Chapter 13
Ash
I’m in our Chicago office when Belle calls. And while it’s fortunate that I’m with Quinn when her phone rings, I’m not so keen on the fact that my brothers are also in the room.
“Hey, Belle,” Quinn says. “We were just talking about you.”
Hunter’s face twists like there’s a bitter taste in his mouth. He’s been doing that a lot lately, usually when Belle’s name gets mentioned.
We’re seated around the large conference table that’s positioned centrally like an island between the four desks that are each Griffins’ individual domains. Quinn works with Maddie and Lily in the office on the other side of the corridor, but had just arrived to talk through a plan of action.
“I have the full set of Griffins with me,” Quinn says, presumably in response to Belle asking who was with her. “Am I OK to put you on speaker phone?”
Quinn has her finger poised to press the button, but the moment drags.
“Belle?”
She must say yes because Quinn switches to speaker and sets her cell phone down on the table. Except Belle hadn’t quite finished answering.
“–but I only want to speak to you. No one else, Quinn,” she says firmly, obviously meaning me. “And I won’t keep you long.”
Quinn makes a face at me, and I raise my eyebrows. Fine. I’ve done well not contacting her since our last meeting, and any future conversations are going to be awkward enough without an audience. But I won’t be an idle bystander. I pull my notepad towards me and scrawl across it in capital letters.
I’M STILL GOING TO FEED YOU THE QUESTIONS.
Quinn gives me a thumbs up. “Understood,” she says. “How can I help?”
There’s a mirthless laugh down the other end of the line. “You don’t have a time machine, do you?”
My jaw tightens. How far back does she want to go? I know where I’d go – back to that brief time we were living together in her ramshackle house next to the distillery.
“I mean,” Belle stumbles on because she’ll know exactly where my mind is. “I’d think twice about agreeing to marry Barrett. As much as I want to help him, I thought we were protecting ourselves from danger, not inviting it in.”
“What danger? Has something happened?” Quinn asks before I can scribble the exact same question.
“You’re asking me? I was hoping you’d be able to explain exactly why I need armed men lurking at the front gates, or wandering around town.
Or why I can’t let Piper go to kindergarten.
” Her voice cracks and she takes a breath before continuing.
“Or why that Katarina woman is still interested in pursuing Barrett. Why does she need proof that Barrett and I are happily married?”
Quinn goes to reply but sees me scribbling, and poses my question instead.
“What kind of proof, Belle?”
The silence stretches. “I called because I wanted to talk to you. Face to face. Maybe pretend we’re still friends and you won’t go reporting straight back to the others.”
Quinn bites her lip. “I am your friend.” She looks meaningfully around the table. Reid and Mace look on impassively, but Hunter’s expression is less guarded. She scowls at him before she adds, “You have more friends than you realize.”
“I sure have more enemies than I realized,” Belle says. “I made a decision not to be involved with mobsters. Or friends of mobsters.”
I stare at Quinn’s cell phone. I know Belle’s talking to me, and everyone else disappears from view.
“This way of life terrifies me,” she whispers.
“And I appreciate you all want to protect Piper, but that’s what I thought I was doing when I…
when I left.” I listen to the sound of her swallowing.
That sound used to bring me pleasure, but all I feel is pain.
“Right now, I don’t know where the threat is coming from, and I’m overthinking every decision.
Am I right to worry? Or am I just being paranoid? ”
I scribble a note.
“You’re not being paranoid,” Quinn says before going off script. “And you’re not the only one still figuring out how all these puzzle pieces fit together.”
“Then what chance do I have of working it out? I’ve been left questioning everything. It’s such a mess, and I don’t know how I got here.”
My pens scratches across the paper.
“When Ash let you go, it was because he wanted to keep you safe,” Quinn says.
“Barrett says Mace could have easily tracked me down. Did he? Did Ash already know about Piper when you–”
What the fuck? I thought we’d gone over this at the refuge. “No, Belle, I didn’t know,” I say out loud because fuck this, and fuck whatever lies that asshole she married keeps feeding her. “I would never have kept away if I’d known.”
There’s a long pause. We’re all staring at the phone, waiting for Belle’s reaction to my voice.
“I have to go and see to…” Belle’s voice cracks. “I need to go.”
“What do you need from me?” Quinn asks, taking back control of the conversation.
“Would you be able to come to Poulton Springs? This week if you can,” Belle says, then adds, “Just you.”
“Not to the mansion,” Reid says.
