by Zuri Day
There was a long pause. “His first name, please?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ll need his entire name to connect the call. We can’t provide any information on our guests.”
“Did you hear me? This is Chris Breedlove. As in the president of the hotel that employs you. As in your boss.”
“I’m really so sorry, but how do I know this is you? We have very strict policies regarding the privacy of our—”
Cursing under his breath, Christian hung up the phone. It may have been the first time in his life he was pissed at someone for explicitly following the rules and being great at their job. And why hadn’t Lauren called him back? Suddenly more concerned for her welfare than aggravated at the abrupt disconnection, or her call, he left his office and headed toward the hallway that led to his garage. He paused just briefly in front of the rack of keys beside the door, grabbed the one to his sports Lexus coupe and pushed the button to open the third garage door.
Seconds after he’d backed out of the space and headed down the long driveway, his Bluetooth announced a call. He hoped it was Lauren. It wasn’t.
“Mom, has Lauren called you?”
“I’m well, son, thanks for asking. Good afternoon to you, too!”
“Sorry, but I don’t have time for formalities right now. I just got a weird call from Lauren. She might be in trouble.”
“What was weird about it?”
“For starters she lied to her father, told him that we got married in Djibouti!”
“Oh, dear.”
“I told her about how Chloe tried to trap me and here she goes and does the same thing!”
“Lauren isn’t manipulative like Chloe, honey. For her to do what she did, there had to be a very good reason. Something concerning her safety, or that of someone she loves.”
“Do you know something?” he demanded.
“I probably have an idea.”
“Well?” A frustrated hand ran through his tightly curled coils as he navigated the roadway. “Do you want to let me in on it? Wait, did you already know about this?”
“About her saying you two were married? Of course not. I do know she left the East Coast to get away from an annoying, determined ex, the one who is probably at the hotel right now. If that’s true, then I’m sure she had a very good reason to do what she did, and an explanation that will make everything make sense. For her to take such drastic action, her back had to be against the wall. Just let her explain, okay?”
Christian had heard enough. He shifted gears and gave the sporty luxury vehicle the chance to live up to its claim of zero to sixty in seconds. Victoria wouldn’t tell him what was happening. Christian didn’t care. All he knew was that Lauren had better do the right thing. He couldn’t get to the hotel fast enough.
Seventeen
The unexpected, insistent knock at the door caused all three in the room to jump. Conversation ceased mid-sentence as Lauren, Paul and Ed looked toward the door. Lauren’s first thought was that someone had called security. Their talking had grown heated, and voices were raised. Perhaps, like her, a guest in one of the adjoining rooms had heard enough.
After sharing a brief look with her father, Ed walked to the door. He peered out the peephole.
“Who is it?” Paul asked.
“I don’t know,” Ed said, still looking.
“Security?”
Lauren’s dad had voiced her thought.
“I don’t think so,” was Ed’s curt reply.
Another knock came. It was louder this time, as though done with the meaty part of the hand and not with the knuckles.
“Lauren,” the person outside of the room said. “I know you’re in there. Open the door.”
Christian!
She moved toward the door.
Ed spun around with his arm out. “Stay back.”
“Open the door,” Lauren said, feeling as though Christian were the cavalry come to save her. “Let him in!”
Another banging from the other side of the wood. “I’m giving you three seconds to open this door. Do it, or I will.”
With one final glare, Ed opened the door. “Who are you?” he demanded. “And what do you want?”
Two seconds after the door to the hotel suite opened, Lauren knew what a knight in shining armor looked like. Christian took the cliché of tall, dark and handsome to a whole other level, and with his shoulders squared, eyes darkened with fury and his panther-like movements, he looked like a superhero. He pushed past Ed, who turned as if to attack him from behind.
“Don’t even think about it.” Delivered in a voice that was deadly quiet as the person behind it, Adam stepped through the door.
“Who are you?” Paul demanded. “What are you doing in my room?”
“Not quite the way I envisioned meeting my father-in-law,” Christian drawled as he crossed the room, reached Lauren and slid a possessive arm around her waist. “But Mr. Hart—I assume you are Mr. Hart—I’ve come to collect my wife.”
Paul’s gaze shifted from Christian to Lauren. Her heart broke at the look of hurt in his eyes, and something else that seconds later she realized was abject fear.
“Do you want to stay here?” Christian asked her.
“No,” she replied softly, as the gravity of the situation and of her knee-jerk declaration began to sink in. She moved toward her father. “Come with me, Daddy, so we can talk.”
“You’d better take her up on it,” Ed snarled. “It will be one of the last times you’ll get a chance to do it without a sheet of Plexiglas between you.”
Christian turned to Ed. “Is that a threat?”
“What’s it to you? Mind your business. As for you—” Ed pointed an accusatory finger at Lauren “—know that whatever happens to Paul from now on lands squarely on your shoulders. Your father is getting ready to take a fall and you’re the one to blame.”
