“Oh, are you leaving us, Miss Marsh?”
Fuck off, creep. “They’re waiting upstairs for you, Senator.”
“I wonder,” Destry looked around, bestowing his best politician smile on the others, “would you mind giving me and Miss Marsh a moment? I’d like to ask her about her story, and I think we’d better do that in private.”
God, no, please. But everyone nodded and drifted away, even Liam, although he shot a strange look towards Destry.
As soon as they were alone, Destry’s smile vanished. “I had hoped that by now, Anoushka, you would realize that avoiding me isn’t an option. You are mine, remember?”
“Shove it, arsehole,” she shot back, “you don’t frighten me.”
“I should. I really should.” He prodded his finger hard into her belly, and she winced. “Those three bullets I put in you will be nothing to what’s coming, Anoushka. And who knows? Maybe it won’t be only your life that is forfeit.”
Noosh froze. “What?”
Destry’s smile was chilly, his eyes cold and dead. “Break up with Montecito or find out exactly what. You have a week, Anoushka, and then I expect you to deliver yourself to my hotel room, ready to be at my side as I reach the highest office in this country.”
Noosh felt sick. “And then what?”
“Then, just as reelection looms, a tragedy. You will be found stabbed to death, and my approval ratings will go through the roof out of sympathy, and I’ll be returned for a second term. So, you have a choice, Anoushka. You die soon, along with your family, your friends, your lover…or I give you two years to live. Don’t think I’m serious? Watch me.”
He walked away, leaving Noosh frozen and terrified. So…her destiny was to die at his hand, was it?
No. Fuck you, Destry.
She knew exactly what to do.
In the cab she called her interviewees and rearranged her schedule, then sat back in the cab, running through what she would say, how she would approach the meeting she was about to have.
As she pulled up to the mansion, she felt a wave of nervousness. When he walked out of the house and down the steps to meet her, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.
She stepped out of the cab, and Fogliano Montecito smiled at her. “My dear, what a pleasure.”
She shook his hand. “Mr. Montecito, thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
He was studying her closely with that same intense stare his son had. “What is it, Noosh? What is troubling you, my dear?”
Noosh felt close to tears. “Mr. Montecito, I need your help. I think Christo and I might be in terrible danger and I don’t know what to do.
Chapter Nineteen
Christo tried to call Telly again, but it kept going to voicemail. He hissed in frustration. Bertie glanced over at him. “Nothing?”
Christo shook his head. “I hope she’s okay. Papps’s spies are everywhere.”
“Well, so are ours. Word is Papps is at the radio station being interviewed as we speak. Is Noosh there?”
“No, thank god. She’s out doing interviews for her story. Listen, Bert…we need to stop Papps from terrorizing her, and with any luck, the whole country by becoming president.”
“Does she know you know?”
“No, and I want it to stay like that. I don’t want her to think I’m snooping on her, or sully our time together with his bullshit. God, what am I talking about – bullshit? He fucking shot her, for chrissakes.” He felt sick.
Bertie sat down next to his friend. “We don’t know that for sure, Christo. I mean, yes, probably based on what we know, but we can’t go all in on him without proof. We’ll lose credibility, and it could put Noosh more at risk.”
The friends sat silently in Bertie’s palatial penthouse overlooking Central Park. Christo stared out at the people below. “Some days,” he said, “I just want to take her and get away from all of this. Go find our little piece of heaven where no one knows us.” He looked back and saw the concerned look on Bertie’s face and smiled sadly. “Oh, I know, running away would be a bad idea. We need to make sure Noosh is safe. She’s still young, still has her career, her whole life in front of her. And I never want to be one of those men who shut their love up in an ivory tower.”
“No, you don’t. We both know that’s just another type of abuse.” Bertie was quiet for a moment, considering. “There is someone we could go to for help.”
Christo was confused for a moment, then his expression cleared. “No. No way. Bringing my father into this would be disastrous, Bert, and you know it.”
“Would it, though?”
Christo turned away from his friend, not wanting Bertie to see the desperation in his eyes. Because he too had wondered if his father could do something about Destry Papps. He certainly had the connections. Christo sighed. No. It would mean going back on everything he had ever fought for, all his autonomy, his independence from Fogliano and his business. No, he, Christo, would figure this out. He and he alone would bring down Papps and give Noosh her life back.
He turned to Bertie. “No, Bert. This stays between you and me. Understood?”
Bertie nodded but looked unhappy. “What are you going to do, Christo?”
Christo shook his head, his eyes full of misery. “I don’t know, Bert. I have no fucking clue what to do. How the hell am I going to save her?”
Fogliano sat with Noosh, holding her hands as she explained everything about Destry Papps’s threats. His eyes were full of sympathy, and Noosh began to feel better as she described her predicament.
“And my son knows nothing of this.”
Noosh shook her head. “I’m scared that if I tell him, he’ll do something brave and stupid, and it’ll cost him everything.” She searched Fogliano’s eyes. “Can you help me? I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.”
Fogliano got up and paced around the room for a few moments before sitting down again. “My dear.”
