Chapter 30
Dash
“ You woke me up at five in the morning to ask me about Mila ’ s new roommate?” Greg hisses into the phone. Sleep deepens his voice, giving him an older sound.
“ No,” I reply. Red coats my vision, pumps through my veins, and clouds my thoughts. I hate that Greg still has control over Mila.
“ I called because I want the wedding to happen at the end of the month.” The words calm me for a fraction of a second.
“ What?” He coughs out the sleep from his lungs.
How fucking dare he approve of a roommate and not tell me! Who is the girl?
I don ’ t care if all the dorms at Empire are occupied. Nova could have been placed in a different room, not Mila ’ s. It ’ s bullshit!
I put Greg on speaker and open up the camera app that shows me Mila ’ s dorm.
“ I said I want to marry Mila by the end of the month.” I hate repeating myself!
“ Absolutely not.”
“ She ’ s already mine,” I growl.
Mila and her new roommate, Nova, appear on the screen as they sit on the couch and talk. My chest drops slightly. I want Mila to have someone to talk to, someone who isn ’ t me. I need her attention not always orbiting my fire.
I want Mila to have that normal life she craves, but I want to control it so I know she ’ s safe.
Nova isn ’ t safe. One look could tell me that.
But…Nova made Mila laugh. It was genuine and so fucking beautiful I wanted to make it happen again so I could record it. I want to listen to it when I ’ m suffering in the depths of my despair. I want it to happen again and again because laughing isn ’ t just a sign of life; it's a sign of happiness. I want Mila to be happy in the cage I trap her in. I need it to happen.
Greg snorts, “ No, she isn ’ t. Your family still has one part of the contract to fulfill.”
I need control of Mila ’ s safety. It ’ s been utter bullshit sharing the job with Greg ’ s guards. If something like this slipped through the communication channels, imagine what else could happen.
“ What?”
Greg laughs, “ Ask your father.” Then he hangs up.
I kick open the door to her building and make my way to my car, place the phone where I can watch the video feed, and then speed down the road to our campus house.
I call my father next, “ What do we need to fulfill in order for me to marry Mila?”
“ Dash?” Dad clears his throat, no doubt waking up from this call.
“ I need to marry Mila this month, so what do we need to fulfill in order for Greg to agree?”
Dad pauses. “ Did…” His exhale is so slow and long, it ’ s as if he ’ s erosion itself, brushing against my ears, trying to break me down to soil and dust. “ Is she pregnant?” he finally mutters.
“ What?” I snap. “ No!” But…that would have been such a nice dream. To see her belly grow with our child inside.
I can never allow that to happen.
“ I ’ m tired of Greg having control of her security. It ’ s bullshit.”
“ Dash, the contract states Greg is in charge of her security until you marry. You have already meddled enough by adding your men from a distance. Leave it be.”
“ What do we need to do?” I punch the steering wheel as I park the car.
“ It ’ s out of our control.”
“ What does that mean?”
“ It means they decide when it ’ s time you can marry Mila. It ’ s not in my hands or Greg's, and it certainly isn ’ t in your hands.”
“ Who?”
“ Don ’ t waste my time. I ’ ve already told you more than I should have.” He mutters under his breath.
I ’ m about to hang up when Dad adds, “ Don ’ t do anything stupid, son.”
◆◆◆
I reach the locker room and slam my locker shut. Damnation is a not-so-hidden underground fight club, located beneath one of the most exclusive venues on The Row—a high-end clubbing street about an hour outside the university. While some of our privileged classmates drink their lives away upstairs, my cousins and I fight below. Most students take their helicopters to avoid the long drive, but my cousins and I prefer the road.
Did the fight club here compare to what Cillian could offer? Hell no, but it did help keep Titan, Damian, and I focused. If we went a day or two without hitting something, we felt antsy and out of shape. Initiation 101 did change us. It altered our instincts, made us crave pain in any form.
The good thing about Damnation was that the guys here liked to fight dirty and unsophisticated.
“ What ’ s caught your attention?” Titan asks me as he finishes taping his knuckles.
A pest!
I don ’ t have time for this new roommate, but…maybe Titan does.
I smirk. “ A fun pet for you or,” I look over to Damian, “ maybe Damian too if he finally got over his crush.”
Titan and I know Damian has a thing for an ordinary person. A girl not born into our world is more dangerous than showing affection for someone who was a part of this fucked up life.
Titan and I call the girl Plain Jane. She works in a bookstore next to the gallery, where Mila donates her art.It's a small shop, a hole-in-the-wall in the middle of nowhere.
Did Damian think that fact would keep her hidden? If we figure it out, so will his father.
That's what keeps Titan and me up at night. You see, that smile on his face is something Titan and I both like. His father would use a knife to carve it in the opposite direction. Titan and I want Damian to be happy. After everything he suffered, I'd do anything to keep that glow he has, but it can't be with this chick. She's not from our world.
Maybe Nova will catch his eye instead. She'd probably try to cut his eyes out, but that could make the relationship more exciting, right?
Damian snaps his head up with a seething look. “ Don ’ t even start, or I ’ ll fight you instead.”
“ So sensitive, brother.” I mockingly laugh as I slap him on his back. Titan and I have had many conversations about this chick. We looked into her, ensuring she wasn ’ t a spy and was actually as plain as she pretended to be.
Damian has changed since he met her, but if we notice that, then his father surely will. He is risking so much just to smile again.
I followed Damian once, grabbed my sniper rifle, and perched on the roof of the coffee shop across the street. Through my scope, I watched him sit on an old stool and laugh as he drank a latte. I repeat, a latte! The kind some influencer would snap a picture of to post.
He looked so goddamn happy.
I ’ d never admit it, not even to Titan, but most days, when Damian goes to that bookstore, I follow him. I hide on the roof with my gun to make sure no one else tracks him. I just want to keep his heart safe, which means I need to have my finger on the trigger in case his father shows up. Anytime Damian enjoys something, his father takes it away from him.
After Damian ’ s mom died, he came to live with us for a few weeks. That ’ s when I learned what his dad had been doing and how he was training my cousin. My mom mothered Damian, held him as he cried at night over the memory of his mom. Then, one day, his dad showed up and plucked him out of my mom ’ s arms, and Damian vanished for three months.
My mom had always been a mother to all of us.
I remember hearing Mom and Dad fighting that day, her begging my dad to make his brother bring Damian back to her.
That never happened.
“ Fine, let Titan have all the fun.” I look back at Titan, who is watching Damian, with a look of concern.
“ Mila got a new roommate,” I tell them. “ She ’ s a little spitfire. Threaten to kick my ass for interrupting her beauty sleep.”
And then she made Mila laugh, truly laugh. One of my addictions.
That ’ s the only reason I let the girl stay in that room.
“ I like her already,” Damian interjects.
“ Hot thing too, long legs you want to have wrapped around you. Coal-black hair like a dark temptress. If I didn ’ t have Mila, I ’ d take her myself.” I lie through my teeth, hating every word and hoping I ’ ll deceive my mind into believing it. I ’ ve tried to look at other women and imagine having them in my bed.
I have tried to find a cure for Mila.
Nothing ever works.
No matter how many women I am photographed with, not one has made my cock hard. Not one.
It ’ s only ever been Mila.