Across from Phantom.
To the guy’s credit, he remained outwardly calm, even as his eyes flicked over the table which sported not the continental breakfast he’d been expecting but one single iPad.
After a moment of calculation, he smoothed his hands down the front of his pressed khakis and chose to sit down in the seat next to Olivia.
“Darling, what is this?” he asked, his tone as carefully tuned as the grand piano in the castle’s sitting room.
“I can’t marry you,” she answered with new steel in her molasses and flower petal voice. “I won’t marry you. I love Hak-kan, and he’s the only one I want to be with.”
Garrett coldly blinked at her declaration. Then turned to address Phantom directly, as if deciding that women should be left out of this conversation altogether.
“I’m sure you have some brutish plan to intimidate me. Did Olivia make you aware of the consequences of threatening me or harming me in any way?”
“She did. She did do that,” Phantom answered with an impressed nod. “Real smart. I’ve got no interest in going to jail.”
“So then, it appears we're at a stalemate.” Garrett smirked. “You want Olivia, but I can’t let you have her.”
Phantom could have bashed his perfect white teeth in right then, just for daring to claim that he had any ownership over his woman. Instead, he flashed Garrett a genial smile. “Actually, we figured out a third option.”
He nodded toward Olivia, bringing her back into the conversation whether Garrett wanted her there or not. “O, you want to explain this part?”
Olivia twisted in her seat to address Garrett.
“You were right about my father having a soft spot for me,” she confessed, her voice stiff. Phantom could tell acknowledging that made her uncomfortable as hell.
But she soldiered on. “I spoke with my dad late last night and explained the situation. And he said if it would make me happy, he’d sign over the company to Easton Whiskey—even if that meant not keeping it in the family. So that’s what he did early this morning.”
She slid the iPad over to him. “Here’s everything fully executed. Glendaver is now officially an Easton Whiskey acquisition.”
Garrett’s eyes lit up, and he snatched the iPad from Olivia’s hands.
“Well, why didn’t either of us think of that in the first place?” he asked Olivia. As if this situation was just a simple failure on both their parts to scheme outside the box. “I don’t have to marry you. You don’t have to marry me. Win-win.”
“Yeah,” Phantom agreed. “I’m going to need you to win-win me an iron-clad NDA that you won’t testify against me or provide any information to the feds.”
Garrett considered his words, and you could just about see the calculations being made underneath all that Christian Bale ala American Psycho hair.
So Phantom was about zero percent surprised when he asked, “Why would I do that? You’re acting civilized now, but what’s to guarantee you won’t try to seek revenge if I grant your request?”
“I’m not like that anymore,” Phantom answered, his voice flat. “I don’t kill. I’m keeping on the straight and narrow. I just want my woman back.”
“Then, by all means, have her,” he answered, waving a magnanimous hand toward Olivia. “I’ll keep what I have on you close to guarantee my safety and ensure that you’ll be of service should I ever need monetary assistance again.”
Phantom frowned. “Monetary assistance?”
Garrett shrugged. “I gave most of my Easton Whiskey shares to the Russians, so I’ll barely be making anything from this sale. If marrying Olivia without a prenup is off the table, then I’ll need some kind of guarantee that you’ll cover me monetarily if I get in trouble again.”
Phantom expelled a long sigh. He’d forgotten how hard it was not to just pull out a gun and blast an irritating bitch in the face.
“Listen, man. I get that you want to make a deal, but I’m not negotiating with you on this. You can either give me the NDA or lose your parents. Because I might have turned over a new leaf, but my partners are another story. They’re not as legit as me, and when they find out that you’ve got something you’re trying to hang over my head, they’ll kill them to send you a message. And they’ll make it bad—probably send you some video so you’ll stay haunted at night even if you can get WITSEC to disappear you if you decide to rat.”
Now that threat got a visible reaction from Garrett.
“You’d—you’d kill my parents?” he asked, his voice shaking.
“Not me,” Phantom clarified. “Forces beyond my control if I don’t get that NDA, along with any and all files you’ve got on me.”
Garret shook his head, his eyes filled with utter shock. But then he smiled and said, “Yes, that’s a brilliant idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Phantom squinted, and Olivia seemed to be asking for both of them when she said, “What?”
“You can kill my parents—I want you to kill them in exchange for what I have on you,” Garrett answered Phantom, ignoring Olivia’s shocked look. “And my two older brothers too. They’ll all be together in the Hamptons next month for my Dad’s birthday. We always take a big sailing trip. If something happened to the boat, everyone would think it was tragic, but no one would be the wiser. I’ll pretend to be too sick to come up for the weekend, and then I’ll inherit everything.”
Olivia stared at her ex, her face completely aghast, but Phantom just nodded and gave Garrett an impressed look. “Greed is good. Okay, Michael Douglas, I see you. You just sealed the real deal.”
Garrett smiled broadly. “A pleasure doing business with the both of you.”
He scooted back from the table and made a move to get up but paused when Phantom asked, “Did you get that?”
“Did I get what?” Garrett asked.
“Wasn’t talking to you pencil-dick,” Phantom answered, at the same time a voice said, “Garrett, how could you?”
