Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

“I’ll spare you the details. I called in for backup and EMS. She gave me a name right before Whitmore showed up moments later.” Hilbert clenches his jaw and I can hear his teeth grind. “No doubt his son called him and gave him the heads up. I was kicked out of the room. The EMS was turned away. I was livid. The asshole tried to fire me and blackmail me afterward. I didn’t take his bait, but the next thing I know, Ms. Madison is gone and so was his son.”

“I was told Whitmore paid her off.”

“I have no doubt that he did. The only good thing he did after that was, I saw the restraining order he had put in place for his son to make sure he stayed away from her. I always wondered if he did. I wish he locked him up instead though. Who knows what kind of trouble he’s making wherever he is now.” Hilbert drums his fingers on his desk and shakes his head. “But after all that went down, I couldn’t stand back and watch Whitmore stay in charge. I reported him to the commissioner. It took some time, but he was later fired for suspicious activity such as file tampering and failing to report.”

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch if I see him.”

“I didn’t hear a word,” he mutters and looks to the ceiling. “Not a word.”

“Thank you.”

“Now you just do me a favor, son. Take care of her. I hope I never have to see her like that again. Honestly, I hope I never have to see anyone like that ever again.”

“I promise.” I turn back to leave, but as I’m at the door I look back. “Hey, can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Can you keep an ear out if you hear anything about Deacon coming back to town? Let me or June know. Or if you can do anything to stop him.”

“Already on it the second you mentioned she was back in town. That boy was trouble, and I don’t trust him, so you have my word.”

My stomach is twisted, and I’ve puked twice on the drive back to the house with the images I have in my head.

“There was so much blood.”

I now understand why June doesn’t sleep or eat.

I’m going to kill him.

She’s not home when I get back. I try to text her, but she’s unreachable. I leave a message, telling her I’m sorry, but I know it isn’t enough. Nothing will ever be enough for believing everyone over her. For accusing her of the worst when all I had to do was listen.

I walk down the hall, the one with all the pictures on the wall and make my way to Liz’s office. This is the first place I saw her after five long years. I wish I could replace that moment. Replace all those years I missed loving her, instead of believing in fucking lies.

I flop into the desk chair and lean back taking in the office. If I can get her to come back, maybe we can make this into a joint office for us.

My knee kicks the center drawer, and it slides open. I’m about to slide it closed when amongst the scattered paper clips a crinkled up paper, with bold messy handwriting peeking through the wrinkles catches my attention. I smooth out the paper and read the words belonging to the person who I thought was my best friend, but really is a Jekyll and Hyde.

Sweetcheeks,

His nickname for her makes my skin crawl.

You should be ashamed of yourself for coming back to Kinder Falls. I’ve held up my end of the bargain all these years to never come back to town and not come within feet of you and what do I hear, you’ve been back for months? Months. And you fucking married Alex?

That fuckboy? You knew how I felt about you being with him. Do I need to remind you of what happened last time he put his dick in you?

But tell me, how did my little slut do it? How did you convince him to marry you?

HOW?

Fuck!

It all comes crashing down on me that this is my fault. I’m the one who told him I married June. I never told him how it happened; my reply was quick and short because I was in a hurry to a meeting.

But who told him I even got married? Or how long she was back?

Whitney’s name instantly pops in my head. Even if she said everything first, this still has my hands all over it. If I think about it, his emails were just bait and I took it, especially the last one with wanting to surprise her. If things were different, if this didn’t bust wide open, I might have just set her into a fucking trap because he talked me into it.

No wonder she couldn’t fucking trust me.

I somehow manage to read the rest of the note, needing to know every word she’s been tortured with. As I read every line, I’m picturing beating the asshole’s face in as he threatens and taunts her. Then the words get sicker and twisted, no horror novel can come close to the graphic fine detail of what he has done to her. On and on…

My stomach retches and I hurl into the wastebasket next to the desk.

Once the dry heaves subside I pull out my phone and call June. It goes straight to voicemail.

“June, I just need to know you’re safe. I believe you. I believed you the second you told me, and I should have it said so when you were standing in front of me. I’m sorry I let you down. So