CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
TRAVIS
––––––––
The music pumps as I stand at the window looking out at the club while Maddox and Kyra dance behind me. Well, he’s running his hands up and down her body and barely moving his hips. He calls it dancing.
No one else does.
Aurora looks like she is about to burst out her two babies.
“We need to go.” Parker glares at pretty much everyone.
“I’m fine. I am not sitting at home watching the calendar. I’m bored.”
“Then let’s go to the movies. Not a fucking sex club.”
“Cheers man.” I lift my glass of whisky.
“Wait until you marry Brook,” Parker challenges. “See how happy you are bringing her here.” Then he does this exaggerated look around like he’s trying to win a Golden Globe. “Can’t see her. Where is she? Brook where are you?”
Dick.
“Who is Brook?” Aurora perks up, smiling.
Kyra spins around. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Next minute they are both surrounding me like damn piranhas and their men are planning my murder. But because tormenting them is one of my favorite past times, I roll with it.
“I don’t know if I’d call her my girlfriend.” I wink.
“Want to lose an eye?” Parker growls, and Aurora playfully slaps his arm.
Zayne chuckles as he leans on the glass table near us.
“Long story short, ladies.” Killian steps closer. “He met this girl, lied to her, took her to Switzerland for a weekend—”
“Switzerland?” Kyra gasps and looks at Maddox.
“Nope.”
“Then she told him to get lost.”
“That’s not how the story ended. She is thinking about things. She needs some time.” I toss back my whisky to cover my scowl.
I wish she’d hurry up.
“Oh. You lied?” Aurora runs her hand over her bump.
They are due in about two weeks. If her water breaks and the ambulance has to carry her through the club, it’s not going to be a good look.
But despite the way we bicker, Parker and I are close.
“It was a necessary lie.” I really need a top off.
Why hasn’t Brook called?
Kyra and Aurora share a glance.
“Don’t do that.” I point with my empty glass. “If you knew the backstory, you’d understand. But I can’t tell you or I’d have to kill you both, so you’re going to have to trust me.”
Kyra grins.
“No.”
“Oh, and he told her he loves her.” Killian finishes the story, and while the girls look like their worlds just lit up with fireworks, I dive at him.
He takes off, jumping onto the sofas.
The girls laugh, the music pumps, and Parker’s yelling something about pounding my face into the ground.
Why do I like that guy again?
Then, my phone vibrates in my pocket.
“Stop.” I hold Killian’s face into the cushions and answer.
“TRAVIS!”
My blood goes cold.
I’ve only talked to the guy a few times on the phone, but when he’s a US Marine protecting the woman you love, you pay attention.
“Brooklyn has been shot.”
––––––––
I RUN INTO the hospital and up to the desk.
“Travis Wa...my wife is here.” I lie.
Zayne and Killian stand behind me, looking like they belong in the mafia in their black shirts and pants, enormous timepieces that the hospital would love to auction off, and their tattoos.
Then again, so do I.
“What is her name?”
“Brooklyn. Brooklyn McKenna.”
The nurse frowns. “Sir, she is not your wife.”
Shit.
Of course, I forgot she knows half the fucking medical people in Manhattan.
It takes me twenty minutes to speak to someone in charge and a donation of five hundred thousand dollars to get the information I am after. Brook was shot in the shoulder and has lost a lot of blood but is likely to be fine.
Then we’re told to wait while she’s in surgery.
Her parents come flying in a minute later.
I introduce myself to her father, and he looks about as happy to meet me as he would be a serial killer.
“Nice to meet you, Travis. Brook told me she enjoyed your vacation to Switzerland.” Her mom smiles, holding a jacket up against her chest.
Her father puts his arm around her and meets my eye. “Do you know who did this?”
“No, sir.”
He nods, guiding his wife to a chair.
Next, a couple around Brook’s age run through the door and go straight up to her parents.
I watch, as if I’m a stranger, and realize as they all hug, that I do not know this woman I love. I know what I wanted to see, but in two weeks I haven’t scratched the surface.
I was single-minded in my mission.
That was all.
I’ve fucked up.
Instead of giving her space and waiting for her to come to me, I should have been spending time getting to know her.
I do love her, but there is much more to her than admiring her beautiful eyes over dinner or falling over and making snow angels.
She is loved by others.
She has a family and friends.
