Magnate (Acquisition Series Book 2) (11 page)

Vinemont stayed at my back the entire time, his clean scent enveloping me, and his heart beating against me. His arm was still at my waist, a sturdy band of bone and muscle that kept me locked tight to his body. I got the feeling that if Cal asked for me to sit with him now, Vinemont would tell him to go to hell.

Once Lucius was done with Dylan, he stalked over to me. I kicked my chin up and met his stare. I was trapped between the two Vinemont men, the one at my back an enigma, the one in front an open book of deceit.

“Take my arm and walk out of here, Stella.” Lucius’ voice was a low, dangerous purr.

“Do it.” Vinemont’s voice in my ear. He shifted and pulled his arm away, his fingers trailing along my stomach and making my skin tingle as he went. I wanted to stay with him. I wanted to believe that maybe something was different, that maybe he felt the same connection I couldn’t escape. But he’d turned me over to Lucius.

Dylan gave me the slightest smile, a hidden “chin up” that tried to warm my heart, but fell short. He didn’t know what Christmas would bring. I did.

The string quartet began playing “Silent Night” as I took Lucius’ arm and turned my back on the one small bit of sanctuary I’d found since all this began.

The car ride back was silent. I chose the front passenger seat before another idiotic fight could break out. Luke smiled as he got the door for me, perhaps aware of what I was doing.

As soon as we stopped at the house, I darted out of the car and up the front steps, my shoes left behind in the car. Farns opened the front door and I blew past him, seeking the shelter of my room. I had to think about what happened, to sort out what Dylan’s presence might mean for me. And, most of all, I needed to talk to the one person who might be able to shed more light—Renee.

Though I didn’t hear following steps, I closed my door and leaned against it. It felt as if the filth of the party coated me, Cal’s fingerprints meshing with my skin and tainting me just like everything else he touched. I stripped the dress off, not caring that I left it in a heap in the floor along with the panties and jewels.

I ran a hot shower and stood beneath the steaming rain, my makeup running down my face and my hair wilting. I just wanted to be clean, to have not a single trace of Cal or Red or anyone else left on my skin. I picked the bobby pins from my hair and shampooed all of it. Then I lathered myself up, scrubbing until my skin was raw. I rinsed off and stepped out.

I reached for my towel, but it wasn’t on the bar. Movement behind me had me whirling. It was Vinemont, the towel in his hands. He wrapped it around my shoulders and clutched it closed in front of me. He still wore his tuxedo pants, but his jacket was gone and his shirt halfway unbuttoned, as if he’d been in the middle of disrobing when he’d changed course and come to see me. His eyes were half hooded, lust and heat wafting from him like a fire.

My body tingled, anticipation and fear playing along my skin. “Were you watching me?”

“Yes.” His voice was a low rasp. He was so still, but his jaw was tight and the sinews in his neck even tighter.

I moved the towel down under my arms and tucked one end into the other over my chest. “If you’re done with your peep show, I’d like to get dressed and get some sleep.”

I edged past him even though he took up so much space. The room, my head, and my heart were all filled with him.

“Dylan can’t save you.” His words were cold, far colder than the heat of his eyes.

“I don’t expect anyone to save me. I expect to save myself.” I forced myself to walk slowly to my dresser, not even looking as Vinemont approached. I grabbed a pair of panties and shimmied them up my legs beneath the towel. Then I chose a tank top and pulled it over my head, dropping the towel once it was in place. I turned back to him, my hands on my hips. He was so close, having crept up behind me while I dressed.

“What do you want?”

“Do you think this will stop me?” He plucked the hem of my tank top and ran his fingers over the edge.

“One minute I’m beautiful, the next you’re in here threatening me?”

“This isn’t a threat. I’m simply telling you.” His eyes bored into me as he fisted the material of my top and pulled me to him. “Dylan can’t save you. You can’t get out of this. I will never let you out of it. Understand?”

“Understand what? That you want me, that you have feelings for me, but you’ll also gladly let me be raped by all your friends so you can win some game? I got it. Now get the fuck out.” His fist had tightened as I spoke, drawing me closer.

Without heels, I had to crane my head up to see him, to look into the dark pools of his eyes. “I will do anything to win, to make sure Lucius wins, to beat the others. Anything, Stella. Even if that means that every fucking man in Louisiana rapes you a hundred times over. No matter how much that sickens me. Yes.”

