Claiming Isabella

by M. E. Clayton

  I took it as the reprimand it was meant to be. While I knew Julian would do anything to make me happy, I would never push him beyond what makes him comfortable. He’s entrusted me with a lot of power over him and I would never abuse it.

  “That works for me, because I really don’t want to see any other man naked, no matter how hot Chase and Nick are,” I added with a wink.

  He reached his hand out and I took it. Julian pulled me into his embrace. He looked down at me as he held his arms wrapped around me. “Isabella, you have to tell me if there ever comes a time when I’m not enough.”

  My eyes rounded in shock. “Jul-”

  “I’m serious, Isabella,” he interrupted me. “I honestly don’t know what I would do if there comes a time when I’m not-”

  We were not having this conversation.

  We. Were. Not.

  “No, Julian,” I interrupted him this time. “You will always be enough for me. Hell, you’re more than I can handle on my best days.” I couldn’t stop my eyes from glassing over. “All my fantasies revolve around you, Julian. If the idea of an orgy turns me on, it’s because you’re the one who will be inside me. If the idea of you taking me in a front of a full view window before the city turns me on, it’s because it’ll be you owning me. If the idea of being used like a shameless slut turns me on, it’s because I know you’ll use me in any way you see fit, but won’t look at me like an actual slut afterwards.” I could feel his breathing start to accelerate. My words were turning him on. “It’s you. It’s always you and only you that fuels my fantasy. I’ll try anything with you, Julian, because you turn me on that much.”

  He threw his head back and hollered towards the kitchen, “Sorry, guys, but you all need to get the hell out of my house. Now!”

  “How rude,” Quinn echoed back.

  This was going to be good.

  Julian~

  I had my back to the door, looking out at the city of San Jose, when I heard it open. I had been standing in this same spot for about an hour trying to figure out a way to reign in all my jumbled thoughts.

  Isabella’s mom kept calling her, and even though Isabella was trying her hardest to act like it wasn’t bothering her, I knew it was. Hell, even if Loretta wasn’t calling about that piece of shit father of hers, just talking to Loretta about anything was enough to drain anyone’s soul.

  That woman was more vicious than a barracuda.

  My biggest issue was the flowers, though. I didn’t like it when things were out of my control. And I wasn’t the only one. Chase and Nick struggled with that problem, as well. When a person grew up the way we did, control was a very valued commodity.

  We’d spent the last ten years making sure we were in control in every aspect of our lives, but then Isabella, Quinn and Avery came crashing into our lives and I don’t think we’ve been in control of shit since.

  Okay…maybe they didn’t come crashing into our lives so much as we went crashing into theirs, but same thing.

  Almost.

  Kind of.

  I finally turned around at Nick’s voice telling me what, deep down, I already knew. “You’re not going to like this, Julez, but Carson’s private investigator couldn’t find anything.”

  I let out a deep breath as I sat back at my desk. Chase and Nick had made themselves comfortable in the armchairs that sat right across from me. “I suspected as much.”

  Chase threw a very thin folder on my desk. “He said unless we want to pay a hacker to find the source of the computer where the orders are being made, there’s not much he can do. He said even if he posted someone outside the flower shop, it still won’t help him determine who is sending the flowers.”

  Nick leaned back in the chair. “So are we hiring a hacker?”

  Fuck.

  Nick and Chase were looking at me expectantly waiting for my answer. “If I thought hiring a hacker would help us put this fuck in jail, I would. But how would we explain to the cops how we found him without all of us ending up in jail for illegal hacking of San Jose flower shops? And is it stalking at this point or just an overly possessive boyfriend?”

  “Maybe we don’t call the police. Maybe we just handle it ourselves,” Chase suggested.

  “Yeah,” Nick agreed. “You do what you need to do and we’ll be your ironclad alibis.”

  Chase had a point. We didn’t necessarily need to turn the guy into the cops. We could just find out who he was and handle it ourselves. Even if I left him breathing, at least we’d know who he was and what he looked liked so Isabella would know what to look for.

