Club Prive Book V (2 page)

Howard took a step back and I heard Annie suck in a sharp breath of air. He didn’t bother to fix her dress, but rather slapped her ass hard enough to make her jump. “Good girl.”

My hands curled into fists. If I thought I could physically take him, I would’ve been out there in a minute, but all that would do would give him one more victim. I knew self-defense, but this dress would hamper any sort of movement I tried to make. No, I had to bide my time. I needed that file, and I needed to see if he had any more records of what he was doing. When he left, I was going to grab as much as I could carry and then figure out what to do next.

A knock at the door startled all three of us. Annie straightened, a pained look crossing her face before it became blank. Her make-up wasn’t even smudged. For a moment, I thought maybe they’d just been role-playing, that he hadn’t really hurt her, but then she took a step and I saw her wince.

“What is it?” Howard asked sharply, raising his voice to be heard through the door.

I wondered if whoever was out there had heard the end of what had just happened and what they thought about it.

“Sir, one of your guests has a concern regarding the origin of the fruit being served. He’s worried about whether or not it’s organic.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he snapped. He wheeled on Annie, who flinched a little. “Since apparently none of my employees know how to do anything on their own, I need you to go handle whatever the hell this is and then come back.”

She nodded without looking at him and started for the door. When he spoke again, she paused.

“And, Annie, darling, remember, if this situation isn’t resolved, what I just did to you is going to seem like a picnic compared to what will happen.”

I saw her shoulders stiffen, but she gave no other outward sign that she’d heard the threat. How could she let him do that to her? Hurt her, threaten to sell her off? And it wasn’t like she was some escort he’d hired or one of those bimbos downstairs. That would’ve been bad enough. Annie was his assistant. She had a legitimate job with him and he hadn’t even hesitated to hurt her. I was no psychologist, but I could tell this hadn’t been the first time he’d done this. She couldn’t actually care about him, could she? Was that why she hadn’t gone to the police? Or, the thought came to me, was it something more basic? Howard wasn’t only rich and with friends in high places, but his family’s history meant he probably had friends in low places too. Even if someone did believe her, she’d never be safe. I realized that meant the same for me. If I tried to follow through with this, there was a good chance I could get hurt. I could just walk away, tell Mimi that my relationship with Gavin had ended and I couldn’t be objective. I’d stay away and pretend like none of this ever happened.

The thought was fleeting and immediately followed by the images of Patricia, that sweet-looking girl, and how she’d been degraded and used. I knew now that those pictures didn’t even tell a small portion of her story, and if she was still alive, she was experiencing things worse than I’d just seen. I squared my shoulders and set my jaw. No, I wasn’t going to let fear of what could happen to me keep me from doing what was right.

I turned my attention back to Howard. He opened the filing cabinet and began shuffling through its contents. I took a moment to look around while he was occupied. I needed to know more about my surroundings in case he decided he needed something from wherever it was that I’d hidden myself.

I’d been right when I’d thought the space I was in was too big for a closet. It was actually a small bedroom. Well, more accurately, a room with a bed, a double that took up most of the room. The only other thing was a small table to one side of the bed. There was another door, and what little I could see in the dark interior told me that it led to a bathroom. A bathroom off of his office made sense, but if I hadn’t just seen what Howard had done to Annie, I would’ve been puzzled by the bed. After all, he was in his house. It wasn’t like he needed it in case he worked too late. I knew, though, that this bed wasn’t for sleeping. I had a feeling if I looked closely, I’d find the same kind of restraints on this bed that I’d seen on Howard’s yacht and at the club.

A noise from the office pulled my attention back. Howard had set a stack of files on his desk and was putting them into a briefcase. I hoped that meant he was about to leave, even if he was taking the files with him. As long as I could get out of here in one piece, I could figure out a way to find those files again. Howard struck me as the kind of man who’d never deign to destroy anything, no matter how incriminating. He was more of the “keep a trophy and brag” type.

He turned towards the bookcase and my heart started to pound. I knew where he was going even before his fingers brushed over the spine of the book. He frowned as he pulled it out, and I felt a stab of fear. Had I put it back in the wrong place?

