Chapter 20 Permanent
TWENTY
PERMANENT
SEBASTIEN
Ifinally found the fucker.
Now, did I expect that it would happen during Alexandre’s party?
Nah. We just left the invitation open to whoever wanted to show up.
Because Alexandre may hate the expectations that being a high-ranking member of the Order…
the first son of a founding family… have thrust on him, but the Order is his life.
He uses it to get perks, to get women, and to progress in his career.
To celebrate his thirtieth belatedly, I hired my wife to throw a party that’s for Alex and the Order.
So long as you’re affiliated with the Owed in some way, you had an in.
It was easier that way than getting a list of exactly who my brother wanted at his birthday bash.
And while all that is true, I won’t deny that I had an ulterior motive.
It’s been nearly two months since Annaliese asked me to marry her.
It’s bothered the shit out of me that, no matter how close we’ve gotten—and, okay, forcing her to come live with me helped with that—she refuses to talk about the Order member who ‘ruined’ her.
This is an Order party. Maybe the fucker would show up.
I get it. I do. When she had questions in her eyes after Hilary mentioned Julie in front of her, I shut that down. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Annaliese about her so I didn’t. Making her tell me about her past… if I want to keep her right where I have her, I needed her to tell me herself.
But now I don’t have to.
Because I know exactly who hurt her.
Eric Ward. A lawyer that works at the same firm that Des used to before Adrian took care of him, he’s one of the old guard.
A friend of Jack Collins, and a smarmy prick that thinks he’s too good for the Used.
I’ve heard about him. He used to go down to the Court, but he was too rough, too mean, and he got the idea in his head that they should go to him just like the girls did the former King.
That was a couple of years back. He stopped visiting the Court, and since all of Harmony Heights knows that Eric’s wife, Cicely, has been in a long-term relationship with the gym teacher at the high school, rumors ran that he found a live-in mistress of his own.
As I watch the way he looms over my wife, possession in his stance, lust in his eyes… I know exactly who that mistress was.
I don’t care that we have an audience. I don’t care that Alex’s party is going on around us. I just see the way that he’s cornered Annaliese, as though he has the right, and all I can think about is getting that fucker away from her.
Dallas needed to talk to me about… I don’t fucking know.
Some bullshit. The last time I looked over here, Annaliese was talking to my brother.
Alex is an ass, but I know better than to think he’d ever hit on my wife.
I told him he needed to go over there and thank Annaliese for all her hard work, and that was probably what he was doing.
But the next time I looked up? She was being talked down to by a middle-aged lawyer who was just itching to get my boot up his ass.
I cross the room quickly, not paying attention to anyone I bump into, just in time to hear him say, “—done playing these games, sweetheart. You will unblock my number. You will get into my car. You will come home with me, and if you’re lucky, I might buy you a diamond to replace that cheap-ass band on your finger.
” He leans in, so close I want to grab him by the back of his jacket, yank him off of her.
“Take it off, sweetheart. Let’s see if you’re finger’s green. ”
Oh, you fucker.
If anyone is buying Annaliese a ring, it’s me. And he knows damn well that the Order rings are solid gold. Impractical but pretty, like so much of the Order of the Owed, but I’ll replace that, too, if Annaliese wants something else.
There isn’t anything I won’t do for her—including saving her from this creep.
I sidle up behind him, working hard to pull a charming, easy-going smile to my face. I’d rather not beat the shit out of Ward in front of Annaliese if I don’t have to. Playing the same old part, once again becoming cocky Bas Reynolds, I tap Ward on the shoulder.
“Excuse me. I’d like a moment with my wife.”
The older lawyer turns around, ready to tell me to fuck off.
Trust me. I’ve had more than enough people hunch their shoulders, sneer their faces, and give me the same order in a derisive manner.
Something in my own expression seems to bring it out in them, but by the time he looks up at me, the words die on his lips.
Yeah, asshole. I’m a good four inches taller than you.
Suck it.
His jaw works. I widen my grin.
And then he spits out, “Wife?”
Oh. That’s what caught his attention. He had no idea that Annaliese is my wife. Not really surprising. I do my best to stay out of the Order, Annaliese kept our wedding small, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to send a ‘I got hitched’ memo out to the prick who hurt her.
I nod, then because I’m an asshole, too, I hold up my left hand, making sure he can’t miss the matching wedding band on my finger.
