Page 54 of Addiction

It took a couple of seconds for her senses to catch up with her reality and a further few for her eyes and ears to make sense of what they were deciphering.

Where am I?

The room was dark, the constant thrum of temperature-controlled air fractured only by her own labored breaths.

“Tucker?” Her palm reached out beside her for the place she knew he’d fallen asleep, but to her dismay, his side of the bed was cold and empty. Straying farther under the duvet, her fingers grazed the edge of something soft. His mother’s blanket. She grasped it and pulled it to her chest. “Tucker!”

The door to the bedroom opened at her louder call, his silhouette visible in the doorway.

“Hang on.”

She knew in an instant that it wasn’t her he was talking to as he stalked to the bed.

“It’s okay, little girl.” His voice was a hushed whisper. “I’m sorry to wake you. I’m on the phone.”

On the phone? Who’s calling him at this time?

Although she accepted she had no idea what time it actually was.

“Oh.” She didn’t know what to say. “Okay.”

Tucker turned, walked back to the doorway, and returned the device that was presumably in his hand to his ear.

“What do you want, asshole? Have you got your friend, Collins, with you?” His curt tone shattered any illusion that the caller was a friend. Evidently, Tucker didn’t want to speak to whoever was on the line, although she didn’t know who Collins was. “How do you even have this number?” There was a pause as the person on the other end of the line replied.

Ella grasped the blanket closer. She couldn’t shake the sense of alarm that had risen in her dream, and Tucker’s disdain for the mysterious caller only amplified her concerns.

“It doesn’t matter who I’m with,” he hissed. “That’s none of your damn business!”

Her throat dried as she acknowledged she was now the choice of conversation.

“You can’t track this device,” Tucker sneered. “You should know I’m smarter than that.”

Another silence filled the air, and in the half-light, Ella saw him glance briefly in her direction. She wanted to call out to him, or better, to go and offer reassurance, but terror kept her rooted to her spot on the mattress.

“Yeah, and I said, what do you want?”

That time, Tucker’s voice was little more than a growl, and her pulse accelerated at its warning. She’d only heard that voice from him once before and that was when her father had interrupted them at the cabin. Could this be Alexander again?

“What?” His head snapped up, and she noticed how his breathing sped up as he replied. “What do you mean, Kenner?”

The room prickled with tension as his irritation ballooned. Ella squeezed into a tight ball in his bed as the gap in conversation protracted. He’d mentioned another name—Kenner—but she didn’t know who that was, either. The universe seemed littered with angry men, and even the one she was falling in love with sounded close to the edge.

“What?” Disbelief echoed in Tucker’s voice as he staggered back toward the bed. He landed unceremoniously on the covers at her side, prompting a gasp from Ella before he went on. “What do you mean, burned?”

Burned? She frowned as the sound of laughter resounded from the phone line. What’s burned, and who the hell thinks it’s funny?

“You can’t do this!” There was venom laced in Tucker’s screeched response. She didn’t think she’d ever known him so incensed before. “You can’t fucking do this!”

“Too late, asshole.” For the first time, Ella heard the other person’s chilling words. “It’s done, and unless you want another one of your assets to go up in flames, I suggest you contact Bennett as soon as possible for a trade.”

The line went dead seconds before she heard Tucker drop the phone to the bed.

“Oh God.” He sounded winded. “I-I can’t believe he’s done this!”

“What’s happened?” She seized his mother’s blanket tighter, realizing the closer she clutched it, the calmer she felt. “What’s wrong, sir?”

“That was…” He hesitated as if uncertain, but that couldn’t be right. Tucker was never unsure. Even when Bennett had called and they’d fled the cabin, it had only taken him seconds to devise the plan.

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