by Ella Miles
So I double down on the promise that I made before, the one she didn’t accept. This time, I don’t want anything in return. I just want to do the right thing by her. Because if I’d met her first, if our paths had crossed earlier—she would have been the one I married. She would have been my everything. I would have stayed in the world for her or given everything up. I would’ve done anything to make her happy.
Unfortunately, despite all the stitching she did on my heart, I’ll always be broken and incapable of love. I’m a monster consumed with taking blood. She’s been a nice distraction, but it’s time to get back to my goal.
But I can do one last thing for the girl with raven hair who once burst through my life like a freight train set on wrecking everything.
My lips hover over her ear. “I’ll save you, forever. I’ll play hero as long as you need me. You don’t really need me, you’re strong as fire, but by the off chance that you do, I’ll do everything in my power to save you—no matter what, Fighter.”
The sound of my vibrating phone wakes me up. It’s a faint sound, but I’ve always been a light sleeper. I guess having your arm blown off will do that to you.
Ri is still asleep against my chest. I don’t want to wake her, but as soon as the phone stops, it starts vibrating again. I need to answer it.
I slip my arm out from under her shoulder and then walk butt naked out of her bedroom. I find my shorts in the hallway that she kicked down my body when she was wrapped around me last night.
I smirk at the memory.
The vibrating phone in the jeans pocket draws my attention. I pick it up.
“Yes?” I half-bark, half-whisper.
“You’re an idiot,” comes Caius’s voice.
“No, I’m your leader, big difference.”
He sighs. “You do know going back to her apartment was a big mistake? Corsi has that place monitored more than Riker’s Island?”
“I was made aware, yes.” I slip my shorts on and walk to her kitchen to see if I can find any coffee or breakfast.
There’s one of those Keurig coffee makers. I hate those damn things. They don’t make coffee for shit, and these pod fuckers are taking up all the space in landfills.
But I wedge my phone between my head and shoulder and start the machine, guessing that princess and Lucy can’t be bothered with learning how to make real coffee. Not that I blame Ri—she’s spent all her life being kidnapped, dealing with her fucked up father, and trying to pretend she’s a normal kid who gets to go to college and shit.
Lucy, I sort of judge, especially since they work in a cafe.
“Then you know how stupid it was! Corsi is going to kill you for touching his daughter.”
“He won’t.”
“He will.”
I shrug. “Then he’ll kill me, and you’ll take over. I don’t see why you have your panties all in a wad.”
He sighs. “Can you please try to stay alive longer than five minutes?”
“You hate me; what do you care?” I push the button on the machine and watch as light-colored water comes out. It should be darker, but I don’t have time to teach the machine how to make a proper cup of coffee.
“I don’t hate you, I just…never mind. I called for a reason.”
“Which is?”
“Corsi invited Rialta and me to a dinner tonight to mark the end of our time together.”
I go white.
A beep sounds on the machine, and I reach my hand in to grab the coffee. For some reason, the machine thinks I’ve inserted another cup and starts dripping hot water all over my hand.
“Fuck,” I curse as I drop the mug and race over the sink to rinse my hand under cool water.
“Yea, fuck,” Caius says.
I turn the water off and shake the water off my hand. I look at the clock that says it’s a quarter after eight.
“What time?”
“Seven.”
I have less than twelve hours left with her.
It doesn’t matter. I can’t fuck her again anyway.
I can’t do anything with her.
She won’t be in my life anymore. She’ll be with Corsi, and after the next game, she’ll be living with some other guy. My insides boil at that thought. She won’t be safe with anyone else. I don’t know how Corsi doesn’t see that.
“You need to convince Corsi that it isn’t safe for her to go with other guys after each game. She needs to stay under his protection.”
“I’m sure he’ll listen to me,” Caius scoffs.
“He listened to us about the game idea.”
“That’s because he was already thinking about something like it.”
I’m not going to be able to keep her safe. I’m going to break my promise in less than twenty-four hours. Now granted, she doesn’t know about the promise. She was dead asleep at the time, but still, I know. I want to keep her safe. I’ll do anything I can to make that happen.
I’ll find a way. I don’t break vows. I think about the vows I just made to the Retribution Kings. Okay, I don’t break vows that I want to keep, but I want to keep my promise to Rialta.
“What’s the plan?” Caius asks, even though I’m sure he and the guys have already thought of one.
“Is everyone at the cabin?”
“Everyone but you, Ri, and Hayes.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you back there in a little over an hour. Get Gage working on any bugs we can put on you guys that Corsi might not be able to detect, anything we’ll need to do surveillance.”
“Ri and I can get him talking. We’ll find out who killed Odette.”
That’s what he thinks this is about—finding out who killed Odette. I couldn’t give a fuck anymore. All I want to do is keep Ri safe.
I hang up the phone and walk back to the bedroom, where Ri is now lying naked on the bed with her eyes drifting slowly open.
“Morning,” she smiles at me like I’m her sun, her moon, her night, like I’m everything she’s ever wanted. Like I’m not the man who fucked her with no intention of ever doing it again. Like I’m not the man who’s had a vendetta against her and used her position against her. Like I’m not the freaking villain in her story.
