Just Desserts (10 page)

Another scream and he took off, running as fast as he could. He just could make out the blurred shapes of two people, one noticeably bigger than the other. The fog cleared and Sebastian was practically on top of them.

The woman shoved at the man. “Get off.”

“
Change your mind yet?” The man raised his arm, one hand a beefy fist ready to strike.

Without thinking, Sebastian stepped forward, grabbed the man’s wrist, and spun him around. He jerked the man’s arm up and pressed it against his back. “Better keep your hands to yourself.”

“
This doesn’t concern you.”

Sebastian shook his head. “Ah, but it does. It concerns every man when a woman’s being abused.”

“
She hit me first,” the man whined. “And she owes me money.”

Cold fury rose inside of Sebastian. Vladimir used to make the same excuse whenever he would lay a hand on Sebastian and Christian’s mother.
She made me do it. She hit me first.
Always, his father blamed the victim. They had it coming.

“
That’s a lie,” the woman spat. She turned pleading eyes on Sebastian. “He sold me to one of his mates. I can’t go through that again, but I’ve a little one at home, and she needs to eat.”

“
You were willing enough, until this guy showed up,” the man said.

Sebastian tightened his grip and turned the man’s hand at a rather painful angle—something Sebastian knew from firsthand experience. The man let out a scream when the wrist bone on the right cracked. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay away from her. Just let me go.”

“
You’re lying,” Sebastian said coldly and then turned to the woman standing beside him. Her face was battered and bruised, her clothes torn on her skinny body, and her hair stringy, but she didn’t have the look of a junkie, not that it mattered to him. He would help her and her child (if she really had one), regardless.

The man struggled against him, landing a blow to the side of Sebastian head. His ear rung and his vision blurred, but he’d had suffered worse. Far worse. These were like love taps compared to what his father and his father’s former bodyguards had done to him.

Sebastian smiled. “Hit me again.”
Or else
wasn’t said or unsaid. The statement was there.

“
What?”

“
Hit me again,” he repeated.

The man’s eyes widened. “You’re insane. Who the hell smiles after getting punched in the head?”

“
I do.” Sebastian turned his attention to the woman, still standing there. Trembling in fear and cold. “What’s your name, love?” he asked softly. He didn’t want to scare her.

“
Molly B—”

“
Don’t need a surname.” Sebastian smiled gently. “Now, would you’d be so kind as to grab my mobile from my left coat pocket, go to my contacts, and call Ivan?”

Molly hesitated. “You’d trust me to not run off with it?”

No, he didn’t. “Let me help you, Molly. Call Ivan and he’ll come round with a car. We’ll go pick up your little one and take you both to a very safe place where no one can hurt you.”

Molly stretched out her hand. It shook. “How do I know you won’t hurt me more than Frank has?”

“
You don’t.” He looked at Frank, who stared back at him like he was the very Devil. “Whatever you decide, I’ll take care of this one. Won’t I, big boy?” Then he applied more pressure and finished breaking the rest of Frank’s wrist bones.

Two days later, Sebastian stood outside the back entrance of the safe house, with the director. She was a no-nonsense woman who he had complete confidence in and used the money he sent every month wisely. The former mansion could house up to thirty women and children. It wasn’t the only one he supported. There were twenty more like it throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Helping these women and their children wasn’t something he bragged about, and not because he was a humble man either. He wasn’t. It was shameful that these houses had to exist in the first place, but they were needed. And so, he had provided them.

“
Molly’s fitting in very nicely here, Mr. Romanov. Her little one’s already playing with the others.”

“
Excellent.” He turned to leave.

“
She asked for your name,” the director said.

He wasn’t surprised. Molly had asked him on the limo ride over, right before she put her hand on his crotch and offered to pay him back. He’d let her down gently, moving her hand away. She’d collapsed against him, crying, and he’d let her, offering his handkerchief when she was done.

“
What did you tell her?” he asked, already knowing the answer. She’d say nothing at all, of course.

“
That names weren’t important around here, only deeds.”

“
We’ve need of a director for a new house in Glasgow. Know anyone?” he asked.

The director didn’t blink. A breeze blew a lock of platinum hair over the scarred side of her face. Her ex-husband had taken a razor to her, and since owning a gun hadn’t been an option, the restraining order had become just as shredded as her face when he’d broken into her flat.

A nosy neighbor had saved her, and brought her to Childers, where his father had been a patient at the time. Sebastian heard the story, and had paid for her to be moved to a nicer place, with private medical care.

She’d healed, written him a thank you note, and he’d responded by offering her a job, but not before doing a thorough background check on her.

“
I might have someone in mind. Unfortunately,” she said.

