Vengeance: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Empire Sin)

by Isabella Starling

  “Angel,” he said roughly. “Come here.”

  I ran up to him and he held me with his good hand, pressing me close to his chest.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he muttered into my hair. “They’ve dropped all charges.”

  His father shuffled behind him, and I looked at him over Carter’s shoulder. I knew he probably had to pull plenty of strings to get his son out of trouble, but after seeing everything Carter did for him and the company, I knew it was well-deserved.

  I never blamed him for my stepfather dying. As the coroner had explained, the gun went off when it was in both their hands. They were struggling, and they fired the shot that killed Barron together. The second shot, the bullet buried in Carter’s shoulder, was fired by my stepfather. We were lucky it didn’t hit a different spot.

  “I need to know,” I whispered in Carter’s ear. “I need to know the whole story. You have to explain, Daddy.”

  He sat me down on the sofa in the living room. His father sat down in an armchair while Carter joined me on the sofa.

  “Do you want something to drink?” I asked him. “Carolina could make us some tea.”

  “No,” his father cut in. “No, I don’t want her here.”

  I stared at him as Carter started talking.

  “I know what you saw, Angel. I know you saw the video.”

  I glanced away, unable to hold either of their gazes. It was too fucking painful. How could I love a man who was such a fucking monster?

  “You didn’t see Carter hurting the girl,” his father said. “You saw me.”

  I looked up at him.

  He wasn’t that old, but he looked like he was ancient. The liver spots on his hands, the way he held himself, it all spoke of a man who had seen too much. I knew he was dying, Carter had told me. His father wasn’t going to live for longer than a few months at best. I knew he was aware of it, too.

  “You…” I whispered. “You hurt her?”

  “I did,” he said, a faraway look in his eyes. “I did. I ruined her pretty face.”

  “Why?” I asked. “How could you do something like that to her?”

  “Carolina is… a long story,” Carter said from next to me, and I shifted my attention back to him. “She was a girl we rescued when she came to Empire Sin. My father bought her as one of the first girls in the club.”

  “But why would you hurt her?” I asked, turning back to his father. “Why would you do that to her?”

  “Carolina had a… past,” Carter admitted. “She never told anyone, but she came from a different country, and she had several men after her. She owed money. A lot.”

  I stared at them both, trying to understand.

  “That doesn’t explain anything,” I said.

  “Maybe this will,” Carter’s father said roughly. “I fell in love with her. She was the first woman I felt something for – I’m sorry, Carter, you know your mother wasn’t the woman for me.”

  My heart pounded as he went on.

  “I wanted to help her, but she owed money to some crime lords from Mexico, and they were after her. They wanted her to pay the debt her boyfriend had left behind when he killed himself.”

  “That’s terrible,” I muttered.

  “They wanted to kill her,” Carter said. “We got death threats, all of us. They wanted her gone.”

  “I tried making a deal with them,” his father added. “I repaid her debt. But it was about more than just that. One of those men, he’d fallen in love with her.”

  “He wanted her for himself,” Carter said. “And Dad couldn’t give her up.”

  “He would’ve killed her,” his father growled. “She’d be dead in days. So, he gave me an option. Either wait for him to get his hands on her eventually and fuck her dead body…”

  I gasped at his words, covering my mouth with my palm.

  “Or I hurt her myself. Something to ruin her beauty,” he added miserably. “And I had to send proof. We weren’t allowed to stay together, either.”

  “That’s…” I tried breathing slowly, but it was a failed attempt. “That’s insane.”

  “They still keep tabs on her,” his father added. “I shouldn’t even be here.”

  “After the scarring,” Carter said, shifting my attention to him. “I took her in and employed her. I’m trying to help her as much as possible, just like I did with all my girls.”

  “They wanted me to enjoy it,” his father said miserably. “They made me laugh in the video. There was a list of things I had to do. And spill blood was one of them. It had to be on her face.”

  My head and heart both hurt with the sorrow I felt for Carolina.

  Carter’s father stood up. In the setting light of the evening, he looked older and more fragile than ever. He looked nothing like the man I saw in photos on his company walls. The illness that was taking his life had robbed him of everything.

  “I’ll go,” he said. “I can’t stay too long.”

  Carter nodded, and we stood up to watch his father walk away.

  “Mr. Knight,” I called out after him, and he looked over his shoulder. “What about my father?”

  “That’s a story you should hear from my son,” he said simply, nodded once, and left for the door.

  I saw a figure in the doorway, and just as he left, I saw Carolina watching him leave, hidden in the shadows in the hallway.

  She caught my eye, and we stared at each other. She pressed a finger to her lips gently and I nodded when I saw a tear slide down her cheek. I wouldn’t tell a soul.

  She disappeared back into the shadows.

  I turned back towards Carter.

  “I think you still have something to explain,” I told him softly, and he nodded, patting his knee as I came closer.

  “Sit on my knee and let me tell you a story,” he said gently, and I obeyed without fighting the order for once.

