Heath
HELEN OPENS HER MOUTH AND I wave her off as I toss my umbrella onto the floor. “Leave us.”
She grumbles but obeys, leaving us alone. I stalk over to where Catrina sits on the sofa and kneel on the floor beside her. Her lips are plump and parted in surprise. So beautiful.
Our eyes lock and hers become glassy with tears. I reach up and brush a stray lock of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her cheeks are full and flushed, a light shade of pink.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmur.
She chokes on a teary laugh. “I’m fat.”
Sure, I notice she’s thicker and her belly is big, but she’s still the same Catrina I’ve been in love with since the first day I laid eyes on her. “You’re not fat.” I grab one of her swollen hands and bring it to my lips. I kiss each knuckle until I reach the one with the giant diamond. It cuts into her flesh and seems uncomfortable. When I slide it from her finger, tugging to free it, it has nothing to do with fucking over Elliot and claiming what’s mine, but everything to do with giving her comfort. I drop the ring to the floor and it clinks.
“You’re swollen,” I say with a frown, rubbing the indented flesh. “Are you feeling okay?”
She beams at me, brighter than any sun or star in the sky. “I’m feeling wonderful now.”
“Fuck how I’ve missed you,” I mutter before resting my head on her giant belly. “You smell like life and love and every single thing I’ve craved since the day I no longer had you in my arms.”
“Oh, Heath,” she sobs, her fingers sliding into my hair. Her fingernails scratch along my scalp as she strokes me. “I missed you too.”
I press kisses on her stomach through her gown and kiss my way up her chest to her throat. She sighs happily when I pepper more kisses along her flesh. When I reach her jaw, I open my mouth to kiss her skin. I suck her salty flesh between my lips to taste what I’ve been yearning so long for. My lips trail up until our mouths are a breath apart.
“I’ve come to rescue you, my princess,” I breathe.
Her lips press to mine and we kiss sweetly. Like our first kiss when we were teens. And just as we did back then, the kiss becomes ravenous and desperate. Our mouths mate like our bodies have so long been denied.
She tugs on my hair and pulls me away. Her eyes are wild, darting all over my features as though she tries to memorize everything about me—as though I may disappear at any moment.
I’m not going anywhere.
I’m here to stay.
“I’ll love you forever,” I tell her. A vow stronger than any silly wedding promise. The vows our hearts made when we were younger have always stayed true. Our flesh may have temporarily belonged to another, but our hearts—our motherfucking souls—only ever belonged to each other.
“You’ve come to tease and torment me.” Her bottom lip quivers and tears stream down her red cheeks.
I cradle her face with my palms and swipe away the wetness with my thumbs. “I’ve come to make everything better. Windy Hills is mine now, love.”
“I don’t understand.” She blinks in confusion.
“Your brother didn’t have the wits about him to keep it. It’s mine and soon we can finally be together.”
“What about Elliot?” she asks and then her tone turns bitter. “What about Isabel?”
A growl rumbles from me. “Fuck them. They are nothing. We are everything.”
“I’m ready,” she tells me. “I can’t stay here any longer. I’m so tired of being unhappy. I miss you. I miss us. This was all a horrible mistake. How will you ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you for tossing my heart into the floor and fucking stomping on it?” I taunt.
“Yes,” she groans.
“Forgive you for choosing that weak pussy over me?”
“Yes.” A sniffle.
“Forgive you for being blind to the suffocating love all around you?”
“I’ve been destroyed since the moment I made that terrible decision.”
“My heart was broken, I’ll admit,” I say with a frown. “I wanted to ruin every motherfucker who lured you away and kept you away from me.”
“And me. You wanted to ruin me.”
“No, my love.” I kiss her sweet lips. “My revenge was never with you. It was always for you. I never wanted to ruin you. Just wanted to ruin the world around you so we were the only two left standing. The only two who mattered.”
