Bad Boy's Bridesmaid (70 page)

“Oh, right.” I rolled my eyes. “Mrs. Greentree too.
They’re in
cahoots
. It was all a puppy conspiracy. They
meant
to
breed Jean-Baptise and Millie so they could start a pet store!”

“A puppy mill!”

“Shih Poos everywhere!”

Delta giggled and checked her watch. “You should sleep,
Josie. It’s late.”

“I will.”

“Seriously. You’re sleeping for two.”

I frowned. “I don’t…think that’s how it works.”

“Do you have
any
idea how a baby works?”

Good question. “I knew how to make one?”

“I don’t need the details.” She grabbed her purse and
pointed me to the bedroom. “Go. Now. Seriously. And call Sean and tell him you
need another day off. You should go to a doctor tomorrow and get checked out.”

“I will.”

She smiled and let herself out. “Night-night, Momma.”

Oh Lord. I wasn’t used to that nickname. I didn’t mind it
though. I just wished Maddox was the one to hear the news first.

I peeled myself from the couch and avoided the containers
of leftover Chinese. The smell wasn’t doing anything for my appetite. I battled
my wavering tummy and stole the files Delta brought for me. I made it to bed
without throwing up. A minor victory.

The papers from the insurance company weren’t new, just
copies of the original documents filed after the adjustor walked with the fire
marshal.

Except for a few.

Some of the pages were stamped
VOID
. I wasn’t sure
why they were kept, or why they were stapled to the official paperwork. No one
ever said Delta wasn’t organized—even if most of Saint Christie politely
referred to her as
dedicated
instead of
OCD
, just like her
mother.

But something was weird with the pages. Both the voided
copy and official were signed by the adjustor. The official paper detailed the
police findings—citing
ARSON
in bolded letters as the cause of the fire.
I checked the second. That was the same. And they both detailed the same
method—electrical tampering.

Except the voided copy included two additional words.

INSURANCE FRAUD
.

“What in the world…” I stared at the page. It didn’t make
any sense. I flipped to the official copy. Those words were missing, and the
paper was signed and stamped a day later.

Weird.

I reached for my phone to call Delta and ask about the
discrepancy, but a violent knocking rattled my door once more.

I leapt from the bed, clutching the reports. I couldn’t
catch my breath, and the hope surged through me, mending a heart that shattered
like peanut brittle and the guilt that poisoned me in bitter regret.

Maddox
.

I had stripped to my tiny tank top and boy cut panties
for bed, but I didn’t bother dressing. I raced to the door. The pounding hadn’t
stopped.

Maybe Delta called him. God bless her meddling. She
wouldn’t let me be alone and pregnant, even if she didn’t trust Maddox.

My fingers trembled over the chain. Maybe he came back on
his own? Maybe he
knew
? Realized I needed him? That…
we
needed
him?

The door burst open, shattering the old lock. I leapt
back, but the intruder grabbed me before I had time to react. The handkerchief
was stuffed over my mouth. It smelled horrible, and I struggled against the
cloth. I ran, but the man caught me, wrapping me in his arms from behind. I
reared back, head butting his nose.

He swore.

It wasn’t Maddox’s voice, but I recognized it.

His words crashed around me as I dropped in his arms and
fell into a dark and terrible nightmare.

Chapter Eighteen - Maddox

I meant to forget her.

I thought I’d get over her.

I hoped I could live without her.

Fucking bullshit.

How the hell was I supposed to breathe without her sugared,
honey scent? I couldn’t sleep without dreaming of her. Couldn’t eat without
imagining the desserts she used to stuff in me. Couldn’t dress without
remembering the heat of her hands.

Couldn’t speak without feeling an imaginary brush of her
lips.

Couldn’t exist without understanding
why
she would
betray me, destroy me,
damn
me.

Why she thought that was the only way to protect me?

Fourteen nights on the road hit me harder than the year
in prison. At least then iron bars and guards and the law kept me from Josie’s
bed.

Now?

For two weeks, I’d lived out of a cheap motel with a
pre-paid cell phone and the last hundred dollars in my wallet. I gave the chief
two grand before I left. It wasn’t enough to buy Chelsea’s freedom, but it
convinced him to leave her in peace until I could find some money.

Wherever that would come from.

