The Dark Prince (The Dark Prince Trilogy #1)

by Autumn Winchester

  Chase led his wife to the waiting car, making sure she was in while one of his men gathered their belongings and thrown them into the back of the black SUV that Carter was sitting in, waiting. The guard nodded his head at her before waiting for commands from his boss.

  “Take the back way,” Chase said as he dialed his phone, calling his cousin.

  “Did you find anything?” he asked. While Summer drifted in and out of sleep, Chase had texted Trent to sweep his house from top to bottom hours ago.

  “Found a few bugs that were taken care of around the fence,” he answered easily. “Already taken them out. And Valerie has been in isolation the entire time.”

  Isolation meant that she was somewhere with twenty-four-hour surveillance, no phone or bank access at all. To most people, that would be a vacation, but to Valerie Sate, that meant jail. She was attached to her phone constantly. Same for her bank cards. Luckily for Trent, he had the divorce already pushed through, and nothing was still tied to his now ex-wife.

  “She still there?” Chase asked, his voice stern. Somehow, he was able to keep his knee from bouncing.

  “Yes. I talked to her guard, and herself,” Trent answered right away. “She will be there until I determine what to do. Maybe I will hand her back to daddy dearest and he can deal with her.”

  “He never did like the way she acted,” Chase laughed. “You still at my house?”

  “Yep,” Trent said.

  Chase hung up before sending a number of texts out to a few of his other men, the only men he truly trusted. Summer sat leaning against him, trying to keep the panic from taking over. She had an arm wrapped around his, whose hand rested on her knee closest to him. His touch helped to ground her, keeping her in the present.

  She didn’t know how to handle this. After everything she had been through, and knew her father had eyes and ears everywhere, she didn’t want to let hope build, thinking Chase could keep her safe. But he may never be able to keep her safe. She was just the type that drew trouble wherever she went. Hell wouldn’t even want her, and she didn’t blame the Devil either.

  It didn’t take long to reach Chase’s house and Carter ushered them both in through the front door. A few cars were parked haphazardly in the driveway, but Carter was able to get close to the front door, almost being on the porch. Chase made sure to keep a tight hold on his wife’s hand, wanting to keep himself calm, since this was mostly about her. It really did all start with her in a roundabout way. Chase wished he could change the past so she didn’t have to go through all this.

  To any outsider, they wouldn’t understand. But Summer was born to be a Princess from the start, and because of the rival mafia boss, she wasn’t seen as such. She was a pawn to be played against everyone and anyone. But Chase would keep her safe, giving her just what was needed to make sure she lived. She would see the end of this war if she’d let him help her.

  “Son,” Ivan was the first to speak right as the two stepped into the door. “What is this about?”

  “Jason,” was all he needed to say to make the much older man pale slightly. Chase’s voice was cold and laced with unspoken threats.

  “Let’s have a seat,” Ivan said tiredly, knowing it was time to get this dealt with. He had put this on the back burner far too long.

  “You can stay, or you can go upstairs. It’s up to you, Princess,” Chase whispered in his wife’s ear as the men in the room took seats. Trent, Ivan, Carter and a man with slight graying hair and a thin but built body, whose name was Peter, took seats. Each had the same tired, but thrilled look upon their faces. It was more than time to deal with that dead-beat man.

  Summer simply leaned more into Chase, not sure why, but she did. That was all that the Prince needed to know. He led her to the empty arm chair and sat down, pulling her down to sit on his lap. He didn’t want to be apart from her either, so it suited his needs just as well as hers.

  “Peter, what did you find out?” Chase asked first, pinning the older man with his green eyes.

  “Not much more than you already know,” the man answered in a southern accent, his words almost running over one another. “Valerie is being paid to spy on all of us by a man named Mr. Jason Meads. He’s giving money to someone else to pay her. He didn’t cover his bases well.”

  “He always has before,” Summer started, surprised she had spoken out loud. It was proof in itself that she was comfortable here. Too comfortable, she thought.

  “No, actually he hasn’t. He isn’t the best at covering his tracks. I can track every single money transaction, every big move. He is very much predictable,” Peter replied, not at all upset that Summer spoke her mind. His light blue eyes held adoration, but also pride as he looked at her. Peter was surprised she spoke up, but knew what she could very well be capable of in due time.

  “Which makes his moves easier to know,” Trent spoke up. “We all knew he’d send a spy to track you Summer. We didn’t expect my now ex-wife, nor did we expect to see Hawk, but we knew he’d try something.” And he’d send more.

  “Has Hawk hinted anything towards you, Summer?” Ivan asked, cocking his head to the side. Somehow, his hard stern voice wasn’t nearly as strong as it was when he talked to his men. Summer was glad for it, not sure how she would have responded, if she could have, if he was so cold with her, too.

  “Not that I know of. Years ago as a child, he stood up for me, saving me from Jason’s wrath, but I know nothing of him now,” Summer whispered, bravely meeting the mob boss’s eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she held his eyes. At least until someone else spoke up.

