Chapter Nineteen

I don’t understand why I’m putting so much effort into giving this woman romance!” Blake bellowed. “It’s not as if I have any obligation to do so, and it’s not as if she wants it!”

Blake wore the carpet out as he circled the large den of his brother Byron’s house.

“I don’t get it either,” Byron growled. “Let this go.”

“I disagree, Blake,” McKenzie said. “You came to me, told me your plans, and you made the first step in bringing Jewell back into your life, so follow your heart.”

“This isn’t love,” Byron yelled. “It’s lust. And both you and this Jewell female are screwing with Blake’s mind. Enough is enough!”

“When did this become about the two of you?” Blake snapped as he glared at Byron and McKenzie.

“It’s not about them,” Tyler said with a lazy smile. “They’re both just strutting right now.”

“Shut up!” both Blake and Byron gritted out at the youngest of the three brothers.

“She means more to you than you’re willing to admit,” McKenzie told Blake. “But if you continue to be a dick — and I use that word advisedly — you will lose her. Sure, you’ll have her obedience, but not for the right reasons. You’re different, Blake, whether you want to admit it or not. And the reality of the situation is that Jewell is fragile. You might not believe her story fully, but it’s all true. She’s changed me in ways I can’t explain right now, but I trust her, and until you do, you’re never going to have from her what you really want.” The woman’s voice was filled with too much sadness.

Tyler leaned toward her. “What happened in your life to make you into this person?”

“This isn’t about me, Tyler. This is about Blake and Jewell,” McKenzie said.

Blake gazed at this woman, seeing her for what seemed the first time. There was something about her, something he couldn’t quite peg. He’d taken her for hard and untouchable, but the look in her eyes right then showed something he hadn’t chosen to see before. He found himself wanting to help her.

What in the world was wrong with him?

“This is all bullshit,” Byron snapped. “I’m not listening to it anymore.” And he walked from the room.

Blake watched his brother leave, wondering whether he should try to stop him.

“Let him go, Blake,” Tyler told his oldest brother. “Byron has his own demons to work on.”

“The problem with all of you,” McKenzie said, “is that you focus so much on other people instead of doing any looking within. If you took just a moment to find out what you truly wanted, maybe you wouldn’t be fighting so much against it when good things happen.”

“Are you a freaking counselor now, too?” Blake said with utter scorn.

“Yes. I’ve had to be in my job. The girls who have come to me are broken. Some are never healed, but some do manage to find themselves. That’s why I started Relinquish Control — to help women.”

Blake snorted. “How is making them into prostitutes helping them?”

“Their lives have spun out of control — that’s the issue here. Sometimes the best way to get grounded again is by putting them in situations where they have to give up a part of themselves in order to find who they are.”

“That’s crap and you know it,” Blake replied. “Most of the clients you have are sadistic bastards.”

“Like you?” she challenged, a spark igniting in her eyes.

“I’m not like those other men,” he said, taking a step back.

McKenzie stared him straight in the eye. “You like control, don’t you? What does that tell me about who you are?”

“It’s who I am. But I don’t hurt women,” he insisted.

“Do you honestly believe you haven’t hurt Jewell?”

“No. I’ve never hurt her,” he said.

“You crushed her to her very soul when you dumped her off as if she were nothing more than a piece of trash,” McKenzie told him. “The only reason I allowed you back in was because I know you feel something for her. Not that you’ll admit it anytime soon.”

“You couldn’t have stopped me, McKenzie. You wanted my money,” he said, and he didn’t try to hide his contempt.

“I have a lot of money, Blake. I don’t need yours or any other man’s anymore. I can be as picky as I want to be.”

“Would you still have put Jewell up on that auction block if I hadn’t been the guaranteed winner?”

She paused as she looked at him, with an expression he couldn’t read on her face. Then she smiled, and he would have paid anything to know what she was thinking right then.

“It’s a nonissue. I knew you’d be the one to buy her, knew you’d be the one who would save her.”

Fury filled Blake’s every pore. “You can’t play with people’s lives like this!”

“And you’re not playing with anyone’s life? Look, I’m simply providing a haven for these women. I don’t let them go off with just any man. I know my girls, Blake. And I know what the girls need. If a man doesn’t meet my qualifications, he won’t make it past my front doors.”

“You can tell yourself this all you want,” he said, “but in the end, all you care about is yourself, just like any other cold-hearted bitch of a woman. And that’s what they all are.”

McKenzie stood up and moved gracefully across the room until she was inches from his face, her heels giving her that little bit of height she needed to make better contact.

“Go to hell, Blake. It’s where you’re headed anyway.”

With that, she turned and made her exit.

“Damn, brother,” Tyler said, still relaxing on the chair he’d been sitting in the entire time. You really know how to clear out a room.” Tyler said, still relaxing on the chair he’d been sitting in the entire time.

“Kiss off, Tyler.”

Blake snarled at his brother and then moved to his bar, where he poured himself a double shot of gin.

“She’s right, you know. You have the power to either break Jewell or to save her. The choice is in your hands.”

Tyler rose and left the room, too, leaving Blake standing there indecisive for a minute. That didn’t last long.

Tossing his glass aside, he chased after McKenzie. The two of them needed to have a more private chat, one where his brothers wouldn’t be allowed to weigh in.