Chapter 51
MADISON
“Pierce!” I ran into the study, my heart in my throat and tears burning in my eyes. “No, no, no, don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.”
I tripped over the edge of the rug, slamming onto my hands and knees. I crawled to him on raw palms, not caring about the burn of the carpet or the sound that tore out of my throat when I reached the chair.
His head hung at an awkward angle, one arm dangling loose over the armrest, fingers slack.
I pressed my hand to his jaw. Still warm. That meant nothing and everything at the same time. My fingers slid to his neck, searching beneath his ear for a pulse, but my own heartbeat drowned out everything else.
“Pierce.” His name came out splintered. I gripped the front of his shirt and pulled myself closer, my forehead dropping against his chest. I held still there, listening for the faintest beat of life.
This was the man who framed me for murder. Who locked me in a cage and called it protection. I should have walked out of this room and never looked back. With his death, I’d be free.
But my hands wouldn’t let go of his shirt.
“Please,” I whispered into the fabric. “Please don’t leave me here alone.”
What gripped me had nothing to do with prison or survival or what happened next. It was the raw, gutting truth I hadn’t been ready to face: he’d gotten so deep under my skin that losing him would make me bleed.
My fingers cramped from how hard I was holding on.
“Why would you miss me?” he asked, sitting up and cracking his neck from side to side.
“What?” I scrambled back, swiping the tears off my face with the heel of my hand. “Why were you lying like that? You weren’t moving or breathing…and that horrible woman said…I thought—”
“You thought what, babygirl?” He stood and reached out his hand for me to take.
I ignored it and tried to rise on my own.
He was having none of it. Bending low, he wrapped his hands beneath my arms and lifted me to my feet, keeping me within the circle of his arms.
Tompkins stepped into the room. He looked at Pierce, then at me, then back at Pierce. He stood there a half second too long before he cleared his throat and said, “Forgive the interruption, sir. I thought something was amiss.”
“There is nothing wrong, Elijah.”
My brow furrowed. “But Pierce, you just—”
His grip around me tightened in warning as he kept his gaze on his butler. “Please leave us and shut the door behind you.”
Tompkins backed out of the room without saying another word.
“Why wouldn’t you tell him? He needs to get a doctor…and the police.”
“I’m fine. And trust me, he’ll do his part.”
Despite my curiosity over the snooty butler, I had a far more pressing question to ask. “That woman who was in here—who was she?”
“Her name is Skylar,” he said as he led me across the room to a soft leather chair. After sitting, he pulled me down onto his lap.
I was in too much shock to object. I pivoted on his lap to point to the door and the hallway beyond as if the woman would reappear and attest to what I’d witnessed. “She said you asked her to marry you, that she turned you down, that she thought you were going to do something…drastic.”
“Is that what that snake told you?” He brushed a lock of hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “And how did that make you feel, babygirl?”
I continued to stare at the empty doorway, then my gaze swept across the room to the chair where I’d found him slumped over, as if walking through the events of the last few moments would help my mind catch up. “What?”
“Did you feel jealous that she told you I asked her to marry me, or were you worried about my safety?”
“I—” My nails bit into my palms. I wanted to claw that woman’s eyes out, but Pierce didn’t need another weapon to use against me.
I tried to rise off his lap, but he stopped me, putting his hand over my thigh and squeezing. A not-so-subtle warning. Pinching my lips, I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “If you must know…I was worried that if you died, I’d go to prison for killing two Worthington men.”
“You are a terrible liar, babygirl.”
I’d give anything to not have let that laugh settle somewhere behind my ribs, in a place I couldn’t reach to pull it out.
Why? Why him? Granted there had been precious few men in my life but why him?
Who had I pissed off in a former life that the universe would make me fall in love with the man who had tormented both my nights and my waking moments?
“Who was she?” I shifted on his lap, putting as much distance as he would allow between us.
“She was my fiancée until a few years ago, when she slept with one of my best friends. She did me a favor.” His hand drifted toward my cheek, but I pulled back. “Especially now.”
“Why were you slumped over in the chair like that? I thought you were dead.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“That is what I wanted you to think.”
