Midnight Legacy (Midnight Dynasty Book 3)

by CR Robertson

  Clive took that opportunity for his bladder to fail him.

  “Motherfucker!” Jordan shouted. “What is it with these fuckers and pissing on my boots?”

  “Better that you scare the piss out of them than the shit,” I quipped.

  “Seriously?” Jordan demanded, shaking his foot and giving Clive a look that said he would happily dispatch him to the afterlife right now. “Give me your exit routes, or I will send your kids into the clutches of those sick fuckers.”

  “You’ve already told me you don’t know how they’re shipped out.”

  Jordan laughed. “Oh, but I know how they’re selected. I noticed the statistics that all the missing people shared, the fitness code they were assigned along with a recommendation for a personal trainer to help them with their core strength. I almost missed it the first time I crossed your files with the missing persons register.”

  “Fuck you!”

  Jordan rolled his eyes. “Let me give you a little incentive,” he coaxed.

  My stomach rolled as Jordan wielded his scalpel. Interesting fact—the human male can have his testicles removed with little blood loss but an extraordinary amount of screaming. A skinned penis was nothing more than a piece of raw muscle.

  Clive’s lips trembled and his legs shook. “You are a sadistic bastard like your father,” he wheezed. “The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. I’m sure he’s very proud that nature is stronger than nurture.”

  Jordan’s parents were murdered a long time ago when he was too young to even remember them properly. His grandfather raised him, removing every trace of his father from his life. He told him that the past only had the power to hurt him.

  A smile that would make me run a mile in the opposite direction appeared in Jordan’s face. “Thank you. I never knew my father, but at least I know that these dark desires that course through me are genetic.”

  I’d witnessed some shit in my life, but I’ve never watched a grown man sob quite the way Clive did. He was fully broken.

  “Give me the route and you can die,” I coaxed.

  “We have a special shipping container in Dover. Our contact in France is waiting on the other side.”

  Jordan typed on his phone. “Name?”

  “Henry Graham.” Clive sobbed.

  Jordan continued to type, nodding when the information checked out.

  “Give my regards to Malcolm,” I told Clive as I removed the scalpel from Jordan’s hand and cut straight across his throat. He gargled, his eyes rolling back in his head, and his knees giving way.

  “At least he has no piss left,” Jordan muttered darkly.

  “I doubt he could pee through that mess.” I nodded at what had been his dick.

  Jordan shrugged. “He fucked me off talking about my dad. Everyone knew him but me and no one ever talks about him.”

  I knew it was the reason that Jordan had photographs of every Council member on file. Before he took over security there were names and nothing else. His grandfather was too upset to have photos of Jordan’s mum in the house. All he possessed was one photo of her he found in his grandfather’s desk years ago.

  “My dad’s alive and they rarely talk about him, it’s just the way they are.” I stepped back as Clive’s blood began to pool at my feet. “Maybe we should have handed him over to Dante.”

  “At least my boots would had survived.”

  “When we get rid of his body, there’s someone we need to track down,” I said, my back molars starting to grind in bad temper.

  Jordan’s eyebrows lifted fractionally. “Should I keep these boots on so I don’t ruin another pair?”

  A dark smile lifted my lips. “I don’t give a fuck if the little shit pisses on my boots because I intend to piss all over his dead body.”

  “The dick pic guy?” Jordan guessed.

  “Oh, yeah, he’ll never be anywhere near my wife again.”

  Jordan never commented as he retreated into his own head.

  The guy didn’t know it yet, but him and his dick were both dead men walking.

  ***

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cassandra

  Xavier had had the pond from my old home replicated, and I actually wondered if the fish had been rehomed here. They came to the surface beside the pier to be fed. We’d been here three days and the guys came and went regularly, their expressions hard. Lucas Black was arriving tomorrow to ensure our security. Xavier painted the picture of him as a Rambo figure that would rampage across the countryside killing everything in his wake.

  I stared at the beautiful home Xavier had created for us and sighed. It was supposed to be a home for our family, and now it was a war command.

  “That’s an awfully big sigh.” I spun to find my husband watching me with his hip propped against one of the posts.

  I instinctively moved into his arms to lean into his strength. “I was just thinking that this was supposed to be our home and now it is a place where war is planned.”

  “Hey.” He tipped my head back. “A home is a place filled with the people we love. Those four walls have everyone we care about in them.”

  It was silly, but I wanted time that belonged to only us. That we could have sex on the kitchen counter the way we had previously without worrying about anyone wandering in to disturb us.

  “This isn’t forever,” he said, pressing a kiss to my lips.

  “I just want this to be over.” The thought of him hurt kept me awake at night.

  “It will be. We’re tracking down threats every single day, baby.”

  Changing the topic, I nodded to the fish. “Are they Mum’s fish?”

  A hint of a smile touched his lips. “I had a pond expert build this and remove the fish. Do you have any idea what that involves?” he demanded. “Those fish cost more to move than a first-class ticket to the other side of the world.”

  “We had them all named,” I replied. “That one over there looks like Molly. Although there are more of them than there used to be.”

