The Night My Ex Lost A Billionaire!

Blood and Antiseptic

CHAPTER THREE

“This isn’t fucking over!”

Benjamin yelled and ran.

Rose stumbled after him, one heel broken, with her hand pressed to her bleeding mouth.

The pride she’d walked out of that club was completely gone.

“Seth.” Geena started. “Go after them.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“No.” Jensen spoke.

Geena turned to him.

“Why, big brother?”

“They’re not worth it,” he said. “Not tonight.”

“But they-”

“I haven’t seen you in four years, Geena.” He took her hands. His voice softened just enough. “I’m not letting those two ruin any more of our time.”

She stared at him for a long moment. Then the fury slowly drained out of her face. She sighed.

“Fine. But I’m not done with them.”

“I know.” He smiled. “Neither am I. Let’s go.”

He led her to the SUV. In the minutes that followed, they were already en route.

Jensen leaned his head back against the seat while the city slid past the tinted windows.

Geena glared at him nonstop.

“You know I can see you, right?” Jensen said to her. She rolled her eyes.

“You never called,” she said.

“I couldn’t.”

“Four years, Jensen. Four years and not even a single text. The rules said "don't reveal your identity.” She turned to look at him. “It didn’t say ghost your sister.”

“Adopted sister,” he said, out of habit.

She gave him the look she’d been perfecting since she was twelve. “Don’t.”

He exhaled. “Yeah. I know.”

She tucked her legs beneath her on the seat, arms crossed, watching him the way she always had, like she was memorizing him in case he disappeared again.

“Grandfather has been asking about you,” she said, carefully, eyes on him with intent.

Jensen’s expression slowly darkened.

“Of course he has,” he said.

“He says he has something important to tell you. Something that couldn’t wait.”

“It waited four years just fine.”

“Oh brother,”

“That man has never reached out first unless he needed something.” Jensen turned to her.

“Alfred Pike doesn’t do sentiment. He does chess moves. So whatever he wants to tell me, it’s not for my benefit.”

Geena said nothing. She knew better than to argue about Alfred when Jensen’s jaw set like that. She’d lost that argument every time for as long as she could remember.

Instead she reached into the center console and pulled out a small first aid kit.

She opened it without asking.

“Give me your face,” she said.

“I’m fine.”

“You have dried blood on your chin and a bruise that’s going to look terrible by morning. Give me your face, big brother.”

He let her.

She worked quietly, dabbing antiseptic along his jaw.

Up close, in the low light of the backseat, she looked exactly like the girl he remembered and nothing like her at the same time.

Four years had been unkind to neither of them. That was the problem.

“You didn’t have to suffer like this. I hate this fucking rule.” She said to him.

“I was okay.” He replied.

“You had blood on your mouth when I found you sitting on a curb.” She pressed the cotton a little harder than necessary. “That was not okay.”

The air between them tensed a bit. Jensen was aware of it. It was the same flame he’d felt before, over the years, in moments when he’d always find a reason to step back.

She looked up then, and for a second neither of them said anything.

The space was heavy. The silence was loud.

Then his phone rang.

Jensen quickly pulled back. He answered it faster than he needed to.

“Jensen!” Coleman exclaimed over the phone. He was Jensen’s best friend.

“Man, are you still at that club? Rose called Matthew and Matthew… well… basically told everyone about the breakup. Are you okay? You better not be doing anything stupid.”

“I’m fine, Coleman.”

“You don’t sound fine. You sound like you’re in a car. Whose car? Where are you going? Don’t do anything I’d have to bail you out for, I literally have eleven dollars-”

Geena leaned over, slightly amused.

“Is he always like this?”

“Unfortunately,” Jensen said.

“Who is that?” Coleman’s voice pitched higher.

“Is that a girl? In the middle of your crisis you found a girl.”

“Goodnight, Coleman.”

“Wait, wait, wait, are you coming back to the dorm or not? I’ll stay up-”

“Go to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He hung up. Geena was smiling properly now, the tension of a moment ago dissolving quickly.

“He sounds like he genuinely cares about you,” she said.

“He’s one of the only people from those four years I’d actually call a friend.” Jensen pocketed his phone.

Geena nodded slowly, like she was filing that away in her memory.

“Where are we headed?” Jensen asked her. She smiled.

“Just some place quiet. Nothing much,” She said with a wink.

Jensen smirked. Yeah. It definitely was something big.

***

The presidential suite was Geena’s idea. Which meant it was already booked before she’d even called him.

They ordered room service. They drank while the city went quiet. They talked about everything, except Alfred, and what almost happened in the backseat of the SUV.

Jensen fell asleep eventually.

He didn’t dream about Rose.

His family phone buzzed at 7 AM.

He picked it up and saw the overnight alerts. All seventeen of them, from the same company.

Starr Inc. had dropped eleven percent overnight!

He walked out of the bedroom to find Geena already awake, sitting cross-legged on the suite’s sofa in an oversized shirt, coffee in hand, watching the financial news on mute with quiet satisfaction.

“Geena.”

“Mm?”

“Starr Inc.”

“Yes?”

“Did you short their stock?”

She took a slow sip of coffee. “I shorted their stock.”

Jensen looked at the numbers scrolling across the screen. Benjamin’s father’s company, bleeding out in real time before the markets even fully opened. He should probably tell her it was too much. That they needed to be careful. That drawing that kind of attention this early was a risk.

He didn’t.

He sat down next to her instead.

“How bad is it going to get?” Jensen asked.

She smiled over the rim of her cup.

“For them? Very.”

Jensen almost laughed. He let it go.

By nine, he was dressed and ready to leave. Geena stood in the suite doorway in her robe, her arms folded.

“At least let Seth drive you,” she said.

“No.”

“A car then. We have a fleet here-“

“Geena. I’ll take a taxi.”

“You have ten million dollars, big brother.”

“And I’m taking a taxi.” He picked up his bag.

“I’m not ready to walk back onto that campus like a different person yet. I need a day to think.”

She studied him for a while. Then she exhaled.

“Seth follows at a distance,” she said. “Non-negotiable.”

“Alright.”

“And you call me.”

“I’ll call you.”

“Jensen.”

He paused at the door.

“I missed you,” she said. Simply. There was no performance in it.

“I know,” he said to her. “I missed you too.”

“Here,” she pressed a black exclusive debit card into his hand.

It had a faint glow to it. Ultra premium access to his cash.

“It may come in handy.” She added with a smile.

Jensen took the elevator down alone, walked through the marble lobby, and stopped a taxi on the street like he didn’t just wake up a millionaire.

While the taxi drove off, his mind was on one thing.

Pendleton University.

Last few weeks of final year.

It was time to go back.