Chapter Ten
“He knows where you are,” Cora’s panicked voice filled the line, making Kendra gasp. “So unless you want to confront the fire-breathing Gideon, I suggest you get the fuck out of there.”
Kendra had awoken disoriented, for a second forgetting where she was and why she was there, but then the ringing phone pulled her to complete consciousness. She saw the name of the screen and immediately answered, fearful that something had happened to the kids.
However, she was not expecting Cora’s frantic words.
“What?” Kendra replied, apparently still not awake because shedid nothear what she thought she heard.
Cora repeated, “He knows where you are and he is coming for you!”
Kendra flew from the bed, barely missing getting tripped by the comforter.
“How the hell did he find out?” she shrieked, not in the least ready to deal with seeing Gideon again, especially not with red-rimmed eyes, a body that ached for him, and a heart that missed him so…so much.
Cora swore. “It’s my fault. I knew that as soon as you called me and then I called you back, Logan would have a trail to follow if he ever thought to look at my phone records.”
Flabbergasted and not entire sure what Cora meant, Kendra asked, “Why would he do that? Does he regularly check your phone?”
Cora snorted. “Usually, he couldn’t if he tried. Usually, I would have my contacts list hidden from any potential intrusive asshole, but this time, blocking your prepaid number slipped my mind. There’s been some shit with Adrian….” She trailed off, but Kendra didn’t miss the pain in her dear friend’s voice. “But that doesn’t matter right now,” she asserted. “Most of my calls come up UNKNOWN so no one looking will know who called or where they called from, but I didn’t even think about your prepaid number.” She dragged in a breath Kendra could tell was heavy. “I’m so fucking sorry, Kendra.”
Blinking, her mind still playing catch up, Kendra asked, “So…Logan looked through your call log and saw a prepaid number, assumed it was mine, and traced it?”
“Yup.”
Forcing air into burning lungs, Kendra took a moment, willing her heart to slow down and her thoughts to calm—though who could be calm with a confrontation with powerful and sexy Gideon Maddox in the very near future?
Depending on when Gideon got the information from Logan, it would still take four hours to drive from NYC to the Schroon Lake house, so how much time did she have to escape?
Escape to where? This was your last refuge!
She could, realistically, use the money LaKeisha gave her and get a hotel room or weekly rental somewhere, but that felt too much like taking advantage of her friend, even though the woman had given the money freely. Kendra had never been oneto burden others, and right then, she felt like the biggest suck ever to suck.
So where did that leave her?
Finally, she breathed out, “But why would Logan even bother looking for me?”
Cora hummed. “Because Gideon finally got his head out of his ass and realized he wants his wife back?”
Kendra snorted, rolling her eyes. “I doubt that. More like he’s tired of ordering takeout and wants me in the kitchen toiling over the stove.” Her words were bitter, laced with anger—and she hated that. She’d never been a bitter, angry person. Too much of a people pleaser, especially for those she loved.
Like Gideon.
I guess being betrayed by the man you love will twist you in ways you never imagined….
“The way you cook, I’d miss it, too,” Cora offered, her voice softening. “Seriously, Kendra, I know Gideon’s an uptight, unsmiling, unfeeling, cold-as-ice asshole, but somewhere under all the polished gold, glinting diamonds, and Italian wool is a man who genuinely cares for his wife.”
But Gideon’s words from that cold winter’s night werestillbeing slowly and painfully carved into her heart, word for word, a permanent, bleeding wound that would only ever scab but never heal.
“You honestly think I married you because I loved you, like some lovesick sap? Our marriage has always been about my convenience—I needed a wife so I’d look like a family man to the board and the media, and I needed a uterus to carry my legitimate heir. And despite all the times I choked down my disgust and fucked you, you still couldn’t do your fucking job and get pregnant.”
Barely able to speak for the lump in her throat, but determined to unburden her soul, just enough to breathe a little,Kendra swallowed, closed her eyes, and rasped, “Cora…I have tell you something….”
And she did. Through sobs and profound heartache, Kendra told her about trying to get pregnant, the prescheduled sex nights, finally finding out she was pregnant and how excited she’d been, and then she tore open her chest and told Cora aboutthatnight, when she found out her marriage was a glittering, shallow lie.
Cora swore with so much violence and color, Kendra had to pull the cell away from her ear just to keep the baby in her womb from hearing it.
“Those Maddox brothers are all pieces of shit!” Cora blasted, her vitriol shocking Kendra who now wondered what Cora’s Maddox brother had done to earn such poisonous rage. “Seriously, Kendra,” Cora continued, a bite in her voice, “Logan hacked my phone an hour ago?—”
