Melting Point: The Andi Drake Infidelity Files: Book Two Read online

  Melting Point

  The Andi Drake Infidelity Files: Book Two

  Sorcha Brennan

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1. One

  2. Two

  3. Three

  4. Four

  5. Five

  6. Six

  7. Seven

  8. Eight

  9. Nine

  10. Ten

  11. Eleven

  12. Twelve

  13. Thirteen

  14. Fourteen

  15. Fifteen

  16. Sixteen

  17. Seventeen

  18. Eighteen

  19. Nineteen

  20. Twenty

  21. Twenty-One

  22. Twenty-Two

  23. Twenty-Three

  24. Twenty-Four

  25. Twenty-Five

  26. Twenty-Six

  27. Twenty-Seven

  28. Twenty-Eight

  29. Twenty-Nine

  30. Thirty

  31. Thirty-One

  32. Thirty-Two

  33. Thirty-Three

  34. Thirty-Four

  35. Thirty-Five

  Sorcha Brennan

  Acknowledgments

  The Andi Drake Infidelity Files

  Hey! I wrote some other stuff!

  Copyright © 2022 by Sorcha Brennan

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Trigger Warnings:

  Off-Page Domestic Violence

  Human Trafficking References

  BDSM

  To Andi Drake

  I didn’t know how much I needed a fictional character of my own creation to help me realign. Thank you for strengthening my inner badass.

  One

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Andi asked.

  Declan scratched his dark beard and cocked his head at the instructions in his hand. “I’m almost positive this piece goes here.”

  “You’ve been known to shove things wherever they fit, so I thought I’d ask.” Andi shot him a sly look and sauntered into the kitchen, chuckling.

  “Says the one who refuses to even look at the instructions.”

  They had been working for most of the afternoon on her new work-supercenter. One comment too many from Declan about the extraordinary use of her couch and bed as a work surface had finally touched the right nerve. Andi, however, was not into buying a massive showpiece of a desk like Declan had suggested. She opted for something functional and made from particleboard. One person could easily assemble it, but Declan had helped put her back together, so she figured the more the merrier. He had a rare afternoon free from the gym since his bumbling assistant manager was functional today, so they played house to the soundtrack of an ignored television and took turns busting the other’s balls.

  Meticulous piles of nuts, bolts, pegs, and various other manufactured pieces that had no name other than labels involving numbers and letters covered the living room floor. Declan was intensely specific about how to organize the space for maximum efficiency and speed. Her patience with Declan astounded her as she managed to keep all screaming limited to her mind.

  “Do you have a mallet?”

  Holding a bottle of water to her lips, she gave him a confused gesture. “What the hell would I have a mallet for?”

  Sighing, Declan took his shoe off and used it to pound a peg into place. Armed with another bottle of water, Andi headed back to Declan. She sat the water down next to him and picked up the instructions. “This piece,” she said, flipping it, “is backward.”

  “For fuck’s sake…”

  Tousling his hair, she kissed the crown of his head. “I need a break.”

  “We can knock this out pretty quick, I think. I just need to…”

  “Kiss me.” She took the paper from his hand and threw it somewhere behind her. He squinted his blue eyes at her and opened his mouth to speak. Squashing any retort he was trying to muster with her kisses, she straddled him and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders.

  She lowered herself even lower into his lap and rubbed herself against him as she pulled gently at the curls gathered at the nape of his head. Declan undid her ponytail, letting the deep brown locks surround them both with the smell of mahogany shampoo.

  That’s all it took.

  He pulled her shirt off and shimmied her sports bra over her chest and arms. Rubbing her breasts and kissing them, he pulled her naked flesh towards him until all she could feel was the heat of his breath and hands touching her everywhere.

  Grabbing the back of his shirt, she tugged it off and laid it out behind him. He scooted back to take off his boxers, and she slid her shorts and underwear down in one motion. Pushing his chest to lay him back, she straddled him again, this time inserting him into her.

  They both gasped at the sudden pressure and she eased herself up and down his length. He grabbed her hips and guided her, pausing briefly to dig a wooden peg from his butt cheek. Giggling slightly, Andi rode him faster, making sporadic movements to shift screws and nuts out from under her knees.

  Debris free, he held her hips in place and thrust into her from the bottom. She focused on the angle and her breathing got heavy.

  “Oh, no you don’t. I’m not done with you.”

  It was too late. It was happening.

  Pinning him to the floor, she placed her hands on his chest and kissed him. Her breasts pressed their hard nipples into him, and he moaned in her mouth as she began grinding him harder.

  His eyes opened and gave her a glare that threatened that he was on to her, and that he would beat her at this game. Locking on to his gaze, she rode him harder until she felt him shudder inside her.

  “You better fucking wait for me.” It came out a little meaner than she intended, but he didn’t seem bothered.

  The winning rhythm created by her hips and the massage he was giving her from the inside created twitches in her body. Just a half-second faster and the thralls of orgasm began coursing through her muscles.

  A loud moan escaped her as she came and felt him release inside her. His hands slowed her hips to a gradual pause and pulled her down to him to hold her.

