Wed to the Bad Boy (18 page)

Greyson

I sat in that leather chair and drank my bourbon with a satisfied feeling. I hadn't experienced that kind of pleasure in ages. Ever, if I was honest.

And I could tell by the way she curled up on my lap, her hands wrapped around my neck, that I wasn't the only one.

"You seem quite happy," I observed.

"Yes, Sir," she practically purred it, and I stroked her hair as a sign of affection. Every time she called me that it made my cock stand on end, but she was so damn tired.

I couldn't blame her after the night we'd had.

She was half asleep and in a state of dreamy pleasure as she kissed my neck.

This was my wife.

"I didn't think you'd want all of this," I said to her softly.

"I do," she answered back. I brushed my fingers over the bruise on her collarbone. It was one I put there with my mouth.

She only shivered as she drew closer to me.

"I think you need to go to sleep," I said with all the authority of my position.

She just nodded as she looked up at me, totally spent.

I carried her into the bedroom and set her down on the bed. Her naked form beckoned to me to join her, but not yet. I still had a few things to take care of.

I still have to make some calls. Dennis had put the family in a very awkward position, and I wanted to get untangled from it as quickly as possible.

I would keep my bride and destroy him, but it would be delicate. And it would take time.

I searched the floor until I found my clothing and grabbed my phone out of the suit pocket.

I had half a dozen missed calls and three texts.

The last two were from my father. They both said the same thing.

Urgent, come to headquarters as soon as you receive this.

"Fuck."

I searched out my suitcase and grabbed the first set of clothing in it.

This was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

Chapter Nineteen

Joanna

I reached out for Greyson but grasped only air.

I expected to find my husband when I woke up in our wedding bed. I expected him to be there next to me, holding me. I'd imagined it in my sleep, him reaching out and kissing me, his hands gripping me tightly as he delivered the sweet morning passion he'd promised me.

I opened my bleary eyes to call out for him, entice him back to our bed. He had a promise to fulfill.

What I didn't expect was a room full of men sitting in chairs around me while I dozed.

I shot up and then immediately regretted it, pulling the sheets up around my torso and covering myself.

"I see now why you are so enamored." A deep voice turned my head, and I sucked in a breath.

James Fitzgerald was sitting in the center of it all, his eyes on me.

Five. There were five of them including Greyson. James, Janson, Michael, and David.

David was sitting in my hotel room.

"Greyson, what's going on?" I asked. My throat was dry even as I said it. The look in his eyes was one of anger. Pain.

I'd never seen anything like it.

"That's what I want to know," he said as he threw a robe at me. "Put this on. You're still my wife."

"What?"

"David, here, came across some evidence he just had to share with us," James explained, "something we couldn't overlook."

David held up a phone and pressed play. It spelled out the entire conversation I had with my uncle. All the things I said about Greyson's family, about David. Even the bit about the phone.

They knew I’d stolen it.

"You've been spying for your uncle," David declared. “You stole Greyson’s phone, you handed over key evidence that could’ve destroyed our family.”

"How did you?" I asked.

"So you don't deny it?" Greyson stood, his jaw clenched, his hand in a fist. I flinched as he rushed towards me. “You stole from me?”

He stopped and looked down, relaxing his grip.

"I had no choice, my uncle, he threatened me."

"You could've told me."

"I didn't know you!" I shouted. "It's been a whirlwind, Greyson. I didn't know if I could trust you. I didn't know-"

"You knew last night," He said as he turned away from me, looking out the window. "I loved you, Joanna. I told Dennis you would never betray me, but you already had."

I wrapped the satin robe around me, under the sheets, and stood, walking towards him.

He shied away from me. "I will not have someone in my home that lies to me. That betrays me. By all rights, I should have you executed."

I swallowed. Death. That was what I deserved. That was what I was owed. And it would come for me. If I'd disobeyed my uncle, it would've come from him, but now, because I'd done as I was told, it would come from Greyson. The man I loved.

“I understand,” I said as I stood there. My entire body was numb.

“You won't fight it? You won't beg?” his father asked, intrigued. “I didn’t expect this from someone of your family. I’m impressed. You have no trade you wish to make?”

I blinked at him. Was this some kind of test? I didn’t care, I wasn’t playing their games.

“Why should I? It's coming for me either way.” Death had always been coming for me. There was no escape from it.

“I will not have you killed.” I swear I saw tears building in his eyes but he blinked them away, turning so that I could not see his face. “I made a vow to protect you not twenty-four hours ago. But this is as far as my protection goes. Get out of here, Joanna. Take your stuff and go. I'll have the rest sent from my condo to your father's."

“Greyson,” I pleaded one last time. “Please, I love you.”

“If you did, you would have been honest with me.”

I didn’t have a retort for that. I just shrunk away from him.

Pain. Hurt. Betrayal. It was all laid out for him there in those beautiful grey-green eyes.

Tears streamed down my face.

"Just. Go. Before my father refuses to grant me this request." He reached out and grabbed me, pulling me to him and kissing me one last time. It was painful and awful, filled with malice as his teeth bit down on my lip, but I endured it.

I deserved it.

“Go,” he said one last time.

I wrapped the robe tightly around me and walked out of the room. My bags were next to the door, and I took them as I left the hotel room. I was too numb to process this, but I knew it would hit me. I knew when it did no amount of consoling would take away the pain. The tears.

I'd caused all of this. I deserved it.

And it was going to tear me apart.

Greyson

I stood there as she walked out, feeling nothing but numb. I didn’t want her to go. I didn’t want her to walk away, I knew what she’d been forced to do, her uncle had said as much, but I still couldn’t believe she’d gone through with it. A part of me expected her to be loyal. To be the woman I wanted her to be. I was so fucking angry I couldn’t look at anyone, so I stared out of the window.

