Roman: Book 2 (The Hunter Brothers Series)

by L. J. Dee

  What’s stopping you just asking Charlie outright, Roman? If he gives you the green light to take things forward with Chas then you should do it if that’s what your heart wants. In the end it’s down to her,” he said and I knew he was talking sense, but there was more to it than that.

  “She deserves better than me, Igor. You’d understand if you knew her. She’s incredible and she wants the whole package; the husband, the family, the white picket fucking fence – the dream.”

  “I see,” he smiled gently, immediately understanding my dilemma. I wasn’t dream material, not for any woman, and certainly not for a woman as special as Chas. Perhaps long term I could offer that, but definitely not yet and maybe not ever. Physically I was what she wanted but there were no guarantees of anything else and I wasn’t in a position to offer them. She needed the chance to find her dream, to build her future with the man on her list, and if Charlie had any fucking sense, he’d soon wake up and realise he was it.

  If she needed me I’d be there, but for now, however hard it was I needed to stand back; bow out and see how things went. She already had a part of my fucked up, damaged heart, and if she wanted it, she could have the rest. But she wasn’t mine and I knew that in the depths of my soul.

  “Sometimes, Roman, it’s best to throw the dice and see how they fall,” he said and I knew what he meant.

  “And sometimes it’s better to watch and wait,” I smiled as he nodded. “I just got my family back, Igor. I’ll do anything to protect them and I won’t risk hurting them again. I should never have left. The fact that I was fathered by someone else changed nothing, and that surprised me. Over the last ten years I haven’t been there when they needed me, but I will be from now on, whether they realise it or not. Family comes first and I need to back out while I still can. If I get involved any further, I’m not sure I could step aside and if it’s Charlie she wants, that’s a whole load of heartache. Moscow will be the distraction I need,” I said as he nodded, passing me a file with my passport, alias and papers, together with information on Sienna Milanovich. I pulled out the photograph.

  Igor smiled, casting me a wry glance that suggested he was reading my mind. She was a brat, she was spoiled and she had a terrible fucking attitude, but there was no denying that Sienna Milanovich was also incredibly beautiful.

  I’d wait a month or longer if I had to, but I wouldn’t wait forever. Things were complicated but they’d become clearer in time, and that was one universal truth you could always rely on. I looked again at the picture and smiled to myself. If it was distraction I needed, this woman would provide it, and one thing was certain: This would be one hell of a fucking mission.

  ***

  BOOK #3 THE HUNTER BROTHERS SERIES

  CHARLIE

  ‘Have you ever faced the excruciating brutality of pure heartbreak; the kind that takes you and shakes you; rams it’s fist in your gut and its knife through your chest, relentlessly ripping at your soul with its unforgiving claws? It’s an existence that ends each morning as you open your eyes, soaking in the light for that swift, fleeting moment before you realise that he’s gone and all that’s waiting is another bleak and endless day with nothing but pain and anger to get you through.

  I have lived that once. I could not survive it twice.

  I love him, he broke me, and now he’s back. Back in my bed and the heart that he shattered and I will do whatever it takes to keep it that way. I am what I’ve become; harder, stronger and fiercely determined. I am not the woman he knew before, but a product of the experiences that changed me forever, leaving their dark and indelible scars on my soul.

  Charlie is mine. God help anyone that tries to get in our way.’

  Scarlett Everett is determined that one day Charlie will return the chest crushing love she harbours for him. She lives for him, breathes for him, prepared to take down anyone that stands in the way of their future – including family.

  Beautiful and smart, cunning and manipulative, Scarlett is used to winning battles in business. But this is personal. This is war.

  As Tyler’s star continues to rise; Roman returns with an unexpected guest and Lucas settles into life with Jess, everything appears to be going well. But they are unprepared for the chaos about to be unleashed on every aspect of their lives and relationships. Trust is thrown into doubt and loyalties tested to their limits, when the charismatic playboy of the Hunter family is caught between the women that dominate his life.

  The one he wants but can’t have, and the one he has every night; addicting his body with her sinful brand of sexuality that suffocates his senses.

