“Where were you? I tried calling to let you know Caius was on his way back to the UK.” Oliver glanced sideways at Drake.

“Busy. I was with Bethany.”

Oliver grinned and nudged his head. “Good.”

The sound of a jet arriving halted any conversation. Drake had no intention of telling his friend what his activities were when he became incommunicado from everyone. He didn’t want his time with Bethany to get interrupted. God only knew how much he wanted to make up for the time they were apart. So he stayed with Bethany to show her she was the only woman for him.

Drake watched the private plane taxi the runway from the confines of the hangar. His eyes narrowed as it moved closer to where he stood, forcing him to step back to the side with Oliver and Malcolm. The jet engines whined loudly before it died down and the hatch opened. Chaps came out first followed by a dishevelled Caius Harvey with Vincent taking the rear. Vincent’s paw of a hand squeezed Caius’ shoulder and looked like he could easily break it the man’s collarbone. Drake saw Aidan in the cockpit talking with the co-pilot before he disappeared and emerged from the hatch.

Caius looked at Drake in shock.

“Rosen, you can’t do this!” Spittle spewed from Caius’ mouth as he became apoplectic.

“Calm down, Harvey. You don’t want to have a heart attack and let Vincent feed you to the gators.”

Caius was cadaver-coloured under his ruddy complexion and he looked like he was ready for a place six feet under. He swung his glare at Vincent who had a smile the reptiles would have loved.

“Didn’t I tell you the same thing, tovarishch?” Vincent grinned. “We don’t need to fly all the way to Florida. I have a pet I haven’t fed because I was busy looking for you.”

“Drake!” Wild panic whitened Caius face. He reddened again.

Drake chuckled. “You could pass for a candy cane. “White, red, then white the next?”

They heard something trickle and everyone looked outside. The sky was clear.

“Harvey’s fear has become a puddle on the floor.” Chaps Abhayananda, the Ghurka in their team, commented quietly.

Everyone shifted their gazes back to Caius. A dark stain spread through the inner seam of his brown slacks.

“Ahh shit, Spassky, did you really have to tell him?” Aiden scowled. At Vincent’s guffaw, “Right, you can clean the mess up. I’m not getting near that ammonia.”

Vincent snuffed his wide smile, grumbling in Russian under his breath.

“Rosen, please!”

Oliver limped to Drake. “Take him to interrogation. We’ll take it from there.”

Caius sobbed as he was dragged by Chaps and Vincent. His pleas echoed through the hangar.

Drake looked at Oliver’s leg. “Are you sure you’re up to this? Aiden can take your place.”

“It’s not Aiden I’m worried about. Vincent tends to play with his suspects until he becomes bored with them. He can kill a man by just talking to them.” Oliver replied wryly.

“Bloody hell, Cray.”

“Part of our former lives.” Oliver lifted a nonchalant shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just need to have my prosthetic checked.”

Drake grunted shaking his head. “So glad I’m not your enemy.”

They ambled towards the door where the Caius had been ushered to.

“So did you fix things with Bethany?”

One side of Drake’s mouth kicked upwards. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“I asked to make it up to her. She agreed. I had an alarm system installed in her house.”

Oliver laughed under his breath. “Hey man, whatever floats your boat.”

“She didn’t have any alarm installed from the start. Bloody hell…how could she not have one? Every time I think about it… I want to protect her and Amara. Show her I love her.”

“By installing an alarm.”

Drake’s smile dipped. “I left her unprotected before, Cray. I’m not doing that again.”

Oliver’s phone rang. “Cray.”

Drake was a few steps ahead thinking of Bethany before he realized Oliver had stopped. Oliver’s face was serious.

“Okay, thanks Luke.” He ended the call. “Tabler is fighting the sequestration of his shares in your company. Says the transaction was legit.”

Rage didn’t arrive slowly. It landed right dead smack centre on Drake’s chest.

“Fuck!”

“Hang on.” Oliver raised his hand, his eyebrows pulling together. “I’m not done.”

“What else?” Drake gritted.

“Barry says Andrew doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Since you didn’t know that Caius had sold his shares, Caius is in breach.”

It took Drake several minutes to get the information through his raging mind which at the moment felt like a blocked sieve. But when information started falling into place the fury that had consumed him ebbed making his knees weak.

“Now I’m the one who’s going to ask,” Oliver’s mouth twitched while looking at Drake’s legs. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

“Screw you, Cray.”