Shit.

He opened the book and I could see his body tensing.

The article. What the hell had happened to the article?

With panic threatening to take over, I watched him looking around. When he bent over, I knew he’d spotted it. Would he think that it had just fallen when he’d opened the book and he hadn’t seen it, or would he realize that someone had been snooping? The moment he straightened, I knew that he was suspicious. I needed to hide better.

I started towards the bathroom, but stopped. I didn’t know if it was just a toilet or if there’d be a shower I could hide in. And what if the shower doors were glass? No, I needed somewhere else.

My eyes fell on the bed, then dropped lower. There wasn’t much room, but it was the best I had. I dropped and wiggled underneath. The frame scraped against my back, but I could fit. I pushed myself back as far as possible and waited.

What seemed like forever passed, and then the room flooded with light. I scrunched back into the shadows, trying to make myself as small as I could. I could see his feet as he entered the room and crossed to the bathroom. The light went on there as well. I heard running water, then the light went out again. He stood in the middle of the room for a moment, then walked back towards the door. The light went out and I sighed in relief. Still, I stayed under the bed.

I might not have been able to see Howard anymore, but I could hear him as he called out for Annie to come back in. I really hoped he wasn’t going to bring her in here for a second round, this time right above me. I wasn’t sure I could handle that. He didn’t, however. Instead, he told her that she would be flying back to New York tonight and she was to take the files to his Manhattan office.

“I want you spending the rest of the weekend giving me a short list of replacement candidates,” he added. “I’ll make the final decision on Monday. And remember, if I can’t find anyone suitable, you’re going to be taking a little trip.”

I heard a sound that I didn’t want to try to identify, and then I heard the door close. I stayed where I was, straining my ears to hear anything that might indicate whether or not Howard had left the room as well. When several minutes passed and I didn’t hear anything, I slid out from under the bed. I brushed off my dress and crept over to the door. I peeked out and didn’t see anything. It was time for me to return to the party. I just hoped I could lie as well as I thought I could. If Gavin suspected I knew the truth, I didn’t know what he’d do.

“A
re you sure you’re okay?”

I grimaced and nodded my head. The concern in Gavin’s voice was tearing me up. How could he pretend to care like that? It was beyond cruel.

From the moment I’d left Howard’s office and headed back down to the party, I’d known that I might be able to smile and make nice, but the moment Gavin had touched me, it had taken everything in me not to recoil. My body was torn, wanting to respond to his touch, to the pleasure I knew he could bring, but I was at the same time repulsed by what I’d discovered. When he asked if I was feeling all right, I’d realized that I had a cover.

The remainder of the weekend, I’d played sick. It had been painful having to watch him hover and act like he wanted to take care of me, but I just reminded myself how much worse it would have been to have followed through with our plans. If I couldn’t stand having him touch me in a nonsexual way, I never could have gotten through a kiss, much less fucking. And that’s what it had been, I reminded myself. No matter how tender he’d pretended to be, how often he’d said he wanted to pleasure me, it had all been a scam. He’d fucked me over as thoroughly as he’d fucked me physically, and I refused to let myself consider that it could be anything else.

The only thing that kept nagging at me was the story about his fiancée and daughter. If I hadn’t seen the article, I would’ve just assumed he’d lied about the whole thing, that the initials and date meant something else. Maybe that he was married or the very least had a girlfriend. But I’d seen the article, and everything he’d told me matched. Sure, there’d been a couple of details he’d left out, but nothing contradicted his story.

It hadn’t been until the early hours of the morning, after he’d fallen asleep in the chair next to the bed, that I’d realized what the truth most likely was. All that Gavin had told me about Camille and his daughter was true up to the reasoning behind why he didn’t have custody of Skylar. I was willing to bet that when Howard had approached him after Camille’s death, he’d given Gavin purpose all right. He’d given him a job where he could make a lot of money and, twisted and bitter as he’d become over Camille’s death, Gavin had chosen that over his daughter. I still hadn’t been able to figure out how a father, especially one of a little girl, could not only allow such horrible things to happen to others’ daughters, but participate in preparing them for it. What made it even worse, I had thought, was that he’d used the story of what had happened on women like me, ones who wanted to see a vulnerable side to the big, strong man. Ones who were stupid enough to fall for his bullshit.

