Abruptly, she shoved her hands against his chest. The heat from her lips cooled with every side step she took getting away from him.
“Don’t you see, Mikhail? I’m not a sample in a box of women you pull out and match to your suit. I go with everything. From Monday morning to Sunday night, I match everything.” She folded her arms. “But I come back from the states and find out you went out with Gemme…every night.”
He stepped back as the truth hung between them. She backed away, shoulders slumped as she moved down the slope from the parking lot, wiping her mouth with her hand. It was three dates, but it didn’t matter, hurt was hurt.
She laughed but it was as dark and lifeless as a funeral dirge. “I knew you had no answer for that. I need to stretch my legs and get some air…not ready to go inside just yet.”
He had one, one she wouldn’t like, because he hated it.
A group of women emerged from an SUV, he glanced their way and when he looked back, Bethany was staring at him, soft brown eyes gone cold.
“You haven’t changed.” She threw up her hands.
Was he supposed to?
“Because I looked, Bethany? Give me a break, they’re guests.” He stepped toward her then gripped the ends of her scarf holding her to his chest. “What do you want me to do, pretend I don’t see them so they leave?”
She cursed. “If I have to explain, then that kiss meant more to me than it did to you. Just like our relationship.” He dropped the scarf when she broke his hold to grab her skis off the top of his truck.
Hell, she was going to give him an aneurism before the week was over. He took the skis from her setting them on the ground before pinning her to the truck.
“Is there someone else?” As much as he wanted her to scream she wanted him, a small part of him knew there was a chance another man could be waiting to take her away. He wasn’t ready for that reality.
Her mouth twitched. “You think I’d take this baggage into a new relationship. No, Mikhail. That wouldn’t be fair to him or me.”
Relief took up residence in his heart and gave him hope of salvaging their relationship. “Forget I’m your boss. Forget about the games, and everything else screwing up this day and us, and tell me—if you don’t want anything to do with me, why did you agree to have me watch over you up here instead of a guard down in the valle?”
One tear slid down her cheek, snowflakes dotting her warm skin. The pain on her face etched a crease over his heart.
She was frightened, and he watched the fight weaken in her slumped shoulders. Bethany chewed the corner of her mouth, tilting her head to one side, eyes closed. What had he missed?
Eyes open, Bethany rocked on her heels looking terrified. “I’m scared, Khail. Is that what you want to hear? That I’m scared and the only person I can think to turn to is you.”
There is was. “I’m right here, baby.”
Bethany shifted on her boots scuffing them in the snow. “How do I trust, when I’m broken? I’m on edge and scared and my family is in Arizona. I need them right now.”
Hold her, just hold her. “Stay with me…Let me keep you safe.”
“I know in my heart you believe in me, but I don’t trust you. It’s not about us getting along anymore, Khail. It’s about trust, and I don’t trust you.”
He could see that. “I’m not going to sit by while somebody threatens your life.”
“I’m not stopping you from finding them. Figuring out who’s doing this and working out how I feel about you after everything that’s happened between us is causing a tornado of emotions. You think I can just put everything in separate envelopes and deal with them individually. Well I can’t.”
This way wasn’t working for him.
“What do I do when staying away from you starts to eat away at my heart every day that you walk past my office?”
“I didn’t bring this on us.”
“What do I do when I can’t stop thinking of you when I wake up in the morning?”
“Don’t do that to me, Khail.” Her soft voice trembled as she took a step back in the snow crunching under her boots and waving a hand at his chest. But he wasn’t stopping.
“What happens when I want to hold you again? You think I can just walk away because you’re pissed?”
“Don’t charm me, Khail. Looking at me like that isn’t going to erase the pain.”
He’d had enough. Closing his arms around her shoulders, he brought her to his chest hugging her tight to his body, their jackets a barrier he loathed. She kept her arms folded against his chest.
At the office every day, seeing Bethany coming and going to lunch, running out to her truck, talking to Glenda standing in the hall, it was pure hell not to touch her.
