Vengeance: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Empire Sin)

by Isabella Starling

  The young man was stressed to fucking hell and back.

  This new job was not proving to be as fun as he thought it would be. Originally, he’d only agreed to take it to get under his father’s skin. He fucking hated his dad and the way he ran his business. But the old man said it was important for the family to look like a united front, and that’s why he had to come and work for them. He decided his son had to be a part of their legacy, and there wasn’t anything he could’ve done to convince him otherwise.

  Of course, along with the introduction to his father’s company, his dad had also given the young man access to something else. Something invaluable, something that he already knew was going to change his life.

  He’d had his fair share of women, of course. He was an attractive guy. Young and boisterous, loud and daring. He never had problems getting women.

  But for the past few years, something else had started brewing inside him. Something he didn’t even completely understand himself, but he knew he couldn’t keep ignoring it for much longer.

  There were these dark urges awakening inside him. A desire to hurt someone, to make them beg. A want to have them call him a specific name, though he was far off from admitting that to anyone. It would’ve been a fucking weird topic to bring up during one of their family chats.

  But then again, what wasn’t weird about his fucking dysfunctional family?

  His mother had been a trophy wife her whole life, and Daddy dearest had been fucking all her socialite friends behind her back for the duration of their marriage. But now, he wanted to introduce the young man to the world of absolute pleasure, that came with a hefty price. He introduced him to Empire Sin.

  “An exclusive club,” he’d told his son. “It’ll get you anything you want, from a target on someone’s back to a girl that’ll do anything you fucking want her to.”

  His father had laughed at that. The young man was skeptical at first. It didn’t seem right, and it sure as fuck didn’t seem legal. Sure, he’d done some illegal stuff when he was young – mostly recreational drugs and underage drinking – but this was another thing altogether. If they got busted… It could mean the end of their company.

  But his father assured him everyone was in on this game. There was no way they were getting busted for what they were doing, because anyone who was anyone in the city was in on it, too.

  So, the young man believed him and followed his father’s lead. He visited the gentlemen’s club first and had a girl dance for him. The girls were exquisite; the cream of the crop in the city.

  But now, it was the next Monday, and the young man had work to do. There was no time to waste, he had an important meeting first. And it was going to be his first time firing someone, which he was already dreading.

  Alec Lovell was a man who had been with their company for more than a decade. But now some things had come to the surface, and the young man was furious.

  Alec had been stealing money from the company for years. In fact, he’d stolen so much, the company was in serious danger. And worst of all, he’d embezzled the money and laundered it through the company. It was all right there, black on white, so painfully obvious what he’d been doing right under everyone’s noses.

  The young man was pissed to hell and back. If there was one thing he hated in the world, it was injustice.

  He sat down to a meeting with Alec that day, and he could tell the man, who was a few years his senior, didn’t have a clue what was about to happen. He looked surprised, but excited to be sitting down with the company’s new CEO.

  “Mr. Lovell,” the young man began. “Do you know why I called you here today?”

  “I’m not sure,” the other man responded pleasantly. “Is this in regards to the promotion?”

  The young man gave him a despicable look. “No, Mr. Lovell, it is not. In fact, it is quite the opposite.”

  He spent the next ten minutes explaining why Alec Lovell’s services would no longer be required, and watching the man’s facade crumble. He fell to pieces in front of the young man, an absolute wreck of a man as he realized he no longer had a job.

  He swore up and down that he didn’t do what they were accusing him of, but he didn’t have an explanation for the plain facts the young man showed him, either. He couldn’t find an excuse fast enough, and the young man felt disgusted with him. This man had infiltrated their company and possibly done irreparable damage. He would enjoy having security throw him out.

  He watched with a sick kind of pleasure as two guards dragged Alec Lovell into the street. He hoped the man would pay for all the wrongdoings he’d caused the company, and after everything that happened, the young man was pretty damn pleased with himself for taking care of the problem.

  He went to speak to his father after that.

  Their relationship had always been slightly rocky, but it seemed like the Empire Sin thing was connecting them. When he expressed his worries about Alec Lovell’s family, his father shrugged it off.

  “He should’ve thought of that before he cheated our entire company,” he told him, and the young man had to agree.

  It was weeks later that he found about Lovell’s death.

  The young man didn’t care to hear about all the gory details. But knowing that the man killed himself, leaving behind a widow and a young daughter, filled him with inexplicable anxiety.

  He let it simmer for a couple of weeks before he did anything about it. But the man, and what he’d done to himself, wouldn’t leave his mind.

  He’d been intrigued by permanent marks on his skin before, but his father was so against tattoos he never did anything about it. But he needed something to remember this by, the man who had taken his own life and the role he’d played in his suicide.

  He paid a visit to a tattoo parlor a few weeks after Alec Lovell died, and he got his first tattoo right there.

  Humanum fuit errare, diabolicum est per animositatem in errore manere.

  A Latin phrase that translated to, To err is human, to forgive divine.

