Chapter Nine
Zion
"Get your stupid phone," Makenzie groans, her finger jabbing me between the ribs. "It's too freaking early for it to keep ringing."
Her words pull me from sleep, plunking me down in reality. I fell asleep with my good ear against the pillow and didn't even hear it.
"Let me up, baby."
She grumbles a complaint I don't hear, then reluctantly shifts forward, allowing me to sit up to grab the phone from the nightstand. I grab my hearing aid, too, switching it on while I fumble the phone to my other ear.
"It's about fucking time," Madden growls as soon as I answer. "I've been blowing your phone up for the last hour."
Makenzie steals my pillow, snuggling in with an exaggerated sigh.
"What's wrong?" I ask, fully prepared for the likelihood that I'll be going to jail sometime real soon.
There isn't a single thing I'd change. Actually, that's not true. If I had it to do over, I'd break both of his arms and his jaw. Maybe with it wired shut, he'd learn some manners.
"You haven't seen the video."
"What video?" I growl, instantly fucking worried someone busted me getting her off at the table last night. If some sorry son of a bitch filmed and posted it
My growl brings Makenzie fully awake. She drags my pillow away from her face, looking at me with wide eyes. I don't have to ask to know her mind is in the same place. It's written all over her face.
"I dropped every shred of evidence my PI dug up against him," Madden says. "The whole goddamn world knows he's been making shady deals for his clients and pocketing most of the money that should have gone to them. They know he's spent a small fortune on coke and has gotten violent with a few female clients. He's pissed."
"Good." I take a certain immense satisfaction knowing his world is falling apart. I take even more knowing he'll never get his hands on Makenzie again.
"Not good. He released a video statement this morning."
"Saying what? That he's a Nice Guy?" I snort. It's the same defense they always use.
Madden doesn't immediately respond, which sets my teeth on edge.
"What's he saying, Banks?" I growl.
"You need to check Makenzie's social media," he says quietly. "It's not good."
My heart sinks into my fucking stomach, settling like a stone. I put the phone on speaker so I can pull up the app. Her profile is already loaded. What? Zayne isn't the only one who knows how to do a little stalking.
I don't immediately see anything out of place. The last thing posted was a picture of her in that damn dress from last night, a playful smile on her face as she poses in front of the door.
"What am I looking for?"
"What's going on?" Makenzie asks.
I hold up a finger, asking for a minute. She doesn't know that Madden and I agreed to publicly release everything his PI dug up on Taggert. Last night was about her and about us, not about him. I wasn't giving him a fucking place in her mind or in our bed. He's stressed her out and worried her for long enough.
"Check her tagged videos."
I tap the icon to take me to her tagged videos. His ugly mug immediately pops up on my screen in half a dozen different videos. What the fuck? I click the first one, and his face fills the screen. It's a repost of his video, along with a caption that's nothing more than a steaming tea cup.
"Why the fuck is he tagging her, Banks?" I demand to know, pissed and suspicious as hell. This isn't how things were supposed to play out. We didn't plan for this.
Makenzie gives up getting an answer from me and scurries to a seating position, peering at the phone over my shoulder. "Why is he tagging me?" she demands. "What's going on?"
"I've had a PI looking into him," Madden says gently. "Yesterday, Zion and I agreed to make the information he uncovered public. I released it last night."
"What?" she whispers, turning wide, startled eyes in my direction. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Didn't want you worrying about some piece of shit who isn't worth your time."
"So why is he tagging me now?"
"He's claiming that the two of you were sleeping together, Kenz," Madden tells her. "When he found out you were stealing content, he broke up with you. You've been harassing him for the last year, so he threatened to expose you. In retaliation, you fabricated a bunch of evidence against him, trying to discredit him."
"What?" she cries, jumping to her feet. "That's not true! None of it!"
"I know. Everyone who knows you knows it isn't true."
Her expression falls. "But people who don't know me believe it."
"Some of them."
She gets quiet. Too quiet, seeming to fold in on herself.
