Sovereign (19 page)

I rubbed my ass back and forth over his growing erection. “I’ve never heard of it, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be good at it.”

“I like it when you’re up to a challenge.”

“Always.” I stroked his dark hair, the strands soft on my fingertips.

He pulled me in for a kiss, his hands roving my body as he bit my bottom lip. The singular sensation of tingles and warmth, one that only he could draw from me, ricocheted around my stomach.

“Mr. Vinemont.” A woman chirped through his phone.

He growled into my mouth before reaching over and pressing a button. “What, Kim?”

“You have a visitor.”

“I don’t have any appointments today.” His tone turned cold, displeasure coating each syllable. “I checked.”

“He’s a walk-in. He believes you’d want to speak with him.”

“Who the fuck is it?” He clicked off the speaker and kissed me again, his impatience growing by the second.

“Leon Rousseau. He specifically asked to speak to the young lady you’re with.”

My heart fell at my father’s name. I hadn’t seen him since the trial, though Sin told me what he’d done to him. It had been gruesome, but I understood why it had to be.

Sin leaned back and looked up at me, his lips pressing into a thin line. “Fuck. He must have seen us arrive. I’ll send him away.”

“No. He can see me if he wants to. Both of us, I mean.” I took his hand and laced our fingers together. “He can see both of us.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I think I’ll be fine. And maybe it will be a good thing, to finally see him face to face on equal footing. No more pretending.” The certainty in my tone wasn’t matched inside my heart. My love for my father had grown stale and brittle, but something remained. Would it always be there?

“Send him in.” Sin shoved the phone away.

I tried to stand.

He held me in place. “He can see you here with me, where you belong.”

“Claiming your turf?” I leaned my shoulder into his chest.

“If you’d rather I piss on you to mark you as mine, I will.” He dug his fingers into my sides and I squirmed, trying not to laugh. “Is that a yes?”

“No.” I grabbed his hands as the door opened.

My short-lived amusement died away as my father hobbled in, his back hunched and his face sorrowful. So many emotions rushed through me that I thought I might burst at the onslaught. Of all of them, pity won out.

He sank down into a chair across the desk as the secretary closed the door.

His bloodshot eyes found mine, and he held out his left arm, the end covered in graying gauze.

“Look at me. Ruined.”

Sin spoke through gritted teeth. “You got what—”

“Let me, okay?” I squeezed his forearm and he quieted, though he wrapped his hands around my waist. Meeting my father’s eyes again, I said, “Go on.”

“I need you, Stella. I need someone to take care of me. The money…” He shook his head, unshed tears wobbling in his eyes. “It’s all gone. No one cares about me. Dylan hasn’t spoken to me in months. I need you to come home. Please.”

“To the home you burned to the ground?”

His eyebrows rose, but he shook his head. “Who told you that? Him?” He shot a glance to Sin. “It was lightning. The damned insurance people wouldn’t pay up.” His tone turned bitter and his top lip curled into a sneer. “Only gave me half what it was worth.”

I saw right through him as if he were a pane of glass on a sunny day. “Can you still not tell me the truth, even now?”

“What lies has he told you? He poisoned you against me. You’re sitting in his goddamn lap like a pet!” As his voice rose, Sin tensed beneath me. I smoothed my hand up and down his arm, trying to tamp down the beast I could feel raging beneath his surface.

“Sin told me the truth. He showed me your signature. Stop lying to me.” The brittle love I had for him was breaking into pieces, disintegrating into the wind of his lies.

“That stuff can be forged. You know that. Why do you believe him? He’s the one who framed me, hounded me, convicted me based on lies. Don’t you remember?”

“I remember believing in you so much that I sacrificed myself to save you. I remember accepting my fate if it meant you would be safe.” I rose and stared him down. “And then I was told the truth. You brought all of this on us. Your lies, your schemes.” I flattened my palms on the desk. “How long until the million ran out?”

“What? No. There was no million.” He glared at Sin. “What have you told her?”

