Arranged love

TITAN

I PLACE MY gun in my waistband and turn toward Nite. “Tell the cleanup crew two bodies.”

Nite nods and goes back to texting on his cell.

I turn to face her. She stands against the wall in a state of shock, staring down at the blood smeared across her hands and arms.

“Em?” I ask her.

She doesn’t acknowledge me.

“Em?” I take her face in my hands. “Emilee, look at me.”

Wide blue eyes meet mine.

“Breathe,” I order. Her face is pale. “Take in a breath, Em. Come on.” Her skin is covered with his blood from the shot, and her body shakes. I don’t think she notices. “Emilee?” I bark this time, giving her a little shake. Her lips part, and she sucks in a deep breath. “That’s right,” I say gently.

“You … killed them.”

“Yes.” And I’d do it again. No one is going to put her in any situation that could cause her harm.

I had an idea of how tonight would go. That’s why I called Nite to watch her. He had informed me the minute the kid arrived. If he wouldn’t have, then she would have never known I had surveillance on her. But he made a very bad mistake and paid for it with his life.

“You killed them,” she repeats again.

“Em …?”

“For me?” she asks, blinking rapidly. Not only is she in shock but she’s also quite drunk.

“Of course, it was for you.” I know the rumors that are told about the Kings and me, but we don’t kill for sport. You won’t have any clients, if you kill them all off. But for her? I’d kill them all. “He hurt you.” It’s the only reason I have.

Her bottom lip begins to quiver, and tears fill her pretty eyes. “But why?” she whispers. “Why would you do that?”

I open my mouth to tell her I love her, but now is not the right time. She’s covered in blood, and two dead bodies lay literally at our feet.

I’ve waited twenty-six years to tell her how I feel, so what’s another day? “Come on. Let’s go to Kingdom. We need to wash off.” Then I look at Nite. “Make sure to get their phones.”

_______________

I pull up to the back of Kingdom and get out of the car. I run around the front and open her door. After I help her out, I remove my shirt and wrap it around her and take her hand to help her up the stairs. Nigel is already there waiting for us.

We enter the Royal Suite and go straight to my bedroom. I know that Bones is at Glass with Luca, but I’m not sure where in the fuck Grave and Cross are.

I undress her and start the shower. We get in, and I place her under the sprayer. The blood runs off her skin and down into the drain, washing away any evidence of what I did.

“I don’t want to anymore.” It’s the first thing she’s said to me since we’ve left the alleyway. She sat in my car silent and shaking uncontrollably, rocking back and forth. I was afraid to say anything to her. She needed time to process it all. What happened to her, and what I did in order to protect her.

“Want to what?” I ask, running the soap up and down her cold arms, cleaning her skin.

“Be a Queen anymore,” she whispers.

I want to smile but refrain. The only way she was doing that again was over my dead body. “Okay. You don’t have to do it anymore.”

“But … I burned my parents’ house down.”

“That’s okay.” That house is the least of my worries.

“No.” She shakes her head. “I burned my father’s money.”

My hands stop moving. “What do you mean?”

She licks her lips. “He told me that he had money hidden in the walk-in closet. But now it’s all ash.”

“What makes him think that?” Most of the house was destroyed, but there are parts that managed to go untouched. The neighbors had called the fire department before it all burned.

“He told me he went back the night we returned to Vegas.” She bows her head. “I had burned it. He needed it. That’s why I took the job tonight.”

I grip her chin and lift her head, so she has to look at me. “Don’t ever do anything other than for yourself, Em.”

TITAN

THE SUN HAS been up for a few hours. We all sit around the conference table silently. I twirl a pen in my hands as Cross flips his Zippo. Grave’s hungover ass drinks Pedialyte out of the bottle. And Bones types away on his phone when the door opens.

Nigel shows Nick York to his seat across from me. I thank him, and he exits, leaving us alone with him.

“What is this about?” he demands, straightening his tie. “I was informed I had to attend a meeting with the Kings?”

I sent Nigel out to retrieve him an hour ago. I half expected him to already be on the run.

“I remember a time when you begged to meet with us,” Bones states, referring to when we loaned him money.

He swallows but squares his shoulders. “What does this pertain to?”

I almost laugh. This fuckface thinks he has leverage here, but he doesn’t. “We know you lied to Em,” I state, and his face drains of what color it had. “You see, we placed surveillance on the outside after the break-in. It was mainly to see if George came back, but it worked in our favor nonetheless.”

“I don’t know …”

“You told Emilee that you went back to the house to get the money you had hidden in your secret stash. You lied.” The guys and I watched it this morning after I filled them in on everything that happened last night and what Em told me. And just as I expected, he had lied to her. We kept it running in case George ever decided to show his face again. Now I’m glad we did.

“I’m guessing you were hoping that she wouldn’t share that information,” Bones adds.

He dips his head and starts breathing heavily. “What do you want?”

I ignore that question and ask my own. “Worried she may realize what a piece of shit you are and disown you?”

He picks his head up and glares at me.

“She will once we tell her how you set her up,” Bones growls.

“I didn’t-”

“You did.” I Interrupt him. “And I have proof.” I state, placing two cell phones on the table.

He pulls on his collar. “What is this?” he demands.

“Evidence,” I state. “You see, you owe several people money. One of them being Jacob. And when he saw that your daughter was a Queen, he wanted to go after her to get to you.” I press play on a video on Jacob’s phone. It’s of Emilee walking into the back of Kingdom the night of their first date. Jacob was already there, parked around the corner, watching her. Recording it. Then he sent it to Nick’s old number. But he didn’t send a message. The video comes to a stop, and I sit back in my chair.

“You can’t prove that,” he growls.

“But I can.” I open the phone once more and go back to the text messages. “She can work off my debt.” My eyes meet his. “Is what you replied to his video.”

“Is that true?”

He jumps to his feet as Nigel holds the door for Emilee to enter.

“Emilee …” he starts.

“Is that true?” she demands, tears in her eyes.

“What are you …?” He spins around to glare at me. “You set this up.”

I sit back and cross my arms over my chest. “She deserves to know.” Emilee has a big heart. She wants to see the good in people. I mean, look at the type of people she has surrounded herself with. Bones, me, the rest of the Kings. She believes in second chances, and I love her for that. Without her forgiveness, I would have never had my chance with her. But her father? Enough is enough. She needs to see that he betrayed her. And it could have cost her, her life.

“You were willing to let him sleep with me because you owed him money?” she goes on, and her voice cracks.

He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

“You set her up,” I say, filling the silence.

He turns around to face me.

“Just like you did with George. You knew what he wanted. What’d he do to her if you walked away.” I’m fishing. I don’t have confirmation yet, but I’ll get it.

He pulls his lips back. “You think you’re better than me?” He shakes his head. “She is a fucking Queen. Call girl. Escort. Whore! She fucks men for money.” He points at her.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I grind my teeth and fists my hands. “The only guy she fucked for money was your business partner because you left her with nothing,” I snap. How could he only think of himself? I went through all the documents that Yan had shown Emilee after her mother had passed. And they were legit. Except for the will he left her. That money did not exist. It was something that Nick and George had come up with to buy him time while he was pretending to be dead. He had it written where Emilee had to be thirty-five in order to inherit three million. By the time that rolled around, he’d risen from his grave and taken every cent he had and would be in another country.

“It’s not like George raped her,” he spits out, and I stand. “She willingly …”

I storm over to him, grab his shirt, and drag him over to me. I slam him face-first into the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooks Las Vegas. “You knew, didn’t you?” I growl and yank his head back. “What he would do to her. Was that part of the agreement?”