Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Kane
I held Phoebe to me and looked over her shoulder at Ford, confused as to why the other man was there. Then Phoebe’s siblings started to follow. Why did they look so aghast and hurt? Then a couple of Ford’s brothers walked out as well, and I wondered what the hell was going on.
“Kane. Jesus Christ.” Ford ran his hands through his hair, his chest heaving, and I looked down at Phoebe.
“What’s going on, babe? What happened?”
“Can we just go? I just, I think I just need to go.”
I scowled at Ford. “What the hell happened? Who hurt her?”
“I’m pretty sure the same man who just fucked all of us over,” Ford said softly, yet the steel in his tone worried me. Ford was one of my best friends and I trusted him with my life. Literally on some days. And something was wrong.
“It seems that dear old daddy had a secret family,” Isabella said as she walked towards us, head held high. “I don’t know if it’s true, but from the look on our mothers’ faces, it has to be.” Flabbergasted, I pushed Phoebe’s hair away from her face, as she finally started to breathe again.
“In and out. Just breathe for me, baby.”
“I just. I can’t deal with this right now.”
“Then we’re going.” I looked over at Ford, then Isabella. “Does she need to be here for this?”
Isabella and Ford, followed by Aston, Ford’s eldest brother, came over. They looked between the three of them and shook their heads. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but I was grateful for that action.
“We’ll handle it. And if we need to meet again later, we will.” Isabella scowled at Ford and Aston. “Is that a problem?
“Not at all,” Aston said, his voice cool, far too collected. “I want answers, so I’d rather not have the meeting canceled right now. But I’m also not going to force any of my…family to stay if they don’t want to.”
Phoebe turned in my arms, and I held her.
Ford let out a breath. “Family?” he whispered.
“Kane?”
“I know. Let’s go.”
I pulled Phoebe away as the three of them and a few other siblings began to talk over each other.
I got Phoebe in the car, and realized that one of Phoebe’s sisters, as well as one of Ford’s brothers, left at the same time we did.
Though of course, they were all siblings, weren’t they? What the hell was going on?
As I drove back to my place, Phoebe finally took a deep breath.
“I can’t believe I just had a damn panic attack. I don’t get those. How weak am I?”
I nearly pulled over and scowled at her, but instead I reached over to grip her hand.
“There’s nothing wrong with what you did. You want to tell me what happened?”
She laid out the meeting, and when she got to the part where both Ford’s mother and her mother seemed to know each other and have some sort of deal, my other hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Not in the slightest. I wish this was all a joke. I thought I was there to grieve my dad, not have my world shattered.”
“Let’s get back to my place and figure something out. Or not talk about it at all if you don’t want to.”
“Ford is my brother? Oh my God, that makes Noah and Greer my future in-laws.” she whispered, her brain going in a thousand different directions. Mine was doing the same right then, and I just blinked, feeling a bit nauseous at this point.
“I don’t have any words to say to that,” I said after a moment, and then I was pulling into my garage and flipping the security system through its cycle.
As soon as we got into the house, I went into the kitchen and opened up a bottle of bourbon. She blinked at it and I shrugged before getting a couple glasses and two of my fancy skull-shaped ice cubes, and pouring us each two fingers of bourbon.
“I don’t like it neat. I like it on the rocks. Plus I like skulls. Take it.”
She took the glass from me and scowled. “I don’t do this like a shot, do I?”
“No, you sip it. The burn will help.”
She looked at me, then took a big gulp, wincing as she did. I winced right along with her as I took a sip of my own. It was a nice burn, but the caramel taste was perfect. I didn’t like bourbon too smoky when I drank it like this. I only liked it smoky if I put it in an old-fashioned or some other drink.
“So, you’re a bourbon drinker now?” she asked with a laugh. “Things do keep changing.”
I shrugged and set my glass next to hers on the counter. “One of the businessmen that I was a bodyguard for a while back drank bourbon. He actually had some stake in a few distilleries and sat me down once when I was off duty and showed me how to actually enjoy it. To breathe it in, to taste the different profiles. I’m not a fancy scotch guy who is going to enjoy a glass every night before or after dinner. Kingston and I are planning on doing the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky, where we go to a bunch of distilleries and taste bourbon and spend too much money. There’s food involved too, so that should be fun. I don’t know, but it’s a hobby.”
