Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
His lawyer arrived first. Perfectly on time, as Theodora Shore always was. Her high heels clicked across his marble floor, and her right hand tightly gripped her briefcase. Her first words upon entering his house were a disgruntled, “Desmond warned me this was going to be a clusterfuck.”
He’d expected Desmond to warn her. After all, the two had been fucking for the last six months.
She stopped in the middle of the foyer. “So? Where is she?” Her brows shot up. Her hair was cut in a short bob to frame her face. When she looked to the left, then to the right, her hoop earrings swung slightly. “I assume I’ll be repping the shrink, too?”
“She’s talking to Roland.” After eating, Lily had insisted on going into the kitchen to thank the chef for her eggs and toast. Atlas did wonder, though, if she’d also run in there just to escape him.
Things had certainly accelerated quickly in the den during their little discussion.
Oh, Lily, what have you been hiding from the world?
He could not wait to discover everything about her.
“And, yes, you will be representing her.”
A grunt from Theodora as she hurried toward his dining room and plopped down the briefcase.
The dishes from Lily’s breakfast/dinner had already been cleared away.
“The Feds were on my tail while I drove here. They literally pulled in right behind me.” A huff.
“Typical black SUVs. Why can’t they ever show any creativity?
Makes me crazy. Just once, I’d love to see a Fed pull up in a flashy, little convertible.
Wouldn’t that be fun? But those guys don’t understand fun.
” Her earrings bobbed again. “So, okay, it’s good that they are meeting here.
My request, by the way, because I’m selling this as you being the traumatized victim and you also being a celebrity so we’re trying to not have a shitshow at the local PD or FBI office or…
” An inhale as her dark gaze swept up and down his body.
Then up again. “Could you try to look more traumatized and less GQ? Jeez.” Another exhale.
“And tell me that you were the victim. Say it to my face, will you? I need to hear the actual words coming from you.”
“I was the victim.” He shrugged.
“OhmyGod. That doesn’t sound believable. At all. The insufferable shrug helped nothing, by the way. So don’t do it again.”
One of the things that he liked about Theodora. She never bullshitted him.
“We want the cops to move the hell on from you. We don’t want a shitshow, but with that detective being dead…” Theodora grimaced. “Did you hear they will probably have to use dental records to identify him? What a horrible way to go.” A shudder slid over her body.
“Yes.” Lily’s voice was very clear. Very controlled as she strolled into the dining room. “It was a horrible way for someone to die. But I hope it happened quickly. I hope the flames were so intense that there was no time for suffering and that Benedict died instantly.”
Theodora swiveled to face her. “You…” Her gaze assessed Lily. “You are not a ray of sunshine. Oh, no.” Real worry. “Are you going to be as bad as Atlas?”
She could be worse. He was still working that out.
The doorbell pealed, echoing through the house.
“Victims,” Theodora stressed. “Please remember, you are both victims.”
“It’s easy to remember the truth,” Lily returned as a little furrow appeared between her eyes. “Why would we say that we were anything else?”
“Could you just say for me—really quickly because I need to hear it—I am the victim.”
Lily’s chin tilted up. Her shoulders squared. Her eyes didn’t blink. “I am the victim.”
“You might as well have just said I’m a freaking vampire because that did not work at all. People, we are about to be seriously screwed.”
No, they weren’t. Because Atlas had a plan. It had come to him…in a wonderful dream. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”
“Screwed,” Theodora repeated. “In the worst way.”
“I would have preferred to have this conversation downtown,” Gage Emerick announced.
Their little party was all gathered around the dining room table. Gage, a female agent named Sharon Hinkle, a police detective—Kurt Wry, a man Atlas knew had worked with Benedict more than a few times. Those three sat opposite of Theodora, Atlas, and Lily.
“We certainly appreciate you coming here,” Theodora replied in her cool and professional tone. Her courtroom voice. “Especially since my client is still recovering from his ordeal. Oh, sorry, my clients are recovering. Because I am representing them both.”
Gage kept looking at Lily. There was far too much focus in the Fed’s stare. The man could look away from her anytime.
Atlas’s fingers tapped on the top of the dining room table.
“I would like to speak with your clients individually.” Gage thrust back his shoulders. “The interview process works better that way.”
Deliberately, Atlas reached over and took Lily’s hand. His fingers twined with hers. “I’m afraid that my fiancée and I are a package deal.”
