Chapter 2
Chapter Two
CALLUM/CASH
Now
Great Kings & Determined Princes
The ghost of the past is knocking, but I pretend I don’t hear.
Istand next to Jaxon near the temporary bar the Hemings have set up by the pool, keeping my voice low. “It sounds like you have some new information. Do you know who went after Livianna?”
“I have additional details. Names of people involved, but there’s something that doesn’t fit the equation.” Jaxon stands with his back to the sliding glass door, his whiskey glass easy in his hand.
“Yeah, what’s that?” My stomach twists. I don’t like his tone.
“The SUV you thought was following Livianna wasn’t following her.”
“Then why do I keep seeing them?”
“They’re not after her. At least those people aren’t.” He runs his palm down his stubbly beard.
“I’m not imagining them, Jaxon.”
“My security team confirmed what you’re telling me, but the surveillance pattern is keyed to your movements. Not Livianna’s.”
“What the…?” I grip my glass tighter. “You’re sure?”
“Very. You’re the target of whoever is behind the wheel of that vehicle you keep seeing.” He places his drink down. “Are you sure Livianna’s accident was meant for her?”
Livianna laughs at something Quinn says, and it floats through the air. It’s warm, unguarded, and completely removed from this conversation.
I force my gaze to stay on Jaxon. “I thought so.”
“My team says they’ve found evidence that they’ve been tracking you for a few months. It doesn’t appear that anyone is going after Livianna. It’s you they want.”
“So, whoever put someone on me used what they found to get to her and destroy me in the process.”
“That’s the working theory.” He doesn’t dress it up, and I appreciate that about him. “Which means the question isn’t who wanted to hurt Livianna. It’s who wanted to hurt you badly enough to go through her to do it.”
A few dreadful people I don’t wanna name come to mind. “I’ve made enemies. That’s the industry.”
“That’s not a good enough answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
He nods and takes a pause. “Leon Baker has come up.”
The name drops before me. Ice forms in my veins, and I tense. It’s full-body and impossible to hide if someone’s watching closely enough. And Jaxon Crowne is always watching closely enough.
“Leon’s name comes up everywhere.” I roll my shoulders back. “He’s been in this industry for years. He’s connected to everything.”
“He’s connected to you specifically.”
“We had a contract, and it ended badly. That’s every other story in this business.” I step toward the counter and motion for another soda so my hands have something to do. “You’re fishing, Jaxon.”
“I’m asking.” He lets the distinction sit there.
“What exactly has your team found?”
“We’re butting into your conversation.” Quinn steps onto the pool deck with Livianna at her side, champagne flute swinging, and her smile sharp enough to leave a mark. “What’s so important that you had to huddle away from the party?”
Livianna slips up to my side. “I was wondering when you were going to come back to me.”
“Jaxon and I were just catching up on some business matters.” I pull her close, pressing my lips to her temple.
Her engagement ring grazes my forearm, and its solid pressure anchors me to her. She’s all warmth, and it fills my chest.
Quinn’s gaze travels between Jaxon and me with the slow patience of someone building a case.
“Business matters?” She pops her hands to her waist. “This is a party. You can do that later.”
“We had something important to discuss.” Jaxon lifts his glass toward her, unbothered in the way only a man who’s never had to explain himself can manage. “It couldn’t wait.”
“Business.” Quinn rolls her eyes. “Jaxon, you and I both know you could’ve saved that for another day.”
“True, but?—”
“But nothing.” She tips her champagne in his direction. “Livianna and I were wondering why you help her so much. What’s in it for you?”
Livianna stiffens. “Quinn.”
“I’m just asking.” She rests a hand on Livianna’s arm, all warm and innocent. “It’s a fair question.”
Jaxon holds her stare without a flicker. “Livianna’s company is worth protecting. I protect my investments.”
“Okay.” Quinn brings the rim of her glass to her mouth and pauses there. “And is that what she is? An investment?”
The question sits between all four of us, bright as a spotlight nobody asked for.
Livianna laughs under her breath and shakes her head. “Please ignore her. She’s on her third glass.”
“I’m sharp as a tack, actually.” Quinn grins without a molecule of an apology.
I bring Livianna closer to my side. The move is automatic, staking something without saying it out loud.
Quinn’s attention drops straight to it. It’s becoming clear that the woman catalogs everything and forgets nothing.
Good. Let her take notice of my protection for Livianna.
“Cash and I were discussing a few minor issues.” Jaxon addresses Quinn in a clean and unhurried tone. “Nothing more.”
