CHAPTER 15

I stare at my phone and it’s like watching water boil waiting for a response from Thalia. I sent a text to her about an hour after she’d hurried out of my office to go to the hospital, asking if everything was okay with her niece. That was two hours ago, meaning I’ve been wondering what the fuck is going on for three hours.

Of course, I didn’t know she had a niece because our time together has been spent mostly fucking, and the talks we’ve had never got personal enough to talk about family. It makes me realize I don’t know much about Thalia at all, and normally, this would not bother me because all I need to know from a woman is whether she came.

But there’s something about Thalia that’s gotten under my skin a bit. Yeah, the sex is downright amazing, and it’s because she’s innocent yet adventurous and I’m enjoying showing her things. The thought of what Kenneth and I could do to her in The Silo while people watch is enough to give me a hard-on even though I’m more worried about Trista right now than anything.

This I don’t understand, because as I said, I don’t know much about the woman.

But here is what I do know.

Thalia is the sister of the man I hate most in the world, and she’s collecting on a favor I unequivocally owe him.

She’s gorgeous and sexy and funny and smart, and since I first put my mouth between her legs, I haven’t looked at another woman.

She also has family she cares about… a niece who is in the hospital, and by what I could glean from listening to Thalia’s end of the conversation, it wasn’t the first time. I know it was her mom who called her because she kept saying it, but I don’t know whose kid it is. It must be another sibling of Thalia’s… a sister or brother who has a child. It’s not Jaden because that fucker hated kids, and I doubt that’s changed over the years.

I’m not sure why Thalia having a sick niece bugs me so much, other than it’s making her more of a real human and that’s creating some guilt issues for the way in which I’m using her.

The thought of just going to Mercy hospital crosses my mind briefly. I can be impetuous at times, but I doubt Thalia could find fault with me seeking her out because I’m say… worried about my employee, right?

But I quickly quash that because of two very important things. First and foremost, I doubt this niece is Jaden’s, but there is a chance he could be at the hospital. I don’t want to be anywhere near that bastard ever again because I might kill him. More importantly, however, I cannot give credence to any thought that Thalia is anything but a good lay I’m going to continue fucking until her time here is up. If I reach out with an ounce of interest in her personally, it could dissuade me from my plans for revenge against Jaden, and I’m not willing to give that up no matter how intriguing the woman is.

There’s a short knock on my door, and then Kenneth walks in. He looks mellow and relaxed, and if I had to guess, he just got laid nicely. He flops down in one of the guest chairs, stretching his legs out in front of him and settles his clasped hands over his belly.

“What’s up?” he asks.

“Not much,” I tell him as I glance down at my phone again. I know a text didn’t come in because I would have heard it, but just in case. “What are you up to?”

“Just got an amazing blow job from some tourist chick visiting from Nebraska or somewhere like that,” he says with a wide and very pleased grin. “She’s here for a bachelorette party. In fact, there’s a group of about twenty of them if you want to get in on that action.”

“Not tonight,” I say brusquely as I pull some papers out of my lateral file drawer so it looks like I’m busy. “Got too much to do.”

“Bullshit,” Kenneth says, and his sparkling eyes say it all. Still, he makes sure to rub my face in it. “You’ve only got one girl on your mind. I noticed she’s not here tonight.”

Kenneth sounds way too confident to make that assertion, so I ask, “What makes you think that?”

“Lalaine at the hostess stand heard it from Carma who heard it from Diego that he saw her coming out of your apartment this morning looking thoroughly fucked and satisfied. And this is big news, of course, because everyone knows you never take women into your apartment and you don’t do repeats.”

“Jesus,” I mutter as I rake my fingers through my hair in agitation. “Don’t the people around here have anything better to do than gossip?”

“Not when you’re like the most wanted man around here,” Kenneth says with a chuckle, “as well as being the most elusive.”

“So I like to fuck her,” I say with a shrug. “What’s the big deal if I was super horny last night and wanted to go several rounds?”

