Chapter Three
The instructions were simple.
Fly down to New York and meet at the courthouse at ten sharp.
Which meant only one thing: Frederic had done the impossible and somehow gotten the Reynolds girl to go along with his seemingly insane plan.
Whatever he did to make her agree, it must have been one hell of a sales pitch.
Then again, my brother had met Reynolds’ daughter on several occasions. Perhaps the two of them had more of a friendly relationship than I first thought. Frederic always handled the events, going in our place to sell himself to potential investors and consumers. Although he may come across as a cold bastard most of the time, he still knew how to handle people.
He talked the right lingo, knew exactly what people wanted to hear, and knew how to appease the vultures in the high society we now found ourselves in.
I hated all of that.
Crowds of people lit my skin on fire. There was always too much happening at once. Too much noise. Too much touching. Too much for my system to handle.
When we were clawing our way up in the world, I used to attend such shitty events. I forced a smile alongside my brother and pretended that I didn’t want to rip off the next person’s arm who accidentally bumped into me. I laughed at the shit jokes about golf, the country clubs lack of food varieties, and whatever other nonsense they spewed. Despite the looks and whispers, I acted like the businessman who had won Forbes Man of the Year.
As time passed and we no longer needed to prove ourselves, I struggled to maintain a pleasant exterior.
From then on, Frederic thought it best he attended such things alone.
Suited me perfectly.
“Another glass, Mr. Dade?” The flight stewardess smiled, hovering the bottle of wine near my empty glass. I nodded, watching the red liquid fill the emptiness before she stepped back. “Anything else I can get you?”
“Non, merci.”
Looking out the jet window, I rolled my thumb over my phone screen. I spent all night reading anything and everything that was out there about the woman I was being forced to marry.
Evelyn Reynolds.
She, surprisingly, looked nothing like her father. At first sight of her photographs on her social media accounts, that she stupidly didn’t set as private, I thought I’d stumbled across the wrong person until I remembered our one and only encounter at an event years prior.
Hair that reminded me of a dying sunset, sprinkles of freckles across her pale skin, and the facial structure of a Greek Goddess.
Not a hint of Reynolds until I spied the pair of earth-stopping green eyes staring back at me. The photo was of her and her younger brother at some charity function in Washington. The siblings were chalk and cheese, except for their eye color.
There was no real information out there about her. She was obviously the daughter of the largest diamond and fine jewelry tycoon in America and Europe. She had studied journalism, of all things, at NYU.
With her degree, she started working freelance before being hired as a reporting journalist for the Lilypad Press, an upcoming online media platform.
It was surprising that her father didn’t push for her to study something beneficial to his company. Law or business, hell, even economics.
The rest of the information on her was pretty mundane. She hung around with the same two women—each of them tagged on her social media accounts, and all signs of her prior engagement to Laurence Larkin ceased to exist.
I mean, I scoured high and low and didn’t find as much as a whisper of him.
The jet landed in a miserable, wet New York, washing away Ontario’s crisp, dry August morning.
My brother arranged for a car to pick me up and drive me straight to the courthouse, likely not trusting me to actually go through with his plan.
There were times he forgot that he wasn’t the only one still thirsty for revenge.
“Stefan called ahead,” Benny, my personal security, said, shielding me from the rain with an umbrella as he opened the car door. “They’ve arrived at the courthouse. Pretty sure the girl isn’t a flight risk, but reckons we have about an hour window before she changes her mind and high-tails it out of there.”
“Right.” I frowned. “Let them know we’ve landed and will be there shortly.”
Benny nodded and closed the door.
Marry the girl.
Marry the girl.
It was all moving so fast. Frederic wanted the deed done and sealed before she came to her senses and tried to back out.
Marry the girl.
Marry the girl.
In less than an hour, I’d be a married man.
And I’d be one step closer to taking the Reynolds’ empire down brick by fucking brick until it was nothing but a pile of ash and rubble.
“There you are.” Stefan grinned. “I was starting to think you got cold feet. That’s pretty common on your big day. Wedding day nerves and all that.” He nudged his shoulder into me playfully. It took every inch of my fiber not to clock him square in the jaw. “The government official was starting to get a little antsy. Had to pay him an extra hundred to keep him from asking too many questions. I expect you or your brother to pay me back.”
