“Julien, will you ride back to the stable with me? We’ll go and get one of the carts and bring it back for Maman Arianna.”
“She’s not my mama,” Julien stated loudly, and wrapped his arms around his chest. He looked so much like his father it was almost scary.
“No, she’s not, but she will be my wife soon,” his father stated. “And if you can’t call her Maman Arianna, you will have to call her Ms. Becker, or Mrs. Tremblay. Which do you prefer?”
“Ms. Becker,” Julien stated.
“Fine, we’ll go and get Ms. Becker the cart,” Damien continued.
“There’s no need, we can see the stables from here. Just give me a moment,” Ari smiled up at him.
“Julien, go ahead and ride back, and send someone for Ms. Becker’s horse, please.”
“Yes, papa,” he said as he returned to his pony.
Arianna finally stood up and walked with Is to her pony. Once she was on, Ari led the pony back to the stable while Damien rode beside her.
Julien was already off his pony and brushing it. Damien handed his horse off to one of the stable workers, and Arianna helped Is off her horse. “Julien, Isabeau, go and find Mrs. Smith. I’ll take Arianna to the doctor.”
“I hope you are okay, Maman Arianna,” Is said as she hugged her again.
“Julien, take your sister,” Damien said. Arianna had to return to the house also to grab her purse. When she made her way to the garage Damien was on the phone, screaming into it.
He hung up when he saw Arianna, but he didn’t calm down. “My father’s lawyer had a heart attack and died.” He opened the driver’s side door to climb in, and Arianna followed. “Two months from his court date, and he has to find a new lawyer.”
“Can’t someone else at the firm…” Arianna began, but she didn’t know what else to say.
“Apparently everyone else at the firm is busy with their own hearings.” Damien seemed to be a little more upset than the situation warranted.
“Is it the birth control,” Arianna asked. “I’ll have it removed.” She had no idea where that came from. Yes she did. She wanted a baby as much as she wanted to placate him. Did she doubt her resolve again? Florian Desjardins never left a job incomplete.
Had she totally lost her mind? She was Arianna Becker. And she did not need to kill Damien Tremblay. He was not a job. She glanced up at Damien. Had she fallen in love with him? No, she didn’t think so. But she’d fallen in love with his daughter, head over heels.
“We’re going back to DC to help find a lawyer for my father.” He finally said after several moments of thought.
She was going back to DC. This was her chance to get away. She would run, as fast as she could, back to Vince. She wished she could go back in time to the island and go with Vince. But her sense of justice and revenge got in the way of her reason. Then she would have never met Isabeau Clarice Tremblay. She could have found a different time and place to kill Damien.
“Stop,” she said out loud.
“What’s wrong,” he asked as he slowed the car.
“No, not you,” she said. “It was… Nothing, it’s nothing.”
“Did you hit your head?”
“I don’t know, maybe,” Arianna said harshly. “I just, don’t know.”
They arrived at the doctor’s office, and she was led straight to the back for paper work and testing. She was glad that Damien had to sit out in the waiting room. She had to answer questions about the number of sexual partners she’d had in the last six months: four. That was the amount that she’d had in her entire life. She was asked about birth control, and if she could be pregnant. She answered no. And she was ordered to pee in a cup and to offer her arm for a blood test. She did both.
Then she was escorted back to the doctor’s office. Her thoughts continued to war in her mind, and she seriously doubted her sanity. The doctor was a nice woman, about Damien’s age, who checked for bumps on her head and stared into her pupils with a flash light.
“I don’t see any sign of a concussion, or a bump for that matter. But about your paperwork, you said you’re on birth control, correct?” The doctor asked.
“Yes,” Arianna confirmed. “It’s here.” She pointed at her left bicep.
“There was a recall on a batch of those about a year ago. Your doctor should have contacted you.” He might have tried, Arianna didn’t remember. She travelled so much. And she changed cell phone numbers often.
“I was thinking of, maybe having it removed,” she said as she stared down at the diamond on her finger. He’d given it to her only a month ago, during a stay at a luxurious hotel in Montreal.
“It would be advisable,” the doctor stated. “I can do it here, now, if you’d like.”
“And replace it?” Arianna wondered.
“No, dear,” the doctor said. “You’re pregnant. Do you remember the date of your last period?”
“Before I left for Singapore, the week before,” Arianna said. “That was a little more than three months ago.”
“We won’t know for sure how far along you are, but the most accurate test is an ultrasound. You should find an obstetrician, and they will set up an appointment for one.” She could see Arianna’s distress. “Would you like to discuss it with your fiancé first? Or would you like me to go ahead and remove the birth control? Unless you’re planning to have an abortion.”
“Take it out,” she said. “Just take it out.”
“I’ll get the tools and be right back,” she stated.
Three months. Thirteen weeks. Four sex partners. Four potential fathers.
And she thought her life couldn’t possibly get any more fucked up.
“This might hurt a little,” the doctor said. She brought her nurse with her, to hold Arianna’s arm down. She grabbed a needle, about three inches long, and pushed the air out of it. “Arianna, that’s such a pretty name. It sounds like one of those cartoon princesses.”
