“Are you two finished?” Lev pounds on the door. “We have cheesy Christmas movies to watch together still.”
“We’ll be out soon,” she yells breathlessly with me still draped over her back. She drops to the bed and I lay down on the other side, linking our hands between us.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Con.” She lifts her head off the bed when she hears her phone. Her brow furrows when she looks at the screen. “It’s a text from Ivy.” Her eyes meet mine as she starts to grab her clothes. “Her dad is forcing her to move home tonight. We have to tell Lev.”
She pulls her dress over her head, skipping her bra and panties. She’s out of the room before I even pull my pants on.
“Lev!” I hear her from the other room. “Ivy’s dad is taking her home, permanently.”
“Fuck!” I get out to the living room just in time to watch him run across the back yard toward the driveway.
Epilogue
Lilith
Six months later.
“You ready for today?” Connor asks sliding a coffee mug across the kitchen island in our NYC penthouse to me.
“Nope.” I take a sip of the perfectly sweetened coffee. “I don’t know how you handle this type of pressure.” Today I’m meeting with the woman who will oversee my dad’s security company until I graduate college. I could have sold the company and walked away with a couple million in the bank but the thought of selling my father’s legacy didn’t sit right with me.
“I grew up knowing this would be my life, my responsibility.” He circles his fingers around in the air, flashing his fancy watch under his sexy suit. “You were thrust into this from tragedy. I’ll be with you the whole time, and so will dad. Janet was thoroughly vetted and she’s a security powerhouse. Between her mentoring and dad guiding you, you’re going to be at the top of the game when you graduate.” He’s in business mode now so I don’t get a smile but his encouragement warms me nonetheless.
I take one last sip of my coffee before following him out of his apartment and down to the office section of the building. Victor offered to let me keep Dad’s old apartment in the building but Connor gave me a look and I knew that wasn’t a battle worth fighting with my domineering boyfriend. I haven’t spent a night away from Connor since the days before Christmas so it seems silly to hold onto a place I’d never be at anyway.
As soon as we get in the elevator Connor pushes me up against the wall and attacks my lip with a short but passionate kiss. “You look hot as fuck in that suit with those shoes. We’re going to my office after this meeting.”
“Maybe Victor wants to have lunch with us.” I joke while I straighten my jacket.
“I’m going to have you for lunch.” His green eyes smolder and sear into me.
Luckily the tension is eased by the doors opening to the executive offices of VI. The receptionist looks up and cowers when she sees Connor. There’s very few people he doesn’t have that effect on. We walk by and I give her a slight smile and nod.
Connor opens Victor’s office door without knocking. Victor is standing with a older woman, her brown hair is cut in a bob at her chin and she’s wearing a black pantsuit. After introductions we go through all the logistics of her position and what my responsibilities will still be. She seems like a straight shooter and isn’t phased at all by sitting across a conference table from Victor and Connor Volkov. After terms are agreed to and paperwork signed Victor escorts her to the door.
“Lilith.” Victor closes his office door quietly. “We have the proof we need to tie the Owens family to your father’s murder.” He opens a safe hidden behind a painting on his wall and pulls out a file. “Everything you need to know is in here.”
I reach for it and start to ask questions but he stops me.
“I want you.to take time to read this and think about your next steps. There’s enough in here for the police to reopen their investigation or,” he looks over at Connor, “we can settle this our way.”
I know what that means. Fighting dirty and going for the jugular. The Volkovs don’t fight fair.
“You say there is enough to reopen the investigation. Is there enough to actually get convictions?” I raise an eyebrow as I pull the files out.
“Unless someone from below flips, no. There’s enough circumstantial evidence for anyone with a brain to connect the dots but the Owens rival us in wealth and power,” Victor answers.
I know he’s almost as invested as I am in seeing justice served. “I’ll read through these tonight and let you know what I think. Honestly, your opinion is just as important as mine. They were trying to kill one of you and my dad just did his job.”
“True but you are important to us. I think it is safe to assume you will one day be family. Michael wasn’t just an employee. He was someone I considered a close friend.” Victor takes the seat beside me and squeezes my knee. “They killed your father because someone within VI fed them lies about who was responsible for the explosion on their rig in Gulf last summer.”
Connor’s head snaps up at that. “What? One of our employees is a spy for OE?”
“Looks that way. It has to be an upper level employee, too. I have Sergei on it.”
“You know what?” I gather the files and put them back in the folder before handing it back to Victor. “Do it dirty. Make them bleed, metaphorically and literally. I trust you. I want to spend this summer focusing on learning everything I can about my dad’s business and having fun with Con and the guys. Dad wouldn’t want me to be focused on this, he would want me to live.”
Spotify Playlist for Cold and Broken
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yFgvgUkI6Iz24wcNknuTf
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nichole Greene is an author of contemporary and paranormal romance. Her heroines have to be strong, sassy, and a little untamed to handle the sexy, flawed alpha men she loves to write. When she isn’t writing, she can be found playing snack bitch to her four children in an unnamed Midwest suburb. She holds degrees in political science and geography because those were practical choices. She has strong feelings about the superiority of tea over coffee, prime numbers, and map projections.
Table of Contents
1: Lilith
2: Connor
3: Lilith
4: Lilith
5: Lilith
6: Connor
7: Lilith
8: Connor
9: Lilith
10: Lilith
11: Connor
12: Lilith
13: Lilith
14: Connor
15: Lilith
16: Lilith
17: Connor
18: Lilith
19: Lilith
20: Lilith
21: Connor
22: Lilith
23: Lilith
24: Lilith
25: Connor
26: Lilith
27: Lilith
28: Lilith
29: Connor
30: Lilith
31: Lilith
32: Connor
Epilogue: Lilith
Cold and Broken (The Titans of Founder's Ridge Book 1) Page 26