Morton stopped them.“It’s too early for a blood bath.That can come later,” he said.Darien released his grip on the man.It was a wonder they’d restrained themselves enough from snapping his neck where he stood and following suit with his henchman.
“Try and touch her again,” Austin said darkly.
Morton laughed but at the moment his gaze flickered over them for a fraction longer before he looked away.Then he looked at them again.What did he see when he looked at them, Emerson wondered.
Morton raised both his hands in supplication, then shuffled back to the table.
“Please, sit.I have a feast prepared for you, my lovely wife,”
Playing his game a little longer they each took a seat around his table, keeping Adrienne furthest away from him.
“I am not your wife anymore, Desmond, and even when I was, you were still a disgusting, revolting piece of crap who blackmailed me into marrying you.I want what you stole from my father and then I never want to see you again,” Adrienne said.
Fuck, she was stunning.She may have been frightened and riddled with self-doubt before, but she was the quintessential Ice Queen in Morton’s presence.The loveliest creature in the universe.Theirs.
She held her head high, and only they could see the tautness in her beautiful body.She wasn’t going to show Morton that he had affected her.
Their woman.Their Adrienne.
“You have something that belongs to Ms.Palmer, Morton.We suggest you hand it over,” Emerson said.
“Or else?”Morton asked, raising his eyebrows at them, but then his gaze got stuck on their faces yet again.Emerson noticed that and so did Darien and Austin.
The three of them looked at each other.
Was it possible that he knew who they were?
Fuck.He wasn’t supposed to figure out anything in Adrienne’s presence.
She wouldn’t tell them what it was that Morton had of hers, but it didn’t matter.If she wanted it back, she was going to get it back, whatever it was.
“Or what, pretty boys?”Morton resumed his weak attempt at appearing tough and nonchalant.“Bodyguards, huh?They’re making them too pretty these days.”But he couldn’t keep his eyes off them, which suited them fine because he wasn’t looking at Adrienne.
“Do I know you three?”He asked eventually, a little uncomfortable now.Emerson watched as Adrienne swung her gaze to them, a frown on her beautiful face.
“Do you think you know us?”Darien asked.
Fuck.This wasn’t supposed to happen, not this way.
“I don’t forget a face...”Morton said before sweat beaded on his brow and his eyes widened as he seemed to connect the dots in his head.For a split second, he shrank back, confusion and fear clouding his entire face now.They watched him recheck himself and go over the details in his head repeatedly to make sure he wasn’t playing tricks on himself.
He knew who they were.Emerson smirked and glanced at Darien and Austin once more.They were impressed that he figured out who they were just on sight.But again he wasn’t supposed to discover it in front of Adrienne.They didn’t want her to know this way.
And they had to hand it to him when he reacted quickly afterward.He’d had the good sense to give his bodyguards a surreptitious signal that brought them to the table in an instant, their guns shoved into the necks of Emerson, Darien, and Austin.They didn’t so much as blink at the contact.
Adrienne gasped in alarm and fright.She opened her mouth to plead with Morton, but one look from them silenced her.But she was panicking now.They would have to wrap this thing up quickly.
“You have ten seconds to give the lady what belongs to her,” Austin said, completely unperturbed that he was a bullet away from death—same as he and Darien.
“Are you fucking this cunt?”Morton cried, incredulously, pointing to Adrienne.
“Call her that one more time and I’ll cut your tongue out and feed it to your ass,” Emerson said, keeping his tone pleasant.
“Is this....”He shot up from the chair, and then paced the floor, excited now.“You fucking sons of bitches.Do you think you can come in here and beat me at my own game?”He picked up a gun and pointed it at them.
“Oh, I know who you are.I see it in your eyes.I never forget the eyes.Oh, you’re big men now, aren’t you?Did you think you were getting back at me?Fucking her just like I fucked your mamas thirty years ago out of revenge?”
As if she were drowning in a tsunami, Adrienne looked at them with tears in her eyes, and horror and betrayal written all over her face.She was thinking all the wrong fucking things.
