“Why, Paige?” I questioned, having to know.
“I mean, Hayley did send me to jail. Right, pumpkin? All I was trying to do was get back into her good graces. I even made friends with her new boyfriend’s brother, doing him a favor at an auction, but that wasn’t good enough, was it, princess?”
“Eric… Please…”
“Why don’t you tell the Drake brothers about how you sent me to jail?”
“That wasn’t me,” she said through a tight jaw. “We weren’t together for years when you got arrested. It was probably one of the other women you stalked.”
“Fuck you! The only reason I stalked other women is because you left me!”
“Eric…you know that’s not true.”
“Hayley,” Cade intervened. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
“I just wanted to leave it in my past. I never thought it would come to this.”
Eric roused, “Why don’t you tell them what happened next, Hayley! Don’t leave them in suspense!”
“He was waiting for me in my hotel room when I landed for the conference. I didn’t realize who it was until he made me film some video of me running through a parking lot.”
“It was staged,” I muttered to myself.
Eric clapped his guns together, bringing our stares back to him.
“We’re going to play a game. Let’s start with how long I’ve been stalking, little Miss Paige, huh?”
Her terrified stare flew to him.
“I got out of a jail two years ago and the entire four years I’m there, I’m wondering where things went wrong. Until finally, one day it all made sense.” He aimed his gun at Paige, and I almost lost my shit.
“It was Paige all along. She was the woman I was meant to be with.”
“And Charlie?” I interrupted, wanting to bring his attention back to me with his gun.
“I mean, Adrian…you have a brother. There isn’t anything you wouldn’t do for him, right? Oh wait.” He paused, aiming the barrel at his mouth. “You fucked his best friend.” He shrugged. “That’s pretty shitty. Good thing my brother Charlie isn’t obsessed with Hayley or Paige.”
I swallowed hard.
My heart was pounding out of my chest.
“So anyway, I was released from prison or whatever and I just wanted to see what Hayley had been up to. When I realized the little whore was married and had kids with your pussy ass little brother, I thought to myself… Maybe I should kill two birds with one stone? If I can’t have his wife, I’ll just take his best friend and you know all about that, Adrian, don't you? But Paige… Look how pretty she is.”
Paige shrieked loudly when he was over to her in one long stride. He roughly placed her in front of him with the gun now pointed at her head.
Cade yelled, “No!” And Hayley broke down into a fit of tears.
Paige shut her eyes, fully aware she couldn’t hide her emotions from me and knowing I needed her to stay strong.
I immediately went into businessman mode. It was how I survived.
“Eric, what do you want that I can make happen?”
His devious glare locked with mine.
“Whatever you want, I have the power to make that happen for you. Money, travel, cars, anything… Just think about all the women you’d have?”
His eyes gleamed. “Is this the part where you tell me that all I have to do is let the girls go?”
Raising my hands in the air, I stepped toward him. “We can go the bank right now. I just have to make one call.”
“You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t what you’re doing?”
Another step in his direction. “I’m just making you a deal you can’t refuse.”
“You think you’re so much smarter than everyone! You weren’t smart enough to figure out it was me this whole time! Everything was going great until you came barging into her life like you own her, when I do!” He licked the side of her face, and she whimpered the entire time.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve fucked my hand watching her shower? I’ve seen her naked more than you have. I was so close to making her fall in love with me and then you had to show up and fuck it up for me!” In a big dramatic movement, he shoved Paige away, and shouted up toward the ceiling, “I’m so fucking tired of the Drake brothers ruining my life and taking my women!”
It was the only opportunity I had to make things right again.
I exploded.
It was loud.
Harsh.
Boom!
I charged Eric, ramming my shoulder as hard as I could into the man I fucking despised. Attacking him with everything I had left in me. The women’s screams echoed off the metal frame as we tumbled to the ground, each of us trying to get the upper hand on the other.
Punched to his ribs.
Fist to his face.
Knee to his balls.