5. Hunter
Hunter
I race down the corridor so fast that Mace is still getting to his feet. “What the fuck did you do to her?” I yell.
“What the hell?” Mace asks, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. My feet are bare, I’m in a crumpled t-shirt and sweats, and I have a gun in my hand. “Nothing. She opened the door two minutes ago looking for Reid, then slammed it shut in my face. Haven’t heard a thing since.”
“She’s in trouble,” I say, already rapping my knuckles on the door. No one answers in the two seconds I allow myself to wait. “Open the door, Mace. Now!”
Mace unlocks the door with a master key pass, and I’m through so fast that I almost crash into the hotel trolley. My eyes flick to every corner, my gun following my gaze. It’s empty.
My breath comes out in pants. Have I underestimated Barrett?
How could he get to her? I spin on Mace, ready to accuse him of I don’t know what, because it has to be his fault.
She disappeared on his watch. My brother meets my hard stare and points with his eyes to the bathroom.
When my breath stills, I hear whimpering .
“Stay there,” I bark.
I find Maddie in the furthest corner of the bathroom, her back against the wall and her shoulders turned in as if she’s trying to fold herself in two.
Her hair is sticking up at alarming angles, and her makeup is running.
Her face is crimson and her lips are pursed.
Whatever this is, at least she’s safe. I shove my gun into the back of my sweatpants.
“Maddie? What’s wrong?” I ask, approaching her slowly.
A sob ratchets up through her chest. “I need to pee,” she cries.
Even though my brother doesn’t make a sound from the bedroom, I know he’s sniggering. “Get the fuck out, Mace.”
“With pleasure,” he calls back. When the door to the hotel room shuts behind him, it doesn’t quite cut off a throaty chuckle.
I exhale slowly to calm my thumping heart, but there’s nothing I can do about the flush that’s making my face as crimson as Maddie’s. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
“Not look,” she says quickly. “And not listen. Just lift my dress up.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to take it off?”
“You think I haven’t tried that?” she snaps, her jaw firmly clenched. “No time. Just do this. Now!”
As Maddie jiggles towards the toilet, I begin gathering up the layers of her dress.
Now that the panic is over, I’m starting to realize this isn’t such a bad situation.
I crouch down and as my face becomes lost in folds of fabric, I eventually find her legs.
I can’t see what I’m doing as my hands snake upwards to the lace top of her stockings. I swallow a groan.
My jaw tightens as my fingers explore higher.
Where I’d normally delve between a woman’s thighs, I force my hands to Maddie’s hips and find the string of what I presume is a thong.
Once I’ve pulled it down, I guide Maddie so she can sit down on the toilet.
And then I do the gentlemanly thing. I reemerge from beneath her dress and back away.
As I sit back on the tiled floor, Maddie buries her head in the cloud of silk. There’s a groan of relief above the tinkling she doesn’t want me to hear.
I’m smiling when I say, “Do you want me to wipe when you’re done?
Maddie lifts her head to shoot me a look. “Fuck off!”
“I’m the one who’s just saved you from wetting yourself. A thank you would be nice.”
The blushing bride disappears as she face-plants onto her dress again. “Thank you. Now leave me to my misery.”
Deciding to give her some privacy, as well as needing to make some room for my raging hard-on, I return to the bedroom.
I count two bottles of champagne, one of which is empty and the other is going flat.
There’s also the bottle she shared with Reid that I’d had to confiscate from him.
“How much champagne did you ply Reid with?” I call out.
“Why? Are you going to shout at him?”
“Too late, already done that,” I say. “Now I’m just working out exactly how drunk you are.”
I’m actually hoping Maddie’s had so much that she won’t remember any of this in the morning. I don’t want to add to her misery.
“Maddie?” I call out, but she doesn’t answer.
When I slip back into the bathroom, she hasn’t moved. I can hear snoring.
I crouch down in front of her and go to sweep her hair back from her face, but her locks make an unnatural crunching sound so I leave it the hell alone.
My fingers trail a path across her shoulder instead, and down her back to the fastenings on her bodice.
There’s a tear in the fabric where she’d been trying to untie the cords, and a stain that looks like blood.
I don’t even want to think about what drunken Maddie was trying to do.
I make an executive decision and pull up the leg of my sweatpants to grab the knife strapped to my ankle. When I slice through the cord crisscrossing the bodice of Maddie’s wedding dress, I can’t deny how good it feels knowing Barrett didn’t get to undress her.
