TITAN
BONES EXITS THE bedroom I’m staying in with Emilee and nods once at me, letting me know she is already passed out.
I sit on the couch next to Luca, and her father sits across from us on the other one. Tristan sits in the chair to my left next to Avery. Nite and Kayn lean against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“We’re waiting,” I growl, glaring at her father.
He runs a hand through his hair. He has looked physically shaken ever since I announced his best friend and business partner fucked his daughter. But I don’t buy it. He faked his own death. He’ll do anything.
“I …” He lifts his head and swallows. “I was in trouble. And needed money. George suggested I fake my death. I had life insurance. He suggested we write up new papers that had me handing over everything to him.”
Bones snorts.
Nick ignores him. “I was to lay low while he waited for the payout. Then he was going to pay off what I owed, and I’d be in the clear.”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?” Luca asks.
“A couple of weeks,” he answers. “He called and told me that there were some issues with the insurance …” He stands from the couch and begins to pace the large open space between the couch and glass coffee table. “Said that his attorney informed him it could take a few months. But that it was handled.”
“And you believed him?” I question.
“I had no reason not to,” he snaps, getting angry. “I gave him access to my accounts in order to take care of Nancy.”
My eyes slide over to Bones for a quick second and then back to him. “For Nancy? Why?”
“Because she was on the company policy up until we divorced. She didn’t own any shares of the company. I was paying out of pocket.”
“Wait.” Bones lifts his hand. “You were continuing to pay for her health care out of pocket after you divorced two years ago?”
He nods. “Why do you sound surprised by that?”
I sit back in the seat. “Because three months ago, she remarried.” His eyes widen. “To your pal, George.”
“That motherfucker!” he shouts.
“Which he lied to Emilee about. Used her for sex …”
Nick picks up a glass bowl that sits on the end table and throws it across the room, breaking it into a million pieces and bringing Bones’s words to a halt. “I’m going to murder him,” he growls, fisting his hands.
“Get in line,” I say.
“Where is he?” Tristan is the one who asks. I’m pretty sure he and Avery are up to speed by now. They’re smart guys.
“He was here in New York.”
“You sure?” I ask. Last we heard, he was in Paris.
He nods. “I saw him. He was at Kink with me.”
“He has a membership?” Avery questions.
He nods, shoving his hands through his dark hair. “The next morning, he boarded a private plane back to Vegas.”
I sigh. “I doubt he’s still there. Even if that is where he went.”
“He’s probably long gone by now,” Bones says. “Nancy left him everything in her will. That was why Emilee set the house on fire. Even if she won’t admit it, I know why she did it.”
Nick falls back down onto the couch. “She’ll never forgive me. Not like I deserve it.”
I stand, done with this conversation. I’m tired. It’s almost four a.m. I want to curl up in bed with her and get some rest. “She will, but you’re right, you don’t deserve it.” I walk past the couch and toward the bedroom.
A hand grips my upper arm and pulls me to a stop. I turn to face her father. “Thanks.” He sighs. “For taking care of her.” Letting go of me, he takes a step back. “When she told me that you and her …” He clears his throat. “I thought—”
“I know what you thought,” I interrupt him and lower my voice. “Just know that you were wrong.”
EMILEE
I wake with a pounding headache. My eyes are sensitive to the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. I moan, burying my face into my pillow.
“Here. Take these,” I hear Titan say from beside the bed.
I lift my head and crack my eyes to see him standing there with two aspirin in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
I sit up and take them from him. “Fuck.” I toss them into my mouth and gulp down the water. “You would not believe the dream I had last night,” I say.
“Try me.” He crosses his arms over his chest and glares down at me.
I frown. “Were we fighting when I passed out?” He doesn’t answer. I sigh. “Look, I wanted to go out. I’m not going to apologize for going to a club with my friends.”
“That’s not the part that pisses me off,” he states. “It’s who you ran into while there.”
I frown, trying to think back on what … “Oh. Josh?” I ask, and his brows rise to his hairline. “Haven met him when she came to visit me in Chicago. When we decided to go out, she saw he was in town for the weekend working at the Seven Deadly Sins here in New York. We were never serious. We were just friends who fucked.”
“Seems like a common occurrence for you.”
My jaw tightens at his words. “Hey, that’s not—”
“Fair?” he interrupts me.
I throw off the covers. “Fuck you, Titan,” I growl, getting out of bed. I wrap a towel around me that was lying on a chair and yank open the bedroom door. I come to a halt when I see Bones and Luca sitting at the kitchen table with Haven and Jasmine. Nite is standing in the kitchen, and a man is standing next to him. “Dad?” I breathe.
“Hey, sweetie,” he says softly, setting down his cup of coffee.
I stand frozen in my spot. “It was a dream,” I whisper.
“No, it wasn’t.” He comes closer to me.
“You’re alive?” I choke out, tears stinging my eyes.
He nods once. “Yeah, I am.”
He reaches me and holds his arms out wide, waiting to see what I do.
“But you’re … I saw you …” I never saw his body. He had been cremated, and we had a memorial service in remembrance.
“I’m so sorry, Emilee. Please forgive me.”
The first tear runs down my cheek. “Of course.” I choke. “Of course.” I run into his open arms, and he wraps them around me. I never thought I’d get this again. His love. His smell.
I don’t dare close my eyes, afraid he may disappear. “I don’t understand. How are you here?” I pull away and look up at him.
He wipes the tears from my cheeks. “It’s okay. We have plenty of time to talk about it.”
“We do?” I ask surprised.
He nods. “Yeah. We’re going back to Vegas. Together.”
“We are?” I can’t believe it. “When?”
“Whenever you want. I have a jet fueled and on standby.”
My face falls. “I burned down your house,” I say, and my bottom lip begins to tremble at what I’ve done.
“Don’t worry about that.” He cups my face. “Luca has a penthouse downtown that he has offered me. No one will know that we are there.”
I take a step back from him and nod. “Okay.”
“Go pack your things and I’ll inform them we are ready.”
I turn and walk back into our bedroom. I’m throwing things into my suitcase when the door opens, and Titan enters. “You can’t be serious?” he growls. “You’re going to go with him?”
“Yes,” I say and stop what I’m doing. “He’s my father. I thought he was dead …”
“Yes, because he tricked you. He tricked everyone.”
“He was in trouble.” I don’t know the full story, but obviously, he faked his death and needed the insurance money.
“God, you can’t be that fucking stupid,” he snaps.
My chest tightens at his words. How cold they were said. As if he believes I really am stupid if I go with my father. “Titan …”
“No!” he shouts. “He could have come clean to you. Or filled you in on his plan. But he didn’t, Em. He didn’t trust you.”
His words hurt because they’re true. But I swallow the knot in my throat. “He’s here now.”
“To use you,” he snaps. “Just like George did. Just like …”
“Like you did!” I shout.
His eyes darken and his chest bows out.
“You fucking used me too, Titan. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”
He says nothing. Just stands there like a fucking statue.
“Get on your knees, Em! You want your phone? Get. On. Your. Knees. That sound familiar?”
He steps into me, pressing his chest into me. “You wanted me as much as I wanted you.”
I shake my head. “Not like that. I didn’t want to be your whore.”
He tilts his head to the side. “You didn’t do it for your phone. You did it because you wanted to be a Queen. You had no problem whoring yourself out for money then.”
I slap him across the face, and my palm instantly stings from my force on his cheek. “Fuck you, Titan,” I growl as his murderous eyes glare down at me. His face now red from my hand.
I grab my things while he just stands there watching. And once I’m done, he doesn’t follow me out of the bedroom.
