Chapter 48
Unfortunately,I can’t keep my girl tucked up safely underneath me, avoiding everything and everyone else forever. We have shit to do.
Another thirty minutes won’t hurt though.
After a hot shower together, where I can’t keep my hands off her slippery, soapy body, she sucks another load from my dick, and we clean up again. Dressed in my sweats and Wren’s T-shirt, her wet hair pulled up into a messy knot, Hailey and I head downstairs. Everyone’s in the kitchen, sitting at the island while Callie and Wren cook.
“You can cook?” Hailey asks. She already knows Callie can bake, and that Damon makes us all pancakes every Friday morning, but this is the first time she’s seen us have anything other than room service or takeout for dinner.
“We can try,” Wren jokes, almost burning his eyebrows off as he pulls a lasagna from the oven.
It’s a little dark on top, but we’ll scrape it off.
Callie looks over at us, doing a double take at Hailey. She raises a brow as she scans her form, then looks back up at her face. “You look happy.”
“Shut up,” Hailey mutters, stealing the piece of garlic bread Callie’s holding and taking a bite out of it. Callie bumps her with her hip, and Hailey smiles so big it lights up the entire damn penthouse.
“Well shit.” Levi laughs. “That good, huh?”
Hailey swallows her food and tries to rub the heat from her cheeks. It doesn’t work. “I hate you all.”
We grin at her. The little liar loves us.
She’s fucking glowing, and she does look happy. So happy that my heart feels like it’s about to break right out of my chest and throw itself at her. I did that. I put that look on her face and that little bounce in her step, and I get to continue doing it for the rest of my life. I’m a lucky motherfucker.
Derek glares at me.
Freya sits next to him, frowning between me and my family. “What are you all even talking about?”
We ignore her. She can’t read us like we can all read each other because she’s not a part of this family. She never has been and she never will be.
Wren and Callie start serving the food as Hailey and I take our seats. Freya leans into Derek’s side and plays with the diamond on her finger, doing a shitty job of hiding the sly smile on her lips. Derek widens his eyes at me as if it”s my fault he’s been stuck with her for the last two days. If I didn’t hate her so much, I’d let her stay here with him for another two months just to drive him insane.
Just as I think it, the elevator opens, and Sebastian and Penelope Thorne step out, followed by Levi’s boy, Ross. It took him a couple days, but he finally managed to track them down in New York and convince them to come get their damn daughter. He probably threatened them a little.
Freya’s eyes widen in shock as her parents walk toward her. They don’t look pleased to be here.
When Freya’s furious gaze snaps to mine, I smirk and lean back in my seat, my arm resting on the back of Hailey’s chair. I give her a little wave with my fingers. She growls under her breath.
“You’re coming with us, Freya. Let’s go.” Her dad grabs her arm and pulls her out of her seat.
“What? No. Dad, I don’t know what they told you, but Derek and I are married. We’re going to move into Kingston Manor together.”
When I raise a brow, Derek gives me an exasperated look. He never said anything about her moving in with him. The girl’s fucking crazy.
“Married?” her mother asks, confused. “You got married and you didn’t tell us?”
She sighs. “Yes, but?—”
“We’re not married, Freya,” Derek finally gets to tell her, looking so done with this shit as he scrubs his hands over his face. “The ceremony wasn’t real. The marriage certificate is a fake.”
Her jaw drops. “You liar!”
He’s not lying.
“Freya,” he says, giving her a warning look. “Go home with your parents. Graduate. Go to college?—”
“In New York,” Levi emphasizes, earning himself a look of pure hatred from her.
“Marry some poor rich bastard and make him miserable for the rest of your life,” Derek finishes.
“But I love you,” she cries as her dad pulls her away. “I want to stay here with you.”
Hailey scrunches her nose beside me, biting into another piece of garlic bread.
When Derek doesn’t fall for Freya’s bullshit, she drops the act and yells, “You can’t do this to me! You can’t just throw me out like I mean nothing!”
He chuckles. “Watch me.”
She growls for real this time, struggling as her father literally drags her into the elevator.
“Freya,” Derek calls. “Can I have the ring back?”
“Fuck you, Derek!”
His lips curl up into a small smile. “Fuck you too, sweetheart.”
When she’s finally gone, Hailey finishes chewing and leans back into the crook of my arm. “That was more satisfying than I thought it’d be.”
We laugh and begin eating. Ross sits down next to Levi and Wren and helps himself to a plate, telling us about the hot couple he hooked up with in New York.
I glance at the time on my watch and look at Derek with a subtle question in my eyes. He nods.
Just then, my dad comes out of his home office for the first time all day. He’s dressed in his usual black suit and tie, though the collar is a little messed up like he’s been pulling on it repeatedly, and his dark hair is messier than it normally is. He usually looks more like Damon, but he looks like me and Wren right now.
Without saying anything, Damon slides a plate of lasagna toward the empty seat between me and Derek. It’s there if he wants it, but we’re not going to beg him to eat with us. That wouldn’t be fair. Not to him or to us.
