by Juniper Bell
"Fair? You always were absurdly naïve, Lauren."
"Yes, I know. But even so, I won't do it. I'd rather die than cause trouble for Rye's family. You know how I've always felt about the McAllisters."
She snorted scornfully, but I ignored her.
"Bliss, you promised me you'd give me the tape after that last job."
"Which you didn't complete," she pointed out.
"Yes, I know. But please, think about it. A marriage to Rye will be good for you, too. You're … well, you're my only real family." I allowed a look of embarrassment to come over my face. "At least, the only family Rye needs to know about," I muttered, almost too low for her to hear.
But she heard. As I meant her to. She narrowed her eyes and gazed into the trees. I knew she was calculating all the angles. If she gave me the evidence, she'd have less leverage over me. But she'd still hold the fate of my mother over my head—or so she believed. And of course she wanted me to marry Rye.
"Let's say I do hand over that evidence. What do I get in return?"
"Bliss, this is your dream come true. You'll have all the money you want. You'll be my mother, the mother of Rye McAllister's wife. You'll have status, respect, wealth. Whatever you wish. And you won't even have to work for it. You can just soak it in. You can travel, collect antiques, raid Dolce and Gabbana. Spend every day at a spa. Meet eligible men. The sky’s the limit."
She ran her tongue across her lips. The picture I painted was irresistible. Of course it was; I knew exactly how to appeal to her.
"But I need that evidence. I have to destroy it, or none of this is happening."
An interminable pause followed, during which I thought my heart might jump out of my chest.
Then she shook her head. "No."
"No? Bliss, think about this—"
"I mean, no. You don't have to destroy anything. It's already been destroyed."
"What?" I stopped short, causing her arm to slide away from mine.
She shrugged. "I couldn't risk anyone finding it and using it against us. After I showed it to you, I destroyed all the copies. And to be honest, it didn't prove much on its own. As a threat it worked wonderfully, though."
I clenched my jaw tight enough to send pain shooting through my skull. I should have known. She was right; I was absurdly naïve. "God, I'm a fool," I murmured.
"Which is exactly why you have me to look out for you." She brushed a strand of hair from my face. "You need me, Lauren. You'll especially need me once you marry Rye. I know that world much better than you do." She laughed, a light, gleeful sound that sent chills through my body. "I'll start planning the wedding. It needs to be the biggest, most gossip-worth event Chicago has ever seen. This is going to be such fun!"
I took a step back from her. "You're right about that." I dug into my pocket and took out a business card. I handed it to her.
"What's this?"
"This is my lawyer. He's a real bulldog. From now on, if you need to get in touch with me, do it through him. I don't want to hear your voice again." I turned to go.
"What are you talking about?"
"We're done, you and me. You're out of my life."
"Aren't you forgetting a little detail?"
I turned back to face her. "I suppose you mean Chloe? Don't worry, I got it covered. Any questions, ask my lawyer."
Her expression shifted then. I saw a sort of shocked fear come over her. She was used to the old Lauren, the one she could control. But I'd changed. My time of freedom had changed me. My love for Rye had changed me.
"You tricked me?" I could tell from her voice that she almost didn't believe it.
"Looks like it. So sorry. Old training." I shrugged, then gave her a wave as I headed for my rental car.
"Wait." Her voice whipped out at me. "One more thing. You owe me for telling you about Christopher McAllister."
I paused, dread filling me. "Yes, I do. But after that, we're done."
"After that, I expect you'll come crawling back to me." I saw that she was drawing this out, reveling in the act of playing her last card.
"Whatever it is, my lawyer will take care of it."
"Not this. This, you have to do yourself."
Fear rippled through me. What was she getting at?
"Without me, you wouldn't have found Rye again. So this favor is completely appropriate."
"Spit it out.”
"You have to deliver some information to your lover-boy. If you don't deliver it, I’ll find a way to do it. After that, I'm sorry to say, he will never marry you. Never. You won’t get a thing from him.”
Some threat; I’d already turned Rye down. “I never wanted Rye for his money. It was never about that.”
