Chapter 19
Belle
“Ithought you’d be happy having the place to yourself again,” Tandy says taking one look at my miserable face. It’s Sunday morning and I’m nursing a bitter coffee.
“Mommy’s sick,” Piper says, looking up from her book.
My daughter is sprawled across the kitchen counter on her stomach.
Her shoes scuff the granite, but I don’t tell her off.
I don’t care about this damn house. It feels more like a prison every day.
My head throbs. I don’t care about Barrett.
I don’t care about his battle with the Barkovs. And I don’t care about…
“I drank too much whiskey,” I admit, because yes, of course I’d choose whiskey as my poison. Why not add to my torture?
Tandy heads for the fridge. “Should I make breakfast?”
My mouth fills with saliva. “I don’t think I could stomach anything. Unless you’ve brought some cinnamon rolls from the coffee shop?” I ask hopefully, glancing at the tote bag she’s dropped on the table.
“Sorry, that’s just the old chess set I promised Piper.”
There’s a scramble as my daughter jumps down from the counter to take possession of her gift.
Tandy grabs a carton of eggs. “I’ll just make pancakes for me and Piper then,” she says, setting to work. “I can’t believe Barrett took his cook back to New York with him.”
From the way Barrett had told me, I’m sure he thought he was meting out a punishment. I was more than happy to see the staff go, especially as it gave Barrett a weak excuse to cut his weekend short so he could take them back.
“They all left last night,” I say. “And they seemed happy enough to be leaving.”
Not as happy as Katarina. After her big announcement, she’d asked Barrett to return her uncle’s diamond, and immediately slipped the damn thing on her finger. I expect the whole performance was to annoy Barrett, but I was the one who had to fake a smile while my insides twisted.
I shouldn’t be so angry. Ash can do what he wants.
He’d said there wasn’t an us, and this is certainly one way of clearing up any mixed messages he might have given.
I don’t imagine it’s a coincidence that he chose to propose to Katarina while she was here.
I’m sure he enjoyed listening in while she made her big announcement.
How could he tell me he’d burn the world for me one minute, then stamp all over my undeserving heart the next? Is this payback?
“Here, drink this,” Tandy says, passing me a bottle of chilled water. “You’ve gone green.”
I take the bottle gratefully. “What I really need is some fresh air, and maybe a cinnamon roll. Do you mind if I go into town and pick some things up?”
“Sure, take your time. You might have to contend with the next world champion chess player by the time you get back,” she says, tipping her head towards the chess pieces Piper is setting up on the checkered board.
As I’m climbing into my BMW five minutes later, I get a notification on my phone. I know it can’t be Ash. He’d tried phoning me yesterday, and after ignoring five of his calls, I’d blocked his number. Fuck his orders. Fuck him.
I want to ignore whoever else is messaging me, but I’m feeling too weak to fight my curiosity. It’s Ray Forsyth. There’s no text. Just a video. I’d asked him to send the one Katarina had mentioned, and he’d been non-committal. I’d almost given up hope, but it’s my lucky day.
Or not.
My cheeks burn as I watch the recording.
I’d been expecting a video of the moment Hunter Griffin stormed into the chapel to stop Barrett from marrying Maddie, but Maddie isn’t in the footage.
It’s another woman on full display and she’s not in a house of god.
Her moans fill the car as I watch Barrett thrusting into her.
I can’t believe Ray would send this to me, and I’m about to delete it when Barrett starts telling the woman about his upcoming marriage.
He fucks the woman harder as he describes his forthcoming nuptials as nothing more than a business deal.
And the more he talks, the clearer it becomes that his act as the jilted groom was just that.
I scramble out of the car and throw up into a rosebush. Whatever shred of loyalty I had left for Barrett is purged from my body. I won’t feel guilty about walking away from him now. And I will walk away from him.
But first I need that cinnamon roll to settle my stomach.
I jump back into the car and speed along the driveway, stopping only long enough for the guards to open the gates.
There are two SUVs parked outside, and Jake is walking between the two.
I give him a wave, but I don’t slow down. He’s going to have to catch me up.
I devour one cinnamon roll before I’ve even paid.
I’ll save the other for after my latte, which I get to-go.
I’m feeling better after the drive, or as good as I can feel under the circumstances.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take from the video Ray sent, other than I never want Barrett touching me again.
