Protect

by Bailey, Sarah

  “I tell her a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.”

  “Liora may have told us when we were out on her hen do,” Jen said with a twinkle in her eye. “But don’t worry, she refused to say anything else on the subject of your sex life, although from what I gather, she’s very satisfied.”

  Dante’s mouth set in a hard line as if he was trying to hold back from taking his sister to task. Jen always loved to push his buttons.

  “Christ, just fucking clean it when you’re done, you hear me?”

  He stormed off, muttering to himself under his breath.

  “Don’t you want to know if I said yes or not?” she called after him.

  A second later, he stuck his head around the door again.

  “Did you?”

  “Are you happy Brent is taking me off your hands?”

  “I still have to deal with your bratty behaviour regardless.”

  Jen pouted and Dante rolled his eyes. Then she stuck her hand out, showing him she had said yes to my proposal. Something I was still a little surprised about since she’d told me it was too soon. I wanted her to be sure, although Jen would never agree to something if she wasn’t on board with it.

  “Congratulations. Now I’m leaving. I’d rather not think about what you’re about to do on my fucking table.”

  He stalked away, leaving the two of us alone. Jen looked up at me, her eyes bright with amusement.

  “Do you really have to wind him up like that?”

  “He needs to chill out and stop being so grumpy all the time.”

  Her arms wrapped around my neck and she nuzzled her nose against mine.

  “Now, I think my husband-to-be was about to give me his cock which I’m pretty fucking desperate for right now.”

  How could a man resist? Especially when she’d just called me her husband-to-be. I reached down and started working myself free again.

  “Did Liora really tell you that?”

  “You don’t know the story? Oh my god! We got her so drunk that night. You should’ve seen Dante’s face when we dropped her home. He was fuming… well, up until she told him loudly to take her to bed as she was, and I quote, ‘so horny, she felt like she might die if he didn’t fuck her right then’. Fi and I were falling about laughing at him picking her up all caveman style and carrying her upstairs, telling the two of us to fuck off.”

  I bit my lip as I freed myself and pushed her legs open wider. No wonder neither of them had brought it up. Liora was probably too drunk to remember. She’d stayed in bed for two days after that night, complaining about Fi and Jen ruining her for good.

  As amusing as her little anecdote was, I really wanted her mouth occupied with mine. I wrapped my hand around her neck and kissed her as I thrust inside her tight, wet heat. She moaned, the sound vibrating across my lips. Nothing about this was gentle. Her fingers gripped my collar as she thrust back against me stroke for stroke. I drowned in her just as she did me.

  Her cries of pleasure were muffled with her face buried in my neck. It didn’t take me long to follow her over the edge. There was nothing and no one like this woman.

  I picked her up and took her down to my flat, laying her out on my bed whilst I undressed her fully before discarding my own clothes. I’d deal with the table later. Right now, I wanted to spend the rest of the night making love to Jen. Especially now she’d agreed to marry me. I just had to work out whether she’d be okay with how fast I wanted this to move forward. I wanted to make her mine completely before the baby arrived.

  Pinning her hands above her head, I leant over her.

  “I belong to you, Jen. Now and forever.”

  “I belong to you too.”

  “I don’t want to wait.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “To get married?”

  “Yes… I want you mine.”

  “You’re crazy, you know that? We haven’t even told everyone yet, about this or the baby.”

  I cocked my head to the side.

  “So? We don’t need their approval.”

  “Let me think about it, okay?”

  I smiled and closed the distance between us, my breath fluttering across her lips.

  “I suppose I can give you that.”

  Not letting her respond, I kissed her and she melted against me. I spent the rest of the evening between her legs, making sure she knew just how much I loved her for saying yes to becoming my wife.

  ***

  Coming to the prison again was the very last thing I wanted to do, but I needed the information Zach would provide. Hell if I knew how he’d get hold of it. No point asking anyway since he wouldn’t tell me. I sat back and waited for him in the visitor room with my arms crossed over my chest. The sooner I got this over with the better, then I could get home as we were going to be telling everyone this evening about the baby and our engagement.

  Zach strode in with some other prisoners and made a beeline for my table. His blue eyes were hard as he sat down and appraised me.

  “Hello Brent.”

  “Zach.”

  “I suppose you’re wanting to know what I discovered.”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  The only reason I’d come back to this place to see him again. Whilst I’d been caught up in the mess that was my nieces going missing, Jen getting pregnant and us getting engaged, the need to deal with Max hadn’t slipped my mind. He’d not contacted Jen since she told him she’d bring him down with her, but I knew a man like him would be biding his time. Waiting to strike against her. There was no way he wouldn’t keep coming after her.

  “How is my daughter?”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “Jen is fine.”

  His eyes narrowed as if he didn’t believe me. I didn’t come here to talk about her and I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell him about the engagement or the baby. When this was over, I’d still have to deal with the fallout of telling Dante what I’d revealed to Zach in order to keep their family safe.

  Zach rested his hand on the table and started to drum his fingers along it. The tapping noise soon became irritating.

  “And my grandson?”

  “Also fine. All your kids are doing well.”

