Maxim Miles bit out a curse. “I should have known it. I never should have believed that crook.”
“What crook would that be?” Gray asked.
“Demetrius Jones. He brought these in yesterday. Said he got them from Natalie. That he finally talked her into selling some of her newer work. I suspected he was trying to pull something over on me, as usual. Should have told him to get the hell out. Should have known from the beginning it wasn’t on the up-and-up.”
Gray got the idea Max was a regular expert when it came to things that weren’t on the up-and-up. He turned away from Max and focused on Natalie. “You didn’t paint this?”
She shook her head. “Demetri, he’s an artist, too.”
Max let out a bark of a laugh. “He’s not really an artist, babe. Let’s be honest. He’s a wannabe who thought that by dating you he could steal a little of your talent. Or at least your connections. And I haven’t been able to get rid of him since.”
So he’d tried to become successful by using Natalie. Was that what these paintings were about, too? “Am I really the only one who has seen your newer paintings?” Gray asked.
“Except for Ash and the officers who were with him the night of the break-in, yes. You’re the only one.”
“Then if this is a copy that Demetri painted in order to pass it off as one of yours, when did he see the paintings?”
Natalie nodded. “The night he broke into my cottage and vandalized my studio.”
As soon as they left The Miles Gallery, Gray turned to Natalie. “Do you know where Demetri lives?”
She nodded. “I got a look at the mailing label on one of those cartons. It’s not too far away. You want to go have a talk?” She seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea.
“I think it might be enlightening,” he admitted. “But if you’d rather not, we could just let Ash know and be done with it.”
“No. I want to see his face when he tries to explain his way out of this one.”
Gray could tell there was a significant history between Demetri and Natalie. And somewhere deep inside, he couldn’t prevent a twinge of jealousy. He wanted to find the truth, but he had to admit he also wanted to size up this guy. Find out what Natalie saw in him.
“You want to tell me about him?”
“There’s not much to tell.” Natalie’s cheeks shone pink. Combined with the way she was avoiding looking him in the eye, Gray doubted the bloom of color was solely due to the wind.
“Is what Miles said true?”
“What, that he was my boyfriend? That he took advantage of me?” She let out a long, shaky sigh. “Yeah, it’s true. Demetri was never that interested in me. He wanted my connections. He wanted my family’s money. He wanted me to teach him what I knew. And when I did, he left. It wasn’t one of the best times in my life.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged, as if her history with this guy meant nothing.
Gray didn’t buy it. He’d seen the humiliation in her face and the hurt in her voice. The thought of some idiot hurting her made him want to turn his fists on that idiot. If anyone deserved a good man who would put her before his own selfish wants, it was Natalie. Why she had to be tangled up with a loser like this guy obviously was, he’d never know. “He shouldn’t have used you like that.”
“It could have been worse.”
“How?”
“I could have actually been in love with him.”
He felt those words like a kick to the gut. Hadn’t Devin warned him about just such circumstances? At least when she’d found out he was her bodyguard, she hadn’t been in love with him. At least he hadn’t hurt her that much. “Do you think Demetri might resort to murder?”
“I doubt it.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
“I’m not sure of anything anymore.”
“Are you sure you feel up to talking to him?”
“I might not have had him figured out all those years ago, but he can’t fool me now.”
They walked in silence until Natalie stopped in front of a shop selling beeswax candles and other useless gifts. She gestured to a narrow staircase leading to the floor above the shop.
Demetri Jones lived in one of the tiniest apartments Gray had ever seen, unexpected since the tree-lined streets of the prestigious neighborhood itself were populated with stately homes and upscale shops and restaurants. Even more surprising was the fact that Demetri was not a small man. With the face and charm of a movie star and the muscle of a bodybuilder, he was almost as tall as Gray and his shoulders were nearly as wide.
At least they could be pretty sure he wasn’t the person wearing the light blue sweatshirt who’d pushed Natalie into traffic.
He frowned at Gray, but when he spotted Natalie, he opened the door as wide as his smile. “Babe.”
Gray hated him even more.
Natalie entered the apartment and stepped away from the big man’s attempt at a hug. “We have something to talk to you about.”
“Who’s we?”
Gray pushed his way in behind Natalie. “We hear you’ve been copying Natalie’s paintings and trying to sell them as hers.”
Demetri didn’t even blink. In fact, his smile got a little wider. “I’m just trying to make a living. You can’t blame me.”
Natalie plopped her hands on her hips. “Where did see my paintings, Demetri?”
“What do you mean, where’d I see your paintings. At your place, baby.”
“I never showed them to you. Not my new work. I never showed that to anyone.”
“You saw them at Natalie’s house almost a week ago, didn’t you?” Demetri might be almost as big as Gray, but that didn’t mean much. Gray had taken men his size. Even with his bad knee and other injuries from the incident in Yemen, he still had the strength.
His eyebrows pulled low and he looked at Gray as if he’d just spouted gibberish. “A week?”
Gray took a step forward. “You shredded most of them. And took a couple, too. Where are they, Demetri?”
“What are you talking about?”
“And there’s more, too. You hired or at least convinced someone to push Natalie into the street. You’ve been lurking around outside her cottage at night. And last night you shot up my apartment.”