“It’s a cool hobby. I don’t mind bourbon. And I love old fashions. Especially with walnut bitters.”
I grinned. “And here I thought you were a tequila girl.”
“I’m a liquor girl.” She paused. “That sounded far dirtier than I meant it.”
I threw my head back and laughed, the tension beginning to ease out of me. Though not completely.
“I like learning new things about you every day.” I sighed, not wanting to pry but knowing I needed to. Because she needed me to. “I’m sorry. About your dad. I can’t even imagine.”
“Of course you can’t. Dimitri Carr is an amazing human who would never do anything like that to Thea. He is literally the epitome of the best dad around. He was always in your life. And now I hate that my voice keeps getting high-pitched.” She put her hands over her face and screamed. I nudged her drink towards her and took a sip of my own.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. My dad had this whole secret life. I always thought he was a bad dad. I mean, I figured he sometimes maybe cheated on my mom. They weren’t married, they were rarely together these days. I thought I would be sitting here mourning my father, not mourning the man I thought he was. I thought he was just an absentee dad. I didn’t realize that he was a cruel monster who decided to have another family that he loved.”
“He loved you,” I said, knowing it was probably the wrong thing. “You said he did. I mean, he’s a complete asshole, and I will burn his memory with you, but I don’t want you to burn every single good thing there was.”
“But now I’m not even sure there were any. We got Christmas mornings with him, but Ford and his brothers got the rest? Was he even in their lives? Ford clearly got the last name. Dad told us it was because his middle name was Cage. I didn’t realize that even the last name I thought he had was a lie.”
I fisted my hands at my sides, trying to remember everything Ford had ever said about his father—which wasn’t much. I knew more about his brothers than his parents, and now I found that an immense oversight. “I don’t know Ford’s relationship with his dad, other than that it was a bit traumatic.”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“You should talk to him.”
“How do I talk to him? He was just your friend, and someone I knew casually, but now what? We’re related? We share a father. Or at least his DNA. Because there’s no way that we shared a real dad. We didn’t have the same relationship. Ford had one with him. I had nothing. And yet, I’m glad I didn’t have anything. Because my siblings, they had more of a relationship with him. I had wisps of a ghost, and even those turned out to be a lie. And I just, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I don’t want to think about it anymore. I hate that I’m running away from my problems but I don’t want to talk about them right now.”
I nodded and gestured towards her glass. “Good. Because we don’t have to. Later we can burn down the world together if we have to. But you’re not doing it alone. And I’m also not going to be the overprotective asshole who takes over.” Although it was literally killing me not to do something about it. I wanted to pull up his documents and do every type of background check I possibly could.
I wondered if Ford was doing that right now. Maybe I would ask him later.
Hell, my business partner was my girlfriend’s brother.
That wasn’t complicated at all. But we Montgomerys liked making things super complicated, even though Montgomery was just my middle name, just like Cage was hers.
“I don’t know if I could do this alone. And I really don’t want to.”
I looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I was so worried about figuring out who I was, but now I realize that I didn’t even have all the parts in order to do that. But in the end it doesn’t matter. Because I love you, Kane. And I shouldn’t have pushed you away when I got scared before. I’m not going to do it again. I can’t do it again. So if you need to back out because my family is now insane, and possibly larger than yours, just do it. But know that I will fight for you. I should have fought for you before. And I fucking love you.”
It felt as if the world had crashed around me, and I was moving towards her, not even realizing I was doing it until I was. My hands were on her hips, pulling her towards me as I crushed my mouth to hers.
“I will fight for you until the end of the world and then further. I love you so much, Phoebe Cage Dixon,” I whispered. “I’ve loved you for far longer than I care to admit.”
“Oh really?” she asked, her eyes filling with tears. “Because I was such a coward in not knowing what it meant to love someone. I thought it meant that we had to have our lives together and our heads on straight, and it turns out we can be complete messes together and I’m perfectly fine with that.”
She threw her head back and laughed until I kissed her again. “I love that you just called me a mess and I think I love you even more for it.”
“You’re a complete mess. But then again, so am I.”
