Complicated Love_A Black Light Novel

by Livia Grant

  He caught sight of their new club manager, Madison, barking orders to several servers who had seemed to come out of the woodwork. Maxine’s husband had come in for the wedding as well, and she had left him to go assist Madison. It looked like they were moving the guests in the direction of the overhangs and umbrellas as one of the drones got so brave that is was only a mere twenty feet above the scattering guests.

  There were two people conspicuously missing from the small crowd. Not only was Brandi missing, but so was Lola. She’d been in the main house seeing to the reception details before they had come down for the ceremony. She could still be there, of course… oblivious to all of the commotion happening outdoors, but something in Chase’s gut told him to seek out the employee they had already decided to let go as soon as the clubs were successfully opened.

  He was about to start sprinting across the lawn to the main house when Jaxson’s mother stopped him, placing her frail hand on his tuxedo-covered forearm.

  “I swear to you, Chase. I didn’t tell Gregory about the wedding. I’d never do that because I knew he’d love to disrupt the ceremony if for no other reason than to make Jaxson angry.”

  Chase stopped long enough to reassure his new mother-in-law. “This isn’t your fault. Even if you had told the senator, you wouldn’t be responsible for his devious actions today any more than you have been in the past.”

  He could see she didn’t believe him. The creases of wrinkles on her forehead as she frowned made Miranda look a decade older than she was. He quickly hugged her, trying to reassure her before extricating himself and resuming his trek in search of the missing women.

  The sound of the chaos got softer the farther away Chase got from the pool. By the time he had crossed the lawn and climbed the stone steps of the huge balcony, it was almost quiet. Certainly quiet enough for the sound of heated arguing to make it to his ears.

  Chase slowed down, careful not to make any noise as he neared the final row of eight-foot hedges meant to camouflage the under-construction portion of the huge deck. He pulled to a dead stop when he realized that at least one of the raised voices belonged to his old babysitter.

  “You lied to me, you bitch! There is no way I was invited to this event. It’s downright intimate.”

  Lola answered, clearly trying to keep their voice lower. “Relax. They put me in charge of sending out the invitations and since I’m also in charge of the marketing and advertising for the club opening tomorrow, it only made sense to get some mileage out of the wedding with the press.”

  Chase’s blood had started to boil with anger as he listened to the employee they had known was a total bitch spell out how she’d purposefully sabotaged their important day. Before he confronted her, he pulled out his phone and shot off a text to Jaxson with the new information.

  “Where the hell did the drones come from?” Brandi’s voice cracked with panic.

  “You and your TV station ordered them to get the aerial shots to go with your story, of course,” Lola snapped.

  “You bitch! I never intended to write a story and you know it! You invited me here just to try to pin this whole debacle on me,” Brandi defended. “How much did you get paid for this little stunt?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I invited one of Chase’s oldest friends to his wedding. If you decided to capitalize on that invitation by getting the inside scoop on the celebrity wedding of the year… well, I can’t be responsible for the actions of one of the guests.”

  Jaxson and Miguel arrived just as Lola finished her over-the-top pronouncement of innocence that Chase knew was total bullshit.

  He leaned in to whisper to the new arrivals. “It was Lola. She set this up and probably got paid a pretty penny for it, too.”

  Two burley guards had arrived next to Miguel as Chase spoke. Their head of security tried to reassure them. “Ryder has a lot of experience with neutralizing drones. He’s who I consulted with before purchasing the detection and bring-down equipment. He should be able to destroy any photos the drones did take. The police are on the way. Let me and my guys take care of detaining Ms. Garcia.”

  “Fuck that. I’m the one who’s going to handle this, and, believe me, we won’t be doing much talking.” Jaxson’s voice was ice cold. His eyes were as dark as Chase had ever seen them.

  Miguel tried to reason with his new boss. “You hired me to handle shit like this.”

