by Meghan March
Clearly, Trinity didn’t want to talk about it. That I could understand. I didn’t ever want to talk about what had happened to me either after I’d spilled it all to the police, a rape counselor, and finally a psychologist. That had been enough.
I had the psychologist’s card in my desk, and I’d be giving it to Trinity before she left for the day, along with the knowledge that the bill would be on me for as long as she wanted to go.
She walked to the wall with the empty space. “They’d go nicely here, but you already planned that.”
I had, but now I couldn’t kick the idea that I should call Yve and offer them to her before I put them out. But it wasn’t like I was going to hang them on the wall and have a mad rush of customers after them. They’d probably gather dust for months before I gave up and took them home.
Then I remembered how quickly Yve and Lucas had snatched up the last one. My decision was made.
“Why don’t you put them up, and I’ll call Yve and let her know I’ve got more for her to see.”
Yve wasted no time in coming to the gallery. Dirty Dog was only a few blocks away, and she always had at least one employee manning the place with her.
When she walked in the door, the skirt of her retro kelly green dress swirling around her legs, her eyes tracked the walls and landed on the canvases before I could even say hello or point. She stood silently for long moments studying them, all depicting a dark-haired woman wrapped in a red silk sheet in three different poses. It was me, but no one would ever know because her face was turned away in each.
Yve didn’t turn to look at me when she spoke. “She’s beautiful. They’re beautiful. Lucas’s birthday is coming up, and I have to have them. The one we already purchased is amazing, but lonely. These will look perfect with her, and I can’t wait to surprise him.”
The words wrapped around my artist’s soul like a balm. She’d said them without knowing it was me, but I had to tell her. I couldn’t keep this a secret.
“I’ll take them all,” she said, her eyes still fixed on the wall where they hung.
And then I remembered one little detail. “Don’t you want to know the price?”
Yve finally turned to me. “You looking to gouge me after the last one?”
“Of course not. I just thought you might want a price before you said yes.”
“Nope. You’re not going to charge me enough regardless.”
I thought quickly and named a price that was near what Lucas had insisted on paying for the last one—multiplied by three.
Yve nodded. “Can I take them now?”
Wow.
“If you want. I can wrap them for you. Or crate them if you’d prefer.”
She considered. “Wrapping them is fine. I’m not going far. I’ve got my car at Dirty Dog, so I can put them right in it. I can’t wait to see the look on his face. You saved me a hell of a lot of trouble because I had no idea what to get the man who has everything for his birthday.”
I thought Lucas might agree with that sentiment, because now he did seem to have everything—he had Yve.
“Then I’ll ring you up and you can get back to work.”
Yve turned her shrewd gaze on me. “Are you going to tell me who the artist is?”
“Does it matter?”
Another shake of her head. “Not at all, but for future reference, I’d like to know.”
“You’re not going to find her work anywhere other than here.”
“Exclusive?”
“Something like that.” With a deep breath, I took the plunge. “I painted them.”
I had no idea what kind of reaction I would get, but Yve’s wide, brilliant smile was a perfect one.
“Are you freaking kidding me?”
“No. Not kidding.”
“That just makes it even better.” Yve’s excitement colored her tone. “I have your artwork on my wall and I didn’t even know it. That makes me so damn happy, I can’t even tell you.” She strode toward me and I found myself on the receiving end of an unexpected hug.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
She pulled back and looked me in the eye. “Now, tell me why your walls aren’t covered in your work and why you’re not advertising it as your own.”
“I wasn’t ready yet. This was a big move for me. You and Trinity and one other are the sum total of the people I’ve told.”
“One other . . . the mystery man, am I right?”
Hesitantly, I nodded before explaining that he’d pushed me into it by moving the painting she’d purchased from my house to my gallery without me being aware.
“No wonder you were so damn shocked.”
“It wasn’t exactly what I expected to see here.”
“I like him on principle. He goes after what he wants, pushes you to succeed. Those are both pros in my book.”
He didn’t take no for an answer. He routinely broke into my house against my wishes until he’d worked himself into my life such that I couldn’t go five minutes without him crossing my mind.
What would Yve say if she really knew who he was?
The words were on the tip of my tongue to ask her when I swiped her credit card. But I couldn’t get them out.
Yve wasn’t done with the subject either. “You ever going to tell us who this guy is?”
I worried my lower lip. “He’s not someone my parents will ever approve of.”
Yve shrugged. “Does that matter?”
“Not exactly, but I’m just saying that as a way to . . . I don’t know, Yve. He’s not someone I should probably even know.”
Her eyebrows went up, and her interest was well and truly caught. “But you can’t stay away . . . Now this sounds like an even better story than I thought.”
The door opened and I looked away, expecting a customer to save me from this discussion, but it was Trinity returning with the coffee she’d just had to have. No rescue from that quarter. And Yve thought one step faster than me.
“So, how hot is this guy Valentina can’t keep her hands off of?”
Trinity paused with her coffee partway to her mouth and answered before I could intervene. “Rix? He’s hot. Like dayum, thank the day his mama was born hot.”
