“Who said I’m trying to make Trevor jealous? I happen to love Justin.”
“Since when? According to Trevor, you claimed you were in love with
him
only last week.”
“And last week he claimed he was a simple writer.” She felt her temper leaking through the calm she’d worked to achieve. She took a steadying breath but kept up the rhythmic thwacking of the knife on the cutting board. “I’ve known Justin for years and loved him almost as long, but more importantly, he’s never lied to me.”
Up to that point, Brody had appeared merely amused by her answers. The worried frown that slipped across his battered features told her she’d begun to make him nervous. “Jesus, Meggy. Trevor’s in love with you. You don’t think he’s going to just step aside and let you fly off with this guy, do you?”
The knife stilled in her hand. “If I decide to fly off with this guy, as you put it, he’ll have no other choice.” Despite her decision to take Trevor at his word—after she exacted a little revenge—his betrayal still hurt. It wasn’t necessary to feign anger, she knew her eyes glittered with it. “Drop it, Brody. The topic just pisses me off.” She flipped the knife over to scrape sliced mushrooms into a holding tray. “So, have you found a costume yet for the party tomorrow night? My great-grandmother is coming as Queen Elizabeth.” Her eyes narrowed on a sneer. “You could come as her jester.”
****
The Halloween bash had been in full swing for several hours. Meggy glanced out the window toward the carriage house for what felt like the hundredth time. She forced herself to look away. He wasn’t coming. He certainly hadn’t raced home to stop her from running off to marry Justin. Either he didn’t believe she’d do it or he didn’t care. The latter possibility made her want to weep.
When her parents waltzed by on the makeshift dance floor, she pasted a smile on her face. Bob and Carol Calhoun looked so easy together, the balding fifties biker and his poodle-skirted date. A pang of sadness tugged at her heart that she’d never experience the kind of love they shared, and she blamed Trevor. He’d made her want things she’d never known she wanted and then he’d turned out to be a liar. She didn’t know why she still wanted the bastard.
“Any sign of the billionaire lawyer?” Justin, in his rock star’s garb, slung an arm around her shoulders, his gaze scanning the crowd of partiers. He was careful not to disturb the glittered wings on her fairy costume, which he’d told her was sexy as hell and was going to have Trevor choking on his own tongue.
She wished now that she’d worn her chef’s smock.
At the bar, her gypsy earrings sparkling in the overhead lights, Cara shook her head. Finn, her six-five gypsy prince, leaned on the bar beside her.
“I guess he’s not coming,” Meggy announced around the lump in her throat. “What if he’s decided I’m just too much trouble? What if he doesn’t love me enough to fight for me after all?”
Cara snorted. “Trevor? The man who announced to the entire town that you were marrying him? Not a chance.”
“Cara’s right, Meggy.” Finn pointed his beer bottle her way. “You haven’t seen the last of Trevor Christos.”
“If you’re having second thoughts about this plan of yours, you could always tell him the truth, babe.” Justin plucked a candied apple from a tray on the bar and sunk his teeth in with a crunch. “I wouldn’t complain,” he said around the mouthful of treat. “Even pretending I’m about to shackle myself in wedded bliss is enough to make me consider taking up a musical instrument for real and going out on an extended tour.”
She smiled. “I haven’t changed my mind, and you promised.”
“I promised, and I’ll go through with your charade.” He tapped a finger to her nose. “But if he breaks my jaw, you’ll owe me big time.”
Cara and Finn laughed.
But she just shrugged. “I already owe you. If he breaks your jaw you can put it on my tab.”
“Did you ask Elizabeth where Trevor was?” Cara asked.
She frowned and searched the room for her great-grandmother. In her Queen Elizabeth costume, she looked as if she were holding court in reality, as she conversed with three of the town’s oldest and most influential residents, including Finn’s great-aunt, Maive Cataldo, and Jasper and Bertie Watson.
“I asked her a few minutes ago, but she wouldn’t tell me. She said she’d raised one fool and passed her blood down to another. And that if the two of us wanted to continue to play such games, she would have no part of it. Maive, Jasper, and Bertie all agreed with her.”