I turn my face ice cold. Rip off the bandaid, don’t show her any emotion. It’s better to hurt her now before she tries to reconnect.
“Get up. We have to leave in five minutes,” I bark my orders, then I pull out my phone and start texting Hayes to bring Lucy back so we can all leave.
“Geez, someone is grumpy in the morning.” She walks to the bathroom, completely unfazed by my harsh words and leaving me staring at her ass.
God help me, I’m not going to survive her.
The ride back to the cabin is uneventful. I stop to get us coffee, since Ri’s was disgusting, but otherwise, the three of us don’t talk. That might end up being more dangerous because I don’t know what snarky thoughts or plans she’s making in that pretty little head of hers.
When we get to the cabin, Lennox greets us. “Gage needs Ri asap. Says he needs to work on devices she can wear without Corsi noticing.”
Ri nods and follows Lennox, leaving me and Hayes standing in the living room. He looks at me. “You’re a goner. You know that?”
“Huh?”
“You’re falling for her.”
“I’m not.”
He chuckles, adjusting his glasses. “You are. I hung out with you and Odette enough to know what your falling in love face looks like. This is it.”
I frown. “I just care about her. I don’t want her to get hurt, the same as you, same as any guy in this house. Her life isn’t fair. I want better for her. I don’t want her. I had my night with her. I got her out of my system.”
Hayes shakes his head. “As someone who has had her, you don’t just get Ri out of your system. You have her, and she gets under your skin. You don’t forget about her.”
My hand fists on its own accord as blood pops under my veins, ready for a fight as Hayes continues.
“I’m not in love with her, so relax. I’m not going to fuck her again. I know she’s out of my league, and I’m not on her radar. But I know from experience how great she is. She is a catch; she’s the catch—the one we are all looking for.
“I know you cared about Odette, loved her, and all that shit. But I’m telling you Ri is your match. Ri, not Odette. Ri is strong, fearless, a fighter. She won’t put up with your crap or ego. And you need that. Don’t let her go.”
“Even if all that were true, she deserves better than me.”
“She does, and yet, she wants you. She wanted you from the first moment she laid eyes on you.”
“The game—”
“Is nothing but an obstacle. Take it from me, don’t let her go.”
“You’re twenty, almost a decade younger than me. What experience do you have in the love department again?”
“Hey, I’m wise beyond my years. I don’t have to have experience to see what’s in front of my eyes.”
Then Hayes leaves me alone. I go plan with Caius, helping him come up with a strategy for their dinner with Corsi. We think of ways to get Corsi talking, ways to keep Rialta safe.
Ri stays with Gage—all damn day. He takes all of her time, or maybe she’s purposefully ignoring me. After all, our morning wasn’t exactly romantic. There were no kisses, no hugs, no sweet words. It was like two strangers getting ready, not two people who just had life-changing orgasms together.
I finally shower and get ready. Only Caius and Ri were invited, but the rest of us will be nearby in case Ri is in need of rescuing.
I’m combing my hair when there’s a knock at my bedroom door. I open it, expecting Hayes to be on my case again. Instead, it’s Ri.
I hold the door open for her to come in, despite it being dangerous—her and I in a room alone with a bed again. It’s especially dangerous since she’s in a silk red dress with fiery red lipstick to match. I have to remind my cock several times that she’s not ours; we don’t get to fuck her.
She sits on the edge of the bed like she’s not phased at all. But then she’s eye level with my cock, and that does all sorts of twisted things to me. So I sit next to her.
“It looks like tomorrow will be another game,” she says.
“Looks like it,” I respond.
She takes a deep breath as if her next words pain her to say them. “I’ll find out who killed Odette. Whether it was Vincent or someone else, I’ll find out tonight. I’ll send Caius back with the information. You deserve to know. And despite Vincent seeming like the worst man on earth, he will tell me.”
“How do you know?”
She swallows, and her eyes dart to the door. “I just do.”
She’s hiding something.
Finally, she looks back at me. “I can get him to talk tonight; then you can get your revenge. Tell Caius to quit the game. He doesn’t belong there. He’ll just end up dead. And you—you can go back to your life before, to your friends who you consider family.”
I don’t say anything because she’s wrong. I can’t go back. There is too much history, too much pain in my past. My friend-family group loves me no matter what. But what I did, what happened, I’ll never escape from. This is my life now.
I’ll stay in the game as long as possible. Maybe I’ll even win.
I tuck a hair behind her ear. She tenses, her eyes closing softly at the simple touch.
“We need to go,” Caius says as he walks down the hallway outside our room.
She looks at me like it’s the last time she’ll ever look at me. “Stay close. When I send the information back with Caius, you’ll owe me a save.”
20
Ri
Caius drives slow and cautious, like he doesn’t want the car ride to end. I just want him to get to my father’s condo and get this over with.
“You’re safe,” Caius says, reaching over and taking my hand in his. It makes me think of Beckett holding my hand and then having to let go so he could drive. Caius has two hands; he can do both at the same time. It’s not fair, but then nothing is fair.
