The Carrero Solution (Carrero Book 3)

“Did. I. Lay. A. Single. Fucking. Hand. On. You?” Jake says it very slowly, so unbearable to hear. Every word precise, oozing with a hint of poison.

“It’s not my fault you can’t remember, baby. But you still fuck hard, even when you’re drunk, and I more than loved it. You made me cum like a freight train.” She throws me an evil look, her arched eyebrow and haughty smile trying to wound me. Ben clenches his jaw and looks away, still obviously affected by her. He has some feelings left for her, but Jake shows that there’s nothing in there for her with him. Inner anger seethes and bubbles inside me, and I want to gouge her eyes out.

Fucking bitch!

“I never, did I?” Jake sounds shocked. My head snaps up to him, wondering what he sees close-up in that cocky whore’s face that I can’t. She hesitates and looks back at him like she’s been caught, and she loses the mask for a millisecond. It quickly draws back up, but I think even Ben caught it, a tiny flicker of shit he knows.

“Yes, you did,” she snaps a little too quickly. The flicker turns into a full-on twitch as she has trouble keeping her face under control.

“No, I didn’t. I can tell when you’re lying to my face … I never had sex with you, did I?” Jake’s tone has completely dispersed. Instead of rage, he sounds shocked, something in his brain whirring and clicking. Figuring it all out, trying to work through the drunken haze of a night he still can’t remember.

“Marissa? Surely even you couldn’t scrape as low as that?” Ben snorts in absolute disgust, and I see how she clenches her teeth, pure hatred emanating everywhere. Ben shakes his head, appalled, deciding that this is the truth right here. He walks off to get another drink.

“That night in the hotel …” Jake’s lost in memory and talking loudly, his voice a little soft, “… You never said my baby. You said you were having a baby.” He seems to be trying to pull something out of his head, running fingers through his hair. “You knew I would see a lie when you faced me that way.” His chin lifts again, and he glares at her angrily.

“You’ve got no clue of what you’re saying.” She throws her hair back over her shoulder and turns to storm off, but Jake’s lightening quick reflexes mean he catches her wrist and pulls her back with serious aggression; yanking her to him with a hollow thud as she hits his chest with her arm, he draws her wrist up to his shoulder angrily. The grip is harsh, even from here.

“You said you were pregnant and having a baby. You asked me what I was going to do about it, but you never actually used the fucking words, your baby … Not once … In that whole conversation. Later, when lawyers and distance separated us, sure … but up close like this … Never fucking once!” He’s standing, but his back is bent, nose to nose with her, voice seething, scarily intimidating, and I begin to wonder if he’s capable of hurting a woman in this state. I recoil behind him, suddenly unsure of this person I’ve never seen before coming out.

My heart is pounding, and every part of me is fighting to intervene. I can’t let Jake hurt her, even if I hate her. I would never look at him the same way. This isn’t what I want. This isn’t who I love. I can feel his hatred for her sweeping off him, around us, like smoke filling the room. So many memories of cruel men with power over me, and I can’t let that happen to anyone else, even her.

“Stop it, you’re hurting me,” she snarls through gritted teeth, but there’s fear in her eyes too. She doesn’t know this version of him, and neither do I. I feel faint with the confusion tearing through me. My hands cover my mouth, and I have no idea what to do. Even Ben looks a little uneasy at this terrifying version of Jake in full-on viciousness, and he tenses as though ready to intervene.

“Did I fuck you?” His glare and nasty growl, through clenched teeth, show a man on the verge of so much rage it’s sweeping off him in droves so powerful the air seems to be cracking around him. His knuckles are white with the grip of his fisted hand by his side, and the one on her wrist almost crushes her. This is a side to Jake I’ve never known, and he’s terrifying.

Her eyes fill with tears, and she stops pulling at her wrist because it obviously hurts. The color drains from her face, her eyes losing a little of their confident arrogance, and her lip starts to wobble in the presence of this version of him. She feels the same fear I feel, but she’s the object of his pure undivided attention, so I can only imagine how much worse it is. He’s almost nose to nose with her in the most vicious scowl I have ever seen. I reach out to his back and touch him, a begging touch, to stop hurting her for me. I may hate her, but I can’t bear to see her hurt like this, not by him or any man. No woman deserves to be treated this way, even if she has done the unthinkable.

His grip loosens enough for the color of the pale skin in her fingers to start warming again. He’s responding to me even full of rage, and I calm down, knowing he’s still in there and responsive to me. He hasn’t succumbed to some red veil of rage and blanked me out. Marissa looks ashen-faced and scared.

I don’t blame her; this isn’t my Jake. This is a man with the potential of someone like Ray Vanquis, with enough strength and aggression to make a woman submit to the truth by any means. Someone who could beat a woman to the floor without a second thought if he wanted to.

The tears start pouring down my face, willing me anywhere but here, so I don’t have to witness what he thinks is necessary. I couldn’t forgive him if he did this. I don’t want to see this, so many memories brimming to the surface of my brain and wounding me.

“You still want me,” she whispers to distract him, aiming for some emotion inside of him that she’s sure he still has for her, trying to manipulate and claw back some of the man she previously knew. But this time, she’s pushed him too far.

“Marissa, I fucking hated you for years, but I don’t hate you anymore because I don’t care enough about you to feel a single fucking thing.” He lets her go, with a voice as cold and empty as ice, and steps back, much to my absolute relief. I feel faint with it.

