Last Dance (Rock With You #3) Rock Star Romance (8 page)

“Aye.
I remember that kiss. You almost inhaled me.”

“Do
you notice anything different about that photo? Something that makes it
different from the rest? Aside from me being in the picture?”

Logan
set the photo of Melody in front of him, looking through the rest of the group
again. He pulled out one, setting the remainder aside.

“I’ve
seen enough paparazzi photos over time. This one…” He pointed to the photo of
him eating dinner with another woman. “This was taken with a telephoto lens.
It’s in Paris. It’s from outside the restaurant, through the front window,
maybe from across the street.” Logan pointed to the photo of them together.

“This
one, of us, wasn’t taken with a telephoto lens and it wasn’t taken from
outside. Someone was close to us, probably sitting at the bar. And they didn’t
have a camera. Might have used a cellphone.”

Logan
looked up from the photos. “I’d say this one wasn’t taken by whoever took the
rest. These were taken by professionals but the one of us was taken by an
amateur.”

She
gathered the photos, sliding them back into the envelope. “That’s what I
thought too. I think Ryan took it. I think his obsession for me goes back
further than I realized.”

“Are
you going to do anything with this?”

She
shook her head. “No. They don’t even pertain to your case. I think Ryan did get
them from Ashton, for whatever reason, and then planted the one of us, as part
of his plan to discredit me.”

They
finished lunch and Melody thought the walk back to her building was all too
brief. She wanted to keep walking with Logan, enjoying the sunshine, being out
with him. Free of all the worries that plagued them, at least for the moment.

“This
was nice, Logan. Thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve been out to lunch and
being with you was even better.”

Logan
planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “I’m thinking less is more as far as kissing
in public.”

Melody
shrugged. “I guess so. But…” She stood on tiptoe, reaching up to kiss Logan on
the lips.

He
was laughing when she pulled away. “You’re a brave girl, Melody. Ye never know
who might be watching.”

She
left him at the curb, getting into a cab. She watched it merge with traffic
before she turned to enter the lobby. Her lips tingled from the kiss and her
mind drifted back over the previous night, reliving certain moments, fragments
of conversation coming back to her. Talk of castles and horses and being his
princess. His queen.

In
the elevator, she let herself get lost in the daydream. As the doors opened on
her floor, she let out a sigh. Imagining herself living with Logan MacKenzie,
in Scotland, in a castle…it all seemed too unreal. But reality intruded and she
wondered with a start exactly where her law practice would fit into all of
this, into any life she had with Logan.

She
caught herself sighing again, shook her head and walked toward her office.
Victoria was apparently still at lunch, her desk empty. Melody frowned. There
was still the issue of Victoria’s remarks from the other day and Melody chided
herself for not remembering to talk to Joe Hunter about Victoria’s
inappropriate comments.

Tossing
the photos and her purse on her desk, Melody stood by the window, looking down
on New York traffic. Despite her resolve, her mind went back to Logan and
thoughts of Scotland.
I’m obsessed with this today. But just for a few more
minutes…

A
sound behind her made her turn. Victoria was standing at her desk, clutching
the envelope of photos in her hand.

“You
took these out of his file, out of the office.” Victoria slowly pulled the
photos out of the envelope. She ran her fingers over the glossy photos, her
eyes riveted on the pictures.

“Yes.
I’m not sure why that’s your concern though.” She walked behind her desk. “You
can leave them here, I have the case…”

“You’re
in this photo.” Victoria was shuffling through the photos frantically now and
she pulled out the one with Melody and Logan.

“And
again, I don’t think that’s any of your concern.” Melody reached for the
photos. “If you don’t mind…”

“I
do mind.” Victoria’s eyes met Melody’s and Melody took a step back. “You’re
kissing him. No one kisses him. No one but me.”

Victoria’s
face had grown flushed, her mouth set in a hard, thin line, her voice cold. Melody
wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but the woman suddenly scared her, deeply.
She reached for the desk phone, but Victoria grabbed it out of her hand,
throwing it to the floor.

“What
are you doing? Are you crazy?” Melody tried to walk around the end of her desk
to the door, but Victoria blocked her way.

“What
am I doing? Something I should have done a long time ago.”

Victoria
picked up the sterling silver letter opener from the corner of Melody’s desk.
“I should have stopped you, long before now. As soon as I saw this.”

Melody
froze, slowly inching her way back behind her desk in an effort to keep the
massive piece of furniture between her and Victoria.

“Stopped
me from what?”

“This…”
Victoria threw the photos on the desk, the picture of Melody and Logan on top
of the pile. “I should have stopped this.”

Victoria
stabbed the letter opener into the picture, impaling Melody’s image, driving
the point of the opener into the top of the desk.

“You’re
the one he’s seeing. Don’t deny it. You had lunch with him today…you live with
him, Melody. At his hotel. Every night, you go back to him.”

“I
don’t…why would you think that?”

“Because
I watch…I know things. I have people who watch for me. You’re nothing…just like
the rest of these women.” Victoria waved her hand over the rest of the photos
before pushing them and a stack of case files off the corner of the desk. Only
the photo of Melody remained, firmly pinned to the desk.

“He’s
left them all. He’ll leave you too. You’re not good enough for him.”

Victoria’s
face changed again, so rapidly Melody gasped. The hard line of her mouth
softened, curving into a smile, and her voice had gone soft, almost a whisper.
As if Melody weren’t even in the room. “But he won’t leave me. I won’t let him.
He’ll love me.”

Melody
watched in disbelief as Victoria ran her fingers over the photo, tracing the
outline of Logan’s image. “We’re meant to be together. You’re just in the way.”

