Rouge: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Tattered Curtain Series)

Lacey

The Baron is scary quiet. He has been since we left the ballroom. As soon as he shook the last parting hand, he hooked my arm through his and locked onto me in a stiff hold. He hasn’t let go of me ever since, not even to get in the limo or to tap tap tap on his phone the entire ride. I even tried to talk about the impending storm so many guests brought up all night, but he stayed silent. When we arrived at the hotel, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and nearly dragged me to his suites. All without a word.

I’m fucking terrified.

Fear buzzes through me and I have to ball my hands into fists to keep from wringing them. The blood in my veins runs cold by the time we get to the Elephant Room and it freezes altogether when instead of dropping me off, Monroe stops right outside the partially closed door to talk to the bodyguards.

I busy myself by taking off my trench coat and organizing the room like nothing’s wrong. As the minutes pass by, all two hundred and thirty-seven elephants stare at me like they’re waiting for the guillotine to drop. But if I continue to tidy up and fake a good Garde homemaker routine well enough, maybe he’ll get bored and leave with a simple good night—

The door slams behind me, making me jump. The hope that I’ll be left alone drains with the blood from my face as I pivot on my heels to see the Baron standing in front of my only exit.

His mouth purses in a frown as his brown eyes study me, narrowed in thought. Moments pass by, and I can’t stand the stifling silence.

“Did you, um… did you have a good time?”

He’s had a lifetime of putting on a face for the crowd, just like I have. I should be better at reading him by now, but I’m thrown off balance by everything tonight. Literally and figuratively.

“Mhmm,” he answers with a slow nod. “It was very… enlightening, especially near the end.”

“Well, that’s great.”

“Yes, it is.”

He stalks toward me over the marble and my heart thunders as he steps onto the gray elephant-shaped rug I’m standing on, too. He’s not much taller than me, but he is bigger and the displeasure curling his lip as he looks down his nose at me makes me uneasy.

This was a bad idea. I should’ve left with Kian when I had the chance.

“H-how long are you staying in Las Vegas after the-um, the wedding?”

He huffs a dark chuckle. “Oh, I don’t think you need to be concerned about that. I don’t think you should be concerned about anything but yourself right now.”

Shit. I need Kian.

“Wh-what does that mean?”

“It means… I had an interesting conversation with my sister right before we left. You see, she doesn’t remember much about your bachelorette party. But when Kian McKennon asked you to dance, his devil mask sparked the neurons in her addled brain. It wasn’t until you two danced that it all clicked into place. She claims that he was the one you danced with on stage the night of your bachelorette.”

I shake my head slowly and try to laugh it off like it’s ridiculous, but all that can come out is a raspy huff.

“It’s a regular part of Rouge’s show. I-I have no idea who that guy was, but Kian’s not part of the cast. Why would it be him?”

A wide, evil smile stretches within his goatee and he laughs much more heartily than I did as he takes another step forward.

“I know, I know. I thought it was crazy, too. But I still have that picture on my phone. I got a glimpse of him right before he left, and you know? My stupid, sycophant sister might be right for once in her silly life.”

“I—she has to be mistaken—”

“Don’t lie to me, whore!”

He lunges for me, and I scramble backward, collapsing against the floor-to-ceiling window that takes up the entire back wall of the suite. My stomach flies up to my throat at the realization that only inches of glass separate me from a fifty-story fall.

Whatever he screams at me is lost as his fists fly. They collide into my stomach and I double over with a shriek that tears from my throat. As I cower away from him, the diamond studs on my dress scratch my arms. He grabs me by my ribbon straps and before the laces can unravel, he throws me into the glass coffee table, shattering it against my back. Burning cuts slice my skin and pain shoots up my spine. My vision dims as I try to breathe.

I’m curled on the ground, the stabbing glass needles more comfortable than moving anywhere else right now. All the while, he prowls around me, yelling.

I’m ungrateful.

I’m a whore.

I used him.

I’m pathetic.

With every accusation, true or not, he kicks my back, forcing me to uncoil and giving him space to kick my front, too. Agony ripples through my body, but not my face. Never my face.

Even now, when he’s in a rage, he’s thinking about optics, careful to bruise, not break. I’m a deceitful bitch, but he avoids my face because he trusts that I’ll hide the evidence of his fury underneath my clothes. As painful as this is, he doesn’t want to kill me. He wants to shatter my spirit into a million tiny splinters. He’s on the verge of succeeding too, and I’m afraid even Kian won’t be able to piece me back together.

Finally, he calms down enough to merely shout at my huddled form. I breathe in, spurring a cough from deep in my chest and I groan as it racks through my body. Agonizing pain throbs through me inside and out. My lower back is killing me and nausea churns my stomach.

He throws me against the window again and my whole body seizes in terror, bracing myself to go all the way through until I collide with a sickening thud. I want to crawl away, but he snatches me by my hair before I can even sit up.

His sneering face and wild eyes fill my vision.

