Odin (Billionaire Titans Book 2) (16 page)

I
woke
up on the floor with my hands zip tied behind my back. A man with a gun stood by the door. What felt like the worst migraine of my life pounded against the inside of my skull.

QB appeared in the room, squatting down in front of me.

“Clara is a lovely girl. But she did a very nasty thing to one of my men. When he wakes up, he’s going to want payback. I can talk him out of it, but I’ll need some incentive.”

“Fuck you,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Well, no, it won’t be me getting fucked, it will be Clara. Please try to follow along. Anyway, I just need to know where Piper Kipton is. And then we can avoid an unpleasant afternoon for the good doctor. You’d watch, so maybe you’re into that sort of thing. Eh, variety is the spice of life, right? So, yes, you can either tell me how to find Piper or you can watch Clara get raped and then get her pretty throat cut. And then we’ll put a bullet in your head, and this time make sure you’re dead. After that, we burn the house down and look for Piper in the ashes. Comprende, amigo?”

My heart pounded in my chest. I knew he’d probably follow through on his threats whether I told him what he wanted to hear or not, but I had to at least stall him and hope for a miracle.

“She’s in a room behind the bookcase downstairs,” I said. I hated myself, but I’d been given an impossible decision to make. I went on to explain to him how to activate the door, whether or not it had been locked from the inside.

“Excellent!” he said, smiling. “We’ll go pay her a visit, then. You sit tight up here until I need you.” He patted my cheek before leaving the room.

I hung my head in shame.

The man left to watch me sat down on the end of the bed.

“She’s got a nice ass. Hell, the boss doesn’t even have to pay me for this job if she’s as hot under those clothes as I think she is,” he mocked me ruthlessly, and my blood boiled. I lifted my head to reply, when over his shoulder I noticed a figure in the window behind him.

A man clung there, a gloved finger to his lips indicating I should be silent. With the sun behind him I couldn’t make out who he was, but he was too lean to be Atlas. He swung to the side, where he could stand unseen on a ledge that ran from the covered back porch around the side of the house.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I said to my captor.

He laughed. “Piss yourself for all I care, Titan.”

“That’s not what I need to do. Do you really want to clean up the mess I’m going to make? Or smell it?”

He got up and went into the bathroom, giving it a once over to make sure nothing was stashed inside. He cut the zip ties from behind me and put new ones on in front. I gave him a look that said it would be difficult to navigate with my hands bound. “Do the best you can. Get in there. Don’t fuck around. I’ll be right here. Remember which one of us has the gun.”

I shut the door behind me and went directly to the bathroom window. It wasn’t large enough for a man to fit through, but it opened to the outside.

Cranking it open, I was greeted by a familiar face.

Nolan Weston.

“Your father thought you might need a babysitter with big brother gone,” he whispered. He noticed my hands and slipped his knife through the window to cut me free.

He handed me a Glock and an extra clip through the open window. “How many hostiles?” he asked me.

“I’m not sure. Three or four at least. QB is here.”

I thought Nolan would fall off the roof he looked so stunned.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Without a doubt,” I said. “We have two security guards I haven’t seen, past that it’s just me, two women, and a baby.”

The man outside pounded on the door. “Times up, Titan. Pull your pants up.”

Nolan nodded and disappeared from view.

“I can’t get them back up. Can you help me?” I called out to the asshole guard.

The weapon I had was not silenced, so I grabbed a large, fluffy bath towel and wrapped it around the barrel. If the group downstairs had made their way into the secret room, I hoped they wouldn’t hear a muffled shot.

The door opened and I raised my Glock, hitting him directly in the forehead from point blank range. My body registered initial shock and revulsion, but he’d given me plenty of reason to wish him dead.

I hurried to the top of the stairs, ducking out of sight, listening for any sign that my activity had been noticed. I heard muffled voices, but nothing that indicated that I was in immediate danger. I slipped back into the bedroom and found Nolan outside the window where I’d left him. I opened it wide and he climbed inside, looking me up and down.

