She scoffed against his mouth. She’d been called a lot of things in her life and sweet had never been one of them.
“I thought we talked about you working so hard to protect me,” he said, his arm around her back, trapping her against him. “I can protect myself and I can protect you. You just have to let me, honey.”
Her body filled with a tingling warmth that spread all the way to the tips of her toes. Words like that were dangerous, the feelings they evoked making her want to throw caution to the wind and throw the doors open wide for Lincoln Greene and let him waltz right in.
“You’re relentless,” she told him, raising a brow.
“When it comes to you? Of course, I am. I’ve wanted you forever, Sadie, and now that I finally have you, I’m not letting go.” He pulled away and looked down, taking her in from head to toe. “You are so naked right now.”
Sadie laughed, his sex-addled train of thought the funniest thing to cross her mind since imagining a dog wedding.
“Yes, well, someone hasn’t let me get dressed yet, but now that you mention it, the dogs need to go out and have their breakfasts.”
“I’m sure they don’t mind if you do that without clothes,” Lincoln told her, his lips twitching.
“Not happening,” she said, pushing herself away, and at least grabbing her robe and slipping it on.
He watched as she tied it around her waist, her eyes full of laughter at the disappointment on his face, as if she’d actually considered wandering around her house without any clothes on.
“It was worth a shot,” he said, finding his shirt and putting it on. “Let’s get the dogs all taken care of and then—”
“You can call that security company and cancel whatever it was you ordered.” At his sharp look, she continued. “Let me try my way first, Lincoln. If it doesn’t work, we’ll go from there.”
He looked like he was biting his tongue, his jaw ticking as he clamped his mouth shut and gave her a short nod.
Even his grudging agreement was appreciated. She wasn’t used to someone being so deep in her life, having input on the decisions she made for herself. So, while he had an opinion, his ability to let her make some tough calls was a testament to his respect for her.
Her cheeks heated at the thought, his words from the night before coming back to her. Lincoln, of course, noticed right away.
“You’re blushing,” he noted.
“I was thinking that you taking a step back when I make decisions you don’t agree with must mean that you respect me.”
His smile bloomed instantly, his memory presumably taking him to the same place hers had.
“Shall I worship at my goddess’s feet again?” he asked. “Show you how much I respect you?”
She laughed, taking a step away from him. “No.” She wasn’t sure she was convincing because he advanced when she retreated. “Lincoln.”
“Sadie,” he returned, reaching out a hand and snagging the belt of her robe, giving it a little tug.
The silk gave way, the knot nothing more than a formality between them.
Without another word, he had her back on the bed, laid out before him. His lips curved up triumphantly, his eyes full of promise as he took her in.
Arguing against letting him worship her seemed a waste of breath. In that moment, there was nothing else in the world. Nothing outside of the house, nothing outside of them.
And for just a second, it was all perfect. All she needed.
For just one second.
12
For two weeks, Connor Page kept his distance. Sadie was on edge, waiting for him to show himself so she could take her stand, but he took his sweet time in doing it. As with everything Connor did, he did things on his own time, when it worked for him.
And if she were honest, while the waiting made her antsy, she wasn’t in any hurry to do what she had to do.
Lincoln was no better off, his mood less of the affable guy she loved spending time with and more the kind of guy that stood guard at her door, arms crossed over his chest with a scowl on his face. Even Gordon seemed confused when they came to visit, sensing the shift in mood.
It would all be over soon, she kept telling herself. As she gardened, she practiced all the things she was going to say to Connor when he showed up.
When she walked the dogs, hiking the conservation land, she made bullet-point checklists in her mind, reminding herself of the important things she didn’t want to forget to say.
It was on a constant loop, but no matter how much she’d prepared, when the moment did come, the words died in her throat. Instead, she stood stock-still, unsure how to proceed.
The dogs were in their pens, resting after an afternoon of agility training, but Lola reacted to Connor’s presence as she always did, with an angry growl and deafening barks. Aggie became agitated, her eyes darting to her mistress, as if she could will herself to be standing at Sadie’s side.
Cocoa, bless her heart, wagged her tail.
Sadie stood from her gardening, slipping the gloves off her hands and calmly setting them on the ground next to her. Steeling herself for the inevitable, she straightened her shoulders and headed in his direction. He stood on the crest of the yard, where the front and back met, not moving an inch. Making her come to him.
Power plays.
“Connor,” she said when she reached him.
He looked worse than before, if that was at all possible. His eyes were bloodshot and there were scabs on his face. Little pockmarked scabs.
She refrained from curling her lip in disgust, but the feeling was there, simmering under the surface.
A sick smile twisted his lips as he watched her.
“How’ve you been, Mercedes?” he asked, a false curiosity ringing in his tone. “Anything exciting happen around here recently?”
“You know,” she said, feeling brave. “It did. I had a break-in here, but, don’t worry, I got the best security system money can buy and I bought a really big gun.”
Both were complete lies. She hadn’t gone ahead with the security system Lincoln had proposed, and she’d never even held a gun, let alone bought one. But the words did the trick and he dropped the act.