  His mouth was hot against my skin as he whispered in my ear.

  “There was once a young man,” he started, “who had everything.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Carter

  There was once a young man who had everything.

  He had a wealthy family, and his father paid for everything he could possibly want in life. His mother loved him dearly and spoiled him any chance she got.

  He was a very ungrateful young man, and he didn’t appreciate everything he had.

  There were times when he thought he was lucky. To have so many opportunities, to have any door he wanted open for him on command. But there were other times when he wasn’t so sure. Other times when he was convinced he must have been cursed, because he believed there was nobody in the world who cared about him.

  So, he gambled his life away. He spent his twenties doing drugs, drinking too much, and hopping into bed with way too many women to count. He was a spoiled, entitled brat. He’d become the very thing he’d despised his entire life, and he hated himself for it. He wasn’t close to his father. He’d known the man was cheating on his mother since he was only a little boy, and he feared he would never be able to forgive him for it. He wasn’t close to his mother, either. She seemed more concerned with her charity functions than her son.

  But when his father offered him a job at the family firm, he couldn’t resist.

  Maybe it was the sign of still being a kid, wanting to impress his dad.

  Or maybe it was a sign of finally growing up and taking some responsibility.

  Of course, he didn’t realize he was accepting the reins to a falling empire when he decided to take on the job.

  On the first day at work, he realized the company was sinking. Sinking so fast there might not even be anything he could do to save it.

  There were debts. His father spent recklessly. But that was fixable. The part he was really worried about was the reputation of the family firm going to shit.

  People respected his father, yes. But no one wanted to work with him, and they wanted to invest in his dealings even less. It was time to make a new name fo
r the company.

  Of course, it seemed like his father was dead-set on making sure that would never happen. He was intent on making his son’s job harder on him just because it was easier.

  But he stuck through, and he did all the research possible to ensure things would end up the way they should. The money came pouring back in, and slowly, the company started to recover and breathe on its own again, without the young man having to support it… until disaster struck again only a few months after he’d started his new job.

  It all came down to an administrative mistake that came from one of his employees. Someone non-important, a family man in a low-class job that made an average salary to support him and his family.

  He tracked the man down and called him into his office. There was only one thing he could possibly do, and that was fire him.

  The man didn’t take it well, and it caused the young man’s life to change for a few months. He got his first tattoo when he found out the employee committed suicide a little while later. But still, he didn’t completely understand what happened there. He just assumed the man was deeply disturbed by something else, and there was nothing else to it. That was that.

  But that wasn’t the full story.

  Only the young man wouldn’t find out the whole truth until over a decade later…

  “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Was that man my father?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “It was, Evangeline. And you were right all along. I was the one who fired him, for an administrative mistake that cost our company close to a million.”

  She stared at me, trying to process this new information.

  “It was only when you disappeared,” I went on, “that I realized you were his daughter. The name got hazy in my mind, but I always remembered him, Angel. I always did. And my father… he finally explained the whole story when you ran away from home.”

  I took her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers gently. I was nervous about the next part, and I knew it was going to make her hate my family. Probably some other people, too.

  “You will hate me for this,” I told her. “But you need to know, Angel.”

  “W-what?” her sweet voice was shaky. She needed to be reassured, but I couldn’t offer her that just yet. I could only give her the truth, and it would just have to fucking do.

  “Your father was an innocent man, Angel,” I told her, and she took the deepest breath I’d ever seen her take. “I want you to know that, and I want to apologize because I didn’t believe it. I only found out about it when my father told me.”

  “What happened?” she asked, her voice hurt.

  “My father happened,” I sighed deeply. “This was right around the time that Empire Sin was being created, and he was getting ready to buy a girl… Just like I bought you. He embezzled the money through the firm. Half a million dollars, a bit more, I think. And he pinned the mistake on your father and told me to fire him. We never expected the story to break, the accusations to come out. I had no idea what the truth was.”

  “He… what?” she whispered.

  “He stole over half a million from the company,” I repeated. “And he did it from your father’s account. But there’s more, Evangeline…”

  Her bottom lip trembled as she looked up at me. She was so fucking hurt, and I hated doing this to her. I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to speak to my father again, or me, for that matter. But I sure as fuck hoped she would still want me.

  “The money,” I went on. “It was tied down for the longest time, and when my father finally got it back… He used it to repay a debt.”

  “What debt?” she asked, her voice so small and soft.

  “Carolina’s,” I replied. “It was the money he used to save her.”

  She stared at me as she processed this information.

  I knew there was no excuse for what my father had done to hers. But I hoped the knowledge that Carolina, someone who she was becoming friendly with, was saved because of what happened, would calm her down a little.

  “A life for a life,” she whispered. “He died so she could live.”

  We looked at each other and a single tear slid down her cheek.

  “I’m sorry, Angel,” I told her gently. “I didn’t know until a few days ago. I would’ve told you the moment I got the chance, I fucking swear.”

