HIGHER (The Indigo Lounge Series) (22 page)

Stanley Reed personally met them
in the vast, artistically designed foyer and led them to a plush conference
room. Introductions were made.

The portly man’s gaze was
speculative but his inbred discretion won over his curiosity.

“Are they here?”

Stanley nodded. “They arrived ten
minutes ago.”

Zach’s face grew taut and
unreadable and renewed tension bristled through him.

“Let’s get this over with.”

“I’ve drawn up all the necessary
papers. All we have to do is convince them to go ahead with what we proposed.”

“They have no choice. They won’t
like the alternative.” The dark threat was unmistakable.

Stanley’s gaze darted back to her
before he stood. Zach remained seated, his breathing choppy. “Give us a minute,
Stanley.”

His attorney nodded and left.

Zach raised bleak, anguished eyes
to her and her fear for them, tripled. “Bethany…”

She surged forward and took his
hand. “I’m here, Zach. No matter what, we’ll deal with it together.” She knew,
unequivocally that the man she loved, the man who treated her like she was the
most precious thing in his life wasn’t a killer. Whatever else was out there,
she was sure she could deal with.

His fingers grasped her, meshing
painfully around hers. “I’m holding you to that, baby. I can’t…I
won’t
live without you,” he whispered
raggedly.

She rose and launched herself at
him. He pulled her into his lap and buried his face against her chest, his
breath heaving as his body shook. They remained like that for a full minute
before he slowly lifted his head.

The anguish hadn’t abated but it
had eased a little.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

He nodded.

She took and held onto his hand
as they left the room.

Stanley waited outside and led
them two doors down to another conference room.

Three people were seated inside.
The older couple were clearly Farrah’s parents. The older woman’s resemblance
to her dead daughter was acute.

Stanley made the introductions.
Fawad and Nabila Nisa didn’t offer to shake hands, and neither did their son,
Karim. Pure hatred bristled from the younger man the moment he turned his black
eyes toward Zach and it ramped up a few thousand degrees when he saw their
joined hands.

Zach pulled out a chair for her
opposite the trio on the other side of the conference table and sat without
letting go of her hand. She knew he craved the support but it helped her just
as much.

Stanley Reed took his place at
the head of the table and cleared his throat. “Shall we get started?”

Nabila made a tiny rough sound
beneath her breath. Raising her head, she glanced at Zach.

Bethany’s breath caught as she
witnessed the emotion in the woman’s eyes. Pain, raw and hellish and
all-consuming. But as she watched her another emotion flared up. It took a few
seconds for Bethany to recognize it.

Her eyes were pleading with Zach
- a desperate plea for salvation. For mercy.

Zach returned her stare, his face
twisting with regret for a moment before he glanced at Stanley.

“Bethany, Zach has asked me draw
up non-disclosure papers for you to look over. As you probably know they
involve Farrah Nisa, his wife,” he paused as Karim snorted, “and the
circumstances of her death. Are you prepared to consider the papers?”

Her eyes darted to Zach. Grey
eyes locked with hers. “It’s totally your call. But it’s…easier this way.”

“Easier for you to lock her in a
world of secrets and lies, you mean?” Karim blasted from across the table.

Zach froze. His eyes turned
bullet-lethal as they rested on Karim. “Do not push me, Karim. You already
stepped way out of line when you decided to come after Bethany.”

Fawad Nisa frowned. “What did you
do, Karim?”

Karim’s jaw clenched. “She needs
to know the kind of man he is,” he shot back.

“I know everything I need to know
about the kind of man he is,” Bethany inserted.

Five pairs of eyes turned to her.
Zach’s eyes held desolation, gratitude and fear. Her lips pursed. It was time
to end this, to work on making her man whole again.

She glanced at Stanley. “What do
I need to do?”

He opened the black folder in
front of him and slid papers across the desk.

“You sign the agreement, then
Zach is free to tell you everything you want to know.”

“No,” Zach bit out, his eyes
still on her. “I tell her
before
she
signs.”

“No chance in hell is that
happening.” Karim’s eyes narrowed on Bethany. “And before you consider signing
the document that’ll lock you into a sordid world of secrets and lies, let me
tell who exactly it is that you’re sleeping with.”

“Karim,” Zach’s voice throbbed
with warning.

“He took a beautiful young girl
and turned her into a junkie.”

