Chapter 18 #2
“I could kill you right now and no one would care, but that would be too easy. Not now that you’ve ruined my face.”
Blood trails down her cheeks from several lacerations, and her chin and nose swell from their run-in with the door.
“Put these on.”
She tosses handcuffs at Audrey, waits for her to close them around her wrists, then tosses another pair at my hip.
“You too, pookie.”
Despite the disgust curling through me, I secure my wrists and train my gaze on Audrey.
“Step out of the van and pull the driver out of the other car,” Marilyn demands.
Audrey complies in slow, exaggerated motions.
“This is fun. I’m glad you decided to tag along, whore,” the clingy rich bitch says.
My baby dolls flinches and hunches her shoulders as she opens the driver’s door.
“That’s right, Donald told me everything,” clingy rich bitch goads. My father’s name on her lips shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is. “He told me how you tried to seduce him. He wants you gone just as much as he wants my pookie killed.”
My father couldn’t control me, so he plans to use Marilyn’s obsession to get rid of me.
“But we can’t have that. No, I need him too much. I’m going to keep him. He’ll be my favorite toy for many, many years to come.”
She only half watches Audrey settle my driver onto the concrete as she spills all her secrets.
“The only loose end is that advisor bitch, but I’ll take care of her. She’s obsessed with you, Brennan, but she’s not good enough to have you. Only I am.”
I stiffen as she swings the gun toward me. Audrey calls my name. I brace for the worst, terrified she’ll put herself in danger for me again.
Fury twists Marilyn’s bruised features as she turns back toward my baby doll.
I jerk to a sitting position and use the chain connecting my cuffs to knock her arm upward. The gun fires. Feminine screams ring through the blast.
Cuffed wrists swoop down out of nowhere, passing between my face and Marilyn’s and yanking Marilyn out of the van by her throat.
Light streams in through a hole in the van’s roof. The gun slides to a halt near the back door.
I scoot toward the opened slider door and lower my feet to the ground, but a wave of dizziness sweeps through me.
Audrey’s face fills my vision. Her cold, shaking hands frame my face as the chain of her cuffs digs into my chin.
As the ringing in my ears subsides, the sound of her voice matches the movement of her lips as she repeats the words please be okay over and over again.
I capture her wrists and kiss her knuckles.
Her swollen knuckles. When did she punch anyone?
“I’m okay, but are you?” I croak.
She nods and tugs her wrists away to roam her hands over my body.
As she slips my phone out of my pocket with her bound hands, she bends enough to reveal the scene behind her.
My driver sits with his back against the front wheel of my car and mostly dried blood caked over the left side of his face.
Marilyn lies sprawled out and unconscious between the vehicles with a dark red bruise forming around her neck and new injuries to her face, which explains Audrey’s swollen knuckles.
“Who do I call?” my baby doll asks.
My brain kicks into gear.
If we call nine-one-one, we’ll alert my father and ruin any chance of incarcerating him.
I tell her the name of the cop I met not long ago, and after she hangs up with him, I text Lopez and Brunswick.
Audrey searches through the front of the van before cursing and dropping to her knees beside the clingy rich bitch. She finds the keys to our cuffs and unlocks mine before kissing the back of my hands.
“You’re really okay,” she murmurs.
I take the key from her and free her wrists.
“Yes, I’m really okay. You saved me. Again.”
Tears shimmer in her eyes, but she sneers at me.
“Yeah, well, don’t expect it a third time.”
She loses control. My heart breaks as she falls apart. I pull her against my chest and murmur words of comfort into her hair as I stroke her back.
Marilyn twitches but doesn’t wake.
The cop arrives with a small entourage, including paramedics, a crime scene specialist, and several other personnel he trusts to keep things hush hush.
As they gather evidence and coordinate cleanup with the hotel manager—who accepts a shit ton of money to keep things quiet—Lopez, Brunswick, and my lawyer arrive.
Audrey and I give our statements to the cop as they listen in, so when we’re released to go home, they’re caught up on the situation.
I buckle Audrey into the back middle seat of Brunswick’s SUV and join her on the bench. She leans her head on my shoulder and reaches for my hand. I accept without hesitation.
“Any luck with Ms. Baker?” I ask.
“Not yet,” Liam scowls. “Lay low until we find her.”
Audrey sighs and mumbles, “I guess that means no visiting Mr. Carter’s gym for a while, huh?”
I kiss her temple.
“Unfortunately, but don’t worry, love. It’ll be the first place we visit after she’s caught.”
“Why the first place?”
“To hand out wedding invitations, of course. We can’t get married without your friends,”
Her breath hitches. A single tear escapes her lashes and lands on our joined hands.
She fillets me alive with her sparkling green eyes.
“I love you, Brennan.”
Time stands still. She’s the bravest, prettiest, smartest woman I know, and she loves me.
“I love you, too, Audrey,” I say.
