by CY Jones
“True. Veronica made the perfect bride. She’s beautiful, comes from the right family, had the same upbringing as my own, knows what’s expected from her as my wife, and my parents genuinely like her, but with each box she checked off, she still came with flaws. One so severe, I can no longer look the other way and hope for the best. As my wife, she has one job. One fucking job, and turns out my parent’s choice of the perfect bride is defective. Veronica and her parents conveniently hid a condition she had when she was younger and is now infertile. She cannot have kids… ever.” Well, fuck. Yeah, that’s serious and usually something that should be disclosed during the relationship, but these are spoiled, cunning deceitful assholes who don’t follow the rules of common courtesy. I would laugh or ask, how it feels to have one put over on him? But I have more self-preservation than that.
“Then why bring me into all of this? You could divorce her. I’m sure her being infertile is a cause for divorce. How the fuck did this complicated, pain-in-my-ass plan come about?”
“All this was Tom’s plan actually, really all I did was point him to the right people. We had a common goal, him and I. We both wanted to get you away from Andrew. Originally, Andrew was supposed to dump you and marry Rebecca. I have no clue how the video came about. I don’t even think his father knew he was the one to film it and was blackmailing you with it. He never saw the video, so I believe he was under the impression that you were blackmailing Andrew into marrying you. He underestimated his son’s determination to keep you. I think the video was a means to an end for him. You left him like we all wanted, but it caused him to snap, and he did whatever he could to keep you.”
This explains a lot. The unhinged way Andrew’s been. How he’s been acting like a pod person completely took over his body, and not the good ones like my brother and Justin.
“If not for the video, how were you and Drew’s father planning to push me away?” I question.
“With the interview. It was me who pushed that scoop your way. With the information gathered from the PI, I’ve studied you intensely. I know your own reactions probably better than you do. Andrew had no clue he was going to be given that interview until his father assigned it to him in the boardroom, and he only did it to piss you off, and just like we thought you would, you played right into our hands.” “Well, damn,” Nancy hisses.
“But that doesn’t make any sense. He told me he knew. That he wanted to help his father with his ambitions.”
“Sweetheart, he lied. He was just as much of a victim as you,” he says, stabbing me in the heart. And fuck does it hurt. I’d never trade Justin for anyone, but Drew… All this time I hated him. Wished for his death, and he was being played right along with me.
“What about Rebecca? If he loved me, he wouldn’t have fucked her,” I point out. I’m trying to find a flaw in his theory. Any flaw.
“That’s what happens when one goes out and has a little bit too much to drink, especially when he meets a conniving socialite looking for attention at the club, and she slips a little something in his drink.”
Fuck!!! My skin pales. I was wrong, so fucking wrong. Yeah, Drew fucked up with the video, but now I understand why he did it. He was being buried alive by his father, and he snapped. Unlike this asshole, Drew doesn’t act like a spoiled brat. He works hard for everything he has and fought his father tooth and nail to keep me. The only thing he wanted was me, but unfortunately, he was fighting a losing battle. The second my eyes landed on Justin, he lost me. Maybe if divine intervention didn’t step in, I’d still be his, but Justin and I were fated to be together. This isn’t a why choose situation. It’s always been Justin.
“I should have known he’d try to protect his father. He’s such a martyr, fucking pathetic. I don’t know what you ever saw in him. The only time he showed any emotion in all this and fought me any was when I told him he’s not to cum inside you. I knew if I couldn’t stop him from marrying you, I could at least prevent this one thing. When the time is right, it’ll be my seed that gets you pregnant not his.”
I gasp, fucking shocked. The common theme of my emotions since this whole conversation started. I told you there's no reasoning with crazy and this is one insane loop of drama. Most of my questions have been answered and I’m not liking the picture they paint.
