Ruthless King (New Orleans Malones #4)

Chapter 20

20

R egent was heading home when his phone rang.

With a sigh, he saw it was Anne. He raised the barrier between himself and Jose in the car and answered the call. He lit a cigarette, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder.

He didn’t smoke often, but when he was stressed the hit of tobacco calmed him down.

Victor was sitting beside him and turned to give him a querying look.

“Hello, Anne,” he said coolly.

“So you’re upset with me too. I knew it. I’m such a blabbermouth!”

His irritation eased at the clear distress in her voice.

“I’m not upset with you.”

“You are! And I can’t blame you. Jilly still isn’t answering my calls. Oh, I wish I hadn’t called in the first place. Always sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong. Jilly and Frank tell me that all the time.”

“Anne,” he interrupted.

“Yes?”

“Was there something I can do for you?”

Victor was looking out the window, but Regent knew his brother would be taking in every word.

He rubbed at his forehead. He just wanted to get home and go to bed. Victor and Gracen were taking possession of their house tomorrow, and he’d promised Gracen he wouldn’t keep Victor out too late. It was already after ten.

Anne sighed. “No. No, there’s nothing. I just wanted to call and apologize. I realize that I hugely overstepped asking you to check on my Jilly. She’s just . . . her childhood was difficult in a way that you are one of the few people who would understand.”

“Then isn’t that reason enough to keep her away from me?” he asked stiffly.

Shouldn’t she want someone different for her daughter? Someone safer?

“I did want something different for her. Something normal. And yet, the men she has dated have all been normal men and not one of them has been worthy of my girl. She deserves someone who worships the ground she walks on. Someone who would lay down their life for her. Who realizes that she is precious and amazing. I just . . . I want that for her so badly.”

“I’m not that person, Anne.” He kept his voice stern. Calm. Controlled.

He needed her to realize that she wasn’t to do that again. No one manipulated Regent Montclair Malone and lived to tell the tale. She was just lucky that he held some affection for her.

“Right. Of course. I apologize again. I won’t take up any more of your time.”

“Oh, and Anne?” he said.

“Yes?”

“Jilly is an adult who doesn’t need you interfering in her life.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“But I also know that she will forgive you soon.” He ended the call before Anne could say anything else.

“Anne is still bugging you about Jilly?” Victor asked.

“I wouldn’t say bugging me. She told Jilly she’d called and asked me to check on her. Jilly grew . . . upset.”

Victor didn’t say anything, but Regent could sense him staring at him.

He turned to his brother. “What is it?”

“You like her, don’t you?”

“Just because I don’t want anything to happen to her doesn’t mean I like her.”

“You got her boss fired because she was bullying her.”

“Not yet. That will be happening Monday morning. Jardin couldn’t find anything on that bitch. So he had someone plant some things. Her boss will be getting a number of notifications by Monday morning.”

Then it was bye-bye, old bat.

“Right. And you went to all that trouble simply because Jilly has a tentative connection to our family.”

“She guards the entrance to the tunnels.”

“She’s not standing over them, protecting them with her life. And she gets to live in that house for free.”

“So I should just let her get bullied?” he asked incredulously.

“If it was anyone else, you would.”

“I would never allow any of our women to get bullied,” he snapped. He didn’t understand Victor.

“But Jilly isn’t one of our women. Unless you want her to be yours. And I think you do.”

“Save me the psychoanalysis,” he told him in a cold voice. “Just because you have Gracen doesn’t mean that I’m looking for a woman.”

“Gracen’s worried about you.”

Regent closed his eyes. So that’s what this was all about. Lord save him from concerned, sweet, sisters-in-law-to-be.

“Tell Gracen she doesn’t need to worry. I am fine.”

“If you say so.”

“I do,” he said.

The rest of the drive was in silence. But something was gnawing away at his gut . . . a need.

A desire.

To see her. To ensure her safety. Her care.

To make her his.

Was Victor right?

She constantly infiltrated his thoughts. When he wasn’t thinking about Patrick, that was.

He’d wake up in the morning and the first thing he’d think about would be her. Whether she was all right. If she was eating properly. If she was being safe.

It still annoyed him that she was taking public transportation. He’d attempted to send Jose around to take her to and from work. But short of kidnapping her and throwing her in the car, he couldn’t actually force her to take the ride.

Fuck.

Was he really treating her like she was his, as Victor had said?

He was being ridiculously overprotective. Trying to force her not to take public transportation. Interfering with her job. Deciding what needed changing and improving in the house.

And he didn’t feel guilty about any of it. He wouldn’t go back and change anything.

As they parked in front of the house, he got out of the car and walked inside.

Victor disappeared upstairs to see Gracen while he headed into his study.

But he couldn’t settle.

Go around and see her.

No. He was supposed to be keeping his distance. Instead, he sent a text to Basilien.

His guys had been doing random drive-bys of her place. He’d just have them do one right now.

As he waited for a reply, he tried to do some work.

Frowning, he read Basilien’s reply twenty minutes later. She wasn’t home?

It was eleven. Where could she be? Getting up, he paced up and down his study.

He should have put a tracker on her. That way, he could always know where she was.

Not a bad idea.

Fuck. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he made sure that she was all right. After messaging Jose, he headed outside.

Regent was just going to go and make sure that she was all right.

There was nothing wrong with that. Right?