Rouge: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Tattered Curtain Series)

Kian

Bloody fecking goddamn hell, we’ve finally got a breakthrough. Merek messaged me the news minutes after Lacey left the party with Monroe, and it was all I could do not to run after the limo and snatch her out. Instead, I sped from Rouge to the Baron Suites and parked within a block in order to have a getaway car.

The Baron Suites is no longer our establishment, but just as the Elephant Room has been virtually unchanged after all these years, the same goes for its staff. It’s an oversight that’s biting Monroe in the arse now because I know plenty of disgruntled employees on the inside. Ones that are eager to feck over their boss.

Early this morning, while Monroe was getting hammered and donating his fortune to my casino, Merek was able to procure a universal hotel key to break into Monroe’s suites. That sham of a rehearsal dinner tonight was the perfect time for Merek and Lorenzo to go in, hastily install cameras above the entrance of each room, and search for the smoking gun.

And feck did they find it…

Monroe brazenly left laptops, hard drives, flash drives, and printed spreadsheets lying about in one of the offices in his suites. Merek was able to download and take pictures of everything. Once he and Lorenzo got back to the McKennon Hotel, he sent file after file and photo after photo to my mobile. I’ve already skimmed much of what he’s forwarded for my review. The bits I’ve read can topple this society’s house of cards.

Turns out, Monroe was the linchpin in setting the O’Shea up. As Charlie’s financial manager, he was in the prime position to take our Keeper down. He cooked O’Shea’s books, stole from rival Garde members, and used the money to persuade the authorities to stack the deck against Charlie. But it wasn’t just Monroe behind it. Many people, inside and outside of the Garde, not only knew about it, they helped orchestrate it.

It gave me peace of mind to know that the families my father and I have collected as allies over the past few years aren’t on the list of traitors. Not even the Luciano, to my pleasant surprise. But for some of the members, I was floored.

According to their communications, Garde families had conspired to keep Lacey and me from marrying, and they pitted us against each other while supporting Monroe. According to one email, they believed that merging the two most powerful families would’ve turned the Garde into a monarchy rather than a semblance of a democracy. An O’Shea-McKennon union was too powerful a force.

They have no idea how fecking right they were.

I plan to make our enemies pay, but that will happen in due time. McKennon revenge takes patience and for now, I just want my queen of diamonds in her rightful place, ruling by my side.

To ensure she can’t say no again when I insist she come home with me, I’ve already made the calls to her father’s defense attorney, my contacts at the police department, the jail, and even local judges and district attorneys. Even at this hour, every one of them answered my call. I informed them all that if they don’t let the innocent Charlie O’Shea out of jail by tomorrow morning, heads will fecking roll. It might take a few hundred thousand dollars to grease the wheels and get our leader processed that quickly, but I’ve got enough money and blackmail to make it happen, and I’ll do whatever it takes to have my wife back in my arms.

With everything falling into place, Merek has ordered me to be on bloody standby. He surveilled the top floor for weaknesses in Monroe’s security and now he’s organizing a team to back me up when we break in to save Lacey. I’m supposed to wait for them, but thinking about her spending one more fecking second with a monster is agony.

Despite the impending storm rumbling toward the city and the occasional splash of rain on my forehead, I pace outside on a brick footpath. It may be in the wee hours of the morning, but the open-air plaza is still full of drunk tourists. They meander from all four directions, traveling to the Baron Suites, an O’Shea casino, an overpass that leads to the McKennon Hotel, and—with less traffic—one of my old haunts, the Elysian Bar. I take turns roaming toward all four as I impatiently wait to go inside Monroe’s hotel and rescue my wife.

I check my mobile to see if she’s called, but the only message I’ve gotten is from Merek reporting that the camera angled on the Elephant Room’s living space is working. Once Lacey entered the room by herself safely, he switched gears and began to gather McKennon security to go inside with me. The lad’s been working around the clock nonstop to get me answers and surveillance. As soon as he updates the security app on my mobile, I should have the feed, too, but it’s killing me in the meantime not being able to see her.

Swiping through my apps, I look to see if it’s finished updating, but my mobile interrupts me when it vibrates in my hand. My heart leaps to my throat when I see “My Wife,” and her soft, sleepy smile fills my screen.

