To the Max (41 page)

She choked out a ragged whimper and lifted her arms, reaching for him.

“Max, please,” she begged, bucking and clenching around him. “I ache. I need you. Please.”

He increased the speed of his strokes. She was getting desperate; she needed to come, her pussy swollen and so damn hot, gripping his cock so tight, he had to grit his teeth not to blow.

“I love you so fucking much, Ace,” he growled. He moved his hand to her clit and rubbed it, pistoning his hips up, giving her all of him again and again. “Come for me.”

She tensed and crying out his name, exploded around him, her pussy erratically spasming, taking him under.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Annie navigated the traffic in the outskirts of Boston on her way to Dee Dee’s. She was supposed to have met Barbara at the estate to finalize details for the baby shower, but Dee Dee had sent her a message, telling her she wanted to make it up to Annie for being such a bitch last time and help her with the preparations. In the end, they decided to meet at the guesthouse.

Dee Dee had been a nasty bitch with Annie, but Annie didn’t have any hope of her father changing his ways. The ex-wives were there to stay, attached to her father’s vein to drain him dry. She preferred having a decent relationship with them to being at war. War wasn’t her style. So if Dee Dee wanted to help with the baby shower, Annie would put up with it.

As she approached her dad’s estate, her cell rang. Max. She rolled her eyes. She was thirty-four weeks pregnant, five more to go, but her stomach was huge and he was very vocally objecting to her driving. Not that she was going to give it up. She had the feeling she needed to stand her ground with the Bowens because their natural protective tendency was to take over. But today he’d had a meeting with the company he worked for as graphic designer, so he hadn’t been around to muscle her into taking him as her driver.

“What’s up, Boob Enhancer?” she asked, answering with the hands-free.

He chuckled. “
Ex
-Boob Enhancer. I’m going to be doing other things with them from now on.”

“What? Lingerie catalogs?”

“Other things than Photoshopping,” he corrected her. “I want something more creative.”

“Good for you.” The truth of the matter was, as long as all the pictures and catalogs were kept away from her daughter, she didn’t care what he did for a living. But Max was a very gifted person, his talents wasted on enhancing body parts. “Is your meeting over?”

“No, still a while longer. We’re on a break now. You?”

“Going to my dad’s for the baby-shower preparations.” Before he could start bitching at her about driving that far away from Alden, she continued, “You remember we have the Lamaze classes today, right? In the evening.”

“Right,” he muttered.

She chuckled softly. “You don’t have to come.”

“The hell I don’t,” he said belligerently. “I’ll be there. Don’t you worry.”

“Okay, honey. I’ve got to go now.”

“Drive safely. I love you,” he told her.

“Love you too.”

Annie still got goose bumps every time she heard Max telling her he loved her. And he said it a lot. All the time. He had no trouble expressing affection and didn’t care who was around. She wasn’t so open, but she was learning.

She entered the estate through the gate that led straight to the guesthouse occupied by Dee Dee.

“Hi,” Annie greeted as the door opened.

She didn’t get an answer. She was shoved inside and found a pistol pointed at her face. Again.

* * * *

Max had called Annie several times, but it seemed she was out of range. He was at the entrance of the building where they were supposed to attend the Lamaze classes, which, honest to God, he wasn’t that eager to start. Especially the video they showed the expectant parents—a real birth, ringside position for the viewers. He was a modern man, but damn if there weren’t things better left unseen. And inexperienced. That video was one.

But Annie needed those classes and the breathing exercises, and she would have gone to them with Christy or alone. Either option was unacceptable.

As he was about to call Annie again, his cell rang. Number unknown.

“Yes?”

“Jack here.”

Max stilled. By the tone of his friend’s voice, he understood right away that something was very wrong. Jack had gone undercover after James’s wedding, and as far as Max knew, no one had heard from him since then. He wouldn’t break cover unless it was totally necessary.

“Everything okay?”

The man was concise. “There’s a hit out on your woman.”

He froze. “What?”

“The Vaughan heiress, Ann Marie Vaughan Griffin. She’s your woman, right?”

“Yes. How do you—”

“I heard about the contract killing, but I didn’t connect the dots until Elle sent me some pics from Christmas. I saw her with you in several of them. You had your hands on her swollen belly. Congratulations, by the way.”

