High Stakes (The Kingdom Book 2) (16 page)

“Time to go home, Arianna.”

“Oh. Wow. Is that the time?”

Beth nods, and thrusts my purse into my hand. “Have a large glass of wine and make that man of yours rub your ankles, and kiss your feet.”

I laugh. “Thanks, Beth. And thanks for today. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

“Oh, Arianna. Don’t thank me just yet. I went easy on you today. Wait until next week, you’ll be begging me to let you go home early.”

I highly doubt that, but I know Beth would like to keep up her tough persona so I humor her. “Yes, boss.”

“So, I’ll see you nine am sharp tomorrow?”

Beth sits back at her desk, practically dismissing me and flicking through more paperwork.

“Try and stop me,” I answer.

I see her lips twitch into a half smile, even though her head is down, and she is seemingly engrossed in the figures on the paper in her hand. I pick up the box containing the rose and head on out.

When I reach the glass doors, I see a familiar body leaning up against the wall, one foot propped against it, and his hand in his pocket. He turns to look at me as I open the door.

“Well, hello there, beautiful,” Denham says, pulling me into his chest. “I missed you so bad today.”

“I missed you too,” I mumble into his shirt. Although I missed him a little, it was good to not be thinking about him all day. It was good to be doing something productive with my brain, and not having to rely on someone else for the health of my mental wellbeing.

With his face buried in the hair around my shoulder, he inhales, “I missed the smell of your hair.”

“You did?” I question.

“Yeah. I missed knowing you were upstairs.”

“Well, I wasn’t far away.”

“You didn’t miss me, did you?” he says tickling my waist with his fingertips.

“Yes!” I giggle.

“It’s okay. If you didn’t miss me it’s because you were enjoying your first day. Am I right?”

“Yes, I loved my first day, and every spare minute I thought about you.”

“Well, I thought about you every spare minute, too.”

“I know.”

“Oh, you know, do you?”

“Yes, if you hadn’t thought about me, you wouldn’t have sent me this.” I wave the box in front of him and his hands fall away from my body.

“What’s that?” he says with a frown.

“What do you mean? It’s the rose you had delivered to me …” Panic bubbles at the bottom of my throat. “… didn’t you?”

“No,” he says scraping his hand across his face. “I didn’t have anything delivered to you.”

“Well, if you didn’t … then who?” I’m afraid to ask the question, but it comes out anyway. In fact, I think I’m more afraid of the answer.

He looks at me with a mix of worry and anger, and grabs the box from me before flinging the door open, and striding back into the boutique. He marches straight into Beth’s office, calling her name and I follow right behind him, feeling that his reaction is a little over the top.

“Beth …” He slams the box on my desk, making me jump.

“Jesus, thought I was being raided with all the commotion you’re making. Where’s the emergency?” Beth emerges from behind the fire door where she was standing outside smoking. Huh, she didn’t seem like a smoker to me, and not once have I smelled cigarette smoke on her.

“Do you still have CCTV running here?” Denham asks abruptly.

“Yes, why?”

“Give me today’s recording. Do you still run the feed outside?”

“Yes, but …”

“I want that too.”

“Denham King, I don’t know what your problem is, or why you feel the need to be so rude, but I’m not one of your staff that you can order around. Now fill that chest of yours with a deep breath, and talk to me like an adult.”

Denham does as she says, and I have to stop myself from grinning at the way Beth talks to him. It’s refreshing to see, and although I know he’s not being an asshole intentionally, Beth’s right, just because there’s something worrying him, doesn’t mean he has to lose his manners.

Beth opens her bottom drawer, and pulls out three glasses and a bottle of brandy. She pours two fingers in each glass, and passes one to each of us. I sniff it, and pull my head away instantly, spirits have never been my favorite drink, but I’ll give it a shot.

