by Rylon, Jayne
“Let me guess.” Trent gripped the table. “Rich people who don’t want to get their hands dirty. Right?”
Owen nodded.
“What are you trying to get at?” Lorenzo asked.
“Son of bitch.” He pounded his fist into his opposite palm. “They think my mother arranged to have Holly stolen from us so she could sell my wife back to me. No, what they really believe is that she was trying to scare me out of collecting my inheritance at all.”
“What?” Holly stood up and slapped her hand on the table. “How could she do that to you?”
“To me?” After everything that had happened, Holly couldn’t possibly be outraged for him and not at him, could she? “You were the one scared, alone, and hurt. Because of me and my tainted money and…mostly, my family. I made excuses for my mom when she let my father kick me out, disowned me, whatever. I figured she didn’t have any power compared to him. That she was too hooked on his wealth to live without it. But if this is true, and I’m starting to think it might actually be, then that’s it. I’ve lost not only my father but my mother too. I could never forgive her for doing something like that. It crosses every single line I could draw.”
“This isn’t a fucking game! It’s not a turf war or some bizarre power struggle. Joey Bones doesn’t play. And for what? Pure greed?” Owen roared. “That’s sick!”
Trent faced them, anguish and embarrassment shredding him apart. “I know. What if Holly had gotten killed? How could someone who was supposed to love me use her like some pawn in a dangerous game? I’m so sorry I got you all involved in my mess. This can’t ever happen again. It won’t. I swear it.”
He gathered Holly into his arms and dragged her onto his lap, burying his face in the silk of her hair. His entire chest ached as if someone had punched him in the heart. His own mother had tried to get to him through the woman he loved. She didn’t give a shit about his happiness or that he’d found someone—three of them, really—to spend his life with. All she cared about was hoarding some fraction of his father’s total estate, which she didn’t even need to live without a care for the rest of her life.
How had he come from them? And how much worse would it be if someone who didn’t have any connection to him got a similar idea? He couldn’t risk it.
Holly rubbed his back and kissed his collarbone. “It’s okay, Trent. You’re not to blame for the actions of others. It’s time you left them behind. It’s okay to let go of a toxic relationship, even if it’s one you were born into. We’re your family now.”
And he might be about to disappoint even them. Would they react better than his parents had when he let them down? When he confessed that he couldn’t provide what they needed?
“I’m so sorry.” He moved Holly back just enough that she could stare straight into his eyes. “Not only did I push you away, but it was my own relatives who assaulted and terrorized you. I don’t deserve you and because of them, I might not get a chance to make it up to you either.”
“Wait. What?” Owen asked. “What are you saying?”
“As best I figure, this isn’t over. And it won’t be until I cut all ties, like Holly just said.” Trent gulped in some air and then blurted out the truth. “If I keep this money, I’m radioactive. None of you can be near me safely. And if I have to choose, I would much rather have you than a big fat bank account. I’m going to give it back.”
“You can’t!” Holly shot to her feet.
Trent stopped breathing. Was that it? Would she leave if she knew he had nothing to give her? Would she reject him like everyone else he’d ever cared about had too?
“I know you stayed with me this past month because of our deal. And the cash.” Trent swallowed hard. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”
For a second he thought she might slap him. But Lorenzo was there behind her to clasp her and put his arms around her waist, keeping her in place. His friend should have let her take a swing, he deserved it. For crushing her dreams. And because part of the money was spent.
They weren’t going to cut the kidney out of Holly’s mom, so at least something good had come from this temporary insanity, where he’d actually believed his dreams—for his company, for the girl next door, and for all his desires—were coming true. He should have known better.
“Before you get too carried away, can I ask if you’ve spoken to your mom?” Owen asked, too calm for the rage seething in his eyes. There was too much anger, hurt, betrayal, and disappointment zooming around the room for Trent to sort things out on the fly, but he didn’t see how any of them were going to come out of this unscathed.
He shook his head. “What’s the point?”
Owen shrugged, “Maybe there’s some other answer than something this extreme. And if not…then you can move ahead like you intend to anyway.”
“No!” Holly struggled, but Lorenzo settled her with murmurs that Trent couldn’t quite make out.
Trent pulled his phone from his pocket and stared at it long enough that Moose came over and put his head on Trent’s thigh, his worried gaze shifting between the four masters he had wrapped around his tail.
“Okay, fine.” Trent pulled up his contact and used the one for his mother, which he hadn’t touched in years. After this, it would be time to delete it for good. But for them, he would try one last time.
“Savannah speaking,” came his mother’s cold greeting, so different from Holly’s mom. There would be no hugs offered, even if they were in the same room. He already knew this was a terrible idea.
“Hello, Mother.” Trent gritted his teeth.
“Cut the nonsense,” she snipped. “There’s only one reason you’re calling. And it’s not to chit-chat.”
Trent hated the part of him that still, after all this time and proof that it wasn’t ever going to happen, wished that he had a mom who would value that sort of relationship. Damn it.
Holly put her hand on his forearm and squeezed before he pulled away, her comfort too hard to bear in the face of his mother’s disdain.