Max’s brain was going a thousand miles a second. Benito Hayes had always denied involvement in her “accidents.” The police had two members of the board of directors in custody already. If any of them had wanted to kill Annie to keep the irregularities from coming out, there was no point now. Unless they had put a hit on her and hadn’t taken it off.

“Who’s the hit man?”

“Already dealt with, but you need to take care of the person who hired him. There’s no shortage of assholes ready to kill for money. The one I strongly encouraged to drop the job could be replaced in a flash.”

“Did he tell you who hired him? Benito Hayes? Sebastian Franke?”

“No. It was a woman.”

* * * *

“You nuts?” Annie asked. “What are you doing?”

Barbara was in front of her, waving a gun. And not a small one at that.

She’d pulled Annie inside the house, smacked her with the butt of the weapon—which hadn’t rendered her unconscious but had left her disoriented—and dragged her to one of the bedrooms. Now Annie had a hell of a headache and was tied to a chair. Barbara was pacing in front of her in her designer clothes and Blahniks.

“What am I doing?” Barbara repeated her question. “Got tired of waiting for that incompetent to finish the job. How difficult can that be, for Christ’s sake? He tried to run you over, shoot you, and blow you up and fucked it up every single time. Do they let anyone become a contract killer nowadays? No quality control whatsoever?”

Annie shook her head, trying to clear it. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’ve been smoking something?”

“Of course not. Smoking kills and it’s bad for your skin. I took half a Valium to calm down.”

Yeah, Annie figured Barbara didn’t wave a gun and tie people up every day. That must be stressing.

“I can see you’re having some sort of breakdown, and so far there’s been no harm done. Let me go. We can—”

“Breakdown?” Barbara stopped dead in her tracks. “You have no clue what it’s like to juggle two greedy ex-wives, a mother-in-law who thinks more of a cockroach than you, and a clueless husband who is unable to say no to a woman. I didn’t marry a man twenty years my senior to be counting pennies. I hoped your grandmother would drop dead sooner or later and leave all her money to him, but not only is that harpy looking younger and younger by the day, but all of her assets pass to you. Which kind of mother does that to her own son?”

Barbara wasn’t making sense. “My dad isn’t exactly poor. I doubt you’re counting pennies.” One only had to look at her clothes and her jewelry.

“He isn’t rich enough. I had to sign that damn of a prenup, so all I can walk out with is what I’ve been able to put aside before the divorce, which, let me tell you, isn’t much. I was ready to give up when I came across the copies of your trust-fund papers.”

“Is that what you want? My trust fund?” Because if so, Barbara could be her guest. “Take it.”

She let out a disdainful snort. “It’s not that easy, dear. Your grandmother made sure of it. Your trust fund will pass to your children, unless you happen to die without issue, in which case it reverts to your dad.”

“You’re wrong. If I die, it goes back to my grandmother.”

“No, dear. Did you read the papers?”

Annie shook her head. She hadn’t really paid attention to the whole thing. Not to mention it had been more than ten years ago.

“It reverts to your dad. That is, to me, as I am the one managing his personal accounts. I was already trying to come up with a solution for your untimely, sad demise. The fire at your crappy complex didn’t work. I thought to make the most of it and get you to stay at the estate. The closer to me, the easier to make sure you fell down the stairs, but you had to stubbornly refuse.”

Annie was having trouble processing what the woman was saying. “You torched the clubhouse?”

“Believe me, dear, it was an accident waiting to happen.”

“Did you also break the step in my stairs? The one my neighbor stepped on?”

“I’m not surprised it gave way, but no, I didn’t. I was too busy researching arson and acquiring salmonella-infested mayo.”

Oh God, this was getting crazier and crazier by the moment. “You…you tried to poison me?”

“I was assured it was a very virulent strand of the bacteria, yet you’re still here. I was gearing up for a more radical approach when you happened to show up with that hunk of a boyfriend and pregnant. So I had to accelerate my plan and ended up with that imbecile of a contract killer. But I’ve had it. I’m taking matters into my own hands. I would have preferred an accidental death or you falling victim to one of those senseless mugging-gone-wrong thingies. Fewer questions. But beggars can’t be choosers, especially now that I’m improvising.”