When I got to the city, Ironfield welcomed me home with a
piercing rain shower and an attempted mugging. I blackened the eye of the
asshole who tried to knife me, and then I chased him to steal the blade. Some
instincts died hard, but the streets had once been my old job. I did whatever I
could to survive, and I wasn’t proud of any of it. Josie only ever knew what
she had to know. I vowed I wouldn’t corrupt that cupcake any more than necessary.

Though the lies had corrupted her all the same.

The world wasn’t made of chocolate; it reeked of shit.
Except that I hated teaching her that lesson. If anyone needed rose-tinted
glasses, it was my little sugar plum fairy with the piping bag of pink icing.

I’d asked around for the usual jobs. Shady, immoral
bullshit that would never come with a 401k or healthcare. Once, I protected as
many whores as I shook down pimps, and I dealt in as many drugs as I muled. As
long as it paid, I’d do it.

But something stopped me. Running guns and kicking the
shit out of debtors worked for earning the money I needed to pay off the chief,
but it wouldn’t rebuild the walls of Sweet Nibbles.

If I ever went back.

Why the fuck did I leave?

So I stole a paper from a diner and hunted through the
pages for a decent job. I circled the electrical work, but I never thought I’d
get a call.

Doubted more that they’d take me on.

First time for everything.

Some prick named Sam hired me. He didn’t give a shit
about my record, just wanted a certified electrical subcontractor who’d keep
his mouth shut and get paid under the table. It sounded great, except the job
was in some little pet shop in the middle of Ironfield. One of the districts
that hadn’t been updated in thirty years.

I took one look at the shop and considered taking up
dealing again. Sam hoisted his pants over a beer belly and rubbed a mustache
that was missing a leather cut and motorcycle.

“You gotta be kidding.” I pointed to the mess of a
breaker box. “I can’t rewire this.”

“Don’t want you to,” Sam said. “Just change the covers on
the outlets.”

Gut instinct was a bitch. This job was more crooked than
drugs. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. In and out, and you get your money.”

“This whole system is a fire hazard. The connectors are probably
worn to shit. I’ve seen it before. Give it time and the whole box will short
out and burn. Bust up a couple connectors, and she could collect her insurance
money.”

“Just replace the goddamned plates,” Sam said. “Now.”

And risk my fucking certification? Hell no. “Screw you.
You set your own death trap.”

“No one’s asking you to play fire marshal.”

“You’re lucky I don’t call him in here.”

I flipped him off as I stormed out. My record was ruined
already. If I got pinned to a job with another electrical fire?

Fuck it
. Once was enough.

Hell, I still couldn’t believe Josie’s shop burned the
way it did. She never had an issue with the building or health codes. All her
equipment was top of the line, too new for fraying cords. How the hell did the
arsonist even set it on fire? Not like Matthias left him a detailed instruction
manual on the store’s outdated circuits. 

My chest seized.

I nearly walked into traffic and got my ass kicked by a
bus.

In that moment, I knew exactly what had happened that
night.

I knew how the arsonist did it and why I was framed.

Revelation felt a hell of a lot like a screwdriver
touching a live wire. What the hell was I supposed to do? I had to get back to
Josie. She deserved closure. I needed…

Anything.

Just an excuse to see her again. She held my heart, and
the aching pit in my chest festered and ached without it. I couldn’t think
straight when I was separated from her.

How the hell was I going to tell her the truth?

She hurt me, betrayed me, but I couldn’t protect her
anymore. She had a right to know what had happened—even if it killed her.

It was late when I made it to her apartment, later by the
time I worked up the courage to approach her steps. Like a ball-less asshole, I
twisted with cowardice and shame.

How had we fucked this up so badly? She forgave me when I
offered my
services
to Nolan, even when she knew I was in danger every
second I let that bastard near.

She had been scared. Helpless. And she understood me
better than I knew myself. No matter what I said, no matter how much I swore,
nothing would have stopped me from murdering Nolan a year ago.

She didn’t put me in jail to stop Nolan. She did it to
protect
him, to save me from myself because I was too consumed with rage and now too
consumed with revenge to see clearly.

I lost her because of it.

No. It ended now. I let time and prison and people
separate us for too long. I wasn’t letting her get away. I promised to marry
her before. I’d make good on it now.

I took the steps to her porch two at a time, but my fist
stilled before I pounded on the door. Saint Christie was a quiet town, and not
everyone locked their doors.

But even Josie knew better than to leave it wide open.

