Chapter 31
UPDATE: TURNS OUT, I’M CAPABLE OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE WHEN IT COMES TO SOMEONE HURTING HER. #PROTECTIVEMODEUNLOCKED
AXEL
I knew something was wrong before she even entered the room. The sound of her knock lacked any energy or enthusiasm, almost painful in its sadness.
And then she appeared in my office, the room that doubled as her bedroom. She didn’t even have to knock, which was another tell.
To anyone else, she might look okay, but I could see everything.
The deflation of her entire being, like someone had punctured a hole and let all the fight leak out.
Her posture was slumped, eyes cast down, the fire completely drained from them.
The telltale signs were all there: residual puffiness, reddened lids.
She’d been crying.
Fuck. Time came to a standstill. I’d never seen Dakota cry. Not since the trial at least. She was the strongest woman I’d ever met, the kind who’d probably tell Death to go fuck itself if it showed up at an inconvenient time.
“What’s wrong?” I shot to my feet and crossed the room, cupping her cheek before I could stop myself. “Did something happen? Did someone hurt you?”
“No.” She stepped back like my touch burned her.
My fingers itched at my sides, desperately trying to understand what the hell could have happened. The sight of her body curling in on itself, like she was in too much pain to even stand up straight, felt like a chainsaw cutting me in half.
“What is it, Dakota? Are your parents okay? Is Knox—”
“They’re fine,” she assured me, twisting her fingers together. She cleared her throat, and I could see the conscious decision she made to project strength. But her voice came out weak and brittle.
Someone broke my Sunshine.
The thought hit me like a military tank. When had I started thinking of her as mine? When had her pain become something that could literally bring me to my knees?
“I have a proposition,” she announced.
A proposition? This wasn’t a woman wanting to negotiate; this was a broken animal that had been kicked while down. My fists clenched. Who the fuck did this to her?
“What is it, Sunshine?” It took everything I had not to pull her against my chest and wrap my arms around her until whatever was hurting her couldn’t reach her anymore.
I hated how small her voice sounded. “I’ll give you whatever you want. And in exchange, I ask for one night. Oscar-winning performance. A couple so in love that we make every other person jealous.”
What the hell?
Someone got to her. Were they convinced she was lying about us? Whatever the reason, by the looks of it, they’d verbally destroyed her. And that took a lot. Which meant whoever had done this must have stooped low. Must have known exactly how to hit her where it hurt most.
“I need us to sell us to somebody in my inner circle. So we have to be extremely believable at our dinner.”
“Your inner circle,” I repeated.
“My ex-boyfriend.”
“Mathew?” I nearly choked on his name. “We already knew he was going to be here.”
“I know but …” Her lip quivered, and fresh rage shot through my veins like boiling water.
“Dakota, what happened?”
She swallowed hard. “I went over there to tell him we would never get back together. I didn’t want him to wait for me. But he won’t take no for an answer. He’s determined to prove we’re fake.”
Still, something else had changed. Something that had crushed her.
“What did he say to you?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.”
“The point is, he was angry, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’ll let me go until he knows we’re real.”
She’s scared of him, I realized. Maybe not physically, but emotionally.
“He’s controlling,” I deduced. When I saw the look on her face, I added, “He’s acted this way before.”
She squared her shoulders, trying to find some of that Dakota fire. “There were a couple of moments I was concerned he might have been more controlling and possessive than I felt comfortable with.”
Possessive and controlling. A dangerous combination for someone infatuated with her.
I narrowed my eyes. “Did he ever lay hands on you?”
“No.”
“Did you ever worry he might?”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.
Mother. Fucker. “Elaborate.” The word came out like a growl.
She looked like she was debating whether to answer, but I stood there, making it clear I wasn’t going anywhere until she did. I didn’t want to be possessive or controlling like him, but her safety meant more to me than anything else, and I needed to know what I was dealing with.
What type of insect I was about to crush into dust.
“The last couple of times we argued before he left, he got in my space until I backed down. Literally backed away from him.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “It felt like … like if I said the wrong thing, his hand would’ve just … flown up.”
I cracked my knuckles, the sound sharp in the quiet room.
“But I convinced myself I’d misread it. And for the record, he didn’t lay a hand on me,” she assured quickly. “I just … I need to do something big and final to make him go away. For good.”
“Announcing you were engaged didn’t do the trick?”
“Would we be having this conversation if it did?”
Fair point. “And he’s convinced we’re fake. Is there something specific that’s tipping him off?”
She considered this for a moment, biting her lip.
“I think in his mind, there’s no way some other man can ‘win’ me,” she said, using air quotes.
“The fact that I’m the one who ended it is incomprehensible to his ego.
” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Why do we look past red flags in relationships?”
I swallowed about a dozen things I wanted to say. I wanted to find Mathew right now and beat his face until he was unrecognizable.
I didn’t give a damn about my deal anymore.
What I cared about was her.
But she’d just come out of a relationship with a jealous, possessive asshole who never took her feelings into consideration. I needed her to feel like she had control.
“What do you propose?”
“Let’s be a little more over the top than we planned at the dinner. I think for him, we just have to act like we’re madly in love.”
That won’t be hard. The hard part will be not introducing my knee to his jaw until it cracks off.
“And, Axel?” she said, apparently reading my mind. “Whatever you do, please don’t get into a fight with him.”
“You just told me that a controlling, possessive, aggressive ex-boyfriend won’t let you go. You implied you’re afraid of him. If you think I won’t do something about that, you’re sorely mistaken.”
“Please.” Tears shimmered in her eyes, threatening to spill over. “Please do this for me.”
Shit. What do you do when two competing desires go head-to-head? On one hand, I’d give Dakota anything she ever asked for. Anything that made her life happier, easier. Especially if it meant so much that her eyes filled with tears.
But those tears were put there by that prick of an ex-boyfriend. And in my book, that deserved one hell of a beating.
I studied her face. Really looked at her. Beneath the pain, beneath the deflation, I could see something else.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked softly.
She bit her lip. “He threatened to call his bosses. Tell them our relationship is fake.”
Manipulative bastard. Now I understood. This wasn’t just about him not accepting rejection. This was about control. Power. He was holding our careers hostage to get what he wanted.
Mine, I no longer cared about. Hers, on the other hand …
I moved closer, close enough that she had to tilt her head back to look at me. “Dakota, I’d burn my entire deal to the ground before I’d let anyone hurt you.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Axel—”
“I’m serious.” I reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Screw these investors. Screw the money. You’re more important.”
For a moment, something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked almost like hope. Like maybe she was starting to believe that someone might actually put her first for once.
“But we’re not going to let it come to that,” I continued. “We’re going to go to this dinner, and we’re going to put on the performance of our lives. We’re going to make him believe we’re so disgustingly in love that he’ll have no choice but to back off.”
“And you won’t hit him?”
I was quiet for a long moment. “I won’t hit him unless he gives me a reason to. But if he so much as raises his voice to you, if he makes you feel even slightly uncomfortable …” I let the threat hang in the air.
She wiped a stray tear. “What if I told you that seeing you get protective over me is maybe the sexiest thing I’ve ever witnessed?”
Jesus. My heart damn near stopped. “Then I’d say you have terrible taste in what’s sexy.”
“I have excellent taste actually.” The ghost of a smile played at her lips. “For instance, I find it very attractive when a man respects my wishes.”
She’s trying to manipulate me with flirtation, and damn if it isn’t working.
“You’re playing dirty, Sunshine.”
She smiled, and for the first time since she’d walked in, she looked like my Dakota again. Still hurt, still fragile, but with a spark of that fire I’d fallen for.
Fallen for. When had that happened?
How about right this minute? When she wrapped her arms around me and buried her cheek against my chest like I was her safe haven. When I returned the embrace and kissed the top of her head.
“All right,” I said finally, “I’ll attempt to behave.” During this dinner. But when this was all behind us, if she thought I’d let Mathew go without consequences, she didn’t know me. “But I want something in return.”
“What?” She pulled back, the absence of her making me feel cold.
“After we’ve convinced your asshole ex that we’re madly in love, you and I are going to have a conversation about what this really is between us.”
Her breath hitched. “Axel …”
“Because, Sunshine, what I’m feeling right now? The way seeing you hurt makes me want to tear the world apart? That’s not fake. And I don’t think what you’re feeling is fake either.”
I’d been thinking about Dakota’s online persona lately.
The perfect image wasn’t deceit or vanity.
It was armor. Protection. She wasn’t my mother, choosing image over getting help; she was choosing survival while she figured out how to trust again.
And I could love her enough to let her heal at her own pace, mask and all.
She stared up at me, lips parted, and for a moment, I thought she might admit it. Might finally say what we’d both been dancing around.
Instead, she whispered, “One night. That’s all I’m asking for.”
One night to convince her ex we’re in love. Easy enough, considering my heart was falling hard and fast for her.
“Then let’s go show that bastard what real love looks like.”
But even as I said it, I was already planning. Mathew was about to learn that when it came to protecting Dakota, I didn’t play fair.
And if he so much as made her shed one more tear …
Well, some promises were meant to be broken.
I waited for her to leave my office. Only then did I open my phone and see an ominous text waiting for me from an unknown number.
Your days are numbered.