Tarnished Empire: A Standalone Enemies-to-Lovers Billionaire Romance

by Ava Harrison

  I remove her hands from where they sit on her belly and start kissing her fingers.

  “I didn’t tell you before, and I realize now that makes me a coward. But somewhere on that island, I fell in love with you. Not just any love. A heart-stopping love. A devastating love. One that has consumed every fiber of my being. I thought if I left you, you were better off. The war with your father … My need for revenge. I thought I was being selfless by letting you go.”

  “And now?” she whispers, tears still heavy behind her lids.

  “You are my peace. Even after the island, I would wake up expecting you beside me, hoping that this was all a nightmare and I was still on the island with you. Because that’s my dream. To be back there, with you. But I walked away, and it might have been for what I thought was the right reason, but I was wrong.”

  “You left.”

  “I know. I’m selfish. I can’t let you go. I might not have been there then, but I am now. I might be too late, but I couldn’t go without telling you, without demanding you listen.”

  “Then say it,” she says.

  “I love you. I loved you then, and I love you now. Looking back, I knew on the raft. I knew if I was going to die, if you were in my arms, I would die in peace.”

  I lift to place a kiss on her lips, and she doesn’t fight, but she doesn’t kiss me back either.

  A sinking feeling settles in my gut. Am I too late?

  She won’t look at me. No, instead, she keeps glancing at a table. To her phone, maybe? Without asking, I stand, and she reaches her arm out. “No.”

  Anger courses through me. What is she hiding? Without waiting for her to say more, I storm toward the table, where a piece of paper rests, and then I see it.

  Everything I think I know comes to a halt. Everything I ever thought was important smashes to the ground because nothing else matters but this.

  I don’t hear her as I stare at the paper.

  I barely feel her as she places her hand on my shoulder.

  But when a tear drops from my eye, I blink. I turn to see her, her own tears now spilling down her beautiful face.

  Her lip trembles, and I hold up the paper.

  “A baby?”

  She nods.

  “My baby.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re having my baby?”

  More tears slip down her cheek as she nods.

  And then I’m dropping to the floor. My mouth to her stomach. I lift the hem of her shirt and kiss her flesh. I kiss my baby.

  I’m not sure how long I kneel in front of her, but eventually, I stand and walk her to the couch. Once she’s sitting, I don’t sit. I don’t presume to stay either because we still have too much to do before I can.

  “I won’t lose you,” I tell her. “I’ll talk to your father.”

  “He hates you.”

  “You’re mine. That baby in your belly? Mine. Your thoughts and dreams are mine. I will make your father understand, or I will take you from him. Even if I have to tie you up in my boat.”

  “You already tried that.” She inclines her head. “How did that work out for you?”

  “Pretty well, seeing as you’re having my baby.” I grin back.

  “Shh.” She laughs.

  I bend down and place a soft kiss on her lips. “This is not where our story ends, little dove. I will fight for you.”

  48

  Phoenix

  Last night, Alaric told me he loved me. Words are just words without action.

  Today, I have to speak to my father. Alaric might be calling him to form a truce, but I need to speak with him first.

  We’ve never spoken about the island, and it’s time.

  It’s time for me to tell him everything, including that I’m pregnant.

  When I’m standing in front of the room my dad stays in, I knock once before he answers.

  He’s dressed and ready for the day. Me, on the other hand … I’m still in my pjs. I didn’t want to risk missing him.

  “Phoenix, are you okay?”

  “I lied to you yesterday.”

  He moves aside and lets me in. I walk past him and sit down at the table.

  “About the hospital?” he asks as he stands behind a chair across from me. His fingers wrap around the top, and I can see his knuckles are white. “What did you lie about?”

  “The doctor did tell me what was wrong, or rather—” I stop and take a breath. “I’m pregnant.”

  As soon as I utter the words, I hear the crash, and the chair is on the floor now.

  “The bastard.” He starts to curse and pace. Then he’s reaching into his pocket. The next thing I know, he’s pulling out a gun.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to kill him. I might not have protected you then, but I’m—”

  “Stop!” I scream, and he looks up at me in shock. “You will do no such thing. I love him, and he loves me, and it’s about time you listen and hear me. If you touch Alaric, I will no longer be in your life.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. We haven’t talked about the island, but it’s time. It’s time you know he saved me. Not once, not twice, but three times. I fell in love with him. He’s not the man you know, and for me, you will form a truce. He is the father of my baby. I love him, and you will talk to him. And if you think this is one-sided, it’s not. For four years, he thought you killed his brother—”

  “I didn’t.”

  I hold my hand up. “I know that, but he doesn’t. I told him, but whether he believes it or not is irrelevant because he still is willing to sit down with you. To talk and to move forward because he loves me that much. Now the question is, do you love me enough to do the same?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then call him and set it up.”

  “I will do this for you because I love you, and you’re my daughter. But that doesn’t mean I will ever trust him. If he so much as lifts a finger wrong where you are involved, I will kill him. Do not ask me not to.”