He looks at each of us in turn before he asks, “Did you cook?”
Wren nods, speaking around his food. “It’s good if you scrape the black parts off.”
Our dad lets out a rare, breathy laugh and takes his seat. He’s quiet while we all eat together, talking and laughing and giving each other shit. When Wren and I start slapping each other’s hands, fighting over the last piece of garlic bread which we eventually split, there’s a small smile on our dad’s face.
He looks tired. I don’t think he’s slept in two days. Heartbroken or not, my dad gets shit done. Wyatt’s gone. Hailey won”t be seeing him again. The two guys who tried to take Hailey and Derek are going to prison. And Maverick’s going to spend the rest of his life in a cage where he belongs. He’ll never be a free man again.
While I eat one of the brownies Callie made earlier, Derek shifts in his seat, glancing between me and his sister. I know he’s worried about her, but he has to know I’ll take care of her. He wouldn’t even be considering this if he thought I wouldn’t.
“I’m going to rehab,” he blurts to Hailey, causing everyone else to stop talking mid-sentence.
Hailey snaps her head up. She opens and closes her mouth a couple times, then asks, “When?”
“My flight leaves in two hours.” He smiles sadly at her. “It’s in Florida.”
“Florida,” she echoes.
He nods. “It’s an elite resort, one of the top rehabilitation facilities in the country.”
He’ll get sober, go to therapy and group sessions, and spend his free time lounging by the pool sipping mocktails or some shit. I know the place because I considered checking myself in with Wren not long ago. While he was on the ground in the cemetery with my girl that night, I was researching the place, learning everything I could about it. If it wasn’t for Levi, I would have taken him the next morning.
I thought Derek would tell me to go fuck myself when I mentioned it to him, but he didn’t. After looking at the website for a while, he said he would go if I could snag him the penthouse suite. I had to call my dad to help me get it done, which he did within the hour.
I didn’t tell Hailey because I wasn’t sure if he’d actually go through with it. I didn’t want her to get her hopes up just for him to change his mind when push came to shove.
Standing from his seat, my dad squeezes my shoulder before looking at Derek. “Ready?”
He nods, rounding the island to get to Hailey. There are tears in her eyes as she stands and hugs him tightly, her face pressed against his chest.
He glances at me over her head. There’s a warning look in his eyes that tells me he’ll kill me if I hurt her. I would never, but the look in mine tells him I’ll do whatever I want with her. His nostrils flare. I laugh under my breath.
Hailey releases him, and I take her wrist and guide her back to my chest, letting her lean on me as she watches her brother go. Halfway to the elevator, he stops and turns around, closing his eyes briefly before he forces them to meet Callie’s.
“I’m sorry, Callie.”
Her face doesn’t change as her gaze collides with his. “I know you are,” she says after a few beats, her voice soft. It’s not forgiveness, but it’s more than he was expecting from her.
He swallows, nods, and follows my dad into the elevator.
Damon frowns at the side of Callie’s face.
“You’re a better person than me, little Kingston,” Levi says quietly, his jaw locked.
Feeling all the eyes on her, Callie gets up, grabs another tray of brownies she hid behind some shit on the counter, and holds it up. “Who wants to get high?”
By the timeour dad gets home from the airport, we’re all sprawled out on the couches in the living room watching a movie. Hailey’s lying back between my spread legs, her head on my chest, my arms wrapped around her middle, my scalp tingling as she runs her nails through my hair.
She’s never smoked a joint before, but she wanted to try a brownie. Wren and Callie only let her eat half of one before Wren shoved the other half in his mouth, grinning as he did it.
I know Hailey’s feeling the effects of the weed now because her eyes are glassy and she’s eaten almost an entire bag of chips by herself.
Our dad takes one look at us all and glares, his accusing eyes landing on Callie.
“What? I saved you some,” she says around a mouthful of chips, holding the tray up for him.
His glare deepens as he snatches the tray. Instead of tossing it, he picks up one of the brownies and takes a bite out of it. Callie smirks and leans back into Damon’s chest, her legs resting on Wren’s lap, who’s half asleep on top of Levi.
“Was he okay when you dropped him off?” Hailey asks, her gaze lifting up to my dad.
“No, but I think he will be. I think that place will be good for him,” he says quietly, perching on the arm of the couch. Eyes on the TV, he’s quiet for a few moments before he says, “Speaking of therapy?—”
We all groan as one.
“I can”t afford therapy,” Hailey says.
“Neither can I,” Callie adds.
“Neither can I,” Wren and I say together.
The exasperated look on our dad’s face makes Hailey giggle, her hand slapping over her mouth. I hold in my laugh and press my lips to her head.
“We’ll go.” Damon speaks for all of us, the asshole. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You have to go too.”
Our dad locks his jaw, then nods. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Damon echoes.
I smile to myself while no one’s looking.
We’re going to be okay.