Ruin Me (Savage Bosses)

Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

K ent

“If you keep stalling, we’ll miss our appointment.” I grabbed Madison as she passed by and pulled her onto my lap.

All morning, she packed the files she’d accumulated in her home office from her unauthorized investigation into Carol. She’d already filled two boxes while I watched from the small sofa.

After days of not seeing Madison, I’d found myself orbiting her space to watch her do mundane things for the joy of being in her sphere. I returned to work yesterday, but have already cancelled meetings to be near her, and I took today off to spend with her. All for the sake of experiencing her and basking in her presence.

“Please, all you have to say is we’re running late and they’ll bend themselves backward to accommodate the Kent Luxe.” She kissed my cheek and tried to rise from my hold, but couldn’t escape my unbreakable grip.

“Have you changed your mind about finding the property where we’ll build our dream house?” I peered into her eyes.

She averted her gaze and gave a half-hearted laugh. “What made you draw that conclusion?”

The sense I had from before that she was hiding something grew. At first, I thought it had to do with Kemp dropping my case, but what if there was another explanation? She changed the subject when I brought up the topic.

“Maybe because you deflect or distract me when I ask you something that makes you uncomfortable. You couldn’t be more obvious that you’re hiding something from me.”

Madison glanced at me while nibbling her lip.

My gut sank at her guilty expression. I could almost see her mind racing as she thought up a lie to appease me. She opened her mouth and I shook my head, stalling her.

“I’d rather you stay silent than lie to me.”

She gasped. “I wasn’t going to lie to you.” I released her and was about to lift her from my lap when she said, “I was trying to tell you without setting you off.”

My brow twitched. “Are you… afraid of me?”

“As if.” Her immediate scoff put me at ease.

My pride wouldn’t be able to handle if the woman I loved feared me. “Then what is it?” I turned her face to have full access to the emotions flashing in her brown orbs.

I fell into her depths, almost losing myself and forgetting the reason I needed to see her eyes. The effect this woman had on me… There’s no wonder I would do anything to keep her by my side.

“Well.” She dragged the word out, then sped through the rest of her reasoning. “I found the evidence used to free you and asked Valentino to make sure the police got an anonymous tip that didn’t implicate you.”

She sat stiffly in my arms as she awaited my response.

The twitching that began at my brow moved to my eye. My throat swelled under my tight restraint, otherwise I couldn’t control the volume of my voice. “Where did you find this proof?”

“In Hal’s home office?”

I closed my eyes and prayed for patience.

“I wasn’t alone. I had Sam with me. And remember, we found the files you needed to block the anonymous shareholder trying to take over your company. And right on time, too, if I say so myself. The vote is next week. So, do us both a favor and ignore my method and celebrate the results with me instead.” Madison kissed me on my cheek with a grin wide enough to blind the sun and attempted to hop off my lap.

I had other ideas. “What evidence did you find?” I asked while barring her escape.

Her smile dropped into a disturbed frown, and she shivered. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I rubbed her arms, wanting to comfort her but needing to know everything she’d done while I was locked away. “Then show me. I assume you took pictures like you did with the files we went through.”

She bit her lip and left me in doubt for a few heart-pounding seconds before nodding and whispering, “Okay.”

I released her, and she slipped away. Within a minute, she returned with her laptop.

“Before I show you, know I had a plan to distract him. I didn’t just break into his house. Of all the ideas we had, Ife?—”

“Ife was in on this?” I rubbed my temple while my blood pressure rose and pulsed beneath my skin.

“Well, no one considered him to be dangerous. Not…even…you…” She petered off at my glare and pushed her computer toward me. “Here’s everything. And as a reminder, you love me.” She backed away and I let her.

My throat ached too much from all the admonitions I wanted to set free on her, but before I did, I needed to know the extent of the promise she’d broken. Because in her word salad of logic, she failed to admit she’d acted recklessly.

While she continued to box up her files on Carol, I turned to her laptop. Among gruesome images of the women I’d dated, there were photos spanning what looked like over a year’s worth of other victims. Included were state IDs or other items that I guessed belonged to the dead women. I hadn’t gotten through many when one image froze my finger above the next arrow.

Three familiar surnames drew my interest.

“Madison, did your photos of the LLC files get mixed up with these?” I peered at Madison, hoping I’d drawn the wrong conclusion.

She hesitated before putting another folder into a box. “No, why do you ask?”

