Page 48

talie

“Wake up, wife.”

Heat rushed through my veins when his warm tongue trailed lightly over my lower stomach.

I let out a groggy moan, slowly waking up when his lips brushed the fabric of my panties.

I slowly blinked my eyes open to see Damian nestled between my thighs as he continued to kiss my stomach.

All he had on was boxers, and his hair was a tousled mess.

My eyes dropped to his muscled back as he wrapped his arms around my legs.

My attention cut to the nightstand when my phone vibrated. The screen was full of missed calls and texts, but before I could reach for it, Damian let out an annoyed groan.

“Ignore it,” he ordered between kisses. “I already put my phone on silent.”

“What if it’s an emergency?”

“It’s not. If it was important, my mother would have called.” He slowly moved upward, his tongue tracing my ribs until he reached the side of my throat. “It’s my father who is calling incessantly, meaning it’s about work.”

My brows furrowed. “Why would my dad call me if it’s about business?”

“Probably because I haven’t gone to the office in days.”

I fought through the haze of sleep, trying to remember what day it was.

Damian and I had spent the last few days holed up in the apartment, doing nothing but talking and having sex.

Ever since he showed up at the club where I was playing music, he seemed determined to know every last detail of what I’d done when I was gone all those years.

He also explained why he sent me away from Club Facade that night.

Knowing his father found out about his business still had my mind reeling.

“Is it Monday?” I asked. I had lunch planned with Georgia this week. While I turned down the offer of an interview for her company, we’d seen each other a few times. I had fun with her, and we had similar taste in music.

“Yes, it’s a new week,” he finally grumbled. “Let’s hope it’s better than the last one.”

I stretched my arms above my head as he kissed me along my jaw, causing goosebumps to skate across my skin. As much as I wanted to stay in bed with him all day, there was too much to get done. I met his eyes, asking another question.

“Do you need to talk to Rhyett and Ash today?”

He let out a sigh, rolling off me. “And here I thought I’d spend the morning eating my favorite dessert. But if you want to talk, we can do that too.”

I moved onto my side to look at him. “It’s a big thing, Damian. The club is yours, and you’re going to sign it over to your best friends. It must be hard.”

“It’s not. They helped build it too. I’d want them to have it instead of some stranger.”

“And Percy?” I pressed. “You told me he owns part of it too.”

“He’ll keep getting his money until I’m not on the paperwork anymore.

Then it won’t matter. The only reason he was holding it over my head was to keep our families from finding out.

My dad already knows. It won’t matter if Jude finds out in three weeks because I won’t own the club anymore.

His blackmail will cease to exist.” A muscle in his jaw flexed as he scrubbed a hand down his face.

“That’s one good thing to come from this.

At least I won’t have to deal with him anymore. ”

My stomach knotted painfully as I stared at him. He refused to admit our marriage was the reason this was happening, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. If my dad found out about Club Facade, he could use it against Damian and his father. He was giving the club away to keep our marriage.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.” His eyes met mine. “You’re playing music at my club next weekend.”

“What?”

“We’ll have to go in this week so you can be at the rehearsals.”

“You have a DJ, and he’s good.”

“I already had Kal tell him he wouldn’t be working this weekend.”

I sat up. “You can’t fire people for me.”

“I can do whatever I want to make my wife happy. I know you’ll want to play at other places too, but my club is always open to you whenever you want the gig.”

“Damian—”

“He wasn’t our employee,” he interrupted. “Don’t feel guilty. He was contracted out and already has other gigs. He’ll be fine.”

My guilt only sliced deeper. Here he was, lining up jobs for me while his dream was crashing around him.

I jumped when there was a loud banging on the door. Damian bolted out of bed, striding across the room to peer through the peephole. He cursed under his breath, moving to grab the gray sweatpants on the floor.

“Damian, open the fuck up,” his father bellowed through the door. “I know you’re in there.”

His enraged voice had apprehension sliding through my veins as I rolled out of bed. He didn’t stop pounding on the door as I grabbed Damian’s button-down white shirt, slipping it on over my bra and panties.

“Might want to hide in the bathroom for this,” Damian grumbled, glancing at me as he pulled on the sweats.

I nearly took him up on that until my father’s voice mixed in with Christian’s.

“Natalia. You don’t ignore my calls.”

I swallowed thickly, the fury in his voice making dread coil through me.

Damian scowled before going to unlock the door.

Christian entered first, his eyes narrowing on his son.

My father pushed past him, stopping in his tracks when his gaze fell on me.

His lips pursed with distaste when he saw what I was wearing.

I hastily closed the last few buttons before crossing my arms.

“You have no right to barge into our home,” Damian bit out, slamming the door shut.

“Home?” Christian spat. “This is not your home. Connecticut is—where you’re supposed to come into the office. Instead, you two are holed up here while our livelihoods burn to the fucking ground. If you answered your damn phone, you’d know.”

“Get dressed, Natalia,” my father ordered curtly. “We have things to discuss?—”

“Yes, we ,” Christian cut in, his voice thick with anger as he focused on my dad. “You’re not going to go behind my back to try and fuck me over.”

Damian stepped in front of me. “What’s going on?”

