Chapter 15 #2
“Stella!” Maddie called from behind us.
“Don’t,” I said, but Stella ignored me.
She stopped short, her face a thundercloud as she turned. “What?”
Maddie stood right behind us, eyes glistening, chin trembling.
She took another step forward, and my hackles rose.
This emotional display was fake. I could see it in her even breathing, the lack of color in her cheeks, the way her arms hung so loose at her sides, how she looked to the crowd like this was a spectator sport.
“Stella,” I said, my voice low, trying to warn her that this was a trap.
“I just want to talk,” Maddie said.
I expected Stella to explode, scream at Maddie like she’d screamed at me in the car, but her voice came out deathly calm. “About what, Maddie? How you’re ready to go to the police and confess everything?”
Maddie’s face shifted into the picture of innocence. “Stella, please.”
“If not that,” Stella went on, “then you must be here to offer to pay me back for Runa’s medical bills.”
“Why would I pay you back?” Maddie pleaded. “I didn’t do anything.”
Stella snarled and tried to move forward, but I snagged her around the waist.
Maddie let out a scared little bleat and took a half step back as angry whispers rose from the crowd. Shit. If Stella took the bait and punched this woman, I doubted we’d be invited to more parties, and then my plans would be ruined.
I dropped my lips to the side of Stella’s head, just above her ear, and lowered my voice so only she could hear it. “She’s baiting you. Be smart.”
Stella jerked her head up, finally noticing our crowd of onlookers.
Maddie wiped away a tear. “I just thought that after everything you did to me and my family, we could finally talk.”
Stella was a heartbeat away from violence. I sensed it in the way her body practically vibrated with the need to lunge at the other woman. Surreptitiously, I tightened my hold on her.
“Look,” Maddie said in a stage whisper. “I know a lot of what happened was because of your addiction, but I thought that now you’re sober, you might be ready to apologize.”
“You fu—”
I yanked on Stella’s waist, using my body to shield her from the onlookers. My hands quickly rose to her face, forcing her to look up at me. “Go,” I said, my voice a whispered command. “I’ll find you when I’m done with her.”
Stella’s eyes were furious as they searched mine, but she must have heard something in my tone that swayed her, because she dipped a nod and pulled out of my grip. Turning on her heel, she strode down the hall without a backward glance.
Time to fix this problem.
I forced my expression into concern as I faced Maddie. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head, blubbering. “No. Did you hear what she almost called me?”
Raise your voice a little louder, sweetheart, I snarled inwardly. I don’t think the people in the back heard you.
“I did. Let’s go over here and take a minute to collect ourselves,” I said, leading her away from the crowd, toward the entryway. “Here.” I handed her the handkerchief from my suit pocket.
“Thank you,” Maddie said, making a show of dabbing her cheeks.
Rage crawled up from the pit of my stomach, but I managed to train my face into a look of concerned empathy. People were still surveilling us, their eyes sharp, hungry for a scandal.
I stopped us just shy of the front door, my back to the crowd. A glance over my shoulder confirmed that no one was close enough to overhear me before I spoke again. “If you ever do anything to upset my girlfriend again, I’ll make sure everyone finds out what a vile little bitch you really are.”
Maddie yanked her head up, eyes narrowed, fake tears forgotten. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I smiled at her, letting the silence drag out, holding her gaze until she broke eye contact.
She opened her mouth, clearly about to make a scene.
“La Mer,” I said.
Her teeth clicked shut.
I chuckled. “That was the name of the boat, wasn’t it? I’ll give it to your parents; they did a good job covering your tracks with your previous crimes. But let’s just say they weren’t as thorough with that incident in Turks and Caicos.”
She sniffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, no,” I said, my voice deceptively soft.
“I’m not Stella or any of the other idiots you’re used to dealing with.
You’re not going to bait me with this innocent act.
I know all about what you did that night.
” I leaned closer. “So you’re going to walk out of this door and go take a couple months off from being sociable. ”
“My parents—”
“Emily,” I said, raising my voice loud enough to carry.
She shut up, peeking past me to see if anyone had heard.
I lowered my voice again. “That was her name, right? The girl who kissed your boyfriend. The one who ‘slipped and fell,’” I said, lifting my hands to put the last words into air quotes.
