Chapter 20
DOMINIC
“All clear, sir,” Mikhail tells me down the phone.
He’s the head of the security agency I hired to watch Izzy and her grandmother four days ago.
It’s the first thing I did after leaving her apartment with a lump in my throat and a hole in my chest. “The grandmother is under constant care. Nothing has changed there. Miss Marlowe has remained in her apartment except when she visits her grandmother. A few times, she’s gone for a drive, but it looks as though it’s an end in and of itself.
Her routes are random, and I can’t see any connection yet. ”
“How does she look?” I ask, grinding my teeth as I stand at the window, overlooking the city.
You shouldn’t care anymore, my father warns.
“Sir?” Mikhail says.
“Didn’t you hear me?”
He clears his throat. “Apologies, sir, I’m just not sure what you mean.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”
What a lie that is.
“Just make sure they’re safe.”
I’m already paying for her grandmother’s care, so that’s one less thing to worry about. What’s not so easily fixed is this tugging in my chest. Every time I think of Izzy—which is far too often—my chest goes tight. I can’t shake this ache, this vicious certainty that I’ve done something wrong.
But she’s the one who betrayed me, for fuck’s sake.
I return to my desk, staring down at my cell phone. It’s like my thumbs have a life of their own. Without even really deciding to, I’m typing a message.
Dominic: I hate how this started. I hate that you betrayed me.
I hate the lies. I hate that we didn’t get to be together long enough to make a real go of it.
I was furious the last time we saw each other.
Cold. But the more time that passes, the harder it is to ignore, Songbird…
YOU HAD NO CHOICE. What were you supposed to do with them threatening your grandmother? Your only family?
I stare at the message, wanting desperately to send it. The only thing that stops me is the thought that maybe this is part of their plan. This could be a double bluff, with Izzy telling me they threatened her… but really, she planned to make me care, even if they were caught out.
Do I believe that? Or do I just need to believe it?
Ethan knocks on my door, tilting his head appraisingly as he walks across the office. He’s been looking at me like that a lot lately, as though he can see through the shield I’m attempting to put up.
“We’re going to be late,” he murmurs.
Ah, right. The meeting at Pike Construction. Aaron sent word this morning, wanting to talk urgently. Which means he’s discovered the documents were false. Good. It’ll be some small relief to wipe that smug look off his face.
Sebastian Armitage and Aaron Pike are waiting for me in Aaron’s office.
Once I knew Sebastian was a large shareholder in the megacorporation, finding his true name wasn’t too difficult.
I also learned he’s been abroad until very recently.
Something brought him home. At first, I thought it might be my wealth and success.
But I’ve been wealthy and successful for years.
Sebastian leans against the wall, tapping his cane against the floor. Aaron sits behind his desk, toying with his big beard. I stop opposite the desk, Ethan at my shoulder.
“Are you sure you want him here?” Sebastian says, gesturing to Ethan with his cane. “I’ve got some hard truths to share with you. Sooner or later, they may become public. But trust me, you won’t want to preempt that.”
“He can trust me,” Ethan snaps.
“Trust,” Sebastian mutters, tittering. “What a lovely word that is. It sounds so solid.”
He winks at me. We both know he’s talking about my songbird. Fuck. Not my anything… He’s talking about a woman named Isabella Marlowe that I knew for a week or two.
“It’s about your father,” Sebastian goes on, shrugging. “It’s your choice if you want him here.”
“What about my father?” I demand.
Sebastian raises an eyebrow.
Damn it. They could be bluffing. But at the same time, I can’t deny it. Trust is a difficult concept, especially considering recent events.
“Ethan,” I say, gesturing to the door.
He looks at me with disappointment. “For real?”
“Give us a few minutes.”
His head drops, shoulders sagging. “Uh, sure,” he murmurs. “Okay.”
Aaron sneers the entire time Ethan is walking from the office.
I resist the urge to bounce a paperweight off his bald head.
The security agency also had some information about Aaron, namely that he was arrested for drug trafficking four years ago, but the case was dropped when some key evidence mysteriously went missing.
“That was a clever move,” Aaron says. “With the documents. You had us throwing one hell of a party before we realized they were bullshit.”
I shrug. “Not difficult to fool a fool.”
Aaron grins, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “That’s good, little man. Very witty.”
Sebastian snorts when he sees the look on my face, joining us at the desk. “Calm down, tough guy. I haven’t told Aaron everything. After all, he’s just a little CEO of a little company. I’m the big bad wolf.” He titters and taps his fingers against his wolf’s head cane.
It’s strange to see Aaron so easily chastened. He bristles silently at Sebastian’s dismissal, but he doesn’t argue or try to fight it. He just takes it like the little rat he is.
“You think you’ve got us beat?” Aaron hisses. “There’s still a lot we could do to you, Vale. I could start with that old bitch. You think your wannabe tough guy guards outside the hospital mean a damn thing? I run that place, and I can do any damn thing with her or my bitch niece that I wan—”
I don’t plan it. One moment, he’s ranting; the next, I’ve lunged across the desk and hauled him off his feet by his beard. He gasps as I shove him against the wall, making him shake like a scared kid.
“You’ll never speak about her like that again,” I snarl. “This won’t be about business if you do, Pike. It’ll be about you staring down into a puddle of your own blood.”
“Mother—fucker,” Aaron wheezes, shoving uselessly against my chest. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing? I’ll take your whole life!”
“Take it,” I grunt, “as long as you keep her name out of your mouth.”
“You piece of—”
“That’s enough,” Sebastian cuts in. “Let him go, Dom. We have important matters to discuss. Aaron, leave us.”
