Her Secret Betrayal (8 page)

“Your peas, highness.” Dani curtsied
awkwardly at the bedside and I smiled at her attempt at levity. She
dropped onto the bed beside Sean, the only person he’d allow
anywhere close to me. She set one bag on a knee and Sean the other.
He used a cloth bandage to secure them, though not tightly.

“Did they take anything?” I asked. He
glanced over his shoulder towards the police in the other room and
said nothing for a long time.

“Aside from your safety? Only some papers
concerning the restaurant. Everything else is just destruction.
Nothing the insurance won’t replace.”

“She’s ok, Sean. Look, she’s beautiful.”
Dani pushed my hair over my shoulder and gave my shoulders a
squeeze. I didn’t ask why she was there, but I was glad she was. I
accepted the hug and gave her one right back.

“She is. I know. That doesn’t mean I want
anything like this to happen to her. I’ve got to go talk to
detective. Send Dani for me if you need anything.” He dropped a
kiss to my cheek and left my side, pensive and restrained in a way
I’d never seen him. Guarded and possessive, sorry and distant. A
mess of emotions he was not used to feeling.

“He’s adorable. Like a puppy.” Dani teased
and leaned her head against my shoulder. I smiled, despite my
exhaustion. We stayed like that for a long time.

“How did you end up here?” I asked when the
police and Sean and Zach moved away from the bedroom to a room
deeper in the condo.

“Zach was giving me a ride home, but needed
to swing by his office. That’s when we found it had been ransacked,
too.” She frowned and sat up. “He said documents about the
restaurant had been taken too. I wonder why?”

I thought of the way Zach had looked at the
wild redhead when she’d literally fallen into his restaurant. It
had been wonder and want. It didn’t surprise me that he’d offered
to drive her home. It surprised me that it had taken him this
long.

I shook my head in answer to her question,
but something else nagged at me. Something I couldn’t quite
remember.

“Are you hungry?” she asked and slid of the
bed. “I’m starving. Sean brought take-out. I can bring you
some.”

“Yes, please. Starved. And nauseous. This
should be awesome.” I slid backwards until I hit the headboard. The
leather straps still hanging there jangled a bit and embarrassment
flushed my cheeks. She grinned to herself but said nothing as she
left the room. Quickly I unhooked the straps and shoved them under
a pillow in case the police made rounds in here.

“Miss Mahoney?”

I looked up at the sound of my name and a
horde of people stood in the doorway. Sean and Zach flanked a
police officer, Dani behind them with a bowl and chopsticks. She
shrugged helplessly.

“Yes?” I cleared my throat and pulled my
robe tighter around my body.

“A couple of questions? Can you tell me what
happened?”

I nodded and launched into it the best I
could remember. When I mentioned the towels all being gone, Sean
began pacing like a wild animal. By the time I was done with my
short, unhelpful tale, his hair stood in all different directions
and he looked hung over and exhausted.

“You can’t remember anyone speaking? Not
sure how many people there were?”

“No. I honestly had my hands over my ears
most of the time. I didn’t hear anything telling.”

“Thank you. We’ll be in touch if we have any
further questions. One last word with the two of you and then we’ll
be out of your hair.” He nodded to Sean and Zach. They both looked
haggard but followed.

Dani finally picked her way across the room
to the bed. I took the Chinese food and chopsticks gratefully and
we sat side-by-side against the headboard.

“Sounds like they took the paperwork about
the purchase of the property and a lot of the financial files,”
Dani said between bites. “Wanna hear something else that’s really
weird?”

I shook my head. “Weirder than someone
stealing my towel and locking me in a bathroom while they ransack
the place?”

“Weirder than that.”

“I don’t know, but tell me.”

“I heard Zach telling Sean that whoever
broken into his office stole the invitations to the opening Taylor
dropped off earlier today. Isn’t that weird? All the other stuff
they took, and they took the invitations.”

