Chapter 2
Mace
Ishouldn’t have done that.
When the white Audi had switched lanes to overtake me, it was a pointless maneuver in grid-locked traffic, but hey, he was probably bored. And so was I. Fuck it. The chase was on.
It was only when I came level with the Audi that I discovered the he was a she. Her head was tipped back, her eyes closed and her lips pursed around a finger in the kind of ecstasy I wouldn’t mind seeing again when she’s kneeling in front of me.
Changing tactic, I’d deliberately cut in front of her, and Lily had turned into my favorite kind of crazy.
Her long auburn hair had flamed in the dying embers of the day as she jumped out of her car to confront me.
The wind had molded her thin blouse to her beautiful body, turning her nipples hard and distracting.
I could stare at that body forever, but damn it, facing down a stranger on the highway was utterly irresponsible.
In that moment, I made it my personal mission to protect her from herself, and it’s a duty I’m going to take seriously.
My cell phone rings as I’m loading my trunk with the kit I’d been on my way to collect before running into Lily.
“How much longer are you going to be, Mace?” Reid asks.
“I had to do a quick detour,” I explain, hoping my little brother doesn’t ask for details.
I’m not about to explain how I’d come off the Kennedy Expressway at the wrong exit just so I could loop around and rejoin it behind my newest obsession.
Weaving in and out of traffic to reach Lily could earn me a few speeding tickets, but I can hack into traffic control when I get home and destroy all evidence of my transgressions.
And once that’s done, I’ll begin the digital hunt for Lily and her white Audi.
It could be a long night, longer still if I keep to my obligations of having dinner with my brothers.
“Don’t bail on me, Mace,” Reid warns, reading my mind.
Considering we’ve just moved into an apartment together, he shouldn’t be this desperate for my company.
“You don’t need me. You’ll have Ash there, won’t you?”
“Yeah, we came home straight from the office,” he says, because the Griffin homestead will always be the place we refer to as home.
“So?” I ask. I know our eldest brother isn’t the most scintillating company at the best of times, but at least Reid has back up. What more does he need?
He clears his throat. “Hunter and Maddie got back from Brimstage a couple of hours ago and she’s…
Shit, she’s looking at me now.” In the pause that follows, I hear a muffled voice that has to be my sister-in-law.
“She says she’ll hunt you down and drag you here if you don’t show.
” In a lower voice, he adds, “She’s already suggested coming to our apartment to help with the interior design. I can’t frighten her off like you can.”
I throw the last box in the trunk. “Tell her I’m already working on the interior design,” I reply.
It’s fair to say that my plans to transform the apartment are worlds away from whatever Maddie has in mind. I’ve only been cursed with Hunter’s new wife for a matter of months, but the woman can’t stop interfering in all our lives. She’s like the annoying little sister I never wanted.
The new apartment was a means to escape the loved-up couple, and Maddie can keep her ideas on soft-furnishings to herself. What the apartment needs is cutting edge tech and impenetrable security, which is what I’ve just picked up.
“You can tell Maddie yourself when you get here,” Reid says. “How long?”
“I’m on the other side of Chicago. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Thanks, Mace,” Reid says with undisguised relief.
After cutting the call, I lean against the SUV and tip my head to the blackened sky.
It wasn’t that long ago that I thought my life was cast in stone.
Stone shaped by a mother who had abandoned us, a stepmom who died too soon, and a father whose heart had no reason to beat after he lost her.
My three brothers were all I had left, and due to the lives we lead, we kept things simple.
Relationships were brief and uncomplicated.
Our brotherhood was supposed to be enough.
And then Maddie-fucking-Corbyn crashed into our lives. Hunter fell fast and hard, and after this evening’s run in with Lily, I’m starting to worry that the second eldest Griffin might have inadvertently set off some weird sort of chain reaction. I’d be crazy to want what he has. Wouldn’t I?
Digging a hand into my pocket, I pull out the chocolate bar I’d picked up at the gas station. I tear open the wrapper and take a bite. Sugary sweetness coats my tongue and I immediately spit it out. It doesn’t taste like her at all, and I discard the remainder in a nearby trash can.
Reverting to something more within the scope of my expertise, I tap my cell phone and bring up a map.
