Dear Diary, he protects me!
“You know, calling this place a cabin is very misleading.” Maddie glanced over her shoulder with a smile as she crossed the two-story great room’s hardwood floor.
Zach couldn’t tone down his smile of pride because Maddie approved of the log cabin he’d designed and finished building a year ago.
“Six thousand square feet of living space on three floors and a spectacular view of Lake Champlain is not what I imagined a log cabin to be,” she continued. “They may come with the ten acres of land and eight hundred feet of lake frontage you say this has, but I don’t think they usually have six impressive bedrooms, huge gourmet kitchen, and wrap-around deck.”
He pulled her into his embrace as she passed him on her way to the huge windows facing the lake. “It also has an indoor pool and a hot tub I intend to make good use of.” He dipped his head to trail his lips over her scented neck. “You smell amazing,” he murmured between nipping kisses down the side of her throat. “Makes me want to eat you up.”
She giggled. His Maddie, who he’d always seen as too serious to indulge in girlish giggles. His chest expanded.
In the hours between Maddie’s car being vandalized and the flight to Vermont, Zach had realized one thing. He was in love with her. He couldn’t say when it happened, how it happened, or even how he managed to miss it. But he knew for sure he was over the top, ardently in love with this beautiful, sweet, adorable creature. Somewhere along the way, she had taught him how to love and he hadn’t even known he was on the course.
Later he’d tell her. Say the words he never thought he’d ever say to another human.
I love you.
He would set the scene—light candles, open champagne, get appallingly soppy. Then present her with his gift and his heart and hope she felt for him what he did for her.
Zach held her close and for the first time in his life, found himself shutting his eyes and sending up a fervent prayer for the favour he wanted most.
Please, God, let her love me back.
~*~
“THIS PLACE is so beautiful.” Filled with an indescribable myriad of happy emotions, Maddie swung their linked hands as she trekked up the small green hill toward a patch of lush-leaf trees with Zach at sunset. “Peaceful.”
On the flight from Boston to Burlington, she’d decided to continue the fling. She knew it wouldn’t last more than a couple of months, but it would give her more time to be with Zach than if she ended things now. Maybe she couldn’t create the outcome she wanted, but she could enjoy whatever time they had left. Make memories and hope when it was over, her heart wouldn’t be rendered completely useless.
Zach flashed his sexy smile. “Thank you.”
She’d already asked him a hundred questions about the cabin and knew it was the work of Zach’s hands. A place he’d built so he could get away to isolation whenever he felt the need.
“Very private,” she added.
He chuckled, released her hand as he turned next to a Red Maple tree. “I was thinking the same thing.” The tiny navy flecks in his blue eyes sparked a teasing dare. He pulled her so he could whisper in her ear.
Maddie tried not to let her shock at Zach’s suggestion show too much.
“Out here?” She glanced around them, uncomfortable with the prospect of getting naked outdoors with Zach.
“Oh yeah.” He snuck his hands beneath her top, hooked his fingers around the belt loops of her jeans on either side of her hips. “And I want you to tell me what you like.”
“You already know.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, suddenly shy with him. There was no way she could say the words he wanted to hear.
“I want to hear you say it. Tell me in honest, no frills language, Maddie. Where do you want my mouth?”
Unable to help herself, she groaned. Just thinking of where he could put his mouth on her was enough. Bracing her hands on his shoulders, she jumped into his arms. Surprise flared in his eyes as he caught her.
She threw her arms round his neck, her legs locking at his waist as her mouth latched onto his. His arms were strong as he supported her, one hand sliding up her back to bury in her hair while the other cupped her bottom. Heat flared hot and wild as he held her for his lips to devour.
If he wanted her to admit how much she wanted him, she’d tell him. “I want to be in bed with you, Zach. I want you to strip me naked and ... you know that thing you did with your mouth earlier? I want you to do it again.”
“No frills, Maddie.”
She giggled, kissed him again. She never giggled, yet she could count at least three occasions when she giggled because of Zach. “You’re trying to make me talk dirty, aren’t you?” She buried her face in his neck to taste his warm skin as she inhaled his spicy male scent. “Mmm, you smell so good.”
He laughed. “You don’t smell so bad yourself.”
When he gently smoothed her hair from her face and locked his gaze with hers, she couldn’t look away, captivated by the pure honest tenderness and passion revealed in his sky-blue eyes.
He smiled and she fancied she saw adoration there too. “I was waiting for the perfect time to tell you this, but every time I’m with you is perfect. Maddie, I—”
A metallic click interrupted whatever Zach was about to say.
She glanced over her shoulder.
