The Prince and the Pawn

by Reid, B. B.

  BLACKWOOD KEEP WAS ONE OF the wealthiest towns in the country, attracting celebrities, socialites, and wealthy investment bankers looking to hide from the world in their summer homes and permanent residences. The coastal land had been purchased by Vaughn’s ancestor, Peter Blackwood, almost four centuries ago. Today, on the anniversary of that historic day, a parade had been ordered by the mayor to celebrate—the mayor who also happened to be Vaughn’s uncle.

  I sipped my smoothie, aware of the soreness between my thighs, as I watched the last float pass by. There was already a crew following closely behind, cleaning up the confetti, so to speak. In no time, the affluent town would look good as new. The parade had been a real snooze fest. Not even the retired actress who’d appeared on one of the floats could liven it. They’d been smart to offer free food since not even the wealthy could turn the opportunity down.

  “So, what do you want to do next, little sis?”

  Selena and I were busy enjoying our last day of freedom before my father came home. So that he wasn’t blindsided as I’d been, I called him a couple of days ago to tell him about Selena. To say my father had been furious that I hadn’t called sooner was an understatement. He shouted for an hour until he exhausted himself, and I forgot my anger when I realized he was frazzled. Despite their relationship not being what he’d led me to believe, I knew my father loving my mother hadn’t been a lie.

  “I thought we could get a massage and then maybe—”

  My suggestion was abandoned, and our plans were forgotten when I caught sight of a man I recognized but had yet to meet formally. Tall and imposing, he had just stepped from the century-old building across the street that served as Blackwood Keep’s Town Hall. His gray hair was thin, his muscles nonexistent, and the scowl he wore looked too natural to be temporary—too deeply embedded to match his son’s panty-dropping smile. Although I was too far away to truly tell, I was willing to bet the pinstriped suit he wore cost more than my education. With his hair slicked back, he looked like he was auditioning for a role in Goodfellas or maybe The Godfather. I couldn’t take my eyes away as he checked his watch and then his phone. The very last thing I felt, however, was admiration for the man.

  “Tyra?”

  I heard my sister calling my name, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer. I felt her shaking me, but the poison seeping into my skin was too powerful. This man was the reason Vaughn and I couldn’t be together. I watched as Franklin Rees dialed before placing the phone to his ear and speaking.

  “Tyra, talk to me,” Selena pleaded. “Is everything okay?”

  “That’s him.” Franklin had already hung up after speaking a few terse words. “That’s Vaughn’s father.” Selena paused before looking across the street, her forehead creasing as her brows brunched even tighter. “I told you that Vaughn didn’t want to be with me because of football, but that’s not true.” At least I didn’t think it was. We watched as a black SUV rounded the corner and slowed to a stop at the curb. “It’s because of him.” My voice was barely a whisper when I spoke again. “Vaughn said his father wouldn’t accept me because of who I am. Because I’m black.”

  A bulky, grim-faced man in a black suit hopped from the front passenger seat to open the back door for his boss. Franklin was still standing by the Town Hall entrance, and there were about thirty feet of walkway between the building and the road. I wanted to run over and confront him before he could get away, but something held me back. If Vaughn weren’t willing to stand up to his father, then it would only be in vain, driving an even bigger wedge between us. It wasn’t, however, the reason I stayed rooted to the spot. I could feel danger lurking like a dark cloud above.

  “Well, we can’t let him get away with that now, can we?”

  I’d barely processed my sister’s words before she grabbed my hand and darted across the street. “Selena, wait!” I pleaded. It wasn’t just the oncoming traffic we had to dodge that made my heart race. With each step, we came closer and closer to the man exuding the danger looming ahead. “What are you doing?”

  Too late, I realized.

  As soon as we stepped on the curb, Franklin’s bodyguard rounded on us with his hand inside his jacket. I gulped. My gut told me he wasn’t reaching for a Tic Tac. He had a gun tucked away there, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. The driver was also out of the SUV now, and I felt him closing in on my back. Franklin, whose pace remained unhurried as he reached the car, seemed amused. I knew what a sight we must have made. Selena and I barely stood more than five feet high, yet we challenged full-grown armed men. My gaze locked with Franklin’s, and then he closed the car door. I could see the curiosity in his eyes as he came to stand before us.

