Chapter One
April 2014
Abe be watched her, had been watching her for over a year. Was it sick that he wanted her with this twisted obsession? No, it was sweet pleasure and anticipation that ran through his veins. Being so close to her and having the very sick and depraved image of what he wanted to do to her playing through his mind was making him itchy. He needed her with him, needed to have her away from all of this saccharine falseness with the plastered-on smiles and the sick corruption. On the outside he played the part, was the strict man that guarded her high-profile father. He was a trained killer, lethal in every way conceivable, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Emotion clogged ultimate goals and caused the most skilled person to make mistakes. He had no emotions, and was not capable of the love and compassion that others drowned themselves in. What he had was determination and need, and all of it was centered on Bethany.
His training had been unorthodox, but the world was cruel and unforgiving and if he didn’t take what he wanted then it would never be his. He was no military man, didn’t have a Purple Heart for his bravery and being wounded at war. The questionable training he had received at a young age had molded him into the man he was today.
Deadly. Calculating. Intelligent.
Abe had been called all of those and more. But he was just a machine working toward the ultimate goal. And the end result would be the sweetest release he had ever had. Bethany would be his, and with his release would come hers. She also played the part that was expected of her, but he could see in her eyes she was trapped in a gold-gilded prison. She wanted a way out, wanted to be taken away from everything that was suffocating her. He would be the man to help her, to make her realize that she was just like him. Tonight he would make that happen.
He stayed in the shadows and watched the party guests arrive. But only Abe knew there would be no wedding. He blended into the darkness with his black fatigues and dark boots. He didn’t miss anything, and absorbed everything.
Alert. Prepared. Anticipating.
He took in the sound of the wind moving through the trees, of the tires from the approaching cars moving along the gravel driveway, and of the laughter and conversation from the people only feet away. He analyzed each syllable and took note of the minutest detail. When the last guest had entered the mansion and the valet had parked the final luxury car, Abe moved further into the shadows and around the back of the house. Security was stationed around the perimeter, but they didn’t have the training he had. They didn’t know the signs of a predator amongst them… when he was right in front of them.
Abe stopped in front of the large picture window that showed into the dining hall. A hundred guests sat at white cloth-covered tables and drank from their gold-gilded champagne flutes. But he didn’t need to scan the room to know where Bethany was. She sat at the head of the table in the front of the room, dressed in an innocent and delicate white dress. The tiny white lights cast a plethora of gold and rainbows around her, and everything inside of him tightened. He clenched his hands into fists at his sides and felt the darkness inside rise violently the longer he stared at her. He wanted her now, but he needed to be smart about this. Her long dark hair was piled high on her head and her delicate neck invoked images of him biting at her tender skin, leaving bruises and marks so he could see the proof of his ownership. He was hard, so fucking hard he could rival the strength of steel.
And then Abe trained his gaze on the man that threatened what Abe wanted. He was an abuser, a womanizer, and the man that used the façade of being noble and sophisticated to manipulate others. He was the one that planned on taking Bethany away from Abe, of using her in the most deplorable way and playing it off as what husbands did with their wives. Abe knew all about him, had watched him, learned his habits, and had stopped himself many times from taking matters into his own hands and ending the miserable bastard. Abe could say what he planned on doing was because of those reasons alone, but that would be a fucking lie. He had originally planned on taking Bethany away from all of this solely because he wanted her. She would be his, only his, and anyone that thought of standing in his way would see firsthand exactly how deadly he was. And the main obstacle was her fiancé, Steven Michael St. Gerrard.
* * *
February 2014
“What are you going to do?”
Bethany didn’t respond right away, and lifted her gaze from the cappuccino in front of her to stare at Madison. Her friend since grade school was just as prim and proper as every other person in Bethany’s life. Madison held her focus on her phone, and although she had acted concerned about Bethany’s situation, she seemed more concerned in texting her boyfriend, Blaine. Bethany stared at her friend with the cream-colored cardigan wrapped around her shoulders, her taupe blouse, and her equally bland and neutral skirt. Madison was the epitome of the type of woman her father wanted her to be. But everyone in the restaurant was dressed in the same upper-class and snooty manner. Bethany looked down at herself and picked at her off-white cardigan. She hated that she was a sheep amongst the flock, but doing anything other than that would have had others look down on her. When she looked back at Madison she saw her friend now watching her.
“So what are you going to do?” Madison asked again as she grabbed her coffee. Bethany watched the droplets of condensation slide down the clear, smooth crystal, and knew that saying any more wouldn’t solve this problem.