“Buying off a coroner is risky business, because if they’ll falsify a report for money, they’ll do a lot of other things for cash, too. Like answer questions.”
Maddie’s face paled. “Who are you?”
“You can call me Mr. Strickland,” I said. “Now leave.”
Anger swept over her face. She’d been a spoiled brat her entire life, coddled, enabled—and she wasn’t used to being told what to do.
“And just so we’re clear, I don’t give a fuck who you are,” I said. “I don’t care that you’re wealthy. I don’t care that you’re a woman. If you say anything to anyone about this, I’ll make what you did to Emily look like child’s play. And I’ll laugh while doing it.”
I grinned, mimicking a look I’d once seen Josh’s father wear, showing too many teeth, my eyes empty and out of focus, like I was staring through her to the gristle and bone beneath. Like I couldn’t wait to hear how loud I could make her scream.
Maddie turned and fled out the door.
■ ■ ■
I found Stella pacing in a study (these rich-people houses were lousy with them), her hands clenching and unclenching, her eyes red like she was fighting back furious tears.
She didn’t notice me at first, her gaze fixed on the carpet, and it gave me a moment to study her.
Watch her long legs kicking at the skirt of her dress with every step.
The way loose tendrils of hair brushed over the pale skin of her exposed back.
She hadn’t hurt Runa; Maddie had. Between what Stella said outside, that interaction with her parents, and then the scene with Maddie, I was convinced of that now. And while Stella was far from innocent, I could admit that she probably hadn’t done enough to deserve my treatment of her thus far.
Fuck, how was I going to fix this?
I closed the door and leaned against it.
Stella’s head snapped up. She caught sight of me, grabbed a paperweight off a nearby desk, and chucked it at my head.
I barely managed to catch it out of the air.
Her face contorted in rage, hands curling into claws as she bore down on me. “You bastard! I’ve been avoiding that bitch for seven years because I knew she would pull some shit like that, and you dragged me right to her.”
I held my ground, ready to block the hit I knew was coming. “Technically, you chose this party.”
“Oh, fuck you, Theo,” she spat, my fake name sounding foreign on her lips. “You forced me back into this world!”
She lunged, but it was easy to grab her wrist out of the air, snag her other hand before it could connect with my face, block the knee she aimed at my groin.
Not wanting to hurt her, I turned and pinned her to the door, trapping her hands overhead and using my body to flatten her against the wood.
Her chest heaved into mine. I stared down at eyes gone black with fury.
They dropped to my shoulder, and I knew, I knew she was going to try and bite me, yet I did nothing to stop her.
A heartbeat later, she attacked, her teeth sinking into my suit jacket, clamping down hard enough to hurt.
I didn’t pull back. I didn’t yell at her.
As fucked-up as it sounded, it felt right to let her hurt me after everything I’d done to her.
It was almost . . . a release. Almost felt good, like she was finally giving me what I’d been asking for.
Brat.
I shook my head, wincing as Stella bit down harder.
No. That wasn’t what this was. I’d been a fighter my whole life, didn’t have a submissive bone in my body.
This was just relief that she was so enraged.
This kind of anger I was used to, had been harboring inside me for as long as I could remember.
I knew how to speak its language, how to use it against her.
“I believe you,” I told her.
Stella released me, the back of her head thumping into the door as she closed her eyes, all the fight drained from her. “Yeah, well, no one else ever will.” A shudder wracked her body. Another. Wetness leaked from beneath her lids, and she bit her lower lip to stop its trembling.
I was probably the last human—besides Maddie—who she’d want to comfort her in this moment, but since I was the only person around, it was either me or no one.
Hell, she’d probably prefer no one, but I was feeling just guilty enough for the way I’d been treating her that I felt obligated to do something.
I only needed one hand to keep her wrists pinned, so I let go with the other, wrapping it around the back of her head and drawing her forward until her forehead rested against my chest—a dangerous decision, given her propensity for being bitey.
“You won’t have to see her at another event,” I said. “I got rid of her.”
“How?” Stella murmured into me.
“Let’s just say you’re not the only person I have dirt on.”
She was quiet for a long moment, taking deep, even breaths like she was trying to calm down. “Even after everything she did, even after all the years I’ve spent hating her, I didn’t expect this. What I did to her family? God, she’s evil.”
“Yes,” I agreed.