Page 52 of Avenging Azalea (California Made Men #2)

Chapter

Forty

TITUS

Wearing Fawn out had very quickly become my favorite pastime.

There was something extremely satisfying about seeing the blissful expression on her face while she rested.

I’d waited until she was sound asleep before slipping from the bed.

The dogs were all too happy to take my spot and cuddle up to Fawn as I dressed and left the house.

Naji waited for me by the SUV. He crushed out his cigarette and got in the driver’s seat while I rode shotgun.

“You sure you want to do this?” I just looked at him. “You’re the boss. Here’s the master for the building.”

Naji held out a silver key for me to take. Grabbing it I stared at the simple piece of metal that granted the user access to thousands of people’s private spaces. This was why I would never live in a condo, no matter how nice they were.

We didn’t chat as he drove me across town, and he didn’t bother trying to talk me out of doing this. Driving up to the back of the building, Naji pulled out his phone and texted our contact.

“Cameras are off. You have forty minutes, and then he has to turn them back on.”

“I’ll be half that,” I said, getting out.

Before my door even closed, my mind was inside the condo on the twenty-first floor.

I’d taken the liberty of looking into Dr. Taylor, and annoyingly, I couldn’t find anything wrong with him.

He’d never been married and had no kids.

He made solid investments with no shady deals.

He didn’t have substance or gambling addictions, and he went home to visit his large family every two weeks.

If anything, he was too perfect. At this point, there was no telling what pissed me off more.

The fact that the man was a good person with a thriving business, or that on paper, he was more suited for Fawn than I would ever be.

It didn’t matter now. Fawn was mine. I’d crossed the line of no return, and I wasn’t going to let anyone screw with that. Not my father, Dr. Taylor, or anyone else who thought they could come between me and the woman I loved.

The only sound when I stepped off the elevator was that of my creaking leather gloves when my hands flexed. Reaching Matthew Taylor’s home, I slipped in the key as quietly as I could and unlocked the door. Moving slowly, I pushed it open and closed it again behind me quiet as a mouse.

The condo was exactly as I suspected. Perfect.

The décor was sleek and modern with personal touches, including family photos on the walls.

A fluffy cat was sound asleep on one of the living room chairs.

The giant ball of white fur, never the wiser that there was an intruder.

The condo was large, but it only took a few moments to search all the rooms and to find it empty.

“Hmm…where are you, Matt?”

Pulling out my phone, I wandered around with the app that detected recording devices and didn’t find anything.

This man was annoyingly clean. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d been able to trace him all the way back to the day he was born, I would’ve said he was in witness protection or an undercover agent.

If he was, then they had done an immaculate job on his backstory.

Taking the opportunity to snoop while I waited, I opened every cupboard, drawer, and closet that I could find. There was not a single condemning item. Not that I expected him to have a badge in a shoebox in the closet, but any kind of smoking gun to say Taylor was a prick would’ve been nice.

I’d just finished looking for a hidden safe when I heard the key in the door.

It hadn’t been very long, twenty minutes at most. I looked at the time.

It was two in the morning, which confirmed my suspicion.

Putting my phone away, I pulled my gun, walked over to his bedroom door, and slipped behind it out of sight.

A light turned on, the glow casting shadows into the bedroom. A little bell sounded, and a meow followed.

“Hi, Sasha, have you been a good girl?” The cat purred like a steam engine. He must have been carrying it because the rumbling sound was getting closer. My body tensed, ready to make my move.

“Sorry, I’m so late,” he said to the cat as he walked into the bedroom.

As soon as he cleared the door, I pushed it closed with a bang. Taylor jumped, and his cat leaped onto the bed as he spun around and stared at me. His eyes were wide and genuinely filled with fear.

“Titus? How? Why?”

“Sit down, Matt,” I ordered, and just in case he hadn’t already realized this wasn’t a social call, I raised my gun. His eyes grew huge, and his hands shot up in the air like he was surrendering. “I said, sit down. We need to have a chat.”

“I don’t understand,” he said, moving slowly as if any sudden movement would cause me to shoot him. In his defense, it might. The excuse would be nice.

“You will.”

Once Matt had sat down and his hands were in his lap, I tried to see him through the lens of a normal man. I tried to shed the suspicious nature of someone born into a mafia family where every person you met was a potential threat.

“Where were you?” He licked his lips. “I asked you a question, and I don’t like to ask things twice. Answer the fucking question.”

“I was at a bar,” he said.

“What bar?”

“Club VYCE.”

“That place has a reputation. Many girls have been roofied there. Is that what you were doing? Just because you didn’t bring anyone back to your condo doesn’t mean you’re not a slimy piece of shit.”

His face blanched. “No, I swear. One of the bartenders is a friend of mine, and a group of people I went to college with were going there tonight to reconnect. I swear, it was my first time. I’d never do that to anyone.”

Annoyingly, my instincts told me he wasn’t lying. Fuck, this guy had to have something fucked up about him.

“I’ll be checking your story, Matt. You better be telling the truth.”

“I am, I swear.”

“Tell me who you work for, Matt.”

His brow furrowed. “I work for myself, you know that. I own a clinic.”

“I don’t mean your vet work. Who else do you work for?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Turning the gun toward the lamp on his nightstand, I fired. The soft pop of the silencer went off a second before the lamp exploded. Matt jumped away from the sound, covering his head as he pissed himself. That was all I needed to see.

He had no professional training, and no one, no matter how talented, was this good of an actor. There was always something that gave them away, a tiny hint that alluded to the skills learned for situations just like this. The survival instinct that kicked in and unmasked them, if only briefly.

“Please don’t kill me. I don’t know what you mean,” he begged, his body shaking.

Walking over to where Matt cowered on the bed, I pointed the gun at his face. He began to blubber, repeating his desperate pleas.

“Shut up, Matt, and listen,” I said. He nodded and pressed his lips together.

“You seem like a decent guy, but you will no longer press Fawn for a date, you won’t flirt with her, and you’ll never touch her again.

You will continue to train Fawn, but if you lay a single finger on her again, if you guilt her, or try to win her heart in any way…

I’ll be back.” I touched the cold barrel of the gun to his forehead. “And next time, I won’t be as nice.”

I stared at the cat as it wandered over purring, rubbing itself against Matt’s face, and shook my head. This was why I was a dog person.

“And get yourself a guard dog. That cat is a disgrace,” I said as it meowed and licked his cheek. He nodded hysterically.

I flung the bedroom door open with a bang and looked over my shoulder at Matt.

“Oh, and if you call the cops, be sure to give them my whole name and then enjoy sitting in prison with only your regrets to keep you company.”

He shook his head. “No cops, I swear.”

I marched out and down to the back door of the condo. Naji sat there, staring at me as I climbed into the SUV.

“So, did you find out what you needed to?”

“Yup. Apparently, I’m the psycho asshole, and Dr. Taylor is fucking perfect.” I glared at Naji.

Naji laughed out loud as he started the vehicle. “I could’ve told you that. So do we need a clean-up crew?”

“No, I didn’t kill him for being a decent person. But I sure as hell wanted to,” I grumbled, and crossed my arms.

“You really worried that Fawn is going to leave you for this guy?” I remained silent, not wanting to voice my fear that she should, not that she would. If something happened to her…

“Fine, don’t answer me, but we both know she loves you and isn’t going anywhere.”

Whether she stayed or left, both terrified me for different reasons. It was like standing on the very top of a mountain peak, and no matter which way you fell, you tumbled to your death. The only difference was that as long as she was with me, I’d protect her with my dying breath.