____________

Telling Maris about what happened had gone
about as well as I imagined it would. She’d been upset, hung up the
phone, showed up at my apartment thirty minutes later, and made me
go over everything in detail. We’d discussed the possibility of a
potential real estate war, especially in light of the announcement
of Marcus’s company’s buy up. Unfortunately, most of what we knew
about real estate corruption we’d learned from movies.

Then she’d said something funny that became
my nightmare for days.

“Taking all the towels away and locking you
in the bathroom. Kara, that was personal. Against Sean, but against
you too.”

After those words poisoned my brain, I
couldn’t shake them, or the feeling that I was being followed
everywhere I went. Walking to the library and eyes went with me.
Alone in the stacks and the feeling of another body just on the
other side overwhelmed me, though I never saw anyone.

One afternoon someone had left a pile of
books on the desk I was working that day. I’d only stepped away a
moment to help someone and when I came back there were twelve books
piled haphazardly in front of my chair on the subject of bondage
and discipline. BDSM. Rope play. Non-consensual roleplay. Caning.
Slavery.

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe in
coincidences. I collected them and put them back where they were
supposed to go, the whole time feeling eyes following my every move
and enjoying the fact I had to clean up after them to hide their
torment. After that, nowhere felt safe.

Three nights after the burglaries, I walked
home alone from the subway station, my arms full of groceries. I
climbed the stairs, checked the mail, and was about to let myself
in when I felt the presence of someone behind me. A hand grabbed my
elbow and before I knew what was happening, I started screaming for
my life.

The hand twisted me around and I dropped all
my grocery bags and prepared to run. It took precious moments to
recognize Marcus Giovanni’s handsome face, now cinched with
worry.

“Whoa, whoa, Kara it’s me. It’s me. I
thought you heard me. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

I blinked, uncomprehending, and reflexively
grabbed my racing heart. I took in the sight of him, his expensive
suit, his loose tie. He must have just left the office. My
billionaire playboy who’d been dodging my calls since the day after
I spent the first night with Sean. We’d never gone so long without
talking. I should have been worried, but secretly I was relieved to
not have to face him. Maybe, I’d thought, he’d gotten tired me and
moved on. That would have been convenient.

“I…Marcus. I didn’t hear you. Guess I was a
little on edge.” I wiped my sweaty palms against my pants and then
bent to pick up my groceries. He collected several bags too,
ensuring that he had a reason to follow me inside.

“Serves me right, sneaking up on a girl in
the dark. I wanted to see you. I’ve been a bit MIA lately.”

“So I noticed.” I let us into my building,
nodded at Ms. Glass who’d certainly poked her head out when she
heard me screaming. He followed me up the stairs to my apartment. I
let us in, dropped the mail on the counter and then started putting
the groceries away. He helped.

“Things have been busy. We’re moving forward
on some big development deals and I’ve been stuck every night at
work. Miss me?” He grinned playfully.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.” I
sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and ducked into the fridge.
When I straightened he was there, hands on my hips, pressing me
into the counter.

“I’ve missed you.” He settled a series of
kisses on my jaw, which felt extraordinary and freaked me out. I
pressed my hands to his chest and urged him back, though he
resisted.

“We need to talk, Marcus.”

“We need to talk,” he repeated, his
sweetness evaporating in an instant, leaving behind a sort of scary
intimidating business man. I’d never had to deal with the
billionaire before, just the dominant lover I enjoyed often in my
bed. Before Sean, anyway.

He crossed his hand over his mouth and took
a step back until he leaned against the counter opposite me. He
crossed his ankles, the very expensive suit looking so out of place
in my dingy kitchen. Ours had been a bizarre relationship. We’d
never been exclusive but had sort of become that way over time. He
took other women as his dates to events to keep me out of the
spotlight, and we both wanted that. We’d never been about our
feelings or emotions, just sex. Just sexual companionship. He was
rough and dominant and loved my submissive, shy nature. He loved my
body, the way Sean did, even if I didn’t understand it. I was as
much his secret as he was mine.

And, I realized watching him study me, I was
going to miss him.

“You reconnected with your Sean.”

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate or try to lie. He
didn’t deserve that.

