Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 4) (4 page)

“I don’t know you
at all,” I said, my voice wavering. “You understand, don’t
you?”

He put a cool, thin
hand over mine. “That’s what I was told. I’ve prepared myself
for it.”

I stared at him, hoping
he would feel my gaze and look at me with some kind of feeling.
Though love would be nice, I’d take remorse. I’d take guilt or
worry.

But he looked straight
ahead, his face expressionless. I felt the silence like a fist
squeezing my heart.

“Can I ask you
something?” I blurted out, too loudly.

“Of course,” he
said, glancing at his phone.

“Do we –” I
swallowed hard.

“Do we what?”

“Um, do we love each
other?”

He gave me a quick,
tight smile. “Of course, Karina. Why do you think I’m here?”

“But you thought I
left you for –”

His face hardened.
“There’s plenty of time to talk about that,” he said, so
faintly I had strain to hear him. “Later. When we get home to
Boston.”

I turned my face away.
Home.
He had no idea that I wasn’t going home. I was leaving it.

I hoped it got better,
and fast.

The first day without
her was a special kind of hell. Every minute lasted a lifetime and
felt like a switchblade twisting in my gut.

First I hated her for
leaving without saying goodbye, then I was grateful to her, then I
hit the Scotch. This wasn’t just a fight or normal break-up. This
was the woman of my fucking dreams being ripped out of my arms by
some clown who didn’t give a crap about her.

And he wasn’t telling
the whole story.

Just watching him on
television – which I did obsessively, all day long – I could see
something shady in his eyes. If I were playing pool with this guy,
I’d be wondering how he was going to cheat and how many goons he
had standing by to help kick the shit out of me after they robbed me
blind.

He might be a college
law professor who’d written two books, but he wasn’t straight up.
Wasn’t it obvious to everybody who looked at him? Was I the only
one who noticed he was a more than a little off?

God, I hated the news,
but damned if I couldn’t turn it off. Today the interviewers were
focusing on the sappy, feel-good reunion part of the story. The
beautiful missing woman returning to her loving family and friends.
All I had left of her were snatches of video showing her ducking into
an elegant brick townhouse in Boston’s South End.

She couldn’t even
walk up her front steps without the sharks swarming. And they were
coming for me next.

Less than twenty-four
hours after I’d made love to her for the last time, journalists
were setting up camp outside my office and apartment building. One of
the guests at Scott’s party had told a reporter who I’d brought
as I date, and somebody in my building had blabbed that she’d been
staying with me.

Now the whole fiasco
was about to explode all over my life and my company like a grenade.
And then I’d feel even worse than I did now, which was fucking
wretched.

I could already hear
the probing questions. How did I meet Karina Blair? Was our
relationship romantic? Did I know she was married? At my instruction,
my assistant Ruby had spent the previous day refusing interview
requests and saying only, “No comment,” but reporters were a
rabid bunch. They weren’t about to go easy on me.

The only thing I knew
how to do right now was work. And I’d do it 24/7 if it helped numb
the pain of losing Jane even a little bit.

The second morning
after she left, I took three aspirin that wouldn’t touch my
hangover, got dressed, and went to the office, using side entrances
like a thief. Not a single employee except Ruby dared to look at me,
and even she just smiled and said, “Good morning.” She was smart
enough to know that acknowledging the disaster would only make it
worse.

The second I sat at my
desk, Brooke knocked on the door and peered in. God help her if she
said the wrong thing. Or anything at all.

“Not now,” I said.
There was no way to soften it and I didn’t try.

She came in anyway and
shut the door.

“Brooke, don’t make
me repeat myself,” I said, without looking at her. “Out.”

She had no idea how
close I was to a full-on reversion to the asshole I used to be. I
could have smacked the smug off her face the other night during our
meeting with her father, but I’d held back. Today, I wasn’t
feeling quite so restrained.

“I’ll leave in ten
seconds,” she said. I just want to say that I’m sorry.”

Frowning, I glanced up.
It was the last thing I’d expected her to say besides, “I’m out
of my depth at this company and I’m giving notice so you can hire
someone qualified.”