Oliver chuckled, walking ahead to give Drake time to get strength back into his legs.

Drake planted his hands on his hips. Just a little bit more. He needed to secure his fighters’ futures then he’d be able to spend more time with Bethany. God, he felt as though he was fighting from two opposite corners.

Caius had changed to new clothes which Chaps had taken from his suitcase. His knee jiggled under the table. Tremors wracked his body like some special effects Drake saw in movies before the person exploded. Thank fuck this was reality.

“Harvey,” Oliver’s voice boomed as he and Drake both sat down opposite Caius. Vincent and Chaps stood on opposite sides of the door.

Apprehension flickered in Caius’ eyes. Drake’s mouth quirked relishing his discomfort.

“Mr Rosen has some questions for you and I want you to answer truthfully.”

“This is kidnapping.” Caius seethed.

Oliver spread his hands to the side. “You wound me, man! We just gave you a free ride on a private plane and you accuse us of kidnapping?” He looked at Drake. “Your questions will have to wait.”

“Wait, what?”

Oliver turned to Caius. “You’re free to go.”

“What are you doing?” Drake shifted in his seat to face his friend, in disbelief.

Oliver pinned him with a meaningful look.

“Go on Mr Harvey. You can walk out the door.”

“Cray!” Drake looked at Oliver’s men. No one moved. No one looked surprised.

What the hell?

He stood the same time Caius did. He watched his former partner move. Caius looked at everyone in bewilderment, but when no one stopped him, his stoop gradually disappeared. Drake glared at him when he had the gall to grin. Caius walked to the door giving Vincent a wide berth.

“Oliver,” Drake hissed.

Oliver held a finger up.

Drake seethed. He forced himself to wait.

“By the way, Mr Harvey. Vincent and Chaps will be taking you to the police. They have a dossier of all your criminal activities from your embezzlement of the EC Club’s funds to your connections with gun smugglers. Not very nice considering those guns have found their way to the hands of home grown terrorists.”

Drake stared at his friend, his mouth slack. He was having a hard time processing what Oliver said unable to take in the intel Oliver’s team had amassed on Caius. Had he been harbouring a criminal all this time?

Fuck.

Caius turned white as a ghost and looked as though he was going to faint.

“By all means, feel free to go.” Oliver made himself more comfortable in his chair. His hand flicked the air, indicating that Caius leave.

“Drake.” Caius snivelled.

“Rosen doesn’t own you here. I do.” Oliver’s amicable tone turned cold. Even Drake felt fear and nearly squirmed. “So what will it be?”

“Please don’t piss on the floor or I will make you drink it.” Vincent growled.

Caius visibly swallowed.

“Sit down.” Oliver’s command was soft but Caius flinched.

The condemned man stumbled to his chair as if his legs could no longer carry his weight. He had the air of someone completely defeated.

“What do you want to know?”

If the mob had scared people to sing like a canary, Caius had taken a role in La Traviatta. The more he confessed about the illegal deals he had made, the colder Drake’s heart became until he no longer had any sympathy left even for Caius’ family.

“How did Andrew Tabler know Drake owned EC Gym?” Oliver asked.

“How else?” Caius’ nervous gaze flickered between Oliver and Drake. “Drake was making a name for himself. Endorsements, word of mouth, the EC Gym associated with his name. He watched you fight in the States, Drake.”

Drake’s blood ran cold. “When?”

“All your fights,” Caius replied. “I was already deep in debt. He approached me, told me he’d help me.

He flinched when Drake stood abruptly from his seat.

“Go on.” Oliver nudged his chin.

“You have to believe me, Drake. I didn’t want to take money from the gym but my debts were piling up. Then when you started suspecting, I had to do something. Tabler gave me a way out. The money you saw in the bank. It was all his.”

Drake closed his eyes unable to comprehend the enormity of what was happening. Barry would be able to get his shares back from Andrew. But the bastard had Caius shares in a cock hold. He was back to square one. A vulnerable position where Andrew wouldn’t hesitate to bleed him dry.

Caius spilled everything for the rest of the interrogation and Drake reeled at his confession. Drake texted Barry for an impromptu meeting, leaving Caius in Oliver’s ‘capable’ hands. He left the hangar like he was chasing the four horsemen of the Apocalypse and challenging them to mano-a-mano. Acid soured his gut and his stomach pitched just thinking about what Caius had done. Discontent filled him turning his blood to sludge. Not even the high octane sound of the AMG’s powerful engine drowned the nightmare of Caius’ words in his head.

