Her Highland Master (The Dungeon Fantasy Club Book 1) (18 page)

Fury fueled her as she exited Declan's home and waited beside her rental vehicle. The driver of the tow truck, thankfully, agreed to have her ride along with him to the repair shop in Inverness. The drive happened in a blur. She didn't even glance over her shoulder as she left what would forever in her mind be Declan's mountain. Before she knew it, she was stepping into a cab on a busy street that delivered her to the train station. She didn't even have to wait that long for the next train to Edinburgh, and was able to procure their last private carriage for the five hour journey.

Once she was tucked inside her private cab, the train speeding toward Edinburgh, the full impact of the day's events hit her and, like a Tsunami, she cried hot, fat, tears, mourning the loss of what she and Declan had begun building. Given time, she did think he would have loved her. She knew she loved him. Without a doubt, otherwise his coldness and actions wouldn't hurt her so much. He had hurt her more than even the people she had considered her friends from work who'd abandoned her.

Her phone rang and she pulled it from her purse, hoping, foolishly praying it was Declan, and remembered he didn't have her number. It wasn't him. She recognized the number, though. It was the Dunn Agency, it was work.

"Hello," she answered, her voice hoarse from her crying jag.

"Zoey Mills?" a crisp male voice asked.

"Yes?" She didn't recognize the man's voice.

"This is Steven Dunn. I wanted to call you regarding the data breach incident of September the fifteenth."

She closed her eyes. It was the owner of the company. She could feel that universal bulls-eye affixed to the top of her head. "How can I help you, Mr. Dunn?"

"I want to formally apologize to you. Would you be available to meet me at the office later today?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Confusion swarmed her befuddled brain.

"Miss Mills, as the head of the Dunn Agency, I want to apologize for the way my company responded to the data breach and behaved toward you. We made a decision that we thought was best at the time, but through the FBI investigation, they discovered that your computer had been tampered with so they began investing the rest of the staff. It seems that your computer wasn't the only one Mark Cavanaugh used to access all the information that he in turned leaked to the online magazine. And they discovered a large lump sum payment in his bank account he received from them before he could transfer it to an offshore account he'd set up on the Cayman Islands."

"Mark did it?" She should feel vindicated, she should feel relieved. Instead anger boiled, rolling in her stomach.

"Yes, it would seem so. And I'd like to offer you your job back and promote you to full agent," he said with a smile in his voice, like all would be forgiven.

"So let me get this straight. You accused me before you had sufficient evidence, fired me, blasted me on the news, dragged my name through the mud, and now you want me to come back to work for you like nothing happened?" She felt the anger rising even more.

"PR has already sent the news outlets and papers a statement saying that you were falsely accused by the real perpetrator, and that this company apologizes for any wrongdoing on our part, fully absolving you."

"I see. So you were okay with slandering me to the press when you assumed I was guilty and now, because you have the proof that I never did anything but the job I was hired to do for you, you think you can make the last three weeks of my life, the hell I've been put through vanish as if nothing had happened?"

"Now Zoey, see here—"

"No. Keep your tepid apologies, you'll be speaking with my lawyer." She hung up, feeling tears well up again. They had destroyed her life, leading her to a man she wanted to give her whole heart to, but who, because of that destruction, had shut her out of his life completely.

She curled into a ball on her seat. She never should have come here.

Chapter Eleven

He stood overlooking the drive, rubbing his chest where the envelope had thumped him as Zoey had climbed into the tow truck and exited his life. It had been a low blow. He'd known that when he did it, but he had felt like a wounded animal when she didn't deny that she had lied to him. Just like when he had watched Jenna leave all those years ago. Except Zoey's betrayal sliced him to the bone. He hadn't just wanted her for a week, he had been going to ask her for forever. For all his wealth and power, he was a simple man. He wanted hearth and home. Had begun to imagine what it would feel like to have a child with her, raise a family with her.