I could blame her for a
lot of things, and Christ knew I wanted to. But this scandal was not
her fault.

“You’re sorry for
what?” I said. “That I rattled every investor we’re trying to
bring on? That I’ve got a shitstorm waiting to blow up in my face?
I don’t need to be reminded.”

“No.”

Now I was getting
confused, and it was an easy leap from that to pissed off. “
No?
”

She sat in the leather
chair across from my desk. “I’m sorry things with Jane happened
the way they did,” she said, her eyebrows arching. “I truly am.”

I gave her an icy
stare. The words sounded nice, and that’s what made me suspicious.
Brooke was as calculating and self-interested as a rich Daddy’s
girl could be. She wasn’t nice unless there was a big, sparkly
reward in it for her.

“Thanks,” I said.
“Now, I need to get back to work.”

“Maybe we should go
out to lunch,” she said. “Take your mind off things.”

I swung my head toward
the door in a not-so-subtle gesture that she should leave. “I’d
rather puke than eat.”

“It’s stress,”
she said.

“Ya think? You saw
the journalists outside. Oh, I’m sorry, did I say journalists? I
meant tabloid trash.”

She smiled. “Listen,
I’m just going to say it. This whole thing would go away if –”

“There’s a way to
make this go away?” I broke in with a harsh laugh. “I’m all
ears.”

Clearly relishing her
lock on my attention, she sat back in her chair. “Do I need to
spell it out? We both know how this works. If we give the local press
another story to focus on, then we eliminate the problem.”

My stomach was a lead
weight. This was
not
the talk I wanted to have right now. “You mean, we eliminate Jane.”

“She’s already
gone, Drex. You won’t make that better by keeping the story alive.
All you can do is change the subject to something people like even
more.”

I exhaled loudly. My
patience was worn down to a nub. “Like what? Quickly, please. You
have a job to do.”

She leveled a gaze at
me. “A story about you and me.”

I stared at her, barely
able to comprehend the words. “You and me.”

“Yes,” she said,
crossing her legs. “Because it will work, and you know it.”

I scrubbed a hand over
my forehead. Fuck. She was actually making a disgusting, selfish sort
of sense. I hated it, but I couldn’t ignore it. “Do I?”

She held up her palms.
“It doesn’t have to be true. We’ll do it for the company. For
my father and your investors.”

“In other words,
we’ll lie to them.” I wasn’t pleased, and it showed. My voice
could have sliced through flesh.

“We’ll do what’s
necessary,” she said. “You’ve been doing that for years, and
it’s what made you successful.”

You,
you, you
. She had this so fucking wrong.

“You’re not getting
it, Brooke,” I said. “I don’t care about me. I want to make
things easier for Jane. She’ll have more publicity than she can
handle in Boston. She doesn’t need more from the asshats down
here.”

Either way, she’d be
hounded until she wanted to crawl in a hole. She was beautiful,
smart, and her story was like chum to a Great White. And I thought
I
knew what it was like to be reporter bait. Even with my
background and a criminal for a father, I didn’t know shit.

“Then a juicy story
is what we need,” Brooke said. “It keeps the local press
distracted, and it’s publicity for Cougan Enterprises. That’s
what you’ve always wanted me to focus on, right? What’s good for
the company?”

I tried hard not to
smirk. “So, you actually heard me.”

“Yes. Believe it or
not.” She dropped her heavily-mascaraed eyes. “I know I haven’t
always worked as hard as I could have, but I’ve grown up a lot.
Losing you, seeing the way you moved on with someone else – I’m
not the same person. I’m going to devote myself to this company the
way I should have a long time ago.”

It was either the most
remarkable turnaround in history or utter bullshit. I’d bet on the
latter, but still, she’d never said anything like it before.
“That’s good to hear,” I said. “And it’s about time.”

“It’s what you’ve
deserved all along. Now, with your permission, I’ll plant rumors
and get people talking. Anything’s better than the headlines we’re
getting right now.”

I hated to ask. “Which
are?”

