“How would keeping me from her equal money from them? Elli gets access to her trust fund at twenty-five, but no one can touch that. I mean, I guess they could if they somehow deemed her unfit. But that’d have to include an institute of some sort.” Parents have done it before. I’ve seen it among the Lords. When money gets involved, people go feral. Even the ones that are already set for life. They do it out of spite. “But again, it doesn’t make sense—I would think he’d want her to be my wife because he would want access to her money through me if I was her husband.” I’d never let that happen.
“Asher Corp,” he states, sitting up straighter in his seat.
“What about it?”
He looks over at me. “The stipulation was you marry Elli and Asher Corp was to be hers. Of course, you would help her run it. If there’s no wedding, Laura can hand it over to anyone she wants. Including your father.”
Asher Corp is the largest gun and ammo manufacturer in the world. Nicholas’s great-great-grandfather started it and it’s been passed down ever since. Elli was the first daughter to be born to the Asher family in over two centuries. That I know of, anyway.
It’s not unheard of for the Lords to ‘sell’ their daughters after they were born. They didn’t add to the Lord army they were trying to achieve. Men meant power. Women meant nothing. But that was back before my parents’ time. I think along the way the Lords realized that they need the women to produce the children. They were cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. Now, I can’t say that the Lords aren’t still doing that today, some don’t like change and will do anything in order to achieve what they want. But you’d have to be a sick son of a bitch to sell your child on the black market just because she can’t carry on your name.
_______________
I LAY ELLIin our bed and she rolls over, turning her back to me but still asleep. I enter the living room, heading to the kitchen for some water, when my cell rings. “Hey, man, now’s not a good time,” I greet Prickett.
“Bad day?” he asks.
“Something like that.” I’m still shaking at the thought of my father taking advantage of her. How many times did he see her in that position? How many of those pictures in that box did he take? She doesn’t remember my father ever being involved. Did James want it that way, or was that something my father wanted? She grew up around my family, knew he was her father’s best friend. So it would make sense that he didn’t want her knowing his involvement.
“Well, let me make it better for you.” He chuckles at himself and my teeth grind. “I just walked into Blackout and guess who I see?” He doesn’t let me answer. “Holland.”
“I’m on my way.” His growing laughter fills my ear as I hang up. “I’m leaving. Can you stay here with her?” I ask Nicholas, entering the kitchen.
He nods, sitting at the island with a bottle of bourbon in front of him. “I have nowhere else to go.” I notice that he’s still wearing the same clothes that he was dropped off in three days ago. I’ll get him some new ones but right now, I don’t have time to worry about it. At least they let him wear something. The guy in the straitjacket comes to mind, reminding me it could be worse.
Turning around, I go to the spare room and open the safe I have. Pulling out a gun, I secure the safe and then find Nicholas now in the living room. That same bottle of bourbon now on the coffee table. “Can I trust you?” I ask, holding it out to him.
He glares at me, offended by my question. “To be alone with my daughter? Of course.”
I hand him the gun. “Shoot anyone that tries to enter this house.” If I’m being honest with myself, I do trust him with Elli. I think Nicholas had some enemies who pretended to be friends and fucked him over for greed.
“You think Linc will come after her?” He reads my mind.
“I think anything is possible, and if I’m not here, I can’t protect her. So I need you to do it.”
He nods, taking the gun and relaxing back into the couch. “You have my word. Anyone other than you walks into this house, they’re dead.”
It’ll have to do for now. I pull my cell out of my pocket and call Tyson.
“Hello?” he answers on the third ring.
He said he wanted me to let him know when I was going to do something stupid over pussy. This is that time. “Heads-up. I’m coming to Blackout to kill a motherfucker,” I state, walking back toward the master suite.
“Sin—”
“You told me to give you a heads-up. This is it.”
He sighs heavily. “Who is it?”
“Holland.” I step inside the room to tell my wife goodbye, but I see she’s no longer in our bed.
“I’ll get the basement ready for you,” Tyson tells me.
Looking around, I see the bathroom door cracked. Entering, I find her sitting in the shower, back against the tiled wall and head down on her knees.
“Sin?” he questions at my silence.
“Never mind,” I interrupt him, hanging up. I send a quick text to Prickett, telling him I’ll take a rain check but thanks for the heads-up.