She had only been with him for the money. What a stunning actress she was. To think she had fooled him with her pretend interest. Who knew if the sob story she'd told him about her parents had been true.

"Why the hell did you let her leave, man? You're enamored with the lass, and you know it," Jared said as he joined him on the landing.

"Leave it alone," Declan growled in warning.

"The woman I saw when I delivered that envelope did not look like a viper, Declan, but like a woman who loved you."

Declan snorted. "She didn't love me."

"Riddle me this: if all she wanted was money, she would have taken what was in the envelope with her. She didn't. And I asked her if what Hunter said was true."

"And?" Declan held his breath. Jared was right about the money part, he had just been so bowled over by Hunter's accusations that he'd not once allowed her to defend herself or profess innocence of any kind. When had he become so mistrustful that he was willing to push aside everything that had happened between them without talking to her first?

"She said it was but that she'd been set up."

"Why didn't she try to deny it?" He needed to know. Had she been set up?

"You made yourself pretty clear on where you stood. And that I should tell you that she was sorry. If she was that cold-hearted, she wouldn't have apologized for anything. She's not Jenna, man, you've got to let what that bitch did to you go."

Declan nodded his head, unable to respond. Jared was right. He'd been a fumbling idiot, allowing Hunter's accusations to sway his head, and Jenna's past misdeeds to close his heart. In the few days he and Zoey had been together, he'd founder her warmer and more giving than he deserved. What a bloody fool he'd been. Even if she was the culprit behind the breach, it didn't matter to him. His house already felt so empty and she'd only been gone an hour. All that mattered was getting his sweet little sub back in his life. He only hoped he wasn't too late.

It was time he got her back. "Call Robbie and find out what shop she went to with the rental. And get the Land Rover from the garage."

He raced into action. He'd follow his woman to the ends of the earth if necessary.

*****

Zoey disembarked the train in Edinburgh. Her head felt fuzzy, her eyes burned from all the salt of her tears, and she had a hard time keeping them open. She dreaded spending the next two days milling about the Edinburgh airport before she caught her departing flight, but hoped that she might be able to catch a flight on standby.

She was so tired as she walked toward the taxi station, she didn't notice the armed officers approaching her until one of them stood directly in front of her. He was an elderly chap, likely in his fifties, but still fit as a fiddle, of medium build, with brown cop eyes.

What now?

"Good evening, miss, might I see some identification?" he asked, his voice more distinguished with less of a Scottish brogue.

"Sure." She dug in her purse and pulled out her passport. She handed it to him.

"Thank you, Miss Mills. Would you come with me please?"

She looked around the train station, noticing for the first time all the onlookers paying attention to the police activity and, more importantly, to her—the woman they were questioning. She'd had enough of prying eyes and curious glances. Feeling defeated, she nodded her head. "Yes."

She numbly followed as he led her from the train terminal into a police vehicle. He placed her into the backseat and she couldn't believe what a wretched day it had been. Today would go down in her record books as the worst day of her life, second only to the day her parents died.

She didn't pay attention as they drove through the narrow streets. Even some of the famous architecture that had delighted her so much when she'd first embarked from the airport, failed to impress her. Had it only been five days since she had stood, drinking in the Scottish culture with relish? A lifetime had passed since and she just wanted this trip to be over.

The car pulled up next to one of the many historical buildings that had been converted into a hotel. She didn't glance at the name. Her befuddled brain was too jumbled to consider why they were stopping here and not at the police station.

She followed the policeman inside, not looking around, just putting one foot in front of the other. She heard boisterous laughter and cringed. All around her life moved on as if her heart was still beating inside her chest.

They took the elevator and it was then that she noticed the only man, Constable Fraser she thought he said his name was, was smiling at her. If she was in trouble, why would he take her to a hotel, and why would he smile? Was it a good cop, bad cop kind of thing? They exited the elevator and he led her to a door at the end of the hallway. They stopped five feet from the door. He handed her a keycard.

"I don't understand," she said, looking at the key as if it was an alien object.

