I stiffly walked over and dropped down onto a seat before answering.
“Addilyn Cole—”
“Dawson. Addilyn Dawson.”
I almost jumped out of my chair at the sound of Knox’s deep, sexy...angry voice.
7 Knox
Thirty motherfucking hours.
I’d gone through the longest day and a half of my life, and my temper was at an all-time high. My nostrils flared, and my jaw clenched as I thought about each and every minute since I’d seen my wife.
When I woke up at seven o’clock yesterday morning and reached out to find cold sheets next to me, I assumed that Addilyn hadn’t gone far. But a quick search of my suite had confirmed that I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate our marriage by sinking my cock into her first thing in the morning now that she was sober. At least not until I hunted her ass down.
I didn’t expect to be delayed from my goal for long. I figured she couldn’t have gone far, and I’d be able to find her quickly. The fucking joke was on me.
When I pulled up the security feeds on my laptop in my room, I realized she’d gotten on the elevator only thirty minutes before I woke up. Cursing and pulling on a pair of jeans, I watched as she got off on the tenth floor. Then I shoved my feet into a pair of gym shoes as I tracked her to the room Drew had apparently given her and made a note of the number. Racing toward the elevator, I went down to her room where I pounded on the door several times. When there was no answer, I used my all-access card to go in and found the room empty. I felt like a dipshit for not checking the video to make sure she was still there. I hadn’t brought my laptop with me, so I headed down to my office to pull everything up on multiple screens. It didn’t take long for me to discover that she’d left her room ten minutes after entering, headed down to Smoke and Rhythm, and then disappeared into thin air after using a side exit. Fuck.
When I spotted Ariel talking to my bride and giving her a business card, I hoped she’d be able to help me find Addilyn...until she quirked a brow at me, folded her arms over her chest, and told me the card had been one of Will’s. Hearing that my wife wanted to talk to a divorce attorney had me seeing red. Knowing my own sister had recommended my brother-in-law to her only pissed me off even more. I’d stormed off in a rage, but at least she’d given me enough information to eventually discover exactly where my wayward wife was going to be tomorrow. I just needed to find out the time.
I spent the day searching for her anyway and wasn’t able to track her down. Which only managed to further piss me off and had my hand itching to swat her sexy little ass. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing she had a show that night and I could catch up with her there.
However, she managed to evade me once more by slipping out the exit behind the stage rather than the one on the side that led to her dressing room. Which was where I’d foolishly been waiting.
The next day, I watched from just around the corner as she walked into Will’s office. Taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down, I stalked inside after her. I passed Aurora in the hallway and growled at the wide-eyed, innocent look she shot my way. I wasn’t buying it. Not when my wife was meeting her husband to discuss ending our marriage, and Ariel was the one who’d suggested him to her. Then I heard Addilyn introduce herself to Will using her maiden name, and I forgot about anything but getting to her and stopping this bullshit. After storming into the office and glaring at Will, I corrected Addilyn’s mistake.
“I need an annulment,” she announced without bothering to glance in my direction.
“Over my dead body, baby,” I growled.
“Damn, how the tables have turned…” Will drawled.
I wanted to wipe the grin off his face with my fist, but I focused on my wife. “Shut the fuck up, Will,” I snarled before stomping over to Addilyn and scooping her up into my arms. “We won’t be needing your services.”
I marched out of the room with my wife wiggling and squirming in my hold. I briefly considered putting her down when she tried to punch me in the shoulder and only ended up hurting herself, but then I spotted Ariel and Aurora in the waiting room and thought better of it. Especially when Ariel smirked at me as Addilyn cried, “Put me down, you big brute!”
Aurora still looked shocked as she rushed past me, presumably to check on her husband and make sure I hadn’t done him any bodily harm. A growl rumbled up my chest when I heard her laughter ring out. “This isn’t fucking funny.”
“Maybe not to you”—Ariel rolled her eyes and shook her head as she moved to open the front door for me—“but you can’t be surprised that we’d find it freaking hilarious after all the crap you’ve pulled on us throughout the years. Not when you give us so much to work with by losing the one woman you most want to keep track of, my dear security chief brother.”
I loved my sister more than anything, but if I didn’t literally have my arms full of a squirming wife right then, I would have had a difficult time stopping myself from wringing her neck. “I don’t want to hear it, Ariel.”
“Neither did any of us when we were the ones falling in love. You can’t seriously
