Art of War (A Stern Family Saga Book 3)

by Monique Orgeron

  I turn when I hear Cherry. “You went after my daughter, Forrest?”

  Forrest practically runs to Cherry. “Cherry, I didn’t know, I promise. I had no idea she was your daughter. When I overheard my men talking about what she looked like, then I looked into it. Shit, Cherry, I’m sorry. I recognized her for yours right away. I pulled out, I told Judith I wanted nothing more to do with it or her. But she informed me she didn’t need me anymore, that she had someone new to take care of her problem. I never got a chance to come to Zander or Catherine before Theo’s guys grabbed me.”

  Cherry walks away from him. “Cherry, please believe me, I would never hurt your daughter, never.”

  Cherry bends to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I believe you, Forrest, I know you wouldn’t hurt what’s mine. But now you have to deal with my son-in-law and Catherine. I can’t help you there.”

  Forrest looks at me, then my mother. “Catherine, what do you want me to do? How can I make this right between us?”

  Mom looks at me, waiting to see if I have any input. I know to keep my mouth shut, though. This is not my choice. Mom looks back to Forrest and says, “I need you and your men to help find anything they can on where Judith is. My son’s attention needs to be elsewhere. I want you to find her and extract any information you can then I want her to disappear, permanently.”

  Forrest nods his head. “Done.”

  “Not so fast, Forrest, I am taking one of your parishes away from you. I’m giving it to Teddy Trahan. He will start off small, but he will one day take his father’s place. You need to start treating him as such. Do you understand?”

  Forrest bows his head. “Yes, Catherine. I understand.”

  He then looks back to Cherry. “Damn, Cherry, you are looking good, woman.”

  Cherry giggles. I’ve had enough. “Down, man, that’s my mother-in-law you’re referring to. It’s time to go. I will expect to hear from you soon about Judith.”

  I give him the boot and shut the door.

  When I return back to the living room, Cherry, mom, and Theo are all laughing.

  I shake my head and say, “I can’t believe that guy. Flirting with you right in front of all of us.”

  Cherry says, “Aww, Forrest is harmless. He used to follow me around like a puppy dog waiting for a crumb.”

  Theo says, “I remember a lot of men doing that.”

  Mom clears her throat. “I remember you following the trail at one time too.”

  I watch Theo wiggle in his chair. “Come on, Catherine, you can’t still be jealous.”

  Mom stands. “I was never jealous, Theo.” She then turns to me. “Where is Murphy? We have some business to discuss. I plan on going with her today to the casino.”

  “She shouldn’t be too long. She wasn’t feeling well this morning, but I had Jeffery bring her some lemons and tea.”

  Mom pats my shoulder and walks out of the room. I look back at Theo and Cherry and see them still laughing. Theo looks at me and says, “She was jealous, it worked like a charm.” He winks at me and then takes off, following mom.

  With an eyebrow raised I start to ask Cherry what they meant by that, but she waves her arm and says, “Don’t ask, it’s a long story. How was last night?”

  “Uneventful.”

  She stands and says, “I’m sorry, Zander, I warned you it wouldn’t be easy. Give her time, she’ll adjust.” She then walks out of the room too.

  Adjust? I don’t want her to just adjust. I want her to love me like I already love her.

  47

  Murphy

  I head downstairs and meet everyone for breakfast. The men stand and wait for me to sit as Zander pulls my chair out. Avery says, “We heard you had a rough morning, how are you feeling now?”

  “I’m feeling better. Thank you for asking.”

  Once breakfast is almost finished, Catherine tells me, “I thought I would go to work with you today. I would like to discuss some business.”

  “Wait, I thought I would still oversee my casino?”

  She looks at me ready to attack but then changes her mind. “You are in charge of our family casino. But I would like to discuss plans for the improvements you were telling me about. Now that the casino is no longer in debt, we can start making plans for the future. I think we should work together on making it one of the best casinos in the state.”

  “As long as I have final say.”

  Catherine stands. “Fine, shall we go?”

  I stand to walk out and Zander is following us.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “With you, wife. Now that we’re married, I take my responsibilities very seriously.”

  I don’t even try to argue. I walk out the door with them both behind me.

  When we make it to the casino, people start congratulating us on our wedding. Damn, news travels fast here. Zander shakes everyone’s hand and looks thrilled at all the attention. I just nod and keep on walking to my office.

  Catherine and I enter the office. She closes the door and asks, “Are you ever going to ease up on my son?”

  “Why? It’s not like it’s a surprise I didn’t want to get married. Did you think I would change my mind overnight?”

  “No, but I hoped you wouldn’t be such a bitch to the man you’re having a child with.”

  I look at her wanting to shout, but instead I take a page from her book and give it to her nice and slow. “You think this is me being a bitch? You haven’t seen anything yet. Now I don’t want to talk about things I obviously can’t change, can we start discussing the casino?”

  She sits when Zander enters the room. He decides to lounge on the couch.

  “Is that all you’re going to do today?”

  “Yes babe, this is it. Now get to work.”

