Out of air, her head pounding, stars sparkling in front of her eyes, she lurched down the center aisle, out the doors, and through the lobby. Outside on the stone steps, she gulped lungful after lungful of air and fought the sobs threatening to steal her precious oxygen. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing.
In and out.
Breathe.
In and out.
He only wanted my property! He never wanted me.
Breathe in and out.
In and out.
Warm hands gripped her elbows. Warm, large masculine hands.
Her eyes flew open. “Garrett,” she squeaked.
“Are you okay? You’re hyperventilating.”
She blinked several times to clear the fog.
“Are you all right?” he asked again.
She jerked back. “What do you think?”
“What happened in there?”
“Like you don’t know.” She glared at him. “Rhett and Aidan tried to steal my property, and you knew it! Hell, you were helping them.”
He reached for her again. “That’s not true. It’s not what you think, Lily.”
She stepped away from him. “I trusted you, Garrett.”
Her emotions suddenly betrayed her. Tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t let him know how bad they had hurt her. Bad enough the two of them had won. She turned and stumbled down the steps, practically running across the street to the parking lot to get to her truck.
Footsteps sounded behind her. “Lily, wait!”
She skidded to a stop and pivoted, surprising Garrett. “You stay away from me. You stay away from my nursery! You hear me?” She raced to her truck and locked herself inside.
He didn’t follow.
Garrett watched Lily sprint to the parking lot and debated whether to chase after her. His gut told him she wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say. This whole mess had turned rancid fast. He sprinted back to the Council Chamber and ran square into Rob and Tammy exiting Town Hall.
“Is it over?” he demanded. “Did Rhett get there in time?”
Lily’s friends gave him a communal glare that could strip the paint off his Corvette.
“If you hurry, you can still hear your boss go through the list of code violations,” Rob growled. “Asshole!”
Garrett blocked their path. “You can’t go. You have to stay and listen to him.”
“The hell we do!” Tammy cried and tried to shove him out of the way.
Garrett refused to budge. “Rhett didn’t know, dammit!”
“Is this how you work it?” Rob shouted. “Send your people in to do the dirty work, and then you come along and act all innocent?”
“Hell no!”
Rob stepped in close. “You can’t have people do that much damage without knowing about it or calling the shots.”
“Dammit, I’m telling you the truth.”
Rob gave him a good hard shove and then elbowed past Garrett, dragging Tammy with him.
Garrett scrubbed a palm down his face. “God, help me here. I only wanted to be even, and now I’ve ruined Rhett’s life.” He turned and pressed through the Town Hall doors.
Rhett felt sucker-punched. He should have been ready with the right words. He knew the score before he arrived. But the look on Lily’s face when she said, “Get away from me,” had stopped him cold. The pain and betrayal he saw in her eyes made him want to weep for the first time since his parents had died, and the hatred that flashed in her eyes next squeezed his heart so hard he feared the worthless organ might explode. He couldn’t even chase her down. He had to stay and fight. He could not allow Whittenhurst to steal Lily’s nursery.
Rhett stood alone in the center aisle of the Council Chamber. He motioned Aidan to have a seat. Tammy and Rob had stomped out as soon as he and Bealer exchanged introductions. He intended to finish this. If he did one thing right in this mess, it would be to save Lily’s nursery.
“So you hired Mr. Whittenhurst to pursue the sale of Ms. Foster’s property,” Bealer was saying.
Rhett glowered at Whittenhurst who had risen and was standing next to him. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Whittenhurst swallowed hard. “I can explain everything, Mr. Buchanan.”
“No, you can’t,” Rhett growled.
“Would you care to explain, Mr. Buchanan?” Bealer asked.
“Actually, Magistrate Bealer—” Whittenhurst began.
“Quiet!” Rhett roared, and Whittenhurst flushed to his hairline.
Rhett turned back to address Bealer. “Carstairs Whittenhurst was part of my BDC legal team assigned to find and secure new development properties, fulfilling a pre-determined set of criteria. A list of three properties had recently been approved for acquisition, and Ms. Foster’s nursery was one of those properties.”
“Did you just say Whittenhurst was part of a legal team?” Bealer asked. “As in past tense?”
“That is correct. He has since been fired.”
Whittenhurst gasped. “Since when?”
“Yes, since when?” Bealer asked.
“Since now,” Rhett growled at Whittenhurst. “Pack up your briefcase and get out. We’ll send you any belongings you left at BDC.”
Whittenhurst puffed up as though he would contest the order.
Rhett leaned in close, his voice so low only Whittenhurst could hear. “Unless you want me to drag your sorry ass in front of the Bar Association on an ethics charge for conflict of interest and trying to steal your client’s property, I suggest you get moving.”
Whittenhurst paled and quickly packed up his briefcase and tried to ease out around Rhett, who grabbed his arm.
“If I find out you’re behind that propane tank explosion and you put Lily’s life in danger, you better hope the fire inspector finds you before I do,” Rhett snarled in a ragged whisper and let him go.