Denham knocks his back and Beth tops it up again for him. He’s not so hasty to drink it this time. He seats himself in my office chair opposite Beth, and places his elbows on the table, running his hands along the sides of his head, through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“Good. Now tell me what the problem is.”

“Did you see the person that delivered the rose to Arianna today?”

“I caught a glimpse of a courier on a bike. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why?”

“Well, I didn’t send that courier.”

“Right, so Arianna has an admirer,” Beth says, raising one brow in question.

I stand close, but watch the exchange as if they weren’t talking about me or as if I wasn’t even here.

“That’s what I’m worried about. Did Ari tell you about her ex?”

“Denham, I’m not Oprah fucking Winfrey. She’s here to do a job.”

“Well, you saw the bruising the first day you met her. That was one of the exes.”

“Hang on here a minute,” I interrupt, “one of the exes? You make it sound like there’s a whole string of them. There are two exes. Two. In my whole life, just two,” I snap, resentful at the tone he used to describe my past.

Denham winces and tries to find the words to dig himself out of this hole, but can’t seem to manage it.

“Look, Denham. I know you’re worried,” my voice softens, “but, really, it could have been from anyone, maybe it was for one of the other girls and the delivery guy was mistaken?” I ask.

“Well … I suppose …”

“I mean, I thought it was from you after all of the others you sent, but—”

“What did you just say?” he asks in a dangerously low voice.

“Uh …” I look nervously between Denham and Beth “I thought …” oh shit …

“You were sent others?” he asks, rising slowly from his chair.

“Yes,” I answer in a small voice, that’s now starting to quiver. Not because he’s scaring me, it’s because it’s just dawned on me that all the others weren’t from him. The glass drops from my hand, and my purse follows, spilling the contents across the floor of the office.

Then Denham is in front of me, holding my shoulders and crouching to look directly into my eyes “When? When, Arianna? And where are they?”

“Every day,” I whisper. “Every day, a new rose would appear in my room. I thought …” The breath catches in my throat. “I-I thought they were from you.”

“Fuck.” He curses under his breath, then roars, “Fuuuuck!”

“Denham.” Beth tries the calm reasonable approach, but it’s clear that even she is worried about the reaction he’s had to this. Denham paces back and forth, a few steps at a time before turning in the opposite direction; he runs his hands through his hair and rubs the back of his neck in agitation, then turns to look in my direction.

“Fucking hell, Arianna. You didn’t think to tell me? How am I supposed to keep you safe when you don’t tell me things?” He uses a tone that I’ve not been on the receiving end of before, and I don’t like it. In fact, it makes me want to cry. The whole situation makes me want to cry, and I press my lips together tight to hold it all in. I’m pretty sure I know who the roses are from, and the reason I know this, is that there isn’t anyone else that would do something so fucked up. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to think that I admired those seemingly innocent flowers, presuming they were a token of affection, and thoughtfulness. Well, it seems that someone put some thought into them, and I can’t bring myself to think about what that means from here on in.

Denham grabs my shoulders. “You didn’t think I’d want to know that someone sent you flowers? Do you know who sent them? Was it one of your exes?”

It makes my stomach drop to hear him say it like I’m a black widow, and there’s a whole string of men behind me. Men that I’ve left in such a way, that they all come looking for me and want me back. “I didn’t know it was … I didn’t know,” I plead with him to believe me. I’m so angry with myself for not making the effort to say thank you to him for sending them, we could have been clued in way before now. But I don’t deserve to be yelled at. Hell, I don’t deserve any of this.

“Fucking hell, Arianna,” he roars through frustration, the brandy on his breath coming at me fast and forcing the tears I’m trying to hold back, to come to the surface.

I’m about to let out a torrent of retaliation, it’s the first time that I’ve felt angry at him and I resent the fact that he’s made me feel that way about him, but Beth flies out of her seat and is between us in a flash. She pushes Denham back with her hand on his chest. “Now, that is enough. I won’t have you talk to her like that, King. Sit down, take a few deep breaths and let’s talk this out.”

