Prologue
“What exactly is it you think you can do for me, Mr. Denton?” Paul Savona asked, taking a long pull on his cigarette.
Maddox stared at the man that he’d organized this meeting with. Savona, like himself, was a boss. The king of his own empire. Only, Savona wasn’t desperate and looking at takeovers.
He wondered how much his enemies knew of the current Denton situation. For the past year he’d tried to keep it afloat, tried to make it work. The price for silence was rising, the demands on their resources ever increasing. Women were not so willing to work for them as their brothels were hit hard.
He couldn’t believe he was even considering this.
“Tamsin, my youngest daughter. I think a union between the Dentons and the Savonas would be very good for business and very good for us as well. Our families, bound together in marriage.” He leaned back, smiling.
Charlotte had begged him to let Tamsin have a different life. If he’d not been faced with complete collapse, he would consider it.
That was not going to happen now.
As a Denton, he’d keep this fucking family afloat by whatever means possible. He loved his children, his wife, but right now, he had to put them to one side. Tamsin was someone he could use to help the family. It wasn’t like she had any other purpose. Each of them had to play their part, and now it was her turn.
“Tamsin. Do you have a photo?” Paul asked.
Pulling out the photo he had taken of her just last week, he handed it over. Of course, Paul would want to see a picture of his girl. Any union had to be worth it, and from what Maddox had discovered, Mason, Paul’s son, liked beautiful women.
Tamsin, when she finally reached maturity, would be beautiful. Right now, there was a childishness to her. She held that air of innocence and attitude that would fade away.
“Beautiful,” Paul said.
There was a gleam within his eye that Maddox didn’t like. Pushing his unease to one side, he waited.
“How old?”
“Fifteen right now.”
“If we both agree, they could marry by the time she’s sixteen. She seems like a handful. I’ll gladly take her off your hands now. Have her ready to take my son when the time is right.”
“That’s not possible. Her mother would follow her everywhere. Sixteen is a little young.”
“My boy is not going to patient forever. I’m willing to wait a short time, but not too long. Name your terms, and we’ll consider it a deal. We can flesh out ages of acceptability at a later date.”
For the next hour, Maddox negotiated the men he wanted and the deal for Tamsin’s virginity and for the ring on her finger, binding her to Savona.
When Paul left, Maddox sat back, lifting out the other file. The other family that could help and had the means he was after was the Castillo family. Their daughter was only sixteen now. His sons, all of them, apart from Gideon, had found their woman. He couldn’t have Gabriel marry her either.
He wasn’t a true Denton.
He held the DNA within his veins, but that was as far as the connection went. Maddox knew the only men he trusted were his sons. Of course, if they ever found out what he was doing and what he planned to do, they would all turn on him.
Whenever there was a problem in the way, he always made sure to remove it.
He didn’t deal with not getting his way.
Staring at the phone, he knew once he made this call, there would be no way to undo it. He didn’t have a choice. For the sake of his family, he lifted it up and made the call.
Chapter One
Deep purple was never really her color, but as Emma Colton stared at her reflection, she felt a sense of freedom. She’d never dyed her hair before, and even though it wasn’t a big rebellious step in most terms, to her and her world, she’d just defied her father in every sense of the word.
Her father?
That piece of shit was dead, long dead, and she was no longer afraid of her own shadow. Ever since it had been brought to light that her oldest brother Gabriel was, in fact, a Denton, her life had changed. Before the revelation, she’d been in hiding after the annihilation of her family, scared for her life. Now though, she and her siblings had been embraced by the Denton family that was once her family’s enemy.
She’d never hated the Dentons. Not even when her father’s vile words would spill out, trying to corrupt the air around him. She’d listened to every word he had to say. They all had no choice. Anyone around her father knew to pay attention or you’d be sorry. Growing up she’d gotten many beatings and backhands for not paying attention, so it was something she always did.
Even when she wasn’t supposed to. There were so many places for her to be, and because she was a woman, men seemed to assume she wasn’t listening to them. She imagined that was why Mr. Denton had put her to work in the basement at his casino.
She didn’t mind for the most part. She didn’t look like most of the women working at the casino. For one, she wasn’t slender with the perfect, tight body. Nope, since her father’s death, there hadn’t been any enforced diets or being made to look a certain way. She didn’t do the gym anymore, and she had a new love of life, which meant she was a nice, curvy size sixteen.
It was quiet, and she’d lived so long fearing for her life that when it came to the basement, she felt right at home. At least she had a job, a steady income, and she didn’t have to worry about being beaten up every single day, or fearing anything.
For the most part, she was … free.
Running her fingers through her hair, she wondered what Maddox Denton would say to her during their meeting tomorrow. She wasn’t acting rashly or anything.
In fact, she’d been thinking about it for a long time now. The chance to finally get away from everything she despised. For the first time in her life, she actually felt hopeful to the future.
This was what she wanted, what she hoped for.
Leaving her bedroom, she made her way out into the main sitting room. Her brothers, Owen and Wyatt, were playing one of their computer games. For grown men, they sure made a habit of acting like children.
She rolled her eyes as she bent down to pick up an empty beer can. “Please, can we pretend to care about the mess?”
“Sorry, sis,” Owen said.
“Yeah, sorry. We’ll get a cleaner.” This came from Wyatt.
“You don’t need a cleaner, just a trashcan.”
She didn’t even know why she bothered half the time. They wouldn’t listen. They were used to having servants wait on them all the time. To them, she was a woman, so that made her no better than a servant who was hired to clean up after them.
Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed the warm coffee and poured herself a cup, making sure to add plenty of cream and sugar. She never took her coffee without it. Oth
erwise it was just plain gross. Leaning against the counter, she watched them fight a monster or a zombie or whatever.
“Bring us a beer,” Owen said.