Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3)

by Mallory Crowe

  “You’re always going to be my girl next door,” he promised as he bent in for a kiss. It was different from all the other times he’d kissed her. Because she was his now. He could do this whenever he wanted. When he was struggling through a shitty day or an interview that made him want to lose his mind, he could look forward to this. He pulled away as something occurred to him. “What do we tell the press?”

  She blinked a few times, as though trying to clear her head. “The press?”

  “They think we’re married.”

  “Oh yeah. My job. Well, if we’re going to be seen together, I suppose we don’t say anything. They’ll think we’re happy, and happy people are boring.”

  “That suddenly explains why they never left our family alone.” There were hundreds of things to sort through. He needed to talk to his brothers—and meet his sister—and finish getting established. He still needed a car. But all that could wait for now.

  “What do you say we head back to my apartment? I think yours is too...”

  “Small?”

  “I think too much has happened here tonight.” He didn’t want her to have to see that man’s face every time she looked at her kitchen.

  “You’re probably right. Let me just grab some things and we’ll go. Think of what food you want for dinner! I’m thinking this is an order in kind of day.”

  He forced himself to let her go. She’d be back soon enough. Logan smiled at the thought.

  Before he could even think about ordering food, Julie’s phone, at the far end of the table, started to ring. He was going to ignore it until he realized who was calling. Alex. Logan answered. “Forget something?” he asked.

  “I assume that means things are going well?” said Alex.

  “We’re going to get dinner. Ordering in.” Every badass bone in Logan’s body melted away as he grinned. Just saying it made him happier than he had been in the past ten years.

  “Good. I think the two of you are idiots, but at least you’ll be happy idiots.”

  At least one of his brothers had given his blessing. “Is that why you were calling?”

  “No. I meant to say something earlier and I didn’t get a chance. Do you have a minute?”

  He looked down the hall that Julie had disappeared down. “A quick minute. What’s going on?”

  “It’s Ashley. She’s back. She showed up at my place a few days ago.”

  Logan figured he was talking about Nadia’s daughter. Walter’s fourth wife and one he was smart enough not to father any children of his own with. Logan frowned as he tried to figure out where this was going. “Okay.”

  He could hear Alex take a deep breath over the phone. “We’re getting married, Logan. I thought you should hear it from me first.”

  Julie chose that moment to come out of her room. “Are you on my phone?”

  “You’re busy,” said Alex. “I’ll let you get your girlfriend her phone back. Congratulations again!”

  He hung up before Logan could say a thing, leaving him to stare in shock at the phone.

  “What’s wrong?” said Julie. “Who was that?”

  “That was Alex, and I have no idea what’s happening.”

  “Does this mean we’re not going to your place?”

  That snapped him out of his shock. “Nope. We’re definitely going to my place. And we’re getting Chinese.”

  She still looked confused, but she seemed willing to go along with it. “Okay. Let’s get started on our first date.”

  (Sometime in the near future, at the wedding of one of Logan’s brothers)

  Julie’s heart melted at the sight of Robert and Malia on the dance floor. “They’re so cute!” She leaned in to rest her head against Logan’s shoulder.

  He adjusted so he could set his arm around her back. “Does this mean you’re going to make me dance?”

  “Oh, I was going to make you dance no matter how cute your brother and sister-in-law are.”

  “She’s not my sister-in-law.”

  “Give it time. He’s looking at her the same way Colin looks at Jean.” And Colin looked at Jean as if he would go to the ends of the earth to keep her.

  “Is that right? Well, how do I look at you?”

  Julie leaned back. “Hmmm,” she said. “You look at me like I’m the first woman you’ve seen after being in prison for ten years.”

  “You got me there.” He reached down with the hand that wasn’t around her back to run his fingers over hers. Something she’d grown accustomed to him doing ever since the wedding ring had gone on two months ago. “Do you regret it?”

  She jerked back. “How could you even ask me that?”

  The corner of his mouth hooked up. “Not marrying me. The small ceremony. It all seemed good at the time, but now that we’re here and everyone’s happy...”

  “But we wouldn’t be married yet,” she reminded him. “The planning would go on for at least a year and once the baby comes, the honeymoon wouldn’t be the same.”

  Logan leaned in and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Bet you’ll never look at Costa Rica the same again.”

  She snorted. “Are you kidding? We didn’t leave the room. We need a second honeymoon to actually see the islands.”

  “Second honeymoon? I can get into that.”

  “I can’t. I only have five more months to get the new hires competent enough to handle the workload once the baby comes. Once I know if they’re dependable, then we can talk future vacations.” She paused for a second before she brought up the topic she’d been avoiding. “You got a letter from Alecia Willis yesterday. I didn’t mean to open it. I was going through the mail and—”

  Logan kissed her forehead. “We’re married, Julie. You’re allowed to open my mail.”

  “I didn’t realize you set up a trust fund for Brandon's family.”

  Logan shrugged. “Just a little guilt money.”

  “You know you have nothing to feel guilty about, Logan.”

  “I don’t mind the guilt. I think I’d feel worse if the guilt wasn’t there, you know?”