“Not if Gerald has anything to say about it. Unlike you, your dad is an upstanding man with character and integrity. He’ll give Dad time to pay back what he owes. So save your threats for someone they’ll scare.”
“Do you think this is about money? No, it’s about you. And if this marriage actually happened, you’ll regret it, mark my words. There’s more than one way to bring a man down. And his entire family along with him.”
“That’s enough.” Two words delivered with such quiet authority that the room quieted in an instant. Christian stared at Ed for several heated seconds before speaking to Lauren.
“Sweetheart, why don’t we give your father some time alone? I think everyone could use a break, a chance to calm down and...” Lauren felt his body stiffen as he turned to her ex. “A chance for you to get your things and get the hell out of my hotel.”
Christian turned to Adam. “Can you handle that for me, baby bro?”
“Wait a damn minute,” Ed snarled, clearly unaccustomed to being told what to do. “I’m a paying guest and this is a public space. You can’t throw me out.”
Christian took a step toward Ed. Adam blocked his path. “Take care of Lauren, brother.” He slid his eyes toward Ed with quiet determination. “I’ve got this.”
“Dad...” Lauren began, but Christian’s grip suggested she had one choice, and that was to go with him.
“Your dad will be fine, Lauren,” Adam said. “You have my word.”
Lauren hugged her father. “Everything will work out,” she whispered, having no idea given what she’d heard how that could be true. She reached for her purse without so much as a glance at Ed.
“This isn’t over,” he told her.
“It’s over,” Christian said.
He opened the door and led Lauren out of the hotel room without looking back.
“I can explain everything,” Lauren whispered, mere seconds into the hallway.
From Christian, not a word, but the hold on her arm relaxed.
“I’m sorry,” she offered.
His silence was loud.
They reached the elevator. He pushed the up button.
“Where are we going?” Lauren asked.
The elevator arrived. Christian pulled out a card and slid it into the slot. A panel opened, revealing six unmarked buttons. He pushed the top button on the right. Pulled out his card. The panel closed. He leaned against the elevator wall and stared straight ahead.
“Are you going to say anything?”
A sigh underscored his annoyance. “We’re going where total and complete privacy is guaranteed. Once there, the only one who will be talking is you.”
* * *
The suite they entered was beyond luxurious. The first thing Lauren noticed was the pool on the balcony more than a hundred feet in the air. She knew this wasn’t the day for a guided tour, though. As soon as the door closed, Christian laid into her.
“Speak.”
Lauren was immediately affronted but calmed herself down. He’d been blindsided by her the way she’d been bushwhacked by her father. He had a right to be angry and right now, she did not.
“Ed is blackmailing my dad.”
She expected a response. When it didn’t happen, she looked up. Christian stood waiting, arms crossed, clearly wondering what Ed and her father’s issues had to do with him and marriage.
“It’s a personal situation involving my father. What’s happening between him and Ed is not my problem, or secret to share. To do so could get my dad in trouble. I know it sounds crazy and I want to, but I can’t.”
“You have no choice. Obviously your father coming here made his problem yours, one that caused you to lie and say we were married. Which now makes me involved in whatever’s happening and that, darling, gives me a right to know all.”
Lauren watched Christian cross the room and take a seat, as if to underscore the fact that without some type of answers they weren’t going anywhere.
“You’re right.” She took a deep breath and joined him on the couch. “First of all, I’m so sorry for involving you. I’m not prone to lying and obviously don’t do it very well, especially when in a state of shock. Finding out that my dad was here was enough of a surprise, but learning that Ed was with him only added to my angst.”
“While this is all very interesting, sweetheart, would you mind cutting to the chase?”
“Okay...fine.” Clenching her hands together on her lap, she finally blurted, “I thought Dad borrowed money from Ed. He didn’t. He embezzled from the company and Ed found out. Ed threatened to file criminal charges on Dad unless he and I got married.”
“And you thought to get out of marrying Ed by saying you were already married to me.”
“The words jumped out before I could catch them. I didn’t have time to think about the repercussions or you even finding out. It was just so I could buy enough time to help my father pay back what he owes Ed. But he didn’t believe me so I was forced to call you and prove it was true.”
“To prove that your lie was the truth.”
Christian’s brow furrowed. Even in her dismay Lauren couldn’t help notice that she’d never seen a finer scowl.
“Basically.”
“Why did your dad steal from the company?”
“That was the hard part of what I learned, the piece of the puzzle Dad kept from everyone, even my mom.” Lauren paused, her heart breaking with the thought of how her proud father would never want anyone to know of the depths gone to because of his financial plight.
“He was deeply in debt and never told us, had taken out a huge bank loan with their beautiful, forever dream home as collateral. He borrowed the money to repay that loan.”
“He embezzled company funds to pay off a loan?”