  “Well,” he drawled. “When mummy fish and daddy fish love each other very much…”

  I nudged him in the stomach and grinned up at him. “I think I know how this story goes,” I replied, holding my stomach which had decided to start to show. None of my previous clothes fitted me and I spent most of my days in yoga pants.

  “Did you love daddy fish very much?” he teased.

  “Maybe… I think it was the way he was able to work that tail of his.”

  Xavier laughed and tugged me into his side as we walked back to the house. I’d given up asking how his days were because he refused to talk about what happened when he left here. I had images of burning fires filled with bodies in my head.

  “Is Lucrezia coming with your uncle?”

  “No idea,” Xavier replied. “Ash is driving me fucking nuts at the moment. One minute he’s asking about her and the next he’s fucking himself into oblivion with any woman he comes across. He’s a sexual Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

  “Is that a thing?” I asked. “Maybe he could give me a demonstration.”

  Xavier growled and pinned me to the wall of the house, his body caging me in. I loved it when he went into full possessive mode. “We agreed that mine was the only dick that would sink into your body.”

  My hips tilted up, my leg snaring around his ass. “You taught me that dicks are not always required—”

  He cut me off with his lips crashing into mine. It was his way of ending an argument and I never revealed to him that sometimes I provoked him so that he’d kiss me senseless. I moaned into his mouth, my arms struggling for freedom so that I would slip them around his neck and hold him there for the rest of our lives. Some women wanted foreplay, but I loved kissing and Xavier knew how to make your knees tremble with that mouth of his.

  “Someone’s pushing for an attitude adjustment,” he muttered, those lips smirking against mine.

  “Need me to bend over and present my ass?”

  “Minx,” h
e murmured.

  Only ever for him.

  His lips continued to drug me, his tongue silencing every question I had. His hands released my wrists to travel down my back so that he could cup my ass and lift me so he could devour me.

  Tyres crunching up the driveway made him finally break away, his thumb caressing over my swollen bottom lip. “We’ll finish this later,” he promised in that low, husky tone that made my panties wet.

  Lucas Black stepped out of a large, black SUV. “Sorry I’m early, but I have it on good authority you’ll need me here before tomorrow,” he announced.

  “Fuck!” Xavier groaned. “What next?”

  “Looks like you boys have been creating mischief and now people aren’t happy.” Lucas grinned with apparent delight. “The proprietors of Dragon’s Hoard are furious since you beat up half their staff and opened a box that has been highly sought after for years.”

  Xavier matched his uncle’s grin and engulfed him in a hug. “You taught us to take what we want and not back down.”

  “Indeed, and I am very proud of all three of you. Every day you grant me happiness.” He turned his attention to me. “And how is my grandbaby growing?”

  I couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t matter which of the three men was becoming a father, Lucas Black would claim all the grandbabies as his…

  I turned sideward to show off my bump. “None of my clothes fit me anymore!”

  “Then they are growing well, no?”

  Lucrezia climbed out of the car and I felt fat and frumpy in comparison. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous with her huge brown eyes and glossy black hair that fell down her back to nearly her ass. No wonder she had Ash tied in knots. Her sister Catarina followed, her almost black gaze running over our home.

  “Why don’t we all go in and I’ll make tea?” I said. “The women can eat cakes and gossip, and the men can devise their war strategies.”

  Xavier threw his arm across my shoulders as we wandered in.

  “You have taken the bare bones of this house and created a home,” Lucas commented in the hallway as he stopped to admire it. “The pictures you sent me do not do it justice.”

  This house had been a labour of love for Xavier, and he’d played a part in every aspect of the renovation. Panic rooms were discreetly built into the architecture since he’d pulled the building apart and put it back together in the image of what he wanted. There was a secret room in our kitchen that the original builders probably thought was a pantry, but it had special security doors on it. It was fireproof and acted as another panic room.

  All the documents from the safety deposit boxes resided in there, far from prying eyes. Computers were built into a massive workstation that incorporated an entire wall which was covered in monitors. Jordan had happily settled himself there when we’d all arrived home in a convoy a few days ago, sorting everything the way he preferred it to be set up. Xavier had rolled his eyes at him and left him to it.

  That room terrified me, mostly because we needed it, and partially because of the secrets it now held.

  I had adopted the kitchen as my room because it led into the conservatory that I adored. It overlooked the pond and Xavier had created a window seat for me to sit in and read while watching the pond and garden.

  Sasha was an avid baker and had spent the past few days trying to instruct Megan and me in the intricacies of baking and decorating cakes. We’d possibly consumed our bodyweight in frosting and chocolate chips. The whistle kettle sang happily as I spooned tealeaves into the pot and put cupcakes and tray bakes onto a cake stand.

  When I finally looked up, our group stood watching me. “What?” I smiled in confusion at their reaction.

  “Nothing.” Xavier shook his head. “I was just thinking that you looked happy here.”

  I wrinkled my nose at him and continued to prepare the tea. “Can you take the tray into the conservatory?” I asked. “We may as well enjoy the last of the sunshine today.”

  One of the lessons my mother engrained in me before she was ripped from my life was tea was always to be made in a pot, and pastries served on a tiered cake stand. To this day, I still followed her code of tea etiquette.