“Because there are files labeled with our names on them. And if they were in the same place as these murder victims?—”

“Then we should be happy Hal is in jail and hopefully on his way to prison.”

“Okay.” I stood and marched toward her. “If this is the way you want to play in my face. I’ll play.”

Alarmed, she spun around to face me and clutched the desk at her back. “Kent, what are you planning to do?”

Without answering, I bent down and threw her over my shoulder.

“Kent! Put me down.” She wiggled until I almost lost my grip and dropped her.

In response, I spanked her once as I carried her to the bedroom. “You’ve more than earned a punishment for the shit you pulled behind my back, and as God is my witness, you will remember this lesson for the rest of our lives.”

I dropped her on the bed.

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? You’re out of jail, I’m safe, and the person who wanted to harm me is locked up.”

I flipped her onto her stomach and dragged her pants and panties over her ass and down her legs. The first hit caused her butt to jiggle in delicious ripples.

“Kent!”

“You promised you wouldn’t be reckless.”

“I wasn’t?—”

Spank.

“Ow! If I had known he was a murderer, I wouldn’t have broken into his place. Probably,” she muttered the last word as if I wouldn’t hear.

Smack.

“Why are you punishing me for trying to save you?” The first sob broke from her, halting my hand in mid-air.

I spun her onto her back. “Madison, I have an obscene amount of money at my disposal, which I can use to pay people to risk their lives. Why do you think I wouldn’t hire someone who specializes in covert operations to ensure your safety? What do I have to do to get it through your head that your life means more to me than jail?”

“I’m sorry.” Tears spilled from her eyes, and she launched herself into my arms. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you first about the plan, and I’m sorry I went because I was terrified the whole time and when I saw the pictures and the file with my name and I realized he intended to add me to his victims—” Violent sobs broke from her, cutting off her manic apology.

As her body shook mine, I realized she’d been holding all this in for my benefit. Instead of the unaffected role she played, she’d been deeply traumatized and the spanking didn’t help. I hugged and pressed her body closer.

“I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you,” I whispered reassurances while rubbing her back and comforting her as she wept.

This wasn’t her usual outpouring after a punishment I administered and the longer she cried, the worse I felt for forcing her confession this way. As she clung to me, I rearranged our bodies to lie on our sides.

“Forgive me. Please, don’t hate me. Don’t hate me. Please.” Over and over, she repeated the phrase.

Her distress broke something in me. No amount of patting and rubbing circles into her back eased either of our torment.

“Little bunny, nothing you do could make me withhold my forgiveness from you. Can you forgive me for pushing you too far?”

Madison’s grip around my neck tightened. “Not your fault.”

I pressed my nose into her hair and swallowed the ball of guilt choking me. I wasn’t a good man. I didn’t deserve her absolution, but I’d take it. Fuck, I’d rejoice in anything that would return the look on her face that told the world she felt safe with me.

Hours passed with her face pressed against my neck, dampening my skin until a chill ran in my body as her tears cooled against me.

I refused to let go or push her away. She’d latched onto me with a desperation I didn’t understand but I recognized the anguish in the tightness of my embrace. I feared I’d broken something special between us and I wouldn’t know until she looked at me again. When she fell asleep, I separated our bodies, tucked her under the covers, and placed Tyger beside her. He looked toward me, then Madison. Without a meow, he crawled between her arms and began purring, making his preference known.

With my thoughts in a jumble, I ambled around the penthouse but nothing stuck and I decided to keep my hands busy. I walked into Madison’s office and saw the files she had yet to box. I filled out what I could of her archiving form and I piled the boxes by the door in preparation for the storage company to pick them up. On my way back to double-check I had gotten everything, a note torn from a pad caught my eye.

It had a list of questions. From what I gathered, they were subjects Madison wanted to research, like erotomania. Her notes for the questions she found answers to explained a lot that I ignored or took for granted because Omar did a great job as my executive assistant. One symptom people diagnosed with erotomania exhibited was sending intimate to unhinged communications to their obsessions.

I recalled receiving a letter from an anonymous woman declaring her love for me. After the first unhinged piece of mail Omar showed me, I’d told him to trash them in the future, and I’d never seen another cross my desk since.

If I’d recognized the pattern earlier, could I have saved the women who died? Then I remembered, Carol didn’t kill them. Hal did. His motive remained a mystery to me. Had he revealed his reasons to the cops?

