I’d called Titan to tell her about my father.

About the insulting conversation that took place in my office.

He threatened me. Said he despised me. Wanted to make my life miserable.

As a man, it took a lot to wound me. I was covered in layers of muscle, but also built with steel. My skin was tough like hide, and it was difficult to land a blow that actually affected me. But my father’s words cut me all the way to the bone. I was still bleeding even though the wounds were invisible.

I made my peace with the fact that I didn’t have a relationship with my father. I had my reasons, and my reasons were good enough. But I’d never hated him, and it hurt to know that he hated me.

My mother would be disappointed in both of us, not just him.

We stood on opposite sides of the battlefield, and neither one of us was willing to call a truce. I set off an explosion that I couldn’t take back in order to win Titan back. She still couldn’t trust me, and I wasn’t sure if it’d all been for nothing.

I hoped not.

But when I arrived at her penthouse, she was on the verge of tears. Titan was just as strong as I was, and she hid her emotions deep below the surface. She wasn’t the kind of person who cried when something tore her down. She spent her energy finding a solution to her problem, not moping about it. Seeing the wetness in her eyes told me how much she ached. The sadness written all over her face made me feel so depressed. I couldn’t mention my own pain when she was the only thing that really mattered. I was hoping to drop my armor and let her tend to my wounds. Instead, I hid them away and pretended I wasn’t bleeding at all.

This was all my fault.

I thought there was a good chance that Thorn was the one who betrayed her, but since Titan didn’t have a doubt he was telling the truth, I had to rule him out as a suspect. That left me with only one culprit, and I had to pursue it until I got some answers.

But for now, I had to make this right.

Which was why I was walking up to Thorn’s assistant inside his building. “I need to see Mr. Cutler.”

“Do you have an appointment?” She looked up at me from under her thick eyelashes, taking in my features without being discreet about it.

Titan would be jealous. “No. But it’s important.”

“Your name?”

This part would be tricky. “Diesel Hunt.”

“I’ll see if he’s available.” She picked up the phone and spoke with him directly. “There’s a Diesel Hunt here to speak with you. He says it’s urgent.” When she heard his response, her features hardened slightly. “Okay, sir.” She hung up and hardly looked at me. “He says he’s too busy to help a little bitch like you…his words, not mine.”

My temper would normally rise to an insult like this, but right now, it didn’t matter. I turned away from her desk and walked right into Thorn’s office.

“Sir, wait!”

I shut the door and drowned out her voice. I entered his office and saw him sitting behind his enormous desk, his eyes on me. They were cold and hostile, full of unfettered rage. “Get the fuck out, Hunt.”

“Just listen to me.” I held up a hand as I slowly approached his desk. I stood farther back than I normally would, not wanting to make this more confrontational than it already was.

“I don’t have to do a damn thing. Now get out before I call security.”

They’d better have guns because that was the only thing that would stop me. “Don’t be upset with Titan. I was the one who told her my suspicions. I know you don’t believe I’m innocent, but I am. I have to find out who’s behind this because Titan has an enemy. I don’t want something worse to happen to her.”

Thorn gave me a blank look like none of that meant anything to him. “Titan might believe your bullshit, but I don’t. The only reason why my sleeves aren’t rolled up and my knuckles aren’t against your face is because I’m in my office. Now if we were in a dark alley somewhere, I’d be putting your dead body in a dumpster right now.”

His anger matched Titan’s when she’d first read the article. She slapped me several times, hit me hard enough that my cheek was red for nearly a day. “I saw Titan last night. Her eyes were full of tears, and she was devastated. She’s scared that she’s lost the most important person in her life. When I first accused you, she rejected the idea and said it was impossible. It took nearly thirty minutes just for her to agree to run it by you.”

His anger dimmed, but not substantially. “You’re trying to rip us apart. How does she not see that?”

“Then why am I standing here trying to put you back together?”

Thorn clenched his jaw, the hard lines of his face deepening.

“Forgive her. Please.”

He rested his fingertips against his lip, his eyes still ice-cold. “What do you want, Hunt? What are you after?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You betray her, and then you spend all this time trying to convince her otherwise. What’s the point of it all? Why don’t you just admit you fucked her over and move on? Did you plan to do it but then fell for her? And now you’re trying to make up for it?”

“No. I didn’t do it, Thorn. Someone framed me.”

“Why?” he demanded. “Even if that’s true, what’s the motive?”

“I don’t know. But what’s the motive for me to betray her? There is none.”

“Just because I don’t see the motive doesn’t mean there isn’t one,” he said coldly. “You’ve been messing with her for too long, Hunt. If you have any respect for the woman, just leave her alone. She’s already agreed to marry me, so that’s off the table. There’s nothing left for you.”

“She’s not marrying you.”

“Really?” He tilted his head to the side. “Because when we spoke last night before she accused me, she said that’s what she wanted.”

“For now. But I’ll change her mind.”

Thorn shook his head.

“Does that mean you forgive her?”

All I got was a stare.

“If you still plan to marry her…?”

He lowered his fingers from his mouth and rested his hand on the arm of his chair. “I’m still pretty pissed at her. But I’m sure we’ll work it out…eventually.”

“If I tell her to come by your place tonight, will you see her?”

He turned his head away and looked at the bookshelf on the other wall. “Yeah, I guess. If she’s that upset about it, I don’t want her to keep feeling that way. I was just angry, and I let my temper get carried away…”

“She thinks you never want to see her again.”

“She tends to assume the worst possible conclusion.”

I didn’t step closer to his desk, keeping my distance behind one of his armchairs. “I know I said this already, but I didn’t do it.”

