Chapter 27
27
Savage Sets His Sight On Another Innocent
Shall we pity Bethany Green or be bug-eyed with envy? New York events organizer Bethany Green has landed herself the big fish in the form of Zach Savage. But before women the world over start rending their garments, we advise caution.
Savage has a history of turbulent relationships, one of which ended in tragedy, intrigue and a coverup. Sources previously close to a deceased ex have further revealed a major coverup, including missing hospital records after said ex’s death.
So before you lament the loss of this billionaire bachelor, perhaps you should count yourself lucky to have escaped his dangerous snare…
Bethany swallowed and read the email again, trying to keep the icy churning in her stomach at bay.
Missing hospital records… A coverup…
She noticed the attachment to the email and activated it. The photo that opened up made her heart stop.
At least now she had a face to go with the woman who had made such an impact on Zach.
Farrah Nisa was gorgeous. The kind of hurt-your-eyes stunning that men like Zach Savage attracted with minimum effort. Zach hadn’t been exaggerating there.
God, no wonder he’d built a shrine for her.
Pain, jealousy and a healthy amount of self-loathing for her very uncharitable thoughts congealed in a ball of misery in her gut.
She stared harder at the sultry Farrah’s photo, searching for answers she knew she wouldn’t find. Then she scrolled back up and read the message again.
A full body shiver raked over her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Zach rasped in her ear.
She jumped and slammed the tablet shut. Or she tried to.
Besides the insane bedroom talents he’d been blessed with, Zach also possessed super-quick reflexes. He snatched the iPad from her and flipped back the cover.
Heart in her throat, she watched his face as he scanned the page.
“Who sent this to you?” he demanded, his face a mask of pure icy fury.
“I don’t know. There was no identifiable email address. Just a bunch of numbers and figures.”
He threw back the sheets and lunged out of bed. Tension gripped his body and stiffened his shoulders as he stalked naked to the dressing room, her tablet still in his hand.
“Zach?”
He came out seconds later, dressed in dark blue lounger pants. “I’ll deal with this.”
“How… Who sent it?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll find out.” He strode purposefully to the door of their suite and yanked it open.
Bethany scrambled out of bed, threw on a robe and raced after him.
Philip appeared in the doorway as she reached the living room, and she saw Zach hand him her tablet. “…source of the email. It may have been hacked. Have it checked out.”
The thickset man merely nodded, unruffled by the fact that he’d been woken in the middle of the night.
“And the LA situation needs to be escalated,” Zach added. The cold menace in his voice made the hairs on her nape quiver.
Another nod and Philip calmly shut the door behind him.
“What’s the LA situation?” Bethany blurted, unable to stop the shivers that raked her body.
He slowly turned and faced her. His face was a mask of fury and deadly control. “Karim.”
“What are you going to do?”
“He came after you. All bets are off.”
Her hand tightened over her belt. “What does that mean? In plain English, please.”
“It means he will be given one last opportunity to deal with my lawyers. Or he’ll have to deal with me. Only a handful of people have the information in that email. It’s designed to look like a newspaper article, but I’m certain it won’t be published anywhere. He’s an attorney, he knows the law.”
“So this was supposed to scare me?”
His jaw tightened. “Yes.”
Fear clambered up her gut and lodged in her chest. “What are you going to do?”
Her emotions must have alarmed him, because he paused in his pacing and came over to her.
He grabbed her waist in a tight grip and pulled her into his body. “Nothing that will jeopardize us, I promise. But he needs to know that he can’t mess with you.”
“Zach, I can take care of myself.”
“Then why are you shaking? Why do I see pain in your eyes?” His voice was husky with worry and fury and barely leashed control.
“Because… my imagination fell far short of grasping just how beautiful Farrah was. Now I know… and I…”
A rough sound jerked from his throat. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
“I’m worried about other things. But I know you’ll tell me what you can when you can.” She held her breath. “The hospital records going missing. Is it true?”