  “Gentleman, relax,” he ordered as he stepped around his security. “I believe I know this young lady.” He pointed at me. “You’re my son’s little friend.” He smiled at me, but it seemed too sharp to be affable.

  I wrapped my arms around my waist when I shivered, feeling like I’d just stepped into the world’s deadliest crosshairs.

  “She’s more than just his friend,” Selena spat when I said nothing. “You’d know that if you stepped out of 1865 and joined us in the twenty-first century.”

  Franklin’s eyebrow rose when his attention shifted to my sister. I wanted to push her behind me to protect her from him, but my entire body remained frozen. “I don’t, however, know this young woman,” he continued as if Selena hadn’t spoken. “What I do know is the year you’re referring to. While I was surprised he outgrew his fondness for brunettes, my son’s preferences in playmates have never been of interest to me. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

  Selena paused at that before recovering quickly and digging a deeper hole for Franklin to bury me in. “My sister is not his playmate. She’s his girlfriend. At least she would be if not for you. They love each other.”

  Franklin seemed genuinely surprised by that, and I wondered whose eyes Vaughn had been pulling the wool over this entire time. His father’s or mine.

  “Is that right?” Franklin drawled, his focus shifting to me.

  Of course, Selena took it upon herself to answer for me. “Yes, and it doesn’t matter how you feel about it. Your son’s feelings for her will never change.”

  Silence followed Selena’s declaration as Franklin Rees studied me like I was buried treasure after a long voyage. When he finally spoke, his words were directed at Selena, but somehow, they seemed meant for me. “My dear, I really do hope you’re right about that.”

  “Is that him?” Selena was curled up on my bed when she broke the heavy silence.

  I rubbed my arms absently as I stared out the window. The goose bumps that appeared on my skin after Vaughn’s father wished us a good day were still very much present the next morning. Too many times, I’d picked up the phone to call Vaughn, to warn him of what Selena had done, of what I’d selfishly allowed to happen, but each time, my cowardice won out. Would Vaughn be pissed that I’d essentially forced his hand, or would he be relieved? We’d face challenges knowing his family didn’t support us, but nothing worth having was ever easy. I was ready to take them all head-on. For him. For us.

  I felt my stomach turn and fought the urge to vomit. My father’s return home certainly wasn’t helping matters as I watched his red pickup turn into the driveway.

  “Yes.”

  Sighing, I let the curtain covering my bedroom window fall back into place. My feet were heavy as I made my way downstairs. Coach was furious, but so was I. In fact, I was trying so very hard not to hate him, but it was harder than I ever thought it would be.

  My bare feet touched the last step, and at the same time, the front door swung open. Average height, hair shaved closely, and a full goatee peppered with gray, my father was a handsome man and undoubtedly a lady killer in his day. Our gazes locked, and whatever he saw in mine had his broad shoulders slumping as his gaze fell to the hardwood floor.

  “Tyra—”

  “Is it true?” I demanded. Never mind the fact th
at I hadn’t seen him in a month or that he was still standing in the open door with his luggage at his feet and bags under his eyes.

  Closing the door, he tried the stern route when he turned and pinned me under his glare. “Why didn’t you call me sooner to ask me? Instead, you invited some stranger into my home without my permission and have the audacity to interrogate me under that same roof?”

  “Selena’s not a stranger, she’s my sister, and you knew she existed all along! Why didn’t you tell me instead of letting me believe what you and mom had was real?”

  He held his hands pressed together and extended them toward me in a pleading gesture. “It was, Tyra. I told you the truth. Your mother and I were in love.”

  I wanted to believe him, I really did, but there was some pretty compelling evidence waiting for me upstairs. “Really? Because you also told me you were going to get married before she died giving birth to me. How could that be when she was already married?”

  “I don’t know what Selena told you, but—”

  “You don’t have to wonder. She showed me the letter mom wrote to you before she died.”