A pain shot up the side of my jaw where my teeth collided together.
Stefan laughed, nudging me again. “I’m only messing with you. Lighten up, man.”
I hated Stefan Ryans.
He was nothing more than a grimy little shit. A bottom feeder who latched onto anything shiny and valuable, sucking from it and gorging himself on anything he got his hands on. Frederic considered him useful because his security company knew how to hack into databases that no one else would dare try to infiltrate.
He gave Frederic useful titbits, things that would aid my brother in persuading people into doing exactly what he wanted, and in return, Stefan was paid handsomely for his cooperation and silence.
Stefan had his uses, and there was no denying that, but I still hated the guy and refused to entertain him for more than a millisecond.
“Your blushing bride is right through there.” Stefan motioned to the doors of one of the official’s offices.
“And she just went along with Frederic’s plan, did she?” I rubbed my chin.
“She knows she is out of her depths with her father dying. She won’t last by herself, especially considering Flynn is still acting like a child,” Stefan said. “Marrying you secures her position, shows that she isn’t playing games. She’ll need it, especially with the second-largest shareholder gunning for the job the second she fucks up. She needs you to keep her from drowning.” Stefan clapped his hand on my shoulder. “Your brother is a genius. His plan is foolproof.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, mentally counting down from one hundred.
Ninety-nine. Don’t snap.
Ninety-eight. Stay calm.
Ninety-seven. Stay fucking calm.
He squeezed my shoulder. “If you pair pull this off, I do expect double what your brother offered me. She’s family, you know, and it took a lot to make her see sense.”
Without thinking, I grabbed his wrist, twisting it harshly away from my body. I smirked at Stefan’s yelp of pain. “Touch me again, Ryans, and I will ensure you can’t jack yourself off to sleep for a year, understood?” He nodded, eyes watering as I twisted it again before finally letting go. “Your work here is done. Fuck off to whatever hole it is you crawled out from.”
I didn’t give him the luxury of a look back as I stormed into the office, the door slamming shut behind me and silencing the whimpers and, no doubt, whispered threats from Stefan.
The office left little to be desired. Bland walls, a desk, a couple chairs, and windows that were too high to be able to see out but provided enough natural sunlight that it didn’t make the place a completely depressing hovel.
At the desk stood the government official, jotting something down in a notebook while checking their watch every couple seconds. Beside them was what I could only describe as a fallen angel—non, angel was too pure for the devastation her beauty caused.
Her photos were nothing compared to seeing her in real life.
Hair more vibrant than the depths of hell, skin the shade of fresh blossom petals, and sweet, full lips that the second they parted, blood rushed to places it shouldn’t.
A strange, undeniable urge to touch them, feel them on and around me, and ruin them beyond repair snuck up on me.
Evelyn Reynolds stared at me. A line formed between her brows, and her hands curled into two white-knuckled fists at her side. Defiance flickered across her face, yet there was no hiding the unwelcoming acceptance of what was about to unfold.
Sweetness mixed with a hint of spice encased my senses, claiming and marking me as I closed the distance between us.
“You’re late,” she snipped. “I don’t like when people waste my time.”
Her bluntness caught me off guard, rendering me speechless.
“Jaxon Dade, I presume?” The officiant finished her notes.
I regained myself. “That’s me.”
“Glad you can finally join us this morning.” The officiant cleared their throat. “Is Mr. Ryans still here to act as a witness to the union?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, he had a medical emergency to attend to. If you need a witness, I can get someone.” Taking out my phone, I made a quick call to Benny outside the courthouse. “Come inside. First door on the left. Non, leave the coffee in the car and come here now… now, Benny.”
Evelyn rolled her eyes as I hung up the phone. “Good to see you have your brother’s friendly personal skills.”
Her voice stilled everything within me. My mind short-circuited as I tried to think of a response, to say anything to her, but all I could do was stare at her lips. She pursed them together, not shying away from my gaze.
Before I got the chance to speak, Benny marched through the door, wiping what I assumed was pastry crumbs from his lips. “What do you need, boss-man?”
“You’re going to act as a witness,” the officiant replied. “Simply watch the ceremony and then sign the marriage certificate to confirm that both parties willingly and knowingly entered into a legal marriage.”
Evelyn’s body stiffened. Her arms flattened against her sides and her chest began to rise and fall at a slow and unsteady rhythm.