The woman glances over and studies me. Her husband, I assume, warns her, but she ignores him and crosses the room.
“You’re Travis.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m Jasmine, Brook’s best friend.”
Fuck.
How do I not even know her best friend’s name?
There’s a strong sense that I’m out of place here, and I fucking hate it. I hate that I am not the most important person in her life, and that all these people have precedence over her in this situation.
That if she dies, I’ll be some guy she spent a week with.
“Nice to meet you.” I rub my hand over my face and spot Killian behind her, checking out her ass.
Her husband notices too.
“She’s going to be okay,” Jasmine says, giving me a sad smile. “Brook’s a fighter.”
“Yeah, she is. I won’t let this happen again. I won’t let anyone hurt her.” I growl.
Her smile grows. “I hope she says yes.”
I frown.
“When you ask her to marry you.” Jasmine winks and returns to the others while I stand there blinking and wondering what the hell just happened.
Marry her?
I mean, yes.
That is fucking happening. But I wasn’t expecting her best friend to be so on board. Tonight.
One glance at her father, who is still shooting me death glares, tells me I have a lot of work to do there.
That I can do.
I go back to pacing along the shitty carpet when I see Connor Barrett walking down the hall. He spots me and heads over.
“Travis.” He shakes my hand.
“How is he?” I ask, feeling like a piece of shit not asking after Decker.
“It nicked his arm.” Connor smirks. “Hard man to kill, trust me.”
I shake my head. “Have they caught the shooter?”
“No. They likely won’t, but we are checking out any footage we can find.” Connor slides his hands into his pockets, then tugs one out and when he sees Killian. “Hey man, thanks for the booking last month.”
“Always, you know that.” Killian shakes his hand.
Zayne joins us, and we introduce him.
“How is Brooklyn?”
“Still in surgery.” I tell the Marine and fellow billionaire. “I’ll keep you posted.”
He slaps me on the back and says his goodbyes.
We go back to waiting.
––––––––
I’M NOT GOOD at waiting, and my fury grows as I continue wondering who was responsible for shooting her.
I know who.
Indirectly, of course.
Zayne has gone, and Killian is yawning.
“Go, I’ll be here all night. You may as well get some sleep.” I tell him.
“Okay man.” He slaps my back.
When I’m on my own, I make my way through the hospital and find a dark, private space. Then pull out my phone and scroll to the number I never thought I’d dial.
Doing a few more technical things, I protect my phone’s identity and push the green button.
It rings.
My heart pounds as I wait to hear the voice I despise.
“Hello.”
It’s late, but I knew he’d answer.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” I rasp, wishing I had gone outside and lit a cigar.
“Who is this?” my father asks angrily.
I stay silent for a moment, letting the fear percolate.
“You know who it is.”
Silence.
Then he chuckles.
Fucking chuckles.
“Hello son.”
I sneer into the dark shadows.
“I am not your son. Not anymore. But you are now my target.”
“Ah, Terrance. I knew you’d call. You always were a soft boy.”
Cunt.
I need to be careful. If I show my hand, and that I care about Brook, he will continue to send people after her. Soon it won’t matter. Soon he will be irrelevant.
“Keep flapping those psycho lips, Leo. The world knows who you are now, and I’m going to continue to destroy you piece by piece.”
He laughs. “I am a very powerful man. Give it your best shot.”
“You are a piece of shit. Your influence compared to mine has limits. I could have you killed in your sleep tonight, and you’d never see it coming.
I could have someone take you from your bed, chain you in a room, and remove layers of your skin, piece by piece.
Your organs would be taken as they kept you alive until the pain makes you shut down. ”
“You are sick!”
“No, fucking little boys is sick!” My voice rises and I tamp it down. “Sucking a child’s cock is sick.”
“You wanted it.”
“What I want, and what I am going to get, is watching the world discover who you really are. Watching the people around you slowly step away as you come to see how fucking irrelevant you are.” I snarl. “You are going to lose everything you have while I live in luxury.”
“You can try.”
“Oh, it’s already in motion.” I laugh. “And Leo, when you are living under a bridge and begging for food, think of me.”
“You p—”
I hang up.
This isn’t over. It’s just begun.
I will keep my promise right to the end.
Knowing the man he is, he’ll take his life before he ends up homeless. That’s his choice.
At least now he knows I’m the one behind it.