  As the years passed, the young man filled his skin with more and more ink. He covered most of his body in black tattoos, reminding him of the important moments, the deciding s in his life. But he never forgot the story about his first permanent ink. He never fully forgot Alec Lovell, even though the memory faded as the years passed.

  When he was younger, he vowed to look up Lovell’s family, maybe try and help them.

  But he’d always been a selfish young man, and the thoughts dissipated to nothing as he fully immersed himself in the world of Empire Sin.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Alec Lovell, a blast from the past, a man whose life I’d ruined.

  It was becoming painfully obvious that Evangeline had known who I was all along, and I couldn’t help but wonder what her thoughts were when she realized I was the one buying her.

  Or maybe she’d planned it that way all along…

  There was so much about my pretty little toy I still didn’t completely understand, and maybe never would. The thought scared me, and the need to have her back, to have a chance to explain, was so intense I burned from its pressure, right from the inside.

  I knew there was one last place I had to check for any trace of Evangeline, and it was the grave where her parents were buried. I’d heard through the grapevine her mother had passed mere years after her father, but not before marrying Barron Savage and having him legally adopt the daughter she’d had with Alec Lovell. So, Barron really was Evangeline’s stepfather… It wasn’t some sick game they played. They really were family.

  As I drove to the graveyard, I realized something about that idea bothered me. Perhaps it was the fact that Barron never really acted like my Angel’s father. No, he was jealous, possessive and fucking crazed with anger, like only a lover could be. The thought made me sick to my stomach. I needed to find out exactly what went down between the two of them.

  The driver waited for me as I went inside the graveyard’s gates. It wasn’t special, jus
t a simple middle-class place, but I noticed the Lovell grave right away. it was adorned by a large marble statue of a weeping angel for Marissa Lovell, the woman Barron Savage had been briefly married to. The modest stone with her first husband’s name looked pathetic next to the extravagance displayed by Savage.

  There were fresh flowers on the grave, and I kneeled down to it, waiting for something to happen. Anything to bring me closer to her once again.

  “You can’t change the past.”

  I turned around and stared at the figure approaching me from the sidewalk. He walked slowly, with the pain of every step so very obvious in his aging face. He was an old man now. An old, sick man, who had almost ruined my life several times.

  “What are you doing here, Dad?” I asked him roughly.

  “I heard about your girl,” he said nonchalantly, leaning on his cane. It was a new addition. It must’ve been really hard for him to walk – he would never use one of his own accord.

  “So?” I barked at him. “None of your fucking business.”

  “I remember him,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s a shame what happened.”

  “Lovell?” I asked, and my father nodded. “What the fuck do you mean?”

  “Sometimes,” my father went on, disregarding my words. “You have to bury an innocent man to save a more important one. You should know that by now, Carter.”

  I stared at him for a very long time, the sun reflecting on his sunglasses as he turned his face towards the warmth. He was so fragile now. So close to the end.

  “Dad,” I said softly. “What the fuck have you done?”

  Twenty-Six

  Evangeline

  He took me to his study to talk for a little bit, and I fell into step behind him meekly.

  I wasn’t sure how things were going to be between us now that I was almost a different person. It had only been a few weeks, but I felt like they had changed me to my very core. I wasn’t the little girl who left her stepdaddy’s house to sell her virginity and get her revenge. I was now a woman who had been in love, and had her heart broken into a thousand pieces.

  And it fucking hurt.

  Daddy sat me down in a plush armchair, while he took a seat across from me.

  “Tell me, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Why did you run?”

  “I… I had to,” I whispered. “I found out he was a very bad man.”

  “You mean because of what happened with your parents?” he asked me gently, and I just managed to shake my head.

  “There was something else,” I admitted. “Something I… don’t even want to share, it’s so awful.”

  He reached across the space between us, taking my hand in his.

  “You know you can tell me anything,” he said, and I nodded slowly. I wasn’t so sure, though. How would he accept what Carter had done? He’d want to kill him for so much as laying a finger on me.

  Ever since I’d told Barron about my plan for vengeance, he hadn’t agreed with it. He tried to convince me not to do it for two months leading up to my eighteenth birthday, but there was no way he could have changed my mind, and on my birthday, he seemed to realize that was it. I was really going to go through with it, either with his help, or without it. And in the end, he decided it was safer for him to guide me through the process than have me do it by myself and possibly get hurt very badly.

  As I thought about it now, the idea made me so sick. I was so close… to what?

  To ending up just like Carolina, with a scar on my face that sealed my fate forever.

  So close to falling for Carter Knight completely, and forgetting about all my plans for revenge, just letting him have my heart and smash it on the ground the first chance he fucking got.

  I was glad it was over, or so I tried to convince myself. It had to end anyway, and better that it ended like this, while I still had someone to go back to. I’d known Carter was a bad man all along, hadn’t I? So it was foolish to think he wasn’t, even if it was for just a moment or two… When I fell for him and let my heart get the better of my mind.