“Reynolds. You must be joking. It’s not bad enough you ruined one life. Now you’re taking Ms. Crawford down with you?”
What a fucking bastard. Of course he had to throw Julie in my face… but to make it seem like I’m the one who ruined Annaliese by marrying her?
Because damn right, dickhead, I did marry her, and I remind him with a smug, “Mrs. Reynolds.” I tap my ring again. “She took my last name. Didn’t you, love?”
Annaliese looks from me, to Eric, and back. She has a ‘deer in headlights’ expression. I nod at her, letting her know I have this.
Eric glares at me, blowing air out through his nose. “The Claiming ceremony is in August. And, forgive me, I was under the impression that Ms. Crawford had her Offering status revoked.”
Annaliese flushes.
I want to throttle this asshole.
Keep it cool, Bas. You definitely got this. “A special dispensation from the King. I wanted to marry her. She said ‘yes’.” Well, I said ‘yes’, but he doesn’t need to know that. “The King gave us permission. Even attended the wedding.”
Ward moves toward me. I could dodge him, but I choose not to. I need Annaliese to know that I’ll stand up for her, and that includes standing up to this bully.
He jabs me in the chest, speaking through gritted teeth. “Your name won’t protect you, Reynolds. Just because you finally fell in line—”
I slap his hand. “Fell in line? What does that mean?”
“Alexandre stepped down. Everyone knows it.” Ward jerks his hand, gesturing around him.
“That loser is thirty, no Offering in sight, and no hope he’ll choose a bride in August. But you…
you must have finally realized that the only way to survive in this town is to play along with Order politics. Take an Offering…”
He snaps his head back, searching for Annaliese. She hasn’t moved an inch, and it takes everything I have not to shove him away from her as he bears down on my wife again. “Only you weren’t one of those, were you, Annaliese? You were demoted.”
Ward spins back on me. “Did she tell you about me? That you married my sloppy seconds? How does that make you feel, boy?” He’s spitting now, so damn angry, it’s making him reckless. “That when you fuck her, you know she’s comparing you to me? That she probably wishes I was the one on top of her—”
That’s enough. I fist my hand, ready to punch him to get him to stop talking about my wife like that, but before I can, Annaliese finally finds her voice. “Eric, please.”
It’s the way she uses his name. Even I can hear the history in her plea, and so can he.
He thinks he won, too. She didn’t call for me.
She called for him, and his expression is triumphant before he turns to look at Annaliese again.
“Anything for you, sweetheart. You’ve made your point.
Come back to me. You don’t want a pretty boy. You want a man.”
He turns to look at Annaliese, but while he’s back to running his mouth, she moves around him. Next thing I know, she’s clutching my arm, giving her head a royal shake. She’s Annaliese again, the prim, perfect, once-Offering as she looks down her nose at Ward.
“You’re right. And I have one,” she announces, squeezing me to her.
She squeezes my arm, but that’s not all. As Annaliese claims me, she squeezes my motherfucking heart.
I look Ward up and down myself. “You heard the lady. I think you should go.”
“Why, you—”
I tsk. “Listen to me… you want to start something? Fine. Whole damn Order knows I pull up. But if you fuck up Annaliese’s hard work… you fuck up my brother’s party… you’ll really see what this pretty boy can do.”
Ward snorts. He backs down, he’s not happy about it, and he snorts. “I Claimed her first—”
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
I laugh under my breath. He looks so scandalized all of a sudden.
“Don’t play those games with me. You’re right.
I’m not made to go along with the sanctimonious Order crap.
I can dance around this all night if that’s what you want, but why should I bother when I’d rather spend it with my wife?
” He glares, and I let him see how dead fucking serious I am now.
“So let me make this clear. I married her. I fuck her, and when I have her bent over in front of me, she sure as hell pants my name, asshole. Not yours. So you have a past with her. All of Harmony Heights knows about what I’ve done.
I don’t give a shit. All I care about is my future with this woman.
” I duck my hand out of her hold, throwing my arm over Annaliese’s shoulder, tucking her into me. “And she’s mine.”
Ward works his jaw. For a second, he’s speechless, until he sneers. “You think your shit don’t stink ‘cause you’re a Reynolds. When we get rid of Collins, I’ll do my best to make sure you won’t be the next King.”
Yeah, right. “Good luck. Dallas isn’t going anywhere.”
“If you say so.”