“Maeve followed you when you sneaked into the coat closet like a fucking rat. She didn’t go in, but she heard enough outside the door. Kian said he wouldn’t let you—his wife—walk down the aisle with another man.”

He tugs the glove off my left hand and shakes my wrist, glaring at the band on my finger. “It’s true?”

Before I can answer, he snatches my wedding ring from my finger, cutting the skin on my knuckle as he rips it off.

“No! Please!” I choke out, making me cough more.

He tightens his grip on my hair before sitting back on his heels and shoving the ring in my face. “You actually married him, you stupid bitch? How is that even possible? When did it happen?!”

“I… it all happened so fast. M-my bachelorette. It’s n-nothing. A mistake. H-he’s o-obsessed with me and… and I let him pretend for a while. It’s over. I ended it t-tonight.”

The lies burn on my tongue, but I’ll say whatever I have to in order to protect Kian from the wrath I’m experiencing right now.

“You Garde bitches are all the same. Always looking for the richest dick to fuck over. Let me ask you. Did you consummate the affair? Did he take what’s mine?”

“I’m… not… anyone’s to take.” I put all my anger behind the last word, but it only exhales on a hoarse breath.

“Oh, see, that’s where you’re wrong, you precious flower. Have you forgotten that you are the Garde’s Red Camellia? You’ve been bought and paid for. Plucked for my pleasure. Mine to do with however I see fit.”

He grabs my pussy through the satin fabric of my dress and digs into my center, making me cry out.

“Whatever freedom you think you have in this society is gone. If you don’t start obeying me, you can kiss your sorry father’s freedom goodbye, too. I’ll sic my men on him in jail over and over again until he’s hanging on by a thread. I just need him breathing until you have my heir, then I can become the Keeper. And if you don’t tell Kian McKennon that you’re getting an annulment, I’ll go after him, too.”

I shake my head. “Y-you c-can’t. He’s too powerful.”

The Baron barks a laugh in my face, making spittle fly on my cheek. “I thought you were at least clever, but it seems you’re as dumb as the rest of them.” He points to his chest as he boasts. “I garnered backing in the Northeast and the Garde to take down your father. I orchestrated your father’s arrest. Twice. I cooked your father’s books and used his own money to pay the police, prosecutor, and judge to keep him in jail. It’s amazing what you can get with billions of dollars swindled from other people. Loyalty and betrayal with one transaction. Now I decide whether your father suffers or thrives with a single text. Do you really think I can’t do the same to Kian fucking McKennon? He’s a nobody in the Garde. No assets. No backing. He’s walked around here like he owns the goddamn place, but he’s a glorified hitman and I’m the one holding all the cards.”

The walls cave in around me. A low rumble resounds from far off and it takes me a moment to realize it’s thunder and not my chest. I breathe through my mouth to stay alive. But every word he says feels like a nail driving into my coffin.

Kian said he had support from families in the Garde, that he could find out how to help my father. And yet, he’s come up with nothing. Does he have as much power as he thinks? Or have people turned on his family like they’ve turned on mine?

Could the Baron kill him?

It feels unbelievable, but even as I think it, my chest aches at even the tiniest possibility. I’m trembling uncontrollably and tears shake from my eyes to spill down my cheeks.

The Baron sneers at me and releases my hair with a shove away from him. “See, this is why I hate makeup. You look like a goddamn disaster. You’ll clean yourself up, but first, we need to make a call.”

My eyes widen as the Baron digs into his pocket to pull out two phones, his and my sparkling red-and-silver one. A sinister smile cuts across his lips and he holds mine up.

“I noticed that Roxana calls and texts you incessantly throughout the day. But then Roxy, with one x, texted you on the way back here. At first, I thought the different spelling was a mistake somehow. But now I’ve got a new theory…”

He presses buttons before holding the screen to my ear.

“Say hello, and nothing else, or I swear it’ll be the last phone conversation either of you has.”

The dial tone rings only once and my heart stops when he picks up. I lick my lips and swallow before speaking.

“H-hello.”

Before I can say anything else, the Baron presses the mute button and Kian’s voice comes over the speaker.

“Lacey, finally. Monroe gave you back your mobile?”

“Tell him it’s over,” Monroe orders and raises his other phone with a number on the screen. “Tell him right now. Or I’ll have one of my men go after him. I nearly put your father on life support without even lifting a finger. Do you think I can’t do worse to a lowlife McKennon?”

My heart cracks in my chest. The pain is worse than any of the injuries the Baron has inflicted yet, and the rapid whooshing of my racing pulse drowns out all my thoughts. Every dream I’d begun to have over a life with Kian snuffs out.

“Tine?” His accent thickens with worry and the word has me crumpling onto the ground as all the fight seeps out of me.

“H-he won’t believe me.” I shake my head. My tears wet the rug underneath me like I’m shedding my last few drops of hope.

“You better put on the performance of your life and make him believe you then. Warn him, and I’ll take him out anyway. Your call. Your father and Kian’s lives are in your hands.”

The Baron unmutes the phone and when the cold screen touches my cheek. I know what I have to do.