Colters' Woman (Colters' Legacy #1)(32)

She nodded then cleared her throat. “I wonder if there would be time for me to hit a salon while we’re there?” She twirled the ends of her hair nervously with her fingers. “I’d like to get the color fixed.”

“We can do whatever you want,” Adam said.

“I also need to stop by a bank. I need to start an account so I can have funds wired in. I don’t trust Mason not to empty them.”

“You don’t have to worry about money,” Ryan said darkly. “We’re more than able to provide for you.”

“It’s not his money,” she said. “I’m not taking money from him. I’m protecting mine.”

“He seemed to be fairly wealthy,” Ethan said.

She sighed. “He is. But if he can find a way into my trust fund, he’ll empty it to spite me.”

Adam raised his brow. “Trust fund?”

“From my parents,” she explained. She shifted uncomfortably on her stool. “They were wealthy. They died when I was a teenager, and I came into my inheritance when I turned twenty-one.”

“I see, and how old are you now?” Adam asked.

“Twenty-four.”

“And when did you meet Mason?”

“Shortly after my parents died. He…well, he stepped in and took care of me.”

Ryan muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Ethan and Adam exchanged knowing glances.

“What? What are you looking like that for?” she demanded.

“Just how much money are we talking about in your trust fund?” Adam asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t really know.”

“Take a guess,” he said.

“Fifty? Sixty million?”

“Jesus,” Ethan muttered.

“How sure are you of Mason’s financial stability?” Adam asked quietly.

She opened her mouth but her reply stuttered and halted in her throat. Buzzing began in her head, and she felt incredibly, incredibly stupid. Her cheeks burned, and her throat constricted painfully.

Without another word, she got up and walked out of the kitchen.

“Holly!”

She heard Ethan call out to her, but she didn’t stop. She wanted to bear her current humiliation alone, thank you very much.

She stopped at the front door long enough to yank her coat off the coat rack then she opened the door and stepped onto the front porch. Cold air assaulted her, and she hurriedly pulled on her coat.

She walked to the railing and leaned out, staring at the rising moon over the snow. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply in. She needed the cold to cool her hot face.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. She’d never even considered Mason had an ulterior motive for singling her out. He’d stepped in when her parents died and acted as her protector and confidante. He’d pressured her to marry him when she turned twenty-one. Now she knew why. But she hadn’t wanted to marry right away. The only semblance of common sense she’d shown in the whole fiasco.

She propped her elbows on the porch railing and buried her face in her palms. He had only wanted her money.

It didn’t hurt that he didn’t love her, or that he had married her for other reasons. She knew he hadn’t been capable of loving her when he’d struck her, when he’d killed another person in cold blood. But what stung was her utter naiveté.

Of course he wanted her money. It all made perfect sense now. His preoccupation with “protecting” her, his endless questions about how she was managing her money. All in the guise of wanting to make sure she was taken care of. Thank God she hadn’t stayed around long enough to turn everything over to him as they had planned once they were married.

“Jesus, how stupid can I get?” she whispered. She’d been prepared to give him everything. He probably would’ve found a way to get rid of her inside of six months.

She heard the door open behind her, and she squeezed her eyes harder shut.

“Holly.”

Adam walked to stand beside her. She opened one eye to see him rest his hands on the railing beside her.

“I’m a complete idiot,” she choked out.

He sighed and gently pulled her into his arms. “You’re not an idiot, baby. I’d say you’re an amazing woman.”

She shook her head in denial. “I’m pathetic. Pathetic!”

She clenched his coat lapels in her hands and buried her face in his chest. Then she laughed. It sounded harsh even to her.

Adam’s strong arms wrapped around her and held her tightly against him.

A tear leaked down her cheek, quickly absorbed by Adam’s shirt.

“I wanted to belong to someone,” she whispered. “I wanted someone to care about me and not my money or who my parents were. I was so very lonely.”

Adam rubbed a hand up and down her back. “You do belong to someone, baby. And we don’t give a damn about your money.”

For some reason, his declaration opened the floodgate of tears she’d been holding at bay.

She hadn’t realized how truly lonely she’d been or how desperate she was for someone to love her. Desperate. That about summed her up in a nutshell. And now she’d latched onto the brothers. Maybe they weren’t the same caliber as Mason but she hadn’t given her commitment to them any more thought than she had given her marriage to Mason. And that scared the hell out of her.