Fate Interrupted Book 3
Fate Interrupted
Book 3
By
KB Winters
Copyright © 2015 KB Winters
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 KB Winters
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Contents
More from KB Winters
Chapter One — Remy
I was experiencing some kind of anger hangover—granted, there was also the possibility that the banging in my head had more to do with the copious amounts of whiskey I’d thrown back as I stalked around my penthouse the night before. If anyone had been witness to my railings against my mother and the ass hat loser, Christopher, I would’ve been committed. The anger flooding my veins had been more potent than any type of caffeine fix, and I hadn’t been able to sleep even though my body was exhausted. I couldn’t shut off the instant replay, remembering Christopher and Madge plotting away in their deceitful, late night meeting.
Despite the raging headache and bleary eyes, my nerves were sparking and ready to roll when eight o’clock arrived the next morning.
I flew across town and parked on the side street right in front of Christopher’s office, hoping he’d see me coming through the window from his cushy office chair. I wanted him to fear me, to feel a knot in the bottom of his stomach as he watched me cross the abandoned street, stalking towards his building. I wished I could see his face, and watch it fall the moment he saw me. My jaw grinding, eyes blazing, and realize that whatever the fuck was coming next was not going to end well for him.
My hands were clenched in tight fists before I even stepped one foot inside his office. I’d been in fights before but it had always been an in-the-moment kind of thing. I’d never spent twelve hours brewing over how much I wanted to connect my fists to the side of some man’s face.
Man? No, that’s giving him way too much credit.
I flung open the glass door to the building and swept my eyes hungrily over the framed directory on the wall, before storming upstairs to the Vantage Point Beats office suite. It was early enough in the day that the lobby was vacant when I threw open the door and stepped inside. There was a thin woman approaching the front desk with what looked like a fresh mug of coffee cupped in her left hand. She looked startled by my sudden appearance before her.
“Can I help you?” She set the mug down and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“My name is Remington Maddox. I’m here to see Christopher.”
There was a flicker of recognition in her eyes and I briefly wondered if Christopher had warned her that I might stop by. Obviously, he had no idea I’d overheard the meeting the night before—but there had been a hell of a lot of friction between us for some time now.
More likely—I’d fucked her once upon a time, and she’d probably been dreaming about my cock ever since.
The receptionist licked her glossy lips as she slid down into the sleek leather chair behind her desk.
Yeah, she definitely knew who I was. Before Livvie, she would’ve been just my type. In shape, tanned and toned. She had long hair, full lips, and an impressive amount of perky cleavage peeking out from her low cut top.
How quickly things change
, I mused, momentarily distracted by the silent worship the woman was paying to my Armani suit-clad body.
In what was starting to feel like another life, I probably would’ve thrown something suggestive her way, just to get her wet and wild. But as it was, Livvie was the only woman I wanted to fuck.
The woman smiled at me, emphasizing her pouty, full lips as she spoke. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Maddox.” She purred my name like a seductive kitten. “Christopher isn’t in the office just yet. If you’d like, I can assist you…” She let her offer hang, the sudden silence filling in the blanks, and I knew that if I was in the mood, I could round the desk and have her sucking my cock in less than two seconds.
I braced my hands on the desk, towering over her, and she smiled like I was about to whisper something naughty to her, but my false smile faded as I reset my jaw and growled, “I’m not leaving here before I talk to him. So, let’s drop the whole ‘he’s not here’ BS.”
“Mr. Maddox, he’s really not here.” Her smile soured and a look of irritation took its place.
“We’ll see about that,” I said, shoving off the desk and storming down the hallway.
The receptionist jumped up and started running after me. “You can’t go back there!”
“Watch me.”
“Please stop. I’ll call him and give him any message you want.” She continued chasing after me as I stalked down the hall, following my instinct to know where his office would be located. “Mr. Maddox, please! I really need you to stop!”
I ignored her frantic pleas and started flinging open doors at random. If she wasn’t going to tell me where Christopher was, I was going to find him myself. What was that expression about smelling a rat?
“Go call him and be sure to tell him I’m here. Trust me, he’ll want to know.” I pushed open one more door and I knew I’d hit the jackpot. It was very clearly the largest office and had a certain air to it. I turned around, facing the frazzled woman who was looking at me like I was either insane or the devil. “Go.”
She huffed and stomped off, her heels clicking an angry beat on the dark hardwood floor as she hauled her ass back to her desk to call her boss.