Aaron’s eyes swivel toward Sebastian, but he can’t move his head with my hand buried in his beard. “What?”
“You heard me. You don’t need to hear the next bit.”
I let Aaron go, gaze fixed on him, waiting for him to make a move, to say something I don’t like. I’ve been doing my best to pretend I’m over Songbird, but one mention and I go full berserker.
Once we’re alone, Sebastian drops into Aaron’s seat and lays his cane across his knees, tapping his fingers against the wolf’s head.
“That really was something,” he says. “You moved like that.” He snaps his fingers. “I suppose you’re wondering why I feel so safe being alone in a room with you.”
No, in fact. I was wondering what Aaron meant by saying he runs the hospital. Does Pike Construction have a stake in it? Is he manipulating the staff? My thoughts spiral to Izzy’s problem, to her grandma, not the problem sitting opposite me with a smirk on his face.
“That was clever,” he goes on. “The documents, feeding her false information. How did you know she was going to flip?”
“That’s not your concern.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Maybe you didn’t, eh? Maybe Uncle Seb’s betrayal hurt so badly, you’ve been paranoid ever since. Maybe I broke you and your daddy.”
“If that’s the case,” I growl, “you’re one sick fuck, saying it with so much glee.”
“I’ve tried to let you go, Dominic,” he says.
“I honestly, truly have. I swear to God, I have done my best to live my life abroad, away from the States, away from the last remaining stain of your family. Away from the kin of the man who took everything from me. But I just can’t do it, you see.
I wasn’t always like this. Something broke me. ”
“Let’s skip the part where you monologue at me,” I snap.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer through this.” Tap-tap-tap on that gleaming, grinning cane’s pommel. “I want your business. You don’t deserve to live and flourish while my own…”
He trails off, clearing his throat, looking genuinely devastated for a moment. Looking human.
“The world will know who your father really is if you don’t do what we command.”
Ah, right. So he knows about Jennifer, about Liam.
“I have tried to keep my brother a secret,” I snap. “But I won’t sacrifice my business for him. You’re overplaying your hand.”
“The whore? The bastard?” He laughs humorlessly, shaking his head. “This has nothing to do with them. Not yet, anyway. I suppose we’ll have to see what Liam makes of himself, if I live that long. No, Dominic, this is about you and your father and the promise I made all those years ago.”
“How fucking mysterious,” I grunt.
He scowls. “You need to learn some respect.”
“I’ve already learned everything from you I possibly can.”
“But that’s where you’re wrong,” he says, leaning forward, aiming a trembling finger at me. “You see me as a monster, as some beast who’s doing this out of sheer… what? Greed? Sadism? Perhaps I get a thrill from hurting people, and you just happen to be in the way?”
“What did I say about monologues,” I snarl, making it a statement.
“I promised my dying son that I’d make this right,” Sebastian says, his eyes welling up.
“What?” I exclaim. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“Of course you don’t,” Sebastian says. “Your father, the sick, depraved fuck, wouldn’t have wanted to shatter your image of him.
The truth, plain and simple? Your father drunkenly crashed into my car one night.
My wife and my son were sitting on the same side.
My wife died instantly. My son? He lingered.
Just long enough for me to promise I’d make him pay.
And I did. I bled him dry. I forced him into an early grave. I did that for my son.”
This almost sounds like a sick joke. My mouth falls open, but no words come out.
“Bullshit,” I say finally.
“Your father, Mr. Money Bags, was able to get the charge dropped. We even saw each other, briefly, but he didn’t recognize me when I reappeared in his life, didn’t think twice about it.
I remember making friends with him, how he’d drink and drink, wink at me when he got behind the wheel. He hadn’t learned his lesson.”
“You’re a liar,” I whisper, voice breaking.
“If only that were the case,” Sebastian says.
“Do you think I’ve wanted to carry around this heartache, this curse?
I’ve tried to forget, tried to console myself with your father’s death.
But it’s just not fair, as prosaic as that might sound.
My son had his whole life ahead of him, fifteen years old and full of hope.
He was in agony at the end. He begged me, my own boy. Begged.”
“My dad…”
You can’t trust anyone, he whispers in my mind.
“My own father…”
Not even me.
“Was a monster,” Sebastian spits. “The worst kind. Without remorse. And, if you don’t dance to our tune, the whole world will know. I’ve got the police reports. I’ve got the proof. He was able to wriggle off the hook, legally, but do you think the public will care?”
I jump to my feet, laying my fists on the desk and glaring at Sebastian. He doesn’t look like a politician hatching a scheme, he just looks like a grief-stricken old man.
“If this is true, people deserve to know who he really was,” I snarl. “You haven’t got any leverage here. I won’t sacrifice my business, my employees’ livelihoods, to save the image of a dead man.”
Even if I loved him more than anything.
“Then I’ll find another way to ruin you,” Sebastian grits out.
I slam my hand on the table. “I was sixteen when you came into our lives, twenty-one when you took my father’s business and ruined our lives, and twenty-eight when he died. All this time, you were holding that grudge. Nurturing it? And even now, you can’t let it go?”
Sebastian snorts. “If you’re ever unfortunate enough to have a child die in your arms, you’ll know how insulting that question is.”
I search his face for any sign of a lie. He seems so genuine, tears clinging to his eyelashes.
“Send me the information,” I snarl. “If it’s true, I’ll release it myself. Otherwise, put the past where it belongs.”
“I tried to forget,” he calls after me when I storm from the office. “But I can’t. So, neither will you.”