Page 69 of Wrecked By You
He hadn’t liked that one bit.
No one stood up to Mateo Fernandez.
As punishment, he’d locked me in my room for a week and refused to allow me to see Chloe.
After that, I’d made sure I religiously took my birth control pills and kept them hidden from him. When I’d failed to fall pregnant, he’d stopped asking, and a while later, the compound had been stormed, setting off a chain reaction for everything that had come afterward.
I settled Chloe in the seat next to mine, right beside the window so she could look out as we took off. This was her first flight and I wanted to make sure she remembered it forever. Johannes sat opposite, with Ginny beside him in the window seat.
Ginny and Chloe looked out the window as the plane sped down the runway, Chloe squealing with delight and Ginny muttering prayers under her breath.
I locked eyes with Johannes, dragging my teeth playfully over my bottom lip. “Here’s to good business.”
He licked his lips and played footsie with me under the table that separated us. “And great pleasure.”
Chapter23
Johannes
This woman will be either my downfall
or my savior.
The intense Vegasheat hit us the second we stepped off the plane. The limousine Nolen had sent waited at the bottom of the steps, KINGCAID CASINOS emblazoned on the side.
I rolled my eyes. Nolen never was one to pass up a chance to advertise.
“I guess this is us,” Ella said, jerking her chin at the limo. “Although, I could be wrong.” She grinned, nudging me gently with her elbow.
I’d come to relish her teasing, her sass, her keen wit and sharp mind. The only thing that still bothered me was the uncanny ability she had to read me as easily as a large-print book. I prided myself on being the one member of our family that no one could read. They never knew which version of me would turn up. The dour, brooding, taciturn one, or the dour, brooding, cutting one with a tongue as sharp as a samurai sword.
But Ella had brought out a third side of me, and it terrified and thrilled me in equal measure. Thrilled because I’d started to believe in her and that was a path I’d avoided walking down for more than six years, and terrified because I still didn’t trust her enough to share my past and what had changed me from a fun-loving, enthusiastic, positive man into a surly beast who, in Ash’s words, liked to play with his food—namely, hurting others for his own entertainment.
He wasn’t wrong.
Except now, he might just be, and I wasn’t ready to face up to the change. I liked hiding behind barriers. It stopped people from getting close and poking around in places they weren’t welcome. Ella hadn’t removed those barriers, but she’d made a dent in them. A significant dent. And the closer we grew, the more of the real Ella she allowed me to see.
She consumed my thoughts for large parts of the day. But would allowing her in, letting her see the real me in all my damaged glory, be my downfall?
I’d done a lot of soul-searching the week I’d stayed away from her. I hadn’t wanted to, but keeping my distance had been the only way to maintain a clear head and figure out the right course of action for me, and for her. But taking that irrevocable step and sharing my past with her was a bridge too far. I was enamored with her, but I didn’t fully trust her, and until I did, I couldn’t risk baring my soul, only to have the guts of me ripped out for a second time.
I’d been hurt too much to allow that to happen. Sadie had given me one gift—self-preservation—while stealing so many others.
“Goodness me, it’s like being boiled alive,” Ginny said as I held out my hand to help her down the steps of the plane. I caught the soft look in Ella’s eyes, one of approval. That wasn’t why I did it. I still had some manners, but I’d take the silent praise all day long if it meant I got to enjoy that sweep of pleasure through my midsection.
“How do people live like this?” Ginny wafted a hand in front of her face.
“They get used to it, I guess,” I said as we stepped onto the tarmac. “Give me the ocean any day.”
“Me too,” Ginny said. “Although, the damned government make us pay for the privilege of being close to nature’s miracle.” She raised her eyes to the sky. “Who made them king of the world?”
I chuckled. “Beats me.”
The four of us climbed into the car, breathing a sigh of relief as the doors closed, shutting out the heat and blasting us with the air-conditioning. The airport was right next to the strip. It would only take us about ten minutes to arrive at Kingcaid Las Vegas. During the journey, I pointed out the various world-famous hotels, and Ella, Ginny, and even Chloe gawped out the window in excitement.
I’d seen Las Vegas many times. It didn’t hold me in awe any longer, but to see it through their eyes was like experiencing it again for the first time. Vegas was one of those places where you had to be there to truly appreciate its size and grandeur. Something that looked to be right across the street could take forty-five minutes to get to. Nothing was close by in Vegas. Caesars Palace alone took up a half mile of prime real estate.
The car pulled up outside the entranceway of the hotel that Nolen ran. I explained to Ella that although my elder brother, Ash, ran our hotel business, Nolen ran this business, and the hotel we had in downtown Vegas, in its entirety. The casinos were so linked to the hotels here that it made sense to separate them from the rest of the Kingcaid hotel chain. It was the same in Reno, and Atlantic City, and Monaco, and all the other casino locations. They all came under Nolen’s umbrella.