“You look pretty good for a dead man, Odin,” he said, crouching to unzip a small bag. He pulled out ammo clips and stuffed them into his pockets. “Don’t know if you’ve tried to use your phone, but don’t bother. They’ve got some sort of jamming device set up. Nothing in or out.”

I nodded and rubbed my neck, trying to ease the pain in my head.

“Give me the lay of the land. Quickly,” he instructed.

“Downstairs there’s a secret room, just off the foyer, to the left of the stairs. Atlas’s fiancée Piper, and their daughter are in there. The baby is a newborn. Clara is here as well, she’s the doctor who brought me back to life. QB seemed interested in finding Piper.”

“Yeah, with her, he can make Atlas do anything he wants. And he can find your father. With him, he could find me. And Richard Hunt. Piper, and that baby, would be the first in a string of dominos.”

Nolan took a deep breath and cracked a smile. “This might be tricky. Zero friendly casualties. We’ve lost enough. Let’s go play Atlas.”

T
he man QB
called Wallace led us into the secret room, and I immediately heard sounds of a struggle. He yelped with pain, then a crash.

“You fucking bitch!” he shouted, then I heard Piper scream and Arthur, the man behind us, hustled into the room to help subdue Piper.

Moments later, they marched her out, arms bound behind her back. Wallace had deep lacerations on one arm and his left cheek had been slashed clean through.

It looked like Piper had defended herself with one of my scalpels.

QB went into the room, returning with a bundle of Lea in his arms. “Dr. O’Grady, patch my man up or this baby gets exactly what he got. While Piper watches.”

I was almost physically sick at just the thought of it. Piper sat on the couch, bleeding from the mouth and nose. The man I’d injected lay on the other end of the sectional, still slumbering.

“I will. But let me help her,” I countered.

“Kill that cocksucker,” Piper hissed.

QB frowned. “Really, Piper? In front of the baby?”

He was as evil as evil gets.

I went into the kitchen for towels, and I came back and cleaned Piper’s face. Her nose was probably broken, but her teeth appeared to be intact and her jaw was fine. I went back into the kitchen and warmed a bottle in the microwave, handing it to QB, who sat bouncing Lea like a kindly grandfather.

“Very thoughtful, Clara,” he said, smiling his infuriating smile.

I led Wallace back into the makeshift hospital room, where I cleaned the deep wounds on his arm and bandaged them. His face was going to need a talented plastic surgeon, but I begrudgingly managed to prevent him from bleeding out.

“How are you, Wallace?” QB asked, feeding Lea the bottle I’d given him. Wallace gave a thumbs up. “Are all their phones accounted for?” QB’s men both nodded. “Good. Wallace, go outside and turn off the dampener. I need to check with my team in Milan.”

QB then pulled his collar to his mouth and spoke into a small microphone I hadn’t noticed. “Bring Odin down, we’re ready to film.”

Lea finished her bottle and QB put her across his shoulder, burping her with a practiced hand. I looked at Piper, who had absolutely murderous intent in her eyes.

QB put Lea back on his lap and slipped the pacifier clipped to her onesie into her mouth. He watched her cranking away on it, then he looked up. “Beautiful child. She really favors you, Piper.”

Piper seethed.

Wallace entered the room and nodded to QB, who pulled out his phone and scrolled through, looking for a particular message. He furrowed his brow. “Well, I should have known that the day couldn’t be a complete success,” he said. “It seems Miss Conway eluded the trap in Milan. Everyone else is dead or dying.”

Piper sprung up from the couch and lunged at QB, despite her hands being bound behind her back. Arthur intervened, slamming her back to the couch.

“Do you not care about the safety of this baby at all, Miss Kipton?” QB asked. “Thank you, Arthur. Please go upstairs and see what’s keeping them. I have an early dinner reservation at La Cirque and I want time get a nap before then. Jet lag doesn’t get any easier as you get older.”

The way he could change gears from polite conversation to maniac killer was deeply disturbing.

Arthur started up the stairs behind us, and shots rang out.

