Authors: Dara Girard
She jumped up and ran into the bedroom. Stephen sat expecting a feeling of relief instead a deep pain filled him as he faced his loss. He buried his face in his hands.
***
Hunter balanced a bouquet of flowers, chocolates and his briefcase as he tried to open the door to his apartment. The meeting had been a success. Mylar Industries wanted to buy them out for thirty million! His strategy had worked. Brenna would never have to worry about money again. He stepped inside and paused surprised that the lights were off. Brenna must have gone to bed early. He dropped the chocolates and briefcase on the couch, left the flowers on the kitchen counter and raced into the bedroom ready to tell her the good news. He turned on the lights. The bed lay empty, a note on the pillow. He stared at it as though it would suddenly attack him. He didn’t have to read it to know what it said. She’d made her choice. He crumbled it up and stormed into the kitchen.
Maybe Brenna had made the right decision. She had no reason to stay without his money. He was of little use to her. If only she’d waited. Why couldn’t she have waited? And why did she have to do it this way? Was he some monster they all felt they had to run away from: His mother, Angelina, Janice, Brenna. Was he such a monster that he didn’t deserve a chance? He pressed his fists to his eyes. Then grabbed a knife by its blade and squeezed until drips of blood fell on the counter. A searing hot pain shot through his arm. It felt good. He wanted to feel the pain to dull the ache in his heart. He didn’t want to miss her. He didn’t want to believe that he still needed her, that their marriage had become real to him.
He dropped the knife onto the counter, when he heard the front door open. Brenna walked through the door. She turned to him and gasped. She tossed her bags aside and came towards him. “What happened? You’re getting blood everywhere. What were you doing?”
He stared at her tongue-tied.
“Never mind.” She gently cradled his hand and examined it. “We need to clean it.”
She led him into the bathroom and cleaned the wound. He stared at her bent head confusing clashing with an unfamiliar joy. “Where have you been?”
She carefully wrapped a bandage around his hand. “Errands. I left a note on the bed so you’d see it when you changed.”
He remembered the crumbled note with embarrassment. “Of course.”
Once finished she stood and went into the kitchen. “What were you doing?” she called over her shoulder.
He followed her. “Cutting.”
“I can see that.” She picked up the knife curious. “What were you trying to cut?”
Hunter glanced around searching his mind for a good response. “Umm.”
Brenna suddenly smiled. “I know.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” She picked up the bouquet. “You were trying to cut the flowers for me. You should have known I could have cut them myself when I got home.” She lifted the bouquet to her face and smelled them. “Hmm, they’re beautiful. Thank you.”
He made a noncommittal sound not knowing what to say. At that moment all he noticed was her. How the yellow lily petals looked against her cheek, the highlights in her hair.
Brenna laid the flowers down and grabbed a vase. “I guess your meeting went well?”
Hunter shifted from one foot to the other. “Um, yes.” He had so much he wanted to tell her, but the words wouldn’t come. He watched her spread the flowers on the counter and fill the sink with water.
“So what happened at this meeting?”
He told her all that he’d been working on and how things had progressed. She threw her arms around him. He held her close, brushing his cheek against her hair. “When I came home I thought you’d left me,” he said.
“I did.”
A sheet of ice spread through him. He drew back. “Oh.”
“I left you for a full ten minutes. Then I came back.”
“Why?”
Brenna took a deep breath then said, “Because I love you.” It felt good to say the words. It felt good to admit that he’d swept into her life and shredded all past feelings she’d tended for Byron. Those feelings had been light superficial longings. Her feelings for Hunter were deeply embedded, flowing in her veins. Saying goodbye to him forever felt like her skin was being torn from her—leaving her raw and vulnerable. It felt scary too. But this was the moment she’d been afraid of. Being completely real with no pretending, trusting someone else to be kind, expecting them to be kind and not knowing if they would be. Why? Because Hunter felt no need to rescue her, no need to pity her.
When he didn’t respond, for a moment she wished she hadn’t come back. Wished she hadn’t revealed herself.
