Enticing (Red Lips & White Lies Book 3)
Enticing: Chapter 21

Do you want to know why storms have been named after women for over seventy years? Threaten my children and replace out.

—Addie’s Secret Thoughts

I stare at the phone, smiling.

I guess I am.

I flip my phone face down and run my fingers over my keyboard, trying to picture myself finishing this book tonight. Positive thoughts into the universe and all that shit.

The kids are asleep. Both of them, thankfully, went down without too much of a fuss. And now, I might actually be able to type The End on this book, if I could just concentrate for a few hours. But that seems to be my problem lately. My concentration is shot, and the man taking up most of my brain space is skating down the ice on my television.

Unfortunately, he’s one of many men occupying my thoughts. He’s just the only one I actually want there. I guess I’ve been looking for trouble around every corner. Thankfully, there hasn’t been any . . . yet.

Mason has thirty days to release my inheritance, and it looks like the ass is going to make me wait every single one of those thirty days. But hey, I haven’t been served yet, so no news is good news.

I look up at the muted television and watch Leo check the opposing team’s center into the boards with a vicious body slam, and a smile pulls at my lips. That shouldn’t be sexy. It is, but it shouldn’t be.

Maybe my next hero can be a hot, blue-eyed hockey player.

I mean, my husband is my biggest muse, so it could definitely work.

But first, I’ve got to finish this one.

My phone vibrates next to me on the couch, and I glance down and silence it.

Blocked numbers, spam numbers, telemarketers. They all love me . . . well really, they just want my money, which I’d have gladly already paid them if I had any, so they’re stuck waiting with me.

Join the club.

It’s been two weeks since we spoke to Mason. So that asshole has two weeks left to get it done, and then I swear I’ll never pay another bill late in my life.

I also haven’t heard from Jerry.

Small miracles. I’ll take it.

I push that thought aside and stare at my computer, trying to decide how the hell I want to wrap my story up and bring this book home. I only have two or three chapters left, but damn, if they aren’t always the hardest.

Okay . . . Just start typing. I got this.

Never a good thing when I start talking to myself.

What’s it going to take . . . ?

I picture the look on Leo’s face when he pinned me to the wall after his home game the other day. The hunger in his eyes as his lips brushed mine, and the way he lifted Izzy onto his shoulders and had Nixon take a picture of all of us.

This man . . . My husband . . . He’s great book boyfriend inspiration.

The words start to flow, and after a few minutes, I’m in the zone when the goddamned phone starts up again. I debate throwing it across the room. I mean, that would silence it, but then I’d have to replace it, and there definitely isn’t extra money for that right now.

“Hello,” I bark, expecting an automated voice to tell me to please hold, but that’s not what I hear.

“Guess you always were a hockey slut, weren’t you, Addie?”

Icy cold fear trickles into my veins, and I look around frantically, as if Gavin is inside my house instead of on the phone.

He’s not here, Adelaide.

He isn’t here, and he can’t hurt you.

“I really wasn’t, but you never bothered to believe that, did you, Gavin?” I try to make my voice sound as strong as possible and pray he doesn’t hear the shake. This man preys on weakness, and he knows all of mine. “What the hell do you want?”

“I want to know why you’re opening your legs and letting some asshole around my kids, Adelaide.”

“Your kids?” I shriek, not even trying to contain it. Fuck. I look around, then walk outside. I don’t need to wake the girls up. “You’ve never even met Lennox, you asshole. And you were such a bang-up dad that Izzy hasn’t asked about you in months. They’re my kids. You were the sperm donor. You did your part. Now you’re irrelevant,” I fucking hiss as my blood pounds in my ears.

“So, what? You found a piss-poor version of me to take my place?” he bellows, and I cower involuntarily, still haunted by the last time we fought and hating myself for it.

“Leo Sinclair is a better man and a better father than you ever were,” I tell him so quietly, I almost can’t hear my own words, but they’re there, and the truth behind them is so powerful it should scare me. But Leo has spent weeks making sure I know I never have to fear him. “What do you want, Gavin?”

“You’ll marry him but not me? What . . . are you desperate enough now that anyone will do? Four years we were together, and you wouldn’t marry me. Two kids, and you still wouldn’t. What the hell is wrong with you, you stupid fucking whore.”

“You only ever loved my money, Gavin. I should have left you long before you broke my ribs and could have killed me and Lennox. We both know it. But I did leave, and the girls and I are better off now than we ever were with you. Now hurry and slither back under whatever rock you crawled out from and leave us alone.” Something cracks in the distance, and I suddenly wish I’d have stopped to turn the lights on out here before I came out. I breathe out a sigh of relief when a squirrel scurries across the yard. “I don’t have anything you want.”