Excitement buzzes through me, and I can barely resist the urge to blurt out everything I’ve learned since we left the rehearsal dinner. But I force myself to wait until I hear her speak, so I know it’s her. Once she does, I can’t hold back anymore.

“Lacey, finally. Monroe gave you back your mobile?” I wait for her to respond, but she’s silent on the other end. “Tine?”

Worry seeps into my accent, but she answers and it all melts away.

“Um, sorry, I had to get to a quiet spot.”

“A quiet spot?” My brow furrows as I lower my voice. “Are you safe?”

“Oh, oh yeah, of course.”

There’s a hesitancy that slows her replies to a cadence I’m not used to.

“Really? Your voice sounds… off. Are you sure you’re okay? I can come to you—”

“Actually, I-I’m not okay.” Her heavy sigh makes my stomach flip. “We need to talk.”

“You’re right. Lacey, I found—”

“It’s over, Kian.”

My pacing halts in front of the bar and I crane my neck to peer at the top floor of the suites. There’s no way I can see her from here, and all I’m met with is a droplet of rain that slaps against my forehead.

“What are you talking—”

“Th-this is hard for me to say, but I can’t do it anymore. I’ve been on the fence for weeks. But I’ve f-finally come to a decision, and I can’t risk it anymore.”

“Risk what?”

“My father. My reputation. My inheritance.”

“Your inheritance?” My hand rakes through my hair. “Oh, now I know you’re talking shite.”

Merek said that she was dropped off at the room by herself, but what if the angle of the camera was wrong? Or what if Monroe came back in after Merek began to organize breaking in to save her?

I lower my voice before asking, “Is Monroe with you? Just say yes or no. I have a plan—”

“No! He’s not with me, alright? This is more about me than him. Tonight I realized that being with you would mean sacrificing everything I have.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you saw everyone tonight. After we talked, Monroe and I stayed for hours and I had a lot of time to think. It made me realize that people came out in droves to support my marriage with him. I don’t want to risk losing millions of dollars by losing the Garde’s backing. This silly puppy love isn’t worth ruining my place in our society.”

Her words started out as wee paper cuts, but as she keeps going, they slice deeper into my chest.

But something is… off. I wish I could see her face. I can read my wife like a fecking book, but behind a screen, she’s always been somewhat of a mystery.

I tuck my hand into my pocket as I resume pacing. The worn queen of diamonds card is soft under my fingers, even as Lacey’s voice gets harder. Still, I go with my instincts.

“That first night, you said I was the type of man you could love. Was that true?”

There’s a pause before she laughs at me. “Of course not. I was wasted and having fun.”

I slowly shake my head. “I don’t believe you.”

“Ugh, Jesus. Of course you don’t. I’ve only been trying to tell you this whole time that I don’t care about you and I want to be left alone. But you’ve only ever seen what you want to see, haven’t you? You’ve conjured up a woman in your head that looks like me, and you even call her by my name, but she’s a fantasy. Your little speeches about knowing the real me? They’re bullshit.” Her harsh scoff makes my head jolt away from the receiver. “You’ve convinced yourself that I hide behind a mask in public, but have you ever stopped to think that’s just who I am? Or does that not fit the love story you’ve concocted?”

“So you mean to tell me that you’re a shallow party girl like everyone believes?”

“Not necessarily a party girl, but I’m also not some head-in-the-clouds romantic, either. Sorry to disappoint you.”

My hand leaves my pocket with the queen of diamonds still in my palm. I tug my hair around the folded card and glance up at where the Elephant Room is.

“Where is this coming from, Lace? Did your mam get in your head or something?”

“She didn’t have to, but when I spoke to her tonight, she did help me realize what’s important.”

“What’s important? Fecking hell, I won’t hear this anymore. I’m coming up there—”

“No! I’ll call the cops! I have enough on you to get you locked up for life. You’re just a hitman, the Garde’s bitch boy to stay on their good side, and you wanted to kill me at one point in time. What do you think the cops will say when I tell them what I know?”

Her threat makes my heart leap into my throat, but I call her bluff. “Go ahead and call them. I’d love to have a chat with one of my friends.”

“Oh, I’m sure Monroe has a few on the squad, too.”

I grimace because she’s likely right. Monroe was making moves in my own city while I was singularly focused on getting Lacey, but my mind races as I try to weigh the odds.