“Right.” She loops her arm through Livianna’s and steers her sideways. “If you say so. Since I know you won’t share, I’m taking Livianna with me. She wants to celebrate. Not sit and talk about business issues. This is a party, guys. Get with it.”
Livianna glances over her shoulder at me, something playful and questioning in her gaze.
“Go.” I tip my chin toward the party. “I’ll be right there.”
She lets Quinn pull her away.
I turn back to Jaxon. “You were saying.”
Jaxon peeks at his watch. “Come to my house tomorrow morning. My security team will lay out everything we’ve found. You need to hear it.”
“I can’t do that tomorrow.”
He lifts his commanding gaze. “Cash, this is serious.”
“I know it is.” My stance softens. “I’m taking Livianna away for the weekend. She deserves that much after everything she’s been through.”
Resolve drains out of him. It’s not dramatic. There’s no flinch or stumble. It’s quieter than that, like a candle that just ran out of wick.
He says nothing for a long moment. The party noise fills the gap between us.
His face pales. “A getaway.”
“Yeah. She needs it. We both do.”
Jaxon nods once. “Monday, then. We’ll meet on Monday.”
“Monday works.” My mind searches for something to say that isn’t cruel. “I know this isn’t easy for you. I’m sorry for that.”
“Don’t apologize. You weren’t responsible for this.”
“I know, but I’m gonna, anyway.” I place my palm on his shoulder. “You’re a good man, Jaxon. You didn’t deserve any part of this situation.”
“Nor did she.”
“No, she didn’t.”
The heaviness of what’s occurred settles between us. We’re just two men standing at the edge of a party that belongs to one of us and destroys the other.
“Look, Jaxon, I believe Livianna and I were always supposed to end up here.” There’s no venom attached to my words, just the truth as I’ve known it since I was a teenager.
Jaxon stares at me for a few beats. “I know.”
“I’m sorry it’s costing you so much.”
He exhales and turns toward the party. He finds Livianna without searching, the way a man does when he already knows exactly where someone he loves is. He stays there a bit too long.
He takes his phone out of his pocket. “I need to go. It’s just too much to stay.”
“Jaxon—”
“It’s fine, Cash.” He cuts it off without heat. “Give her my best and let her know it was a beautiful evening.”
He steps past me without waiting for a response, steady and calm the way Jaxon Crowne does everything. He disappears into the house.
The space he leaves behind has its own particular silence. One accident and I got everything I’ve ever dreamed of, and he lost everything that matters.
My chest caves in. I wish it were anyone but him. That way, I wouldn’t have this empty pit in my stomach whenever he’s around. I could hate the man and do everything in my power to keep him away from Livianna. But that’s not our reality, and it sucks.
I turn toward the lights, the laughter, and the woman wearing my ring, and I go to her side with conflicting emotions flowing in my veins.
Will circumstances ever take a turn for the better?
La Jolla, California
Now
Livianna runs into the water before I even get my shoes off. “Hurry up, slowpoke.”
“Lily!” I cup my hands around my mouth. “It’s freezing in there.”
“It’s perfect!” She spins toward me with her arms wide open, the Pacific foaming white around her ankles, and her hair whipping across her face in the wind.
She has no idea what she does to me. She never has.
“Get ready, love.” I drop my shoes in the sand and strut toward her.
She flashes me a smile she saves for moments when she thinks she’s winning. What she doesn’t get is that she’s always winning.
“Don’t even think about it, Callum.” She backs up a step, eyes bright, daring me to do exactly what I’m about to do.
I close the distance and scoop her up before she gets another word out, her shriek dissolving into laughter as I carry her deeper into the surf. She locks her arms around my neck as if she isn’t the one who ran into the water first.
“Callum, do not throw me in.”
“I’m not throwing you anywhere.” Stopping where the icy ocean water laps at my shins, I hold her tightly, feeling her comforting warmth against my chest as the waves swirl around us. “I’ve got you.”
She pulls back just far enough to read my face. The laughter softens into something quieter, something that belongs only to us.
“Yeah.” She presses her palm flat over my heart. “You do.”
The sun drops lower over the sea, turning everything amber. I stand, holding the woman I’m gonna marry, while the Pacific does whatever it wants around us.
It hits me. It’s an understanding, maybe for the first time with nothing dark underneath it, that this is the whole point. Every torturous event. Every wrong turn. Every year, we lost and clawed our way back from. It was all the road to this.
I carry her back up the beach before the cold wins, and she doesn’t ask me to put her down. She knows from the heat in my gaze that I have other things much more important than freezing to death.