  “From what I can tell, he is trained to take over when the time comes, but I know nothing of him. He hasn’t been in the spotlight much, and everything is clean. Nothing has been forgotten as far as I can see,” Peter went on. “He’s been kept in the dark, I’m sure. So it’s hard to tell what side he really is on..”

  “That is what worries me,” Chase mused darkly, playing with the ends of Summer’s hair. “I don’t know what he's up to, so I want tabs on him at all times.”

  “What about the man you have there already?” Ivan asked, knowing that the name was not to be given out.

  “He’s not able to get into contact with me yet, but he will when the time comes. He’s doing his job, and appears to have no ties to me in any way,” Chase answered. He made sure to not name names, as only he and Ivan knew who it was.

  “So what’s the plan then?” Trent asked, cracking his knuckles, a look a thrill on his face.

  “First, we will start taking out the shipments and drug holding cells. Hit them hard. Our's and his. You all know I plan to get rid of all that anyway. Next is the holding compounds. Turn the FEDS on them, and no one will know what hit them. I want it taken care of by the end of the week,” Chase demanded. Quick and hard.

  “What if Jason acts before then?” Peter asked.

  “He’s dead either way,” Chase shrugged, an evil grin to his face. “No one is to kill him; that blood is for me.” He purposely left out that his wife wanted to do about her father. They didn’t need to know about it now, if at all. Summer happened to look at that moment, seeing how deadly her husband was. He would win this, that she was sure of.

  “We can bang him up?” Trent asked, his eyes alight with hope.

  “I don’t give a fuck. Keep his heart beating long enough for me to have my fun,” Chase answered, not amused by his cousin at the moment.

  Trent punched the air in happiness, not caring what was going on around him. Chase shot a dark glare at him, causing Trent to straighten up.

  “Peter, take over the shipments. I don’t care what happens with the items. Burn them for all I care. Trent, take out the drugs. Take a few dealers down too if you can,” Chase demanded. “I’ll take down the compounds, and John too.”

  “John?” Ivan asked, squinting at his son. That was never the plan. John was a hard man to get past, and took Ivan his entire life to get into that man’s good side. Taking him down was not
a wise move on any of their parts.

  “He’s the one that runs the sex slave trade,” Chase stated in a no-nonsense tone. “He and Nick ran it. Plus, he is close to Jason, being his brother and all. I want John dead. Jail would be too easy for that man. I want him dead. No questions asked.”

  Summer didn’t know they were brothers. But she chose to stay quiet. It didn’t matter, really, in the end anyways.

  “Alright,” Ivan said, seeing the point. At first he wasn’t sure his son knew what he was doing, but now after being married for a month, the man saw the changes in his son. He was meant to run the family. Chase was doing the things Ivan never had the guts to do. He’d wanted to kill that bastard for years, but was never strong enough. He had to give his son credit. Summer had changed him, that was for sure. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Play along, act mad at my choices if need be in public around the other men. I know he has a man or two in our group, and I want them gone. I took care of one man in Vegas,” Chase stated, surprised by his father’s turn of feelings. He’d never just went along to his plans before.

  “Can do, son,” Ivan said with a nod, crossing his legs, left leg over his right knee. He already knew who that man was, and was proud that his son was able to tell who the rats were with one look.

  “Is there anything else we need to discuss?” Peter asked, standing up and smoothing his shirt out.

  “No, I think that’s all I need from you,” Chase said, feeling Summer sag against him as she tried to muffle a yawn.

  “I’ll get my part taken care of then,” Peter said, making his leave, tipping his head towards the two. He wasn’t a man of a lot of words, but did a great a job at what needed done in a timely manner.

  “Trent, if you stay, we can go over those files I got while out of town,” Chase stated. “Dad, I can do this. You don’t have to help me. I want that man dead, and he will be.”

  “I am proud of you, Chase. Really I am. I know I forced you to be who you are, but you will succeed and change things around here. You already are,” Ivan said with a tenderness he didn’t show often to his son. With that, he nodded and made his leave also.

  Summer decided it was her time to make herself scarce. She was torn on being in view of Chase at all times, or taking a shower and then a long nap. She had gotten used to being with him alone, for the most part, the last couple of days. But with school starting in two weeks for her, she needed to get things in order, and the house back to the normal clean standards she had somehow set for herself.

  Chase kissed her on the head before she made her way to the shower, stripping her clothes and washing away her worries. Surprisingly, the panic was almost gone now that she knew what to expect, and that she was included. After the shower, she found her packed bags at the end of the bed, and she dug out her cell phone before getting dressed in shorts and one of her husband’s shirts, feeling better being surrounded by his smell.

  As she laid down on top of the covers, tucking Chase’s pillow to her chest, she wondered if she could sleep in the other bed once night time came. He didn’t say anything about it yet. It was where she had been sleeping most of the time as it was. Would things go back to normal? What was normal for her now?