“Listen, Kian. We need to call it, alright? The Baron has goals. He’s going to be a senator, maybe even president, and he wants me by his side. Not only that, he can provide security, support, and get my dad out of jail.”

“But, I know how to—”

“I don’t care!” she cuts me off with a hoarse scream that sounds so painful it makes me swallow. “I. Don’t. Care. You lied to me when you didn’t tell me you were seeing my father, and you lied to me when you told me he was safe. For all that Monroe’s done, he’s never lied to me. Whatever you say now, I can’t trust, and I… and I don’t want to risk my father’s life on some w-worthless drunk’s word.”

The accusation is a blow to my chest and I halt in the middle of the sidewalk as rain peppers the ground. Boisterous, late-night tourists duck into the buildings towering over us to escape the open sky like it’s drizzling acid. They have to dart around me to avoid crashing into my motionless form. It’s good they do, though, because I can’t take another step and one tiny push could send me toppling to the ground.

“You can’t mean that,” I finally whisper, my voice rough with emotion as the faith I had in us finally begins to crumble. I slide the card into my pocket and shake my head in disbelief. “I… I told you that in confidence. You would use it against me now?”

Silence greets me and I think that my words might have hit home until she sneers.

“I’ve never meant something more. You were a daydream for me. Someone I could use to pass the days while I endured a punishment that you caused. I thought you could be my ticket to freedom, but you not only can’t back up what you say, I don’t need you anymore now that the Baron is letting me go. He’s promised to give me everything a Garde woman could ask for.”

A pouring sensation runs down my chest, as if blood flows from the brutal wounds her words cut into my heart. It isn’t until I press my hand to my shirt and hold it up to a mist-covered neon light that I realize it’s just rain mixed with sweat.

Still, I weaken as my emotions bleed out of me. I stagger backward to lean against a wall underneath an awning, barely stopping myself from collapsing.

Only hours ago, at the rehearsal dinner, I questioned whether she wanted to be with me or Monroe. And when I saw her wear her mask in front of the guests, it was so effortless and natural…

Have I been seeing what I wanted to believe?

“Being the Baron’s whore won’t give you what you want, you know. It only makes him rich. You owe that bastard nothing,” the biting tone snarls out before I can stop it, but maybe if I spark that rebellious fire in her, she’ll come to her senses.

“And you are nothing to me, Kian McKennon,” she replies coldly, calling my bluff in an instant. “You’ve screwed me over way too many times in a matter of weeks and I’m done with your lies.”

“So what about everything that you’ve said? Were those lies, too? I wasn’t lying when I told you I love you, Lacey. That doesn’t go away. You can make me do a lot of things, wife. Love you. Kill for you. Die for you. But don’t make me leave you.”

There’s a breath of a pause on the other end before she coughs into her mobile. Concern has my lips parting to ask if she’s okay, but caustic words spit out from her, making me realize that she’s tricked me again.

“The fact you think you’re in love with me is ridiculous. We barely know each other. It’s your obsession with love that’s made you think some divine destiny is being played out. You’re a McKennon and I’m an O’Shea. Your family is a sinking ship, and I can’t go down with you. The Baron is on the rise and he’ll give me the life I’ve always known and free my father. I can’t be lost in silly dreams anymore. I have to face reality, and so should you. And the reality is, you’re a lovesick fool, but you’re not in love.”

Each word is another painful slice. I clear my throat before finally answering.

“What I feel—what I felt… it wasn’t ridiculous, tine. It might take longer than a few weeks to fall in love, and maybe that’s where I went wrong. I had a head start and assumed you’d catch up. But if I was ever lovesick…” I carve my hand through my hair and tear it at the ends. “Well, you’ve cured me of it now, haven’t you?”

She doesn’t reply and I think she’s hung up, but when I see that the call is still going, I try a different tactic.

“What’re you going to do about Monroe? We’re already married.”

Her voice is detached and hoarse when she replies, “It’ll be easy enough to get an annulment. All I have to do is show the video. Anyone can see that I’m wasted.”

The video.

It dawns on me that she hasn’t seen the rest of it yet. And an idea pops into my mind.

“You’d have to get the video from me to use it, you know.”

“Right, um… okay. Go ahead, then. Send it. I’ll get it in the right hands. With my father’s name, we’ll have an annulment in no time. I want to legally marry the Baron as soon as possible. That way, I can ensure my father gets out of jail and I can leave all this nonsense behind me.”