  I nodded my consent, “Yeah, call Carson and let him know I’ll pay one to find this guy.”

  “One million?” Nick asked.

  “Of course, one million,” I scoffed.

  Chase scoffed back. “Dude, please. This is Isabella we’re talking about. I have no doubt you’d pay one billion if you needed to in order to find this fucker. Nick’s question was legit.”

  Okay…he had a point.

  I’d give every cent I had to ensure Isabella’s safety, if I needed to.

  “I would,” I agreed. And in a second of frustration, I extended my arm and swept everything off my desk onto the floor. “FUCK!”

  I stood up and started pacing the office, running my hands threw my hair like that one action would solve all my problems.

  Chase and Nick didn’t blink an eye. They were used to my outbursts, even if I didn’t have them often anymore. They waited patiently, like they always did, for me to get my bearings.

  I paced and paced until the sensation of being suffocated relented. I finally looked back over to the guys. “Isabella’s mother keeps calling her about that shit with her father,” I told them. I let out a horrible laugh devoid of any real feeling. “And, at this point, I don’t know who the greater threat to her well being is; her mother, her father or the motherfucker sending her flowers.”

  “Shit,” Chase expelled, as he got up to go get a drink from the bar.

  “Is Izzy thinking about helping him out?” Nick asked with irritation lacing his voice.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. She says she’s not, but she also doesn’t talk about it much. The only reason I know when she’s spoken with that bitch is because she always seems so weighed down afterwards and I can tell the difference in her demeanor.”

  “So, we find him and ask him politely to quit calling Loretta and pulling Iz into his bullshit,” Chase reasoned.

  “Fuck politely,” Nick threw out.

  I couldn’t stop the smirk that danced over my lips. “I thought Chase was the violent one.”

  Nick threw up a brow as he coolly reminded me, “You’re the violent one, Julez.” And then he quickly smiled. “We’re just your enthusiastic cheerleaders.”

  I did laugh then. I thank God for these two imbeciles every day. They’ve kept me out of prison more times than I could count.

  Including now.

  “And I’m not violent. I’m passionate,” Chase defended. Nick and I turned to look over at him, surprise clearly evident on our faces.

  Nick finally voiced his disagreement, “So, that night at Xavier’s, when that guy was talking to Q, that was you expressing your passion?”

  Chase threw back his drink. “Damn right it was.”

  I raised a brow. “Bloody knuckles are just sometimes a side effect, is all?”

  The corner of his lip lifted. “When it comes to me and mine? Yeah, they can be.”

  I steered the conversation back to what was troubling me the most. “I’m actually more worried about Loretta getting her hands on Isabella than I am the fuck sending flowers.”

  Nick shrugged. “Well, between the six of us on high alert, the girls having drivers and taking self-defense lessons, it makes sense Loretta would be the bigger threat. We can’t shield Isabella from her venom, no matter how much we might want to.”

  “And whatever damage she’s inflicting upon Iz’s conscience and good nature is sure to cause more issues f
or Iz. I mean, the guy sending flowers has to get through us, the girls and their drivers to get to her, but she might offer herself up to her father if her mother pushes her hard enough. How do we stop that?” Chase mused.

  I finally sat back down at my desk, ignoring the mess on the floor. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I admitted. “It’d be different if she wanted to do something like this for Quinn or Avery, because they love her and would do the same for Isabella. But to want to help some selfish fuck who abandoned her because she’s tired of feeling abandoned by him? How do I let her risk her life for that?” I shook my head. “The answer is I can’t. And I won’t.”

  Nick winced. “Telling any of those girls no is like tangling with a snake you’re not sure is venomous.”

  “Amen,” Chase grumbled as he walked back to the chair he was previously sitting on. “Except when it’s Quinn, most often than not, the snake is venomous and pissed as hell.”

  “Isabella’s not as challenging as Avery or as volatile as Quinn, but she has her moments.”

