Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(148)

Hadley grabbed her then and gave her a shake. “You bitch. You’re just like her. You women are all alike.”



SHE’D PUSHED HIM TOO FAR. The certainty of that had fear sprinting through Jed as he urged the dog forward. Why hadn’t she stuck to the plan and pretended to be the gullible woman that Hadley had first used?

As he moved slowly, too slowly, toward the bench, he heard the voices in his ear.

“I’m back,” Bailey said.

“Knew you would be,” Gage said. “I’m irresistible. What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to get as close to Zoë as we can. I like her strategy, but if Hadley realizes that he’s going to lose everything…”

“Got it,” Gage said.

Jed got it, too. He’d realized the danger of her strategy from the moment she’d marched off toward the park bench. As soon as he had her safe, he was going to strangle her.

He was going as quickly as he reasonably could. But the fear tearing through his gut told him that he wasn’t going to get there in time.



“YOU WILL NOT RUIN ME,” Hadley said. “Do you understand that? I’ve worked too hard. I’ve come too far to allow that. Tell me what you want.”

There was such hatred in his eyes that Zoë wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep on talking. Fear had become a live entity, filling her, possessing her. But she hadn’t gotten enough for Ryder’s tape yet. “I want five hundred thousand dollars,” she improvised, thinking now was not the time to bring up Jed Calhoun’s name as had been the original plan.

Hadley shook her hard this time and something dark and ugly came into his eyes. “You’re all the same, aren’t you? Greedy, lying bitches. She wanted the money, too. In her first year as CEO, she made mistakes that cost the company millions.” He shook her again. “That’s why she made the deal with the Vidal organization. She thought she knew what she was doing. She always thinks she knows.”

“Who?” Zoë asked. But he wasn’t listening to her. He wasn’t even seeing her.

“You’re not going to get away with it. No one will believe you.”

Zoë managed a smile. “I’m willing to put that to the test. Are you?”

“I’m not going to allow my wife’s family’s greed to ruin everything I’ve ever worked for. And I’m certainly not going to let you.”

Zoë felt Digs press the barrel of the gun into her back. She managed to keep her smile in place. “Just give me the money, and I’ll go away.”



“WE’VE GOT ENOUGH,” Ryder said in Jed’s ear. “We can move in.”

They were going to be too late. That was the fear that had his blood drumming in his head, in his heart. He was still twenty feet away. When he got there, he was definitely going to strangle her, Jed decided. Asking for half a million dollars—that wasn’t what she was supposed to say. But then she’d veered from the script from the get-go.

“She’s brilliant.” It was Bailey’s voice he heard in his ear just before all hell broke loose.

Later, Jed would remember everything in a series of freeze-framed flashes. Hadley Richards gripping Zoë’s neck and dragging her up and off the bench.

“You won’t get away with this. I’ll kill you first.”

Gage jumping out of the wheelchair, dropping to one knee and taking out Digs.

Zoë using her knee to put Hadley Richards in considerable pain.

And Bailey Montgomery pulling a gun out of her neat little purse and reading Hadley Richards his rights as he lay writhing on the grass in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

It wasn’t until much later that he remembered all the details because he couldn’t think, couldn’t process anything, until he had Zoë in his arms.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Did we get him? Can we put him away?” she asked.

“Ryder seems to think so,” Jed murmured. Somehow, none of it seemed to matter as long as Zoë was safe. “Who the hell cares if we got him? I’ve got you.”

Then he kissed her.





17




“YOU HAVEN’T TOUCHED YOUR WINE.”

Zoë blinked and then glanced up to see George frowning at her. Her thoughts had been so far away that she’d nearly forgotten that she was sitting at the bar in the Blue Pepper. The Gibbs sisters were chattering away behind her.

“That’s a chardonnay. Maybe you’d like to try a sauvignon blanc. I have a new one, and it’s dry.”

“No, this is fine.” Zoë took a quick sip and found that it was more than fine. The expression on her face must have convinced George of that because his frown disappeared.