Page 3 of Daring Wicked Love (Wicked Dade #2)

There were a handful of times in my thirty-seven years of life when I wished I had been born an only child.

Today was one of those days.

Watching the movers carry boxes and new furniture through the foyer, I refused to pay Jaxon any attention when he showed up unannounced at my new home until I heard the two words that made my stomach twist.

I quit.

Again with this bullshit.

“ Jésus Christ. ” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Haven’t we already gone over this once before?”

He was like a broken record I couldn’t stop playing at this point.

Was I honestly surprised? No.

When he stormed into my office last time and threatened me with a resignation letter, it took a lot of false promises to keep him right where he belonged. We created Dade Diamonds together; we sweated our very blood into getting it to where it was today.

It was our company.

Our life’s work.

It didn’t matter that he was too blinded by whatever goodness Evelyn, his wife, was seeping into him not to realize I was full of shit and would say whatever it took to keep him from jumping ship.

It was truly only a matter of time before Jaxon caught on that I had as much intention apologizing to Evelyn as I did ramming my cock into a live electric socket.

Apologies were for the weak, and I did not have the luxury of being weak.

“There’s no point delaying the inevitable,” Jaxon said. “We’ll announce it to the board on Monday. It will give our clients and investors a heads-up, and we can assure them that my departure isn’t a cause for concern.”

“Must we do this again?”

“Frederic, I thought we could continue working together, but we can’t. It’s not the same as it was.” Jaxon adjusted the sleeve of his shirt. “Our lack of communication can only go on for so long.”

Tension rippled down my spine. “Last time I checked, it’s you who is unwilling to communicate with me. You’re the one who has purposely been avoiding board meetings. You’re the one who spends all his time in New York...”

“I live there,” he snapped.

“And you are the unhappy one. I, on the other hand, see little issue with us continuing to work together as we once did.”

His jaw popped.

“Quitting will do neither of us any favors,” I said bluntly. “Unlike you, my dear brother, I can separate business from my personal life. Maybe it’s about time you learned to do the same.”

Jaxon’s nostrils flared as his back teeth ground together.

I should have let him walk away the first time and saved myself the headache of being back to square one with him.

After all, I didn’t truly need him. I could run Dade Diamonds by myself with my eyes closed.

Considering the distance Jaxon had put between himself and the company over the last year and did as many public appearances for the company as fucking Santa Claus himself, I didn’t need him anymore.

But watching the movers carry in the bed I picked out for Penelope and the matching dressers up the stairs, it dawned on me that without Jaxon to shoulder my workload, I wouldn’t be able to solely focus on my daughter.

Between the no doubt lengthy custody hearings and the summer months before Penelope started school, I needed to be at home.

I needed to prove that I was willing to do whatever it took to fight for my child.

I needed to be the father Penelope deserved first and foremost.

“Look,” I faced my younger brother, “can we put a pin in this for let’s say six months? If you still feel the same, you can leave. Give me six months and I’ll buy you out, then you can fuck off and play happy families with your pretty wife in New York.”

“That’s not possible.”

I twisted the ring tightly around my finger.

Whatever happened to the days where I said jump and my brothers all asked how fucking high?

Especially Jaxon.

The two of us understood each other—or so I thought.

A lot had changed between us over the last two years. Our relationship, though ultimately always based on professionalism, was still bound by blood. No matter what happened between us, blood ran thicker than water.

But truly looking at my brother before me, I knew the main reason for his sudden change, and it had nothing to do with the pain I tried to cause to his wife and her family.

Truth was, Jaxon was happy.

He’d somehow made his peace with the demons of our childhood.

Pressure built behind my eyes, the sound of blood drummed heavily between my ears, as I attempted to remain level-headed.

“An opportunity has arisen to purchase a MotoGP team,” Jaxon said matter-of-factly. “The previous owner’s wife approached me after her husband’s sudden passing. She wants me to buy her out and take control before the new season starts.”

Blood vessels were likely to explode and cloud my vision any second as each of his words sunk in.

He was going to leave.

Outside of my daughter, Jaxon was all I had left. My other brothers wanted as little to do with me as possible, not that I entirely blamed them for that choice.

When our maman died, I was too focused on feeling every inch of that unforgiving pain. I saw little need to build connections with our youngest two brothers. I selfishly latched onto Jaxon because of our closeness in age, and I knew I couldn’t get revenge and justice by myself.

“You’re considering leaving the company to go and play with motorbikes? I’ve heard a lot of stupid shit in my life, but this takes the crown.”

“Not considering,” he said bluntly. “I’m the owner of PL Racing as of nine o’clock this morning. Racing season starts in two weeks, which is when I will officially step down from my CEO position.”

“ Batard. This is all because of Evelyn, isn’t it?” I scoffed. “Turns out I am not the only one here who can hold onto a grudge, frère .”

Jaxon exhaled heavily, his fingers twitching at his sides. “Frederic, I’ve come to realize that Dade Diamonds was never my dream. It was a means to an end, and the ending it once had in store for me is no longer something I desire.”

All those years, all that hard work to crawl our way to the top was mainly fueled by our need for revenge. How quickly my brother’s desire for justice to repay the man who stole our father’s business and our childhood vanished when he fell in love with our enemy’s daughter.

