Tease Me (Private Listing #4)

Hunter strokes his chin as I watch them in quiet horror. Then he shrugs.

“You have goals and so do I. You want your wife dead and Maddy to be so fucking grateful that she stays in this creepy ass scenario with you. Hiding away from the world. Fuck, dude. Maddy might be a whore, but that would be a strong ask for anyone.” Hunter chuckles. “But I’m more than willing to break my little bird until she doesn’t care who’s fucking her as long as something is inside her cunt.”

My gaze hops between Patrick and Hunter. Hunter isn’t the mastermind stalker because Patrick is right. Hunter is like a bull in a china shop, all brute force and no finesse. But I never imagined the two of them would team up.

How the hell did that happen?

Patrick’s face remains calm as he stands and wipes his hands on the washcloth Hope gave him for his wife. His movements are slow and methodical. “I knew you’d be a terrible partner. But I didn’t take you for a fool. I’m giving you what you want. Revenge on Madison for revealing your depravity to your father. A chance to finally take what you want. But what do you do? You try to blow me up so we have an even bigger mess on our hands.”

Hunter shrugs and turns his hungry blue eyes on me. Fuck no. I take a step back behind the bar, needing more between us.

“I just think Maddy should know who she’s dealing with.” Hunter draws his knife out of the sheath at his side and uses the tip to pick at his fingernails. “I’m not afraid of her knowing my truth. I’ve never hidden from her and watched her without her knowing. Didn’t follow her for years.”

He leans against a table as his gaze rakes me up and down. The knife flashes in the light and I swallow. He sliced that knife down Hope’s arm. It makes me ill thinking of the lengths they went to get me here. And if he did that to Hope, what will he do to me with the knife?

How will his revenge on me play out? I really don’t want to find out.

“What’s going on?” Anna tries to lift herself up on her elbows.

“You don’t want to hide, Hunter? So you’ll tell her you’re the one who talked to her professor at the benefit? Told him she wanted it rough? That she owed him? And that if I hadn’t overheard you, she would have been all alone dealing with that drunken mess?” Patrick sets the washcloth down and moves toward the bookcase behind the couch. His every move is purposeful, but nonthreatening.

Anna’s mouth is open as she tries to make sense of this. I shift a little farther behind the bar to put something between me and them. Their focus isn’t only on each other though. Both watch me. It’s like they’re hunting me but fighting the other predator for their prey.

My hands still shake and they ache with how tightly I’m gripping the bottle. With them talking, no one is attacking me.

“You told my professor to attack me?” I capture Hunter’s attention. The longer they talk, the more time Hope has to escape. It gives my guys time to find me. It gives me time to figure out how to get out of this unscathed.

“You should see the creepy shit this guy has on you.” Hunter thrusts his knife to point to Patrick and takes a step in my direction. My foot runs into the wall as I back up. “He has everything on you. Medical records. Pictures. Schedules. He’s obsessed, and not in a friendly way. In an I’ll murder your family and fuck you in their blood way.”

“Why are you telling me this?” It doesn’t make sense. If they’ve been working together, why the sudden change in plans?

“I wasn’t crazy about the murdering his wife part of the plan. It’s not really my thing.” Hunter pins me in place with his cold, soulless eyes. “You have two options, little bird. You can be my toy and we’ll forget all about this kidnapping business. I’ll use you until I’m finished and then you can get on with your life. Or you can become whatever sick fantasy Patrick wants you to fulfill. With his wife dead that leaves a spot open in his life. You want to be a mommy to his two brats? Or maybe I’ll just put babies in that sleek body of yours.”

“Pretty sure you’re leaving out a third option.” I glance at Patrick who’s obviously going for something, but Hunter’s focus is on me now. Who am I more afraid of? It’s really a toss-up. Fuck.

“No, little bird. You can be mine or his. Those are your options. I’m not into sharing like your bosses.” Hunter chuckles at my flinch. “Of course, this asshole knows all about it. He wrote up the documents. Showed them to me to prove how big of a whore you are. I was afraid you’d hired an attorney when he showed up at my house after the benefit. You should see his video collection of you taking them. I have to admit, Maddy, I knew you were a whore, but fuck. I can’t wait to bury my cock inside you and see if you’re as good as you look.”

The blood drains from my face. My skin crawls. The realization that these two men watched me and my guys makes my blood pound in my ears.

Hunter continues to close in on me, but I’m ready.

“You want me dead, Patrick?” Anna’s voice shakes. “What about our life? The kids?”

“Yeah, Patrick.” Hunter turns to him and smirks. “What about the kids?”

“They love Madison. She was more of a mother to them than you ever were.” Patrick’s eyes are cold as he meets his wife’s stunned gaze. It’s like every ounce of humanity drained out of him, leaving him filled with only evil. “I knew from the moment she stepped into our lives that I had to have her. That she would be everything you weren’t.”

Patrick leans casually against the bookcase like he has all day and we’re discussing the weather. “I let her finish school. Her drive, her ambition would have driven a wedge between us, so I needed her to do what she set out to accomplish. But then she ran into you.”

His eyes flash with anger as he pins Hunter with them. “You made her skittish and almost broke her confidence. When she was at the point of having to leave or take a job with you, I moved her resume to the top of the stack at Morrigan Technology.”

“You did?” I can’t breathe. How entangled in my life was this asshole?

“I figured it would be a good test.” Patrick chuckles. “They’d offer you the job with the option to fuck all of them. You’d hold onto your integrity and tell them to fuck off. Then you’d need me to step in and help you.”

Hunter laughs. “You didn’t know how much of a whore Maddy is? Even after following her for years?”

I shake my head. “I’m not a whore.”