I should have seen it coming, should have known that nothing I thought about him was real. No one who had feelings for me could say such a thing. My eyes watered. I should have been used to pain. I’d endured so much of it over the past weeks, but his words struck at my very center, like a shard of ice skewering my soul.

“Get out.” I stared at the floor, not wanting him to see my tears when they fell.

“If Dylan contacts you, I’ll know.” He gripped my hair and wrenched my eyes back to his. Tears ran down my temples as he spoke in a harsh whisper. “Don’t try anything. If I find out you’ve been speaking or even trying to speak to him, you can say goodbye to this room, these nice things.” He yanked my shirt hard, the seams splitting under my arms. “These clothes. Everything. I’ll have you kept naked and bound in the stables with a horse blanket for warmth. See, Stella? That was a threat. And I intend to make good on it if you even so much as think about trying to fuck us in this Acquisition. Do I make myself clear?”

I swallowed hard, tears thickening in my throat as terror pounded in my heart. Vinemont shook me, my arms flailing before I latched onto his shirt. My already scattered mind exploded in waves of desperation. I had to get away from him.

“I asked if you understood, Stella.” His intense gaze crushed me more than his hands ever could. “Do you?”

“Yes.”

He shoved me back into the dresser.

“I’m glad we had this little chat.” He turned and walked out, slamming my door behind him.

I sank to my knees, the sobs uncontrollable. I thought I had something figured out. I thought I was getting Vinemont to turn, to put me ahead of being Sovereign. I was wrong. So wrong. I sobbed until I couldn’t breathe, until I thought I would vomit. I cried for what felt like hours. So much of me poured out and into the rug beneath me.

Where was Renee? She should have come. She had to know I was here. I lay on my side and clutched my arms to me until the last tear fell and I was silent. Everything inside me was fractured and broken. Vinemont had taken what I was and smashed it into the ground.

But I was the one who’d given him the ability, who’d let him in. I’d allowed him to hurt me by foolishly hoping I could change him. I was the one who’d changed, who’d let myself be taken in by a man whose sole desire was to use me in every way possible before tossing me aside. When would I learn?

I picked myself up and crawled into my bed, the soft whir of the ceiling fan the only thing competing with the sluggish beat of my heart. My thoughts flickered to the hidden knife before I shoved the thought back in its box and turned the lock.

This was a setback, and, I forced myself to believe, a good thing. Now I could seduce Lucius and turn him on Vinemont without any second thoughts. I burrowed into my crisp linen sheets and forced my breathing to even out, forced my eyes to close, and forced myself to give up any hope of warming Vinemont’s cold heart.

Chapter Eleven

Sinclair

I paced my
study, tossing back a bourbon before pouring another. It was close to daybreak. I’d been in here for a couple of hours, steeling myself for what had to be done next. A dull ache emanated from my chest and I wondered if it would ever go away. But it was necessary. All of it.

I should have gone even further with Stella, but I couldn’t. The pain in her eyes was enough. The fear—even better. I wanted her afraid. It was the only thing I could use to keep her in line now that she knew about her father. So much was riding on her, how she behaved, how I, and now Lucius, treated her. It was all a skillful dance put on for the entertainment of the Sovereign. Tonight, I could feel his favor slipping. And after my conversation with Red, I realized things were even more precarious than I’d thought.

I had to tell Lucius. It was time. After his performance at Cal’s party, he needed to know the real stakes, the real penalty. And our grasp on Stella was weakening by the moment now that Dylan was a possible player. Could I trust Lucius to stay strong with the weight of the truth bearing down on him?

I poured another glass and left my study as the first rays of the sun shot out across the dead grass and peeked through the leafless trees. My legs were heavy on the stairs, each step painful in more ways than one. Stella had done well fixing up my leg, but our doctor had cleaned the wound and re-stitched it just the day before. It still burned like a son of a bitch. Fatigue clouded my vision. I only hoped it hadn’t clouded my judgment.

I passed my bedroom on the way to Lucius’. I wanted nothing more than to sink into my bed and into a dreamless sleep. No, that wasn’t true. The one thing I wanted more was to walk to the other wing of the house and get in Stella’s bed, pull her close, and fall asleep with her head above my heart. But that would require her trust and something more—her love. I almost laughed, my chest shaking from the strained chuckle caught beneath my ribs.

I’d heard her sobs, stood outside her door and listened to the aftermath of what I’d done. She would never let me in again; not in her bed, and definitely not in her heart. It was better for her this way. I had to destroy her or watch my brother do it. Wanting her, feeling her entwined in my very soul, had nothing to do with the Acquisition. And it couldn’t. I wouldn’t let it interfere.

