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“You’re never coming near me again.” Except his hands were all over her. What was she doing yelling at him when he was in this weird, passionate state? She was just so angry! “Leave me alone!”
“I don’t think you understand what a powerful man I am.”
Oh, she knew, but she’d thought that he had a conscience and some type of ethics, and that–that he’d loved her, but no, he’d just used her to feed his ego. She’d only been another thing to control, a part of his collection to base his importance on. “You don’t own me, Lacy!”
“This won’t just go away,” he hissed. “I heard what you said.”
She glowered at him, wishing that she had kept her big mouth shut earlier. “Well, eavesdroppers never hear good things. Here’s the full story—the baby isn’t yours. I was coming to let you know that we were over.”
He smirked. His hands loosened over her, his black eyes devoured hers like the lie had magically transformed her into something even more intriguing. What was the matter with him? Was he insane? Why hadn’t she seen any of these red flags before? “I know it is mine,” he whispered.
He leaned closer. He wouldn’t try to kiss her, would he?
She leveraged her shoulder against his chest and knocked him away. “Leave me alone. You think you’re the only guy in this world that means anything to me, Lacy? Get over yourself.”
That was the wrong thing to say. His eyes darkened with his passion. She edged away from him. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. “We aren’t done here.”
They were very done, but how to get out of here? She’d never seen Lacy act this way—he was almost scary. He was not who she thought he was… at all!
What had she done? She should’ve kept her nose down and done her job, ignored his advances in the name of professionalism, and refused to ever let him into her life.
It wasn’t too late, was it? She felt trapped. Would he have ever let her escape him before, or had he been weaving a web of control over her from the very beginning?
She swallowed down her panic and backed up for the door.
“Honey…” the word sounded like a threat coming from his lips.
She pushed down the handle and ran out into the hall.
“Come back!” His shouts were swallowed by the loud party as she threw herself into the crowd. Lacy wouldn’t dare do anything to her now that she was surrounded by all the people that he longed to impress. Ahead of her, she saw her good friend Emily performing on the small stage, singing something about a fire in her heart.
Yeah, there was a fire, and it didn’t feel good.
Cadence headed for the bag check. Her fingers itched to get to her belongings so that she could steal away from this horrible twisted mansion and abandon the life that she’d made for herself here.
“Fire!” Someone screamed the warning to the side of her.
Really? Literally? People began screaming at the sudden threat. This was really bad timing.
The guests began to push against her to get out of the exits. Maybe… maybe itwasn’tbad timing. The emergency made her escape from Lynch all the easier. Seeing that her chance of getting her purse was diminishing, she ducked into the back room and grabbed her gold Bartonia bag from its cubby herself.
She ran outside, ahead of the crowds. She saw the valet with the keys. Her quick eyes found hers—she’d attached a baby moccasin to hers. She grabbed those too.
Nothing was keeping her here—not even a fire, because she felt the fury of Hades coming after her, and no way, would she let him imprison her here like she was some weak Persephone pleading for his mercy.
Lacy would want one thing only—to get rid of the consequences of what he’d done.
And she wasn’t going down that easily. He’d already humiliated her enough.
Love was for fools. She could see that now.
Chapter Six
Why couldn’t she stop crying?
Cadence shot down the road out of Nashville like the devil was on her heels. He might just be. Lacy had called her precious, honey, sweetie, his… angel.
Ugh. He should’ve called her his little fool and be done with it. And yet, he’d been so warm, so sweet and considerate. Thoughts kept running through her memories of him growing watery eyed when he’d heard about the horrors of her childhood. Why was her mind turning to the good times? She needed to concentrate on how his face twisted into rage when she’d defied him.