  So many questions raced through her mind now that there was nothing going on around her. Summer didn’t know if Chase would want to bed her again after she was cleared to go. She knew that neither one of them wanted a child, so at least that soothed her.

  As she let her eyes close once more, she began to come up with a way to make her heart not fall in love with her husband. She didn’t know what he wanted to do with her still, why he picked her to begin with. But it had to do something with her father, she assumed. It was the only thing she could think of.

  Would he try to use her against her father, or would her father use Summer against the Prince?

  She wasn’t sure, so she planned. She wasn’t going to let her heart control her actions, no matter how sweet and attentive the man was to her. She needed to learn everything she could so she could run when the moment came. She would run. She had to if there was anything worth living for. There was no way she’d stay here once she knew she could live without protection. There was no possibility that Chase could get Jason taken down, she was sure of it.

  But Summer could take him down. She’d do whatever it took to do so. She’d kill the devil himself to prove it so.

  ~oOo~

  Downstairs, Chase and Trent looked over the files of the first thumb drive. The younger man cursed and yelled as new information came up. He couldn’t believe his ex-wife would dare do something like this.

  She had accepted more money than she needed, and then separated it into different accounts. To an untrained eye, no one would have known. But to Chase and Trent, they saw every single thing she was hiding.

  “She will pay,” Trent said darkly after seeing more than enough. “She has no right!” He wanted to throw something, but his hands were unable to grab ahold of anything to do just that.

  “Actually, maybe she can help us,” Chase mused, sitting back in the leather chair. “I know you won’t like it, but if we used this against her, to get to Jason. We play along, give her false information to pass along to whoever. Then we can corner Jason easier.” And in turn, John, he thought.

  “He won’t see it coming, and neither will Valerie,” Trent continued. “It would work. But I can’t act like I forgive her. I won’t.”

  “You don’t have to,” Chase said, gazing at the other man. “Make her think she needs to work on earning your trust. You can tell her that it was my idea to give her a second shot at this, or whatever you come up with. But she will be tracked around the clock.”

  “Okay, we’ll do it,” Trent said after a moment in thought. “But she’s not welcome in my house.”

  “Mine either,” Trent said, running a hand down his face. He wanted to check on his wife, fearing that she might be panicking. She had done so well so far, but knew she could only take so much.

  ~oOo~

  The next few days were quieter than normal. Chase looked over every single note, every detail. He tracked everyone closely, knowing where they were and what they were doing. He knew Trent was watching Valerie closely also as she found an apartment with her daddy’s money to live for the time being. But she was being careful. Chase did have to give her credit for not jumping back into the life she craved. Nor did she talk to anyone other than Trent or Chase. And that was only to answer check in calls.

  His demands were being followed through exactly like he wanted. His guy that was close to Jason updated Chase a few times a day, and so far, everything was going as planned. Jason was worrying of what was coming, and rightfully so. Clare was attached to Summer the day she came back home. The younger girl asked question after question, which the Princess tried to answer the best that she could while Chase took care of business.

  Clare loved the gifts that Summer, and in turn Chase, had picked out for her. She instantly put the necklace on that Summer had picked out, claiming her love for the object right away. Clare did like it here, and was bothered by the fact that her father found her sister. In the way she grew up, Clare knew that if a man took notice of someone, that meant hell would be paid. It was never a good thing to be noticed.

  “He’s never wanted anything to do with me,” Clare said with a shrug. “And the feeling is past mutual.” She wasn’t even sure Jason knew of her, and that was even better.

  “I don’t know what he wants with me,” Summer answered. “I’m no one.” She wasn’t anything special or outstanding. Jason hated the girl with a vengeance, so why did he try so hard to keep tabs on her?

  “You are my Princess,” Chase said, taking a perch against the back of the couch, his hands crossed over his chest and body turned to the two girls. “Your mother, Summer, offered for me to marry you when we were young. At the time, I said yes, not knowing what I was getting into. Jason and Emma were close once, but I think money and life va
lues got in the way.

  “Anyway, my father was in the process of getting you to live with us when Jason demanded that you live with him. No one knew how you were being treated there, until it was too late.

  “It was only recently that I found out about it all,” he went on. His green eyes bore into Summer’s light blue ones. “But to answer your concern about what Jason wants from you; I’m not sure. He’s hated you from day one, but keeping track of where you go, and making sure your life is so horrible must mean something.

  “But you are someone, Summer. You are my Princess, and no one will harm a hair on your head unless they want to die,” Chase finished. He then stood, walked around the couch and knelt in front on his Princess.

  “You mean more to me than I ever expected and I will do anything to make you see that,” he spoke, laying a hand on her face. Summer’s eyes were wide, but she felt tingles where his hand lay. She leaned into him, letting her eyes fall closed for a moment, basking in his affection.