Chapter 2
Jackson
Icould think of better ways to spend my day, but a round of golf with my dad was customary. Once a month, since I was eight years old, my dad would take me to the golf course, and we’d spend the day together, just the two of us, talking about all kinds of bullshit.
In recent years, that bullshit turned into conversations about the goings-on of Legion, the secret society my dad ruled over, along with three other leaders. One day, I’d take my dad’s place, and for my entire life, he’d prepared me for when that time came.
I knew how lucky I was to have Ethan Rivers for a father. As an only child, I had his undivided attention, and no matter what was happening within Legion, my mom and I always came first to him.
I was the only one of the future heirs to have a damn good relationship with my old man.
My best friend and business partner, James Carter, despised his dad, and the twins, Zayden and Brody Evans, could barely stay in the same room as their father for longer than ten minutes without one of them wanting to kill him.
And then there was Cleo, the only female future heir, and probably the most sane one out of the five of us.
Cleo hated her dad, but she had every right to.
He’d always made it clear that he didn’t want a daughter, and when he finally accepted that he wasn’t going to have any more children, he sent her off to institutions across the world.
She learned how to manipulate men into giving up valuable information, along with other nefarious skills that often came in handy in Legion’s world, but those skills came at a cost.
Cleo never had a say in the matter, and from the little snippets she’d told us about what she had to endure at the various institutes, I didn’t blame her one iota for wishing death on her father. It sounded like she’d survived Hell on Earth.
My dad swung his club, whacking the golf ball, and the two of us squinted against the fading afternoon sun to see where it landed.
“So, I hear Eric has given James a deadline to get married and produce an heir?” he said, moving aside to let me put my ball on the tee.
“Yeah,” I grimaced.
My best friend had been dead against the idea of marriage for years, but his father—being the controlling prick he was—had recently delivered James an ultimatum: get married and get his new wife pregnant within three months, or his place in Legion would go to someone else.
In true James style, he was doing everything in his power to find a loophole, or at the very least, find a woman his father disapproved of.
I’d had a beer with him a couple of nights ago, where he’d grumbled about his most recent date being a disaster, before he dropped a bombshell: he was going to Peartree House to pick a woman.
To say I was lost for words when James told me of his plan was an understatement.
Like me and the other three heirs, he was against the Peartree House program—a home where runaway girls were taken in and taught how to pleasure men and women.
We’d all agreed that when the five of us were on the board overseeing Legion, we would shut the place down.
But that wasn’t going to be for a long time.
The saying desperate men do desperate things was true.
James had spent his life preparing to take the head seat on the board of Legion, and he would do anything not to lose his legacy.
So, despite my protests, he was planning to visit Peartree House in the next few days to pick a woman who would become his wife.
“Has he got anyone in mind?” my dad asked, falling silent as I took my shot.
When my ball landed a few feet away from his, we grabbed our caddies and started strolling to take our next shots.
“He’s been on a few dates,” I replied, shrugging.
I wasn’t going to break my friend’s confidence, not even with my dad. He wasn’t as close to Eric Carter as he once was, but I wouldn’t risk James’ plans being scuppered before he could put them into motion.
Besides, I despised Eric. I was looking forward to him throwing his toys around when he discovered what James had done.
“Hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully. “Time’s ticking. James will need to hurry things along. There’ll be anarchy if Eric gives his seat to Elijah.”
I snorted in agreement. Elijah was James’ cousin and a complete prick.
He’d gone to live with the Carters when he was younger and had been nothing but a pain in the ass.
Eric used Elijah to keep James in check, playing them off against each other, something James was all too aware of.
Elijah, though, was too stupid to realize that Eric was only using him to make sure James toed the line.
“James won’t let that happen,” I said, confident that my buddy wouldn’t give his seat up so easily.
Reaching our golf balls, my dad smirked at me. “It’ll be your turn for marriage next.”
“Not for a while,” I scoffed. “I’ve still got a few years of fucking around in me yet.”
I had no plans to marry any time soon. Like James, I had sworn off ever falling in love. I’d experienced the shitty emotion once before, and it had only led to heartache and betrayal. Fuck going through that again.
“Thank yourself lucky that I’m not as ruthless as Eric.
” My dad clasped my shoulder, squeezing it.
“How that man could give his son an ultimatum is beyond me. Regardless of what Legion rules say, I hope you find someone you love and cherish, the way I do with your mom. You take as long as you need, Son.”
A warm smile spread over my lips at the affection glinting in his eye. I really was a lucky son-of-a-bitch to have the parents I had. “Thanks, Dad.”
He nodded, releasing my shoulder. “Now take your shot, I’m beating you, and I don’t want to lose my streak.”
We played for a little longer before we called it quits, deciding the lure of the bar in the clubhouse was more appealing. As we ditched our equipment, my phone beeped with an incoming text.
Pulling it out, I grinned at seeing who the message was from.
Fuck Buddy 1:
Hey, babe, party tonight. You up for it?
My grin widened. Carolina, AKA Fuck Buddy 1, had taken me to several parties, which basically turned out to be mass orgies, couple swapping, and whatever other kinks people wanted to explore.
I didn’t need to think over my reply.
Text me the time and location. I’ll meet you there.
Fuck Buddy 1:
I’m bringing my friend. She’s desperate to play with us. I can’t wait.