“You have my girls.”

Four words that stop my heart.

“You don’t want them,” I whisper, then curse myself for the sign of weakness. Fuck. “You never did. What do you want, Gavin? You want money? I don’t have it yet. I’m sure your fucking father has told Mason to take his sweet time getting it to me. Because why would Jerry give a shit if I can afford to give his granddaughters the things they need, like food and heat.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Adelaide. You were always such a fucking whiney bitch. You bagged yourself a Sinclair. You don’t need Dad’s money.”

“It’s not Jerry’s fucking money, Gavin. They were my parents,” I scream and spin when the metal screen door slams against its frame.

My shoulders shake when Coraline flies toward me with fear in her eyes that only gets worse when she sees my face. She reaches for the phone, but I pull it away.

“Yeah well, it doesn’t matter. They’re my kids, and I want to see them.” His voice is slimy sweet. So fucking fake, I laugh—actually double over laughing.

“No, you don’t.”

“They’re my kids, Addie, and I’m going to see them with or without your permission” he threatens.

“Over. My. Dead. Body,” I tell him so calmly, my voice doesn’t shake, even if the rest of me is shaking like a leaf in a storm.

“That can be arranged, Adelaide . . .” He waits for that to set in, then goes for the late hit he always got in some way. It’s coming. I know it is. “I’ll see you and them soon, babe.”

Coraline rips the phone out of my hand as I fall to my knees, but it’s too late.

Gavin hung up.

A sob gets stuck in my throat as Cori kneels in front of me in the snow. “Call the police, Adelaide. That was a terroristic threat.”

“It was a blocked number. I can’t prove anything, and Gavin isn’t stupid enough to use his own phone. It was probably a burner.” My eyes fly to the house. “It’s locked, right? The house?”

My heart beats wildly in my chest as my mind spins.

He can’t get to them. He can’t have them.

I will never let him hurt them.

I slip in the snow, scrambling to my feet, and Coraline grabs my arm and holds me. “It’s locked. The girls are fine. If you’re not going to call the cops, what are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure . . .” I whisper into the night and offer up a silent prayer that we can survive whatever’s coming our way. Because Gavin is a lot of things—a liar, a cheat, and an abusive bastard. But what he’s not is a man who’s scared to follow through on his threats.

Leo

I walk into the dark house late that night and try to ignore the disappointment the quiet brings with it. When this house is full of laughter and talking and movies playing, with princesses singing, I know I’m home.

The flight back from Buffalo to Philly was short enough, but it was delayed due to the storm. I already resent any extra time I have to be away from Addie and the girls, and days like today are long enough without any issues.

The disappointment on Izzy’s face when I told her I couldn’t take her to Hockey Tots was enough to gut me.

“Leo . . .” Coraline comes down the stairs, and my stomach drops. The look on her face screams trouble.

“What’s wrong?” I growl, needing to know Addie and the girls are fine. “Coraline⁠—”

“Addie got a call earlier.” She looks toward the back of the house. “She’s been on the back porch since.”

I tilt my head, trying to make sure I heard her right. “It’s been snowing all night.”

She nods. “She let me wrap a blanket around her but won’t come in. I need you to get her to come inside, Leo. She won’t talk to me.”

“What the hell happened?” I growl.

“Ask her, Leo. Make her tell you everything. It’s her story to tell.”

I leave Coraline without a second glance, and she calls my name, stopping me. “Take care of our girl.”

“My girl,” I correct her without turning around.

“She’s my sister,” she argues, and right or not, that doesn’t matter to me now.

“She’s my fucking world,” I tell her and don’t look back.

It only takes a minute to replace Addie on the porch swing with a big fleece blanket wrapped around her. “Adelaide . . . Come inside, sweetheart, and tell me what’s wrong.”

She doesn’t look at me, so I pick her up and sit with her in my lap, and my girl rests her head on my shoulder.

“You’re scaring me, Addie.”

I wrap her in my arms and press my lips to her freezing head.

I could carry her inside, and I will if she doesn’t move, but I want to give her a chance first. “Please, Addie . . . tell me what’s happening.”

“Gavin called.” The words are cold and detached. “My ex . . . He wants the girls.”

“Fuck no. He can’t have them,” I argue, and she finally looks up at me.

