He knew he was. He never forgot a detail about her, and never missed an opportunity to use those details against her. But that was then.
‘I’m not hungry, Terrance,’ she said. ‘You didn’t stay on the line long enough for me to tell you I’d already eaten.’
‘And so I didn’t.’ There wasn’t the slightest hint of irritation in his voice. That was never very reassuring once she’d discovered just how quickly his moods could change. ‘But then how can you blame me, my darling? I couldn’t run the risk of you turning me down, now could I?’ Ignoring the beautifully laid table, he nodded to the sofa. ‘Come, sit with me then, and let’s talk. We have so much catching up to do. Can I at least offer you a coffee? Water, perhaps?’ Without waiting for her response, he took a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge and poured them both a glass. Then he sat down next to her on the plush sofa, watching her expectantly.
She decided not to wait for it. She took a sip of her water and began. ‘I can’t take your money, Terrance, you know that.’
‘No, I don’t know that. I don’t know that at all. I was crushed when you left like you did. Crushed. You never gave me the chance to apologize. You never gave me the chance to make it right, and I would have, Stacie. I would have made it right.’
‘Terrance, you make it sound like I walked out on a relationship. I got out of your debt, that’s what happened. I got out of your debt on my own power.’
His mouth twitched slightly and he straightened his jacket with a brisk tug. ‘I’ll be the first to admit it, darling, you’ve proven yourself over and over again as a businesswoman. I’ll give you that. And believe me, no one has been more impressed with the way you’ve turned New World Gallery around than I have. It’s very clear that I underestimated you.’
‘Terrance, I –’
He held up a hand and stopped her. ‘I know you’ve been taking money from your savings to finance New World Gallery West, Stacie, and I know that you paid for the art auction from your savings. And really, darling, I’ve seen the hovel you live in right now. It’s embarrassing for a woman of your caliber to be living in such squalor. It’s so beneath you.’
‘Where I choose to live and how I pay for what belongs to me is none of your business,’ she said, with way more conviction that she felt.
‘Your savings won’t last forever. We both know that. There are so many … unexpected expenses, as I’m sure you’ve seen. Goodness me, Stacie, a little paint spattered by misbehaving teenagers is a small thing to fix compared to what could happen. I shudder to think. You can’t do this without help, and with a vision like yours, it would be such a tragedy for you not be able to bring it all to full fruition.’
‘I haven’t asked you to worry about my vision and how I bring it to fruition. The responsibility is mine, and I don’t want your help.’
He sipped his water and studied her over the top of the cut crystal glass. ‘No one else knows what kind of financial trouble you’re in, do they?’ He looked at her as though he was the parent and she was a child who simply didn’t understand. ‘Of course not, or they’d be offering you more help than you’d know what to do with. They’d never have let you resort to spending your savings, and all you’d ever have to do is ask. But you didn’t, did you? You haven’t asked anyone, have you, Stacie?’
‘And I haven’t asked you either,’ she replied. She hadn’t realized it until that instant, but all the while she had been easing herself closer and closer to the end of the sofa, farther and farther away from him.
‘Ah, but you don’t have to ask me, my darling. I know what you need even before you do, just like I always have. I know how to give you all that’s best for you. But you just don’t know how to accept it and let me help you. That’s always been your problem, Stacie. You’ve never been able to relax and let me help you, let me do what I know’s best.’ He scooted closer to her on the sofa until she was pressed to the edge with no place to go. Then he ran a cool hand along her cheek, sliding the pad of his thumb across her lips, and she felt everything in her flutter in an impossible mix of desire and horror. This was not unexpected, she reminded herself. This was exactly what she knew would happen, exactly what she had prepared herself for, and still she felt like she was being undone one cell at a time.
He moved closer and brushed a kiss across her lips that, even in its unassuming way, felt as though it demanded everything from her and would settle for nothing less. She laid a hand on his chest to keep him from doing more.
‘I don’t want your help,’ she managed, still feeling his insistent breath against her lips.
