Chapter Two
Ryan
* * *
I CATCH SIGHT of Miles as I watch Paige and Mallory enter a room next to the women’s restroom. He looks me over and raises an eyebrow.
“Don’t ask,” I say, and walk toward the door. We stand there for a moment in silence. Things pass between us that we don’t need to say, and I nod at his unspoken request.
I was hired by Alexander Owens six years ago to get close to his only son, Miles Osborne. I was prepared to do that and a lot more, until I saw the picture of Paige. I knew what needed to happen, and I made my way to Miles to strike a deal. It turned out that we needed each other, and so our plan began to take shape.
He’d seen Mallory and fallen in love at first sight. He didn’t want to expose her to Alexander and his corruption. He wanted to make sure she stayed safe. Miles’s past had come back to haunt him before and he wasn’t going to allow Mallory to be harmed. When I met with him the first time, I laid all my cards on the table. One of those cards was his half sister, Paige. Miles had no idea she existed, and I was able to bring that to light, showing Miles I was on his side. I then brought her into the fold. Paige became a part of the plan after that, even if she didn’t know the whole story.
Miles and I formed a pact, and he’s held up his end of the bargain. I’ve done everything I could to keep Mallory safe, to keep Alexander from touching what’s important to Miles and to keep Paige as close to me as possible. When our deal was made, I chose my side, and I’ll live with the consequences. Nothing is as important to me as Paige, and nothing will ever change that. Even if in the end she wants nothing to do with me.
I nod at Miles, and we take a step forward and into the room our women entered. Neither of us is patient enough to give them more than a few minutes alone. When he opens the door, they both turn with surprised looks on their faces. My focus goes straight to Paige.
Mallory walks over to Miles and says something to him that I don’t hear. I’m not paying attention to anything other than the beauty in front of me, the one I’d like to maul. The kiss in the hallway had been unexpected to say the least. One moment I was picturing her with another man and getting angry as hell. Then I was thinking about her having a baby and how I could somehow work my way into that life with her. I was fantasizing about us having a family and being together, and then the next thing I knew our lips were connecting and I was losing all my senses, wanting to make all those thoughts a reality.
I don’t know who could have knocked Paige up, but the bastard isn’t anywhere to be found. I will find out who it was and when I do… I cut myself off from that line of thinking. I’ll deal with that when I find him. That someone could put his hands on what’s mine makes me sick to my stomach, but I’m not angry at her for it. Maybe I should have staked my claim on her years ago.
I’m so jealous I’m nauseated, and I can’t stand the feeling. If she’d have me, I’d never let her go, but she doesn’t know who I truly am. If she did, she wouldn’t want me. Playing with the one man she hates most in the world would make her hate me. To know that I’d worked for him for years, before I even knew about her, and hadn’t done anything to stop him in all that time… Maybe her life would have been different if I’d found a way to rid the world of him back then. God knows what it was like to be raised by that man.
But I can be good to her and to her baby. I can make her mine and raise her baby like it’s my own. I could love our child enough that it would belong to me, and then we’d never be apart. My mind clears and suddenly my path is obvious. If I make Paige fall in love with me, then she won’t care what my past is. If she could feel even a fraction of what I feel for her, then she’ll understand and accept me before she finds out the truth. I can do that. I can convince her that I’m the right choice and that being with me isn’t a risk.
“Got a little something,” Mallory says, pointing to her mouth and looking at me.