Cara laughed, eyeing the group sitting with Elizabeth. “God. Can you imagine if the four of them teamed up together? They could terrorize entire continents.”
She grinned and didn’t disagree.
“You’re looking a little tense there, Mother Goose.” Finn winked at Shan who hurried toward the bar. “What’s up?”
“Trevor just came in through the back door.” She turned a worried gaze on Meggy. “He’s in the kitchen, Meggy. He wants to talk to you.”
“Show time!” Cara crooned.
Her heart rate took off like a race horse coming out of the gate.
Justin dropped a big hand on her shoulder. “Last chance. Are you sure you want to go through with this, babe?”
Cara scowled at Justin. “Don’t try to talk her out of it.” She turned back and her eyes sparkled with challenge. “He deserves to pay a price. Since he was the one who involved the whole town, he deserves to pay it in front of most of Palmerton.” Her dark brows arched. “It’s either this, or I go get my machete.”
Justin and Finn laughed.
Meggy was too nervous to appreciate the humor. She gave Shan an apologetic smile, concerned her frantically beating heart was about to explode from her chest. “Would you mind telling Trevor I’m dancing with my fiancé, Shan?”
“Me?” Shan squeaked. “Why do I have to be the one to tell him?”
“He’s not going to do anything to you. It’s me he’ll want to kill.”
“Not to mention me.” Anticipation sharpened Justin’s grin.
“I’ll protect you, babe.” She patted his arm.
Shan threw up her hands and turned on her heel.
“Shall we?” Justin held out a hand.
She placed her damp palm in his, and he towed her onto the dance floor, sweeping her into his arms. His gaze trained toward the kitchen, he twirled her. A moment later, he dropped her into a dip and covered her mouth with his.
The crash of the kitchen door bursting open sounded above the music.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Cooper!” Trevor barked across the distance. “Unless you want them broken, you’ll take your hands off her.”
A shudder went through Meggy.
Justin straightened, bringing her up with him. When she started to move away, he clamped her to his side. Arching a brow, he watched Trevor approach. “Is there a problem?”
“The only problem is yours, if you don’t get your hands off my future wife,” Trevor said with amazing calm, considering the murder in his eyes.
“
Your
future wife?” Justin turned a laughing gaze on Meggy. “I thought you were marrying
me,
babe.”
Trevor took a threatening step forward.
She wriggled free of Justin’s hold. She jammed a hand against Trevor’s chest before he could reach her grinning friend. “Stop it, Trevor.”
His eyes were a stormy gray as they simmered down into hers. “You wanted to have this out in public, Meggy. We’ll have it out in public.”
“Me? I wasn’t the one who blabbed our business to the whole town.” She took her own menacing step forward to poke him in the chest. “I didn’t announce to the entire town that we were engaged,” her voice rose with each word, “when...we...aren’t!”
“What the hell was I supposed to do?” he shouted. “You wouldn’t speak to me.”
Their altercation finally registered on the party guests, and the place went quiet. Over Trevor’s shoulder, she caught glimpses of shocked and interested faces. She wasn’t surprised to see Erin hurrying closer to the action.
“If airing your laundry for the whole town pisses you off so much, you should have come into the kitchen like I asked.”
Trevor obviously didn’t care who heard.
“And don’t think I don’t know who it was who fed the town all that bullshit about you dating this bozo?” Trevor jerked his thumb in Justin’s direction.
“Bozo?” Justin coughed. “I like that!”
His sly grin gave her pause. Justin hadn’t become a cop because he liked to avoid conflict, he thrived on it. And she knew from personal experience he had an uncanny knack for knowing just what buttons to push to get results. How had she forgotten that little fact?
“Can we hurry this along, babe?” He spoke in a bored voice. “We’ve got a plane to catch.” He waggled his brows. “And a hotel suite to check into.”
She grimaced. Talk about overkill.
“What’s the problem here, Meggy?” Bob Calhoun came to a stop several feet away, with Carol pushing through the throng to catch him. He jerked his chin in Trevor’s direction. “Is this the guy who decided you were a crook before he’d even laid eyes on you?”
