Page 7 of Dangerously Yours

“You what?”I had thought the house decision would be mutual, and something akin to anger filled my veins. I spun around and opened my mouth.“How could?—”

Cade didn’t give me a chance to lay into him because he’d drawn me into his arms, then fused his mouth to mine. He ended up fucking me against those newly put in walls, and I’d loved every second of it. I had loved him. Completely. That was always an afternoon I remembered, especially when I would stare out at the view. It used to fill me with warmth, but knowing who the man behind me was, it now chilled me to the bone.

“If you’re not going to get them, then I will.”

I watched as he stormed to the staircase, then quickly ascended the steps. “Asshole,” I mumbled under my breath.

Normally, I would’ve been glad he hadn’t heard me, but I no longer cared. After all, this unit hadn’t been the only one he purchased, or the only one he used. When I had gotten the report back from the private investigator, it seemed as if he had been keeping a much younger woman in a smaller unit a few floors down. I could only imagine how he presented the place to her, and even thinking about him fucking her against the wall like he had done me made me want to vomit. Everything I had seen in the file that he’d uncovered made me hate Cade more and more.

“You should’ve been happy that I kept it secret for so long,”Cade had the audacity to tell me the day I told him that I knew everything.

“What?”I’d asked, the gall of this man sending my anger to its near boiling point.

“At least I didn’t do what others had done and flaunted my infidelities in the open. I spared you the hushed whispering and pitiful stares from others. I saved you the scandal of it all and this is the thanks I get.”

“Get out,”I’d said then, so when he came back downstairs cursing about our children once more, I stared at him and repeated those same words. “Get out!”

“I’m not leaving without our kids,” he told me, and I knew he wouldn’t. Right now, playing the role of the doting father only served to improve his image.

“Just go into the hallway. I will help them finish getting their things.”

“It’s about time you fucking did something other than run to your damn lawyer. I bet you spread your long fucking legs open for him while wishing it was?—”

A sound at the top of the staircase silenced him mid rant, and I looked up in horror at our oldest. She quickly descended, and the look she gave me made Cade smirk. The children had taken our separation the hardest, and knowing he was feeding them lies about why it happened only infuriated me more. Zachary and Leslie joined their sister, and they hugged and kissed me goodbye. Cade was the last one to leave, and looking over his shoulder, he regarded me with disinterest.

“I do hope you take some time for yourself this weekend. You look like fucking hell. It’s no wonder I needed younger women. You haven’t aged well at all.”

With that, he disappeared through the door and the loud closing of it made me jump. I flipped off the door, then walked into the great room. There was a large mirror above the fireplace, and stopping, I stared at my reflection. I no longer recognized the woman staring back at me at all. I did look a lot older, most of the visible signs of aging coming in the last few weeks to months. I had once taken such good care of myself until then. When not planning parties and events, or attending one of the kid’s activities, I would be at the spa. Since his betrayal, there had been little reason for me to expel so much energy into my appearance.

What’s the use? I have no one to look good for anymore.

I told myself that more than once. I should have kept them up simply for pride’s sake, but it was counterproductive because my incessant worrying would cause the frown lines to reappear, and with a vengeance.

I stood there for several minutes, before going to the built-in wine fridge. I grabbed a bottle of expensive merlot, and opted to not even grab a glass. Once in the great room, I flopped down on the sofa, then opened the bottle. After taking a large swig of it, I grabbed the remote. With the television on, I could do what I did most nights which was stare aimlessly at the screen until my eyes grew heavy.

The relief I usually hoped to find was evading me tonight, and the longer I sat there drinking, the more upset I had become. I couldn’t get the expression on Amanda’s face out of my head. She had been taking this divorce harder than her siblings, and I hadn’t realized to what extent until now. Mandy was going to blame me. In fact, I think she already did, and her father’s callous words didn’t help, which was likely the reason he did it. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he wasn’t purposely trying to swaythem to his side. During a lot of child custody disputes, the judge would often take their children’s wants into consideration when making a ruling.

If they all wanted to stay with him, it would hurt any argument I presented. His infidelity and everything else would be overlooked, and I would become the one on trial. He was a Titan, and as such, his lawyers could present one hell of a case. If I lost my children, even for a few days, I would have no one, or anything, in this godforsaken city. Cade might have taken my idyllic life, my pride, and sense of worth, but I would be damned if he took my children from me, too.

He will, though.I had to remind myself of that because it was the truth. I had taken something from him, and now he would take the only people that mattered from me in retaliation.

Image was everything to a Titan. They were certainly not held to higher standards like the rest of us, but they were constantly in the spotlight. Their entire lives could be front page material at any given time, and the scandal associated with his cheating would make headlines for sure. By throwing him out instead of accepting it all, he now had to worry about how it would tarnish his name and reputation once everything was revealed. So far, we had managed to keep it out of the public eye, but it was only for so long.

“And tonight’s attendees are none other than Titans, Daxon Faulkner and Cade Davis. The two?—”

I looked up at the television, and it took me a minute to realize how late it had gotten. While lost in my thoughts and nursing a bottle of wine, time hadn’t stopped as I wished that it would. Every second that passed was one less I had in this life... this world... It would all come crashing down on me sooner or later.

As I looked at the screen, it looked like any other business function until a redhead caught my attention. She was one of the women discovered by the private investigator, and watching my ex talk to her, only reminded me of the day I had seen the evidence with my own eyes. Those photographs had been like sticking a knife into my chest, and seeing them together was like twisting it deeper. I grabbed the bottle, took another swig, then turned the television off. I had seen enough for one night. Although I eliminated the visual evidence, clearing it from my head would prove to be a more difficult task.

NOAH

These events were ones I would rather skip, but I knew it was important for me to be here. My name held weight in this city, and it had long before I ever stepped onto a football field in junior high school. My father was a Titan, and that meant I would automatically become one. It didn’t matter that he had taken his own life to avoid prosecution on tax evasion charges. The Capshaw name wasn’t always held in the highest regard, so after my father wrapped his Ferrari around a telephone pole one night, I had basically taken it upon myself to change things.

“Your father was a good man,”my grandmother would tell me,“but Clint never made the right decisions. You’re going to do better. I just know it.”

Her faith in me, along with my grandfather’s, made me into the man I was today. The two had since passed, but I knew they were with my mother, and watching down on me today. Jacey Capshaw had lived a troubled life, and she wasn’t the type of woman that those in high society deemed appropriate. It was likely the reason she had turned to drugs and alcohol, the two vices eventually contributing to her death. My father had alsoplayed a hand in it, but it was nothing that could be criminally proven. He had taken my mother in off the street, but she never could assimilate herself into the world of a Titan. If it wasn’t her drinking and smoking, it was the long list of extra-marital affairs she had, and one of them had even been with the son of the man whose career in oil we were here to celebrate tonight.

Jacques Saint was with my mother on the lake when their boat struck a barge in Lake Michigan, then erupted into flames. The two died, and that scandal was a hard one to live down until my father one upped her a final time. The rich could excuse a lot of things from others in their circle, unless it involved scamming them, in which case, their power and influence would’ve put my father away for his entire life. He had known that which was why once out on house arrest, he ignored the instructions given, and took his prized car out for a drive. He never came back, but then again, he never intended to.

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