I got the information from my PI. I knew exactly where Bruce Carol was staying. His penthouse was on the market, and he was waiting for it to sell before he packed up and headed somewhere else. He probably had enough in savings to live out a quiet retirement, but he wouldn’t have enough to keep his yachts, luxury cars, and planes.

Too bad.

I got out of the shower after hitting the gym. I styled my hair and pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. I wasn’t staying home tonight. My woman was at her penthouse, probably waiting for me to step out of the elevator doors at any moment. Instead of being home alone, I’d rather be naked and sweaty in her bed. I’d always been a sexual person who needed it on a regular basis, but with Titan, it wasn’t about sex. It was much more than that—to both of us. It was when I felt most connected to her, and nothing else existed outside the four walls that surrounded us.

I had just pulled on my shoes when the elevator lit up and the doors opened.

Titan stepped inside, still in the black dress she’d been wearing at Stratosphere. Her stilettos were five inches tall and made her toned calves looked even sexier. She wore the uncomfortable shoes every single day but never broke her graceful stride.

My eyes quickly roamed over her body, seeing the tight fabric stretch across her perfect rack and her tiny waist. She was petite, but that fiery presence made her appear ten feet tall. The second I reached her, my hands glided around her hips until I felt the steep curve in her back, one of the features that aroused me the most. My head angled down to hers, and I gave her a kiss that was packed with the lustful thoughts I’d had about her all day. I had to sit across from her in a conference room fully clothed and discuss business while I fought the raging hard-on in my suit. My hands held her against me, allowing me to claim all of her mouth. Innocent kisses always turned devilish in nature. We couldn’t touch without it developing into something more. We couldn’t even look at each other without wanting to strip one another down to our basest nakedness. That was why I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want to search the world for her replacement. There was only one person in the world who affected me so deeply. I had to fight for her, to make sure I got to have this special joy for the rest of my life.

She ended the embrace before it could ignite into a wildfire. Her hands were against my chest, and they slowly drifted down to my hard stomach. “I want to see Bruce Carol tonight.”

With lidded eyes and thoughts only on sex, I had to take a few seconds to digest what she said. “We agreed to see him in the morning.”

“I don’t want to wait.” Her hands dropped from my stomach and returned to her sides.

My eyes shifted back and forth as I looked into hers. “Why?”

She held my expression, but there was an ounce of anxiousness in the look. She was unsteady, even desperate. “Because I need this answer, Hunt. I don’t want to wait anymore.”

The second I saw her step into my penthouse, there was only one thing I wanted to do. I wanted her face down and her ass up. I wanted to nail her from behind, to shove my thick cock inside that slick pussy until she was stuffed with my arousal. But Titan always got what she wanted—because I allowed her to. “Alright.”

“Let’s go.” She turned back to the elevator and hit the button.

I pulled my jacket over my shoulders and looked into her face. “Everything alright?”

She watched the doors open with a distinct look of sadness on her face. “No, Hunt. Everything isn’t alright. It hasn’t been alright in a long time.”

---

We stepped onto his floor and approached his door.

“Let me do the talking.”

She nodded.

I knocked on the door and waited for a response. Coming at night wasn’t the best time. He could be drinking, drowning in his self-pity. When there wasn’t an answer, I rang the doorbell. “Open up, Bruce.”

A moment later, the door opened. Bruce Carol looked exactly the way he had a few months ago, but there were a few more lines on his face. His eyes were filled with unmistakable depression. He looked at me coldly, but the look he gave Titan was pure venom. “If you’re here to gloat, you’re wasting your time. You can’t make me feel worse than I already do.” He kept one hand on the door as if he was prepared to slam it in our faces.

Now he was my number-one suspect. He had the perfect motive to do this to us. We ruined his life, and now he wanted to do the same to us. “I know you’re the one who went to the New York Times about Titan’s story. I understand you’re upset, but that was unnecessary.”

“Went to the New York Times?” Bruce asked incredulously, his speech slightly slurred. “About that punk ex-boyfriend of hers?”

Titan didn’t show the slightest reaction.

“I didn’t tell anybody anything. I didn’t know a damn thing about Titan before I met her. The only reason why I didn’t want to work with her is because she looks like she has a tampon stuffed up her ass.”

I didn’t think twice before I crowded him with my fist raised.

Titan grabbed me by the arm and jerked me back. “He’s not worth it. I’ve had worse things said about me, and I don’t lose any sleep over it.” She released me, still maintaining her proud look. “Ignore him.”

Bruce stared at her, a look of contempt on his face. “Don’t you two have a business to run? Why are you here?”

He was beyond buzzed or just stupid. “I want to know why you did it. Why did you tell the newspapers about Titan? What were you trying to achieve? I can’t sue you for defamation because it’s accurate. There’s nothing I can take away from you because you already lost everything. So you may as well enjoy the last bit of your revenge and tell us why you did it. Were you hoping Titan and I would no longer be partners? Titan is smarter than that. She knows I wouldn’t betray her.”