  Prepare for the battle of the bitches.

  Charlie: Book #3 in The Hunter Brothers Series

  Coming August 2014

  Preview Prologue

  Seeing him today had been the most blissful exquisite torture, beautiful yet filled with a pain I could never have imagined. He hadn’t looked at me, shaken my hand or even acknowledged me, looking straight through me as though I were as invisible as the air that he breathed. He was still the air that I breathed and Charlie Hunter would never be invisible to me.

  Six months, three days and four hours and the pain in my heart was as intense now as on that very day, even the shock of the whole sorry affair had barely diminished from my head and my heart. I’d done things I wasn’t proud of in that relationship to ensure that I kept him, but that was life with a Hunter. Every man wanted to be them, every woman wanted to be with them and I had to stay one step ahead for my own sanity. I hadn’t been guilty of the one thing that had ended it and I certainly hadn’t reckoned on the devastating involvement of his father.

  He’d always loathed me because of my name. We the Capulet’s to his Montague and that he did surprised no one, least of all Charlie. Yet until that day he had always defended me, blinded by lust and his belief I was the victim, his loyalty unwavering. Then he had simply walked away, shattering my heart and everything I held dear. He hadn’t answered my calls, my texts or my letters. He’d shunned all communication and I felt as dead as that body that was lowered into the ground today. I’d had to stop myself from smiling as I watched Silus disappear into that hole. The man had lied to his son, disowned another and cut me off from the love of my life in the process. His plan had worked and I could only wonder whether his own relationship with my father had turned him into someone so twisted and cruel.

  Charlie hadn’t even asked for my version of events, not that there were any to tell. He accepted that his father had found me in bed with Roman and cut me off. It was almost laughable. Lucas, maybe I could have understood. But Roman, Jesus Christ, he was as dark and secretive as any man I’d met and I knew that it had to be Roman. Charlie would never have believed it of anyone else.

  Silus Hunter was a master manipulator and he had won his hand. I kicked off my shoes and raised my glass, sitting back and sinking into the plush soft leather of the chair, gazing out at the glittering view of central London and made a toast. ‘Silus Roman Hunter – may you rot in hell’.

  It wouldn’t matter he was gone. If anything it made things worse. While he was still alive I held onto the small glimmer of hope that he’d admit he was lying. When I’d heard he was ill, I conned myself into thinking that on his deathbed perhaps he’d confess, try a last minute reprieve to find himself in front of those pearly gates, but as soon as I’d seen Charlie from behind the dark lenses of my huge designer sunglasses I’d known that he hadn’t.

  A curt nod to my father and then he’d looked away. I’d kept my glasses on throughout the service, my heart yearning for him, longing to touch him, taste him and soothe away his pain. I’d imagined Roman would be there, that we could bring the truth into the open. I couldn’t understand why he’d never denied it, apparently he’d just taken off without a word, an act that had done nothing but reinforce the illusion of guilt and I hated him for it.

  He’d never come back, and if he hadn’t today, he probably never would. My heart was as bleak as the grey cloud
s that hovered above the isolated quiet churchyard as we’d left for the city. We wouldn’t be welcome at the house, we knew that, but my father had insisted on paying his respects to the man who had been his partner for twenty years, before that relationship was also irrevocably shattered.

  I was surprised because he never went to hers. Penelope Hunter, the woman who in my father’s eyes was akin to a saint and responsible for much of their success. Perhaps Silus hadn’t wanted him there. Today he couldn’t stop him. Maybe he went so silently he could have the last laugh, the final gloat that he was alive and Silus was dead. I would have, but then my father was nothing like me. I pulled out my phone. It had been a hard day and I would check on him. He was strong, but he was also affectionate, tender and nostalgic and today may have taken as hard a toll on him as it did on me. Aside from Charlie, he was the only other person in this world that I truly loved.

  “Hey Dad, I was just ringing to see if you were okay after today,” I said, taking a sip of my wine and trying not to betray how hard it had hit me seeing Charlie again.

