Page 50 of Temporary Vows

Blood drips from my nose and the top of my lip, and my eye is swelling. Swelling so big my vision blurs.

But still, I keep going.

I run straight outside, past the guards at the door and the people in the street, who cast curious glances at me.

I don’t stop until I reach my car.

Pain rips through my body, but I jump in and drive.

I need a hundred and forty thousand dollars by tomorrow night, or I’m dead.

And they know about Skylar.

Damn it, I got her in trouble, too. All because of Clara.

No… this is my fault.

I was the one who got myself into this mess when I made the mistake of trusting Clara.

Me.

Now look at the mess I’ve gotten myself into.

There’s only one thing I can think of to fix this—one person who can save me.

And it’s not Jack.

I take a sharp right and head to Vale Global.

Chapter 12

Dorian

This conference room always reminds me of a tomb.

The walls are too hollow, and no matter how many people are in here, it always feels empty.

I’ve never been able to figure out why.

The big screen at the end of the table shows three men—a father and his two sons—based in Tokyo.

The Yamaguchis have been clients of ours for the last eight years. They were my first million-dollar deal, right out of college.

I’ve taken care of their private equity investments since with Knox alongside me. Now they’re extending their contract and expanding our agreement to include hedge funds, Levi and Locke’s specialty.

This is the last and most important meeting we have today. Clients like the Yamaguchis keep the Global in our name functioning.

I sit at the head of the table. Joining me are all my brothers. They’re in full-on business mode, utterly different from how they were this morning at my house.

We’ve just spent the last hour going over the new investment projections. As much as I value my clients, this meeting has feltjust as monotonous as the interviews we held at my home to find my potential wife.

I would have rather spent my day chewing my arm off and eating a year’s supply of pig shit than what I endured today. The crazy thing about it was the plan was a complete success.

Every single one of those women was perfect because I felt nothing for them.

Not even attraction.

They were beautiful, some of the most beautiful women on this side of the globe, but I felt nothing at all when I looked at them.