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My heart burst inside my chest, laying there on the floor beside me on a mattress is a sleeping Beck. I carefully stand and make sure not to step on him as I try to make my way out of the room. I freeze when I reach the end of the bed, my friends did sleep in here just not alone. Katie is sandwiched between Crue and Saint, Corvin is wrapped around Cody as they sleep. I spy Nathan’s feet peeking out from the other side of the bed, and a smile breaks free. I am so fucking lucky to have these amazing people in my life. I am honestly so blessed. I slowly make my way through to the bathroom and out Darius’s open bedroom so I don’t wake anyone using my bedroom door.
It takes me an age to get down the stairs, but I manage. As soon as I enter the kitchen, I flick the coffee pot on before grabbing some of the pain pills from the drawer. I down two with a glass of water, praying they will kick in soon. My face is tender and achy today, the doctor said that was to be expected. Getting punched in the face from Gary was a walk in the park compared to this. I pour myself a cup of coffee once it’s ready and decide to head out the back and enjoy the crisp morning air. It’s going to be too cold soon to be out here, so I want to enjoy it while I can.
I slowly lower myself into one of the loungers, I snag the throw blanket off the other chair and wrap it around my legs before reclining back and sipping my coffee. I sit here silently reflecting on the events of yesterday. They were horrific and will take me time to get over, but if those events didn’t occur would Darius have had the balls to tell me how he really feels?
“I planned to tell you yesterday.” I startle at the sound of his voice. I lean forward and shoot him a dirty look for scaring me.
“Tell me what?” He pins me with areallylook before coming over. He doesn’t ask or even see if I mind, he just hops in behind me and settles me between his legs, caging my own between his.
“You were thinking out loud again, now lean back and share that blanket.” I sigh but do as he says. I’ll admit this is much more comfy leaning on him than the plastic of the chair. He absentmindedly runs his fingers up and down my arms as I sip my coffee. “Why are you up so early?”
“You wouldn’t know I was up this early if you were in your own bed,” I sassily reply. He laughs lightly, leans down and places a kiss to my cheek, before whispering in my ear.
“Get used to it, because you’re moving in with me.” The feeling of his lips scraping against the shell of my ear almost has me distracted enough to not comprehend his words—almost.
“I’m not moving in with you,” I say firmly.
“Fine, you want the truth, Leah? I’ll give it to you but once I do tell you, you better give up this whole bullshit.”
“What bullshit?” I snap.
“The next time you tell someone we are justfriends,I’ll fuck you right there in front of them just so they know howfriendlywe really are!” His words should piss me off, but all they do is turn me the fuck on. Something is seriously wrong with me.
“You heard that, huh?” I ask, trying my hardest to not laugh.
“I mean it, you’re mine, Leah, and I’m tired of lying to myself and everyone else about it. I let you go once and I won’t be dumb enough to do it a second time.” His words have my heart soaring.
“What about Corvin?”
“He knows how I feel about you and even if he isn’t good with it, I made my choice, Goldie.”
I dart my tongue out to moisten my lips. “What did you choose?” I ask quietly. He wraps his arms around me gently and buries his face into the crook of my neck, where he places an open-mouthed kiss.
“I picked the right sibling this time.” Tears prick the backs of my eyes. “I’ll never make you doubt your importance to me again. You’ll always be my first choice, Leah.”
“Tell me the truth and I’ll give you my answer.” He snorts.
“I’ll just fuck a yes out of you but whatever helps you feel like you’re in control, for now.” I balk at his boldness. “Here we go. Once upon a time.” I can’t stop the laugh that breaks free and immediately regret it when the pain in my side flares to life. “No laughing or I stop.” I nod. “Okay, so you know about my mom and me moving in with you guys.” I nod. “Okay, well I lied to you. I found out who my dad was when I was twelve. My mom let it slip in one of her episodes about him and how he took the good twin. I didn’t believe her at first until I did some digging.”
“Did Corvin know?” I feel him nod behind me.
“Yeah, he knew. He helped me get the records of my birth. I hadn’t planned to do anything at that time, it wasn’t until we met Saint, Crue and Beckett that we came up with a plan.”
“Why?” I ask still unable to piece all the dots together myself.
“Saint would go on about how he hated his father and what he did. He didn’t tell us why until one night we all got drunk. I spilled about who my father was, and that was when Saint came clean. Honestly, the only ones with a vendetta are me and Saint. Crue, Beck and Corvin are doing this to help their families and support us as well, but also set themselves up with a great future.”
“What did Saint say?”
“He said that his dad knew Victor and that they did shady dealings together. He went on to tell us about his dad’s tech company and how he made an app. This app wasn’t like any of the others he had ever made before. To get this app you had to pay a hundred grand.”
“For what exactly?” I can feel this story is about to take a dark turn.
“This app is used to distribute any information. You can post videos that can’t be traced, download illegal content of children.” I gasp, horrified at what he is saying. “You see, Victor is a sick fuck and he used his hotels and resorts to film children. Devon sold the content on his app. This made them both millions. We decided there and then that we would do whatever it took to take down mine and Saint’s father. We worked our asses off, studied the stock market and learned how to invest. We didn’t have the money, so we started out small and truthfully, we got a lucky break that made us the money we needed to expand. We kept expanding until we had enough money to buy Victor’s company that has been in his family for generations–still is, I guess. He has a gambling problem and was in debt up to his eyeballs. He had to either sell or go bankrupt, needless to say when we put in the offer he jumped at it.”
“I don’t know what to say, I had no idea.” I feel so disgusted and heartbroken for those poor children that were used.
“There isn’t anything to say. With Katie helping us now, we are so much closer to being able to take Devon down. Saint is planning a hostile takeover with the board of Devon’s company as soon as he has the proof.”
