31. Hunter
Hunter
I n the last two days, I haven’t stopped working.
Connie forces me to eat, but as for sleep, I can’t find peace in the bed that feels too empty without Maddie.
I have to remind myself that I spent most of my adult life sleeping alone, and I will get used to it again.
I have to. Maddie was a brief anomaly, that’s all. I will get over her.
It’s not as if she’s completely out of my life.
Ours is now a working relationship, and emails have been pinging back and forth constantly between Corbyn Paper Merchants and Griffin Corps.
The ones between Maddie and I have been professional, bordering on impersonal.
Unlike the email thread between Maddie and Theo, which she just happened to forward because it contained information I needed.
It was too fucking friendly for my liking.
That’s the real reason she sent it. She wanted to fuck with my head and she succeeded.
She isn’t going to make this easy for me, and I can’t blame her.
At least there’s enough going on to keep me occupied.
After Theo refused to honor the verbal agreement to supply equipment and plant to John Cooper, Ray Forsyth finally crawled out of the woodwork.
He’s threatening Theo with legal action, hence the reason I’m being copied in on his emails.
Our lawyers have sent a response to Ray on Theo’s behalf, which not only establishes there’s no case, but it sends the message that Griffin Corps is calling the shots here, and we’re willing to throw all our weight behind the dispute.
Their response is swift, but not what any of us are expecting.
“Fuck. Have you checked your emails?” Mace asks, peering over one of his screens.
“I’m reading it now.” I have to squint because I don’t want to get too close to the poisoned words spilling out of my inbox.
Reid taps his keyboard. “What are you looking at?” he asks. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s from Alice Emerson,” I say. She’d only sent the email to me, Mace and Ash.
“Barrett’s mommy wants to talk. I’ll forward it to you, but in summary, Alice doesn’t like the way things are escalating.
She wants to call an end to our feud, and is offering to sell us John Cooper’s land – if we agree to meet her first thing tomorrow in New York. ”
“So, I’m not invited?” Reid asks.
There’s a reason our half-brother hasn’t been included. He’s still a newbie, and in Alice’s eyes, will never be the equal of his brothers. But that’s her opinion, not ours.
“Do you want to be included?” I ask.
Reid stiffens. “Yes, of course I do.”
I forward the email. “Then you’re coming.”
“Thanks.” He’s skim reading the message when he adds, “We need to let Ash know. I think he’s still in his room packing.”
Ash is returning to Chicago because, once again, he’s taking charge of my affairs. Maybe he doesn’t trust that I’ll deliver the divorce papers to our lawyers myself. Maybe he has a point.
“I’m here,” Ash says, striding into the room with his cell phone clutched in his fist like he wants to strangle it. “That fucking woman.”
“Do you think it’s a set up?” asks Reid. “She doesn’t say if Barrett’s going to be there.”
We all turn to Mace, who’d anticipated the question. “I picked him up on CCTV earlier outside their New York offices.”
Ash drops his cell phone onto his desk. “The fact that Alice clicks her fingers and expects us to come running makes me want to send her a big fuck you.”
“It might be interesting if we can get her alone,” I muse. “Since Barrett took over the company, her grip on him has been weakening. She won’t know half of what he gets up to, and now might be a good opportunity to enlighten her.”
“I’d be more than happy to give her a few home truths,” says Mace with a dark glint in his eyes. “It’s been years since we had a civil conversation with her.”
“Who says it’s going to be civil?” Ash remarks.
“Are we agreed then? We’re going?” I ask.
Ash perches on the edge of his desk. “She has piqued my curiosity, but let’s tell her to meet us in our offices in Chicago. Reid, can you fire off a reply on behalf of us all?”
Reid wheels his chair closer to his desk. “Sure. And I’ll update our flight manifest. When should I schedule the return flight?”
There follows an uncomfortable silence. I know what Ash is going to say before he says it.