A pulsating dot shines like a warning beacon.
I’d looped around the expressway with only one intention.
To find Lily and plant the tracker. She’d laughed when I’d dropped my keys, but it had been a carefully choreographed move.
It took only seconds to fix the magnetic tracker to the Audi’s front wheel arch, but now that I have more time to consider my actions, the rational thing to do would be to disable the device and forget all about Lily.
Instead, I zoom in on the map. The signal remains static at an apartment block surrounded by other apartment blocks.
It’s a newly developed area of the city with improving prospects, but what area is completely safe?
Lily doesn’t strike me as someone who takes personal security as seriously as she should.
You have to be exposed to the worst of humanity to truly understand the risks a beautiful young woman on her own might face.
Or am I making too many assumptions about her?
She wasn’t wearing a wedding band, but that doesn’t mean she’s single. My eyes narrow on the screen.
I can’t even be sure I’m looking at Lily’s home.
She could have been traveling to meet a friend.
Possibly the woman who was on speakerphone in her car.
Or she could be at her boyfriend’s apartment right now.
My shoulders tense, and I crack my neck.
My jealousy is unwarranted, but it’s there nonetheless.
Disable the fucking tracker, my inner voice tells me, but I ignore the advice. I’ve made one too many rash decisions today, and I won’t do anything else until I’m better informed.
“Did you miss me?” Maddie asks.
I sense my sister-in-law leaning over the table towards me, but I keep my eyes on my cell.
Lily Melissa Kendrick’s car hasn’t moved.
The twenty-eight-year-old accountant, born in Ohio to Eric and Wendy, has worked at Royston Associates for two years.
She does indeed live at her current location in a one bedroom third floor apartment.
According to Facebook, she declares herself single and is active on several dating apps.
Or she was. Until I deleted her profile.
It’s past eight and while I’d like to think Lily is staying home tonight, I have to accept she could have gone out for the evening and left the car. I’d be able to confirm her movements by tapping into her apartment block’s CCTV if I was at home with access to my spy hub.
“Of course he’s missed you,” Connie answers for me as she places fresh bread on the large kitchen table to accompany the beef stew she’s made.
Our housekeeper has become a surrogate mom, and although she never sits down to eat with us, we usually take our meals in the large expanse of her kitchen. She remains close and isn’t afraid to step in as referee when she deems it necessary. Connie’s more terrifying than any of my brothers.
She leans in closer to whisper in my ear. “Put down your phone, Mason.”
I place my cell next to my plate, screen faced down so Reid can’t catch any of the new alerts I’ve set up.
“I’ve found another distillery I want you to research,” Ash tells me.
Whiskey-making has been Ash’s passion for years, and we already have a shit load of distilleries in our portfolio, but not enough apparently.
My brother has a natural talent for taking any industrial process and enhancing it.
He takes after our dad in that respect, but Dad was never business-oriented.
Other people made more money from his ideas than he ever did.
Ash takes a different approach, and with three additional Griffins bringing their own unique skills to the table, we’ve managed to build a billion-dollar empire.
My particular talent is information gathering, and I specialize in accessing records I’m not supposed to see.
The Griffin way is to take a failing business and turn it around.
Our work benefits local communities as much as it adds to our wealth, and we use that wealth to invest in new projects.
It’s what we did with the paper mill that Maddie’s family owned.
“When are you going back to Brimstage?” I ask her.
Maddie meets my hard stare with a smile. “The paper mill is performing better than ever. Our ops director is training up new management, so our work there is done for the moment. We don’t have any plans to go back for a while. I’m all yours.”
Hunter clears his throat to remind his wife that she’s not mine, she’s his. Fine by me.
Maddie pretends not to notice, and winks at me. “I promise to give you all the attention I have left once I’ve satisfied my husband’s demands.”
“So, none then,” Hunter says.
There’s an edge to his voice even though he knows as well as I that Maddie’s only flirting to get a reaction from me.
And she does like teasing me. She thinks I’m easier to crack than Ash, who’s a closed book to everyone, including his brothers.
Reid, by contrast, wears his heart on his sleeve, but my half-brother does have better genes than the rest of us.