Page 4 of Ruin Me
He looked just as sleazy as he did back then, with that shit eating grin that could melt fucking steel. I hated him. He never worked a day in his life, and karma certainly hadn’t worked her way around to him…yet.
“Ah,” Manny said, coming inside when he noticed me. “Emerson, do you remember Rhett Nicholas? He’s one of my most prized weapons in the business, can track down anything.”
“I do, sir,” Emerson said, turning that fake as shit smile on me. He hated me just as much as I hated him. “It’s good to see you found your calling, Rhett.”
“You wanted to see me, boss?” I turned my attention back to Manny.
“Has Austin filled you in?”
“Hadley’s missing.”
“Yes,” he said, annoyed. “I need you to find her and bring her back. She’s the star of the party, after all.”
“She is? I wasn’t aware she attended those parties, boss.”
“She doesn’t,” Emerson replied, which annoyed me further. “But she’s going to love this one. It’ll be all about her. I can’t wait to show off my future wife.”
I knew what he meant. Every indication had been there that this party would be one of the orgies that Manny held where everyone and anyone left their inhibitions at the door and fucked anyone they deemed fit.
Emerson had a thing for putting his possessions on display, which meant he thought of Hadley as his possession and he would parade her around naked, to be adored on, to be touched by many, to be fucking humiliated.
I wanted to punch him in the face so hard that his new teeth kicked in and he choked on them.
“What do you need from me?” I aimed my question at Manny once again, ignoring the fucker in front of me who thought he was my boss.
“Find her,” Manny said. “Bring her home.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
Backing out of the room, I shot a look at Austin who knew just how much I fucking hated Emerson Carter, and headed back to my room to get my things. I needed to know where she was, or where she could have gone. As I grabbed my bag, I moved further down the hall to the stairs that would lead up to her room. I took a deep breath and opened her door, that soft jasmine scent wafted into my nostrils and took me back to the days when I first met her, and the days when I knew I loved her from the moment she opened those beautiful pink lips and told me her name.
Fuck, wake up, Rhett. You ain’t here to revisit old wounds.
She’d never even thought of me that way, not once. Sure, she’d been sweet, but she also dated as many of Manny’s men as she could…just never me.
It had turned my obsession into hatred. I hated that smile, the way her body moved as if she had a song in her head and she swayed her hips to the rhythm, the way her hair smelled of jasmine when she passed by and I got caught in its spell.
Closing my eyes, I pushed the images of her fiery red hair from my mind, the way her emerald green eyes could look right into your soul, and the way her body curved like a perfect hourglass. My cock was straining against my pants, urging for me to take it into my hand, and pump out the release I desperately wanted to pump into her.
Fuck, Rhett, she’s not yours.
No, she was Emerson’s.
That fucking weasel needed someone to take him out once and for all. I’d been close to ending his miserable existence once, Iwas the reason he’d needed to have his jaw rewired and his teeth replaced, a fact I relished and wore with honour. It had been Austin who had pulled me back and Manny’s good grace to keep me out of prison.
I looked around the room, taking in the photos on the wall of her friends and the places she’s always wanted to visit.
Bingo.
I moved over to it, immediately being drawn to the photo of me, Austin and her when we were kids. I was on her fucking wall?
My eyes darted to her desk, where I saw a notepad, with nothing on the page, but the telltale sign that she’d ripped a page off the top of it. She’d always been a heavy writer so I looked in her cup of pens and pulled out the pencil she kept in there. Taking to scratching the top of the paper lightly, I moved over the indentations until words began to form.
I grabbed the piece of paper and folded it up into my jacket pocket before I grabbed my bag and left.
Hadley
A loud bang made me jump to attention, and immediately following the noise, I jumped because I didn’t recognise my surroundings. Slowly, I relaxed as I looked out at the window and saw the harbour, and the large black cloud, complete with an insane display of lightning.