  “You did,” she nodded slowly. “You did, thank you. But him… I can’t believe what he did. I can’t believe your father did that to my family.”

  “I know,” I said gently. “It’s awful.”

  Suddenly, her tiny body convulsed in sobs, and I pulled her against me forcefully. I held her in place and she clung to me so desperately I thought I really was her lifeline in that moment.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered into her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

  She sobbed against me and I just held her. We stayed like that for hours, and even when my injured arm got sore, I didn’t say a word.

  I just held her, because it was the one thing she needed, and the one thing I craved the most.

  2 weeks later

  I got the call that morning.

  I still had to tell Evangeline.

  She was slowly settling back into her life, although it seemed like it would take her a very long time to make the transition. She still slept in her cage, even though I’d asked her over and over again to come sleep in my bed. She didn’t want to. She wasn’t ready, and I’d just have to accept it for the time being.

  I walked into her room and watched her stretch in the morning sunlight streaming through the window. The bars of the cage covered some parts of her body from my eyes, but she still looked as beautiful as ever. So sinful.

  “Angel,” I said gently, and she looked up.

  Her fingers wrapped around the bars of the cage and she lifted herself up on her knees.

  “Yes, Daddy?” she asked.

  She was so fucking innocent it killed me to tell her.

  “My father,” I said roughly. “He died this morning.”

  “Oh…” She covered her mouth with her palm and crawled out of the cage while I kneeled down next to it. She crawled towards me and took my face in her hands, trying to look into my eyes.

  I wouldn’t let her. It hurt too fucking much.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy,” she whispered. “I’m so very sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” I said roughly. “Everyone pays for their sins someday. His day just came earlier than we all expected, that’s it. It’s okay.”

  “It’s not,” she said. “He was your father. You’re bound to be upset. It’s okay. I’m not angry. I want to help.”

  She kissed my lips gently.

  It was the first kiss like that we’d shared, and I clung to her, realizing I needed her just as fucking much as she needed me. Maybe she’d been my lifeline all along.

  “It’ll be okay,” she whispered against my lips. “It will all be okay because I love you so much, Daddy.”

  I pulled her back gently by her hair and she gasped when my fingers tangled in her mane.

  “What did you say?” I asked her, my voice broken. “What did you just say to me, little toy?”

  “I…” She swallowed, trying to keep her gaze on mine. “I said I…”

  “Please.” I hated pleading, it made me look fucking weak. But now, I couldn’t fucking resist it. I had to know.

  “I love you…” her voice was soft as she whispered the words, and her eyes floated away.

  But I grabbed her face in my hands and made her look at me.

  “You’re fucking perfect,” I told her. “I love you too, Evangeline Lovell. Despite everything. Because of everything. I just fucking love you.”

  She smiled as a few tears fell from those beautiful green eyes.

  “Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered, and I melted, her mouth against mine.

  She tasted so beautiful, like tears and happiness.

  Epilogue - Evangeline

  3 years later

>   Sometimes endings are bittersweet.

  But as much as I tried to remember the bitter part, I tasted the sweetness more.

  Like the fact that I got to wake up in my daddy’s arms that morning, feeling the warm rays of sunshine on my skin as his fingers touched my sensitive skin, slowly sliding down my belly all the way to the wet spot between my legs.

  I moaned out loud as I woke up slowly, stretching my limbs this way and that.

  I missed my pretty cage. But now that my belly was swollen with his child, Carter wouldn’t let me sleep in it anymore. I teased him relentlessly about what he would do once the baby came along, but he never took the bait I set out for him. He just smiled and laughed at me, shaking his head, while his hands stroked my stomach.

  That morning, I woke up with his head between my legs and his mouth on my pussy. He sucked my clit between his lips, biting down gently, and I woke up fully with a moan so loud I thought the whole house would hear.

  “Daddy,” I whispered. “Please, what are you doing? It’s so early…”

  “I wanted you,” he grunted against my legs. I watched his arms flex as he held me open, his skin still covered in the ink that I loved so much, especially now that I’d learned about its origins.

  “You have me,” I promised him as his stubble scratched the sensitive skin of my inner thighs. “You know you have me. I’m all yours.”

  “You better be.” His voice was muffled as he dipped his head back between my legs, fucking my cunt with his tongue.

  I arched my back and pushed my center into his face, so desperate to get off, even though I was fast asleep only minutes ago.

  “You know I won’t hurt you now that you’re gonna be a mommy,” he told me with a grin. “But I can still make you come until you can barely keep it together, Angel.”

  “Please,” I begged. “I want you to. Just once. Just once is enough, I promise.”

  “Sure,” he chuckled. “As if it’s ever been enough for you, my little girl.”

  He brought me to an orgasm in seconds, his tongue flicking expertly across my clit. I came all over him, and I clutched the sheets as my pussy spasmed and filled his mouth. By the time he was done, I was so wet and so out of breath I looked away, trying to hide my embarrassment.