Ink Reunited (9 page)

“You’re just going to let her
leave?” Rafe’s father barked, and Ian took a deep breath.

He nodded at Rafe then faced
the man who would one day be his father-in-law if Ian had any say in it. “No,
we’re not. She might need time to breathe, but she doesn’t get to leave us when
she just told us she loved us.”

“Perfect fucking timing,” Rafe
bit out.

“Language,
niño
.”

Rafe growled beside him and
Ian ground his teeth.

“She left because of what she
saw in the paper. So, let’s see what it is she saw and then we fix it.”

Rafe stepped in front of him
as he took a step toward the office. “Fix it? How are we going to do that?
Fuck, Ian, we just let her walk out of here.”

Ian cupped Rafe’s cheek. “And
if we’d forced her to stay, she’d resent the hell out of us. So we’re going to look
at the real issues here—the media and who leaked this story—and fix it. Then
we’re going after her. We should have done that ten years ago and we’re not going
to make the same mistake again.”

He’d be damned if he’d act
like he did before.

He kept running Sassy’s words
over and over in his head, fixating on those that meant they had a chance at a
future. She’d never told them she loved them outright, not before, but the
words were out there now and she didn’t get to take them back.

She didn’t get to run away for
good.

When he pulled up the gossip
column on the damn society pages, he let out a roar. Rafe jumped and looked
over his shoulder before letting go with a particularly vile curse that
surprised Ian in its vehemence.

“God, they were vicious to
Sassy,” Carlos whispered. “Who would do such a thing?”

 Ian ground his teeth. “They
were petty and cruel to her while saying that she’s a disappointment to her
family. Notice they didn’t mention Rafe and me beyond who we were.”

“The attack was directed specifically
at her,” Rafe said.

“And who would want to hurt
her the most and have the ties to make it happen?”

“Fuck. That fucking prick.”

“Her father?” Carlos asked,
ignoring his son’s language. “
Mierda
.”

Ian’s brows rose in confirmation.
He looked at Rafe and let out a breath. “Let’s deal with him once and for all.
He’s always been in the background of our relationship with her. We’ve chosen
to put it aside because acting on it could hurt her, but right now, we’re going
to fix it.”

“You really think she’s going
to like us going in and fixing the problem for her?”

Ian shook his head. “No, she’s
going to hate it. She should face him but not before she’s ready. If we want to
make our future work, we need to make sure that bastard isn’t part of it. He
needs to know he can’t show up when he wants to hurt her. The only reason he
even knows about us is because of who I am and the people who follow me. I’m
going to use that to crush him.”

“And when she resents us because
we took care of it for her?”

Ian shook his head. “Then she
can confront her father too. Right now though, this is something
we
need
to do. That fucker isn’t the only thing that’s bothering her and once we assure
her that we can make this work, then she’s part of it as well. We’re not doing
it only for her, we’re doing it for
us
.”

He wasn’t just rationalizing.
No matter how much Sassy might
need
to confront her father, it wasn’t
going to happen right then. The SOB didn’t matter enough in the long run, and Ian
would do what he could to make sure he no longer mattered at all.

They hopped into Ian’s car and
drove to the Bordeaux estate on the other side of the city. He’d never been
there, although because of his family connections, he’d been invited. The Steeles
and Bordeauxs would have made a perfect match in snob heaven. Too bad Ian and
Sassy found each other the way they wanted to, not how their parents desired.

He pulled up to the gate and
lowered his window.

“Can I help you?” the guard
asked.

“Tell Donald Bordeaux that Ian
Steele is here, and he’d better let us in. Now.”

The guard’s eyes widened at
the mention of Ian’s name, and he scrambled back to the phone. Ian rolled up
his window and put his hands on the steering wheel, gripping it like a
lifeline.

“It’s good to have your name
sometimes,” Rafe said, though Ian could hear and sense the underlying anger and
fear.

“My name fucks us over more
times than it helps it seems, but I’m done worrying about what others think.
This man is going to know he crossed the wrong family, the wrong people. Then
we’re going to go to Sassy, get down on our knees, and beg for her to come back
because I’m through waiting.”

