Page 109 of Nothing to Deny
Maybe if she could figure that out, she wouldn’t be facing a lifetime alone. Truman was all she had. And he wouldn’t be around forever. Would she move into the house after he was gone? That big, echoey house. All alone. She loved living in itgrowing up, being there was a treat, and she’d rather have been there than at school most of the time.
Tripp laced his fingers between hers. “Come on.”
“Come on where?”
He hoisted her to her feet and used their joined hands to hook her back against his chest. Weaving her through the dancers, they slipped into the elevator and then were going up.
“Roxie’s got something for you upstairs.”
“For me?” The hostess hadn’t been at her side for a while. Roxie had a lot of people to entertain, so she hadn’t thought anything of it. Now she learned the woman hadn’t been in the room. “Upstairs where? What is it?”
“Just my job to get you there. I’ll be around if there’s trouble.”
Trouble?
Why would there be trouble? Oh, what had Roxie got them into now? The tenacious woman was bold and unapologetic, whatever awaited her wouldn’t be something subtle or benign.
They left the elevator on a floor of private suites. Not Roxie and Zairn’s penthouse. Was that reassuring or not? Still with a hold of her hand and their bodies pressed together, Tripp guided her up the corridor and reached over her to shove open a door to send it rocking back, presenting the room to her. There was Roxie, not alone, with a couple dozen other people milling around. This was a private-private party of some kind.
There was music, alcohol, servers, canapés… Her friend spotted her and quickly rushed over.
“Okay, don’t be mad,” Roxie said, maintaining her smile though there was almost a wince in her eyes. “It was a spontaneous decision. Toria’s suggestion actually…” Toria was another of Roxie’s girls. “This is the best way to get answers. We’re through letting them get away with it.”
“Letting who get away with what?”
At that moment, the door in the far corner opened and Toria came out with two men. One of whom stopped her in her tracks. Okay, she hadn’t actually been walking, but the whole world seemed to jar to a halt.
“Baer?” she hissed at Roxie, leaning in closer. “How did you get him here?”
“Honey, I get anything I want here. And if I phone for service, somewhere like Squires answers in a heartbeat. You know how much business we throw their way?” Roxie took her hand from Tripp. “We’re going to give him a piece of our mind.”
“Collectively?” Her friend led her across the room and her feet were too stunned to think about resisting. “Who are all these people?”
Roxie waved a dismissive hand over her shoulder. “People. Window dressing. A smokescreen, just like the half dozen other guys we requested from Squires.”
Now that she mentioned it, the male faces were familiar. No Donoghue or Leon, but she got a flashback or two to the James Bond convention. Did they recognize her? What did it matter? The only person who mattered—oh, God, Roxie was taking her over there. She couldn’t even bring herself to look up. Turned out she didn’t need to, he made himself known.
“What the hell is this?”
“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic, Baer,” Roxie said and blocked his way, gesturing toward the door still open behind him. “Get in there.”
He did as ordered, though his gait betrayed his reluctance, his anger.
“This how you get around what I said?” Baer asked, stopping next to the bed.
Yes, this was a bedroom. Great. Just where she needed to be holed up with him. The immaculate linens didn’t bear asingle crease. What a wonderful representation of their future. Pristine, perfect from afar but never to be touched.
“She knew nothing about this,” Roxie said. “This was all me. Freya is one of the best, most kind, generous, incredible women not only in the city, but in the whole damn world. And men like you, who think just because you’re pretty and women lineup, that you can treat kind, goodhearted people anyway you want. I say no. You don’t get to treat her like dirt. Any woman like dirt. You don’t pick them up, use them for their wealth—”
“Is that what she told you? Because the damn opposite is true. I don’t want anything to do with her money. She’s the one who chose to use it, to manipulate me and my family—”
Roxie laughed. “Not a chance I’ll believe that. Of Freya Dere? No one would. You should do your research before slandering a woman like her. You’re a creep, a letch, like all the other men who came before. You see her as a soft touch, a free ride. What you do allows you access to women with means, it doesn’t follow that you can treat them like crap. Having money doesn’t make them any less human. Did you think about that? What it’s like to never know why people want to be in your life?”
“Yeah, she sold me that line too. Missed the part where she wanted every guy kowtowed. I sell sex, sure, that doesn’t mean I’ll give up my free will to the highest bidder.”
She didn’t get it. “I never wanted your free will. I wanted us to be together. What I said in the car—I told Roxie, before I came over to yours, I didn’t want it to spook you. I could never have guessed it would make you do this. I don’t understand how so much can change in so little time.”
“You know exactly what you did. And it was nothing to do with what you said in the car.” He scoffed in a sort of ironic laugh. “I was pissed then, sure. Not because you said it, but because you told me not to say it back. I thought we were there. I thought we had this and then you—”