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest, a trillion pinpricks of shock and fear exploded through her.
Zach’s arms tightened around her as they both stared toward the woman walking out from behind the wide trunk of an oak tree, a small gun clasped between her hands at chest level, elbows locked, contempt glinting from her cold glare.
“Well, well, well, isn’t this just cosy. Don’t tell me, let me guess. Maddison de la Botella finally got her man.” She showed her teeth in an arctic smile. “It’s a shame you’ll only have him for another thirty seconds.” She waved the gun. “Put her down and step away from her, Zach.”
“This isn’t going to happen.” He let Maddie slide to her feet but manoeuvred her behind him so she stood between him and the tree. “How did you find us, Kimber?”
Kimber? Maddie did a double take as she peered over Zach’s broad shoulder. This was not the woman she remembered. The Kimber she once knew was curvy, pretty, and sophisticated. The woman standing before them was willowy to the point of fragile-looking, her teased blonde hair thin in spite of the vicious backcombing, and her face carried the ravished signs of a toxic life. Pretty was not the word that came to mind.
“Come on, hon, you know I always get what I want.” She turned her hard stare on Maddie. “And I want her dead.” The tiny hairs stood up on Maddie’s skin. “I knew about this place almost from the moment you signed on the dotted line for the land.” Kimber’s eyes flicked back to Zach. “You haven’t made a move I don’t know about. It didn’t take a genius to figure out you’d bring her here in some misguided attempt to protect her. I only wish I’d done the job properly that day on her DIY set.”
Half terrified, Maddie tightened her grip on Zach’s shirt bunched in her hands at his waist. Self-preservation tempted her to hide behind him, let him deal with Kimber. But something in the woman’s steady grip on the gun and the pure hatred in her stare filled Maddie with terror for Zach. The gun pointed at his chest—cold and lethal. If Kimber had to shoot Zach to get to her, Maddie had no doubt she would.
She stepped out from behind Zach. “You were riding the dirt bike?”
He pulled her back. “Stay behind me.” His low tone commanded her acquiescence.
Maddie settled for peering over his left shoulder. All this time she assumed it had been a young male. Zach’s suspicions were right, after all. Even Lisa thought the accident had been deliberate.
“Thank your lucky stars I wasn’t very skilled on that thing.” Kimber flashed her teeth again. “I’m much better now, though.”
“Did you also vandalise my car?”
“That was just for fun. If I wanted to hurt you that night, I would have put a firebomb through your letterbox. Or I could have waited for you that day I snuck in and left a tube of lipstick in your fridge. Or even the day I rewired your dimmer switches. You have pretty underwear. I hope you don’t mind me borrowing some of it.”
Chills ran through Maddie.
Kimber had been responsible for the lipstick?
Zach’s ex-wife had been in her house?
Taken her underwear?
The thought unnerved her. She would have never suspected a stranger had invaded her space. Kimber had managed to get into her home on several occasions, if what she said was true. And why wouldn’t it be? Hadn’t Larry found a pair of Maddie’s panties in the driveway? Kimber must have dropped them. She’d managed to do all of that without Maddie noticing anything out of place.
“You stole my underwear? Left lipstick in my fridge?”
Now, if that didn’t prove the woman was crazy, nothing would.
Maddie pressed a hand to her throat. She was going to be sick. At the thought of Kimber going through her lingerie drawer, her skin crawled. Sharp icicles ran down her spine.
If she got out of this alive, she was going to burn every item of underwear she owned.
“It was a gift.” Kimber smiled as if she’d done something wonderful. “Did you like it? I wasn’t sure which shade would suit you best, so I chose red.” Kimber frowned in concentration as if she really cared for Maddie’s opinion on the matter. “Was red too trampy? I think the colour would suit you just perfectly. What do you think? Red for a tramp. You are a tramp aren’t you, Maddison?” She waved the gun.
Maddie’s stomach bottomed out.
“No matter,” Kimber continued. “I don’t expect you to admit it anyway. I just want you to know there were a thousand opportunities I had that I could have easily killed you. But then, I wouldn’t have the pleasure of watching you die now.” She said this with a pout.
The woman had caught a train straight from Crazyland.
“Why do you want to kill me?”
Zach had divorced Kimber five years ago. There was no way Maddie would ever believe he had led a celibate life since then. As far as she knew, Kimber hadn’t tried to bump off every woman he might’ve slept with.
So why her?
“Don’t you know how much I hate you, Maddison?”
She was starting to get the idea.
