Phantom: Her Ruthless Villain (Ruthless Triad 5)

“No, Hak-kan,” she chastised with a laughing shake of her head. “You have the wedding.”

“You have no idea all the shit I’ve done for Victor over the years. He’d understand.”

“But I’d feel guilty about it, and you know how I get.”

Phantom opened his mouth to argue with her some more. But then she said, “I’m keeping my name if you don’t go to the wedding, but if you do, I’m willing to hyphenate it. Dr. Glendaver-Zhang. How does that sound to you?”

How did that sound? Phantom flipped her over on her back and let her know exactly how excited he was to make that happen…to make her his wife.

But six days later, he was sorely regretting the deal he’d made.

Guess what sucked even harder than being apart from Olivia for six more days after already being apart from her for two weeks before that?

Having to watch other people be happy when he couldn’t be with her.

He’d texted her that, but her response had been a little underwhelming.

Try to enjoy Hawaii. You’ll be back here soon enough.

Not exactly a reassuring love note. And her answers to his follow-up texts were even shorter and more curt. The one time he managed to get her on the phone, she’d been in such a rush, she couldn’t talk for more than a minute.

Dr. Glendaver-Zhang….that should have been enough to get him through the ordeal of being away from her. Plus, the guards he had posted outside her clinic assured him there was nothing wrong. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right with her. With them.

By the time Victor’s wedding and reception rolled around, Phantom felt crazy on edge.

She’d sounded fine on the phone a few days ago, but she hadn’t even bothered to return his last text. Maybe she was getting him back for how he’d ghosted her in December—he wouldn’t blame her, if so. And he’d be more than happy to apologize some more in bed.

But a bad feeling churned in his gut.

“Is our marriage fake?” Jazz demanded, interrupting a conversation Phantom was having with Han at the groom’s table about possibly cutting out early from the wedding, taking place at her sister Mika’s swanky beachside villa.

Jazz held Victor and Dawn’s sleeping baby Joi in her arms but looked like she was ready to punch Han out.

“Hell, no,” Phantom answered on his fellow Dragon’s behalf since he’d been the one who’d had to bust his ass last September to make that shit legal.

“Where is this coming from?” Han asked, standing up to address his irate wife.

“I don’t know.” Jazz softened out of her defensive stance. “I was talking to Mika, and she got in my head.”

“Jasmine.” Han tilted his head and reached up to cup her face on the side of her body that didn’t currently have a sleeping baby. “You know she hates me.”

“I know,” Jazz answered with a laugh. “I’m being stupid. We’re good. I’m sure of it.”

“Yes, we are good and happy and so many other things I would not have been able to imagine before I met you,” Han agreed—then he smirked and asked, “Were you really very upset at the thought of not being married to me?”

“I mean, yeah….” Jazz rolled her eyes. “But don’t go getting a big head about it.”

“Oh, I am getting a big head,” Han assured her. “We will sneak into the house, and I will show you just how big my head is getting at the thought of how much you want to truly be my wife.”

That was all the warning Phantom got before Jazz transferred Victor’s spawn into his arms, and Han and his wife ran hand-and-hand off toward the house.

Leaving him behind with the sleeping baby.

He’d never actually held her before. And it wasn’t…well, it wasn’t horrible. His baby cousin was kind of cute. Dawn’s face and Victor’s serious countenance—like, don’t sleep on me just because I’m cute, bitch. I could be The Silent Triad’s first woman Dragon someday.

He thought about the baby he was trying to make with Olivia and wondered how—

The baby’s eyes suddenly popped open, and her alarmed wail cut off all those thoughts of having a kid of his own one day.

Phantom panicked. How did you turn this thing off? What was wrong with her? Was it hunger making her cry? Shit in her diaper? Or maybe she just didn’t like him the same as her mother?

Luckily, Victor came through like a superhero and took the ticking bomb back with a signed, “Thanks, Phantom.”

Joi immediately calmed down when she was back in her father’s arms, so odds were it was waking up to Phantom’s mean mug that pissed her off.

Whatever….

Without Han to talk to or a baby to defuse, Phantom was kind of on his own, so he got up and went out to the beach to stare at the ocean and call her. Because she still hadn’t texted him back and because he wanted to hear her voice.