Me either.
The last thing, or rather, person, I expected to see at a sex party was my best friend’s sister, Kiera Carter.
But it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she was at the party; once a cheater, always a cheater, and all that.
Still, I couldn’t hide the shock running through me as I lingered in the doorway, watching as a guy approached her and she invited him to sit down.
Disgust curled through me. She was fucking engaged. I’d never met her fiancè, but James had, and although he wasn’t a fan of Alec, he and Kiera had been together for a number of years, and he supported her raising Billie. He couldn’t have been that bad of a guy.
If only he knew the type of woman he was engaged to.
Kiera had no fucking shame. I would have thought that over time, and becoming a mom, would have changed her. But there she was, flirting with another guy at a party where the reason for attendance was simply to fuck whoever was up for it, and not giving a damn if she ruined her fiancé.
Red-hot rage coursed through me, and a venomous snarl twisted on my mouth. Ten years ago, I’d been the poor cunt she callously disregarded like yesterday’s trash. She’d carved a wound so deep that it had never healed, nor would it.
At least she had managed to move on without a goddamn care in the world.
An involuntary growl rumbled in my chest when the guy Kiera was talking to leaned forward, placing his lips against hers. Within seconds, the two of them were lost in their kiss, hands roaming over each other.
A tsunami of jealousy flowed through my veins, adding to the rage already burning me alive, and threatening to buckle my knees.
Memories of what it was like to kiss Kiera filled my senses: the uncertainty of her lips against mine, the tender caress of her tongue, and the softness of her hands gently gripping my hair.
Once upon a time, Kiera had been mine, until she ruined everything we had.
The hatred I held for her after I’d discovered her betrayal reared to life, having lain dormant for years.
The room around me blurred; my only focus was on the cunt devouring Kiera’s mouth.
Every instinct in me demanded that I storm across the room and drag her away from him.
Not because she was cheating on Alec, but because it wasn’t me who was making her chest rise and fall in anticipation of what was about to come.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket, reminding me why I was at the party. I pulled it out, glancing down at the screen to see a message had arrived from Carolina. My thumb seemed to move on its own, but instead of opening the message, my thumb jabbed the camera app.
Without thinking, I lined the camera up to give me the perfect shot of Kiera and the fucker, who had now grabbed her hair so he could kiss her harder.
I snapped a picture.
And then another.
And then another.
Slowly, Kiera and the guy parted from their kiss, and he whispered something to her. Before she could reply, her concerned gaze moved in my direction. A fresh wave of anger boiled under my skin at the flush covering her cheeks, giving away how turned on she was.
The first time I’d shared an innocent kiss with Kiera was when I was fifteen, and she was thirteen.
We’d been hanging out, like we often did, when she suddenly reached over and smacked her lips against mine.
After, she ran off in embarrassment, but I tracked her down to her usual hiding place: her treehouse in the back yard of the Carter mansion.
She’d hidden herself under piles of blankets and refused to come out, telling me she was mortified at what she’d done. But then I told her I liked her kissing me, and that I wanted her to kiss me again.
Peeking out from under the blanket with her cheeks on fire, she blinked up at me with disbelieving eyes. So I kissed her.
We’d always been friends, and I’d always had an innate need to protect Kiera, and not in a brother/sister way. Even though James was my best friend, I often found myself craving her company, enjoying talking nonsense with her for hours on end.
The day we kissed, I knew she was the woman I would grow up to marry. To some people, claiming you’d met your soulmate at fifteen was a ridiculous notion, but for me, it was true. Kiera was the one I was meant to grow old with.
I felt it in the marrow of my bones.
She would become my wife, the mother of my children. My world.
For two years, we kept our relationship a secret, sneaking kisses and stolen glances whenever we could. At night, I often snuck into her garden so we could cuddle up in her treehouse, where she’d fall asleep in my arms.
We knew James would never have approved, not with the life I was gearing up to lead for Legion. Kiera was a member, too, but she’d been shielded from a lot of what went on, and the last thing James would have permitted was his little sister dating a soon-to-be murderer.
Because that was what Legion made me.
We hated keeping our young love a secret, and had agreed that when she turned sixteen, we would finally tell James and our parents. For those two years, we never went any further than kissing, but we made a promise that we would be the others first. And last.
I’d believed her, too. I’d believed she was saving herself for me, and I vowed that she would be the only woman I would ever be intimate with.
And then she threw everything we had away.
So, I’d never experienced what it was like to have sex with Kiera, never knew what it was like to be inside her, or how she sounded when she came. I never got to be her first despite her promise that I was the only one she wanted.
Ten years later, her betrayal still stung, and as I held her wide, panicked gaze, a million unspoken words passing between us, a memory of the warning I’d given her rang in my ears.
On the day she ripped my heart from my chest with her bare hands, I told her to stay the fuck away from me. To never put herself on my path again, because if she did, I wouldn’t just ruin her.
I’d fucking destroy her,
Over the years, she’d mostly managed to avoid me. She’d moved to a different city, and with the exception of a few times I’d turned up unannounced at James’ house, and she was there, I hadn’t seen her.
I was more than content to keep it that way.
But there she was. In my territory, right in my path, despite my warning.
A wicked thought formed in my head, gathering momentum the more I let it play.
Maybe it was time Kiera had a taste of her own medicine.