Rouge: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Tattered Curtain Series)
Rouge: Act 3 – Scene 23

Kian

Charlie O’Shea’s mouth drops as much as his broken jaw will allow.

“She’s already married? To you? How the fuck did this happen?”

“Hours into Lacey’s birthday, I invoked my right to our betrothal. I’m sure you’ve been worried sick over improperly breaking our contract without just cause, but no worries, Keeper. I’ve taken care of it and your honor is intact.”

“This is insanity,” he grumbles.

“Maybe. But so is marrying your daughter to that psychopath Monroe.”

“You’re a hitman, Kian. The fact that you don’t think you are crazy is concerning.”

“There are many different types of crazy, Charlie. Mine just so happens to be obsessed with your daughter.”

I’m not supposed to know that Monroe is testifying on the O’Shea’s behalf. Secrets are not only currency in the Garde, they’re also a sign of trustworthiness. I won’t betray Lacey by telling her father that she’s confided in me, so I choose my next words carefully.

“Monroe won’t require a playing card to hurt Lacey, so why did you want her to marry him?”

“There were… extenuating circumstances.”

“‘Extenuating circumstances,’ my arse. What does he have over your family, Charlie? If I’m able to replace out what hold he’s got, then I can bring Lacey back where she belongs. Actually safe. With me.”

His cuffs clink as he gingerly rubs his face with his fingers. When he rests his hands back on the table, he lets out an exhausted sigh that leaves him sagging against the back of his chair. It’s the most defeated I’ve ever seen the Keeper, even in the arrest pictures, court appearances, and mug shots that plastered the world’s news.

It’s unsettling and… interesting.

“What is it?” I ask.

“I never wanted my daughter to marry Monroe Baron.” The words grate out and he clears his throat. “Marrying into your family was obviously the better choice for the O’Sheas, McKennons, and the Garde as a whole.”

“But…”

“But apparently one of the families has it out for me. I suspect it’s because I was trying to set my businesses on the straight and narrow.”

“I could see how that wouldn’t do you any favors. The Garde has never played it straight, even from the beginning. We’re no better than the mob we tried to leave behind.”

He concedes with a shrug. “Well, you figured it out before I did, then. Someone tipped off the police, claiming I’d committed fraud, extortion, bribery, trafficking… all of which was going on right under my nose here in Las Vegas, and I’d had no idea. Before I knew it, the authorities slammed me with racketeering charges.”

“How could you not know what’s going on in your own damn city, Keeper?”

“Once you try to go straight, enemies come out of the woodwork because they think you’ll either turn them in or force them to take the high road, too. I protected secrets, but once I started operating aboveboard, they dried up along with my power to rule the Garde. The information used against me should’ve only been known by the Keeper and the men involved, and I had no clue about any of it.”

“So the actual perpetrators are other Garde members… not you?” My brow furrows. “Who are the families?”

“If I won’t snitch to the authorities, what makes you think I’d snitch to my enemy?” he sneers.

I raise my hands. “Alright, alright… it was just a question, Keeper. Don’t get your clogs in a twist. It’s not the McKennons who’ve put you here.”

“Fuck you.” He shakes his head.

“Look, Charlie, like it or not, you and I are family now. All I’m saying is, if you tell me those names, I can write them off as suspects. No one would risk bringing their crimes into the light just to pin them on you.”

He stares at me for a long time, taking my measure, before he shakes his head. “If it comes down to it, I’ll tell you, but only if it’s for the good of the Garde. I’m sitting on that secret right now, though. Which is one of the reasons why I’m still in here.”

“How so?”

“Ever since I was thrown back in jail under new trumped-up charges and forced to await trial here… the District Attorney has been pressuring me to testify against other families. She’s threatened to throw everything she can at me if I don’t.”

“Huh, well the fact that she’s taken this long is a testament to how little she has against you directly, right?”

Charlie nods. “That, but she’s also waiting until a certain non-Garde judge can preside over the case.”

“Fecking hell, how does she even know his affiliation? Or yours, for that matter?”

“Someone’s been in her ear. She’s embellished every possible charge you can think of, from petty theft to murder. Adding it together, I’m facing a life sentence… but she’s seeking the death penalty.”

“The death penalty?” My eyes flare. “Lacey doesn’t know this.”

“No, and I’d never tell her these stakes. She’s been through enough, thanks to me and my dealings. I don’t want to burden her with that, too.”

“So to avoid life—and death—you broke our marriage contract and gave it to Monroe.”

“I had to. Once Monroe’s father died, making Monroe the new Baron, he came to me with an offer. One that was too tempting when I was looking at a lifetime behind walls like these. He said that he would use his knowledge as my financial manager to testify on what he can, but only if I promised Lacey in marriage. I lied to Lacey because I knew she’d try to refuse to marry the Baron unless I made you the villain and told her no one else wanted her because of me. I also didn’t want her knowing I’m resorting to blackmailing a potential innocent for freedom I don’t deserve.”