“If Alice sells us John Cooper’s land, we don’t need to come back here,” he says, his gaze pivoting to meet mine. “Connie can stay here to close up the house.”
Once again I’m being pushed in a direction not of my choosing. Once again I resist. “Even if we can solve the John Cooper problem, Barrett won’t respond well to Alice’s move to clip his wings. We know how that bastard works. Maddie doesn’t. I’m not leaving her here to fend for herself.”
“I still have eyes and ears on the Corbyn house,” Mace offers. As well as being able to access the CCTV at the main gates, he’d planted a number of listening devices on the day he’d hacked into Hugo’s laptop.
I shoot him a look. “The bugs in the house shouldn’t still be active, Mace. The least Maddie deserves is some privacy.”
“Don’t think for a minute that I enjoy listening to her fucking sobbing,” he hits back. And it does feel like a hit – a punch to the gut followed by a stab to my heart. “But that’s not on my conscience, Hunter. Do you want me to stop and leave her unprotected? Your choice. As always.”
“She won’t be unprotected,” Ash answers before I can.
“Jake can remain here on stand-by in case she needs him. My guess is she won’t.
Once Barrett sees that we’ve moved back to Chicago, he’ll move on too.
Maddie’s actually safer without us around.
” When I go to shake my head, he stops me.
“Give her some breathing space, Hunter. She doesn’t need you. ”
I want my brother to be wrong, but I also want him to be right. For Maddie’s entire life, she’s had people controlling her, including me. She’s in charge of her own destiny now, and if I stick around, I’ll only be casting a shadow over the new life she’s about to forge.
I say as much in the text I send on my way to the airfield. I’ve timed it so there’s no time to meet in person because, yes, I’m a fucking coward. The sun’s going down and I’ll be back in Chicago in a matter of hours. If I have any sense, I won’t come back to Brimstage. Not ever.
I fake sleep for the first half of the flight to Chicago. I have Maddie’s last text message burned into my closed eyelids. Just two words and three dots. If only…
I would rather she’d berated me for not standing up to my older brother and taking a risk on us. And sure, if it was just my life I was gambling on, I would be clinging on to Maddie with all my might. If only the risks were all mine. If only I could be sure of protecting her. If only…
“Alice’s jet has arrived at O’Hare,” Mace is telling the others. “If Barrett’s with her, he didn’t get off before it took off again.”
“Would Alice go behind his back?” asks Reid.
“Loyalty never was her strong suit,” Ash replies. “Which is why we need to be on our guard tomorrow. And tonight for that matter. I don’t like that the Emerson’s know exactly where we are.”
“Fuck them,” Mace says. “I’m going out and getting very, very drunk. With any luck, I won’t have sobered up before our meeting tomorrow. Are you in, Reid?”
There’s the sound of shuffling papers. “I have to drop this off with the lawyers first, but I could meet you later.”
I peel open an eye. Reid is at a table sorting paperwork into separate piles.
In one, I spot something familiar. The creased brown envelope that keeps getting passed around like it’s cursed.
Reid notices me watching, and he shrugs an apology as he tugs open the envelope and pulls out the divorce papers .
I rub a hand over my face. I can’t watch.
If only I’d ripped the papers up instead of handing them to Maddie to sign.
I roll my shoulders as I sit up, but it does nothing to relieve the tension.
I don’t want to look back at Reid, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
My brother’s eyes widen and he just stares at me, his hand inside the envelope.
“What’s wrong?”
It’s Ash asking the question because I seem to have lost the ability to speak.
My jaw drops as I watch Reid turn the envelope upside down over the table.
What I presume are the pages Maddie should have signed fall out of the envelope in a shower of confetti.
She ripped them up. It looks like my stubborn wife was the courageous one.
“Didn’t anyone check?” hisses Ash. “That damn woman will be the death of us all.”
I go to laugh, but Mace shoots out of his seat. He glares at the mess of paper in front of Reid, then fixes his gaze on me. “We have to turn the plane around.”