Chapter Twenty-Two
Cooper
I stood in Steele’s study, eyeing the selection of tuxedos laid out before me with barely concealed disdain. Trust Steele to go overboard with this wedding stuff. The room, usually a testament to masculine elegance with its dark wood and leather furnishings, had been transformed into what looked like a high-end men’s boutique. The morning light flitted through the open windows. Gone were the dark window dressings. It was clear Ashlynn had redecorated.
“Stop scowling,” Steele said, adjusting his bow tie in the floor-length mirror. “It’s my wedding. You can suffer through a fitting.”
“I have a perfectly good tuxedo at home,” I grumbled, but picked up one of the garment bags anyway. The price tag made me raise an eyebrow—not because I couldn’t afford it, but because it seemed ridiculous even by my standards.
“Which doesn’t match what I’m wearing,” Steele pointed out. “And you know Ashlynn has a vision for this wedding. It might be small, but let her control what she wants. Please. With her being pregnant, she’s had to make some…concessions.”
I couldn’t help but smirk. The great Steele, brought to heel by a woman. Though watching him with Ashlynn, seeing how happy he was...sometimes I wondered if he hadn’t made the smarter choice after all.
“You’re distracted today,” Steele observed, his keen eyes studying me in the mirror. “More than usual. Something happen?”
I shrugged out of my jacket, buying time before answering. “Took Allegra to meet my father yesterday.”
Steele turned, surprise evident on his face. “That’s...significant.”
“Is it?” I focused on unbuttoning my shirt, avoiding his gaze. “Seemed easier than making excuses about where I go on Saturday mornings.”
“Right,” Steele drawled. “Nothing to do with wanting her to understand you better. You’ve never taken anyone to meet your father before. Not even when that Russian oligarch’s daughter was throwing herself at you.”
“That was different,” I muttered, pulling on the crisp white shirt that went with the first tuxedo. “Allegra’s...she’s not like that.”
“No,” Steele agreed quietly. “She’s not. That’s what scares you, isn’t it?”
I fumbled with a button, cursing under my breath. “I’m not scared.”
“Please,” Steele scoffed. “I know you, Cooper. Better than anyone. You’re terrified because Allegra makes you feel something real. Something you can’t control.”
The words hit too close to home, especially after yesterday. The way she’d looked at me after my father told her everything, with understanding instead of pity...it had shaken something loose inside me .
“How’s your dad doing?” Steele asked, mercifully changing the subject.
“Good days and bad,” I said, the familiar ache settling in my chest. “Yesterday was mixed. He kept worrying about the bills.”
Steele nodded, understanding in his expression. “That’s how it started, wasn’t it? The whole thing with us?” Ever since the incident with Topher, Steele had made an attempt to better understand me, understand the family and life I came from.
“Yeah.” I remembered that desperate kid I’d been, trying to pick Steele’s pocket, not knowing it would change my life forever. “Allegra knows now. Dad told her.”
“Your father has a way of cutting through the bullshit,” Steele said. “How’d she take it?”
I thought back to the car ride home, the gentle way she’d touched my face, the way she had kissed me.
Like I was a good man.
“Better than I deserved.”
“You know,” Steele said carefully, adjusting his own cuffs, “there are other ways to make money now. Legitimate ways. The new photography gallery I helped Ashlynn set up is turning a nice profit.”
“It’s not about the money anymore,” I admitted. “Hasn’t been for a long time.”
“Then what is it about?”
I stared at my reflection, at the expensive tuxedo that represented everything I’d fought to become. “Control, maybe. Power. Not having to feel helpless like I did when Dad first got sick.”
Steele was quiet for a moment, studying me. “And what good is all that power if you’re alone? ”
“I’m not—”
“You are,” he cut me off. “And you know it. That’s why you took Allegra to meet your father. Because some part of you wants more.”
I turned away from the mirror, anger flaring. “What I want doesn’t matter. My world isn’t safe for someone like her.”
“That’s what I thought about Ashlynn,” Steele said quietly. “Remember? When I was holding her captive, telling myself it was just about revenge, about power.”
“That was different.”
“Was it?” Steele challenged. “I was deep in this life, just like you. Had enemies, just like you. Was convinced I didn’t deserve happiness, just like you.”
“And look what happened,” I shot back. “Ashlynn nearly died because of you. Because of this life.”
“Yes,” Steele agreed. “She did. But she also chose me. To fight for what we could have together.” He adjusted his bow tie one final time. “Sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one at all.”
Before I could respond, a knock interrupted us. “Everything fitting alright in here?” Ashlynn’s voice called through the door.
“We’re decent,” Steele answered, and his entire demeanor softened as his fiancée entered the room. The transformation still amazed me sometimes—how love had changed him so completely.