  “Understood.”

  My father does as I ask. Today, we are all going to meet. Where, though? Not on Alaric’s boat and not here in the hotel. Someplace public, maybe? In the end, we decide against all of that. We are all only as good as our word. If Alaric hurts my father, he won’t be in our baby’s life and vice versa.

  The dock by the yacht is the destination. Alaric has parked his boat at a private one close to the city, so we will meet there.

  It’s a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. As soon as we pull the car down toward the boat, I see him.

  His hair looks lighter in the sun. I had forgotten that when the sun hits it, he has blond highlights scattered through the brown.

  “Are you ready?” my dad says to me, and I nod. Together we walk down to where Alaric has set up a table. There are three chairs. I sit between the two men as a buffer.

  It’s tense at first.

  “I love her,” Alaric says, and I’m shocked he starts there. “I’m here for her. For my baby.”

  “I’m here as well.”

  “Then I’m going to ask you this, and I need you to be honest—man to man. I will not seek vengeance no matter your answer, but I need to know. Did you order the hit on me four years ago? Did you kill my brother in my place?”

  “No,” my father says without hesitation.

  “Okay.”

  I look at the two men I love most in the world, and then I focus on Alaric. He has spent years trying to seek justice for a death that should have been his, and he is willing to take my dad at his word.

  “Now what?” I ask.

  “If your father says he didn’t do it, then I trust you, dove, to know that he wouldn’t lie to me. He wouldn’t risk you. But the question still stands … who tried to kill me? There have been two attempts on my life, both involving you,” he says to my father.

  “I had nothing to do with either attack. But certainly not the one that almost took Nix from me.”

  “I�
��m inclined to believe you there.” He looks off into the distance at the water. His tense shoulders seem to ease. “Someone is trying very hard to make it look like it was you, and I want to know why.”

  “Competition,” I blurt out.

  Alaric raises a brow. “Your father is my only competition, so how does that make sense?”

  “There has to be a third party,” I state. “Someone who must have been just starting out back then. It would make sense. He tried to kill you, his plan failed, but in turn, it still worked.”

  “How do you figure? I was alive. My brother was dead. How did that work?”

  “Because you were focused on my father. You spent all these years focusing on the wrong person.”

  “If what you’re saying is true, I was focusing all my resources in the wrong place, then what was the objective with your father?”

  “They probably thought your men would retaliate, which you tried to for years. My father has been in hiding ever since. I was in hiding. But then I stepped out … Perfect bait.” I use his own words.

  “For more than just you …” my father says, his hand lifting to rub his temples.

  “What?”

  “This war flushed me out too.”

  Everything goes slow from that moment on. I hear Alaric scream. I watch horrified as he jolts from his chair, jumping in front of my father, pushing him out of the way … and only then do I register the red light that was shining on my father’s chest.

  49

  Alaric

  The first thing I do is make sure Phoenix is okay. Then I scream for Cristian.

  The rest of my men are running toward the table.

  “You hit?” I ask Michael. His face is pale, clearly in shock.

  “No … you saved me.”

  “I did.” My voice is monotone.

  This is my fault. Phoenix is here, and there’s been an attempt on Michael’s life because of me.

  My stomach turns violent as I realize I might have put my baby and the woman I love in danger.

  “You’re bleeding?” Phoenix shouts, and I look at my shoulder, and sure enough, there is blood.

  “It’s just a graze.” I look at Cristian. “Get the shooter. He couldn’t have gotten that far.”

  I need to find him and make sure there will never be another attempt on Michael’s life.

  “Where do you want me to bring him?”

  I look around, noting the buildings around me. Although this is private, I can’t run the risk. “The boat.” He nods, knowing exactly where I want him.

  Once Cristian runs off, Michael turns to me. “I want in.”

  “That can be arranged. He did try to kill you, after all.” I don’t say it was on my authority, but I’ll cross that bridge when I need to.

  Phoenix goes to speak, and I lift my hand. “Nope, you will be sitting this one out.”

  “But—”

  “You need to rest.”

  “I’m not helpless.” She groans.

  “I know you’re not. Fuck, you are one of the strongest people I know. But you are pregnant with my baby, and even if this is the only time you listen to me, you will listen. You will go to my stateroom and wait for me there.”

  She pouts, but she doesn’t object.

  After I wash off the blood, I head down to the lower level of the boat. To the room I built especially for this.

  For anyone asking, it’s a storage room.

  Storage for what … now, that depends.

  Sometimes, I store equipment. Sometimes, it’s guns. Today, it’s a man tied to a chair.

  As I’m about to enter, my phone rings … A text.

  Matteo: It was called off.

  My movements halt as I stare at the phone.

  Me: Are you sure? Because there was just an attempt made on his life.

  Matteo: 100% sure.

  Fuck. Then who do we have in my storage room? More confused than before, I place the phone back in my pocket and swing the door open and stride inside.

  “Do you know this man?” I say to Michael as he follows behind me and then walks to where I am.

  “Do you?” he asks.