He pulled away and folded his hands in his lap almost as though he was about to pray. For a second, he held her in an unreadable gaze, then his lips curled into the slightest hint of a smile, and he threw her by changing the subject.
‘What do you think of the Monaco? It’s nice, isn’t it? Nice rooms. Bed’s comfortable. Excellent service. I’ve never stayed here before. I have little need to, actually. As you know, I have a lovely flat here and a ranch near Redmond if I need a little country fix. But I don’t like doing business in my home, especially not certain kinds of business.’
If he was waiting for her to ask, she didn’t. ‘The hotel’s fine, Terrance, but unnecessary for me.’
He pulled her hand into his lap and began to massage her fingers. ‘Oh, it’s not for you, my darling. I’m just trying it out, really. And I’ve decided it’ll be perfect for my meeting with the lovely Ingrid Watson, the perfect place to tell her about the three exhibitions I’ve lined up for her.’
Stacie felt the fire in her belly turn to ice as his grip on her hand tightened and he continued. ‘Ms. Watson is ever so grateful for my help, Stacie. And she’s quite good at showing her gratitude, unlike you were.’ Even his soft chuckle hinted at accusation, at disappointment. He ran a nearly painful thumb over the back of her knuckles. ‘In fact, if she continues to show her gratitude so exquisitely, I think I could very easily be persuaded to purchase the dear girl her own gallery and studio.’
When Stacie said nothing, he continued. ‘Granted she’s still very young and not very skilled in pleasing her benefactor, but with a little discipline and a little effort, she can be taught. I rather like the idea of the lovely Ms. Watson being in my debt, Stacie. What do you think of that?’
Stacie should have kept her mouth shut but she couldn’t. ‘I think you should leave her alone. I think you should let the woman’s talent speak for itself; let her make her own way. She’s way too gifted for you to –’
‘For me to what, Stacie?’ he interrupted. ‘Does it bother you that I might choose to bestow my kindness on someone other than you? Are you jealous?’
‘I want you to leave her alone, Terrance. She doesn’t need your help.’
He offered her a pout and held her hand still tighter. ‘I doubt she’d agree with you on that point.’
Before Stacie could respond, he continued. ‘Never mind Ms. Watson. She’s not why I invited you here, and since you’re being your usual obstinate self, we’ll approach the topic from a different direction, Stacie dear.’ His massaging of her hand became solicitous. ‘Your dear friends, the Thorne brothers and that old fart, Marston, none of them know about our shared history, do they?’ He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Well, Marston may have guessed a little of it, but he thinks the sun rises and sets in you now, doesn’t he? He has no idea the depths to which you would sink in order to get what you want, does he?’
She jerked her hand away and stood to leave, fighting back a wave of nausea, but Jamison pulled her back down onto the sofa; not violently, but with a strong enough grip that his message was clear. He hadn’t dismissed her yet, and she wasn’t free to go until he did. She forced herself to remain calm, forced the panic down with the nausea, careful to hold her head high and shoulders squared. She was prepared for this, she reminded herself. And even with all of her preparation, she had warned herself that it would be worse than she had imagined. And it was. It was.
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‘I don’t want your money,’ she repeated when she was once again sure her voice wouldn’t shake.
He still held her hand and stroked it as if he was the most adoring of lovers. ‘But you’ll take it, won’t you, Stacie?’ He reached inside his jacket and took a folded envelope from the breast pocket of his crisp white shirt, an envelope on which she recognized her own handwriting; the one in which she had returned his check. When he was certain she knew exactly what it was, he stuck it into the pocket of her blazer. ‘You’ll take it because you won’t want your dear friends to know you’ve bitten off more than you can chew; you don’t want them to know you can’t afford to open this new gallery; you don’t want them to know you can barely afford to keep the doors to the old one open. You’ll take it because you don’t want them to know what you had to do to keep the first gallery open.
