Fire

by McAdams, Molly

  The Brewed Series

  Fix

  Whiskey

  Glow

  The Rebel Series

  Lyric

  Lock

  Limit

  The Redemption Series

  Blackbird

  Firefly

  Nightshade

  The Thatch Series

  Letting Go

  To The Stars

  Show Me How

  The Sharing You Series

  Capturing Peace (novella)

  Sharing You

  The Forgiving Lies Series

  Forgiving Lies

  Deceiving Lies

  Changing Everything (novella)

  The From Ashes Series

  From Ashes

  Needing Her (novella)

  The Taking Chances Series

  Taking Chances

  Stealing Harper (novella)

  Trusting Liam

  Stand-Alone Novels

  I See You

  Copyright © 2020 Molly McAdams

  Published by Jester Creations, LLC.

  First Edition

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher.

  Please protect this art form by not pirating.

  Molly McAdams

  www.mollysmcadams.com

  Cover Design by RBA Designs

  Photo by © Samantha Weaver Photography

  Illustrations by © Oleksandr Babich

  Editing by Unicorn Editing

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Names, characters, places, and plots are a product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Print ISBN: 9781950048977

  eBook ISBN: 9781950048960

  Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

  The End

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For the Coles.

  Your Plantation House is magical, and we are so blessed to have been married there.

  I leaned forward and bit at Wyatt’s afternoon snack, pretending like I was gonna snatch it out of his hand mid-air.

  “Dad!” he called out again through his laughter and playfully pushed at my face. “That’s mine.”

  “Mine,” I argued and pointed to the rest of his snack on the plate in front of him. “Says my name right there.”

  Quinn giggled softly from my other side as another belly laugh left my oldest son.

  “It doesn’t say nothin’,” he drawled.

  “Anything,” I corrected gently. “Doesn’t say anything.”

  Wyatt just smiled like the little cheeser he was and took a big bite.

  I ruffled his hair as I stood from the large, round table in the kitchen and leaned down to kiss the top of Quinn’s head before heading over to where Savannah was standing at one of the islands. Her tiny body moving to the soft music filling the kitchen. A subtle smile on her face as she rolled out dough for whatever she planned on baking next, even though there was a cake cooling on the other island.

  “Wife,” I murmured as I brought her into my arms and dipped down to capture her mouth—all sugar with hints of lemon.

  “Missed you,” she whispered when I pulled away, her golden eyes bright as they searched my face. “How was work?”

  “Work,” I responded with my typical answer.

  I liked my job. I really did.

  Coaching the sports teams at the high school was good for me, and it was financially necessary for my family. With Amber as small as it was, we barely had enough people coming through, staying at our bed and breakfast, to cover the bills. But my other job meant leaving Savannah to run Blossom alone for half the day. Not being there to help her? That shit weighed heavily on me.

  So, it didn’t matter how much I enjoyed it. It was only, ever, just work.

  “How was it here?” I asked as my attention shifted to where our baby, Levi, was sleeping on an activity blanket.

  “Pretty quiet actu—”

  My head snapped to the side when loud banging sounded at the front door. A quick glance at Savannah’s furrowed brow had me releasing her and heading that way, making another sweep around the kitchen to make sure my kids were where I’d left them as I did.

  If we were expecting a new guest, Savannah would’ve told me.

  If one had called last minute, she wouldn’t have looked surprised.

  If it were Sawyer? Guy would’ve walked in without knocking.

  And something about the knock set me on edge—like it’d been filled with anger. Anger that called out to me because it filled me too.

  My steps quickened when I heard the front door open. That familiar, red haze slowly drifting in until I rounded the corner from the kitchen into the entryway and felt like I ran into a brick-fucking-wall.

  Because halfway through the entryway was Hunter.

  My brother.

  A man I hadn’t seen in nearly ten years because of too many sins to list.

  “The fuck—” The shock at seeing him standing there abruptly faded when I realized who was beside him.

  Madison Black.

  My stare darted back to Hunter, finally noticing the wrath and betrayal pouring from him as he stared me down, and my stomach dropped. Straight to the fucking floor.

  Because there was only one reason for Hunter to look at me the way he was, and it had everything to do with the woman beside him. With the woman beside him and me.

  And my wife was a room away.

  Jesus Christ, Savannah . . .

  The outright fear for what they were about to do—what they were about to say—mixed with my hatred for Madison. For everything she’d done. Everything she’d gotten me to agree to, only to go back on it all. To try and uproot my life now.