“He won’t love you either. He’ll look at you with disgust and contempt. Then you'll be on your own. All alone, just like I've been my entire life. But I'm strong and you're a weakling. So yes, you'll come crawling back to me. And maybe I'll take you back. Maybe not. We'll see how generous I'm feeling. And how much you beg."
I stared at her numbly. Whatever trump card she had, it sure gave her confidence. "What’s the message?"
And she told me.
That was when I knew—she’d won. Rye would never look at me the same way again.
10
Rye
"Izzy wants an hour alone with you," Uncle Chris called down to me. "Put on a suit and get ready for romance."
"She's coming here?"
"Yes."
My heart sank. Annabelle must have failed in her mission with Izzy. I was supposed to be leaving the estate, not staying here.
"She's going to pick you up in ten minutes, so step sharp. She wants to see you alone before we make the announcement. I told her you only have one hour until we all meet with the press, so make it snappy."
From despair to relief. "No problem. You know, after we're married you won't get to set time limits on us."
"After you're married, I don't give a shit what happens to you."
Truth, right there. I splashed some water on my face and chest, toweled off and threw on the Hugo Boss suit my uncle wanted me to wear for the press announcement and the wedding. Once I was dressed, I shouted up the stairs, "Turn off the fucking bracelet."
Funny how a well-placed curse word can make you feel you have some say in things, even when you don't.
I made sure the little red light was off before I strode toward the stairs. I had no intention of weakening myself for no purpose.
When I was halfway up the stairs, a jolt shot through me. My body bowed in agony and I grabbed the railing to stay on my feet.
"Oops, sorry." My uncle giggled. Fucking sadist.
I didn't speak to him when I reached the hallway. I brushed past him, already looking for Izzy's little silver Porsche in the circular drive.
"One more thing," the bastard said, all smirk and smugness. "I discovered a new feature on this bracelet thing. I can set a timer for it."
I turned back to see him fiddling with some kind of remote control. "There. One hour. If you're not inside this house in one hour, you'll get the juice. Highest level. Instant blackout."
What the hell, I'd been blacking out every night anyway. I flipped him the bird and headed out the door.
Izzy slid over into the passenger seat so I could drive. The feeling of a steering wheel between my hands, obeying my commands, was so overpowering I couldn't speak for about a mile.
Finally I relaxed and glanced her way. Hair in a loose knot on top of her head, brown aviator shades, a shirt-dress the color of tomato soup.
I couldn't read her expression. Was she onboard with Annabelle's half-assed idea? Had something else happened that I didn't know about yet? "So, did Annabelle…?"
"Annabelle found me." Her helium voice didn't have its usual humor. "She told me her crazy plan. I don't know, Rye. My parents want me to marry you, not Freddie."
"Yes, I know. But you and Freddie have a lot more fun together, right? I'm not into the drugs-and-sex scene."
"You don't like sex?"
I liked sex plenty, so long as it was with Lauren. I couldn't imagine it with anyone else, ever again.
"I'm in love with another woman, Izzy. We can't have a real marriage, you and I, and I won't let the McAllister name be embarrassed either. I'm trying to spare us both. With Freddie, you can have a life that suits you."
She sighed. "That's what Annabelle kept saying too. But my parents will be so mad."
"Maybe at first. But if it's a done deal, they'll make the best of it. Freddie's quite a catch. You'd be a lot better off with him than with me." Even though I thought Freddie was a jerk, Izzy liked him just fine.
She twisted her hands together. The sad, lost look in her eyes wrecked me. Maybe this wasn’t going to work. I didn't want to win my freedom at the expense of hers.
I sighed, shifting my shoulders inside my suit. "If you don't want to marry Freddie, you don't have to, Izzy. I'll figure something else out."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. But we have fifty minutes to come up with Plan B."
"Why fifty minutes?"
"That's when I turn into a pumpkin."
More like a jack-o-lantern with a stick of dynamite up its ass, but she didn't need to know the grisly details.
