Chapter 4

[MADDOX]

For the first time in my life, I hated the emptiness of my cabin. It annoyed me so much that I wanted to tear this place apart with my bare hands and burn that fucking door.

Barking dogs seldom bite. That’s how the phrase goes. But this crazy-ass woman, who stormed out of my office with that flippant attitude, leaving a throbbing imprint of her hand on my cheek, not only yelled her ass off but also bit me.

Fuck. How dare she?

I clenched my fists, trying to quiet the frenzy of anger coursing through my body. I grimaced at the screen of my phone before dialing a number and anxiously waiting for the call to be answered. It took everything in me not to pursue that stupid girl to her doom. I rolled my shoulders to keep myself from doing anything stupid, like taking the pistol from my drawer and firing a hole in the middle of her head. The fact that I wasn’t easily irritated said a lot about how angry I was right now.

The moment Josh came on the line, I snarled, “Office. Now!”

I hung up without listening to what he had to say and smashed the phone against the wall. The metal slammed into the hard surface before crashing to the ground and scattering in pieces.

I didn’t care. Fuck. I couldn’t care less about anything else right now.

It took Josh twenty minutes to show up in my cabin. The second he did, he was welcomed by the laptop I hurled in his direction. He dodged the throw—lucky bastard—but not without wincing when the laptop smashed against the door behind him. Like my phone earlier, it shattered into pieces too.

Not that I cared. It only made me madder because I wanted that bastard to take the hit. Better luck next time.

“What on earth was that for?” Josh shouted, surprised and confused, adjusting the collar of his suit jacket, a nervous tic he couldn’t hide.

Normally, Josh didn’t mind the formality. He used to barge into my room whenever he felt like it. It annoyed me to no end, but I ignored it for the sake of our friendship and his sister, who knew how to fuck me in bed to compensate for her brother’s stupidity. But I was furious right now, and not even his sister’s fuckable ass could spare him from my wrath.

Leaning on the table, I fixed him with a furious glare. “That was,” I said, getting up from the chair, “for fucking with me, you asshole!” I growled.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the fuck did I even do?” he dared to ask, carefully approaching me. “And what’s the deal with you? I mean, I’ve never seen you this furious before. What the fuck got you all fired up?”

I wanted to say a certain blonde with eyes so blue I wanted to chop them out of their sockets and keep them in a fucking safe. Instead, I grabbed his collar and stared him down. “How did you acquire that fucking land, Josh? Would you mind explaining?” I muttered lowly—brutally.

When Zara brought up her home in the conversation, I knew exactly what she was talking about. But the way she seemed so angry, as if someone forced that house out of her hands, didn’t sit right with me. I knew Josh fucked up. He did exactly what was against my principles. But how? I still needed to hear it from his ridiculous mouth.

“I thought you said you didn’t care about the technicalities as long as we got the land!” he fired back. “And guess what? We got it. So, back the fuck off!”

I glared at him for far too long before shoving him away and running my hand through my hair.

Shit!

I did say that, didn’t I? But fuck, I didn’t expect him to go through with it.

I needed that piece of land desperately. That I could not deny. But I never planned to kick someone out of their property. That was largely the reason I offered the owners more money than the actual worth of the land. I wanted this transaction to be as smooth as possible. But now all my efforts had gone to hell. And just because Josh fucked up, now I was the bad guy.

Josh straightened his suit before turning to face me. His shoulders sagged as he exhaled heavily. “Look, Maddox, we’ve been friends for years. I understand how important this project is to you. And honestly, all I wanted to do was help you make it happen.” He hesitated for a second, studying me as I shuffled back to my chair.

“But if you don’t approve of my methods, I’ll do whatever you want to make this right. It is, after all, your project. Your dream. It should run the way you want it to. Invalidate everything I’ve done so far. I don’t give a fuck. Just… calm the fuck down.”

Josh leaned on the table, watching me brood and waiting for me to say something. But I had nothing to say to him. I kept my gaze fixed on the door, as if expecting someone to crack it open. The sharp throb on my cheek pulsed with the need to do something about it. Zara Fisher should not have raised her hand, no matter what. Now, she had left me with no choice but to teach her a lesson. I’d have to make sure that the next time she came around, we had an equal score.

Lifting my gaze from the door to meet Josh’s, I spoke sternly. “I expect you to return the project by the end of the day.”

I watched his lips purse into a thin line, and the crease on his forehead deepened. “Fine.”

Before he could step out of my room, I called him one more time. “Are you still in for making things right?”

He didn’t even hesitate before nodding. “Sure. What exactly do you want me to do?”

I scoffed and leapt to my feet, making my way over to the floor-to-ceiling window behind me. “I want you to dig up everything you can about Zara Fisher. Her past, present, future plans—I want everything. You have 12 hours to get this done.” I cast an icy gaze over my shoulder. “Or never show me your face again.”