Bruce switched his gaze back to me, still wearing the exact same look of annoyance he’d been wearing since the very beginning of the conversation. “Like I said, I didn’t tell anybody anything. What’s the point of revenge when it doesn’t change anything? My wife is gone, my kids won’t speak to me… The only thing I enjoy is a good drink after a long day of selling all of my personal assets to pay my debt. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” He stepped back inside his penthouse and shut the door. The bolt locked into place when he turned the knob. A second later, his footsteps tapped against the floor as he retreated farther inside his home.

I stared at the dark wood of the door because I couldn’t think. I had been certain this conversation would go differently. I had been certain if I seemed confident in my accusation, he would crack. Perhaps he knew Titan and I had issues between us, and by keeping the truth from us, we had to function in the dark. She didn’t know if she could trust me, and that was exactly what he wanted. He was stupid for crossing us, but he wasn’t quite as stupid as we both believed.

I bowed my head as the sigh left my lungs. My hands dragged down my face, and the frustration cracked through my bones. I was dismayed, disappointed, and furious. If I’d gotten the answers I wanted, Titan would be in my arms right now. But now we were just as distant as we were before—if not more.

I finally turned my head and looked at her.

Her expression hadn’t changed. She turned away from the door and stepped farther into the hallway, the diamond necklace around her throat sparkling under the lamps that hung from both sides of the corridor.

I walked with her back down the hall, trailing away from his entryway where we couldn’t be overheard. “He’s lying.”

She hit the button, and we both stepped inside the elevator. We shifted down to the lobby level, the lights telling us exactly what floor we were on as we descended. She crossed her arms over her chest, her beautiful hair perfect around her shoulders.

“Baby, he’s lying.”

The only response I got her was a sigh.

I turned my head in her direction. “He’s the only one with the motive.”

“But he’s lost everything, Hunt. He has no reason to lie anymore. If he wanted to tear us down, he would be gloating right now. But he seems nothing but indifferent.”

“He’s the only person it could possibly be.”

“I want to believe you, Hunt. Believe me, I do. I’ve been patient. I’ve waited for you to give me a way to exonerate you. But it’s not coming…and it’s never going to come.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true,” she whispered.

I panicked as we stood side by side in the elevator. My life was stressful because of the enormity of my responsibilities, but I’d never been scared like this before. The most important thing in the world was about to be taken away from me. Just as I took away Bruce’s legacy, he was going to take away the one thing that made me happy.

The elevator stopped on the ground floor, and we walked through the lobby to the back seat of my Mercedes. The divider was up, so the driver couldn’t hear or see us. We headed back to my penthouse a few streets away.

Titan looked out the window, ignoring me as much as she could.

I stared out the other window, unsure how I was going to get out of this mess. The situation was so fucked up, and I couldn’t blame Titan for feeling hesitant. If the situations were reversed, I’d have a hard time believing her too.

But I couldn’t let him win.

I couldn’t let him rip us apart.

“Just because I can’t prove my innocence doesn’t mean I’m guilty.”

She kept her eyes out the window.

“Baby.”

She wouldn’t look at me.

“Titan.” My hand moved to her thigh. “Look at me.”

She watched the neon signs flash by before she finally turned her gaze on me. There was anger in her eyes, bubbling under the surface. She didn’t hide her resentment, her obvious disappointment.

“I’m going to need you to believe me, Titan. I know it’s a lot to ask, but you have to have faith in me.”

She shook her head slightly. “It’s too much to ask.”

“You know I didn’t do it.”

“Hunt, I have no idea what to believe. I think it could go either way.”

“You know I love you. That’s something you have to believe in. I wouldn’t have told the world about my relationship with my father if that wasn’t true. I wouldn’t have defended you from Bruce Carol if you didn’t mean everything to me. I wouldn’t have put you back together with Thorn, the man you’re planning to marry, if I didn’t put you first. Ignore the bad and focus on the good.”

She turned back to the window, her lips pursed tightly together. “I think Thorn is right. And I also think you’re right.”

That just left me confused.

“I think you do love me. I think you would do anything for me. But I think your initial motives were evil. I think you wanted to tear me down, but in the process, you fell for me. Now you’ve been trying to make up for it.”

It was a devastating blow, but I was also grateful that she knew I really cared about her. “That’s not what happened, Titan.”

“There’s no evidence to suggest otherwise.”

“I know…but I really am innocent.”

She kept her gaze out the window, shutting me out. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Hunt. I just want to move on.”

I felt the finality of her tone fill the back seat of the car. I felt her pull away from me even though she didn’t move. I felt her slip from my fingertips no matter how hard I was gripping her. The one person I loved more than anyone on this planet didn’t trust me, didn’t believe me. An invisible wall formed between us, and it was so solid I would never be able to get through. I wanted to scream until she heard me. I wanted to destroy everything in my path until she listened to me.

But there was nothing I could do.

Nothing at all.