"It doesn’t matter what I call it, Kade. What matters is what she feels this morning. Did you talk to her? Is she okay with the activities you participated in?" His eyebrows rose and he pursed his lips again. "If your father finds out you got married?—"
"Stop. Just stop right there." My temper flared again. I jammed my hands into my pants’ pockets and puffed my chest out. Lainey wouldn't file rape charges—or at least I didn't think she would—and I hadn’t done anything wrong anyway. "Did you show my father that?"
"No, but?—"
"Then don't. I can handle this on my own. I've already called Price and he'll help me sort it." If Lainey did target me and do something as foolish as file a suit against me, we were married. Any judge in Vegas would see right through that.
"I'm just saying, this is something your father’s money could make vanish." Was he actually serious right now?
I balled my hands into fists, thankful they were in my pockets. He was twice my size, but my temper didn't care. I was ready to slug him.
"Keep my father out of this. Got it?" My finger shot to his chest and I didn't even stop it. He would learn his place in the hierarchy around here, and if he didn't I'd have him fired. "Noone sees that but me. Send me a copy too. I need my lawyer to look at it." Pretending this never happened wasn't an option, but cluing my dad in wasn’t going to happen either. I'd get a kick out of watching them flip out normally, but I'd have to live through those lectures, which had become increasingly more frequent since I turned thirty-six.
"Yeah, okay," he grumbled. "I was just saying..."
"Send them now, Mark."
Turning, I marched off toward the parking lot. The entire walk I was seething. I hated that every move I made, made men like Mark Alvarez thought they could track my movements. They didn't do that to other casino guests, just me. All because my dad owned the joint. Well he would learn not to mess with me eventually. One day I'd run this place and I'd can him faster than he could blink.
My phone chimed as I sat down and started my Lamborghini. I plugged the phone in to charge as I opened the email from Mark and started watching the footage. The first video I opened showed me and Lainey sharing drinks at the bar, so I skipped it, moving straight to the third video. It showed us pinned against the wall with my fingers inching her skirt up her thighs in the elevator.
My dick started to get hard just watching her. It was so hot. The fire between us was unquenchable, so scorching I could feel it the next day just watching a snippet of how it all started. It was no wonder I was so stupid for her, running off to get married like it was as simple as getting dinner. Lainey Rowan was a stone-cold fox and I was nothing but putty in her hands.
But it couldn't be a thing.
She was a nobody. My parents expected me to marry up—or at least at my level—and Dad would never list me as heir in his will if I sank to hers. Not that I felt Lainey was beneath me, but I knew Mom's standards. They'd cut me off immediately if they found out.
No, this had to be resolved fast, and before either one of my parents found out. It was bad enough that I was still mooching off of them and their money at thirty-six. This would shame their reputations and make them so mad they'd be forced to take drastic measures.
And I was afraid of what that'd mean for my life.
6
LAINEY
If it wasn't bad enough what Brandon did to me, now my parents had to get involved. They could've gone home to their place and left me to sulk in solitude, but they'd come to my apartment to wait me out, and they brought Wren and Rowan too. Such a joke.
"Lainey," Dad gasped, standing to his feet as his eyes shot wide.
I shook my head and stormed into the kitchen for a glass of water. As I slung my purse off my shoulder, the marriage license flew out of it and landed on the floor by the fridge. My back shot straight as an arrow. Everything sounds like a brilliant idea when you're drunk, and last night I was totally wasted.
Taking Kade's stupid suggestion of marrying him to make it impossible for Brandon to pressure me down the aisle was quite possibly the dumbest thing I'd ever done. Wild, yes—but stupid. Even worse than the tattoo that still burned my side with every movement.
I heard footsteps coming, so I snatched the license off the floor and tugged the ring off my finger. I had no clue where to stash the things, and my thoughts were all jumbled up thanks to theraging headache that still throbbed at my temples with every heartbeat.
"Sweetheart?" I heard, knowing my mom was on the prowl.
I jerked the freezer open and tossed the ring and the marriage certificate into the ice tray, grabbed a few ice cubes, and whirled around as the door swung shut just in time for me to see my parents standing in the doorway. Dad glared at me with disapproval so hot I had to drop my gaze. I'd seen him look at Nate that way, even Wren a few times, but never me.
"Dad, please," I whimpered, moving toward my cupboard for a glass to get some water. "I have such a headache."
"Where have you been, Lainey? We've been worried sick!" I cringed at his words, or more so the loudness of them. But it didn't stop me from filling the glass with water and dropping the ice cubes into it.
"Baby, what happened? I knew you were nervous but..." Mom's arms wrapped around me, pressing the stiff, soiled fabric of my wedding dress against my raw side. I winced.
"God, Mom, please," I whimpered, pushing her back.
"Look, I don't want to talk about this," I grumbled. I set the glass down and pushed past them, heading through the living room where Nate sat with a stupid smirk. Wren's glassy-eyed expression told me they'd been enduring the brunt of Dad's bad mood for hours probably. I offered a sympathetic look to my sister, but it was all I could manage.
