Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hendrix
"No! No, no, no, no, no …"
I don't think Maisie realized she was screaming the words out loud. Her legs buckled and I rushed across the kitchen tile to catch her before her ass planted on the hard floor. I managed to slide to her rescue just in time to cushion her fall.
She didn't stop there though. Her screams echoed throughout the small kitchen and each word she yelled at me was punctuated with a fist to my chest.
"You're lying! You're lying! You're lying!"
I wanted more than anything to take her pain away. My soul ached knowing I was the one causing her so much agony.
"I'm so sorry," I soothed her. I held on tight despite her pummeling me and thrashing in my arms. She wanted nothing to do with me but I refused to let her go.
"It can't be true!" Her wail was a knife straight to the heart. Since the moment I met her, Maisie was the epitome of strong and resilient. Nothing ever fazed her, and believe me, I tried. She perfected the art of shutting her feelings off. So to see her breaking down in my arms was nothing short of excruciating. I didn't have the first clue how to fix it.
"I'm sorry but the proof is in black and white. We triple-checked it just to be sure."
" No . . . " The one word howled throughout the otherwise silent kitchen.
I have no idea how long we sat there on the hard floor as Maisie sobbed into my chest and soaked my shirt. Eventually, the tears slowed down, and based on the way she slumped further into my lap, I figured Maisie fell asleep. My assumption was confirmed when her breathing evened out and she became dead weight in my arms.
Thankful for the hours I worked out a week, I used my core muscles to get up onto my knees and then pushed up as gently as possible to stand. The last thing I wanted to do was wake Maisie up after she passed out from exhaustion.
I contemplated taking her to my bed to rest, but quickly shot the notion down. I needed her to listen to me when she woke up and my gut said that wouldn't happen if she found herself in such an intimate spot.
Going against every instinct I had, I moved toward the living room and got comfortable in one of the recliners. I cradled her like a parent would a newborn baby and watched her sleep.
A million scenarios raced through my mind. Each one of them centered around her brother’s motive or lack thereof. I might not know the man but I couldn't fathom how anyone could turn their back on the beauty that was currently snoring softly in my arms.
She was exactly the kind of woman I envisioned myself finding one day. A body covered halfway in tattoos, chunky combat boots, cargo pants with a million pockets, t-shirts with the neckline cut so the one side hung off her shoulder, and a bandana tied around her head to control her unruly hair. She had a don't-give-a-fuck attitude that matched my own. Most people said opposites attract but I disagreed. I preferred a woman who could match me step for step.
Maisie had proven time and time again she was up for the task. If only she could see how perfect we could be together.
It was nearly an hour of me watching her sleep like a creeper before she stirred. I knew the second she realized where she was, the lazy stretch Maisie had going on would tense up, and I was right.
"What happened?" Every muscle in Maisie's body locked up as she tried to push me away. I banded my arms even tighter around her, not ready to let her go.
"You cried yourself to sleep, so I carried you into the living room."
Maisie looked around the dimly lit room. I never bothered to turn on the lights, so the only illumination came in through the thin slit between the two blackout curtains I had on the windows.
"How long was I out?"
"An hour, give or take." I wouldn't know for sure unless I looked at the time but I was in no hurry to shift her out of my arms to check. If I gave her even the slightest space, she would bolt.
"Can you please let me go?"
Prime example.
"Nope."
I didn't think it was possible for Maisie to tense even more but I was wrong. "What do you mean, nope?"
"It means we need to talk and I would much prefer to do that with you sitting on my lap."
I could see our earlier discussion come crashing back, front and center in her brain. Her eyes expanded to the size of dinner saucers, her body started to shake, and her lips quivered.
"What you said, can't be true." Her words were barely more than a whisper, but they might as well have been as loud as a bomb, the way they smashed through my cold dead heart.
"I wish it wasn't, but I have the evidence. That's why I was coming home so early. I needed to tell you myself."
Maisie shook her head violently. "He wouldn't! He hated Atlas and all he stood for as much as I did!"
Maybe that was true at one point, but people changed. Greediness had a tendency to make people do stupid things, and from what I could find, Atlas was worth a lot before he was killed. Not just money, but power. It’s possible the temptation was too much for Matty to pass up.
I couldn't tell Maisie any of that though. She was having a hard enough time believing me. It was important I stuck to the facts and kept my assumptions out of the mix.
"Let me show you what Nolen and I found."
I made the mistake of losing my grip just enough that Maisie got her hands between us and shoved at my chest. "You told Nolen about me?" The accusation in her tone was hard to miss.
"I told him you were looking for your long-lost brother. I never said anything to him about what you did."
She didn't look like she believed me and I didn't know how to convince her other than calling Nolen to validate my story.
Except that would give him reason to question me more and I was sure that was the last thing Maisie wanted.
"How do I know you're telling me the truth?"
It was scary how well I could read her.
"You're just going to have to trust me."
She scoffed in my face.
Literally, since I still had my hands planted firmly on her hips.
"I don't trust anyone. Especially not a man who tricked me into having sex with him the first time."
I opened my mouth to protest, but quickly shut it. I merely didn’t talk when I pulled her into the dark closet and used my body to do all the talking. It wasn't my fault she got swept away the moment our lips connected.
"Cat got your tongue?" She lifted her brow in challenge.
"I don't feel like tricked is the right word."
Maisie managed to use the little space between us to cross her arms. "And what would you call it?"
"Seizing the opportunity."
With a roll of her eyes, she uncrossed her arms and slapped my chest. "Never mind. Forget I brought it up."
That was fine with me. I would take her attitude over the tears any day of the week. Hopefully the break in tension would make this easier for her to accept.
I shifted her to my left side so I could reach into my pocket to pull my cell phone out. I barely had it unlocked before I felt her tense against me again. "I know you don't want to but I need you to see this."
I didn't give her a chance to think about it. Within seconds, I had the email pulled up with all the files Nolen collected. "Please just look so we can move forward on figuring out what you want to do."
With much reluctance, Maisie took the phone out of my hands, and started to scroll. I expected to feel anger pouring out of her or even sadness, but the way she slumped in my arms, I knew there was nothing but acceptance. Even if it was unwillingly.
"I don't understand." Her words were barely more than a whisper. "When we realized what Atlas was up to, we talked about how we would destroy everything he built. How could Matty take over for him?"
"I don't know, but you have a decision to make. We can forget everything we’ve learned and go back to living your life here, knowing you won't be arrested. Or we can dig deeper and stop your brother from fulfilling Atlas's legacy. The decision is yours."