“You haven’t spoken to her?”
Megan shook her head and wetness filling her eyes until she closed them to stem the flow. “I hate this. You have been nothing but nice to me, and yet I’m wondering why you’re being kind, why you’re asking about my mother.”
“She was my friend. We weren’t terribly close, but I have been concerned about her.” Megan felt Jordana’s fingers wrap around her own and clenched her jaw.
“None of us have heard from either of them.” She opened her eyes and sniffled, trying to regain her composure. “Every time I think I’ve had the worst day of my life, another pops up and takes its place.”
“I know that feeling.” She tilted her head, her platinum hair brushing her shoulder. The waitress returned and Jordana pulled her hand away to take her mug. Megan did the same, letting the spiced cider warm her from the inside out.
“If you hear anything from her,” Jordana put her cup down, “I’d like to know that she’s okay.”
“So would I.” Megan’s cup rattled as she set it on the table, her head starting to throb as she wondered when that might be. She had a sneaking suspicion that Brandon’s meeting with Danny this morning had something to do with finding the Carlton money. Danny had been a Special Forces operative and was key to the information gathering piece of Brandon’s business. If he couldn’t find her parents, her chances were slim.
“Sorry I’m late.” Gemma Ryan’s voice trilled through the nearly empty bar. “There is so much planning to do, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it all together.”
The leggy blonde swept in, kissing Jordana on the cheek and giving Megan an annoyed look. Something clicked in Megan, like sights focusing on a target. Most of her anger and frustrations didn’t have a mark, but her jealousy had one very definitive point.
“Why are you in such a rush to get married?” Megan asked, her pulse racing. “Did you get knocked up?”
Gemma gasped. “I was talking about the Alzheimer’s benefit. My marriage is none of your business.”
Jordana blanched. “Girls, what is going on with you two? And Gemma, since when are you getting married?”
“Go on, Gemma. I’d love to hear how your stories match up.” She stared at her, watching Gemma’s chin start to tremble and getting no small satisfaction out of it when she turned away.
“Danny and I are going to elope in Las Vegas next month.”
“Elope?” Jordana asked. “What’s the rush? You don’t want to miss out on having a wedding.”
“We want to be married, not engaged,” Gemma replied.
“Are you sure?” Megan taunted. “He didn’t seem so keen on the idea earlier.”
Gemma’s head jerked around. “What did you do?”
“Nothing I feel even remotely guilty for. Can you say the same thing?” She felt horrible for having to be the bearer of bad news to Danny, but not guilty. He needed to know his world had been turned around by his best friend and his fiancée. At least Brandon had betrayed her with someone she hardly knew. She glared at the bottle blonde, wishing she would disappear and stop hurting people with her selfishness.
“Me?” Gemma placed a hand on her chest. “You are a horrible person. I don’t know why Brandon feels the need to help you, but you need to leave Daniel alone.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem for either of us. Knowing what I know, and knowing what you did, I think we’re the last people he wants to see.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Megan shrugged. “Danny and I see it differently.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Gemma’s phone rang in her purse.
“Go on, you’ll want to take that. Like I said, you’ll want to get your stories straight.”
“I think you lost your mind with your manners and your money.” Gemma dug into her purse and came out with a rhinestone-studded phone. “It’s Brandon. I’m going to tell him how obnoxious you are. Then he will stop feeling so sorry for you and you can disappear like your parents.”
Megan only just managed to hold back the urge to hurtle her mug at the back of the twit’s head as she retreated. She had to get out of this town because if she ever saw Brandon kissing that tramp again, she’d wind up hurting them both.
Chapter Nine
“Mind telling me what that’s about?” Jordana’s dark eyes sparkled, her cheeks lifting in unexpected amusement.
“I really don’t want to get into it.” Megan reached for her purse and stood. “Thank you for everything, but I really should be going.”
“Sit.”
She responded automatically to the tone, finding herself back in the chair.
“Gemma is a good person.”
“Gemma is a two-timing slut who got caught.”
Jordana lifted one perfectly sculpted brow, as if showing off the cosmetic artistry were more important than Gemma’s tawdry indiscretions. “If that’s true, it’s Danny’s issue. I wasn’t aware they were even seeing each other, but whatever happened, it doesn’t concern you. Don’t make her the target for your anger. You’re better than that.”
“You’re right. I wish with everything in me that I didn’t care. But even though I know what happened changes everything, I can’t get it to change how I feel.”
“And how is hurting Gemma going to help?”
“She had a hand in ruining my life, and I can’t see her without wanting to throttle her.”
“But she didn’t have anything to do with the business deal.”
“I don’t care that Brandon took the company. I care that he didn’t trust me enough to warn me a tsunami was about to hit my life and I might want to head to higher ground, but the business deal didn’t do any damage I can’t fix. He did.”
“What do you mean?”
Megan closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she could confide everything and in return be given the power to make it all right again. But Jordana would make things right for Brandon, no one else. “You’re his mother. It’s your job to believe in him. I’ve seen some things that make it so I can’t anymore.”