Quinn shoots him a glare for speaking, but he simply shrugs.
“We could meet in town for a coffee,” Belle suggests, less rattled by Reid’s intrusion than she was by mine.
“I could do Friday?” Quinn says. She turns in her seat to block out Reid, who’s gesturing to her. “Shall we say midday at the coffee shop?”
“That would be nice. Thank you.”
Belle sounds… I don’t know… Lost?
She’s right about not belonging in this mess.
I might claim I acted nobly by letting her go, but the truth is, after Dad died, I’d been going back to Eastham Grove to convince Belle we had a future together.
I loved her too much not to try. And she loved our unborn child too much to consider what I might want.
It was that simple. And now it’s so damn complicated.
“I’ll see you Friday,” Quinn tells her, “but if anything happens in the meantime, you call right away. You have all our numbers.”
When the call ends, it’s Reid who speaks first. “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for you to go, Quinn.”
“You don’t say,” she grumbles. “But I’m still going. Alone.”
“Again, not such a good idea,” repeats Reid. “And you’re not alone. You’re carrying our child.”
“You mean the same child I was carrying when I dispensed with Ilya Barkov?”
“We dispensed with him. Together,” Reid reminds her.
Quinn lets out a strangled cry of frustration. “I’m sorry, but was I the only one who found that whole conversation heartrending? She’s landed in this mess through no fault of her own, and you heard what she said. She’s terrified.”
“She has to take some responsibility,” Hunter mutters.
“You need to stop being so hard on her,” Quinn hits back. “Or I’ll tell Maddie.”
I’m tempted to get up and leave them to the argument that’s about to erupt, but if Quinn is meeting Belle in a matter of days, we need to work on that puzzle Quinn described.
Belle and I hold different pieces, and I’m going to have to earn her trust before we can fit the two together, and that won’t be easy.
I’ve had years of experience dealing with Barrett.
I know what he’s like. The bastard has no scruples when it comes to exploiting people, and that’s exactly what he’s been doing to Belle.
Unfortunately, Belle has been sold a version of Barrett where he’s the victim of his half-brothers’ cruelty, and I won’t be able to convince her otherwise until I can figure out how much he’s been interfering in her life.
And I can only do that if I can show her solid proof.
I hold up my hand to stop Hunter taking another swipe at Belle, and turn to the only person at the table yet to speak. “Mace, any luck with Barrett’s paper trail?”
“You mean the non-existent paper trail?” he answers somberly.
“I’ve been trying to see how far back his and Belle’s exchanges went, but telephone records are next to useless because they’ve both switched numbers several times over the years.
I know they swapped emails, but at the moment, I can’t access anything back far enough to be useful.
There are some emails of note on the Emerson’s system, but they only show as stubs because the company’s purged and archived older records. ”
“Which means we still don’t know how often Barrett was in touch with Belle after they left college.” I conclude. It’s not the news I was hoping for. I need to know when he first got his hooks into Belle. And I need to understand why he set out to entrap her. Was she the catch, or simply the bait?
“It’s possible Barrett didn’t just use his Emerson email account,” Mace continues. “Especially in the early days when Alice would have had more control over the company. He’d want to keep what he was doing under the radar.”
Quinn shakes her head. “All we know for sure is that bastard’s been stalking Belle since they met in college.”
“And not in a good way,” Mace adds for clarification because… Yeah, that’s Mace.
Reid rolls his eyes. “I do wonder sometimes what Lily sees in you.”
Mace arches an eyebrow. “I’d tell you, but it might make Quinn feel like she’s being shortchanged.”
“Boys,” I warn before their pissing contest derails the conversation.
“So, anyway,” Mace continues. “I’m still looking into it. Barrett won’t be that good at hiding evidence.”
“It feels like a waste of time,” Hunter complains. “Maybe we should just leave it to the Russians to figure it all out. They’ve done a better job than Mace so far.”
Mace leans forward so he can get a better view of Hunter. “I haven’t finished talking yet, asswipe. What’s got into you lately?”
Hunter’s pulling that face again. Of everyone, he knows how much the break up with Belle affected me, so he should know how much I need his backing. But if he can’t support me…
“If you don’t want to be involved in this, Hunter,” I say. “Take a walk.”
He turns on me. “It’s you who shouldn’t be involved in this,” he says, holding my gaze. “Am I the only one who can see this ending badly for everyone? She chose to marry Barrett, Ash. For better or worse.”