Rose Red (Once Upon a Happy Ever After Book 4)

by Jewel Killian

  Chapter Six

  Chase

  Hunger kept me from dozing like Abigail and Luca. I left them cuddling, sheets tangled all around and ordered room service. I got enough for all three of us in case they woke up, grabbed a robe and stepped out onto the balcony to try and puzzle out the solution to our situation.

  Abigail wanted her life choice accepted by her peers and not used against her or her father. I understood it. But I wasn’t sure it was realistic. I didn’t think anyone would be accepting of three people as a committed serious relationship. Still, even if I couldn’t get people to accept us, I’d make damn sure no one would ever use it against her again.

  The fallout from last year’s scandal was minimal for us— further proof of a double standard between the sexes. No one called our families demanding money so our faces and “virtue”, whatever that was, wasn’t tainted. No one even cared about the two bachelors in question. They only ever cared who the “dirty, dirty, debutante at the center of the menage” was. And that was a direct quote from the article.

  It still made me so angry that in this day in age consenting adults couldn’t do what the hell they wanted without being ridiculed. Before Luca and I discovered we enjoyed sharing, it was impossible for us to date. We’d be at each other’s throats over it which eventually turned off the girl we were fighting over. Not right away. No. For a little while she’d like all the attention. She enjoyed the fact that two men were fighting over her. At first. But once Luca and I actually came to blows over her, she always split. It was hard for a long time. Until we realized that sharing was the ultimate compromise.

  We thought it was just a phase. That eventually our tastes would change and we’d stop being attracted to the same women. But it never happened. Luca and I kept falling for the same girl but it always turned out the same way. It was fun but not much else. We’d never found a girl that could hold our interest or even a conversation really until we met Abigail.

  I knew the moment I saw her that she was going to change our lives. Luca and I nudged each other at the same time and asked each other the same thing when she walked in the ballroom last year. “Do you see her?” We were as good as done that very moment. We spent the rest of the evening transfixed by her, wanting to know everything about her and relishing the attention she gave us.

  It was our fault our photo was taken that night. If we hadn’t been so anxious to have her, if we’d been thinking with the head on our shoulders we wouldn’t have whisked her to the closed-off ballroom. We would have taken her home and had our way with her there. But we just couldn’t resist her charm and composure and her intellect. She could hold her own on any topic we threw at her. Plus it didn’t hurt that she was drop-dead gorgeous. No, that was definitely a plus. This whole mess, the disgusting tabloid photo, the fortune her father spent keeping her name and face out of it, and the subsequent separation was actually all our fault. If we’d only taken her home...

  A knock on the door kept me from continuing to blame myself. I stepped back in the room and saw Abigail and Luca getting up as well. “It’s just room service,” I said and opened the door wide to let attendant wheel in the cart. Before I could get out the words “come in” the door slammed all the way open, cracking against the wall. I jumped out of the way and looked at the room service guy.

  Except it wasn’t a room service guy. It was just a guy. A guy who happened to have an iPhone held sideways like he was filming us.

  “Nope. Not on my watch,” I said and grabbed the guy by the throat, pulling him the rest of the way into the room. Luca was at my side in moments wrestling the phone out of his hand and body slamming him into a chair.

  “What’s the deal, man?” Luca asked. “Who’s paying you for this footage, huh?”

  The guy shook his head. Luca and I both stepped closer, hovering over him. “See, the way I figure is you’ve got two choices. You can tell us who sent you, or we can rough you up a little bit and then you can tell us who sent you.”

  I snickered at Luca’s tough guy impersonation. He was pretty good at it.

  “Actually,” Abigail said as she slipped back into her dress and handed Luca his pants. “There’s a third option. You two aren’t going to lay a finger on him. We’re the victims here and you’re not going to muddy the water by beating up this scrawny little shit. Everyone get dressed. I have a plan.”

  The guy looked at each of us. “Well, I’m just gonna be on my way then.” He slowly rose from the seat Luca had slammed him in.

  “Sit down,” Abigail ordered. “You’re not going anywhere, you little fuck. Just sit there and be quiet.” Luca and I just stared at her. If I hadn’t already been in love that would have been the straw that pushed me over. “What time is it?” she asked me.

  “Um, a little after two in the morning.”

  “Good, that should work. Luca, I want you to call the front desk. Tell them we need the hotel manager in the main ballroom immediately.” As he followed Abigail’s instruction I got dressed and waited, one eye on the guy. “Okay, let’s head down.”

  I grabbed him by the shirt collar and followed Abigail out to the elevator. “Forgive me, my love but what are we doing exactly.”

  She smirked at me. “More than one way to subvert a scandal, isn’t there?”

  Chapter Seven

  Abby

  Everyone followed me out to the elevator. I hit the floor for the main lobby, spun around and reached into Mr. Peeping Tom’s jacket pocket hoping to find a wallet. Jackpot. “Let me see here.” I flipped through the cards and ID’s until I found exactly what I suspected. “Here we go, a press pass. Seems as if Mr. Fording here works for some type of reputable news outlet.”