“There isn’t anything that I can do. What choice do I have but to marry a man I don’t love, and live this lie of a life?”
Madison shrugged. “You’re being dramatic. You could have it much worse than becoming engaged to Steven. He is wealthy, a gentleman, and so very attractive. You could have been set to marry Marshall Booviaire.”
“Marshall?”
“Yeah, you know that Frenchman Clarrisa Harshton married. He was like twice her age, wasn’t nearly as wealthy as Steven, and he even smelled funny.”
“Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Clarissa and him.” Bethany reached for her tea and took a sip.
“So see, you could have it much worse.”
Bethany didn’t respond, didn’t really know how to respond in fact. She honestly didn’t even know why she had agreed to come to brunch with Madison or say anything to her. No, that wasn’t true. She had maybe thought her friend, the one she had known her whole life, might be able to sympathize with her.
“You didn’t go around telling anyone else that you don’t want to marry Steven, did you?”
“I talked to my mother and father. My mom was more dismissive of the whole idea, and kept talking about what a good match he was. My father…” Just thinking about that conversation left a bad taste in her mouth. “He more or less cut the conversation off before it started.” Even now she could hear her father’s deep voice telling her that she owed them this, that they had gone through a lot of trouble ensuring she was to wed a prestigious “stud” such as Steven. And yes, he had used the word stud like she was some kind of breeding mare. “I never said I didn’t want to marry Steven, Madison.” You’ve thought it every single day or every single second since you were told you’d be strapped with him.
Madison gave her the look that said it was a bunch of bullshit, and then exhaled loudly. “No, you didn’t, but I know what you meant regardless.” Madison leaned forward and rested her hands on the table. She rubbed her fingers along the pearl bracelet, and it was clear to Bethany that her mind was otherwise occupied. “You need to think about your family, your status, and not so much about what you would get from it.”
Bethany stared at Madison, aghast. “Listen to yourself.”
Madison leaned back in her seat and gave her a pinched expression. “And what should I be listening to?”
At twenty-two, they both knew what Bethany was talking about. They had lived the same life, gone to the same private school and the identical uptight parties, and knew that status and reputation were everything. “You know what I mean, Madison. What about marrying someone because you’re in love and not because it will better the family, or for political reasons? What about not having to watch what you say, what you wear, and always having to act like you are living someone else’s life?”
Madison made a scoffing noise, and instead of answering right away lifted her hand and snapped her fingers for the waiter’s attention. A small man, with a perfectly-ironed black and white uniform, hands behind his back and nose in the air, stepped up to the table.
“Yes, Madame, how may I help you?”
“Please box up a dozen of these glazed scones.”
The waiter nodded, turned to Bethany, and when she shook her head that she didn’t want anything he disappeared toward the back of the restaurant.
Madison was staring at her again, and then exhaled, overly dramatic. “Listen, I totally see where you are coming from. You think I want to be straddled with some random guy, especially if he is old as hell?” She shrugged. “But we were born into this life, and because of that we have to abide by certain rules and standards. You know that.”
Bethany kept her mouth shut. She had been foolish to think expressing herself like this would have the desired effect. “Everything is just moving so fast. I’ve just barely graduated, hardly even started my life, and my father pulls this shit on me.” She closed her eyes and scrubbed her hand over them.
“You just need to go with the flow. At least you are going to marry Steven. Just be grateful on that part.”
“One of these days I might just leave, Madison.”
Madison rolled her eyes. She picked up her napkin and dotted the edges of her mouth. “Who’s being dramatic now? Besides, you and I both know you wouldn’t just leave. What would you do for money? Work? Your father has all the connection, and leaving when you are all set to marry Steven would not only be disastrous, but also stupid. You’d lose everything.”
What Madison didn’t know, or failed to really understand, was that Bethany didn’t care about money or power, or even about her social standing. She had gone to school to be a social worker, much to her father’s distaste. But her father, Robert Maximus Sterling, didn’t derive pleasure in things that helped him gain power, money, or increase his social standings. She had been born to the wrong family.
“Everything will be fine. You think people have to be madly in love to be married?” Madison flicked her hand between them. “I guarantee you’ll be gushing about how wonderful it is to be married to Steven not long after the wedding.”
“Doubtful.”
“Let’s go to Angelo’s and get our nails done.” Madison lifted her hand and stared at her already French manicured tips. And just like that, the conversation that had been very important to Bethany had ended as if it had never really begun.