"Use the key and go inside, Miss Mills. My instructions were clear. To deliver you to this room and make sure you went inside."

Her heart thumped, seeming to thud back to life. She felt like she was on a tilt-a-whirl at the carnival. Her world kept spinning and she was having the hardest time trying to catch up. Her fingers shook as she took the keycard from his hand. Her heart pounded in her ears as she stepped toward the door. After swiping the key, the lock clicked open with a little green light above the handle and she walked inside the room.

It took her a moment to understand what she was seeing as the door closed behind her. Candles lit the tiny hall in a soft hazy glow, white rose petals were strewn across the floor and she followed the path they made into the hotel suite, down the stairs into the luxurious living room. The living room had been given the same treatment, with more rose petals and flower bouquets in a stunning array competing for space with soft candlelight.

She gasped when she spied Declan, in a suit, standing before the fireplace. He turned when he heard her and the look in his eyes almost brought her to her knees. Tears clouded her gaze.

"I don't understand. How did you? Why did you?" She was shaking uncontrollably, unable to form thoughts other than that he was here and breaking her heart all over again. He approached her and stopped a foot in front of her, not touching her but staring at her with a look she never thought she would see.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I overreacted the way I did. I was engaged once, you see."

Jealousy punched straight through her chest. She knew he had a past, but engaged?

"She didn't want me. Oh sure, she enjoyed the sex, although not just with me, but with all the members of the Club, it seemed. No, what Jenna was more interested in was my fortune, and trying to make it hers."

"I see," Zoey said, although really she didn't. How did that have anything to do with her?

"When I discovered her in our bed, having a ménage with two other Doms, I ended our relationship. She left that night with Ian, and they died in a car crash a week later."

"Oh, Declan, I'm so sorry, I— " She stopped. She wanted to comfort him, but he'd thrown her away like she was yesterday's garbage. The pain washed over her, it was too much. She couldn't do this. She started to back away and he grabbed her arms.

"Look at me, my little sub," he commanded in that gentle manner he had, and more tears leaked from her eyes.

She stared at him, hating herself for wanting to melt into his arms.

"I'm so sorry I didn't give you a chance to explain. I had just realized how much I loved you, you see, so I was all tangled up in my feelings, and then Hunter's words made me fear I'd been duped again."

At his words, she sobbed. "Y-you l-love me?" She still couldn't believe he was there, that he held her arms, or that he could possibly want her, let alone love her.

His hands cradled her face. His thumbs wiped her tears away. He smiled into her eyes. "Yes, I do. I'm so sorry I acted like such an arse. Can you forgive me?"

"But what about the data breach? How can you be so sure it wasn't me?" She wasn't going to tell him that she'd been cleared of any wrongdoing. Not yet; she needed to know what was truly in his heart.

"It doesn't matter, love. As long as you forgive me and come home, none of who you were, or what happened before that blizzard stranded you on my doorstep, matters. I want you, Zoey. I love you."

She had never seen his eyes a brighter blue. In his gaze, she saw her future. "I love you, too," she blubbered.

"Lass," he murmured so gently, and then his lips claimed hers for a sweet kiss as he pulled her into his strong arms. He broke the kiss first. "We have the room for the night. I need my little sub. If it's too soon, I can wait until we return home. Although my pilot would probably curse me out if I had him file another last minute flight plan. Whatever you need."

Her choice, not his. She didn't know why, but it made her smile. Her proud Highland Dom had just given her the keys to his heart, the least she could do was be a good little sub. But first?

"Just to clear the air, my old boss called me on the train ride. Through the FBI's investigation, they discovered Mark Cavanaugh, one of the other employees at the firm, was behind the breach. They tried to offer me my old job back. I told him he would be hearing from my lawyer."

Declan pulled her tighter. "I could spend the rest of our lives apologizing to you for my behavior this morning. Please forgive me." He kissed her temple and she realized he was just as adrift in uncertainty as she had been. He loved her and had wanted her even without knowing about her absolution.