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Maddux wearily scrubbed a hand along the light scrape of beard covering his jawline, honestly wishing that he’d met Arabella under better, more normal circumstances, instead of taking her in exchange for her father’s debt. Maybe things would have ended up differently for them, but he’d never know and he wouldn’t dwell on the recent past. What was done was done, and after he sat down with her tonight and revealed what was going to happen to her father tomorrow, she was going to hate his fucking guts and never want to see him again. He was sure of it.
It was time he told Arabella everything so she understood his reasons for going to the lengths he had to bring Theodore to his knees. Securing her father’s debt and assets had only been a small preview to Theodore’s destruction. What no one else knew, not even his brother or sister, was that Maddux had spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in resources trying to build a solid case against Theodore and Gavin for their criminal activities.
What he hadn’t expected was all the corrupt political representatives and law enforcement agents who had road blocked Maddux’s many attempts to get the duo arrested . . . because as Maddux had uncovered, the case against Theodore and Gavin was much bigger than just the two of them. With a whole lot of insistent digging, he’d learned that Addingwell Financial—where they and many others were “employed”—was actually a front for organized crime.
A lot of palms throughout the local, state, and federal agencies were being greased on a regular basis to deflect the heat off of their illegal activities. Those bribes and hush money were also keeping the higher-ranking Mafioso untouchable. The cesspool of fraud, nepotism, and misrepresentation Maddux had encountered over the years had sickened him, and it wasn’t until very recently that he’d found a reputable group of attorneys who were just as eager to bring down the organization as Maddux was, and who helped in breaking the case wide open.
For months, Maddux didn’t think it was going to happen, which was why he’d kept everything close to his vest. But it had been a matter of persistence and weeding their way through all the obstruction to finally get the attention of the ethical agents within the FBI.
And now, as of tomorrow morning, there would be over a dozen raids and arrests all over the city, and Theodore and Gavin were on that list.
Reaching the lobby elevator, Maddux stepped inside the lift and pressed the button for his penthouse, then took off his suit jacket and tugged at the tie around his neck to give the material some slack so it didn’t feel like a noose strangling him. With each upward level he passed, the knot in his stomach tightened. This wasn’t the way he wanted things to end between himself and Arabella after everything they’d shared in a very short time, but she would undoubtedly find his actions unforgivable. And a part of him understood the anger and resentment she was going to feel toward him . . . an ironic situation when he and his siblings had lived the past fourteen years feeling the same way about her father.
The elevator chimed as he reached his floor, and after the doors slid open and he stepped out, he heard the emergency stairway door slam shut, which was odd since nobody used that exit unless, well, there was an emergency. He shifted his gaze to his brother, who was standing only a few feet away, an abnormal look of panic and dismay flashing across his features.
“Fuck!” Hunter said, and jammed his hands through his hair, pulling on the strands in agitation. “I’m sorry . . . I’m so goddamn sorry!”
Confusion filtered through Maddux, and he tried not to let his brother’s rattled composure worry him until he found out what had caused it. Hard to tell with Hunter lately, since his behavior had been running hot and cold since the night of the ball. Maddux wasn’t sure if it was a result of everything that had, or rather hadn’t, gone down with Theodore or the fact that the woman Hunter had met and slept with ditched him without a trace.
“Sorry for what?” Maddux asked calmly as he dropped his suit jacket on the back of the nearest chair in the living room. “What’s going on and who was that that just went out the stairwell?”
“It was Arabella,” Hunter blurted out. “I came up here to talk to you, then she arrived and I said some things out of pent-up anger and I told her about her father killing our parents. She didn’t believe me and was insistent she talk to her father, and she ran out.”
Maddux’s entire body tensed and he tried to hold back the fury rising up in him. He’d wanted everything with Arabella to come out in a controlled environment, and in a way that he could soften whatever he could, and not just yell out the fact that her father and Gavin were murderers without giving her the whole, complete picture.
He jabbed a finger toward his brother. “You had no right to tell her,” he said heatedly.
Hunter went from apologetic to defensive in a hot second. “I had every right because she needs to know what a prick her father is. And you weren’t going to tell her, so I did!”
Maddux felt torn, because a part of him understood his brother’s fury, while another part of him wanted to protect Arabella from . . . everything.
“She’s not what you think,” Maddux said, his voice dropping to a low growl. Arabella was soft and gentle and sweet. And so fucking crushable when it came to her emotions. “She’s nothing like her father, and so help me God, if anything happens to her as a result of her running out of here, I am going to kick your ass for letting her go.”
Hunter gaped at him. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Dead serious.” Yes, at the moment, he was choosing sides. He was choosing to go after Arabella, making it clear to his brother that she was more than just a pawn to him. And trying to explain his feelings to Hunter was impossible when he’d never felt like this toward any other woman.
But all that was eclipsed by a rush of fear . . . that something might happen to her once she ran out of the building and was no longer under his protection. Once she was with her father, or with Gavin, who Maddux didn’t trust with a ten-foot pole. The other man was a user, an abuser, and when it came to Arabella, Gavin wouldn’t hesitate to use her for leverage, to avoid his arrest tomorrow.
Maddux had to get to Arabella first. Not wanting to waste any more time arguing with his brother, he ran for the stairs and jumped over the handrails to make his way down to the lobby twice as fast, but when he arrived, Arabella was already gone. He bolted for the main doors, and once he was out on the sidewalk, he glanced down the street just as a black Mercedes came to a stop by Arabella.
As soon as Maddux saw a guy open the back door and realized what was about to happen, panic twisted through his entire being as he rushed toward her. “Arabella!” he yelled, but she was too far away for him to reach in time, and the other man yanked her inside the car so fast and so rough she never had a chanc
e to fight him off.
Then the car was driving away as Maddux’s worst fears were realized. She’d been kidnapped, snatched right off the street by the kind of guy who looked more like a mercenary than a friendly citizen offering her a ride. He had no idea where that car was taking her or what fate awaited her once she arrived, but his gut was screaming at him that she was heading straight toward something, or someone, dangerous.
Maddux ran back into his building, guilt already twisting through him for failing her, for not being able to get to Arabella before someone else had grabbed her. The spike of adrenaline surging through his veins made his heart race at an alarming speed, but it also gave him the strength to power back up the stairs to his penthouse in less than a minute.
He needed to make a call to authorities, the ones he’d been working with and who were preparing for tomorrow’s arrests. As far as Maddux was concerned, Arabella’s abduction changed everything, and he’d pay whatever it cost to any agency to make finding her a priority.
He would tear this fucking city apart until he knew she was safe and, hopefully, unharmed. He wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt and soul-deep pain if anything horrible happened to her, and he refused to think that anything would before he found her.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“I knew if we waited long enough the opportunity to grab you would eventually happen.”
The man sitting with Arabella in the back seat of the Mercedes smirked at her, looking pleased with himself. Despite the luxurious Mercedes they were being chauffeured in, the guy looked like a hoodlum with his greasy hair, stained teeth, and that jagged scar on his face. Based on his comment, he must have been watching her for a while now, but up until her leaving the building this evening on her own, she’d always been with Milo. She’d made herself an easy target, but for whom?