“Blackmail?”

“The Baron’s contacts in the Northeast have secrets on the judge. We’ll only use them against him once the trial is in session.”

“The judge isn’t Garde.” I point out as I piece it together. “So he has secrets even the Keeper doesn’t know, but Monroe’s non-Garde contacts do.”

“Exactly. My attorney says Monroe’s testimony will clear me of the financial crimes, and the blackmail should do away with the rest. Of course, that’s only if Monroe decides to stop being an asshole and commits to testifying.”

“So you bargained your daughter’s future, her happiness, her life on a chance that someone who likely killed his own goddamn father would be honorable to you?”

“You think my daughter would’ve been happier with you than with the Baron?” He barks a laugh and it takes everything in me not to throw a right hook to blacken his other eye.

“I’d imagine she’d be happier alive than dead. Would the cost of freedom be worth it with your daughter’s blood on your hands?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Did you know Monroe already had someone killed just to scare her into submission? At your own establishment, no less?”

The O’Shea’s face pales, making the bluish-purple-and-yellow bruises even more pronounced.

“He did what?”

I’m bluffing, of course. All signs—but my instincts—point to me being wrong. The police have already arrested the victim’s fiancé, making my hunch merely a conspiracy theory. But I’m not above telling a wee lie to scare the truth out of the Keeper. Besides, conspiracy theories are true more often than not when the Garde is involved.

“Before Lacey’s bachelorette party, Monroe warned her not to get drunk and embarrass him. Then that night, a redheaded woman dressed as a bride—just like Lacey—was found murdered in Rouge.”

“My wife never told me any of this.”

“Did Moira not tell you? Or did you not call her like you haven’t called your daughter?”

He huffs. “The security in the infirmary aren’t as understanding about contraband phones. They confiscated my last one and I’m waiting for them to stop watching me like hawks before I send for another. I bet Moira’s worried sick. Do you really think Monroe murdered an innocent?”

“I think it was a warning to Lacey to get in line. If he’d commit murder to scare your daughter, what’s to stop him from murdering her if she gets in his way?”

“Dammit, this wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was meant to be a marriage in exchange for a quick trial before the prosecutor could bring all these other charges. The Baron would give his testimony and I’d be free.” The Keeper curses under his breath before meeting my eyes. “You… you have to get her out of there, Kian.”

“I know. But I can’t without starting a war with the Garde, not to mention one with my own wee wife. She’d never forgive me if she found out I kicked off a death penalty trial for you.”

“She takes after her mother. That woman would stand by me at any cost,” he answers without any humor in his voice. A fact, then. No doubt one that’s been proven too many times.

As I rest my forearms on the table, the cold metal leaks through the fabric of my suit.

“So don’t abuse that trust, Charlie. Tell me as much as you can about what Monroe knows, who he knows, all that he’s planning to testify to, and I’ll figure out how to get you out as quickly as I can.”

He shakes his head. “I… I don’t know. I wish I did. My lawyers and the families I trust have already searched. But any evidence of my innocence has been destroyed.”

“You’ve found nothing? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what has your lawyer been doing while you’ve been rotting away in here for the past year, huh? If they couldn’t replace evidence, how can you count on Monroe to know anything at all?

“Along with the Baron’s testimony, he also has incriminating photos on the judge. From everything my people have looked into, the judge is otherwise clean as a whistle. The pictures are blurry, but from what you can see, they’re damaging enough to get him to override a jury if they replace me guilty.”

“And they’re real? Did he tell you how he obtained them?”

He hesitates before answering, “As real as I can hope they’d be.”

“Goddammit, Charlie, you did all this on a hope and a prayer? Bloody fecking hell.” I slap the table hard, making Charlie jolt in his seat, but I don’t feel an ounce of guilt over it. “The prosecutor is obviously grasping at straws and making threats she can’t back up, so just let the trial happen naturally and have your attorney fight the good fight. I’m getting Lacey out of there and telling her it’s over. War be damned. You’re on your own.”

“You can’t do that!”

“And why the feck not?” I lunge forward, inches away from his head before I can stop myself. “Tell me why I should let my wife sacrifice herself for you and all these other Garde arseholes.”

The son of a bitch doesn’t flinch this time, but the impulse to murder him recedes as I take in the utter defeat in this once strong man’s slack features.

“Because if it gets to the Baron that Lacey is no longer his fiancée and I’m still in here, I won’t make it to trial.”

He lifts his shirt, revealing bruises I’ve only seen after the worst of fights and a large bandage underneath his lungs. One of the most effective areas to strike if you’re stabbing to kill.

“The Baron will keep sending attackers… until one day, he kills me.”