Once she was gone, I went inside Christopher’s office and had a good look around. His space was clean and very well organized. It looked like everything had a place and he paid attention to keeping it that way. It made sense. Christopher was one tightly wound tool. He was into partying and playing around more than just about anyone I knew, but at the heart of the beast was a man who was desperate for control and power.
Always had been.
It was probably the reason why he’d always zeroed in on me as his biggest opponent. I chuckled to myself. How flattering.
I shook my head, still shocked that I’d found him visiting my mother and that they were working together to drive me and Livvie apart. Every time I let myself think about how many other late-night meetings there might have been, I started to see red. How had the entire thing even started? Surely, that wasn’t the kind of plot that was hatched at the courtesy bar of some high society bash.
Or was it?
Well, it didn’t matter. It was ending…
now
.
I exhaled as I sank into Christopher’s chair, propping my feet up on his desk. I had the fleeting thought of wishing my shoes were dirty so I could scuff up the polished wood. From down the hall, I could hear the echo of his receptionist speaking frantically into the phone.
Moments later, the voices stopped, and I knew that Christopher would be here soon. I laughed, picturing him jumping into his car and ripping across town to get to the office. Something caught my attention and I started shuffling through the carefully stacked pages sitting in the middle of his desk. My heart started pounding as I saw several flagged places, indicating signatures were required. I skimmed the contract and saw that it listed out each member that comprised the band Downside—Livvie’s band—now, my band.
My eyes flew over the contract and I jumped up, my legs suddenly needing to move, as a new wave of anger hit me. The paperwork detailed some plan that made it pretty clear that he was trying to steal the band, and sign them with his—conveniently new—management branch under the Vantage Point label. And Livvie’s name was nowhere in sight. He was cutting her out of the deal.
And the worst part was, it looked like two of the four members had already signed on the dotted line.
Shit
. I pressed my eyes closed for a moment and collected myself. Livvie and I hadn’t talked much about Christopher during our few days together. She’d stuck to her theory that he was harmless and that he was actually trying to help her. No matter what I said, I couldn’t convince her otherwise, and I didn’t have any concrete proof.
Not until now. I went to the copy machine to make a copy to take with me. As the machine hummed into action, I started mentally rehearsing how I’d explain it to Livvie. She had to believe me now, didn’t she?
I hadn’t told her about the conversation I’d overheard the night before.
I couldn’t quite explain to myself why I hadn’t called her to tell her what had happened, but I knew it was probably because I knew she was going to freak out. My mother’s overbearing personality had nearly wrecked any chance of us being together in the first place. How had Livvie put it? She couldn’t do
complicated
. Right. Well, this was about as fucking
complicated
as it gets.
I’d just finished stashing the copies in my breast pocket when Christopher appeared in the doorway, his receptionist simpering behind him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Christopher growled.
It was go time.
“It seems we don’t communicate very well over the phone, so I decided to stop by and make sure you get the message loud and clear this time,” I answered. I squared my shoulders and set my jaw.
Without waiting on any of his bullshit lines, I reared back and punched him across the nose with a right hook. My fist connected with a sickening crunch, followed by a split second of silence, before Christopher recovered from the shock and tried to lunge at me.
“Stay away from Olivia,” I growled as I grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him to the wall.
He covered his nose with his hand and I could see blood trickling between his knuckles. “Fuck you, Remy.”
“No, fuck you. Olivia is mine.”
His face was coated in blood and his nose looked out of place. He spit in my face and I slammed him against the wall.
His receptionist popped back into the room and started screaming bloody murder. I released Christopher and pushed past the girl on my way out of his office.
Chapter Two — Livvie
When I woke up the next morning, I clawed at my night stand frantically until my hand landed on my phone. I squinted against the light and sighed when I realized there was nothing on the screen. “Get it together, Liv, it’s only been a day,” I reminded myself, flicking off the phone and flopping back onto the pillows piled by my head.
It had been less that twenty-four hours since the last time I’d seen Remy, but the way I missed him, it might as well have been a month. The night before, he’d left me alone in his penthouse—where we had spent nearly three days in a frenzied, hot, sweaty sex marathon. I’d dawdled for a little while, wandering around the massive suite, wondering what it would be like to live in such a glamorous world. As it was, I felt like a visitor, and while the past three days had been amazing and more than I could have ever imagined, I knew it was time to return to my reality.