I kiss her with every ounce of awe, devotion, worship, and desperation I have for her.
Audrey Tripp owns my soul.
I can’t wait to make her my wife.
***
As the days turn into weeks and Ms. Baker remains elusive, Audrey grows more restless. She holds out for four weeks before openly complaining about my strict house arrest.
“Is my home not big enough for you, baby doll? Do I need to buy a few more penthouses so we can live in a different place each day of the week?” I tease.
She scowls and rises from the couch.
I catch her around her waist and pull her into my lap.
“I know how to take your mind off everything,” I whisper against her lips.
After ravaging her and being ravaged in turn, we find ourselves sweaty and spent on the kitchen floor. I pull her onto my chest and buffer her from the hard floor.
The next morning, dozens of boxes arrive. Audrey glares at me in suspicion, but as she opens them one by one, wonder and excitement grow in her eyes.
When she complained about staying home, I realized now was the perfect time to live out the fantasy we shared as kids, so I bought every gaming console I could find.
My father never allowed us to play video games. Many of our conversations revolved around the picturesque childhood neither of us had ever known.
“Have you ever played any of them?” she asks.
I shake my head and cup her nape.
“No, Audrey. I couldn’t. Not without you.”
Silent tears trail down her face. She grabs my collar and pulls me down for a kiss.
With every gaming console integrated into my massive living room entertainment system, we spend days gorging on takeout and video games. The peace and joy of having Audrey by my side so carefree and silly heals the oppressed little boy trapped inside me.
When Liam texts me six weeks after the hotel incident with the news of Ms. Baker’s arrest, I consider keeping it from Audrey until the upcoming storm passes, but no matter how relaxed she seems, I don’t like the worry apparent in her far-off gaze during candid moments, so I tell her.
With a long, relieved sigh, she crosses the living room, wraps her arms around my waist, and rests her head on my chest as we look out at the panoramic view.
“Finally. Now all we need is her confession, and we can add it to the mountain of evidence we’ll use to destroy your father,” she says.
When her words register, I pull her head back by her hair and search her eyes.
“Is that what you were worried about? I thought you were stressing about your friends,” I snarl.
She quirks a brow.
“I’m worried about everything. My friends’ safety, Donald’s craftiness, our future, my job—”
“I can remove the educational requirements,” I interrupt.
Anger narrows her eyes.
“Are you insinuating I’m not smart enough to pass the GED?” she asks.
“No, I—”
“I already passed. My certificate is in the mail,” she announces.
Her proud little smirk wrecks me in the best way. If her arms weren’t wrapped around me, I’d be kneeling at her feet, begging for the honor of worshipping her.
I steal a deep, drugging kiss and reluctantly pull my head away.
“You’re amazing, baby doll,” I say.
“I know, but you helped. Having a tutor was the best.”
She rises onto tiptoe and pecks me on the chin before turning serious.
“Now let’s talk dates and timelines.”
My phone chimes with a sound I set for specific alerts.
I shift her from my front to my side, lean down to the coffee table, pick up the remote, and turn the television to the news channel.
Donald Diamond’s pompous expression fills the screen, but as the camera zooms out, the chaos around him looks straight out of a movie.
With his wrists cuffed behind his back, an FBI agent on each arm, and half a dozen other agents surrounding him, Donald walks through a gauntlet of reporters and angry citizens. The script rolling across the bottom of the screen provides a long list of alleged crimes he committed.
The word alleged is probably the only thing keeping the bastard so stoic. He doesn’t know we have enough evidence to lock him in a maximum-security prison for several life sentences without parole. He’ll never be a free man again.
“Wait, what? This is right now? We should be there! Brennan, why didn’t you—”
“No, Audrey. He doesn’t deserve another second of our time. He’ll know we’re the masterminds soon enough,” I growl and tighten my arm around her.
She grinds her teeth and clenches her fist in my shirt at the small of my back. For a few minutes, she simply watches the screen and breathes.
“I wanted to spit in his eye and push him down a flight of stairs,” she snarls.
“Which is why we’re here and not there,” I say.
“You’re insufferable,” she says with a scowl.
“But not a monster?” I prod.
Her expression morphs to amusement. A wicked glint sparks in her eyes.
She presses her front to mine and curls her fingers into my shirt’s neckline.
“Yes, you’re a monster. My monster. My boss. My fiancé. Mine. Forever.”
She yanks me down by my collar and solidifies her place at the center of my universe with an epic, hungry kiss. I lift her off her feet and carry her to the couch.
With the news reporting on my father’s downfall, Audrey unlocks a new level of revenge; she fucks me senseless, giving me exponentially more than what he tried to force from her.
She forgives me for abandoning her. Punishes me for not finding her sooner. Pleasures me for refusing to let her go ever again.
She loves me, and I love her.
She’s my goddess. My baby doll. My wife-to-be.
Mine.
Always and only.
Forever.