“I love you, Leo.” She finally looks up at me, but it’s with hollow eyes. “I love you for the way you love them more than any man ever has and for the way you love me . . . But you can’t fix this.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Adelaide?” As men, you’re taught to fear very little. The world is a bad place, but you’re the bigger badass. And you believe that until the woman you love looks at you, broken. Then you fucking fear what did that to her almost as much as you should fear the raging beast inside that needs to fix it for her.

“Gavin only ever wanted my money. He was supposed to be a hockey star. It’s what Jerry groomed him to be his entire life⁠—”

“Wait,” I interrupt her, trying to follow the trail of breadcrumbs she’s leaving. “Gavin, your ex, and Jerry, the Bay Hawks CFO? Why did Jerry care?”

“Because Jerry is Gavin’s father. By the time Gavin blew out his ACL his senior year in college, I was already six-months pregnant with Izzy, and I should have seen the difference. He went from owning the world to hating it, and some days me too.” She pulls herself up into a ball on my lap and leans her entire body against mine, still refusing to look at me. “But back then, the abuse was verbal. It was easier to rationalize that away.”

Was. My entire body goes on high alert. Was means eventually it was something else, and I’m going to kill him.

“Wait . . . is your ex Gavin Dryson?” I remember hearing about him after he blew out his knee during the Frozen Four finals that year.

She nods, and my muscles flex and tense, and I force myself to stay quiet.

If I lose my shit now, I may lose her too.

“He was never interested in Izzy. He started scouting for the Bay Hawks because Daddy gave him a job, and that meant he was gone more often than he was home most of the year. When I realized that was a relief, I knew I needed to leave him. But then my parents died, and the media storm that followed was almost as devastating as losing them was. The constant barrage of reporters was overwhelming, the loss of our parents was heartbreaking, and Gavin turned on the charm. He made me believe he was there for Izzy and me, and he helped me through it.”

I lift her chin and force her to look at me.

Her beautiful eyes are bloodshot, and her cold face is tearstained.

“But it was all a lie.” She shoves her hands inside my jacket and finally locks her eyes on mine. “When I told him I was pregnant with Lennox, he asked me to marry him, and I told him no.” She shakes, but it’s not from the cold . . . This woman is shaking in fear, and I swear to fucking God, I’m going to kill him. “We’d never talked about marriage, and deep down, I didn’t trust him enough to marry him.”

A single tear streams down her cheek as she looks at me.

“He didn’t really want to marry me. He wanted access to my trust fund. He wanted access to the money and the team, and when I turned him down, he lost his mind and beat me before he threw me down the stairs.” Her breath catches in her throat as she shakes in my arms, and my entire fucking body goes cold. “He broke my nose, crack three ribs, and fractured my arm. And he left me at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and pregnant, like a fucking psychopath.”

I’ve never wanted to kill a man before, but I want to kill this one.

“And now he wants my girls.”

“We won’t let him have them, Adelaide. I promise you that.”

“He’s mad, Leo. Mad I married you when I wouldn’t marry him. And he’s going to use the girls to get to me,” she cries.

“You’re not the only one who comes from a powerful family, sweetheart. We’ll do whatever we have to do to keep you and the girls safe.” Next steps start coming together in my mind as a plan takes shape. “I love Coraline, but we need to get an actual attorney involved in this who doesn’t have anything to do with your family or the Bay Hawks.”

“I know . . .” Her first sob echoes off the snow-covered lake behind us as she breaks. “He can’t have them, Leo. He never laid a finger on Izzy, but that doesn’t mean he won’t. And he’s never even met Lennox. I need my inheritance, so I can pay him off. He’s only ever been after the money. Well, he can have it if it gets him out of our lives.”

“Baby . . . I need you to get mad. I understand you’re scared, but I swear to God, Adelaide, I won’t let him touch you or the girls. He’s never going to hurt anyone again. Now, I need you to get angry because it’s time to destroy his whole fucking family, and tomorrow, we’re going to figure out a way to make that happen. His days of terrorizing you are over.” I lift her in my arms and stand. “Time to go inside and get you warmed up.”

“I’m scared, Leo,” she whispers, and that admission fucking eviscerates me.

Gavin fucking Dryson is a dead man walking.

Even though it’s a new year, Leo Sinclair is still at the top of his hockey career. How long can this winning streak continue? Every other team in the league will have their eyes on our guys just like this reporter does. I mean, we might be watching for two different reasons, but that’s our little secret…

#KroydonKronicles #EyesOnThePrize #Winning