Rafe snorted. “Sounds like a
plan. Easy. Concise. And full of what-the-fuck.”

The gate opened and Ian pulled
through. A butler walked out of the front door and nodded toward them as Ian
parked in front of the colossal house. Where Ian had chosen to live in a modest
loft and was planning on buying a bigger home for the three of them, Donald’s
home was a fucking monstrosity that screamed wealth and privilege.

Just one more thing Ian
couldn’t stand about the bastard.

The place dripped money yet
looked cheap at the same time. Sassy had more class in her little finger than
the entire place and the people who lived there combined.

Ian and Rafe walked through
the place and Ian had to grin at what they were wearing. Instead of his usual
suit, he had on jeans and a t-shirt while Rafe still had his work coveralls on.
Their current wardrobe choices weren’t particularly power-driven, but they
would work for what Ian had in mind.

He could pull off power and
absolute control in a suit at the drop of a hat, but even in the jeans and
t-shirt, he managed to convey a dangerous anger and the power to back it up.

He left no doubt that he would
obliterate the man who tried to crush his own daughter.

“Well, good afternoon, Ian. I
wondered when you’d drop by for a visit.” Donald walked through the archway
into the foyer and blinked at their attire before looking like he flicked them
off like a piece of lint.

Good.

Bordeaux had made the first
mistake in a power play, underestimating your opponent.

“You’re a fucking asshole,” Ian
growled.

Donald’s perfect eyebrow rose.
“Such an attitude from a man who is standing in my home in ragged clothes beside
a man who must be your mechanic. Or is that your lover?”

“Stop it with the archetypes,”
Ian spat. “You leaked Sassy’s name to the press.”

Though it wasn’t a question,
Donald answered anyway. “That little bitch thought she could come back to New Orleans
and defile our name? Fuck her.”

Ian’s body moved before his
brain could engage. His fist slammed into the bastard’s face and Donald went
down hard.

“Well, I could have done
that,” Rafe said dryly.

Ian shrugged. “You get the
next one.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You bastard!” Donald
scrambled to his feet, clutching his obviously broken, very bloody nose.
“You’ll pay for that.”

“No, I won’t. You’ll back off
from Sassy. You’ll publish a detailed retraction
and
an apology. You’ll
stay away from Sassy, Rafe, and me. You’ll stay away from the families we’ve
made. You
will
back the fuck off.”

“And just why do you think
I’ll do that?”

Ian leaned in so he was inches
from Donald’s face. “Because while you have a few dollars, I have billions.
While you have some power in New Orleans, I have more everywhere else. And even
if my relationship takes me out of the forefront of my company, I still have
everything else. You have nothing. You come at me and what’s mine again, and I.
Will. Destroy. You. Utterly, and thoroughly.

Donald paled a bit, the truth
hitting home.

Rafe slid up to Ian’s side and
gripped the man’s chin with bruising force. “And what Ian can’t get to, I can.
You think I’m gutter trash? You haven’t got the first clue, asshat.”

“Oh, and for the record, Sassy’s
been here all along. Your daughter has hidden in her own city for over ten fucking
years and you never noticed until you thought it could help your masquerade as
the poor victim. Well fuck you and fuck the morals you think you have. Stay
away from her or I’ll hunt you down like the swine you are.”

“Do you get us?” Rafe asked
and Donald nodded.

Ian pushed the man away then
strode out of the house. “You drive to Sassy’s. I need to make a few calls.”
He’d ensure Sassy’s future regardless of cost or consequence. He had the money,
the privilege, and the connections. He’d just make a few calls to those he
worked with and they’d have so many eyes on Donald, he wouldn’t be able to
scratch his ass without an audience.

Sassy was more important than
anything he could ever lose.

“You really think she’ll be
there?” Rafe asked as they drove.

Ian ran a hand through his
hair. “It’s a place to start. I’m not giving up until we find her.”

“No shit,” Rafe snorted. “I
can’t believe you punched her dad. She’s gonna be pissed.”

“No, she’s going to be annoyed
she missed it.”

“That’s what I meant.”

