Cinderella Busted (The Cinderella Romances #1) (36 page)

“Hell, no!” Aidan shouted back. “I came here to try to stop Whittenhurst. He’s trying to steal Lily’s nursery.”

“I know,” Rhett growled.

“And he tried to sell the nursery to me this morning.”

Garrett exchanged looks with Rhett. “At least now we know the why.”

Rhett gave Aidan a narrow-eyed glare. “Let’s go.”

His damned fingertips started to tingle, and he sprinted for Town Hall.

Bealer’s eyes went wide as he stared at Lily. Whittenhurst shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“The fire inspector’s initial investigation showed sabotage,” Lily clarified. “He’s waiting on samples to be sure.”

Bealer continued to stare at her for several long moments, then finally cleared his throat. “This new information certainly changes—”

“—nothing!” Whittenhurst exclaimed. “Absolutely nothing. My legal complaint is based on negating a misplaced grandfathered status on the ability to retain a residence at this business. The improvements have been duly completed, and the grandfathered status is lost. It matters not whether the house has burned, but only that it cannot be replaced.”

Bealer stared at Whittenhurst as if he had just sprouted two additional heads.

Whittenhurst extended his palms in a conciliatory gesture. “If that seems cold, well, the law often is. As you well know, Magistrate Bealer.”

Bealer cleared his throat again. “Yes, I suppose that’s . . . correct. The loss of grandfathered status, I mean.”

He glanced over at Lily. “I have so ruled on that particular code violation.”

Lily felt dizzy and grabbed the edge of the table. The fire inspector’s suspicions were her only ace-in-the-hole, once the Code Enforcement manager no-showed, and she should have known better. It was a sympathy ploy only. She was fighting attorneys. She should have hired one. She had risked her home and livelihood and the gainful employment of her dearest friends on bad judgment. Her bad judgment. She swore in that moment to spend the last dime of Hank’s trust fund making the nursery code-compliant and taking care of her employees—her family.

Whittenhurst had won handily. The nursery had indeed been improved over the years, and her code violations did exist. And if Whittenhurst hadn’t had a rich client who wanted her property, no one would ever have known or cared.

“We can now move on to the subsequent code violations, magistrate,” Whittenhurst said smarmily, “which—after hearing about the propane tank—I conclude may be more numerous than I previously thought.”

“Mr. Whittenhurst, must I remind you that
I
am running this meeting?” Bealer snapped.

Too little too late
.

“My apologies, Magistrate Bealer,” Whittenhurst said, seemingly penitent.

Lily stared straight ahead and gamely waited for Whittenhurst to itemize her list of code violations. Hank would tell her to “take it like a man,” and so she intended to, though nothing in all her time working at the nursery could feel worse than this. She would rather be slapped than hear her beloved nursery publicly denigrated at a city code hearing.

Thankfully, neither Rob nor Tammy said a word. Somehow, her two best friends knew her emotions were hanging by a tenuous thread, and both waited patiently beside her until the verbal assault on her nursery had concluded.

Oh, Dad, nothing could be worse than this, could it?

“Mr. Whittenhurst, before you go through your sundry list of code violations, I have one question. What is your interest in this—” Bealer paused and stared at the open file in front of him. “—rundown property as you call it?”

Lily bristled. How dare Whittenhurst call her nursery
rundown
? She sat up straight and shot a glare at the weasel attorney.

“Are you or a client intent on purchase of said property?” Bealer wanted to know. “I ask, because I always take intent into consideration when forming a decision on code complaints. Intent has a way of tilting the playing field and coloring the facts.”

Finally
.

Lily watched Whittenhurst’s face flush darker with each question and comment.

“As a concerned citizen, I have compiled the list of code violations in front of you,” Whittenhurst responded. A muscle twitched in his cheek.

“May I remind you that while you are not under oath, it is understood that you will give your responses as if you were,” Bealer said.

“I do not need to be reminded,” Whittenhurst snapped.

Bealer’s brows rose, and Whittenhurst eased back in his chair.

“Did a client pay you to investigate this property, Mr. Whittenhurst?”

Whittenhurst stared at Bealer for several long moments as though trying to decide how to respond. This seemed odd as the weasel had been so ready with his prior responses he had almost answered before the questions were asked. Bealer’s
under oath
comment had apparently slowed Whittenhurst down.

“Mr. Whittenhurst—”

Lily waited, holding her breath.

“Yes,” Whittenhurst finally replied, “I was to try to purchase the parcel.”

Lily exhaled. Dared she hope?

“And who is this client?”

Again, Whittenhurst paused for so long that Lily feared Bealer would be forced to intervene.

Whittenhurst looked up at Bealer and swallowed hard. The knot bobbed in his perfectly tied tie, and he replied, “BDC.”

“No,” Lily whispered.

A chill swept over her, and a shiver vibrated her spine. She felt hands on her arms—Rob and Tammy.

It couldn’t be. If that were true, then Rhett had played
her
from the very beginning. She didn’t want to believe it. There had to be several corporations with those same initials.

“I’m not familiar with that company. Who owns BDC?” Bealer asked impatiently.

“Rhett Buchanan,” a deep voice said from the back of the courtroom.

Lily gasped and spun around. Tammy and Rob turned and glared at the newest entrant to the council chamber.

Rhett stood straight and tall in the center aisle, his eyes glued to Bealer who motioned him forward. Aidan Cross stepped into the chamber behind Rhett.

Good grief! The two of them were in this together.

Lily watched Rhett start down the aisle, and she couldn’t form a single rational thought. She felt numb, as though a paralysis had hijacked all her nerve endings. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t feel.

The whole world seemed to stop for one brief catastrophic moment that felt like a volcanic upheaval in her brain—an eruption that cauterized the last remaining hope she hadn’t realized she still harbored. The last teeny, tiny shred of hope that she and Rhett could work things out, that what she had seen at his mansion was all a dreadful mistake—an aberration. Her hope for a Cinderella fairy tale suddenly incinerated to a puff of ash.

Dear God! The first man I ever loved was behind all this?

She tried to take a breath, but couldn’t seem to pull any air into her lungs. She felt as though all the oxygen had been sucked from the room, and she would suffocate in the vacuum. She stumbled toward the aisle as Rhett strode forward. Tears stung the backs of her eyelids, and if she didn’t get outside in the next few seconds, he would see how badly he had hurt her. Her pride would not allow that. She couldn’t bear to look at him. Her heart thumped hard against the inside wall of her chest with every ponderous beat.

“Lily.”

She heard him call her name and felt his fingertips sweep across her arm. With her last bit of strength, she jerked her arm free. “Get away from me.”

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.