Was she nervous? Scared?
Oh, douceur, wait until you have nowhere to run. That’s when you should be very scared.
“We don’t have to do this.” She exhaled quietly. A secret meant only for me. “I know your brother is behind all of this, that all of this is his idea. You… we can still walk away.”
The officiant began to flick through their papers and speak through the proceedings.
A meaningless smirk curled on the corner of my mouth. “Let’s get one thing straight, my brother doesn’t make me do anything. I’m doing this for the same reason you are, douceur.”
Her chin tilted to meet my gaze. That sugary sweetness with a sharp hint of spice invaded my nostrils as I inhaled her scent. Her teeth skimmed her bottom lip, and god dammit, I tracked the movement like a man starved. “And what’s that?”
“For family.”
The rest of what happened was a blur. Words went in one ear and straight out the other. No more than twenty minutes later, with a ring around my finger, I was being asked to kiss my new bride. The officiant may as well have asked Evelyn to go sky-diving without a parachute. The sheer panic on her face was laughable.
To keep face, I lowered my lips to the corner of her mouth.
A peck.
Barely a whisper of a touch.
She stood frozen on the spot, the breath in her lungs seizing until I pulled away and we were asked to sign the marriage certificate. I put my signature on the dotted line right beside the woman I just married.
Mrs. Evelyn Lydia Dade.
Setting the pen down, a wave of triumph washed over me. I was one step closer to getting what I wanted.
“Congratulations,” Benny said after signing the certificate. He smiled genuinely at Evelyn. “I wish you many happy returns.”
She frowned with flushed cheeks. “That’s what you say to someone on their birthday.”
“Is it?” Benny laughed. “Well, the sentiment is the same.” He dismissed himself and left the office with a wave.
She rolled her eyes and turned her focus to the plain white gold wedding band around her finger. No emotion registered on her face as she slowly rotated the metal.
The officiant returned and handed me an envelope with copies of our marriage certificates.
Our legally binding marriage certificates.
What’s yours is mine now, douceur.
“I need to return to Ontario for a day.” I interrupted whatever little thoughts tumbled around her head. “I will return tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be there when you tell your father.”
“Tell him what?”
I reached out and took her left hand, my thumb brushing against her wedding band. “Don’t you want to tell him our wonderful news?”
She tried to pull away, my grip tightening and heart pounding as an ember sparked into life in her eyes. A brewing fire that dared to consume me whole. “You’re out of your damn mind if you think I want you there with me.”
“Now, now, dearest, is that any way to speak to your husband?” I purred, her nails biting into the back of my hand.
“Fuck you.” Her nails drew blood. “We’re not telling him. He doesn’t need to know. We need to think this through properly. Announce it the correct way. Maybe in a couple of months.”
“Why the long wait?” I toyed.
Her eyes narrowed, sparks flying through the field of green, staring a million daggers into my soul.
She wanted to wait until Lexington was dead, to hide away from the truth, but I was not playing those games. Not when I was this close to seeing the horror in his eyes.
“He is going to find out one way or another,” I said. “You know how this world works. Nothing stays secret forever. Plus, when you move back with me to Canada…”
“You can fuck right off,” she snapped. “What makes you think in that pea-sized head of yours that I would move to Canada with you?”
“You can hardly expect me to move here.”
“I don’t give a shit where you live. You can move to the damn moon for all I care.”
“Aren’t you a delight?” I said flatly.
Evelyn exhaled heavily. “Look, this all has moved a lot quicker than I anticipated. I need a little time to figure it all out, to wrap my head around things. A sudden marriage like this—it’s going to spark a lot of talk.”
“Let them talk. You and I both know that your ascension to CEO is a ticking clock. This arrangement is to help you during that year.” I watched the flutter of something pass across her face. Uncertainty? Regret? Defeat. “I can’t imagine what it will do to your poor father when he hears that you kept this a secret from him, especially if he hears it from someone other than you.”
Evelyn’s shoulders slumped.
Bullseye.
It was finally time to come face-to-face with the monster from my past and look him square in the eye as his new son-in-law. Little did he know, I was going to be the last face he saw before he died. I was going to be there to tell him that all he was leaving behind was mine to destroy.
And with Evelyn at my side, nothing was going to stop me.