Chapter Eleven
XAVI WAS GENERALLY happy to play the schmoozing game at parties like this.
It came with the job and was a necessary evil.
He might be an apex predator at the top of the fashion food chain, but those lower down needed to eat, too, and if they weren’t fed, they died, and then he would be unable to feed.
It was an analogy Raul had imparted many years ago.
Occasionally at these parties, Xavi would come across a rival apex predator and engage in the mandatory pissing contest, but secure with his place in the world, his heart was rarely in it.
It was only with arsehole predators like the shark Paul Haldron that he took enjoyment from metaphorically pissing all over them.
Far from being an actual shark, the Paul Haldrons of the world were more like annoying mosquitoes trying to land on the real apexes with the aim of biting and slowly killing them.
Paul Haldron had tried to kill Xavi. He’d led a consortium of investors to overthrow him.
It had been a badly misguided effort, mainly because they didn’t have the shares, brains or funding to make a success of it.
Xavi had taken great pleasure in squashing them all, even if it had been an unwelcome reminder of how vulnerable his position would be without Raul’s shares.
Instead of arranging his face into the usual welcoming smile he gave when being approached, he hardened his stare and drew himself to his full, intimidating height.
‘What an unpleasant surprise to see you here,’ he said sardonically when Paul stood before him. ‘I wasn’t aware Gustav knew of your existence.’
‘He didn’t until twenty minutes ago.’
‘Then you shouldn’t be here. This is a private members’ club. Guests are only allowed if—’
‘I know how the guest list works. I got a note to Gustav of my reasons for being here. He read it and added me to the list.’
Xavi followed Paul’s gaze. Gustav was watching them from a distance. There was no mistaking his avid interest.
Trepidation snaked up his spine.
He looked back at the American. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Because I knew you were invited and I wanted to see if you had the balls to turn up given the new state of affairs, and offer my commiserations to you.’
The tension spreading through his veins, Xavi folded his arms across his chest. ‘What are you talking about?’
The mosquito smiled a shark’s smile. ‘Your wife becoming the majority shareholder of the Rosbel Group and kicking you into the dirt. I speak from experience when I say she paid good money for that privilege.’
A pulse was beating loudly in the back of Xavi’s head, the tension in his veins turning to ice.
The shark correctly read his expression and bared his teeth. ‘So it hasn’t happened yet? I did wonder—I’ve kept my ear very close to the grapevine and not even heard white noise.’
His words had barely landed when he nodded over Xavi’s shoulders. ‘Oh, there she is. She’s as ravishing in the flesh as your wedding photos suggested. Still, they do say the most beautiful of the fairer sex are the most deadly. That one is lethal. Enjoy your downfall.’
Beth’s feet had rooted to the floor. She knew from Xavi’s ramrod stance and the triumphant smile Paul Haldron aimed at her as he sauntered away that he’d told him, and she fought desperately against the hot blood filling her head and the sensation that she was a heartbeat away from her legs collapsing beneath her.
He turned around slowly.
Eyes as glassy and cold as marble fixed on her.
Completely incapable of moving, she fought even harder to keep control of her limbs as he moved towards her with the silent lethality of a tiger about to strike.
He took her clammy hand into his with a smile as cold as his stare and leaned down to brush a cold kiss on her trembling lips and whisper, ‘Smile, mi vida. This is a party.’
For the next two hours, her hand held tightly in Xavi’s, Beth smiled until her face ached.
Not a single guest went unspoken to. Xavi laughed and joked as if he was having the best time with the best company, feigning ignorance of the curious eyes darting to them as Paul Haldron spread his poison amongst the party.
Beth did her best to act normally, but with the world spinning wildly around her and the undercurrent of ice flowing out of Xavi through their clasped hands, maintaining her smile was taking everything she had.
It was almost a relief when he murmured, ‘Time to go,’ before guiding her to Gustav so they could say goodbye.
‘Excellent party,’ he enthused, clasping Gustav’s hand as he shook it, then slapping him on the shoulder as he added, ‘I’ll be in touch about those quotes.’
She had no doubt that the moment the basement door closed behind them, the room would erupt. And she had no doubt that Xavi knew it, too. They would be lucky to make it until morning before the news leaked to the press.