  I’d read it so many times I had it committed to memory. In it, my mother had written everything she was feeling, mostly fear, sorrow, and anxiousness for my arrival, but never once did she mention her loving him. The letter had ended rather abruptly, making me wonder if a page was missing, but Selena had sworn that there wasn’t. Our mother hadn’t even signed her name.

  “You can also ask Selena yourself.”

  My father’s expression became absolutely thunderous at my confession. “She’s still here?”

  He may have told me to ask her to leave, but I couldn’t do that. Not when she’d come all this way to find the last piece of family she had left.

  “She wants to talk to you.”

  “I’m sorry, Tyra, but I don’t feel the same. You had no right.”

  “No right?” I sputtered. “You had no right to lie to me! Just like you had no right to ruin a marriage.”

  “I didn’t ruin anything. Your mother wasn’t in love with Kevin anymore. She was planning to take Selena and leave, but she—” My father started to say more, but then his attention shifted to something behind me. Even though I knew it could only be one person, I peered over my shoulder and found my sister in tears. She was standing at the landing, her face so much like mine and soaked in sorrow. Before I could go to her and offer her comfort, she was storming down the stairs. I’d barely sidestepped her in time to avoid falling. A moment later, the sound of Selena’s palm hitting my father’s cheek echoed through the foyer, and then the slam of the front door followed after she fled through it.

  By the time I got over my shock, I had heard tires squealing and then an engine racing, telling me that running after Selena would only be in vain. I started toward my father, but he held up his hand. I couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in his gaze, so I was relieved when he disappeared inside the kitchen. Ashamed of the mess I’d made and late for work, I slowly made my way back to my bedroom to shower and dress.

  Hours after Selena had run out of my father’s house in tears, I slyly checked my phone for the thousandth time and found zero notifications waiting for me once again. I’d even mustered up the courage to reach out to Vaughn, but his call had gone straight to voicemail. I didn’t know what to think or what to do on both fronts. Even attempts to talk to my father had been futile. Before I left for work, he’d secluded himself inside his room and hadn’t answered the door when I knocked. It had only taken me less than twenty-four hours to alienate everyone important to me.

  Well…almost.

  I was on barista duty today, and as I was finishing off a latte for a customer, Jamie sauntered in all smiles and wearing a fucking tiara. Of course, Bee was right behind him, trying desperately to remove it, but he kept ducking her hand as they made their way over to the counter. Begrudgingly, I admitted how fucking perfect they were together.

  “Ty-baby, we came to spread the word,” Jamie greeted when he finally noticed me. “We’re partying tonight. You’re already a square, so I can’t threaten you to be there. I will tell you that it’s against the rules to say no to the birthday boy. We all know how you love rules, Goody Two.”

  “And who’s the birthday boy?” I teased. Today was Jamie’s nineteenth birthday, so naturally, he assumed he had free rein to be even more obnoxious than usual.

  Smiling wide, he lifted a party horn I didn’t notice him holding and blew into it. “Me, of course.” He blew it again, and I cringed when the disturbed patrons glared our way.

  I was already on my last leg with Terry after I left during the middle of my shift two weeks ago. Vaughn had taken me to the beach house, where I spent the rest of the day and all night, making sure the only thing he felt was me. And so went the two weeks that followed. I couldn’t tell if Vaughn’s heightened sex drive was because he’d gone nearly a year without or because he was desperately trying to exorcise whatever demons haunted him. Regardless of the answer, my body had taken a delicious beating.

  “Jamie, stop blowing that thing. You’re disturbing the other customers.”

  “Only if you blow me instead.” He started to blow the horn again when Bee snatched it and pinned him with her glare. “Force of habit, baby. I’m not used to being a boyfriend.”

  That much was true. It had only been a month, but I was shocked they’d lasted this long. Just being in the same room with Jameson Buchanan required a lot of patience.

