Eli droveup to Cole’s house. It was a huge home in a newer area of Haven. There wasn’t a lot of development in the town since the council wanted to keep it small. So when he said newer, he meant that it was about ten years old.
The house was down the end of a drive and had two levels with extensive gardens.
Eli didn’t like it.
Probably because you don’t like Cole.
Not that he had ever had much to do with him. But he didn’t like that he’d been engaged to Arabella. And because it seemed that she’d never wanted to be engaged to him.
Her nightmare the other night played through his mind. She wouldn’t explain it, but it had been clear that it had to be about Cole.
Her ex-fiancé.
If he’d hurt her . . .
Well, it was time to find out, wasn’t it?
Getting out of his car, Eli stormed up to the front door and knocked loudly.
He could hear Horse howling inside and someone talking. Then the door opened and Cole stared out at him, looking harried.
His control just seemed to snap as soon as he saw the bastard and he grabbed him by the neck, forcing him into the house.
Cole let out a startled noise as he slammed him into a wall.
“Tell me you didn’t force her, you asshole!”
“What’s going on? Oh my God! Let go of Cole!” Keira cried.
Shit. He probably should have made sure that Cole was alone. Keira was an innocent who didn’t need to witness this.
Horse barreled into the room and to Eli’s surprise, he came to Eli’s side and growled at Cole.
Who managed to push Eli off him. But only because he wanted to be moved. He really didn’t like upsetting Keira.
“What’s going on?” Julian asked, coming in and gently pushing Keira behind him as though to protect her from Eli.
“Have you lost your mind?” Cole roared, moving to cover Julian and Keira. “Why would you come in here and shove me around? I was doing you a favor taking care of that dog! And all he’s done is howl.”
“He really misses Arabella,” Keira said, peeking around her two men. “How is she?”
“Arabella is fine now. She’s gone home.” He pointed to Cole. “Did you fucking force her into getting engaged to you?”
“What? No! What are you talking about? Did she say that?”
“She has nightmares,” Eli said. “Where she says that she doesn’t want ‘him’ and don’t make me marry ‘him’.”
“Oh shit,” Julian said.
Cole blanched. “What the fuck? She never said anything about not wanting to marry me. I mean, it was clear that it wasn’t a love match. It was for business. But I would never have forced her into anything.”
“Why would she move here if Cole had forced her into something she didn’t want?” Julian asked.
Good point.
“Her father must have forced her into it,” Cole said grimly. “That asshole assured me that she was happy and that she wanted to marry me. But what if he forced her into saying yes?”
Fuck. “We’ve started looking into him and we couldn’t find much dirt.”