The years we sacrificed our relationship as brothers and became nothing more than business partners had all been for nothing.

It didn’t matter that our business was a multi-billion-dollar industry and the second-largest diamond supplier in North America, because without the thirst for blood fueling my every business decision, I struggled to find meaning in my life.

Until Penelope.

She was all that mattered now.

Jaxon adjusted his shirt cuff. “I’ll inform the board today of my decision.” He stood still for a breath before walking to the front door. “My assistant will email you anything that I deem needs your attention.”

I needed him to stay.

I needed him to help me keep my daughter.

I needed…my brother.

“Fine.” I clicked my tongue against my teeth. “Have your assistant draw up the contract for your shares and send them to legal. If you’re leaving Jaxon, then you are leaving fully. Every share is to be signed over to me, got it?”

He blinked twice before the corner of his mouth turned down. “Whatever you say, Frederic.”

The sound of his motorbike’s engine roaring to life echoed throughout the house, leaving me alone with a sinking weight making itself at home in the center of my chest.

Without Jaxon at the helm of the company, there wasn’t a chance in hell I would be able to step back fully. It was going to be downright impossible to be at home twenty-four-seven with Penelope and take on Jaxon’s workload.

Him stepping down was going to send the investors into a state of chaos, never mind the board who’d want a full fucking investigation as to why.

There was only so much I could delegate.

Fuck.

It’s fine. I simply need to consider a second option.

Walking into the empty kitchen, I sidestepped the cardboard boxes that needed to be emptied and kept walking until I found myself in the back garden.

Vivid green acres of grass, colorful floral hedges, ten-foot trees, a hidden swimming pool, and a winding path that led down to a detached glass sunroom. It was a far cry from my penthouse back in the heart of the city.

It was exactly what I wanted for Penelope. A place where she could spend her days playing games in the garden, not stuck in a penthouse that was anything but child friendly.

When she was with her mother, she spent most of her time cooped up inside the townhouse, while Maura only entertained her with shopping trips when it suited her.

Maura believed that love could be bought, and no matter what happened, my ex-wife would never change, not even for her own flesh and blood.

When Penelope spent weeks with me at my Grand-mère’s home in Monaco, she spent every second she could outside. Even the one Christmas Maura let me spend with my daughter, it was nearly impossible to get her to stay indoors.

She was born with the wilderness in her blood and the sun in her heart.

That’s what I wanted for her, for her to have somewhere like here she could call a home.

A real home with me.

And I’d be damned if Maura tried to take that from me.

Quick-paced footsteps and giggling sounded from behind me. The weight threatening to crush my lungs lifted at the sound. Before I had a chance to turn, small arms wrapped themselves tightly around my waist.

It was amazing how one single person on this earth could soothe the constant turbulence in my soul.

“ Bonjour, mon petit soleil. ”

When I turned, I dismissed Hank, my driver, who stood nearby holding a suitcase of my daughter’s belongings. He was one of the few people I trusted with Penelope’s life, and the fact that he turned down Maura’s advances when we were married made me respect him that bit more.

Ocean blue eyes stared up at me and a smile that would have shattered the toughest of diamonds broke across Penelope’s face. “Mama said I get to spend the whole summer with you! Do I?”

I stroked the wisps of blonde hair from her face. “You sure do.”

“Are we going to spend the summer with Grand-mère ?”

There was only one other person who I knew would break themselves into pieces for Penelope, and that was my Grand-mère Florence.

If I had my way, Penelope would be on the next flight to Monaco, but I knew Maura would throw a fit and threaten me with my very own threat of ringing the police for kidnapping.

Plus, my Grand-mère’s health was anything but stable since her stroke last year.

The old stubborn mule would never admit it out loud, but she was struggling with her mobility, and no matter how much physiotherapy she subjected herself to, the feeling in her left leg had still not returned. Meaning she needed to rely on the piece of shit that gave his sperm to create me.

The less time I spent around him, the more my knuckles would thank me in the long run.

“Not yet.” I took her hand, letting her slim fingers interlock with mine. “Maybe in a couple weeks we can fly out and see her.”

Penelope’s bottom lip disappeared between her teeth as she looked across the garden. Her gaze jumped from one thing to another, her pupils dilating at the sight of the sunroom. “Is this your house now?”

“It’s our house, mon petit soleil. ”

Her smile grew tenfold, banishing any fragmented shards that remained from talking to Jaxon.

“We are going to have the best summer,” Penelope said. “We can have picnics every day, oh, and I want to show you the new dance I learned. It’s super hard, but I can teach you all the moves.”

“I still have to go to work some days,” I said slowly, unable to miss the drop in her smile. “But whenever I am not working, you can teach me anything you want, how does that sound?”

She didn’t say anything as she nodded slowly.

There was little in this world that I let hurt me, but the disappointment on my daughter’s face was agonizing to witness.

“It’s going to be okay,” I reassured us both. “We’re going to hire a nanny to help, and you are going to have the best summer here, I promise.”

She narrowed her eyes before presenting me with her little finger. “Pinky promise?”

I huffed a chuckle and wrapped my finger around hers. “Pinky promise.”

Fuck Jaxon for leaving me like this.

Fuck Maura for putting me in this position in the first place, for stealing those two years I could have had with my baby girl and now putting me at risk of losing the only thing I truly cared about.