Chapter Twenty-Six
Rex
The forest trail surrounding Pearl Paradise, CDS’ private beach resort, Madeira Island...
The forest was alive with the sounds of pleasure.
Moans drifted through the thick, salt-kissed air of Pearl Paradise’s private trails with the backdrop of rustling leaves and the distant crash of waves against the shore.
The treasure hunt was in full swing—Doms stalking their prey, and subs hiding in the shadows as their hearts pounded with anticipation.
The rules were simple. Find your target, claim your prize.
Rex, the wife hunter, had always been the best at this game.
But tonight, the thrill was gone. His fingers twitched at his sides.
His usual focus was shattered. He had hunted two of his six potentials and claimed them, as was expected.
His hands had been ruthless, his mouth unrelenting, driving them to the edge and beyond as their screams of pleasure echoed through the trees.
But the satisfaction he usually felt was absent.
Hollow. Like a man going through the motions of a ritual he no longer believed in.
Because she wasn’t here. Xia, his wife whisperer. His evaluator. The woman whose sharp eyes and sharper tongue had been his guide through every potential match. The woman he had spent the last two months pretending didn’t exist beyond her professional role.
The woman who had slipped away tonight.
“What the fuck, Rex?” Axel’s voice, laced with amusement, cut through his thoughts.
“You have six potentials to hunt, and you’ve only bothered to look for two.
” His eyes glimmered in the dim light of the torches lining the path.
“Although, I must say, the screams of pleasure both times you caught them must be having the other four waiting on tenterhooks.”
Rex forced a smirk, but it felt wrong on his face. “Yeah, well... It’s a skill we all have. Making a woman come with only our hands and mouth.”
Axel chuckled, but Rex’s gaze was already scanning the trees, looking anywhere but at his friend. Because the truth was, he didn’t want the other four. He didn’t want any of them.
He wanted her... and she wasn’t here.
Max’s smooth, amused voice cut through the tension.
“Really?” He arrived with Willow draped over his arm.
Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips swollen from his kisses.
The look of gratification on her face was testimony that her Dom had taken what he had wanted, and she had loved every second of it.
“I got the impression Xia had the night off.” His gaze flicked to his wife.
“Isn’t that what she said when you invited her to ride with us? ”
Rex’s jaw clenched as Willow’s eyes sharpened and her voice dropped into that knowing tone he knew all too well. “Yep. She said the mighty wife hunter wanted to do the wild thing tonight and didn’t need her help.”
A beat of silence followed before she twisted the blade in his gut and added, “Never thought I’d say this, especially to you since you have a brilliant mind, but you’re an asshole, Rex. A stupid nitwit who can’t see and appreciate what’s right under his nose.”
Rex’s fingers curled into fists. He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. Because he damn well knew she was right. And that was the problem.
Xia had a job. A duty. One he paid her a fucking fortune to perform.
And what did she do? She absconded. On the one night when the stakes were highest. Where the potentials needed to be chosen carefully.
Where he needed her sharp mind, her ruthless evaluations, her unshakable presence to keep him from making a mistake.
But no. She chose to withdraw and hide from him.
Now, standing in the middle of a forest filled with willing women, all he could think about was her. Of the way her lips parted when she was annoyed, and how her eyes flashed when she challenged him. God, how he loved the way her breath hitched when he got too close.
Fuck.
He needed to erase her. Tonight. He would fuck three of these women—hard—one after the other.
He would make them scream, make them beg, make them forget their own names.
.. and with Xia watching, forced to witness every second of it, she would finally see him for what he was—a man who didn’t need her.
A man who could move on. A man who was free.
Because he wanted a wife now, and he wasn’t prepared to wait two years for a woman. Not even one who had cracked every barrier he’d ever placed around his heart.
Because he couldn’t admit the brutal truth... that he wasn’t good enough for her.
“Time to hunt down the last four. The fuck master is ready to crank up the pace,” he said in a low growl as he turned on his heel, his boots crushing leaves underfoot as he strode toward the next potential’s last known location.
Until a chill stopped him in his tracks. There was a prickle at the base of his skull, and a voice echoed in his head, silent but screaming.
“Fuck. Something’s wrong.” He looked around as his breath hitched. A cold sweat broke out along his spine as his pulse roared in his ears like a drumbeat of doom.
“Xia.”
The name slammed into him like a physical blow. His vision tunneled, and the forest around him blurred into a haze of shadows and torchlight. His chest tightened.
“No! No, no, no—”
He didn’t believe in premonitions. Didn’t trust instincts that couldn’t be quantified, measured, or controlled. But this? This was real. This was fear.
Axel’s voice cut through the fog. “Rex? You good, man?”
Rex didn’t answer. He ran. His boots pounded against the dirt path.
His muscles burned as he sprinted toward the resort.
A jeep was parked at the edge of the trail with the keys still in the ignition.
He didn’t remember grabbing them. Didn’t remember anything except the terror clawing at his throat.
He had to get to her. Now.
The engine roared to life. The tires spat gravel as he peeled out of the parking area, and the jeep lurched onto the narrow road leading back to the resort. His hands were white knuckled on the wheel, and his breath came in ragged, panicked gasps.
Something was happening. He could feel it. Something bad. Very, very bad, and Xia was at the center of it.
