Chapter 2
REGGIE
I knock on the door that divides my house from Rowan’s, my twin brother.
“Rowan! Open up!” I call out, bashing my fist on the door again.
“Yeah. Alright,” he shouts back and opens up.
“Drago wants to see us. Get dressed. And then we have to see Lyla.”
He covers his yawn with his hand.
“At seven am? Aren’t there twenty three other hours in the fuckin’ day? I’m still recovering, remember?”
He pulls up his t-shirt to show me the healing scar from a gunshot wound in his gut, and I swallow the lump in my throat.
I thought I lost the other half of me that day. I’ve never been scared before in my life.
Not even when our parents got murdered and we were saved by the Quinns.
Not even when I had a knife pulled out of my back.
But seeing my brother bleeding out—that made my own blood run cold. And I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad happens to him again.
“Yeah. You know Drago works every hour of the day. And we gotta lock down this Preacher stuff before it gets out of hand. We gotta show the Quinns we can handle shit for them, real shit.”
Rowan sighs.
“Getting shot to save Finn's girl wasn’t showing them enough? You know they accept us, Reggie? We’re fuckin’ one of them. That’s why they’re giving us our own Decadence games.”
I run a hand through my curls and grunt.
“We ain’t their blood, though. We will always have to prove ourselves. We owe them.”
Rowan lets out a small smile.
“Everything isn’t always a battle, Reg.” He pauses, and his eyes go wide.
“But dumping Lyla? That might be. More for you than me.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“We’re not dumping her. We’re ending our agreement. That is all this was.”
Rowan chuckles.
“Yeah. Yeah. I see the way she looks at you. Even when I’m the one with my head between her legs, she only wants you.”
My jaw ticks. I hadn’t noticed. Rowan is probably exaggerating. I’m not a likable person, I make sure of it.
“Well, we can’t do it anymore. That’s that. She will have to understand. I don’t have time for complications.”
My fists clench. My life is about to dramatically change when Bella King finally decides to grace us with her presence.
“Where is ya wife?” Rowan smirks.
“Who fucking knows. But she’s got two days, or I’m dragging her back here myself.”
Rowan wiggles his eyebrows.
“Desperate to marry the Princess?”
I scoff.
“To get it over with,” I correct him.
He rolls his eyes and backs away.
“Yeah, yeah. We both know she’s going to be a gorgeous, bratty submissive. Perfect for you. It’ll be like a fairytale, Reg.” He chuckles as he talks.
I scratch at my stubble.
“Do fairy tales often start with the bride punching her brother in the balls and then running away?”
His eyes go wide, and then he smirks.
“See. Perfect for you. Now get the coffee on, I’ll get changed.”
He jogs up the stairs and I head into his kitchen and start making the drinks.
There’s no way she’s perfect for me. By the sound of it, she’s a spoiled brat that hates authority. A menace like that, Rowan would die for. But for me—although I do like the challenge of taming a brat—I just can’t take that risk. Not when there is a whole alliance on the line.
I crack my knuckles. Maybe it could be fun to break her in. I shake my head. Nope. Not doing that.
The last thing I need is fucking this marriage up before it even starts.
Declan and his brothers need this alliance. I just have to keep her happy enough until we’ve stabilized here and gotten rid of our little cult problem that’s brewing.
My phone buzzes in my back pocket; I grab it out and see Theo King’s name flashing across the screen.
“Alright, mate?” Theo’s deep Cockney accent makes my jaw tight.
“Yeah. All good here. You?”
There’s a pause.
“Well, I usually don’t call unless I have a problem.”
I laugh. That’s why I like these London boys. They’re fuckin’ honest.
“How can I help?”
“Bella is awol again.”
I let out a sigh. My future wife is a runner. Great. Am I going to have to chain her to her bed for the remainder of this deal?
“Right… but you know where she is, right?”
I highly doubt between the three brothers and their empire, they don’t have eyes on her.
“I do.”
“So, go get her and shove her on the fucking jet tonight.”
I’m losing my patience with this.
She was meant to be here two weeks ago. I get an arranged marriage isn’t ideal, but fuck me, it’s starting to feel personal.
Although, I’m probably worse than she imagines. And after her performance so far, I’ll make sure she knows her place.
“She said something to me the other day that’s making me cautious about that. She is my little sister. I don’t want to risk ruining our relationship. I thought perhaps…”
Theo pauses for half a second. Like he wants to keep me on the edge of my fucking seat.
“You might want to collect her,” Theo continues, I can hear the tenseness in his voice.
“You want me to be the villain here?” I say with a smirk.
I don’t mind that.
I am that man in many people’s stories.
“She will hate us if we drag her on that jet. But you? You might scare her enough for her to comply. She’s a fuckin’ handful, Reggie.
But on the inside she’s soft as shit. I worry about her since she saw our dad die.
The drinking has gotten worse again. When she rebels, she self-destructs. I have to be careful.”
I grab the whiskey from Rowan’s cupboard and pour a generous amount in my coffee.
“Does she have a drinking problem?” I ask.
Rowan and I grew up with that. Our mom and dad were fucked every hour of every day.
“No. She just parties a lot. It’s all distraction, I think. We’ve protected her so much, she’s ended up lost.”
I swallow hard.
“When do you want me? I’ll come and collect my fiancée. But I’ll leave it to you to explain to Declan why I’m flying across the world for this.”
Theo lets out a breath.
“Thank you. I will.”
“And if she punches me in the bollocks, I’ll fly over to you and return the fuckin’ favor. We clear?”
Theo chuckles nervously.
“Mate, I can’t promise you anything. She’s unpredictable, to put it nicely. Especially frosty at the start. If you can get her to warm to you, you might be able to still have kids in the future.”
I instinctively rub my cock, cringing at the thought.
“I’m the last person alive she would warm to. Warm isn’t a word anyone has used to describe me,” I joke.
“Well, good luck. I’ll text you her tracker details. If you want backup, that can be arranged.”
We cut the call and I finish my drink, staring at the clock ticking on Rowan’s wall.
I should have asked Theo for a picture. I’m intrigued to see what she looks like, if it’s how I imagine her.
But, part of me wants to wait for the surprise.
Because I like a woman with fire. And I have a feeling this one isn’t just a flicker, she’s about to blaze through me.
Fuck it. I quickly type out a message to Theo to send a picture over. I have to know what I’m walking into here.