  I start off showing Catherine all the financial reports and then I show her the improvements I have planned. She points out some things that I never even thought of. She then suggests some ideas with the financials that aren’t what I would say legal but would be very productive. Overall the meeting went better than I thought. She then asks to walk around so she can point out some things that she has in mind for improvements.

  As we go to stand, Zander pops up. But Catherine tells him, “Zander, Murphy has a problem on a collection, I need you to handle it for her. Don’t worry, though, I have arranged for Bobby to personally escort us around for the rest of the day.”

  She grabs a piece of paper and pen, she writes down the information, then hands it to him. He looks at me, almost waiting for me to give him permission. “Go, I’ll be fine. Bobby will be with us.”

  He nods and leaves. “Catherine, what collection were you talking about?”

  She grabs my ledger and points to an initial. “You see this mark? That is money owed to the casino. Someone has been behind on their payments, in fact, a lot of people have been. See all these? That is your father’s markings. Every casino has different ones. The one I sent Zander out for is the largest amount you have on record. He owed twenty thousand, but now with interest he is in debt over twenty-five now. Did you really not know what those marks were?”

  “No, I didn’t.” I look over the ledger, and sure enough, I have quite a few markings. “How will I ever get the money back?”

  “You won’t. That’s Zander’s job and he is very good at it. Shall we start our tour now?”

  “Yes.”

  We go through the casino with a fine-toothed comb. I’m actually impressed by all her observations. If we can pull it all off, there is no way the casino will be in trouble in the future.

  When we return to the office, lunch is waiting for us. Catherine said she had it delivered from one of her favorite restaurants.

  We start eating and then I look up to find her staring at me. I wipe my face with my napkin and ask, “What’s on your mind?”

  “I like you, Murphy. I think together we can make this casino work better than it could ever have separately.”

  “Thank y
ou.”

  “I don’t want your thanks. I want you to realize that I am not a woman that gives away compliments like this. You are everything I saw for my son. I want you to know that you are my family now and that baby is my grandchild. But I also need you to know, I will not sit back for long and watch you hurt my son. He is not your father.”

  “I never said he was.”

  “You don’t have to. I see it written all over you. You’re waiting for him to hurt you, in fact, you’re depending on it. Am I wrong?”

  I don’t say anything. She is reading me right and she knows it.

  “My son will not disappoint you. He is not like the other men in your life. Trust me, I have known a lot of those men. He is more like his father. He is strong and faithful, and he is loyal beyond reason. You might see him and think he doesn’t hurt easy, but trust me, you are and will continue to be the one hurting him.”

  “I don’t want either one of us to hurt.”

  “Then you better wake up. Because when he can’t take any more hurt, he will not forgive you and neither will I.”

  Zander walks in as soon as she threatens me. He looks at both of us and asks, “Is there a problem?”

  I answer first, “No, no problem, Catherine and I were just discussing our lunch. It’s fabulous.”

  Catherine smiles and says, “I hoped you would love it. This is the restaurant I was thinking of having us go into partnership with here in the casino.”

  This woman is good. “I think we should jump on that right away.”

  “Great, he will meet with us tomorrow. Zander, how was your visit?”

  Zander digs into his suit pocket and throws a huge envelope onto my desk. “It was successful like always.”

  I grab the envelope and see it’s filled with cash. I look up at him and he smiles back down at me.

  Catherine stands and says, “Glad to hear it. Murphy has some other collections for you, she can make you a list. I’m heading out. You two have a great day, I will see you both tonight.” She kisses Zander on the cheek and walks out.

  He sits down and asks, “So, what were you two really discussing?”

  “She was warning me not to hurt her precious son.”

  Zander laughs out loud. “You should heed the warning, then. What can I say? My mom loves me.”

  He sees the face I make and then says, “Don’t worry about it. She knows I would never let her hurt you.”

  “Even if I do hurt you?”

  He gets serious now. “Even then.”

  I can’t take the pressure anymore so I change the subject, waving the envelope in the air. “Do I want to know exactly what it is you do to collect?”

  “Do you really care?”

  I clear my throat and say, “I’ll make you that list your mother was talking about.”

  “Fine, I’ll go tonight once I return you home.”

  “I’ll be working late tonight.”

  “Fine, then I will go tomorrow night.”

  I don’t want to argue so I let it go.

  48

  Zander

  I must have fallen asleep on the couch. I wake hearing Murphy vomiting again in the bathroom. What time is it? I look at my phone to see it’s after ten at night. I get up and walk to the bathroom. She’s kneeling over the toilet spewing everything she ate today. I wet a towel then grab her hair, laying the cold towel on her neck. When will this all stop? I don’t know a lot about pregnant women, but this shit has to stop sooner or later.

  She finishes and grabs the towel from her neck, wiping her face.

  “Come on, I’ll help you up.”

  “No, leave me here to die. I can’t move.”

  I look at her face lying on the side of the toilet and see how weak she looks. “Are you done?”

  “For now.”

  I bend down and gather her in my arms. Surprisingly, she doesn’t even protest.

  I sit down on the couch with her on me. I’m not willing to let her go yet. Not when I have her in my arms without a fight.