I continued reading Madison’s notes until I saw her question about the name I saw on the third empty file folder. My mind made many connections to too many instances and an urgent need drove me. I didn’t care what time it was. I was sick of not having answers.

I dialed a number I’d memorized by heart, praying it was still good.

“Do you know what fucking time it is?” Sansone answered from the burner phone number he’d given me.

“No, and I don’t care. You promised to get me Carol when we found her. She’s dead, but I have someone else I need you to get in her place.”

“What? This person… She touched your woman?”

“That’s what I aim to find out.”

My footsteps echoed on the concrete floor of my dilapidated building. As soon as Sansone called with the information he’d delivered my quarry, per my request, I gave Madison an excuse for leaving. I hated the needy glance she hid from me after hearing my reason, and I vowed to myself I would fix what I’d broken.

And I had broken something. Despite her reassuring smile that she was okay, I knew she wasn’t. I’d become an expert in Madison’s smileology and physiognomy, able to distinguish the difference in her smiles down to the lumen per watt. And she was no longer giving the full intensity that held me captive and solidified my purpose as her man.

But once I got my answers, I intended to run straight home and dedicate as many hours, days, weeks, even years, to bringing the brightness back to Madison’s heart and smile.

“Whoever you are, you’ve made a huge fucking mistake. My name means something in this city,” the voice of the woman I was here to meet screeched through the empty halls, gaining in volume the closer I got to her.

“Does your name carry more weight than mine, Paulina?” I asked as I walked through what remained of the crumbling doorway.

“Kent? Wh-what’s the meaning of this?” She shook her shoulders from side to side, her mobility hindered by the ropes binding her to her chair.

I prowled around her, seething while keeping my face neutral. “Is something wrong with your accommodations?”

She swiveled her head, never letting me out of her sight. “You’re joking, but this isn’t funny. Untie me, now!”

“You’re pretty demanding for someone who attempted a coup of my company.”

She froze for a millisecond before flipping her bob away from her face and scoffing. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, aren’t you confident? You think I wouldn’t link you to all those anonymous LLCs and trusts you used to hide your identity as a shareholder?” I ran down a list of five to prove she couldn’t hide from me. “I bet there’s an ethics violation somewhere about you not disclosing what companies you own shares in, but that’s neither here nor there. I want to discuss some of our mutuals.” I ended my saunter in front of her again.

She watched me warily. “I’m sure we have many mutuals. Douglas society isn’t that large.”

I grinned at her deflection, although it didn’t meet my eyes and lacked warmth. “True, but only two have tried to harm me and the women in my life.”

“Women?” she sneered. “None of those pieces of trash could ever be called women, especially your new Oyingugu replacement.”

“What did you say?” Shock choked the words through a tiny hole from my mouth.

“You heard me.” She stretched her neck until a crack broke the stunned silence, and she dropped her mask. “Oh, my God! You have no idea how long I’ve held that in. After all these years, you haven’t changed and neither has your shitty taste in women.”

The woman before me bore none of the characteristics I’d seen over our many years of interacting with each other. Even as she sat tied to the chair, devoid of her earlier rage or fear, she sneered her disgust at me.

“What does my love life have to do with you?”

“Do you even remember we attended the same high school?” From her tone, the question was more rhetorical than curious. However, no memory of her came to my mind.

“Why is that important?” I asked, unable to connect any logic with her line of questioning.

“Because I saw you first. On the first day of ninth grade, I told my friends I would marry you. Had our meet-cute all set up. I’d already amassed a following and they were happy to spread the word about how great I was so you’d hear it before we physically met. Everything was going to plan, then fucking Oyingugu passed by you in the hall and ruined everything. You didn’t notice anyone, even though I crashed into you and we almost fell to the ground. That bitch didn’t say a word to you and you couldn’t keep your eyes off her then, even while I stood in front of you. Me, the most gorgeous girl the school had ever seen. Winner of Miss Teen Douglas.”

“You’re telling me you’ve held a grudge since high school? You’re sick.”

She threw her head back and laughed. The sound was healthy, lacking the crazed touch I expected of someone who’d confessed to an unhealthy fixation. “You’re mistaken. You confuse an illness with dedication. I follow through on my goals, and when you never broke up with that woman after senior year, and I had to see the two of you lost in each other at college, I vowed to take everything you loved and destroy you.” She shook her head ruefully. “It’s taken me a long time to get traction, but every time I’d get close to destroying you, you bounced back. But the joke’s on me. I keep relying on failures. First Trent, then my cousin, Carol, and lastly, Hal. What will it take to cut you down to your knees?”

