Broken In Pieces: Billionaire Stepbrother Romance (Wounded Hearts Book 1) (14 page)

“You be good to her or you’ll have me to answer to,” I say to Styx as I give him a farewell hug.

“Always.”

Blade wraps his arms around me and we watch their plane take off. “Come on, baby girl. Let me get you home,” he says while he brushes the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs and gives me a peck on the lips.

I miss Donna already. She truly knows me like no one else and without her, I’m a bit lost. The trip back to the apartment is quiet. I’m lost in the grief of Donna leaving but I can’t help but smile at the fact that she may be moving here. Blade holds my hand, stoking it with his thumb and just like always, it claims me.

Back at the apartment, when we approach the front door, I notice it’s standing open a little. “What the hell!” I shout as Blade grabs me by the arm and pulls me back.

“Stay right here. Don’t move,” he insists.

“Like hell I will. Somebody’s been in my apartment,” I bark.

“Exactly and they may still be in there. Now do as I fucking say and stay right here,” he says through gritted teeth.

Don’t let this little wormy son of a bitch talk to you that way. Who the hell does he think he is….
my inner witch rears her ugly head. Blade’s right, they might still be inside but she’s right too, he can’t talk to me that way. I flip him off and his eyes grow wide with surprise.

He enters the doorway slowly, eyeing in every direction. I do as I’m told and stay outside although I’m not happy about it. He returns to the doorway, “All clear but wait here for just a bit.” He begins placing a call on his cell and I jerk my arm free and dash inside. Blade’s talking to someone as he enters behind me but I don’t even hear what he’s saying. It’s a disaster area. Everything that could be broken is and things are turned upside down from being thrown everywhere. I find myself rambling from room to room in what seems like slow motion. Blade has taken me by the hand but he’s just following along now.

There’s not a room untouched. We reach my bedroom and my mouth falls open. On the wall, written in bright red lipstick, are the words
“STAY AWAY FROM HIM”
.
What the hell does that mean?
I look at Blade and the first person that pops in my mind is Bridgette. She’s a fucking cunt but this would be beneath even her. I searching his face to see if he seems to know. He looks as lost and clueless as I am.

“Listen, baby girl. I don’t know what’s going on here but I’m damned sure going to find out. You’re coming home with me for the time being,” he says. I give him my best ‘
I don’t think so’
look but it’s no use, the tears begin to fall. “I know it looks bad but we’ll get it all cleaned up and back the way it was. My private team is going to go through the place before I call the cops in. If there’s anything here that will tell us who did this, they will find it,” he says as he pulls me into his arms.
His own private team…I guess being one of the richest men in the country has its perks.

“We’re not going to touch anything until they’ve done their sweep of the place. I’m going to take you to the house to rest and then we’ll come back when they’re through. That’s when we’ll call the cops and you can pick up the things you need.” I can’t process anything right now. I just keep going over the shit that’s happened this year.
What did I ever do to deserve so much hell?
I don’t know how much more I can take.

I wander back down to the parking garage in a daze. Blade’s been talking but I have no idea about what. As we get off the elevator, Blade’s team is getting ready to head up. He puts me in the car and goes to talk to them. I can hear him barking orders but I can’t quite make out what they are. When he returns to the car, he puts his arms around me and hugs me tight. “Everything’s going to be okay, baby girl. We’ll find out who did this, I promise,” he wipes the tears from my face and kisses me softly.

The car ride to his place is silent. I miss Donna so much already. I need my best friend with me, to talk to, to help me figure all this out. Then all of the sudden it hits me, I have one of my best friends right beside me. He’s been right here with me this whole time. He’s never wavered, no matter what the circumstances. He pampers me, protects me, infuriates me….it’s in that very moment that I realize I love this man. I love him beyond any love I have ever known.

We walk through the door of his house and the emotions take me over. I grab him by the shoulders and kiss him with everything in me. He returns my kiss with the same fervor and begins walking me backward until I meet the wall. Our tongues are viciously wrestling each other in the hopes of getting more. Our hands are groping and pawing at the other’s body as if they’re starving. “What about Sarah,” I whisper.

