Chapter 16: Chapter 16

NICOLE

I’M SORRY NIX.

My body stilled and bitter tears fell down my cheeks in streams. I clutched Luke’s shirt tightly wailing, shrieking, letting out all the pain I felt jabbed in my heart.

He was gone, just like that.

I was an orphan. I was alone. Mom was gone because of me and dad? The stinging feeling inside my heart told me that I was the cause of dad’s death. He was dead. Lifeless. Soulless. And he had left me behind.

“I-I want to see…him”, I struggled to say raising my eyes to the man who had once offered me comfort and love before he broke my heart into a million pieces.

His eyes a perfect mix of hazel and green, his hair more lush and brown giving him a pretty boy look, he nodded as if understanding what I was going through. As if just for once he wanted to be with me and actually missed me!

His hands cradled my wet cheeks and I snorted feeling a whole barrel of emotions choke my throat. I couldn’t fucking breath.

His touch against my skin, we held eyes and he smiled at me soothing me the way he used to when we were in high school.

“I’ll take you to him but we have to get you clean first. Hey, it’s going to be alright”

No, it wasn’t. it wasn’t going to be fucking alright. My dad was dead and although we had a rough patch in our relationship he was still the same man that came to my bedroom to sing Justin Bieber’s songs to me after mom died.

He was still the same man that held my hand whenever I went to get my insulin shots, he was still the same man who taught me how to ride a bike when mom was busy at work. He was my father, the man who took care of me in his own fucked up way and the man who tolerated my shit and accepted me the way I was.

“You want to carry anything from here before we leave? Clothes? Phone?”

I didn’t have the courage to speak. My father’s death had rendered me mute. My pride and the little dignity I had had been shattered by the man standing behind Luke.

The man whose eyes bore into mine searching for answers and I wanted nothing more than to punch his smug face.

I didn’t make any promises I wouldn’t fuck her

Did you tell her she wasn’t the only woman you fucked? Did you tell her you fuck all your clients? Did you tell her, her father’s dead before you fucked her?

When he’d given me hopes about being an us, about him wanting to know more about me, about him wanting to make love, I had merely swooned at his words.

Like a stupid love struck teen on hormones, I had followed him to tell him I liked him only his words stopped me. He fucked me because that was what he did to all his clients. He fucked me only because he felt pity that the little brat didn’t have a clue her daddy dearest was dead.

What was I thinking? I was fucking stupid to open my legs for him. I was fucking stupid to trust my heart. To trust that Callan was maybe the one?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“I’m fine...l-let’s go”

“No one’s fucking leaving”

His raucous voice came from behind Luke and I hated it. I hated him. I hated the fact that his voice had been my weakness while I wailed in crazed desire minutes ago.

Luke turned around and I raised my eyes to watch the B&A associates line up like the flock of sheep they were. Muscular, tattooed, buzz-cut neat hair and an all display of alpha dominance and arrogance.

Berkely, dressed in the custom polo shirt that held his company insignia on his left breast, eyed me with pity. Remaining rooted like a soldier, his dark eyes gazed at Luke as if telling him that it was okay for us to leave.

I wanted to lash out at him. His fucking security was supposed to protect my dad! Cannon had assured me that my dad was safe but on second thought…how well did I know him?

He would have said all the shit to get me lusting over him. To get me in his bed and he had fucking succeeded.

“One of my men will escort you. Blaze will- “

Before the blonde guy who’d come in with Luke could escort us, I looked at Cannon and I said the one thing I should have earlier.

“No”

Cannon grunted, his lips forming a thin harsh line. Berkely searched for my eyes trying to reason with me and Blaze glanced at me as if he didn’t want to handle my shit like before.

He was my first bodyguard if I can remember his neck tattoo clearly. He’d spoken to me once and that was to warn me that if I tried anything funny, my father would have to hire another man to protect my sorry ass. The next day he quit and I got another bodyguard.

“Ms. Montenegro, your safety- “

“Safety? Don’t fucking talk to me about safety when my dad’s body is cold in some morgue somewhere. You were supposed to protect him and instead you let him die. What type of soldiers are you? What type of stupid shit did they teach you in the freaking army?”

I shouted and Berkely flinched but I didn’t give a hoot because none of them understood. None of them knew that from now on I was alone. The one thing I feared.

Blaze’s jaw ticked and I knew it was from the Marine-army jab but who fucking cared. Marine, army, I could call them bloody sailors for all I cared because they didn’t know how to do their jobs. They were liars, they were good for nothings.

“Nix”, Luke held my arm sweetly.