They all looked up to see Gerald Easton come in from the dining room’s kitchen entrance…along with two big white guys.
Garrett paled. “Dad? What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing?” his father demanded. “You’ve ruined everything!”
Phantom caught Olivia’s eye, reminding her with a gentle look that they’d agreed that she wouldn’t stick around for this next part.
He held his breath as he waited to see if she’d comply. Olivia was more responsible than most—that was pretty much why the situation with Garrett had escalated this far.
Beautiful heart like hers, he knew she could decide to advocate for her prick ex at the last moment. And Phantom wasn’t sure how he’d respond if she did.
But she stood up like she promised and left the room without looking back.
Good woman…he couldn’t wait to make her his wife tomorrow in the ceremony that was originally planned for her and Garrett.
Meanwhile, Garrett was still shaking his head and sputtering. He was obviously having trouble comprehending his father’s sudden appearance.
So Phantom generously caught him up. “Your dad’s a bit of a gambler too. He thought it was too good to be true when I bought all of his and your brother’s shares at market price and guaranteed that I’d sell them back for a dollar if you agreed to give me that NDA. He was sure you’d relent after I threatened him and your moms. And I figured you’d just say no. Turns out we were both overestimating you. I wasn’t expecting the whole murder reverse blackmail thing—nice plot twist, bro.”
“Do you know how much your utter disloyalty just cost us?” his father shouted.
Phantom couldn’t tell if he was more upset about the loss of his company or his son’s plan to off his whole family so that he could have all the Easton money to himself.
And just in case Garrett wasn’t clear on how bad he’d shit the bed, Phantom let him know, “I should tell you, the Russians also took my deal. So it looks like Glendaver will still be staying in the family�
��because now I’m the majority shareholder for Easton Whiskey.”
“What?” Garrett asked, his voice so high, it sounded like a shriek.
“I’ll never forgive you for this!” Gerald shouted at his son. His face was so red with anger, it looked like he was about to explode.
“I was only kidding! I can fix this. I can fix this, Dad.” Garrett promised his father.
Then he turned his whole body to glare at Phantom.
Phantom just rolled his eyes.
“Aw man, here it comes,” he said with a wry chuckle. “The part where you try to blackmail me again.”
Phantom’s prediction took some of the wind out of Garrett’s sails. And he sounded a lot less confident than he had before when he sputtered, “Well, I will give those files to the feds. If you don’t give my father back his stock, that’s what I’ll do.”
Phantom heaved another sigh. “Olivia and me already had this conversation, but okay, let’s roll the recap. Money laundering happens on a global, billions of dollars scale, but when’s the last time the money guy was the star witness in a federal case?”
Garrett looked to the side, trying and failing to remember and therefore proving Phantom’s point.
But then, he reset and said, “It doesn’t matter. I can be the exception!”
“Can you?” Phantom asked.
Garrett shifted from foot to foot. “Yes…yes, I can?”
But his voice was uncertain now, and his answer came out sounding like a question.
“You sure about that?” Phantom asked, lifting both brows. “Like, if you went upstairs to your computer and looked for that file marked ‘Open in Case of My Death,’ would it still be there? Or did somebody with a lot more evil minions at his disposal than you have it remote-deleted? Also, are you super sure that the hard drive you gave to Leighton is still at her place? I mean, she was pretty bitter when she found out you were planning to marry my woman and keep her as a mistress. I’m not sure she was the right person to trust with that particular assignment.”
Garrett looked from side to side, his expression filling with panic. “You’re bluffing….”
Phantom grinned and patted his chest with genuine appreciation. “Wow, Garrett, man, thank you. You’re setting me up for all the good lines. Okay, here goes….”
Phantom cleared his throat and declared, “If I was bluffing, would I hand you over to the Bratva guys whose money you failed to double?”
To punctuate his point, the Russian thugs who came in with Gerald stepped forward and grabbed Garrett by the arms.
“Pro-tip for next lifetime,” Phantom advised Garrett. “Criminals only look like they don’t abide by rules. Nobody likes a washer who’s willing to rat. And if you threaten one of us, you threaten all of us. Nyet?”
Only the two Russians laughed at his observation.
Gerald Easton shook his head bitterly. And Garrett proceeded to freak the hell out. “No! No! You can’t do this!”
He turned his desperate eyes to his father like the entitled brat he still was, no matter how much hair gel and designer clothes he’d used to cover it up. “Dad! Do something!”
Phantom flicked his cold, ruthless gaze over to the older Easton.
“You good?” he asked. He was more than willing to disappear the guy who barely raised this insufferable bitch too. But new leaf—he was trying to give people choices these days.
Gerald tightened his jaw and carefully averted his eyes. “Please, wait a few hours and make it look like a fall. I don’t want my wife to know just how low he sank after I made her stop giving him money. Unlike me, she’ll blame herself.”
“You got it,” Phantom agreed. “But let me do one thing first….”
He came around the table, drew back his arm, and slammed his fist so hard into Garrett’s mouth, it came back scratched up and covered in shattered teeth.
Luckily, all the castle servants had been given the day off, and Olivia’s father was still at the office with the Easton lawyers. Otherwise, everybody would have heard Garrett screaming out of his broken mouth.
