by Anya Summers
"What are we going to do? We have to help her." And maybe if he saved her, he could convince her to love him back, even just a little.
Declan gave him an approving nod. "That's what I hoped you'd say. Here's what we are planning so far. Theo is going to enlist Owen Kade to investigate Ethan and see what he can dig up. Will's graciously offered to hack into Ethan's email accounts and see what he can find there. He's already found a confirmation email in Delilah's account for a hotel in Paris."
"Then I'll go to Paris."
"Not alone. She's one of ours," Jared murmured.
"I'll come with you guys. You'll want to make him hand over any copies he has, and the only way to be sure is to have someone with my skillset. I've already sent the files I need from Delilah's account to my laptop, and can work on the go," Will interceded.
Bastian didn't know Will very well, but he liked him on principle alone. "My bandmates will make the trip as well. I'd rather have all the backup necessary."
"Agreed," Declan said. "I would go with you if I could. Zoey and I leave for our honeymoon in the morning, but I will do what I can from here until we leave. I would rather keep this contained to as few people as possible. Zoey already knows but I think its best, for Delilah's sake and the sake of the DFC, if we keep it contained as possible."
"Owen's game. He already received the intel you sent him, Will," Theo Brown added. "I will stay here and contact you with any updates from him."
Bastian had never felt such helpless rage in his life as they plotted a course to extricate Delilah from her ex. If only she had trusted him with the truth.
Chapter Fourteen
The green awning for Au Petit Sud-Ouest came into view with its distinctive wooden framed windows, as the rest of the buildings lining the street were a whitewashed gray stone with clean lines. The tree-lined street was immensely popular with tourists flocking to the Eiffel Tower so nearby. The air was crisp with freezing temperatures and she pulled her red pea coat tighter. Resignation shrouded Delilah like a black cloak.
She couldn't begin to understand why Ethan had filmed her that way, filmed them. It struck at the very heart of how untrustworthy he'd actually been during the length of their relationship. All her life she'd tried to be what everyone else had wanted her to be, and look where it had gotten her. She wanted it over with, this meeting with Ethan. She steeled herself for the upcoming battle. More resolved than anything, Delilah's footsteps faltered a bit when she walked in and spied Ethan at one of the back tables.
"Bonjour! Comment je peux vous aider?" the young maître d' asked. He looked to be in his mid-twenties.
"Parlez-vous Anglais?" she said.
"Oui. How may I help you?"
"I see my party seated over there." She pointed toward Ethan, who waved her over.
"Yes, mademoiselle. Go on in. Enjoy."
"Merci," she thanked him and thought, not bloody likely. She'd rather get something waxed than sit through this upcoming meeting.
Her career, the people she cared most about in this world, everything in her life, hinged on this moment. Except she couldn't give a rat's ass about her career anymore. She'd do what Ethan wanted; protect the DFC as best she could for as long as she could. Nothing else mattered. The biggest loss out of all of it was that she had mucked up her fledgling relationship with Bastian. He'd never agree to see her again, and she didn't blame him one iota. It was ironic that with the moment upon her, and the potential to lose everything, she'd come to realize she'd already lost the only thing that mattered.
Bastian.
She plastered a firm mask on her face, not willing to show Ethan that his actions held any sway over her any longer.
He stood, his slender build and stature—which she'd always found attractive, or at least, had put filters over her eyes—suddenly completely removed. Now she saw him for what he really was, a rotten weasel. She'd never noticed until now how much his face looked like one, too, with his narrow face and black eyes, his thin lips which compressed into a frown when she side-stepped his attempt to embrace her. The last thing she ever wanted was his hands anywhere near her body ever again.
"It's about time you showed up. I was beginning to think I'd have to make good on my promises."
"Ethan, I can't say that it's good to see you. Can we please get this meeting over with?" She took a seat in one of the chairs opposite him. At any other time, she would have been charmed by this restaurant, with its brick walls, quaint tables covered with soft, salmon-colored table linens, extensive wine list, and delicious smells filtering into the dining area from the kitchen.
The waiter chose that moment to attend to their table.
"May I get you anything, mademoiselle?" he simpered.
"She doesn't need anything, or she'll get fatter," Ethan interrupted with a slight wave of his hand.
The waiter's appalled expression was something Delilah become all too familiar with when she'd been with him. Funny how, after being with Bastian, she didn't think of herself in that light anymore. So she addressed the waiter directly, to Ethan's consternation. "I'll have the duck, and a glass of the 2010 Chateau Boucassé Brumont, and put it on his bill. Merci." She smiled sweetly for the waiter, who bowed slightly.
"Right away, mademoiselle."
Ethan's black weasel eyes narrowed as he spat, "You will do what I say, when I say it, from here on out, otherwise that tape you don't want the world to see will go public."
The waiter returned with her wine. Bless the man. She took a long swallow before she responded. She couldn't do it. She couldn't let this weasel of a man control her life ever again. She'd have to call Declan, give him a heads-up that the DFC could be exposed. With the moment of truth upon her, she just couldn't do it.
"No."
"What did you say to me?"