He looks defeated as he takes a seat and picks up the brandy glass, swallowing what’s left in one big gulp. He then pinches the bridge of his nose, and runs his hands down his thighs, letting a huge sigh from his chest. Beth is still standing in front of me when he stands from his chair and comes toward me again. More calmly this time.

“I-I’m sorry. Okay. Beth, please …” He gestures towards me with his head, as if asking permission to speak to me.

“Fine. But, no more yelling or laying blame, got it?” Beth jabs a pointed finger in his chest, and fixes him with a warning glare.

“Yes,” he says softly, looking suitably told off before Beth moves aside and takes her seat behind her desk again.

“I’m sorry,” he says, gently stroking the backs of his fingers down my cheek. He pulls me in, molds me to him, and cradles my head in his hand. “I’m sorry,” he whispers into my hair, nuzzling and placing small kisses everywhere his lips touch. It doesn’t take more than a few kisses and his skin touching mine, to soothe the frustration I was feeling just a moment ago. Nerves are on high alert, and the tension is pulsing from all of us.

I don’t want him to feel bad. He didn’t frighten me. I know he would never hurt me. He made me feel guilty for not seeing what was in front of me, and for making the whole situation possibly a lot worse by letting my guard down, and thinking I could move forward with no complications.

“I should be protecting you, Ari. I haven’t done a very good job of it, have I?”

He thinks he failed. That’s why he got so mad.

“Denham,” Beth says, pouring herself another large drink “Neither of you could have stopped whatever is going on here. I’m guessing it has something to do with your past, Arianna? And if I’m correct, which I usually am, if it hadn’t happened now, it would have happened another time soon. So, you just need to be grateful you have each other, and a whole circle of friends and family, who will do whatever it takes to sort this out. Are we on the same wavelength?”

Denham holds out his arm and Beth comes forward and dips in underneath it, so he has both of us wrapped up. I’m pretty sure that Beth is one of the few women I will be comfortable with Denham being close and affectionate with. I don’t know why I don’t feel threatened or jealous over her, I just don’t.

Beth places her hand over mine and winks.

“Okay, enough. I have somewhere to be. Where are you going from here?” Beth asks, checking her watch.

“Well, we obviously can’t go back to The Kingdom. But, I suppose we’ll have to go back and pick up some clothes and necessities. I’ll get Spike and Jack to do a sweep of the place to make sure there’s no one there—”

“Denham …”

“I know just the place where we can go, we’ll go for a week or, or as long as it takes … Beth? That’s okay with you?”

“Denham,” I say, louder this time. “I am not going anywhere.”

“Yes, we are.”

“No, we are not.” I loosen myself from his arm and stand in front of him with my hands on my hips.

“We can’t …”

“We can’t, what? I’ll tell you what we can’t do … We can’t keep backing away from reality. I’m fed up of running. I’m tired.”

“But …”

“No. I won’t do it. Whoever this is …” I hold a finger up to silence Denham before he speaks. “And we don’t know for sure that it’s Jonny, I will not let him or anyone else win.”

“But, it could be dangerous …”

“Or there could be a simple explanation, like your crazy assed ex-girlfriend, thinking she can play a few mind games. It wouldn’t be the first time now, would it?”

“No.”

“Well then. That’s settled. We carry on as normal. I want to work. I want to go out for coffee with my mom, and yours for that matter. I will not hide away like a timid little mouse any longer. If it means I am free for fifty days or fifty years, I am going to make each moment count. I am fed up with living like a caged bird, watching everyone else go about their daily lives, but not being able to live for myself.” I make my little speech with a steely determination in my voice and surprise myself at just how much I mean it. I’m not just saying it to put Denham and Beth at ease. I’ve realized that if you want something in this life, then you have to reach out and grab it with both hands. I’m done being weak and manipulated. I want freedom. I want happiness and I want a future.