Chapter 1 ~ Alexander #4
I now see why my father said to keep it quiet; he’s giving him the rope to hang himself.
The boys are packing it up for the night. It is getting late. I give Christopher a call. The Club is hopping again tonight, and he loves it. If I ever decide to give up club life, I might consider giving it over to him.
Sebastian says goodnight and leaves; Carlos goes to the kitchen, grabs a glass of water and heads past me to his bedroom.
I can’t take the tension between us anymore.
“Just get it over with so we can move on. I can’t take the sullen looks and the silences. Just spit out what you have to say.”
He stops and looks back at me.
“Alex, it’s not my relationship. She is not like your other girls, and no matter how you try to force her into that role, she will always disappoint you, and make you angry.”
He turns fully toward me, his face distraught.
“You need to try to figure out what you want out of this marriage to her. I know she needs to be loved, but you’re not that kind of man.”
I sigh and rub my hand over my chin.
“I know. I’m trying.” Frustrated, I throw my hand in the air looking out the wall of windows. “I don’t do this shit. I don’t know if I can have a vanilla relationship, but I also don’t want to be that guy and fuck around on her.”
I face him once again, and he is smiling at me. “What? What the fuck are you smiling at?”
“There’s still hope yet, brother.” He closes his bedroom door and leaves me blinking at him.
I go to my room and slam the door; I plop down on my bed and bring up Isabella’s feed. She’s leaving the bathroom, her wet hair in a braid down her back. She has on this sweet little flannel pajama pant set. I chuckle, it’s got little bunnies all over it.
I follow her with the camera. She grabs a pillow off her bed, dragging the comforter behind her while she heads over to the art room I made for her and closes the door.
I don’t have a camera installed in that room; it was just an art room, so I didn’t think it was necessary. She’s closing herself off and sleeping on the floor? What the hell?
Irritation mounts inside me as I think of the time I wasted making the room perfect for her. She has a perfectly good bed, yet she’s still sleeping on the floor like a dog? This is what I was trying to say; this right here is why I don’t do relationships.
I turn off the feed; set my alarm and plug my phone in, tossing it on the dresser. We have a meeting after breakfast, and the rest of the day will be spent rubbing elbows, with The Family Dinner capping off the day.
It’s a full day, and that’s only day one. I get undressed, hang up my suit, and climb in. I punch my pillow. She’s sleeping on the floor. What’s the point of that?
My alarm blares, the sun blinding me as I fumble with my phone, trying to turn it off. I rub my face and go straight to the shower. The hot water wakes me up and I remember last night Isabella slept on the bloody floor of her art room.
I should get Sasha to lock that fucken room up so she has to sleep in her bed where I can watch her. As much as the thought makes me exalted, the risk of her figuring out she is on camera makes me rethink that plan.
The anticipation of watching her, seeing her without her walls, gets my adrenaline flowing. She’s mad now and pouting, but after this week, she will be in my bed. My cock hardens, thinking of her soft skin, her pouty pussy lips in my hand.
I grab my shaft and squeeze it hard. I lick my lips, remembering the taste of her tongue stroking mine as she kissed me back.
The scent of lilies wafted off her neck as I suckled on her skin.
I stroke myself harder, her face floods my mind, twisted in pleasure, her hands gripped tight in my fist held above her head making her ample breast arch toward my mouth.
The feel of her body shaking as she finally came apart, soaking my hand with her hot cream.
I explode, my hot cum spraying the tiled floor, dripping off my cock as I grip the grout on the tiled wall.
I’m panting as I stand up and tilt my head back under the spray of water. Is this what my life has come to? Jacking off in the shower to a woman I’ve kissed only once? A woman who has no concept of the lifestyle I’ve led for all of my adult life.
Grabbing the shampoo I lather up, wash my hair and clean the rest of my body.
I rinse and wrap a towel around my waist. I head out to the bed and sit down.
Like a crack addict, I pull up her room.
She is sitting on the couch again. She is in her jeans and a light pink sweater.
Her hands are folded in her lap, her hair is down in waves shielding her face from view.
At least she’s up and ready for the day.
She looks none the worse for wear from crashing on the floor.
I toss my phone on the bed and get dressed.
It is going to be an interesting day. I’m going to follow my father’s lead on this one.
Watch, listen and, most of all, learn. I’ll do my part by digging as much up on that asshole as I can.
I head out, and Carlos has already ordered us coffee. He’s on his phone again and just nods at me.
“You rock man!” I grab the decanter and pour a cup, sipping as I walk over to the wall of windows and look out over the skyline. I like New York, but I love Chicago more. I can’t wait to get home. One night in this crazy city is enough for me, but I have close to a week to get through.
Turning back to him. “Are you ready for today?”