“Nobody can see us here behind the truck. I don’t want to push you or force you to forgive me. But you don’t get to tell me I don’t care about you. You’ve been hell to work around lately.”
“You created this hell you’re working in, don’t put that on me.”
“Then stop fighting me so I can fix it. We’re not done with this.” They had hours and hours of talk ahead of them, and she was going to listen if he had to kidnap her himself.
“I don’t know how to trust you anymore on a personal level.”
He gave her an odd stare. “You don’t think I’m worth a second chance.”
She sighed deep in her chest, slowly unfolding her arms to wipe at the tear escaping her eyes, leaving a trail of pain down her face. “Not yet,” she admitted.
“Then I’ll wait.”
“I have some research to do for a client, Mrs. Rykerman. You know Mikhail, when Mrs. Rykerman speaks about her husband it’s obvious she’d give back all the millions he left her to have him back for one more day.” She touched the space between her breasts patting gently. “That’s what I want. A love I’d wish back from the dead, not wish he were dead when I think of our past.”
“You wish I were dead, Bethany?”
“Not even if I had the power,” she admitted and he felt the honesty and it tightened is gut. “I do wish that when you thought about me, it had been enough to keep you from calling Gemme. That’s what I wish. I wish I could accept your apology, but you can’t apologize for something you did on purpose knowing it would hurt me.”
He wasn’t ready to tell her the truth…no he wasn’t ready to face his demons.
He came close tugging his sweater poking out under her ski jacket. She’d grabbed it from his luggage in the office while her things were being gone through. “Be careful walking along the river. There’s patches of ice. I’ll wait here until your guard gets here.”
She looked as if she knew he felt it. “I took it from your duffle after the detective interrogated me. I hope you don’t mind.”
“You know I don’t.”
She pulled a cell from her pocket to cradle in her hands. “In business I’ll always choose to work with you…It’s amazing to watch you think. But I can’t be dropped to earth like that again.” The touch of her hand on his face warmed his soul. “The next woman you drop that smile on…and close these arms around…do it slowly. Most women aren’t ready for a combination that lethal. Just be faithful to her. We should’ve never taken our friendship that far.”
“I’m not walking away that easily.”
He watched her anger fade into sadness. She walked down the path flanking the river. “You can leave my stuff there. I’m going to walk along the river and see if I can get a signal to talk to my mother in Arizona. See how her knee is acting today. And I know Daddy watched CNN and saw the news reporting us as going through a divorce and an employee missing.”
He’d almost forgotten about the news crews out front trying to get a story because he was the next in line to inherit the company, with his grandfather retiring in a year. He had even made the European magazine for illegible rich bachelors. How had he forgotten just that quickly? He looked around for the guards he’d called his brother to post. Sure, the photographers followed them up, because the resort was open to the public for skiing.
He rested against the truck, ankles crossed, studying her as she walked down the path that followed the river around the house. Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out his iPhone, breaking the trance of staring after Bethany. Mikhail touched the screen he studied the names of his biggest suspects then sent a message to his friend in forensics back in the valley. He’d sent a copy of the sign-in log from the firm’s lobby to have him compare the two names to the handwriting at the bottom of the letter in the evidence bag. Clearing her name remained his top priority.
Hearing a thundering voice, he swung around on the snow covered graveled drive to watch Seth stalking from around the small fabricated pond in front of the main chalet. A Structural Engineer, his brother worked all over the world keeping him away from his family weeks at a time. It meant a lot for him to share their time together up here helping with the winter games. After Simone had gone through all she had with those men, Mikhail was surprised Seth left his family alone at any time.
“Between your grandfather calling from the states to calm us to Anya, Josef, and Simone screaming at CNN, what’s the real story? Everything good?”
“Under control for now.” Mikhail hugged his brother, returning the greeting, heartily gripping his shoulders. Reunited with Seth after being stolen from a Russian hospital thirty years prior, they made it a priority to spend time together, with him in Austria and Seth in London.
Mikhail looked out over the parking lot now filling with cars loaded down with skis and luggage. “It’s good to see so many made it up with a storm looming over the valley.”
