The Boss (Chateau 3)

Magnus’s eyes shifted back and forth.

“Anything else?”

He inhaled a breath, deep and slow, like he kept back everything he actually wanted to say.

My eyes burned deeper into his. “Speak.”

“Our operation is perfect. By scaling it up, we risk uncertainty. We risk a decrease in our product. We’ll need to find more girls. The bigger something grows, the more difficult it is to manage. We have more money than we can spend in several lifetimes. When will it be enough, Fender?”

My hands immediately squeezed the reins because my brother was a broken record. Nothing he’d said in the past had changed my mind. Nothing he said in the present or future would change it either. “Never. It’ll never be enough.”

His expression didn’t change, but his disappointment filled the air around us, an invisible energy. “You can’t prove anything to someone who’s dead.”

I would never stop. Everything had been taken from me, and I wouldn’t stop until everything was taken back. This was more than revenge. It was more than spite. It wasn’t even about proving anything to a man I’d murdered near a stream.

It was about proving it to myself.

That I won.

That my mother won. My sister. My brother.

My family won.

I looked into his face and saw the only person I had left. “Do I need to remind you that you would be dead if it weren’t for me? That you would have gone to bed for the last time and never awoken?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, growing more strained. “No.”

“Then I shouldn’t have to remind you that we’re all that’s left of our family name. I shouldn’t have to remind you that no amount of money will make us forget that our home was once a dumpster in an alley. That we couldn’t afford the doctor or the medication, so we had to steal to be able to get it. That we were jumped by full-grown men because we chose to take a different alley home. I shouldn’t have to remind you of the suffering we endured because he decided to be a coward and make us cowards with him.”

Magnus didn’t drop his gaze.

“Don’t make me remind you again. Don’t make me remind you that I’m all you have left in this world—and you shouldn’t take it for granted.”

I drove in the fading light, the lights from the city becoming visible over the horizon. I had driven in silence most of the way, choosing to turn over my own thoughts endlessly as entertainment.

I hit the call button on the screen in the center console.

It only rang once. “Sir, it’s great to hear from you. You’re on your way?”

“A couple hours out.”

“The house is ready for you—as always.”

I didn’t care about that. “Tell Melanie to be ready for me. She’ll know what that means.”

It’d been a long day.

But no amount of fatigue would make me want her less.

She’d been in my thoughts often, especially when I looked into the fireplace, remembering conversations in her cabin, remembering nights we lay together in my bed. I was obsessed with her the way I was obsessed with money. There was no amount that would ever be enough. All of her still felt like a shortfall.

The car was handed off to the valet, and my bag was retrieved by another staff member. The only person who spoke to me was Gilbert, because I didn’t want to exchange pleasantries and give orders to twelve different people every time I came into residence.

Gilbert stood next to the open door, arms behind his back, standing tall and proud. His eyes watched me, full of excitement that could hardly be suppressed. “Glad you’re back, sir. Wasn’t the same without you.”

I gave him a slight nod as I entered my home and wiped my dirty boots on the rug. My bomber jacket was dropped off my shoulders, and Gilbert was there to catch it.

He shut the main door as I headed up the stairs. “Shall I bring a tray, sir?”

I continued to the second and third landing. “Place it outside my door in an hour.” I’d had a big breakfast before I left the camp, but many hours had passed, and I skipped lunch. I was hungry, but that need was dwarfed by another.

I made it to my bedroom and found her there.

Ready for me.

She was in black lingerie and heels, sitting on the edge of the bed like she’d been waiting there since I called. Her hair was in soft curls with a beautiful shine under the chandelier. The fireplace cast a glow across her cheek, brightening her already beautiful skin. Her makeup was sultry and heavy, perfect with her lingerie.

I took a moment to look at her before I approached the bed, pulling my shirt off as I went.

She got to her feet, standing in high heels.

My clothes and boots fell, like breadcrumbs across the hardwood floor and the carpet.