  Jaxson was having none of it. Chase knew he was the only one who had a chance of getting through to him. Stepping up to his tall Dom, he hugged Jaxson’s stiff torso and leaned up to talk calmly against his ear.

  “Take a deep breath, baby. You need to let security handle this. No good will come out of you confronting Lola.”

  “Fuck that. She needs to go down hard.”

  “And she will go down, but if you confront her right now, the police will be taking you in on manslaughter charges. I might be wrong, but it will be a bit difficult to help Emma and me raise our kids if you’re in prison.”

  Jaxson’s muscles tensed as he tried to yank away from Chase’s strong hug. He wasn’t listening to reason. Chase held him tighter, refusing to let his Dom loose to charge the final distance to Lola.

  Chase softly begged him then. “Please, baby. For me and Emma, for the twins, let Miguel handle this.”

  In seconds he knew that his pleading and reasoning were not getting through to Jaxson. His Dom was on the edge, ready to explode with anger that the paparazzi had ruined their special day. Chase knew it was because Jax deemed the invasion to their privacy as a direct threat to the people he loved the most. He was in Papa Bear protector mode.

  On instinct, Chase did the only thing he could think to do.

  He was a switch.

  So he switched.

  He pulled out of their hug to pin the taller man with his best glare. “Jaxson Cartwright-Davidson, stop it right now. Miguel is going to handle this while you and I stay here. You will not end our wedding day in the back of a police car. Do you hear me?”

  The surprise in Jaxson’s green eyes almost made Chase laugh… almost. The moment was too serious for that. The men stayed in a silent showdown. The raised voices of Lola and Brandi arguing on the balcony above them were the soundtrack to the intense showdown.

  It was Miguel who eased the tension, stepping up to the men and leaning in. “Mr. Cartwright is right. Let my men and I handle this. I promise you, she will regret her actions.”

  Jaxson refused to look away as he answered Miguel. “Detain her. Question her. But she doesn’t leave until I have a chance to confront her as well, got it?”

  Miguel hesitated, glancing from Jaxson back to Chase, unsure in that moment whom he was supposed to be taking his orders from.

  Jaxson raised one eyebrow in that adorable way he always did when he chastised his submissives. For some it might make him look scarier, but for Chase, it just turned him on since he most often saw that raised eyebrow just before he was to be punished for some infraction. And since his Dom loved to fuck him right after every punishment, his body had been trained, like Pavlov’s dogs, to love that raised eyebrow.

  Chase finally answered Miguel. “Let’s see how things play out, shall we? The most important thing is to secure the area first and foremost and then to make sure those responsible for the unforgivable disruption are detained.”

  “Yes, sir.” Miguel stepped back and turned to head up the nearby steps with the additional security guards following.

  Only when Jaxson and Chase were relatively alone did Jaxson finally speak. “That was pretty brave of you. Or stupid. I’m not entirely sure which yet.”

  Chase finally let the smile he’d been holding in spread across his face as he answered. “I’d like to think of it as smart, actually. Not only did I hopefully stop you from doing something stupid, but with any luck, I got myself signed up for a sexy punishment on our wedding night.”

  “I see. So you’re trying to top from the bottom? I’ll have to take that into co
nsideration when I’m deciding how to best punish you.” The first hint of a smirk had appeared at the corners of Jaxson’s lips as he struggled to maintain control. “Do you consider that tone of voice you just used with me to be properly submissive?”

  “No, Sir. It was very naughty of me.”

  “Yes. It was.” Jaxson leaned in close to speak against the shell of Chase’s ear, sending threads of electricity through him. “That bare ass of yours is going to be bright red when it gets fucked later.”

  The dirty promise melted Chase from the inside out. Blood rushed to his cock, engorging it until it tented the front of his pants, and he could feel Jaxson’s erection rubbing against him through their tuxedos. He had to swallow several times before he could speak. “I’ll look forward to it, sir.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t if I were you. I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate me in the middle of your discipline session.”

