Chapter Twenty-One
“Cooper!” Trevor barked across the distance. “Unless you want them broken, you’ll take your hands off her.”
A shudder went through Meggy.
Justin straightened, bringing her up with him. When she started to move away, he clamped her to his side. Arching a brow, he watched Trevor approach. “Is there a problem?”
“The only problem is yours, if you don’t get your hands off my future wife,” Trevor said with amazing calm, considering the murder in his eyes.
“Your future wife?” Justin turned a laughing gaze on Meggy. “I thought you were marrying me, babe.”
Trevor took a threatening step forward.
She wriggled free of Justin’s hold. She jammed a hand against Trevor’s chest before he could reach her grinning friend. “Stop it, Trevor.”
His eyes were a stormy gray as they simmered down into hers. “You wanted to have this out in public, Meggy. We’ll have it out in public.”
“Me? I wasn’t the one who blabbed our business to the whole town.” She took her own menacing step forward to poke him in the chest. “I didn’t announce to the entire town that we were engaged,” her voice rose with each word, “when...we...aren’t!”
“What the hell was I supposed to do?” he shouted. “You wouldn’t speak to me.”
Their altercation finally registered on the party guests, and the place went quiet. Over Trevor’s shoulder, she caught glimpses of shocked and interested faces. She wasn’t surprised to see Erin hurrying closer to the action.
“If airing your laundry for the whole town pisses you off so much, you should have come into the kitchen like I asked.”
Trevor obviously didn’t care who heard.
“And don’t think I don’t know who it was who fed the town all that bullshit about you dating this bozo?” Trevor jerked his thumb in Justin’s direction.
“Bozo?” Justin coughed. “I like that!”
His sly grin gave her pause. Justin hadn’t become a cop because he liked to avoid conflict, he thrived on it. And she knew from personal experience he had an uncanny knack for knowing just what buttons to push to get results. How had she forgotten that little fact?
“Can we hurry this along, babe?” He spoke in a bored voice. “We’ve got a plane to catch.” He waggled his brows. “And a hotel suite to check into.”
She grimaced. Talk about overkill.
“What’s the problem here, Meggy?” Bob Calhoun came to a stop several feet away, with Carol pushing through the throng to catch him. He jerked his chin in Trevor’s direction. “Is this the guy who decided you were a crook before he’d even laid eyes on you?”
“I’ve got this, Dad,” she said on a groan.
Trevor dragged his furious gaze from Justin to give her father a belligerent stare.
“If he’s harassing you,” Bob continued.
“I said I’ve got it.”
“Bob.” Carol reached his side and grasped his arm. “She looks like she’s got things under control. Let her handle it.”
Meggy figured she must resemble a pampered poodle standing between two vicious guard dogs, when her father turned a stunned gaze on his wife and barked, “It doesn’t look like she’s got anything under control to me.”
Carol patted his arm comfortingly. “Trust me, Bob. Your little girl knows exactly what she’s doing.” She sent Meggy a wink and dragged him away toward their table.
Oh no, I don’t!
“Finn!” Finn’s great-aunt, Maive, spoke in the sudden silence, “Use some muscle to clear a path in that crowd. We can’t see the show from over here.”
At the spatter of laughter from the crowd, she squeezed her eyes shut and decided her father was right. She had lost control of “operation payback”. As if to underscore that fact, the sound of a fist striking bone had her eyes popping open to the sight of Justin sprawled on the floor at Trevor’s feet. “Are you crazy?” she cried. “He’s a cop. You just punched a cop!” She sank to her knees at Justin’s side.
“He’s an asshole,” Trevor said from above them.
Horrified, she ran her fingers over the mark already appearing on Justin’s handsome face. He captured her hand and held it against his bruised cheek, speaking only loud enough for her to hear. “You’re on your own from here, babe.” He flexed his jaw. “The bastard’s got a fist like a mallet.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered before rising to her feet and spinning to glare at Trevor. “You had no right to hurt him!”
****
Trevor’s temper fired on all cylinders. Brody had been amused when he’d called to report that Meggy was doing everything she could to convince the people of Palmerton she was having a hot and heavy affair with her cop ex-boyfriend. Trevor hadn’t been amused. Only Elizabeth’s assurances that all wasn’t as it seemed with Meggy and her cop, had kept him from dropping the mess he’d found in Virginia and catching the first available flight north. Instead, he’d agreed to do nothing, giving Meggy’s anger the time to run its course.
But seeing the anger in her eyes now, as she defended the man against him, had him doubting Elizabeth’s assessment of the situation. The possibility Meggy really did plan to use those airline tickets Brody had mentioned made his stomach clench in panic.
Because Meggy was only half of the equation.
He’d been so sure she was using Justin to get a little revenge against him he hadn’t stopped to consider the other man’s motivations. In Trevor’s experience, everyone had a price. Even an honest cop would be tempted by the kind of wealth Meggy suddenly represented. Fury exploded in his gut at the idea of the man taking advantage of Meggy’s play for revenge, to make a play of his own. He glared down at Justin, who had managed to sit up on the floor.
“I don’t know what kind of a scam you’re running here, Cooper, but it’s not going to work.” Meggy’s gasp registered faintly despite the angry haze gripping his mind. “Meggy may be the Ashford heir, but I can guarantee you, you’ll never see a dime of Ashford money.”
Trevor braced for a blow when Justin rose to his feet. It never came.
Meggy’s cop boldly met his glare with a dismissive snort and an odd flash of sympathy in his eyes. “There’s no fool like a rich fool.”
“Scam?” Meggy’s softly spoken word wafted to his ears.