Her hand jerked in his. To cover the move, he brought her hand to his mouth. Atlas pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Thank you for saying yes, my love.”
“Since when the fuck did you two get engaged?” Gage thundered.
“Since about seven hours ago, when Lily was in my bedroom and I realized how close I came to losing her.” He stared into Lily’s eyes.
Should he have gone with this story? Ah, screw it.
Another tie to bind her to me. After her reveal in front of his favorite painting, he was all in with her.
“You just can’t let some people escape.”
Lily had frozen.
“Really?” Gage’s doubt was evident. “That’s a weird thing to say.”
“I don’t find it weird at all.”
“Huh. Well, see, I questioned a guard at your main office earlier today, and he told me that you’d had Lily tossed out of your building.
That you’d given orders for her not to be allowed onto the premises again.
” A twist of his lips. “Weird that you want her to marry you after kicking her out so recently. Talk about mixed messages.”
That guard would be handled. ASAP.
“Want to explain that to me?” Gage pressed. “You, barring the woman you love from your own building? Having her tossed out?”
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions.” Did he sound suitably ashamed?
Theodora had just winced, so probably not.
He tried again, “I was trying to fight my feelings for Lily. I was an idiot.” His gaze caressed the delicate lines of Lily’s face.
“I thought she’d destroy me.” Truth poured in those words.
Maybe he’d just stick to the truth as much as possible.
“Self-preservation mode at its worst. I didn’t realize that she would make me better.
Stronger. Now I see that I can’t live without her. ”
“Uh, huh.” More doubt from Gage.
“She risked her life to save me. She could have died when she jumped on the attacker’s back.
She could have died in that basement.” He and Lily would have to talk about that scene, very soon.
She would never take those risks again. “I will not let someone so brave and caring slip away from me. We’re getting married. ” Done. Almost exactly like my dream.
No, in his dream, she’d been wearing a white dress. Standing in front of a priest. Atlas had been vowing to love her forever.
Love. I’ve never loved. Like I told Lily, I’m a damn psychopath. The label had been tossed onto him when he was thirteen years old. One of the counselors at his group home had called Atlas a psychopath when he’d thought Atlas wasn’t close enough to overhear him.
“This isn’t oppositional defiance. Have you looked into that kid’s eyes?
Seen how he acts? He’s ice cold. Frozen inside.
Nothing touches him. He’s a freaking psychopath just like his father, and he scares the shit out of me.
I don’t want to be alone with him. Do you hear me?
Don’t leave me alone with Atlas. Not ever. ”
A forty-year-old man had been terrified of a thirteen-year-old kid.
“Lily?” Gage prompted. His voice drew Atlas back to the present. “Got something you want to add? By the way, I don’t see a ring on your finger.”
Lily didn’t have on any rings. No jewelry at all.
He’d handle that problem. Atlas made a mental note to get her an engagement ring.
One that included a tracking device. The better to make certain that Lily never vanished on him.
The watch he was currently wearing had a similar tracker.
When he’d been taken from the parking lot, Desmond and the security team had found Atlas at the cabin by following another tracker that he’d had on him at the time.
Atlas had made it a point to always have a tracker on him.
Especially with the dangerous games he tended to play.
“No ring yet.” She exhaled. “But you heard what Atlas said. He can’t let me slip away.”
“You two are seriously getting married?” Now it wasn’t just doubt. Anger hummed in Gage’s voice. And damn if the man didn’t jump to his feet.
Atlas turned his head so that his gaze locked with the angry Fed’s. “Some people don’t value what they have. That will not be my mistake. I will value Lily for the rest of my life.” Unlike you, you dumbass tool.
Gage glared at him as he loomed at the table.
“Uh, excuse me?” Theodora cleared her throat. “Are you going to harp on my clients’ romantic relationship or do you have questions about the actual killer who took them?”
Gage’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Did either of you ever see the killer’s face?” He kept standing.
The cop, Kurt Wry, tugged on the collar of his shirt. He looked like he wished he was anywhere but at that dining room table.
As for the female FBI agent, Sharon Hinkle, she was scribbling notes frantically on a small pad in front of her. Why all the scribbling? They hadn’t even gotten to the real interview yet.
And, speaking of the interview…Gage’s question about the killer…