Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)
Scorned Love: Chapter 24

I was afraid to move. Or even breathe. I wanted Ivy to continue talking. To open up about her past with Edward Sinclair. I exhaled slowly, as if a drastic change in my actions would cause her to stop talking. I resumed playing with her hair.

“I met Edward three months after I buried my father.” She turned to me and splayed her fingers on my chest. “There had been problems with the Triad for years, and I’d been living in Los Angeles since high school, raised by nannies and a distant aunt. I met Edward at one of the business conferences. Apparently, he knew who I was. His family had done business with my father and his murder was big news…well, SMG is the news.”

“Did he premeditate your meeting?”

“No. I don’t think so.

“I hadn’t had sex since I lost my virginity at senior prom. It’s nothing to rehash. My father’s death had left me with a hole in my chest.” She gave a brief snort. “I can fully admit that my relationship with Edward had everything to do with my daddy issues.”

I couldn’t keep still and listen to this. I needed air. Leaving the bed, I opened the French doors that led to her balcony. Then I grabbed a throw from the couch and walked around the bed. Her wary gaze tracked my movements. “Up, princess.”

She gingerly swung her long legs over the edge of the mattress, and before she fully stood, I wrapped the throw around her and carried her outside.

“Nico, we’re buck naked.”

“I am. I got you covered.” I needed something else to focus on, so I could listen to this story. A cigarette would do the trick, but I’d been smoking less and less since I’d been with Ivy. She said it was oxymoronic to my health fixation, which was true. But I’d been a hypocrite in more ways than one after what Joe put me through. My parents wanted me to go for counseling. I told them I’d deal with it on my own, and I did. Fitness and bulking up had been my religion. It gave me control. It gave me mindset. But now and then, nothing calmed me down like a cigarette. I never crossed the line into the hard shit. Sure, some Molly here and there, but Matteo and I never went past that. It was taboo in our family. It was our respect for everyone who’d gone before us who kept our business away from drugs and human trafficking.

I settled us on the outdoor couch. It was the lounging couch of an outdoor sectional.

“You were talking about daddy issues,” I prompted, letting her know I wanted her to continue talking where she left off. When she was quiet, I was afraid my cowardice had made her reconsider opening up to me.

“I can’t go into details.”

“I know that, princess. I just want to understand what made you think Edward was the answer.”

“He said he knew how to take away my pain.” Her voice caught.

“By giving you pain.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Somehow, to get it out. To give me catharsis.”

“And he thought he was qualified to do this? I’m not knocking down the process, but there are a lot of wannabe Doms out there.” I fucked hard and domination during sex was my thing, but I wasn’t narcissistic enough to think that it qualified me to dish out pain and give it to a woman who craved it.

“I’m realizing that now. Suffice to say, it was Edward who needed help and not I.”

“The cigarette burns?”

“Other…ways weren’t cutting it. It was only making me more depressed even with the aftercare. So we tried cigarette burns. That was the breaking point for him, actually. He thought he’d crossed the line and he…he got mad at me because I was the one who suggested it.” Her voice hitched.

I wanted to snarl. That right there proved Edward Sinclair was no Dom and was just feeling his way through shit.

“He went crazy…” She let it hang there and shrugged. “That’s when he left.”

Ivy slumped against me. I thought she was going to say some more, but she remained quiet for a long time. It could have been a minute. It could have been two.

“And…”

“You know the rest.” She said it in a way that told me we were close to violating her NDA.

My jaw was hurting from clenching my teeth too hard, grinding my molars against each other. Words tinged with hatred and vitriol were difficult to get past my lips, but I would do it. She needed to hear them, to hear how wrong this fucking bastard was to take advantage of nineteen-year-old Ivy.

“Edward Sinclair didn’t know jack shit. He was fake Domming, but because he was a rich fuck, he thought he could buy himself into that lifestyle. Let me guess, he showered you with gifts after a fucked-up session because he thought money could buy him the title.”

“Go on.” There was a hint of amusement in her voice, but I wasn’t finding anything amusing. I was enraged.

“So he convinced you, you were a sub. Maybe stereotyping you because he thought all Asian women were supposed to be submissive, and hey, he’d be living his ultimate dream. Except you’re no sub. You have a steel spine, so what did he do? He destroys you by doing things that went against your nature, but he was following a textbook, and when that didn’t work, he became more radical.”

“Wax drips,” she whispered. “And then the cigarette burns.”

“So he freaked out when he saw the burns.”

“He did.”

“You said he went crazy? Did it end up becoming domestic violence, Ivy?” Her breaths were shallow, and they were coming fast. I hated putting her through this again. “Beat you black and blue because he was a limp dick and couldn’t get it up after burning your skin with a cigarette?”

“Yes.” Her answer was suspiciously garbled.

I shifted her in my arms to kiss her cheeks and was fucking appalled that they were wet.

I made her cry.

Fuck.

I gathered her against me. “I’m so fucking sorry, princess.”

She burrowed deeper into my chest and whispered, “Don’t be. I wanted you to know. You’ve trusted me with your past, and now I’m entrusting mine to you.”