  But I couldn’t let her.

  I couldn’t let this happen.

  A harsh breath left Hunter as if my reaction had confirmed everything. “Yeah.”

  I hadn’t realized he’d moved until my head snapped back from the force of his hit. Before I had a chance to react, he was there. Grabbing the front of my shirt and pulling me closer as his fist connected with my jaw.

  Then all I saw was red. All I felt was that rage burning through my veins.

  And for the first time in my life, I took it.

  Welcomed that sickening darkness and let it use me.

  But everything still happened the way it always had. Nothing more than bits and pieces made up into a blur. That thick haze messing with my mind as I unleashed all of my fear and anger on him.

/>   Ramming him into the far wall across the room.

  Punching him once . . . twice.

  His head cracking against the wall.

  Hunter was fast. I’d forgotten that. But once I started going, he couldn’t stop me. Almost nothing could.

  Not even my own horror when the next thing I knew, I had my hands on a woman. Madison was pinned against the wall, and I was holding her so damn tight. Fucking shaking as I kept her arm twisted between us and gripped her jaw.

  But all I could think in that moment was this was on her. She’d put everything at risk the moment she’d thrown away our agreement and set foot in my town. And now, she was actively threatening my marriage. “What’d you do, Madison?” I demanded through clenched teeth. “The fuck did—”

  A pained breath burst from me when I landed on the floor with Hunter on top of me. Swinging and connecting with my cheek as he seethed, “That’s for fucking my girl.”

  No!

  Fear and rage exploded from me as he struck again. Yelling more accusations as I used Hunter’s weight to throw him onto the floor—twisting and shoving my foot into his chest. Sending him back a couple feet as I scrambled to my knees and swung as he did the same. Connecting with his nose and feeling the crunch beneath my knuckles. Knowing it wasn’t enough.

  It never would be.

  That rage and that haze blinding me to everything except the threat in front of me.

  “Beau.”

  That voice . . . that girl . . . stopped everything.

  My name couldn’t have been louder than a breath, but it stripped me. Cooled that fire and filled me with the deepest shame in an instant.

  My world, my world, my world.

  Oh God.

  Fear slipped back into my veins like poison as I stared at the floor I knelt on. Unable to meet her eyes for the first time in my life because I knew—I knew she’d heard.

  It was in the way she’d said my name.

  In the betrayal I could feel crawling toward me, reaching out and gripping me.

  In the shock hanging in the air, making the silence we were surrounded in seem so damn loud.

  Silence . . . it was silent.

  Shit.

  “Where are the kids?” I asked through the knot in my throat.

  “What’d you say?” Savannah asked, the cold demand clearly not meant for me.

  Still, I repeated, “Savannah, where are the kids?”

  Her voice hitched around the words as she ignored my plea. “Hunter, what did you say?”

  “Savannah.” Her name wrenched from me as I sat back to finally look at her. The world trembled beneath me seeing the pain she was trying so hard to conceal. “Where are my kids?”

  “I am not talking to you,” she shouted, whirling on me. Betrayal and accusation bleeding from her. “You know—you promised. And . . .” Her head moved in rough shakes as she looked away, her eyes darting between the three of us. “Someone tell me what Hunter said and why.”

  Piercing silence once again filled the entryway as she waited. As my life with her flashed before my eyes. As I struggled to hold onto it when I knew I couldn’t.

  The ice-cold fear gripping my heart told me as much.

  Hunter stood, wiping at the blood on his face as he said, “It’s their story.”

  Savannah’s eyes met mine again. Anguish churning in their depths and a plea for me to tell her this was all a mistake. That she’d heard wrong.

  “Savannah—”

  “Madison,” I said in warning, stopping whatever she’d been about to say.

  She’d done enough. She’d said more than enough.

  Savannah blinked quickly when her eyes glazed over with tears, refusing to let them fall. Her voice soft and cutting straight to my heart when she said, “I know what I think I heard, and I need to be wrong. Do not make me ask you, Beau.”

  My lungs ached and begged for air as I watched her.

  Studied her.

  Took her in like I had every day for most of my life and prayed it wouldn’t be the last.

  “I—” I lifted one of my arms, gesturing toward Madison before my hand fell roughly to my chest. To the excruciating pain there.