My stomach twisted as soon as she said his name.
Yve’s gaze swung from Trinity to me. The cat was officially out of the bag. “Rix? Not the Rix who put some serious interest into Elle when she started working for Lord at Chains? Not the gangbanger Rix.”
I cringed at her description of him. First, because I didn’t know he’d put any kind of interest into Elle, let alone serious interest. And second, I hated the word gangbanger. It didn’t apply to him. Right?
When I didn’t immediately respond, Yve’s eyes widened further and her mouth hung open. “No. Freaking. Way. I don’t believe it.”
Trinity, realizing she’d let the cat out of the bag, whispered, “Sorry. I thought she knew.”
And that just confirmed it.
“Holy. Shit. I hate sayin’ shit like I can’t even, but right now—I can’t even.” Yve lifted a hand to her mouth and shook her head.
I’d never seen her look so stunned. But if I’d just been told what she’d been told . . . I would probably look like a gaping fish out of water too.
“Wow, girl. You’ve definitely been holding out on us. Hard core.”
I wasn’t even sure what I should say, but I knew I needed privacy to say it. “Trinity, could you give us a few minutes? Maybe go grab a beignet to go with that coffee?”
She nodded and shot me a sheepish smile. “I’m so sorry. I thought—”
“It’s okay, hon. Don’t worry about a thing. It was all going to come out eventually.”
Yve cocked a hip. “Damn right it was going to come out. It should’ve come out already.”
Trinity slipped out the door, and I walked around my desk and sank into my chair.
“I have no idea what I’m doing. None. Maybe less than none.”
Yve took one of the slim,
modern chairs I had for clients and dropped her big purple purse on the other. “I’m getting that. How did it even start?”
I nodded toward the door Trinity had left through. “Trinity.”
Then I told her an abbreviated version of the story, complete with the role Rix and Rhett had played in it. When I was done, Yve’s mouth gaped even further than before.
“Damn. When you got back in the game, you got back in the game hard.”
“More like clueless.”
“Do you love him?” she asked. “Because at the end of the day, if you love the guy and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to be with him, you’re going to be fine. But if either of those two pieces are missing, you should run like hell now . . . that is, if he’d even let you run at this point. From what I’ve heard about him, when he finds a woman, he owns them. Claims them. He’s got quite the reputation, from what I hear.”
I didn’t want to hear about his reputation or how he’d been with other women, regardless of whether there was any truth to it. He’d never minced words with me. Actually, his favorite word did seem to be mine. So maybe his reputation was accurate and well deserved.
Doesn’t matter.
“He makes me feel safe. Alive. Basically, he just makes me feel when I thought I’d never feel anything again.”
Yve’s smile was understanding. She’d been through hell too, although hers had lasted much longer than mine. “I know what you mean. Even if all you feel is the urge to punch him in the throat, feeling something is better than feeling nothing.”
“Exactly. I thought I was broken, but he opened my eyes. I was waiting for something to force me to start living again. He may be one of the bad guys, but he’s a good man. And he’s mine.”
“Sounds like you’re just as possessive as he is.”
“Maybe I am,” I said.
Rix was mine. I was his. We would figure this out. Any other alternative was completely unacceptable.
Yve had taken the paintings and left me with too many swirling questions and no answers. Brisk business made the next several hours slide by quickly, and I took comfort in Trinity being back to her normal chatty self, less mentions of Derrick. I still wasn’t sure what had happened there, but every time I went to ask, I bit my tongue. If he was out of her life for good, I wasn’t going to start bringing him up.
I volunteered to make the run for lunch, and left Trinity holding down the fort. But I wasn’t going out only to pick up some salads. I had another task to take care of. One that was long overdue.
Rhett Hennessy was also a good man, but he wasn’t the man for me. I’d lied to him about . . . well, everything, and it was time to tell him as much of the truth as I could.
I made my way to the precinct, but luck, if you could call it that, was with me. He was heading in at the same time, white paper bag in hand with delicious scents wafting from it. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was starving.
He lifted his chin and smiled when he saw me. “What a coincidence.”
My smile was less enthusiastic than his. “You could say that. Do you have a minute?”
“If I’d known you were coming looking for me, I’d have offered to take you to lunch.”
“I don’t need that much of your time. Just a few minutes will do.”
His smile faded and a harder, shrewder expression replaced it. “What do you need, Valentina? Another missing and reappearing employee? Some other mysterious crime the NOPD can assist with?”
I dropped my gaze to the ground and stared at the gum and other substances that the scrubbers hadn’t managed to remove this morning, gathering my courage. When I looked into his face again, one raised eyebrow dared me to spill. It was time.
“I’m sorry. I lied to you. I know that’s unforgiveable, but I had a good reason. And . . . I have to tell you, in all fairness, the other guy won before the game even started, and I just hadn’t caught up yet. I didn’t mean to lead you on. I really, truly didn’t. You’re a nice—”
Rhett held up a hand. “You can stop with the apologies. I might not lose the girl very often, but I’d already picked up on that clear as day. The lying? Yeah, that pissed me off, but I figured you weren’t the type to do it without a good reason. Wish you could’ve trusted me, but that isn’t always the case. Call it water under the bridge.”