“Cooper was just trying to convince me that he has a perfectly good tuxedo at home,” Steele told her, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“I’m sure he does,” Ashlynn agreed, “But none that match the wedding palette. ”
I groaned. “There’s a palette?”
“Of course there’s a palette.” She moved to straighten my bow tie, her expression turning more serious. “I heard about your visit to your father yesterday.”
I frowned. “How the hell did you find out?”
“I eavesdropped,” she replied, laughing.
I rolled my eyes.
“Walk with me to the garden?” Ashlynn asked, though it wasn’t really a question. “I want your opinion on something for the wedding.”
I glanced at Steele, who just shrugged with a knowing look. “Best man duties,” he said, turning back to the mirror.
The late morning sun cast shadows across the estate’s immaculate garden. Ashlynn moved to a stone bench, gesturing for me to join her.
“There’s no wedding thing, is there?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No,” she admitted with a small smile. “But we need to talk about Allegra.”
I sighed. “Ashlynn—”
“Just listen,” she cut me off gently. “You know how Steele and I met.”
“He kidnapped you,” I said bluntly. “Over a painting. And you stabbed me.”
“Ah, I forgot about that.” Her eyes twinkled momentarily. “But I was terrified. Angry. But even then, there was something about him that I couldn’t quite dismiss. A depth beneath the surface that intrigued me.”
“This is different,” I protested. “Allegra isn’t a captive. She’s free to walk away. ”
“Is she?” Ashlynn’s gaze was piercing. “Or are you keeping her at arm’s length, making decisions about what’s best for her without giving her a choice? In some ways, that’s just another kind of captivity.”
The words hit me hard. “I’m trying to protect her.”
“Cooper, I knew what I was getting into with Steele. Just like Allegra knows what she’s getting into with you. We’re not na?ve women who need to be sheltered.”
“But the risks—”
“Are ours to take,” she finished firmly. “When I chose to stay with Steele, to fight for what we could have together, it wasn’t because I was blind to the dangers. It was because what we had was worth fighting for.” She reached out, touching my arm. “The question is, what are you willing to fight for?”
I looked down at her hand, remembering how Allegra had touched me in the car yesterday. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“Sometimes the worst hurt comes from pushing away the people who could make us whole,” Ashlynn said softly. “Trust me, I know. If Steele hadn’t fought so hard for us...” She trailed off, her hand moving back to her stomach. “We wouldn’t be here now. There wouldn’t be a wedding, or a baby on the way. Sometimes the biggest risks bring the greatest rewards.”
We sat in silence for a moment, watching the sun rise higher into the sky. Finally, I asked, “How did you know? That Steele was worth the risk?”
Ashlynn smiled, her whole face softening. “The same way Allegra knows about you. I saw past the facade, past the power and control, to the man underneath. The man who was capable of so much more than he believed.” She stood, brushing off her dress. “Don’t let fear rob you of something beautiful, Cooper. Life’s too short for that.”
I drove away from Steele’s estate, my mind spinning. My phone rang, and I welcomed the distraction as I answered.
“Mario, what have you found out?”
His voice crackled over the line. “Murphy said it’s definitely Rousseau behind these attacks, and he also thinks it was his team tailing Allegra.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“This means we have to take him out, and soon.” I gripped the steering wheel tighter, the knot in my stomach growing. Taking out Rousseau was incredibly dangerous and would require weeks of planning, even with the extortion I had on him. And that was even if I could take him out. But it didn’t matter. I had to. I couldn’t risk Allegra.
Ashlynn’s and Steele’s words echoed in my mind. What was I willing to fight for ? The answer came too quickly, too clearly: Allegra. Her smile, her stubborn determination, the way she saw through all my defenses. But wanting her and deserving her were two very different things.
“Okay. I’ll start prepping,” Mario responded, and I grunted, disconnecting the call. I turned my attention back to the road, but my phone buzzed again—it was a text from Allegra this time.
Lunch later? My treat .
I stared at the message, my thumb hovering over the keys. I remembered how she’d held my hand yesterday, how she hadn’t flinched away from the darkness in my past.
“Name the place,” I typed back before I could change my mind.
Her response was immediate: That little café near the clinic. Two o’clock?
I’ll be there.
I tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, thinking about what Ashlynn had said. About risks and rewards, about letting fear dictate our choices. About the difference between protecting someone and denying them the right to choose.
Maybe she was right. Maybe I was letting fear control too much of my life. But as I thought about the threat Rousseau posed, about the dangers that lurked in my world, I couldn’t help but wonder if fear wasn’t the wisest choice after all.
Because if anything ever happened to Allegra because of me…
I held the steering wheel even tighter, pushing the thought away. For now, I had a business to run and a best man’s duties to fulfill. Everything else would have to wait.
But Ashlynn’s words kept coming back to me: Sometimes the biggest risks bring the greatest rewards.