No Headlines Please (Billionaires on Main Street #3)

The Monster in the Room

Delaney

When I finished telling my story, nobody said a word. Everyone was staring – well, everyone but Maddox, who'd already heard all of this back in Chicago.

Now, the only sound in the room was the crackling of the fireplace while the others processed what I'd just told them.

The six of us were gathered in Tessa's cozy living room. Tessa and Ryder were snuggled up on one sofa while Maisie and Griff were cuddled on the loveseat opposite them. As for me and Maddox, we weren't snuggling or cuddling.

And why?

Because we'd ended up in the matching armchairs facing the fire.

I was pretty sure this was no accident. Maisie and Griff had sat down first. A split second later, Tessa had rushed for the sofa so quickly, even Ryder had seemed taken aback.

Then again, the seating arrangement wasn't exactly the biggest issue in the room.

Barely an hour had passed since we'd arrived on Tessa's doorstep. I hadn't even unpacked – or figured out where I'd be sleeping. The suitcases were still sitting in the nearby foyer, exactly where we'd left them. But that was nobody's fault but my own.

Tessa had offered to get us settled right away. But first, I'd wanted to explain why I'd gone missing – preferably before anyone else apologized for something that wasn't their fault.

But now, I wondered if I'd said too much.

Finally, it was Tessa who broke the silence. "So that's why you stayed away? Why didn't you say something?"

"Yeah," Maisie chimed in. "We could've helped."

Obviously, they still weren't getting it. "Or, you would've ended up in trouble, too."

Tessa said, "But you didn't say what kind of trouble."

Hadn't she been listening? "Yes, I did."

"Sure. The thing with the lawyer. But you seriously don't know which case the guy meant?"

Before I could reply, Maisie asked, "And if you needed to hide out, why didn't you do it here on the island? I had plenty of room."

I sighed. "Already told you. The guy warned me not to. Explicitly. I can still remember his exact words."

Griff asked, "Which were…?"

I looked at all of them in turn. "He said – and I quote – 'If you're thinking of running to your friends on the island, forget it.'"

Maddox spoke up. "Wait, that's not what you told me in Chicago."

I turned to look at him. "Sure I did."

He shook his head. "No, you didn't. In my office, you said, 'Mackinac Island' by name."

"But that's the same thing." I glanced at the others. "What other island could he mean?" I looked back to Maddox. "Maisie is literally my only friend who lives on an island. He had to mean her."

"Right," Maddox said. "Her."

I had no idea what he was getting at. "Sorry, what?"

"Friend. As in singular."

"So?" In search of clues, I looked to Maisie. We'd already talked about her dad, and I'd apologized all over again for not being there. But somehow, it still didn't feel like enough.

With a smile, Maisie looked to Maddox and said, "I think you make a good point."

Tessa asked, "What point?"

It was Maisie who answered. "What Maddox means is, the wording's a little funny, like Delaney was meeting a whole bunch of people. Plus, that guy could've meant a different island."

I shook my head. "Honestly, I think you're grasping at straws."

Tessa looked to me and said, "And here's a question. What, exactly, were you doing for money?" Her gaze shifted to Maddox, and her expression soured. "Unless…he was paying you for something."

Good Lord.

I gave an indignant scoff. "Do you know who you sound like now?"

"Who?"

"Mrs. Stelter."

Tessa gave a little gasp. "No way. You met her?"

"Unfortunately." I gave her an ominous look. "While Herb was fly-fishing."

She winced. "Yikes."

"I know, right? Get this. She accused me of turning tricks in the building, which just for the record, I wasn't."

Tessa looked offended. "I know you weren't. Obviously."

Yeah, right. "Really? Because the way you talked just now—"

"Oh, my God," she said. "I didn't mean Maddox was paying you for sex. I just thought that maybe you were doing some freelance work. I know you're a really good writer."

When I looked to Maddox, he appeared almost ready to laugh.

Tessa asked, "What?"

I felt heat rush to my cheeks. "Nothing."

Tessa looked from me to Maddox. "Okay, you're obviously hiding something. What is it?"

