DAMON
CHAPTER TWELVE
THEN
TEN YEARS AGO
Ishould have kept my mouth shut. Telling him anything puts him at risk, but I can’t watch his heart break the same way mine did all those years ago.
He needs to understand that sometimes in this life we have to do things we don’t want to do, things that have the power to break us, and we just have to get the fuck on with it.
I sigh when I see the slew of texts Mikayla has sent me in the last half hour. She doesn’t seem to understand that I’m an unwilling participant in our arranged marriage.
The sound of her voice makes my fucking skin crawl, and don’t get me started on her personality. I think there are wet paper bags with more charisma than her boring-as-shit personality.
She never had a chance, the voice in the back of my mind adds helpfully.
I always knew I wouldn’t marry for love, but I had at least hoped I would marry someone I had any hope of liking. Unfortunately the great Salvatore Lombardi decided strengthening our relationship with the Vega family was more important than giving me a wife I can stand to be in the same room with.
Mikayla: Babe, I’ve been trying to call you for three days. Daddy won’t be happy if he finds out you’re ignoring your responsibilities.
Mikayla: Is it so hard to send me a text? You could be dead for all I know.
I scoff. We could both only be so lucky.
Mikayla: Part of our contract includes us being in a real relationship, Damon. You can’t ignore me for days on end.
Sighing, I tap out a response to satisfy my end of the deal. If there were a way to get out of this stupid fucking contract, I would have done it years ago, but unfortunately it’s airtight. The only way to dissolve it would be for one of us to die, and believe me, I’ve considered it.
Damon: I’ve been busy. You should get used to not being able to get in touch because once I take control of the family, I’ll have a fuck ton less time to reply to your bullshit demands. I don’t care what flowers you want for the wedding. It’s your day. I’m just there to sign on the dotted line.
Am I being unnecessarily harsh? Yes.
But I learned a long time ago it’s better to feel nothing, and that includes keeping my insufferable future wife at arm’s length.
I shove my phone into my pocket as I step into my father’s office, where the man himself is frowning at something on his computer.
“Ronan will be in shortly,” I tell him as I drop into one of the seats across from him.
The afternoon sun streams in through the window behind him, but unlike when we were younger, there’s no sign of life outside. Just like the rest of the compound, the yard is devoid of joy.
“You didn’t tell him anything, did you?”
“About how you spent two full days torturing his girlfriend’s family while she was forced to watch?
No, I decided that’s on you to tell him.
You’re the one that decided a barely eighteen-year-old girl should be held accountable for the sins of her father, so you can be the one to tell him that you’re the reason she ran. ”
Years ago, I wouldn’t have dared to speak to him like this, but the nearer I come to taking his place, the less I care about holding my tongue.
It sets a precedent for how things will be when I officially become the head of the family, because I’ll be damned if I gave everything up to take his place just for him to try to lead from the back seat.
His attention turns to me, the tips of his ears turning a deep shade of red the only indication that he’s angry.
He’s always been a master of calm, but that doesn’t mean his temper isn’t short.
“How dare you?” he growls. “I did what I had to do to keep this family safe, and the family is at great risk with her on the run.”
I scoff. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. “Oh yeah, Chloe Weaver is a huge threat to the family. The girl had her head in the fucking clouds too often to know a single thing that could hurt us.”
“You don’t think her father told her things? You don’t think she’s running to our enemies for protection right now?”
“I don’t know what the fuck she’s doing, but she doesn’t know anything.
Or did you think she had some kind of special training we didn’t know about to be able to withstand torture?
” I challenge. Chloe has always been a sensitive soul, and the fact he believes she wouldn’t have broken immediately if she’d known anything about the supposed betrayal is ridiculous.
“And the fact she has a Lombardi heir growing inside her? You don’t think that bastard will be used against us?”
My lips part, an argument on my lips, but a gasp behind me drags my attention over my shoulder.
“Chloe’s pregnant?” Ronan’s words are barely audible as all the blood drains from his face.
Whoops.
He deserves to know she’s carrying his baby, but Dad swore me to secrecy. He told me that my brother wouldn’t give up on finding her if he knew, that his noble streak is far larger than either of us could ever imagine.
But it was the old man that dropped the bomb, and I can’t help but feel a little satisfied that this whole farce is blowing up in his face so soon.
“It’s probably not yours,” Dad rushes to say. “You know how girls her age are. Fucking anyone that moves.”
“Not Chloe,” Ronan snaps back before I have the chance. The girl is a lot of things, but she would never step out on my brother. “Were you going to tell me? Or were you just going to let me be blindsided by a secret child down the line?”
“Of course I would have told you. But it was hardly the time. We have far bigger problems than an unborn baby.”
“Tell me one thing that could possibly be more important than the mother of my child being on the run. Scared and alone. Please, enlighten me.”
Dad pushes himself to his feet, anger and annoyance radiating off him in waves. “Kingston was in town last night at the same time she escaped.”
My mouth drops open in surprise.
He doesn’t need to say the words for me to put the pieces together.
Our greatest enemy, the man that killed our mother, was the first person Chloe called for help.
Suddenly it doesn’t seem so farfetched that the girl we grew up with betrayed us, because if she knew his number by heart, she’s probably been in contact with him this whole time.
“Chloe Weaver is just as big a risk to this family as her father was, and she has something she can use against us growing inside her. Finding her and removing that threat are of the greatest importance until I say otherwise.”