Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Since he’d already made arrangements to do just that? Fine. “Is your previous offer still open?”
Todd grinned crudely. “Why not?”
“Then I’ll take it. Now get out of my face.”
“All right, but I’m not through making demands. Before you go, you tell Madison you don’t give a shit about her and never have.”
“Why? If I leave, she’ll get that message loud and clear.” And it would hurt her. That knowledge ripped his gut in two.
“You’re going to do it because she loves you, too. I want to watch her goddamn heart break all over my floor. I want to see her bleed tears. I want her to hate every minute of her life until I’m ready to get rid of her annoying ass.”
“If I don’t?”
“You know the answer. I have one-point-five million dollars earmarked in an overseas account for a very professional Dutch assassin I’ve got on speed dial. With one phone call, he’ll be on a plane. In twenty-four hours, he can be in Madison’s space, lining up his shot…ready to blow out her brains.”
“When you agreed to the divorce, that’s not the deal we made. And your grandfather wouldn’t take kindly to the scrutiny on the family if Madison didn’t survive.”
Todd shrugged. “Grandpa just wants the sympathy votes. If we can’t get a fake pregnancy out of the bitch, a wrenching, well-publicized funeral will work, too.”
Toddhole was serious—and right. Brent Westbrook’s death proved the prick could get away with literal murder. Fuck.
“But I need you gone,” Todd insisted. “Madison only gets these fucking rebellious notions when you’re in her head. So you’ll rip her heart to shreds on your way out the door. Then she’ll crawl into her shell and go back to being her manageable, manipulatable good-girl self. You’ve got until nine o’clock tomorrow night to be the fuck out of my apartment and out of our lives. Get me? You make her not just believe it, but feel it. Or she’s dead.”
Matt didn’t want to negotiate with this motherfucker. He didn’t trust Todd, but he also didn’t doubt that Madison’s husband meant every word he said. What choice did he have? Fighting his way out wasn’t an option. Sure, Todd’s ultimatum dovetailed with the plan he’d cobbled together, but Matt had never intended to crush Madison. Fuck, he’d rather cut off his goddamn arm. But fucking Todd didn’t want his blood, just her destruction.
He tried not to dwell on the anguish he would cause Madison and find a bright side. If she believed that all love and hope between them was lost, she wouldn’t do something risky like chase after him or devise a half-baked plot to expose Toddhole to the world. She would stay exactly where she was. Ethan and Nash would keep her safe. Then, after the midterms, he’d find her and grovel and hope she could forgive him.
“What’s it going to be?” Pershing demanded.
Despite reaching the logical conclusion, Matt fucking hated it. He prayed he wasn’t making the wrong decision, even as he started crafting a plan to destroy this son of a bitch for good. “Fine. I’ll break Madison’s heart and leave tomorrow night.”
Todd laughed like the joke was entirely on Matt. “God, this is delicious. She will never forgive you, and you’re going to be brokenhearted for the rest of your petty, unnecessary life. There’s no one more deserving, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of your misery.”
CHAPTER TEN
Something was wrong. Madison glanced Matt’s way again in the back seat of their Uber, hoping she had misinterpreted his mood. But she kept coming back to the same conclusion.
“What’s bothering you?” she whispered.
The stare he swiveled her way looked hard and flat, but his gray eyes raged. “I’m fine.”
He was lying. But why? Just yesterday, they had each promised to communicate better. But from the moment Matt had emerged from his room at five, he’d been closed off and shut down. He and Todd had exchanged a glance that left her with a sense of foreboding before he’d grabbed her arm, pulled her from the apartment, and tossed her into the back of the hired car.
“You’re not,” she insisted. “What did Todd say to you last night? What did he do?”
“The usual.” With a noncommittal shrug, he focused out the window. But his jaw worked as if he struggled to hold in a fury at odds with his blasé tone.
Maybe Todd wasn’t the issue. Maybe Matt was just impatient to reach the Dungeon of Discipline. After all, they hadn’t been alone in what felt like forever, so maybe every part of him ached for her the way she craved him.
At least Madison hoped that’s why Matt seemed so off.
The black SUV stopped at the corner of the upscale shopping strip. He sprang from the vehicle and seized her wrist, all but pulling her out before he slammed the door. He was already striding for the dress shop, tugging her behind him, when the car rolled out of sight.