  “Never seen him before.” Moving to where he is, I’m not standing directly in front of him. “Who do you work for?” He smiles but doesn’t answer.

  “You think this is funny? You won’t find it funny after I torture you.”

  “Do your worst.” He snickers.

  I step forward, my fist flying and hitting his face. When I pull back, he spits blood, and this time, when he smirks, his mouth is full of blood.

  Stepping back, I signal for Michael. “He tried to kill you. It’s only fitting that you torture him.”

  Gun in his hand, Michael steps in and fires a bullet into his shoulder. The man lurches forward, but with his limbs tied, there isn’t anywhere for him to go.

  “I have seven more bullets. Something tells me you’ll eventually talk,” Michael says, but by the crazed look in this man’s eyes, I’m starting to think we should just throw him overboard.

  Six more bullets. Blood drips from everywhere as I stand beside Michael.

  “What’s it going to be …?” I ask, and Michael lifts the gun. The final bullet. The kill shot.

  This man will die if Michael fires again.

  “Who do you work for?”

  Silence. Just that damn smirk. Like he knows the outcome regardless of the games we play.

  “Are you ready to die for this? Is that how this will end?”

  “Enough of this shit!” Michaels says, finger on the trigger.

  “I am okay with death.” A sick twisted smile spreads across his face as Michael pulls the trigger. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

  The words he utters are cold needles stinging my body. “No!” I shout, rushing over to the man, but as I do, his eyes flutter closed, and then his head hangs limply. I lift it, his eyes are open, but there is nothing behind them. “No … Wake up.” I turn to Cristian. “Get the doctor. We need him to live.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  My knees give out.

  “What the fuck just happened?” I hear from behind me, and I turn to see Michael looking down at me.

  “I don’t know,” I mutter because I don’t.

  I have no fucking clue what is happening.

  Like a zombie, I find my way out of the room and back up to the main deck.

  Phoenix is there waiting for me, her eyes wide with fear, and it is only then I realize I am bathed in blood.

  “It’s not mine,” I grit out.

  “What happened?”

  But I have no words to explain it. Nothing makes sense. Nothing at all.

  It takes me a while, three glasses of scotch and a few long breaths, to calm the hell down.

  After every last drop is gone from my drink, I slam the glass down.

  “Can someone tell me what the hell just happened?” Phoenix asks.

  Cristian and Michael both look at me, but neither speaks. This is my story. My freak-out. This is on me.

  “Did the man tell you who he works for?” she asks.

  “No.” The tone of my voice is brash, and Phoenix shivers.

  “Did he say anything?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did he say?” Her question is simple, but my answer isn’t.

  “‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’”

  Her eyes go wide, and I know she remembers. I know she knows that only one man has said that to me. Only one man used that sentence, over and over again. It was only one man’s motto …

  “Your brother.”

  “My brother,” I confirm.

  “What does this mean?”

  “Beats the fuck out of me, but I have every intention of finding out.”

  Standing from where I’m sitting, I look over at Cristian.

  “Get Cyrus on the phone,” I say.

  He nods and sets about doing that. Michael and Phoenix look as confused as I feel.


  “Alaric,” Michaels says. “Thank you. I owe you my life.”

  “You mean something to Phoenix, and she loves you. That’s enough for me.” As I’m about to say more, as I’m about to apologize for everything I did to him for those four years, Cristian comes back and hands me the phone.

  “What’s going on? I didn’t think I would hear from you so soon.”

  “That incident with Ivy …” Out of respect for him, I won’t talk about that in front of my men or Michael.

  “What about that?” he fires back, angry over it still and rightfully so.

  “The guy who helped you … Jason. Jack—”

  “Jaxson?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to need you to get me in touch with him.”

  “What’s this about?” he asks.

  “Better you didn’t know.”

  “Duly noted. I’ll get you his contact info.”

  I hang up and sit back down. I’m going to need another drink before I make this call.

  Two minutes later, I’m on the phone with Jaxson Price and I’m telling him what just went down.

  “Can you explain that one more time?” he asks over the line.

  “Four years ago, my brother died … and I have reason to believe … Fuck. I don’t know what I believe.”

  “A man hired to kill the one man who can confirm he didn’t kill your brother is dead. Am I getting this straight?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the one man, he quoted your dead brother?”

  “Right again. I’m thinking that when my brother was estranged, he might have worked with whoever is doing this. Maybe for revenge?”

  “That sounds plausible. Crazy but plausible.”

  “Maybe this person wanted our businesses and killed my brother to start the war.” That’s the explanation that Phoenix came up with, and it seems more plausible now.

  “It definitely appears that way. So, you need me to track all your brother’s acquaintances before he died, and see if there are any hits?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to be sending you a care package. Let me know what you find.” I probably should warn him it’s a finger. “You’re going to want to open it by yourself. That’s your warning.”

  He lets out a chuckle. “Easy enough and duly noted. I’ll make sure no one can see whatever you placed in the box. I’ll have the information back to you within a few days.”