“You think that’ll stop me. Let’s not forget why I’m here.” He sneered. “You owe me.”
“I think we’re about done with that now, Connor. It’s been long enough; I’ve paid enough. We’re done.”
He didn’t even look surprised. Instead, he laughed in her face as if her words meant nothing to him.
“We’re done when I say we’re done, Mercedes, and there isn’t a damn thing you’re going to do to change that. We’ve got business here, something you’re going to have to work a lot harder to finish than that.”
Sadie crossed her arms over her chest. “And what exactly am I paying you for, Connor? Do you even remember?”
Those simple words set him off and in a flash, before she could suck in a breath or even blink, he had her by the throat.
Sadie had been through a lot of things in her life, but she’d never had another person put hands on her. Not ever. The suddenness of it was jarring, one minute standing her ground, the next completely at his mercy. Her hands gripped his wrist as he held her neck and squeezed, pulling her close enough that she could smell his putrid breath.
He was barely leaving her enough room to draw in air.
“Do I remember? Do I remember?” His nose bumped hers, their faces touching.
Sadie could feel her eyes open wide and she was sure she looked like a deer in the headlights.
There was scared and there was absolute terror.
This was terror.
“Do you remember, you fucking bitch? You ruined my entire life and you think I forgot? You will pay me until the day someone buries your worthless, rich ass in the ground, because I say so. You have no say here; your words mean nothing. And if you think you get to change our little arrangement, then let this be a lesson to you. I will ruin you, Mercedes, in every way possible, I will ruin you.
And when I’m done doing that, I’ll do it all over again, if you’re still breathing.” He shook her by the neck, his fingers tightening around her windpipe. “Do you understand me?”
She nodded, not even caring what she was agreeing to. She just wanted him gone. That was her priority.
“Now run your ass into the house and get me my goddamn money.”
He shoved her by the throat and she fell to the ground, her butt hitting the dirt hard. She skittered back, afraid he’d come for her again.
“I like you afraid,” Connor murmured. “It makes me hard.”
She looked up, horrified to see that he wasn’t lying. He was hard under his shorts and bile rise in her throat. She scrambled to her feet to the sound of his laughter and hustled into the house, locking the door behind her as if that might stop Connor if he wanted in. Taking the stairs two at time, she unlocked her little safe and took what cash she had with shaking hands, willing to give it over if it meant he’d leave.
Trying to plan ahead and be smart, she turned on her cell phone’s voice recorder and put it back in her pocket. With any luck, it would pick up something useful in getting him to go away. That was all she wanted: Connor gone.
When she went out, she had to search for him, worry crashing over her when she found him at the dog’s pens.
“I like this one,” he said, pointing at Cocoa who looked on happily. “The other two deserve a bullet, but I like this one.”
Sadie held her tongue, her insides screaming at him to get away from her baby. That was how she saw her dogs, as her babies, and she loved them with a fierceness she’d never thought she possessed. But seeing Connor so close to one of them, impotent fury filled her veins and she felt herself stiffen.
This would be it. There would be a security system after this. And a restraining order. And a lawyer. And a gun.
Whatever it was going to take to get him gone, she would do. She’d tried it her way. Now it was time to try something else.
He snatched the envelope out of her grip with one hand, lifting the other to caress her throat, the skin there already bruised and tender, ached at his touch.
“Make no mistake, Mercedes. I’m the only one that ends this thing between us. You try to push me out again and I will kill you. I will come back here and gut you. We on the same page yet or do you think you’ve still got some fight left in you? Because I’m still hard and I’m not above taking what I want.”
Sadie swallowed thickly.
“Got it,” she murmured.
“I’ll be back next week,” he said. “This little stunt is going to cost you.”
She didn’t move until he’d pulled out of the driveway and she couldn’t hear his car anymore. When the serene silence returned, she slumped to the ground, knees digging into the dirt, hand holding her throat.
She thought about all the things he’d said to her, the threats he’d made. She had no doubt he meant every word. And if he’d meant to scare her, he’d done a good job of it.
But she still had no intention of letting him continue to harass her. Now, she was going to get the police involved because she was terrified. For herself and for the dogs.
Her mind darted to Lincoln. If Connor knew about Lincoln…
She shook her head, unable to even finish the thought.
It took her a second, but when she replayed their conversation in her mind, over and over again, she realized something.
Of all the things Connor had said, of all the reasons he was coming after her, he’d never mentioned his sister.
Not even once.
Lincoln pulled up to Sadie’s on Friday night, stressed to the max and ready to unwind. It had become their routine, spending work weeks in the city and coming out to Sadie’s to relax on the weekends. It worked well for them all, the only annoying factor spending Monday through Friday without her.
He went home from work every night to his empty condo, he and Gordon both missing their girls. It wasn’t about being lonely or alone, but everything just felt wrong about settling in for the night without Sadie in his arms. He ended every day on the phone with her, but it was starting to not be enough. They were going to have to figure something out if this thing with them was going to continue.
