ALEXANDER
My assistant trailed behind me as I stormed into my office, pulling off my suit jacket and rolling up my shirt sleeves. “Sir, we couldn’t have seen this coming.” My assistant, Nathan, said. “I did.” I spat through clenched teeth as I moved to the glass wall of my office that looked out over the city. “Sir?” I knew something like this would happen eventually. Caleb Johnson had been doing everything within his power to compete against my company. He had been planting moles amongst my employees, releasing fabricated stories to the tabloids, and had even hired a private investigator to trail me. He had been quiet for the past few months, and I had hoped he was going away, but I should have known better. Pests never left on their own. Now, he was poaching my clients. I knew for a fact that Justin was already stressing about his upcoming contract with the Rangers. Yet, he was about to pay us millions to break his contract to join a newer competitor, one who wouldn’t be able to negotiate him a penny more than the offered terms. “Get Caleb Johnson on the phone!” I snapped as I thought about all the work that needed to be done to clean up this mess. “But, Sir,” Nathan stuttered, but I turned my glare to him as I took a deep breath. “Now!” “Yes. Sir.” I watched as my assistant rushed out of my office to make the calls from his desk. He would patch me in when he had Caleb on the line. My phone buzzed, and I pulled it from my pocket to see one of my best friends’ names on the screen. Mason: It’s all over the news that Justin McCabe just dropped your company. What the hell happened? My teeth ground together as I slammed my phone down on the table. I was too angry to respond right now because I wasn’t sure myself. It didn’t make sense that just before one of the biggest years in Justin’s career, his first year as a starting goalie for the New York Rangers, he would break his contract with my company, Elite, and join that untrustworthy asshole, Caleb Johnson’s company, First Round. My company provided every service someone in Justin’s position could ever need, from management to the world’s top sports medicine surgical team. Only the best of the best, or those with the potential to become the best with our help, were accepted as clients. We gave them twenty-four hours service for all their needs: lawyers, drivers, private chefs, physical therapists, a PR team, an agent and so much more. Yet, he chose to break our contact early, forcing him to pay us millions just to join Caleb Johnson’s one-trick pony. I had heard he was attempting to expand from being a sports agency to include a team of lawyers, copying my business model. Still, he was so far from our level that all of his attempts to take me down up until this point had been embarrassing. A knock on my door had me looking up, and I groaned when I saw the look on Nathan’s face. “What is it?” I asked, knowing his answer already but still glancing at my office phone to confirm the lights were off, showing that Caleb Johnson wasn’t waiting on hold for me. “I’m sorry, sir,” Nathan said, shaking his head. “I just spoke with his assistant, Lorna. Apparently, he is in court all day for his divorce hearing. She said he wouldn’t be available until tomorrow.” My head snapped back, and my eyebrows flew up to my hairline. “Divorce?” “Yes, sir.” My finger tapped against my desk as I considered this. I hadn’t even known Caleb was married. He had a different woman on his arm at every event I had seen him at, so I had assumed he was single. “To whom?” I wondered as I began typing away, trying to find anything on his wife. All the articles had the same few pictures, dated back a few years, and none showed her face. The only information they gave was that her name was Bailee Johnson. I had only ever known one Bailee in my life, and just the thought of her made my chest hurt. She was the biggest mistake of my life… or rather, losing her was. It couldn’t be her, though. Surely, her brother would have told me if she had gotten married. Then again, the last time he had spoken about her, I had threatened him and told him never to mention her around me again. It had been too painful to be reminded of her constantly. Still, it couldn’t be her. There were probably thousands of Bailee’s in a city this large. Plus, the woman in the photos had significantly lighter hair, almost blonde. My Bailee’s was brown. My Bailee. The thought made me want to scoff because she hadn’t been my anything for almost ten years. Not since I ripped her heart out. My phone buzzed again, and I glanced at it, seeing Mason demanding I meet him for a drink. After the day I had, I could use one. Turning to Nathan. “I want a full report on Bailee Johnson. Everything you can find needs to be on my desk first thing in the morning.”ALEXANDER “I’m telling you, Alex,” Mason said, slapping his hand on my shoulder as he shook me back and forth. “This is the best news we could have gotten in a long time. A wife? That’s gold! He must have been hiding her for a reason! She could be the key to everything.” I lifted the glass of scot
“No comment!” The lawyer shouted over them, but the reporters didn’t slow. “Damn. I take it back. She’s off the list. I like to pick the eager-to-please when I flash money kind of woman, not the greedy, poison my food if I don’t give her what she wants, kind,” Mason stood, looking around the room.
BAILEE This day just kept getting worse. Alexander. Fucking. Kingston. That wasn’t his middle name, but that was how I had said his name in my head for the past seven years. No one on this Earth, including Caleb, had caused me as much pain as Alexander Fucking Kingston. This man had taken my virginity, told me he loved me, and then tossed me aside like I had been nothing more than a piece of trash on his way out of my life. I had been young and in love. I had cried over him for months. Getting over him was one of the hardest things I have ever done until today. Now, at the lowest point in my life, he just had to show up again. It was a cruel joke. Seeing him made me feel like I was cursed. It was as if higher forces had looked down at me and said, “Did you think this was over? Buckle up, sweetheart. Things are about to get a whole lot worse.” I had to have done something horrendous in my previous life for this to be happening to me. Alex stood from his barstool, his ey
BAILEEI turned back to Nicole at the bar as she watched with a smirk. I needed to get out of here. “Ben. Where is Ben? I need to talk to my brother. He’s not home and not answering his phone.” My brother, Benjamin Evans, the starting center for the Rangers, owned this bar, along with several others around the city. With this one being his first, it was his baby. If I ever needed to find him, this was the place to go. “He’s at an away game,” Nicole said, and my chest sank in as all the air left my lungs. Of course, he was. “When will he be back?” I asked, placing my hands on the bar as I leaned in, feeling panicked and desperate. Brinley was at a sleepover, and I had wanted to use the time alone to figure out where we would go from here. I had hoped we could stay with my brother for a few weeks until I could figure something out, but I also hadn’t talked to my brother in a long time. Every time we spoke, he would always mention Alex at some point, and our conversation would di
BAILEE Brinley moaned as I pulled her from the car seat. Her cheeks were pink, and her clothes were damp with sweat. “Come on, sweet girl. Let’s get you some medicine and into a cool bath, then bed.” I whispered, pressing my lips to her forehead as the Uber driver pulled away. “Wait! My car seat
He didn’t get to accuse me of cheating, fake DNA test results, and then sit there and act concerned for her. “You have got to be kidding me right now,” I hissed as I moved to stand in front of Lorna, glaring at her. “Get out of my way.” When Lorna leaned back against the counter instead of movi
BAILEE My body was moving on autopilot as I slowly poured the cup of water over Brinley’s hair. Her cheeks had lightened to a soft pink, and I was optimistic that the medicine would kick in soon. Pregnant. Lorna was pregnant. Internally, I was fuming, but my body felt numb. How could he
Carrying Brinley to her room, I pulled my phone from my pocket before dialing the bar. Her hair was wet, but even if her fever was down, I couldn’t walk outside in the cold without risking her worsening. “Haven’s Oasis Bar and Grill, this is Nicole. How can I help you?” I sighed at the famil