She was too frightened to check her phone to see if it had leaked already.
Their car was ready for them. Gentleman that he was, Xavi let her get in first.
‘Xavi,’ she said as soon as they set off. ‘I—’
‘Wait until we get home,’ he interrupted tonelessly, turning his face out the window.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I was going to—’
‘Stop the car,’ he said abruptly into the intercom. ‘I want to walk.’
The car stopped.
He faced her.
His expression made her insides shrivel.
‘I will meet you at the apartment.’
He’d slipped into the night before she could scramble any form of response.
It could only have taken ten minutes to get back home, but they were the longest ten minutes of Beth’s life. The wait for the elevator was excruciating. The fact she had to call it down meant Xavi had beaten her back.
Diego rushed to greet her, but other than his welcome presence, the apartment was silent. She crouched down to stroke him and snatch at the needed comfort he gave, the coldness in her chest increasing with the certainty that Xavi had sent the staff to their quarters.
At first glance, their bedroom was empty. And then she heard noise coming from their dressing room.
The world spun on its axis to find three open suitcases on the long velvet dressing stool, and she pressed her back against the wall to stop herself swaying.
He didn’t break his stride at her appearance, pulling a load of summer dresses off a rack and folding them as one and placing them, coat hangers and all, in the nearest case.
‘When were you going to tell me?’ he asked silkily as he pulled more dresses off the rack.
She could hardly speak through the hammering of her heart. ‘Tonight.’
‘You don’t need to lie anymore, Bethany.’
She didn’t know what was worse, the way he was systematically packing her out of his life, that he’d called her by her full name or the normality of his tone.
‘I’m not lying.’
‘What percentage of the company do you own?’
‘Fifty-one. But—’
‘I’m impressed. That was quick work. I assume you had everything ready to go as soon as probate was granted?’
‘Yes. I—’
‘It did cross my mind to increase my shareholding a few times before your grandfather died, but I didn’t act on it—it would have felt treacherous.
’ He zipped the first suitcase shut and lifted it onto the floor.
‘Our grandfathers took great pride in their partnership being equal. Neither could benefit without the other benefiting, too. For me to increase my shareholding while Raul was alive would have spat on that fundamental agreement as it would have made me the first amongst equals. When he died, again I could have increased my shareholding, but instead I went to Raul’s granddaughter.
’ Back at the shelves and racks of her clothes, his gaze caught hers for a moment before he gathered a pile of her jumpers into his arms.
That moment was enough for her insides to shrivel all over again.
‘I’m sorry. I was going to tell you tonight, I swear.
Whatever Paul told you about my motives…
they changed. I set the wheels in motion to get majority control and kick you off the board the day after you proposed.
I was angry and emotional, and I acted rashly, but I swear, I’ve no intention of going through with it.
I would never take the company from you. ’
She might as well have spoken to the wind. Xavi continued his monologue as if she hadn’t even opened her mouth.
‘I thought we could continue that long-established partnership with us both benefiting equally.’ He placed an armful of her jeans and trousers into a case.
‘I would continue to run the company and you could slot into it in whatever creative capacity you wanted, and we would both reap the rewards, and—’
‘And that will still happen,’ she promised beseechingly. ‘Nothing’s changed there, Xavi. Nothing.’
Her words fell on deaf ears, Xavi picking up exactly where he’d left off.
‘And if we were going to be partners in business then we should be partners in life, too, and do that thing we’d promised we would do when we were too young to know what we were doing and finally get married.
’ Crossing the floor to add another pile of jumpers into the suitcase, his stare caught hers again.
His lips formed a snarl. ‘It never crossed my mind that Raul’s granddaughter would be so treacherous as to work directly against me and stab me in the back. ’
Although anger had been bubbling beneath his veneer of normality, to witness it rise to the surface made tendrils of her own anger unfurl.
‘That is some major revisionist history,’ she defended herself shakily. ‘You married me first and foremost to keep control. Everything else was secondary, including your wish to marry me.’
His glare was full of contempt. ‘I never lied to you, not once, whereas everything you’ve done has been a lie.’