Redeemed
Ruined and Redeemed Duet - Book 2
Marie Johnston
LE Publishing
Copyright © 2020 by Marie Johnston
Editing by My Brother’s Editor
Proofing by My Brother’s Editor and Rebecca Hodgkins and Angel Nyx
Cover Design by Secret Identity Book Covers and Graphics
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The characters, places, and events in this story are fictional. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are coincidental and unintentional.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
About the Author
Also by Marie Johnston
Chapter 1
Jacobi
The look on my future wife’s face is exactly what I expected. Absolute confusion. A brief flicker of hope giving way to soul-stripping shock. Heart-wrenching betrayal. Then came the blistering hatred.
I waited for this day since I came up with my asinine plan. Take the princess down. Enjoy her misery. To witness every tear I shed over my father’s eventual breakdown, and my mother’s demise, and the loss of them both, played out on her face.
But my conceited pride is having a hard time making its way to the forefront. Silly questions clamber over my tongue, like whether she had a good trip back and did she find my place okay. And that burning hate in her eyes bothered me.
I square my shoulders. This is what I wanted. My life has been a series of unfair events and I’m now positioned to create my own fairness. Taking away the princess’s castle is part of the plan.
“Come,” I say. “Let’s get this over with.”
“You planned all of this?” London Vanderbeek-soon-to-be-Dixon’s fists clench at her side. Even her stepmother Diana is looking at her, wondering what she missed.
Oh, Diana. You missed a lot.
“I planned the contracted marriage. My lawyer informing me of your intentions in Cabo was a happy revelation.” My gaze eats her up. It’s only been two days since I left her Cabo San Lucas resort suite, but it feels like two months. She’s dressed like the corporate tycoon she is in her dramatic black pants suit that flares at her hips. Her eyes are bright, anger making their teal depths glow. Her cheeks are flushed in a way that makes my pants suddenly uncomfortable. I’ve made her blush like that before—and we were both wearing a lot less.
“I never mentioned where I was going,” she hissed.
“You didn’t have to.” I left it at that.
She draws back and crosses her arms. Diana’s gaze vacillated between the two of us.
“Your work in IT?”
“I wasn’t lying.” I take a few steps toward her but stop. The plan was to make her come to me, but fighting the urge to cross to her is harder than I anticipated. “I didn’t lie about anything.”
“Your omission was as big as your ego.”
“I thought you were going to say it’s as big as something else. You’d know.” My grin is meant to piss her off, but I also want to see how she’ll react. She didn’t disappoint.
Her cheeks are on fire and her glare is hot enough to kill me on contact. “And I thought you were Jake.”
Diana’s mouth drops open, her gaze horrified. “This is the man you met in Cabo?”
London’s eyes glitter when she nods. She drops her gaze, searching the room for nothing and anything. Her lower lip trembles. She’s trying not to cry. I have the sudden urge to gather her into my arms.
“I can’t believe this,” she whispers. “You’re crazy. Demented.”
“No, belle—”
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps.
I brush off the pang of hurt. When’d I get so weak?
“London.” I make sure to sound bored, to appear as if her rebuke didn’t bother me. “I’m getting back what should rightfully be mine. Let’s not waste time. I have a full day.”
Rage replaces her humiliation, and I’m almost glad to see it go because her tears evaporate. “You have a full day doing what? Other innocent women you want to con?”
I need to get busy with selling her company, but I can’t bring myself to say it. Perhaps I’ll wait a day or two, make sure she doesn’t shank me in my sleep.
“Mr. Turlowitz, if you’d do the honors.” I raise my voice. “Cannon.”
London’s gaze darts around, her body primed to bolt.
“My witness,” I explain. “He’s a friend of mine.”
“Then he must be a complete bastard.”
“Hey, I resemble that remark.” Cannon emerges from a hidden door in my office that holds nothing but a few old gaming consoles that I haven’t moved upstairs to my spare parts shelves yet.
Diana creeps closer to London and clutches her hand like they’re both going to make a run for it. Cannon didn’t go out of his way to dress nice for today and looks closer to a thug than anything respectable. He hasn’t shaved for a few days and probably dug out his rumpled white canvas shorts and wrinkled striped T-shirt from the bottom of his laundry pile.
His smile doesn’t help the effect of his appearance. The repair on his lip from his birth defect, coupled with his dark blond whiskers, make it more of a grimace when it doesn’t reach his eyes. No. He wasn’t pleased about what I was doing but backed me, nonetheless. This was Plan B and he never approved of my Plan A.
The women are huddled next to each other, and it’d take too long to coax them up to the table. I beckon Mr. Turlowitz toward us. He clears his throat and begins the ceremony, his voice wobbling at first.
When we get to the I dos, London glares at me, not saying a word.