I stepped inside. Her lights were on. Chinese food
containers cluttered her kitchen—usually pristine and orderly. Papers and plans
littered every available surface—anything and everything pertaining to her
shop.

Josie wasn’t in her bed. She wasn’t home, but her purse
hung by the door. I searched her bedroom and found her phone tossed under the
nightstand. I scanned through it, reading texts I never answered. Plenty from
Delta. Some from Willowbend.

One text from Nolan.

Something was wrong. Her reply was hostile and
accompanied with a sound clip. I listened to it, my stomach churning as I
realized she threatened a man who would murder to protect his reputation.

This wasn’t about revenge anymore. Anger and rage no
longer consumed me.

A new terror threaded my veins. Nolan Rhys had taken
Josie.

And if I didn’t kill him first, Josie would die.

Chapter Nineteen – Josie

“We need to talk.”

The voice blurred in my ears. Could a voice blur? He
didn’t slur it. The words just sludged together in my head. Wavering. Bouncing.

Leeching into my thoughts.

I knew that voice. It was one that required the
restraints on my hands and legs.

Mayor Nolan Rhys bound me to a chair with ropes, and hid
me in a dusty, flickering cabin.

No, barn?

And he wanted to
talk
?

“I never should have baked cookies for you,” I said.

My tongue felt fat, like someone made bananas foster in
my mouth. I didn’t let him see me tremble, and I didn’t dare get enraged. I
needed a clear head for this. Needed to stay calm. God only knew what he used
to knock me out, but it wasn’t confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder.

Would it hurt the baby?

Nolan knelt before my chair. His three piece suit was as
impractical in the streets of Saint Christie as it was kneeling in his
barn—even if he refused to let his pinstriped slacks touch the weathered floorboards.
Not like he ever did a day of hard work here.

Except when he torched his campaign signs and framed
Maddox for the crime.

“Josie? Are you awake?”

I was now. I didn’t want to imagine what he did while I
was out. I still wore my tank top and panties, but that was it. Not my most
modest moment or anything I trusted around Nolan. His gaze lowered one too many
times. The shivers slithered over me, one wave after another.

“You kidnapped me,” I whispered.

“I hope you’ll forgive me once we’re done.”

“Done doing
what
?”

“Negotiating.”

I tested the ropes on my wrists. They strained. Too
tight. “Negotiating my freedom?”

He didn’t smile. “Negotiating mine, if you please.”

I never thought I’d be in a position of power over Nolan.
“You don’t like the recording I have of you threatening Maddox.”

“It’s not admissible in court. We live in a two-party
consent recording state.”

“Says the man who kidnapped me and tied me up.”
Adrenaline helped to push the drugs out of my system. “I don’t care about the
court. The media though…”

“This sound clip won’t help my election campaign.”

“I thought so,” I said. “You have an image problem, Mayor
Rhys.”

“Not yet.”

Liar. “Your image is dishonest. You act like you’re
perfect. The best name, the most money, the greatest education, the spotless
record. You’re a mayor of a wholesome, small American town, and you think you
deserve something bigger.” I stared at him, at his playboy hair and dazzling
blue eyes. “Only I know the real you.”

“No. You bring out something in me, Josie.” He stared at
my chest. “I don’t know if it’s something natural or just what you do to me.”

“Don’t blame me for your perversions.”

He tensed, almost angry. “I offered you everything.”

“And I wanted
nothing
from you.”

“Are you so sure?”

“You can’t give me what I want.” I didn’t trust him as he
started to pace. “I hoped you’d go to jail.”

“I told you. I didn’t burn down your shop.”

“I know.”

“But I can get it back for you…”

I kicked my ankles. The ropes were looser around my feet,
but I couldn’t get free. Nolan straightened his tie and tried to hide the
frustration in his voice. He was willing to bargain even though he hated the
offer.

“You have a sound clip in your possession that will
damage my career,” he said. “Something that will end my campaign before it
begins.”

I wished I had some water. My mouth dried, but that
wasn’t as bad as my twisting stomach. It wasn’t a good time for morning
sickness.

I faked confidence. “I thought we had an agreement. You
stay away from Maddox, and I wouldn’t reveal to every media outlet in the state
that you threatened to kill him.”

“Right.” Nolan sneered. “Because you
love
him.”

“More than anything.”

“I could have given you more than him.” He snickered.
“You think my little threat is bad? Do you even know the type of man Maddox is?
If you knew the things he’s done, you’d regret denying me.”