His large body crashed to the floor next to us, and the room became a whirlwind of activity. QB jumped to his feet, moving behind his man Wallace.

A lithe man with graying temples and a tight goatee vaulted over the bannister, avoiding gunfire. He rolled to a crouch behind the chair QB had been sitting in, and he unleashed a barrage of bullets into Wallace.

He turned to Piper and I. “Stay low. Stay with Odin!”

QB spun and fled through the kitchen, and it was then that I noticed Odin behind us, pistol in hand.

“Are you?” he asked, his voice trailing away as he saw Piper’s face.

“We’ll be fine! He has Lea!” I shouted.

The man who came down the stairs first had followed QB out the side door. Odin walked directly to the drugged man asleep on the couch and pressed the barrel of his weapon to the man’s skull. He turned his head slightly and pulled the trigger. The explosion of skull fragments left no doubt that he’d trouble none of us again.

Gunfire erupted in the yard, followed by the voice of Odin’s ally. “I’m hit! Odin, I’m hit! Front door!”

I
n modern Olympic pentathlon
, competitors shoot at mounted targets. When the sport was introduced to the games, in 1912, it consisted of five events that were to simulate a soldier, perhaps captured in battle, effecting his escape.

He’d have to fence, demonstrating his mastery of a sword, then swim a distance. Show jumping came next, and the event is unique among Olympic equestrian events in that athletes and horses are paired randomly. After that, the man must compete in a shooting event that has since been combined with a foot race run to determine a winner. In other words, the prisoner has escaped and must shoot his way out of danger while escaping pursuit.

I was an Olympian in pentathlon who missed a medal only because an injury prevented me from shooting accurately.

Despite my current handicaps, my broken wrist had long since healed. I hurried through the front door just in time to see QB reach the end of the driveway and turn up the street. He was carrying Lea in his arm like a football, sprinting to a black Escalade parked at the corner.

If he crossed the neighbor’s lawn, I’d have one shot at putting him down while he was on grass. That way, when he dropped Lea, she’d have a much better chance than on the concrete. One way or another, I wasn’t letting him get in that truck. He hit the edge of the grass as a head appeared over the hood of the SUV, on the opposite side. His driver. The shot was long, but clear. I depressed the trigger and the man fell, instantly.

QB turned around, startled by the sound of the gunshot. He was in the grass, right where I wanted hm. I advanced slowly, my weapon extended, ready to fire.

He held Lea in front of him, putting his own gun to her tiny head.

“I’ll do it, Odin. You know I will. Lower your weapon. I’ll put her down. I just want out of here. Do we have a deal?”

He looked down at her, then back at me. My head pounded. I stopped moving toward him, but my weapon remained raised.

“Last chance, Odin. Do you really want her death on your conscience? An infant?”

He was walking slowly backward as he spoke. In seconds, he’d be on the sidewalk again. I had no choice.

I inhaled deeply, aimed for his left eye, and squeezed. He collapsed in a heap, Lea rolling away to his left. I sprinted, such as I could, but Piper beat me to her baby. She dropped to her knees sobbing, clutching Lea to her chest with both arms.

I arrived at her side and dropped to the ground. “I’m sorry, Piper, I’m so sorry, I had to do it, please tell me she’s- “

Piper wiped the tears from her cheek and turned Lea over to face me.

She was definitely a Titan. She was smiling.

O
DIN

Three Months Later…

W
e gathered
on the beach in Vanuatu, a private beach as soft as flour, in the shadow of the home of Nolan and Camilla Weston. The sun was just thinking about setting, and a warm ocean breeze stirred the leaves of the palm trees towering above us.

Milan and Las Vegas had left scars on us, physical, emotional, and otherwise.

Nolan had suffered gunshot wounds to his chest and shoulder from QB, missing his heart by mere centimeters. Clara’s fast action had saved his life.

Raven likewise found help for Atlas just in the nick of time, and the two of them spent three weeks in that cottage near Milan driving each other crazy. His wrist would heal, but the damage to his leg meant he’d walk with a permanent limp and that he wouldn’t be running marathons anytime soon.