“You don’t know what that means to me…I…I just love you.” Those words were too simple to explain how much her opening up meant to me. Honored she entrusted me with this secret. Love, so much love. Protectiveness. Hate directed at Edward Sinclair. Every single one of those emotions rolled up into a ball clogging my throat of further speech.

But Ivy understood and communicated she understood by rubbing her cheeks against my chest in a sign she felt comfort in my arms. That was enough for me, and her response was a bonus if not the highlight of this moment.

“I love you too.”

Ivy

A ringing of the phone woke me up. I was disoriented and realized I was in my loft. I was also sweaty since Nico and I slept naked last night, plastered against each other. It was his phone that was ringing. I didn’t recognize the tone. Besides, mine was still in my purse and I didn’t even know where it was.

Probably in the foyer.

Nico cursed and disentangled himself from me. He stumbled through the room, probably searching for his phone too. But anxiety niggled at me.

I didn’t even know what time it was. The shades were drawn, but I could see sunlight peeking through them. It couldn’t be noon. That was the time we all agreed to meet and plan our after-show marketing.

Katie was the one coordinating with our main HK PR department. Xander and I hated dealing with them since there were so many rules or creative differences and Daniel gave us autonomy, anyway.

I stretched my sore limbs. I’d been fucked well and fucked hard. Nico’s voice filtered back to me from the living room where he probably found his phone. Where did we get naked? I should be checking my messages too. I went to the bathroom and did my morning routine. When I stepped out, Nico was sitting on the edge of the bed.

His posture, with head down and elbows propped on his knees, gave me an immediate surge of panic.

“What is it?” I went to my knees in front of him. “Is your family okay?”

He raised his gaze to me. A muscle pulsed in his jaw, but his eyes were burning with enough fury to rock me back and sit on my heels. “Nico?”

“That was Trevor,” he said. “The warehouse burned down last night.”

“What warehouse? A De Lucci warehouse?” I didn’t know if they had any. They had many businesses.

He shook his head and went down on his knees in front of me, gripping my shoulders. “No, Ivy. Yours. The workroom.”

I wasn’t sure I understood him. The blood left my head, and if he wasn’t holding me up, I might have collapsed. My mind was finding ways to reject his words.

“Come on, princess.” He picked me up from the floor.

That was when my thoughts went to my cousin. “Xander?”

“Trevor went to get him.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“The guards you hired were found tied and away from the warehouse. They’re being questioned by the police right now.”

“My phone.” I pushed away from him and went in search of it. It was off. And I remembered I ran out of battery from all the social media I did yesterday.

“Give it to me. I’ll charge it. Go get ready.”

“Get ready for what?” I snapped. “I’m not going for any publicity op.” I started pacing. “I need to talk to Xander.” I held out my hand. “Give me your phone.”

Nico was eyeing me intently as he handed it to me. He already had Xander’s name pulled up. My thumb hesitated to swipe. I didn’t know what to tell him. I looked at Nico. “Has Trevor talked to him?”

“He called up to his room.”

“Why aren’t you stopping me from calling him?”

“You know him better than I do.”

“But I don’t know what to tell him.”

Nico took the phone out of my hands and dragged me into his chest.

“We were so close to having everything.” I started to cry.

“Don’t let this get you down.” The ferocity in Nico’s voice was a steadying force that harnessed my spinning thoughts and feelings that prevented me from spiraling into hysteria. We had everything riding on the after-show. “We don’t know the extent of the damage yet.”

“But it’s bad.” Lightheaded and frozen, I didn’t know what to do.

So when Nico said, “Go change, princess. I’ll get more info.”

I followed without question like an automaton. “Okay.”

Twenty minutes later, we were in Nico’s Maserati. I was glad we showered before bed. We stopped by a drive-through for breakfast and coffee. Nico was adamant that I eat. He was right. It was going to be a long day, and I wasn’t going to be stupid and head into this with an empty stomach. The coffee tasted bitter and each bite of the bagel sandwich tasted like sawdust, wanting to ride back up my throat, but I forced it down.

We arrived in Brooklyn to a chaos of first responders and charred walls and curious onlookers. There was no roof and no licking flames. But the smoke ominously rose while the firefighters hosed down the remaining embers.

I spotted the familiar SUVs of the De Luccis, and then that was when I saw my cousin. He was standing behind the police line. His hands in his hair, tugging on it in disbelief. My heart broke for him.

Nico handed me my phone, and I took a deep inhale and turned it on. As expected, I had several messages, but the most important person was right in front of me. I put my hand on Xander’s shoulder.

He spun around and tried to act brave, but at the crumpling of my face and the tears I couldn’t hold back, we embraced each other and sobbed. “It’s all gone, cuz.” His broken voice drove nails of despair into my chest, and my emotions bled through. I didn’t know how I could make it better. The fashion show was only the first rung in a long ladder to success. It all depended on the publicity afterwards and the orders which now we had nothing to fulfill them.

“Hey.”