Seth helped him grab up his things. “What’s up Mikhail? What’s going on with my brother? Were the death threats for you, some woman you forgot to call back?”
“I’m done with that lifestyle. I have a company to run.”
He grinned. “I live in London, and I know you’ve left a trail of broken hearts.” Mikhail had to think about that. Had he lived so carelessly with women? “So seriously what did the detective say? Tell me they have someone in custody? They’re not just dropping the case are they?”
“They think it’s Bethany—I think it’s a competitor.”
Seth folded his arms under his chest rocking back on his boot heels. Steam rose from his nostrils as he breathed out, and then asked. “Bethany’s the American you transferred up here last year? I thought she was working out?”
“I’m not going into it, but we dated once so they think she has motive.”
“Ah damn, Mikhail…Not a fatal attraction case? I can handle it up here if you need to go back down?” Seth offered pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. Abruptly he dropped his hands, face gone blotchy red. “Was she hurt?”
“She’s shaken but strong. They wanted to have her sit in a cell while they investigated.”
Angling a glance down the ravine Seth asked uncertain, “You’re sure she didn’t do it…?”
“I know…she’s down there, by the river, where the reception is stronger.”
“Who’s she calling?”
“Her family in the states,” he said knowing her habits. “I’m sure they saw the world news report, and they know she works for Heinemann’s. She’s close to her family,” Mikhail said leaving off that she was pissed with him for cheating on her. “And she’s waiting for more friends to join us here.”
Seth peered around the truck and raised his brows, shooting him a wide eye glare. “Seriously…everything okay at the firm with you and Mark?”
“I’m watching him…watching him close,” he said of the problem he didn’t need right now. “But the other problem is—Munson as in Detective.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Mikhail cut him off. “Long story, but the polizei assigned Detective Munson to the case. Bethany’s in my custody, while the investigation is going on so she had to ride up with me or sit in a cell downtown.”
“Munson,” Seth barked throwing his hands in the air. “That useless… you were better off calling me. He’d wait to see a body float to the top of the river before calling in for backup.”
He wasn’t far off with that thought.
“He’s gunning for her, and I know it’s because of our relationship.”
“He would hold a grudge.” Seth looked around the truck again, shaking his head. “Are you sure she didn’t do it?” Seth drew a hand across his throat mimicking a knife being drug across the surface.
“You mean vengeful like Gretchen was to you, no.” Seth’s body tensed. Gretchen had nearly cost him the family he has now. “Sorry man…just tired of her being everybody’s focus. She’s a good woman.”
“You still want her don’t you?”
He looked at his brother with disdain. Of course he wanted her, why would he even bother bringing her up there if he didn’t?
He opened the door and pulled out his luggage. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It will if she knows who did it and is taking the heat for them.”
“I thought about that…she has a big heart.” He clicked the lock on the truck after he closed the door. “Someone’s setting her up to take the fall for this. You don’t know the woman I know. She didn’t send it.”
Seth threw his hands up. “Hey—never argue with a man in love. If you say she’s innocent…” he trailed off.
Mikhail let those two words run through his body.
“Not going to deny it, brother?”
“I need a shower, and Anya’s cooking and I smell her seasoned pork sandwich, my favorite meal…anything with meat on the plate.” He shoved off the truck to stand up straight.
“Well let’s get you two inside.”
He turned, waving a hand, getting her attention. She came without a word, sweeping hair behind her over her shoulder she tromped through the snow as if things hadn’t gone well on the other end. But her jaw dropped when she got a look at Seth.
“Everything okay in Arizona?” he asked letting a hand rest on her lower back as she tucked her phone away in her ski jacket pocket. “Friends from back home in Michigan…CNN’s reporting has their phone ringing off the hook.” She rubbed a hand under her nose. “It’s nice to hear my old friends and family keep in touch.”
“You have friends all over the world…one important friend right here by your side,” he warned more than said, with all the softness of a porcupine having its quills polished. Stop fighting him.
She didn’t move his hand so somewhere in there she wanted him by her side.