“Did you say, Trent? As in Duncan Trent?” My heart pounded as memories from Lola’s bloody confession and the painful years after she died replayed themselves.

“Ooh, you didn’t know I had a hand in that, too, huh? How much did you find out? Did you discover the affair?”

I froze at the mention of the plan Duncan had for Lola.

“Mmm, the look on your face right now is so delicious.” She inhaled as if she could smell a mouth-watering aroma and sucking it in nourished her.

“They didn’t have an affair. That motherfucker raped my wife, and you’re admitting you sent him to do it.”

“Rape? Are you sure Oyingugu?—”

“Her name is Oyinlola!” I stepped away, trying to cool my temper. Although I hated everything coming out of her mouth, the darkness inside me compelled me to know every vile thing this woman masterminded while I lived my life in ignorance.

“Whatever. Are you sure she didn’t lie to cover up the truth? She was a whore who begged Duncan for sex. He gave her what you failed to provide. It was only natural for her to seek what she lacked at home.”

“I don’t need to defend my wife to the likes of you. Even on her worst day, she was more beautiful and worthy than you on your best.”

“Is that why it took you so long to get over her? Because she was so good? Or because she destroyed your trust?” Paulina raised her chin to look down at me from her position.

She failed. I would never be beneath a woman like her.

“For those first few months, while you walked around with the most pitiful, heartbroken expression on your face because your poor wife was no more, I was on cloud nine. Then you buried yourself in your work and tripled your success. Success I as your rightful wife should have shared. I should have been beside you, lording my status over Douglas society, but you never saw me. No, you started your fuckboy phase with all those empty-headed bimbos.”

“Was your cousin, Carol, a bimbo?”

“That girl.” Paulina snorted. “Her family couldn’t handle her. She was always going off her meds and causing problems. Well, I don’t have to tell you about the trouble she brings.”

“What did you promise her to damage my reputation?”

“That’s the beauty of my gullible cousin. I promised her nothing. I just had to show her a picture of you after she’d been off her meds for a month. Had her singing Nothing Compares 2 U on repeat. She was so far gone that I only had to mention those other women to convince her to work with Hal. Carol terrorized those women until Hal ended their suffering. They were such a good team.” Paulina eyed me up and down with a sneer marring her mouth. “At least they were before your new plaything entered the picture.”

“Do you even care Hal killed Carol?”

“He did what was necessary. Carol wasn’t made to live life on the run. It was only time before someone connected her with her real identity and then to me. I couldn’t have that.”

“And my daughter? She’s innocent in all this. Why did Hal have a folder in his murder files with her name on it?”

Paulina rolled her eyes. “No one around you is innocent, least of all the spawn of that whore. You know, Hal and I discussed when and how to end her life to maximize the blow to you. My vote was while you were out on bail, but you know what happened with that. Then the asshole had to go and get caught. Regardless, there’s always someone willing to do anything for the right price.”

“I still don’t understand. Hal worked for me for years. What did you promise him to turn on me?”

“Your company. There is a sweet irony in enthroning the person who hated you as much as I do as the successor to everything you built, knowing he would run your company into the ground while you sat behind bars unable to do shit about it. All because that man has an unchecked ego without the skill to back it up.”

“But your plans didn’t stop with my company and my daughter. You put a target on Madison.”

“She was the prize I didn’t know I needed.” At my confused frown, she laughed. “You shouldn’t have brought her to that charity gala, Kent. God, the look on your face. I hadn’t seen that expression since Oyingugu.”

My phone dinged, stopping me from unleashing all my rage and choking her to death. Although I could ignore the message, I needed the distraction. I left her and walked out while dialing the number in the text.

“What happened?”

“Mr. Luxe, while Ms. Montgomery was out today, I thwarted an assailant.” The man was the undercover guard I kept from Madison.

I continued walking until I got to my car. “Does Madison know about him?”

“Not yet. Should I inform her?”

Madison’s face from the night she admitted her terror while inside Hal’s home rose in my mind. “No. Madison doesn’t know about you, and the knowledge will only scare her. Where is the man now?”

“I have him out of sight. He said someone hired him to abduct her.”

“Bring him to me. I have a few questions I’d like to ask him in person.” I took padlocks and steel chains from my trunk and re-entered the run-down building.

The time away did me good. Now I could return to Paulina with some semblance of calm to deal with her.

