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"You two make me sick," Annabelle choked out in an appalled tone.

"Well, aren't you a fucking piece of work," Hunter mused, unaffected, with a cocky smirk etched firmly on his handsome face. "Goddamn, didn’t see that streak of black in your heart coming." Sighing dramatically, he added, "I'm guessing he hasn’t seen it yet, either." Shrugging, he said, "Which explains why you're still here."

"What are youtalkingabout?" Annabelle demanded, face turning bright red.

"You and your shady ass," Hunter shot back coolly. "Acting all put out when you're anything but."

"Excuseme?" Annabelle looked like she was two seconds from her head spinning clean off her shoulders. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hunter chuckled. "Ah, thewhat's that supposed to meancome back. The question every woman spouts to a man when they knowexactlywhat he means." He tilted his head to one side and smiled. "You ain't fooling anyone here, Blondie. Youwantedthis to happen. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say you were banking on it." Shrugging, he added, "Who better to pick up the pieces than you?"

"You're wrong,"Annabelle spat. "I'm invested inJordan. In hisrecovery. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, and you are hindering every ounce of progress he's made."

"Am I?" Hunter shot back calmly. "Really? Because it looks to me like you've had a big hand in that."

"How dare you –" she began to scream, but Hunter cut her off with a humorless laugh.

"Don’t even bother denying it," he continued to say, arching a brow. "You're obsessed with him. Moving in with him, andstayingwhen he was trying to start over with Hope? Fuck that shit. Talk about having an ulterior motive. Oh, and to top it all off, you have your kid call himdaddy?" Shrugging, Hunter shook his head and said, "You, lady, are onecrazybitch."

The sound of the front door slamming had me swinging around in surprise.

But I wasn’t prepared for what I would see.

I wasn’t prepared in the slightest for the turbulence of emotions that battered through my heart when my eyes landed on Jordan standing in the hallway.

He was glaring at me like I was a stranger in his home.

An imposter.

And maybe I was.

Because I certainly wasn’t the woman I used to be.

****

Chapter Fifteen

Jordan

Falling off the wagon had been a mistake.

Waking up in hospital with my head in pieces, having wrapped my bike around a tree had been proof enough of that.

I'd lain awake all night thinking about the mistakes I'd made.

Of the choices I'd made that had led to the path of most destruction.

And how badly I screwed up.

This morning, when I signed myself out of hospital, I had made myself a promise that it was only a slip. I swore to myself that I would never give another human the power to derail my recovery again.

I would get my ass to a meeting.

I would do whatever it took to not go back there.

But those promises vanished from my mind the minute I passed the liquor store four blocks from my house. Thoroughly disgusted with myself, I had paid the cab driver there and then before jumping out of the cab in the direction of the top shelf bourbon.

I was really fucking glad for the whiskey in my veins when I walked into my house and sawthemtogether.

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