"This wasn't supposed to happen, angel baby," I swear to her. "He was supposed to come after me. That's what he was threatening to do." That's what we thought he'd do, retaliate by following through on his threat to press charges. With his business already out there, there was nothing stopping him.
"He was threatening you? How?"
I hesitate, reluctant to answer.
"How, Zion?"
"He was threatening to press charges, claiming I threatened his life."
"He was going to have you arrested?" she growls. "And you were going to let him?"
"I've been in worse places than a jail cell, Makenzie."
She stares at me for a long moment as if she doesn't know what to say to that. It's the truth, though. I've been to hell and back, and for less reason than this. A night in a jail cell wouldn't even rate on the list of the worst places I've been. Was I looking forward to it? Of course not. But I wouldn't have regretted it either.
There's not a single fucking moment of protecting her that I'll regret. When someone comes for her, their targets are supposed to find my back. That's how this shit works. I stand in front of her so everything hits me instead of her. Not because I'm her bodyguard. Not because it's my job. But because my life only started making sense the minute she burst into it like a comet.
She owns me, heart, mind, body, and soul.
"I want to see the video."
"That's not a good idea," Madden says. "You don't want to see him spewing that bullshit."
"You're right. I don't want to see it, but I need to see it. It's the only way I'll be prepared for whatever is coming at me next," she argues, her voice soft. There's a thread of steel in it, though. This woman has more courage in her pinky finger than most men I know.
"We'll watch it together."
Madden curses but doesn't try to interfere. "I've already got my lawyers working on it," he says. "The video will be down soon. And he'll be slapped with a restraining order by the end of the day."
"Thanks, brother."
"Thanks, Madden," Makenzie whispers.
I disconnect, dropping the phone onto the bed to drag her into my arms.
"I want to see the video, Zion."
"We will, but we're not watching in our bed. Wrap around me, angel baby." I wait until she hooks her arms around my neck, and then scoop up the phone, depositing it on her belly. I stand in one fluid move, carrying her into the bathroom. It's not the most comfortable place to watch the video, but I can't think of a more fitting place to deal with a piece of shit like Lyle Taggert.
His fucking video makes my blood boil. He plays the earnest little schoolboy well, staring into the camera with his hands folded. He pretends as if he's blindsided and deeply hurt that she'd do this to him as he rattles on about how much he tried to help her.
It's all a fucking show. One that makes two things crystal clear. The first? This motherfucker wants the world to think he made her. The second? I've never wanted to kill anyone with my bare hands as badly as I want to kill this motherfucker.
When it's over, I drop the phone to the counter, pulling her into my arms. She hasn't said a word through the entire six-minute production. She's barely even moved. I know this has to be killing her, but she faces it with her head high, not speaking.
The fact that she isn't saying anything worries the hell out of me. Makenzie isn't a quiet woman. She's the kind who tells you exactly what she thinks about any given subject. She knows her own mind and isn't afraid to speak it. She isn't speaking it now.
"Talk to me," I whisper, chaffing her arms with my hands.
"And say what? That he's lying about all of it? He is. I never slept with him. I never touched him."
She doesn't have to tell me that. Her innocence still stains the bedsheets in tiny drops.
"He's a liar, Zion. It's what he does. It's who he is." She shrugs in my arms. "I can't change his nature, just like I can't force people to believe the truth. They'll believe what they want to believe, regardless of whether it's true or not. What can I possibly say to change that?"
"Fuck," I growl, burying her face in my throat as my heart threatens to break for her. She shouldn't have to know so much about how the world really works and yet she does. It's as sad as it is infuriating. Fuck her mother and every other person who taught her those lessons. She shouldn't have had to learn them. It kills me that she did.
"What do you want to do, angel baby?" I ask after a moment, leaving the ball in her court. I've fucked up once already, trying to do it my way. This time, it's her decision to make. This is her life. The choice should be hers.
"What do I want to do? Shower," she sighs. "Olive and I have a photoshoot in a few hours."