Page 37 of Redeemed (Redeemed #1)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Kennedy

T he next morning, I wake snuggled in the warmth of Alex’s arms. This feeling of contentment is one that I hope never gets old.

His relaxed hold tells me that he’s still sleeping, and I don’t intend to wake him.

He works as hard as I do and doesn’t often give himself the time to rest and recover before moving on to the next day’s task.

I relax my body with the intention of sliding from bed when arms tighten around me and snuggle me closer.

He buries his face into my neck and lets out a soft sigh.

“Leaving me so soon, Kitten?” His voice is deep, husky with sleep.

“I was planning to get my day started. There’s plenty of work to be done and Cary still needs to be taken back to his car.”

“That stuff will come soon enough.” He squeezes me a little tighter.

Yesterday, once we finished our business call with Xavier, Cary walked me back to the main house to discuss his next steps. Alex stayed in the warehouse with Patrick to figure out returning Spider to his keeper. It was late into the night before I felt Alexander join me in bed.

I turn around in his arms and run my fingers through his hair, thinking through the last twenty-four hours.

It seems our little honeymoon stage has ended, and life is taking over.

Alex was so frustrated yesterday and I’m partially responsible for the emotions.

He shifts forward, laying his head on my chest as I continue combing my fingers through his hair.

“Talk to me, baby. I can practically hear the gears of your brain working.” His voice is full of concern.

“I feel like I’ve asked so much of you—running to you when my life got too hard without you knowing the issues I’m up against. I keep asking myself when will the favors run out.”

He sits up, leaning over me with sleepy eyes, taking in my expression, his eyebrows drawn, like I’m an equation he can’t solve.

“Do you want to be with me, Kennedy?” His voice is sincere as his expression opens, prepared for however I respond.

“I do, but?—-”

He cuts me off. “No buts. We both know how this started, and a lot has happened since then. So, forget about the opinion of anyone outside of this room. Do you want to be with me?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good, because I want to be with you too. These are not favors I’m giving you, we are walking hand in hand to find a place where we can be free, together. I’m not looking for anything in return, or for you to pay me back. I just want you, Kennedy.”

Tears prick the back of my eyes as my hand goes up to caress his face. He turns his head and kisses the palm of my hand.

“I just want you, Alex.”

He moves to tuck me back into his body with a bright smile on his face.

“Good, now that that’s settled, let’s get a couple more hours of sleep. Patrick can deal with Cary.” He kisses the top of my head, considering this matter done.

It’s later in the day when Alex and I meet with Patrick and Cary in the home office to start working on a plan to leave my father’s business.

There will need to be precautions in place for repercussions of me destroying Ashton Rose’s business deal.

Alex is leaving me responsible for bringing Patrick and Cary up to speed on the deal I made with Xavier.

“So, let me get this straight, you made a deal with Xavier to use his merc team as back-up if needed? That deal puts you in debt to one of the most ruthless men in North America,” Patrick says with a look of bewilderment.

“I did,” I confirm before taking a sip of my coffee while scrolling news headlines on my phone.

“She did,” Alexander echoes my answer through clenched teeth.

“Listen, if I know one thing, it’s that Ashton Rose doesn’t play fair. I will leave nothing to chance and as it stands, I don’t have men at my disposal, so I jumped at the opportunity.”

“We will need more men than a group of mercenaries,” Cary chimes in.

“And I have a plan to get us more.” I walk around Alex’s desk and sit on the edge.

“My father has been chasing the same man for as long as I can remember. He led me to believe this man was responsible for my mother’s death and I’m not sure how true that is, but I know how to find him.

I also know that he has men in numbers that would rival my father’s. ”

Alex clicks his tongue before a sly smile turns up his lips. “She was withholding information from daddy dearest.”

“Nope. He wants to live in the dark ages, and I choose to use technology. My opinion or expertise was never wanted, so I didn’t dare hand over the information willingly.”

“What are you proposing?” Patrick asks, not bothering to conceal his skepticism.

“My father’s enemy, Michael Ellis, is a VIP member at Emerald Nights.” I turn my gaze to Alex and bat my lashes. “I’m hoping that you can set up a meeting for me now that the time has come.”

“Of course, baby. I told you I would,” Alex says, hardly pulling his eyes from the computer.

“If this is your father’s enemy, what’s stopping him from putting a bullet in your head?” Patrick says.

I roll my eyes at the thought of that happening.

Alex speaks up before I can answer his question.

“Because if I arrange this meeting, it will be an official meeting between two VIP members. It would be against the rules for him to act against her on my property. Michael Ellis has made capital business deals with other VIPs, I doubt he will jeopardize his access.”

If this meeting doesn’t go well, Michael Ellis may not be able to kill me, but he could ruin the reputation of Emerald Nights. Especially if or when people find out Alex and I are together. He is known for only having loyalty to himself and not his members.

“Absolutely not. This is your place of business we’re talking about! I will not jeopardize what you’ve built because of my drama. People will see us meeting together and word will spread.”

“Alex’s plan makes the most sense logically.” Cary speaks from the corner. “You can control the security, and you have cameras everywhere. Who cares if people see and talk, this will be the start of you separating yourself from the Rose Empire publicly.”

“I don’t feel great about putting the business at risk. We all know things can go bad quicker than we can control. We don’t know who will be coming after me once the information starts spreading. I don’t want Emerald Nights to become collateral damage,” I argue.

“Baby, I have full confidence that you will convince Michael Ellis to work with you, and when you do, we will have our back-up. So, we will be prepared for any sort of possible retaliation.”