Brenna lowered her gaze and returned to the flowers. “These really are beautiful.”
Hunter spun her around to face him. His eyes intense, his voice deep filled with an emotion that awakened some foreign emotions in her. “I’m glad you came back.”
He captured her mouth with his own; his lips both persuasive and demanding. It was more than a kiss. It was more a secret not spoken between two people making the invisible visible. When his lips touched hers, she could see loyalty, she could feel honor, as though it was just within her grasp. She knew he could see her love for him as though it were twinkling in the dark sky.
As he held her she realized how much she’d blocked him out. How much of life she’d blocked out. How many feelings and experiences she had kept at a distance. And how much she had lost by doing so. She’d denied herself this moment. This terrifying, frightening yet freeing moment for years. Never had his touch felt so tender, his lips so gentle. Never had she felt this alive. She felt more alive than Byron had ever made her. “I’m—”
“Shh, we’ll talk later.”
But they were talking now and saying so much more. His lips were a warm, wet tantalizing invitation for more. Igniting vivid desires. She soon lay naked in his arms, the length of him on top of her. She could feel him sinking between her thighs, stirring emotions, once dormant now like a hurricane mingling passion and pain. A sweet, savage pain that needed to be brought forth in order to heal. Tears sprung to her eyes as she let go of the old Brenna and allowed the new one to emerge: This wife, sister, friend. This woman who would no longer hide from her feelings.
She cried and he let her, gently brushing away tears, freeing her to lift off the weight of her mask. He pulled the couch throw over them and she snuggled in his arm. He tightened his hold and lowered his arm to her waist.
“I’m so happy,” she said.
Hunter absently stroked her thigh. “Just wait until the Randolphs hear about this.”
Brenna turned to him and saw a look on his face that worried her. “Why should we care what the Randolphs’ think?”
His eyes met hers filled with a darkness that paralyzed her with fear. “Because I plan to make them care.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Brenna’s fears were realized a month later when she glanced over to the other side of the room and noticed Hunter in the corner reading a series of papers. For the first time she noticed how his weight loss had given him a hard, edgy look she didn’t like. “What are you doing?”
He glanced up. “Randolph Medical is in trouble. Their sales are low and they’ve overextended themselves. They are prime for a takeover.” He flashed a cruel grin.
She inwardly shivered at his expression. “I hate when you smile like that.”
“I thought you liked my smile.”
“I do. Just not that one.”
“Why?”
Because she thought he looked like Orson. “Never mind. So what are you going to do about it?”
“About what?”
“Saving the company.”
He frowned. “I’m not planning to save the company.”
“You’re not going to let it fall, are you? This is your family legacy and a lot of people depend on its survival. I’m sure you’ll try to save it.”
Hunter looked down at his papers. “You’ve made a poor assumption,” he said in a quiet tone.
“What assumption?”
His eyes met hers. “You’re assuming that I am a kind man.”
Brenna licked her lower lip, choosing her words carefully. “I know they betrayed you, but destroying the company isn’t going to make it right.”
Hunter stared at her amazed. “Why are you defending him?” He gestured to the couch. “Do you remember what he did to you? Trust me, this is about much more than betrayal.”
“I know what he did to me was wrong, but—”
He narrowed his eyes. “There are no buts. Your loyalty lies with me.”
“It is.”
“Then don’t get in my way.”
“Hunter, please listen to me. Your revenge won’t just hurt him, but everyone else. Think of your grandmother.”
He shrugged nonchalant. “She’s lived a long life.”
Brenna paused at his cold disregard. “Let me help you get what you want, but—”
His eyes darkened as his voice turned to acid. “I will settle for nothing less than the sight of his blood dripping on my hands.”
Brenna stared back at him, although it took all her courage to do so. She could feel his anger and his need for revenge, but she knew that what he was thinking of could destroy him too. “I won’t let you.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Then I’ll fight you.”
