Caged (Mastered, #4)(138)

“Deacon telling you confidential information about a possible upcoming official vote will be seen as a breach of confidentiality, and he won’t be allowed to vote. That may even get him kicked off the board.” His grin defined evil, and she shivered. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? Proving me wrong that Deacon does talk to you about important things.”

Oh god. How had she fallen for that? “But—”

The door opened and Julianne hustled out, tears streaming down her face.

Clive intercepted her. “Aunt Julianne? What’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Personal family business that he just—” Julianne glared at Molly. “Why are you still hanging around?”

“I thought Deacon might need me.”

“Why don’t you be a good little girlfriend and go wait for him in bed at the hotel?” she snapped.

Molly wanted to crawl into a hole. But first she wanted to puke.

Except you brought this on yourself. She thinks you’re fine being Deacon’s sexual plaything.

Dammit. Stuff like this always came back to bite her in the ass.

Before she could explain, Clive had his arm around Julianne’s shoulders and was leading her away.

When ten more minutes passed and Deacon still hadn’t appeared, Molly had enough of waiting around and supposing.

She had plans of her own to make.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR



THE next morning Tag fell into step with Deacon as he started down the hallway at the JFW office building.

“You’re early.” He checked out Deacon’s clothing—the sport coat and dress slacks he’d worn to the country club last night. “And you don’t look like a bum. What’s up? Did you just get out of jail or something?”

“Nope.” Deacon punched the elevator button and leaned against the wall. “Fuck, I’m tired.”

“Molly keep you up all night?”

Deacon scowled at him.

“Not the kiss-and-tell type. Gotta respect that.” Tag leaned next to him. “How was Molly this morning?”

“I imagine she was fine. Why?”

“Imagine? Weren’t you with her at the hotel?”

“No. I had to deal with the fallout after confronting Julianne and Dad. It took longer than I expected.” The details weren’t something he wanted to share with his cousin.

Tag stepped in front of him. “But you were with Molly last night? After the party?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why’re you bein’ so f*cking nosy about where I was?”

“Answer the question, Deacon.”

“No. I didn’t go back to the hotel last night. Like I said, some shit came to a head with my folks. Dad refused to go home. Then, when I went to find Molly to tell her what was going on, she’d already left. When I returned to Dad, he’d decided to down half a bottle of Jameson. He demanded I bring him here to his office. Then he spent an hour puking his guts out. Freaked me out, so I ended up staying with him.” And after his twenty-mile run, his lack of sleep the night before, the stress with the fight, finding out about Warren, the board meeting shit, it was more like he passed out when he hit the couch in the reception area upstairs at one a.m. “Why?”

“When was the last time you talked to Molly?”

“Before the thing went down with my folks.”

“How did she seem then?”

Fucking questions. “What do you mean, how did she seem?”

“Was she upset? Mad? Still crying?”

“Why was she crying?” His gut clenched. In that moment he knew he’d f*cked up yet again.

Tag loomed over him. “From what I saw, you left her alone almost the whole goddamn night at the club, and then you didn’t bother to tell her what was going on between you and your parents. Then Clive got his hooks into her, so why the f*ck do you think she was crying, douche bag?”

“What did Clive say to her?”

“He said by you talking to her about a possible board vote, you violated your confidentiality agreement and he’d see you thrown off the board.”


“I’d f*cking welcome that,” he snarled.

“But Molly doesn’t know that, does she? She thinks she screwed that up for you.”

Fear began to form thorns in his stomach.

“You wanna hear what she said to me when I saw her waiting for a cab? ‘Now I know where I stand with him, Tag. Behind him, not beside him.’”

Deacon inhaled and unclenched his fists. “I am one man. Yesterday and last night I was pulled in three different directions.”

“And none of them pulled you toward her? Then you’re an even bigger idiot than I imagined.”

Rage and shame filled him. In his frustration, he turned to punch the wall.

But Tag stepped forward and then crumpled inward when his belly absorbed the impact of Deacon’s fist.

“Why did you do that?” Deacon demanded, taken aback.

“The wall is cement, dipshit,” he wheezed. “You would’ve broken your f*cking hand.”

“So you took one for the team?”

“I’ve got an iron gut.” Tag winced when he stood up straight. “You aren’t thinking clearly. You haven’t been since you stepped boots in Texas.”