My brow furrowed. “You were trying to freak me out? You’ve done some manipulative, controlling, arrogant bullshit to me but to sink so low as to make me think—”
He wrapped his hand around my neck and pulled me against him so his mouth could claim mine. His tongue didn’t sweep inside like it usually did, but the press of his closed lips was just as domineering…and arousing.
“What was that for?”
“For caring.”
“I just called you a manipulative, controlling—”
“I know what you said…but I also know what you meant.”
I pursed my lips. “You’re proving my point. Only an arrogant man would assume to know what women are thinking.”
He shifted his hand to cup my cheek. “Not women. Just you.”
My breath caught before I could stop it. I covered it with a cough.
I asked, “Why would you want to play dead?”
“Because Skylar tried to kill me, and I needed her to think it worked.”
I slipped off his lap and paced before him. “She tried to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“With poison.” He nodded. “That glass over there.”
I moved to examine the glass.
“Don’t touch it.”
I cast him a narrowed glance over my shoulder. “I wasn’t going to touch it.”
I totally was. If Hailey were here, she’d smack me for forgetting all the lessons we’d learned binging Snapped.
“So let me get this straight. I’m innocent of killing Jameson and you had me arrested and charged with murder.
For my ‘own safety.’” I put that last bit in air quotes.
“This Skylar chick tries to actually kill you, and you let her waltz right out of here?”
He rose and crossed to the sideboard and picked up a crystal decanter. Pulling off the topper, he poured a drink. “That about sums it up.”
I nodded, leaning a hip against the side of his chair. “Yeah, sure. That wraps it all up in a nice little bow.”
He crossed and handed me the glass. “Drink.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Drink anyway.”
I took a sip of the liquor, liking how the burn soothed my anger. “None of this makes sense.”
“I know.”
“You rich people are all batshit crazy.”
“I know that too.”
“Are you going to explain?”
“Skylar is bitter that she will never be the next Mrs. Worthington. My brother is using that to play her like a marionette. He wants me dead. He tried to use her to do it.”
The room tilted. Every answer he gave only exposed more questions I hadn’t known to ask.
“What are you going to do now?” I asked.
“I’m going to lay a trap. It’s going to protect my inheritance, my power, and most importantly, ensure your safety. I’m going to make sure my brother never lays his hands on you again. And I might even get a little revenge while I’m at it.”
“How?”
“With incredible skill and finesse,” he deadpanned.
My lips thinned as I let out a long sigh and raised one eyebrow. He matched my look with a tilt to his head.
Finally, I demanded, “Tell me.”
He looked at me for a long moment, then said, “No.”
“I’m in the middle of all of this, and I don’t know what’s going on. I have a right to know; this is my life you’re messing with, Pierce. Please.” I fisted his shirt. “Please, just tell me.”
“I’m the one who is going to protect you.” He sat and moved me onto his lap so I was straddling him. His cock hardened against me.
“Please,” I whispered, my fingers trailing down his chest.
“First, you’re going to tell me what you felt when you saw me slumped in that chair and you thought I was dead. No lying this time, babygirl.”
“I was afraid,” I admitted. The words came out smaller than I intended, and I hated him for hearing them.
“Of prison?”
“Of being alone again. Everyone leaves me eventually.” My jaw ached from clenching. I hadn’t meant to say that. I hadn’t meant to say any of it.
His warm hand cupped the side of my face, and I flinched but didn’t pull away. He pulled me down for a gentle kiss. “I’m not going anywhere, Madison. You are going to be the next Mrs. Worthington. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”
“You didn’t make a promise, you made a demand.” I rolled my eyes, and he gave me a slow, dangerous smile.
“I suppose that’s true. Let me make it up to you now.”
“You’re going to let me go?” I asked with a little too much hope in my voice.
The corner of his mouth twitched but he shook his head.
I braced for the crash of disappointment. It didn’t come. What replaced it was worse, and I wasn’t going anywhere near it.
“I’m never letting you go, Madison. You are mine.” He lifted me from his lap and sat me on the desk. “But I suppose I can give you some answers. You have five minutes. Ask whatever you want, and I will answer honestly. But then I get twenty minutes.”
“That’s not fair,” I said.
“Babygirl, there is not a single thing in this life that’s fair. Your time starts now.”