Hunter stared at her as a cool anger began to gather in his mind. It was an anger he’d never felt before. It didn’t grip or seize him, but whispered calmly. Quiet thoughts he could never utter aloud. For a moment he wondered if he had inherited his mother’s madness, because as he looked at his wife he felt a dangerous anger fill him. An anger that her loyalty meant everything to him, that her opinion mattered and that gave her a certain power over him.
“Don’t get in my way, Brenna.”
“I will if I have to.”
“You know they say I killed my brother.”
“I don’t believe that. When I have time again I’ll find your mother.”
He threw down the paper and stood. “You can’t because she’s dead.”
“Did they tell you that too?”
“Ruby wouldn’t lie to me.”
Brenna shook her head and looked at him in sympathy. “I wish I could believe that.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.” He turned to the window. “They’ll all get what they deserve.”
Brenna came up behind him and wrapped her arm around his. “He made us both suffer. Are you any better if you make others suffer because of the actions of one man?”
“At this very moment I don’t care about being moral or decent. To Orson power is all that matters.”
“That may be so but Orson possesses something a lot more important than his power, which is why he has been able to succeed all these years and destroy and control people’s lives including yours. Hunter, true vengeance is discovering a man’s weaknesses, not trying to take away his greatest strength.”
Hunter reluctantly listened. “Go on.”
“What does Orson value more than his money, his power, his position? What is the one thing you’re willing to protect with your life?”
He looked down at her for a long moment then glance away. “Orson isn’t like me.” He removed her arm. “This is my fight and I’ll do it alone.”
***
Byron nearly swallowed his tongue when Hunter burst into his office like an avenging warrior. He held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you think I did, I didn’t,” he said.
Hunter raised a brow.
“Okay, so I asked her to run away with me, but she decided not to. That’s all, nothing happened. I swear.”
Hunter sat, looking suddenly amused. “Yes, I know.”
Byron let his hands fall, relieved. “Then why are you here?”
“Are you still in the mood for a little revenge?”
Byron began to smile. “Keep talking.”
“Orson was responsible for putting Brenna in the hospital. I have decided that I would like to thank him personally.”
Byron stilled, a look as dangerous as Hunter’s, coming into his eyes. “So would I. If you want to destroy his company I have just the information you need.”
“I already know it.”
Byron’s face fell. “You do?”
“Yes. However, I could still use your services.”
“Fine. So do you know everything?”
“Yes, the embezzlement scheme of my father is no secret to me.”
“Do you know about Victor Erickson?”
“No, who is he?”
Byron rubbed his hands together. “Our winning card.”
***
Orson sat in his study trying to figure out the best way to get Randolph back on track. He glanced up when he heard a knock on the door. “Come in.”
Two officers entered the room. “Orson Randolph?”
“Yes.”
“Please stand.”
He casually did so. “Why?”
“You’re under arrest for the assault and battery of Brenna Randolph.”
“What! There must be a mistake. That bastard.” He called out his wife’s name. “Audrey! You get my lawyer on the phone now. You can’t do this to me. Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, sir.” They ushered him towards the front door.
“I’ll have your jobs.”
“You have the right to remain silent…”
***
Orson returned home hours later. He marched into the sitting room and poured himself a drink. He turned to Audrey who sat on the couch. “That boy has gone too far.” He took a long swallow then set the glass down. “He thinks he can play the game,
my
game, but I’m bigger than he is. He’ll find out. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Curtis called.”
“So what?”
“He needs to see you at the office.”
“I don’t care. He’ll see me tomorrow.”
“He said it was urgent. Apparently there are two men who want to invest in your company.”
Orson’s interest peaked. “Fine. I’ll change and get over there right away.”
***
He would deal with Hunter later. If that boy thought a little jail time would rattle him, he was dead wrong. He chuckled to himself as he strode down the hall to his office. Here he was in the company he’d made. Created on his own. Nobody could defeat him. He opened the door to his office and halted. Hunter sat at his desk. He glanced at his son and the two other men in the room.
He slammed the door. “If you value your life, you’ll get up out of my chair.”
Hunter clasped his hands. “If you value yours, you’ll take a seat.”