Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
“I can get myself home.” I step back from Maddox. He starts to move toward me, clearing the space I made, but Cullen stops him.
“Okay,” Maddox says. I’m not sure if he’s talking to his brother or me.
“At least let one of my officers take you home. It will make my brother breathe easier.”
“Okay,” I agree, not liking the look on Maddox’s face. He looks uneasy.
“I’ll send the cakes to your house,” Maddox says as I turn to head out. I should tell him no. That I should be fired and we aren’t getting married but I nod in agreement. I tell myself it’s because I want the cake and not because I’m still planning this party. Wedding, my mind mentally corrects.
“Officer Kane will take you,” Cullen tells me, pointing to the cop holding the door open for me. He still has his other hand on Maddox, not letting his brother go. A part of me wants to turn and jump into Maddox’s arms. My body yearns to kiss him all over again but I’m always making the wrong choices. So I do what I think the sane thing to do is and leave. No matter how badly I want to stay. I get into the cop car and he silently drives me home.
I text MJ, relieved when she tells me she’s home and not in the middle of making videos. The drive feels like forever. When I pull up in the cop car, MJ is out the front door before I can even open the car door.
“He’s just giving me a ride. I’m not in trouble,” I rush to tell her. She narrows her eyes at the cop.
“Just bringing her home as Detective Castile told me to do, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” MJ gives him a nod before pulling me into the house. “There is cake everywhere.”
When I enter the kitchen I see what she means. I have no idea how he got the cakes here but they are.
“Spill,” she tells me as she hands me a fork. So I do. I tell her everything. Even about the kiss.
“He knows you’ve been stalking him all this time?” She can’t wrap her mind around it either. She looks around the kitchen. “These are your wedding cake samples,” she whisper-yells. I can’t tell if she’s pissed or in awe. The way she keeps on eating the cakes, I’m guessing she’s not mad. She hasn’t picked up a knife yet so that’s a good sign.
“I’m going to call in sick tomorrow. I need a day to comprehend all of this.”
MJ nods her head in agreement. She wraps her arm around me and pulls me into a big hug. “Let’s eat as much of this cake as we can. Tomorrow we can talk all of this out and make sense of it.”
I hug her tight, enjoying the comfort she is providing me. I can always count on her.
12
Maddox
“She called in sick to avoid you so maybe the correct response isn’t to stake out her home.”
“I can’t allow her to go unprotected. What if the crazy lady comes back? I can’t believe you let her out on bail.” I slide my brother a look of disgust. They booked June Franklin for attempted assault and let her out two hours later on a measly thousand dollar bond. Cullen suggested we follow her, but I nixed that. I’m not leaving Luna’s side until she’s wearing my ring and June Franklin has been dealt with.
“You can’t hold people indefinitely. There are laws and shit.” Cullen hands me a paper-wrapped sandwich.
“There should be better laws,” I say grumpily as I accept his dinner offering.
“You could’ve run for office. Mom wanted you to but you told her you’d rather stick your dick in a blender.” Cullen peers out the window as he shoves half the sandwich into his mouth.
“It’s true.” We don’t have a camera inside of the Mad Chef’s house, unfortunately. Her security system is solely based on sensors instead of visuals. It was cheaper that way, Cullen explained. Grant is in the process of contacting a security firm to upgrade the system so that I can rest assured that Luna’s safe at all times, which can’t happen until we’re married and she’s in my bed. “Let’s buy this building and then tear it down. Luna and her sister will be homeless and she will be forced to live with me.”
“Okay. Stop there.” Cullen tears his eyes from the small house to pin me with his cop look—the one that says I’m going to take you down and put you away for a long time. He’s been able to summon this look at will since he was a child. Older brothers can be tiresome.
I cross my arms and lean against the window. “Go on. Lecture me on how it’s primitive to think this way and that we, as a society, should have evolved from the cave mentality.”