The Playboy King's Bride

Chapter 9

***Violence Warning***

After Adam dropped Stella off at her family home (having handed her out of the car again, much to her embarrassment), she had much explaining to do to her family. Gareth worried that she had gotten caught up in something dangerous, judging by how intimidated Perce had seemed by Adam.

Stella could only laugh. Sure, Adam was very tall and broad. His build would be perfect for a bodyguard, but he had taken her hand so gently, and his grin was so much like a small boy, flirting innocently, that she really didn’t find him scary at all. Instead, she thought he might be the kind of man she would enjoy being friends with.

Gareth seemed to accept her account of the meeting with Mr. King, but it only made Perce frown more.

“I’m sure I’ve heard of a Mr. King before…Are you sure he isn’t dangerous?”

“How could he be? He’s in a hospital. He just wanted to repay the favor…with money, but I suppose that’s a rich person thing. And why would he be dangerous to me? I’ve done nothing to him.” Stella cringed at the idea of him holding out the check to her. She couldn’t imagine taking it and not feeling ashamed if she had cashed it.

Another thought popped into her head. “I know we just talked about needing money, but I wasn’t really…”

“Don’t even think like that. I’d accept money for hard work, but not for just being decent. You did the right thing, and your mom…she’d be proud,” Gareth patted her shoulder stiffly and turned his attention completely back to the screen with a stuttered breath.

Stella knew his heart was still broken, and broke every time Lillian came up. It warmed her heart that Gareth had come into their lives, and she found herself grateful that he had never made her feel like anything less than his own daughter. She could only hope that maybe someday she would meet someone who loved her half as much.

Over the next few days, Stella hardly ever came to the house, putting renewed vigor into finding a job. She found one stocking shelves part-time at night, but during the day she went on interviews and searched for any new job posting that might be able to hold off Mr. Crawford.

Gareth had mentioned that he had already sent his men to the house to intimidate Gareth into forking over what money he had. The brutes had smashed a few windows, making it obvious Crawford would rather have the money than the house, but since Gareth only had a few dollars on him at the time, they didn’t get much other than the satisfaction of making him squirm. Luckily, Perce wasn’t there that time.

After a couple more days though, the men apparently decided to take everything a step further. Stella had been stocking shelves since midnight when she got a call from the hospital. At first she ignored it, but when they called a second time she picked up and immediately felt like she had been punched in the gut.

Explaining to the manager that she had to go (who then told her she would be fired if she left), she sped to the hospital and asked after the Knights. Percival Knight was under observation, having sustained two broken bones in his arms, multiple bruises, and a black eye, but was in stable condition. Gareth Knight, however, had multiple broken limbs, fingers, ribs, a head laceration, and a concussion.

When she found Perce, he recounted the horrible event.

He had already been asleep when he heard a pounding on the front door that rattled the whole house. It didn’t stop until he heard footsteps running past his room and going downstairs to open the door. Immediately, there were shouts, bangs, the sounds of glass breaking and men grunting. Gareth had shouted at his son to get out, and had fought two very large, very drunk men off as well as he could, but eventually they had beaten him unconscious.

Perce, unable to leave his room since it was on the second floor with no trees nearby, could only call the police from a locked bathroom until the men had broken down the door. Thankfully, there had been a police car nearby, and the drunk men had only just gotten to Perce when the police arrived. Of course, they took off as soon as they heard the sirens, and police were still searching the area.

Stella cried over Perce as he winced with every movement. They had split his lip open, but he said that it wasn’t bleeding anymore, and the doctor said he would have a quick recovery. He wanted to hear more about Gareth, but the doctors were still assessing the extent of his damage.

“What are we going to do? If this was about the house, Crawford wouldn’t allow his men to do that, right? And now because of this there will be even more bills that we can’t pay-,” Perce started shaking and his eyes turned a glassy red as he held a tissue to his lip.

Stella shushed him and stroked his blond hair soothingly. “I don’t know, but now that you and Gareth have told the police what’s going on, maybe there’s something, legally, that we can do. It’ll all work out, you’ll see.” She pulled him closer to her body and rocked him until he fell asleep with his head under her chin. When she was sure he had fallen asleep, she settled him into his bed and left the room.

In the hall, she found yet another empty hallway to slump into a plastic seat. She covered her face with her hands and took several deep breaths, trying her best not to have a full-on breakdown right now. She still needed to stay strong until she could see Gareth and hear his full condition as well. They wanted to keep Perce for a few hours, but Gareth might be there a few days. What would happen to Perce if Gareth couldn’t recover?

Gareth was his legal guardian and Perce was still underage. No court would give him to her when she only had a part-time job…no job actually, since she had just quit to come to the hospital. And now none of them had a job, two were incapacitated, and Mr. Crawford could still show up at any time and send them back to the hospital, or kick them out of the house completely.

Stella kept her eyes closed and thumped her head against the wall behind her. No matter what, everything was a mess, and she couldn’t see any way out. She had only met Mr. Crawford a couple of times back when Lillian was in the hospital. He had a been a fat, greasy man who always wore clothes that on a fitter, taller man might have looked good, but he only stretched the seams and creased the elbows.

She remembered he always had a large out-of-place smile when he had come to Lillian’s room and pulled Gareth out to speak “business”. He never acknowledged Lillian, Stella, or Percy, almost sweeping his eyes over them as though they weren’t there at all. Still, as unpleasant as he had been, she had never thought he was part of such shady dealings. She thought such things only happened in mafia movies or star-crossed-lover stories.

Now she could only see him as an evil man, taking advantage of a vulnerable family, which made him more disgusting than anything she could imagine.

Stella was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear the quick steps of a tall man with a gray ponytail moving toward her, until he cleared his throat, causing her to jump in her seat and stare at him, wide-eyed.

“Ms. Knight. It is a pleasure to see you again, though I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate circumstances.” Marvin’s voice didn’t sound sorry at all, only businesslike.

“Oh, Mr. Marvin! You as well, and thank you-,”

“Not at all. If you would follow me, Mr. King has requested you visit him again, while you are here.”

Stella quickly argued that she needed to wait for Gareth’s doctor, and Marvin assured her that she would be notified immediately should anything change, and be allowed to leave Mr. King immediately.

With no other argument, though a heavy heart, Stella had no choice but to follow him to the elevators, and stand silently beside him as they went to the very top floor, where she followed him again. He didn’t walk nearly as quickly as last time, but she almost chuckled when she realized she was almost exactly as exhausted as she had been back then. So much had changed in the last few days, and yet nothing at all really.

Marvin ushered her through Mr. King’s door immediately upon arriving and closed it behind her. Inside, she looked at the bed, but found it empty. Instead, a tall man stood before the large glass window, looking at her evenly with bright, blue-green eyes, though she thought his face looked much kinder than it had last time.

“Ms. Knight, I have been hoping to see you again, though I am sorry to call you here under your circumstances.”

She only waved the emotion away and expressed her joy that he had recovered, though she felt stiff and awkward. She really had never expected to see the man again, yet to see him here, when her mind was still downstairs made her unsure of what she was saying.

“I understand your family is in a bit of trouble. I would like to help.” Mr. King stepped closer to her until she had to lean back to be able to see into his face. Now she knew she wasn’t imagining it. Mr. King was smiling! It lit up his face with a boyish glee she might normally have found endearing, but since his words were completely out of place she could only frown.

Mr. King saw that she was skeptical, so he put his hand on her shoulder and leaned down until he could see directly into her eyes, and her into his.

“Stella, my dear, I am going to fix all of your problems. I just need you to do one thing for me.”