“By the time Zach and I got married, I was sick to death of hearing your name. Maddie is so talented; Maddie has a voice like an angel; Maddie is the only one who really gets me,” she mimicked in a derisive sing-song. “Maddie——Maddie. Now Maddie is on TV and everybody loves her. Uhhhg.” She growled deep in her throat. “I wanted to kill you years ago. The only reason I didn’t, was because I won Zach and you lost him. You should have stayed away from him. Just think, if you had, you’d still be alive tomorrow. Now shut up and let me shoot you.”
Maddie ducked behind Zach.
Panic had her heart drumming violently in her chest.
Her breath stalled.
Unbelievable fear liquefied her knees.
Zach reached back, caught her hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“If you want Maddie, you’re going to have to go through me.” Zach’s clipped tone transmitted antipathy.
A twig snapped. Kimber must have moved closer. Zach remained statue-still, yet his body emitted coiled control. He was alert, ready to take swift action, even as he made himself Maddie’s human shield.
She risked peeking over his shoulder. Kimber took a menacing step closer.
“Get out of the way, Zach.” Her thumb clicked off the safety catch, her finger closed snug around the trigger.
Trepidation beaded sweat on Maddie’s skin. It slithered down her back. “Zach, perhaps you should step away like she said,” she whispered next to his ear.
“Like hell I will,” he said through gritted teeth. “You just make sure you stay right behind me.” He shifted slightly, cutting off Maddie’s view.
She stared at the back of his white twill shirt. Lord, please don’t let her shoot Zach.
“Kimberley, give me the gun before you do something you’ll regret.”
Kimber snorted. “There are many things I regret, but believe me, this isn’t going to be one of them. Get out of the way, Zach.” She screamed his name. “Or I swear to God, I’ll—” She rushed toward them.
Zach shifted his stance with the speed of a ninja.
He grabbed Kimber’s wrist.
The gun discharged, a subsonic report echoed off the lake, scaring birds from the trees. Natural instinct had Maddie ducking, even though she could never dodge a bullet.
She screamed. “Zach!” Saw he’d swiftly disarmed Kimber, and now held her trapped in his arms.
“Maddie, are you okay?” His gaze raked over her as he stood unnaturally still, waiting.
In a strange out-of-body sensation, Maddie ran her hands over herself. The bullet had missed her. Her gaze skated around in search of the bullet. When she spotted a shiny bronze projectile embedded in the Red Maple, relief sluiced over her.
“Yes, I’m fine. The bullet hit the tree.” That it’d penetrated an inch from where she had stood chilled her.
Kimber swore and grappled for the gun.
Zach held her around the waist. With a skill that surprised Maddie, he flicked open the barrel one-handed. Tipped the bullets onto the grass, and threw the gun away from them while Kimber struggled.
He trapped her arms at her sides.
“Maddie, come here.” Galvanised into action, Maddie dashed to him. “Reach into my pocket and get my phone. Dial this number.” He recited the digits and Maddie fought to steady her trembling fingers enough to punch in the number.
“You’re phoning Kimber’s father. When he answers tell him who you are, that you’re calling for me. Tell him Kimber showed up at my cabin and she’s waiting for him to come and get her.”
Taking a deep breath, Maddie hit Send and waited for the line to connect.
Kimber struggled with renewed vigour. “No, Zach, he’s going to put me in that place. You can’t let him. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Neither do you. You’ve never been in rehab.” Zach’s words carried a gentleness that tugged at Maddie’s heart. After everything Kimber had done to ruin his life, he still showed her kindness.
“I’ve heard rumours. They do things to you, make you crazy.”
“You need help, Kimber. Eli loves you. He has the money to get you the best help available. You only need to co-operate.”
“You just want to get rid of me. You don’t care what happens to me.”
“I care. Why do you think I instructed Maddie to call your father and not the police?”
“Zach, please.” She struggled to free her hands. He continued to hug her from behind, his chin resting on the top of her head, his restrain effortless. “I can be good.” She stopped fighting, a defeated slump to her thin shoulders. “I’m even willing to take you back. Just send her away, not me. I love you, Zach. I didn’t show you before. I can do better.” She burst into sobs. “Please.”
Zach breathed deeply, his attention trained on the expanse of land in front of them, Lake Champlain in the distance. His closed-off expression told Maddie he’d disconnected himself from his ex-wife’s manipulation.
Her tears had no effect on Zach.
She changed tactic. “I bet he’s never told you he loves you, has he?”
Maddie listened to the intermittent burr against her ear as she waited for the call to connect. Probably best not to engage Kimber in conversation. Already she’d gone from angry to pleading to tearful. From the spite Maddie glimpsed in her eyes when she’d directed her question at her, it appeared she was getting back to angry.