“I swear I don’t know anything about it,” Whittenhurst gasped and scurried from the Council Chamber before Rhett could grab him again.
“Mr. Buchanan, would you please explain what the devil is going on here? I’m losing complainants and defendants right and left.”
Rhett straightened. “I hired Whittenhurst as I said. I was led to believe all three properties on the short list his legal team had prepared were for sale. Since Ms. Foster’s property was not for sale, and Ms. Foster was not made aware of a code inspection, I can only assume any person or persons conducting such an inspection trespassed on her property, making such information inadmissible in this arena. Would you not agree?”
Bealer stared intently at Rhett for several moments. “And you were not behind any of this?”
“I was also led to believe the Jupiter property was no longer available,” Rhett responded.
“Well then, why would Mr. Whittenhurst go to—”
“One of the many reasons,” Rhett interjected, “why Mr. Whittenhurst is no longer in my employ.”
Bealer sat back in his chair and exhaled. “I agree with you as to the inadmissibility of the illegally-acquired inspection information and as such, will drop the code-violation complaint. I cannot however restore the grandfathered status of Ms. Foster’s right to reside at her business property, as the admissible argument-to-void was based on sound legal precedent, case law, and promulgated city code.”
Rhett sighed and nodded his agreement.
“Thus I render this case complete. The Code Compliance Special Magistrate Meeting will adjourn for a twenty-minute recess.” He banged his gavel and exited the chamber through a door to the right of the dais.
Rhett turned and spotted Delia trying to squirm out of the row behind him, and he latched onto her arm. “Just where do you think you’re going?”
She actually batted her eyelashes and drawled
, “Why Rhett Buchanan, fancy meeting you here. I was just on my way out.”
“Mind telling me why you’re at a Special Code Compliance Meeting?”
“Well, I, uh—”
“Why?” He gave her arm a little jerk.
“You’re hurting me.”
“No, I’m not. Tell me why you’re here.”
“I thought I was supposed to meet Daddy here. He’s going to take me to lunch today. Guess I got the wrong meeting.” She gave a half-hearted giggle. “Silly me.”
“No, I think you had the right meeting, Delia,” he said menacingly and watched her eyes go wide. “You and your daddy are up to your eyeballs in this with Whittenhurst, and I intend to get to the bottom of it.”
“Well, I never,” she huffed and struggled to free her arm from his grasp. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If I catch you within a hundred yards of Lily Foster, I can and will bury you and your father so deep the legal system won’t be able to dig you out.”
“That’s no problem.” Delia sniffed. “I don’t want anything to do with her. It’s you I care about.”
“And I don’t want to see you ever again.” He tossed her arm free.
“You can’t mean that, Rhett,” she said, her drawl all but gone. “You and I are too good together. I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it!” he snapped and started for the chamber doors.
“Rhett, I can explain everything,” she called after him.
He kept walking without a backward glance.
“You’ll come back to me. You always do.”
He heard an angry Aidan Cross tell Delia, “Even if Rhett lets you off the hook, I won’t. I’m going to get to the bottom of this mess you and your sharks tried to involve me in. You can bet on it.”
Rhett smiled grimly and stepped through the chamber doors.
Garrett appeared at his side and thumped him on the back. “Nice job! You saved Lily’s property and got rid of Whittenhurst and Delia.”
“But I lost Lily’s cottage,” he said disgustedly. “We didn’t get here in time.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve made a mess of things for you.”
“That’s not true at all,” Rhett said. “If it hadn’t been for you, Whittenhurst would have coerced Lily into selling sooner or later, and I never would have known.”
The two men strode through the lobby without stopping.
“Why didn’t you turn Whittenhurst in for ethics violations?” Garrett asked when they stepped outside. “Why didn’t you tell them Whittenhurst was trying to steal the property himself? He went after a property you hired him to acquire. That has to be a conflict-of-interest rap.”
Rhett stopped to face him. “Whittenhurst is too sharp an attorney and would squirm out of any ethics violations with a hand slap. Me firing him, on the other hand, has far worse repercussions for him. A man like that has more pride than is healthy for one human being and an ego to match. Word will get around that I fired him, and BDC has friends all over the world, so the story will definitely get around. Stigma like that for a man like Whittenhurst is worse than a prison sentence.”
Garrett sighed. “I sure hope you’re right after what he did to Lily.”
“Standing there next to Whittenhurst, I had all I could do not to throw him out of the chamber on his ass,” Rhett said.
“I caught up with Lily out here.”
A stab of hope sped up his heartbeat, and he locked eyes with Garrett.
His friend grimaced. “She wouldn’t speak to me, just took off. Tammy and Rob did, too, but I tried to get them to stay. No one from Bloom & Grow was here to see what you did.”
“Damn,” Rhett grumbled. “Let’s go. I’ve done enough damage for one day.”
He turned toward the parking lot and froze. Tammy Waynette waited on the sidewalk.
She stepped forward. “I came back to the Council Chamber. I was afraid Garrett was telling the truth.”
Garrett leaned in. “I told Tammy you didn’t know what Whittenhurst was up to.”