I tilt my head. “The choice is yours.”
“Don’t do it,” Diana whispers, her knuckles turning white.
If Diana remained silent, London might have refused. But her stepmother’s voice is enough of a reminder of the terms I threatened to carry out. “I do. Asshole.”
My smile is unbidden. “I do, belle.”
Her eyes narrow and it’s a good thing there are no paperweights within reach.
“There. Uh, it’s done.” Dots of nervous sweat have broken out on Mr. Turlowitz’s forehead. Done. “I need Ms. Vander—Dixon, um, London needs to sign the marriage license.”
London stomps over and scrawls her name on the line.
It’s done. We’re married.
My smug elation is nowhere to be found. I’m left wondering what’s next.
Mr. Turlowitz gestures to a chair. “You may want to sit. The next bit of paperwork is considerable.”
She yanks her gaze toward him, then down at the stack of forms he’s arranging. “What extra paperwork?” Her face pales.
She sees h
er company name. These forms give me Natural Glow.
“Well, I’m out,” Cannon says, heading toward the door. “Congrats, y’all.”
London and Diana spear him with dual glares as he slips through the doors.
Diana rifles through the papers. “Oh, God, don’t do this, London. Don’t.” Her knees tremble and I’m afraid she’s going to collapse. The only thing holding her steady is her grip on the table. Mr. Turlowitz’s sweat problem grows worse and he’s looking between me and the women.
If he wasn’t a thorough and discrete lawyer, I’d fire him. What I’m doing toes his moral line, but as a single dad, he craves the flexible hours.
“London, why don’t you walk your stepmother out?” I didn’t mean for the words to come out harsh, but being compassionate doesn’t come naturally nor is it a daily trait I need to call on.
Tears streak down Diana’s face as she seeks that empathy I don’t have. “If you were any kind of man, you’d rip up that contract. Haven’t you done enough to her?”
This coming from a woman who helped build a company off the backs of two innocent people and left them with nothing. “I didn’t do anything she didn’t ask me to. All she needs to do now is stay here until the deal is done.”
“What deal?” London’s voice was cold enough to frost the windows. “A deal for Natural Glow?”
With the way Diana is reacting, I decide to be as vague as possible, just to dig under her skin more. “A deal for whatever I want.”
“No,” Diana pleads with London. “I can’t fail your father like this. Please, don’t.”
I’ve had enough. I will not stand here and be painted the villain by Diana. She doesn’t even act like she knows what the issue is. As if she didn’t use my mom’s concoctions to make a fortune right alongside Dennis. Rage reignites in my blood. “You have half an hour to say your goodbyes. Meet me back here.”
“Or what?” London holds Diana’s hands, but she’s deceptively calm. I got to know her too well during our short time together. She’s holding herself together with hate for me and concern for Diana.
I cock an eyebrow before I stride out the door. “The deal was clear. But maybe ask yourself why she’s having a harder time signing the company over than she had marrying you off.”
* * *
London
I’m at minute twenty-six of my allotted half-hour. Diana’s finally loaded into the car and calm enough to drive. Part of me tries not to be bitter. My life’s getting ruined, my company’s getting taken away, and I’m married to a manipulative asshole with control issues. But I’ve spent twenty-six and a half minutes soothing my stepmother.
“It’ll be all right.” I can’t force a smile, not even to make her feel better. “I’ll find out why he hates the company so much. Then I’ll… fix it.”
Fix it? I want to fall to my knees, laughing and crying at the same time. I don’t know how to fix this. Coming into this ridiculous sham of a marriage, I thought Jacobi Dixon was an insane millionaire who would soon forget about me and my company. But Jacobi became Jake and tracked me down in Mexico just so someone else wouldn’t get to my bed first.
It was one thing when I planned to come to this Malibu estate with the ocean as a backdrop and say I do to an unfeeling, faceless man. But I said I do to a man who made me feel more than I ever have in my life.
He gave me swimming lessons, for God’s sake.
How does that play into all of this? Was he really cold and unfeeling and those lessons were a part of bringing me closer to him only to hurt me more, or does he really give a shit about whether I might drown on his private beach?
At least he wasn’t lying about living close to a beach. His own personal stretch of paradise that makes my posh West Hollywood condo feel bleak and uninviting.
“Call me. As soon as you get settled.” Diana’s eyes water again and she looks past me to the imposing mansion behind me.
She’s going to break down again. I need to get her out of here. “I’ll text as soon as I find a room in the far corner of this place.”
“Don’t let him…” She gulps. “Don’t let him do anything to you.”
It wouldn’t be anything he hasn’t already done. “He won’t. I’m sure he has mistresses and stuff to take care of his needs.”
