Laughter filled the tub again as wineglasses were refilled and the conversation began to dissolve into hilarity.
“Hey, what happened to Sax’s car?” Tally suddenly asked, her question creating a ripple effect that had silence filling the tub.
“There’s nothing wrong with the car.” Marey frowned. “Why?”
“The sheriff’s office was towing it off as Lucian and I left the office. I was just curious… Ouch, Ella, why the hell did you pinch me?”
“Because you don’t play dumb nearly well enough,” Ella snapped, her eyes glinting in anger as she set her glass on the deck behind her. “Let’s hope we’ve all had enough to last us for a while because I bet we get cut off for a long time after this one.”
Marey’s eyes narrowed as her heart began to beat furiously in her chest. She turned to Kimberly. She was now part of Delacourte’s security team and would know more than any of the rest of the ladies.
“I like my job, Marey,” she sighed. “Don’t make me jeopardize it. But I promise you, everything is under control.”
“Vince,” she whispered. “He did something to the car.”
“I think I overheard someone mentioning a damaged brake line and possible deterioration before the car reached the cliffs.” Tally was on a roll, and her own anger showing now. “She’s not a child, she deserves the truth.”
“I bet Lucian and Devril don’t spank you for a week,” Ella muttered.
“You and James lied to me.” Marey turned on Ella, fury flaming inside her. “You were going along with it, Ella?”
Ella stared back at her unapologetically.
“For now,” she admitted defensively. “Dammit, Marey, you’re ready to run from Sax at the least excuse. I wasn’t about to see you get an excuse. I don’t want to see you dead.”
“You’d rather see Sax dead?” she yelled back, jumping to her feet as she stumbled from the hot tub, pulling the towel around her as Ella joined her. “What do you think that would do to me, Ella?”
“Well, no one is dead this way,” Ella shouted back as she knotted the towel between her breasts. “You’re so stubborn, Marey, you’d cut your own nose off to spite your face. Sax can protect you.”
“I don’t need his protection or yours,” Marey spat furiously. “Damn you, Ella, you had no right to lie to me.”
“Why not?” she snapped. “You lie to yourself all the damned time. It shouldn’t bother you so fucking bad when someone else tries to do no more than protect you from your own foolishness.”
“I’m here aren’t I?” Marey nearly screamed. “I’m sleeping in his damned bed and he’s fucking me regularly. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“More to the point, it’s what you want and deny yourself with any and every excuse,” Ella accused her, crossing her arms over her breasts, her expression mulish, defiant. “I just wanted to make certain you didn’t come up with a new excuse.”
“It was none of your business…”
“The hell it wasn’t. Do you think we enjoyed sitting in that goddamned hospital room with you after he nearly killed you?” Ella yelled, her own voice hoarse with her anger. “Get a clue here, Marey, he wants you dead.”
“Get a clue here, Ella, you’re a nosey bitch,” Marey snarled.
“And you’re a stubborn bitch.” Ella was nearly in her face now, nose to nose, her face flushed in anger. “And if you try to walk out on Sax over this I’m going to beat you myself.”
“Oh, be careful, baby, you might make me hot,” Marey mocked her heatedly. “Wouldn’t that be a new stroke of pleasure for the bastards?”
“Ewww. They’re going to get all pissy and gross now,” Tess announced to one and all. “Someone go find Sax and James to cool them down.”
“Shut up, Tess.” They both turned on her, snarling furiously before turning back to each other.
“Well, I can see we left you ladies alone too long,” Sax spoke from the sliding doors, his voice calm, a shade mocking as Marey turned to him slowly.
His arms were crossed over his broad chest, his teeth flashing in a mocking smile as the others stood behind him, watching the scene outside with varying expressions of disapproval.
Her eyes narrowed on him before she looked to each one in turn.
“Remember me telling you that you were going to piss me off?” she asked him then, her voice sarcastically sweet.
His brows lifted slowly.
“Consider me pissed off.”
She swept into the house, shaking with rage and fear. Fear uppermost. It crawled through her system, twisting her stomach in knots that threatened to send her to the bathroom heaving.
Vince wouldn’t stop, she knew. He was proving it. And dear God, she didn’t know if she could bear losing Sax.
10
“This is a mistake, Marey, please don’t do this.” The driver pulled the limo into the parking lot of the hotel as Ella voiced yet another plea that she return to Sax’s.
“I have to think,” she muttered, staring out the window into the brightly lit interior of the hotel lobby.
“Vince isn’t sane…”
“I know that, Ella,” Marey sighed tiredly.
“Sax loves you, Marey…”
“Ella.” James voice was low, soothing. “Sax and Marey have to fight this out themselves.”
Marey looked over at James, the concern on his face, the worry, before she looked back to Ella.
“I love you, you old harpy,” she said softly. “And I know he cares. I just have to figure out what I’m doing here. I can’t do that with him hovering over me. I’ll be careful though, I promise.”
Ella sighed regretfully. “Fine. And I love you too. Even if your decisions do suck sometimes.”
“Most of the time,” Marey admitted with a sigh, already missing Sax, uncertain if the decision she had made in anger was one should stick to now that the rage was dimming.
“We can take you back, Marey,” James offered, his voice gentle.
“No.” She drew in a deep breath as the driver opened the door and stood aside patiently.
She hugged Ella quickly.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
She jumped from the car before she could change her mind, striding purposely into the hotel, refusing to look back.
“You know, if stubborn had a name, it would be Marey.”
Marey froze in the act of securing the hotel door and turned slowly.
Sax.
Well, this explained why James had the chauffer drive around aimlessly while Ella argued with Marey.
“Boy, when they say Trojans stick together, they mean it,” she snorted. “How much did you have to bribe the concierge to arrange this one?”
The hotel was the best in the city, security had always been exemplary.
“Delacourte/Conover holds an account here,” he informed her, his voice cool. “The owner also happens to be a member of The Club.”
She snorted at that. She should have figured that one out on her own.
She stood silently, her hands fisting in the loose material of her dress as she stared back at him.
He stood in the center of the room, his feet braced apart, his head tilted as he watched her, his eyes dark and brooding.
“If you’re finished being pissed, we can go back to the house now,” he said patiently.
Her teeth snapped together angrily.
“Can you get any more arrogant?” she snapped. “Maybe I don’t want to go back.”
“And maybe you like to lie to both of us too damned much,” he suggested silkily, moving to her, slow, relaxed, his steps stalking.
She wasn’t going to run from him, she promised herself. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Or was that, deny herself the satisfaction? She was as sick as Ella and the others.
“You know, Marey,” he whispered, his voice soft, dangerous. “It occurs to me that somewhere, somehow, you’re going to have to trust someone. Trust starts here and now. Bend over on the bed.”