I can tell by the looks on their faces that they were not expecting me to represent Christina. Hell, they don’t even know me. But from the scowls I’m getting from a few, it’s easy to determine who is in league with David.
Suddenly, I don’t want that to happen.
I mean, I knew coming here that there was no way I was going to let Noah’s father screw him over but now that he’s… well, he’s the man from the shadows, there’s absolutely no fucking way he’s going to get whatever the hell he wants now.
Over my cold and rotting corpse.
“Well, since you put it like that, fine,” David says with an ugly smirk. “Then you might be able to shed light on where my son is?”
His son? Please, just call him what he really is, your meal ticket.
“Noah is on his way,” I say. “He sends his apologies for the delay.”
Nope, Noah never apologizes but well, if I’m going to stall, might as well gain a few of these old hags on my side.
“Apologies? Does he think companies are run on apologies?” David demands, his dark gaze set on me.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that his gaze sets off my internal alarms or if it’s the surging anger and self-defense kicking in, but I just let loose and lay into him.
“I think he believes—just like his mother—that it is important to show regret and concern when one is running late or if by some ridiculous circumstance, they get held up for years upon years and are only coming out from their holes now.”
“I assume you’re talking about me,” he says, the evil mirth in his eyes glistening like a cesspool of deadly vipers. “Did Christina give you a script to talk to me like that?”
“There’s no need to assume what you already know, Mr. Montreal,” I say, my voice level, betraying none of the chaos going on inside me. “You were gone and now, after ten years, you’re back. I can only guess that you’re after one thing since you’re the one who set this meeting.”
All eyes swing to David then. I guess they weren’t aware of that little fact.
“David, I thought you said you’ve been running things from Europe all this time,” another man says.
“If you weren’t here, then why were you taking praises for these incredible profits for the past two years?” another older man demands.
“I said I was running the company with Christina,” David says smoothly. “We had an agreement to take turns with the day-to-day running of Montreal Inc.”
“And yet, you don’t have a seat on this board. Not anymore seeing as you ‘abdicated’ your seat, your role and your duties as a father, a husband and the CEO of this company.” I state. “That seat belongs to Noah, as he’s the rightful heir.”
I know I’m poking the bear. I know I might come out of this bloody or dead, but I’ll be damned if I ever let this man get anything he wants.
Again, all eyes swing to David. He’s watching me and I can see his nostrils flare just a tiny bit, but he tries to play it off.
“Do you know my son?” he demands, holding my gaze.
“I’d say I know him better than you do.”
He scoffs, shaking his head. Then he moves, walking toward me with a stride that triggers that night ten years ago.
I remember the sound of his shoes on the stone floor of the dungeon.
I remember the sound of his laughter when he got good hits in.
I remember the way he breathed over my burning and bleeding, cracked open back, intensifying the pain.
“So, you think you know my son, huh?” he demands, but I can’t speak as he gets closer. “Then let me tell you something, that boy will never sit on my seat! He’s just a boy! A spoiled, self-centered boy who lashes out when he’s told no. And now, where is he?”
“He’s on his…”
“On his way! That’s what we’ve been hearing for the past hour and yet, there’s no sign of that immature, pathetic mess who doesn’t know what running a company entails. I might not have been here for a while, but I built ALL of this!” he seethes, spreading his arms out wide, knowing damn well that he has the attention of the board members as he hammers into his son’s character. “My father handed me a small company and I alone made it into what it is today! According to the Montreal legacy law, this is mine and you think I’m just going to give it to that boy because his mother and her puppet say so?”
“No!” I say, slowly crossing my legs as I face him, trying not to show my fear. “You’re not going to give him anything because newsflash, David, Noah doesn’t need anything from you! And according to that Montreal legacy law you’re citing, when you walked out on your family, you automatically left everything behind which means, you own nothing. Everything went to the next living heir, am I wrong?”
I wait for him to try and contradict me, ready for any counter he has, but it turns out, rich people don’t appreciate having their time wasted. They get straight to the fucking point.
“Answer her, David,” the woman on the other side of the table says with a low, icy tone. “Is she wrong?”
David stares me down, anger tightening his features until the asshole looks like he’s constipated. To make matters worse for him, I raise my perfectly shaped eyebrow and tap my wrist.
“The time you were complaining and wailing about is ticking. Am I wrong, Mr. Montreal?”
“No,” he bites out.
“Well, what in God’s name are we doing here, then?” the first older man says as he stands up. “You called us under the guise of internal conflict when there isn’t any.”
“It’s still my company!” David says, looking like he’s about to throw a fit.
“Not according to those legacy laws we’ve been following for generations, David,” the lady says. “Next time, send a damn email.”
One by one, the board members slowly start to get up.
“Thank you, dear, for letting us know. Please send our greetings to Christina and young Mr. Noah,” another man says. He seems to be the oldest of the bunch, but I don’t miss his intelligent gaze.
“I will, sir,” I say softly, smiling at him.
As they file out, I can feel David’s gaze still on me, his animosity and anger expanding in the room. I quickly stand up, about to leave the room as well when he suddenly grabs my arm with a forceful grasp.