“Because you’ve been super horny before and gone several rounds with a variety of women all in a single night in your club,” he says, further rubbing my nose into the fact I’ve really stepped outside my boundaries.

The “whooping” sound of an incoming text takes my attention and I grab my phone, relieved to see a text from Thalia. All is fine. Headed home from hospital and will be in to work tomorrow at regular time.

I want to text her back and tell her to come here instead of going home, but that’s selfish. She should be with her niece or getting rest at least. I merely respond, See you tomorrow.

“What’s up?” Kenneth asks as he nods toward my phone. “You look agitated and relieved at the same time.”

“Thalia’s niece was in the hospital and she had to leave,” I say as nonchalantly as I can. “She was just telling me she’d be in to work tomorrow.”

But the fucker was right. I was agitated I wouldn’t see her, but relieved nothing serious was going on. The knowing look in Kenneth’s eyes says he is amused by my reactions. He was a human intelligence officer with the Royal Marines, and he knows how to read body language and facial expressions. He could have an entire conversation with me without me opening my mouth to stay a word.

So to knock him off his high horse a bit, I tell him, “I want you to do a three-way with me and Thalia.”

I take immense satisfaction when his jaw drops open. “A three-way? With you and Thalia?”

Trying not to sound too smug, I tell him, “Just because I’ve fucked her exclusively for a few days doesn’t mean we’re exclusive.”

“And she’s on board with this?” he asks skeptically.

Not about to tell him it’s her fantasy. I’m doing this because I want to indulge her in something she’d probably never have the guts to do. While I’ve shared plenty of women with Kenneth before, I can’t say as I’m overly happy about it, but if I had to choose one man, it would be him. I go vague when I say, “I mentioned it to her last night and she’s interested. Are you?”

“I’m interested if you say it’s okay for me to be interested.” The hesitation in his voice causes my eyebrows to narrow.

“Jesus Christ, Kenneth,” I say with frustration, and even though I know this is probably a lie, I tell him emphatically, “She is nothing to me right now but a really great piece of ass. One I’m offering to share with you. If you don’t want in, just say so.”

Kenneth never hesitates. “Oh, I want in. She’s sexy as hell. I’ve wanted a taste of that since you had me hold her for you the other night.”

I have to grit my teeth and clench my hands into fists not to leap across the desk and pop him in the face. This emotion, which I peg as jealousy, surprises me because I’ve not ever quite felt it before. I mean, sure… when I found out Molly was screwing Jaden, I went apeshit with anger, but I didn’t have this ugly, dark sensation inside of me I’m feeling right now over Kenneth’s clear interest in Thalia.

Regardless, I push it down. I don’t acknowledge it because to do so might make it real. Instead, I say, “Tomorrow night then. The Silo. Around ten?”

“I’ll be here,” he says, but he doesn’t move to get up. His expression turns serious, his eyes hardening slightly. “Are you still going through with your plan to use Thalia to get back at Jaden?”

My stomach tightens, but I don’t hesitate. “Of course I am. Like we discussed before, she’ll probably never know. And just so you know, I’ll be using video of us tomorrow night as part of my ‘care package’ I’m going to send to Jaden when this is all over.”

Kenneth grimaces, not because he objects in general to being videotaped as we’ve done that together before too, but also because he thinks I’m a fool for using Thalia like this. He’s probably right, and yet I refuse to be deterred. I can’t let go of probably the only opportunity I’ll ever have to cause Jaden some pain. Nothing like what he caused me, but still—

“Ford,” Kenneth says in a faint voice laced with censure. “It’s not the way—”

“Don’t tell me about how I should or should not choose to exact revenge on that bastard,” I snarl at him as I come up from my desk and slam my fists down on it. “You know this goes beyond just the anger and humiliation of betrayal. It goes far beyond that.”

“But using Thalia—”

“He fucking killed my kid,” I roar at him, and Kenneth’s eyes soften with shared pain. He’d been by my side for weeks when I’d been a walking zombie. I’d been so mired in despair.