His words must sting as her eyes fill with moisture and tears come pouring down. I’d be dying right now knowing that Jake could be so brutally cold and cruel and emotionally dead inside if it were me. My body sags with relief that he’s backed off, and I’m so confused with all the emotions hitting me over this scene.

I shiver and wrap my arms tightly around myself, willing my Jake to come back into this room. I hate being here without him. I need him to be the one dealing with this, not this crazy, rage-brimming Jake that Marissa seems to have pulled out of him. He’s like a stranger to me.

He stands towering over her, every part of him poised and solid. Even Ben has moved away far enough for me to understand that this isn’t over, and I start to tense again. That tingle in the air, a mix of dangerous and crazy, lingering, and I am on the verge of tears again. My body, heart, mind, and soul struggle to endure this.

She doesn’t say anything and looks from one man to the other in desperation, like she knows she’s losing and is floundering at what to do. Afraid of the man before her, her face softens, her tone changes, eyes widen to alarming Bambi-type levels. Her whole body seems to sag and turns submissive.

“Ben?” she whispers tearfully, reaching out for him, turning on the tears and victim eyes much like my mother used to do, trying to get some sort of comfort or reaction. She’s acting scared, hoping Ben will protect her from the obvious lunatic in the room.

She’s completely nuts.

“I don’t think so, sweetheart. I’m done being head-fucked by you. Just answer him.” Ben downs another drink, clinking the glass down onto the counter without another look her way. Offering no help at all, he does shift closer, and I wonder if, deep down, he would still protect her, especially from this angry and raging man standing in front of her. Jake is possessed by something, by her and their past and how she nearly messed up our future; all his anger is focused on her, built up, ready to burst.

She raises her chin in one last show of pride, and then nastiness moves in, darkness taking over her face as she stands tall to meet Jake with matched venom. She’s decided to stand and fight. A switch in her head goes off, and a new personality steps in; she knows she’s lost, so she’s going down in a blaze of fire.

“All your lame-ass drunk self could do was talk about her.” She nods at me nastily, eyes never leaving him, defiantly. “Some fucking assistant you were hung up on, then you told me to fuck off before you passed out face down, fully dressed.” She’s decided that if the truth is to come out, she will do it in grand fashion, twisting the knife simultaneously. She’s on a sinking ship and doing herself no favors.

A massive gust of relief rushes through me, my heart soaring, squealing, and aching that Jake obviously loved me even back then. It makes me forget the past few minutes in elation. But I need to hear her say it. I need to be a hundred percent certain. I want the actual words to free us from all the anguish finally she’s held over us these past few months.

“So, I never touched you in any way … Nothing? Not once?” Jake is back to snarling as pieces of the puzzle click into place. The agony of these past few months and all the drama and hassle she’s caused over a baby that wasn’t even Jake’s? All of that, and there was never even a tiny sliver of a chance at it being his. He is ripping her head off with his eyes, yet his ferocious, unpredictable poise has slowly dissipated. Her confession was all he wanted. It was all an act, a maneuver, another Carrero manipulation on his part.

“You were as much of a disappointment to me that night as you always have been, Jacob. You don’t know what to do with a real woman like me, and you sure as hell couldn’t get it up. Yeah, I fucked Ben to ensure I got pregnant because payback is a fucking bitch!” She slaps the glass out of Ben’s hand since he’d sauntered over to hear every word from the lying whore’s mouth. It smashes to the floor, and she turns on her heel, storming away.

Jake seems to be immobilized in rage and maybe relief, while Ben, with blinking disbelief, is still trying to take in the fact that he is one hundred percent the father. He’s ashen-faced as though it’s dawned on him that he’s having a baby … with her!

He has a look I must’ve had when I learned about tadpole and Marissa’s baby.

“Marissa?” I call after her, and she stops, spinning her head to me with a look of complete hatred. I toss her phone onto the floor between us, not caring if I break it, and scowl right back.

“You’re pathetic … It’s sad that you had to go to such lengths to get something he gave me so freely.” I lift my chin and slide my hand into Jake’s, anger tremoring through his body, vibrating with rage, as I tug him with me. I’m no longer afraid of that scary psycho look on his face. Jake would never hurt me that way, no matter how seething he is, and my touch seems to calm him. He never left me here at all. He needed to push her to break her barriers and confess, always the manipulator and never a Vanquis.

I was stupid ever to doubt him.

“Take me home, Jake. I want to go home.” I turn my adoring eyes to the man who loves me, smug at the seething despise on her face as she watches us. Secure in just how little he must’ve ever felt for her to be able to scare her that way and now elated that her hold over him is gone.

Jake slides an arm around me, pulling me in, watching the sheer toxic rage in her eyes, and we leave Ben and Marissa to sort out the future their baby will have now. As we walk out, I niggle with a little remorse at poor Ben’s crushed demeanor.

With every step away from that apartment, Jake seems to lose some of the soaring anger coursing through his body and starts to loosen up. Every footstep pulls him back to the man I know and love, and as we reach the stairwell, his palms slide over my stomach with a huge sigh of relief. He pulls me to a stop before hauling me into his arms and exhales slowly into my hair in an all-consuming full-body embrace.

“I’m sorry I scared you, Bambina … Really, really sorry. I just needed to push her for the truth … I needed her to be scared enough to admit it.”