Arianna squeezed her eyes closed, clenched her teeth, and tried not to scream. Her arm went numb almost immediately. She didn’t feel any pain after that, and in about five minutes the doctor was done. “I’d say take an over the counter pain killer, and if you have any redness, swelling, or bleeding, come back and see me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And congratulations,” the doctor said. “You’re going to be a great mother.”
Arianna couldn’t hide the bandage under the sleeve of her shirt. She’d worn a short sleeve polo shirt that day for her ride. She pulled at it several times as she walked toward the waiting room, but it didn’t magically get longer.
“Thank you,” she said as she walked past the nurse’s station and nodded.
She wondered if she looked different. She wondered if people could see she was pregnant. She wondered if Damien would know she was pregnant. Maybe she felt different, or smelled different, or tasted different. Yes, Damien had even begun to do that recently too.
Making love with her had opened up something deep inside him, and now he wanted to do everything. He allowed her to tie him down, a couple of times. Every time she wanted to wrap the rope around his neck. But she didn’t.
It was too soon, she told herself. She didn’t want it to be that suspicious. But she doubted she would do it; especially now that she was pregnant. As soon as she met Isabeau her life changed. She’d killed men with children before. She killed Juan Martinez in his living room floor, right where his kid could find him. But there was a difference between the two men. One raped Jordan; the other didn’t tell authorities that his mother was killing young, beautiful women whose only crime was knowing her secret.
She pulled her sleeve down again as she walked into the waiting room. Damien saw the movement and his eyes went to her arm. He saw the bandage and smiled brightly. She walked toward him, and he wrapped her up in his arms and kissed the top of her head as he did his daughter.
“You had it removed.” His voice was full of love and surprise and happiness all in one delightful soun
d.
“Yes,” she nodded.
He grinned so wide she thought his face would disappear. She liked it. She wanted it, his indisputable happiness. She knew she couldn’t feel it as long as Jordan and Vince lingered in her mind. And she knew she wouldn’t feel it until she knew for certain who the father of her baby was.
But she smiled back at him anyway, and he practically carried her out to his car. He held her against the passenger side door; a very different feeling from before in their bedroom. And he kissed her. She was transported back to the island. That moment before Vince arrived. If she could only go back to that moment.
But she would still be in the same predicament. She would still be pregnant. And she would still have no idea who the father of her baby was. “When can we get married chouchou? I want to be married before you get pregnant, so there’s no doubt that I’m the father.”
About that… she wanted to say. But she didn’t, she couldn’t. Standing in a parking lot was not the time to tell him she was already pregnant.
There would be no good time to tell him, she knew. He could count. He would know that Vince or Jordan could be the father too. But he didn’t know about Sam. Sam was her lifeline. She just had to hope that Sam and Jordan and Vince were still on speaking terms.
Chapter Sixteen
“Can Isabeau go with us,” Arianna asked as she packed. Isabeau sat at Arianna’s vanity and played with her makeup. Arianna didn’t care if she ruined every tube of lipstick she owned; Damien would buy more.
“Yes, papa, can I go with you?” Isabeau echoed. “S'il vous plait?”
“No, you’re in school now, Is,” he shook his head.
“Every American child should visit the capital of the United States,” Arianna countered, a little too strongly. Is turned toward her and her soft blonde eyebrows rose up her forehead.
“She’s not American,” Damien reminded her.
“She’s half,” Arianna pouted.
“She’s a quarter American,” Damien laughed.
“Her father’s American,” she continued to argue.
“I was born in Canada.” He shrugged, and gave her a smirk that said he won.
“I want her to go with us,” Arianna sighed.
Damien chuckled. “Pack your bags, chouchou.”
She placed all the warm clothes he’d recently bought her in two brand new suitcases and a garment bag. She was sure they would have several parties to attend, plus openings of something or other. She didn’t like or dislike those situations, she was indifferent to them. She was never one to be star-struck, although she’d met several since she’d been with Damien.
It was fall, and although the day was warm enough to wear short sleeves, after the sun went down the evening would grow colder. She wished they could take the kids and stay on the island. Maybe for Christmas break she thought.
Would she still be with Damien in three months? Would he be dead by then?
Stop thinking that way, Arianna thought and shook her head. She couldn’t kill the father of her child.
You don’t know he’s the father, she argued with herself. She closed her eyes tightly, and tried to hold the tears in.
“Are you okay sweetheart,” Damien asked when he saw the expression on her face. “You’re not upset that…” He touched the bandage on her arm, and she winced.
“No, I’m not upset,” she sighed. “It just hurts a little.”
“I’ll bring you some medicine,” Damien offered. “I’ll send Mrs. Smith up to finish packing for you. You should rest.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m almost done,” she said with a nod. “Unless Is would like to climb in my bags,” she teased. Isabeau picked up Ari’s hairbrush and carried it to her.
“Brush my hair and make me even prettier,” Isabeau demanded. Her makeup was clownish. Her lips were bright red, her face was a pale white like her father’s, and her eyes were painted two different colors.
Arianna smiled brightly at the little girl, and picked her up to hug her. “You couldn’t possibly be prettier,” Arianna sighed. “Climb up on the bed, Lady Isabeau.”