“No. I was hoping you could be reasonable, for once.” Trent slammed his eyes closed, unable to see the pity in his friends’ and lover’s faces when he asked, “Do you hate me that much? That you would attack your own son over money?”
“You walked away from this life and everything it held for you.” His mother’s best down-her-nose glare was obvious, even over the phone. “You gave it up for fun and filth, and now you want to eat your cake, too.”
“Ironic, coming from you.” Trent was wasting his breath, he knew it. “Then again, what would you know about love? About passion for people instead of status and estates?”
“Are you that stupid, Trent? I thought I raised you to be more cunning. This woman you’re tangled up with wants your money so bad she’s willing to spread her legs not only for you, but to whore herself out for your friends too, and indulge your perversions. What other reason would someone as kind, and sweet, and smart as your lawyers tried to convince me she is, sign up for that sort of life? Who would choose that sick existence when they could have anyone they wanted?”
His mother was right. Holly was way out of his league. For a moment, Trent wondered if she saw things more clearly than him.
His glance flicked to Holly, and she recoiled as if he’d struck her.
The more time he wasted on his family and their fortune, the more she got hurt. That was unacceptable. “You know what? Fuck this. I don’t want your money. I’m sending it back, minus five and a half million dollars or so, which I’ve already spent.”
“How the hell did you waste that much money so fast?” his mother shrieked. “I told the police, and I’m sure they told you, that if I don’t have every penny back by the end of the day tomorrow, I’m charging you with fraud. Your sham marriage won’t stand up in court. Without my money, that bitch will be gone before your cell door slams shut. Hell, maybe I’ll even pay her to flip on you so you’ll wake up once and for all. You can thank me later.”
“That�
�s enough!” Holly swiped his phone from his hand and said, “The only thing that could make me leave is if your son listens to your bullshit, you diamond-studded cunt.”
Then she hung up with a stab of her finger that put Trent’s phone screen at risk of shattering.
Owen and Lorenzo whooped as Trent’s stomach knotted itself.
Because he couldn’t stop replaying his mother’s speech in his mind and wondering…why would Holly want someone like him? He had nothing to offer her anymore and might not even be around to love her for years to come.
“Why the hell do you look like you’re actually listening to anything that bitch said?” Holly sliced her hand through the air.
“Because in some ways, my mom was right.” Trent could hardly think past the blinding fear and pain she’d planted in his core, reopening festering, never-healed wounds. “Our deal was money for fake marriage, and I might not be able to live up to my end of the bargain. I won’t blame you if you hate me.”
“Did you just call our relationship fake again?” Holly’s tone went up several octaves. “Because if so, maybe I don’t know you as well as I thought. Or maybe I was right the other night. You don’t see us the same way I do at all!”
“Holly, you’re mashing each other’s buttons.” Owen stood, holding his hands out as if trying to stop the disaster unfolding. “Stop and think about this.”
“No!” She glared at Owen, who sat back down. “First, he didn’t even consult us before making such a monumental decision, to give all that money to his black-hearted mother, who doesn’t deserve one penny when he was doing something good with it. So many people were going to benefit from it!”
“Including you?” Trent looked up at her, feeling beaten.
“If you insinuate one more time that I’m some kind of fucking gold digger, I swear, Trent…” She trailed off, her cheeks as red as when they made love to her. But then she stopped and blinked slowly before saying, “Except, I guess I am. I can’t give that money back. My mom needs it.”
She started to retreat one step and then another, dusting off Lorenzo’s arms when he tried to stop her.
“I would never ask you to.” Trent stood, holding his hands out to her, but she only backpedaled more, slipping through his fingers. “I understand what it means to you and your family. Let her file charges against me. The cops will probably be able to get the evidence to prove she was behind this and even if she can still sue me, we’ve got Ford, Brady, and Josh to help if they can put me on a payment plan. If all else fails, a few years of my life are worth sacrificing if it gets you what you need.”
“How can I choose between my mom and you? There has to be some other way.” Holly went pale.
“There isn’t.” He’d spent the past fifteen or so hours trying to brainstorm one.
“I won’t let you give everything up for me—your vision, your company, hell, your freedom. I won’t.” She kept reversing out of the kitchen and across the entryway until the doorknob jabbed her in the spine. “You’re going to change a hell of a lot of lives, like you’ve already changed mine. But only if you’re here to work on your inventions before your competitors do. I’ll figure this out somehow. I’m not worth ruining your future for, no one is.”
“I’m telling you, you are. That and more.” Trent held his hands out toward her.
“To me too.” Owen added, looking crushed. “I thought you understood that after last night.”
Holly’s gaze zinged between him, Owen, and Lorenzo, who was standing as still as a statue, his face frozen in horror as his worst nightmares were coming to life before their eyes. Her lip wobbled as her eyes filled with tears. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”
Owen cursed and rose as if to go after her.
“Let her go.” Lorenzo shocked them all, making Trent’s insides cramp. “If she’s going to bail, she doesn’t feel about us like we do about her. It’s better to know that now rather than later. Trust me.”
His bitterness kicked Trent in the nuts. He’d broken every person he cared for. He didn’t deserve any of them. “I’m just glad we had you for a little while.”