‘Oh there, there, darling.’ He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair again, like she was a frightened child. ‘It won’t be like it was last time. I’ve waited all these years to make it up to you, to be back in partnership with you once again, and I assure you I won’t make the mistakes I made the last time.’
And in those words, the words that should mean repentance and contrition, she heard the clear threat. She knew only too well that, in his eyes, the mistake was letting her find a way out.
‘It’ll be so much better this time, I promise you. There’ll be only the two of us, and no ugly scenes with Zoe. I’ll give you carte blanche to do with the gallery whatever you want. After all, with the unlimited funding I can provide, the sky’s the limit, Stacie. The sky’s the limit. This time we’ll do it together. This time you won’t leave before we can achieve our dreams. And it’ll be something to behold, darling. It’ll be something to behold. Something we’ll proudly share with the world.’ He leaned in, settling another kiss against her lips. ‘There. You see how easy that was.’
He stood and helped her to her feet. And that was the end of the discussion. ‘Now, I know what a busy woman you are, so I won’t keep you from your work. Todd is waiting downstairs with the limo to take you back to the gallery. I’ll send for you again soon when we’re more at our leisure.’
He escorted her to the door, with Stacie struggling to maintain enough control to walk under her own power. There, he kissed her tenderly, as if totally oblivious to her lack of response. He smiled down at her as though they had just shared the most exquisite experience. ‘Don’t worry, darling. It’ll be so much better than it was before. You’ll see.’ He heaved a happy sigh and looked around the foyer of his hotel suite. ‘Yes, I think the Monaco is the perfect place to bring Ms. Watson. I’m sure it’ll delight her.’
In the hall, one of his security men was waiting to escort Stacie down to the lobby.
So already it had begun. Already he wanted her to understand that he controlled her, that he owned her. Well, that too was expected. She remembered little of the walk down to the lobby. All she remembered was the check in her pocket, the weight of which seemed nearly unbearable, the proposition, the subtle threat, the beginning of the end.
She sat like a stone in the back of the limo all the way to the gallery, not thinking, not moving, just barely breathing. If she actually tried to take in what had just happened, she was certain she would be sick, so she held it all at a distance, held it all until she could get to a safe place. But then after today, there were no safe places. Not really.
When she arrived at the gallery, she didn’t go in. Once the limo had pulled away, she went straight to the Lexus. She might have doubted if it were safe for her to drive under the circumstances, but she was in the eye of the storm, the calm center that would see her through for a little while longer. Just a little while. She drove to her local bank and deposited the check into the account Dina had set up. She did the whole thing without feeling. She did it as if someone else had momentarily taken up residence in her body, and she was happy for the takeover, knowing with dead certainty that it wouldn’t last and that when she came back to herself, the world would be a much darker place.
She carefully pulled the Lexus into her parking space, then made her way up to her flat, let herself in, and locked the door behind her. Once that was done, she dropped her bag on the floor and stripped off her clothes as she stumbled blindly to the bathroom, just managing to turn on the shower before her knees gave and she sat down on the floor beneath the cascade of water and wept. She wept as she hadn’t done since that last, horrible night in the hotel room, that night when she had wept to the place way beyond despair, the place of raw, parched emptiness. And when the ambulance had come for her, when Alan Marston sat beside her, holding her hand in the hospital room, when the bruises and the aches and the broken bones had become like dull background noise to the tidal wave of rage that flowed over her, she knew that she would find a way out.
Chapter Seventeen
Harris had just stepped out of the elevator at the Executive Suites of the Pneuma Building when his BlackBerry buzzed. It was an email from Cal, who did research for Wilderness Vanguard. The message, in response to his request about the clear-cut Stacie had been investigating, stopped him in his tracks. There was nothing in it he didn’t already know, and that meant there was every reason to stay as far away from the horrible place as possible. So, what the hell was Stacie up to? He was still staring at the email when Dee practically threw herself into his arms in a friendly bear hug.
‘There you are! Ellis told me you’d be joining him for lunch. Lynn’s ordered enough Chinese food for the whole Pneuma Building, so I’ve invited myself along. Hope you don’t mind.’
