Page 96 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

MADDOX

W e drive aimlessly for a while, neither of us saying anything. Then the fog in my head clears, leaving one burning thought in its wake.

“ I want to talk to Lowell.”

Kai nods. I’m already dialing Brody’s number. “Victor Lowell is in DC. I need his address.”

“Hello to you too, Maddox,” Brody says dryly. “Gimme a sec. I have it here.”

“You knew he was in DC?” I ask, stung. “And you didn’t tell me?”

His voice is calm. “Yes, I knew. No, I didn’t tell you. Fiona thinks very highly of Avery. Whatever’s going with the three of you, I thought you could figure out on your own, the old-fashioned way. With communication and trust and honesty. And without the help of a private detective.”

If only that were true. “It’s too late for that,” I snap. “Where can I find Lowell?”

He sighs. “He’s staying at the Four Seasons. Room 544. Try not to do something too stupid, will you?”

Victor Lowell raises an eyebrow at us, his expression one of distaste. “Gentlemen. I can’t say I was expecting you.”

“Let us in, Lowell,” I growl. “Unless you want me to punch you in the hallway.”

He steps aside, and we enter the suite. The damn room probably costs more than a thousand dollars a night, and he’s been staying here for at least three weeks. Then again, Victor Lowell’s the kind of guy who places great stock on appearances.

“It’s Baron Lowell to you,” he says. “But I’ll let it pass. You look upset. I take it Avery broke things off with you.”

“You smug bastard. We know all about the plot you hatched along with Avery’s parents.”

He tilts his head to one side. “I can trace back my lineage to the Magna Carta. Given the nature of your own birth, Mr. Wake, that’s hardly an insult I’d expect to hear from you.

” He sits down in a spindly armchair and leans back, considering us between steepled fingers.

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. ”

“Is that how we’re going to play it? Let’s see if I can make it explicitly clear.

I know Jeremy and Maisie Welch were never broke.

I know that the three of you conspired to pretend otherwise.

You told Avery that the Irish mob was going to hurt her father, and she was forced to marry you to save him.

I know,” I add, my voice harsh, “That three weeks ago, you decided to have another go at Avery. Once again, Avery’s parents needed money, this time, because her mother was pretending to be gravely ill. Once again, there you were.”

He gives me a look of indescribable pity. “I’m really sorry to have to be the person to tell you this, Mr. Wake,” he says. “But nothing you’re telling me makes any sense.”

“What are you talking about, Lowell?” Kai demands.

He waves us to a seat. “Avery’s always been a pathological liar,” he says with a heavy sigh. “She told you this story, didn’t she? Let me guess how it went. She told you she was forced to marry me. As if, in the twenty-first century, that would even be possible.”

A giant fist seems to be squeezing my heart.

He smiles wryly. “Avery wanted to sow her wild oats before she got married,” he says.

“I’m not blind, gentlemen. Avery was more attracted to the idea of being a baroness than she was to me.

After all, I’m quite a bit older than her.

But I’ve always been a besotted fool where she’s concerned.

If she wanted two weeks in Dublin with the two of you before her wedding, I couldn’t say no.

No matter how much pain it caused me. I was afraid of losing her. ”

“I don’t believe you.” Kai’s voice is flat, lifeless. His hand is trembling, and his eyes are empty. He’s living his worst nightmare. Losing Avery, seeing her ripped from him again.

So am I.

“You’d rather believe a fantastical tale of Irish mobs and sick mothers? Come on, Dr. Bowen. You’re not a stupid man. Ask yourself who you trust. A woman who lied to you, who slept with you the day before her wedding? Or me, a man who only wants his wife back?”

My head is pounding. My hands are cold and clammy. Is Lowell right, has Avery been lying to us from the start?

Ask yourself who you trust.

Ten years ago, Avery had walked out on me, ripping a hole in my life, leaving behind a void that I’ve been unable to fill. Ever since then, I’ve been walking around wounded, allowing that one event to corrode everything.

She should have told us about Victor. She made a mistake. But she’d been trying to protect us. And the moment I was done with Gage’s engagement party, the moment Kai was done with his surgery, she’d told us everything.

She’s not the only one to make mistakes. I tried to buy her, for fuck’s sake. I was a total, utter dick that night when I gave her the money, but she’s never held that against me. She saw through the hurt, and she trusted me.

Even tonight, she hadn’t said one word of reproach about the fact that Kai and I had known the truth about her parents and had hidden it from her.

She’s always given us the benefit of the doubt.

Not me. The first moment we hit a speed bump, I’d walked out on her.

Stuart Wake could have let my mother’s mistake corrode his life, but he hadn’t. My parents had found a way to move forward, to allow the wounds of the past to heal.

I’m not half the man my father was. He’s always set a shining example for me to live by.

“Kai,” I say quietly. “I know who I trust. It’s Avery.”

The tension drains from his shoulders, and he loses the blank look in his eyes.

I watch him come back to life. “Me too,” he says.

He turns to Lowell. “For a second,” he says, cold and harsh, “you almost had me. You ganged up with Avery’s parents to manipulate her, and you’re trying to gaslight us. And it almost worked.”

Lowell gets to his feet. “I’m trying to gaslight you?” He laughs. “Dr. Bowen, I’m the victim here.”

“No,” Kai replies. “No, you aren’t.” He clenches his right hand into a fist and swings at Lowell’s jaw. His fist makes contact with a sickening crunch, and Lowell staggers backward, his eyes clouded with pain, trips over the armchair, and falls to the floor.

As satisfying as it would be to beat the crap out of him, I don’t want to waste any more time. I just want to find Avery.

I loom over Lowell, and he cringes, instead of getting up to fight back. Pathetic. “I’m warning you,” I say softly. “If you ever come near Avery again, I will make sure I destroy you. Stay away from her, Lowell, if you know what’s good for you.”

In the lobby, I shake my head at Kai, who’s flexing his right hand and examining his bloodied knuckles with a grimace. “You couldn’t have left the punching to me?” I grumble. “You’re a surgeon. Should you have been more concerned about your hands?”

“It never struck me,” Kai replies. “Let’s stop at my place and put some ice on it before we head to Avery’s. I have two OR days next week. Joanna will tear me a new asshole if I can’t operate.”