His mouth tightened. “Yes,” he answered tersely.
She shut her eyes and breathed out shakily. “Did you have something to do with it?”
“No. Not directly.” His tone pleaded for her to stop her line of questioning.
She placed her hand on his naked chest and felt his heartbeat jolt at her touch. “It’s okay, I won’t ask any more. I can go back to trying to deal with how gorgeous Farrah was and how awful I feel for hating her because she had you first.”
He speared his fingers in her hair and angled her face up to his. “Don’t do this to yourself. I belong to you, Bethany. Do you need a reminder fuck? Because I can oblige if it helps you stay grounded in the fact that I’m yours and you’re mine.”
“God, Zach…” She sighed out his name. He groaned and pressed her back against the doorway.
His lips brushed the corner of her mouth. “Keep saying my name like that, and I’ll throw in a Christ-you-undo-me fuck too.”
She laughed. “How many categories are there?”
“We can work our way through it and find out.” He cursed as a knock came at the door.
Reluctantly, he dropped his hands and walked over to open it. Philip silently handed him her iPad, nodded and retreated.
“Does he have anything?”
Zach’s mouth tightened, and he set her tablet on a console table. “He will by morning. Go back to bed, Peaches. I’ll join you shortly.”
“I don’t?—”
“It’s okay, I’ll behave. For now. I just need to make a couple of calls.” He caught her to him and kissed her long and deep, then pushed her toward the hallway leading to the bedroom.
She turned and watched him walk away, her heart in her throat.
Every time she fooled herself into thinking they were making strides forward, something happened to set them back.
Frustration and fear had her altering her course, choosing another short hallway in the suite that led to the balcony outside.
Rome was spread out before her, and in the distance the large imposing dome of the Vatican loomed. She gripped the railing and tried to infuse hope into her heart.
She fell short.
Would they make it? Would they survive? Someone out there knew what Zach had done. The possibility of losing him rose like the dome before her, threatening to shatter her.
She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, trying to fight back the black hopelessness, but she felt his presence the moment he stepped onto the wide space.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
He came toward her, tucking his cell phone in to his pocket before strong arms bracketed her.
“All done with your call?”
He nodded. “We’re meeting on Friday.”
“We?”
“Yes. It’s time, Bethany.”
She swallowed and calculated quickly. “The IL trip won’t be finished.”
“We’ll be done with Thailand and the guests. We’ll take a break and finish the private tour after we meet with the attorney.”
She hugged him tight and waited, knowing there was more.
“It could turn ugly, baby. But I’ll protect you, no matter what.”
Her fear escalated. “What are the options?”
He shrugged. “Breaking the agreement could possibly mean getting sued, maybe jail time. I don’t care about that?—”
“I do!” She reared back and stared into his face. “I do,” she reiterated forcefully.
“Fuck, baby, I didn’t mean it like that. I won’t accept anything that takes me away from you. But I don’t want this thing between us anymore. I’m not prepared to take that risk. But we need to do it right. Regardless of anything Karim’s trying to pull, his family has suffered enough. Hell, he’s lashing out because he’s in pain, much as I want to tear him a new one. I’m going to do my best to make things right all round.”
That core of integrity, which had been the first pull to her falling in love with him, tugged harder at her heart. He drove her mad with his secrets and veils, but from the first, Zach had worn his integrity with unashamed pride.
How could she fault him for that now, simply because it stood in the way of her truly knowing the man behind the enigma?
She burrowed into his chest and breathed him in, her heart sighing in contentment at just being close to him. “You know I would never betray your trust, don’t you?”
He tugged her head up and kissed her, long and deep. When he raised his head, they both gulped in much-needed oxygen. “I know. And if it were up to me, you’d know everything by now, fucked up bits and all.”
“You call it fucked up. I call it the building blocks of who you are today.”
“You must really, really like me, Peaches. Because only you see things that way.”
She smiled. “I do really, really like you.”
His eyes darkened. “Come inside. I need to fuck you again.”