“Good,” he said. “I’m glad. Love is
something that cannot be replaced, even by a very good lover.”

“You are?” I didn’t expect jealousy, but I
didn’t expect honest well wishes either. I crossed my arms and he
crossed his and we watched each other watching the other.

“Of course. You were my lover, Kara, but my
companion, too. I wanted things to be different but knew they
couldn’t be. Not while we were young and I was scrutinized
constantly. I just bought a lot of property and plan to build a lot
of different things to revitalize a neighborhood ripe for young
twenty-somethings getting on their feet for the first time. I’m
going to be all over the news and watched very closely. I had no
desire to drag you through that. I knew you’d hate it.”

“I would have.” I smiled. “Thank you for
understanding.”

“However.”

The serious businessman returned and my
stomach did a little flip. His serious businessman expression, I
realized, wasn’t that different than his Dom expression.

“Marcus?”

“However, I can’t say I’m exactly thrilled
with losing you.”

He dropped his gaze in thought, but not in
submission or shyness. He did it to disarm me and that made me very
nervous.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are. But you must understand
that’s not my style. If I let things I wanted get away, or worse,
be stolen from me, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I wouldn’t own
half this city and control the other half.”

“I don’t understand.” And I didn’t. I
shifted, closed in, prepared for an attack of some kind. Not a
physical one. Again, not Marcus’s style.

“We end on my terms.”

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Your Sean, Sean Castle. Oh yes, I know who
he is. It’s not an accident I chose to go ahead with the
development of the same neighborhood he’d just moved his restaurant
into. He interested me. Old money, very old, almost as old as mine.
A young man shirking his inheritance and family name to make one
for himself. I can relate, obviously. Not to mention he had you so
thoroughly, even after so many years. He stole you from me, and I’m
not convinced he deserves you. What he did…I don’t know how you can
forgive him.”

“That’s my business, Marcus. Not your
concern. I appreciate your distrust, but that’s for me to figure
out.”

My defenses built a wall up around me,
careful not to draw his considerable ire, but also not wanting to
let him think he could demand or decide anything for me. If he was
moved by my words, he didn’t show it.

“Maybe it’s not my business, but I’m making
it mine anyway. I will take one more night with you, on my terms.
Tomorrow night. If I don’t convince you to stay with me where you
are safe, then I’ll let you go peacefully and I’ll work with your
Sean and his brother to fit into my designs for their
neighborhood.”

“No. Marcus, no. Sean would never be ok with
that. I’ve made my choice, right or wrong. It’s mine to make.”

“I’d never force you, Kara, of course I
wouldn’t. However, should you deny me a final night, I’ll stop the
opening of Wonderland tonight. I’ll take it from them.” The corner
of his mouth quirked. “I guess I’m giving you all the power for a
change. Your choice. Your decision. Your power to save him and
yourself.”

Cold, hollow cold flooded my veins. Marcus
didn’t look any different than he had ten minutes before, but
suddenly he was the devil, a monster used to using money and wealth
to get his way and control everyone around him. That was his game,
to control me even at the ending of our relationship.

Sleep with him and save Sean’s dreams. Sleep
with him and break Sean’s heart. He gave me an impossible choice
and knew I’d break over either one. His final squeeze of control.
Because he could. Because he was a ruthless billionaire who never
lost.

How I didn’t see this coming, I don’t
know.

And another thought curdled my blood. Was he
the faceless nemesis at my back? Not him of course, no he’d never
follow me or trash Sean’s apartment or burglarize the Wonderland
offices. He’d hire someone to do his dirty work.

I knew, no matter what, he wasn’t kidding
when he said he’d take Wonderland away from Sean and Zach. Tonight.
If I said no.

“One more night?” I murmured, hating myself
for saving the man I loved by betraying him.

“It’s a small betrayal, pet. He never has to
know. I won’t tell him if you won’t.”

“Please don’t do this Marcus.”

He shrugged so casually, as if he wasn’t
ripping my heart out of my chest. I squeezed my eyes briefly
closed. Opening them was a struggle.