Chapter 11 - Max

Damn, that had been harrowing. Even though Brooke was safe in one of my guest rooms, I still buzzed with pent-up energy, disgruntled that things weren’t truly over yet. At least not the way I would have liked.

Having as much power as I did, it was easy to believe that all problems were easy to take care of. That people could just disappear when they became too troublesome. But not many people in the world were as high profile as Luca Ross. He had to be handled carefully, or a world of unwanted publicity could befall my family.

We didn’t mind attention, in fact, I reveled in it, but only when it was under our control. It was an open secret among the upper echelon of society how we operated, and anyone who was smart kept their mouths shut and turned a blind eye. Luca knew he could cause my family a lot of trouble if he leaked a little something to the press. Too much attention and the police and politicians we had in our pockets might be forced to put on a show and make an example out of one or all of us.

That would annoy the shit out of me, so I had to tread carefully, where anyone else would have already been on a one-way trip out to the middle of the ocean by now.

Nobody messed with my woman.

I felt a smile growing even as I paced in irritation, alone in my room while Brooke slept, far away from that madman. I should have been upset because my enemy had effectively manipulated me into doing something. That didn’t happen.

The thing was, though, it was something I really wanted to do and the shock of it had me reeling. I could have just beat the crap out of Luca to get us out of there. It wouldn’t have taken much to disarm the little piece of shit. But I saw an opening, and I took it. Pounced on, it was more like it. It wasn’t just to get us out of there, not really. I wanted to marry that woman, peacefully snoozing down the hall. I had to make her mine, really, truly mine.

So, didn’t that mean I had actually manipulated Luca into helping forward my plan to get closer to Brooke? I was leaping over several very crucial steps, going straight to the endgame of marriage, but now that the plan was in motion, no one could have stopped me.

It wasn’t ideal, and it was clear Brooke was fuming under all her grogginess from the drugs. Fucking hell, he’d actually drugged her. Now I had proof that Luca was the worst scum of the earth. It was only a matter of time until I figured out how to remove him from the face of it without getting embroiled in a scandal, or getting dragged into prison for murdering one of the most popular men in the world. His days were numbered, but for now, he’d prove useful.

I got a notification from the gatehouse and went to check the security cameras dotted around my property. As I suspected, the obsessed psychopath had followed us, which was one of the reasons I brought Brooke to my house instead of Aleks and Katie’s. The main reason was that I needed her nearby to make sure she was safe. There was no depth Luca wouldn’t stoop to in order to get whatever he thought he deserved. And that would never be Brooke.

Not while I was alive.

I watched on the security camera as Luca drove back and forth a few times, then called the man stationed in the gatehouse.

“Call the cops if he passes one more time.”

“You got it, boss,” he answered.

I hung up, only half satisfied. It would be nice if Luca had a few too many drinks at dinner and got hauled in for drunk driving, making him have to lay low for a while to stay out of the vicious celebrity gossip news.

But then he wouldn’t be around to be a witness to Brooke’s and my wedding tomorrow. He needed to see that I was serious, that Brooke was family. Not many things scared me, but the thought of someone I cared about being hurt set me off. When I burst into that bedroom where Luca had locked her up, the terror on her face was emblazoned into my memory. I never wanted to see that look in her eyes again, only the relief when she saw that it was me.

God, I was in deep, and I was okay with it for whatever reason. More than okay. I could have told myself I was only going forward to keep her safe, but that was only part of it. Sure, it was a big part of it, but it was deeper than that. Something so deep I didn’t want to face it yet. It was easier to keep the ball rolling in the proper direction. Keep my girl safe and close to me.

Despite the late hour, I called my assistant, Olivia. She had only been working for me for a short time, but she was a pro and jumped at every chance to prove herself. As expected, she answered right away, with barely any sound of sleep in her voice.

I outlined everything I needed to have done by early afternoon, and there was only a slight quaver in her voice at the seeming impossibility of it. She knew by now that the Fokin name, combined with copious amounts of money, could accomplish just about anything.

With everything settled, I peeked in on Brooke, who was fast asleep and looking like a slightly rumpled angel with her hair strewn all over the pillow and only half covered by the sheets. As much as I wanted to step in and smooth the covers around her, I didn’t want to wake her and bring back the trauma of the night.

“It’s all over now,” I whispered, carefully shutting the door and letting her get some much-needed rest.

In truth, it was only the beginning for us, and I went to my own room to fall into a contented sleep. My last night as a single man.