It was my fucking honeymoon, for Christ’s sake. I was supposed to be bending her over that bed fucking her like crazy and reveling in her touch, not kicking her out.

“I’m sorry son, it sucks to find out like that.” My father stood. “Come on men, let’s give him some space.”

“No one goes after her, do you understand? You can go after her uncle, go after her family, but you don’t fucking touch her.” I ground out each world like it was important. Like it meant something. This shit mattered to me in a way that no one else could understand. I wasn’t going to betray her, I promised I’d protect her. “She was just a pawn.”

“Yes. We understand,” Janson said as the rest of the men filed out. “Greyson-” he started, but I didn’t want to hear a word he had to say.

“Just go, man. I can’t deal with this right now.”

He nodded and fled the room too. When I was sure they were all gone I walked over to the mirror and looked into it. Bloodshot eyes, naked aggression. This was who I was now.

I’d loved and felt the sting of it as it bit me in the fucking ass.

No more. Never again.

I punched the man in the mirror right in the face, shattering the glass into a million tiny pieces and leaving cuts on my knuckles that oozed blood. It was exactly what I deserved.

I loved her, god dammit. I loved her so much. And she betrayed me.

I punched that fucking mirror again.

Chapter Twenty

Joanna

I stepped out of the cab and clutched my bag, tears streaking down my face. It couldn’t be happening. It shouldn’t be happening. I’d been careless.

I’d been stupid. And now it was going to cost me everything.

Pregnant. Three and a half months.

Three and a half months since Greyson Fitzgerald walked into my life and fucked everything up. Then took it all away.

I looked at the little rundown town home my father lived in on the edge of Brooklyn. It was a shitty neighborhood, but it was home. At least for now. There were bars on the windows and bars on the doors of every major establishment. And every home.

Including mine.

This was my life now. I couldn’t go back to school, I had a life to raise. I’d been planning on heading back in January, on trying to get my life started all over again.

But not now. Not with this baby in my belly.

I’d known, or at least suspected, for months. I was always tired, dizzy, and nauseous. But I didn’t think about it. It was too much, too soon, and I was dealing with so much. A new man in my life, a wedding, threats. I didn’t have time or the capacity to deal with this.

And I hoped I was late because of stress.

I clutched my belly as I entered the little townhouse. My uncle purchased it for my father last year when he was evicted yet again from another apartment complex. It was a mess until I moved in, though. I’d worked hard at cleaning and painting and now it passed muster.

“You home?” my father called from the couch.

“Yup.”

“Something came for you,” he said as he pointed at a package.

“Thanks, Dad.” I grabbed it and pulled it into my room. It was a box from Willa’s sister filled with maternity clothing. Mine still fit but just barely. I wasn’t starting to show too much yet, but I needed bigger clothing.

She was the only one who knew my secret. I knew it wouldn’t stay that way forever, but for now I needed it to stay the same. I needed that little bit of extra privacy.

I grabbed my phone and dialed.

“Hello?” Willa’s voice lit up the line.

“Thank you so much for sending the box,” I said as I stroked the skin over my little peanut. I loved him or her already. With all my heart. It was why I would never ever give it up.

“I would do anything for you, you know that,” Willa said slowly, “including asking you to move in with me. Again.”

“I told you, I couldn’t do that to you, it was too much of an imposition when I thought it was just me, but now that there is going to be a second little life-“

“Yeah, but your father’s place is no place for a baby. Brooklyn is rough enough as it is, but with the men your father attracts, it’s downright awful.”

She had a point.

“I deserve this, Willa. I betrayed him, I have absolutely no right to ask for any special favors now.” It was the truth. It was the way I felt and nothing could ever take that pain away. I deserved it. All of it.

“You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your family, don’t play that with me, Jo. I’ve known you since we were ten years old. You’re too busy pitying yourself to realize what you are doing. You’re wallowing. Yes, you made a mistake. Yes, you have to move on. But you don’t have to do it alone. You don’t have to live there.” Her argument was strong, but I wasn’t buying it.

“You are the only person that doesn’t hate me right now. My father hates me for cutting off my uncle’s money, my uncle hates me for getting caught, and Greyson, well, he’ll never talk to me again.” Greyson. My heart ached just thinking about him. The hurt in his eyes as I begged for him to look at me. Then the disgust. I fought back tears just thinking about it.

“Have you even tried to tell him?” she asked me. She knew the answer to that. I couldn’t. He wouldn’t want me to call him if I tried.

And I hadn’t. I couldn’t go down that road towards rejection.

“Why, so he can force me to get rid of it? I won’t do that. I’d never do that. This is my baby.” I could feel the hormones surging through me as I said it. I wanted to rage wanted to throw something, but instead I just stamped my foot against the floor for emphasis, then I laughed. She couldn’t see it, but I was acting just like a spoiled child.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, sweetie. But you need to be calm, for the baby.” Willa was the voice of reason whenever I needed it.

I nodded.  “You are right. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Willa.” It was something I used to say over and over again as teen.

“You’d be hopeless, that’s for sure.” Her trademark response.

“I love you, Willa. Thank you so much for all your help,” I said. I felt small and weak.

“You know I love you too. I still wish you’d move in with me. I just don’t feel like you’re safe there,” she explained her tone exasperated.

“I’ll think about it,” I finally conceded.  I needed to do what was best for the baby. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?” I asked

“Sure.” She sounded disappointed. What was she expecting? I was broken, and nothing was going to fix me.

I hung up the phone and looked around the tiny room that was meant for baby and me. It wasn’t going to be enough. I’d take her up on her offer tomorrow. Tonight I just needed a place to lay in bed and cry. I missed him.

I needed to take care of that little bundle because it was all I had left. The only remnant of my love for Greyson. I would protect it at all costs.