In
an instant Victoria’s face changed, her eyes hard, her lips pressed together,
her voice sending a chill down Melody’s spine. “I can make you go away…and then
he’s mine.” She grabbed at the letter opener, trying to pull it from the desk.

There
was a knock at the door and then a man’s voice. “Melody, there’s no one
outside…”

Melody
looked up as the door opened. Ryan Marshall stood in the doorway, his eyes
wide, mouth open.

Victoria
succeeded in jerking the letter opener from the desk, holding it in front of
her like a dagger. She advanced around the end of the desk toward Melody.

“Ryan…”

Victoria
turned just as Ryan grabbed her from behind. Victoria brought the letter opener
down in a wide arc and it slashed through the sleeve of Ryan’s suit. He grabbed
her wrist, twisting it sharply, the opener falling to the floor. He kicked it
aside.

Ryan
struggled briefly with Victoria before pinning her to the floor. Melody
scrambled for the phone, dialing security with shaky fingers and managing to
make herself understood, her words tumbling over each other, her voice barely
audible.

“Help.
I need help. This is Melody Lawson. I’ve been attacked in my office.”

* * *

Someone
handed her a glass of water. She took it with shaky hands, drinking some,
spilling most of it on her lap.

“Here,
I’ll take that back.”

She
turned. Ryan was sitting next to her on a small couch in an office down the
hall from hers. Her body tensed and she tried to slide away from him as he took
the glass from her hand.

Everything
had been…still was…confusing, shouts and loud noises, bangs and thumps, as
security men rushed in and restrained Victoria. Ryan had walked over to her and
pulled her up from the floor where she was crouched, bundling her out of her
office and down the hall.

The
police had finally arrived, and paramedics, and they had taken a hysterical
Victoria out of the building, on a stretcher in restraints. Melody heard the
woman screaming and had covered her ears, not wanting to hear any more of the
woman’s words.

“You’re
in shock. Here.” He reached over, pulling the blanket wrapped around her up
over her shoulders. She flinched, pulling away from him.

“I’m
not going to hurt you, Melody.” His voice was uncharacteristically gentle.
“You’ve been attacked, but you’re safe here. I’m not the person you need to be
worried about.”

“But
you…how…why are you here?” Her voice was small and flat, odd sounding to her
own ears, and her hands were still shaking.

“I
came to talk to you about the case. I tried calling, but no one seemed to know
where you were, or where Victoria was. So I decided I’d make the trip over. I
haven’t seen you in a while. I missed you.”

Melody
felt her stomach lurch and was afraid she was going to be sick. Sitting this
close to Ryan, after all he’d put her through, was intolerable.

“Could
you sit somewhere else? I’m not comfortable with you this close…I’m not
comfortable with you even being here.”

Ryan
handed back the glass of water, rose and pulled a desk chair next to the sofa.
He sat down, regarding Melody carefully.

“Better?”

She
nodded and her eyes went to his arm. He wasn’t wearing his suit jacket and his
white shirt was stained red with blood.

“Oh…Ryan…she
stabbed you.” Melody felt the blood drain from her face. She remembered
Victoria slashing wildly with the letter opener.

Ryan
looked down at his arm, shrugging. “She did. It’s just a scratch. The guy from
the ambulance wrapped it up. The jacket is a loss though. One of my favorites.”

She
wanted to be irritated by his smug behavior, but somehow it was strangely
comforting. At least it wasn’t unexpected. “Why are you here? How did you get
in?”

“As
I said, I’m here as an attorney representing a client who is involved in a suit
with one of this firm’s attorneys. I can be here. I haven’t committed any
crime.”

“But
you went missing, after…before. No one could find you.” Melody sat up. “And Joe
Hunter hadn’t accepted your resignation. You can’t represent Ashton.”

Ryan
waved his hand. “Semantics. It’s all a moot point anyway.”

“Moot?
Why?”

“Ashton
wants to settle. That was the reason I was coming to see you. I thought you’d
want to know as soon as possible. And I wanted to tell you in person.”

Melody
sat back, stunned. “But why settle?”

“I
told him to.”

“You
told him to? Why?”

“Because
there’s no financial incentive for me to take this to court. There’s no
percentage for me in losing a case. And he has no case. His financials are
crap. He knows it, but he was too stubborn to give in and admit he got caught
by his client with his hand in the cookie jar. I told him he’d lose the case,
his reputation would be ruined and he’d be broke. If he settles, at least his
reputation won’t be quite as badly ruined and he’ll keep some of his money.”

“But
why didn’t his other attorney tell him that?”

“Bishop?
Because Allan Bishop has no morals and would have dragged his client through a
losing court case just on the off chance he could pull a win out of his ass,
and get his own name in the papers. Give me some credit, Melody. I don’t treat
my clients badly.”

Ryan
waved his hand. “That’s all over with, Melody. What I want to know is what the
hell was going on here, with Victoria. I never would have hired her if I
thought she was unstable, or that she could have hurt you in any way.”

Melody
sputtered out a harsh laugh. “But you and she…she’s been your spy, Ryan. You
hired her to spy on me.” Melody was incredulous. There seemed to be no end to
Ryan’s lies. But she frowned at the shocked look on Ryan’s face.

“Melody,
I didn’t hire her to spy on you. If I want to know things, I find them out
myself. I hired her because her resume was on the top of the stack you gave to
Hunter. I thought you’d decided she was the one you wanted. I was doing you a
favor, or so I believed. There’s no ulterior motive in what I did.”

“You
expect me to believe you? She’s been telling you everything that happens here,
everything I do, that Logan does. So you can use it against me.”

Ryan
scowled, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I can tell you to make you
believe me, but that’s not how it is.”