I pinched the bridge of my nose, working to release the tension constantly growing behind my eyes.When did my brother become such a pain in the ass?
“I already have Marx looking into the breach, a team is currently on-site for evidence extraction and analysis, the manager of Digital Frontiers just had one hell of a fatal stroke, and I will take care of Jason myself.Things are being handled, but if you want to make yourself useful instead of disrupting my marriage or intentionally baiting my wife like some kind of childish dickhead and ruining what was supposed to be a celebratory dinner earlier, then you can start by finding Pat’s immediate replacement.Or is that too much for you right now?”
Daniel was silent for a moment, cursing under his breath and groaning into the phone before responding.“Fine,” he said, and hung up.
Shaking my head, I pocketed my phone and released a deep breath, returning my focus back to the mess below me.
The scene was nothing short of metaphoric, the destruction a symbol of what was to come if I didn’t get a handle on the situation.I had a damn child on the way, which meant I needed to ensure my kingdom was still standing for that child to eventually rule one day.
My phone buzzed again, making me want to toss it into what was left of the building below, but it was Scott.And he’d better have good news.
“What have you got?”I said into the line.
“Something I never thought in a million years was a possibility,” Scott answered, his tone warped with what sounded like disbelief.“Jason is working with Matt.”
I suddenly felt my back sit up a little straighter, sure I had misheard him.“What the fuck did you just say?”
Scott sighed like he didn’t want to repeat it.“The ballistic materials found in the rubble confirmed the maker.They’re Matt’s weapons.”
I sat there in silence, my brain wrapping around the idea that Matt and Jason had somehow teamed up against me.It was the most unlikely duo I could possibly think of, but in reality, it actually made perfect sense.
They both had an agenda, though I had no idea what benefit Jason could possibly offer Matt.Clearly, there was more to the man than I had originally anticipated if Matt was willing to use him.
The question was, how the fuck did they find each other?What connected them other than me and Jaden?Fuck, was it Kayla?Had they both found her?
My teams still had yet to locate her, so it wasn’t entirely impossible, though I couldn’t see Kayla willingly returning to Matt on her own.A deal had to have been made if what I was thinking was true.
“I want a full report on this guy.Where he grew up, his family, his fucking credit score, I want it all.And I want it ASAP,” I ordered.
I never gave a flying fuck who Jason was before, but after this, I needed to know what the fuck I was dealing with now.
“I’ll get someone on it now,” Scott said and hung up.
Starting my bike, I headed back to the estate and allowed the ride to clear my head, hoping the time could filter out some of the fury still swimming in my blood.Because when I got home, I was going to spend the entire rest of the night fucking the woman Jason wished he owned until she couldn’t walk the next day.
Because she was fucking mine…andonlymine.Forever.
3
INVALID
* * *
Hatred ran thicker than the blood in my veins.A black tar-like sludge painfully seeped its way through the cracks of my system, making me ache for more than just retribution.
I was owed suffering, remorse, and deep fulfilling penance for the little life growing inside of me.They didn’t deserve to be born into this, and yet, here we were anyway.Because our lives were never our own.
Now that acceptance had come and gone, all that was left was my rage.I took it out on so many punching bags, destroying them with my training knives and kicking the sand right out of them.
Sloane had watched fondly from a safe distance while Carla complained about having to order replacement bags.
It was difficult to cool my anger around Darren, and my passive-aggressive attitude was less pleasing to him, exhausting his tolerance of it much faster than usual.He thought I was still mad about the pregnancy, and I was, but Darren was mistaken in my fury.
I had expected him to get me pregnant at some point, or at least try to.What I stupidly hadn’t expected was that he would keep it a fucking secret from me.
I expected he would be forthright with it like everything else he’d ever forced onto me.At least then I would know when it was coming and could prepare for it.But I’d been robbed of that too.For his alleged convenience.
I sat against the windowsill of my gym, my eyes trained on the view outside, and flipped one of my practice throwing knives in my hand.Darren kept my butterfly knife after I had stabbed him with it, but I was still allowed to train with the ones in my gym so long as I left them there.Sloane had to pat me down every time I left the room just to make sure.