Chapter 46
CHAPTER 46
MIA
Mia reached for Alex’s phone.
She pressed a button to stop it from ringing, then sat on the bed. Fighting apprehension, her thoughts disorganized, she took a deep breath. Why was Alex’s phone under the bed table? Had he accidentally left it? Or had he purposely not taken it when he’d left the room last night, following their conversation?
“You need to go talk to him,” Mia had urged. “Tonight. Don’t wait.”
Alex scowled at her. “And say what?”
“Tell him you know who sent those notes,” Mia said. “Tell him … that it was me.”
Frowning, Alex stared at her. “You sent Phil those notes?”
Mia rolled her eyes. “Of course not. But Phil doesn’t need to know that. All he needs to know is that your wayward wife is feeling guilty and decided to make things right by telling him that we blackmailed his father.”
Alex scratched his chin. “And how does that solve our problem?”
“Well, for one, Phil will direct all his anger and ire toward me,” Mia said. “He won’t bother you or try to destroy the firm.”
“I still think he’ll go after all of us,” Alex had said. “We all benefitted from scamming his dad.”
“Okay, fine,” Mia said. “You still have proof of what he did. So, it’s mutually assured destruction.”
“No, it’s not,” Alex said. “Sure, Phil may lose some of his upper-crust friends and maybe he’ll get kicked out of the country club, but I doubt it. These rich bastards stick together. They protect each other. And they overlook each other’s faults and flaws. The proof means shit because it won’t send Phil to jail. Fifteen years have passed. It’s too late for Sarah to press charges. Or bring a civil suit against him.”
Mia fought confusion, tried to quell her panic. “But, I don’t understand … the whole reason for inviting Phil to the getaway was to blackmail him with the proof?—”
“It was a stupid idea,” Alex said, standing, walking toward the center of the room. “I should have known it wouldn’t work. Jason was right …”
“Jason?”
“He told me not to do it,” Alex said. “Said it wouldn’t turn out like I hoped.”
“And what bright idea did he come up with?” Mia wanted to know .
Alex chuckled as he strode toward the wardrobe. “A loan?”
“A loan?” Mia scoffed. “The firm has already overextended itself with the bank?—”
“A loan from Phil,” said Alex. “I shot that idea down because …”
“Because?”
Sighing, Alex said, “I’m not sure we could pay him back. If we blackmailed Phil, we wouldn’t have to.”
“So now what?” Mia asked, staring at Alex, entranced by how handsome he was.
She wished they were on a second honeymoon, that they had the villa, the whole island, to themselves, and after spending the day making love every place they possibly could, they’d retired to their bedroom to devour each other again. And she would let him be rough with her, even though sometimes his brutality scared her. In her fantasy, there were no problems with the firm, no money issues, no looming bankruptcy, no greedy clients demanding money they wouldn’t have gotten if not for her husband, so why shouldn’t he have the lion’s share of it. Why should those traitorous, ungrateful clients get one dime? Alex was the one who’d done all the work, and he deserved the entire settlement.
Mia didn’t care that he’d cheated the firm’s clients out of millions of dollars. Wrongful death settlements never benefited the person who’d suffered most—the person who’d died. Beneficiaries who sought to monetize their loved ones' passing were vile and inhumane. They deserved nothing. Mia hated every one of them who’d gone to the police and the state board to file claims against Alex. But in her fantasy, there were no greedy beneficiaries. In her fantasy, there was only?—
“We still have to get rid of Phil,” Alex said.
Jolted from her musings, Mia stared at him. “What?”
“I don’t like it either,” Alex said, returning to the bed. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“But … you agreed that if Phil has an accident?—”
“He’s not going to have an accident,” Alex said, sitting next to her.
Mia shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Phil is going to have to leave the island,” Alex said.
“Why?” Mia asked, staring at him, focused on his darkening pupils, the evidence of a plan, a new scheme churning in his mind. Alex was always hatching a scam to pull, and Mia hated his ideas. She despised his diabolical plotting. It scared her, what he was capable of. And yet, secretly, it thrilled her, as well, how calculating and cunning he could be.
“He was called away on urgent business,” Alex said. “That’s what you’ll tell everyone.”
“Me?” Mia’s heart dropped. She didn’t want to be involved in the treachery. She was no good at deception.
“They probably won’t believe you at first,” Alex warned. “You’ll have to be persuasive. You’ll have to be just as convincing as you were with Sarah all those years ago.”
She felt the same way she had fifteen years ago—weak and like she might pass out. “I don’t know about this. Maybe?—”
“We have to work together if this is going to work.” Alex slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “I need your help. I need to know that I can count on you because this is for our future. We have to make sure that Phil doesn’t ruin our lives. We can’t let him destroy us.”
Mia leaned into him. “What do you need me to do?”
“Tell the others I took Phil to the mainland in the speedboat and I’ll return tomorrow afternoon.”
“And what are you going to do?”
Alex exhaled. “Mia?—”
“I want to know,” she’d told him. “I need to know. We’re in this together, right?”
He’d told her, and the horrific audacity of his idea terrified her, but it aroused her, as well, and they’d made love. Alex was relentless and savage, but Mia enjoyed his assault.
Mia stared at Alex’s phone. Confusion and worry snaked through her. Alex had taken his phone with him when he’d left the room last night, right? It bothered Mia that she didn’t know. Didn’t remember. Biting her lip, she focused on Alex’s phone again. Why would Alex leave his phone beneath the bed table?
Fighting panic, Mia cautioned herself not to jump to conclusions. If Alex had left his phone, then he’d done so for a good reason. Maybe he didn’t want the phone acting as an unofficial tracking device. Or maybe … maybe … she didn’t know. But she wasn’t going to worry. If Alex didn’t have his phone, then obviously, he didn’t need it.