  Jordan scowled at the pot since I hadn’t made coffee, and deliberately put three sugar cubes in his cup in protest. Ash cast a discreet glance at Lucrezia before pouring himself a cup with no milk or sugar. Xavier poured me a cup, putting my milk in first and plopping a sugar cube in at the end.

  “May I ask what was in the box that has everyone on edge?” Lucas asked, sitting back and sniffing his cup. “The leaves are exquisite, tea always reminds me of home.”

  “Papa,” Lucrezia chided him. “You refuse to drink anything but coffee back in Tuscany.”

  “Yes, but when I am home, I always drink tea.” He smiled, sniffing the cup again.

  “We haven’t sorted out all the contents yet, or the clues that Dante left in the other boxes,” Xavier replied. He lifted another cupcake to eat, since he had an ultra sweet-tooth.

  “I will look at them later for you, but in the meantime, I need to know your security arrangements.” Lucas stared at Jordan intently.

  “No one knows we’re here,” Jordan replied, slipping into his role as head of security. “I’ve been monitoring some of the Council members’ phones. They’ve been looking for us and seem to think we’re hiding out in the apartment complex.”

  “Why do they think that when the apartments are empty?” I asked.

  Jordan’s lips pursed and he gave Xavier a side-eyed look. I turned to study my husband.

  “Probably because I have decoys there to stop them looking for us while we escaped,” he admitted.

  “Clever,” Lucas commented. “It gives you time to assess the situation and establish your new location.”

  “Are people sleeping in our bed?” I demanded, stopping at the point in the conversation that people were in our home.

  “They’re in the spare bedroom after the lights go out. We can’t be too careful with your safety.” Xavier gave me a haunted look.

  Something had happened the day after we arrived here, and the three men disappeared for two days, arriving back just before his uncle. Fear trickled down my spine and I knew there was something he was hiding so I wouldn’t panic. It had the opposite effect and my pulse spiked.

  “What happened?” I demanded. The only way I could help him and keep us safe was if I knew everything.

  He shook his head and tried to return to the conversation.

  “No!” I said in a raised voice. “That look in your eyes tells me that something has happened that has spooked you. Whatever it is, we all need to know.”

  He refused to look at me, staring at the half-eaten cupcake on his plate.

  I turned my attention to Jordan. He was an asshole and liked to kill things, but he tended to avoid sugar-coating anything and didn’t mind offending everyone.

  “You should tell her, Zee,” he said to his friend instead of me. “Secrets are emerging on a daily basis at the moment.”

  Xavier took a staggered breath, his chest expanding. “Clive Brown has left us. Before he went to visit Malcolm, he revealed that there is a bounty on your head, and the head of our children, with specific terms.”

  “Such as?” My blood ran cold, but we were all too involved in this game of revenge and darkness to go back.

  “Please, Cas, not now,” Xavier begged, his eyes pleading me.

  “If you want us to protect her, then we all need to know what is going on,” Lucas intervened. “The wolves are already prowling at our doors.”

  Xavier stared at the ceiling for so long that I didn’t think he was going to answer. All the while my heart thumped in my chest.

  “The will of Franklin Jenkins leaves provisions for his living children. You’re all that remains of that dynasty. A trust fund exists for your first- and second-born children. That’s a lot of money and a great incentive to the vultures who are gathering.” Xavier trailed his hands do
wn his face. “It’s possible the dick pic pervert has been targeting you because he discovered who you are.”

  “Fuck!” I snapped. “I knew he would never choose me over Megan.”

  Megan paled, her gaze flying to Xavier. “I was the one who gave her phone number to him.”

  “I’m aware,” he replied dryly. “Only she met me first, or his plan may have worked. He’s a good-looking guy and very persistent.”

  A grin formed on my mouth, and I nudged Xavier. “Did you marry me for my money?”

  His lips twitched. “I always wanted a sugar mamma. Are you going to demand sex all the time?”

  “Maybe… Are you going to demand a boob job?”

  Lucas boomed a loud laugh that echoed around the room. “The last laugh is on these men who want her inheritance, because fate stepped into their path when the blessed angel of the Blacks intervened.”

  “The what?” My brow furrowed.

  “Uncle Lucas believes that everyone in our family has a special someone assigned to them by our family angel. He knew when I first mentioned you, that you were the one for me by the way I talked about you.”

  The idea of someone looking over their family gave me goosebumps.

  He was right, I’d been flattered someone noticed me, and if I hadn’t made that date with Xavier, I probably would have taken dick pic guy up on his offer for a date. Who knew what would have happened?

  “The angel only seems to be watching over the men of the family,” Lucrezia muttered while stirring her tea.

  Her father shot her a sharp look, that reminded me of how quickly Xavier flipped the switch from light to darkness.

  “It certainly explains why he was so insistent with the photographs,” I commented dryly. “He was trying to lure me to impregnant me.”

  Xavier was finishing his cupcake, and nearly choked on it. “Yeah,” he coughed. “That dick is going nowhere near you for impregnation nor any other purposes.”

  “Not to worry,” I replied, giving him my saccharine sweet smile. “I was already dickmatised.”