Chapter 9
Belle
“Belle!”
I wince at the sound of Barrett hollering through the adjoining bedroom doors of our hotel suite. The door handle rattles.
“I’m coming!” I say as I fasten off the second of Piper’s pigtails. I kiss the top of her head. “Finish packing up your books, and then we’ll order breakfast.”
When I unlock the door, Barrett stands waiting with his arms folded.
He’s wearing a silk robe tied tightly around his middle, and a petulant pout.
This is the side of Barrett I don’t particularly like.
It’s usually reserved for other people, but the atmosphere has been strained since we came back to the hotel yesterday evening. I’ve been evading his questions.
“I don’t see why you had to lock it,” he grumbles. “I’m hardly going to sneak into your bed while you’re sleeping next to your daughter.”
My jaw drops, and Barrett rethinks his comment. “I mean, obviously I wouldn’t anyway. You know I wouldn’t, Belle,” he says, his voice softening.
It sounds like there’s going to be a ‘but,’ and I silently dare him. Our marriage is on paper only. It’s the only reason I gave in and agreed to marry him. I pull the edges of my toweling bath robe tightly together as he steps closer.
“I’m grateful beyond measure for what you’ve done for me,” he says as he rests his shoulder against the door frame and crosses one bare foot over the other.
His hairline’s already receding and he looks older than his twenty-seven years, although the smile he offers is still child-like.
“You saw yesterday what kind of match the Russians had planned for me.”
“Katarina would have eaten you alive,” I say, relaxing a little.
Barrett had told me months ago how Vasili Barkov expected him to marry his niece.
It had been too much to hope that the pressure would ease after the death of Katarina’s brother, who had been arranging the match.
Ilya had been expanding his uncle’s empire across the US until he was killed in a battle that somehow involved the Irish mafia, the Griffins, and Quinn.
Barrett said it was best not to ask too many questions, but I think that’s because he doesn’t actually know what happened.
I’m sure Quinn would tell me if I asked. Or Ash.
True to my word, I’d unblocked Quinn’s number when I got back to the hotel yesterday, despite being greeted by armed men outside our hotel suite.
There was no comparison between Ash’s men and Ray Forsyth, the middle-aged Emerson executive Barrett had left to guard Piper and Tandy.
I know I’m not supposed to feel safer now that Ash is making his presence known, but I do.
When I’d messaged Quinn to let her know all was good at the hotel, she’d replied with two contacts.
Jake, whose official title is Head of Security for Griffin Corps, and Ash.
I added them to my phone, and immediately changed their caller IDs in case Barrett caught sight of a message from either. Ash is now Amber. And Jake is Janice.
I feel guilty for storing their numbers under false names even though I’m not duty bound to share everything with the man I married. Barrett’s not my husband, not really, but I do feel obligated to him. He’s helped me so much over the years, and marrying him was my way of repaying his kindness.
“Thank you for yesterday,” Barrett says.
“I know how difficult it was for you, but we can start to relax now that we’ve gone public.
Katarina’s taken the news much better than I expected.
Wouldn’t it be funny if she ended up marrying Ash?
It really would be the perfect solution to all our problems.”
Neither of us laugh, and I find myself playing with my gold wedding band.
Barrett scowls at my finger. “You’re not wearing your engagement ring.”
“It’s in the hotel safe,” I say. “I’m sorry, Barrett, but I never felt comfortable wearing it. It’s too big, and now that I know the diamond belonged to the Barkovs, I like it even less. I hope you don’t mind. It’s not like we were ever truly engaged.”
“Is that the only reason?” Barrett asks, his eyes narrowing.
I’ve upset him. I knew I would, but not as much as it clearly hurt Ash seeing that ring nestled on my finger next to the wedding band I still have to wear.
I shouldn’t care about Ash’s feelings. Whatever the extent of his involvement with the mafia, he’s still part of that world to some degree.
That makes him either a good man who’s capable of doing bad things, or a bad man who can do good. I don’t know which is worse.
Barrett straightens up. “You need to tell me what happened with Ash. Clearly you had time alone with him. What did he say? Did he touch you?”
“No.” Not in the way he’s presuming at least. Ash did hold my hand. And he stroked my lips long enough for me to remember what it felt like to tremble at his touch. “But we did talk,” I admit.