“I won’t let Corsi or anyone else hurt you,” he continues.
I give him a small smile.
“We won’t either,” comes Hayes’s chipper voice.
I smile a little brighter as I remember that all the rest are listening. Gage is a genius. He figured out how to attach a small microphone in my earring, but it’s undetectable to Corsi.
As much as I like Hayes’s voice, I much prefer to hear Beckett. I didn’t see him most of the day, which was probably for the best. I have to give him up; he needs to escape this world. He’s better than it. He’s been heartbroken too many times. He lost Odette, lost his arm, and based on the amount of grief that surrounds him, I’m pretty sure he’s lost more than I’ll ever know.
Not touching him this morning was torture. Not kissing him goodbye was almost impossible.
The guys might think I’m strong because I know how to slice through a man’s jugular, but I’m strong because I was able to walk away from Beckett without kissing him. That takes real strength.
We pull up in front of Vincent’s building. We both stare up through the windshield at the massive skyscraper.
“Remember when you lost the bet that Beckett got jealous when I kissed you?” Caius asks.
I nod, waiting for Beckett to argue that he wasn’t jealous, but he doesn’t.
“I’m ready to claim my debt. Kiss me.”
He leans over, and I meet his kiss. It’s just a kiss. It means nothing. And yet, I wish it could erase Beckett from my body. This kiss is soft, tender, with just the right about of tongue. Some might say it’s perfect—but I don’t want perfect. I want messy, and rough, and life-altering.
Caius pulls away like I just made him the happiest man on earth with that kiss.
“You ready?” he asks.
I nod.
Adrian comes from inside the lobby to open my door. I climb out, and Caius is immediately at my side, holding his arm out for me. He’s dressed in a fitted gray suit. His blonde hair is combed back instead of in the faux mohawk he likes to sport.
Adrian leads us in through the lobby, where Georgio meets us before we get in the special elevator that only leads to Vincent’s penthouse.
“Good to have you back, Princess,” Georgio says.
“What is Vincent up to?” I ask.
“You know him—just getting to know your suitors better so he can pick the best for you,” Adrian answers.
The doors open, and we all step out into Vincent’s condo. His butler greets us. “Dinner is already set up in the dining room. If you could follow me, please.”
Antonio has known me his entire life, but he still prefers to be formal like I’m a guest here, not a family member.
Vincent is sitting at the head of the table that looks out at the skyline.
“You’re late,” he says.
“Apologies, Mr. Corsi, I enjoyed my time with your daughter so much that I lost track of time. It’s going to be hard giving up such a magnificent creature,” Caius says, laying on the charm.
I almost snort but then think better of it. Caius is just playing the part. I should too. Caius winning would be the best outcome. I told Beckett to convince him to bow out gracefully, but I doubt Caius will. He’s too kind, too sweet, too protective of me.
“Have a seat,” Vincent says, never very good with manners.
Caius leads me to a chair closest to Vincent. He pulls out my seat and helps me sit. Then he takes the seat across from me.
Wine is poured.
Food is served.
Vincent engages Caius in a conversation about how we’ve been spending our time. Caius doesn’t lie per se, but he does bend the truth to make him look favorable. Took me to a cabin getaway. Went boating, taught me how to fish. Showed me what life would be like with the Retribution Kings and introduced me to everyone.
He talks of my beauty and intelligence. About how he enjoyed my company. How our time toget
her was too short all through dinner.
Vincent doesn’t show any emotion as we eat, just listening. But I know better. This all feels like a setup; I just don’t know what.
“If you will excuse me and Rialta a minute, I want to confirm some details with her myself. Then I’ll let you know how you rank in possible suitors for her,” Vincent says, getting up from the table. He doesn’t order me to follow, but I know that’s what he wants.
I give Caius a warning smile. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.
He frowns but nods his understanding.
When we leave the room, I hear Caius say through the earpiece to the other guys, “Something’s up. Be on high alert.”
“We’re watching you, Ri. We’ll move in if Corsi tries anything,” Gage says.
I exhale a deep breath. It’s not me I’m worried about.
Vincent takes me to his library, which doubles as his cigar room. The books are there mainly as decoration and smoke catchers. It pains me to see so many good books go to waste.
He takes a cigar out and lights it, not bothering to offer me one. For one, women don’t smoke cigars. It’s not appropriate for a young lady such as myself. And two, he knows I’d use it to burn this entire place down.
“So, what do you think of him?” Vincent asks.
“He’s a good guy. Kind, sweet, strong, and he’s up for a high leadership position in the Retribution Kings,” I try to keep my voice void of emotion. It’s too early to show my real feelings or use reverse psychology.
He puffs on his cigar while I sit across from him, picking at my nails and waiting for him to tell me why we really came here. This is also my only chance to get the information I need from him. The guys are going to hate this. I didn’t tell them how I’d get the information from him, just that I could.
“I want to make a deal,” I say.
Vincent snaps his head to me. “You already owe me one, and you’re already willing to owe me twice?”
“Yes.”
He blows out smoke. “Let’s hear it then, and I’ll decide if I want to make a deal.”