  He gave me a sharp nod.

  “I have learnt some rather interesting information.”

  “And that is?”

  His lips curved up at the side. The sight of his smile made me feel ill. There was a certain coldness to it which sent a chill up my spine.

  “It seems you can’t trust anyone these days. Loyalty means nothing, but what can I expect when I’m forced to live out my days within these walls.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Zach loved the sound of his own voice too much.

  “So you’re saying someone betrayed you.”

  “In a sense, yes.”

  “Who?”

  His fingers stilled as he looked around the room, seemingly not wanting to meet my eyes for a long moment. I wondered why he was so reluctant to tell me. After all, he’d been adamant he didn’t want the company he’d built going down in flames.

  “I might not know this Max Graves, but it seems Marcus does.”

  I stiffened as his fingers resumed their drumming and his eyes found mine.

  “Whilst my movements might be limited in this prison, information isn’t hard to come by when you know the right people. And I know the right people.”

  He cracked his neck and straightened in his chair.

  “Your little blackmailer has visited Marcus on numerous occasions over the past six months. It seems they’ve planned this for a long while. Revenge, if you will, for Marcus going to prison because of me.”

  “And why would Marcus want revenge? I thought you two were thick as thieves.”

  His lip twitched.

  “Who do you think testified against him at his trial?”

  I raised an eyebrow. Dante didn’t particula
rly care about Marcus going to prison so neither of us had followed his trial or even looked into the details.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Marcus is the slippery kind. If left unchecked, he would’ve done untold damage. Besides, he refused to take responsibility for what he’d done. Tried to plead not guilty. If he’d owned up to it all, perhaps he wouldn’t have fallen so far. You see, when you know each other’s secrets, you have leverage. I had no reason left to keep his.”

  That was pretty cold, but this was Zach. He had no moral compass. He did as he pleased and destroyed everyone around him. So him testifying against Marcus? Not particularly surprising.

  “So Marcus is pissed off and decided to destroy your legacy, is that it?”

  “In a nutshell.”

  I clenched a fist under the table.

  “And he just thought it was okay to drag your daughter into this mess, did he?”

  “Marcus doesn’t care about who he hurts. He never has.”

  “Neither do you.”

  “Why do you think we were friends?”

  The gleam in his eye when he said that chilled me to the bone.

  “Marcus might be behind this, but that doesn’t help me stop Max.”

  He cocked his head to the side, appraising me for a long moment

  “Pay Marcus a visit. I guarantee he has dirt on the boy. It won’t be hard to get it out of him. After all, he wouldn’t want anything happening to his own children now, would he?”

  “What exactly are you insinuating here, Zach? Because I don’t want any part of shit involving other people’s kids.”

  Zach chuckled and the sound made me feel worse. I hated this man. What he’d done to his kids made me wish he was dead.

  “Oh no, Brent, I don’t expect you to do anything other than tell him I send my regards. He’ll know what that means.”

  “And what makes you think he’ll see me?”

  Zach didn’t speak for several minutes. I wondered what he was thinking. Did I even believe a word he’d said? Was he throwing Marcus under the bus? Zach didn’t give a shit who he walked over to get what he wanted. Then again, Marcus had always made me uncomfortable. The way he’d looked at women like they were property and kept pets as Zach had done was sickening. Those parties Zach used to throw were only the tip of the iceberg. The horrifying way they’d treat women behind the curtains was what set them apart from others.

  I shook myself. I didn’t want to think about that shit and I would never reveal those details to Jen. Dante and I already knew more than enough to last a lifetime. No one else needed to be exposed to the worst parts of Zachary Benson.

  “He’ll see you if he knows what’s good for him. Trust me, Marcus hasn’t got a leg to stand on. Being my accomplice wasn’t his only crime. You should look up the charges they brought against him. Then you’d understand why he’s serving a similar sentence to me.”

  I swallowed. Honestly, I really didn’t want to know. Seeing the numerous ones they’d brought against Zach was enough to last a lifetime. And he pled guilty to them all. Sick bastard.

  “I have no interest in knowing what he did. All I want is to keep Jen and the company safe. The rest is insignificant.”

  If Zach cared about me not wanting to know, he didn’t show it.

  “Yes, I’m well aware all you care about is my daughter. Those girls aren’t as empty headed as I thought, especially if Jen has finally seen sense about you.”

  “Watch what you fucking say about her.”

  He smirked and it irked me. I wouldn’t allow him to insult her any further.

  “Touchy, are we? Yes, well I can see you’re very overprotective of that girl, not that she deserves it. Always too stubborn and headstrong, unlike her sister who lives to please everyone.”

  I stood up abruptly, not wanting to hear him talk shit about his daughters any longer.

  “If there’s nothing else,” I ground out.

  “Careful, Brent, anyone might think you want to hit me. Don’t you know that’s not allowed in here? The guards aren’t just here to protect you from me.”

  I rolled my eyes, absolutely done with his bullshit now I’d gotten the information I needed from him.