  How do you tell your wife that you betrayed her, even unknowingly? How do you tell the woman you would rip out your heart for that you’ve hurt her in unforgivable ways? How do you destroy her?

  “Did you have sex with Madison, yes or no?” she asked when I didn’t go on, holding my stare and trying to keep her voice firm.

  “Savannah, you don’t—”

  “Yes or no?” she demanded, the force of her anger slamming into me.

  My hand gripped at my chest in a vain attempt to relieve the pain there as my gaze drifted toward Madison. Hatred and rage building in the split second I met her stare before I met Savannah’s eyes again.

  The pain there. The knowing. The plea for this not to be true . . .

  I would’ve died to take it all away.

  “Beau,” she whispered. Begged.

  “Yes.” The admission came out on a breath, but I hurried to add, “But it wasn’t—”

  “Get out.”

  No.

  I stumbled as I pushed to standing, feeling like those two words had me bleeding out on the floor. “It wasn’t what you think.” She needed to know what happened. That I’d never knowingly betray her.

  Savannah slashed a hand through the air as she took steps back that I matched. “Get out!”

  “Savannah, you have to let me explain.”

  “Get out of my fucking house,” she screamed as the tears finally fell, fast and heavy. The gut-wrenching combination bringing me to a halt.

  She stared at me with a mixture of unfamiliarity and hatred, the look enough to bring me to my knees again if I’d been able to move.

  I’d done that . . . I’d put that look on her face. Put that pain in her eyes.

  Madison had done that.

  Think I’d known ever since I came home to find Madison sitting in our kitchen a few weeks ago that this moment was coming. There’d been no stopping it, but I would’ve given the world to.

  I would give literally anything to take Savannah’s pain away.

  Her stare dragged away from me, her expression twisting with betrayal as she locked on Madison and watched her leave.

  “Sava—”

  “Get out of my sight,” she bit out, leveling me with an ice-cold glare.

  I wavered for a moment before staggering back a step. Only finding the strength to move because it was Savannah and it was what she needed. And I would always do whatever she needed.

  I cut a warning look at Hunter as I turned. At his hardened expression and the smeared blood. The red mark on his jaw and the bruising already beginning under his eyes.

  The dark part inside me roared to life, craving more. Aching to sink my fist into his face again. Aching to make him—anyone—feel a fraction of the pain slowly tearing me apart as I forced myself out of my house and away from my family. To make someone pay for what—

  Fucking Madison.

  The reaction to seeing her was instant. The red haze. The way my body began trembling from the rage pounding through my veins.

  I was across the porch and clearing the last step less than a second after her. Gripping her arm and yanking her back. Watching as the surprise and pain that flashed across her face quickly gave way to fear.

  “Beau—”

  “What’d you do?” I demanded, voice twisting with my own pain and hatred.

  Hatred for her.

  Me.

  What we’d done.

  Her lips parted but nothing left them. Her head shook faintly, quickly, as she stared up at me.

  But I wanted to hear her say it. I wanted her to acknowledge what she’d done—what she’d ruined. Everything she’d demanded of me so long ago only to carelessly toss it away at the cost of my life and Savannah’s happiness.

  “You came back to town and everything started falling apart,” I ground out
. “If you just ripped my kids away from me? My wife?”

  My heart dropped as the words I’d just said had a cold realization settling in.

  “Beau,” Hunter said as he stepped up beside us, tone laced with warning. Fingers curling around my wrist and digging into the pressure point there in an attempt to get me to release Madison.

  I tightened instinctively.

  Not to hold on to Madison. I didn’t give a shit about her.

  But because of that realization—that fear gripping my spine and stealing my breath. Because what just happened might not end in something as difficult as having to fight for Savannah’s heart and her trust again. It was possible I’d just lost her in a forever kind of way.

  And losing Savannah?

  That wasn’t something I’d survive. Ever.

  “Get your fucking hand off her.” Hunter’s words were pure threat and shook me out of my internal torment.

  I blinked.

  Focused on the girl in front of me.

  Her fear and sorrow. Her lies.

  Why couldn’t you have stayed away, Madison?

  “Go back to wherever the hell you were before you can do any more damage.” I released my hold on her and shrugged out of Hunter’s grasp as I turned and headed for my truck on the far side of the house.

  With each step, my body begged me to go inside. To do whatever it took until Savannah knew the truth. To beg for forgiveness.

  With each weak, pained beat of my heart, my blood seemed to call out to her.