“How do you know my son?” he demands. I try to fight off his grip and icy terror moves through me, and alarms start blaring at the back of my head.
“Let go of my arm!”
“You’re a fool to trust a thing that Christina says!” he seethes, his face right in front of mine. “And that boy is nothing and he’ll never be anything!”
That angers me like nothing else in this world. I’ve had those words said to me before, and they cut me deep when I heard them from Luci. And now every time something remotely good happens to me, her words echo back at me, and I slip back into the funk, unable to be proud of my accomplishments.
I finished high school when she didn’t, but I never celebrated that.
I managed to stay the fuck away from drugs when she just couldn’t resist the allure, but I still don’t celebrate that.
I fell in love with a guy who wanted to grant my every wish in this life, show me the world and love me, but I not only lost him, I failed him and broke his trust, and now he’ll never love me.
So, it doesn’t shock me when I reach for my knife and have it at David’s throat in the blink of any eye.
“I’ll tell you what, David,” I seethe. “Don’t you ever try to categorize Noah or dictate what he can or can’t do. He’s found a way to cope without you, and good riddance to you leaving, because that was the best thing you could’ve ever done for him and so now, I’ll be damned if you so much as disturb that delicate balance with your egocentric and moronic bullshit.”
He stares at me for a very long time, and I’m just waiting for whatever else he has to say so I can slit his throat as my own trauma roars at me, egging me on to do it.
This m
an has caused enough pain to Noah, Christina and even Craig, he caused enough pain and suffering, beating up his kids and his wife like they’re punching bags! I’d gladly end his fucking life for that alone and it doesn’t matter whether Noah wants me in his life or not. The pain I suffered from his hands notwithstanding.
“I take it you know him very well?” he questions, his eyes wide. I’m sure he knows this knife is not just a threat. I bet he can see the intent for murder in my eyes. “You know, I reme—”
But before he can finish, he’s yanked away from me and then thrown into the long glass table with so much force the glass shatters into billions of pieces.
When I look up, Noah is breathing hard, fast, his jaw clenched and eyes wild with a kind of rage I’ve never seen before. But that’s not what stops my heart. It’s the look in his eyes, the murderous look.
“Did he hurt you?” he growls, as he runs his hands all over me. From my face to my neck, my chest, my sides, my arms, everywhere he pats, checking until he unerringly finds a slightly sore spot when I flinch.
As if in slow motion, he looks down at the hand David grabbed. A bruise is starting to form there but before I can assure Noah that I’m okay and it doesn’t hurt, he charges after his father.
“Noah!” I scream as he pounces on his father and starts throwing punch after punch.
I start running toward him only to be pulled back by… “George!”
He doesn’t smile, instead, he gently but firmly pulls me back until we’re at the door. That’s when I see Emmett standing there, watching as Noah punches his father.
“No, Emmett, George! Stop him!” I cry out.
“He needs to do this, Kim,” George murmurs in my ear.
“No!” He shouldn’t. I know something they don’t. Noah vowed that if he ever faced his father in a fight, he’d kill him. “He’ll kill him! Emmett, Noah will kill him!”
I can already see the blood. I can hear the groans but soon I see and hear nothing as I’m dragged out of there and I have no idea what happened to my knife.
Chapter 25
KIM
Past
Blue Fairy: Did anyone ever ask you?
ME: Ask me what?
Blue Fairy: How you felt when you saw that disgusting son of a bitch?
ME: I don’t want to talk about it.
Blue Fairy: I’m not Astraea or Ivy. Tell me how you felt.
ME: Fuck, Noah! How else would you feel if you suddenly faced your father and saw the hate in his eyes directed at you?
Blue Fairy: I wouldn’t have time to feel. If I ever see him and it’s a fucking brawl, I’ll kill him where he stands.
ME: I felt cold and I hate that when I look in the mirror, I can still see him. When King looks at me, he sees him and when Astraea looks at me, she sees him.
Blue Fairy: You talk about it as if they’re the only ones that suffered. What the fuck did he do to you?
ME: It doesn’t matter now. He’s gone.
Present
The next few hours are agonizing and so damn slow, it messes with my damn head.
When George dragged me out of that conference room, kicking and screaming, he didn’t waste time passing me over to some huge bodyguard-type dudes who effortlessly carried me out to the elevator; but this elevator was on another side of the building than the one I used to enter because when we finally reach our destination, the doors open to the basement where I see a fleet of all-black cars with no plates.
I try fighting so I can get back to the seventieth floor, but all my efforts are rendered moot when they put me in a G-Wagon with bullet proof windows and the fucking child lock is on so I can’t get out.
The mammoth sized dudes stand right outside the driver and passenger side doors, just waiting for me to attempt to get out. I sit in that damn car for fucking hours, weeks, years, and there still is no sign of Noah and my heart can’t take it.
I fish out my phone, but the damn thing is dead since I didn’t charge it like I was planning on doing today.
I think of banging on the glass door, demanding to use a phone but I know whatever instructions or requests these men take, they are not going to be from me.
I have no idea how long it is until I finally see Noah bulldoze his way straight for the G-Wagon where I’m in.