“You still haven’t answered my previous question, why am I here? Your elaborate crazy-ass plan with Andrew’s father failed. Despite the odds, we beat you. Andrew did the one thing you two didn’t account for, what you perceived him too weak to do, he let me go, and in doing so, all your well laid plans have crashed and burned. Is taking me some last-ditch effort? Because if it is, you should have saved yourself the trouble. I’m married to the love of my life. You may have destroyed one relationship, but in doing so, you pushed me towards another. Justin isn’t weak. Fuck with his business all you want, he will never give me up and unlike Tom Chatworth, he has a powerful ally in his corner, Chaz Vanderbilt. Chaz will destroy you before you even pull the trigger, so have at it. Let the fireworks begin, but I’d bet good money that it’ll be my guys in the winner’s box.”
He grinds his teeth annoyed and I watch the small tic in his jaw triumphantly. This is the first time anything I have said to him has gotten through his thick skull. My bright spot in this pit of despair. Chaz and Justin won’t fail me, I know they won’t. I just have to make sure this bastard knows it.
“You might as well turn this jet around. Sure you got a lot of pull and an endless bank account, but your family is playing second fiddle. You’re not more important than the Vanderbilt’s,” I smile a wicked smile full of self satisfaction.
“You know, beautiful, that mouth of yours may be enduring to Andrew, but with me, it’ll get you in a world of hurt. You should rest. You won’t have the chance once we get to my vacation home.”
No need to ask what he thinks we’ll be up doing. He’s delusional if he’s holding onto hope that Chaz and Justin won’t come for me and even more so if he thinks I’m going to be his baby mama. I’d rather fuck a cactus than let him touch me. “Have any of you come up with a plan?”
Shelly is the one to answer...if a bit hesitantly, which automatically makes me put up my guard. “Maybe, but you’re not going to like it,” she starts.
“No! Fuck no. I’m not letting him touch me. I don’t care who’s driving the wheel in this clown car or how far in our body you try to shove me. We made a vow to Justin. Doesn’t that mean anything to you lot? No matter the situation I will not dishonor him.”
“He’s going to take us with or without our consent anyway. We might as well use his lust to our advantage. Play our talents right, and we’ll get him to let us go on his own,” Shelly volleys, trying to reason with me, but those bitches have gone too far. I’m not budging.
“No. Come up with another plan.” I’m dead set in my refusal. There’s no changing my mind. The four of them could gang up on me and try to overpower me, but they will not win.
“Fine, Shelly huffs. “We have a plan B, but you’re only making this harder on us. There’s a chance we won’t succeed,” they warn.
“As long as there's a chance that’s all that matters,” I tell them.
The rest of the flight, I sit back and wait. After my outburst, Nathaniel is no longer in a talkative mood. The asshat is probably sulking. I can’t wait to see all his well-laid plans crumble into dust. He’s worried which gives me hope. Throughout all this craziness, Chaz was not a contender he saw coming. For now, I’ll play the waiting game, waiting on my knight to trample all over this self-centered asshole for a king.
22
Clark Kent versus Bruce Wayne
Chaz
Justin is not in the right mind to drive, not that I blame him, so halfway to the building Brooklyn used to work in, I had him pull over before he killed us both. We can’t help my sugar buns if we’re dead. Traffic is light, thank fuck, and it takes no time to get to the building. Time is something we don’t have a lot of. I’d rather not let
Bishop get too comfortable with Brooklyn. Since I’ve been back, I’ve heard rumors about his marriage to his pretty blonde wife. Apparently, she’s not as perfect as her pedigree made her out to be.
The people in the world I grew up in may be stuck up, but it doesn’t matter how much money you have, no one can pass up juicy gossip, and to win my favor it may have slipped that Veronica Bishop is barren from a botched abortion she had when she was sixteen. Being sixteen and pregnant is bad enough, but not being able to produce an heir is some serious shit. She’s lucky she was already married to Nathaniel when the truth of her defectiveness and deceit came out. I’m sure if they were still engaged, his family would have ruined hers. They probably still will. I’ve also heard he filed for divorce yesterday, which is probably the reason why he took Brooklyn, but what’s his endgame?
Someone betrayed me. Nathaniel knew Brooklyn was going to marry Justin today, which is how he was able to set us up. He used an acquaintance of my father’s to distract me and paid off the guards to slow the out traffic from the parking garage. He took quite the gamble unless he had a contingency plan, what if we had to use street parking or I’d forgotten all my manners and blown Carliton off?