  “So, what do you need from us, Julez?” Chase asked.

  “I need you guys to find Isabella’s father and bring him to me so I can murder him with my bare hands. That’s what I need,” I answered. And I was serious.

  Nick shook his head. “That plan needs some work, but if you give us a few days, I bet we can come up with something,” he said, hopefully.

  I ran my hands threw my hair. I knew Nick and Chase would dutifully spend time in prison for me, as I would them, but we had the girls now. They had their girls now. There’s no way I’d make them sacrifice themselves for my demons anymore, now that they were finally really happy. And I would never hurt the girls like that.

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm my torments. “Let’s hold off on the murder plot until I’m absolutely certain Isabella won’t leave me for killing her parents.”

  Chase popped up, “I thought we were only killing her father?”

  I shrugged. “If I’m going to risk going to prison, I might as well take that she-devil mother of hers out, too.”

  “Good point,” Nick granted.

  Chase stood, signaling this meeting over. “So, I’ll call Carson and have him…uh, do his thing with the million dollar check. Hopefully he can find something.”

  I looked up at Chase. “Just be sure to let Carson know that he contacts one hacker only. This isn’t an open contract to whoever can get the job done. I’m not taking any unnecessary risks that’ll have this coming back on you and Nick. He contacts one hacker and if he can’t do the job, then we’ll figure something else out.”

  Nick stood next to Chase and they were both staring at me silently before I asked, “What?”

  “You go down, we go down. Period,” Nick stated confidently.

  Before Isabella, I very rarely felt emotions. But they were blooming in my chest right now at Nick’s declaration. “You guys have Quinn and Avery now. You can’t-”

  Chase was already shutting me down. “And they would visit us every week in prison because those girls would do the same for each other.”

  “I’ll be the first to admit that if it was a choice between saving Avery or either one of you, I’d save Avery. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t kill myself trying to save you all. That doesn’t change no matter what Avery means to me,” Nick professed.

  Chase nodded in agreement. “Same here. I never imagined I’d love someone the way I love Quinn. But all six of us are a package deal. Hell, I bet they would and could plan this murder plot way better than we ever could. And have more believable alibis.”

  I believed them because Nick and Chase weren’t fickle. “Thanks.” They head nodded me and filed out of my office without another word.

  I dropped my head back on the chair’s headrest and closed my eyes.

  I felt so drained with worry over both of Isabella’s situations.

  I just couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that something was going to go sideways with one or both of these problems. Everything around me felt like it was poised and ready to attack or defend. Or maybe it was just me feeling that way.

  Whichever it was, one thing was certain…I would go down fighting no matter what.

  Chapter 14

  Greed: Because I keep taking and taking.

  Isabella~

  I was only one hour away from putting this jacked up day behind me. Normally my job was all cake with sprinkles, but not today. It was one of those days were you would swear that it was everyone’s first day on the job. Rookie mistakes after rookie mistakes were being made. All of the sudden, no one knew what communication meant and computers were a foreign entity.

  The day had blown donkey balls.

  So, when Janie’s light knock sounded on my office door, I wanted to just throw my head down on my desk and bang it until I lost consciousness and Julian had to come carry me home. But instead I plastered on my I’m-Not-One-Second-Away-From-Downing-An-Enitre-Bottle-Of-Tequila smile and said, “Come in.”

  She was all beaming smiles as she walked in. “Hi, I have an unscheduled visitor here to see you insisting that it’s important.”

  It had to be Julian. Who else would drop by unannounced? Well, I suppose it could have been Nick or Chase, as well, because Q and Ace would have texted me informing me of their ambush first. My smile transformed into a genuine one at the thought of Julian surprising me again. “It’s okay, Janie. Please let him in.” She stepped back and I was brought up short when the man walking into my office wasn’t Julian.

  Crap.

  Now I had to play cordial and professional since I allowed the meeting. The voice in my head started sing-songing ‘you know what they say about assuming…’.