  She only allows me a few minutes. Once she gets her bearings, she escapes. When she stands, she almost falls. I grab her, holding her up. “Red, come on, sit back down. You’re too weak to stand right now.”

  “I’m fine, I just got dizzy for a minute. I need to get back to work.”

  “Oh, no you don’t. When does your night manager get here?”

  “He’s been here for hours now.”

  “Why haven’t we left, then?”

  “Because it’s a busy night and I don’t trust him fully.”

  “Well, you do tonight.”

  I pick her back up into my arms and tell her to grab her purse. “I can walk, Zander.”

  “I know, but why would you? I have you now.”

  I walk straight out of the casino with people staring at us.

  When we get home, I go straight to our bedroom, not explaining to any of our family what’s going on. I put her down on her feet and turn her around to unzip her dress, then tuck her into bed. I go to my side and strip down then lay in the bed next to her. I pull her closer to me, hugging her from behind.

  She starts pushing me away. But I’m not having it, I quietly tell her, “Stop, Red, not tonight, just let me hold you. I know you’re not feeling well. Tomorrow you can bitch me out all you want.”

  Again, she surprises me. She never says another word nor does she move. I fall asleep like I want to every night for the rest of my life, with her in my arms.

  I wake before her and grab my phone. I text Jeffery to have lemons and peppermint tea waiting outside our door. Then I turn back over and look at her. She turned in the middle of the night, facing me. She’s so beautiful. Her skin is like porcelain and her red hair spreads across her face and breasts. I take my finger and move her hair so I can trace her freckles. Her body is gorgeous to me, but I think the freckles may be my favorite part of her. She scrunches her nose as I pass feather light touches across her nose. I then stop, I’m not ready for her to wake up. My eyes trail down to her body. My dick is already hard, but fuck, it just gets harder as I see her breasts overflowing in her bra. I take my hand, punishing myself, but I can’t stop, I trail my hand down her side, sloping the curve of her body down to her small waist up to her large hip. Damn, I remember what it’s like to hold those hips in my hands. She stretches in my arms, waking up. When she opens her eyes, she looks up at me.

  “Zander.”

  Praying she is going to let me take her, she suddenly looks down. “Does that thing ever stay down?”

  “Never around you.”

  “Learn to point it somewhere else.”

  She sits up and stretches more. “Is that what you want?”

  “What?”

  “Me to point my hard cock in someone else’s direction?”

  She turns and stands. “Do what you want, Zander. You’re a grown man.”

  She then walks into the bathroom. I slam my hands down on the bed. What will it take to make her accept that I am not going anywhere?

  49

  Murphy

  Three more weeks pass, things continue to go as planned, except now Liam comes into work with me and Zander. He’s coming to learn the ins and outs of my casino. Catherine feels that Liam should switch between the two casinos to give of us all more time to be home with our families. If we all take shifts on different days, it will help, I just hate giving up control. But I will need the help, especially when the baby comes.

  I start to learn that Zander is more on contract work, he mainly works as needed. But when he does work, he comes home exhausted and sometimes bloody. I look at the clock and see it’s one in the morning and Zander still isn’t home.

  But now I hear the doorknob jiggle. He walks in and I see him limp. He walks straight into the bathroom and I can’t help but follow. I open the door and see him stripping down.

  “Murphy, go back to bed.”

  I see him struggling to get his shirt off. I rush over to him and grab his shirt. “Let me
help you.”

  When I remove his shirt, I see he’s all bruised and scraped up. He starts to undo his pants and then sits down on the side of the tub. I bend down and help him get them off. That’s when I see why he limped in, his calf is stitched up.

  “What happened?”

  “Do you care?”

  “Just tell me.”

  “I went to collect and the guy was ready for me. I had to chase him. When I knocked him down he had a knife and stabbed my leg. My back got bruised and scraped when we rolled down onto the gravel road. But don’t worry, he’s way worse off than me.”

  “Zander!”

  “What? It’s fine. Look, it’s already been stitched up. I might need a day or two to heal, but I’ll be fine.”

  He stands and walks to the shower. “I know this might be asking too much, but do you think you can wash my back and sides? I need to make sure it gets cleaned well so no infections set in.”

  He gets into the shower and I decide to help him. So, I strip out of my bra and panties. He watches me the whole time with heat in his eyes. I walk into the large shower and he leans back into the water spray. The man is hot, damn him. He turns his back to me and I start washing his back gently. I feel all the cuts under my fingers as I wash the blood away. He leans his hands on the shower wall and I then start on his sides. Before I know it, my hands have a mind of their own as I start washing over every hard ridge of his body. My hands trail further down onto his tight ass, down to his muscular thighs. When my hands rise back up, I start washing the back of his strong wide shoulders down to his full muscle-bound arms. I don’t know what I’m doing. But I am full on bathing this larger than life man. When I hear him moan he turns around, facing me. He pulls me closer to his body under the spray. My hair gets wet as our bodies are pressed together slippery with soap. He leans down to kiss me and I let him. I am powerless to fight against him. He then kisses down my neck and back to my ear.

  He whispers, “I need you, baby. Please let me have you.”