  “I don’t need protecting. You think you have reach far beyond these walls, but all you’ve got is ashes and dust. I might have given you a photograph of Logan, but that’s all you’ll ever have. Your grandson will never have to see your face and he’ll be better off for it. Everyone is better off without you in their lives. I’m sure one day you’ll realise just how alone you really are in this world and it’s all your own doing. You’re never going walk out into the world as a free man and quite frankly, that is me and your family having the last laugh. Goodbye Zach.”

  I turned and walked away, not caring what he thought about what I’d said. He could damn well live with it. He wasn’t worth my time any longer. He might have helped me save his family, but that didn’t redeem him in the slightest. The reasons he had were purely selfish. He just wanted his oldest friend to burn.

  When I was done getting all the information I needed out of Marcus, I was never setting foot inside the four walls of a prison visitation room again.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Jennifer

  Everyone was here. And instead of being brave, I was hiding in my room with Brent. This wasn’t like me at all. Normally I took life by the balls and dived headlong into everything. Telling my family I was pregnant and engaged? Yeah, apparently that had me in knots.

  “I don’t know if I want to tell them about the baby.”

  “Jen, you agreed we needed to get everything out in the open.”

  He rubbed my arm. I couldn’t look at him. I loved this man, but honestly, right then, I was feeling out of sorts. Today had brought on the worst case of nausea I’d ever had in my life. If this was a sign of things to come, I wouldn’t be too keen on this being pregnant business. My hand went to my stomach instinctively. A life was growing inside me. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around it all.

  “James and Ellie don’t even know we’re together and now they’re about to find out we’re not only engaged, we’re also having a baby.”

  “And? Do you think your brother won’t be happy for us?”

  I shook my head. James probably would say he called it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he placed bets with Ellie about it.

  “Then what is it?”

  I reached out, entwining our fingers together. My beautiful engagement ring twinkled in the light. What the hell was I so worried about? Perhaps the fact that both my brother and sister were in relationships which hadn’t moved this fast. Then again, this was me and Brent. We shared history. My mind was in overdrive and I couldn’t stop the freefall.

  “I’m scared,” I whispered.

  He squeezed my hand and dropped a kiss on my forehead.

  “I’ll be right here with you.”

  “You know I don’t want to get married yet, right?”

  I’d told him when I’d got home earlier. Whilst I did want us to be a family when the baby came, it didn’t feel right to rush. It’s not even like I wanted some kind of big grand affair either. I’d never been one to dream of princess dresses, flowers and being the centre of attention. For me, the perfect wedding would be simple with us surrounded by our families.

  “Yes, and I said it’s fine. Honesty, I’m just happy we’re together. Now, are you going to continue procrastinating and being a scaredy cat or are you going to be the Jen I know and love who never backs down from a fight?”

  I looked up at him then. His smile set my world alight.

  “I am not a scaredy cat.”

  “Then stop acting like one.”

  “Ugh, you really are the most annoying man in the entire universe.”

  “That’s a slight exaggeration, but I’ll take it.”

  I shoved his chest with my free hand. He didn’t know I actuall
y found him winding me up hot and endearing all at the same time. Yeah, Brent and I were never going to be lovey dovey cutesy with each other, but it didn’t matter. We were fire and passion. We’d also become friends in the process. He was my confidant outside of Fi and Jensen. He knew my fears and secrets. I’d been vulnerable with him and he never mocked me for any of it. He loved me for exactly who I was.

  “Come on then, before I change my mind.”

  He rolled his eyes but followed me out of my room. I’d already told him there was no way I was moving down to the basement flat until I’d had it redecorated. He just had to put up with staying with me in the meantime. I don’t think he was too put out by it in all honesty. What man would be when they had sex on tap and got to sleep next to the woman they loved? And Brent most definitely had sex on tap with me. We couldn’t get enough of each other.

  I kept a tight hold of his hand as we went into the living room. Everyone’s heads turned at the sound of our approach. As soon as James noticed we were holding hands, he turned to Ellie and put out his hand.

  “I called it. You so owe me.”

  Before she had a chance to reply, I practically dragged Brent along behind me in my effort to get to my brother before cuffing him around the back of the head. He rubbed the back of it and scowled up at me.

  “Hey!”

  “That’s for placing bets on my love life. And this…” I twisted his ear. “…is for dragging your girlfriend into your idiotic games.”

  “Jen, that fucking hurts.”

  I let go of him and grinned.

  “Tough shit.”

  I caught Brent rolling his eyes out of the corner of my eye. My little brother was a certified pain in the arse and I wouldn’t let him get away with anything. I could see him pouting, but I didn’t care. James deserved it.

  “Can we actually order now?” Dante grunted.

  “No one was stopping you before.”

  “I beg to differ. We all know how picky you are about where we get pizza from.”

  I put a hand on my hip.

  “And? You all appreciate it so don’t be giving me shit.”

  He rolled his eyes as Brent led me over to the free spaces on one of the sofas. We sat down and everyone started talking at once about what they wanted. Ten minutes later, the pizzas were duly ordered, the TV was on and there were multiple conversations going on at once. I looked at Brent who shrugged. Guess it was now or never.