  She took comfort in his arms around her and smiled up at him. “You’re a good man, Logan Farrell. I am sorry you couldn’t get the revenge you wanted on Tate Gallagher.”

  Logan shrugged and smiled down at her. The corner of his mouth twisted up. “I’m okay with it. What Alex did to him was a hundred times worse than anything I could’ve come up with. Bastard got everything he had coming to him.”

  ~~~THE END~~~

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  RESTLESS

  Coming in October 4th, 2016

  He needs to escape his past.

  She needs to jumpstart her future.

  Together, they just might have the answer.

  Alex Farrell has been the glue holding his unstable family together for as long as he can remember, but a volatile piece of his past is about to threaten the harmony he's been working to build.

  Ashley is in desperate need of a husband. Her mother left her a fortune, but until she gets married, she's under complete control of a man who wants to lock her away. And when she thinks of men she can get to marry her, there's one that comes to mind. Alex Farrell, her former stepbrother, wanted her so many years ago. He has to still want her now.

  Knowing Alex always loved her puts her plan in motion. But Alex refuses to just pretend. Ashley's everything he's ever wanted, and this time, he won't let her slip through his fingers. Taboo or not, Alex is all in, and completely in love with his ex-stepsister. But sometimes, fighting for love isn't the hardest fight of all.

  To be notified when RESTLESS is released, sign up for Mallory's Mailing list at: http://eepurl.com/bf2H4n

  See an excerpt on the next p
age.

  (A sneak peek at book 4 in the Fractured Farrells Series)

  Copyright 2016 Mallory Crowe

  PROLOGUE

  There was something utterly surreal about being invited to a wedding you knew was going to end in divorce, thought Ashley. It was even worse when the bride was your mother and you were the maid of honor.

  For the most part everyone attending the wedding of the decade seemed hopeful. There were women crying and the groom, Walter Farrell, beamed at Nadia with pride. And he should be prideful. Nadia was twenty years younger than him and looked fantastic. Ashley knew just how fantastic her mother looked since she would drag Ashley on all her runs and group exercise classes.

  Ashley and her mother looked like they could be sisters, since Nadine had gotten pregnant when he was seventeen. They both had the blonde hair and blue eyes so common from the small country of Estonia where Nadine was from.

  Nadine's blond curls were pulled into an intricate updo and accented with little diamonds and mother of pearl flowers. Her dress was deceptively simple, with a strapless top that pushed her chest up and out and a delicate lace that carefully outlined the thin lines of her body and to the floor. The only obvious adornment on the dress was a thin belt that sat right above Nadine's hips. It was the perfect dress that didn't show too much but showed Walter Farrell exactly how lucky he was.

  Ashley's own dress was a similar strapless shape with a wider, about an inch thick, band of satin around the waist. The bust was covered in a carefully shaped chiffon folds while the bottom of the dress allowed the chiffon to flow naturally to the floor. The color was horrible for Ashley's fair skin, but it fit in with the pink and green theme of the wedding and that was the important part.

  Nadine dabbed tears away from her eyes and Ashley struggled to maintain her happy persona. If her mother was happy, she was happy, she kept telling herself. Except Nadine didn't realize that she'd truly found her perfect mate. It was only a matter of time until they both lost interest in each other.

  As the priest continued with the vows, Ashley glanced at the packed pews of the Church of the Heavenly Rest. The wedding guests seemed just as taken with the beauty of the ceremony as the happy couple. In fact, the only ones who seemed to be as pessimistic as Ashley was Walter's own sons, who stood as the first three groomsmen.

  Because of the whirlwind romance between Walter and Nadine, Ashley was still struggling to get their names. Robert, the oldest, stood as the best man. Behind him, from oldest to youngest Alex and Nathan.

  Robert stood parallel to her, looking proud and stoic while Nathan looked like he was about to fall asleep. But the second youngest was the one who kept grabbing her attention. He was the brother with the worst poker face. The one who seemed like he was already counting the days until he could be rid of his father's fourth wife.

  Alex's eyes met hers and she turned her gaze from the Farrell brother. It was hard to think of them as family since her new step brothers were all older than her. The youngest, Nathan, was twenty-one. Since Ashley was still fifteen, that age difference was enough to verify that Ashley would never be one of the Farrell bunch.

  And if that wasn't enough, the way Alex glared at her from across the aisle was enough to make Ashley want to catch the next boat to take her across the Atlantic and back to her mother's homeland of Estonia.

  "I now pronounce you husband and wife," said the priest. Everyone stood and started to clap and shout their joy and Alex took a break from his angry stare to fake a smile.

  Ashley handed her mother back the bouquet filled with greenery and a few pink accents, and Walter and her walked hand in hand down the seemingly endless aisle through the church. Robert stepped forward to take her arm and Ashley let him lead the way down the aisle. She played the happy daughter as she walked down the aisle, smiling at her family members she'd never met before here from another country.

  Once her and Robert were clear of the crowd, he removed his arm from hers and Ashley rushed to get the rice set up. Nadine had given her very specific instructions on how to hand out the individually wrapped packets of rice, and they'd packed enough for one packet for each of the five hundred guests.