  “I saw a video.” My bottom lip trembled as I started to explain. “It was of this woman, a maid… She worked at his mansion. She was scarred very badly, Daddy. She had a huge scar on her face… From her neck, up to her forehead and into her hairline. And I saw the video of how it was made.”

  Barron stared at me with his lips pursed in a thin line.

  “Did he do it?” he asked me, his voice cold and unfeeling. “Did Knight fucking do that?”

  I nodded. “It was in his office, in the building in his city. And I’ve seen them interact before… I know it was him.”

  “That’s fucking terrible, sweetheart,” Barron told me gently. “Why did he show you that? I could fucking kill him.”

  “I… I found it myself,” I admitted. “I’m glad I did, though. If I hadn’t gone looking, I’d still be there, fooling myself into thinking there was actually something real between us… As if we could work in real life.”

  “Something real?” Barron repeated, and I looked up into his dark eyes. “Explain that to me, sweetheart. I don’t want to get angry for no fucking reason, Evangeline.”

  “I…” I swallowed thickly. “I think I was starting to develop feelings for him. There was something… But it’s all gone now. It would be sick to feel anything for him after seeing that awful video.”

  So why do I still feel this way? a nagging voice asked in my head, but I did my best to lock it in the darkest corner of my mind. There was no time for doubting myself anymore. I’d already made my decision, after all. I’d left Carter, and returned to my real daddy. This was how things were supposed to be all along. I’d always planned on coming back after my revenge was over and done with.

  “Let’s not talk about that,” Barron said roughly. I could tell he was hurt by what I had said, but I didn’t regret my words. I had to tell him the truth. It helped me to be honest about it with myself, too. “We have more important things to talk about.”

  “Like what?” I asked weakly, trying to ignore the annoying voice in the back of my mind. “You know I was going to come back to you all along.”

  “I do,” he said. “And that was when I was going to explain things to you, Evangeline. But now you’re home early.”

  He squeezed my hand tightly and I offered him a weak smile. I felt so fucking stupid. So foolish for ever trusting Carter, and for letting myself fall for him like that, when I knew what he was like all along.

  “So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked Barron, and he gave me an affectionate smile.

  “You, baby,” he said gently. “You and me, and what our life is going to be like now that I finally fucking have you back.”

  I managed another weak half-grin-half-grimace as he went on.

  “You know I love you, don’t you, sweetheart?” he asked me, and I nodded, looking at our hands together. “Tell me you love me too, Evangeline.”

  “I love you, Daddy,” I said softly, and he smiled proudly. I could feel his happiness, it was almost palpable in the room.

  “Good girl,” he told me. “I knew you did, I knew it all along. I’ve loved you for such a long time, sweetie, you have no fucking idea. I’ve wanted you for so fucking long.”

  I looked up at him, feeling confused. His eyes looked fervent, dancing across my face.

  “W-what do you mean?” I asked him.

  “Us,” he repeated. “It’s all about us, it has been all along. Your father dying, your mother being my wife… It all led up to this moment, Evangeline, the moment you finally become mine.”

  “Daddy,” I said carefully. “You’re scaring me.”

  He chuckled and stroked the back of my hand with his thumb.

  “There’s no reason to be scared, sweet girl,” he told me gently. “It was all meant to be. You were meant to be mine all along, Evangeline.”

  “But…” I tried to pull my hand back, but he held on to it tightly. He was really starting to scare me, and my heart pu
mped adrenaline through my veins as I stared at him. “I don’t understand. What are you trying to say?”

  “I want you to be mine, Evangeline,” he said. “It was the way it was supposed to be all along. You knew you were going to belong to me eventually, didn’t you, sweetheart?”

  “But… I don’t,” I whispered, tears gathering in my eyes. “I didn’t belong to you, ever… You’re my dad.”

  “I want to be more,” he whispered fervently, squeezing my hand with such vigor I worried he’d bruise me. “I want to be so much more, Evangeline. Can’t you see? It’s why I did everything I did for you… It’s why I made sure there would be no more obstacles in our way when you were finally old enough. I knew you had to do this revenge thing for yourself, sweetheart, and I was even willing to accept you fucking that bastard… All for this.”

  “For what?” I asked, my heart pounding with fear. “There’s nothing here, Daddy, you’re scaring me…”

  “There is,” he insisted. “Don’t tell me you don’t fucking feel it, sweetheart. I did all of this for you… All of it, just for you. And none of those other girls can ever compare to my pretty baby.”

  “Barron,” I said roughly, and he flinched when I said his name, not the usual Daddy I addressed him with. “I need to know what happened to my mother. Did she overdose?”

  “Of course she did, sweetheart,” he told me gently. “We both saw it with our own eyes, didn’t we?”

  I nodded, looking down. There were more tears in my eyes already. I felt fucking pathetic, and weak.

  “Oh, Evangeline,” he said sweetly. “I only helped her along, I promise. I only made sure she’d leave us alone so we could have the future we’d always dreamed of together.”

  My eyes shot up to look at him and I felt so much pain take hold of my body. He was the only one left. The only family I had, the only man I trusted. What was he trying to say?