“I no longer need your services, Mr. Berkely. In fact, if I see any of your men or you near me, I’ll pull restraining orders on all of you”

And I would, I certainly would.

The man who’d easily showed me heaven a while ago stepped forward. Like the dumb ass he was, he stepped forward putting some space between me and an astounded Luke.

His face dotted with indignation, his jaw ticked, his blazing dark eyes fell on me and I returned the eye contact with just as much fury.

“Berkely’s trying to help”, his more vibration less baritone voice gritted like metal against metal and I flinched.

I was pathetic as they came, the man in front of me was all about control. He wanted control over everything including me. Goodness in my crazed crush on him, I had submitted to him the way he wanted because I thought that Cannon wasn’t like some of the other guys I met. Wasn’t like Luke!

Only Cannon was the bigger devil. He knew I heard him. He knew I heard every single word in his conversation with Berkely but still he wanted to pretend that everything was okay, that he had some sort of control over me and damn it, he did!

He fucking had control over my body because the immediate moment he came inside me, we bonded. My body was his.

“Like you helped by fucking me?”

“What?” Luke asked.

Blaze scoffed.

Berkely looked the other way and the asshole in front of me scowled.

“I’ll let that slide because you are upset but you are not leaving-“

“Luke!” I called,” take me home”

“Nicole”, Cannon held my hand and the tears came falling down my cheek without refrain. Then with all my might, my palm connected with his cheek.

“You fucked me like you fucked all your clients why are you trying to pretend like you fucking care about me, huh? Did you fuck me because you felt pity on me? Because you knew my dad was already dead? I-I never want to see all of you ever again in my life. You didn’t protect my dad and you certainly didn’t protect me. It fucking hurts to know that the one guy who I-…Luke?”

Making a show out of myself in front of the B&A men, Luke barely said a word as he took my hand in his and escorted me out. The minute I walked out of Cannon’s apartment, my heart split into two and I leaned into the one man who offered me comfort.

I leaned into Luke.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

I hated black.

I hated lawyers.

Yet in the next few days, I had worn more black clothes than in my teenage years. In a week I had seen more lawyers than I had in my entire life and yet in the same same week, I had cried more than I had.

My father’s funeral was one hell of a shit show with congress men I had never seen in my entire life talking about how good daddy was and how brave he was. I was surrounded by hypocrites and as for my dotting aunts, they all were there for one thing and one thing only.

The will. Everybody thought about it. Hell, everyone wanted a portion of it and I couldn’t care less whether my dad left his properties to my two aunts or to me.

I rubbed my forearms glancing out the window and wondering what I would do next. What was next after this? Start a new in a city far away?

“Nix? The lawyer’s here”, Luke said behind me and wiped my tears turning around to tell him to let the lawyer in.

Fast forward to five minutes later, everyone was in my father’s study. My two aunts, Guinevere and Beck, stood in the farthest corner and if you looked closely enough they were practically drooling over what portion my dad had decided to leave them.

Luke who had been by my side since hell broke loose stood beside me.

Our old family lawyer fumbled with his binder and his weird as fuck glasses, before he sat down and laid out the documents in front of me.

“I, Luis Javier Monte-“

“Skip to my part please”, I interrupted wanting to be done with it as soon as possible.

“To my daughter, my sweet pea I leave you all my properties including a yacht your mom and I never got to see. I have fifty percent shares in Pallis Corp and I leave them to you too incase you want to be part of your mother’s extended family. My mansion in Greece is all yours as well as the other futuristic tech company in-“

“I’ve heard enough”, I declared wanting so bad to find a room and cry in.

I never wanted all this. I wanted a family. A father and a mother to love me.

“You are to receive all this in one condition, Ms. Nicole”

“And what condition is that?”

“He knew if he died, no one would be left to take care of you. He left the condition that you have to marry Lucas Hawkins or everything he left you including this house would be shared by your aunts”

Shocked was one way to put what I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I turned around to look at Luke, feeling betrayal scrape through my body like a shrapnel.

“That’s why you were here?”

“Nix, it’s not like that. I love you, I’ve always loved you and I’m here for you. I’m not leaving you”

“You left me six years ago. You accepted my dad’s money and broke my heart. This is isn’t any different”

Holding my hands, he opened his mouth,

“I’m not leaving this time around. I don’t care about the money and all that shit but you. I love you”

Angry? Betrayal? Desperation? I might have been possessed by one of them because the last thing I knew I was nearing Luke clinging to his shirt.

Then, I fell in his arms and I kissed him hard.