“Fuck!” he roared slamming his palm against the steering wheel.

The phone rang and some of the unspeakable rage he had decreased when he saw who was calling. He pressed the button on the dashboard.

“Hey.” At Bethany’s voice, he eased his foot on the accelerator.

“Bee.”

“Everything alright?” Her worry warmed him but the spectre of not being able to keep Tabler away from her punched a huge hole in his chest.

“Just a problem I need to solve.”

“The gym? Any of the fighters? You don’t sound like yourself.”

He smirked. Trust Bethany to know when there was something wrong with him.

“Yes and no. I’m on my way to Barry Slater to see if there’s a way out of it.”

“Oh Drake.”

God, how he wanted to just turn the car around the same lane and go home to her.

Home.

He expelled his breath. Yes, Bethany was his home, his heart, his soul. She was everything and more.

“Tell Amara if she needs help with her homework, I’m all ears.”

Bethany’s sultry laugh continued to ease the tension from Drake’s body. “Thank you. I’ll let her know. Are we still up for later?”

“Baby if I didn’t have to meet up with Barry, I’d pick you up from the shop, lock you in my flat and keep you in my bed.”

Bethany gave an indelicate snort.

“C’mon Bee, we can use the loft as our hideaway.”

“I have to work, you know.,” she remarked dryly.

“There’s such a thing as an extended lunch break. You can eat the food we have. I’ll eat your pussy.”

“God, I love it when you say that to me. You know I’ll always return the favour.”

His cock stirred at the longing in her voice.

“Oh baby, you have no idea how much I want to put my face between your legs right now.” And forget the clusterfuck that’s resurrected Andrew from Hell.

Bethany did that sexy moan that made Drake all kinds of horny.

“Bee, I can’t walk into Barry’s office with a rock hard cock.”

Bethany giggled. “I’ll let you off. And Drake?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for being there for Amara too.”

His mouth kicked up a smile. Amara’s fierce protection of her mother endeared herself to him. Her wicked sense of humour only sweetened the deal.

“She’s a good kid.”

“Let me know when you’re on your way to the shop. I’m going to the club for a while.”

Thank fuck the club was still closed.

Drake let out a long drawn out sigh just as he found a parking space. He switched off the ignition. They had argued about that bloody club. Bethany wasn’t having any of it, saying that he was throwing his toys out of the pram. Drake couldn’t understand why she insisted on working there.

“About the club…”

“Don’t go caveman on me, Drake. I’ve already agreed to stop dancing.”

“Why even go there at all? Leave the club to Cinzia. Keep the flower shop.”

There was silence.

“Bee.”

Still silence.

“Bethany?”

“Are you ashamed of me?”

Bethany’s disappointed was as sharp as cut glass slicing through his knuckles. Blood rushed to his face. “God, no! Where did that even come from? I just don’t want you parading your body in front of men who aren’t me.”

“They only watch.”

“Yeah I know, but —”

“Then you will let me have this,” Bethany answered. “Please.”

He leaned his head against the head rest. He didn’t understand Bethany’s compunction to dance. She hadn’t said anything. He didn’t pry. He had to trust her enough to give her time. If she didn’t give him her reasons, he had to be fine with that too.

Bloody hell, he wasn’t so sure if he’d be able to do that.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I still don’t like it.”

“See you later, baby.” Bethany said in a wry voice.

Drake stared at the phone, tamping his jealousy to a reasonable level. Like that even existed. His problem reared its ugly head once more.

He hated being trapped in a corner. He’d done his share of corners with no way out and he didn’t relish the idea of doing it all over again. He never could understand why Andrew hated him so much to make his life miserable, separating him from the girl he had vowed to make his someday. The past kept running through his mind. Bethany’s vulnerability, Andrew’s taunts, his own helplessness when he was thrown out.

If Bethany knew that Andrew had returned, Drake didn’t know what would happen. But he sure as fuck wasn’t going to leave her this time. He’d knock Andrew Tabler out for good. He was going to make Tabler’s family fucking miserable; his mother would wish that she’d never given birth to him. He was going to wipe away Andrew Tabler and anyone remotely related to him, by blood or association. He had influence now. He had wealth. He had a covert ops team on his side. Drake doubted Tabler had that and that gave him satisfaction. He was going to beat Tabler in his own game.

By the time Drake Rosen was finished with Andrew Tabler, the world would become a much better place.

And Bethany would finally be safe for good.