“I’ll fight for you,” I whispered again. “Always. And I’ll protect you if you let me. I’ll stand by your side. I’ll do whatever you need. Just be patient while I try to figure that out.”
“As long as you’re patient with me as I figure that out too. I don’t want to talk anymore though, Kane. I just want to feel. Is that okay? For now? There are so many things to talk about, but later. For right now I just want to feel.”
In answer, I took her mouth and lifted her up off the floor. She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me as I carried her back to the bedroom.
Somehow I was able to catch my breath, to go slow, achingly slow. When I pulled off her shirt, I cupped her breasts in my hands, loving the way that they overfilled them.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“You make me feel beautiful.”
I smiled softly before I kissed her again, and then trailed my lips along her jaw, her neck, and down to the globes of her breasts. I undid the clasp of her bra and her breasts fell heavy into my hands. I suckled on her nipples, loving that they turned a dark pink, swollen from my attentions.
We lay on the bed together, stripping each other until we were naked, my hand between her legs playing with her folds as she squeezed my cock. She started to run her hand over my length, once, twice, and I let out a hushed breath, pulling away from her.
“I’m so fucking close and we’ve just begun,” I teased, my lips along her earlobe.
“I swear I’m always wet when you’re around.”
“I’m going to have to start wearing different pants so I don’t end up with a zipper scar on my cock.”
She laughed, even though I heard the manic edge to it. I continued to kiss her and tried to pull us out of our worries and back into this moment.
Because I should have told this woman that I loved her long before this, but it didn’t matter. We would have to look at the past soon enough, but for now it was just us. Just the present.
I slid down her body, pressing kisses to her flesh as I kept moving, and then my mouth was on her cunt, enjoying my feast. Her hands dug into my hair, pressing me closer to her pussy, and I continued to suck, to lick. When she came, moaning my name with one hand in my hair, the other playing with her breasts, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
I slid up over her body again, positioned myself at her entrance, and slammed into her in one thrust, loving the shocked gasp that escaped from her lips.
“You always do that. You always surprise me.”
“In the best ways possible,” I teased as I began to move, rotating my hips at an angle to grind against her clit. She met me thrust for thrust, angle for angle, and when she came again around my cock, it took everything within me to will my orgasm away. Because then I pulled out and flipped her onto her stomach. I reached over her to my nightstand and pulled out my lube.
She turned in my arms at that moment, facing me. “I need you. All of you.” She swallowed hard, running her hands up and down my lubed cock.
“I need you too,” she whispered.
I kissed her hard on the mouth and then slid my cock between the globes of her ass, enjoying the way that her whole body shook as I did so. We had done this before, but I still took my time, gently easing her open with one finger, then two, using my mouth and fingers on her clit and pussy to keep her wet, on the edge. When I felt she was ready, and she pushed back towards me, I positioned my cock at her back entrance.
“Tell me when to stop.”
“Just move. I need you. Claim me.”
“You’re mine, Phoebe. I’m going to fuck your ass and show you exactly whose you are. That this ass has only been mine. And it’s never going to be anyone else’s.”
“Only yours. I promise. Now just fuck me.”
I grinned at her words, loving how she got dirtier and dirtier the closer to the edge we got. I took my time, slowly breaching her entrance as she pushed back, letting out a low groan that matched mine. We took our time, easing into one another, and then she was coming again, face down on the bedspread, tears of joy and probably a sweet edge of pain sliding down her cheeks, as I pulled out and poured myself over her lower back.
A claim, a mark, all mine.
We both lay there, shaking, as I kissed her shoulder, letting out a deep breath.
And then she turned in my arms and cried, gut-wrenching sobs as she shook.
I kissed her forehead, then her cheeks, and carried her into the bathroom. I turned on the water not scalding hot, but to the temperature I knew she liked, and I cleaned both of us up and washed her hair. And when the tears were finally gone, I watched as she washed my body, bending down so she could wash my hair as well.
“I love you,” she whispered again.
“I’m never going to get tired of hearing that.”
“Good. Because I’m never going to stop saying it.”
Finally clean and the water cooling, we got out of the shower and quickly dressed in comfortable clothing.