And it was going to, he thought, as he let Gordon jump out of his car and run into the yard.
He and Sadie had been ships passing in the night for too many years. Now that they were finally together, he’d find a way to make it work, any way he had to.
Whatever he had to do to keep her in his life, he was prepared to do it.
He gave a perfunctory knock as he walked in the front door, a big bag of takeout in his arms. He always brought enough for the weekend, Sadie’s cooking skills lacking a bit.
His were two times worse, so he’d never said a word about it. Neither of them came from houses where cooking was encouraged, those types of things done for them. Neither of them had ever learned the ropes in the kitchen.
He’d also wrangled a handful of Lexi Walker’s famous chocolate croissants for the morning.
“Hey,” he called as he walked into the kitchen, finding her at the sink. Her back was to him as she looked out the window. When she didn’t answer him or turn to greet him, he stopped in his tracks. “Sadie?”
Her back swelled as she inhaled a deep breath.
“What is it?” he asked, knowing instinctively that something was wrong.
“You need to not freak out,” she said quietly. “I need you to not freak out.”
He set the bag down on the counter, a cold snake of dread slithering down his back.
“I promise I won’t freak out,” he parroted, not caring what he said, as long as she clued him in to what was going on.
He gently turned her around and she went willingly, her dark, haunted eyes meeting his. His dread quickly flashed to fury at the angry bruises that marred her beautiful neck. Round marks, fingerprints on the sides, red and purple streaks across the front of her throat.
“Don’t freak out,” she reminded him.
He was beyond freaking out. Freaking out was running through the kitchen, wringing his hands. He was well beyond that. He was burning cities to the ground and tearing down buildings with his bare hands. He was ripping Connor Page apart, limb by limb, and ruining him, one piece at a time.
Lincoln’s eyes met hers and he found himself unable to form words, his jaw clenched tight, his teeth aching. With a growl, he wrapped her in his arms and pulled her to him, holding her close because in that one second, it hit him that this could have been worse. She could be dead.
He’d let her walk into a dangerous situation, letting her salvage her pride at the expense of her safety. Never again.
“Tell me you’re okay,” he whispered into her hair.
“I’m fine,” she said, holding onto him as desperately as he held onto her. “This is all he did.”
“This is all?” Lincoln muttered.
It could have been worse. He could have raped her. He could have killed her. But to say this is all made it sound like nothing. And it wasn’t nothing.
“I’m fine, Linc.”
“No more.” His words held a note of finality and he hoped like hell she didn’t balk. “No more pretending we can handle this. We need cops and lawyers and every fucking thing we can gather on our side to take this piece of shit down.” He held her at arm’s length and rubbed his thumbs gently along her throat, his anger roaring like someone had thrown gasoline on a fire. “He will not get away with this, Sadie, if I have to track him down myself.”
She didn’t argue and he thanked fuck for that because he was at the end of his rope.
“My lawyer is coming out here in the morning,” she told him.
“You should have called me. You should have told me he was out here and that he hurt you.”
“I didn’t want to distract you. I’m okay.”
“And you told the lawyer what’s going on?”
“Some of it,” she hedged, her eyes shif
ting away. “I told him about the money part.”
“They call that blackmail,” Lincoln shot back.
The fire came back into her eyes. “Thank you for that,” she said sarcastically. “I would have never known that.”
“Did you happen to mention the threats or oh, I don’t know, the fact that this guy came out here today and tried to kill you?”
“He didn’t try to kill me.” She looked away again and Lincoln felt lower than low, throwing anything in her face in that moment. She didn’t deserve that. “He was trying to scare me.”
“I hope like hell it worked,” he said. “Now we can turn the guy in and finally get him off your back.”
Without a word, she fiddled with her cell phone until a voice he didn’t recognize joined them in the kitchen.
“Make no mistake, Mercedes. I’m the only one that ends this thing between us. You try to push me out again and I will kill you. I will come back here and gut you. We on the same page yet or do you think you’ve still got some fight left in you? Because I’m still hard and I’m not above taking what I want.”
“Got it.” Her voice was tiny, nearly inaudible through the phone’s speaker.
“I’ll be back next week. This little stunt is going to cost you.”
Yes, that was pure, unadulterated hatred running through Lincoln’s veins. He had thought he’d been well-acquainted with anger, but the revulsion and absolute loathing that overtook him was new.
Sadie’s cool fingers caressed his face, pulling him to look at her. “I need you with me,” she said. “If I’m going to do this, I need you with me.”
“I am with you,” he ground out. “And I will kill him if he steps foot on this property next week.”
They were probably the wrong words to say, her eyes shuttering and going blank at the mention of killing someone. He felt bad, but he refused to be sorry. She was in danger, real physical danger, and there wasn’t a chance in hell he wasn’t going to do anything and everything he could to get in front of that for her.
13
There was overstepping, and then there was really overstepping. Lincoln was firmly camped in the really overstepping zone as he sat in his car, watching the house in front of him.
No Love Left Behind (Boston Billionaire's Club Book 1) Page 15