Page 82 of Stolen Love

I drop him and he stumbles a few steps. Claws at his chest.

“Talk,” I order, advancing on him. I’m so done with these assholes playing with Ivy’s life. Whatever he paid for her… it doesn’t mean anything. Except that I’m going to kick his ass.

“I bought Ivy.” He sucks in a breath as his knees sink into the damp grass. “Because if I hadn’t, Alec would have. It was all set up.”

“What?” Static snakes up my neck.

“I couldn’t let that happen after what she told me he did to her. And that bastard she brought with her knew it.” He manages to get back on his feet and walk away from me. With one hand pressed onto the outdoor dining table, he grinds the heel of the other into his eye.

“Jackson?” It’s a sucker punch to my gut. I had him vetted. I checked everything with a fine-tooth comb. And he’s been biding his time, looking for the right moment to hand her over to her brother? “Her bodyguard? He did this?”

“He saw the potential dollar signs and offered to let me outbid Alec.” Pulling out a square rattan seat, he drops into it and cradles his head in his hands. “I used some of the money in Ivy’s trust to pay his asking price. But now he’s not answering my calls.”

“He’s dead,” I say stiffly.

“You’re going to kill him?” Nathaniel shrinks into himself.

“No.” I grind my teeth. Though I would that I could. “I mean… he’s dead. Throat slit type of dead.”

Nathaniel blanches. “Ivy—"

“Gone. We don’t know where or who has her.” And every second I waste on this weasel… she could be slipping out of our grasp. I won’t let that happen. “But I’m going to find out.”

“I’ll help.” He touches the breast of his jacket before he frowns at the pool.

“For all I know you and Nicole have Ivy squirreled away somewhere while you bullshit me with this creep level love you have for my… for Ivy.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Why would I ever trust you?”

“Because I’ve only ever told you the truth.” He strides behind the poolside bar and grabs a bottle of cognac. “I am truly trying to protect Ivy.”

"By working with Nicole? Can you see why that might make it hard to believe you?”

He places two balloon glasses on the glossy surface and twists the lid from the bottle. “May I offer you a drink?”

“Ivy is missing and you want to take the time to share a drink?” The urge to throttle him is strong. We need to be chasing leads, not chilling with good brandy.

He holds up one finger to cut me off. “For what I’m about to tell you… I’m going to need it.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Rogue

“I didn’t realize how far in I was in until it was too late.” Nathaniel pours a trickle of honey colored liquid into one of the glasses before moving onto the other. “Richard didn’t tell me much about what was going on with him in those last few months. He only begged me to draw up this deal for Ivy. Made me promise him that no matter what I had to do to accomplish it, I protected his daughter.”

“And of course you said yes, because you’re in love with her.”

He laughs as he puts down the bottle and picks up one of the glasses. He swirls the cognac around in the bottom of the glass and then inhales its aroma before tasting it. “Ivy is in no danger from me. I’m not interested in her in that way. I’m gay.”

“You’re what?” Surely, I’m hearing him wrong.

“Gay.”

I’ve watched him chase her down and hit on her. Except has he really done anything more than act friendly and concerned? Is it Nicole that made him seem far more menacing? “Then why are you trying to force her to marry you?”

“Because I’ve run out of options. And time. We’re just over a week out from her twenty-first birthday. After that…” He empties his glass. His shoulders slump. “Nicole is after Ivy’s trust. A fund Ivy will have access to once she’s twenty-one. A fund I’ve convinced Nicole she can get her hands on quicker and more easily if I can convince Ivy to marry me.”

I was right. It was about the money. “I don’t—”

“That’s because you don’t understand how far Nicole will go to get that money. Everything she does is a business transaction. She dedicated her entire life to Richard and their children. As far as she’s concerned, that makes her entitled. When Richard decided he would divorce her…” He pours another couple of fingers into his glass. His hand shakes as he lifts the glass to his mouth and empties it. “If Nicole can’t get access that way, she will do it by proving Ivy is mentally unfit to control her own life.”

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