Chapter 7
Denver
“Are you sure you want to do this today?” Lewis asks as I pull on my coat and step out into the fall sunshine.
Lewis may be my security, but he’s also my friend.
Since I hired him after the wedding, he’s been vigilant with my protection, insisting I take self-defense classes at least twice a week and hone my shooting skills, too.
He runs with me regularly, and I’m stronger, quicker, and better because of him.
It’s also a bonus that he’s like a younger Stanley Tucci.
Handsome, bald, and a great cook, too. It’s just a shame that Ranger doesn’t like him.
He tolerates most people, but he has a particular loathing for Lewis that I don’t understand.
“Better to bite the bullet,” I say. “If this deal is over, I’d rather talk to Samuel face to face.”
We get into the car, and when Lewis starts the engine, he casts a glance back at the house. “He isn’t coming with us?”
“No, he’s not.”
I took Ranger’s advice and booked a few days away to New York. To shop, eat, and maybe even see a show.
Ranger’s reaction to the new land was worse than I’d anticipated.
I know some of his history with the McEwans, but he never told me how much he and his mom suffered.
He seemed better this morning. He’d kissed me goodbye, said he’d miss me, and told me to take as much time as I needed.
I’d made all the arrangements for the clubs and coffee shops to be taken care of, and I should be excited. I am.
But I also feel a little like I’m giving up. It’s only a few days away, but work drives me. A year ago, I’d have given anything for a trip to the city to overhaul my wardrobe and go for cocktails, but now …
My phone rings and I frown at the number. “They’re calling me again.”
“The same number?”
These calls have been happening at least once a week for the last few months. I answer, they say nothing, and they hang up. It’s more annoying than worrying, and my curiosity is taking a real battering.
I answer. “Hello?” And just like always, no one speaks. Someone is there, I can hear breathing, and once they started to say something—a woman, I think—but they hung up quickly. Whenever I call back, they just don’t answer. “Listen, if you’re a stalker, you suck at it—”
The call disconnects.
Lewis says, “Get it traced.”
“What’s the point? She calls once a week, says nothing and hangs up.”
He frowns. “This could escalate. She could be dangerous.”
I stare out at the clear September sky. “Everyone I know is dangerous. What’s one more person?”
My phone vibrates again, and I frown until I see who has messaged me. The number isn’t saved, another burner phone, and we keep our contact minimal.
UNKNOWN: Sending love to Businesswoman of the Year. I miss you, sis.
Axel and I rarely speak to keep him safe, but when I do get these messages, they lift my mood instantly.
My chest already feels lighter. He’s happy in Australia, safe, in love and getting married.
He’s begged me to come to the wedding and I’ve said I’ll try, but realistically it isn’t safe for either of us.
We arrive at Samuel’s office in the city. The building is sleek lines, glass and metal, and filled with people in designer suits. Samuel works from a few of the floors, and others are rented out to other businesses.
The Laus are incredibly powerful, but Samuel never expected to be part of the family business.
His sister was more suited to the role, or at least that’s what he told me, so he became an architect instead, living and working in Maryland.
But a shoot-out between families left his sister in hospital, and his father was already ill.
So, Samuel returned to San Francisco and told me he has no plans to leave.
Lewis waits by reception as I knock and go into Samuel’s office. He’s standing at the floor-to-ceiling window and turns to face me, his phone against his ear. His security is already reaching for a gun.
I hold my hands up. “Unarmed and wearing Gucci.”
Samuel’s jaw tenses, and he speaks into the phone before hanging up. He shakes his head at his bodyguard, who looks close to snapping my neck despite the jolly grin I’m giving him.
Samuel may be new to his position, but he sure does look the part.
His suit is pristine, cut to perfection, hugging the sharp, strong lines of his tall body.
He takes a seat behind his desk, elbow rested on the arm of his chair, slender fingers running slowly across his plump bottom lip.
Dark eyes watch me, and close-cropped dark, silky hair reflects the sun streaming through the windows.
Buried beneath the suit and good looks, beneath the insistence that this isn’t what he’s good at, I know he’s hiding a darkness.
A part of him that takes to violence like wading through still waters.
So, despite our comradery, I’m fully aware that Samuel looking at me this way isn’t to be taken lightly.
“If you’re here to apologize on behalf of your husband, don’t bother.”
This isn’t how I expected this meeting to start. I’d come here to apologize if it was my fault the deal had failed and give him the details of the land in New York so he could pursue it through the McEwans if he wanted to. Ranger was never going to come up.
I tilt my head. “What do you mean?”
He watches me, then gestures impatiently at the seat in front of his desk.
“I’ll stand, thanks.”
His jaw twitches at my response. “I was tired of the mayor ignoring my calls, so I sent some of my men to speak to him. After some persuasion, he admitted he blocked our deal because Ranger told him to.”
The betrayal punches through my chest. I’m rendered speechless, gaping at Samuel, wondering if I heard him correctly. “That can’t be right.”
“Men don’t lie when their lives are on the line. And I doubt he’d give Ranger’s name, given what Ranger will likely do to him now I know.” He scans my face. “You didn’t know.”
“Of course I didn’t,” I say breathlessly and slowly take a seat. “I’ve put my life into this, Samuel. You know I have.”
I can only hope his silence means he believes me. If he doesn’t, I’m alone with a man who is very fucking angry with me and thinks I’ve cost him time and money.
Why would Ranger do this? He knows I wanted to make this the start of something all my own. He’s seen the hours I’ve put into this casino, the sleepless nights, anxiety and doubt.
The door to the office opens and closes as Samuel instructs his security to leave us alone, and Samuel takes the seat beside mine.