After I park the car, I turn to Justin. “When we speak to Andrew, I need you to keep your shit together. No going Rambo or opening up a can of whoop-ass. It’s possible, he has no idea what Bishop has done, and we can’t help Brooklyn if we get escorted out of the building for threatening the new CEO.”
“Or he might know everything and it’ll be more fun to beat the answers out of him. I owe his pretty face some rearranging after blackmailing her with that video.”
“Justin,” I sigh. “I get it. I really do, but sugar buns doesn’t have time for your macho bullshit. This isn’t a dick measuring contest. Do I need to leave you in the car? Because I will, I’ll even crack the windows so you won’t suffocate,” I deadpan.
“Not a chance. I’m going with you. I promise I won’t touch him if he’s innocent, but all bets are off if I hear even a glimmer of dishonesty.”
“Okay cool,” I agree since that’s the best I’m going to get.
Inside we breeze through security and are given visitor badges. Once we’re on the executive floor, we follow the guard’s directions to Andrew’s cushy waiting room. A pretty secretary is sitting behind her desk typing on her computer, but as soon as she takes notice of us, her eyes light up, and she smiles widely. Yeah, if I had the same parts as her, my hoo-haw would be doing the Macarena if two guys that looked like us walked in. Just looking at Justin makes me jealous of Brooklyn.
“Hello, how can I help you?” I do not imagine the emphasis she put on that sentence or the way she pushed her tits out. I’m sure they’re nice and all, but they have nothing on sugar buns.
“We’re here to see your boss, is he in?” Justin says, skipping the pleasantries. I’m definitely going to have to do the talking if we want to get anywhere with Chatworth. I nudge his arm, reminding him of why we’re here to get him to stop glaring at the poor woman.
“Is he expecting you?” she asks, her glossy lips trembling.
Her phone buzzes and she answers. “It’s okay Ashley, security called ahead. Let them in,” Andrew’s voice fills the room from the speaker.
Justin steps around me and practically barrels through the open door. Sitting behind his huge mahogany desk is Chatworth. I have to admit he has seen better days. Losing Brooklyn must be hitting him hard. I’m positive he has no clue Nathaniel took her, but the hothead by my side is another story.
“Where the fuck is she you asshole?” he shouts, slamming his palms down on Andrew’s desk, and I sigh loudly. Here we go.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Andrew shouts back. Great. At this rate, it won’t be long before Andrew’s pretty secretary calls security on us.
“Down boy! Didn’t we have this talk in the car? Brooklyn doesn’t have time for you to go all alpha male. You agreed to hear him out, so listen,” I chastise. I want to find Brooklyn as much as he does, but we won’t find out anything in the back of a squad car.
“Wait. What happened to Brooklyn?” Justin’s hands are still flat on the desk and Andrew’s pretty blue eyes flick back and forth at the shiny gold ring on Justin’s ring finger. “You married her.” His voice sounds so sad, defeated even, and if he didn’t put sugar buns through so much shit, I’d actually feel sorry for him.
“Damn right I did,” Justin gloats. So not helping.
“So what’s the problem here? What did you mean Chaz when you said she doesn’t have much time?”
“Nathaniel took her from the courthouse. We’re trying to find them. Do you have any idea where he could have taken her?” I question.
“Fuck,” he shouts, pulling at his hair stunned. “I’m still trying to unravel the mess my father got us in when dealing with him. The last conversation we had wasn’t a good one. It was right after I let her go. He was fucking unhinged and out of control. It took my father and one of his friends to pull him off me.”
“What is his endgame? What does he want with her?” I ask.
“I may have looked like the villain, but believe it or not, this whole time I’ve been trying to protect Brooklyn from him. I didn't seek him out, my father did to save the company. When it comes to Brooklyn, Bishop has tunnel vision. No matter what, whoever he has to cross, it doesn’t matter as long as he gets his prize. He wants her to produce his heir, and after she’s successful, he’ll have the leverage he needs to convince his parents to let him marry her. A Bishop can’t be a bastard after all.”