Thorn didn’t give me a look of sympathy.

“I need you to believe me.”

“What’s the motive for someone to frame you?” he asked.

I repeated his words back to him. “Just because you don’t see a motive doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

Thorn sighed and rose from his chair. “All I have is your word, Hunt. Everything else stacks up against you, especially that blonde you were kissing.”

“I gave her a ride home. That’s it.”

“That’s not what the photograph showed.”

“Why would I go home with her when I can have Titan every night?” I demanded. “That’s the only field I’m sowing my seeds in. Why would I settle for some ordinary woman when I can have the sexiest woman on the planet? Doesn’t add up.”

“It doesn’t add up to me either. But neither does that photo.”

I would never dig myself out of this hole, not when both of them didn’t believe me. The odds overwhelmed me. Not only did I have to convince Titan I was innocent, but also her closest friend. Now my father wanted to destroy me, and I had to clear my name before I ran out of time. In addition to that, I had to keep running my businesses. It’s not like I could ever take time off from my work. I wanted to scream in frustration, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere.

“I see what Titan means.” He stood behind his desk with both of his hands in his pockets.

I cocked my head to the side, waiting for an elaboration.

“She wants to believe you. There’s something about you that makes her question the evidence staring her right in the face. And I see it too…see something that makes me wonder if you’re telling the truth.”

Hope was just served to me on a platter. It wasn’t much, but it was something. “I am.”

“Then give us something to prove it.”

“It’s not so simple.”

“And it’s not so simple for us to believe you, Hunt.”

---

I pulled into Brett’s driveway in Connecticut then walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and heard the loud sound through the solid wood door.

“It’s open.”

I walked inside and moved into his living room where he had the game on the enormous TV on the wall. He had two beers on the coffee table, and he popped off the lid of one before he handed it to me. “Here.”

“Thanks.” I took it then set it down again, not interested in drinking. I took a seat. “We need to talk.”

“What’s up?” He drank his beer as he kept his eyes on the game.

I waited for him to look at me, and when he didn’t, I grabbed the remote and turned off the screen.

“What the hell?”

“This is important.”

“It better be pretty damn important because this is the finals.”

It was definitely more important than that. “My father stopped by my office yesterday.”

Brett’s jaw slowly dropped, and his eyes widened in shock. “Vincent Hunt stopped by your office?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh shit.” He set the beer down hard and spilled some of it across the surface. Drops got on his hand, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold liquid. “What happened?”

“He was pissed about the article.”

“No surprise there. Anyone would be pissed.”

“Somehow, he knew exactly why I did it. He knew it was because of Titan.”

“How?”

I shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea. Baffles me. Maybe he’s been keeping tabs on me since Megaland.”

“Do you think he’s the one who actually told the reporter about Titan?”

I hadn’t considered that. “I don’t know. I can’t think of any reason why he would know about that.”

“Well, someone outside the three of you knew about it. So that information was accessible.”

“True…and Jax did warn me he was pissed.”

“Maybe it was him,” Brett said. “I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s a psychopath.”

“I guess it’s possible. If he knew about my relationship with Titan, he might have wanted to sabotage it. But that doesn’t sound like his style. He doesn’t care about my personal relationships. All he cares about is business.”

“That’s true,” Brett said in agreement. “But he does know you’re sleeping with Titan.”

“Maybe he figured it out once that article came out. When I tried to bury her story with my own story, that could have been a red flag to him. He is observant.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

My life was so simple before Titan walked into it. Now it was more complicated than it’d ever been.

“What do you think he’s going to do?”

“Hopefully, nothing against Titan.”

“She’s not involved in your feud, so I think she’s safe. She is a powerful business guru in his world. Doesn’t make sense for him to make enemies with her when he’s already got to deal with you.”

That comforted me—just a little.

“I say he’s only going to go after you.”

It was a testament to my love for her that I was actually relieved by that notion. All I wanted was to be with Titan, even if everything was stripped away from me. My father could do his worst to destroy my empire, but it didn’t matter. None of that meant as much as it did before.

“Have you told her?”

“No.”

“Why?” he asked.

When I planned to open my heart to her, she was already heartbroken. The last thing she needed was to worry about my problems when she had her own. “I haven’t had a chance. A lot of other things are going on right now.”

“What’s your next plan?”

I shook my head. “Not a clue. Everything is so fucked up right now.” I dragged my hand across my temple and into my hair.

“Where do the two of you stand?”

“We’re together…but barely.”

“That’s good. Covering up her story must have meant something to her.”

“Yeah…but she doesn’t trust me. We’re kinda just hooking up right now. Everything is different. It’s like she’s walking on eggshells all the time.”

“She’ll come around.”

“I don’t know…”

“If she’s still with you after everything that’s happened, then that’s a good sign. She loves you, and there’s no way she doesn’t know that you love her too.” He wiped his arm with a napkin then took a drink of his beer.

“I hope you’re right.”

“The dust has to settle eventually. You just have to find out who pulled the trigger, and everything will go back to what it was.”

“If only it were that easy…”

“You suspect Bruce Carol?”

I nodded. “I can’t think of anyone else. Thought it could be Thorn, but that was a dead end.”

“Then question him.”

“I’m trying to figure out how. Maybe I’ll just have my guy tail him.”

“But the damage has been done. I think interrogation is the only thing that will work.”

I nodded in agreement.

“And maybe you should take Titan with you. Because if you get anything out of him, she’s going to want that evidence for herself.”

Could I get Titan to come along with me? I’d already convinced her to accuse Thorn, and that blew up in her face. The odds of getting her to interrogate a man she hated seemed unlikely. “I’ll see what I can do.”