Page 56

Chapter One

Jolie

What the hell does he mean by babies? I look down and hesitantly place my hand on my stomach.

“What the hell did he do?” I whisper. The letter drops from my hands and lands on the countertop.

“Tenshi, what’s wrong?” Creed asks.

I look up at him with tears in my eyes. There’s no point trying to hide it; Creed can sense my emotions.

Hard lines cross his face, and he drops the spatula into the sink. Moving around the bench, he spins me in my chair so I’m facing him and takes my face in his hands. “Talk to me. Something just made me extremely sad—I felt the pain right in my heart.”

“I... we need to gather everyone. I think everyone needs to hear this at the same time.”

Creed moves back into the kitchen to turn the stove off, then exits the kitchen quickly to go find everyone.

I pick the letter back up and fold it while I wait for everyone to join me. What the hell do I say to them? Surprise! My father impregnated me. The one thing you were scared about all those years ago has come true. Do I tell them I lied when I was a child, and I remember getting my period just before my twelfth birthday? That the nurses I saw started me on shots, and I was told to keep it secret because if the boys found out I had my period, they would treat me like I was fragile. I couldn’t let that happen. It all makes sense now, but only one question remains. Who is the father? There is no way he would be stupid enough to make inbred babies.

Davis is the first to walk into the kitchen, and his dark coffee-coloured eyes search my face for any clue as to why I’m upset. Please don’t ask me if I’m okay.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Slowly, I shake my head. “I need to wait for everyone.” Closing my eyes, I press my fingers to my temples.

One by one, they all file into the kitchen. Tears roll down my face and worried expressions fill the room.

“Baby, talk to us. You’re freaking us out,” Laughn murmurs, his voice unnaturally calm.

Flipping the paper over in my hands a few times, I decide to hand the letter to Brennan. There is no way that I would be able to read it out loud. He scans the page, and his jaw goes hard. He clears his throat to read the letter out loud as I sit and wait for the imminent explosion.

“To my beautiful daughter,” Brennan reads, looking up at me. I nod, so he looks back down and continues. “If you’re reading this, then I’m gone, but I wanted to be able to say I did love you in my own way, and I hope you like my parting gift. All I ever wanted to do was create a legacy. Everyone may have seen me as the villain, but I can assure you that isn’t the case, but it is a title I was willing to wear for the greater good.

“I beg of you not to trust my brother; he isn’t as he seems. I wish for you to continue my legacy. I know Case had information that led you all to believe I left the entire company to “The Order.” Now you know that isn’t the case at all. I just knew I could trust them not to hand my company over into the wrong hands. I worked hard to build Olympia from the ground up. Ziyon could have been by my side, but he didn’t want that. One day, he will have to face the truth of what he did. He can blame me, but our fall out was all on him.

“As for Melinda, my “dead wife” who is not dead at all. Remember, there isn’t anything that I don’t know. I didn’t get to a position of power without intelligence. I’ve known that she was alive this entire time, but chose not to intervene. She made her choice, but I still loved her.

“As you now know, I have left the entire company for my grandchildren. Until the time that they are ready to take over, it’s on you to run the business and I trust you will do good things with it. I hope with the life of these new babies that you can see my vision come to life and what you do with that information is now entirely up to you. I hand-picked staff and created all of this for you and in memory of your departed sister. And you can do the same for your children.

“I’m sure you’re freaking out about the news of having children, but don’t. I made sure that you would have all the support you needed. It takes a village and that you have, my dear.

“Those boys will follow you wherever you go and help you to succeed in this business and in life. Brennan will guide you with his knowledge. Boston will keep you on your toes. Creed will always be the tender love that you need. Laughn will help you accept the darkest parts of your soul. Chester will protect you. Marlow will make sure you take time for yourself. Trace will always have your best interests in mind. Davis will question everything for you. Kai will make you laugh. And Case loves you so deeply that you will never forget it.

“So please take that with you and be great and achieve everything that I couldn’t. I just wish I could have been here to see it with my own eyes, but sacrifices needed to be made.

With love,

Mr Z

P.S. Don’t kill Betty. She holds all the information you’re going to need.”

No one reacts until the last word on the page. Then a few things happen, but I can’t say they were unexpected.

Boston stands abruptly and storms away, punching the wall in his wake. I don’t get up to follow him, I can’t.

Chester rages, “I’m going to kill her! I don’t give a flying fuck what she knows.”

Case moves to my side and takes my hand in his. “This will be fine. We will be here for you no matter what.”

“What has he done to me?” I cry.

“I’m leaving. That bitch’s ass is fucked!” Chester yells, his voice reverberating around the room.

“Chester, calm down. She would have been doing her job,” I say, even though right now I want to kill her too. But what good would she be dead? We need answers.

“Calm down... calm down?! I need to hurt someone, and it’s not going to be pretty,” he snaps, pacing the dining room.

