Page 17 of Mad Love

“When you see Granger later tonight, tell him dick pics lack class and he should up his game with the sexting if he wants to get you off.”

“What?” I grab my phone and unlock the screen.

Sure enough, there’s a picture of a guy’s penis. But it’s not the image that has my heart beating so hard I’m afraid it’ll burst from my chest. It’s the text message.

“Put your mouth on mine and I will breathe life into you. Take my hand and I will pull you out of the darkness and into the light. Renounce your name, take mine, and all will be forgiven.”

The urge to drop the phone like it’s hot embers burns through me, but I can’t panic. He wants me to panic.

I calmly set the phone on the bed. “The sender sent it to the wrong number. And you’re right. The message lacks class.”

Does my kidnapper know I renounced my name and took Maddox’s? How long can I keep Maddox in the dark before he realizes how much danger I’m in? But if I stay within the secure walls of Maddox’s penthouse on the fortieth floor, my kidnapper can’t get to me, right?

My cousins and my team are working to find him, and when they do, all will be well and I can return to my old life. I can also revisit whether my dad committed murder.

Oh, God, my dad killed a woman and stole her baby. He stole me from my mother. From my father. From my rightful family. The Lexingtons are a respectable family, but the McCabes? They fall in two camps—criminals or law enforcement. What a mess!

“Blaise?”

Maddox’s voice comes to me from a distance. I blink. He reaches for me. I recoil. He drops his hand to his side.

“I’m okay. Go. Have a nice time.”

He’s going out to see his lover, Evie Lawson. I’m certain of it. I saw him taking her away from the party with a huge smile on his face. She looked smitten and just as happy. It must be nice to be so in love. Good God, what have I done?

“Maddox?” I hurry after him. He’s to the door.

He faces me. “Hmm?”

“Just to be clear, I’m fine with you sleeping with other women. What we have is a business arrangement and not a true marriage, so no need worrying that you’ll hurt my feelings or that I’ll think you’re cheating on me.”

He locks his jaw, and having grown up with men all my life, I would say my comment injured his pride.

“Does that mean you’ll be sleeping around too?”

Too. Also. I shake my head. “I don’t like to be touched.”

“Are you telling me you and Granger aren’t an item? Or does he do other things aside from touching that turns you on?”

“My team and I spread the rumors. I—” I sit on the couch. “Men can get nasty when I turn them down.”

“Nasty how?” He steps toward me, a nerve ticking along his jaw.

“They send me notes. Granger . . . um, Granger destroys them. He became so tired of it, he put forth the idea of he and I as lovers.”

“How long have you known him?” He sits next to me, close but not near enough that we accidentally touch.

“Since I was fifteen.”

“How did a princess come across an ogre?”

“He’s not ugly. Granger is the most handsomest man.”

“Even with the scar on his face?”

“More so because of it.”

“Are you certain rumor isn’t truth?”

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