“Oh, Heath. I’m so sorry. I’ll pack a bag. Straight away. We’ll leave. Drive to Canada. Anywhere but here,” she says sobbing. “I want to leave it all behind.”
I grab her hands in mine and squeeze. “So we will. There are some affairs that need sorting back at Windy Hills and you need your rest. Call me if you need me. In the morning, I’ll come for you. Have Helen pack your things. Then we’ll go. We’ll run far away from our mistakes and into our future.”
She throws her arms around my neck and hugs me. Her breath tickles my ear as she whispers the words I always felt deep into the marrow of my bones. “I love you, Heath. I always have. It was always you.”
I kiss her hair and neck. “I love you too, Catrina. You are my existence.”
The ride in my Bentley back to Windy Hills in the pouring rain is lonely. Leaving Catrina as she bawled like a baby was heart-wrenching. But it gave me new resolve. Reminded me what all this hard work was for.
Her.
It was always for her.
Working tirelessly to start my own company. Reaching out to Crenshaw’s old clients and schmoozing potential investors. I used what Crenshaw taught me, conned some people to take a leap of faith, and I hit the ground running. I was able to take W. Heights Investments and evolve it into an international powerhouse. And Hunter, that stupid fuck, couldn’t keep his father’s gold mine from drowning. Slowly, little by little, not only did I poach on his clientele thanks to the contact list I’d procured from Crenshaw’s portfolio, but I also made that fuck reliant on me. He wasn’t educated or cunning enough to keep C-Trades from sinking. Hunter was robbing Peter to pay Paul. And whom did he run to when he needed help?
The same motherfucker he threw out on his ass without a dime to his name.
A brother would help out a brother.
Loan after loan, I injected money into his dying legacy. I tied each loan up with balloon payments and astronomical interest rates. I made a knot of his debt and pretended as though his increasing debt didn’t worry me. It didn’t. I was biding my time. In fact, right before I left Isabel at Windy Hills to go see Catrina, I dropped all the notes on his desk and told him it was time to pay the fucking piper.
I’m grinning like a loon as I drive through the heavy downpour. The roads are nearly impassable in parts as water touches the edges. I hope this shit blows over soon because as soon as I wrap up my affairs, I’m getting out of here with Catrina.
I pull up near the front door at Windy Hills and climb out. I may be chilled as fuck from the rain soaking me to my bones, but my heart is on fire. I’m burning with exhilaration.
“Heath!” Isabel cries out when I burst through the door. Her brows are furrowed together and she is frowning. “Where were you?”
Earlier, I’d been in such a hurry to see Catrina after I dropped the bomb on Hunter, that I blew out of here without so much as a goodbye.
“I went to see your brother’s wife,” I tell her, my voice turning hard. “I went to see Catrina.”
Her throat bobs and fat crocodile tears well in her hazel eyes. “W-What? Why?”
“You know why,” I sneer.
She shakes her head. “No.”
Walking past her, I shed my soaked coat and fumble with the coffee maker. I manage to get a pot brewing before turning to face her.
“Yes, Isa.”
“But we’re…you and I—”
“Things have changed. My heart always belonged to Catrina. You knew this.”
She lets out an enraged scream. “No! You fell in love with me! We fell in love! We were going to start a family!”
I stare at her, emotionless. “It would have helped me further my agenda, yes, but things have changed. Catrina and I are leaving together. My attorney will handle our divorce, Isabel. You’ll be set up with a handsome alimony check each month. There is nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t want your money!” she cries out. “It was never about your money!”
“Well, you’ll get it anyway,” I snarl. “Stay here. Move in with your brother. I don’t give a fuck, Isa, but we’re done. You were there when I needed to get my dick wet until I came back for her.”
She freezes and gapes at me. “You’re a cruel, miserable man.”
“And you tried to paint me otherwise.”
The tiny thing stomps over to me and I close my eyes, expecting the blow to my cheek. Instead, her lips press to my still-wet cheek and she whispers, “Cruel.”
