SOAR (The Indigo Lounge Series Book 4) (11 page)

“Oh
please. I know you two are still sniffing around each other like teenage
fuck-buddies. I just thought you’d like to know - woman to woman - that the
results are conclusive. The baby is his. And you know what else?”

“I’m
sure you’re dying to tell me so please, knock yourself out.”

“Noah
asked for an ultrasound. Then he got all choked up when he heard the heartbeat
and saw our little blob of joy. Afterward, he asked for a copy of the scan to
keep in his wallet. Does that sound like a man who hates the idea of his
impending fatherhood?”

The shaking got too much.
Leia propped herself against her desk
before her legs gave way. Pretending to arrange the papers on her desk, she
said, “I’m sorry, you lost me somewhere in the middle of that mumbo jumbo
spewing out of your mouth. Again, this concerns me how?”

Her
expression hardening a touch, but not enough to ruin her perfectly made up
face, Ashley leaned in close. “Make no mistake, Noah will commit to me and to
this baby sooner or later. You seem like a nice girl—”

“And
you seem like the words
Condescending Ho-Bag
should be your call sign
before you barge into people’s offices. Since we’re clearly finished here,
would you like to leave under your own steam or shall I get security to carry
your skinny ass out?”

Ashley
picked up her bag and tucked it into the crook of her elbow in a poised move
that would’ve made any Stepford Wife weep with jealousy. “I won’t warn you
again, Little Pixie. Stay out of my way.”

By
the time Celia approached to shut the door Ashley had left wide open on her
exit, Leia was shaking so much her teeth were chattering.

“Can
I get you any—?”

Leia
shook her head and waved her secretary away with a stiff smile. “No, thanks
Celia. I’m…I’m good.”

Unfortunately,
she was so far from good, she’d need a rocket to get back. She stared blankly
into space for interminable minutes, aware that she had two options. She could
either call Noah and
verify everything Ashley had said.
Which would make it glaringly obvious to him that despite her stating she
didn’t want anything to with him or his child, she cared way more than she
should. Which would in turn mean that if Noah had any plans to make her his
fuck toy until he cast her aside for the sake of his impending fatherhood, she
would be playing right into his ruthless and clever hands.

Or
she could pretend Ashley’s visit hadn’t happened. Go to Noah tonight and have
that talk he wanted, all the while pretending she wasn’t aware he was carrying in
his wallet an ultrasound scan of a baby he hadn’t planned for but seemed to
want with every fiber of his being. Could she do it? Could she truly bury her
head in the sand just for the sake of one last fuck from the only man capable
of delivering the kind of pleasure she needed?

Her
phone rang.

Forcing
herself to reach for it, she pulled herself back into her business day.

She
didn’t allow herself to contemplate a third option until five thirty. Knowing
Noah’s man would be watching
her,
she riffled through
the emergency sets of clothes she kept in her office. Pulling on her jeans and
a nondescript top, she slid her feet into black runners and stuffed her hair
under a baseball cap.

Luckily,
the corridor and elevator were empty. Arriving at the underground parking, she
walked past her car and through the security door. Two minutes later, she
blended into evening pedestrian traffic until she was a block away,
then
hailed a cab.

“The
Mandarin Hotel, please.”

Twenty-minutes
later, she checked into the double room. If Noah looked hard enough, he would
probably find her, but if she
was
lucky, she would
have a night to come to terms with her decision.

Fetching
her phone from her bag, she dialed his number. He answered immediately.

“It’s
six thirty-one. I’ll let your tardiness pass if you’re in the building. Did you
forget the code?” he sighed. “Don’t sweat it, I can override the elevator from
here. I’ll let you—”

“Noah,
I’m not coming.”

Silence.
Then his breath whistled out, like he was finding breathing difficult. “You’re
not coming.”
A flat statement.

“N—no.
I didn’t want you think I’d stood you up—”

His
derisive snort shattered her composure for a minute, but she forced the words
out. “For a while there, I was forgetting my life and my choices are my own.
And I’m ashamed to admit that part of my reasoning was to do with sex. I can so
very easily let it blind me to the things that should be important to me. But I
don’t want to be blind. You’re having a baby with another woman. I can’t handle
that, Noah. I really can’t. I don’t want to suppress how I feel about that with
sex. I’m sorry.”

“Leia!”

She
hung up, turned the phone off and ejected the battery as an extra safety
precaution in case Noah’s guy could track her.

Undressing,
she slid into the cold, lonely hotel bed and pulled the covers over her head.

TWELVE

“What
the fuck do you mean you lost her? What the hell am I paying you for?” Noah
shouted into the phone less than thirty seconds after Leia hung up on him.
“Yes, she just called me. No, I don’t know where the hell from or I wouldn’t be
asking you!” Exasperated beyond belief and seriously fearing for his blood
pressure, he pulled the phone away from his ear and rubbed at the throbbing in
his temple.

A
full minute later, he pulled in a breath and spoke to his PI. “When did you last
have eyes on her?”

“My
guy on the roof on the building opposite her office said she spent a couple of
hours in a meeting. Then she went to her office at about three. That was when
your other girl showed up.”

