Forbidden Kiss (Carson Cove Scandals 1)

I slept like a rock. The hotel room gave me a different perspective—or maybe the change of scenery just allowed me to feel like I wasn’t stuck in the midst of chaos. I’m sure the whiskey I drank at the hotel bar had something to do with it too. Either way, I slept until the sun was up, and woke up feeling refreshed when I should have had a hangover. I immediately went over to start a pot of coffee—the hotel room didn’t have anything I liked, but I just needed caffeine, so the cheap stuff would have to do. I reached for my phone, unplugged it from the charger, and then my eyes nearly bulged out of my head.

What the fuck? Did World War 3 start while I was asleep!?

I had missed calls and text messages from Taylor, Victoria, Sarah, numbers I didn’t recognize, and I didn’t even know how to start sorting through them all. It didn’t take much sorting to figure out that they had a common theme. The ones from Taylor and Sarah were directing me to call Victoria. The ones from the unknown numbers were rants—and they were from Alexis. The ones from Victoria just said that I needed to call her. I quickly flipped over to dial her number—and I was fairly terrified to make the call.

“Victoria, what’s going on? I’m sorry, I was asleep…” I exhaled into the phone.

“Dad! Oh my god. We got her!” Victoria’s tone was hurried and excited.

“What? Alexis? How?” I blinked away the last bit of fog, because that news woke me right the hell up.

Victoria explained what they had done—and I would have scolded her for behaving so recklessly if it hadn’t yielded results. I didn’t understand half of what she was saying—or who the Bolt person was that she kept referencing other than the fact that he was dating Taylor’s sister. She started rambling so fast that it was hard to follow what she was saying—it sounded like excited exhaustion—but the important part was crystal clear. I didn’t have to marry Alexis. The wedding was off—because she was headed straight to prison when the cops found her.

“Dad just turn on the news. Right now—the story is on Carson Cove AM.” She sounded like she was about to explode with joy.

I grabbed the remote and turned on television. It took me a couple of minutes to find Carson Cove’s morning show in the city, but I found a station that was broadcasting it. The anchor was talking about a file that had been emailed to the station—a file that implicated the Devereaux family in several serious crimes. I tried to listen to the story and put Victoria on speakerphone since she was still frantically talking about what they had done.

“Wait a minute…” I tilted my head as I stared at the screen. “Sawyer King doesn’t exist!?”

“No!” Victoria practically shouted into the phone. “He was just some actor they hired! The Devereaux family was behind everything!”

“Holy shit…” I shook my head in disbelief. “Wait—if they were behind it…”

“They were coming after Benson Enterprises!” Victoria finished my train of thought. “That’s why she wanted to marry you—and that wasn’t all she was after.”

“Alcott Inc…” I nodded. “Of course.”

“Yeah…” The excitement faded from Victoria’s voice. “She had a lot of dirt on Mary Alcott—sadly, I think divorce was the right choice, but it was ultimately orchestrated by Alexis. She was planning to buy the company when it went on the open market…”

“Alexis and her brother ruined so many lives.” I shook my head back and forth. “And for what? Money?”

“It is the root of all evil,” Victoria sighed.

I watched the rest of the story with Victoria on speaker phone, and then I had to wrap up the call. I still had plans to meet with Sarah, and then we had to go see Shaina. I took a shower, got dressed, and when I got to the car, I called Taylor. We made plans to get together as soon as I got back to Carson Cove. I had to catch Sarah up over breakfast. She knew something was going on because Victoria called her looking for me—but she was fairly surprised when I told her the full story.

Shaina was very happy to see us, and she had asked me to come because she wanted to apologize for everything in person. I didn’t need her apology—I forgave her as soon as I saw she was safe in the hospital—but it seemed to be important to her recovery. She had decided that she was going to stay in rehab for a little longer than originally planned, and then she planned to return to Carson Cove. I told her that she would always have a spot at Benson Enterprises if she wanted to work there—what was left of it at least. It was going to take a long time to restore it to its former glory, but I hoped things would move in that direction once people realized the truth about Alexis Devereaux.

My employees and clients put their trust in me. I let them down. Hopefully they’ll understand why I had to do it when they realize what I was up against.

* * *

Later that day

I drove back to Carson Cove, and Taylor said she would be waiting on me at my house. I was anxious to see her, but I had a press conference to handle first. I had several calls from reporters who were wanting an interview, but I needed to make sure everyone heard what I had to say. The best way to do that was just stand in front of everyone and admit the truth. It might have bothered me more if I wasn’t so happy to be rid of Alexis. I decided to hold it at Benson Enterprises, because the people there needed to hear it most of all. My lawyer met me in the lobby, we reviewed a few notes, and then I walked to the podium where I saw more reporters than I had ever seen in my life. It wasn’t just the local reporters—there were a few national ones there as well.

Okay, this may be more difficult than I expected—fuck it.

“Good morning everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Bryant Benson.” I looked around the room.

“Mr. Benson!” A reporter in the front row raised his hand. “Do you have any comments about the Alexis Devereaux situation—you were engaged to be married, right?”

“I’m going to address all of that.” I nodded. “I’ll take questions after I’m done.”

I started as close to the beginning as I could without saying Taylor’s name. It wasn’t fair for her to get pulled into the middle of a media frenzy. I told the reporters about the blackmail, without saying exactly what she had on me, and that it appeared Alexis’ goal was to gain control of Benson Enterprises. I apologized to the people who worked for me—the investors that didn’t trust me—and thanked those that stuck with me through the difficult time. I invited all of the people who had decided to leave Benson Enterprises to return—and promised them that I would make it up to them if they did. After that, I opened it up to questions.

“Mr. Benson, you said that Mrs. Devereaux was blackmailing you. Can you tell us what she had?” The reporter in the front row hit me with a hard question.

“Considering the fact that you agreed to marry her—I think people are going to wonder if she had something on you that could have put you in a cell beside her.” A reporter in the back held her hand up as she spoke.