She pulled her phone
from her bag and began scrolling. “
Trouble
Follows Local Business Leader. Drex Cougan at Center of Missing Woman
Mystery. Possible Sexual Relationship between Cougan and
–”

I shook my head.
“Enough. I get it.”

“Then I hope you’ll
take my advice.”

I sat back and folded
my arms. Was it advice, or a self-serving attempt to worm her way
back into my life?

Either way, it felt
like sacrilege to even
pretend
to be with Brooke. After Jane, I was – heartbroken was not the
word. Heart-shattered was more like it. Heart-smashed. I’d hardly
have cared about the impact on the company if jobs weren’t at
stake, but I had employees who depended on me to do the right thing,
even if it felt shitty and wrong.

I stared at Brooke.
“All right,” I said. “Start a rumor with the press, but that’s
all. Once they back off Jane and the company, we’ll give an
interview and kill the story.”

A brief shadow passed
over her face. “Whatever you think is best.”

But it wasn’t about
what was best. For me, it was just about getting through the next few
days.

“Yeah,” I said, and
nodded to show her that the conversation was finished.

As soon as she saw me,
my mother threw her arms around my neck. “Oh, sweetheart, I thought
I’d never see you again.”

I put my arms around
the slender, white-haired stranger and tried to hug her. A brief,
awkward squeeze was the best I could manage. I was exhausted after
spending a long flight next to my husband, trying to keep the
conversation going like a trained seal keeping a ball in the air.

“I was sure you were
dead,” my mother sobbed, her body shaking against mine.

“I’m so sorry,” I
said.

If only I’d gotten
this kind of emotion from my husband, he might feel like more than
the chaperone who’d escorted me home. He stood watching us from the
other side of the living room of the primly-decorated brownstone
where I’d lived for the last five years. Outside, TV vans blocked
our narrow, one-way street.

Everything was new to
me – the neighborhood, the furniture, the flowered umbrella in the
stand by the front door.

No, not new. Strange.
Like suddenly being in another woman’s life.

When had I ever liked
chintz? Had mahogany and brick really been my style? The walls were
so dark it felt like they were collapsing in on me.

My heart began to
pound. For one terrifying moment, I glanced at David and was sure he
had the wrong person. He’d made a mistake. Everyone had. The real
Karina Blair was still wandering around out there, and this whole
thing was a horrible mix-up.

But I only had to look
at my mother’s blue eyes to know that I was her daughter. There was
no escaping this life. It was mine, whether I wanted it or not.

Taking a long, calming
breath, I patted my mother’s back before stepping away. “It’s
okay. I’m here now.”

Brows knit, she shook
her head. “But I don’t understand. How could something like this
just happen?”

“I wish I knew,” I
said, searching her face for anything familiar.

I was desperate to
remember her. With memories would come love, and with love would come
the feeling of being home. But I didn’t know her any better than my
husband.

I could tell by the way
she looked at me that she knew everything about me. Everything but
what counted most: who I was, right now, today. My name was Jane, and
I wasn’t in love with David Blair. I was in love with Drex Cougan.

Tears streamed down her
face. “You don’t remember me?” she asked, her voice quavering.
“Not at all?”

“Not yet,” I said
gently. “I wish I did.”

Her eyes brightened
suddenly. “How about your father? He died when you were eleven. Do
you have any memories of him?”

“We talked about him
on the plane,” David piped up. “She doesn’t remember right now.
It’s probably best if we don’t overwhelm her with questions.”

My mother leveled a
skeptical stare at him. “These are questions we should have asked
three weeks ago. You didn’t tell us Karina was missing until Ivy
started worrying about her.”

The air practically
vibrated with tension. They’d never liked each other. I could feel
it.

“Who’s Ivy?” I
asked.

They both looked at me.
“Your best friend since high school,” my mother said. “She’s
an ER nurse. She knew something was wrong when she didn’t hear from
you.”

“I was in touch with
her from the beginning,” David said.

“Ivy tells a
different story,” my mother snapped. “She kept calling asking
about Karina. You didn’t go the police until she threatened to go
herself.”