“But he’s never
kidnapped
me,” I said. “Never
threatened anyone I love. Never hurt me when I refused him. Never presumed to
know what was best for me.”

“I’m in love with you, Josie.”

“Then untie me. Let me go.”

Nolan swore. The hair on my neck rose. I didn’t like this
side of him. He was bad enough in public, forcing me into meetings and
conversations, but at least there we had a reputation to maintain.

Here? Isolated? Alone? The drugs he used to knock me out
were potent, and my head still ached. I had to get away from him before he did
something worse than kidnap me.

Before his
love
turned into lust.

“I want the recording you made of me. Delete it.” Nolan
ran a thick tongue over his lip. “And maybe I can offer you something that will
put all this unpleasantness behind us.”

“What deal?”

“I’ll help you rebuild your shop.”

“Will you bring a hammer and nails?”

He unfolded a paper from his pocket and held it up so I
can see. “This is the original property deed and survey to your land. Bob Ragen
was right. The land was subdivided improperly, and the county never recorded
it. Technically…” He smiled. “You own
both
lots. Bob has no case against
you.”

I leaned away in the chair. Nolan only stepped closer.
“You kidnapped me to show me a
clerical
error
from fifty years
ago?”

“I thought you’d be happier.”

“I’d clap, but I can’t move my hands.”

Nolan liked that. “You’ll need money to rebuild. It’s
yours.”

“Are you bribing me, or am I blackmailing you?”

“Call it a loan, no interest for the first ten years,” he
said. “I’ll become the primary investor in your property and refuse my share of
the profits. You get your shop back, your customers, your livelihood. Perhaps
that would give you reason to forgive past indiscretions.”

“Nothing will forgive what you’ve done.”

“That’s your part of this arrangement, Josie.” Nolan
brushed my cheek. His touch chilled me, rotten and vile. “I need you to control
Maddox. Can you do that?”

No. “That’ll be hard to do. You
kidnapped
me.”

“He doesn’t have to know that.”

“You want me to pretend you didn’t force me from my home
in the middle of the night, drugged up and half-naked?”

His hand drifted lower, teasing the hem line of my shirt.
He tugged it up, up, up, revealing a sliver of dark skin just over my navel. I
hoped he didn’t see me tremble.

“I could have done worse.”

“No doubt.”

“You would have liked it.”

“You’re disgusting.”

His slap was hard, fierce against my cheek. “We still
have an opportunity to
try
, Josie. Don’t tempt me?”

“Pity I don’t have my phone here to record
that
.”

His second slap struck harsher than the first. The chair
teetered, and I fell on my side.

My stomach heaved. Nothing came up but only because I had
nothing left in me. I hadn’t eaten. My head throbbed. I was naked, cold, and
Nolan’s compromise was looking less and less like something that would benefit
me.

Nolan hauled me up from the floor, slicing through the
ropes binding me to the chair with a knife I didn’t know he concealed in his
pocket. He kicked the chair away and held me up for his inspection. I danced on
my tippy-toes while he leered at me.

Whatever defiance I showed before, whatever challenge I
issued only pissed him off. I had to rein it back, take some sort of control.

If not for me then for the baby I carried.

“Okay,” I said. “You give me a loan to rebuild my shop,
and I won’t release the recording of you. I’ll delete it. No one has to know it
happened.”

“Maddox will know.”

I swallowed. My toes barely scraped the ground, and the
ropes tugged too hard. “In case you haven’t noticed, you are the reason he left
me. I haven’t seen or heard from him in two weeks.”

Nolan’s smile widened, an opportunistic slide of his jaw.
“I noticed, Josie.”

“So you don’t have to worry about him.”

“Are you worried about him?”

No need to lie. “Yes.”

“Are you worried about
you
?”

No hesitation. “Yes.”

“
Why
?” Nolan gentled, and a strange and unsettling
tone shadowed him with mania. “Just once, Josie. Let me prove how much I love
you.”

I squirmed. He liked that. “We made our agreement. I
trust you. Isn’t that enough?”

“No.”

The ropes bound my arms and legs, but he only needed one
hand to hold me still. His other tickled low, cupping my behind and forcing me
close to his waist.

Something hard struck my thigh.

This time, I wasn’t so sure he’d give me a chance to
argue.

I kept my voice soft, as non-confrontational as I could
manage. “Nolan, I’m pregnant.”