Noah’s
temperature spiked. “My other girl?”

“Yeah,
you know, Snow White’s stepmom?”

He
stopped dead in the middle of his suite. “Ashley?”

His
PI snorted. “That’s her.”

“I’ll
call you back. You’d better have located Leia by the time I do.”

“If
she’s deliberately covering her tracks—”

“No
excuses!” Noah hung up and dialed his condo. Ashley picked up on the third
ring.

“What
the fuck did you do?”

“I’m
assuming we’re talking about your little pixie?” Noah could almost hear the
shrug in her voice. “I paid her a little visit. Don’t tell me she’s upset? Seriously,
I don’t know what you see in her if she runs to you with every—”

“She
didn’t run to me, you fucking bitch. She ran away.” He regretted the words the
moment they were out of his mouth.

“Well
then, that kind of proves my point, don’t you think?” Ashley crowed in triumph.

His
vision blurred, and he worried if he would pass out just from the rage coursing
through his veins. “For the sake of all things holy, I’m going to give you five
seconds to tell me what you said to her. Starting now.”

“I
thought she needed to be aware of the DNA test results and act accordingly,
that’s all.”

“What
did she say?”

A long-suffering sigh.
“Noah, you won’t believe me if I told
you so perhaps you should ask her.”

“Tell
me what she said, dammit!”

“She
said she didn’t care.
About the baby…or about you.
I
think she found the whole subject boring, to be honest. She had the nerve to
threaten to throw me out of her office.” She sniffed.

A
ball of lead settled in his stomach. Even as he warned himself that he knew
better than to believe a word Ashley said, he couldn’t shift the glaring truth.
He may have remembered that Leia couldn’t have kids and imagined that it altered
the facts enough for it to matter what happened between the two of them, but what
if he’d been grasping at straws?

Was
he trying to force an issue with Leia that he would be better off letting go?
He was damn certain her dig about not wanting to be burdened with kids had been
a protective mechanism. But had it held a grain of truth, a truth he was willfully
turning a blind eye to?

“Noah,
are you there? Aren’t you going to say something?”

“Yeah.
I’m sorry she didn’t throw you out on your ass. Stay away from her, Ashley.
Don’t make me tell you again.”

He
shoved his phone in his pocket and rubbed a hand down his face. Encountering
his stubble, he cursed.

He’d
deliberately stopped himself from shaving this morning because he knew he would
be seeing Leia. Looking around the suite, he cursed louder.

Fused
Realms
’
album, the one Leia had told him in Vienna was her favorite, played softly in
the background. He’d stopped himself from cooking, had reckoned if they got to
the stage of being hungry, he could always call up the gourmet take-out service
he used. But he’d put a bottle of her favorite wine on ice. Two large bouquets
of flowers, courtesy of
Maddie’s
mad skills, had
turned the suite from a clinical, soulless place into a passably comfortable
space with some strategic lighting.

And all for what?
To sway a woman who didn’t give a shit
about him or the child he was expecting to change his life?

He
staggered to the nearest sofa, slowly pulled his wallet out of his pocket and
stared at the grey blob on the plastic film.

Christ,
he hadn’t expected to experience such overwhelming feelings the moment the
machine had picked up the heartbeat. But the rush of warmth and protectiveness
had been beyond description.

The
only fly in the ointment had been the woman carrying his child. Even then, Noah
hadn’t let it spoil the moment. Hell, he’d even allowed the psycho bitch to hold
his hand. But he’d thought of Leia in that moment, had wished it
was
her lying on that table with his child growing inside of
her. Jesus, his eyes had even misted at the powerful need for that alternate
reality.

His
fingers trembled, and he blinked back into focus.

God,
he was a fucking idiot.
An idiot who was perhaps better off
back in therapy.

He
let out a grim laugh. Hell no.
Never again.
He knew
exactly what was wrong with him.

He
couldn’t stop himself from making the same fucking mistakes over and over.

It
was high time he got his shit together.

***

His
phone’s vibrations roused him to a darkened room and the discomfort of a
severely sore neck. Digging it out, he eyed the Private Caller ID displayed and
answered. “You better have good news for me.”

“We’ve
found her.”

Noah’s
breath shuddered out. “Is she safe?”

“The
only thing she needs to worry about right now is whether the mini-bar in her
hotel room is up to scratch.” He heard the thinly veiled question and closed
his eyes against the need to ask.

Get
your shit together. Starting now
.

“Keep
an eye on her. Tomorrow is the deadline for the blackmail demand. Hire extra
men if you need to. I don’t want that bastard anywhere near her once he finds
out he’s not getting a dime.”

“I
know. We’re working on that too. You sure you don’t want to know where she is?”

Noah
grimaced and rubbed his jaw. Temptation burned through him, but he gritted his
teeth. “No. I don’t.”

“You
know where I am if you change your mind.”

Noah
disconnected the call and clenched his fist around the phone. He’d taken the
first step into regaining his sanity. His ex-therapist would be thrilled enough
to drop her panties for him right now.