  Chase and Luca both snorted at my sarcasm. We all knew the only place this guy worked for was Page Six, and that rag was about as far from reputable as you could get.

  I pressed on. “I wonder how your superiors would take it once they found out you barged into a well-respected member of the Manhattan community’s room and started recording her? That can’t be part of your job description, can it?”

  The tops of Fording’s ear turned bright right, either with anger or embarrassment. I gave zero shits about which. The elevator dinged at our floor and I led the way. “Bring him into the main ballroom with us.”

  Chase and Luca shared a look.

  “Um...” Luca said.

  “Abigail, it’s still early. That ballroom is still full of guests.”

  “I realize,” I said and marched ahead of them. I opened the double doors that were the main entrance to the ballroom and walked through both like a superhero, or a villain. They both tend to do that. I made enough noise crashing through the doors that I had everyone’s attention from the start. Their collective eyes bounced from me to the two gorgeous men behind me then finally to the little shit they dragged behind them. I scanned the room for a manger type and found an uncomfortable looking man in a cheap suit. Bingo.

  I dragged a chair into the middle of the ballroom, hopped up on it and called for everyone’s attention. “This here is Mr. Peter Fording.” I pointed to the scrawny guy who was now red as a beet. “I know that because I have his press pass.” I held that up for everyone to see. “Mr. Fording here works for Page Six.” Murmurs and gasps buzzed around the room. “I know. I’m just as shocked as all of you. Now, I imagine if Mr. Fording here snuck upstairs and into my room to see what kind of dirt he could find, he must have been snooping around other places as well. I wonder what other dirty secrets you’ve discovered tonight, Mr. Fording?” The man said nothing but the whole room buzzed even louder.

  No one likes their secrets told. No one.

  “What’s especially concerning is the hotel has a strict no-press policy. Most especially during events. Isn’t that right Mr. Night Manager?”

  The uncomfortable man nodded and turned an ugly shade of red as well.

  I smiled to myself. “Who here knows Kase Waldorf personally?” Three-quarters of the room raised their hand.
“And who here has his direct number?” Half the hands remained. I looked to both Mr. Fording and the night manager and smiled. “The way I see it you have two choices. You can tell us why you’ve been selling our secrets to Page Six, or we can call the owner of the hotel and have him and his team of lawyers deal with it. Your choice.”

  Fording crossed his arms. Fortunately, night manager cracked and I didn’t have to come through on my bluff. “I was just trying to make some extra money. I let him in and he’d poked around and whatever he sold to Page Six he’d give me a cut of.”

  The crowd burst into chaos. Yelling and shouting, demanding the men be searched for cameras or recorders. They huddled closer to each other and I raised my arms to silence the crowd. “Take all their electronics,” I said to Luca. “Take them and smash them right here in front of everyone.”

  “But what if they made copies?” Someone in the crowd yelled out.

  I looked at the two pitiful men below me. “Did you?” They shook their heads. I believed them. They were too scared to lie and too stupid to think that far ahead.

  Luca brought me what he found. “The manager only had a phone but the other guy had a second phone and a small recorder.”

  “Smash it all.” Then, to the manager and Fording, “No one likes their secrets told. Now get out of here. And you better pray I don’t tell Kase in the morning. He won’t be as lenient as I’ve been.”

  Both men ran out of the ballroom. I wouldn’t tell Kase but I’d bet my last dollar he’d find out. This was just too juicy. Someone was definitely going to blab about it. This was the Upper East Side after all.

  As the crowd dispersed I decided to clear up one last thing. “While I have you all here.” I looked at Chase and Luca, beckoning them closer. “The reason he burst into my room was because I fell in love.”

  “Abigail, what are you doing?”

  “Shush love. They can’t use it against us if we’re not hiding, can they?” I looked out to the crowd of my peers. “Not just once though. I fell in love twice, with two of the most amazing men I’ve ever met. Last year’s Page Six headline? That was me falling for these two. Think what you will but I dare you to find a “couple” more in love, more devoted to each other’s happiness, and more committed to each other than us. So, if anyone has a problem with it, they can come see me.” I hopped off my chair and my two men and I walked out of the ballroom.

  Chapter Eight

  Luca

  “You were absolutely incredible. Honestly, Abigail, I had no idea you had that in you.” Chase gave words to the exact thought running through my mind since we left the ballroom.

  The three of us piled into the back of our limo and headed to the condo Chase and I shared. Well, we didn’t really share it. He had his wing and I had mine. But both our names were on the lease. We hadn’t meant to buy a property together but it seemed like we shared more than just taste in women.

  Abby snuggled between us, all of us choosing to sit in the smallest bench instead of stretching out on the longer, adjacent one. It was fine by me. I couldn’t speak for Chase but I needed to touch her.

