Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

Now, he parked in front of Hallie’s Nantucket house, then got out and slammed the door loudly.

What was he going to do with Shelly once he got her out of here? Take her back to Plymouth’s house for the night? She’d probably come on to one of the Montgomery men.

When Braden found the front door locked, he got even angrier. He knocked but there was no answer. He went around the house, tapping on windows, but all were locked and silent. Finally, he reached the far side and saw double doors. One of them was standing open.

Just as he touched it, there was a crack of lightning followed by a boom of thunder and rain started coming down hard. He barely made it inside before he got soaked.

It was dark in the room and when he flipped the switch, nothing happened. “Great!” he muttered. Lightning showed another door and the windows, but when he checked, they were all locked. He was trapped inside the room.

“This is ridiculous!” he said aloud and picked up a heavy metal vase. He was going to throw it through the window and get out that way.

“It won’t work,” said a voice behind him and Braden gasped.

Still holding the vase, he turned to see Shelly sitting on a small couch in a corner of the room. She had on jeans and heels and the Chanel jacket he’d bought for her. She looked fabulous.

But her good looks only made him angrier. He threw the vase at the window hard. It hit the glass and bounced off onto the window seat, then rolled onto the floor.

Behind him, Shelly lit a candle. “I told you it wouldn’t work. I’ve thrown six things at

that window, but the glass won’t break.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I read that half the houses on Nantucket are haunted so it’s my guess that there are ghosts here and they’re protecting Saint Hallie. But then everyone does, don’t they?”

“Why not?” Braden said. “She needs it.”

“Of course. Dear, persecuted Hallie. She’s only loved by everyone who meets her. I guess you know she’s thrown you over for some rich ex-soldier.”

Braden was rattling knobs and he put his shoulder to a door, but nothing moved. Outside, the rain was pelting down hard. He went across the room and plopped down in a chair across from Shelly. “What did you do to Hallie this time?”

“Tried to get out of being sued.”

“Funny thing about the law. You steal something and you get punished.”

“And Hallie’s loving entourage will see to that, won’t they? Tell me, will I go to jail?” When she looked at him, he saw that she’d been crying.

“A little late for remorse, isn’t it?” He got up and tried the door again, but it didn’t budge.

Shelly held up the ring Braden had bought in the candlelight. “This from you? For Hallie? She turn you down?”

Braden didn’t like the way she put that, but he wasn’t going to explain his motives. “What makes you think that?”

“Just a guess. Did she know how cheap it is?”

Braden sat down again and glared at her. He wanted to yell at her. How could she have done that at his office? Did she think the man was going to leave his wife for her? Or that he was rich enough to keep a mistress?

Shelly looked up from the ring. “Why?” she whispered. “What happened that made you so angry at me at the office?”

He couldn’t keep from sneering. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Hedricks told me how you came on to him.”

For a moment, Shelly closed her eyes, then she got up and got her bag off the big dresser. She opened it, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Braden.

“So? You got Hedricks’s card.”

She was still standing in front of him and she turned the card over. Handwritten on the back was an address and a phone number.

It took him a moment to realize what they were. The address was of the corporate apartment, the one used by out-of-town clients. He didn’t recognize the number.