Page 34 of Bloody Wedding (The Order of the Owed #1)

TWENTY-THREE

WHAT’S THIS

LONI

“ P eaches?” I ps-ps-ps, calling for the kitten. “Peaches? Where are you, sweetie?”

Did I honestly believe that a four-month-old kitten would wave her paw and say ‘here’?

Of course not. But considering I spent fifteen minutes tearing my room apart, another ten searching Adrian’s, and it’s now been an hour of pure anxiety because I’ve gone through nearly every room in this mansion and there’s still no sign of Peaches. . it would be kinda nice if she did.

I blame the party from a couple of nights ago. I made sure to keep her food bowl filled, her water fresh, and her litter box clean before I went downstairs to join it. My door was closed so that she couldn’t escape into the rest of the house and disappear with all the unfamiliar people everywhere.

At least, that was the idea. At some point, an amorous couple found their way to my room and borrowed my freshly made bed. Peaches got a front row seat to what had to be some wild sex, based on the state of the room when I eventually left Adrian’s and went back to mine late the next morning.

I was super annoyed that someone got it on in my bed.

Worse, it made me think of how I fucked Adrian in one of the Reynolds’s spare guest rooms during our high school graduation party.

We weren’t the only ones going at it, either, even if I’m the only one whose virginity got called into question when the party was over.

I’ll never know who snitched on us. I still think that it had to be Desmond.

That he guessed something was going on between me and Adrian, and he went running to Jack Collins, never realizing that it was a full-blown affair that we were having—or that, in my na?veté, I would admit to having sex with someone before being Claimed during the Claiming ceremony.

I’ll never know, I guess. If it was Desmond, then he took that to the grave with him. If it wasn’t? Does it really matter anymore? I have Adrian now… it’s just the question of whether I want to keep him or not.

Jealousy… seeing him with Sophie made me realize that I’ve been fooling myself. I honestly believed I could get out of this arrangement before I was in too deep, and definitely before I got my heart broken again. Then we had that stolen moment in his study and… yeah.

I’m fucked, and not just because of what we did up there the other night.

Whatever happened in my room, though, left its marks on my poor kitten.

She’s been more than a little skittish ever since, and though Mrs. Gammond cleaned up the room and laundered the bedding for me, there are moments when Peaches finds a new place to hide and I spend the time until I can find her panicking that she somehow got lost.

I can usually get her to peek her head out by shaking the bag of treats she seems to like. Today, I’m shaking these things like a pair of maracas. There’s still no sign of her, and my worry is only growing as I climb the stairs to the third floor.

Today is Mrs. Gammond’s day off. I had breakfast with Adrian before he headed out to do some errands, and he promised to bring home food from my favorite diner in Harmony Heights when he finished up at his office.

I gave him my order for both lunch and dinner, depending on when he got done with work, and planned on getting some of my own done.

But then I couldn’t find Peaches, and my anxiety decided that I couldn’t sit down to work until I knew where my kitten was.

Adrian gave her to me. She was my birthday gift. What kind of shit kitty mom am I if I lost her within two weeks of owning her? No. She has to be here somewhere. She was in my room before breakfast, and I know I closed the door behind me.

I did.

Right?

I thought I did. And it’s not like Mrs. Gammond was by and accidentally let her out.

As for Adrian… he wouldn’t. In his own way, everything he’s been doing lately, he’s trying to make amends for our youth.

I might’ve been hesitant to give him a second chance in the beginning, but the more time I spend with him, the more I remember why I fell for him in the first place even after all those years he picked on me.

It’s simple. When Adrian Heller’s attention is on you, it’s like the sun shines on your face without a trace of clouds in the sky. I’m a sunflower, turning toward him, eager for his warmth because I know what it’s like to be in his shadow.

For the first time in our lives, he doesn’t have to hide his attraction to me.

Whatever affection he feels toward me. Just like how, by becoming his wife, I’m not his dirty little secret anymore.

He Claimed me in the eyes of God and the Order, and it’s been longer than I want to admit since I even thought about breaking free of him.

Oh, no. I want to stay, and that’s a very dangerous thing to admit, even to myself.