There’s a mumble. “What are you doing?”
I hold the knife a safe distance away from Maddie’s back in case she reacts badly. “I’m taking your dress off.”
“Good,” she sighs.
As the bodice begins to unravel, I pull it open to check the cut in her back. It’s a small nick that’s already healing, and the blood stains on the inside of the dress are mixed with what looks like fake tan marks. She certainly pulled out all the stops for her intended.
“If I had my way, I’d cut this fucking monstrosity into shreds,” I mutter.
“I’d help you,” Maddie answers, still talking into the folds of her dress. “I’m such a mess.” When I don’t answer fast enough, she lifts her head. “You think I’m a mess too?”
I brush my thumb under one of her mascara-streaked eyes. “You have very striking panda eyes and your hair would make the perfect nest for a flock of birds. But truthfully?” I ask. Should I be truthful? Apparently so because my jaw keeps working. “You’re so damn beautiful, little bird.”
“No, I’m not.”
Before she can drop her head again, I take hold of her chin to keep her eyes on me. “If you knew me better, you’d know it’s not a good idea to disagree with me. If I say you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful.”
Maddie’s gaze is raw and penetrating. It provokes such an intense feeling in my chest that I think I need to break the connection first, but then her attention is drawn to my arm. She pulls her chin from my grip for a better look. “You do have tattoos.”
Her fingers trace the sharp edges of a Celtic design and I swallow a groan. Her touch is almost too good to resist, but I manage to pull myself away and stand. “Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll hang around in the bedroom? When you’re ready, you can tell me what else you need.”
Maddie makes a harrumph sound, an acknowledgement that she needs a lot more than a shower and a good night’s sleep. Her life is imploding, something I’m only just discovering.
The news that Barrett was engaged only reached us two weeks ago, and it’s looking like we made too many assumptions based on too little research.
It seemed like such a simple puzzle. The Corbyn’s paper mill was in trouble, and Barrett was going in for the kill.
It was only after witnessing Hugo’s bizarre reaction in the chapel that I set Mace to work digging up the Corbyn’s family secrets.
If the situation is as bad as it looks, I can understand why Maddie was so desperate to fall for Barrett’s lies. For now, all I can do is give her some space, and what’s left of her self-respect.
“I’ve undone enough of your dress for you to get out of it,” I tell her. “I’ll leave you in peace.”
Returning to the bedroom, I collect up the discarded bottles and plates and wheel the trolley out into the corridor. Mace is sitting on the floor again, staring at his laptop .
“Well, that was–”
“It never happened,” I cut in. And before my brother can challenge me, as I know he intends, I add. “For Maddie’s sake.”
He shrugs. “It never happened,” he repeats.
“And before you ask, this Hugo is turning into an even bigger shit with every rock I turn over. Most of his accumulated debts are in his wife’s name, and it looks like he’s even falsified his daughter’s date of birth to get loans in her name too.
I don’t know what his end game is, but it makes no sense why Barrett would go anywhere near them. ”
“Keep digging,” I say. “And you don’t need to stay. I’ll take it from here.”
Mace gets to his feet and closes his laptop. “Hunter, please don’t make this any messier than it already is.”
“I hear you,” I say, but I doubt either of us believe the lie.
When I return to the room, I’m relieved to hear the shower running. Maddie hasn’t got anything to change into when she gets out, and I’m disappointed that a Moncrief hotel doesn’t supply bath robes. I’ll be taking it up with management.
Dropping onto the bed, I rest my back against the headboard and let my eyes close.
As I listen to the sound of running water, I picture Maddie’s naked body being pummeled by the powerful jets.
My cock thickens, but with my brother’s warning ringing in my ears, I build another image in my mind.
This one is of Maddie standing at the altar next to Barrett Emerson, eager and willing to give herself to him.
That goes some way to dampen my desire, but the sound of the shower fights for my attention. How long is she going to be in there?
It could be that I’m looking for an excuse to sneak a look, but I pad over to the closed bathroom door.
I test it to see if Maddie locked it behind me, but it clicks open.
I only need to shout out to check if Maddie needs anything, but I hesitate.
There’s no harm in stealing a glimpse first, but when I poke my head through the door, the shower stall is empty except for a cloud of steam.
My eyes dart from one corner of the windowless room to the other. Maddie’s done another disappearing act. “What the fuck?”