Chapter 107: Tatiana’s desperation

Malachi’s pov

"What the hell do you mean she might already have a man?"

I sagged against the passenger seat, the leather groaning in protest. The city lights smeared across the highway, looking like a watercolor painting.

I haven’t painted those in a long while. My watercolor paintings always sold at an insane rate, and frankly, my painting sessions had all been consumed by two women.

The woman I fucked on New Year’s Eve.

And Ivy.

I dragged a hand through my hair, contemplating telling my twin brother what I had seen.

"Look." I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, my thumb swiping through the feed of the spy cam I had placed in that teddy bear. It had been dark and inactive ever since that night that I had seen that man.

"A man is living with her, or visiting her, fuck if I know." I pulled up the grainy footage, holding it out for Roman to see. "This second time, you can see the back of him as he approaches her. He smashed her mirror and shit."

Roman’s head snapped toward me, his eyes flashing with a renewed, violent fury. "You didn’t tell me?!"

"Because this is exactly why," I shot back, my own anger rising. "This is exactly how I knew you would react. Like a fucking bull in a china shop."

"Did she not leave her husband?" Roman demanded. "Did the man follow her again?"

"Fuck if I know," I admitted, my frustration mounting.

"That’s one of the things we have to confirm from her when she shows up. I want to do our usual thing where we go to her apartment and rig it all up with cameras, but for some damned reason, my mind seems to have sprouted a shitty conscience when it comes to her."

"We have to keep her safe," Roman muttered, more to himself than to me. "She has to be safe. I’ll do anything to protect her. From Milo, her husband, whatever and whoever the fuck is haunting her."

"Slow down, Rambo," I grunted, feeling rather annoyed at how much he kept spewing these poetic lines from his mouth.

We should not be that deep with Ivy. With any woman, for that matter, dammit. Roman could not be losing his mind over our housekeeper, for goodness sake.

And neither should I.

"Milo also said she made advances towards him."

"And you believe that bull?" Roman spat, glaring daggers at me. Of course I didn’t believe it. I just said it in hopes that it would make Roman stop putting Ivy on a fucking pedestal. It was a shitty move; I was terribly aware of that.

Roman’s gaze softened, and his shoulders slumped. "Stop looking at me like I am crazy. I would love nothing more than to create a space for her to trust us enough to tell us these things herself. I don’t want to snoop around to get answers."

"I don’t know. I want that too. But I don’t think it’s a good idea." My mind flashed back to Alyssa.

She had crushed me and left me a hollowed-out shell. I had given her everything, and she had used it, twisted it, and walked away without so much as a backward glance.

I was never making that mistake again. It was just a good fuck, and that’s it. That’s all it could ever be. Trusting someone with your heart was a fool’s errand and a bloody mistake.

***

By Friday, it was a fucking shitstorm.

The news that Milo Cunningham, Knight’s beloved tech genius and philanthropist, had been arrested for corporate espionage was everywhere. The three of us were in Gideon’s office at Knight Industries, discussing it.

"What the hell?" I muttered, scrolling through a tabloid site on my tablet. "How did the press get a hold of this so fast?"

"Money talks," Gideon replied, his blue eyes like chips of ice, leaning against his seat behind the desk. "I’ve already got the legal team on it. They’re managing the situation."

"But this is crazy." Roman paced around the office. "The comments online... half of them think Milo’s a hero and we’re the villains who framed him."

"Let them talk," Gideon muttered dismissively. "We don’t answer to the press. Our business is our own."

As if on cue, Gideon’s phone buzzed on his desk. He glanced at the screen, his face hardening, and he hit the ignore button without a second thought.

A moment later, my own phone rang. I looked down to see Tatiana’s name across the screen and shot a questioning look at Gideon, showing him.

"She can’t take a hint," he grunted. "I told her I was done and we would not be seeing her again. She keeps calling."

I sighed and answered the call. "Tatiana, to what do I owe the displeasure? You have three seconds before I decide to hit the big red button,"

"No, no, no, Malachi, you don’t get it," She whined. "You guys can’t do this to me! You can’t just discard me like I’m nothing just because you found a new toy!"

"Well, technically," I drawled, leaning back in my chair and propping my feet up on the edge of Gideon’s desk, earning a glare from him.

"That’s kind of how that works, Tatty baby. I don’t see what the issue is. You’ve had so many lovers over the years. So how about a proper goodbye, yeah?"

"Wait, wait!" she shrieked. "I got a job at Kingsley Industries. I’m going to be the new face of their brand!"

"You’re kidding," I spat while my brothers went rigid; Roman mouthed, ’What?’ at me. "Of all the fucking companies in the world, you chose that one."

"I did it for Gideon!" she cried. "I know Felix Kingsley is your enemy. I did it for him! I swear, I did it all for Gideon!"

"Like hell you did. No one asked you to. You didn’t need to do that." My finger hovered over the end call button. "Enjoy kissing up to Felix-"

"There’s something I have to tell you. It’s a secret. A secret Felix Kingsley has been hiding for years. One you didn’t know..."