He’s still holding back. Secretive as ever, I don’t think I’ll ever know every part of Adrian. Sometimes I tell myself I’ll just have to be satisfied with what I can have. But is that enough? It’s too soon to tell.

For now, I’m only worried about a tiny orange kitten lost in a house this big.

When I work in the upstairs office that Adrian arranged for me, Peaches joins me.

She curls up on the windowsill, basking in the sunlight, while the silly human she looks out for has to tap-tap-tap on a box with keys.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find her in there, though I’m disappointed—and frustrated—when I don’t.

That leaves Adrian’s study.

Anxiety is a bitch. I know we turned the fireplace off after we were done in his study the other day. I’m not sure he’s been back in there since, and if he has, there’s no reason to assume he turned it on.

And, yet, I can’t stop imagining the small fluffball somehow making her way behind the grate, sizzling away as she mews painfully, dead because I didn’t bother checking every room in the house.

So far, the only two I haven’t are the basement gym and Adrian’s study.

The gym is locked—for my safety, supposedly, though I wonder if he only did it because he was afraid I’d grab one of his weights and bean him in the head those rough early days of our marriage—so I’m not worried that Peaches pulled a Houdini and got down there.

But the study?

The door turns easily under my hand. It’s not locked so I decide to do a quick peek to make sure that Peaches didn’t follow Adrian in earlier and get stuck.

It takes five minutes for me to admit that Peaches isn’t in here, either. The fireplace was off—the first place I checked—and considering the study is made up of a row of locked filing cabinets, a large desk, stacked bookshelves, and nothing else, she wouldn’t be able to get lost in this room.

I should leave. There’s no reason for me to stay. I should leave…

I don’t.

I guess I’m just too nosy. During my search, I noticed that Adrian left two folders out on top of the desk, plus a large black book with a red ribbon serving as a bookmark. I disregarded them at first, but curiosity got the better of me.

He’s a financial manager. That’s what he told me. Like me, his work is all numbers, and I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see what he was working with.

The top folder made my stomach drop. I flipped through countless sheets, hoping that I was reading them wrong. I mean, I had to be. These aren’t the sort of papers that a legitimate financial manager would have in their portfolio.

Closing the top folder, I switch it with the other.

Along the edge, two words are written in Adrian’s blocky print: AVALON DOUGHERTY .

What the fuck?

I flip that open with so much force, I nearly spill the contents onto the desktop. The first sheet is a copy of my lease; I recognize my signature at the bottom and know it’s legit. Beneath it, printouts of my bank statements.

What?

I don’t look any deeper. Instead, I place the two folders onto the edge of the desk, reaching for the big, black book.

Flipping it open to the page marked with the ribbon, I read it upside down from my position in front of the desk, my jaw dropping at what’s written on that page.

“Loni? What are you doing in here?”

I jump, slamming the black book shut.

Fuck. I never even heard him come in, or close the door behind him. He has. Adrian—dressed in the same suit as he was this morning, the familiar unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear—is standing in front of the door, an unreadable expression on his handsome face.

Now, I know I’m not supposed to be in here. He told me from the beginning that the study was off-limits unless he was with me… but I guess I thought he got rid of that rule after we christened this very desk the other night.

The tendons standing out on his neck tell me otherwise.

I gulp. “I was looking for Peaches.”

“I thought you wanted to keep her in your room. That it would be the safest spot for her until she was older.”

“Yes—”

“If that’s the case, she wouldn’t be in my study.”

“She isn’t. I… I still haven’t been able to find her.”

“That’s okay.” He gestures for me to leave the desk, to go to him. “Come with me, Loni. I’ll help you search.”

Oh. It hits me suddenly. Oh . He’s not mad at me for coming in here. I read that way wrong. Adrian… he’s shitting bricks that I might’ve seen something I wasn’t supposed to.

And I did, didn’t I?

“It can wait,” I tell him. “I want to ask you about this first.”

“About what?”

I hold up the pair of folders. The one with my name on it is understandable. With his legacy and his wealth, I’d think him an idiot if he didn’t run a background check on me. But the sheaf of papers in the other one? It doesn’t make sense.

“I saw these on your desk. You want to explain them?”

A muscle tics in his jaw. “Not particularly.”

I figured as much.