A thrill of hope ran through her. “Yes?”
“I cannot help you.”
The weight of disappointment and grief came crashing down on her. “I understand.”
He smiled a little. “I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but hear me out. I cannot help you while Christo remains in the dark about this situation. I won’t lie to him anymore. Lies and secrets have already cost me his love.” He reached over and patted her hand. “What I will do is provide discreet protection for you.”
Noosh felt hopeless. “But you can’t protect everyone all the time. My parents, my colleagues…no. It’s okay, I’ll figure this out. Thanks for your time.”
Fogliano studied her. “You are a very brave woman, except for one thing. You need to trust that Christo will do the right thing by you. Even seeing you together for that short time the night I came to his apartment, I could see it. You belong together. He loves you with the same kind of intensity that I loved his mother. And I know you feel the same way.”
“If it were just my life, I would never have bothered you,” Noosh said quietly. “But the thought of anything happening to Christo…”
“Tell him, sweet girl. Tell him, and we’ll figure this out together.”
Noosh half-smiled. “You want him back.”
“I do. In that way, I think we can help each other. In the meantime, stay safe.”
“I’ll try.”
In the cab on the way back into the city, she reflected. She knew what Fogliano was doing – he was using the situation she was in to try and get his son’s love back. Did she blame him?
No. In the meantime, he was right. She needed to tell Christo everything. If they were to have any kind of future together, she needed to learn how to trust. It was just…she knew how passionate Christo was – he would fight his way through fields of Secret Service agents to get to Destry if he knew she was in danger – and get himself killed in the process.
Damn it. She touched the little dragonfly at her throat, her chest pounding with sadness. Why couldn’t the universe give h
er this happiness? Why was it always tempered with fear or upset?
Noosh leaned her hot forehead against the window and prayed the cab driver didn’t see her silent tears fall.
When she got back to the radio station, Liam was uncharacteristically quiet. She frowned at him. “What’s up?”
“Shit’s hit the fan,” he said, then pulled her aside. “The interview did not go well. Ally asked him about the stuff that’s been going on in Washington, about the sex scandals, and he went crazy. Absolutely freaked out on her. Walked out. Ally’s in shock, Seth is fuming.”
“Oh, god. What on earth did she say to him?”
“Not sure. Maybe you should go up. Ally probably needs to see a friendly face at the moment.”
Noosh nodded. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just… What a prick.”
You have no idea. She hugged him. “Come up in a while when things have settled.”
“Laters.”
She rode the elevator up to the studio, dumping her bag on her desk. It was too quiet. She went to find Ally. Her boss was in her office, her face pale, but Noosh could see the anger still in her eyes. She knocked tentatively at the door, and Ally waved her in.
“I want to congratulate you,” Ally began, making adrenaline spike through Noosh’s system. Was she in trouble? “On your incredible judgment of character. Destry Papps is an asshole.”
Noosh breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, he is. What the hell happened?”
Ally tapped her pencil on the desk in annoyance. “I asked him a question that hadn’t been cleared. I always do that – the people who come on my show expect the difficult questions. And the question I asked…Noosh, it wasn’t even personally directed at him. I asked the other candidates the same question.”
“The sexual harassment question? That’s pretty standard nowadays, isn’t it? Colbert, John Oliver, those late-night guys are asking the same thing.”
“Right? And Papps went ballistic. I just don’t get it.”
I do. Ask a rapist, on the record, about sexual harassment when he’s running for the highest office in the land? Of course he’s going to flip out. “He was arrogant enough to believe you wouldn’t dare ask the great Destry Papps about it. Arsehole.”
“You told me he was a nightmare, and I didn’t realize how right you were.” Ally studied her for a minute then got up and shut the office door. “Noosh…there’s more to your hatred of Destry Papps than just instinct, isn’t there?” She sat down on the corner of her desk, and Noosh met her gaze without saying anything.
A strange expression crossed her boss’s face, and she drew in a shaky breath as she looked at her young friend. “My god, Noosh…what the hell did he do to you?”
Chapter Twenty
Christo was already waiting in reception at five p.m., and suddenly Noosh felt shy. She had gone to see his father without telling him. Would Fogliano have told him?
By the sweet smile on Christo’s face when he saw, Noosh guessed not.
“Hey, lovers, have a good night.” Liam waved at them as he made his way out of the reception area.
“Bye, mate.”
“Night, Liam.”
“Don’t forget La Forge!”
Christo looked at her, a question in his eyes. Noosh kissed him, smiling. “We have a double date on Friday.”
Christo grinned. “Cool. How are you, my darling?”
Terrified. But she kept the smile on her face. “Better now that you’re here. Ally had a difficult day, so I spent most of the afternoon trying to cheer her up.”
“Good friend.”
“And as such, I think you should feed me.” She dragged him out towards the car. “I am starving.”
“When aren’t you?” Christo rolled his eyes, and she backed up and kissed him, then put her mouth to his ear.
“When your huge cock is nailing me to the bed or the floor or against a window. Then all I’m hungry for is you…only you.”