  Chase went to his toes to brush his lips against his Dom’s. The light kiss ignited into an open mouth devouring of each other. Only when both men were out of breath did Chase finally answer. “I am certain I could never hate you. In fact, I love every single thing you do to me.”

  “I’ll remind you when you’re begging me to stop tonight.”

  Only the sound of a scream above them on the balcony could drag them out of their sexual tryst. Lola’s loud voice could be heard screaming at Miguel to get his filthy hands off of her and that she’d done nothing wrong.

  Chase was surprised that Jaxson didn’t resume trying to join their security team and instead took out his phone to send off a text.

  “Who are you texting now? Everyone we know is here already.”

  “I sent a note to Connor to come join us. He drafted the specific language in the NDA that Lola signed. If anyone can make sure Lola understands exactly how much legal trouble she’s in, it’s Connor.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea. He should bring Judge McDonald too. I’m sure the two of them can scare the shit out of her.”

  They had to wait at the bottom of the stairs for several minutes until Connor and the judge arrived. Chase was confused when Connor arrived grinning. “What’s so damn funny?” he asked.

  Connor leaned close so the women above them wouldn’t hear them. “Ryder used a new technology to bring down the drones with a net. It’s illegal to shoot them down, but there is no legal precedent against just forcing them to land when they are low enough to the ground to be caught by the net. The cocky idiots would have probably got away with it if they’d flown higher.”

  Jaxson growled. “I still can’t believe we can’t shoot the fuckers out of the sky.”

  Chase remembered the debate they’d had in a recent meeting about the topic, knowing that rampant drone usage in nearby Hollywood was a hot topic.

  “Well, believe it. It seems your team invested in the right prevention though.” It was the judge who weighed in this time.

  Jaxson was impatient to confront the traitor among them. “Let’s get upstairs.”

  Connor shook his head. “Let me handle this. I’ll text you…”

  “Not a chance in hell,” his Dom argued.

  The newcomers spent several long moments trying to convince Jaxson and Chase to remain behind, but Jaxson would hear none of it. Instead, he reached out for Chase’s hand.

  “You two go first, but Chase and I are coming behind you,” Jaxson asserted, finally putting the discussion to a rest.

  Lola’s screeching got louder the closer they got to the wide balcony overlook. By the time Jaxson and Chase got their first visual of the scene, the two guards who’d been with Miguel had Lola subdued, her arms behind her back presumably in handcuffs. Miguel had stepped up to tower over her, doing his best to intimidate her into silence without actually touching her.

  “I suggest you quiet down, Ms. Garcia. Your hollering is not helping your case.”

  She stopped her yelling to utter her first bitter words since the men’s arrival. “You can’t do this to me. I’ve done nothing wrong, you barbarians! She’s the one responsible! She wasn’t even invited!” Lola nodded towards Brandi.

  The men couldn’t see Miguel’s face, but they could hear the menace in his voice as he leaned only inches from her shocked face. “You are too stupid to understand just how much trouble you’re in, aren’t you?”

  Lola’s eyes widened at his harsh words. “Me, stupid? That’s funny. You can’t have me arrested. I’ve done nothing illegal.”

  Miguel chuckled. “Oh honey, don’t worry. We didn’t call the police.”

  Chase felt Jaxson moving forward in protest. Chase pulled him back, whispering. “Let it play out. He’s up to something.”

  “Fuck that. I want her behind bars,” Jaxson groused.

  Connor stepped forward next to Miguel, but Judge McDonald leaned into Jaxson and Chase to clarify, “Your security guard is right. So far I haven’t seen any laws broken.”

  Jaxson started to argue back, but Chase dared to cut him off. “Shush, I want to hear.”

  He felt Jaxson’s hand squeezing his ass cheek through his tailored tuxedo pants just before his Dom advised him, “This ass of yours is going to be beet red before bed tonight if you keep it up.”

  Chase’s knees actually felt weak under him with the wave of sexual tension that hit him as Jaxson pulled his hand away and swatted his ass hard, a preview of what was to come.

