CHAPTER TEN
In the morning she awoke to raised voices and shouting from downstairs. The bed beside her was empty, and she grabbed her robe and went downstairs.
“You fucker,” one of the twins was shouting. “You have no sense of family, of loyalty.”
“Mateo,” Cormac’s booming voice echoed around the house, “Who do you think you are to lecture me on my sex life? You, of all people. You and Atlas, neither of you are angels when it comes to women. I mean, all of a sudden, you’re both coupled up and faithful? Come on.”
“Says the man who is engaged for position and money and nothing else. Does Lydia know that’s why you proposed?”
“Why don’t you ask her? You seemed to have a pretty good idea of what she wants.”
“It was six years ago, and we parted on good terms.” Mateo was almost growling. “I just don’t want to see her hurt.”
“Or maybe there’s unfinished business between you.”
“I’m in love with Molly.” Mateo sounded dangerous now and Ebony shivered at the ice in his voice.
“Oh yeah, the teacher. You and your brother have really aimed at the heights with your women. A teacher and a whore singer.”
“You fuck!” Ebony heard furniture crashing and realized Mateo had gone for Cormac. “You don’t get to call Ebony a whore, and you don’t disparage Molly, you asshole!”
Feeling like she needed to do something before someone got hurt, she hurried into the breakfast room to find the two men struggling with each other on the floor. “Stop!”
Both men froze, and Ebony heard footsteps behind her. “What the fuck is going on?”
Atlas stepped around Ebony, touching her cheek, then hauled his brother off Cormac, who got up smirking.
Mateo was still enraged. “Get that bastard out of my sight, Atlas, before I lose it completely. Please.”
Cormac held up his hands. “I’ll go, don’t worry. Another minute in this house playing this family charade would make me sick.”
As he left the room, he stopped in front of Ebony, who recoiled, as he ran his eyes up and down her body in such a way as to make her feel naked, and violated. Cormac smirked at her obvious discomfort and left the room.
Mateo ran a hand through his dark curls. “I’m sorry, Ebony, Atlas. I’m sorry I lost it.”
“He was trying to goad you all day yesterday,” Atlas said, his hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“And I let him get to me. Fuck.” Mateo looked at Ebony. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Don’t let what he said affect you. We all know it’s untrue.”
Ebony smiled at him. “Thanks for defending me, Mateo.”
“Anytime, gorgeous.” Mateo looked at his brother. “Cormac is poison. He’ll ruin Lydia’s life if we let him.”
“It’s not our battle, Mateo. Lydia is quite aware of what Cormac is like.”
Atlas and Ebony drove back to his apartment in the city that night. “Sadly, I will have work tomorrow. What will you do?”
“Juno and Obe are traveling up so I’ll probably hook up with them.” Ebony told him, stroking a dark curl behind his ear.
“In time for the New Year’s parties.”
“Indeed.”
“Cormac’s not invited.”
“Good.”
Atlas looked over at her. “He’s a treat, huh?”
“Oh, yeah,” Ebony said dryly, “a real chocolate-covered treat. Gross.”
Atlas laughed. “He’s considered quite the catch.”
Ebony stuck her tongue out. “Ugh. Where? The mental asylum? The Home for Arrogant Douchebags?”
“You have his measure.” His smile faded. “Though I do wish Mateo wouldn’t engage him. Cormac has a way of getting to my brother, so much so, that Mateo loses his shit. Cormac hates that Mateo slept with Lydia first, even though it was six years ago. I think he’s marrying her not just for her money, but to spite Mateo. And now he’s annoyed that Mateo doesn’t care if Cormac sleeps with Lydia because he’s in love with Molly.”
“The Love Lives of the Rich and the Famous,” Ebony sighed dramatically as Atlas laughed.
“Seriously, though, Cormac hates Mateo, and sometimes, just sometimes, it scares me.”
Ebony shook her head. “Cormac is a typical coward if you ask me. All bluster. How he’s related to Stanley is beyond me.”
“Right? You liked Stanley, huh?”
“Adored him, and Bella too. Vida…yeah could live without her.”
Atlas smiled over at her. “I adore you, Miss Verlaine.”
“Right back at ya, stud.” She squeezed his cock through his pants. “Oh, someone’s packing.”
They joked and laughed all the way back to his apartment, but once inside, they were stripping each other before they even reached the bedroom.
As they made love, Ebony noticed he was even more careful with her, and realized it was because of the baby. It made her heart warm to him…what kind of man would take so much care over a child that wasn’t his?
“I’m so crazy about you,” she told him, “so, so crazy.”
Atlas grinned. “I meant what I said, Ebony, it’s you and me now, right?
She nodded. “Me and you, whatever happens.”
And they made love long into the night.
Across town, another couple was making love, kissing and talking. Blue stroked his hands down his wife’s body. “Are you looking forward to tomorrow, baby?”
The next day was when their domino surgery was scheduled and Romy and Blue, ever the surgeons, were excited. “I have someone to cover me at Haven for twenty-four hours, so I’m all yours.”
She’d read over the patient details again and again until she knew everything by heart. Blue smiled at her now. “I have to say, I cannot wait to be back in an operating theatre with you.”
Romy smiled up at him, stroking his face. “Me too…I miss that.”
“We make an incredible team. I sometimes consider quitting Rainier Hope and coming to work at Haven, just so I can work with you all the time.”
“Ha, don’t you dare,” Romy laughed, “You are the best Chief of Surgery that Seattle has ever seen.”
“Don’t tell Beau that, but thanks.”
Romy sighed, gasping as she came and Blue buried his face in her neck before shuddering to his own climax. “God, Romy…I’ll never get tired of doing this.”
“I love you, Blue.”
“I love you too, baby.”
In yet another part of town, a man, alone, was not feeling loved. Carson Franks sat in his penthouse apartment, gazing at the video of his own wedding to Kiersten, all those years ago, before she had made him punish her for disobeying him, for trying to leave him. He still remembered the moment he’d thrust that knife into her, her shock, her pain, her pleading, and he reveled in it.
He was only sorry that he’d only gotten to kill her once. The feeling of power he’d felt as her life slipped away in front of him…He had thought she was already dead when he dumped her body in the gutter where she belonged, as far as he was concerned, but he should have made sure.
Now, that bastard billionaire philanthropist and his whore surgeon would testify about him in court, and even his father’s expensive lawyers wouldn’t be able to keep him away from Death Row.
So, he had only two options now. Suicide…or the removal of the witnesses, and that was an easy decision to make. He fingered the knife in his hand and smiled to himself.
By the end of the week, before the end of the year, Atlas Tigri and Dr. Romy Sasse would be dead…and he would be a free man.