She reached down, squeezing his cock through his jeans, and he groaned. “Such a tease. Now I have to go eat with a hard-on.”
Noosh grinned at him. “Not necessarily.”
“Oh?”
“Get in the car and drive, Montecito.”
She went down on him in the car, sucking and teasing his cock until he came, swallowing his seed down. Christo somehow managed to keep control of the car, and then as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, he got out of the car and took her hand.
“My turn,” he said and led her into a dark alleyway at the rear of the restaurant. He pushed up her dress and ripped her panties from her. Lifting her up, he fucked her against the wall, clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle her cries. Noosh let her hair fall over both of them as she kissed him. God, would she ever get tired of this? Ever?
“God, I love you so much,” she whispered then came, shivering and shuddering as Christo pumped his seed deep into her belly.
Giggling, they went to eat, then went home and made love again. Noosh pushed every other thought away and just memorized every moment with this incredible man.
They fell asleep just after midnight, but were woken at three o’clock by a call from a sobbing, hysterical Allison, calling them to tell them Liam was dead.
Outside, the pre-dawn New York sky was a sickly shade of yellow, but Noosh stared at it unseeing. She felt numb and cold, even Christo’s arms around her didn’t help.
Liam had been mugged, or so the police said, on his way home from work. He’d tried to fight them off and they had stabbed him to death. Liam, her buddy, her pal, was gone – and in her bones, Noosh knew this was Destry sending her a warning sign. It was too coincidental.
For fuck’s sake, she berated herself, not everything is about you, woman. It wasn’t unheard of, after all, for people to be mugged in this city. Jesus.
She told herself that a few times before the message pinged on her phone, and with a sinking heart, she realized she had been right.
One down, six to go. Days that is…you know what to do.
Bastard. She wanted to scream, but she knew he had her. His meaning was clear. Break it off with the man you love and be mine…or I’ll kill them all. Another message came soon after.
Make an excuse and meet me in the alleyway next to the hospital in ten minutes. Be even a second late, and I’ll give the order for your mother to be killed.
All the air was pushed from her lungs, and reigning in all the panic she felt, she turned to Christo. “I need a minute. I need some air.”
“It’s not safe out there alone.”
She tried to smile at him. “It’ll just be for a minute.”
Reluctantly he let her go. Like an automaton, Noosh walked down the stairs and to the alleyway behind the hospital.
“Good. You’re early.”
Noosh walked straight up to him. “Kill me. Now. This minute. Because I would rather die than spend a moment longer being hunted by you.”
Destry smiled. “You’re under the impression you’re in charge here. In case you still think that…” He handed her his phone. On it, a video was playing, a live stream. Two people tied to chairs, beaten and bloody. Noosh almost passed out. Her parents.
“No…no…please…let them go.”
“My pleasure. You just have to do one thing. Break up with your boyfriend. But here’s the rub, Noosh. You’ll be wearing a wire because I want to hear it. I want to hear you break his heart. I want to hear you tell him you don’t love him, that you never did.”
Noosh gasped. “You really are a psychopath. Did you have Liam killed or are you just using a tragedy for your own purposes?”
“You know the answer to that, Anoushka.” Destry touched her face, and she winced away from him. He looked over her shoulder. “Do it.”
Noosh turned to see one of Destry’s goons behind her. Helpless, she let him wire her. This was really happening, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Oh god…
Destry’s expression was hard as stone. �
�When you go home, tell your boyfriend you’re leaving. I’ll send Gerry to pick you up. You know what to do.” He grabbed her face, pinching it hard between his fingers. “I’ll be listening. When I think you’ve done a good enough job, I’ll release your father. When you’re at my apartment, I’ll give the order to release your mother.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
Destry gave her a wintry smile. “You don’t.”
He turned and got back into the blacked-out sedan, leaving Noosh to stare in horror after him.
Christo was getting antsy waiting for her, so when Noosh reappeared, he breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at her, but her face was drawn and pale. “Are you okay?”
Noosh didn’t answer and wouldn’t meet his eye. Instead, she went to Allison, who was sitting, mute with shock, and put her arms around her. “I think you need to go home now, Ally. There’s nothing more we can do here. Liam’s family will be here soon.”
Allison shook her head. “I want to wait for them. You and Christo should go. Seth is on his way too.”
Allison wouldn’t take any argument, so ten minutes later they were back in Christo’s car, heading for the apartment. Noosh said nothing, just stared out of the window. Christo took her hand with his free one, but she didn’t wrap her fingers around his like she normally did. Christo felt a ribbon of unease curl in his stomach, and when they were back in his apartment, he took her in his arms.
“I know this must be diffi –”
“Christofalo, we need to talk.” Her voice, normally so warm with a current of humor in it, was cold and dead. Christo nodded, his heart beginning to beat uncomfortably against his ribs.
“Okay.”
Noosh stepped away from the circle of his arms. “Christofalo…I don’t want this anymore.”
He was confused. “Want what?”
She met his gaze. “This. Us.”
It took a moment for her words to sink it. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s over. It’s done.”
No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 12