  “You won’t ever get used to it if you keep testing me,” Bee warned. When she looked away, Jamie shot me a cocky look that said, “yeah, right,” and I had to agree. Bee was hooked, lined, and Jamie was more than ready to reel her in. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  “So, anyway,” Jamie continued, blatantly dismissing Bee’s threat. “We’re also celebrating Four winning her race last weekend, and since Vaughn is heading to Cali for training camp next week, I guess we’re calling it a send-off, too. But the most important part of tonight,” he stressed, “is me. It’s my day. Don’t any of you forget that.”

  The last couple of weeks had been pretty intense. When Vaughn wasn’t trying to knock the lining out of my pussy, he was even more closed off than usual. But some good had occurred, too. Four had qualified for her license, and Vaughn had finally come clean about his plans to play for USC.

  I still didn’t know why he’d kept it a secret, but I wondered if it had anything to do with his father threatening to kill him. I shuddered. What kind of father did that to his son? Or was the man more monster than father?

  “So, where is this party occurring?”

  “The beach house,” Jamie answered as if it were obvious. Maybe it would have been if Vaughn hadn’t gone MIA on me again.

  “The beach house?” I echoed, frowning. “You’ve spoken to Vaughn?”

  Jamie shrugged in response like it was no big deal while Bee bit her lip nervously when she noticed my ire. “A couple of hours ago. The party was his idea.”

  Believing I owed it to my sister and father to clean up my mess and try to start over, I’d been planning to blow off tonight despite Jamie’s attempt at coercion. I guess that was why plans were never written in stone. At the drop of a dime or swift change of the wind, they altered.

  The heels killing my feet and the dress squeezing the air from my body didn’t seem to help build my confidence as I pushed inside the beach house later that night. Apocalyptica’s “End of Me” was competing with the pounding of my heart as I searched for Vaughn in the crowd. The party was in full swing, yet I was all alone. Four and the others hadn’t arrived yet, so I didn’t have anyone to distract me from the bad feeling in my gut, the one telling me to turn and run. Maybe Vaughn already knew what I’d done, or perhaps fate would be kind and allow me to come clean on my own. I thought about Selena and what she would do in this situation. She was fearless in ways that I might never be, but maybe just this once I could channel her.

  I kept goin
g.

  The beach house wasn’t anything extravagant, not compared to the literal castle Vaughn lived in, so there were only so many places to look. The living room turned out to be a dead end—almost literally since the space was so packed, I couldn’t get more than a foot inside. The kitchen was also packed to capacity as everyone crowded around the kegs and stray bottles of liquor on the countertops.

  Still no Vaughn.

  I forced back the urge to stomp my foot in frustration. If there was one thing Vaughn enjoyed imbibing more than me, it was beer. Where are you?

  My phone vibrated in my hand, and I wasted no time checking the notification. Disappointment and relief flowed through me when I saw that it was a message from Four.

  Best (old phone): Parking. B there in 5.

  If I weren’t so on edge, I would have cheered at her refusal to use the iPhone Ever had gifted her. The controlling asshole still refused to remove the tracking app from her phone. She could have figured it out herself or gotten any of us to show her how, but I think it was important to her that Ever give in and learn the error of his ways.

  “Hey.” The cloying stench of too much alcohol followed the greeting, and I turned. I didn’t even try to mute my sigh or hide my frustration when I found one of Vaughn’s old teammates hovering over me. I think his last name was Scott, but I was blanking on his first name since I’d only ever seen his surname printed on the back of his jersey.

  “Hi.”

  “I know you,” he slurred. “You’re Vaughn’s chick, right? Your name’s Tina.”

  “Tyra.”

  He actually looked offended as he wrinkled his nose. “That’s what I said.”

  “Right. Can I help you?”

  “No. Unless…” I barely resisted the urge to hold my nose when he tipped a little closer and flashed his idea of a flirtatious smile. “Vaughn’s done with you?”

  I silently hoped not, although I wouldn’t blame him if he were. I don’t regret Franklin knowing about my feelings for his son, but I did regret taking the decision from Vaughn to stand up to his father and admit his own. Even more confusing was Franklin’s lack of anger. He seemed to almost relish the thought of his son being in love with me. None of it made sense, including why Vaughn had lied to me.