“Barbra, wha’ ya doin’?” Annie heard Dee Dee call from the living room, her voice totally slurred.

“Coming,” Barbara said in the direction of the open door.

“Dee Dee,” she cried out. “Help me.”

Annie couldn’t understand the garble that came from the living room.

“Don’t hold your breath for her to come to your rescue. She’s wasted,” Barbara sneered in disgust. “I’m tired of dealing with Dee Dee, so this will kill two birds with one stone. I’m pinning this on her. Rowena, I’ll be able to get rid of sooner or later; she’s already looking into tying the knot with a wealthy lawyer. But Dee Dee? She’s developed a drinking habit. Has had it for a while already, binge drinking to the point of blackouts. Her looks are decaying very fast. I’ll be stuck with her forever.

“I thought Dee Dee would have passed out by now, but I miscalculated, so we’re going to wait for a bit. I’m going to return to the house to establish an alibi. By the time I sneak back, Dee Dee will be out cold. After all, I’ve been pretending to drink with her for several hours already. Just smelling her breath is getting me inebriated.”

“No one will believe Dee Dee wants to kill me.”

“Well, she’s been very vocal about her displeasure with you. She got drunk, texted you to come to her place, shot you, and then passed out. When she wakes up, she won’t even remember I was here. Hell, she won’t remember whether she shot you or not. And as the gun is hers and it will be full of her fingerprints, I’m sure this will be a clear case.”

Annie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “And what are you going to do, kill me in cold blood? I liked you, Barbara.”

“I like you too. It’s nothing personal, darling. I’ll make it as painless as possible.”

Suddenly, Annie felt her panties wet. Her inner thighs too. Her water had broken. She closed her legs, praying Barbara wouldn’t notice the liquid that was dripping from the chair. “Stop this while nothing has happened. While you still can.”

Her heart was stampeding and her ears were roaring so badly, she could hardy hear her own thoughts.

“Sorry, no can do. I’m too old. At forty-one, you’re out of the game, darling. Too old to be a trophy wife, even for the octogenarians. Too poor and unknown to be able to stand on my own two feet in the world of high society. So this is it for me.”

Annie tried to control her breathing and her rising panic. Her water had broken. That didn’t mean the baby was coming anytime soon, but she needed to get to a hospital. First, she needed to get out of there. “This is not going to work. Max will come for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure he will, but it will be too late.” She took Annie’s phone from her bag and began tapping on it. “Done. Now he knows you’ll be late. He won’t worry. He seems like a clever young man. Maybe I could console him once you’re gone.”

As she left the cell on Annie’s bag, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She turned fully to it, then shifted to her side and said, “Pilates got my ass hard as granite. Sadly, that isn’t of any help in killing you. I should have taken up krav maga.”

“Who are you?” Annie asked, stupefied. This couldn’t be the same person her dad had been married to for five years already.

“Barbara Vaughan, my dear,” she answered while she gagged her. “Now stay put. I’ll be back very soon.”

The second she heard Barbara leave, she started trying to scream and making sounds with the chair, but to no avail. Dee Dee was drinking and, by the sounds of it, watching a very loud reality show.

Then Annie felt a sharp contraction gripping her stomach and the base of her back, stealing her breath.

She was in labor. This was not frigging happening. Not now. Not on top of everything else.

* * * *

Annie fought to get free for what seemed an eternity, but with every passing minute—and every passing contraction—her situation became more desperate. She was exhausted, her wrists were bloody, and the zip tie was still holding her prisoner. Her throat was raw from screaming, but the sound had been muffled by the cloth, so it had all been for nothing.

She needed to make it to a hospital. The baby was coming five weeks early, and she was terrified. Anything could happen. Anything could go wrong. The baby could need medical attention, and she was stuck in a house with a drunk and a murderer. And soon to be shot, her racing mind added.

At some point, Dee Dee stumbled to the room. She opened the door and looked at Annie with empty eyes. Right away, the strong smell of booze reached Annie, triggering her gag reflex. She breathed through her mouth, calming her stomach, and screamed and moved the chair to call Dee Dee’s attention.