ALEXANDERNo one moved for a moment as we stood in a half circle in the living room of the McKenzie manor.My mother gasped, seeming to sag on her feet as I motioned my brother outside, I didn't have time to lose, I had to find Darlene before it was too late, before whatever forces threatened to tear us apart created too wide of a rift for me to close.“You drive,” Fredrick scathed, nodding to me as we ran out of the mansion, wordlessly getting into the car and backing into the freeway, racing against time to take back my woman.I gritted my teeth, watching Fredrick brace himself against the dashboard as I pressed my foot down on the gas and the car hummed underneath me, whizzing past the litter of a few cars on the yellow-lit street.“How do you know where she is?” I chipped, not daring to take my eyes off the rolad as Fredrick shifted unnervingly beside me and I resisted the urge to ask the question again.I was going to get Darlene back, whatever it took. I couldn't risk losing my
ALEXANDER“What the hell? What is it? What was that noise?” I asked, my voice instantly dropping to a hushed whisper as I let my eyes roam over his haggard appearance. The strawberry blonde of his tossed hair was matted to his face where he had been sweating excessively, and the icy blue of his eyes had a faraway look in them. Like he was realizing something I didn't see.If I hadn't known any better, I would say that my brother had seen a ghost! I watched as he raked a hand through his hair, snapping his eyes away from me to tug on the cuff of his shirt sleeve.”Uh, it's nothing, I just, tripped and fell is all,” Fredrick mumbled, and my eyes followed the fingers tugging on his shirt immediately before he shielded his eyes and I angled the torch down.It was something he did when he was lying.But what was there for my brother to lie about? Something large and dark pressed at the edge of my consciousness until it was all I could do not to fall into another lapse.”Why did you bring m
DARLENEThe mass of reporters crowding the gates clustered around my bright red convertible, their white faces animated by pressing against the glass until the gates opened and I shot into the expansive driveway like a bullet train.I snapped my phone from the charging port, biting down the urge to hurry up the lot into the house when I caught sight of Stephanie McKenzie’s perfect face.She was standing in a loose line in the front foyer with some groundskeepers and maidservants, staring at me expectantly as I closed the distance between us.“Darlene! Y-you’re okay!” Alexander’s mother chortled, and I jerked away in surprise when her hands clamped warmly against my arms.“What's going on? Is Mr. McKenzie okay? Why is everyone outside?” I started, looking at the maids who avoided my stare, turning their gazes downward instead.My heart had begun to thump oddly in my ears again as I took in their side-long glances, what was going on here?“Where’s Alexander? I need to speak to him! Ther
FREDRICKI could tell my touch had aroused my brother's wife, because she jumped away from me like a grasshopper from a child’s fingers, the minute my palm grazed the small of her back.Was Darlene playing hard to get? I couldn’t tell. It had never been easy for me to understand women, my brother seemed to have inherited all my father’s charms in that area.The woman seemed to observe me for the longest time, and it felt harder and harder to breathe as her soft hazel eyes followed mine before she smiled.“I have no idea, I’m just happy everyone’s safe.” Darlene sighed, turning away from me so that I got the uneasy feeling that she was hiding something from me.It seemed like an eternity since I had kissed her, and the urge to press my lips against her full pink mouth rose suddenly so that I had to dig my hands into my palm to resist.I took a cautionary step back. I didn't know how she would react to it, and the last thing I needed was Alexander getting riled up and remembering what h
ALEXANDER“Laura? W-what are you doing here?” Darlene gasped, wheezing as she backed into me, away from the woman, so that I felt my hands automatically come up to hold her protectively.The sore spot on my head had not stopped throbbing since we left the killer shack in the woods, my mother’s hellish driving putting more thorns in my eyes than the whole situation had given me.I eyed the woman gingerly, giving her a strained up-and-down look and not bothering with the fake smile my wife was giving her.“Yes. It's late, you can't just waltz in here whenever the fuck you please miss Diego,” I ground through clenched teeth, and my mother gasped, clutching her bare neck and looking as scandalized as a church maiden who had suddenly gotten been asked to go up to the pope’s room.“Alexander McKenzie! That is why no way to speak to a woman!” My mother shrieked, her voice hard and icy as I watched the smile drop from Laura’s face before jerking back into place when my mother spoke.My wife’s
DARLENEI watched the stately black limousine of Mr. Mckenzie’s car as it inched in slowly into the manor’s expansive gravel lot through the blue-tinted glass of our bedroom window, before my husband cursed loudly.I jerked away from the scene with my heart pounding hotly in my chest, letting the curtains fall and turning to face Alexander as he paced the length of the room, his muscles flexing under the rolled-up shirt sleeves.”Laura Diego cannot stay in this house.” I deadpanned, drawing a ragged breath when the sound of a door slapping shut made my husband slam to a stop, striding over to me and leaning easily around me to peer out the window.I tried not to move, feeling the heat of his hard chest press possessively over the soft mounds of my breast as he loomed over me, filling the space so that I could only breathe into his neck. He was so big...so, him, it was all I could do not to lace my hands around his back and demand that he take me there and then. Erase the memory of th
ALEXANDERI was the only one in the cool darkness of the room when I groaned awake, the room blurring in my vision as I stretched, my eyes resting on the low flame in the stone hearth.“Dar?” I groaned, running my hands through the warm crease where her body was supposed to be. I struggled to my feet, taking a deep breath as the whirl of emotions raced to meet up with me.Where had she gone off to? I turned in a slow arc, taking in the marbled white and black modern aesthetic of the room, the silk gold walls, and the high dias of the king-sized canopy bed with climbing plants idling on the bedside.“Darlene? Babe?” I called, tracing my hand over the gold glass of the breakfast cart that had been wheeled into a corner of the room, shouldering into the hallway instead, the rubber soles of my shoes squelching wetly on the tiled floors.The draft of coolness that had nothing to do with the overhead conditioning swept over me as I looked over the black stair banisters to the empty living
FREDERICK MCKENZIEI watched the woman settle her round backside on the gold sofa of my bedroom, resting her hand on the pinpoint of her crossed knees.It felt weird, the way the woman seemed to dig her claws into my personal space when I had convinced myself I didn't have any up until now.Laura McKenzie was not an ordinary woman, it was getting clearer day by day. But Darlene was far from ordinary either. “What do you want Laura? We both know you aren't pregnant. There’s no way for you to be.” I gritted, staring at the woman dead in her blue eyes and watching her roll her eyes.“If I had a dime for every fucking time someone in this damned manor has asked me that, I’d be rich as fuck Ricky,” Laura chortled, letting out a self-righteous huff before I let one corner of my mouth crawl up into a bitter smile.“It's Frederick to you, Diego, you might think you've got some sort of fucking trump card up your sleeve lassie, but lemme tell you something you don't know,” I rasped, stooping u