Max DuPont
“What the fuck?” Axel’s voice carried over the roar of the jeep’s engine as Rex tore past them, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Max’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not like him.”
Jax crossed his arms, his usual smirk absent. “Unless he finally realized he left his dick in his other pants.”
Dexter didn’t laugh. His gaze was fixed on the disappearing taillights, his expression unreadable. “Or unless he’s got a reason to haul ass like that.”
Axel scoffed. “Come on. It’s Rex. The man’s got ice in his veins. He’s not about to—”
“He’s not leaving because he wants to,” Max cut in, his voice low. “He’s leaving because he has to.”
Willow’s eyes widened. “You think something’s wrong, honey?”
Max didn’t answer. He was already moving toward his own jeep. His voice rasped a command. “Let’s go. Now.”
Axel hesitated. “You really think—”
“Rex can hold his dick in his pants,” Max snapped, swinging into the driver’s seat, Willow settled in the back, and Axel into the passenger seat. “But one thing he’s never wrong about...” His gaze locked onto Axel’s. “Is that voice in his head.”
The jeep’s tires screeched as Max slammed his foot on the accelerator.
The engine roared in protest before surging forward.
The headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the winding path back to the resort.
Behind him, Jax and Dexter piled into the third vehicle.
Their voices were a mix of confusion and concern over the walkie-talkie.
But Max didn’t have time for explanations. His mind was already racing as his instincts screamed the same warning Rex must have felt.
“Do you think it’s Xia? It has to be about her,” Axel said with concern in his voice.
“Rex never panics, nor does he run, not unless something is very wrong,” Max said shortly.
“If it was Xia... it means Dominic Drake finally made his move,” Axel grabbed hold of the door handle as Max took a sharp turn.
“Then what Rex is feeling isn’t just a threat. This is war.” The road blurred past as Max’s grip tightened on the wheel. His jaw clenched as his thoughts spiraled. “What I want to know is how the hell did someone get inside the resort who’s not a member?”
Pearl Paradise was a fortress. High walls, armed guards, and biometric scanners at every entrance. No one got in without clearance. No one left without it either.
Jax’s voice crackled over the radio. “Max, what the fuck is going on?”
Max didn’t answer right away. His mind was already three steps ahead.
“Security,” he snapped. “How tight is it, really?”
There was a beat of silence before Dexter responded. “You know how it is. We’ve got guards at every entrance, cameras everywhere, but...”
“But what?” Max growled.
Dexter exhaled sharply. “Look, man, this place is secure, but it’s not impenetrable. There are ways in if you know the right people... or pay them enough.”
Max’s stomach twisted. If his assumption was right, just how big was the danger? And since Drake had failed The Consortium with the banking scam that Rex had busted, just how far would he go to take his revenge?
A man like Dominic Drake would see Rex’s action as an attack. The man had been humiliated. Ruined in the eyes of those who made him what he had become. A man like that didn’t forgive.
They retaliated. They took revenge.
“For fuck’s sake. Dominic is here.” Jax’s voice was low and dangerous.
Max didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. The resort loomed ahead with its sleek, modern architecture bathed in the glow of security lights. Max’s pulse hammered as he scanned the perimeter.
“Who the hell is working with that bastard?” he growled.
The resort’s employees and the CDS members were vetted. Thoroughly. But money talked. And Drake had plenty of it.
Axel’s voice cut through his thoughts. “You can bet a rat’s ass that if he’s here, he didn’t come alone.”
Max’s fingers twitched on the wheel. “Yeah. Drake was many things—a snake, a coward, a man who preyed on weakness—but he wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t come alone. He’d have backup. Men with guns. Men without an iota of empathy.”
Max’s blood ran cold. Because if that was true, then this wasn’t just about Xia and Rex. This was about all of them. The jeep skidded to a halt outside the resort’s main entrance. He was out before it fully stopped and his boots hitting the pavement with a sharp crack.
Axel was right behind him. His usual smirk was replaced by a far darker expression. Xia was in danger somewhere in this resort, and Rex was the only one who had felt it.
That was a foreboding Max didn’t want to decipher, but he knew one thing. Dominic Drake wasn’t just here for revenge. He was here to break all of them. Max would burn the world before he let that happen.
“We need to find Rex... before he runs headfirst into a wall of bullets.” Max gestured in three directions.
“Let’s split up. Use your watches to alert us if you find something.
” Max turned to go but hesitated. “Be careful. We don’t know what he has planned.
” His eyes turned to his beautiful wife.
“Honey, I need you to evacuate the resort. Do it quickly and quietly.”
“Do you think...”
“I don’t want to think further than keeping everyone safe. Just do it, love.”
“You'd better get back to me in one piece, Max DuPont. Our little peanut is not growing up without a father.”
Max faltered and spun to face her with an incredible look on his face. “We’re pregnant? And you choose this moment to tell me?”
In usual Willow fashion, she shrugged. “Well, I sure as hell aren’t going to let you run into danger without proper incentive to keep out of the line of fire.”
His smile was brief, but his eyes shone with love and pleasure. “We’ll talk about this once I’m back... with my crop in my hand.”
“Pfft, as if that’s supposed to make me quiver in fear.”
Max’s eyebrows lowered dangerously. “Evacuation, Wick. Now.”
“Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir.”