“Did you say goodbye to your whore or do I have it wrong and little Sofia is the side piece?”
“It’s not like that,” Ozzie said as Nico dragged him through the hotel lobby.
“Sir! Sir! Please take your hands off of Mr. Ashford,” the day time security guard yelled as he crossed the lobby toward them.
“It’s fine Bernard. Everything is fine.”
“But sir, your father...”
“Bernard, I respect you as a human being, but I don’t want to hear anything about my father right now. Go back to work,” Ozzie added as Nico shoved him into the waiting elevator.
“You really are a piece of work, aren’t you? Luring in Sofia, filling her with lies and then showing up at our family’s wedding in a hotel you own, hiding it all from her. Did you really think you’d get away with it?”
Ozzie didn’t bother answering. Nico didn’t want an answer. He just wanted to get a rise out of him. The little he learned about the man over the last two days made him sure that he didn’t want to fuck with him. Especially not now. When the elevator opened, he shoved Ozzie down the hallway toward the suite and began banging on the door when they approached it.
“I have a key.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Nico said, banging again before Ares answered and they entered.
“Sit,” he grunted as he shoved Ozzie into a seat in the kitchen area.
Ozzie could see Sofia in their master with her cousin. The glass doors were closed, but he could tell she had been crying. Seeing her so upset broke something deep inside of him he didn’t even know was there. She stood and turned to the doors. Once she opened them, she walked over and sat on the other side of the table.
“Talk,” Nico demanded.
“Maybe we should give them some privacy,” Ares said to Dante, who had just barely came into the room.
“You two go, I’ll stay.”
“But Dante...”
“Go, Nico, and don’t make me tell you again.”
“Fucking shit, I never get to have any fun anymore,” Nico grumbled as he made his way out of the room.
Ares passed Sofia and placed a kiss on top of her head. “We’ll just be downstairs if you need us.”
She nodded, then looked at Dante. “I’m not leaving you alone with him. So talk. I’ll be right over here.”
Once Dante took a seat in the bedroom, Ozzie started. “Sofia, I wanted to tell you everything. Believe me, I did, but things were so complicated. Things are so complicated that I thought it was better just to wait. Obviously, that was a shit decision on my part and I’ll do anything I can to make it up to you.”
“What is everything, Ozzie? You say everything is so complicated, but I don’t even know what it is.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” he said, letting out a deep breath, “My family is who Monica said they were. My father is Oscar Ashford the third, and he inherited my family’s chain of hotels. We are the same Ashfords that Micah asked about the other night, which is why I got so weird. I can’t stand my father or my mother most of the time. They have this life laid out for me that I don’t want. A life that comprises Monica and running Ashford Properties. I wanted nothing to do with the business or that woman, but no matter how many times I say no, they just keep pushing. I am not engaged to Monica, not now, not ever. If our parents want to merge the companies, then they will need to find another way.”
“So you aren’t with her.”
“No, I’ve never even considered it.”
“But everything else I know about you is a lie?”
“No, everything you know about me is the truth. I am Ozzie Ashford. I enjoy surfing, riding my motorcycle, spending time with my dog and taking care of my teens.”
“So the center is real? I mean, what you do there?”
“Yes, but I don’t just work there. I own it.”
“The generous philanthropist that funds the center?”