Emmett and George are saying something to him, but he doesn’t look like he’s listening.
I hold my breath knowing damn well that he’s coming for me.
And that’s exactly what he does.
Within a heartbeat, he opens the back door where I’m at and in the next instant, I’m launching myself into his arms.
I can feel our hearts hammering against our chests. He’s shaking with rage and for a few moments while I’m in his arms, it’s mayhem at first until everything simmers down to a manageable riot that allows me to pull back and take him in.
“Noah!” I breathe, noticing he doesn’t have a scratch on his gorgeous face. “You scared me to death, damn you to hell!”
“Ditto, Butterfly,” he mutters, his gaze piercing my soul as he does the same thing I’m doing; trying to check for injuries as he holds my face in his slightly bloody hands, but I don’t give a damn. “What were you going to do, Butterfly? Slice the man’s fucking throat in the middle of a busy office?”
If I didn’t know Noah, I’d say his attempt at humor with such a serious issue was a bit off but no, this is how I know he’s with me. Noah is the kind of guy that will stand in front of you with his heart breaking, the agony shining through his eyes and still manage to crack a joke just to try and dim his own pain. It breaks me every single time.
“Why the fuck not?” I demand.
“So, you make some money and the first thing you do is fall back into your default setting?”
“My default setting?”
“Being a bad, naughty, rebellious girl who’s dressed to kill in all black with a knife strapped to your thigh, about to slit throats in the middle of the day.”
I shrug, some habits don’t die because those habits have kept me alive.
“My only regret was going to be ruining these shoes,” I mutter, still trying to catch my breath.
“Those fucking sexy shoes,” he whispers darkly as he takes his time burning a path down my legs to my six-inch heels with his heated gaze filled with raging lust.
“Wait. You were watching me, weren’t you?” I ask, a small smirk on my face.
“You’re damn right I was watching,” he purrs as a hand travels the length of my leg to my ankles, then back. “I wasn’t about to let you mess anything up.”
“Mess anything up? Sir, please,” I say with a scoff. “If you were watching then you definitely saw that I made a few older friends.”
“You had them practically eating out of your hand and shaming that sonofabitch.” We stare at each other for a heartbeat, the danger we just came through feeling like a prelude. But I can see Noah’s anger start to spike again as he looks down at my bruised wrist. “If he’d done anything to you…”
“He didn’t.” Though he did other things to me so many years ago.
“Still.” I can see the rage still churning but I can’t let him feel this…
“Spend the day with me,” I ask breathlessly.
“What?”
“Let’s put the bet on hold and spend the day together,” I whisper. “Please, Sexy Fairy, grant me a wish.”
Noah pulls back just a bit, holding my gaze. I think I’m holding my breath, just waiting to see what happens, my heart raging in my chest as I hang over a cliff.
It’s incredible how he does that to me, how I wait for his fucking approval like a damn junkie.
“Tattoos,” he says seriously as he studies me.
“What?”
“If you want to spend the day with me, you’re going to get a tattoo with me.”
I hate needles on my skin and he knows it, which is why I’m sure he’s testing me, trying to see if I really mean it.
“O
kay,” I say, surprising him.
“You really want to spend the day with me that bad?” he questions, a frown on his face.
“I want to be with you… today,” I quickly add in that last part as a safety net, but like everything else in my life, it’s a shoddy net that won’t save me. I fell for Noah a long time ago and then ended up landing in a grave I dug by myself with the one lie I kept from him.
Noah doesn’t say a word. Instead, he offers me his hand and helps me step out of the car. Then wordlessly, he strips me out of the blazer I’m wearing until I’m left in the lace top and the skirt and heels.
“Fucking sexy,” he murmurs. I swear his gaze makes me feel wanted, seen… craved. “You’re so mine.”
With that, he opens the passenger side door of the G-Wagon and helps me in. Then he straps me in, holding my gaze through it all. “I know how much you hate being tied down but it’s me. Relax.”
It’s Noah, it’s always been him, so I do relax, feeling the burn of his fingers where he’s barely touching me. “Behave.”
A thrill runs through my veins with that one word. Fuck, I feel like I’m part of the Noah groupie now.
Closing my door with a finality that seals the rest of the day, he walks over to the huge bodyguards, tells them something, then he’s back and behind the wheel.
I have no idea where Emmett and George are, but I don’t ask, just as I won’t bother asking what happened to David.
We drive out of the underground parking which I discover belongs to the building next to the Montreal Inc offices.
“Uh, do you also own that building?”
“We own the entire block,” he grits out, his grip on the steering wheel white-knuckled and tight.
I take that as a sign to drop it, so I just reach over to the radio and see what’s playing. Noah eyes me, but doesn’t say anything as I start rapping along to Nicki Minaj’s Chun-Li.
“You’re a Barb?”
“Are you surprised?”
“You and Baby Blue joined the cheer squad in high school. You ate a plate of random brownies that you just found, got high, then burned your own hair. You think I’d be surprised by anything you do at this point?”
Petty Rage: Westbrook Blues Book 4 Page 30