"You heard me. I will not now, or ever again, do anything you want me to do. You want to tarnish my reputation because you are no longer my manager. Go right ahead, asshole. There are plenty of celebrities who have had sex tapes hit the media, and it hasn't hurt their careers much. So I'm thinking, you want to do it, knock yourself out. I'm done. You are not going to blackmail me or control my life anymore."
"Are you sure you want to do this? I have directors eating out of my hand. You'll never get another job without me."
"That's the thing, Ethan; I'm the one with the talent here, not you. I get to decide when and where I will sing next. I don't need you. I never did. You were convenient."
He whipped out his cell phone and began tapping away. "You're going to be sorry. Just you wait and see." He seethed with indignation that she had turned down his offer to blackmail her.
The thing was, if she caved and gave in to his demands, he would control her for the rest of her life. And that was unacceptable. "No, I don't think I will. In fact, I should have done this a long time ago, Ethan."
"You bitch, I'm going to make you pay, and then you will be sorry." His hand shot out across the table and grabbed her wrist rather painfully.
"Let go, or I will make a scene the likes of which you will never recover from," she warned him, her blood going cold. How she could ever have thought herself in love with this jackass?
A man slid into the chair next to Delilah and she gaped at his presence.
"The lady asked you to remove your hand from her person. It's time you complied, or I will make you," Bastian commanded.
What was he doing here?
His presence overwhelmed her, crowded her, and all she wanted to do was lean into his muscular form and soak up some of his strength.
"This is none of your business. Get the fuck out of here," Ethan sneered.
"Actually, it is, and you will unhand her or I will break your fingers."
At the threat of bodily harm, Ethan shoved Delilah's hand away and she pulled it back to her chest, rubbing the tender spots where his fingers had dug into her flesh.
"What the hell is the meaning of this, Delilah?" Ethan spluttered.
"This,"
Bastian answered him, "is the one time, and one time only that I will ask you nicely to turn over the tape."
"You and what army?" Ethan started to shove his chair back when Jared came up behind him.
"You're not leaving anytime soon. Have a seat," Jared said, winking at Delilah.
Tears welled at the corners of her eyes as she fought for her composure. Blinking them back, she spied the rest of Bastian's band at a table two over from where they sat, looking ready to head over and intervene if need be. The Doms of the DFC had come to her rescue. Warmth spread in her chest. She didn't know how they'd found out about it, nor did she care. She couldn't believe they were all here for her.
Ethan, flustered, said, "Now see here—"
That was when Bastian cut him off, laying a thick manila file on the table. "No. Let me give you a little heads-up into how this is going to play out. You are going to hand over Miss Gregory's tape, every copy you have. In fact, you are going to provide us with the computer hard drive it was saved onto so our IT guy at the table behind us can wipe it completely."
"And if I don't, what are you and your little army going to do?"
"Oh, it's not what we are going to do, it's what we already did. Our IT guy dug up some fascinating accounting. It seems you have been siphoning and embezzling funds from your clients for the past twenty years. It seems that you had Miss Gregory targeted, as well, and when she wouldn't grant you access to her accounts, you and your girlfriend devised a way to blackmail her into giving it to you. How am I doing so far?"
Ethan looked green. Sweat beaded on his upper lip and he had a stunned expression on his face.
"Oh yes, and that's not even the worst part of it, is it? What will your devoutly Christian wife Maribelle say when she learns that you embezzled your step-children's trust funds? You know, the ones they'd inherited from their deceased father, the ones you had your lovely wife add you to the accounts as overseer for a few years ago?" Bastian went on.
Married? Ethan was married? All that time they were together—they had lived together, for crying out loud—and she had never even guessed. As much as she knew she had been ignorant out of choice, fury unlike anything she'd ever known rose up in Delilah's breast. He'd all but targeted her as an easy mark.
"Not to mention, we have a team of lawyers with Apex Industries standing by to slap a libel suit on you should that tape go public," Bastian added.
Delilah would like to slap Ethan with more than a lawsuit. She'd like to take a bullwhip to his ass and cut him to shreds. Although, from the horror-stricken look on Ethan's face, she realized Bastian had been able to cut him down and make him squirm with only a few words.
"So what do you say, Ethan, ready to hand it over?" Bastian said, his face hard and unreadable, but the most welcome sight she'd seen in days.
Under Bastian's unflinching glare, Ethan crumbled.
"I have it all here." He held up his iPad.
"Jared if you would," Bastian directed. Jared took the iPad from Ethan's shaking hands, left the table, and handed it to Will, who promptly connected it to his computer and began erasing files.
It took Will only about ten minutes to clear out the data on Ethan's iPad. Jared brought it back over with Will in tow.
"That wasn't the source file; he has more copies of it."
Bastian gave Ethan a sideways glance, shaking his head. "Jared and Will are going to go with you to your hotel to retrieve the other copies. Understood?"
At the murderous gleam in Ethan's eyes, Bastian smiled. "I see we do. Oh, and one more thing. If you ever contact Miss Gregory for any reason, I will take supreme pleasure in hunting you down and beating the tar out of you. From this moment forward, you don't contact her, or even speak her name, do we have an understanding?"
"Yes," Ethan snarled.