I tucked a glass under my arm and swung Lucius’ door open. His room was dark, his curtains drawn so that only a slice of the growing daylight showed through.

“What?” An orange circle flamed in the dark and then faded.

“Mom would kill you if she knew you were smoking in the house.” Wisps of smoke circled in the air across the room, folding back in on themselves before spreading into nothing.

“Good thing she doesn’t know, then. What do you want?”

“We need to talk.” I closed the door behind me before settling at the foot of his bed and holding out the second drink.

“Your good bourbon?” He took the glass and stubbed out his cigarette. “Did shit just get real, or what?”

“It got real a while ago. As soon as I was chosen for the Acquisition this year.”

“You finally going to tell me the rules?” He sat up higher against his pillow and sipped his drink.

“Yes.” I sighed and drained my glass, wishing the alcohol would kill the stings that ricocheted inside and out of me.

“About fucking time. Shit. Hit me. I’m ready, drama queen.”

“There are only seven.”
Seven rules to see you through. Seven rules to live by. Seven rules to make it hurt. Seven rules to kill by.
Mom’s voice when I’d told her we were chosen this year echoed in my mind. I’d known for quite some time that the mother from my earliest memories was gone. But I didn’t know how far gone until I’d heard her scratchy song, sung with glee.

“Seven rules? I’m all ears.” He leaned forward, the strip of daylight cutting across his face.

“Let’s start with the first, and most important rule.” I wondered if a weight would lift after I’d told him, if I’d suddenly be lighter or freer. I doubted it.

“What’s that?” He polished off his drink.

I met his eyes, knowing I was about to knock the wind out of him worse than I ever could with my fists. It would kill him just as sure as it was killing me, but it couldn’t be helped. Not anymore.

Chapter Twelve

Stella

The morning came,
and with it, still no Renee. Then another dawn, and another. I hadn’t seen Vinemont or Lucius in the days since the party. Farns apologized profusely, but gave me no information about what had become of Renee. Laura took over Renee’s duties in my room. She was tight-lipped, far more than she had ever been before.

It was as if the house had just shut down around me, shunning me and making me the outsider I was. No information, no interaction. Just me, sitting here, and waiting until the Christmas trial. Four days away and still no sign of my friend. The only person I spoke to other than Farns and Laura was Teddy.

“Want to go for a ride today?”

I glanced out the window behind him as we ate breakfast. “Is it going to rain? Or storm? Or hail? Or
lightning
?”

He grinned and checked his phone. “Nope, only sunny and cold. It’ll be fun. I’ll save you from any danger, promise.”

“Aren’t you the valiant one?” I smiled and took a bite of French toast. Cinnamon and sugar played on my tongue to the point I wanted to moan.

“At your service, my lady,” Teddy said. “I’ve been meaning to go out for a ride. Get some air and just cruise, especially since Sin and Lucius aren’t around to tell me no.”

“Where are they? Do you know?” I’d already tried to get some Renee information out of him to no avail. Might as well take my chances and see if he’d spill about his brothers.

“There was more trouble in Cuba. Lucius flew down a couple days ago.” He finished his orange juice. “I don’t know where Sin got off to. He was here yesterday on a conference call with Lucius and some investors, but then he was gone again. Maybe back in town? I’m not sure. He keeps tabs on
me
, not the other way around.” He shrugged, his broad shoulders pulling at the buttons on his plaid flannel shirt.

“Will Lucius be back by Friday?” That was when the trial was supposed to start. If Lucius wasn’t back, did that mean I wouldn’t have to go? I didn’t dare to hope, not for a second.

“I don’t know. What happens Friday?” He leaned back and set his napkin on the table before patting his stomach like it was full. Even under the shirt I could tell he was all lean muscle, just like his brothers.

“Nothing. I’m not really sure.” The Stella who lived in this house, who wore my clothes, and answered to my name was a liar. I wondered if that would be something that remained, something I would never be able to shake, just like so many other dark souvenirs from my time here.

“Stella?” He put his warm hand on mine. “What is it?”

I forced a smile. “Let’s ride. I think it’ll do me good and clear my head.”

“All right. Don’t tell me. Just like everyone else here never tells me anything.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on. I need to change. You do, too. Got any leather?” He stood.

“Leather?”

He grinned. “Yeah, for riding.”