He watched as the director went inside, using a code that even he didn’t know, and locked the door behind her.

Suddenly, he realized that he was tired. That he was lonely, and he wanted his old life back. It was time for him to quit feeling sorry for himself and move forward.

Two days later

Jules: I’m back.

Daisy: Better?

Jules: Getting there.

Daisy: I missed you. Did you meet someone?

Jules: Would it have mattered if I had?

Daisy: Yes, and it only took a week of not talking being able to you everyday to realize it.

Sebastian’s fingers froze over the keyboard. It was time to end the charade. He was in too deep and was dragging her after him. But the place he was in right now, the place he’d most likely forever be, was no place for her. He had to end things. Make up an excuse, tell her that he had in fact met someone, or lie, like he’d been doing all along.

Only he couldn’t, because he loved Daisy.

But he wasn’t all sorted out, yet.

Jules: Give me time, darling, and I’ll be all yours.

Daisy: My time belongs to you.

Oh yeah, he was done for, and completely confident he could find a way to reveal the truth to her and make their virtual relationship a reality.

C
hapter Six

One month later

Sebastian sat at his desk, going over the fine print of the Xeron-Chang Contract, when Liam walked in his office.

“
You’re fired,” Liam said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Happy now?”

Actually, Sebastian thought he’d be elated at the outcome, but he felt as though someone had punched him in the gut and the groin. Simultaneously.

Fact: He had planned for this, by making shady deals with even shadier characters on project guaranteed to lose money.

Fact: He’d wanted this to happen. The total embarrassment of his father had been his ultimate goal.

Fact: His father had been killed, most likely murdered, so that goal was no longer attainable.

Result: Well, Liam had given it to him.

None of that signified, however. He could repair the damage, and convince the right people to see thing his way once more. “I can’t be fired,” Sebastian said, glancing at the paper in his hand.

“
Sebastian
.”

He forced himself to look at the man standing to his right. “Yes?”

Liam stared at him, worry and concern shining in his dark eyes. “You’ve been voted out. Five ayes, one no, and an abstain.”

The voice of his dead father slithered inside his head.
You are nothing without me. You are nothing without Romanov Industries. I made you.

Steeling himself, he cleared his throat. “I assume you were the abstain?”

“
Actually, I voted aye.” Liam’s dark brows drew together. “You really can’t expect me to let you continue down this path of self-destruction. You can’t punish everyone else for your father’s crimes.”

So Liam knew. “Shall I collect my things and be off?”

Liam held up a hand. “I made a motion that you be allowed stay on, and the Board agreed.” He canted his head to one side. “In a completely limited role, of course, as a consultant and point man for the—”

“
How magnanimous,” he couldn’t help but saying.

“
It’s
very
magnanimous, you pompous ass,” Liam snapped. “I put my reputation on the line for you.” Shoving his hands into his pockets, his best friend began to pace the room. “They think you’re a loose cannon, like your father, in regards to your personal life, and this little ‘Oh I’m back and will be so very good, sir’ act is just that to them—an act. No one trusts you.”

Not even you, Liam?
he wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to know the answer. “What do you propose?”

“
You could actually start properly dating a woman, perhaps let it lead to an engagement, sort out things with your brother—”

“
You want me to lie?”

Liam stopped in front of Sebastian’s desk, placing his hands on the top and leaning forward. “Don’t pretend to have grown a conscience in the past two minutes.”

Sebastian shot to his feet, getting right in his best mate’s face. “I am not Vladimir Romanov, and you, of all people, should know that,” he growled. He slammed his fist against the desk, but the only reaction he got out of Liam was a mocking smile.

Sebastian’s phone buzzed, but he didn’t answer it.

Liam’s gaze went right to where Sebastian’s phone set on his desk, and that mocking smile turned into a smirk. “Oh, what a tangled web we—”

“
Shut it,” he muttered, straightening. He smoothed back his hair and readjusted his tie.

Palms up, Liam stepped back. “Seriously, get back together with Kate. Hell, fill her in on the entire scheme. Make it look like you give a damn about anything and anyone who isn’t you. Make them think you want this job. Be the exact opposite of your father and make your family
want
to be around you.”

Sebastian wanted to defend himself, and say that he wasn’t a cold bastard like his father, but since his father’s death, he had actually become one. Most of his friends, like Liam, had overlooked it for the most part, since he’d
seen the light
. He owed them his gratitude, and an apology.

“
I’d rather try to repair things with Christian than re-open an old wound with Kate,” he said, already deciding he would leave right after work and board the company jet to fly to the States, to the very town where the woman he adored from afar lived and waited on him. No, not him. Jules.