My hands curl into claws like I’m preparing to hunt down each of those women. He isn’t Jake. I have to keep reminding myself. The cold man in that office isn’t Jake from Cabo.
And if he wants control and ultimatums, I have a few of my own.
Stomping back up the imposing stairs, I slam into the front door and nearly pop my arm out of its socket.
“Ouch. Fuck.” I hope my brains can get me through this mess because my brute strength is lacking. I give Diana a wave before I’m out of her sight. Her suspicious look tells me she isn’t buying my show at full price.
Looking around the house, a tremor courses through me. What now? I’m married to Jacobi Dixon and stuck at this house until he sells my company. My company. I’m torn between wanting to leave immediately and never going because that means Natural Glow is still within my grasp.
Will he really sell it? We’ve talked about how important it is to me, how much of myself is in it, and how I grew up within its lavender-vanilla-smelling doors. His grudge isn’t aimed at me, but Diana and my dad. I’m a tool.
Can he separate me and Natural Glow from the hatred he holds for my parents?
Nothing but quiet answers the questions tumbling through my mind. The silence in this place is going to drive me as insane as its owner. I’m used to a penthouse in West Hollywood with a view overlooking the city. The noise of people and traffic filtering up to my deck, dulled by distance alone.
The inside of this place is tomblike. I itch to open all the windows and let in the calls of the gulls and the crash of the waves. How much did a mansion on the water cost? Since his neighbors are more than a stone’s throw away, should I assume that he owns the neighboring lots?
I swallow my interest in the man. I’m not going to be here long enough to find out. My thirty minutes is up, but I don’t rush back to the office, studying my surroundings instead.
This place is beautiful but stale. If it wasn’t for the brilliant blue of the ocean winking through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side of the kitchen and dining space, there wouldn’t be movement.
Cannon, whoever the hell he is, has long gone. The lawyer’s red Corvette is parked in front. Marrying us disturbed him. Even Cannon didn’t seem thrilled. It disturbed everyone but Jake—Jacobi.
If I continue to call him Jake, would that piss him off or soften him toward me until he saw me as a person and not a means to an end?
Guess I have nothing to lose by referring to him as Jake.
Except the quiver I get whenever I think of Jake. My dear, fictional Jake with the haunting eyes and calendar-ready body.
Jacobi it is.
I reach the office and peer inside. Jacobi’s standing with his back to me in the same place I first found him. Mr. Turlowitz isn’t seated at the table next to the desk where the papers are laid out and ready for me to sign. Did he wait until Diana left and I came inside before sneaking out another door so he wouldn’t have to answer for his deplorable actions?
Since we’re alone, I launch one of my many questions. “If you’re so convinced that this company should be yours, why are you going to sell it?”
He turns his head to the side, toward me and away from the desk. I can only make out his profile, but it’s enough to see his total lack of expression. “Because I can sell it and help others like my parents.”
“What the hell is the story anyway?” When I signed the contract, his lawyer explained that our parents were supposed to go into business together. I recall how upset he got over ice cream in Cabo when we were talking about how my dad was accused of stealing the company.
There’s something to all of this, not some delusion he believes.
“Ask your step
mother,” he says flatly.
I rub my temples. He’s unyielding. I can be, too. “I’m not signing the damn papers. Divorce me. I’ll pay you half its worth.”
He finally turns. Looking at him weakens my knees. He’s imposing in that suit. His hair is a touch too long to be considered proper in business circles, but it makes him deceptively approachable.
“Do you think Diana was just worried about her porn past getting out? It’s the twenty-first century, after all. Sexual independence and striking back against body shaming. Do you think she would’ve let you walk in here if all I had on her was Double-D’s Trip Down Under?”
It’s bad enough he has that. I’ve read through all the titles of Diana’s movies and always giggled at that one. Nothing about hearing it as a threat on his lips is humorous.
I cross my arms, the ache in my temples refusing to go away. “What are you talking about?”
Impatience curls his lip. “Hookers and blow, London. Get out of your privileged little world and think about it. Diana was in porn in the nineties. With the emergence of the internet came the ease of uploading and viewing any number of amateur and homemade videos. What do you think that meant for her?”
Hookers and blow. I don’t like what he’s insinuating, or how he’s talking to me like I’m acting too silly to understand it.
He continues as if I can’t figure it out. “Prostitution is often what struggling pornography actresses turned to when their career nosedived, and Diana’s did. Plummeted before it lifted off.” He lifts a shoulder in a move that’s so familiar because I know the body underneath it far too well. “Either that, or people like your father paid her more. You know what else is prominent in the pornography world? It certainly helps make young, naive girls more pliable. No one claims the industry is fair, and it’s certainly not when you’re considered a product.”
Redeemed: Ruined and Redeemed Duet - Book 2 Page 1