Without Warning: A Billionaire Romance (Playboys of New York Book 5) JA Low (e textbook reader .TXT) 📖

here?” I ask. “I posted bail,” I tell her, not having to fake the confusion in my voice. “What happened?” Standing by the door simply staring at her, she is cuffed to the wooden desk.

“I don’t know. They think I’m someone I’m not,” she explains.

“Madlina Ivanov?” Her eyes widen as I say the name, then her entire body stiffens as she stares at me. “Who the hell is that?” Slowly walking toward her, I raise an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” she argues.

“I’m so confused, Madison.” Looking around the room, I spot a camera in the corner.

“I know.” She looks up, giving me her sad eyes. “So am I.” Then she leans forward and beckons me over. “I told you they were powerful people.” Her eyes look over my shoulder at the two-way glass.

“Why are they doing all this?” Waving my hands around in the air, but she just shrugs. Then a couple moments later, the detective walks in.

“Please take a seat, Mr. Davenport.” He motions to the chair.

“So, Miss Ivanov… you ready to talk?” he questions her.

“You have the wrong person?” she replies.

“But do we… really?” he argues. She’s taken aback by his sarcasm. “How are Michail and Oleg doing?” the detective asks, and that’s when I see the chink in her armor—she’s more than a little afraid of them.

“Who?” She tries to shrug off his questions.

The detective then proceeds to hand over the photographs of Madison with some men who I’m going to assume are the brothers.

“Does your husband know you’ve been sleeping with his brother while in jail?”

What the fuck! She’s been sleeping with her husband’s brother, too? This fucking woman is a nymphomaniac.

The detective hands over those incriminating images of her with Oleg. I look up, and she’s deathly pale.

“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispers ever so quietly. “He will kill me if he finds out.” Her hands clasp together as she begins to shake.

“Who will?” the detective pushes.

“Michail.” She looks up at both of us.

“You’re really not Madison?”

She shakes her head. “I’m not. I’m sorry, Rhys.” Madison or Madlina, whoever the hell she is, looks at me with sad eyes. “I’m just a pawn in all this. My life doesn’t matter to them.” She closes her eyes and leans back in her chair. “My role is to seduce men, even if I don’t want to.”

“Why me? Why do this to me?”

“You were simply collateral damage. They wanted your money. That’s all,” she explains. I just shake my head.

“Miss Ivanov, we are prepared to offer you protection if you’re willing to give us what we want? Otherwise, you will be spending a long time behind bars,” the detective warns her.

“Do it,” I urge her. “Bring these people to justice.”

She shakes her head. “They will find me no matter where you hide me. I’m as good as dead.” Her shoulders sag, and she closes her eyes.

“He’s your husband. He won’t kill you.”

She laughs sadly. “That’s where you’re wrong. Just because he’s made me his, that doesn’t mean he won’t hesitate to put a bullet through me.”

Fuck! She’s resigned herself to the fact that she’s going to be murdered. I don’t understand? This isn’t right.

“Rhys, I think it might be time for you to go,” Detective Johnson turns to me.

No. I have to do something to save her life. She doesn’t deserve it, but I couldn’t live with myself if I let her go to her death without trying something.

“I’ll give you one million dollars if you go into the witness protection program so you can start again.”

Madison looks up at me. A small frown falls across her face. “Why?”

“Because at one time I loved you,” I tell her.

Tears begin to fall down her cheeks. “I’m sorry I tried to destroy your life, Rhys.” She sniffles through her tears. “You’re a good man and deserve so much better than what I did to you.”

“Yeah. I do deserve better.” Little does she know that I’ve found it. “Please think about it. The offer stands.”

Madison gives me a nod, and I walk out of the interview room and into the light—it finally feels like I am free.

“You’re home.” Ariana rushes over as I step into my apartment, exhausted. She jumps up into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist, and rains kisses all over my face.

“I’m free, Ari.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s done. It’s over. The prenup is null and void because Madison or Madlina, or whatever her name is… is already married. The marriage is annulled because it was never legal,” I explain, according to Detective Johnson’s words. “It’s as if the last couple of years have been scrubbed clean from my life.”

“How do you feel?”

“A mixture of hope and happiness because I can start planning a future with the woman I truly love.”

“Is that so?” She grins.

“Yeah, and just so we are clear… that woman is you, Ariana Blanco. You are my future.” As my lips capture hers in a kiss that expresses all the rollercoaster of feelings in this moment, the feelings that wash over me are those of total peace.

“And just so you know, I one hundred percent agree.”

38

Ariana

New Year - Turks and Caicos

“PJ all the way, baby.” Emma squeals as we all pile onto the private jet to fly down to the glorious Turks and Caicos Islands to celebrate the new year.

Things have moved rather quickly between Rhys and me. It’s been almost six months since we first met via a catfish, but it feels like forever ago now. As humiliating as that first meeting was, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Because never in my life did I ever suspect I would meet someone so genuinely kind, caring, and easy-going as Rhys.

Every day he pushes me to go out and grab Manhattan by the balls—his words, not mine. He lifts me up when I’m feeling down. He listens to me when I’ve had a bad day. And vice versa. I’ve never had a boyfriend who felt like a true partner in life.

Things