He turned to look at her. It had been the wrong thing to say, considering their history, and he knew it the moment he saw her eyes. They’d gone flat, and her fairy face had gone still, like untouchable porcelain. But damn it, she had no idea just how completely her life had been altered. She had no idea the lengths to which people would go in their attempts to get their hands on her money. The sooner she understood that, the better.
“Why the sudden interest in marrying you, Meggy? You’ve known the man for years. Why is it only now he’s discovered he’s madly in love with you? The only thing that’s changed is your financial status.”
She stiffened and two spots of color bloomed on her white face. “And of course, you believe the only reason any man could want me would be for my bank account.”
“That’s not what I said.” He shoved a hand through his hair
“But it’s what you meant.” She held up a hand to halt his denial, and her bark of laughter was harsh with derision. “God. I knew I’d been a fool. I just hadn’t realized how big a fool.” The smile she gave the big cop was sad, and her eyes glistened with moisture. “You’re wrong about Justin. Using me to get at the Ashford money isn’t his style.” She turned back. “But it is your style, isn’t it?”
His heart contracted at the bleak acceptance in her eyes. “Meggy.” He took a step toward her.
“No.” She retreated from his outstretched hand. “Damn you, Trevor Christos, or whatever you’re calling yourself today. Scam, you say? Of the two of us, you make the better con artist. You present yourself as a successful businessman, but you’re really that pirate you dreamed of being when you were a boy. You sailed into Palmert
on under false colors to protect your treasure.”
She pushed by him to make her way to the bar and scrambled to reach over the top, pulling out a sheaf of papers. Spinning back, she closed the distance until they were toe to toe.
The papers hit him in the chest. He fumbled to catch them.
“Your fortune is safe from me, Trevor. That’s the waiver I promised you, signed and sealed. Go pillage and plunder somewhere else.”
He felt as though he’d been hit with a sledge hammer. She stood before him in her sparkling fairy costume with her jaw clenched against the quiver that threatened to break free. Her eyes, pooled with tears, broke his heart.
A fairy costume, for crying out loud. She’d worn it for him, he knew. Her choice meant something. She’d expected something of him tonight, but he’d managed to blow it without ever knowing what part he was expected to play.
His stomach clenched at the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. She hadn’t cried before—not when she’d discovered the man she loved wasn’t who she’d thought him to be, not even when she realized he’d believed her a thief. He couldn’t bear it if she cried now, not when he felt the urge to weep himself.
Wearily, he dropped his head to stare at the papers in his hand. They represented the dissolution of a fortune, of her fortune. She thought his interest in her was about the money. She believed everything he’d said and done and felt, everything they’d shared, was just part of his plan to protect his stake in the Ashford millions.
She was wrong, of course, and staring blindly at the legal documents, his mind searched frantically for a way to prove it.
She believes it’s about the money! His heart began to hammer in his chest, shooting a red hot stream of adrenaline through his veins. “Grandmother,” he called into the silence while pinning Meggy with a steady gaze.
“Yes, darling,” came Elizabeth’s calm voice.
“The woman I love believes the Ashford fortune is more important to me than she is.”
“So it seems.”
“How long would it take your attorneys to change your will, cutting me out of it completely?” He held Meggy’s gaze even as her eyes widened and she began shaking her head. “Leaving everything to your great-granddaughter?” he finished.
Elizabeth’s clear voice could be heard over the sudden excited murmuring of the crowd. “They should manage it in a day or two, or I’ll damned well know why.”
“Will you see to it then?”
“Are you sure?”
He turned to meet his grandmother’s gaze across the room. There were tears in those eyes that had watched over him as he’d grown from scared boy to grown man, eyes the same color as Meggy’s, but there was pride as well. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
Silence reigned, broken only by the ticking of the grandfather clock in the entry. Not a soul in the room dared to breathe as he turned back to Meggy.
Her eyes were closed, and she’d lost the battle with her tears. They left shiny tracks on her cheeks. She continued to shake her head.
He took the two steps needed to touch her and with a long finger curved under her chin, he lifted her face. “Look at me, fairy girl.” He waited until her eyelids flickered open. “I love you. You! Do you believe it?”
She nodded.
“And you love me. Say it.” He continued to push.
She whimpered, and her face crumbled on a fresh wave of tears, but she managed to choke out the words. “I love you, Trevor, but,” she gasped on a sob, “the money, I don’t want it.”
“Too bad.” His hand disappeared into the pocket of his slacks and reappeared with her sparkling charm bracelet shimmering in his palm. “I think you should put this back on.”
She didn’t argue.
As he attached the clasp at her wrist, he realized his hands were shaking. “I know it’s not a ring.” He spoke clearly, not caring they had an avid audience. “But it’ll have to do, because you’re marrying me.”
She blinked at fresh tears. “I am?”
“You are. Say, ‘Yes, Trevor, I’ll marry you.’”
“You’re very bossy,” she said soberly.
He held his breath for what seemed like a lifetime as he waited for her response then had to lock his knees to keep from falling. They went weak with relief at the return of her fairy smile.
“But yes, Trevor.” Her smile beamed through her tears, “I’ll marry you.”
Trevor stared down at her pixie face shining like the sun, and the love he saw in her crystal blue eyes took his breath away.
“Kiss the girl already,” Jasper called out from the crowd, bringing a roar of laughter from friends and family alike.
With a purely male smile, Trevor kissed his fairy girl.
A word about the author...
Mac is a wife, mother, really young grandmother, and breast cancer survivor living her dream. Along with her husband of thirty years, a neurotic Pomeranian, and a blind cat, she lives in Phoenix because the southwest feeds her soul.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Praise for Mackenzie Crowne
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
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Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
The Billionaire's Con Page 14