Paulina whistled a carefree tune that riled my blood. She peered at me when I entered the room and she smiled. Then she noticed my calm expression and the chain wrapped around my arm. The grin fell from her face.

“Why do you have a chain?”

Instead of answering her question, I said, “I’m curious. You’ve been very forthcoming. I didn’t have to threaten you. Why is that?”

“Because you won’t do anything to me. I’m untouchable.”

“Pray tell, how?” I unwound the chains from my arm.

“I guess you’ll find out soon enough. Remember, I told you there’s always someone willing to do anything for a price? Well, I found one willing to keep your little bitch on ice for as long as I need. So, why should I be afraid of what you’re going to do when I can do way worse?”

“Ahh, all this time you had leverage. That’s why you had no problem admitting your crimes against me. It all makes sense now.”

“Mr. Luxe?” My man’s voice came from down the hall.

“I’m in here,” I yelled, allowing him to find me.

The guard entered, dragging the man who attempted to take Madison. When he appeared, for the first time, genuine fear entered Paulina’s eyes. The man holding Paulina’s attention had a bruised face, held his ribs, and had a bloody wound on his thigh, causing him to limp.

“Thank you, you may leave.”

My man nodded and backed out with my new captive, purposely keeping his eyes on the ground.

“He stays,” I said, regarding the beaten man.

Without another word, my guard abandoned Madison’s would-be assailant.

“Listen, I was only doing a job, man. Whatever this is, I don’t want no part of it.” The man stared at Paulina’s bound body.

“You know what I find funny, Paulina?” I punched the man in the face, knocked him unconscious, then dragged him toward a pillar and roped a chain around him before closing the padlock and fixing him to the building. “You speak on others’ illness and ego, never recognizing the same issues in yourself. You’re as sick as your cousin was and should be institutionalized, but you obviously hid it better. Because what else other than sickness would make you think you could compare to my Lola or my Madison? Both women far surpass you in beauty, grace, intelligence, talent, sexiness… pretty much every metric that matters, they blow you out of the water. Oh, I forgot to mention, sanity.”

“I am all those things and more, asshole.”

“Then why did I never see you? You never registered when we were in the same class in high school, barely when we were in college. It took you getting a government position that directly affected my company before I acknowledged you, and you forced that bit of exposure by demanding a monthly lunch. You were and will always be a desperate nobody in my world.”

“No, I am somebody. You need me.”

“Paulina, no one needs you. When you disappear, no one will care.” I dragged her chair to the one intact concrete wall in the room where a set of eyebolt screw wall anchors protruded from the wall.

I fed another chain through the holes. The last chain I’d brought from my car, I wrapped around Paulina, winding it around her torso, over her shoulders, and under the seat of her chair while she protested. Every curse she piled onto my head satisfied my banked rage. I lifted her chair and locked the chain connected to the wall with the chain wrapped around her body. Now, even if she freed herself of the rope, she wouldn’t escape the chains.

“You can’t leave me like this!” She twisted and banged against the wall while I turned my back on her. Her legs dangled feet above the ground.

I leaned against the pillar with the unconscious man. “You know, when I connected you to Madison’s attempted murder, I considered so many ways to make you pay. I never thought your intentions began years ago or were more diabolical than I could have ever imagined. But after listening to you, the best revenge is leaving you alone.” I glanced down at the unconscious man. “Well, he doesn’t count. When he regains consciousness, he won’t be able to help you. You’ll both suffer from dehydration and starvation. Only the two of you will hear each other’s desperate cries for help. After a couple weeks, you’ll have no more moisture to cry. Your organs will shut down, which I’ve heard is very painful.”

“If I meant nothing to you, why would you want to watch me waste away that way?”

“Watch you? Paulina, once I leave I won’t return. I’ll forget about you as quickly as I’ve done every other day of my life. You’re a nonentity. And when this place gets demolished, the only evidence you existed will be your dried-out skeleton. And even then, no one will report your remains. You’ll become commercial waste.”

“You’re forgetting. I hold an important office. People will look for me.”

“For a few days, they will. But then they’ll replace you at your job and call off the search when there are no leads. Hell, they might think Hal had gotten to you first since he also had a folder with your name on it.”

She gasped.

“Didn’t know he also had plans for you? You worked with a serial killer who murdered women and thought you were safe? Well, at least I saved you from Hal. Too bad there’s no one who will save you from me.”