Demetri shook his head. He shot Natalie a desperate look. “Who is this guy?”
Natalie ignored the question. “Explain, Demetri.”
He threw out his hands, palms up. “Why would I do any of that?”
“You’re copying her paintings. You want to increase their value.”
He actually had the nerve to smile. “You got that part right. What can I say? The Christmas Eve Murders have been in the news. But the rest of what you were saying…I don’t know anything about that stuff.”
“Then when did you see my paintings? The newer ones? Like the ones you forged and tried to sell to Max.”
“Oh, damn. You talked to Max? You didn’t tell him those paintings I sent him aren’t yours, did you?”
“Of course, I did. They aren’t mine. They aren’t even all that close to mine.”
“Oh, great. Thanks a lot, Natalie. I needed that money. Now what am I supposed to do?”
Gray had enough. Of this guy’s lies, of him calling Natalie babe and most of all of the insensitive comments he let fall from his mouth.
Gray lunged forward. Bringing the flat of his forearm up under Demetri’s chin, he pushed the big man back and pinned him against the hallway’s wall. “Unless you want to start a little trouble, you need to answer. Where and when did you see those paintings?”
“Hey, slow down, man,” he said in a strangled voice.
“When and where?” Gray repeated.
“Let up. Let up. I’ll answer your damn questions.”
Gray lowered his arm and took a step back.
Demetri’s movie-star handsome face was flushed. He rubbed his throat with a hand. “I didn’t see them a week ago. But I did get a glimpse back when N
atalie and me were an item.”
Beside him, Natalie shuffled her feet on the floor. She brushed her hair back from her eyes. “I never showed you my paintings.”
“I didn’t say you showed me.”
Gray narrowed his eyes on the man. “How did you see them?”
Demetri gave him a half smile. “She ever tell you about her nightmares?”
Gray glanced at Natalie.
“So you haven’t slept with her then, have you?” He shot Gray a taunting smile.
Gray had the urge to wipe it right off his face.
She looked to the floor and once again swiped her hand across her cheek. “Answer the question, Demetri.”
“Oh, shouldn’t I kiss and tell?”
The only thing keeping Gray from punching the guy in the mouth was that he needed it to talk. “Answer the question.”
“I snuck a peek. I was curious.”
“In her house a few days ago, we know.”
“No, after we’d had some great sex.” Another grin. “I had to get a look. You can’t blame me. I was in her bed plenty of times when she had those nightmares. And afterward, she didn’t sleep. She just went into her studio and locked the door. When she came out in the morning, she always had paint on her fingers and clothes. Shades of black and gray and blood…bloodred. I was curious. So one day I peeked. Disturbing stuff.”
Natalie avoided meeting Gray’s eyes.
“So I need some cash, and I thought I might be able to find a gallery interested in stuff like that,” Demetri drawled on. “But if I didn’t, I figured I could always try some kind of house of horror. That’s where that kind of art really belongs.”
Chapter Eleven
Gray didn’t say anything for three blocks, and neither did Natalie. They walked through the streets, back in the direction of his car. The sun now hid behind hazy clouds, and the wind had turned cool. The scent of Italian herbs drifted from a gourmet pizza place, and Gray’s stomach growled, despite the fact that he didn’t feel hungry. He stole a glance at Natalie.
She stared straight ahead, her hair swirling around her cheeks. Tears glistened in her eyes and streaked paths down her cheeks.
Somehow he doubted it was all due to the wind. “Do you want to tell me about these nightmares?”
“Not really, no.”
He knew she wanted him to back off. A gentleman probably would. But since that wasn’t something he’d ever been accused of being, he pushed on. “Do they have something to do with your parents’ murders?”
She shook her head, but Gray got the idea the gesture didn’t necessarily mean her answer was no.
“Don’t want to talk about it?”
“I’m sorry. I just can’t.”
“That’s fair.”
They returned to silence, completing another block. The cloudy sky turned to rain, small drops pattering on their heads and darkening sidewalks and streets. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis’s dome towered in front of them, glistening almost as brightly in the rain as it had in the sun. The car wasn’t far now, but Gray wasn’t ready to bring Natalie home. He had a hunch she would hide out in her bedroom or studio and he would never find out about the paintings and nightmares. And maybe as a simple bodyguard he didn’t need to know what was so troubling and painful to his client. But as a man, he wanted to help. “Let’s step in out of the rain.”
She opened her mouth to protest.
He kept talking. “I haven’t seen the mosaics for a long time. It’ll just take a minute. This shower looks like it will blow over pretty quickly.”
She nodded, and they ducked inside.
The interior of the cathedral was as amazing as he remembered. Every inch of the place seemed to be covered with mosaics made from tiny tiles. It smelled like serenity and candle wax. Quiet seemed to echo from every corner, and except for a few people taking in the famous site, just as they were, the place felt quiet, safe, calm.
He led Natalie to a secluded hallway off the cathedral’s nave. “I want you to know you can talk to me, Natalie. It seems like there are a lot of things you’re keeping bottled up inside. It might help to let some of that out.”
