Chapter 36

Charlie

“If you three were any bigger assholes,” Lacey announces, “you wouldn’t need me at all—you could just fuck each other.”

“Babe,” Sam reasons, “you know we don’t swing that way.”

“Besides,” Adam reminds her, “your ass is pretty tight, baby—and we made things fit just fine.”

But me? I keep my damn mouth shut.

It’s not that I’m surprised that she doesn’t believe us at first. Fuck, I wouldn’t even believe us.

It’s just that explaining this whole thing would be a hell of a lot easier if we hadn’t spent our entire relationship with the woman of our dreams wheeling, dealing, lying, and trying to cheat our respective ways to the top.

Any other man might have struggled to book this suite on such short notice, but I’m not just any man—and neither is Sam nor Adam.

Admittedly, even just one billionaire might not have been enough to score this place. Looks like the odds were in our favor, though—with bank accounts like ours, good luck comes in threes.

“Run it through me again,” Lacey says, pacing a path straight through the Persian rug beneath her dainty little feet. “Slowly this time. You three put me in danger today—I think I at least deserve the truth now that it’s over.”

Adam is seated confidently in a high-backed leather armchair by the window. Sam—ever the marketing man—has placed himself exactly where he wants this encounter to end: on the end of the massive triple-king-size bed that dominates the center of the room.

And me? I’m exactly where I want to be—in between Lacey and the door. Because if she thinks she’s walking out on us before we get to have our say, she’s going to need to think twice.

After that, if she wants to leave, she’s free to. As much as I’m sure we’d like to keep Lacey tied naked to a bed for our own personal use—she’s a free woman. Free to make her own decisions.

But we’re not letting her go without a fight.

“Well, for one thing, none of us were ever really behind Denham,” Adam begins, “a man who doesn’t exactly inspire the desire to follow him, as you’ve surely realized.”

“In fact, we were looking to fuck him over on this,” Sam adds. “And, I suppose, to fuck each other over in the process.”

“But mostly, Lacey, we were looking to fuck you. You’re goddamn gorgeous—you’re smart, you’re charming...” I lower my gaze to the curves of her body, then raise it to the look of fierceness on her face. “And you’re very sexy when you’re angry.”

“Exceptionally sexy.” Slowly, Adam leans back and spreads his legs like he’s imagining taking Lacey across his lap even as he speaks. “It doesn’t justify anything, of course, but you can imagine what men like us might do in order to have a woman like you all to ourselves.”

“Is that really how you thought of me?” Lacey asks, touching her fingertips to her delicate collarbone.

“Maybe at first,” Sam admits. “Men like us are used to being able to own anything that we see as soon as we want it.”

“But that was before we met you. Really met you.” I run my fingers through my hair and try to tear my eyes away from her.

It fucking hurts to see her hurting like this—but Lacey is too captivating. I can’t drag my gaze away. “We were wrong, baby.”

“And we worked together.” Adam stands. He can’t take his eyes off of her, either.

“All three of us,” Sam adds, rising as well.

“To save you, Lacey.”

I get to her first, taking her little chin between my thumb and finger so I can turn her face up toward mine.

“Did you really think I ever needed saving?” She raises an eyebrow in challenge.

I chuckle as Adam wraps his hands around her waist and turns her to him.

“Who’s to say?” He brushes her hair behind her ear. “We might’ve enjoyed watching you kick that fat bastard’s ass.”

“But we’d rather know that you were safe,” Sam says, turning Lacey toward him now. “We might have all had our ulterior motives, babe, but we were all in agreement about one thing.”

“Seeing you harmed would have fucking killed us.” I come up behind Lacey and growl the words into her perfectly shaped ear. “That’s never going to happen again.”

“We worked together.” Adam runs a hand down her slender, shapely arm and purrs against her neck. “For you. Always for you.”

“Losing you was never an option, babe.” Sam presses a kiss against her forehead. “When it was you on the line...we didn’t even have to think about it.”

“And we never will again,” I promise her. “You want us? You’ve got us. No more infighting. No more jostling for position—”

“Well, maybe a little.” Adam chuckles darkly. “But only in bed.”

“You rat bastard,” I say with a surprising amount of fondness. “Always feel like you’ve gotta be on top...”

“Adam just hasn’t learned to enjoy the way Lacey looks when she rides cock yet...” Sam teases.

Lacey sighs, and we drop the teasing.

Looks like we’re not out of the woods with our woman quite yet.

“Okay...and what about all the money?” Lacey asks. “What’s the plan with everything you all planned to steal?”

“Steal is such a dirty word, darling,” Adam says with a scoff.

But as we look at each other, all three of us seem to hit the same realization all at once.

“We didn’t exactly get that far,” I admit.

“There were, ah...more pressing matters to attend to,” Charlie adds.

I have to hand it to him—I can see it in his eyes how bad he wants to direct Lacey’s attention to the hard-on that’s undoubtedly threatening to split the front seam of his slacks as we speak, but he’s managing to restrain himself.

“Right,” Lacey says, crossing her arms over her perfect chest. “Then let me tell you all how it’s going to be. You’re returning the charity money. No argument. If you ever want to see me again, that has to happen.”

Adam, Sam, and I share a look.

“That’s more than fair,” I agree.

Adam and Sam nod to verify.

“And you’re buying me a ticket back to the States. As much as I like Switzerland...I think I’ve seen enough of it for the moment.”

“You sure?” Sam asks. “Not interested in doing a little skiing?”

“Or a little snowblowing?” Adam licks his lips, and I laugh.

“No jokes, guys. These are my demands.”

“For having us over a barrel here, you don’t ask for much,” I point out.

“Anything else I want, you’ll give me,” Lacey says with confidence, and I feel my cock throb at just the thought of what those things might be. “These are the really important things.”

She draws back from the lust trap we’ve encircled her in and looks at us all with those bright, pretty eyes of hers.

Fuck. She’s right, too. I’d give her the entire world just for looking at me like that.

“Please, guys. This is important to me. Really. After everything that’s happened—”

“We’ll take my jet,” Adam says definitively, texting his personal assistant before Lacey is even finished speaking.

“On the phone with the charity right now,” Sam says with his cell phone to his ear.

She looks at me, a little surprised, and I just shrug.

“We work fast, sweetheart,” I remind her. “Anything for you.”

“So just like that...everything is fixed?” Lacey asks, blinking.

“If you want it to be,” I offer.

She bites her lower lip, and it breaks my fucking heart.

“I...I don’t know,” she admits. “So much has happened between us—between all of us. I need space honestly. The trust is gone, guys. You might have only thought you were lying to each other...but you were lying to me, too.”

That’s what hurts most of all, I think.

We took everything from Lacey.

Her virginity. Her body. Her kisses.

Her love.

We took her trust, and, without even thinking, we shattered it into so much fucking dust.

I watch Sam and Adam’s faces, and I know they feel it, too.

We fucked up.

And now, we need to make this right.

“Tell us what you need, babe,” I say softly.

Lacey looks to be on the verge of tears—but she’s a fighter. She’s not about to let us see her cry.

“Get me a plane ticket—not a private jet, just a regular fucking plane ticket.” I can hear the exhaustion in her voice. “Return the money and get me a plane ticket. We’ll work from there.”

Her body brushes against mine fleetingly as she moves past me. I catch her scent on the air—soft and sweet and addictive—

And I watch her walk out of my life.

Out of our lives.

Maybe for good.

“We need a plan,” I say, turning to Sam and Adam.

The determination in their eyes is the only response I need.

We can make this right. Together.

After all, someone has to go down after all of this.

And once Lacey’s done blowing us, we’ll make sure that Denham sees justice, too.