  I stood up and walked around my desk to shake his hand. “Hello. I’m Isabella DeLucci.” I gestured towards my uncomfortable miracle chair. “Please have a seat.”

  He took my hand, and while the action was like any other normal handshake, the feel of his hand in mine felt…off. The hairs on the back of my neck started to rise and my immediate thoughts went to the flowers.

  He took the seat and I went back behind my desk and sat down. It appeared as if he was being polite by allowing me to get comfortable, but it felt like he was observing me.

  I was two seconds away from calling Julian.

  He wasn’t a big as Julian, and he seemed to be just an inch or so shorter than Chase and Nick, but he filled out nicely. He also seemed familiar, somehow.

  I did my best to calm the butterflies in my stomach and sound unaffected. “So, how may I help you Mr….?”

  He sat up a little and cleared his throat. “Mr. Stanhope. Logan Stanhope.”

  I didn’t have any kind of poker face on a good day. So, I knew there was no way in hell I could pull one off today. My face had to be conveying pure shock. As I looked closer and studied his features, it dawned on me why he looked familiar. He looked to be only a couple of years older than me and his brown hair and eyes seemed to match mine. We didn’t share the same color of eyes, his being more brown than amber, but the shapes were similar.

  He was attractive and I instantly hated him because of it.

  I called onto my Inner Quinn. “Well, Mr. Stanhope, how may I help you?”

  He had the grace to wince at the sound of icicles in my voice. “I was hoping to meet you and-”

  “No you weren’t,” I interrupted. “You’ve had 28 years to meet me and you haven’t, so why don’t you cut the crap and tell me who you are and why you’re here.”

  Whoooohoooo Inner Quinn! High five!

  He sat up straighter and this time his voice sounded more solid, “That’s not true. I only learned about you a few months ago. I’m Logan, your brother.”

  My brother.

  My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. I was being assaulted with so many emotions at once, I wasn’t sure how I was going to able to contain them all.

  I called upon all my inner strength and focused on sarcasm and in
difference.

  “I don’t see how, since we don’t share a father or mother, Mr. Stanhope,” I retorted.

  He let out a deep, exhausted breath. “I didn’t come here to argue semantics with you Isa-”

  “Ms. DeLucci, please,” I corrected, and Logan just nodded in acceptance. I tried my best to keep my focus absolute, but my nerves and emotions were getting the better of me. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to sit across from this man and not lose my shit. “Just say what you came here to say and then leave, please,” I ordered.

  He rubbed his palms down his thighs in a nervous gesture, I supposed. “I came here for two reasons. The first, being to meet you.” I had to give the man credit. His eyes were on mine and not faltering. “No matter how things came to be, you’re my sister. My sister who I never knew existed before a few months ago and I’m not okay with that.”

  I was still feeling prickly and hateful, regardless of how earnest he sounded. “Don’t you have any other sisters to fill the void? That you know of, of course.”

  His jaw ticked. I wasn’t sure if it was in response to my coldness or at pointing out his father’s cheating nature. “We have two other brothers,” he went on, ignoring my cattiness. “Steven is 24 years old and Jeffrey is…uh, 28 years old. The only sister we have is you.”

  It was all I could do not to vomit in the small trash can under my desk. Jeffrey Stanhope was the same age as I was. Could my father be any more despicable?

  “And how old are you?” I wasn’t sure why I asked, but it was like I needed the entire picture before me.

  “I just turned 31 a couple of months ago,” he answered.

  “So, what’s the second reason why you’re here?” I was holding on by a thread. A very thin, ratted thread.

  I wanted Julian.

  Logan struggled to get comfortable in the chair before he answered. “I came here to ask you to go see our fath-”

  My head fell back in a hysterical, unbalanced laugh, effectively cutting him off. I looked back at him completely flabbergasted. “Listen here, Mr. Stanhope, if my own mother couldn’t convince me to go see the man she was fucking on the side, who abandoned her once she got knocked up, what in Heaven’s name makes you think I’d go see him because you asked?”