“And?”
I glance over my shoulder to check on Piper. One of the books she was supposed to be packing away is open in her lap. She’s too busy reading about wildlife to pay heed to my conversation with Barrett.
“Ash insists he didn’t have anything to do with the factory fire.”
The muscles in Barrett’s jaw feather. “And you believe him?”
I’m not sure if it’s my husband’s patronizing tone, or the aftereffects of seeing Ash again that’s making me forget that Barrett and I are on the same side.
“Yes. I think I do. He said he’d never heard of Poulton Springs before the fire, and obviously, he didn’t know the security guard who died was my husband. ”
“Obviously?” Barrett wears a bemused smile as he shakes his head.
“Belle, you’re so na?ve sometimes, it’s frightening.
The Griffins make it their business to know everything about everyone.
Ash might have wanted you to believe he let you walk away, but he’s always been a presence in your life. You just didn’t know it.”
“But Ash hadn’t even known I was your new housekeeper.
None of the Griffins linked the name Clara Kelly to Ash’s past.” I’m confused.
One of the reasons I’d married Barrett was because he’d convinced me that Ash was about to find out the truth, and that I’d be safer under his protection.
“Why would you let me panic over Ash finding out about Piper if he’d known all along? ”
Barrett shifts uncomfortably, and his brow furrows.
“All I’m saying is anything’s possible. Ash is taking the news uncharacteristically well,” he says.
“And when you think about it, I doubt it would take Mace a day to uncover your entire personal history. He could hack into your medical records, check how much you have in the bank, and could probably find out what you ate for breakfast.”
I can’t argue that Mace has the technical know-how. I was there when he sent Reid into Barrett’s estate to plant bugs. But just because Ash could have found me, doesn’t mean he did.
“It could be that Ash simply didn’t want Piper, or you,” Barrett says with a shrug.
“It didn’t look that way from how he acted yesterday.”
It wasn’t only how Ash had responded to the possibility of Piper being in danger.
It was when Maddie’s niece had bolted straight into his arms. I’d been enthralled by their interactions.
If I’m honest, I was a little jealous too, even though I was the one who had deprived Piper of his love and affection.
“Does it really matter what he knew or when?” Barrett asks with a note of exasperation. “What’s more important is that Ash gets the message loud and clear that I have you both now. Because you can bet he’ll use every trick in the book to try to take you from me.”
He says it like Piper and I are his possessions. Or assets he can exploit. Apparently, my new husband has a reputation for doing exactly that.
“I don’t like that look on your face,” Barrett says, eyeing me closely.
“Ash has been planting doubts in your mind, hasn’t he?
” He huffs. “Of course he has. That whole show with Maddie’s sister was for your benefit.
She was talking utter nonsense, and maybe I should have called her out on the lies yesterday, but I’d been worried about you.
And we needed to get back here for Piper. ”
He closes the gap between us to rest a hand on my arm.
“I’ve always had your best interests at heart, Belle.
Never forget that,” he says gently. “I can’t tell you how often I regret not pursuing the investment in the distillery after your dad died.
If only I’d responded to you sooner, you would never have turned to Ash, and I could have saved you from so much heartache. ”
“You’re not responsible for how I met Ash. Never think that,” I say. I don’t add that it’s something I could never regret, in spite of what’s happened since. I don’t regret having Piper. Or that brief time with Ash when I believed true love could conquer anything.
“But I did feel responsible, Belle,” Barrett insists, his hand running up and down my arm in lengthening sweeps. “I still feel responsible, which is why you have to take my word for it that Ash and my other brothers are devious and manipulative. Don’t be fooled by him again. Please.”
Is that what’s happening? Am I starting to see Barrett in an entirely new light because of the shadow Ash is casting over us?
“They’re emotionally damaged, all three of them,” Barrett continues.
“I know they had a tough upbringing, and while it’s hard to justify how my mother could leave them when they were so young, she did try to bring our families together.
Sadly, they never forgave her, or me for being the one she didn’t abandon.
Mace took delight in bullying me. Hunter wasn’t much better, but it was all orchestrated through Ash.
He’s the expert when it comes to getting others to bend to his will. ”
His eyes glisten, and whatever memory he’s resurrecting causes him pain. Despite his life of privilege, I’ve always felt sorry for him.