“But what does Brandon’s business decisions have to do with Gemma?”
Megan didn’t know what to say, so she stared at Jordana, hoping the older woman could fill in the blanks without a play-by-play.
“You think that Brandon and Gemma…” Her voice trailed off and she gave a decided shake of her head. “They are like brother and sister. There must be an explanation for whatever you saw.”
“I’m sure they’re running through the options right now.”
“It doesn’t make any logical sense, Megan.”
No, it didn’t. Which made it hurt all the more. She couldn’t find a place where she’d done anything to drive him away, having always worked to keep him so enthralled he wouldn’t look elsewhere. But he had. “If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would have a hard time believing it, too. In fact, it rendered me speechless, which is pretty hard to do.”
“You have to think about this, it doesn’t add up. Why would Brandon have called Gemma and me to help with the charity if not to help you?” She tilted her head to the side, concern shading her expression. “How does he explain all of it?”
“I know how it works, I’ve seen my father do the dance often enough. I don’t really care to hear Brandon sing the same song.”
“Don’t you think you owe him a chance to explain?” Jordana placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand.
“I’m trying very hard not to owe him anything.” Megan twisted her napkin in her lap.
“How long have you and Brandon been together?”
Megan looked up, startled by the question. “Why do you ask?”
“Come now, Megan. Let’s not be coy. I know it’s been longer than anyone imagines. I knew he was seeing someone, but he’s always been
private about that area of his life. It was almost five years ago that he asked me about cockapoo breeders. I didn’t put any of it together until I saw you with the same dog I’ve seen at Brandon’s penthouse on occasion.”
Megan nodded. “Seven years.”
Jordana’s eyes narrowed with worry. “How old were you?”
Megan felt her cheeks lift in smile at the older woman’s genuine concern. “I was eighteen. Few people get to stay with their first love. We just blew up in spectacular fashion.”
Jordana sat back in her chair. “I don’t understand. You’ll fight tooth and nail for a collection of women’s shelters, but you’ll hand the man you love to another woman without a struggle.”
Her throat tightened and she swallowed over the truth. “I don’t want a competition.”
“Life is competition, Megan. You know that.” She took a deep breath and leaned forward. “Do you think there is any chance, no matter how slim, there is an explanation for what you saw that you can live with?”
Megan moved her head from side to side, trying to shake reality into her brain. “We don’t trust each other, and you really can’t come back from that, no matter how bad you might want to.”
“I disagree.” She blinked slowly, her lips pressed together in the way Brandon did when he was thinking something over. “Did Brandon ever tell you why we sent him to military school?”
“He had a party on the yacht. He says it was almost worth it.”
She rubbed her thumb against a perfectly French manicured nail. “Yes, but he’d been off the rails for a while. After I finished radiation for my second round with breast cancer, a scan found it in my liver and bones. I focused on the next course of chemo and alternative therapies. I didn’t think what fifteen years of my cancer treatments had done to Paul. I didn’t think of him at all, and there was someone who let him forget everything for a drunken night.”
Breath slowed in Megan’s lungs, the world around her fading.
“I was hurting and scared and angry, and Brandon heard every ugly thing I threw at his father. They got in a fight that broke Paul’s jaw and started a spiral for Brandon that wouldn’t end. I was sick and he was angry at us both. Sending him away didn’t fix everything. The first year we had to brace ourselves for when he’d come home on breaks.
“But eventually he learned how to rein in his emotions, probably a little too well. I got healthy and Paul and I worked through everything. It took time to heal for all of us, but I have a hard time thinking that Brandon would ever allow unfaithfulness to enter in to his definition of himself. So I think it’s worth listening to his side of what you saw. And I’m not suggesting you forgive him or ever forget, but seven years is a long time to erase.”
Megan nodded, both out of respect and because in her heart she knew she had to know what went wrong before she’d be able to truly move on. As much as she was tempted to run away and not deal with Brandon and his betrayal, that same behavior had kept her stuck in neutral for the last few months. She had to make a clean break.
The only way to do that was to ask the question she wasn’t sure she wanted an answer to.
…
The door had barely clicked closed behind her when Megan was swarmed by the wagging tails and jumping feet of both Cash and Money. She knelt on the floor to greet both dogs, giving Money a good squeeze until she looked past the entry and breath froze in her lungs.
Gemma Ryan sat on the couch with Brandon crouched in front of her. Megan was glad for the boxer’s height as her body sagged, her hopefulness evaporating. Her gaze caught Brandon’s and the dark, foreboding look he gave her showed no promise of an explanation worth hearing.
She gathered up enough strength to put on a façade of anger to mask the devastating pain. She huffed her breath in disgust and rose to her feet. Her heels clicked on the hardwoods as she marched down the hallway to the guest bedroom, grateful that both dogs followed her. She needed them.