Xander and I looked up to see Daniel and Katie. The usually polished face of Donateka’s manager was nowhere in sight. She’d been crying too. She’d worked so hard for all this to go up in literal flames. My brother’s face reflected complete devastation that represented what everyone was feeling.

Defeat.

He put a hand on Xander’s shoulder and another one on mine, giving us a firm squeeze. “Anything you need. Anything. You have a blank check to rebuild. We’re not waiting for the insurance and what they’re going to pay. I’ll face the board. If you need to hire more people, fly in equipment, whatever, you have my support.”

“Thank you,” I told him. Daniel gave us a broad hug. I spotted Nico talking to Trevor.

“Ivy!”

I turned to see Sera rushing toward me. Matteo was with her.

She joined our group, giving me and Xander a quick pep talk that we could have anything we needed. Daniel and Matteo walked off into a huddle with Nico and Trevor.

I was suddenly tired of standing up, so Xander, Katie, Sera, and I moved aside and sat on the sidewalk.

“This is so surreal,” I said. “Someone pinch me and wake me up from this nightmare.”

Xander gave me a really painful crabby pinch on my arm.

“Ouch,” I said and then, “Thank you.” Maybe the pain was to make sure I wasn’t numb. “Well, this is really happening.”

“No shit. It could be the Rossis,” Xander said, looking over to where Nico was standing with the guys.

“You think?” I said sarcastically.

“Organized crime activity during fashion week is nothing new according to Matteo,” Sera said.

“They seem to be in deep conversation.” Nico appeared agitated and he was shifting from foot to foot as if he was tamping down impatience, like he was gung ho to go confront someone and I didn’t need a second guess to know who.

Trevor had gone off to talk to one of the firefighters, who seemed to be directing a battalion of first responders.

After a while, the guys walked back to us.

“Trevor will hang around to gather information,” Matteo said. “A group of our guys are on their way and will secure the area.”

I was about to say something, but Daniel motioned me to keep quiet. There were too many people around to talk about Archer and mafia business.

“My uncle knows the fire investigator of this firehouse,” Nico said, but he didn’t mention which uncle. I figured it was one of the McGrath uncles since they lived in Brooklyn, but again, who knew? “We’ll have some information soon.”

The soon took three days.

We were at the fashion studio in the De Lucci Transnational building when Daniel and Matteo walked in. The men had been busy while Xander, Katie, and I were figuring out logistics of how to get a workroom up and running.

“We have the results from the fire investigation,” Matteo said.

“Where’s Nico?” I asked.

Daniel and Matteo exchanged a weird look. My boyfriend had been preoccupied during the day and sometimes at night. Since the fire he’d been doing more rounds as an Arrow because, according to him, that was when most of his informants want to meet. It was a good thing Xander was back staying with me, and I wasn’t alone with my thoughts. My brother had stayed over too. But Nico would always come back at night, even if it was midnight or hours past it. We always had breakfast together but we hadn’t made love since the night of the fashion show.

What happened with the fire frazzled my nerves, and scrambling to get things up and running had left me emotionally and physically drained.

“He’s with Trevor chasing leads.”

“It’s arson.” I crossed my arms. “Rossis?” The De Luccis also asked us if Xander’s dad might have done it, but Daniel said it wouldn’t be Uncle Jimmy’s style. Xander and I agreed.

“There’s a ninety-nine percent chance it’s them. The police have already paid Joe Rossi a visit,” Matteo informed me. “He denied it, of course. Whoever caused the fire in the warehouse hacked the security cameras and put them in a loop. We have nothing. The interview of the guards yielded nothing. Trevor is still digging into their backgrounds. But we might have good news, depending on how you look at it.”

“What good news?”

Katie and Xander left what they were doing to walk over to us. The two words were like a drop of water in the middle of a desert. Many more were needed.

“According to the fire investigator, the pattern of the fire and the amount of debris left indicated that the products were stolen.”

“Can we go back in to check?”

Matteo shook his head. “Too dangerous yet. The structure is not stable. But I have pictures on my phone. According to the investigator, there should be more remnants showing fabric or even the racks holding the clothes.”

“Yeah, they’re made of metal.”

“They’re not there.”

“They have our products to sell?”

“Or copy. The mafias have deep ties to the bootlegging of designer brands. The copycat industry is a multibillion-dollar business.”

Dupes were big on social media, but this was a whole different animal.

“Wow, should we be flattered that we’ve reached dupe status?” Xander asked sarcastically, giving voice to the sickening sludge in my stomach.

“So the product could still be out there. Is that the lead Nico is following up on?”

“Yeah.” Matteo scratched the back of his neck. “He probably shouldn’t.”

“If it leads back to Joe Rossi, he really shouldn’t be the one leading it.” Nico already had enough hatred for the guy, and from what I’d witnessed, the asshole knew how to bait him into doing something we’d all regret.

After the guys left for the twelfth floor to talk about De Lucci-Wu business, I slipped out my phone and texted Nico.

Home. I smiled at that. God. When would things be normal for us?

I waited for a few minutes, but he didn’t respond.

Sighing, I went back to work.