“I need leather to ride a horse?”

He looked over my head and out toward the garage. “Depends on what sort of horse we’re talking about.”

I took his meaning and crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t ride motorcycles.”

“You do today.” He gripped under my arm and pulled me up. “Live a little. Come on.”

Maybe he was right. It wasn’t like I had a lot to lose. Not anymore. I grabbed my coffee and downed it before slapping the cup back onto the table. “All right, hell on wheels, let’s do it.”

We went upstairs, and I inspected my closet. Renee had, in fact, gotten me a brown leather jacket. I pulled it from the hanger and inhaled deeply, the smell delicious and strong. I yanked on some jeans, socks, and boots. Then a tank, sweater, and the jacket, along with some gloves. After pulling my hair into a low, messy ponytail, and snagging some sunglasses from the back of my closet, I felt almost badass enough to ride a motorcycle.

Teddy swung my door open and strolled in, his shitkickers making steady clumps as he walked around my room.

“Don’t knock or anything.” I stepped out of the closet.

“I gave you plenty of time not to be naked. And like you said before, I’m valiant. I wouldn’t have looked or anything.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Well, let me rephrase. I wouldn’t have taken pictures, but I definitely would have looked.”

“Perv.” I gave him the finger and walked past him. “I’m ready to meet my maker. Let’s go.”

We pounded down the stairs and took the short walk to the garage. I’d glanced in here a few times, but I’d never actually been inside. Cars and bikes filled every bit of free space. I had no clue what I was actually looking at, especially given that most of the cars bore emblems I didn’t even recognize.

Teddy stepped toward the back to a row of polished bikes. He chose one on the end, its black metal glinting under the shop lights.

“This one’s mine. I named her Black Widow.”

“That’s not a very reassuring name for a motorcycle.” I ran my fingers down the smooth leather seat. The chrome was rubbed to a high shine, and the bike was low and sleek. If it was half as fast as it looked, I might be screaming my head off before we even made it off the property.

“You’ll love it. Here.” He tinkered with a black helmet and handed it to me. I removed my sunglasses, slid the helmet on, and then snugged my sunglasses back over my eyes.

He slipped his helmet on, and his voice crackled to life in my ear. “It has Bluetooth, so we can talk as we ride. Also, music.” He tapped the screen of his phone and a deep bass starting pumping, backed by someone shredding a guitar. “I’ve already got some tunes picked out.”

“Born to be wild.” I couldn’t help but smile.

He walked the bike out to the front of the garage and threw his leg over. I followed and climbed on behind him.

“Hang on to me. I don’t mind.” The music dimmed as his voice sounded clearly.

“Yeah, I’m sure you don’t.” I wrapped my arms lightly around him as he fired it up. The rumble shook me in all the right places and made my thighs tense against the seat.

“Sounds like heaven, doesn’t it? You ready?”

I propped my chin on his shoulder, our helmets touching. “I’m ready.”

He gunned the engine and we were gone, shooting up the drive, past the house, under the trees, and out into the daylight that filtered down through feathery clouds.

The wind whipped around us as he sped up, the tires devouring the distance to the gate. It was already opening by the time we reached it. He must have had a remote key somewhere on the bike. He turned right, toward town and away from the interstate.

I clung even more tightly to him through the curves and twists in the road, pressing my chest into his back as we tore through the barren countryside. The fields were gray, crops long since harvested. His music changed from hard rock to some sort of electronic dance music. We kept going until the road widened into more lanes, the traffic increasing slightly as the area became more populated. I didn’t know how long we would ride, but I didn’t care. I wanted to fly with him, to just be alive for a little while and not worry about the trial.

“Ready to go a little faster?”

“Faster than this?” I asked as the countryside whizzed by.

“Way faster. Straightaway up ahead. Hold on to your tits, Stella.”

I laughed, but the roar of the engine drowned out the sound as he pushed the bike harder and we hurtled forward, passing a couple of cars until we made it to the straightaway. The road rose up to meet us as he leaned forward, me glued to his back. We sped so fast that we were nothing but a whoosh of speed and sound, oncoming cars only a transitory blip. My heart pounded, pure adrenaline pumping through my veins.

“Wooo!” Teddy’s voice in my ear. No, it was both of ours. Both of us let out the exhilaration and soaked up the danger, the life, and the realness of the moment.

His heart pounded against my palm, matching the chaotic beat of my own. This was the freedom I longed for, a beautiful escape, if only fleeting.