  “That was incredible.”

  “You’re welcome.” She kissed him on his still panting lips. “Ready?”

  He laughed. “Ready.”

  They reluctantly separated, and she hurried to the bathroom, throwing him a towel quickly before cleaning herself up.

  When she returned, he was standing to put his boxers back on.

  The living room looked like a tornado had done a figure eight through it, but the pieces were more or less in the same vicinity of each other. They shook their clothes for missing pieces and set to work. The desk came together easily after their break. Declan stood back to take in his genius engineering. Andi wheeled a new desk chair over to their joint effort and sat back, leaning in the chair and putting her feet on top of the desk. “This is the life.”

  Declan bent down to kiss her, and she returned his kiss gently. He bent down farther to lift her from the chair. Wrapping her legs around him to keep her place on her throne, he fell forward and braced himself with his arms on the back of the chair. She kissed the bulging muscles in his arm and bit him playfully.

  “Round two?” His gaze was only slightly playful.

  Suddenly, something on the television became more than background noise and Andi turned her attention to the screen.

  “Moth
erfucker.”

  Declan stood and followed her gaze.

  The news piece featured the many new homeless shelters that Melissa Montgomery was opening across Dallas. Bright montages of open facilities and plans for future ones flashed across the screen. A smug, smiling Melissa taunted Andi from across the room. It had only been a couple of months since Andi had wrapped up the troublesome case of the saintly entrepreneur and her bedroom full of lovers and kept men.

  It was the first case she had ever worked on where the client had stayed with their cheating spouse, and it made her sick to her stomach. The case exposed darker deeds about Melissa Montgomery than just infidelity, but thanks to the wealth and sheer influence of the woman, nothing could be done. All she could do was take her hush money and lie low, but it was the principle that ate at her. Another bad guy wins.

  Declan switched the television off. “Don’t worry about it, babe. People like that don’t always win in the end. Leave her to her own means.”

  “She makes me sick.” She pretended to pout. “And I don’t like being told what to do.”

  “It’s a kind of compliment that they’re trying to keep tabs on you. Just keep your nose clean–I’d rather spend money on vacation than bailing you out of jail.”

  Andi rolled her eyes. “I will be a ghost in the mist. That case was in a league of its own. Nothing but smooth sailing from here on out. I have a new client tomorrow, actually. All heartbreak on the home front. Should be simple.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want you to be an angel.” Declan’s eyes smoldered for a moment, and he pulled her up from her chair, wrapping his arms around her. “Why don’t we grab dinner while Assistant Assface is actually doing his job?”

  “That’s an awesome idea. I’ll go change.” She walked to the bedroom, and he followed. “When are you going to fire him? He seems to cause more trouble than he solves.”

  “As soon as I find a replacement. Even when I am there, I can’t handle everything with all the renovations going on. He had been either not showing up or just half-assing it.” He paused with thought. “You know, you could come work with me. We’d spend more time together.”

  She blinked slowly in response, and he knew the look. He was all dimples and apologies.

  Even with Declan helping her undress, they were ridiculously late for dinner.

  Two

  The unwelcome ringing of Declan’s phone woke them both at 5:30.

  Declan sat up and answered. “It should have already been opened.” A faint murmur came from the earpiece. “No, you won’t be making anything up to me. You can pick up your last check on Friday.”

  Declan stayed seated and just stared at the wall. There was nothing she could say, so Andi laid there, knowing all too well what he was feeling.

  “Fuck my life.” Declan sighed and rose from the bed into a stretch. The streetlights filtering through Andi’s blinds made him look like a black and white etching. It also showed the stress on his face, so she stood to give him a naked embrace before he would be undoubtedly rushing out to open the gym.

  “I’m sorry. If you need help finding someone, I can put some feelers out.”

  “I will make some calls today. I was hoping to sleep in a bit since I’ll be there super late tonight with the new ring installation. We can’t even begin until we’re closed.”

  “I know.” She kissed him. “I have an appointment this morning, but I’ll bring lunch to the gym.”

  “It’s a date.” He kissed her, and with a quick brush of his teeth, he was gone.

  The bed called to her, but she threw her hands in the air and started the coffee instead.

  As she pulled into the new client’s neighborhood, Andi realized ‌the houses were less extravagant than usual. It was still a nice neighborhood, but there were less manicured lawns and the driveways did not encompass the fronts of the houses. She parked her Jeep at the address in the preliminary report and grabbed her notebook and files. The house was neat, but not ornate. Manicured shrubs lined the front of the brick house. Beige shutters dressed the two uniform windows, giving the home a surprised look.

  As she approached the door, a woman in her mid-thirties, not much older than Andi, answered the door with a wriggling toddler in her arms.

  “Hi, I’m Andi. Are you Madison?”

  “That’s me,” she said calmly. “Come on in.” Madison was an unassuming beauty, reminiscent of the girl next door in the movies who would merely remove her glasses and end up looking like a model. Stress had dulled Madison’s amber eyes, and her honeyed brown hair hung in a sad ponytail.

