Page 7 of Wretched Heart
He takes the empty seat my eavesdropper had previously occupied, and my eyes widen as I note the beer bottle resting on its side, the contents soaking into a beer mat.
My heart thumps so hard that I’m sure Hunter must see my pulse in my neck. “What did you do to him?”
“He left,” Hunter says. “Quietly.”
When he smiles, I can’t tell if it’s meant to put me at ease or intimidate me. My jaw clenches. I’m in no mood for either. “Did you kill him?”
His green eyes sparkle. The smile doesn’t falter. “Wow, you do have a low opinion of me. The man walked,” he says, his voice suddenly cold.
I strike with my next question before I lose my nerve. “How did you track me down?”
Hunter leans forward, his eyes never leaving mine as his arm slips around me. I jolt upright, my back stiffening as his hand rests on the back of my bodice
“You don’t have to be frightened of me, Maddison,” he whispers, his face drawing nearer to mine.
I shudder as the bastard’s fingersfollow my spine, exploring the cord that laces my dress. I ball my hands into fists, refusing to let him get to me. “I’m not scared,” I hiss into his ear. “I’m pissed.”
“Noted,” he says with an infuriating chuckle.
His head comes too close to my chest for comfort, and I’m debating whether or not to punch him in the nose when I feel a sharp tug on the back of my dress.
Hunter straightens and shows me a pill-sized button. “Tracker,” he explains before pocketing the evidence.
“What the–?” Blood rushes to my head and my mind whirs. When did he plant that? Then I remember. “The goon outside the chapel put it there, didn’t he?” He’d tried to grab me as I ran. Except, I see now, he hadn’t been trying to stop me.
Hunter’s smile broadens into a grin. “My brother,” he explains. “The guy you elbowed.”
“I’m not sorry.”
He laughs. “I’m getting that impression.”
I’ve had enough of this. My life has turned into a dumpster fire and he’s treating it all like a joke. “Why are you here? What do you want?”
“Just to talk,” he replies. “You might not believe it right now, but I’m one of the few people you can trust.”
“Says the man who tracked me down with a bug his brother planted on me,” I scoff.
“For which I apologize, but you really shouldn’t have run, Maddison.”
Chapter 3
Hunter
It wasn’t supposed to be this difficult. Foolishly, we’d gone in expecting the Corbyns to be grateful for our intervention. We’d exposed Barrett’s plan to asset strip their paper mill, but Hugo’s stupidity was something to behold. We’d all just watched Maddison disappear through the now-locked chapel doors, but her brother still tried to convince Barrett that all wasn’t lost.
“I’ll explain to Maddison that it was a misunderstanding,” Hugo had promised, prepared to sell his sister at any price.
“I’d say you underestimate her,” Barrett replied. “And you certainly underestimate me. The deal is dead in the water. I need to be pickier choosing my bride next time.” He shrugged off Hugo’s grasping hand. “Don’t contact me again.”
It was ego talking. Barrett didn’t like it when someone took away one of his toys, so now he was pretending he’d never wanted it. Too much of a coward to confront me directly, he just stalked up and down the aisle until Jake opened the doors at my command.
“We could have handled this without all the drama, Hunter,” Alice chided when Reid finally let her up from her seat.
“Go comfort your son, Alice,” I replied without looking at her. “I think he needs his mommy.”
Alice had controlled the Emerson empire for the ten years between her husband’s death and Barrett’s twenty-first birthday, but since he took over five years ago, she’s been fighting a losing battle to curb her son’s dubious business practices. She looked every one of her sixty years as she disappeared out of the chapel behind her son.
I turned my attention back to Hugo. “I understand you’ll need time to regroup with your sister,” I began. “But I may be able to help.”