“You’re right, I don’t believe you. You’ve done too much shit to Brooklyn for me to believe that BS about you trying to protect her, but I do believe that you had nothing to do with her kidnapping and that Nathaniel took her on his own volition. You have good in you. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have given her the opportunity to choose between us. But given the mouthful of what you just said about Nathaniel, do you have any idea where she is? If he touches her against her will and gets her pregnant, it’ll destroy her. You know it will. If you cared about her at all, please, I’m begging you, help us,” Justin pleads.
“Of course I loved her. I still do. More than you can ever imagine. I’m not one-hundred percent sure, but he might have taken her to his vacation home in Mexico. It’s where he wanted us to go for our honeymoon. It’s outside American jurisdiction, allowing him to do whatever he wants and get away with it. I can call my buddy in the NYPD to track her phone. He still has her information from the last time I had him do it.”
“You’re something else,” Justin growls. Probably pissed at the fact that Andrew’s been having her phone tracked. It’s how I knew he could help us. I remembered her mentioning it when we were having a bitch session and gorging ourselves on ice cream.
“It’s not like that. She wasn’t answering my calls, and I was making sure Bishop didn’t have her. As you can see, he’s not above kidnapping.”
We stay silent as he calls his friend up. The more time that passes the more twitchy Justin gets, until he’s pacing the room like a caged tiger. Andrew watches him warily from the corner of his eye. My heart goes out to him. Hell, my own heart hurts. I love Brooklyn. I’m still not sure how she wormed her way into my heart so quickly. It’s a miracle, especially with how closed off I’ve been lately. Not even my bestie, Paige, was able to lift me out of the funk I’d been in. First, there was the breakup with Michael. Then, my father’s stroke, my mother pretending they didn’t disown me, and finally being pushed to take over the family’s business. It’s been a lot. Like one severely bad event in my life after another caused a chain reaction, but there she was, my sugar buns at the bottom of the shitty hill I was sliding down, playing in the mud instead of drowning in it. It was then that I knew we were lifers. Friends, family, whatever the title, we’ll always be in each other's lives.
“My buddy says they are headed for Mexico. I can give you the address of the house he planned for
us to stay in,” Andrew offers.
“Yes, thank you,” I answer. While he writes it down, I pull out my cell to call my pilot, I put him on standby the moment I realized Brooklyn was missing. He’ll have the jet fueled and ready to go as soon as we get there.
“I can go with you,” Andrew says hopefully.
Poor guy. He and sugar buns are going to have to have a long talk. Air their shit out because it sounds like there’s more to this story. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Her husband and I can handle it from here, but thanks for your help.”
At my words, his eyes lift to Justin who doesn’t object to my decision. Those two are really something to look at. Sugar buns has great taste. Clark Kent versus Bruce Wayne. Yes, all three of them will have to sit down and work their shit out. Too bad she can’t choose both.
After we leave Andrew's office it’s a rush to the airport. The only enemy we have right now is time. Hang on, sugar buns. Lover boy and I are coming.
23
Five Musketeers
Brooklyn
Playing captive sucks balls, I don’t recommend it. Seriously, it’s boring as hell, but it is better than fending off some delusional douchebag you have no intention of having sex with. I was granted a brief respite with Nathaniel ignoring me most of the flight to Mexico. I guess pointing out the one glaring flaw in his well-thought-out plan put him in a pissy mood and kept him in it. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to reach our destination. Mexico City is only a little over a four hour commercial from New York, and we flew private, and I was out for a couple hours while I was drugged. Depending on how far Nathaniel’s house is from the airport and how long it takes the guys to track me down, I should only have to fend Nathaniel off for a day at best. I should be able to do it. Maybe, I can fake being on my period unless he’s one of those guys that don't mind a little blood. “He kidnapped you and escaped with you to Mexico. It’s fair to say that his crazy ass is not afraid to fuck a bleeding cunt. In fact, he might get off on the shit.”