Shame
he felt like going ten rounds with a punching bag instead.

***

The
moment Leia turned her phone on, it began to ping. Several missed calls from
Noah and two from Warren. Tugging on her jeans and T-shirt after a quick
shower, she took the time to get herself together before checking them
properly. Part of the weaning-herself-off-Noah process demanded she not jump at
the sight of his name or the promise of hearing his voice.

He
was probably pissed that she’d disappeared from his radar, but she needed to be
able to stand on her own two feet from now on.

A
shaft of fear lanced down her spine as she thought of what she’d decided in the
middle of the night. Noah was right. Stephen Willoughby was the reason her life
had descended into hell five years ago. Her mother had killed herself because
of him. Rewarding him with fifty million dollars, even to stop him from
exposing the photos he had of her, would be spitting on her mother’s grave and
her memory.

A
sharp twinge of shame pierced her. She’d forgotten that in the midst of trying
to save herself from the pain of losing Noah. But last night, she’d remembered
why she needed to remain strong. Slipping her feet into her runners, she paused
as another message came through. A quick glance showed an attachment with a play
button.

The
message at the top of the screen was simple and
bone-chilling
.

Today’s
the day. In case you need a reminder…

The
video was a five-second clip. It showed her in her bedroom just over five years
ago. On her back, her eyes wide with fear and her mouth bruised and bloody from
the blow he’d dealt her when she’d dared to struggle. Her nightshirt was
ripped, exposing her right breast, which he was palming roughly as he pushed
himself inside her. It ended with her head coming off the pillow, screaming as
her gaze veered to the door.

It
was the moment her mother had walked in with the gun…

Shaking,
she dropped the phone and rushed to the bathroom, barely making it to the
toilet before she vomited the meager contents of her stomach. She heaved over
and over until there was nothing left.

As
she sagged against the cold porcelain, too weak to get up and wash her mouth,
her anger grew.

Fuck
Stephen Willoughby. Fuck him all the way to a hell where men like him were
fucked in the ass with spikes just for entertainment. He wouldn’t get a cent
from her. If she needed to, she would spend every dollar of that fifty million
bringing the man who’d made her life hell to justice.

Getting
up, she finished dressing and went downstairs. The doorman held the door open.
About to order a cab, she paused when a tall, middle-aged man with greying hair
approached her.

“Hey
there, Miss. I’m the car service you ordered.”

She
shook her head. “I didn’t order a car service.”

“I’m
sure you did. You’re headed to the office, right? I can have you there in less
than twenty.”

He
attempted a smile, but her instinct told her this guy wasn’t used to that
particular social grace. And although he looked nondescript enough to be
dismissed by most people, there was an air of ruthlessness about him. Plus, he
seemed familiar somehow. Her eyes widened as her mind connected the dots. “You
were the guy outside the restaurant on Sunday night. You work for Noah.”

He
raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “I cannot confirm nor deny that.”

“What’s
your name?”

“Call
me Paddy.”

She
eyed him and the luxury town car door he held open for her. “That’s not your
real name, is it? And that’s not your car.” This guy would be more comfortable
in a blacked out van, not one that screamed high profile billionaire.

“Doesn’t
matter one way or the other. I doubt we’ll be seeing each other again after
today. Get in the car, Miss. We’re beginning to attract an audience.”

She
looked around. The only person interested in them was the doorman. About to
refuse, she stopped when her phone pinged. Heart hammering, she glanced warily
at her phone.

Get in the car. N.

Relief
weakened her limbs. Sliding into the back, she put on her seatbelt and waited
for Paddy to get behind the wheel. “What can I do for you, Paddy?”

“My
employer wants to know if you’ve heard anything from our mutual friend.”

The
fact that Noah hadn’t called to ask her himself sent a shaft of pain through
her, despite the very sane argument that this was exactly what she’d been
striving for.

“Would
he believe me if I said no?”

Shrewd
eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. “Depends if that’s the truth or not.”

Leia’s
eyes slid away at the memory of the video. “I received something this morning.”

Paddy
nodded and stopped at a traffic light. He passed her a grey rectangular gadget
about the size of a small smart phone.

“Hold
this against your phone for ten seconds. It’ll give me what I need.”

Leia
blinked and shook her head. The idea of the video falling into a stranger’s
hands made nausea rise. “I’d rather not do that.”

The
lights changed. Paddy’s gaze returned to the road. “The gizmo’s already
capturing everything on your phone, Miss. Holding it closer will make it work
faster.” His eyes connected with hers again. “I assume you want your stepfather
found?”

Swallowing
thickly, she nodded.

“I
already know almost everything he did to you. The bastard needs to be put down,
fast.”
Hard, unapologetic words.

Suppressing
a shiver, she pulled her phone out of her purse and did as she was told.
Several minutes later, he pulled up in front of her office. “One last thing. We
can’t protect you if you insist on wearing disguises and leaving via back
entrances. You’re giving him the power that way. Same as you will be if you pay
him off.”

“I
don’t intend to pay him off, but I’d like to pay for
your
services to
help catch him—”