Rhett met her gaze. “I didn’t. I only found out this morning.”
She nodded. “I heard everything. Thank you for what you did for Lily.”
“I wasn’t in time to save her cottage,” he said grimly. “She won’t be allowed to rebuild.”
She smiled. “No, but she’s needed a place of her own for a long time. She’ll be all right.”
“Tell her—”
“Tell her what, Rhett?” Tammy asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing. It wouldn’t matter.” He stepped around her. “If you’ll excuse me.”
“I’ll catch up in a minute, Rhett,” Garrett called after him and moved to Tammy’s side.
“Oh no,” she said, staring at him, “I don’t like that look in your eye.” She turned to go. “And I know I don’t want to hear whatever it is you’re about to tell me.”
Garrett pulled her back. “Now just listen to me for one minute.”
Chapter 18
Tammy walked into the nursery office and found Lily busily working at her desk as though the man she loved had not just tried to steal her beloved nursery.
“Here you are. I went to the apartment thinking you’d be over there. You disappeared when we got back from Town Hall.”
Lily kept her head down, kept right on writing.
“I saw Rob outside. He said you showed up right after I dropped him off.”
She shrugged noncommittally. “I had errands to run, and now I have work to do.”
“Are you okay, Lil?”
She nodded, but still didn’t look up.
“Rob said Rhett has called twice, but you refused to talk to him.”
She didn’t bother to nod this time, but her pencil stopped momentarily.
“Aidan Cross called, too. Twice.”
That did make Lily look up. “I don’t want to talk to him either. He’s involved in this somehow.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute. Things may not be what you think,” Tammy declared. “Lily, I—”
“Believe it! Aidan was over at BDC the day I was delivering the interior plants, and he and Rhett were meeting over swapping properties. I hate all of them.”
“Lily Foster, you’ve never hated anyone in your whole life, and right now, you’re going to sit there and listen. I’ve got some splainin’ to do.”
Rhett lounged in a deck chair and stared out across the dunes as late afternoon storm clouds formed out over the Atlantic. He took a long pull on the first of the three beers he had carried out from the kitchen. Mrs. Burkhart had left him a casserole warming in the oven, which he ignored opting instead to change clothes and sulk on his deck.
He had stalked out of his Palm Beach headquarters after an unsuccessful afternoon spent trying to concentrate on at least one of his development projects. He had barked at his astonished secretary, chewed the heads off two design directors, and told Garrett to get lost when he showed up unannounced in Rhett’s office. He’d had to get out before his employees staged a revolt.
After driving around Palm Beach for a while, he had given up and gone home to Jupiter Island. Funny word . . . home. Never had his mansion felt more like a real home than the few days Lily had lived there. He had dreaded the emptiness he knew he would find when he got here, and he hadn’t been disappointed.
He took another long pull on his beer and lamented over his situation, listening to the waves crash against the sandy shore. The wind had picked up out of the east, and the waves held more than their usual exuberance.
He had lost Lily, and he would never her back.
No possible explanation he could give would be believable. As far as she was concerned, Rhett had tried to steal her beloved nursery an
d endangered her life by blowing up her propane tank. Though his presence at her cottage the night of the fire might have given him a slim chance of acquittal, Lily had definitely caught him—almost naked—on the floor on top of Delia Armstead wearing a see-through nightgown. No man alive could talk his way out of that one. A woman would have to be crazy in love with a guy to forgive that scenario, and he hadn’t had enough time with Lily for that possibility.
He had dreamed up several ploys to win Lily back and had cast them all aside—the most foolish being to buy all the plant stock at Bloom & Grow in small quantities, so he had a perpetual string of inspections to do. Hell, Lily would just send Rob or Tammy to do the inspection in her place.
He stared in the direction of Sea Turtle Park and thought of the night his odyssey with Lily had begun. He had known on some elemental level that first night that Lily was a perfect fit for him, instinctively knew she was different from any woman he had ever known. His gut had never steered him wrong, yet he hadn’t listened to his gut when he felt sure she had betrayed him. He had let Lily go—shoved her away—and the light had gone out of his world.
He had gained that precious light back only days ago and experienced a peace he had never known—an unbreakable bond—until the bitch Delia had worked her evil. He knew in his soul Lily had felt their link, too. So, how could she not trust him? How could she toss their future away like so much trash?
He knew things had looked bad when Lily stood in the doorway to his bedroom, horrible in fact, but she hadn’t let him explain. Had not taken his calls.
Dammit, she owes me a chance to explain! Even a felon gets his day in court.
Rhett eased from his chair and moved to the edge of the deck where he could see past the shrubbery border to the boundary for Sea Turtle Park. A sudden inexplicable anger flooded through him, and his jaw clenched hard. Dammit, he hadn’t done anything wrong! Hurling his half-full can of beer into the landscaping, he stalked off the deck, needing to walk off his frustration if that was even possible. Down the deck steps and out through the garden, he headed toward Sea Turtle Park.
Cinderella Busted (The Cinderella Romances #1) Page 32