“Yeah. I’ll be watching the room. Roberts got a few of his guys with him. I’ve got a tail on them as well. He needs to be front and center for these meetings, so if he has any plans, he’ll need to delegate. I’d like to know their every move.”
I set my cup down. “Good call. Shall we go face the squad?” I toss him a smile and text my father that I’ll be waiting in the lobby for him.
The main lobby is crowded with a variety of people.
Some guests are arriving or leaving, but mostly the Organization members crowd the lobby.
I’m not here to mingle right now; I’m here to watch and get answers, so I head off to the back, grabbing a seat so the whole lobby is in my full view. Carlos grabs the seat next to me.
“I should have brought a coffee with me, damn it.” He mutters.
I chuckle, handing him a twenty. “Go get us both one.”
He snatches the money out of my hand. I watch as Robert steps off the elevator with a couple of his security guys. He smiles as he shakes hands with the other members. I watch each one closely, reading body language and facial expressions for any signs of who he might be working with.
Carlos plops down beside me, handing me my coffee.
“What did I miss?” As he slurps the lid, sucking up the spilt coffee around the edge.
I cringe. “Do you have any idea how gross that is? People touch that lid? What if they didn’t wash their hands? You just sucked up dirty coffee.”
Carlos looks at his cup, his face serious, and then he looks up at me and licks across the whole lid. “Mmm!”
He barks out laughing and I can’t help it. We lose it for a few minutes. It feels good to be back where we belong.
“You need help, man.” I toast our cups and take a sip.
I look back over to the elevator, catching my father stepping out into the lobby.
Robert spots him and tries to make his way over, sidestepping people talking to him.
He’s trying to grab my father’s attention.
My father just walks through the crowd, everyone nodding at him but stepping out of his way.
He dominates the room, and he hasn’t said a word to anyone.
He reaches us and takes the coffee out of my hand, taking a sip. I laugh.
He hands it back. “You boys ready? Carlos, watch everyone closely. Any twitch or side glance, I want to know who and when.”
He adjusts his suit jacket and walks ahead of us, going down the corridor to the conference room. We follow, the other members catching on. It’s time to get down to business.
Carlos holds open the door for my father and me. My father walks straight to the head of the table. I pull out his chair; he sits and points at the seat next to him and I sit. This should be fun.
Everyone gets checked at the door for weapons. Once everyone has taken their seats, my father opens the meeting.
Carlos is seated in the corner opposite me, watching the room as I watch the members closely.
I shift once more in my chair. It's been about two hours now discussing contracts and mergers. I’m about done. My ass is sore and so far, no one has acted suspiciously or out of the ordinary.
Robert has mostly been silent, passing his vote on mergers. A different man from last night pushing his clout around and this morning playing the respectful member.
The meeting ends. My father stands and shakes hands with everyone as they make their way out. Once we are alone, Carlos closes and locks the door. My father takes his seat once again.
“Anything?”
Carlos takes a seat next to him. “Nothing, not a blink or a look from any of them.”
“He could be working with an outsider? He was pushing guns with the Russians pretty hard.” I state.
“Look into it.” He stands, “I have a call to make. I’ll see you, boys, later at dinner.”
“I’m going to the bar.” Carlos stands. “You coming?” I nod yes.
We grab a seat at the counter and place our drink order. Carlos’ phone goes off and he answers it. He holds his finger up to me and walks away outside the door to a quieter area. I take this opportunity to check up on my bunny.
I scroll through the feeds, looking for her. My mother comes into view; she is sitting on the couch in the library beside Isabella’s mother. Rebekah is seated on the loveseat, holding a book in her hand, flipping pages.
My bunny is seated on a chair, far away from the group of ladies staring at our mothers while they talk. Rebekah holds the book out to our mothers; they nod in agreement. Rebekah tags the page and keeps on flipping through the book.
No one even asked her opinion. This pisses me off. It’s her wedding. Shouldn’t she have a say?
Carlos comes back and I click my phone off quickly, putting it in my inside pocket. We have our drink and head back upstairs to check on Sebastian. See if he cracked that wall yet.
~~~
Every day here passes the same way. Meetings, more meetings, Sebastian is no closer to breaking in and so far every one of Robert’s men remains by his side. It feels like a waste of a week in this city and I want to go home.
Every day I check on Isabella. She sleeps every night in her art room on the floor. As far as I can tell, her participation in the wedding is nil.
She nods when asked a question and smiles at the appropriate time, but as soon as the women turn away or get distracted with other things, only I can see the blank stare that crosses her face. The remote interest she pays to anything happening in the room.
We fly home tomorrow afternoon, thank god.
The rehearsal dinner is tomorrow night and this will be the last night she sleeps on the floor. I'll make damn sure of it.