  “It was difficult, love. Me and Silus have spent that last twenty seven years hating each other, but thirty years before that we were like brothers, from the first day at school, all those years setting up the business, building it to be the success it was. That was what I was thinking about today.”

  “He was a bastard, Dad, you know that, right. He was selfish, manipulative and trusted no one. How can you even be sorry that he’s gone?” I asked, sighing down the line and not wanting my father to waste his pain and sympathy on a man who didn’t deserve it. I had never told my father that I’d found out why Charlie left me; only that I suspected Silus was behind it. “It was his fault me and Charlie split,” I said sadly, withholding the details. It made no difference now.

  “I think I know why that happened, Red,” he said as I sat up in stunned shock almost spilling my wine. What? My father always denied he had any idea why Silus Hunter held such a grudge about me. What the fuck was he saying?

  “WHY?” I screeched down the line, suddenly oblivious to his pain and feeling only my own. I had racked my brain, searched for answers through the bleak interminable months. I had barely survived that loss, crawling through each day on autopilot, and all along he had the answers. I was raging.

  “You need to calm down, sweetheart. I swore to Penelope...” he started as I cut him off.

  “What are you saying? That you put a promise to a dead woman over the welfare of your own daughter? You know what I’ve been through; you know how much I’ve been hurting.” I was screaming as his voice changed to the controlling tone I was used to, the one I listened to and took notice of.

  “I had an affair with Penelope, Scarlett. We were in love, but she couldn’t leave Silus or the children. She begged me to stay away, never to mention it to anyone. She knew it would destroy both of our families. When she confessed, he ended our partnership and that’s when it started,” he said, referring to the way Silus Hunter had belittled my father socially and professionally, dragged his name through the mud and the courts and left his climb back up to the business he’d built a hugely painful and difficult road. My brain was swirling in a million different directions, but it kept going back to one. It was almost impossible to comprehend, but it was the only reason I could think of why Silus Hunter would engineer such a life destroying lie.

  “When did he find out?” I asked, knowing the answer, but needing to be sure.

  “Twenty seven years ago,” he said, sighing down the line. I knew that the memory was incredibly painful for him, but I had to ask.

  “Is Roman your child?” I asked, quickly blurting out the one question on my mind as he gasped audibly.

  “No, Scarlett. We couldn’t have children, it’s why we adopted you, sweetheart,” he said as I shook my head, barely reining in my temper.

  “You and my mother couldn’t have children. That’s not what I’m asking, Dad. How do you know that you and Penelope couldn’t have children? Who ended the affair?” I shouted; trying to hold back my urge to scream at him and wondering how the hell he could never have considered this before, because from the answer he’d just given, he obviously hadn’t.

  “She did, she couldn’t lie to him anymore,” he said so softly and quietly that I could barely hear him. I calmed down immediately. I recognised the hurt, the way he was trying to hold back the tears because I’d done it so often myself, taking a deep breath and speaking in the gentlest voice I could manage.

  “Was she pregnant, Dad?” I asked but he didn’t answer. “Why would Silus disown Roman, turn all his brothers against him and put an end to Charlie loving me less than a week after Penelope died, Dad?” I asked, pausing and letting my question sink in. It seemed obvious to me. It was twisted, fucked up and evil and exactly the same kind of thing that I would have done, although I was damned if I’d admit that to my father.

  He still didn’t answer and his breathing was erratic. “Dad, it’s the only explanation. Perhaps Roman and the others didn’t know. Maybe she told Silus the baby could be yours and that’s why she stayed with him all those years, just so the boys would never know the truth. There was no reason for him to keep that silence when she died. He’s never been as close to Roman as the others and I can’t think of a better way to get rid of him. I was convenient collateral damage, payback for what you did. It’s the only explanation,” I said.

  “No, Scarlett. There is no way Penelope would have kept that to herself. She’d have told me if Roman was mine,” he said, sighing heavily and I could hear the ice chinking against his glass as he took a long swig of whatever was taking the edge off.