‘You know I don’t, Ms. Diva.’ He returned the hug and stuffed his BlackBerry in his pocket, struggling to pull his attention away from the message.
‘And Harris –’ she pulled away slightly ‘– just so you know, Stacie’s going to join us too. She needs to be involved in the planning meetings for Vigilant Trust if she’s to be able to represent it to contributors for the gallery opening, whether you exhibit with her or not, and frankly, I think that you –’
‘I’ve agreed to exhibit with her, Dee. It’s OK.’
There was another bear hug. ‘Great!’ Her smile turned to a look of total mischief. ‘I’m really glad to hear you didn’t let that little mishap at the Boiling Point keep you from doing the right thing. Or maybe that’s what convinced you?’
‘Jesus, there is no privacy in this world,’ Harris growled.
‘Nope. None at all.’ She threaded her arm through his. ‘Now come on. We don’t want lunch to get cold, do we? I don’t know where Lynn gets it, and she’s not telling, but it’s the best Chinese takeout ever.’
Harris thought Ellis’ office, with its grand view of Mount Hood and its coolest-apartment-ever feel, was the best part of the Pneuma Building. And time spent with Ellis was always good. Dee was an added bonus, but now he wanted to turn and leave. He really didn’t want to face Stacie in this company knowing that they all knew about the Boiling Point, knowing that they all knew he’d had sex with her. But they didn’t know what happened next, and he didn’t know how she’d react. And shit, if that wasn’t bad enough, he was concerned about why she’d been at the clear-cut.
Dee knocked softly on the door, then pushed her way in with Harris reluctantly right behind her. Ellis was not at his desk, and the door that separated his office proper from the lounge was closed. Again, Dee knocked and let herself in. Ellis sat on the end of the sofa with Stacie on the love seat next to it, her back to the door.
‘Dee! Harris!’ Ellis motioned them in. ‘You’ve gotta see this. Stacie’s plan for the photographic part of the exhibition is total genius.’ Dee sat down next to him, and he gave her an affectionate hug and a light kiss on the lips. He motioned Harris to sit on the love seat next to Stacie.
And God, why did she have to look so damn good? She was dressed in a burgundy power suit with heels he was sure someone like her shouldn’t even attempt to walk in unless they had good health insurance.
She wore her hair loose around her shoulders, making his fingers tingle with the muscle memory of just how soft it was. Truth was he thought she looked much more stunning dressed for the great outdoors and covered with a little mud and grime, but then when did she not look stunning? She offered him a business-as-usual smile, almost as an afterthought, before turning her attention immediately back to the plans she had spread on the coffee table in front of Ellis. She continued as though he were no more than an employee who arrived late for a meeting.
‘There’ll be flat-screen monitors here, here, and here.’ She pointed a well-manicured finger at places on a modified version of a blueprint of the gallery. ‘The one on the main floor and the one in the reception area will run on a loop that cycles every ten to fifteen minutes depending on what Carla puts together for me.’
‘Carla Flannery?’ Harris asked.
‘Yep. Lucky for me, she’s a freelancer, and this is right up her alley. Harris, I thought you might want to consider a print version of what she’ll be putting together to run in Wilderness Vanguard the month after the gallery opening.’
‘Possibly. What exactly do you have in mind?’
‘Well, I want your photography and Kyle’s, mixed in with her story clips and photos from the John Day landfill and archival shots from the Northwest. What I want to do is put together a looped, narrated clip showing how photography as a political and as an environmental statement has made a difference in the quality of life in the Northwest, not only for the natural world, but for humans as well. It’s not really an exposé so much as a way of sharing with people how art can make a difference in the world in which we live and how it can be so much more than just pretty images.’
She sat on the edge of her seat. Her voice was animated and she spoke with her hands. Harris could feel the excited energy practically radiating off her, and he grudgingly had to admit that not everything was about him and that Stacie really was amazing at what she did.
The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) Page 15