“I’ve got this, Dad,” she said on a groan.
Trevor dragged his furious gaze from Justin to give her father a belligerent stare.
“If he’s harassing you,” Bob continued.
“I said I’ve got it.”
“Bob.” Carol reached his side and grasped his arm. “She looks like she’s got things under control. Let her handle it.”
Meggy figured she must resemble a pampered poodle standing between two vicious guard dogs, when her father turned a stunned gaze on his wife and barked, “It doesn’t look like she’s got anything under control to me.”
Carol patted his arm comfortingly. “Trust me, Bob. Your little girl knows exactly what she’s doing.” She sent Meggy a wink and dragged him away toward their table.
Oh no, I don’t!
“Finn!” Finn’s great-aunt, Maive, spoke in the sudden silence, “Use some muscle to clear a path in that crowd. We can’t see the show from over here.”
At the spatter of laughter from the crowd, she squeezed her eyes shut and decided her father was right. She had lost control of “operation payback”. As if to underscore that fact, the sound of a fist striking bone had her eyes popping open to the sight of Justin sprawled on the floor at Trevor’s feet. “Are you crazy?” she cried. “He’s a cop. You just punched a cop!” She sank to her knees at Justin’s side.
“He’s an asshole,” Trevor said from above them.
Horrified, she ran her fingers over the mark already appearing on Justin’s handsome face. He captured her hand and held it against his bruised cheek, speaking only loud enough for her to hear. “You’re on your own from here, babe.” He flexed his jaw. “The bastard’s got a fist like a mallet.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered before rising to her feet and spinning to glare at Trevor. “You had no right to hurt him!”
****
Trevor’s temper fired on all cylinders. Brody had been amused when he’d called to report that Meggy was doing everything she could to convince the people of Palmerton she was having a hot and heavy affair with her cop ex-boyfriend. Trevor hadn’t been amused. Only Elizabeth’s assurances that all wasn’t as it seemed with Meggy and her cop, had kept him from dropping the mess he’d found in Virginia and catching the first available flight north. Instead, he’d agreed to do nothing, giving Meggy’s anger the time to run its course.
But seeing the anger in her eyes now, as she defended the man against him, had him doubting Elizabeth’s assessment of the situation. The possibility Meggy really did plan to use those airline tickets Brody had mentioned made his stomach clench in panic.
Because Meggy was only half of the equation.
He’d been so sure she was using Justin to get a little revenge against him he hadn’t stopped to consider the other man’s motivations. In Trevor’s experience, everyone had a price. Even an honest cop would be tempted by the kind of wealth Meggy suddenly represented. Fury exploded in his gut at the idea of the man taking advantage of Meggy’s play for revenge, to make a play of his own. He glared down at Justin, who had managed to sit up on the floor.
“I don’t know what kind of a scam you’re running here, Cooper, but it’s not going to work.” Meggy’s gasp registered faintly despite the angry haze gripping his mind. “Meggy may be the Ashford heir, but I can guarantee you,
you’ll
never see a dime of Ashford money.”
Trevor braced for a blow when Justin rose to his feet. It never came.
Meggy’s cop boldly met his glare with a dismissive snort and an odd flash of sympathy in his eyes. “There’s no fool like a rich fool.”
“Scam?” Meggy’s softly spoken word wafted to his ears.
He turned to look at her. It had been the wrong thing to say, considering their history, and he knew it the moment he saw her eyes. They’d gone flat, and her fairy face had gone still, like untouchable porcelain. But damn it, she had no idea just how completely her life had been altered. She had no idea the lengths to which people would go in their attempts to get their hands on her money. The sooner she understood that, the better.
“Why the sudden interest in marrying you, Meggy? You’ve known the man for years. Why is it only
now
he’s discovered he’s madly in love with you? The only thing that’s changed is your financial status.”
She stiffened and two spots of color bloomed on her white face. “And of course, you believe the only reason any man could want me would be for my bank account.”