Enticing (Red Lips & White Lies Book 3)

Speak your truth and own it.

Even if your voice shakes.

—Addie’s Secret Thoughts

“Is there any update?” I ask Lilah as we walk into my house.

My head hurts.

My throat hurts.

My heart hurts.

I want Leo.

I want my kids.

I crumple on my couch and close my eyes, not even attempting to stop the tears streaming down my cheeks.

Lilah walks into the room with a bottle of water and two ibuprofen. “Gracie said the girls are fine, and Molly and Izzy are both asleep in Molly’s bed. They think it’s a sleepover, and Molly doesn’t know anything. She and Ares can keep Lennox tonight too. Ares can stop by and grab frozen breastmilk, if you want.”

I take the pills and chase them with the water as my head spins.

I have no words, only tears, as I nod.

Unable to process all this.

“I’ll message Gracie. Why don’t you lie down. Do you want help getting to your room?”

“No, thank you,” I answer hoarsely. “Thanks for driving me home.”

“Oh, no, no. That’s not how this works. Molly and Gracie aren’t the only ones having a sleepover. I’m not leaving you alone.” She sits down next to me and pulls the blanket off the back of the couch, then drapes it over me.

A knock at the door surprises us both, and Lilah stands. “Be right back.”

I close my eyes and feel myself drifting off, even though I’m fighting it with all my might. Voices drift in, and I somehow manage to force my eyes open to see Lilah talking to Belle.

“Oh, Addie,” Belle whispers. “What did he do to you?”

“How’s Leo?” I rasp out, and I’m horrified by the look on her face. “Tell me.”

She sits down next to me and takes my hand in hers. “It doesn’t look great for him.”

“How bad?” I manage to breathe out, bracing for the news before I take another sip of water.

“It’s not good. They’ve got a good case against him,” she admits, and I feel my heart break in two.

I take as deep a breath as I can and know what I have to do. “Annabelle . . . could you help me upstairs?”

“I don’t know if that’s a great idea⁠—”

“Please,” I stop her. “I think I can help.”

Later that night—or really, early that next morning, however you want to look at it, none of us have slept either way—I sit at my dining room table, flanked by Devon on one side of me and Annabelle and Declan on the other, and across from us is Jerry. One of the two men I could go my entire life without ever setting eyes on again. Fire roars in his angry eyes. Intimidation was always one of his best tricks. One of his son’s too. But I’m past the point of scaring.

The only thing that scares me now if the idea of losing Leo.

“Could someone tell me exactly what I’m doing here instead of at my son’s bedside?” he demands, and I laugh, painful as it is.

“You never stood by his bedside. The only reason you got on the jet tonight was because I summoned you,” I rasp, my throat still sore. “And please excuse my hoarse voice, Jerry. My vocal chords were constricted when your son choked me earlier.”

He bristles, and I smile.

“Come on, now, it’s not the first time. It’s not even the first time I’ve told you about.” I lift my hair and show him the bruising in the shape of Gavin’s fingers on the sides.

He looks away, and I slam my hands on the table, and the sound reverberates in my broken head, but I don’t stop. Not when Leo’s freedom is at stake. “Don’t you dare look away from me. Not again. You did it last time, and I let you. I ran as far as I could go and took Izzy with me. Happy with the idea Izzy and my unborn baby would never have to know you or your son. But that wasn’t the case, was it? Because you were still pulling all the strings.”

I start coughing and can’t seem to stop until Belle hands me a bottle of water. “Small sips, Addie.”

“Why are you here?” Jerry sneers at Belle and Declan, and damn, I think he should be scared because Declan looks like he’s about to fly across the table and finish what his son started, only Declan would serve it up father to father.

“We’re here to make a deal,” Devon speaks up.

“That’s rich. There is no deal to be had. When we’re through with you, your team, your money, and your husband’s freedom,”—he practically salivates at the thought—“they’ll all be mine. You fucked up, Adelaide. I thought the mistake was the marriage. I was convinced it was a fake, and I was going to prove it. You weren’t going to get a cent. But I couldn’t prove it. You were too good. We were going to have to turn your inheritance over. Until last night. You’ll never get anything now.”

I open the lid of the shoe box in front of me and pull out the first picture they took the night Gavin nearly beat me to death, and I lay it on the table in front of his father. I repeat this process twenty-seven times with each additional picture taken. “You see, if a person is a victim of domestic violence, and they aren’t sure whether they want to press charges, a thorough report is still made. Pictures. Nail scrapings. Since I passed out after being thrown down a flight of stairs, and couldn’t say with 100 percent surety that I wasn’t violated, they even did a rape kit.”

I reach in and pull out the police report, which includes a full report from the hospital, which was taken in case I wanted to press charges and hand it to Jerry. “You can go ahead and keep that. It’s a copy. But I’ll give you the highlight reel. Your son beat me. He kicked me.” I point to the picture that shows the boot print on my skin. “He choked me, which definitely shows a pattern, and then he threw me down the stairs. And you knew about it all.”

I sit back and sip my water as Jerry skims over the report. “This is all circumstantial.”

“I assure you it’s not,” Devon answers curtly, then spins his iPad around to Jerry. “And all of that, combined with the video I have saved here, will definitely be enough to destroy not just your son, but you. So we have a proposition for you.”

“I had nothing to do with any of this,” Jerry blusters, and Belle takes my hand in hers and squeezes.

“If we didn’t have this videotape, you could absolutely try to say that. But you see, here’s the thing, Uncle Jerry, I came to you. I told you everything. And do you remember what you said to me?”

“I don’t remember any such conversation,” he bellows, and I refuse to cower.

Devon presses play. and there we are, inside Jerry’s office at the Bay Hawk’s headquarters. Maybe two days after I left the hospital. Devon fast forwards until I tell him to stop, and Jerry’s voice is loud and clear.

“You got what you deserved, you stupid little whore. I only wish you lost that bastard you’re carrying. He only needs one kid with you to have any claim on the estate.”

Devon stops the video and pulls out a document. “Now, by signing this, you and your son relinquish the right to press charges against Leo Sinclair, now or at any point in the future. You’ll also state for the record that you do not wish for the police department to move forward with any charges against Mr. Sinclair. You will resign your position within the Bay Hawks organization, and you’ll sign off on the immediate transfer of Mrs. Sinclair’s full inheritance directly to her. Your son, Gavin, will also be relinquishing any present or future parental rights to Lennox and Isobel James. He will agree to anger management counseling for the rest of his life and will not contest the restraining order that will be filed against him by Mrs. Sinclair. Do you have any questions?”

Jerry stands, slamming his chair back so hard it crashes to the floor. “And why would I agree to any of this?”

“Because you are not the only powerful family at this table, Mr. Dryson. Do not underestimate my reach,” Declan says calmly.

More calmly than I’m capable of, apparently, because my blood boils. “Because if you don’t, I will send that video, that report, and every single one of those pictures to every single news station in the country. I won’t sleep until I destroy you. You and your son didn’t break me. But I will break you. I promise you that.”

“This offer is good until you walk through that door. If you take it now and agree to all I’ve outlined, you will still be entitled to your company-funded retirement and bonuses. But that all goes away in five minutes.” Devon looks at his watch, then back to Jerry. “Tick-tock, Dryson.”

This reporter has breaking news!

Leo Sinclair was arrested after an altercation with Gavin Dryson, who works for the Boston Bay Hawks. What’s interesting to this reporter is that Gavin was seen with his hands on Leo’s wife. I don’t know about you, but I think we should all remember how these Kroydon Hills men protect their women at all costs. Where can I find myself one of them?

#KroydonKronicles #DontTouchHisWife #BreakingNews