Ian smiled and put his hand on
Rafe’s knee, needing the connection. God, Sassy had walked out on them. With
everything that had happened, it still hadn’t clicked that she’d left them.

They parked at Sassy’s place
and got out. They each had a key and rather than knock and wait for her to not
answer, they walked in, unprepared for the sight that greeted them.  

Sassy sat in the middle of her
L-shaped couch, her face pale, tear stains on her cheeks, her eyes vacant.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Ian
whispered, then hurried to her.

She just looked at him and
closed her eyes. “I ran away. How stupid am I?”

Rafe came to her other side
and pulled them both close. “That’s not stupid.”

“It was a knee jerk reaction
apparently, and then I spent the day crying and wanting my boyfriends. God, I’m
a fucking teenager.”

Ian took Sassy’s chin between
his fingers and forced her gaze to his. “Stop it. You’re not a teenager. You’re
allowed to cry and fight and act however the hell you want when someone who you
are supposed to trust, someone who is supposed to love you betrays you.”

She licked her lips and pulled
back. “So it was my father then? I didn’t figure it out until after I left you.”

“Honey, you were thinking
about the pain and others, not about who could have caused it,” Rafe said. “You
aren’t required to be all things to all people all at once.”

“What did you do?” Sassy
asked.

Ian blushed. “Uh…”

“Oh my God. You went to him?
Without me?”

Rafe glared at Ian but Ian
knew he’d have to roll with it. “Yes, this first time. Next time we go over
there to confront him, you’ll lead the charge. I promise we didn’t go over
there to act like Neanderthals.”

Rafe coughed.

Sassy looked between them and
then at Ian’s swollen knuckles. “You hit him. Didn’t you? Oh, my God! I missed
it!” She punched him in the shoulder, and Ian was relieved to see the color
back in her face. “I can’t believe I missed
Ian Steele
punching my dad.”

“I’ll do it again just so you
can watch.”

Sassy smiled like he hoped she
would and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss. He
obliged, missing the feel of her beneath him. She pulled away and did the same
to Rafe before hitting them in the arms again.

“Don’t handle my problems.”

“Hey, they were our problems,
too,” Rafe said.

“I told your dad to fix it in
the media or I’d make life tough for him. You know I can do that.”

Her eyes widened. “Ian! But
what about your company? What about Rafe’s family? What about Midnight? It’s
not all about that one article. We could hurt a lot of people.”

Ian narrowed his eyes. “How?
How could we do that? The only people we care about love us and support our
relationship. Nothing else matters.”

“But Ian—”

“Sassy, it will be okay,” Rafe
interrupted. “My family can handle it. They already knew things might get iffy
for a bit at the shop if people start to care, but they don’t. Not really. And
if things change? Then I can take a back seat and let my brother and father
take care of things. My family isn’t going to leave me, and our shop won’t go
under because of who I love.”

“And my company and its people
are financially secure. That won’t be an issue. It’s
in
right now to be
different in certain circles, and I can use that if I need to. Those people I
trust aren’t going to leave me because of who I love. As for my parents? They
don’t like me as it is, Sass. Nothing I do will change that and I don’t really
care to. You’re my family now. You and Rafe.”

Her eyes filled and she
blinked quickly. “I’m not going to cry again. I cried enough for the day.”

Ian cupped her face. “Okay
then. Now about that last part. About Midnight? You made that family at the
shop and those people fucking love you. They stand strong no matter what
happens around them. There’s even a fucking threesome in the group as it is. I
think we’ll be fine.”

Sassy blushed. “Okay, so I was
reaching with that one.”

“Stop fighting us, Sassy,”
Rafe whispered. “It’s okay to be happy.”

“It’s okay to take a chance,”
Ian added. “Take a chance on us, Sass. Take a chance on our future.”

She bit her lip and blinked up
at him. “I promise not to run away again. I’m in. I’m sorry I ran.”

Ian shook his head. “I’m going
to spank that pretty ass pink for scaring me like that, but I believe you,
baby. You’re allowed to get fucking pissed at what you read, but we’ll handle
it together.”