Wicked Fall

Reggie’s fist comes out of nowhere and catches me solidly on my left jaw. My head rocks hard and I stagger back a step, but I right myself quickly and manage to catch his follow-up punch with one hand.

Te

“Sit down,” Te

I refuse to take the couch as my brother orders, because I’m not a child, but I go ahead and lay it all out for him. “A little over a year ago, I started construction on a nightclub called The Wicked Horse. It’s been open a few months now.”

“It’s a sex club,” Reggie growls.

I hold my hand up to him and give a glare. “It’s a nightclub, but there are buildings behind it that I sell private memberships to. The patrons have access to a secure and private place where they can meet up with people of like minds—”

“Perverts,” Reggie huffs.

“—who can live out their sexual fantasies safely.”

Te

“You built this on Double J property?” he asks slowly.

“Yes.”

“With family money?”

“No. With my money,” I tell him without breaking eye contact.

“And what the hell does this have to do with Callie?” Te

“I wish,” Reggie snarls. “I didn’t like Will much but at least he kept her safe from this… this… debauchery.”

I shake my head.

Oh, Reggie. If only you knew what kind of shit your daughter’s fiancé was into.

Standing from the couch, Reggie turns to Te

Motherfucking twat. I’m going to kill that fucker.

Pointing a shaking finger at me, Reggie’s voice gets high with hysteria. “He said there was an orgy going on and he saw Callie coming out of one of the buildings with Woolf. He brought my little girl to an orgy and took advantage of her.”

“Not denying he saw Callie and me together,” I growl, because I’m about sick of this shit. “But that’s all he saw.”

“Do you deny that there was an orgy going on in that building you came out of with my sweet Callie?” Reggie practically screams.

“I think you need to take a chill pill, old man,” I sneer at him defensively.

“Christ,” Te

“Where is Callie?” I ask Reggie, figuring she took her father’s fury first.

“She’s at home and you had better stay the fuck away from her,” Reggie says shakily.

“Is she okay?” I ask, needing him to at least tell me that.

Reggie laughs as he takes a step toward me. Te

Guilt and shame crush me, because most of that shit never once crossed my mind. Not seriously, anyway. I was too focused on pleasing myself and giving into Callie’s desires, that I never once considered the repercussions.

“I’ll talk to Colton,” I say lamely.

“Colton Stokes won’t say a word,” Reggie says with an impatient wave of his hand. “He only wanted me to know so I could put a stop to it for Callie’s sake. He’s an honorable man.”

Naive son of a bitch. That same honorable man is a member of my club, you moron.

But I don’t say a word. I just let my shoulders go ahead and sag under the weight of recrimination.

Te

I wince as I watch Reggie walk heavily up the stairs and slide out the front door. I figure my dad and Richard are rolling over in their graves right now, probably sick with disappointment in me, but I can’t think about that right now. Whipping my phone out, I call Callie, but her voice mail picks up.

“Callie… I need to see you. Call me and we’ll figure a place we can meet.”

I disco

I can kill Colton later, because that’s about all I can do to him. It’s true enough he signed the same non-disclosure agreement that Callie signed, but there’s no way I can collect on it. That would take a lawsuit. Lawsuits are public record, and Reggie has made it painfully clear how much public knowledge of my club could hurt Callie and their family.

“How in the ever-loving fuck could you have done something so stupid?” Te

I turn to look at him, my face flushed with anger. “It’s a legitimate business. I was going to—”

Te

With a sigh, I cross over to the couch and flop down on it. I stare at Te

“Well, you should have tried harder,” Te

“I know,” I say apologetically, and then again resolutely. “I know.”

“Stay away from her,” Te

“I fucking got it,” I snap back and then push up off the couch, grabbing my hat off the table.

“Where are you going?” Te

“Out,” is all I tell him as I trot up the stairs.

I need to talk to Bridger.

Chapter 20

Callie

I lift the glass of champagne and drain the remainder. It’s my second glass and I’m already slightly tipsy from it, but that’s what the bubbly does to me. A tuxedoed waiter walks by and I replace the empty with another, taking a tentative sip at it. I want to get stinkin’ drunk, but I’m in “good daughter” mode tonight so that’s not possible.

I’ve been trying to stay in “good daughter” mode since last Saturday morning when my father called me down to his study and proceeded to light into me about The Wicked Horse. Apparently, Colton had a little talk with my father, and so he was having a little—okay, really fucking big—talk with me.

He then left and went straight to Woolf’s house to confront him, and I had hoped Woolf had half a brain and did as I did.

Deny, deny, deny.

I told my father I had no clue what he was talking about and told him that what I did in my personal time was my business and not his. I refused to admit a thing, and so he basically ranted at me for almost forty-five minutes. When he saw he wasn’t getting any satisfaction from me, he informed me he was going to confront Woolf.