I’d still been berating myself for being so gullible when I’d fallen asleep. I’d kept up the charade all through the next day and was doing it now even on the plane. Gavin had kept asking me if I needed to go to the emergency room, but I’d managed to keep finding excuses as to why I didn’t need to go. Now, as we were heading home, his hovering was getting worse. I was pretty sure he’d thought it was either something I’d eaten or a stomach bug, but it had been more than twenty-four hours and I was still telling him that I wasn’t feeling well and that I didn’t want to be touched. I knew I was going to have to come up with something better.

“I really think I’m on the upside of this.” I gave him a weak smile. “If I’m not better by morning, I swear, I’ll have Krissy take me to the doctor.”

He leaned over me and I avoided looking at his eyes. It was bad enough that he could lie with his face and his body. The fact that his eyes had fooled me made everything so much worse. His hand brushed over my forehead and I closed my eyes, hoping he’d think it was because I wanted his touch rather than because I couldn’t lie with my eyes like he could. The sick thing was, part of me still did crave his touch.

Tears burned at my eyelids and I fought to keep them back. If he saw me crying, he’d know it was something more than just me feeling sick. I’d made it this far. We were only a few minutes out. Once we landed, a car would take me home and then I’d be safe.

One of the other things I’d been thinking about while I’d feigned my illness had been how much to tell Krissy. The heartbroken girl inside wanted to fall into her best friend’s arms and sob out the entire story, but the harder me, the one forged by this betrayal, wanted to keep it all to myself. I told myself it was because I didn’t want Krissy to get hurt, but if I was being completely honest, I knew it was because I wasn’t sure that I wanted justice over revenge, and I didn’t know what side of that argument Krissy would take.

I’d finally decided on something halfway between. I would continue the lie I was telling Gavin, and tell Krissy that I wasn’t feeling well. I’d then spend the rest of the evening in my bedroom, pretending to rest. I’d get up before her and leave a note saying that I had to stop by Howard’s office to pick up some files for Mimi. I didn’t want to get her involved by telling her what was going on, but I also wasn’t going to be dumb enough to walk into the lion’s den without a bit of insurance. If things went smoothly, she’d never know what had happened until it was all over. If things didn’t go smoothly... well, I was counting on Krissy to worry and tell someone where I’d gone.

With my plan firmly in place, I gathered my strength and waited for the moment I was alone to finally succumb to the tears that had wanted to come since the moment I’d learned the truth.

I
didn’t have any problem getting up before Krissy because I hadn’t really slept at all in the first place. I’d thought that maybe I could cry myself to sleep, let the toll of the last couple days take over. I’d had times in my past where emotional exhaustion had let me sleep when nothing else could. This time, however, I couldn’t get my brain to shut down enough to doze for more than a quarter of an hour or so at a time. Then I’d wake up, the same old thoughts repeating over and over in my head. Finally, when my clock said that it was five o’clock, I decided it wasn’t worth it to keep lying there, waiting for the five-thirty alarm.

I got up and headed for the bathroom. I’d showered the night before, but ever since I’d heard Howard say that Gavin was grooming me, I hadn’t been able to shower enough. I felt like there was a film of filth covering my skin and, no matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn’t get rid of it.

I dressed for work, but in one of my old boring outfits. Since I’d started seeing Gavin, Krissy had been able to convince me to put a bit more color and sex appeal into my work attire, but I didn’t want that today. I wanted to go back to the way I’d been before I’d met him. So, a plain skirt that stopped just above my knees and a tailored, but not sexy, white blouse. I’d gotten rid of the pantyhose because Krissy had said there was no good reason to keep them, so thigh-high stockings were the only option I had other than bare legs. I pulled my hair back and pinned it into place. No make-up other than what I needed to cover the bags under my eyes. And, finally, sensible shoes. A modest heel that made me look professional but not enough of a heel to draw attention to my legs.