her soft, full lips. “Say that again.”
She lets out a breathy laugh, tucking herself back into my chest with her ear against my pounding heart. I like the thought of her being able to hear how fast and hard she makes it beat.
“Why aren’t you surprised by any of this?” I ask my dad, twirling a strand of Hailey’s hair around my fingertip.
“I’ve known since I was a child that my little brother despises me, Kai. It’s not a surprise that he wants to take everything he thinks he’s entitled to.”
“And he’s going to what?” Wren asks. “Kill us all to get it? That’s awfully bold, even for him.”
Is it? He killed Leila Kingston and her lover because they betrayed him and made him look a fool. He killed the woman who was like a mother to Hailey and Derek probably just to hurt them. Killing my dad and his heirs might be trickier to get away with, but I don’t doubt he’d try given the opportunity.
Hailey goes quiet and still again, her thoughts probably mirroring mine.
“Where does Hailey come into this?” I ask. “He’s been following her for weeks. Watching her. Having his men chase her. What does he want with her?”
My dad’s forehead creases as he hesitates.
“He wants her back,” Damon guesses.
“Why?”
“Because it means he gets to take her away from you.” His eyes cut to Hailey. “From us.”
My nostrils flare as I think about that, my limbs vibrating with rage as the image of him putting hands on her and capturing her fills my head.
Over my dead fucking body.