“Look at me. He told me the truth. How. Long?”

He sputtered and shook his head. “N-no. It wasn’t like that. I was—”

I slapped my hand on the desk. “How long!”

He covered his face with his hand. “Just a few months. I-I thought I could get you back somehow. Keep the money and get you back, but he took you and told you lies about me.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Realization hit me, and I straightened. “You believe your own lies, don’t you? You actually think you were innocent, that you could somehow sell me and keep me at the same time.”

“I just need you. My hand. He took it, and it’s all his fault. He caused every last bit of it.” He vacillated between crying and yelling, and pointed a shaking finger at Sin. “He wanted you all along, from the first moment he saw you.”

“That’s the only true thing you’ve said.” Sin stood behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “I think it’s time for you to leave, Mr. Rousseau.”

“She’s mine.” My father snarled, more animal than man. “You can’t keep her from me. Her mother tried to take her from me once. That didn’t work out very well for her.”

“Take me from you? She never tried…” My knees went weak and I leaned against the desk for support. “Did you—was it you? What did you do to her?” My mother’s face flitted across my vision. “What did you do?”

He changed yet again, the vehemence gone and weakness in its place. “Please, Stella. I need you. Please.”

My head spun, the room flickering light to dark. “You said it was suicide. It was ruled a suicide.”

He nodded. “Yes, suicide. Come with me.”

“Liar!” I screamed and tried to get around the desk. I wanted to rip him open until the truth finally spilled out. Sin wrapped his arms around me and held me in place.

“I suggest you leave now, Mr. Rousseau. I’d love to watch her destroy you, but it may cause her pain, and I can’t have that.”

“I need you. Please, come with me. Please.” His teary plea made bile rise in my throat, and all I could see was my mother, her warm smile and sad eyes.

“I’m warning you, Mr. Rousseau.” Sin spoke quietly, hatred infusing every word.

“You killed her. You killed her, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, but the answer was in his bowed head. The lies were finally at an end.

“I thought we’d get more money to live. Stage it like a break-in. It didn’t work. Insurance wouldn’t pay because it was deemed a suicide, and I had debts. I’m sorry. I would never hurt you. Please—”

“I warned you.” Sin released me.

I tore around the desk and shoved my father to the ground. Dropping to my knees, I hit him as tears blurred my vision and rage lit me up like a house on fire.

“How could you? I loved you!” I hit him as he covered his face, cowering beneath my onslaught. My movements slowed as sobs rose in my chest. I kept swinging even as my arms tired and my knuckles burned. And then, after I’d worn myself out, I was done. Finished with him.

Sin lifted me to my feet and picked me up, cradling me in his arms as I cried into his chest.

“Get out.” He turned to the door and yelled. “Kim!”

She hurried through as if she’d been waiting just outside. “Have Burt or Clancy escort Mr. Rousseau to his car. Call the sheriff and make sure he is escorted to the parish line.”

“Yes, okay.” She bustled out of the room.

“The next moment I set eyes on you will be your last.” Sin backed away, holding me close.

“M-Mom.” I sobbed.

“Shh, it’s all going to be all right.”

A man walked in and helped my father to his feet. His cheeks glowed red from my fists and one eye was already starting to swell shut. The man asked no questions and hustled my father out the door and closed it behind them.

I clung to Sin, the world ripping to shreds around me as he stood firm.

“I’m sorry.” He kissed my hair. “I’m so sorry. If you want me to have him killed—”

“No. There’s been enough blood. Too much.” I calmed my breathing, taking gulps of air to stop the tremors.

“I’ll do anything to make you happy. Anything.” He was a wild, tormented creature, but everything about him soothed me, lulled me.

“I know.”

Another knock and then Kim’s voice. “He’s out of the office, sir, and the sheriff is on his way to escort him away.”

“Good.”