“You really didn’t know.” I shake my head slowly, rerunning the last twenty-four hours in my mind.
Ranger’s insistence that I take a break.
God, he’d tried to suggest I’d made a mistake in this deal, knowing it was him all along.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “Absolutely sure?”
Samuel gives me a single nod. “I thought it didn’t make sense, either, so we pressed the mayor. Hard. It is a strange move from him. You were going to become very wealthy. That’s shared.”
But power isn’t.
I stand, itching to get out of this room and home.
“Thank you for telling me. I just came by to tell you I’m going away for a few days and …
ironically, I was going to apologize if this all went south because of me.
I doubt this fixes anything, but I’ve been told about some land in New York that could do well.
I don’t know the details, but I’ll check it out, and if it’s something usable, I’ll send you everything I know. ”
“I appreciate that.” Samuel stands, too. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Yes. Unfortunately, betrayal is commonplace in my marriage. I nod tightly, and with every step I take out of his office, my anger grows. It’s a heated knot in my chest, the temperature rising the closer I get to the car.
“Denver,” Lewis says carefully as I stride across the lobby. “You have that look.”
I almost shove the glass door open onto the street. “What look would that be?”
“One that makes me want to take your gun off you.”
My gun won’t be the issue. Not even close.
What I’m about to say to Ranger, on the other hand? He won’t take it well.
Once we’re in the car and Lewis starts toward the airport, I call my husband.
It rings twice. “Forget something?” he asks smoothly.
“Why would you fuck this deal for me?”
Silence rings down the line and I wait, my breathing slow and methodical, my rage reaching new heights.
“And what makes you think that, little bird?”
“Don’t fucking patronize me, Ranger. I’m already pissed off enough.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Because you were doing too much, too fast.”
I can’t help the disgusted laugh that leaves my throat. “Oh, so you did this because you’re worried about my work–life balance?” He says nothing. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Samuel might never work with me again.”
“Good.” There’s venom in the word, but I won’t let it sink deep enough to kill me. “The moment he refused to cut me in, you should’ve shown me some respect and walked away.”
“If I refused to work with anyone who didn’t like you, I’d be doing nothing with my days!” I almost scream. “This was good for both of us, you selfish, self-centered prick!”
“Is that what I am? Selfish? For expecting you to be grateful?”
Another laugh escapes me. “Grateful?”
“Yes,” he spits. “You wouldn’t even have gotten close to the Laus without my name. No one would want meetings with you. No one would even know who the fuck you are.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “This was my deal. I told you from the beginning I didn’t want to rely on you, that I wanted this to be a DeLuca venture—”
“You’re not a fucking DeLuca!” he shouts. “You’re a Luxe. No, more than that, you’re my wife. And that comes with certain expectations.”
“Oh, it does?” I ask sweetly. “Enlighten me.”
“Obedience. Didn’t you say that on our wedding day, my love?”
My breathing is quick. “Not like this. You said I was yours. You said you didn’t want me in your shadow.”
“Oh, believe me, you are mine, but I’m rethinking everything else.”
I expect tears. I expect hurt. I expect the new kind of love we’d grown over the last year to shatter before me and the shards to tear me apart.
But the resolve I expect to dent only strengthens.
“You’re jealous.”
The quiet that follows those two words reinvigorates something in me. A coldness, a strength I haven’t felt since I held the gun to Wyatt’s head.
“I don’t envy those who follow me,” he says coolly, and I curl my fingers into my hands.
“I think this trip has come at a perfect time, hasn’t it?” I ask.
“And what the fuck do you mean by that?”
“Space,” I say. “I need some space from you.”
I can feel his anger simmering down the line, but I won’t regret the threat I’m making. Even if he’s not really losing me, I need him to think he is.
“If you don’t return when I want you to, Denver, I will fly out there and drag you the fuck back. We’re not reliving your little vacation after you killed Wyatt.”
“No, we’re not, because now I’m in control.”
Now, he laughs. “I’ll see you in three days.”
“I don’t need your permission to take a break from you.”
“Good, because you’re not getting it. Get your ass on a flight in three days, or I will come out there and get you. You need to start remembering who you are.”
“And who am I?” I ask quietly. “Ranger Luxe’s wife?”
“You’re finally getting it. Good girl.”
“You don’t get to make me who I am and then decide I’m too much,” I say. “I am not a toy for you to alter and twist to your pleasure.”
Ranger’s laugh is low and cruel. “And that is where you’re wrong.
I’ve been shaping you since the day you walked through my doors, and if I decide I don’t like what you’ve become, it is my right to change you.
” The words hit like bullets, tearing through my flesh and everything that keeps me alive. This is what we’ve become.
Or is it what we’ve always been?
Ranger clears his throat. “Now, listen—”
“No, you listen,” I interject. “I’ll be fucking damned if I’ll bow to the man who said he’d give me the world until he realized I’d expand it more than he ever could.
I’ll be damned if I’ll close myself off, make myself smaller, quieten my voice for someone who said he wanted me to grow.
So you listen to me, Ranger Luxe, and listen fucking good.
You either make room for me, or you lose me. Those are your choices.”
Ranger once told me happiness was fragments. Power was whole. And just as that power tasted sweet, just as I was letting it spill over and through me, he snatched it away like a child deciding he didn’t want to share.
“You have no idea the things I’ll do to bring you back, Denver,” Ranger says, his voice so low that I grip the car door as shivers wrack me. “I was patient before because I had no choice. You’re my wife now. You belong to me. You do not get to leave unless I let you leave.”
I’m not that girl anymore. Not that woman who thought she could only exist with Ranger Luxe’s words in her ear. I deserve more than fucking fragments.
“Go fuck yourself, Ranger.”
I hang up.