I knew exactly what it was. And I could've kissed Maddox for not spilling the beans.

Actually, I could've kissed him for a whole bunch of reasons – and not only because he looked so ridiculously kissable. But already, he'd put up with a ton of grief from my sister, and I was desperate to make it stop.

I told Tessa, "You do realize this whole reunion wouldn't have happened without him, right?"

She sank lower on the couch. "So?"

"So maybe you should be thanking him, not treating him like a monster."

In a quiet voice, Maddox said, "Delaney, it's fine."

I gave him a look. "Oh, so you'd be fine with Ryder treating me like a monster?"

Maddox frowned. "Hell no."

I smirked. "See?"

And then he smiled, making my heart give that familiar flutter.

Tessa ruined it by saying with a loud sigh, "Just tell me. What exactly was he paying you for?"

I turned to look at her. "He wasn't paying me at all."

She gave me a dubious look. "Are you sure?"

I laughed. "What? Like I wouldn't know?"

But Tessa wasn't laughing. "Maybe you do know, and you don't want to say."

All of this felt just a little insulting – and not only to Maddox. "That's what you think? That I'm not capable of earning money on my own?"

"I know you're capable. But from what I can tell, you haven't held a job for over a year."

I shifted in my seat. "Sure, not a regular job, but I have been doing stuff."

In reality, I'd been working my tail off. Between the writing and the ads, and keeping everything humming, I'd spent the last few months working probably twelve hours a day.

But I so didn't want to elaborate.

Except Tessa refused to let it go. "I'm just saying, there you are, not working, but you have all kinds of money in your bank account?"

Actually, I didn't. The cabin had been perfect for what I'd needed, but it hadn't been cheap. Plus, after Mom "borrowed" that money, I'd had some serious making up to do. After paying off my credit card along with this month's advertising, I had only a few hundred dollars left.

Still, that wasn't the point. I studied Tessa's face. "And how would you know my balance?"

Now she looked uncomfortable. "Well…if you want the truth…Mom told me."

I almost groaned out loud. "Terrific."

Tessa sighed. "And I know what she did – taking a bunch of your money for that trip to Paris. She and I argued about it, you know."

Actually, I didn't know.

I wasn't surprised that Tessa knew about Mom's little Parisian adventure.

Hell, everyone knew, thanks to all of those updates on Mom's page.

I wasn't even surprised that Tessa knew where the money had come from.

I'd gathered that from that one awkward phone call, when Tessa had warned me to secure my account.

But the fact that she and Mom had argued?

Yeah, that was new.

They almost never argued, much less about me.

I was still processing it when Tessa added, "But Mom said you had a lot of money." Once again, her gaze shifted to Maddox. "It just seems a little suspicious, that's all."

Talk about insulting. "How so?"

"Even when I was working for Thatcher-Hale, I never had thousands just sitting there in my bank account." Her voice picked up steam. "And the way Mom talked, you might even have tens of thousands."

I stared. Just who did she think I was?

Next to her, Ryder said, "Hell, let's just make it a million."

Tessa didn't even look. With her eyes trained on me, she said, "I'm serious."

"Me, too," Ryder said. "A million's always better." He looked to Griff. "Am I right?"

Tessa made a sound of exasperation. "Why is nobody taking this seriously?"

But it was Maddox who finally replied, telling her in a stiff, quiet voice, "Maybe it's private."

"Well, that's rich," Tessa said. "What? You think money buys everything, including my sister?"

That did it. I jumped to my feet. "You know what? You need to stop, like right now. I don't care what you think you know about him, but the least you could do is be nice." I turned and glanced toward the foyer. "Our suitcases are still packed, you know."

Maisie spoke up. "You could always stay with us."

Tessa glared at Maisie. "Thanks so much for the support."

"I am being supportive," Maisie said. "What? You want her to go to a hotel?"

"No," Tessa said. "I want her to stay with me."

Maisie's chin lifted. "Well, I want both of them to stay with me. And you obviously don't, so…" With a little shrug, she left the rest of it unsaid.

