Page 29 of Shattered Dreams

“It’s complicated, Mom.”

She laughs. “She’s a billionaire heiress. Of course it’s going to be complicated. Rourke’s and my courtship was certainly bumpy. You don’t marry that kind of money and expect smooth sailing, but love will prevail.”

“Speaking of money, did you know Rourke owned Quiet Meadows?”

Shetsks. “I don’t concern myself with things like that. If he owns that facility, it must have been a lucrative investment. Healthcare is a billion-dollar industry. I do know he’s looking into buying more stock in pharmaceutical. Normally, I wouldn’t be interested, but I overheard him talking about it not longago. Dr. Stephen Mallory is making great strides in dementia and Alzheimer’s research. Could you imagine if they cured Alzheimer’s? What a fortune a private drug company could make?”

I do know, and the idea turns my stomach. A treatment for Alzheimer’s wouldn’t be available to anyone who couldn’t pay or whose insurance deemed it unnecessary. Only the richest of the rich could afford to cure their loved ones, and this is the man my mother chose to marry.

Distaste sours my mouth.

“Come to lunch soon and Rourke will be happy to fill you in. If you have a little to invest, he can advise you in purchasing stock. You could earn your own millions, and you wouldn’t have to chase Zarah Maddox.”

“I’m not chasing. Falling in love isn’t chasing, and the last thing I want to do is buy stock in a drug company.”

“Suit yourself, young man. I’ll see you this Saturday at eight sharp. Don’t stay up partying...you need to get this done.”

She hangs up, unlike her to not coerce a goodbye and an “I love you,” out of me, but she already wrangled a commitment. I guess that was good enough.

Though I’m not hungry, I force myself to eat breakfast—a bowl of oatmeal, a couple pieces of toast, and a protein shake. It’s still early enough I won’t be late getting to the office, and I told Zarah I wouldn’t be back to the penthouse until lunch.

Zarah inviting Baby and me out for puppy playdates in the dark and dropping into my living room looking like a sexy fairy princess weren’t the only reasons things moved fast between us. I wanted them to move fast, too. I fell in love with her before Iknew what was happening, and I wanted to convince myself she was mine while she figured things out. I might look at her the way Zane looks at Stella, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to make it.

We’re right back to where we were before she dumped me, teetering on the edge of a future that may not be viable—for either of us.

I know she needs to experience new things, I just wanted to be there and watch her spread her wings. But just because I want it doesn’t mean that’s what’s best. I have ten years on her, ten years of dating and fucking around. She needs that time, too, and doesn’t need me looking over her shoulder like a jealous boyfriend.

After I eat, I look in on Pop at the office. Zarah was sweet, ordering Baby the grassy pee pad and a huge bag of food, but a penthouse isn’t the place for a dog and I’ll leave her behind when I go back. Maybe Zane’s right. Despite, or maybe because of, all the fucking up he’s done, he usually is. Spend a little time with Zarah and she’ll still go to LA. Hopefully she’ll miss me as much as I’ll miss her, and while she’s visiting Mel and bumping into movie stars on Rodeo Drive, I can get to the bottom of this fucking mess.

Pop’s his usual steady presence sitting behind our desk, the TV turned low, police leading last night’s scumbag out of Maddox Industries, his hands secured behind his back and a snarl on his ugly face. I didn’t get a good look at him, too concerned about Zarah and if she was okay, and I’m fucking glad he didn’t have even one more second alone with her. He would have killed her. I know that deep in my bones.

“Busy night last night,” Pop says, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head. He's been here a while, the rich scent of coffee already wafting through the room.

Letting Baby into the office and kicking the snow off my boots, I ask, “How do you know?”

“Leak in the police department. Zarah’s assault is all over online. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. We’ve seen worse on the streets. Baby took him down. Jesus.” I suck in air through my nose. “Fuck. Can’t have any privacy.” I should have figured one of the cops who answered my call wouldn’t turn down a little extra payday to spill the details of what happened.

“Did he say what he wanted with Zarah?”

“He was one of Ash Black’s bastard goons. Said he had a message for her.”

“I did a little digging on him. Lance Warren. He’s done time for petty theft, grand theft auto, dealing. He worked at Ladies and Gentlemen as a janitor, but before that, he participated in a work release program at Quiet Meadows. Doing laundry, emptying garbage cans, washing dishes. Part-time, twenty hours a week. Paid him a couple bucks an hour and got him out of his cell.”

“He already knew Zarah, then.”

Pop scoffs. “You gotta get it out of your head Zarah’s one of us. She’s not.Everyonealready knows who she is and that she was a patient there, but Black could have met Warren at the facility and hired him to work at the club after he made parole. It doesn’t matter, I guess, and once Zane’s done working him over, he won’t see the light of day ever again.”

“I should have let Baby rip his throat out.” I rub my eyes and block out the image of that asshole shoving Zarah against the wall, his hands all over her. Christ, maybe I shouldn’t have left her alone this morning, even if there was double the security in the lobby and two guards standing outside the private lift. As long as she doesn’t go anywhere, she should be safe.

“Did she call you?”

“Kind of. She called the office phone and it forwarded to my cell. I was at the Sweet Apple drowning my sorrows. She was lucky I was so close.”

“Are you back together or what?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know what we are. I said I’d stop by later and check on her. Talk. I learned my lesson, and I told Zane that this morning too. I’m not jumping in blind again. It hurt too fucking much.”

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