Page 26 of Hostile Cravings (Wicked Cravings #3)

Chapter Thirteen

TYSON

T he door stayed closed. Angie didn’t return.

Yet I stood there, frozen and unable to make myself move.

My mind was trying to process what had happened.

How we’d gone from a morning of amazing sex and tender moments that had left me ready to bare my soul to her, to experiencing the shallow emptiness that now consumed my body.

I didn’t understand what she was talking about.

Why she’d been so angry with me, so hurt.

She’d overheard me in the hall, but I’d been saying good things, talking about admitting my emotions.

Something I’d been planning to do when I’d walked in the door, opening my heart to her, to what I’d denied all this time.

I sat on the bed, staring at the rings on the floor and trying to figure out how it had all gone wrong.

Finch came in and tried talking to me, but I put my hand out to stop him, not ready to talk yet.

I was still too empty. He left me alone with the shake of his head.

Running my hands through my hair, I walked onto the balcony, trying not to think of Angie, of how we’d sat there together, how soft her legs had been in my lap, the way the sun had shimmered in her hair .

I pulled my phone out, knowing I needed to warn Mason, to let him know I’d screwed up and let her walk out. That I’d just sent her to swim with the sharks.

“Hey,” he answered. “How’d it go?”

“Are you with Donelli yet?” I asked, disregarding his question.

“I’m on my way. Tirenti is en route. Why?”

I sat, staring out at the beach. “Because I fucked up…I’m not really sure how, but I lost her.”

“You what?” he yelled into the phone. “How did you lose her on an island that small?”

“Not like that, asshole. She left. Something upset her and we had a fight, and she walked out.”

“And you just let her go?” I could hear the anger in his voice, his teeth grinding while he awaited my answer.

“I may have kicked her out, but in my defense, she was packing when I returned to the room.”

“Shit, Ty. I thought you were in love. What happened to that in the short time since we talked?”

I leaned on my knees, wishing I had the answer. “I don’t know. I seriously don’t.”

There was a knock on the door, so I rose, saying to Mason, “Let Donelli know. She doesn’t want my protection anymore. She made that clear. The sham is up and I’m out.”

“That means Tirenti is his problem to deal with,” he said. “Without us in the middle, it’s a territory thing, and Donelli isn’t in the position to keep Angie safe without starting a war.”

I opened the door to Finch and ushered him in. I could see he was still eager to tell me something.

“And if it’s a war, Donelli will lose,” I said.

“Exactly. I’ll warn Donelli before Tirenti comes and we’ll come up with something.”

“For Angie’s sake, I hope you do,” I said, hanging up. The thought of Joey Tirenti getting his hands on her was enough to make me see red .

Finch had been waiting patiently for me, and I signaled for him to talk.

“I delivered the package. The governor took her.”

“Thanks, Finch.”

I expected him to leave, but he lingered.

“Don’t take this the wrong way…” My jaw ticked just at his words, and I waited for him to continue. “…but you have a tendency to leap before you look.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve worked with you and Mason long enough to know how you two behave. I’m just saying, I don’t think you listened to what she was telling you.”

“And how do you know that? Were you in here when she was packing her bags and telling me she hated me?”

He snorted. “No, but I heard it all. Besides, she tells you she hates you all the time. Since when does that bother you?”

I shoved my phone in my pocket and looked away, knowing he was right.

It had bothered me this time when it never had before because I’d expected to pull her into my arms and tell her how I felt, to kiss her and spend the day with her.

But her reaction when I’d entered put me on the defensive and once I was there, it was difficult to pull me back.

“She made it clear she wanted to leave and never see me again. It’s over and it should never have begun.”

“It’s over because you didn’t stop to ask her why she was upset. I don’t think she heard your entire conversation, boss.”

My eyes shot up at him as the memory of her words returned, the way they’d focused on only certain words I’d told Mason. That I was tired of pretending, that she was a brat, and it was killing me to be with her.

“Fuck,” I muttered, a sense of defeat making my shoulders slump. She wasn’t leaving because I’d gotten too close, she was leaving because she had, and she thought none of it was real to me. That I’d used her. “Get me a car. ”

He raised a brow.

