Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Luke
Towel still hung around my hips, I walk out to my bedroom to find Mike waiting near the door.
I snatch the phone from his hand, as I glare. “Mike.”
“Yeah?” he asks, his hands folding in front of him.
“You’re fired.”
He visibly starts. “But…”
“Get the fuck out of my bedroom.”
He hesitates for a moment before he turns. I step into the hall, noting two more guards in the entry. “No one enters my bedroom without permission.”
And then I walk back in, slamming the door.
“Luke?”
It’s Mason, speaking through the phone.
“Yeah?” I’m not amused with my cousin. I’m certain he told Mike to interrupt me and I’m starting to think my hunch about being a partial prisoner here was correct.
“Mike was just following orders, I needed you?—”
It’s as I thought, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. “This is my house?”
“Yes.”
“Would you allow staff to enter your bedroom where your wife was naked?”
Mason pauses. “She’s not your wife.”
“Think of her like she is.” I need him to understand this and I’m not backing down.
Another stretch of silence. “You’ve only been back to the house for twenty minutes.”
“So?”
“You fucked her already.”
“What the fuck?” I spit into the phone. “What business is it of yours?”
Mason rumbles, a sound of deep dissent. “We are family, Luke. We have each other’s backs. We keep our word.”
“And which part of my word meant that I screwed Kate over?”
Mason doesn’t answer.
“I want to speak to Roman. I can actually remember him, and I need?—"
“You can’t speak to Roman, Luke.” His voice gets deadly quiet.
Two can play that game. “Why not?”
More silence. “He doesn’t know.”
I stare at the phone as Kate comes out of the bathroom in a fluffy white towel. She looks beautiful and fragile. Her wide eyes tell me she’s heard most of the conversation. Did she hear me refer to her as my wife?
She stops when our eyes meet, nipping at her lip.
“What do you mean Roman doesn’t know? Know what?”
“Roman doesn’t know you’re alive.”
Roman and Arabella are the most important people in the world to me besides Kate. “You better not mean what I think you mean.”
Mason sighs. “We all have a part to play. He needs to keep focused and thinking…”
I growl into the phone. “What you actually mean is that you’re manipulating him the way you are me.”
“It’s not like that, Luke. This tunnel is everything. I need?—”
“Not to me, it’s not. To me, my family is everything.”
“But this is about family. This project makes us impenetrable. Safe.”
I gesture Kate closer. I need to feel her skin.
She comes without question. “Set aside your ambitions for one fucking second, Mason, and tell me the truth. Having me ruin a woman’s life, that’s really how you want to do this? That’s justifiable to you?”
“Providing for the safety of my family justifies nearly any means.”
I grit my teeth together. “Tomorrow, Kate and I are leaving for New York. I won’t show my face in Vegas, and I’ll use cash. But she is getting another internship, and I won’t remain hidden and ruin her future.”
“You can’t. I need?—”
“Fuck you, Mason. It’s not about you. It never was.” I almost hang up but then I stop. “I’m calling Roman and Arabella tonight and then I’m leaving tomorrow. Try and stop me, and our split will not be amicable.”
“Split? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m selling my shares. I’m out.” And then I hang up the phone.
Kate is front of me, tears shimmering in her eyes. “You don’t need to quit, Luke, I…”
I pull her against me, kissing her mouth like I’ll die if I don’t.
I don’t need to remember everything. I remember enough.
She melts into me, her arms threading around my neck. I’d like to lay her down and fuck her senseless, again.
“Go dry your hair, sweetheart,” I say, against her lips. “If it’s all right with you, I’ve got another call to make.”
“Of course it’s all right, but seriously, Luke. You didn’t have to?—”
“I promised you we were going to New York, baby. I told you I’m going to work on cars, maybe open a high-end shop. It suits me, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” she whispers.
“And you are going to get another internship. Finish med school.”
She shakes her head, her eyes wide. “My mom would never in a million years believe this one.”
“Would she be proud?” I remember her mom made a habit of dating really fucked up men…
And then I blink. Because a whole bunch of shit is just back in my brain. Wow. That’s weird.
“Appalled. She’d surely make a crack about me ruining the meal ticket.”
And then she kisses me again, her hands threading through my hair. “But I know you’re the best kind of guy.”
I slide my hand down her spine, seriously reconsidering that call. I just want to yank the towel off her and…
Then I remember the story she told me about her mom’s deadbeat boyfriend who tried to hurt her. That guy is going to fucking pay.
“Dry your hair, love.”
She kisses me two more times before disappearing into the bathroom again.
I hear the blow dryer turn on and then I pull on a pair of exercise pants and a T-shirt I find in the drawer. I throw another shirt of mine on the bed for Kate.
I head straight out the front door. Two security men turn toward me. “I’m still a Kincaid and my share is equal to Mason’s. Try to stop me and you’ll find yourself without a job,” I bark and then exit the house.
This is a family compound and I head straight for the house that sits at the end of the street, looking down on all the others. Trotting up the steps, I ring the bell.
A housekeeper answers. “I need to speak with Charlotte.”
“Of course, Mr. Kincaid,” the housekeeper bobs a curtsy, making me instantly feel like shit.
“Thank you,” I follow up, giving her a much softer smile.
Charlotte appears at the top of the stairs and a vision of her at her wedding fills my thoughts. A delicate brunette, I can’t help but notice that she bears a resemblance to Kate. Do Mason and I share the same taste in women? Interesting.
The memories are coming back faster and faster. “Luke!” she cries, racing down the stairs. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story.” I comb one hand through my hair. “But I need a favor.”
“Anything.”
“I need to speak with Arabella, but I don’t have my phone. I’m shit with numbers.”
She gives me a smile and pulls out her phone. She hits two buttons and the phone is ringing.
“Char?” I hear Arabella’s voice and the tension in my shoulders unwinds.
“No, bug. It’s me. Luke.”
“Luke!” she cries. “It’s been way too long.”
“It has,” I smile. “Listen. I’m going to New York for a while and before I go...”
“Are you visiting me?”
My brows lift and Charlotte gives me a quizzical stare. Right. Probably something I should have known. “Soon. I’m planning on staying for a while.”
“What about Kincaid Enterprises?” she asks.
“I’ll explain when I see you, but right now, I need a small favor. Can you call Roman and tell him I’m all right? He’ll want to know.”
“Sure,” Ari’s sweet voice fills the phone. “Of course I can.”
“Thanks, bug,” I say. “I love you.”
“Okay, now you’re just being weird.”
That makes me smile. “I think I’m going to ask a woman to marry me.”
Arabella squeals. “That’s amazing. Do I get to be a bridesmaid again? Never mind. No pressure on your girl. I’m so happy for you.”
Charlotte is smiling too, but Charlotte is Mason’s wife, and she likely knows far more about what’s going on, which means there is a tension in her eyes that her smile can’t hide. I hang up with Arabella and hand Charlotte her phone back. “Listen. I could use some phone numbers, but Mason isn’t going to like it.”
“My husband will deal,” she answers, taking my phone from me. “And I’ll give you all the numbers you want after you explain. Who are you marrying and how did you end up here? Last time I heard, your blood was in the back of a car.”
“Yeah.” Then I take a deep breath. “Actually, Kate might do a better job of explaining than me. Want to meet her?”
Kate should start meeting my family and Mason might not understand the importance of winning over the female family members instead of screwing them over, but I sure as shit do.
“Of course, I do,”
“Warning, though. Mason has been a real prick to both of us.”
Charlotte’s mouth purses into a fine line. “He has been acting strangely since he went back to Vegas.”
That is not my problem. Not right now.
Right now, I need to make sure that Kate gets to New York and to her future.