She wasn’t sure what to do next but her pulse was racing too fast to lie down and sob like she wanted to. Packing a bag of clothes so she could leave was the logical step, but she stalled with her hand on the doorjamb of the walk-in closet.
Why was her first instinct to run? It hadn’t kept her from being hurt. This time she’d be wondering when he’d find her, what it meant if he didn’t try.
She pulled down a slouchy satchel from the shelf, deciding it would hold enough clothes to get her through until her next paycheck. Her favorite bag had gotten beat up from use, and then ruined during the break in. “Where the hell do you think you’re going now?” Brandon growled from the doorway.
“The train wreck of my life boards in an hour. Can’t be late.” She pulled a blouse off a hanger and began to fold it.
“This is funny to you?”
Megan spun on her heel and faced him, wishing her heart didn’t lurch. “I will not stay here and listen to your late-night routines with that slut.” She tossed the top into the bag and grabbed a pair of flats.
Brandon snatched them from her hands and threw them at the wall, making both dogs yelp and retreat behind him. “You’re not going anywhere until you’ve apologized to Gemma and Danny. You have no right to wreak havoc in their lives with your juvenile behavior. You have no idea what happened that day.”
“Oh, my bad. I suppose I should have followed you in for a little voyeuristic action. You think I want to watch you go down on someone else?” She turned back to the clothes, hoping she made it before her face twisted in pain. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.
“Are you really this insecure?”
She wrenched free of his grasp and gave him a look that should have killed him on contact. Too bad it didn’t even penetrate his hard veneer.
Megan was terrified, angry, hurting and beyond humiliated. A treacherous combination. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how you feel when you see me face first in someone else.”
“Don’t taunt me, little girl.” He stepped closer until she had to back up, the corners of the hangers pressing into her back. “You do not want someone else. You want me. And that’s what has you rattled. You want to believe I did something reprehensible, because that keeps you safe.”
“Funny, I haven’t felt safe since you bankrupted my family.” She sidled away from him and grabbed a pair of jeans.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m working at the bar tonight and I have a shift at the coffee shop in the morning.”
“You’re fired, and you’re staying right here.”
Megan turned slowly around. “Excuse me? You can’t fire me, great and powerful Oz. You may have authority in the financial sector, but in the real world you’re as much of a nothing as me.”
“Ever wonder how you got your job back? Why the bar got a brand new security system?”
Megan felt as if every cell in her body were choking. Her pulse raced, her head reeled with conflicting thoughts and emotions, and the only thing she was sure of was that she needed to escape. “You can’t keep me here.”
“The hell I can’t. You will stay put until you have calmed down and realize what a spoiled brat you’re being.”
“That’s rich coming from you. Ever since you hunted me down, your behavior has been atrocious. This is crazy. You are stalking me. If you could channel this insane talent of yours, you could be a great asset to the country. Maybe if you get a hard-on for a terrorist, you might actually save lives instead of ruining them.” She tried to get past him and out of the closet, but he clutched her arm and drew her to him.
“I am not stalking you,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Get your hands off me.” Megan shoved at his chest, but it might as well have been a brick wall. She couldn’t move him, and touching him only reminded her of all the times he’d held her this tight. They’d played with dominance and submission, she’
d tried everything in Cosmo to keep their sex life hot. Who knew the memory would activate now, when she couldn’t afford to act on it.
“You’re going to stay here and listen to what I have to say, and then you’re going to apologize to both Danny and Gemma, and my mother for the scene you made today, and then you are going to do whatever it takes to make it up to me.”
He lifted her off her feet and walked her back until she was against the wall. Though her mind knew it was wrong, her body reacted to him as it always had. In spite of herself, she felt the passion, the bloom of excitement swelling inside beginning to swirl with the anger drowning her. She knew it was wrong, and yet it was as if nothing could overwrite the programming of how she reacted to his nearness. She’d loved him her entire adult life, and nothing he did seemed to change it.
She had to get away, even now he was licking his lips and staring at her mouth. If he kissed her, she’d let him. It wouldn’t be long before he was inside her and the lines she’d drawn would blur again.
She twisted in his grasp. “Let me go.”
“Calm down.” He held her steady, so she did the only thing she could think of. She kneed him in the groin and screamed.
…
Brandon’s stomach churned as he dropped Megan to the floor and took a step back, just far enough so that she couldn’t kick him. He crushed his teeth together and forced himself to breathe over the exploding ache.
Touching her had been his fatal error. No matter what she was doing, he could still look at her and see the woman he loved, no matter how deeply she was buried inside this cruel monster.
“Megan, are you all right?” Gemma’s strained voice called out.
“Tell her you’re fine,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
“I’d rather tell her I’m leaving.” Megan got up and tried to leave the walk-in closet. He held out his arm to block her path.
“Cash stays.” It was mean and dirty, but it was the only card he had left to play. Not to mention he didn’t want anything to happen to the dog.
Megan gasped and her blue eyes glittering as she stared up at him. “He’s mine.”
The Billionaire's Private Scandal Page 13