Ten minutes later they left the restaurant, but Bethany wasn’t in the mood to get her nails done. With her wedding only months away she was feeling the strain and stress of everything weighing down on her. The wedding planner took care of almost everything, but the most pressing issue was the fact she didn’t know Steven. Being around him, speaking with him, even going on dates hadn’t allowed her to even know who he was. He talked shop a lot, something she heard enough of when she was at home. But there was something underneath Steven’s exterior, something that had the hairs on the back of her neck rising and her heart racing, but not in the good way. It was like a sixth sense that rose up when he was around. She pushed the discomfort away, focused on her own life, and tried to tell herself that this would all work out in the end. Yes, she was an adult and made up her own mind when it concerned her life, but she was also frightened of what the future held. If things went downhill after the marriage would she be able to leave unscathed, and still have her family’s support? The latter, she was sure, wouldn’t be the case.
She climbed into her car, shut the door, and just sat there for several moments. What money she did have was courtesy of her father, and because she had just graduated it wasn’t like she had a steady income. God, she didn’t even have a job yet, and as much as her father tried to push her toward a profession that wouldn’t have her “eating boxed dinners,” she was tired of this regimen that controlled her entire life. She started the car and pulled out of the lot. Home didn’t even sound welcoming or warm anymore—if it ever had at all.
For the next twenty minutes she left the city of Sinnerstown behind. The irony of living in a town that was named after the corrupt and disgusting things she had seen her father and their associates do, all for the name of bettering their families, was not lost on her. The gated entryway that led up to her family’s estate loomed in front of her. She hadn’t always felt this way, not to this extent, at least. But Bethany had always felt this sort of hollowness as she moved with the tide and did what was expected of her. She had considered herself a “sheep” or a “doormat” and because of that hated herself more than anyone could have ever known. Once she typed in the security code the gates opened to allow her entrance. She drove up the long driveway, past the security stationed throughout the property, and pulled to a stop in front of the doors.
“You either need to go through with this, or shut the hell up. All you’re doing is making yourself sick.” Closing her eyes, she breathed in and out and took in the sounds around her: people speaking just a few feet away, the sound of shears clipping away at hedges around the perimeter of the house, and even water trickling into the pond from the fountain. When she opened her eyes and lifted her head she was staring at the man that made her feel uncomfortable. In fact, the way he watched her was what she noticed first. Abe Sparrow had been hired to watch over her father, but he looked at her as if he could read every personal thought in her head. He was darkly handsome, in a kind of way that made her feel nervous. His black hair was cropped short and his equally dark eyes always seemed trained on his surroundings. She wasn’t privy to her father’s affairs, and didn’t know the details and backgrounds of the security he hired. But she had overheard talk that Abe was lethally trained, and not in the conventional way. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that he didn’t know how to kill a man with his bare hands and without remorse.
She was the one to break eye contact with him, but she still felt his gaze on her. Bethany grabbed her bag and climbed out, but she couldn’t help herself. Her gaze lifted and locked with his once more. God, even from a distance he was big and imposing, and the dark clothing he wore didn’t hide the fact that he was built like some kind of deadly machine.
“Bethany, sweetheart.”
She gritted her teeth when she heard Steven’s voice, and then saw his car parked a few feet away. Her thoughts had been so jumbled that she hadn’t even realized he was at the house. When she looked back at where Abe had been standing, she saw that he was no longer there.
“We were just talking about you.” Steven was right beside her now, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
A chill of discomfort filled her, but she forced a smile when she saw her father standing on the porch, watching them. “I didn’t know you’d be home.” She spoke to her father, and moved up the steps so she was right in front of him. Thank God Steven had let go of her, because his touch was akin to acid on her flesh.
“I leave this evening.” He spoke around his cigar.
The sickening sweet stench of it surrounded her, but she held in her cough.
“Steven is going with me to close the Browne account.”
She nodded, surprised that her father was bothering to tell her something work-related.
“In fact, Steven, you should just tell your fiancée now instead of waiting.” Her father grinned, but it wasn’t one of those loving, happy ones.
Bethany glanced at Steven, curious as to what would be so important that her father wanted her to know now.
“I’ve made partner, Bethany.” Steven grinned, and before she knew what was happening, she was in his arms and he was kissing her. But the feel of his lips on hers was cold and not the least bit arousing. He pulled away, his grin right back on his face, and turned to look at her father. “Soon I’ll be part of your family by marriage, and even closer by business.”
Of course she didn’t miss how he had classified the business as most important, because to men like Robert Sterling and Steven St. Gerrard, there was nothing more important than that.