Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 98398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“Nothing else? Shouldn’t she be focused on your wedding?”
“You would think, but she is leaving most of that up to the wedding planner.”
“What do you mean? I thought women got a little crazy about those plans.”
“So did I,” Luc inserted. “Amelia, once she got full control, planned every detail from the ceremony to breakfast. Nothing happened that she hadn’t planned except, of course, for your mother manipulating Marksen into kidnapping Olivia.”
Marksen winked as he raised his own coffee cup in a mock toast to himself. “Yeah, I don’t think Amelia planned for that.” He sipped his coffee, apparently not taking the bait.
“You know, if you want, I can still bring him up on charges for it,” I offered with a smirk.
It was a bluff. Olivia was an adult, and she would have to press charges or at least tell someone what really happened, and that would make marrying her abductor a little awkward.
“Fuck you both.” Marksen crossed his arms, and Luc and I both started laughing.
Laughter had become an unfamiliar feeling. The last several years had been about building my career and attempting to get a handle on my mother’s meddling.
How had I gotten to the point where I was actually taking her advice to do damage control? No doubt her schemes were going to destroy the little peace I had left in my life.
I was grateful the three of us had started hanging out at the club again. It used to be a tradition, then we all went our separate ways, to build our empires. It wasn’t until a broken engagement, some blackmail, and a kidnapping that we were able to connect again.
Nothing like a few felonies to bring old friends together.
Luc cleared his throat, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I do need to give you both a heads-up since we are all technically related now.”
“Is it about some hereditary defect that we will have to deal with?” Marksen asked. “Are our nieces and nephews going to be malformed?”
“A family history of mental illness we need to watch for?” I chimed in.
“A curse from a distant relative that will have you dead on your next birthday?” Marksen added.
“Your father lose your entire fortune in a drunken poker game, and you are broke as fuck?” I quipped, adding to the fun and provoking laughter from Marksen and myself as a pretty blonde server approached our table to take our orders.
I had noticed her before. She was a lovely girl, but now I thought she looked dull compared to my new paralegal. Her hair was not as bright a gold, her eyes a dull blue that had nothing on a pair of vivid, jade-green eyes that haunted my dreams last night. Even her skin seemed lackluster, lacking the silky warmth of my girl’s beautiful porcelain complexion.
My girl?
Fuck, that’s a dangerous way to start thinking about a subservient staff member.
I shifted in my seat.
Subservient. Submissive.
Her on her knees sucking my cock.
Fuck. Did it again.
“Bite your tongue,” Luc said, laughing. “I’d have the old man taken out and shot before I ever agreed to sign over a single share.”
We placed our orders for breakfast and more coffee and sat around just catching up and talking about what was and wasn’t happening and what it meant that Olivia wasn’t planning the wedding herself. Once Luc and I had Marksen so paranoid he was texting Olivia every few minutes to make sure she hadn’t changed her mind, I refocused on Luc.
“What was it that you wanted to tell us?” I asked.
“I have officially, and very much against my father’s wishes, severed my family’s ties with the Irish mob,” he said, laying his hands flat on the white linen tablecloth.
“Okay, congratulations?” Marksen said after a pause. “But I’m confused.”
“About what?” Luc asked.
I sat back, listened, and watched, wanting to get the full story before jumping in.
“The words that are coming out of your mouth are good. It’s good news, but your face looks like you have an incurable disease that you just passed to each of us the second we sat at this table.” Marksen’s words were a bit overstated and dramatic, but he wasn’t wrong. I truly hated how infrequently he was wrong.
“Legally speaking, we are all family, or at least we will be if Olivia doesn’t run away screaming before the wedding. My father’s former associates are not going to be pleased with being pushed out of such a lucrative business. I am worried they may try to strike out at my family to get to me.”
“Is Amelia safe?” I asked at the same time Marksen asked if Olivia would be a target.
“I don’t know,” he answered with a shrug of one shoulder as he rubbed his forehead. “I already have extra security on Amelia as well as a few hidden GPS tags that she knows about and one that she doesn’t, just in case she is abducted. The same goes for Olivia and Charlotte. Every precaution is being taken, but that is for my wife and my sisters. I wanted to give you two a heads-up as well. Just in case they were stupid enough to make a move on either of you.”