When I open my eyes, she’s already rushing from the room. I don’t go after her. Instead, I pour two cups of coffee and carry them into Hunter’s study. The moment I walk inside, I see that it’s been ransacked. He’s a disheveled mess and the room reeks of whiskey.
“Done throwing a tantrum?” I ask and set down a mug for him on the desk.
He staggers over to the desk drawer and pulls out a fifth of Jack. His hate-filled eyes are on mine as he unscrews the lid and chugs it.
“Suit yourself,” I say coldly. “You’ll need a clear head, though, to sort your business. Well, what remains.”
“She left me,” he hisses. “She fucking left me.”
I’m not surprised. Being married to a gambling drunk would take a toll on anyone. It was the smartest move to leave him when she did. Her child deserves better than his father.
“Your father would—”
“Don’t you dare mention my father,” he roars, kicking the desk. His untouched coffee sloshes out and splatters the mahogany.
I raise an eyebrow. “He would have wanted you to have a place to stay.”
This catches him off guard. “You’d allow us to stay here?”
“Francesca already left, I thought.”
“She didn’t take Harrison.”
Irritation rises in my chest. “I own you now, Hunter Crenshaw. You can begin paying back your mountain of debt by keeping the property up to my standards and doing my bidding.”
He grits his teeth before knocking back another swallow of the alcohol. “I hate you,” he sneers.
“Hate doesn’t pay the bills. I suggest you find something that does. Make yourself useful. Sober the fuck up. And stay under my thumb where you belong.”
Riiiiing!
Riiiiing!
Riiiiing!
Absently, I pick up my desk phone and grunt out a hello.
“Heath,” Catrina hisses into the phone. “He’s being ridiculous!”
My heart rate spikes and I snap my portfolio folder closed. “Why? Did you tell him you were divorcing him? What’s wrong?”
She sobs. “I told him I was leaving. He forbade me to go! I’m no one’s to control!” She screams out a slew of obscenities at him.
“You’re mine,” I growl in agreement. “Tell him to go the fuck away.”
“Is that him?” I hear Elliot shout. “Are you fucking him? Did you fuck him under my roof?”
“Let me talk to him,” I snarl.
“No,” she snaps. “He’s going to go the hell back to his office where he can whack off to his double-jointed porn whores! We’re over and he knows it!”
They struggle and I nearly crack the phone in my grip. “Catrina,” I bark.
“Let go of me, you whiney bastard!” she yells at him.
“Stop being a bitch!”
Slap!
“You scratched my eye!” Elliot wails. “I’ll be blind because of you!”
“I’ll carve them out and feed them to you if you dare lay your hands on me again!”
“Catrina…” I growl.
“I can’t take another second with this poor excuse for a man. Please come get me, Heath. I don’t care if we have to sleep in the car!” she cries out.
I glance out the window and groan. The rain is coming down so hard and has been for hours. I’ll have a helluva time getting out if the roads are flooded over. While she bitches more at Elliot, I run my fingers through my hair in frustration.
“It’s awful out,” I grumble.
“I don’t care! Just get me out of here!”
When she screams again and the line goes dead, I hang up the phone and burst from my office, my heart in my throat.
I yank a coat on by the door and step outside. The wind is howling and fierce. Stinging pellets of rain assault my face. I look beyond the driveway at the road that leads to Low Valley Estate and groan. My fucking car will never make it past the rising water that’s now covering the road.
Her screams are on repeat in my head.
So help me if that motherfucker touches her again, I’ll scalp him. I’ll cut him from ear to ear. I’ll beat his goddamned face to a bloody pulp and stomp on it until he’s dead. Nobody fucks with my girl. Nobody.
I make it over to the barn, winded and already soaked as fuck. The horse Francesca bought for Harrison resides in the barn. My horse now. Everything is mine now.
Including Catrina.
And I’m going to get her once and for all.