We glided for a little while longer before he let off the accelerator, the bike calming down though our hearts still raced.

He reached back and squeezed my knee. “Fuckin’ A, right?”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

We rumbled into town, the familiar streets no longer holding the same charm for me they once did. He drove through the town square. We passed the courthouse where my father’s trial had been held and the jail where he’d been taken after his arrest. Dark memories tempered the excitement of only moments before.

“Can we go left here?” I asked.

“Sure. Whatever you want.” He turned as I’d directed, and I gave him a few more instructions before we cruised down my old street.

“Down toward the end.” Toward my father’s house. There was no reason for me to do it, to torture myself like this. But I had to see.

We rolled up and I gasped. The house’s roof was gone, the top of the windows blackened, and the front porch fallen in.

“What is it?” Teddy cut the music. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s my father’s house.” Worry twisted my insides.

Teddy pulled into the drive and stopped, shutting the engine off and kicking out the stand. He helped me off and I walked up to my home, or what was left of it. I pulled off my helmet and tucked it under my arm.

“What happened?” Teddy stood beside me and craned his head back to see the charred tips of what remained of the sloping eaves.

“I don’t know. I had no idea…” All I could do was stare, shell-shocked that this piece of my past had been erased. All my paintings, the mementos I had to remember my mother—gone.

Teddy pulled a glove off and went to the nearest window before pressing his fingers along the wood. “Not wet and the inside looks dry, too. It must have happened a while ago.”

“Why would no one tell me?”

“Because you didn’t need to know.” Vinemont’s hand clapped down on my shoulder and I jumped.

Teddy turned. “Sin—”

Vinemont cut him off. “Imagine my surprise when I was driving home after spending all night at the office and I saw a bike speeding past me at an insane clip. Who could it be?” He squeezed my shoulder so I couldn’t turn around and face him. “I wondered who was foolhardy enough to drive at such a breakneck pace, who was dumb enough to ride at his back, and further, who did I know that had such a fast bike?”

I gripped his fingers and pried two of them loose before darting forward and whirling. “Keep your fucking hands off me, Vinemont.”

He wore a dark blue dress shirt, the throat open, and a pair of black slacks. The sun lit his hair, coloring the deep brown a milk chocolate. He had a shadow of light stubble across his cheeks, rough and masculine. In his eyes I saw a seething anger.

“Look, Sin. I’m sorry. It was my idea, though. Not hers.” Teddy walked up beside me. “You don’t need to like, punish her or anything.”

“I don’t need to be having this discussion while at least two neighbors are watching through their curtains, no.” He kept his voice low, but each word was tinged with wrath. “But here we are anyway. One big happy fucking family.”

“Sin, we’ll go the speed limit on the way back, okay?” Teddy grabbed my helmet and lifted it above my head.

Before he could put it on, Vinemont said, “Leave it. She’s riding with me. You are riding ahead of me the whole way and
we
are going the speed limit. Got it?”

“I’m not a kid, Sin. I don’t have to do what you say.” Teddy handed my helmet back to me and squared his shoulders.

“I have ways of keeping you in line. Don’t make me use them.”

“What, are you going to cut me off?” Teddy threw his hands out to his sides and his voice rose. “Make me pay for college? What are you going to do?”

“No. None of that. But do you remember the first day you met Stella?”

Teddy shifted from one foot to the other. “Yes.”

“I can make her do a lot more than just stand naked. And I can make you watch all of it. Is that what you want? Would you like that? And another thing, in case that’s not enough to get your attention. Laura. I can make sure you never see her again.”

Teddy slammed his helmet on the ground. “Goddammit, Sin! Why are you like this? What happened to the you that existed before the Acquisition? The one who helped me with homework because Mom was too drugged up or spaced out to notice I was even there? The one who encouraged me to go to med school? The one who taught me how to ride a fucking bike?” He pointed to Black Widow. “Where did you go?”

Vinemont remained completely unmoved. His placid demeanor in the face of such a heartfelt plea sent a chill down my spine. How had I thought for one moment that he was anything other than a monster?

“The same place you’re going. Right back to the house, in front of me, and at a reasonable speed. Now shut the fuck up, get your helmet on, and get on the bike. Stella, get in the goddamn car.” He turned on his heel and stalked through the unkempt grass, back to the car.

“Just go.” Teddy was defeated, crushed under Vinemont’s elegant shoe. Just like me. “There’s no talking to him like this. I’ll see you back at the house.”