The guy’s thrashing around in pain made things a little inconvenient for Phantom, actually. The Russians had to hold him still just so Phantom could stomp a wingtip down on each leg, crushing both of his knees.
But in the end, everything worked out. Garrett wasn’t able to handle that much pain and lost consciousness. Convenient. That allowed the Russians to easily haul him up and drag him to the van they’d parked at the kitchen entrance.
“Make sure he falls on his face to cover that up,” Phantom instructed the two representatives of the Sokolov Bratva as they took out the trash.
They gave him a thumbs up.
And that was the last time he or Olivia ever saw that prick again.
People who work for rich people—gotta love them. There were only a few rounds of blinks when Phantom showed up to the wedding rehearsal instead of Garrett later that morning.
After the rehearsal, he drove Olivia into Louisville to find a new dress—a long-sleeved lace number that showed off her baby bump instead of hiding it.
So when her dad walked her down the aisle the next day, everyone who still had questions figured out why she was marrying Phantom instead of Garrett pretty damn quick.
There wasn’t as much whispering as he would have expected either. It probably helped that Phantom’s last-minute guest list now occupied the Easton side. Members of The Silent Triad filled up most of the rows. And Phantom’s family sat with his fellow Dragons right upfront.
He even flew out Bernice and O2 last minute so that Eric would have someone to talk to other than Mike.
When Phantom finally kissed his bride, their loud cheers made up for the polite but baffled clapping from Olivia’s side.
Whatever. They drowned out all the remaining awkward with quality champagne, VIP Bai3 baijiu, Glendaver Whiskey, and plenty of gourmet food at the wedding reception.
Nora, the new head of the 24K that he’d helped install the year before, couldn’t make it. But she flew in a world-famous DJ to play the reception as a wedding gift, and Phantom pulled him aside for a few words.
Olivia laughed and let him pull her out of her seat when the DJ announced the bride and groom’s first dance and put on the Cardi B version of “I Like it Like That.”
The first time he’d danced with her, she could barely look him in the eye.
But Dr. Glendaver-Zhang took to the floor with her husband without hesitation and trusted him to lead them in the Bride and Groom dance she’d just found out about a few seconds ago.
He could have done a flourish or something like that when the song began to fade. But nah….
He pulled her into his arms for a slow sway and reminded her, “So we’re doing this forever now. It’s official.”
“Alright,” she said with a New York shrug, even though it looked like they’d be moving into this big ass castle in Kentucky after the wedding.
“Alright,” he agreed.
And that was the serious truth, even though neither of them could stop smiling.
The fake couple, who hadn’t been sure if they were deserving of real love, had found a forever home in each other.
Want to find out how Phantom and Olivia
are doing two years later?
With updates on Eric, Bernice,
and Phantom’s grandmother?
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A very special bonus epilogue!
Here are your reader eggs. Let me know on the Ruthless Romance Readers page how many you got!
1. Victor, Han, Dawn, Jazz, and Byron:
VICTOR: The Complete Trilogy
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake
2. Luca and Amber Ferraro - LUCA: HER RUTHLESS DON
3. Erin, the awesome Black and Thai YouTuber with skin like “oh, my God!” - CYNDA AND THE CITY DOCTOR
4. Chrysanthemum - HER RUSSIAN BEAST (star of the original production), HER RUTHLESS POSSESSOR (star of the lat
est production)
AND
5. If you loved Phantom, you’ll ADORE The Very Bad Fairgoods. Check out HIS FOR KEEPS, which stars Colin Fairgood (with a cameo by Bernice)
A Country Superstar with a Wicked Kink + A Songwriter with a Huge Secret = A Super Sexy Darkish Romance
A few years ago, I found out the lesson that Olivia learned in chapter one when an older woman at the YMCA gym I used to attend missed a step and flew off her treadmill.
Fortunately, there was a level-headed woman on the treadmill right next to her. She immediately rushed to the older woman’s side and held her hand.
That’s it. She simply held her hand while the older woman writhed in pain.
She wasn’t a medical professional, just one of those angels who seem to know exactly what to do in a crisis. The gym staff called 9-1-1, and the paramedics arrived a few minutes later. What I remember most was that the older lady didn’t seem to have broken anything—a miracle!—and that she didn’t want to let go of her angel’s hand.
To this day, the memory brings tears to my eyes.
And after the older woman was carried away, most of the people in the cardio room returned to their workout. But I walked out with a story.
So if you’re one of those people who keeps a level head in a crisis and provides a steady spirit to those in need, thank you. The world is better for having people like you in it.
Another story:
While I was doing my junior year abroad in China we took a day trip to some temple whose name I can no longer remember. Like a ton of temples in China, it was located at the top of a mountain, and we had to climb to get there.
Once we arrived, a program mate and I ended up going to a fortune teller who had us pick out fortune sticks. We were giggling the whole time, so I was shocked when he told me that I was very sad now but one day this sadness would pass, and that I would live an interesting and fun life.
Phantom: Her Ruthless Fiancé: 50 Loving States, Kentucky (Ruthless Triad) Page 21