Atlas sat leaning against a palm tree, Lea asleep on his lap. Piper was in the kitchen, grilling swordfish we’d caught the previous afternoon.

Nolan’s father-in-law, Richard Hunt, a dear friend of my father, joined us with his wife, Emma, and young daughter, Hadley. Hadley was crawling, fascinated by Lea and by the beach, getting into everything. My younger brother, Canaan, played peek-a-boo with her.

Emma sat swapping stories with Raven, and my father watched over them, smiling and sipping a glass of wine that came from a $25,000 bottle.

We’d gathered at the Weston’s’ home to get away from everything, and finally to mourn.

We’d lost a dear friend in Nathaniel. Carlo and Randall also sacrificed everything to preserve us.

Their families had been compensated financially so that they wouldn’t need to work for several generations. It wouldn’t bring their loved ones back, but it was the least we could do to demonstrate our appreciation.

Achilles had been cremated in Las Vegas, and I brought his ashes to the South Pacific with me. We sprinkled them into the water from the side of Nolan’s boat, those of us who knew him relaying favorite memories.

As terrible as QB had made our lives, his reign of terror had also brought people together. Atlas and Piper had made it official during a small ceremony in Las Vegas once he was back home. Raven served as Piper’s maid of honor, and she caught the bouquet, despite her best efforts to avoid it. She immediately declared that she was targeting Annalise Rubidoux.

Atlas’s old friend Barrett Evers served as his best man, which stung a little bit, but my pain was eased by the fact that the billionaire threw his legal team at the mess we’d made in our quiet Las Vegas suburb, with bodies strewn in the street and all over the house and yard. In the end, no charges were filed against any of us.

Which brings me to Clara.

Once QB was gone and everything settled down, I moved her into my penthouse at Arroyo Place. I surprised her with a beagle puppy, Abner II. The original Abner died of a broken heart after his master, Callum, was killed.

I started a scholarship at MULV in Callum’s name, insuring a worthy Irish student would have his or her tuition, books, room, and board paid for each year, in perpetuity.

Sitting on that beach, holding Clara’s hand, surrounded by friends and family, I felt a peace I never thought possible.

Piper’s swordfish was exquisite, and we all ate and drank until we nearly burst, laughing all the way.

After dinner, the babies went to bed. Richard and Emerson sat in rocking chairs on the porch, enjoying Cuban cigars.

Raven, Piper, Canaan, Emma, and Atlas joined Camila and Nolan on the beach for a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and sipping cognac. The waves crashed, the sky filled with what looked like a billion stars.

Clara and I excused ourselves for a walk, strolling hand in hand down the beach as the water splashed and lapped at our feet. We stopped and looked out into the Pacific, the lights of a freighter twinkling in the distance. I stood behind her, my arms draped over her shoulders. Our feet sank slowly as the tide rose.

Just then, a shooting star zipped across the night sky, larger and brighter than any I’d ever seen.

“Make a wish!” Clara exclaimed with delight.

“What could I possibly wish for?” I asked. “I’m holding the girl of my dreams on the most beautiful beach in the world, with all my best friends and family a few hundred yards away. I just ate the most delicious meal of my life. Wishing for anything seems like pure avarice.”

“I don’t know,” she replied, looking down at her extended, bare, right ring finger. She looked back at me and I kissed her softly.

“You know, I never believed in that whole ‘wish upon a star’ thing, but maybe there’s some validity to it.”

I dropped to one knee, right there in the ocean, and reached into my pocket. I’d been waiting for the perfect moment, and I didn’t think a better one would come.

“I hope it isn’t too big,” I joked. But it was enormous. And flawless. I slipped it on her finger and looked up into the only two things sparkling more gloriously than those stars overhead, Clara’s beautiful eyes.

“Clara, will you make me the happiest man in the world and spend the rest of your life with me?”

Her emphatic “
Yes!
” echoed down the beach and into the ocean, and a nearby pod of pelicans replied in song.

I stood and lifted her into the air, swinging her around until we both collapsed, laughing, onto the soft sand.