“It’s her day off,” he returns and the heat in my body rises. I yank at his shirt and hear the buttons bouncing across the floor. The touch of his flesh drives me wild and I find myself undoing his pants.

“Take me, right here, right now.”

He grips me in one arm and with one swoop of the other, he clears the long mahogany table in the foyer. Everything goes crashing to the floor but neither of us cares. He releases me, only for a moment, to pull my dress over my head. His hands and lips return to ravish me further then his fingers slides into my panties. I feel them glide across my clit on their journey to get inside me and it sends chills over my body. “You’re so fucking wet, baby girl. Did I do that to you?” he questions between kisses.

“Yes,” I whimper.

“Who does this pussy belong to, baby girl?”

“You,” I whisper.

“Say it, baby girl. Tell me.”

“You. My pussy belongs to you,” I blast.

His mouth goes to my breast and he begins sucking my nipples hard and flicking them with his tongue. This shoots sensations all the way down to my toes and I can’t take anymore. “I want you now! I need you!” I cry out. He swings me around until I’m facing the end of the table and bends me over. I feel his hands glide down the outside of my legs as he slides off my panties and I step out of them. He puts each of his hands over mine on the table and spreads my legs further apart with his. He slams deep inside me and I catch my breath. He pauses only a second and then he recoils and slams into me again.

Harder and harder. Filling me deeper with every stroke. The feeling is so intense, so body consuming that I know it won’t be long. “Come on, baby girl. Show me your pussy belongs to me. Show me how bad it wants me.” His words bring an explosion from the deepest depths of me. “Holy shit,” he groans as I clench my pussy down on his massive dick and he releases with me.

Once again, he has drained every ounce of energy from me. He picks me up and carries me upstairs. He puts me in bed and crawls in beside me. I curl into that special place. I really need to be in this spot right now. I need for the rest of the world to disappear. I want to love him and to be loved by him. It’s doesn’t take long before a peaceful sleep takes me.

The ringing of his phone startles me awake. “Speak,” he barks at whoever has called. “So, it’s all clear? ……Be ready to meet with me at nine tomorrow morning……..No, I’ll call the cops when I get there,” he says just before hanging up. “Come on, baby girl. We have to head back to the apartment and get everything taken care of.” He leans down and kisses my forehead before I stumble out of bed and go downstairs to retrieve my clothes. Life’s still a mess but I love Blade and I can handle anything with him by my side.

On the car ride back, he explains that his team went over the place with a fine tooth comb but that we can’t tell the cops that, “I don’t want to give them the chance to mess this up. If there was anything there, my guys will have found it.” I nod in agreement.

“Do you think this was Jarrod?” I ask quietly, because I don’t see it being Bridgette and maybe Jarrod is just using this angle to hide himself.

“I don’t know, baby girl, but if it was, I’m going to nail his ass to the wall. The cops won’t have to worry about dealing with him. They never should have let his fucking ass out of jail in the first place.”

Back in the apartment, Blade dials Detective Torres, explains what has happened and asks him to come over. It seems like no time and there’s a knock at the door. Blade answers it and Detective Torres, along with two officers, enters the apartment. “Damn, someone really did a number here,” Detective Torres says as he scans the apartment. The two officers immediately go to work, taking pictures, lifting fingerprints and going through everything. Blade joins me on the couch and the detective takes the chair across from us.

“Tell me exactly what happened. Where you had been, what time you got home. Everything.” Blade gives him the details of our morning with a long relaxing drive thrown in to account for the time that we had gone back to his house. The detective scribbles and asks questions from time to time, as Blade talks.

Then Blade shocks the hell out of me and pisses me off, all at the same time. “Yesterday, the windows in Sheridan’s car were demolished by someone. I have a copy of the security tape from the garage but you can’t tell anything about the person. Their dressed all in black, they had on gloves and their face is covered by a hood,” he informs Detective Torres.
Why the hell didn’t he tell you that? No secrets only goes so far with the son of a bitch
…my inner witch screams and this time she’s right. I am so fucking pissed, I could scream.

“Why didn’t you call me on this yesterday?” questions Torres.