“Get me a car now and get me to the airport!” An urgency took over my body, a need to get to her before she got on that plane because if I didn’t, there was no getting her back.

I thought about calling Mason while Finch called about a car, but I needed to talk to Angie first. If I couldn’t convince her to listen to me, then it wouldn’t matter that I’d discovered the miscommunication.

It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t make it on time, that I wouldn’t see her again.

But when the car finally pulled up to the small airport after the longest ride I’d ever endured, the plane was taxiing.

Finch sped, the car screeching onto the airstrip just as its wheels lifted.

A pain like I’d never experienced wrenched its way into my chest as Finch stopped the car.

Fumbling with the handle, my hands shaking, I burst from the car, running after the plane as if I could stop it myself.

Her name tore from my throat, a gut-wrenching sound that left me so fractured I could only stare as the plane grew further away.

She was gone, out of my reach and stubbornly thinking this had been nothing more than the fake relationship it started as.

And the fact that she’d acted that way, that she’d been so reactive, so hurt, told me she’d fallen just as hard as I had.

That recognition didn’t ease my pain because I knew she was hurting.

And I knew she would hide it, burn it away with her anger, just as I had when she’d turned on me.

In one more act of desperation, I pulled my phone out and tried calling her, the call going to voicemail just like I’d suspected it would.

I didn’t bother to leave a message. She was too stubborn to listen to any messages I left.

In her mind, it was over. I’d used her and hurt her and nothing I said would erase that.

She would shield the pain and use her anger to function.

Because Angie was the mirror to me and that’s exactly what I would have done.

It was what I’d done in the hotel room when I’d thrown her out.

When I’d made the worst mistake of my life.

The burn of the alcohol didn’t help to burn away the ache that sat in my chest or the void of not having Angie near me.

It seemed unreal that in only two days she’d cracked my defenses and released the heart that had been hers for the taking all these years.

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to put it back together because it still belonged to her.

“Your wife took off without you.” I raised my head to see the sexy resort manager standing next to me. “Her loss.”

The tight skirt and form fitting button down with the top buttons strategically left undone would have tempted me in the past, but now that I’d had a taste of Angie, I didn’t think anything could tempt me again.

“Don’t you have a job? What do we pay you to do every day? Because I don’t remember flirting with the guests in your contract.”

I turned back to my glass and took another swig.

“I don’t flirt with the guests, just you.

” Shit, I would have broken Mason’s rule just to numb the pain, but I didn’t think it would do the trick.

Besides, I could just hear Angie’s wrath if I so much as looked at the woman again and if I slept with her and she found out, there would be no coming back from that.

Not that I thought there was any coming back as it stood.

I glanced over at her, and she licked her dark red lips, a move that normally would have had me accepting her offer.

“I can take your mind from her.” She was good, and my impulsive dick lurched a little.

“I don’t think I want my mind off her and I’m not happy you assumed I do. Now turn your sweet ass around and do your job, or we’ll find someone who can do it for you.”

She huffed away, and I returned to my drink. I needed to talk to Mason about why we insisted on hiring sexy women. I was sure if I brought Casey in on the conversation, there’d be some changes. They were too tempting.

Not that anything was tempting me today. Angie had ruined me and all I wanted was her. It was a thought that left me devastated. My phone rang, and I looked down to see Mason’s name flash on the screen.

“Casey and I are home,” he said.

“Home? Already?” It had only been a few hours since we’d spoken. I’d spent the morning staring at the pink suitcases on the bed that Angie had left in her haste before I’d turned to the bar to numb the relentless burning in my chest.

“Angie called Donelli and told him she left you. Without you, there’s no way he can decline Tirenti’s offer to marry her off to Joey.”

I gripped the phone, my nerves on edge. “Marry?”

“Yeah, Joey wants her, and Tirenti wants to use it to tighten his hold on the territory. He knows Donelli isn’t what he used to be and that Tony’s been playing around all these years not paying attention to how to run things.

He has Donelli’s hands tied, and so I backed out.

Without you in the picture, I’m out of the talks. This is between the two of them now.”

“But if he marries her, he’ll run Donelli down.” Just saying the word was like a dull knife repeatedly tearing into my heart.