He was making this easier than I’d expected. “I really am sorry.”
Rhett shrugged. “So am I. We could’ve been good together.”
This was the moment when I was supposed to add in the letting him down gently part. Where I said, If it doesn’t work out, I’ll let you know. But I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t even allowing for the possibility that things wouldn’t work out between Rix and me.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. But if things don’t go the way you plan, you know where to find me.”
Damn it, I hated that he’d put that out in the universe. I dropped my gaze back to the sidewalk.
Rhett reached out a hand and tipped my chin up. “You don’t have a clue, do you?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re one hell of a prize, and don’t forget it. Make sure this guy appreciates you for what you are.” He leaned in and brushed a kiss across my cheek.
Shit. Rix was undoubtedly going to hear about that. I stepped back and surreptitiously looked around for whoever might be babysitting me today. There were too many people on the streets to pinpoint who it could be.
Rhett was watching me carefully when I dragged my gaze back to him. “Something wrong?”
I shook my head. “No. Sorry. I’ll let you get back to your lunch.”
“Take care, Valentina.”
I hoped he found someone. Someone who didn’t lie to him and wasn’t wrapped up in another man. He was a good guy and deserved better than I’d been able to offer him. But there wasn’t much left to offer when your heart was already taken.
I turned and headed down the sidewalk, my phone buzzing in my hand before I made it three steps.
RIX: We’re gonna have words, duchess. Only lips on you are mine.
I raised my hand in the air and saluted my mystery babysitter with the middle finger. Such a tattletale.
NORMALLY I NEVER SHOWED UP to a meet by myself, but since Johnny was MIA with the Escalade, I fired up my 1970 Chevelle SS that I’d picked up off Lord Robichaux over at Chains. It hadn’t been my first choice at the time, but now I was in love with the car. No one drove her but me, so Johnny checking out gave me the perfect excuse to get it out of the garage.
Still, it wasn’t normal for him to disappear like that.
“Can’t say I was surprised you wanted to meet today,” Hennessy said. “But it wasn’t necessary. I know where I stand. That shit is clear.”
“Ain’t here about that, and if I were you, I would pretend it never happened.” The fucker had known I would have eyes on Valentina when she went to meet with him.
Hennessy laughed, his smirk fixed firmly in place. “I bet.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out and read something before glancing up at me. “You’ve got a blacked-out Escalade, don’t you?”
I frowned. “Yeah, why?”
“Cops tried to pull one over but it hauled ass and disappeared. They catch up with it, you gonna need to bail someone out of jail?”
I pulled out my own phone and tried Johnny again. It went straight to voice mail.
Something was off, but I didn’t know what. I tried Evo next. He had eyes on Valentina today and would follow her until she was home. Hennessy watched me while I made the call.
“What up, boss?” Evo answered.
“She home safe yet?”
“Just pulling in.”
“See anything off tonight?”
“Nah, not a thing. Why?”
“No reason. You got plans tonight?”
“It’s my girl’s birthday. Taking her out to the club for table service. Fancy shit.�
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Fuck. Part of me wanted to tell him to cancel and babysit Valentina, but I was overreacting. As long as she was locked up tight in her house with that alarm set, nothing could touch her. The cops would be there in minutes if someone tried, and I’d be right behind them.
The feeling in my gut settled. I was just overreacting.
“Enjoy your night, man. Pick it up in the morning like normal.”
I hung up and texted Valentina.
RIX: Make sure you lock up and set the alarm. I’ll be by later. If you’re going out, let me know.
“What?” I asked when I looked up to see Hennessy shaking his head at me.
“I wanna give you shit for keeping eyes on her all the time, but I can’t. I respect that you’re keeping her safe. If I had to lose her to anyone, at least I know you’ll make sure nothing touches her.”
“Damn right. And that nothing includes you.”
Hennessy raised his hands. “I conceded. Hands off. Tell me that’s not why you dragged me down here. I got better shit to do than gossip like old ladies.”
I sobered. “No, it’s not.”
Hennessy’s easy smile disappeared. “You found the recordings from the wire?”
I nodded. “Got them from one of your guys.” I held up a USB drive.
“You listen to it?” Hennessy asked as he reached for it.
I jerked my hand back out of his reach.
“Some shit you need to know before you listen, because I’m not sending you into this blind. You’re not gonna fucking believe me, but I’m not making shit up here. It ain’t what you want to hear. It’s gonna tear up the world you know, and you’re gonna have choices to make.”
Hennessy narrowed his eyes. “Fucking give it to me, and stop with the warnings and tell me what you know.”
I took a long breath and released it. “Your brother wasn’t dirty.”
Relief flashed on his face. “I knew that.”
I prepped myself to deliver the blow that would rock his world. “But your pop is.”
Other than the blink of his eyes, Hennessy went completely still before lunging at me. “Watch your fuckin’ mouth.”