Page 48 of Hunted Vengeance

She lifts her hand and gives us a wave. “Hey,” she whispers.

Straightening, I make my way toward her. Wrapping my arms around her, I dip my chin before I touch my lips to hers.

“Hey, baby,” I murmur against her mouth.

Chapter Twenty-One

MERRICK

I’m notsure if I should let her see what we’re doing or not. I look behind me, and Theron shakes his head once. Jerking my chin, I can’t help but agree. I’m thinking I shouldn’t let her know that we’re trying to figure out who this mystery asshole is quite yet.

As much as I want to trust her implicitly, I can’t yet. Not only is she not telling me everything, I know that she’s hiding things from me as well. Until I can get everything from her, she can’t have everything from me.

It’s going to be a bitch to keep her at arm’s length when I finally allowed myself to take her, to keep her, to bring her into my world. It’s not like the first time when she was thrust on me by some bullshit scare tactic of her father’s.

This is all by choice on both our parts, and she should know the pieces of me that I have previously kept from her, and I should know all the pieces of her if she wants this to be real. If I want this to be real. And as I look into her green eyes, I know I do.

“You hungry?” I ask, taking a half step backward. “We were going to order some room service.”

It’s only a half lie. We talked about room service earlier but then got distracted. Her eyes widen as she slides them over the men in the room, who I know are all staring at her, then shifts them back to meet mine.

She places her hand against her belly and then lets out a sigh. I can tell she’s going to say she’s not hungry, but I can also tell that she’s lost an extreme amount of weight since the last time I fucked her in her bedroom.

“When was the last time you ate?” I demand before I let her answer.

Colette’s eyes widen. She takes half a step backward but realizes she can’t go far in that dress since it’s all bunched around her feet without those high-as-fuck heels they had her in earlier.

“Colette,” I grind out.

“Last night,” she whispers. “I was brought a salad with grilled chicken.”

If my head could explode in this moment, I think it might actually splatter all over the room and do just that. I press my lips together and roll them a few times. I’m trying really fucking hard not to say something that would upset her.

“I got clothes in the bedroom. Take that shit out of your hair, wash your face, and take that hideous dress off,” I growl.

I know I sound like an asshole, but right now, I have a thin hold on my control and am about to completely lose my shit.

Thankfully, Colette doesn’t ask me any questions, although I do see the pain flash in her eyes almost immediately. I can’t worry about that pain right now because if I go off, if I let that anger inside of me spill out, it will be more than just hurt feelings.

She turns around and goes back into the bedroom. Spinning on my heels, I hold up my palm at the men in the room. All of them have abandoned their tasks completely, mainly because they love to watch anything juicy unfold, worse than a group of clucking hens.

I don’t give any of them the opportunity to cluck at me. Instead, I make my way over to the phone in the kitchen and call the concierge. When you get a suite this big, you get perks, and I am all about the perks.

A few moments later, I’ve ordered one of everything from the menu. When I finish the order, I hang up and look across the room at everyone.

“Now you can speak,” I announce.

Theron and Boden’s eyes flick between each other then slide over to meet mine before they burst out in laughter.

“We thought you were going to blow your top,” Vaughn mutters.

With a jerk of my chin, I smirk before I shrug a shoulder. “I was seconds away from it.”

Without saying anything else, I head toward the bedroom. I should probably talk to Colette and make sure she’s okay. As pissed off as I am, it’s not her fault. She didn’t not eat on purpose. She didn’t put those marks around her throat. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to get to the bottom of it all—because I am.

I open the bedroom door and slip inside before closing it behind me. The shower water shuts off, but I don’t storm into the bathroom the way I want to. I’m sure my gruffness wasn’t appreciated, especially since when we were together the first time, I never showed much of any kind of emotion.

That is all changing now.

---