  Andi followed her through the foyer and into a living room. It was comfortably furnished, if not cluttered, but warm and inviting. The smell of grilled cheese and baby wipes hung in the air. A toddler was coloring quietly at a table in the middle of a living room where a coffee table would have been, and he looked up at Andi with the same Amber eyes.

  Toys, errant sippy cups, and various items of clothing littered the room. Looking up again from their coloring, the tiny human said something indiscernible to Andi and promptly went back to their scribbles. Madison sat the younger toddler in a playpen and gave him a bottle.

  They walked the few short steps to the adjoining dining room and took a seat.

  “Well, Mrs. Carter, what would you like me to help you with?”

  “Please, call me Maddie. Can I get you anything to drink?”

  “I’m fine. Thank you.” Andi waited for Maddie to begin, but she looked lost in thought. “What do you think is happening?”

  Maddie let out a long breath. “My wife is cheating on me,” she said, shrugging at the obvious statement. “I don’t know when or where or who with—she just is. Life has definitely changed after having the kids, but while I’ve embraced being a mother, I don’t think Em has at all. In fact, I feel like her behavior has regressed. She’s stressed out. Her practice has been doing a little less business, so she has other factors, but instead of talking to me about it, I think she’s found someone else.”

  “In my experience, it’s important to trust your gut.” Andi opened a notepad and pulled out a pen. “You said your wife has financial stressors. How did she typically deal with stress before?”

  “Emily has always been very calm and collected. If she had worries, we would talk about them. These days I’m lucky to even get a hello when she comes home and goes to bed.”

  “Does she have any close friends she might be spending more time with?”

  “I don’t think so. We’ve been married for ten years, so I should know if she had any other close friends. Em’s always been very focused on work.” Maddie thought carefully. “We have a few mutual friends, but they’re all married with kids of their own. When you have young kids, you just don’t have time for that sort of thing.”

  “I understand.” Andi made some quick notes in her notebook and looked around the house and back at the children. “You know your partner very well. If she is cheating on you, where do you think it’s happening?”

  “I have no clue, honestly. She always says she’s at work. She’s a cosmetic dentist and I’ve been to the office many times. The receptionist and other staff all know me, so it would be really weird if she was doing something at work. And it seems like she’s always there, or she has everyone covering for her. This is all crazy; me calling you. I have absolutely no proof, just an overwhelming sense of dread about our relationship.”

  “It’s understandable.” The sense of entitlement that Andi was used to with her clients was not there with Maddie. Andi broke character and sympathized with her. “A woman’s intuition is nothing to laugh at,” Andi said. “Can you talk to me more about the changes that happened in your relationship?”

  “We always knew we wanted children. Em was in love with the idea of being a mother, but not in love with being pregnant. I stepped up to that role and embraced it. We loved every aspect of the pregnancy, my changing body, and all the ups and downs that people always seem to bitch about when the
y are pregnant—we cherished it all. Our oldest, Lucas, is three. When he was born, we couldn’t have been happier. After he turned one, we decided we wanted another child close in age and we did it. We had Landon almost 14 months ago. That’s when I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. I felt horrible, and I needed Em with me all the time just to help me take care of myself and the children. It took a good six months of treatment and counseling just to feel normal enough to care for them on my own. That put us in a bit of a financial bind, and I noticed Emily was becoming a lot more stressed. Even though I wasn’t ready for her to go back to work full time, I pushed through so she could get back to doing what she loved and ease the burden on us all. We downsized to a smaller house to save money in preparation for if it should ever happen again with a third child.”

  “Are you planning on having a third child?”

  “That is definitely on hold for now. I’m not sure that Emily’s practice has bounced back and I’m only just now feeling like who I was before. Part of me feels like the depression and anxiety are making me paranoid about my relationship. It’s almost like my brain invents things to be paranoid about.”

  “I can’t say I have been exactly where you are, but I went from blissfully happy to ultra-aware of something not being right overnight.” Maddie nodded in agreement. “Now, you hire me to get you proof that Emily is cheating, or not cheating, then I do my best to find all evidence that supports a verdict. My goal in these cases is to keep you out of court and present you with information that will simply speed up litigation. Of course, what I provide you will not be admissible in court, but it is easily used to bring about a quick settlement. Is there a prenuptial agreement? What is your goal either way?”

  “We have a prenup. Em’s practice was just starting out when we met, and I had a reputable art gallery downtown. A few years ago, we sold the gallery to help fund our in vitro fertilization treatments and to find her a new building for her practice. We have money, but I’m not sure Emily is being honest about the business. She says that times are hard, and she’s not doing as much as she used to, but that makes little sense because she’s at work all the time.” Maddie picked at a former piece of food embedded into the fabric of the dining room chair, then looked back at Andi and lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “I feel like there may be secret accounts.” Maddie put her head in her hands. “I’m not even sure what I’m thinking. It sounds psychotic, I know, but things just aren’t right. I can feel it. And most importantly, I can’t feel her anymore. I’m just so alone while she lives a life outside of these doors that I can’t concern myself with because I have these two boys who depend on me.”