  “Why, because Penelope Hunter was incapable of lying? Wake up, Dad. She lied to her husband for the whole duration of your affair. I assume he didn’t know his best friend was fucking his wife?” I spat, unable to control the sarcasm in my voice. Penelope Hunter wasn’t a saint. She was a twisted, selfish fuck up, just like the rest of them.

  “Watch your mouth, Scarlett,” he snapped, the hostility in his voice as unusual as it was palpable and levelled straight at me. I wasn’t the one at fault here.

  “I’m sorry, Dad, but it’s the only feasible explanation I can think of. Roman Hunter didn’t show up today for his own father’s funeral. Don’t you think that’s odd?” I said as the glass chinked down the line.

  “You’re emotional, Scarlett. Take care and get some rest,” he said, hanging up the phone as I was about to speak. I couldn’t understand whether he was being stupid, naive or just as blind to the truth that seemed as evident to me now as the nose on my face. No one had ever known the truth of that professional split and I’d heard the rumours over the years, but an affair with Penelope Hunter had never been mooted, at least not publicly. Jesus fucking Christ I thought, moving to ring him back when I noticed a new voice message, pressing play with absolutely no idea at who might be calling at this time on a Friday night.

  “Scarlett, its Charlie, we need to talk.” My heart stopped beating in my chest, the whole world slipping out from under me and I knew immediately that I was right. Silus had fucked us over and Roman Hunter was my brother, of sorts. Not by blood, but I wasn’t related to anyone by blood, at least no one I knew, but this might mean something else. My heart began to hammer wildly in my chest. That faint glimmer of hope that resided in the recesses of my heart like the Olympic torch, always burning, never extinguished, shot through me like a blazing flame and I was suddenly wildly ecstatic, sobbing with joy and playing that short message over and over again.

  It might mean me a way back for me and Charlie, and if that was the case, no one would get in my fucking way.

  I took a deep breath, finishing my wine before breathing again, trying to steady my beating heart. I couldn’t sound irrational, insane, joyous, too hopeful, too sad, or too anything. I needed to play this right. Keep calm, keep my tone in check and get him face to face. I needed to strike now while he felt guilty and vulnerable. He loved his father, he�
��d be grieving, and he’d want affection, love and tenderness and I would give him as much as he could handle. Charlie had a good heart, and if what I thought was right, he would find it almost impossible to forgive himself for cutting me off with nothing. If I had to use that to get back in his heart I’d do it, whatever it took, dialling his number.

  “Hey,” I said quietly as he answered, softly and letting him know I’d been crying, albeit not for the reasons he’d think.

  “Hey, thanks for calling back,” he said. This was a good start. “Scarlett, I need to talk to you, it’s really important,” he said as I took a deep breath, calculating my next move.

  “You’ve had six months, Charlie. Six months that I’ve longed to talk to you. Just one word, but you wouldn’t even take my calls. You hurt me and humiliated me and I never knew it was possible to feel so much pain. I still feel it now, Charlie, every day, and today hurt like hell. You have no idea how it feels to be ignored and hated by the very man that you adore with all your heart,” I said, my breath hitching and wondering if this would work in the way that I hoped it would, needed it to.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. I can’t ever make up for what I’ve done, but I need to see you. Please, Scarlett, please give me a chance to say I’m sorry,” he said, his voice so heartfelt that it pulled on every ounce of love in my body. I wanted to tell him it was okay if it meant we could be together, if he’d hold me, touch me and kiss me again, but I couldn’t, not yet.

  “Come over, Charlie,” I said softly, wondering whether he would. Tomorrow could be too late and I knew every single member of his family would be urging him not to. They’d never liked me. They tolerated me because of Charlie, but they thought I was manipulative and untrustworthy, my only redeeming feature, my unswerving love for their brother. Sometimes it might have come across that way, but all I’d ever wanted was for them to like me, accept me and treat me like one of their own. The Hunter bond was strong, but I’d sat outside the circle, never allowed access, striving to prove myself to a family who didn’t seem to want me. Now I knew why.