Izzy gnawed on one thumbnail. I wondered when her last hit had been. "I don't know what to do, Rye. I'm so confused."
"Tell you what, why don't we see what Freddie says about all this? Then you can decide."
She smiled at me. "Sure. I do like Freddie. He has a big—" She caught herself and ended with a cough.
Okay then.
We made it safely to the Loon Lake B&B with forty-five minutes left on my clock. Figure another fifteen minutes to drive back, and I had half an hour to find a way out of this mess.
As soon as we stepped into the attic room, Elijah and Annabelle enveloped me in a McAllister group hug. I embraced them tightly, joy and adrenaline flooding through me in equal measures. With all of us together, we couldn't lose. It just wouldn't happen.
Finally we stepped back from our little circle. Even though the clock was ticking on my window of freedom, we took a short time to catch up on what was happening. “Freddie?” I asked Elijah.
“He’s onboard, I think. He said he’d show up but he hasn’t yet.”
I glanced at my watch. The precious moments were disappearing fast. “If he doesn’t get here in half an hour, I’ll have to get back.”
“There’s got to be another way.”
“Yeah. If only I could think of one.”
At the desk in the corner, Izzy was peering into Elijah's laptop. "There's a girl in here," she told us. "She says she wants to know what's going on."
I saw Courtney's face on the screen. I recognized her from the big blue eyes and hostile expression. I waved at her. "Hi, Courtney. How's that kitten doing?"
"Really?" On the monitor, she made a face at me. "That's the most important thing here, not that fact that you have no idea what to do next?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your plan sucks, if you don't mind me saying."
Who said it was my plan? I glanced at Annabelle, who shrugged in her typical jaunty way. "Freddie's up for it. Izzy's …"
"Izzy needs to think about it a little more," Izzy announced. She was nervously taking the cap of her lip gloss on and off.
A little more? We didn’t have that kind of time.
I tried to smile at my fake fiancée. “Sure. I know it’s a big change to think about.”
“Yes, it is, and this is all moving so fast. Just … just … give me some time, okay?”
We all watched her pace around the room, muttering under her breath. I tried hard not to look at my watch. Time was passing, passing … my hopes disappearing …
When she finally spoke, all hope disappeared. "Anyone here have a smoke?" she asked.
Oh hell. This definitely wasn't going to work. Anxiety poured off her in nearly tangible waves. Anxiety and craving. She was in no state to get married, not to me, not to Freddie, not to anyone. I had to call this off before she had a meltdown.
I couldn't use Izzy as a pawn. I wouldn't. That would make me no better than Uncle Chris. We’d have to figure out something else.
A knock sounded at the door.
Izzy nervously dropped the cap of her lip gloss on the floor and scurried after it.
"That's got to be Freddie," Elijah said.
"I'll tell him it's not going to happen." Grimly, I crossed to the door. I felt as if my entire future was slipping away from me. Was this my last moment of freedom? My last chance to not be married to someone I didn't love?
"Sorry, Fred—" I said as I flung the door open. Then I stopped in mid-word.
Lauren stood in the hallway, tall, slim, pale as death. Her eyes went wide at the sight of me. "Rye?"
I gaped at her. Something was wrong, very wrong. Her eyes were puffy, as if she'd been crying all night. "What are you doing here? What's wrong?"
"I … uh … I need to talk to you. I mean, I didn't expect to see you here, but since you are …" Her gaze slid past me to the rest of the gang. "Wow. Everyone's here."
"Yes." I gestured for her to come in. I wanted to fold her into my arms but I couldn't allow myself to do that. She'd run away, told me she couldn't ever marry me. And unless Freddie showed up and saved the day, I had to marry Izzy.
I clenched my hands into fists to keep from touching her as she stepped into the suite. She exchanged hugs with Annabelle and Elijah and gave a quick, awkward wave to Izzy.
Izzy waved back with trembling fingers and a complete lack of interest. Unless someone walked in with a bunch of pills, no one was going to get much reaction from her.
"Perfect timing, Lauren," Courtney said from the laptop.