  Abby smiled and shrugged. “I didn’t know I had it in me either. But the last thing I wanted was a repeat of last year, and there was no way I going to let the only two things in the world I wanted be taken away. I did what had to be done.”

  I took her hand in mine as we sped uptown.

  Chase looked at me, a question in his eyes. I nodded, knowing exactly what he’d silently asked.

  “Abigail?” he asked.

  “Mmm?” she murmured as she leaned against his shoulder.

  “When we proposed all those months ago, the expectation was never that you should marry us both, not really. But I suppose we didn’t consider that proposing to you was, in a way, asking you to choose between us. The last thing we want is for you to feel like you ever have to choose between us.”

  “So,” I continued where Chase left off, “if you like, we can take the whole marriage thing off the table and just be together? How does that sound?”

  “That sounds awful,” she said and climbed over us to the other seat so she could give us both a puzzled look. She took a few moments then started again. “Did you know that sea captains can’t actually marry people?”

  “Um— okay?” I looked at Chase to see if I was the only one stumped by her apparent non sequitur.

  “Unless they’re also a justice of the peace or a minister in addition to being a captain, they have no legal right to officiate a wedding. It’s such a common myth it’s the first thing that pops up when you Google ‘marriage at sea’.”

  “And why were you Googling that, my love?” My question brought a flush to Abby’s cheeks as well as that same puzzled look to her features.

  “What do you mean? Because I want to marry you. Both of you. And I wanted to figure out a way to make this work.” She looked at us, trying to read our expressions. “I left because I had to puzzle it out, not because didn’t want to be with you two. You know that, right?”

  Chase shook his head and I looked at the floor.

  “Oh god. Chase, Luca, I’m so sorry. I thought... I’m so sorry. I thought I made it clear.” Abby sighed. “I never wanted to leave but I had to find out if there was a real possibility for us to have a future. I’m so sorry I didn’t make that clear.”

  I didn’t want to think about how different the last few months would have been if I wasn’t convinced Abby left because she needed to time decided if she could handle a three-person relationship. “Let’s not dwell on it. Tell us more about your non-marrying sea captains.”

  “Well, before I get to that I want you to know something. When that little shit burst into our room and threatened everything I wanted for my life, for our lives, I showed myself just how strong I was, proving that I could handle our business. That I could keep the tabloids from ridiculing us, and once I ‘came out’ to the entirety of the ball, there really wasn’t anything left to be afraid of. Everyone already knew. I’m ashamed to say that’s what I was trying to figure out. I was so afraid of everyone’s reaction and I thought finding a way to be ‘legal’ would keep people from judging us. But now everyone already knows and I don’t even care anymore. I just want to be married to you two.”

  As happy as her words made me I thought better of pointing out the one person who still didn’t know. Her father.

  Abby took a big breath, eyes lighting up with excitement as she continued. “So, back when I was researching, my first thought was to find a place with lax or unclear marriage laws. That’s when I discovered captains couldn’t marry, while sifting through pages and pages of maritime law. Anyway, most places are very clear about it— one couple equals one marriage, that’s it, no gray area. But then I came across this tiny sovereign nation tucked away in the mountains of Spain whose wording was so ambivalent, it was like the law was written specifically for us. So I did a little more digging. Turns out, in the 1600’s the nation’s ruler went a little mad and decided he was the reincarnation of Solomon, like, the biblical one, which of course meant he need just as many wives as he’d had in antiquity. He changed the laws to suit his crazy and the country never bothered changing them back.”

  Abby grinned from ear to ear.

  Chase said the words before I could. “So, are you saying—”

  “I’m saying take me to Spain and marry me!”

  Chapter Nine

  Abby

  Luca hit the button lowering the partition between us and the driver. “Step on it, Chuck! We’ve got a wedding to plan!” Chase pounced on me, laying me out on the seat and hitching my leg up around his waist. He pressed his growing hardness against me just as Luca positioned himself at my head.

  I shivered with desire.

  But as much as I wanted my two men to take me in the back of that limo, we had work to do. “What if,” I said with a coy smile. “What if we waited until after the ceremony?”

  Neither one looked thrilled at the idea.

>   “I know, I know, I want you too,” I said sitting up in my seat again. “But we have a lot of details to work out. And I think keeping a clear head to do that might help us get everything done.”

  Chase sighed and Luca made the cutest pouty face. But I plowed onward. “Okay, the fastest way to Spain is—”

  “Jet,” Luca said.

  “We can charter the flight for later today,” finished Chase.

  I nodded. “Okay, hotel. We’ll need to book a few rooms, there are people I want to invite.”

  “I’ll have my assistant take care of that,” Luca said. “And I’ll have her find an officiant of some sort, one who won’t care how many people he’s marrying.” Luca pulled out his phone and made a call.