Between Desire and Denial: A Fake Dating Romance (Hardy Billionaires)

I’d waited three minutes outside that bathroom door before I called her and when she didn’t answer, my gut rolled in fear.

It wasn’t a new sensation with her, but one I knew I would have always now. My greatest risk and my greatest reward. I’d fear for her and care for her in a way I’d never done with anyone else.

Now, I knew something was wrong with the mother of my child. Before I could barrel in there though, Jameson stepped in front of the door. “Your brothers are on their way, and Olive and Knox are safe. If you want it to stay that way, you’ll follow me out of the airport.” There was no hesitation. My hand went to this throat as I shoved him into the brick wall. He wheezed, “You kill me here, you’ll be arrested and not find your girl, Dimitri.”

So, I’d gone. I drove my car, following him back to Paradise Grove and up to the Seymour Hall where we waited to have a garage open up. As it opened, I saw the floor underneath it open, too, and our cars, along with motorcycles, swerved to follow Jameson down into a secret tunnel with brick roads that led to parking and then opened up to sliding glass doors.

If I hadn’t been worried about Olive, I would have been impressed. Instead, I called Dom first who’d told me, “Yeah, I’m on my way. Dex said he’s already there. Don’t do something dumb. Bastian, Cade, Dante, Declan, and I will be there within an hour. Everyone’s safe, Dimitri.”

“She’s not safe if she’s not with me,” I threw back.

“Clara left early this morning too,” he growled about his wife. “She woke up and was texting and texting and then she said she needed to meet with the girls. Cade let me know Izzy is gone, so are Kee, Evie, Pink, and Lilah. They’re together with Olive.”

“Whose idea was this?”

“I mean—”

“Know what? Never mind.” I hung up on him as I got out of my car and followed Jameson through glass doors and down two brick hallways before it opened up to a huge conference room of ornate furniture and men dressed in black suits. Some had helmets resting on the large oak table. Others were walking around fixing their cuff links while they stared at the expensive art on the walls.

I saw my brother Dex immediately get up to move to my side. “You made it.”

Jameson turned and smiled at us. “He did. He was actually quite nice once—’

That’s when I punched him in the face.

The first blow felt good. Cathartic almost. My knuckles hit his cheekbone hard enough that I felt the sting up my elbow. The man had had it coming since the day I met him. He’d been eyeing up my girl like she wasn’t mine for a long time, and now he’d orchestrated her disappearance.

“Fuck, man.” He spit blood onto the floor. “I know you’re mad, but you realize none of this is my fault. Olive went willingly. So, you get that one hit.”

“That so?” I cracked my knuckles and stared at him. “And who do you think is going to stop me from hitting you again?”

He glanced at Dex who looked at me and nodded slightly like he was giving me the go ahead and chanting silently, “Swing, swing, swing.”

So, before he answered, I swung again, and he barely even tried to dodge.

“God damn it. Okay, I deserved those two.” He wiggled his jaw. This time a few men at the table stood, and I saw Bane Black out of the corner of my eye, moving forward. I didn’t give a fuck. I’d punch and kill whoever I needed to get Olive back.

“Where the fuck is the mother of my child?” I stepped up to him and bellowed.

This time, he cracked his neck and smiled in my face slowly. “You know what?” He sucked on his teeth and wiped the blood from his chin. “Go on. Hit me again.”

“Yeah.” Dex saw how Jameson smiled, and I think we were all ready to come to blows. My brother crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Hit him again. Harder this time because you’re losing it, bro. Didn’t even knock him out after he kidnapped your girl.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I growled. But just as I swung, Bane shoved me back and Dex sighed as he did the same.

“Go sit down and cool off,” Bane told me, his tone not leaving room for argument.

“I’m not sitting down anywhere.” I turned my fury on him. “How long have you been a part of this?”

“I told you, since I was fucking born,” he said without any remorse in his haunting pale-blue eyes as he stared at me. The only thing I saw was a darkness in them about what he may have experienced. “And it wasn’t as nice as the Paradise Grove community over on this side of the country. So, watch what you say in here,” Bane grumbled to me like he was trying to help me out.

The men in the room were already mumbling. “What? You all offended?” I yelled out. “You think I give a fuck, Bane?”

He’d done a deal with Dex and me on the Vegas resort and casino. He knew he should have disclosed his dealings with societies then.

Just as Dante, Dom, and Declan walked in along with Cade and Bastian Armanelli, they all came to stand by me. I said, “If Olive Monroe isn’t brought to me within another minute, I will personally find a way to ruin every one of you motherfucker’s lives. I don’t care how offended any of you are.”

Bane groaned and Cade pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That so?” Jameson murmured as he leaned his hip on the conference table, glancing at a few of the biker guys sitting there and then at Bane.

The truth was, none of them mattered to me because Bastian looked at Cade and Dante, who looked at Dom and Declan, who in turn looked at Dex and me. Then, they all nodded. We all agreed right then. More men fanned in behind us. Bastian, Cade, and Dante pulled weapons.

“This not a cordial meeting now?” Jameson asked but I saw a wild look in his eye before he nodded over at a few other men. They pulled weapons too.

“It won’t be if I don’t see Olive very soon,” I replied.

“The girls planned this, you know. They wanted Olive’s approval, but it was their doing. We’re all here because of them,” Jameson ground out. He stared at me like he wanted me to understand before he sighed and nodded to one of his guys and the man went out the doors only to hold them open for Lucille to walk in, a small little black bag hanging from her arm in one of her wool suits, dressed to the nines.

Then, one by one, my sisters came in to stand by Dante and Cade, my sisters-in-law went to stand by my brothers, and then my Olive walked in. She walked up to me and kissed my cheek.