Lauren swung around. "Courtney?"
"I'm everywhere," the girl said dryly. "Actually, I've been trying to get some work done, but the big cowboy over there keeps Skyping me, like it's an emergency or something."
Elijah lifted one shoulder, a smile ghosting across his face. Not everyone would know the signs, but I could tell he liked her. "Got to admit, Annabelle's plan seemed like an emergency situation to me."
"Like I said, that plan sucks. But it doesn't matter because now that Lauren's here, the solution is pretty obvious."
"Shoot," I told her. "I like solutions."
"You should marry Lauren right away. She's here, you're here, and she's the one you actually want to marry, am I right?"
Lauren flinched as if Courtney had flung a dart at her.
I scowled at the laptop. "Look, genius, do you think I haven't already thought of that? Lauren said no. Actually, I have that wrong. She said no twice. Once in Thailand and once here. She doesn’t want to allow Bliss to get her greedy hands on the McAllister trust."
"But that reason isn’t real," Courtney argued. "That’s about Bliss, not about Lauren. Right, Lauren? If you can just get some perspective—"
Lauren cut her off with a quick gesture. "Stop, Courtney." She lifted her gaze to mine. "Rye, don't ask me to marry you again. The answer would be no again, and it has nothing to do with Bliss this time. It has to do with me."
We all went quiet. Not a normal state for any of us except maybe Elijah. Lauren glanced around at our sober expressions and stiffened her spine. "I just learned something that should disqualify me from ever being part of your family. It definitely should keep me from ever being even partially in charge of a billion-dollar fund. Rye, this doesn't mean my feelings towards you have changed. They're the same, and they will be forever."
The ominous "but" hanging over that sentence took away some of the effect. "But …" I prompted.
"I'm not who you think I am. I mean, I am. I'm still Lauren, niece of the con woman who screwed over your family." She took another deep breath. I could tell she thought she was launching herself into an abyss from which she might never return. "But I'm also the daughter of a vicious criminal who was ex … executed."
A ripple of reaction ran through the room. Gasps, whispers. I felt it distantly, as if it was happening somewhere else. Me, I was in a long tunnel with Lauren, her sad eyes clinging to mine.
She knew. This was the terrible truth I'd been trying to shield her from. It was even worse than I’d imagined.
I started to speak, but she stopped me.
"Let me finish the whole story. It started with Bliss and Chloe as kids. They were both abused, but they grew up so different. Bliss became heartless and my mother was mostly a mess. Bliss tried to get Chloe involved in her schemes and cons, but she always screwed it up. Bliss wanted a child, someone she could mold exactly how she wanted. A child who would start off as a prop and grow into a puppet. So when she discovered that her sister was writing letters to a convict, she got an idea.
You see, Chloe had seen a picture of this man in the newspaper. They called him the Model Monster because he was so good looking, for a convicted murderer. Bliss encouraged the relationship, then nudged her to marry him so they could have conjugal visits. Chloe had this terrible phobia about getting pregnant, so she was on the pill, had been forever. But Bliss switched out the pills and Chloe ended up getting pregnant. It sent her over the edge and she never recovered. After I was born, my mother had a nervous breakdown and got sent to a psychiatric hospital. Bliss adopted me, which was her plan all along. My father …" She hesitated, swallowing hard. "He was executed a few years ago for killing two prison guards during a fight. I looked him up on the Internet. He was … a terrible person. A lifelong criminal who murdered a bank teller, a convenience store clerk, and finally those prison guards."
Her shoulders slumped, her head lowered. Shame and defeat radiated from every line of her posture.
"I'm sorry, Lauren. But--why are us telling me all this?" I asked her gently.
"This is my side of a deal I made with Bliss. But mostly, I wanted you to know so you can stop thinking about me. I'm the daughter of a murderer and a psychiatric ward resident. I'm not the—"
I strode to her and gripped her upper arms. One thought kept echoing through my mind.
She knew about her father. I didn't have to protect her anymore. Uncle Chris had no more hold over me.