  Ashley gripped the first of the boxes filled with rice and tried to lift. She'd been the one to help pack the container, but as she stood up, she could feel the bottom of the cardboard start to slip. No, no, no, no... There was a very strict timeline and if she didn't get these out front right now, everything would be thrown off and her mother's wedding would be ruined and-

  The box slipped and Ashley looked around the dark closet desperately trying to find somewhere to set it down before the hundreds of rice packets fell to the ground and she'd have to find some other way to- The box slid more and Ashley squeezed her eyes shut and waited for disaster to strike. Except nothing happened. She cracked open one eye and saw Alex standing across from her, his hands now holding the bottom of the box and keeping the rice from spilling everywhere.

  Ashley let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Thank God you showed up. This was almost a disaster."

  Alex took on more of the weight. "Luckily I'm here to make sure that all the birds can get a stomach full of rice that will kill them. But, hey, it will give Walter the wedding of your mother's dreams so it's all worth it."

  Whew. Lot of bitterness from someone who was so rich and pretty. Considering the first class education, plane tickets, and housing Alex had enjoyed his entire life, she didn't know what he was so angry about.

  It was Ashley who had a right to be angry. It was her life that was going to be upended once Walter Farrell decided to move onto the next young hot thing that was willing to do anything to make him happy.

  But she supposed guys like Alex Farrell were evidence of Ashley's biggest fear. Some guys would never be happy.

  If there was one thing Ashley liked, it was proving people like this wrong."That's a myth you know."

  "What?"

  "That birds die from eating rice. It's not a thing. I'd expect someone as well educated as you not believe everything you hear."

  Alex's mouth dropped open and she was willing to bet that she was the first person to talk back to him in a long, long time. She took advantage of his speechlessness and pushed the box more fully into his hands. "Take this out front and make sure the bottom doesn't fall out."

  Once it appeared like the box was steady in his hands, Ashley reached for the second box and stood, but instead of rushing to the front of the church like she wanted him to, Alex was still standing there, staring at her with a rage she didn't even know existed within him. Ashley took a step back and waited for him to move from the door.

  "You really think this wedding is going to last?" he asked finally.

  Well, no, but she wasn't about to admit it. "Who are we to stand in the way of true love?"

  "Was it true love at the bachelorette party? Seemed like your mother was the textbook definition of lust that night, wasn't she?"

  Ashley felt the ground shift beneath her. Please don't let it be true. Don't let her mother throw everything away before the wedding even started. "I wasn't at-"

  "As soon as the honeymoon is over, he's going to find out exactly who you people are. And then you'll be on the street corner like you belong."

  CHAPTER ONE

  Nine years later

  Ashley's hands had stopped shaking. She didn't know when or where during her late night drive, but at some point, her body had calmed down even though her mind had been racing. It was a continuous loop as she drove across the state.

  But there was a certain measure of calmness that came from knowing where she was going. It wasn't a conscious choice. But she'd left the city and somewhere along the line, she'd started to follow signs to Connecticut and then she'd gotten off at the exit she remembered so well. It was like muscle memory that led her to a place she had no reason to be drawn to.

  It had been years since she'd seen any of the Farrells, but she'd kept tabs on all of them. She'd done
a mental happy dance when Walter died and had sat back and waited for the sons to fall into financial ruin as the empire crumbled.

  Except that it had been two years since Walter's death and give or take a few scandals, Farrell Enterprises was stronger than ever. Even crazier, Robert Farrell appeared to be in a steady relationship, which was a sure sign that hell was freezing over. But if Robert could settle down, that meant anything was possible and right now she needed a miracle.

  Ashley stopped the car outside the gate to the Farrell's Connecticut home as the wipers whished back and forth to keep the pouring rain from the glass. A dark and rainy night. Figured she wouldn't grow a backbone during a clear sky.

  Rumor had it that he was here. Now she just needed to get the balls up to knock on the door. Well, not knock on the door. To do that, she needed to get into the gate.

  Ashley put her Porsche into park and got out of the car. The downpour immediately soaked her from the roots of her hair and all the way through the designer ankle boots that apparently weren't water proof.

  She hit the button for the intercom and crossed her fingers that someone would answer. Not figuratively. Ashley actually intertwined her middle and pointer finger. Just a flicker of good luck. That's all she needed.

  "Who is it?" asked a surly voice.

  Ashley knew she'd need to work some crazy magic to get admitted entrance this late at night. "This is Ashley Kõiv. I'm here to see Alex Farrell. I'm his sister."

  There was a silence, and Ashley tried to look around so she could face the camera long enough for whoever was behind the gate to do an internet search on her. Thanks to the speed of the internet, it was only a long thirty seconds before the gate started to creak open. She was in. One step down, thousands more to go.

  She ran back to her car before anyone changed their mind and drove up the long driveway towards the mansion.

  So many memories came back to her and second thoughts hit her like a brick. Alex wouldn't want to see her. When she'd left this house, it had been in shame and disgrace. Not that his family or hers was any stranger to scandal, but it was still a blow. A blow she'd thought she recovered from until right now.