"Good man. Jared, Will, let me know if he complies. Otherwise I will send over all those files to the French police and let them deal with him."
"On it. Come on, you wanker." Jared nodded with his head toward the door. He maneuvered a shaken, broken Ethan out, with Will not two steps behind them.
With that, Delilah was free. She never had to bow to Ethan's nasty, disgusting lies again. And it was all because of Bastian.
She stared at him. "How? Why?"
"Let's get you back to your hotel and we'll talk there. I want to get out of here before someone recognizes us and reports it to the tabloids."
Bastian put his sunglasses back on. In fact, the whole band took that as the signal to leave. He tossed down a few banknotes to cover the bill on the table as he rose. Delilah stood, her legs a little wobbly from the surprising turn of events.
As they stepped out onto the sidewalk, there was a break in the gray cloud cover, allowing rays of golden sunshine to filter in.
Hope bubbled in her chest as she walked with Bastian and his band back to the hotel.
Chapter Fifteen
Bastian led her in past the front desk at the Le Cinq Codet hotel. After everything that had just happened, Delilah shouldn't be surprised that he knew what hotel she was staying at. She rode the elevator with the full band, but the only one to disembark with her was Bastian.
"Hold on," she said, and turned back to the elevator where she gave Jax, Collum, Eric, and Lachlan all big hugs. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."
"We live to save damsels in distress," Lachlan said with a wink as he pulled back from her embrace and she rejoined Bastian in the hall.
He didn't touch her as they walked. The air vibrated between them as they strolled down the landing. Her world still spun on its axis from the madcap turn of events. She never would have guessed that this was how her meeting with Ethan would proceed. That Bastian would appear like a knight in shining armor. He'd rescued her even after she had ended their fledgling relationship so cruelly. She couldn't seem to wrap her brain around the why.
They entered her corner suite and, needing something solid beneath her, she sat on the black curved couch. She waited until he shut the door behind him before she said anything.
"Bastian, thank you. I don't understand why you did what you did, but I can't thank you enough. No one has ever…" She stopped what she was about to say, shaking her head. Her emotions were topsy-turvy, and she feared she was very near weepy.
"Just because you and I are not seeing each other doesn't mean I won't look out for you. Or that any of the Doms at the DFC won't look out for you and step in to help when needed. And we aren't quite finished with Ethan, either. As soon as Will confirms he has erased every file the tape was on, Jared will have the Apex lawyers deliver the file to the French police. Ethan's pain is just beginning for all the harm he caused. Declan was sorry he couldn't be here to see that it was taken care of himself, but…"
She wilted on the couch. She didn't feel sorry for Ethan—he had made his bed. He'd targeted her, used her enjoyment of the lifestyle against her.
As to the rest of her life, today proved how messed up it had become. She glanced at Bastian with her heart stuck in her chest. She owed him so much.
"I can't begin to know what you all think of me. What you must think of me? I didn't know he'd done that, filmed that scene when we were together. I didn't find out until the night of the reception, and I panicked, rather badly, I might add. I'm sorry I was so awful to you; I didn't mean what I said to you at all. Please know, I was trying to protect you from Ethan, you and everyone in the DFC. I couldn't let him hurt the people I care about and potentially expose the club. I just…" She put her head in her hands, swiping at tears she couldn't seem to stop. "I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"Is that why you shut me out? Because of the tape and his threats?" Bastian, all six foot two, two-hundred pounds of ripped muscle, knelt before her, his hands cupping her face, turning her gaze up toward his.
"Partly," she admitted under his stare, needing his forgiveness for how callous she'd been. She'd been a coward, not just with him, but in life. It had made her such an easy target with Ethan. A
nd she'd all but ruined the one good thing that had come into her life.
"You little fool, you should have told me. Been honest with me. I don't care about the tape. We all have pasts, Dee. But you should have trusted me and the other Doms from the DFC to protect you. And there is something between us, you can't deny it." His thumb caressed her cheek, wiping away her tears, sending ribbons of heat coursing through her veins.
No, she couldn't. And after everything, she owed him her honesty. "I don't deny it, but I also don't know that I trust it not to burn out. It overwhelms me, Bastian, my feelings for you, and not just the newness of them but the intensity of them. I've not been a very good judge of character in the past, if you couldn't tell. And no one has ever made me feel the way you do."
"Do you think I'd ever do something like that to you? Do you really think so little of me? I love you. I would never in a million years try to hurt you like that."
"You love me. How? What? I don't understand."
His smile was gentle and oh so tender, but it was his eyes, the hazel depths shimmering with passion and depth of feeling, that she felt an answering tug to in her body.
"Yes, I do—love you, that is. And how? Do I really have to answer that? You are without a doubt the most gorgeous woman of my existence. You're smart, funny, kind, and generous. Why wouldn't I love you?" His thumbs swiped at the tears seeping down her cheeks.
"I think very highly of you, especially after what you did tonight."
"Ah, so it's my music you don't like?" he kidded her, attempting to lighten the mood.
"I never said that, you assumed." She took a deep breath, feeling like she was on solid footing for the first time in ages. In his eyes, she saw her future. "I happen to like your music, quite a bit, in fact. And I love you too, you know."
