Page 44 of Scorned Queen

“And her?”

“The queen she wants to be.I told her we’d have breakfast with her Sunday morning to talk about the future.”

“Isn’t that premature when you haven’t had the board meeting?Or did something happen I don’t know about?”

I slide her hair behind her ear.“Plenty is happening, but we can talk about it at home tonight…or not.We can always save it for tomorrow.”

She surprises me by breaking into a charming, spontaneous smile, and damn, she’s beautiful—so fucking beautiful.“Yes.Home.”

I think I forgot how to smile this past decade without her, but I do so now, and do so with the ease of a man far more comfortable in her presence than I am without her.

I lace her fingers with mine, guiding her toward the door, and once we’re there, I say, “Any last-minute things you need to grab?”

“I took way more than I meant to.Honestly, my lease has almost a year left on it.There isn’t even a rush to get a mover over here.”

“I want to give the damn thing away so you can’t come back,” I say, “but I’ll add a more civilized option so you won’t get mad at me.We can pay it off and sell what you don’t want to keep, if you want.”

She laughs, pushes to her toes, and kisses my cheek.I catch her around the waist and hold her to me, just like I’m going to do for the rest of her life.“I prepaid for my lease,” she informs me.“I was ah—” She pushes out of my hold, her gaze averted as she adds, “I didn’t want to have anything put me in a bad spot.”

She means her parents, and I swear I want to go to her father and throttle him for allowing all of what has happened.The root of the poison starts with him.

“Maybe I can let someone use it,” she muses, “though I’m not sure who.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I say, capturing her hand and guiding her back to my side.“Let’s really go this time.”She nods eagerly, and I open the door.

We step into the hallway, where Adam pushes off the wall, on ready.I incline my chin, and Adam speaks into his earpiece.“On our way down.”He moves ahead of us and punches the elevator call button.

Once the doors open, he checks the car and then motions us forward.I slide my arm around Alana’s shoulders, and we enter the car.Once we’re sealed inside, she leans forward to eye Adam.“You have a big mouth.”

His brows lift.“Do I?”

She rotates out of my arms to face him.“You cannot follow me around if I feel like you’re going to repeat everything I say to Damion.And don’t say it’s your job.Telling him I said I’d do anything to protect him is not about my safety.”

I step between them, hands on her shoulders, and stare down at her.“It is about your safety, because that’s what your mother is going to tell my father.And everything that gets to my father frames his next action.”

“Then I probably screwed us all.I told my mother she’s made herself a target and me with her.”

I give her shoulders a gentle squeeze.“You said nothing but the obvious.Give Adam a break.He’s protecting you and doing a damn good job of it.”

Her lashes lower, and she nods.The elevator opens, and she whispers, “I’m sorry.I just—” Her eyes meet mine.“I feel like the entire world is watching me, really us, and I just have this sense it’s all going to blow up in our faces.”

She’s talking about her family scandal, which is nothing compared to mine.And while I’d been certain I needed to pull off the band-aid and tell her everything tonight, I’m not sure if I should bury her in the burden all at once or wait.I want to wait, and it would be easy to justify doing so, but I need to think and force objectivity.Either way, I can’t get her home with me fast enough.

The door starts to buzz, and I glance over my shoulder to realize Adam’s holding it open.I twine the fingers of one of Alana’s hands in mine.“You ready for this?”I ask, speaking of the crowds we’ve been promised outside.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she says, and the words punch me in the gut.

She is as ready as she ever will be for any of this because she’ll never be ready for what I have to tell her.We approach the lobby door, and there’s a team waiting on us.Kelvin exits before us, and Adam motions for us to follow, with him at our rear.A wave of protectiveness overcomes me, and I pull Alana close, sheltering her, some part of me afraid I can never protect her from what’s coming.Because it is; something big and bad is coming, and there’s no running.We have to stand and face it head-on.

Cameras flash, and our names are shouted, but finally we end up in the back of the SUV, Adam across from us, the door locked, and the vehicle moving.“I’m sorry, Adam,” Alana says.“I’m kind of a mess right now.I know—”

“I get it,” he says, shortening her plea for forgiveness with understanding.“It’s not easy to have me around.”

“It’s not you, though,” she says.“You’ve been great.”

“I’m only as great as the next moment we’re in together.But I’ll be careful to respect your privacy.”

My cellphone buzzes with a text message, and I swear a ball of dread forms in my gut for no explainable reason.I slip it from my pocket to find a message from my mother:911.It’s the code she promised to use if my father contacted her.And fuck him.That’s my mother.Always the fiercest of them all.

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