“This is your fault,” my father exploded, getting in Christian’s face. A small gasp escaped me when he shoved Christian. “He was your employee. I’m not losing everything because of you.”

“What happened?” Damian asked loudly, catching both of their attention.

“Jack turned on us,” my dad ground out, glaring daggers at Christian. “Locked us out of most of our accounts. Talking to our partners and clients behind our backs. Gossip is spreading that will ruin us in business. All thanks to your father, who trusted him with everything .”

My pulse thrashed as I listened in disbelief. Damian was rigid, his eyes darting to Christian, who had his hands clenched at his sides. My father shook his head before pacing in front of the kitchen island.

“He’s been with me for over a decade,” Christian finally spoke up, cutting through the tense silence. “I never thought he’d do this.”

“He has us by the balls,” my dad nearly screamed, his face turning red. “He fucked us. Now he’s gone. Our men have been searching the city all night for him.”

“How?” Damian asked in a low voice. “Legally, everything is in your names. He shouldn’t be able to do any of this.”

Christian hesitated. “Some of our business contracts are…not exactly on the right side of the law.”

My eyes flicked to Damian. The blatant shock on his face made me believe he had no idea about it, and fear for my husband getting caught up in this had ice sliding down my spine.

“He’s blackmailing you?” I asked, regretting my question when all three of them swung their gazes toward me.

“Yes,” my father answered stiffly. “I’m getting as far from this as possible. He was an employee of Valentin Enterprises. This is Christian’s mess, so he can worry about it. Take your son and go figure it out.”

“Your name is all over my company,” Christian hissed vehemently. “This won’t only fall on me.”

“Maybe. But I’m distancing as much as I can. I want their divorce to happen immediately. My daughter will not be associated with this?—”

“That won’t be happening,” Damian growled.

“Of course it is.” My father looked at me, expecting me to agree. “The contract is void. Natalia, pack a bag. We’re leaving.”

Damian wrapped an arm around me, locking me to his side. “No.”

“I’m not talking to you. I’m speaking to my daughter.”

“You’re giving orders to my wife . Try it again, and I’ll throw you out of this apartment.” Damian’s voice was full of threat. I didn’t move a muscle when my dad met my eyes.

“Natalia,” he said tightly. “We’re leaving. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I retorted, keeping my voice steady. “And I’m not getting a divorce.”

Fury swept across his face as he stormed closer. “Your commitment is to our family. Not him. His father created this mess, and I won’t allow you or I to go down with them. I don’t care what I need to do—you’re coming with me.”

“Really?” Damian asked, his voice dripping with danger. “How will you do that? It sounds like you have enough problems without adding a hospital visit to the list. If you lay a finger on her, I’ll make sure you leave here on a stretcher.”

“Damian,” Christian warned. “You don’t threaten him. We will all figure this out.”

“What if I fix it?”

Damian’s question had silence blanketing the room. I peeked at him, but he was focused on his father.

“Fix it how?” my father asked suspiciously.

“I’ll find Jack and make it all go away.”

“You don’t have the power to make that happen,” Christian dismissed his words with a wave of his hand.

“Let me try,” Damian insisted. “If I do this, then Talie and I are done with both of you.”

My heart jumped as I craned my neck to stare at him.

“Done?” my father repeated.

“With everything,” Damian stated. “I step down from the companies. Talie is free to do what she wants. We are not associated with family business at all. Our personal lives will be ours . Neither of you will control anything concerning me or my wife.”

My father scoffed. “Absolutely not.”

“Fine. Then I hope you two have a plan. Because our marriage isn’t up for debate. I don’t care if we lose everything.”

Christian studied Damian. “You think you can do something about this that we can’t?”

“Yes.”

“We are not putting our future in his hands,” my dad snarled, his chest heaving. “This is unacceptable.”

“Do you have a better plan?” Damian questioned.

The silence proved they had no way out of this.

“Fine,” Christian forced out. “Do it.”

“I want it in writing,” Damian said. “Natalia and I will have nothing to do with business. You two will stay out of our lives.”

“You’ll both lose your trust funds,” my father sneered, his eyes falling back on me. “You’ll lose everything.”

“Take it,” I snapped, my heart racing. “I don’t want it.”

“We’ll sign it if you can fix this,” Christian muttered, pulling out his phone. “I expect you in the office tomorrow.”

He stormed out of the apartment, leaving my father to glare at me. Damian’s arm was still around me, and he tightened his hold when my dad took a step closer.

“Family is supposed to come before everything,” he said, disappointment in his voice.

“Damian is my family,” I told him, lifting my chin. “I choose him.”

“He won’t be able to make this go away,” my father said, with a shake of his head. “None of this will matter because he’s connected with the business as much as Christian. He’ll go down with us.”

With those words, he spun around and walked away, slamming the door behind him. I blew out a heavy breath as Damian kissed me on the forehead before letting me go to grab his phone.

“I hope you have a plan,” I said lightly. “Because this is bad.”

“Ash will help,” he said as he typed on his phone. “He’s been tracking Jack ever since I found out he was following you under my father’s orders.”

“You really think you can pull this off?”

He raised his head to give me a smile. “If I can, it’ll be worth it.”