“Yes, one that a friend at the bank set up to be repaid over a longer time than was usually allowed. That friend left. His replacement demanded the repayment be made immediately and in full. Dad is one of the most honest, upstanding and loyal men I’ve ever known. He fully intended to put back what he borrowed without anyone knowing what happened.”
“But Ed found out,” Christian surmised.
“Unfortunately, yes, which means Gerald, Ed’s father who not only owns the company but is my dad’s good friend, could also know the truth if Ed carried out the threat to tell him. Or worse, to call the police. Having Gerald think less of him would kill my father, and having the embezzlement made public would be like a tombstone on the grave. His name and reputation mean everything.”
“How can a father use his own daughter as a pawn in a business deal?”
“I’m sure Dad didn’t see it that way, at least not at first. Ed can be convincing. He had my father thinking that his intentions toward me were honorable. His true nature and threats of blackmail came only after I refused to go along with the plan.
“For the past few years it’s been one blow after another, with my father treading water while trying to right a sinking ship. The moment Ed decided to check those books, his luck ran out.”
“How much money are we talking?”
“Well into six figures. Enough to make what my father did a felony that, if Ed goes through with his threat, could get Dad locked up for a very long time.”
“So Ed threatened to have your father charged if he couldn’t have you. Sounds like a man obsessed, and after our trip to Africa, I can understand why.”
The sudden tenderness in Christian’s voice made Lauren’s eyes misty and produced a slight smile. “I appreciate your saying that but trust me, the only person Ed is obsessed with is himself. He’s used to getting what he wants and can’t handle rejection.”
“Ah, so you rejected him.”
“Not fast enough,” she confessed. “As you may have guessed, he’s the ex I’ve mentioned several times when we’ve talked about dating.”
“I did. The ex who now wants you back.”
“The ex who wants to save face. Apparently he found another girl like I’d been, young, naive, and told everyone they’d be married. When their relationship ended, he needed another bride. That’s when he tried to get back with me. My answer was no, unequivocally.
“His anger at the rejection and potential embarrassment turned into obsession. I had no idea he harbored these feelings, though, not until my dad did what he did and Ed felt he finally had a way to make me obey him. He’s obsessed, but he doesn’t love me. He wants to have his way. He wants control.”
“That’s why he’s trying to force you into marriage, to keep your dad out of jail.”
“Yes.” Lauren turned toward Christian, her eyes angry, determined. “But I will not be manipulated. I just need time to figure out a solution. That’s what I was thinking when I did what I did.”
“But why me, though? You could have said you married anybody, even made up a name.”
“I told you why. It was a reflex. I didn’t have time to think.”
Christian stood and walked over to the window. Lauren could only imagine how he felt. She’d given him a lot to process, and that while still being in shock herself.
Christian began speaking, still gazing out the window. All traces of tenderness were gone. “If what you said is true, it’s a horrible story.”
“What do you mean, if?”
He turned around. “I think you know the meaning of that word. And you know I’ve been lied to before.”
“You think I’m lying, that I’ve made all of this up?”
Lauren got up and walked toward him, sure that he had to be speaking in jest. One look at his face, however, and she knew he was as serious as a brain surgeon in the operating room.
“Women have made up more for less.”
Lauren was speechless. Not that it mattered, as Christian had much more to say.
“With a sprained ankle!”
“You push your way,” he continued, voice raised, “into the company and the next thing you know you’re heading to Africa on a private plane.”
“You came to me with the idea of traveling to Africa.”
“Only after my mother campaigned on your behalf.”
“And I somehow manipulated that? I somehow put her up to having me take a trip I knew nothing about?” She shot daggers at him. “I didn’t invite myself to Africa. You asked that I join you. And now that’s my fault? Are you kidding me right now?”
“Do I look like I’m joking? My life is not a game, but I’ve been in it long enough to know that people will go to all sorts of lengths to get what they want, and I believe anybody is capable of doing anything.”
Lauren was beyond livid. She couldn’t think, could barely feel. Did he know how hard it had been to share the shame of her father? How he was being blackmailed and her back was against the wall?
“Somehow, this just got twisted. The only way that could have happened is for you not to have understood what I said.”
“Oh, I understood you,” he bit out.
“So you don’t believe me? Is that it?”
Christian spun away from the window and stalked toward the door. “I don’t know what to believe, but I know this. If one word about this fake marriage gets made public, you’re going to have much bigger problems than you do right now.”
Eighteen
Lauren hadn’t thought it possible to get angrier than she already was when Christian arrived in her father’s room. But after their private conversation? She was surprised flames hadn’t burst from her head. She could understand his being upset. She’d lied about their relationship, put him on the spot and involved him in a family matter much messier than she’d thought. But to think she’d done it on purpose? That there may have been an ulterior motive all along? What a blatant show of unmitigated gall!