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“Yeah. I don’t know—something about knowing you’re worthy of a commitment.”
“That’s so fucked up,” I muttered, reaching forward to pull him to his feet. He begrudgingly humored me, following my lead out into the hallway. Ollie and I always shared the car if we wrapped up at the same time. The perk of buying up land and developing the neighborhood yourself was getting to pick yournext-door neighbors. Ollie and the kids were across the street, and I was sandwiched between cousins and Nona, not that we’d see her until snowbird season. “How are the kids?”
“They love the new nanny.” Surprise sent my brows lifting as I glanced his way. With rolled eyes, he clarified, “Beau lovesthe new nanny.”
Chuckling, I said, “That’s what I thought.”
Pushing the elevator button, my brother glanced back at me, shaking his head in exasperation. “She’s gotta stop running them off.”
“Sure it’s notCruellaat fault?”
Ollie grimaced, running a hand over the back of his neck. “Between the two of them, I swear. We’re going to end up shipping in an unsuspecting Au pair.”
“Desperate,” I noted, smiling as we stepped into the elevator.
“Desperate times,” he countered as the doors closed. “I don’t want to crush that willpower—she could run a country someday, you know? There’s not a dictator on the planet that would want to fuck around and find out against Matilda Hart…” Somehow, he managed to recap her entire school week between the thirteenth floor and the car. By the time we slipped into our seats, he moved on to Beau, who seemed just as intelligent as his sister but a little more conventional in the personality department so far.
Arthur guided the car through familiar turns, and I relaxed into the seat, breathing for the first time since getting back into the office. I was still enjoying the view of my eyelids when a chill danced down my spine, forcing me to straighten. Unease had me pulling out my phone, but the screen was free of notifications…well, aside from theFam DamilyRhodes group chat, which was insane. Alice was right. That sucker would stay muted.
Oliver’s eyes zeroed in on my phone as his story came to an end. “You expecting someone?”
“No, I just got nervous out of nowhere.”
“Almost home. Nothing from security?”
“Nothing,” I confirmed, though it did little to ease the tension in my chest. We hadn’t even hit the driveway when Arthur rolled down the divider.
“Mr. Hart, would you like me to call security?”
Adrenaline shot through my system as I saw what he was surveying through the windshield. Alice, looking twelve kinds of pissed off in her perpetually prim, composed way, wearing a skintight pair of yoga pants and an athletic top, was cornered by the dead-men-walking paparazzi.
Bolting from the car to the muttered curse of my brother, I made a beeline for them just in time for her to ask if he had a life. But I slowed as I neared the edge of our gate. She stood tall, her head high, as she looked down her nose at the motherfucker I wanted to smash with his camera.
I snagged my brother by the elbow as his momentum carried him past me. Because Alice was speaking in the sickliest, sweetest, serpentine tone, and I found it sexier than sin.
“I would tread very carefully if I was in your shoes.” A patronizing lift of a brow, like she was looking at a bug she’d stepped on. “I certainly wouldn’t be daft enough to challenge the safety ofmy husband’shome. Careers can be ended in moments, and lives destroyed much faster.” Damn, the confidence in her words had pride lifting my cheeks.
“Are you threatening us, Ms. Rhodes?” The second of three asked.
“It’sMrs. Hart. And I’m telling you to remove your hands from Greyson Hart’s wife before he erases your name from the face of modern media. Assault and harassment charges would be the least of your concerns.”
Straightening, I realized the first dead man did, indeed, have a hand wrapped around her wrist, anchoring her in place.Toolate, motherfucker.She was right. Nobody touched what was mine without paying with their peace of mind.
This pile of shit would be lucky to see daylight as a free man again if I had anything to say about it.
The desire to use that zoom lens around his neck for some complimentary tooth extractions had my voice near a growl as I said, “My wifeis correct.” All three of them spun to face me, but Alice only smiled, like she knew I’d come for her. “What you do next will determine the forecast of your future, so I suggest youstep. Back.”
12
Freddy Kreuger
ALICE
Freddy Kreuger brought to life would have gotten less of a jump scare out of the reporters standing sentinel outside Hart House than Grey did. Shoulders sagging while my heart still hammered like a bass drum in my ears, I locked on to irate hazel eyes. He leisurely scanned from the meaty hand that had been wrapped around my wrist a moment before to the man he appeared to be preparing to murder, based solely on the unfiltered fury in his eyes. I’d seen his version ofnuclear, and it was a terrifying silence that promised the swift destruction of entire family legacies.
This was so much worse.
And I’d never felt safer in my life.