Standing from my seat, I march over to him, not daunted by his chest puffed out in anger and his fists balled at his sides. Grabbing his shirt, I twist it in my hands and use it to yank him down and meet his eyes. “I understand you’re angry, but we need to be smart. If she is the only one who has answers, she isn’t going to tell us anything if she thinks we will hurt her. We need to be calm and make her believe we understand that Mr Z was controlling her. Besides, Jimmie is my best friend, so I can’t just kill his girl.”

“I can,” he growls.

“No, please, just let me come up with a plan first before you kill anyone.”

His shoulders sag in defeat. I look around the room, but no one knows what to say. Brennan gives me a slight nod, and I know he is going to take charge of this situation.

“Okay, first I need someone to run down to the shops and buy some pregnancy tests. Let’s confirm this isn’t a trick.”

“I’ll go,” both Case and Kai say at the same time and then turn to each other with a scowl.

“Great, both of you can go,” Brennan says, and neither of them argue with him. “Marlow and Davis, you go make sure Boston isn’t punching holes in all the walls. Trace, Laughn, and Creed—you can come with me. We will go see if we can find Betty and ask some questions.”

“I want to be there,” I add, my tone brokering no argument.

“Fine, we’ll pick her up and bring her here.”

“And what the fuck do I do?” Chester booms, his anger getting the better of him.

“You stay here with Jolie and be supportive. Make her drink some water. She has some pregnancy tests to do shortly.”

Chester huffs, not happy about having to wait here with me. I don’t take it personally. I get he wants answers, and he only knows one way to do that.

Everyone leaves, and I sit and watch Chester as he continues to pace the floor, mumbling to himself. My attention is pulled from watching him wear marks into the floor when the security lights start flashing. Opening the app on my phone, I see Jimmie’s car heading up the driveway, so I quietly get up from my seat and move to the front of the house. While I know he helped us, Chester isn’t in a good headspace for visitors right now. As he is about to knock, I pull the door open. I’m about to tell him to leave, but I see his black eye and the tears running down his face. He falls into my arms the moment he sees me.

“I’m so sorry,” he cries.

We move into the house and close the door, and I take him into the living room to sit on the comfy couches. Chester flies into the room, and I turn just in time to head him off.

“Chester Matthew Emmerson, so help me if you take another step.”

“Little Angel, I’m going to kill them all. You’re just prolonging the inevitable. Her team goes,” he seethes, anger radiating off him in waves.

“I’m not part of their team anymore. I found where they were hiding and confronted them. They are all on her side—she cried and told them her sob story. After they roughed me up, I called Brennan and told him where they’re hiding. He said to come here... but I can leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” I say, turning to give Chester a pointed look. “I will take you up to my room to clean up.”

“No,” Chester snaps. “No man is going into your room.”

“Excuse me,” I drag out. “Who do you think you are telling me what to do?” I retort, chin up and taking a step towards him. He counters by taking a step closer to me.

“You”—he stabs a finger in my chest—“wanted this part of me. I warned you. I told you I’m toxic. So here it is. He. Is. Not. Going. Up. There.”

We stand in a stare off, my anger at boiling point. Much to my surprise, Chester breaks first. “He can use the guest room.”

“Fine.”

I take Jimmie to the spare room and find him some of Case’s clothes to change into. His team literally beat him—the shock of that hasn’t worn off. Once he has showered, I will get Kai or Case to check him over and make sure there is no lasting damage.

“Honey, we’re home,” Kai calls through the house. We meet in the kitchen, and he tips a bag full of tests on the counter. Case picks one up and reads the back of the package.

“That seems like a lot of tests.”

“My brother is a dickhead,” Case muses. “He took one of each brand from the shelf.”

“Hey, I have never had to buy one of these before. The upside to sleeping with guys is no accidents happen,” Kai whines.

“It’s not like I have either. I wasn’t exactly experienced,” Case mutters.

“Okay, none of us have had to deal with this before. Kai, can you please go to the spare room and check on Jimmie? His team messed him up, and I want to make sure he has no broken bones.”

“Sure, but you and Case go and do whatever you do to use those things,” Kai says, waving his hand in the direction of the tests as if they personally offend him.

“Chester!” I yell, causing Case to cover his ears. I’m not leaving him unattended so he can take off and do something stupid. He strolls into the kitchen and raises a brow at me.

“We’re going to do these tests. Grab them and let’s go.”

Chester rolls his eyes at my demand, but gathers as many of the tests as he can carry and waits for us to do the same.

Hands full, all three of us walk up the stairs to my room. Both guys start opening boxes and reading the instructions. I snatch a handful of opened tests and walk into my en suite. Chester follows me, and Case is hot on his heels.

“Are you both going to watch me pee?”

“Uh, no. That’s a bit weird for me,” Case says with a grimace, stepping out of the room. Chester just shrugs and leans against the door frame.

“If you watch me pee, we can’t ever go back from that.”

Chester snorts. “You could pee on me, and I would still be obsessed with you. But why don’t you piss in that cup, and we can dip all the tests at once?”

“Because I didn’t think of that, obviously.”