  He managed to choke out a groaned, “I look forward to it, sir,” as the judge chuckled at his expense next to them.

  Brandi’s crying brought their attention back to the spectacle in front of them. Chase looked up to see his old babysitter staring at him as tears poured down her face.

  “I swear to you, Chase. I didn’t know today was going to be such a private event. I got this invitation for a grand opening party hand delivered to the station two days ago and I thought you had sent it. I never would have come here had I known how private… that it would be your wedding ceremony…”

  Connor was the one who answered her. “Exactly why did you come? Did your station send the drones?”

  “I came because… I thought… maybe Chase wanted… it was stupid.” She paused, turning red before tacking on, “I was never going to write a story. I travel with a news crew and van when I’m doing a story. You can check. I drove my own car. I came alone.”

  “Let me see the invitation you got,” Madison asked briskly.

  The new Runway West manager had snuck up on them, joining the growing crowd, approaching the newswoman to snatch the invitation out of her hand as soon as it was out of her small, jeweled clutch purse. The men watched Madison turn the invitation over and look at the back of the paper instead of reading the actual invitation.

  Lola’s manic ramblings were the only soundtrack at the moment. “There is no proof whatsoever that I had anything to do with sending that invitation. It’s printed, not handwritten.”

  Miguel squeezed her upper arm to hold her stationary when it seemed Lola had thoughts of walking backwards.

  “Oh, and how do you know that? I thought you hadn’t even seen it before.” Miguel taunted her.

  That shut Lola up.

  When the petite Madison looked up from examining the paper, her eyes sought out Lola’s. “I know without a shadow of a doubt that Lola printed this invitation, not only against the orders she had received from any of us regarding the guest list, but more importantly, in direct violation of the non-disclosure agreement she signed when she became an employee.”

  “There is no way you can pin this on me, you bitch! You have no proof,” Lola spat.

  Madison stepped closer. “This isn’t my first rodeo, you idiot. I’ve worked many VIP events where invitations have to be managed carefully or every Tom, Dick, and Harry will show up with false invitations.

  “When the paper stock arrived for the wedding invitations, I marked each of them on the back with a small number and tracked each and every invitation, by number. I am certain that we only used invitati
ons 1-17. I distinctly remember handing you the remaining paper stock and telling you to shred it to avoid this exact kind of scenario.”

  Lola’s eyes widened. “That doesn’t prove anything. And even if I did send out another invitation, which I’m not saying I did, I still didn’t do anything wrong. She’s the one who works for the press. She’s the one responsible for…”

  Ryder was the next one to break into the growing crowd, cutting Lola’s speech off.

  “The drones aren’t registered to Ms. Whittman’s TV station,” he announced.

  Brandi sighed. “I told you so,” she said, her voice still shaky.

  Ryder continued. “My source with access to the FAA database confirmed they’re registered to the parent company of TMZ.” He paused, pinning Lola with his scariest interrogator glare. “How much were you paid for the information on the wedding, Ms. Garcia?”

  “I don’t know…”

  Ryder approached Lola, cutting her off. “Oh come on. You can tell us the truth.” He jeered. “You were just trying to get a bit of publicity going for the opening of Runway West, right?”

  His question made her pause as she considered her options. Chase could see Ryder was giving her a bit of rope, and he suspected Lola was about to hang herself.

  “Well, I was in charge of advertising for the club opening. Not that I did anything wrong, but you have to admit this is going to get a big buzz going ahead of the opening tomorrow.”

  She’d taken the bait.

  Connor took over. “There’s only one problem with that, Ms. Garcia. You signed an ironclad non-disclosure agreement. Today’s wedding is not a club event, and even if it was, your advising the press of the nature of today’s event along with the exact location and time is a direct violation of that NDA.”

  “What do you know about this? I’ve never even seen you before,” Lola snapped, still defensive.

  “I know everything there is about this. I’m the lawyer who wrote the NDA you signed.”