“Sorry, Darling D.”

“Honeybee …” I murmured as I held her face in my hands. I tilted her head to one side, then the other. I smoothed my hands over the clothes she’d been wearing just an hour ago. “Are you hurt?”

“No. I went willingly.”

I took a deep breath. “How can I protect you if—”

“No one is protecting me from something I’m a part of, Dimitri. I’ve always been a part of it … was born into it, even if I didn’t want to be.” She stepped back and looked around the room. “And that means making the tough decisions.”

“We’re having nothing to do with this.” I shook my head at her.

“I know you want nothing to do with them, Dimitri. It’s why I had to hear out the other side.”

“What the fuck could they possibly say to you? This partnership is—’

“What I want.” She stood there, looking at me with those honey-brown eyes, and murmured, “It’s the only thing that feels right when I know I’m going to stay here. I’m going to live here in Paradise Grove with Knox, and I’m going to make this place my home all over again. With or—”

“Always with, never without, Olive Monroe,” I growled. She wasn’t leaving me out of her life. I wouldn’t even have her voice it as an option.

“Then you need to listen and figure out a way to make this work.”

“Fuck me,” I grumbled, and then I looked over at most of my family standing there waiting to hear what I had to say. I took a deep breath before motioning toward the door to them and the twenty other men milling about in there. “I want a moment alone with my girlfriend.”

“Just your girlfriend?” Kee was the first one to speak up, and she tilted her head like she needed more clarification.

That was fine. “My future wife. The mother of my children. My Honeybee. The one I’ll kill for and die for. Not just my girlfriend. My life.” I stared at Olive as I said it, then looked over at my best friend. “You want me to clarify further?”

“Nope.” She smiled big. “Just making sure.” And then she turned to her husband and wide-eyed him like he was an idiot. “Let’s go. He needs a minute.”

“Yeah, why the hell are you guys still standing here like you can’t understand English? Get the fuck out.” Pink shoved at Bane. He glared at her before bending to throw her over his shoulder and stomping out.

Every man and woman filtered out of the room, and then I stared at Olive. Her hands were folded in front of her as she waited for my response. “You really want this? Do you know how dangerous it could be?”

“I know that according to Lucille, she killed Earl because he made a drug distribution deal with the Irish Mob.”

“Jesus Christ.” I looked toward the ceiling. I’d read some of the information Izzy had sent me. I knew this was going to be a dirty and dangerous partnership, but this went deep fast.

“She explained to me on the way to the meeting with all the women that Jameson told her he was going to do it. I still think he might off his father, honestly. Or mine.” She sighed but there wasn’t any sorrow in her voice. “They all deserve it.”

“This isn’t our battle.”

“But it is. Because it’s what is best for this town and for the state and for your businesses, quite frankly.”

“My business is as much yours as it is mine.”

She puffed out a breath. “Okay, well, you say that now.”

“I’ll sign on the dotted line tonight if you want.”

“Okay.” She waved away my declaration. “Either way, this is the right thing to do. The Armanellis are working with the United States government—and with you and other big companies—to make sure money is legitimate and not coming from sex trafficking or drugs or smuggling—”

“Yes. You’re right. But we can’t stop them.”

“You can stop the Irish Mob from infiltrating a huge secret society that has pull, Dimitri. If Jameson and Lucille, along with all of the Diamond Syndicate, have your support, they have the Armanellis’—which is the biggest Italian Mob family on the globe. They will think twice about hurting anyone or spreading their business in the way they already have. This was a desperate grab for them anyway.”

I nodded. I’d done the research after I’d gotten the information from Bane. I just didn’t want anything to do with it. “My job isn’t to protect the world, Olive.”

“What is it then? The HEAT empire practically prides itself on that with the Armanellis—”

“My job and sole purpose is to protect you now. And our baby. And this is fucking dangerous.”

“More dangerous than letting them continue to do what they’re doing?” She lifted her chin, so much confidence in her all of a sudden. Olive was home, finally comfortable in the place she knew she belonged. “I know where I stand, Dimitri. I’m going to stand here in Paradise Grove with them. I won’t leave.” She whispered out the words like she was sure about it, but then her next ones wavered. “The question is where do you want to stand?”

Didn’t she know already? Didn’t she understand that this was forever between us? “I’m always going to stand with you, Honeybee. Even if we’re burning in hell together,” I responded, because it wasn’t a question for me at all.

“You think that’s what will happen?” I finally saw a flicker of vulnerability in her eyes and knew she understood the gravity of the situation.

I chuckled as I shook my head at the whole situation. “The funny thing about all this, Olive, is I would have signed on to fuck around with an alliance that would have pissed people off so fast before we came here. Now, I want nothing to do with it. I don’t want to risk it with you.” I thought about the moments she was out of my reach, the seconds she’d disappeared at the airport, about losing her again, and tried one last-ditch effort. “You could say no, Honeybee. We could go to Hawaii for a while. A lifetime if you wanted.”

She sighed. “I hated the memories here but loved them all the same. The pain in this place was rooted in my love for it too. I think a hometown always has all that, no?”

“It’s a great risk partnering with this syndicate. You realize that?”

“Take a chance and enjoy the dance, right? Someone told me that once.” Her eyes twinkled as she said it to me.

“So, if I do this … you’re going to marry me, yeah?”

“Are you negotiating this partnership now, Dimitri?”

“Yes.”

“If I say no to that?”

“I’ll renegotiate until you say yes, but why deny what you want, Olive?”

“I’m not, Dimitri Hardy. There’s no reason to deny how much I love you at this point anyway. I want to marry you and live in this twisted little place I call home for as long as possible.”