On the plane the next morning Damien offered her a glass of wine but she refused. She’d spent so much time on this plane she knew it almost like the back of her hand. It brought back so many memories. She was so happy back then, when she was killing people. Why did it feel so wrong now? She glanced over at Damien, staring out the window.
“Damien, what would you have done,” Arianna began.
“What, mon amour,” he asked as he turned dreamy blue eyes to her. She felt her heart skip when he looked at her like that.
“If I had announced my retirement.” She finished, and watched as his dreamy blue eyes turned a dark emerald.
“I would have kidnapped you and taken you to the island. And I would have fucked you until you fell in love with me,” he shrugged. “It was always my plan.”
“Always,” she grinned. “Like you knew where I was.”
“I knew your address,” he admitted. “I sat in front of your apartment and watched you get out of your little black convertible and climb your steps countless times.”
His dreamy blue eyes hit her heart, but those words hit her gut. He’d stalked her. He was a stalker. He planned to kidnap her. Was that romantic, or creepy? She couldn’t tell. “You were married at the time.”
“I would have divorced her. I would have paid a little more if I initiated the proceedings, but I would have done it.” He said it so casually. She wondered if he was telling the truth.
“You had kids with her,” she reminded him.
“Before I met you,” he countered firmly. She sat silently and stared at him, trying yet again to figure out what he felt when he looked at her that way. “You don’t trust me,” he said again.
“No, I believe you,” she nodded.
“Good, it’s all true. Every word is true. I love you Arianna Becker. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. You are the air around me, and the blood inside me. And I can’t wait to marry you and give you babies that you can love as much as you love Isabeau.” He finished with a grin.
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” she grinned back at him. She thought after she lost her sister she’d never feel that way about anyone. Jordan made her feel it was possible, but Isabeau reminded her that love was never gone, it just waited like a dormant seed, and it bloomed when least expected. And she stared at Damien and wondered if it could happen again.
They landed and were picked up in a limo and taken to Damien’s DC apartment. It wasn’t an apartment, it was a brownstone. There were four floors, each more luxurious than the previous. She found bedrooms for Isabeau and Julien, and a beautiful feminine bedroom that could have been for his ex-wife Helena. Did they sleep apart, Ari wondered. She couldn’t believe that a man as affectionate as Damien would ever allow that. But then he led her to a room filled with dark wood and brown walls and darker brown window coverings and realized this was his room.
Yes, they did sleep apart. But why? Was it his fixation with Arianna? Or was it because of her dislike of his lovemaking? Arianna wondered if she would have grown tired of it if he’d continued to have sex with her like he did that first night. But he didn’t, because he wanted to give her more.
“What would you like to do tonight, chou,” he asked as he walked up behind her. He kissed her neck, her ear, and her cheek. She made that purring sound in the back of her throat again. She didn’t will it to happen, she actually tried not to do it, but she couldn’t stop it.
“You don’t have anything planned,” she wondered as his hands moved around to her tummy. She sighed loudly, knowing that his child was inside her, under his palms.
“I plan to get away from here as fast as I can and return to my family.” His hands moved up her ribcage to cup her breasts. “Our family.”
“Thank you,” Arianna said.
“For what,” he wondered.
“For everything,” she grinned.
; They were in the back of the limo headed toward the lawyer’s office when he said, nonchalantly, “I contacted Sam Clark, he’s free and will consider taking my father’s case. We’re meeting with him now. If he won’t take the case I don’t know who else to call. We may have to go outside DC, perhaps Virginia or Maryland.”
Sam Clark. Would it be too much, God, to ask for two minutes alone with him? Just two minutes, it’s all I ask. And after that I swear I will never ask for anything else. Just two minutes alone with Sam Clark. She’d never prayed before in her life, but in this moment she needed to. She had no one else to turn to, except…
They entered the offices of Clark and Darling, and were shown by the pretty receptionist to a waiting room. Damien’s phone rang, as it always did, and he saw a door that said restroom. “Excuse me,” he said, and walked toward it.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam Clark, waiting for him to exit the room, and then he pounced.
Sam couldn’t believe it when he got the call. He couldn’t fucking believe the coincidence. He’d been waiting for this chance to face down the mighty Arianna Becker one on one. Not like he did that night at the house, but… Well he wanted that too. But he wanted an explanation, and he wanted it now.
“Talk,” he said quickly.
“I need to see Vince,” she said, her eyes on the bathroom door.
“I want an explanation, now,” he said. His blue eyes were as cold as ice as he stared at her.
“I have to talk to Vince,” she reiterated.
“Tell me why you went with him.” Sam was relentless. He was a lawyer, after all.
“He knew his mother was killing those girls and,” Arianna stopped when she saw the door open.
“Well it’s certainly nice to see you again, Ms. Becker,” Sam said as he stuck his hand out to her. His demeanor changed immediately. His voice was friendly and his eyes were warm.
Damien didn’t suspect anything as he walked toward the pair. He held his hand out to Sam, who took it and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Tremblay,” Sam lied through his teeth.
The Executioner 2: Love, Lies, and Revenge (The Executioner Series) Page 16