I stare at the top floor, past the raindrops falling freely now, and nod even though there’s no way she can see me. The ringing bell of an opening door beside me makes me step farther out onto the sidewalk to avoid getting hit by the person leaving. Rain dampens my hair and I’m so disoriented I glance over my shoulder to remind myself what building I was loitering outside of.

The low buzz of the Elysian Bar’s bright neon cursive sign calls to me like a siren in the rumbling storm. I turn around to drift toward it, no longer caring if I crash into the rocks.

“I’ll send it.” My voice is just as dead as hers. “Let me know once you watch it. If you haven’t changed your mind, I won’t try to convince you again.”

“Don’t bother waiting by the phone. I won’t change my mind. I’m a princess in the Garde, but I can never be your queen, Kian McKennon.”

And with that, she hangs up.

My heart thuds in my chest like a drumbeat as I open the heavy wooden doors. The entryway is as dark as a cave, but I open the next set of doors, revealing the dim lighting hanging above the bar.

“Kian?” The bartender still knows me by name even though it’s been over a year, but his black brows furrow, wrinkling his olive skin as he dries a beer glass. “What’re you, uh… it’s been a while. You sure you want something?”

“Just a minute, Archie.” I peel off my suit jacket and hang it on the back of the tall bar chair before sitting in front of a video poker machine. “But turn this shite off, will you?”

Archie nods and flicks a switch behind the bar, killing all the video poker screens’ garish lighting and effectively running off any patrons wanting to sit and gamble with a drink. Now that I can see without being blinded, I roll up my sleeves and open the video the chapel manager took for me on the night of the wedding.

With all the various jingles coming from the slot machines in the bar’s obligatory casino floor behind me, it’s way too loud to hear the video properly. But I still take the time to watch Lacey’s mouth move as she recites her vows.

With her gone the past few weeks, I’ve watched this hundreds of times just to see her smile for me again. But there’s never been an ache in my chest like there is now. I want to carve open my sternum, reach inside and cut out the very essence of what’s causing me so much pain, but a man can’t live without his heart.

My fingers hover over her face on the screen, wishing I could caress her freckled cheek as she grins. Anyone paying real attention can see that she’s not completely in her right mind. I was lucky she humored me with the whole marriage scheme at all. She could’ve very well insisted on playing the annulment card soon after the hand was dealt, but something had stopped her.

Whatever it was, nothing’s in her way now.

The realization hurts more than I thought it would when I started this entire scheme. I watch the video once more before sending it to her and then again right after, imagining that we’re both viewing it at the same time. But once it’s finished and there’s no response, I glance around for the bartender.

He’s on his mobile, and I wave my hand to get his attention.

People in the Garde don’t realize how many men and women we McKennons have on our side, and Archie’s one of ours. When the families turned on us and the McKennons were cast out, non-Garde members remained faithful. Being good to people pays dividends. The Garde only looks for allies in the rich, influential, and famous, but it’s the people you help without any expectation that wind up tapping in when your back’s against the ropes.

There’s no one but me and Archie in here now, though, and with all the whirling racket and flashing screens, studying my surroundings to center me just grates at my nerves.

I reach into my pocket for my coin, trying to find some last-minute vestige of self-preservation and self-control.

But it’s gone.

I pull out the worn queen of diamonds card instead.

It’s been folded and refolded thousands of times over the past year, and the creases are beginning to tear. The line I’ve formed horizontally across the center separates the queen of swords from the queen with the camellia in her hand. Two queens. One card.

I look at it so long my eyes become blurry and before I return it to my pocket, I try to flatten the card against the wooden bar. But even though I’m as careful as I can be, my hands are too rough. The card splits in half, severing the connection between the two queens. The last few threads of willpower I have rip away with it.

I fold.

As I stuff the two halves into my pocket, I scan the liquor behind the bar. None in particular call to me, not until I catch the Midleton Dair Ghaelach. I point to it when Archie gets off his mobile and check my messages one final time to see if I’ve gotten anything at all to show that the video has made a difference.

But there’s nothing.

I silence the device and toss it in my pocket before nodding to the bartender. For the first time in  three hundred and eighty-three days, I turn my back on all that I’ve worked for.

“Midleton, neat… and I’ll have a double.”