Pick up the phone!
It went to voicemail. She stabbed the End Call key and redialled.
“And he won’t, either. How does it feel to be nothing more than his rebound girl? I had him first.” It seemed whether Maddie wished to engage in conversation or not didn’t matter, Kimber clearly had decided to continue despite the lack of encouragement. “Zach is incapable of love. His father saw to that. How could he learn to love when he never had it?”
Zach ignored the insult, Maddie couldn’t. “I love him. I always have. Even when he was blind to your faults, I still loved him. I loved him ten years ago, and I love him now. Maybe he hasn’t told me he loves me, but I know he does.”
Zach regarded her with affection, his expression no longer shut-off when he looked at her. It was open and honest. He loved her as surely as she loved him. She saw it reflected in his eyes.
Despite the crazy woman in his arms, he grinned.
Maddie returned the smile. Once they got Kimber out of their hair, they would move on—together. Maybe even get married.
“Oh, p-lease! You don’t know him. If you did, you wouldn’t be standing there with that dopey smile. You’d be running as far away from him as you could.”
The phone kept ringing. “I think I know Zach. Possibly better than you do.”
Kimber laughed—hard and long. “That’s priceless. Do you know him so well that you know he owns Canady—”
“Shut up, Kimber!” Zach’s harsh tone interrupted Kimber but didn’t stop her.
“—Commercial Property Development?” she continued, struggling to get Zach to release her. “C-C-P- Development ... ring a bell? You do know he has the bulldozers rolling in to tear down Andalucía, right?” Each word out of Kimber’s mouth was a blade slash on Maddie’s skin, shock vibrated through her. “Isn’t that your little family home?” Kimber continued. “Didn’t your poor old great grandpa drag his family from Andalucía and build the house with his bare hands?”
Nausea churned Maddie’s stomach. Only moments ago, she’d been on clouds, basking in sunshine and love. Now her whole world was falling apart. Zach was behind the rival company and never deemed it necessary to tell her.
“Zach, did you know Maddison’s family came from Andalucía in Spain?” Kimber angled her head against his chest to look up at his face. “Apparently, that’s how the house got its name.” When Kimber turned her attention back to Maddie, pure evil shone from her smile. “Zach’s a naughty boy for not telling you, isn’t he?”
Maddie hauled her gaze from Kimber’s malicious face and lifted it to Zach. His eyes were closed tight, his expression pained. She stared at him, weak with shock and hanging onto the slim chance that Kimber had lied. A breeze off the lake gusted around her, tousled Zach’s hair, whipped Maddie’s across her face and threatened to blow her over if she didn’t concentrate on standing. A tiny, gelid spot started deep inside her and slowly spread until every part of her stung with the icy chill.
“Zach?” To her humiliation, her voice splintered, betraying her anguish.
He opened his eyes, met hers. She wished he hadn’t because then she could continue to pretend Kimber was lying, trying to make trouble without foundation, but the undisguised guilt on Zach’s face robbed her of any illusion.
“Mad, I can explain. Just let me hand Kimber over to her father. Then we’ll talk.”
Pain sliced through Maddie’s chest, took her breath away as she heard her heart break. She wasn’t even sure she wanted him to bother with explanations. What was done was done. He owned Andalucía and could do whatever he wanted with it.
She had no rights to the house.
What pained her was that she’d shared her feelings for him and he’d continued to keep secrets from her. No wonder Kimber was laughing at her, she’d openly declared her love for Zach, had even been presumptuous enough to believe he loved her too when he’d told her he never could.
The phone went to voicemail again. She ended the call and tried again.
What a delusional fool she was.
How could they go on now—without trust? Because Maddie knew after today, she’d never trust Zach again. She bit back an anguished sob, held onto her composure with will alone even though her throat ached with the effort.
She wouldn’t cry.
Not in front of Zach.
Not in front of Kimberley.
Not until she was safely away from Vermont and this surreal place, where she’d discovered ultimate happiness and deepest betrayal.
Around them, nature continued as planned. The sun slowly headed down toward the horizon, the trees wrestled with the wind and a cricket geared up to commence his nightly chirping. Nature would remain the same while Maddie knew Zach had wrecked her heart beyond restoration.
“Hello?”
She hardly registered the male voice at the other end of the line as she battled to keep her rolling stomach from emptying its contents at her feet.
“Hello? ... Hello? ... Who’s there?”
Maddie choked back the tears threatening to wrack her insides and forced herself to focus on the task Zach had assigned her.
“My name is Maddison de la Botella. I’m calling on behalf of Zach Canady...”