Chester hands me the cup that I use to rinse my mouth out after I brush my teeth—clearly, it will be tossed away now. I lean forward the best I can to block most of Chester’s view of me. Once the cup has some pee in it, I place it on the floor and finish. Chester walks over, picks up the cup, and leaves the bathroom before I can protest. Motherfucker.

I wash my hands, and once I’m done, I find the guys dipping tests into the cup and placing them upside down on my vanity.

“Guys, I think that’s enough to get an accurate result.”

They both turn and look at me, taking a step back.

“I set a timer for three minutes,” Case says.

“What the fuck are we going to do if it’s positive?” Chester asks. “I can’t be a dad, I’m too possessive. If it’s a girl, the poor kid will be locked away in a castle until I die. I can’t go around killing kids for the rest of my life.”

It’s hard not to fall over laughing at his rant. I never wanted to be a mother. Honestly, I wouldn’t know the first thing about being maternal, having never interacted with babies before, either. All they do is cry and shit everywhere.

“We can figure it all out. Chester, you will make a fucking amazing father. Any child would be lucky to have a parent that would love them as much as you. But that toxic bitch of a woman you call a mother isn’t coming near our baby,” Case states.

Tears break free. “Our baby,” I whisper.

“Yes, ours. We have only just gotten you back, and none of us are going anywhere. That poor kid will have ten fathers.”

I wrap my arms around Case and pull him tight to my body. “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I love you.”

Case’s phone vibrates against the vanity, breaking us from our hug. The three of us stand and stare down at the tests that will change everything.

“Okay, two lines means you are pregnant, and one means not pregnant,” Chester says, clutching the information sheet that came in one of the boxes.

Taking a deep breath in, I flip the first test and the next one and the next one until they’re all turned up facing us, and each one has two very bold lines.

“Fuck, I guess I’m pregnant.”

A loud crash vibrates through the house, startling me. Chester and Case turn and run from the room towards the sound, and I follow closely behind.

“Fuck you!” Jimmie yells.

I follow his voice to the foyer where his entire team stands handcuffed, and Laughn holds a gun to Betty’s head.

“You sold us out!” One of them seethes.

“She knew I befriended Jolie and couldn’t handle it. None of you have ever wanted me in your team. Yet, as soon as I get close to someone, you all have an issue with it.”

“Kill her,” Chester snaps. “We can do a DNA test when the baby is born. We don’t need her for shit.”

“Babies,” Betty corrects. “There are two.”

“Kill her,” I snap, agreeing with Chester. Fuck this bitch—I don’t care what she knows. Hold on, did she say two babies?

“Okay, baby,” Laughn says with a devious smile. “You know I love blood.”

“No, wait!” Betty screams. “I’m pregnant too. The baby is Jimmie’s.”

I whip my head to look at Jimmie, and the poor guy faints. Legit hits the floor like a sack of shit. I race to his side and make sure he didn’t hurt himself even more.

“Don’t kill her yet. Take the bitch up to my room and make her piss on one of the million tests that Kai bought and then bring her back here.”

“You heard her—start walking.” Laughn pushes the gun against the back of her head.

“If you hurt her, I will kill you all,” one of her guys says, making me snort. He can dream, but yeah, that’ll never happen.

“Let’s take these guys downstairs. I have some pent-up anger to take out on someone,” Chester grits out, looking at me for reassurance. I nod, and he returns my smile.

Last week, I found some holding cells in the basement accessed through a door in the morgue. I had wondered where they’d been keeping Martin before Creed killed him.

The security lights flash again, making me groan. What more could possibly happen today? Boston is still MIA, so I check my app again. Sinclair, Blayne, and Summer all exit Sinclair’s car. I don’t even make it to the door before Blayne bursts through it, waving a piece of paper around.

“What’s going on?” I ask, even though in the pit of my stomach, I know.

“We received a letter today when we went to Olympia.” Sinclair hands me a piece of paper, and I read it.

“You need to explain, Jolie. The letters say we’re pregnant, and we need to talk to you to find out what is going on,” Blayne seethes. “I can’t be fucking pregnant. I don’t fuck men.”

“What have you got us involved in, Jolie?” Summer says, eyes wide with panic. “I haven’t even told my guys about this. They already hate that we’re friends.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know yet, but I received a letter too. I’m pregnant. Except my letter says that Betty has the answers. She now also claims to be pregnant.”

Sinclair gasps. “What if he is creating another G.O.D.S team?”

“He needs six for a team, and there are only five of us,” Summer says.

“Betty claims I’m having twins. But that still makes no sense. Both of my teams are genetically linked in a way that makes them love me, and vice versa. My babies would be related.”

“I guess if Betty has the answers, we need to make sure the bitch talks,” Blayne cracks her knuckles.

“How about we all calm down. She will never talk if she thinks we’ll kill her,” Sinclair adds.

“She claims her baby is Jimmie’s,” I admit. “And if that’s even a possibility, no one is going to touch her.”

To say Blayne and Summer are pissed is an understatement. They both storm off, leaving Sinclair and me standing in the foyer, looking at each other. I guess it’s time to talk to Betty and see what that bitch has to say for herself.