She didn’t say anything, just kept moving through the hall, very slowly, taking in the artwork. Gray had nearly given up when she finally spoke. “I don’t know, sometimes…”
“Sometimes what?” he prompted.
“Sometimes I wonder if the Kendalls aren’t all just marked or something.”
“Because of your parents?”
“And everything else that’s happened since DNA tests showed Rick Campbell didn’t kill them. I mean, we still don’t know who really murdered them. He’s still out there.”
That had to be hard. So hard, Gray didn’t know how any of the Kendalls dealt with it as well as they had. There was also another thought that had been bothering him. It started as an uneasy feeling, but it had grown as they’d talked to Max and then Demetri. “Do you think it might be the person who shot at you?”
She gave a hint of a shrug. “And pushed me into traffic? I don’t know. I don’t think it was Max or Demetri, though.”
“Me, either. If Max had any of your real paintings, he would have shown them to me. Also, I can’t see that guy ever destroying artwork. Not when he could sell it.”
“I agree.” She shrugged and wrapped her arms around herself, as if she was chilled from the rain.
He took off his jacket and draped it over her.
“Now you’re going to be cold.”
“I’ll manage.”
She stopped and looked up into his eyes. “It could be the same person, couldn’t it? Someone who wants to silence our family so he will never be discovered.”
Gray frowned. It was a theory, but he wasn’t sure it added up. “I thought the people who were after your brothers were stopped.”
“They were.” She thought for a moment. “So I suppose that can’t be the reason they were targeted.”
An uneasy feeling tensed his shoulders and neck. “But you’re thinking that might be the reason someone is trying to kill you?”
“It sounds silly, doesn’t it?”
“It doesn’t sound silly at all. It sounds like there’s a lot you haven’t told me.”
Ignoring his prompt, she sighed and scuffed her shoes on the marble floor. “Sometimes I wonder if things will ever be normal again.”
“So you don’t have to have a bodyguard anymore?”
She looked away from him, but once again he caught a sense of sadness in her expression.
Strange. Knowing how upset she’d been at learning she had a bodyguard, he’d think the idea of him gone would cheer her. After all, last night at his apartment and this morning at the bakery, she’d made it perfectly clear that while she might need him in the short term, as soon as she didn’t have someone shoving her into moving cars, taking potshots and running around outside her cottage at night, she would be all too happy to tell him goodbye. “Are you having a change of heart?”
“Over what?”
“You look so sad at the idea of not needing a bodyguard.”
“It’s not that.”
He tried not to show his disappointment. “What is it then?”
“I wish none of this was happening. I wish you weren’t my bodyguard. I wish you could be what I thought you were. Just a guy I like.”
He nodded. “I wish that, too.”
“But it’s not possible, is it?”
He thought about how wrapped up in her he’d been when she was pushed into traffic, so wrapped up he hadn’t gotten as much of a look at the person following as she had. He’d ignored that warning sign. Ignored it until the shots came crashing through his bedroom window, shots that had almost killed her. “To keep you safe, I have to make sacrifices.”
“Sacrifices?”
“I have to pay more attention to everything around us. I’m afraid when I’m kissing you, that’s all I can think about.”
She gave him a sad smile. “I like
that.”
“Then why do I get the feeling that you don’t believe me?”
“It’s not you. I just don’t have the best of track records when it comes to men. At least the ones I like.”
After this afternoon, he could see why. “Maybe you shouldn’t like them in the first place.”
“You’re talking about Demetri. Yeah, he’s a jerk. I’m not sure what I was thinking dating him. No, not true. I wanted to believe he liked me. He didn’t fool me as much as I fooled myself.”
“I’m sure a lot of men like you, Natalie.” Him included. No, him especially.
“Thanks. But that’s not it, really. The problem is finding a man who will stick around. It seems like whenever I start to really like a guy, he pulls away.”
“I’m not pulling away. I mean, not on purpose, not by choice.”
“I know. But I end up alone either way.” She gave a shrug, as if it was no big deal.
He didn’t buy it. Not for a second. “For what it’s worth, if I really was that regular guy who worked with alarm systems, I wouldn’t pull away.”
“So it’s the job.”
“Yes.” But even as he said the word, he knew it wasn’t true. It wasn’t simply a matter of being her bodyguard. It was about who he was. What he had to prove. “And no.”
She crooked a brow. “You said you blamed yourself for your buddy’s death.”
He nodded. She’d connected the dots almost as if she could read his mind. But he didn’t want to talk about Jimbo. Just the memory of what had happened off the coast of Yemen still ached like an open wound. But he couldn’t cut Natalie off. If he wanted her to open up to him, he had to be willing to open up to her. “At Jimbo’s memorial service, his wife, Sherry, said something that really struck home.”
“What?”
He swallowed, trying to rid himself of the thick feeling in his throat. It didn’t do any good. Sherry had lashed out at him due to anger and grief, but that didn’t make her words untrue. “She said I should have died instead of her husband. She said I only survived because I wasn’t willing to make the kind of sacrifice Jimbo made.”
“What a horrible thing to say.”
“It’s true.” It hurt to say those words out loud, especially to Natalie, but there they were.
Secret Protector Page 10