“It’s too bad beach sex sucks so bad, because I
really
want you right now,” she whispered into my ear, biting my earlobe playfully.

I looked up and down the beach to make sure we hadn’t been followed by anyone from our party. “It can’t be that bad,” I answered.

“Sand gets
everywhere
,” she said.

“And then we jump in the ocean and rinse off. And then we clog up all the jets and valves on Nolan’s hot tub with whatever sand remains,” I kissed her deeply and pulled her on top of me.

She wore nothing beneath her sundress, her curves tantalizing and tormenting me all evening long. I pulled her dress up and let it fall around us as she reached down and worked the belt on my khaki shorts. I lifted up high enough for her to slide everything off my lower half, and I peeled my shirt off and tossed it away.

My cock swelled instantly in anticipation, and she rose up just high enough to let it slide inside. She gasped as it penetrated her, settling onto me with a contented sigh. Her hips rolled in slow circles, feeling me touch everyplace inside her. Her eyes were closed, all focus driven inward. I reached up and slipped the straps of her dress down her arms, freeing her breasts. My fingers found her nipples, dancing around them, plucking at them, then disappearing.

She leaned back, palms on my thighs. She was magnificent. I thrust upward, probing deeper inside her. She responded by grinding down, rocking her hips harder, her hands moving to my bare chest. She bit her plump bottom lip, and the sight was so sexy I nearly lost it then and there.

I fought my orgasm, quelling it as hers arrived.

She gasped, “I’m so close. It’s right there. Oh, God!” As she clenched onto my cock, I rolled her nipples between my fingertips. Her moans were so sultry that I just had to kiss her perfect mouth. I pulled her face to mine, kissing her deeply as I redoubled my efforts to thrust into her. When we finished kissing she dismounted and rolled onto her back. The waves were up just past us now, and I worried that my clothes might be lost in the process.

But not enough to stop making love to my gorgeous fiancée.

I entered her again, her ankles crossing behind me. My thrusts were slow and deep, and our kisses were frantic. My arms wrapped around her, doing everything I could to get more contact between our bodies.

I’d never felt so close to anyone in my life, and her gasping, trembling orgasms let me know that she was sharing the absolute ecstasy I was feeling.

She pulled me close and spoke directly into my ear. “Come inside me, Odin. I want it so bad. I want to have your baby, I want to be the best wife to you in the history of wives, I love you so much!”

As she spoke, my thrusts became harder and deeper, my hands pushing the backs of her thighs to tilt her pelvis and grant me everything her body had to offer. She cried out as a powerful orgasm tore through her, clawing at my back.

“Oh fuck, Odin. What are you doing to my body?” she fairly screamed, and I put a hand behind her neck to lift her head above the rising tide.

I looked into her eyes and smiled.

“I love you so much, Clara. I want to fuck you all night but we’ll drown if I don’t come soon. Make me come. I want your body to
make
me come.”

She pulled me tight, biting my shoulder as she climaxed again. This time, her spasms were so intense that I couldn’t have kept my orgasm away for another heartbeat if I’d been offered all the riches in King Solomon’s mines.

I exploded, gasping and growling, pumping my entire soul into her. She shook mightily, and I was sure my back and shoulder were bleeding, not that I cared.

We rolled onto our sides, sitting up to avoid the relentless waves. My shorts floated by, and I snatched them just as they almost made their escape into the endless, shimmering water.

We staggered back up the beach, laughing and falling, finding dry powdery sand once more.

We walked hand in hand, arms around each other, kissing and laughing, and made it back to the fire to find just Atlas and Piper sitting there.

“Set a date yet?” Piper asked. Neither of us answered right away, so she continued. “No girl yells ‘yes’ like that unless she’s been proposed to.”

“By a Titan,” Atlas added, raising his bottle of beer in a toast to us.

I looked at Clara, my soulmate, my future wife, and I smiled. Despite what it had taken to get us here, I was grateful for the destination.

And I would make sure Clara never regretted the moment she’d chosen me.