It might be a bit dramatic to say Jaden killed my child, but when it’s boiled down, it’s what he did. He fucked my fiancée behind my back. She fell for that fuckwad although for the life of me, I can’t imagine why. She’d been carrying our child at the time. Had been just six and a half weeks pregnant when I caught them together.

Being the hot tempered and mean son of a bitch I am, I kicked Jaden’s ass good and moved out of the house I shared with Molly. She tried desperately to try to work things out with me, but I don’t take betrayal well. I cut her off emotionally—the only tie I wanted with her was my child. I can still remember vividly when I realized that tie had been broken.

Destroyed, actually.

After a few weeks had gone by, I called her to see if we could work out something where I could still be involved with her prenatal appointments. From the moment she opened her mouth to speak to me, I knew the baby was gone.

“Ford,” she’d said in a voice that was laden with so much fake sorrow that bile rose in my throat. “I was going to call you, but I wasn’t sure how to tell you… I lost the baby a few days ago.”

She even sniffled, but I could tell it was contrived.

I could have asked questions. Tried to narrow down exactly what her lie was, but I had better resources than trying to figure out the line between deceit and honesty when it came to Molly.

I put one of my best hackers on it, and within just six hours, he’d been able to pilfer her medical records from a local OB/GYN’s office in Las Vegas. One that was known for performing abortions, and I’ve never felt such devastating pain as I did at that moment when I read through the documents showing Molly terminated my child. The icing on the cake was that the transaction was paid for by Jaden.

It was the one and only time in my life I’ve ever put a hand on a woman in anger with the intent to harm. I drove straight to her house. When she opened the door, my hand was on her throat, backing her up into her foyer, where I slammed her up against the wall. I could tell by the fear in her eyes that she knew that I knew.

“You fucking killed our baby,” I roared at her, my fingers squeezing her slender throat. For a moment, I envisioned myself strangling her, but then self-preservation triumphed over my personal pain and I released her. She slumped down to the floor, coughing and gasping.

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, and I asked her just one question, “Why?”

“Because Jaden doesn’t want children,” she whispered, and it took everything within me not to kick her in the face while she was down. “He insisted.”

Instead, I turned toward the door but before I left, I turned to her and told her with deadly menace, “If I see either one of you again… if either of you cross my path… I will kill you. That’s the only warning you get.”

I stormed out of her house. I didn’t know if she believed my last warning. They were empty words, of course, because as I said… I wasn’t about to go down for murder. Instead, I’d just have to deal with the pain and move on.

Kenneth was there for me. My closest friend. He helped pick up the pieces after I went for weeks on a drunken bender. He’d bailed me out of jail once and prevented me from getting in several bar fights. He watched as I fucked women without emotion, sometimes picking one up in a bar and just doing her up against a wall outside without even seeing if she was wet or not. He helped me through it and when I was ready to move on, he was by my side at The Hendrix Group. He’s been there the entire time, as well as spent some quality time here at The Sinful Night Club, and there’s no one’s advice I trust more.

Except when it comes to this issue with Thalia. I’ve not seen Jaden since the day I caught him with Molly, but having an opportunity to cause him pain—even if it’s nowhere near the same type—is just too much for me to pass up.

Kenneth stands up from the chair and shoves his hands in his pocket. “I’m sorry, man. Sorry this is still eating at you.”

“Then you understand why I’m doing it,” I mutter.

“Yeah,” he says. The tone of his voice implies he’s not going to broach it with me again. He may be against this idea, but Kenneth will always have my back. “Don’t like it, but I understand it.”

We’re silent for a moment, but then I pin him with a guilt-laden look. “I don’t like it either, buddy. But I have to do it.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow evening,” he says as he heads for the door. When he reaches it, he turns back. “Any hard limits?”

“No anal,” I say distractedly. Thalia’s not ready for that. “Frankly… it’s whatever she wants.”

“You mean make all her dreams come true?” Kenneth asks with a grin, and I feel the burden weighing me down lift a little. Thalia’s going to come so many times tomorrow that she’s not going to know what hit her. I maybe have a very deceitful intent about what I’m doing to her, but I also intend to give her pleasure like she’s never known.