“I’m not going to stand here and watch her run away from us again. From what we have.” Lorenzo shot Holly a look so dead and devoid of the affection he always had for her that it chilled Trent to the bone.
This moment could ruin everything. As if his family hadn’t already taken enough, they were going to destroy this too. When would he fucking learn?
15
Holly felt sick. The room spun around her and she couldn’t make it stop, not with all this new information and the emotions shocking and freezing her as if she’d taken a snowball to the face. Owen’s betrayal, Lorenzo’s disillusionment, and Trent’s solemn acceptance bombarded her. How could she stay in the face of all that?
She just needed some air, space to breathe and think.
Lorenzo slapped his hand on his thigh. “I fucking knew it. Hell, maybe you were in it for the money after all.”
He paused, staring straight into her eyes long enough that she could have denied it, but she didn’t. How could she when it was the truth? At first, all she’d thought about was her saving her mother’s life. If she denied that, she’d be lying even if they’d made it about so much more every moment since.
So he turned with a curse and stormed out the back door, letting it bang closed as Moose trotted after, too late to join him. The dog sat there, whimpering in Lorenzo’s wake.
Holly knew exactly how he felt.
“How could you do that?” Holly shrieked, her anxiety morphing into rage that she vented in Trent’s direction. “How could you listen to your mother? Let her get her way?”
“Holly, it was the only way to keep you safe!” Trent threw up his hands. “Don’t argue with me about this.”
“I’ll argue with you about any damn thing I please.” She crossed her arms. Wasn’t it only a few hours earlier that she’d convinced herself she could conquer the world if she worked problems out with them instead of bailing?
But that had been when she believed he cared about her opinions, when she thought he would consult her, Lorenzo, and Owen before doing something reckless that could endanger everything he’d worked for. When she believed he’d valued their relationship more than his family’s money.
How would he feel if he lost it all because of her?
Owen stalked closer, putting his hands on her shoulders and staring into her eyes. He shook her a little. “Holly, stop this. I trusted you, now you have to do the same for me. You’re about to make a mistake that I don’t know if we can fix. Sometimes you have to rely on the people who love you to take care of you. Sometimes you can’t be the one to make everything okay. Let Trent do this. He’s right. We don’t need his family’s money to be happy, to work for what we want together.”
“What if he gets in trouble because of me?” A tear rolled down her cheek and he kissed it away.
“It’s his choice.” Owen leaned his forehead on hers and she suddenly felt stronger, more grounded. “And besides, we know some kick-ass lawyers. Just because his mom is threatening this bullshit doesn’t mean she’s going to get away with it. Why don’t we at least talk to Ford, Brady, and Josh and see what they can brainstorm? Maybe instead of just the five million Trent gave your mom, he could donate all of it to charity or something. What a classless bitch would his mother look like if she objected to that? Huh? And then there’d be no reason for her to come after you anymore. Maybe there’s a way to navigate this clusterfuck that doesn’t let her win. Would that be better?”
Instead of reflexive denial, Holly took a deep breath and then another and really thought about what he was saying. Her shoulders dropped and she sagged against him. “Yeah. Okay. All I care about is that Trent doesn’t put himself in danger to keep me out of it. That’s not a tradeoff I’m willing to accept.”
Owen’s strong arms were there to wrap around her as he rocked her. “We’ll figure out a way. It’s
going to be okay, Holly. Because I love you. We all do.”
Trent rushed over and joined them. He put his arms around her too. “I’m so sorry, Holly. I’m trying to do my best, but I’m obviously fucking up. Owen is saying what I should have. I don’t know how he knows the right words but yes. Everything he said.”
Owen smacked Trent’s chest with the back of his hand before hugging her again. “Tell her. Right now. Say in no uncertain terms that this was never about the money.”
“It wasn’t,” Trent said in an instant. “Not between you and me. And if giving it all away proves that, too, then I’m ready to sign the papers. I love you, Holly.”
She hiccupped, then clutched both Owen and Trent to her with trembling fingers. “I love you too, both of you. And I’m so scared of losing you that I can’t think straight.”
“It’s going to be okay. Somehow,” Owen promised both her and Trent.
She kissed him and then turned toward Trent, who closed the gap and crushed his mouth to hers. When they finally pulled apart, her head spinning, he sighed. “But first I think you need to convince Lorenzo of that.”
Holly winced and buried her face against Trent’s shoulder for a few moments. “I really screwed up with him. I almost did the one thing he can’t handle. Again.”
“We’ve all messed up. And we will again,” Owen told her. “But you can fix it.”
Holly stood straighter, womanning up. “I’m going to grovel and hope he’ll understand.”
“And if that doesn’t work, I promise you a blowjob will.” Trent’s smile emerged from beneath the worry lines marring his handsome face. For that alone it was worth it.
Holly laughed, though it sounded a bit like she was choking. “Got it. Apologize. On my knees if necessary.”
Owen shook his head, but he chuckled as he fixed her hair. “Next time we fight, make sure it’s me you upset, okay?”
She couldn’t help it. She smiled too and wiped her tears. “I’m going to make this right.