“I thought it was just some random crime but then when we found out that Jarrod had been released and this happened today, I’m not so sure about that. I can’t help but believe that fucker might have something to do with this,” Blade answers.

“Well, Mr. Hawthorne, I might have thought so too but Mr. Davis was murdered last night,” Torres interjects.

“Murdered,” I gasp in shock.

“Yes, ma’am. And Mr. Hawthorne, I have some questions for you,” he says.

“Questions for me? Why in the world would you have questions for me about the death of that bastard?” Blade questions.

“You may want to do this privately,” Torres suggests.

“We don’t have any secrets, right Blade?” I insist and Blade gives a nervous nod in confirmation.

“Mr. Davis had been tortured before his death. He was beaten so severely that most of his bones were broken. He was sexually assaulted with a foreign object and castrated. The killer carved ‘rapist’ into his chest then shot him between the eyes at point blank range,” explained Detective Torres.

“Sounds like the motherfucker got exactly what he deserved but I still don’t see what that has to do with me. You can’t possibly think I killed him,” Blade’s anger is beginning to show.

I’m so stunned that I can’t even begin to wrap my head around all that’s being said but I find my voice, “Blade was with me last night. He’s been with me every second since Jarrod was arrested. There’s no way he could have done any of this.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything Mr. Hawthorne. The scenario just has your old life written all over it so I have questions.”
What the hell?
What kind of past did he have that makes Torres think he had a hand in this? My life feels like it’s crumbling right in front of me again and I am clueless.

“I’m not part of that life anymore. My present has no connection to my past. That life is just that, my past,” Blade storms.

“I understand that, Mr. Hawthorne but I also know that some very dangerous people owe you. I just hope you didn’t call in a marker on this one,” Detective Torres says calmly.
Marker?
What the fuck is a marker and who the hell is the man sitting next to me? I begin to realize, I don’t know Damien Blade Hawthorne at all.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Blade’s irate at this point and I can see this is headed in a very bad direction.

I reach for Blades hand, “Detective Torres, I do believe we have answered all your questions. I’m tired so I would appreciate it if you would go now.” He looks disappointed as he puts his notebook and pen away, “Yes ma’am, I understand. I have to advise you both not to leave town and Mr. Hawthorne, I’ll need a copy of the garage security surveillance.” Blade gives him a nod and the detective joins the other officers.

“What the hell is going on, Blade?” I whisper through gritted teeth.

“Not now, baby girl, please. We’ll talk later,’ he whispers in answer. ‘Later’ is always the answer and ‘later’ never comes. I’m not satisfied with waiting but I really have no choice since we’re surrounded by officers.

Detective Torres returns to let us know that they have everything they need right now and that we’ll be hearing from him soon. As Blade shows him to the door, the thoughts of Jarrod’s horrid death and the fact that Blade might have something to do with it, invade my mind again.
How can I love this man when I don’t even know him? How can he preach ‘no more secrets’ when he has so many, we may be drowning in them?
The bewilderment of all this doesn’t replace my anger. I am pissed and I want answers.

“Baby girl?” Blade’s voice crashes into my thoughts as he returns back to the living room.

“What?” I answer harshly.

“Do you want to gather some things to take back to the house?”

My anger rises in my voice, “I don’t believe I’ll be going back to the house with you.”

“Sheridan, if you think not coming back to the house will get rid of me then…” he begins softly but I interrupt.

“Then what, Blade? Then I’m wrong? Then I’m crazy? Then I’m stupid? I’ve been all of these where you’re concerned but no more! No more bullshit. No more secrets. No more lies.”

His eyes instantly lock mine and the pain pours out in his voice, “I never lied to you. Not once.”

This pisses me off further, “You’re no fool Blade, so don’t play one. Omitting things and keeping things hid from me is just like lying and I won’t stand for it any longer.”

“Okay, baby girl. Okay,” he holds his hands out in front of him as if he’s warding off all the angry feelings in the room. “I get what you’re saying and I understand. I really do. Please, come back to the house with me and let me get through the next couple of days, and then you can ask me anything you want. I will tell you everything. I just need some time to deal with the shit storm that has just hit before I deal with telling you everything,” he pleads.