The door closed and another round of sobs shook me. “He took her from me. She loved me, Sin. I remember her. Her smile, her hair, the way she would sing while I played with my finger paints.” Her yellow dress with the blue checks, the time I got into her makeup and painted my lips and cheeks with her red lipstick, choosing my dress for my first school dance, playing in her garden—so many memories welled up inside me. How many more had my father stolen from me? “She’d still be alive. She’d be with me. H-he took her.”

Sin rocked me back and forth, trying to ease the ache that could never fully be erased. “Shh, I’ve got you.”

I cried for the parents I’d lost as he held me close, his strong arms cradling me until my tears finally subsided. He kissed my hair.

I leaned back to look up at him. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry.” His face softened, and his tenderness made my tears threaten again.

I cleared my throat to try and stave off another crying fit. “Is all this going to be a p-problem with your staff or anything?”

He laughed, a deep rumble in his chest. “After what they’ve heard about Judge Montagnet, my eccentricities seem rather run-of-the-mill, I’m afraid.”

“I hate that man.”

“We’ll get him.” He dropped a reassuring kiss on my lips. “We’ll get them all.”

One stormy afternoon, Sin, Lucius, and I climbed the stairs to the third floor. Renee had interrupted our strategy session with Lucius to let us know that Rebecca was back—the real Rebecca.

I followed Renee, both Sin and Lucius on my heels. We moved quickly. Catching Rebecca lucid was like trying to see a shooting star. Spotted rarely, and only briefly before burning out.

Though I’d witnessed her change for Renee briefly, I couldn’t imagine her as anything other spiteful toward me. My trepidation grew as we approached. But when I walked in with Sin and Lucius, she smiled without a hint of malice.

“Boys.” Rebecca motioned them over, her joy like a mirror to her past when she was young and full of life.

I hid my surprise and stepped aside so Sin and Lucius could go to her bedside.

“Mom?” Sin hurried to her, Lucius on his heels.

“Sit. Let’s talk before I go back under. Hurry. We don’t have much time.” Rebecca patted the bed.

They sat as I hovered at the door.

“Stella? Come here. Let me look at you.” I walked over, Renee at my elbow.

“See? It’s her. It’s my Rebecca.” Renee dabbed at her eyes.

“Rebecca.” I nodded in greeting, still unsure if I was going to get a kind word or a kick in the teeth.

“You are beautiful. Almost the spitting image of my sister, Cora. And I hear you have her spirit, as well.” The woman in front of me wasn’t the same one who’d run into the dead of night screaming, or who had told me with glee about the trials. She was warm, friendly—a total stranger.

“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Renee, leave us for this part. I know how it upsets you.” She reached out and squeezed Renee’s hand before letting it go.

“I’ll be just down the hall.” Tears rolled down Renee’s cheeks, joy mixing with sorrow.

Once Renee was gone, Rebecca turned back to me. “The final trial is more of a mental test than anything else. Stella—”

“Is it true?” Sin asked. “That you want me to end the Acquisition?”

She took his hand. “Yes. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. If I had any strength left, I’d do it myself. We don’t belong. The Vinemonts were never meant to be a part of this.” She shook her head, her white hair flowing around her shoulders. “We were poor sharecroppers. Your great-great-great grandfather unknowingly saved the life of the Sovereign, who repaid him by adding us to this disgraceful club. Don’t you see? It’s not in our blood. We don’t belong here.”

“But you always said we were better, that we were above everyone else—”

“Forget what I said.” Her tone turned desperate, and her bottom lip shook. “Forget everything I ever told you. Forget everything I’ve done to you.” She ran her fingers over the scars she’d cut into the back of his hand. “But remember what I tell you now. The final trial will force Stella to sacrifice something she loves.” She turned to me again. “Child, what do you love? Tell us.”

“I-I love Teddy and Sin and Lucius. I love Renee, Farns, and Laura.”

“Is there anyone else they could try and take from you?”

“Dmitri.” Lucius glanced at me. “And the rest of them. The flaming hair guy and the blonde.”