Twice the Malone by Laylah Roberts

12

Nine weeks.

Nine, long, lonely weeks.

Maddox should have pulled his head out of his ass by now. But he hadn’t. So, Beau could see it was going to be up to him to go get their girl.

He would have gone sooner, but he’d spent six weeks in a cast. And then Alec had needed him home while he took Mia and baby Sebastian away on vacation. It had shocked all of them since Alec hardly ever left the ranch. But Mia deserved a break away.

Still, it meant he had to be responsible and help keep shit running, especially as Maddox was about as useless as tits on a boar.

Then they’d had some trouble on the ranch that needed his attention. But now Alec and Mia were back. And Beau was off-duty. And guess where he was now?

Sitting in a café across the street from the Stanson building in Chicago.

She worked there. Anticipation built inside him. Normally, he’d just give into his impulsivity and storm in there to see her, but he figured now might be the time to be a bit wiser.

Huh, wise? Me?

Even he could scarcely believe it. Although he had a more serious side. He just didn’t let it out that often. He figured he’d hold back, watch her for a while. See if he could figure out if she was who he believed her to be or who Maddox believed her to be.

Not that watching his Snow was exactly a hardship. Of course, first, he had to actually catch sight of her. Because he’d been sitting here in this café since six a.m. and she’d yet to enter the building.

Shit. What if she no longer worked there?

Then he spotted some white-blonde hair. His heart kicked up a beat. She was dressed more casually than he’d thought. There was a cold wind today and she’d bundled up in a jacket and scarf. No hat. She should have a hat on.

For a moment, she paused outside the Stanson building. She stared at the place.

What was going on? Why did she look like she was dreading going in there?

She climbed the stairs. Why were her shoulders slumped? Barely ten minutes later she left the building, a cardboard box in her arms. Shit. She shouldn’t be carrying that, she could barely see over it.

Beau stood and quickly threw some money down on the table before following her. At first, he was careful not to be seen, but when it became obvious she wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, he stopped worrying so much.

Although now he was worrying about the fact that she didn’t pay attention to her surroundings.

When Maddox heard, he was going to whip her butt . . . fuck, he wished his brother would stop being an idiot. He’d given him long enough to come around, but it seemed he wasn’t going to do that. Because Beau was certain Snow wasn’t who he thought she was. And he wanted her to be theirs.

However, if Maddox wasn’t here to step into the disciplinary role, that left it to him. And that wasn’t Beau’s thing. He was the fun one. Not the strict one.

Shit.

But if she put herself in danger, he wouldn’t have much choice, would he? She needed to learn to look after herself. Then again, once she was back in Haven where she belonged that wouldn’t be such an issue because the whole town looked out for all the women.

She walked to the train station. Thankfully, it wasn’t so busy this time of day. He was careful not to be seen as he followed her onboard. Getting off when she did was an issue when no one else did. But again, she didn’t look his way.

Oh, this little brat needed her bottom warmed. It wouldn’t be hard to sneak up on her and steal her purse or hurt her. Someone could easily follow her home to attack her. She walked up to an apartment building. When she stepped in, he slid into an alleyway across the road.

He didn’t like that she was using public transportation and he knew Maddox wouldn’t either. She better not use it at night. His hands tightened into fists.

Okay, what to do now? His motel was about thirty minutes from here. Should he go back and get his truck? He might miss her leaving her apartment, but it would give him something to hide in.

Making a quick decision, he took note of her address and hurried off to get his truck. He wondered why she wasn’t at work today. And what was with the box?

An hour and a half later, he was back across the road from her apartment. He had a box of donuts, coffee, and eyes on his girl. Well, her apartment. But still, things were finally looking up.

His phone rang and he sighed. It was about the tenth call he’d gotten from Maddox. He knew he couldn’t ignore them forever. He answered the call just as a small car came tearing around the block and slid into a parking space ahead of his truck on the other side of the road, narrowly missing the car parked ahead of it. Okay, someone was in a hurry.

A tiny brunette jumped out and raced into Snow’s apartment building.

“Hi, bro, what’s up?” he greeted his brother through the phone. “You missing me? You must be, considering you’ve called me around a hundred times.”

“Where are you?” Maddox barked back at him.

“Maddy, we’ve had this discussion before. You need to start a conversation with hello. I blame our nannies, they never taught you any manners.”

“Beau, I’m not in the fucking mood for your games. Alec said you’re in Chicago. Please tell me that’s not the case.”

“Well, I was taught not to lie, so nope, can’t tell you that.”

“What are you doing there?”

“Thought I’d take in some museums, a few restaurants . . . why the fuck do you think I’m here? I’m here to get Snow back.”

“Stop calling her that, it’s not her name. And back? We never had her! And why would we want her back? She’s a liar, she played us, and she works for the enemy.”

“So dramatic. And you don’t know that she did any of that. You just made assumptions, and you know what they say about that.”

“Beau,” he said in a warning voice.

“Look, Maddox,” he said seriously. “Maybe you can just easily dismiss what happened between us, but I can’t. I like this girl. I can’t stop thinking about her. I’ve tried. I can’t even look at another woman. I’ve had a long time to think things through. What if it was all a coincidence? What if she didn’t know who you were?”

Maddox made a scoffing noise, but he didn’t say anything else. Which meant he was listening.

“And if she doesn’t know what he’s like, but she’s working for him, is that safe for her? What if he puts her in a dangerous situation?”

“Fuck. Beau, you don’t know that any of that is what’s going on. You don’t know she’s innocent.”

“But you can’t be sure she’s not, right?”

“You’re going to be disappointed, Beau. I’ve put her behind me, you should too. But when you find out I’m right, you owe me.”

“Fine. What do you want?”

“Your help. Building a house for us.”

Beau froze. “What? Where?”

“On the land I bought.”

“I thought you did that to keep it out of Stanson’s hands.”

“I did. And I bought it for us. What do you say, brother?”

“I say I’m in. But should we make plans before we have our girl? After all, she’ll want a say.”

Maddox just sighed and hung up. It was all right, though. He could be a doubter because Beau had enough hope for them both.

He watched as Snow walked down the steps of her apartment building, along with the bad driver from earlier. She climbed into the small car with her. With a frown, Beau started up his truck and picked up his phone.

Beau:She’s getting in a car with a terrible driver.

Maddox: What? Who? A man?

Beau: Following them. Talk later.

Yeah,like fuck Maddox had put her behind him.

The firecracker didn’t drive any better with his Snow in the car and Beau had to grit his teeth and grip the steering wheel so that he didn’t do something stupid. Like force them to pull over then drag Snow out of the car and scold her for being so reckless and stupid.

He followed them across town, keeping back slightly. It wasn’t until he started to notice the signs that he realized where they were going.

A medical clinic.

Fuck, was she sick?