“Don’t try to butter me up.” I try really hard not to pout, but I have to admit that his plan makes more sense.

Patrick snorts out a laugh and Cary’s fighting to hold back a smile.

“Baby, your safety is all that matters. Let me worry about the risk of the business.”

“What happens if Michael Ellis doesn’t agree and the word gets out? Patrick, what do you think about this?”

If anyone in this room would agree with me, it would be Patrick. After all, his main objective is to keep Alex safe.

“We could shut down the VIP access for the night and not have witnesses.” Patrick’s features are pinched in concentration.

“Ugh, fine. We can talk more about this if Michael Ellis even agrees to meeting with me.”

My phone rings, halting the conversation. I pull it out to silence the call, but my brows shoot up in surprise at seeing Ashton Rose’s name pop up. Alex reads my expression and is at my side immediately.

“Are you going to answer it?” he asks softly, rubbing his hand on my back.

“I’m going to have to face him eventually.”

My finger hovers over the green button and I quickly accept the call before I lose my nerve. This is a conversation that has to happen before I can truly believe I’m done with the Rose Empire.

“Hello, father.” My voice comes out far more confident than I feel. I see Alex shoo Patrick and Cary out of the office, and I reach out to grab his arm, holding him in place to make sure he doesn’t leave me to handle this call alone. He mouths I’m here, making me smile and relieving some tension.

“Kennedy, I hear you’ve stepped fully into the role of being a complete disappointment.”

“Nice to hear from you too. How’s the weather in hell?”

News traveled fast. Nathan is the only person outside of these walls that I told I was leaving the empire. There’s a pang of hurt knowing that Nathan went straight to my father with my information.

“I didn’t raise you to be a coward and hide from your problems.”

“Oh, I’m not hiding.” I’m absolutely hiding. “I’m embracing my father’s lifestyle. It does feel rather comfy behind wrought iron gates and security.”

He’s silent, but I can practically feel the anger over the phone line.

“Is there a point to this phone call? I’m busy,” I say with an impatient tone.

“I want to hear the words come from your mouth that you are defying my orders, leaving the Empire, and becoming my number one enemy.”

I laugh out loud. “It’s funny you think I owe you anything. This could be the last time we speak for all I care, but I know how fragile your pride is so it could never be that easy.”

“You’re right. You will wish I killed you when I find out where you are. I’m going to torture you the way I should’ve done your worthless, whore of a mother when I found out you weren’t my child.”

His words hit me hard, and I’m too stunned to respond.

“That’s right. You’re a valueless, waste of space and your mother was a?—”

The rest of his words are cut short when Alex ends the call.

“What the fuck did he just say?”

My voice breaks as my brain tries to make sense of what I just heard Ashton Rose say to me. Strong arms wrap around me, pulling me into a tight hug as tears distort my vision.

My entire life has been controlled by someone I have no relation to.

I scream at the top of my lungs, as I push myself out of Alex’s arms. I want to destroy everything in my path to try to alleviate the hurt I’m feeling.

My laptop is the first casualty as I throw it against the wall, reveling in the sound of it breaking.

I move through the room like a category four tornado, leaving nothing but destruction in my path.

Behind me, I hear the door to the office open followed by Alex yelling at the intruder to get out.

The interaction hardly registers as I continue my war path, flipping chairs.

When I have nothing else to flip, I scream until my throat is raw.

I fall to my knees, tearing at my hair. The screams turn into sobs and it’s then that I realize Alex is talking to me.

He’s down on the floor, holding my face in his hands as everything about me shatters into a million pieces.

I don’t know who I am.

I’m not sure how much time passes with me on the floor being rocked back and forth by Alex.

He’s stroking my hair, whispering softly that everything is going to be okay, but I can’t begin to rationalize how anything will be okay with this information.

My entire life has been a lie and possibly one huge revenge plot.

The man who I’ve believed to be my father for the past twenty-eight years is just a deranged psychopath that I’ve pledged allegiance to.

“Why is my life such a mess?” My voice comes out hoarse. I raise my head from his chest to see the flash of sympathy cross his face before he can cover it up. Fresh tears burn in the back of my eyes. “Did you know he wasn’t my father?”

“No, baby. I didn’t know.”

It’s not fair to ask him questions that he won’t have the answers to.

“I need to call Nate.”

I scramble to my knees, looking through the debris for my phone. It’s not until I pull up his contact that I remember I’ve lost my best friend too.

I look up from my phone to meet Alex’s gaze before my eyes pan around the room at the destruction I’ve caused. The mess I’ve made for this man who has done nothing but help me.

“Baby,” Alex says in a soft tone as he extends his hand to me.

“I’m so sorry.” Tears begin to fall again and a sob hiccups out of me before I can continue. “I will pay for all of this to be replaced.”

“Baby, these are material things.”

The tears fall harder because why isn’t he more upset with me? I’ve destroyed his home office.

His arms wrap around me again, holding me together.

“Ashton Rose has to die, Alex. As long as he’s walking this earth, he’ll hunt me for the embarrassment I’ve caused him.”

“We’ll take care of him, baby.”

“Everything has been a lie. I’ve spent my life trying to gain the approval of a man who sees me as nothing more than a pawn in his overall scheming. I don’t know who I am. I have no one.”

Alex’s arms tighten around me, holding me together.

“You’ve got me.”

“But for how long?” I know it’s dramatic, but I feel like I’ve earned the right to be.

“For as long as you will allow me to be,” he says with a kiss to the top of my head.

My phone chimes and we both look down to check the notification. I feel Alex stiffen behind me before I register what I’m reading.

Nate: We need to talk. Alone. Public. No weapons.