Page 145 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
When she balances on her tippy toes to place a kiss on my cheek, my cock stiffens. I'd give anything to be in an empty room with her right now—anything at all. Then, once she begged for forgiveness, I'd spend hours becoming reacquainted with her body. It’s only been two weeks since she was underneath me, but it feels like months.
My eyes shoot across the room when Hugo asks, “Do you two need a minute to finish, or can we get this show on the road?”
His smile sags when I retort, “You may only need a minute, Hugo, but most men require a lot longer than that to pleasure their women.”
Hunter and Hugo’s boisterous chuckles bounce around the room. Even Brandon snickers. The only person who stays quiet is Isabelle. Her pert nipples bud against her thin shirt as her beautiful scent infuses the air. My lips thin into a hard line. I’m barely restraining myself from touching her as it is, and she's making my struggle ten times worse. I wouldn’t hold back if the chuckles booming from the other side of the room didn’t clue her on to the fact we have company. She's just as proficient about failing to notice anyone else in the room when she's in my presence as I am with her.
She claps her hands two times, waking herself from her trance. “Okay, let’s get down to business.”
She pads to the other side of the room to gather a bursting-at-the-seams manila folder from underneath her dowdy satchel. When she pivots back around, the smile curving her lips slackens so a rueful frown can take its place. After returning to my side, she gestures for me to sit on the sofa across from the double beds Hugo, Hunter, and Brandon are sprawled on.
When I do, she removes several printouts from the folder, fanning them out on the chipped coffee table wedged between us. “These were taken at Megan’s hotel room in Ravenshoe.”
After scanning the photos, I lift my eyes to hers. “My security team supplied me with similar photos.”
The day before I was arrested, Nick had a run-in with a lady at my nightclub. I immediately had a security detail placed on him. I also updated Cormack on the situation the days following my arrest so Nick would have adequate protection while on the road with his band. The photos Isabelle supplied are nearly identical to the ones Hunter took.
After sitting next to me, Isabelle splits the photos into two separate piles. Although her outward appearance doesn’t reveal that she's affected by my closeness, her body gives away her deceit. The hairs on her arms bristle as her breathing shallows. Once she has them sorted, she angles her body to face mine. “These are from today.”
She hands me a stack of images printed on plain white paper. When my eyes roam over them, my jaw quivers. This evidence proves Megan’s obsession with Nick is more than the random groupie/rock star fascination my security team has been running with the past month.
My gaze floats up when Isabelle places her hand over my fist to give it a reassuring squeeze. The concern relayed through her eyes has me on edge. “When the Bureau first stumbled upon Megan, we were under the assumption she was one of your…flings.”When she said ‘we,’ her eyes flicked to Brandon. “It was only when I followed Megan the day before your arrest did I discover her interests centered around Nick.”
She followed Megan?My furious eyes snap to Hugo. “Where were you? You were supposed to be her shadow!”
“I asked him to collect those documents you required from Regan,” Hunter informs me on behalf of Hugo. “We thought Isabelle would be safe as she was scheduled to remain at her workplace for several more hours.”
Ignoring the thick stench of awkwardness plaguing our gathering, Isabelle shuffles through the photos on the coffee table. When she finds the picture she's after, her eyes return to mine. “Megan had a baby crib set up in her hotel room, indicating that she may have been pregnant. When I saw this ultrasound photo, it all but confirmed it.”
She hands me a picture of a crib and an ultrasound photo. “Megan was pregnant, but it wasn’t Nick’s baby. He had an in-utero paternity test done a few months ago—”
“No. Megan wasn’t pregnant because she’sneverhad the chance to be pregnant.”
Isabelle passes me a stack of documents Brandon just gave her. He gathered them from a portal printer at our right. The papers are the itemized bill Nick’s lawyers sent me after representing him in his paternity case. She flips through a handful of pages. Her teeth catch her bottom lip when she finds the place she's searching for.
My knuckles popping echo around the room when she points to a vitally imported section in the middle of the medical report. “Are you kidding me?”
Isabelle shakes her head. “No, Megan has never had sexual contact with anyone, let alone Nick.”
I throw the documents onto the coffee table so I can rake my fingers through my hair. My hands twitch in sync with my jaw, my anger so potent, I’m on the verge of cracking. “If she never had sex, why did she have a crib set up in her room?”
“Because she's extremely unwell.” Isabelle’s voice shudders as she scoots closer to me. “She’s been in and out of mental hospitals since she was a little girl. During her latest stint, the doctors diagnosed her as having pseudocyesis. Even though she isn’t pregnant, she truly believes she is.”
My limbs suddenly feel heavy as anger overtakes every inch of me. “If she's so unwell, why isn’t she admitted to the hospital now?”
Isabelle coughs to clear her throat. “She was, but she escaped after she struck an orderly with a steel chair.”
I jump up from my seat so abruptly, Isabelle startles. “So, she isn’t just a psychopath, she's dangerous!” I glare at Hunter, beyond pissed that he failed to pick up any of this during his many reports on Megan the past month.
“We assessed the situation before acting on the information we had on hand at the time, Isaac. That’s why Nick has Peters shadowing him,” Hunter remarks, speaking for the first time since I arrived.
I know what he’s doing. He assigned the talking to Isabelle as he knows I won’t lash out at her as I would him. He’s being a coward, and he’ll be reprimanded for it the instant I fix the monumental fuck-up he created.
My eyes fall to Isabelle when she says, “Brandon, Hugo, and I believe Jenni and her unborn baby are more at threat than Nick.” Her eyes shift to Hunter. They’re full of silent apologies. “Nothing against Hunter and his team, they could only go off the information they had before them, but after we called you, we completed an in-depth search of Megan’s room. The threat to Jenni and her unborn baby is credible.”
Hugo moves to stand next to me. “When I couldn’t reach you earlier tonight, I called in a favor. One of my guys is watching Jenni’s house. He’s been reporting back to me every thirty minutes. The house has remained dark throughout the night. I assure you he's good, Isaac. He won’t let anything happen to them.”
I scratch my brow while drifting my eyes between the four sets watching me with concern. I wasn’t reachable today as I’ve been at the hospital, and then on a plane. I just had no clue both my distractions today were for the same thing.