“My sisters and Kyler are probably going to be over here at any minute.” Phoebe looked down at her phone and scowled. “Well, the group chat is active. But I don’t think the rest of the world knows what’s going on yet.”
“Noah and Ford probably do. So it’s going to spread around the rest of the Montgomerys soon.”
She sighed and sat on the couch cross-legged with her phone in her hand. “If my siblings haven’t already stopped by my house, they’ll probably head here. You know that right?”
“That’s fine. As long as they know that I’m not going to step out of the room unless you want me to. Because I’ll still be the asshole to them. Not the overprotective one to you though.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said, scowling at her phone.
When my doorbell rang right after that, I met her gaze and nodded tightly.
“Text Claire, because I’m sure she’s worried about you. I’ll go see who it is.”
I checked the video readout on my phone and winced, knowing that this was probably going to be a bad idea.
“It’s Ford,” I said softly.
“Oh. Well. I wonder if he’s here to see me or you?” she said, trying to sound bright.
I shook my head, unsure, as I opened the front door.
Ford stood there, his eyes a little glassy and a little swollen.
“Hey,” I said.
Ford let out a breath. “Hey. Noah and Greer were going to come too, but I told them I didn’t want to overwhelm Phoebe.”
“And you think Phoebe’s here?” I asked, that bite of protectiveness and anger towards Ford’s father leaking out.
One of my best friends in the world just raised a brow at me. “Yes. Are you going to let me in? Or did you forget the fact that we’ve known each other for years.”
I sighed and took a step back. “Sorry.
“Don’t be. This is awkward as hell. And I have no idea what I’m about to say.” Ford looked past me at Phoebe, who had stood up from the couch, and came inside. She looked adorable, and so small in her gray yoga pants and sweatshirt. Her hair was wet and piled on the top of her head, and now I realized that maybe Ford wanted to be a big brother and to know my intentions. Hell. I had no idea what I was supposed to do in this situation, other than be there for Phoebe. And Ford.
Damn Lorne Cage.
“So.”
Phoebe sighed. “So.
“I guess you’re my sister?” he asked, then laughed. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to say here. Other than to tell you that Noah and Greer know what’s going on, and I’m sure that the rest of the family will find out soon.”
“That’s what I said,” I put in.
“But they’re not going to tell anybody as of yet. However, this is going to leak into the media. My dad,” Ford paused, and shook his head, “ our dad had a lot of financial properties at stake. We’re a potentially billion-dollar company, and so this is going to get out. Hence the meeting today.”
I cursed under my breath, having forgotten that fact.
Phoebe frowned. “What do you mean? My dad was a salesman.”
“He started that way. Now he owns—” Ford let out another breath, “he owned Cage Enterprises.”
Phoebe’s eyes widened and she staggered back. I moved towards her, gripping her hand. “Oh my God. I know that company. But I didn’t know who owned it.”
“Aston, my oldest brother, he’s the one who runs it. A few of my other brothers work there too. I’m not part of it because I decided to start a business with this asshole and a few other friends,” Ford said as he pointed towards me and I rolled my eyes, grateful for the levity.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Or what we’re supposed to do.”
“I don’t know either. There’s going to be another meeting since the one today sort of dissolved. And a funeral.” Ford pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because even with all this, Lorne Cage is dead and there needs to be a damn funeral. Although I’m not even sure that any of us want to go.” He looked up at Phoebe and then at me. “I don’t know who that man was to you, and I’m sorry. But you’ve known me for a while, Phoebe. So, well, I haven’t changed. And I figured since we know each other, maybe we can be the ones to bridge our siblings together. Because I have a feeling that the drama’s just beginning.”
Phoebe walked over and reached out, gripping Ford’s hand.
“Oh, the drama is totally just beginning. I have no idea what to think, especially about that man that called himself my father, but I don’t want my siblings to get hurt.” She let out a breath. “Any of them.”
“Okay. So let’s figure it out.”
“I have bourbon, will that help?” I said into the silence that followed that statement.
“Yes, thank you,” Phoebe and Ford said at the same time and we all laughed, noticing that they each had the same crinkle around their eyes when they laughed.
This wasn’t going to get any easier, but Phoebe wasn’t going to be alone in it.
At least I could promise that.