His grip released. I dropped to my feet again. He stepped
away.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Josie.” He ran a hand through his
hair. “You let that brute—”

“I’ll take the deal. I’ll get my shop. You can do your
campaign. I agree, okay?”

He grunted, forcing me against one of the barn’s load
bearing pillars. The wood scraped my hand. He forced a new rope over my waist
that strapped me to the beam. I wiggled as his phone buzzed. It distracted him
before he tied the knot as tightly as the others.

He glanced at his cellphone’s screen before flashing it
at me. It wasn’t a call or message. Just a blip from an app I didn’t recognize.

“This place looks like an abandoned old barn, but the
security on it…” He pocketed the phone. “Top notch.”

“Nolan?”

He walked away to inspect the equipment on an old work
bench. “I know you think little of me. It confuses me. I’ve never had to prove
myself or earn anyone’s respect. You? You’re a challenge.”

It didn’t sound like such a compliment now.

Nolan continued, talking mostly to himself. “My
grandfather worked this land and made his own fortune. My father was the best
damn lawyer in the state and raised his family here. I took that money and name
and reputation and thought it would impress you. What else can I do to make you
look at me the way you look at
him
?”

My mouth dried. “It’s just…how I feel. You can’t control
that.”

“You don’t want this deal any more than I do,” he said.
“Sure, it’s good publicity.
Local hero offers help to restore community
landmark
. I’d work it into my campaign. But here’s the problem.” He picked
up a heavy tool from the bench and tested its weight against his hand. “I know
you. I know the kind of person you are.”

“What kind of person?”

He smiled. “You won’t blackmail someone…even if you hate
them. Sooner or later, the guilt would eat at you. All those sweet little
candies would taste like ash in your mouth. You’d have to come clean…and you’d
ruin me by clearing your conscience.”

“I won’t.” My words stuck in my throat. “I just want my
shop back. I won’t talk. I promise.”

“A promise is worth nothing from an honest person doing
wrong. No matter what I do, you’ll become a liability.” Nolan stalked to the
door, edging into the shadows. “Just like Maddox.”

The door burst open, splintering under a shattering kick.
I shouted as Maddox crashed inside, his gaze too focused on me to recognize the
danger lurking in the dark.

I shouted his name. Nolan swung the tool in his hand. It
struck Maddox by the ear.

He dropped, hard.

My heart stopped. Maddox moved, but not quickly. Dazed.
He was hurt. He needed help.

And Nolan replaced the wrench only to approach me with
duct tape. He ripped a piece and slammed it over my lips.

“Sorry, Josie,” he said. “I really hoped this would end
differently.”

I twisted in the ropes, but Nolan moved away, cell phone
in hand. He dialed a number and taunted me with a finger pressed to his lips. I
screamed into the tape anyway.

“Chief Craig?” Nolan kicked Maddox’s ribs as he tried to
stand. “Look, I got a problem. Josie Davis and I were spending the night
together, and her ex showed. Yeah, Maddox. He came after me.”

Nolan shouldered the phone and reached for his knife. He grimaced
and slashed his own palm.

“Chief, he’s got Josie, and I don’t know what he’s gonna
do. You gotta send someone up here before it’s too late.”

He ended the call. What the hell was he doing? His wound
splattered blood everywhere, and he made sure to bleed over Maddox.

“Know that I do love you, Josie.” Nolan studied me, as if
for the last time. “But I need to protect myself and move on from this
obsession.”

A lighter flashed in his hand. I stiffened, searching the
barn. Old wood. Barrels of oil and gasoline. Boxes and crates. The place was a
tinderbox
.

And we were trapped inside.

Nolan lit the edges of an old newspaper. He tossed the
crumpled sheet onto a bundle of straw in the far corner. Flames immediately
danced along the dried bale.

He was going to burn the barn to the ground.

Nolan pulled and antique lamp from the wall and pitched
it into the fire. The glass shattered, and the fire eagerly lapped at the
leaking oil. It billowed into a ferocious curtain of flame that seized the barn
and everything inside.

He dropped the lighter into Maddox’s coat pocket. Maddox
gripped his arm, but Nolan’s punch dropped him again. Nolan turned before he
opened the barn door.

“Goodbye, Josie.”

Oh god. I screamed as Nolan slipped into the night, and
screamed again as the door slammed shut, feeding the fire a burst of oxygen
before trapping us within.