Page 29 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

“I have in apartment in New York, and no, I don’t want you to come stay with me, but I’m compromising. You can’t stay here and you obviously need a place to lie low while everyone figures this out. I’m willing to give you that.”

“Gee, how generous of you, but I’m fine where I am.”

Ryan drew in a breath so deep that I saw his chest rise with it, but he was still staring out at the view. “This cottage has a lot of potential. I’ll give you that, but it’s falling to pieces, Maggie. It’s not safe as things stand, and that’s not even to mention that it’s full of weapons. Replicas or not.”

I watched him for a second, seeing the effort it was taking him to keep calm in the way his jaw twitched and his grip tightened on the railing. When he’d left this morning, he’d said he would give me a day to change my mind and if I didn’t, he was leaving, yet here he was.

“Why is it so important to you that I go back to New York?” I asked quietly, lowering my arms back to my sides and leaning against the pillar across the entryway from him. “I’m not trying to be funny, or bratty, or stubborn here. I just don’t get why you’re so invested in bringing me home.”

When he finally turned his head toward me, he looked exhausted. I hadn’t seen it before because of the sunglasses, but now, it just looked like he was too tired to keep fighting. “Basically, I can’t leave without you. That’s why I’m so invested. There’s nothing even in this for me. I just want to go home, but I can’t do that if you’re not with me. Hell, I don’t even just want to go home. I need to. Before Holden makes a mess of everything in my office.”

I frowned. “So go. I’m not keeping you here.”

“No, but my mother is and so is yours. They’re using me as a last-ditch effort to get you under control and I want them off my back.”

As understanding dawned, I dragged in a deep breath and tried to ignore the slight flicker of disappointment deep down inside. “Right. You’re still doing this for your mother.”

“I am, but I also can’t leave you here, Maggie.” He glanced at the front facade of the cottage. “It’s not safe, and if something happens to you out here, I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life.”

For a moment, I considered taking him up on his offer. No reporter would think to look for me at Ryan Thayer’s address and he seemed desperate enough to bring me home with him that I was sure he’d promise not to tell my family where I was either.

Finally, I let my shoulders drop and nodded. “Fine.”

Those dark eyebrows swept up. “Fine, as in you’ll come with me?”

“I’ll get my things.”

He blew out a heavy breath. “Thank God.”

I turned toward the house, but before I’d even reached the threshold, he called out to me. “Stop! I’m not falling for that again.”

Shit.

A second later, his footsteps rang out right behind me, his hand grabbing the door to hold it firmly open before I’d even been able to reach for it. “You were going to lock me out again, weren’t you?”

“Yeah,” I muttered, my head shaking as I turned back to him. “How did you know?”

“I’m a fast learner.” Ryan let go of the door and lifted both of his hands with his palms out. I almost made a lunge for it, but then he started talking. “Look, I get it, okay? You’re not like the other rich girls you grew up with. In fact, you’re feral in comparison.”

I felt my features drop into a tight scowl, but he quickly corrected himself. “What I mean is that the world you grew up in is too small for someone like you. It’s too controlling. Too suffocating. Trust me, I get that. I understand exactly what it feels like seeing a great big world of opportunities out there and feeling like it’s completely out of your reach.”

I blinked hard, but as much as I wanted to tell him that he didn’t understand as well as he thought he did, the fact was that if anyone understood it, it was probably a Thayer. “If you know why I’m so desperate to just live my own life, why are you still doing their bidding?”

“Because you’re going to get cut off completely if you don’t at least try to fix this,” he said bluntly. “Your father isn’t messing around, Maggie. He’s not just going to block your account for a week or two and then get over it. If you don’t go back, you will lose not only your inheritance, but access to every dollar of Pembroke money in all of your accounts. Fuck, he’ll close out the accounts themselves.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t care about the money.”

Ryan scoffed. Loudly. “That’s only because you don’t know what it feels like not to have any. This isn’t a game you want to play, Maggie. Take it from me. It’s not easy, or fun, or noble, or whatever else you’re thinking.”

“I’ll get a job.”

“With what experience?” He threw a hand out toward the town. “Do you honestly think you can just walk into any business out there, tell them you need a job, and they’ll give you one? Even if, by some miracle, there is a position open somewhere and they’re willing to give you a chance, you won’t get paid immediately, and when you do, you’ll realize it’s not nearly enough to start completely fresh.”

“It’s not a race.”

“No, but do you have any clothes to go to work in? Do you have any detergent to wash the clothes you do have? Once you’ve eaten the little food that’s left in there, do you have any cash left to buy more?”

I chewed the inside of my lower lip, tears stinging the backs of my eyes. “Did my father put you up to this?”