Page 171 of The Morally Grey Billionaires Boxset

Cade

“I don’t care if my name is not on the list of approved guests, if you don’t let me through, I’m going to hand you your teeth and—"

“It’s okay, David, he’s with me.” Declan’s voice reaches me a few seconds before he steps between me and the security guard of his serviced apartment block.

I glare at the man who tried to stop me from entering the elevators. He steps back, then sniffs. “Sorry about that, Mr. Beauchamp. It’s just protocol.”

“I understand.” Declan claps him on his shoulder. “You were just doing your job.”

With a last scowl at me, David returns to the security desk.

“Seems I came just in time,” Declan murmurs as he slaps the button to call the elevator.

“A pity, and I’d been itching for a fight, too.” I roll my shoulders.

“Really, man? With the security guard?” He scowls at me.

I lower my chin to my chest. “Yeah, sorry, that wasn’t my finest moment, eh?”

“To say the least.” The elevator arrives and we ride up to the penthouse in silence. Once inside, he pours me a drink, then slides it across the breakfast counter. I wrap my fingers around the tumbler and stare into the depths of the whiskey.

“You alright?”

“Nope.” I continue to contemplate the dregs of the amber fluid.

“It have something to do with the very convincing performance you put up earlier today at your engagement announcement?”

“You saw that, huh?”

He opens his mouth to answer, but I raise my hand. “Forget I asked. Guess by now, everyone and their dog has seen it.”

“Their cats and goldfish, too; count in pet iguanas and snakes and—"

“—I get the picture.” I take a sip of the whiskey, and my stomach roils. I place the glass back on the counter with a thump. “Snakes can’t see very well you know.”

“Eh?” He blinks.

“Snakes—" I crack my neck. “They have poor eyesight, which is why they resort to sticking out their tongues all the time—to get a sense of their surroundings.”

“O-k-a-y?”

“That’s how pathetic I’ve become, huh?"

“You always were.”

“First I pick a fight with that poor guy downstairs, and now, I’m making inane observations about snakes.” I rub the back of my neck. “I’m losing it. No, I’ve lost it, completely.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever thought you were in your right senses, so, I concur.”

“Thanks.” I wince.

“Any time. By the way, you want to go a round?”

I glance up. “What do you mean?”

“A round in the boxing ring? There’s a gym in the basement of this building.”

“Not right now.”

“Thought you wanted an excuse to pick a fight,” he murmurs.

“Strangely, that mood has passed me by.” I step away from the counter and begin to pace. “I’m afraid I may have made a big mistake.”

“Just one?”

I scowl at him. “Good to see you’re having fun at my expense.”

He smirks. “Can’t pass up the opportunity, you understand?”

“I’d have done the same, I suppose.” I glare at him again, then start pacing. “If Knight were here, I might have bounced this off him. Or maybe not, considering it’s about his sister. Probably not. And when I tell her I lied about him asking me to take care of her—"

“You lied to her?” he snaps.

I turn on him. “Must needs, man.”

“Fucking hell, King. You lied to her that her brother asked you to take care of her. Not to mention, you used your friendship with him to fuck his sister.”

I hunch my shoulders. “When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound good.”

“It makes you sound like a man who’s worse than a snake. No, worse than a caterpillar. No, an ant. No, make that a blood sucking mosquito and—"

“Enough already.” I glare at him, and he glowers right back.

I hold his gaze for a few seconds, then lower mine.

“Fucking hell!” I glance around the room, then walk to the wall and punch my fist through it.

The pain stutters up my arm, and white sparks burst through my head, clearing away all thoughts.

“No wonder you didn’t feel like bashing someone else up.

Apparently, the only person you want to hurt right now is you.

” Declan ambles over to me. He leans his shoulder into the wall next to where I’d struck a hole through it.

Good. I shake out my arm, then bring my bruised knuckles to my mouth and suck on them.

“Feeling better?” he asks.

“Not particularly.”

“Feel like talking about it?”

“Not much to say except, I’m an arse.”

“Agreed.”

“And a wanker,” I snap.

“A wankhead of the highest order, actually.”

“You going to agree with everything I say?”

“You going to go to her and apologize?”

“It would mean coming clean on everything first.” I wince. For someone who doesn’t know how to eat humble pie, I’m making a meal of it right now. “Including the hurtful words I told her before I left.”

“You mean, there’s more?” He stares.

I glance away, then head toward the bar and snatch up my whiskey glass. I squeeze my fingers about it but can’t bring myself to drink from it. If I’m going to have this conversation with her, the least I can do is stay sober. I owe her that much.

“Cade?” Declan walks over to stand next to me. “What have you done?”

“I told her the proposal was fake.”

“You motherfucker!”

“Yeah. I also told her I was leaving to go drinking on the town with the boys.”

I see his fist coming at me, but I don’t duck. My head snaps back, and pain explodes behind my eyes. I absorb the blow, then straighten and shake my head.

“You deserve that and more,” he growls.

“I do.”

“You going back to her, or what?”

I pull out my phone and pull up the app I use to track her, then freeze. The green dot, which is her phone, is on the move. “Bloody hell, she left the house.”

“What did you expect?”

“I told her it was safest for her under my roof.”

“You mean, the same roof where you didn’t tell her about your lies and lied about your truths?”

Heat flushes my neck. I track the dot as it heads up the road that leads toward her apartment. “Fuck. It’s not safe for her to return to her place.”

“What are you going to do about it?”