Just the thought has my stomach objecting, and I hurry out of the coffee shop to take a gulp of fresh air.
I don’t much like my reflection in the passenger window of the blacked-out SUV.
I’d scraped my hair back into a ponytail without drying it after my shower, and what little makeup I’d applied, slid off when I threw up earlier.
Rather than heading straight for my BMW, I walk around the SUV to the driver’s side. Jake had caught up with me in record time after leaving the estate, and from what I’d glimpsed of him in my rearview mirror, he’s on his own. Or I hope he is because I’ve only bought one jelly donut.
I tap on the window and wave the paper bag at Jake’s vague outline through the glass.
There’s a humming sound as the window starts to slide down.
Inch by inch, my protector’s face is revealed and I see my reflection reappearing in a pair of standard-issue aviator sunglasses.
Two reflections of my face looking deathly pale.
The window continues to lower until I’m staring at a man with dark hair and a perfectly-trimmed beard…
Jake doesn’t have a beard.
“Are we buying each other gifts now?” Ash asks with a huge, damn grin on his face as he plucks the bag from my rigid fingers.
My latte almost slips out of my hand, and I jolt back to life as I catch it. “You’re supposed to be Jake.”
“Disappointed?”
Ash doesn’t wither from my glare. Instead, he perches his sunglasses on top of his head. His eyes are burnt amber in the sunlight, the same color as the dregs of whiskey in my glass last night. And just as bad for me.
He holds my gaze like it belongs to him.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I mutter, turning away.
I take a step towards the BMW parked directly in front of the SUV, but then change my mind. Actually, there’s a lot I want to say to Ash Griffin. I spin back so fast that I make myself dizzy.
“Why are you even here?” I demand, channeling the anger rising up through my body and welcoming the searing heat that makes my face and neck tingle.
Fire flickers in his eyes. “Shall we start with you blocking my number when I expressly told you not to?”
“I didn’t want to speak to you,” I reply, enunciating each syllable to drive the message home.
Ash rests his elbow on the open window as he leans forward. “You don’t need to speak. You just have to listen.”
“To you?” I mock. “I don’t think so. Whatever this is, you’ve had a wasted journey, so why don’t you head back to Chicago like a good little fiancé.
” Just the thought of it has my blood boiling.
I’m holding onto my coffee so tight that the lid pops.
I pretend not to notice. “I’m sure Katarina is missing you already. ”
His eyes narrow. “Yeah, about that.”
I laugh. “Sorry, but no. There is no ‘about that.’ Whatever your reasoning, I don’t need to hear it.
It has nothing to do with me. Nothing at all.
I’ll tell you what I told Katarina. I’m happy for you both.
Couldn’t be happier, in fact,” I say, my voice rising.
And as it rises, it shakes. “If anything, you’ve done me a favor.
I can…” My brain finally catches up and tells me to stop talking.
He doesn’t get to know what I’m planning to do.
“You can what?”
“None of your business. We’re done, Leave me alone, Ash.”
I do what I should have done from the start, I walk away.
As I reach my BMW, I hear the clunk of a car door slamming.
My hands shake and the contents of my coffee spill from under the loosened lid.
The liquid is hot but not scalding, and soaks into the paper bag containing my extra cinnamon roll.
I’m tempted to throw both at the man crunching gravel behind me.
An arm sweeps around me, and Ash takes the coffee cup from my hand.
“You’re going to scald yourself,” he grumbles.
I don’t look at him. “You’re the one I would have burned.”
“Yeah, I did consider the risk of you throwing it at me.”
I swing open my driver’s door and get behind the wheel, but I can’t close the door again because Ash is in the way. He hands me my coffee, the lid fixed in place. I place it into a cup holder, and stow away my pastry before starting the engine. I’ll drive off with the door open if he doesn’t move.
Except I don’t have to. Ash has disappeared.
As I close the door, I glance behind me. He isn’t there. Was that it? Before I can be annoyed at myself for feeling disappointed, the passenger door opens.
My mouth falls open as Ash drops into the passenger seat and closes the door to seal us in. He stows the paper bag I gave him next to mine in the central console, and only checks my reaction when he’s fixing his seatbelt.
“If you’re thinking of getting out, don’t. I’ll only drag you into the SUV,” he warns, as if it’s a perfectly normal thing to say.