I stared back and forth between the two of them. My whole life, Tessa had been perfectly polite. And Maisie – the whole time I'd known her – had been way too nice for her own good.

To see both of them arguing, especially over me, was suddenly too much.

With a deep breath, I just said it. "Fine! You wanna know what I do for money? I write monster erotica. There! Now, you all know." And with that, I plopped back into my seat and silently dared any of them to make fun of me.

For a long, terrible moment, they all just stared.

Once again, it was Ryder who broke the silence. "Huh. No wonder you like him."

Nobody asked who. They didn't need to.

Apparently, the monster in the room was Maddox.

I honestly didn't get it. Sure, I'd seen the headlines. I'd even read a few excerpts from Sloane's book. But none of that lined up with the man I'd gotten to know.

With me, he'd always been patient, protective, and ridiculously generous.

And honestly, I'd also been more than a little impressed by the story of how he'd thrown that drunk guy out on his ass. Even as far as Sloane, I had never once seen him trash her in the media.

Regardless of what had happened between them, he'd paid a heavy price for taking the high road – a price he was still paying, even now, with Tessa.

Of course, I had no real proof that what he'd told me about Sloane was true. But I did know how he had treated me, even after I'd flipped out on him.

He'd refused to tell anyone where I was – in spite of getting grief for it.

That kind of integrity? To me, it was pure gold.

If Tessa couldn't see that, it was her problem, not mine.

And if she refused to make him feel welcome, we would have to leave, because there was no way I was throwing him under the bus – not after everything he'd done for me.

As my mind raced, it suddenly dawned on me that nobody other than Ryder had acknowledged what I'd just confessed – that I wrote monster erotica for a living.

Talk about awkward.

But then, when I looked to Maisie, she smiled. "You know what?"

I winced. "What?"

"I love those things." She and Griff shared a look. "And besides, not all monsters are bad."

When I looked to Maddox, he was grinning.

I asked, "What?"

With a soft chuckle, he said, "You."

My lips twitched. "What about me?"

"I was wondering what you wrote."

"So, why didn't you ask?"

"I did," he said. "That day we had coffee."

"Really?"

He nodded. "But you didn't want to tell me, so I let it drop."

Oh, that's right. Out on the penthouse balcony, he had asked, and I'd brushed him off.

Just like with so many other things, he hadn't pushed.

I asked, "So you've been curious this whole time? Seriously?"

"Hell, yeah. If you want the truth, I've been dying to know."

I laughed. "If you wanted to know so bad, why didn't you just have someone find out? I know you could've."

"Probably," he said. "But it didn't seem right."

"Oh, come on." I searched his face. "You found out everything else."

"Yeah, but that was because your sister was worried, not because I was a nosy bastard."

Ryder laughed. "You're still a bastard, though, right?"

Maddox gave him a look. "You're the one who started this, remember?"

But then, Tessa's voice carried over all of them. "Actually, I was the one who started it." She looked to Maddox, and her expression softened just a fraction. "And I was glad to hear she was okay." She cleared her throat. "So…um, thanks. I guess."

Well, it was better than nothing.

Tessa turned to me with a pleading look. "Don't leave, okay? You literally just got here."

Ryder added, "And besides, your luggage is already upstairs."

What? "No, it isn't." I pointed. "It's still right there, sitting in the foyer."

He grinned. "Yeah, but not for long." Then he sprang to his feet and headed for the suitcases, with Tessa scrambling after him. He grabbed Maddox's suitcase, along with the larger of mine, while Tessa grabbed my smaller one.

A moment later, they were both halfway up the nearby stairs. Tessa called back over her shoulder, "You can't leave if you don't have your stuff." And then, after half a beat, she added, "So there."

I looked to Maddox. "Do you think we're supposed to follow them?"

He shrugged. "She's your sister."

"But your friend."

He glanced toward the staircase. "I think we'd better."

When the two of us began heading in that direction, Maisie called out, "Wait…you are coming back, right?"

I looked back with a smile. "Definitely."