Page 117 of Runaway Bride's Guide to Love

“You’ve never got men to confess things?” Maeve asks as she sits at the hotel room desk.

“Oh plenty of times. They’re usually accidental. One second I’m asking if they’re being good boys, the next they’re telling me all the times they weren’t. But I’ve never got to use this power for good. It feels like I’m giving back to the community.”

We all laugh. How is this even real life right now?

“I must say, you look stunning,” Ainsley says. “The red lipstick really suits you.”

“Why thank you.” Nadia gives Ainsley a once over. “Now, I know this line of work isn’t for everyone. But I’m just saying, you could make a lot of money with that good girl vibe you got going. Throw on a baby doll dress? Honey, you could make bank.”

The roar of laughter that comes from the room can probably be heard fourteen floors down in the hotel bar. And Ainsley’s blush? Poor girl is redder than Nadia’s lipstick.

“Oh, Nadia, that was good,” I say, still keeled over in laughter. “I really needed that.”

And I did. It’s been four days since I was questioned, and since then, it’s been nothing but worry and stress and planning. I don’t know if I’ve genuinely smiled since the moments before we heard those sirens. I’ve been a mess. I can barely eat. Sleeping has been few and far between because my brain won’t shut off. And then once this plan was in play, all I could do was come up with the hundred reasons why it wouldn’t work.

Honestly, I don’t think I’d be standing if it weren’t for Emmett and my family. My siblings have been taking care of everything so I didn’t have to get my hands dirty. Quinn tookthe week off from work to help out. Simon found Kaos. Maeve has been the coordinator with Shane and a lawyer she knows to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Even Ainsley’s been all-in. This might be shady and borderline illegal; I think our good girl is finally going a little bad. She was the one who found Nadia. I still don’t know how. I’d never Googled “dominatrix near me” before, so I assumed finding her was going to take a minute. Yet Ainsley came through in a pinch, and even went to pick her up this afternoon.

Then there’s Emmett, who…I don’t know how I would be getting through this without him. And it could be happening. With or without Emmett, Duncan was setting me up. I could be going through this without a rock. A shoulder to cry on. Someone to hold me and tell me that everything is going to be okay. He hasn’t left my side, and I don’t know how I’ll ever thank him.

“Thank you again,” I say to Nadia. “I know we met under unusual circumstances, and you could’ve turned us down.”

Nadia shakes her head and takes my hand in hers. “I haven’t been able to get the sight of you out of my head since it happened. I know I’ve been the other woman to many men, but knowing what he did to you? What I was doing to him on the day that was supposed to be yours? Absolutely not. Fuck him and fuck his audacity. Getting him to confess this shit is the least I can do. And I know exactly how I’m going to play him. Sometimes he likes me to be comforting before I start the whipping. I’ll play into it nice and thick. He won’t know what hit him. And yes, that was a dominatrix pun.”

Everyone laughs as Nadia and I embrace. It hits me at what a full circle moment this is.

“He’s here. The eagle has landed.”

Quinn’s voice carries through the hotel suite, announcing that Duncan has walked into the lobby. When we were devising roles and plans for today, Quinn was all too eager to sit in the hotel lobby in disguise, waiting for Duncan to enter. She got veryexcited when Kaos told her that he had a phone app that could serve as a walkie talkie.

“Places,” Simon announces. Which is really just for Nadia and Kaos. Nadia grabs her bag of props and uses the adjoining door to go next door while Kaos takes his spot at his computer monitors.

“I still can’t believe he fucking fell for the bait,” Emmett says.

I laugh. “Oh I can. I guess four years with him did do me some good.”

Once we had Nadia on board with the plan, the next part was the hardest—getting Duncan to show up alone. And, being the narcissist he is, we were able to play him like a fiddle. All it took was one phone call from Nadia, who said how much she missed him, and that she’d give him a free session, and boom, they were making a date for right now.

“Here we go,” Kaos says as he adjusts the volume as Duncan enters the hotel suite.

My blood pressure spikes when I watch him walk in on the computer screen. I’m feeling so many emotions as he slithers his way to Nadia like the snake he is.

I’m fucking furious for what he’s done to me.

I’m disgusted at myself that I was with him for as long as I was.

But the biggest feeling? Indifference. I couldn’t give two shits about him. I want him to confess. I want him to go to jail. And I want him to be a distant memory in the Book of Stella.

Now, Emmett on the other hand? I’m pretty sure he’s ready to commit murder.

“Easy there, Cap,” I whisper. “Remember, if anyone is going to go sneak attacking him, it’s me. I even brought the good shoes to do it with.”

My joke doesn’t seem to lighten his mood, but I can’t concentrate on that. Because Nadia is about to get going.

“There’s my good boy,” she says, holding out her arms. Duncan walks into them and leans in to start kissing her.

It turns my stomach.

“Oh my God is that how he kissed?” Maeve says with disgust.

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