Chapter 39
“Eli,” she grumbled as they walked through the fair.
“Yes, baby?”
“Make the sun be not so sunny, please? My head hurts.”
Kellan snorted which she thought was rude. He was the one who had encouraged her to drink. She glared up at him and he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Got a hangover, Butterfly?”
“It could be a virus.”
“Hey, how are you feeling today?” Shaw asked as he walked over to them.
“I am never drinking again,” she moaned. “What was in those things?”
Joe snorted. “Alcohol.”
“Alcohol sucks,” she grumbled. “And I was looking forward to going on these rides.”
No way was she hopping on any of them now.
“I wouldn’t have let you on any of these rides,” Kellan told her. “I don’t know that they’re safe.”
“You used to ride them,” Joe pointed out.
“That was me, not Arabella.”
“Who are you?” Shaw asked, but he was still smiling.
“Is Laken here?” she asked.
“No, she wasn’t feeling well so Duncan made her stay home,” Shaw said.
“Oh no. Maybe we should check on her later.”
“We’ll see how you feel,” Eli said.
“Oh yeah. This could be a virus.”
“Hmm, with how many cocktails you drank last night, I doubt it,” Joe told her with a grin. “We’re off to go on the Ferris wheel. Remi, come on!”
Remington ran over from where he’d been talking to a cute blonde woman and they lined up.
“Come on, let’s find you some food,” Eli said.
As they walked along, a clown bounced past them, squirting people with a fake flower.
He went to squirt Kellan who scowled at him.
Needless to say the clown backed off.
“Arabella!”
She glanced around and saw Cole holding up a hand, waving at her.
Shoot.
She wasn’t really in the mood to deal with him today.
“I can tell him to go away,” Kellan said.
“No. No, I need to talk to him. Might as well get it over and done with.”
Cole drew closer. He gave Kellan and Eli a cool look that she didn’t understand.
“Hi, Arabella,” Keira said.
“Hi.”
“No Horse?” Julian asked.
“No, he’s with Abe today. My ex-next-door neighbor,” she explained. Heath had been busy and she thought Abe had seemed a bit lonely the last time she’d talked to him.
“Can I speak to you a moment?” Cole asked. “Alone.”
“Why would you need to speak to her alone?” Eli asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“It’s fine,” she said quickly, wanting to ease the situation. “I need to speak with Cole.”
“I don’t like it,” Kellan said.
“I’m not going to do anything to her,” Cole said, looking insulted.
“We still don’t know who broke into her place or why,” Eli said. “We don’t like her out of our sight.”
Cole nodded with a slight frown. “I’ll take care of her. And it’s broad daylight with lots of people around.”
She glanced up at her men. There was very little risk here and she wanted to get it over and done with.
“Five minutes,” Kellan stated.
“Five minutes. And we’ll watch Keira and Julian for you,” Eli added.
There was a subtle threat there that Cole certainly didn’t miss. It made her want to groan, but Cole just nodded and they walked behind a couple of temporary buildings. One of them held a spooky house of horrors.
Urgh. Sounded awful.
“You don’t look so good. Are you feeling okay?”
“Um, yes. This was self-inflicted,” she said with a grimace.
His eyes widened. “You were drinking?”
“Yes.” Why was that weird?
“You told me that you didn’t drink,” he pointed out. “The first time we went out.”
“Oh, right. That’s so I wasn’t out of control. I didn’t want to embarrass myself or my father.”
He studied her for a long moment. “You always held yourself so closed off, so in check. Were you always careful of what you did and said? Even at home?”
“Yes. Always. It wasn’t worth the yelling and lectures if I wasn’t. Or the threats against my grandfather.”
Cole blanched. “Threats against your grandfather?”
“My Pop-Pop is in a nursing home. He’s the only family I have who ever really cared about me.
Maybe my mom did before my father ran her down into a shell of herself.
She overdosed, I think. I’m not really sure since my father never told me.
If I didn’t do what he wanted, my father would threaten to remove Pop-Pop from his nursing home.
And to stop paying for his medication. He has a heart condition.
He wouldn’t have survived. And I’d never had a real job.
I was baking and selling my cakes, but it wasn’t enough. Not back then.”
“So that’s why you agreed to marry me? To save your Pop-Pop. You should have told me.”
“And risk you telling my father?” she said.
“I wouldn’t have done that. I’m not that sort of person.”
“But I didn’t know that,” she told him gently. “As I got to know you, I came to realize you weren’t a bad person. That’s when I started to hope.”
“Hope?” Cole asked.
“I hoped that marrying you would get me out from under his thumb. That you might be a good person and help me. It was silly and after you broke things off, I learned not to hope again. Not until . . . not until my business started to take off and I got enough followers for some income to come from my content creation.”
“Oh, God, Arabella. I’m so sorry. If I’d known, I would have helped.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “It wasn’t your responsibility to help me. It was my responsibility to get myself out from under him. Unfortunately, he found someone else to try and marry me off before I had enough money to escape him.”
“What?” Cole asked.
“Yeah, it hadn’t been announced because he wanted us to look like we’d dated first. Lord knows he wouldn’t have wanted the truth to get out. Anyway, that’s all over now and in a roundabout way you ended up giving me everything.”
“I did? What do you mean?”
“I fell in love with Haven the first time I saw it. I researched it, dreamed about moving here. And when I had the chance, I took it. And now I have everything. Two men who love me, friends, a dog, who I’ve decided is going to stay mine.
I have peace and I can hope again because I feel safe. I am safe. So, no hard feelings.”
She held out her hand and waited. To her surprise he didn’t shake her hand.
No, he drew her into his chest and hugged her tight.
So tight that she felt her stomach lurch.
Oh God!
“I’m going to be sick!” she cried, tugging out of his embrace and turning to run.
She needed to find a bathroom! Now!
“Arabella! Arabella, come back!”
But she ignored him. Her stomach was about to heave everything up.
“Bathroom?” someone called out.
She glanced over, seeing the clown from earlier and nodded. He’d know where it was.
“Arabella! Wait for me!” Cole called out as the clown took her arm and tugged her into the back of the spooky train ride.
Was there really a bathroom here? And why was he holding her so tightly?
But it was too late. She bent over, vomiting. She could hear Cole banging on the door. Had it locked or something?
“That’s fucking disgusting. What is wrong with you?”
What was wrong with her? What was wrong with him? What kind of clown dragged people around by their arm?
A bad clown, that was who.
She opened her mouth to demand that he let her go. But before she could say anything there was a prick on her arm.
And then nothing.