Zach jerked to his feet. His
chair crashed into the wall behind. Karim jumped back but his eyes continued to
taunt Zach.

“How old are you, Miss Green?”

“I’m twenty-five.”

“My sister would’ve been
twenty-eight two weeks ago. But
he
ended her life.”

“Karim,” this time the warning
came from Nabila. Her eyes darted to Zach and immediately shifted away.

“I meant what I said in that
message. You need to be careful he doesn’t do that to you, too.”

“Karim. Enough!” His father
stared him down but anger rolled across the younger man’s face. “Mr Savage, I
urge you to remember the terms of our previous agreement and reconsider.”

Zach calmly resumed his seat.
“No. I’m telling Bethany before she signs. That is non-negotiable.”

“You trust her to keep our
secret?” Nabila asked, her voice husky with the raw emotion displayed in her
eyes.

Zach’s nostrils flared and he
swallowed hard. Bethany looked deep into his eyes and caught a glimpse of the
desperately lonely boy yearning for a connection. She vowed there and then to
be whatever Zachary Savage needed.

“I trust her to do whatever she
feels is right for her. I’ve trusted her since the moment I met her but I was
too damned blind to see it.”

His words knocked the air out of
her lungs. “Zach…”

“Give us the room please.”

“This is…don’t think we won’t sue
your arrogant billionaire ass if this goes sideways, Savage! You’ll be looking
at serious jail time by the time I’m done with you if you don’t rethink this
right now.”

Zach barely glanced at Karim.
“No, you won’t. If you want to know why you won’t be coming after me, ask your
mother.”

Nabila’s horror-filled gasp
echoed in the room. Her husband turned sharply toward her, his eyes widening as
her pale, pain-ravaged face crumpled and she began to sob quietly.

Stanley jumped to his feet and
ushered the couple out. Karim followed at a slower pace, suspicion and
confusion momentarily blanking out his anger.

The moment they were alone, Zach
reached for her and pulled her into his lap. He meshed one hand in her hair and
then clasped her hand against his chest. “I’m sorry, Bethany. I should’ve done
this a long time ago. I should’ve told you that night in Marrakech.”

“You needed time to sort things
out in your head. You’ve held onto this for six years. Even though I feel like
I can’t remember a time before having you in my life, it’s really been just
three weeks since we met, Zach. I wanted too much too soon.”

He looked a little shocked at the
reminder but he shook his head. “I wanted
everything
from you the moment I laid eyes on you. You had the right to demand the same
from me.” He sucked in a jagged breath and let it out. “No more secrets,
Bethany.”

She swallowed. “No more secrets.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

He kissed the back of her hand
and nodded, resolute.

“The IL plane took off about an
hour before Karim was due to land at McCarran.” He eyes clouded with regret at
the memory. “I was so damned pleased with myself that I’d won. Farrah was
ecstatic and we started partying hard on the plane. Some stopped over in LA to
pick up a few more people. I suspect they were the ones who brought the drugs
on board - I was too off my head with booze to enforce the no-drugs policy. I
went to sleep and woke up somewhere over the Pacific. Farrah wasn’t in bed so I
went to look for her.” He stopped and swallowed, his eyes had turned dark with
ravaging anguish.

“I found her on the sky deck. She
had heroin next to her body. At first I thought she was dead. But I found a
pulse. I held her until we landed back in LA. But the damage was too much. She
went in to a coma and the doctors declared her brain dead.”

“Oh God, Zach.”

He shut his eyes and leaned
heavily on her. “I was twenty-five. With a wife who was technically dead, in-laws
who blamed me for everything, and a police force who thought I was a privileged
asshole who deserved jail-time for putting a young girl on life support.
Luckily, the cops didn’t find enough drugs on the plane for them to charge me.
So I dodged that bullet,” his voice reeked with bitter mockery.

“Then the doctors started talking
about shutting off her life support. I hated that responsibility but as her
husband, it was down to me. I tried to talk to her parents about it. Fawad and
Karim point blank refused. Nabila…she just wanted Farrah to be at peace. We
agreed to hire experts to get as much information as possible. I made it
happen. Every single one of them confirmed she was…gone.”

Bethany’s hand speared into his
hair and his arms banded tight around her. She felt a touch of moisture on her
chest and realised Zach was crying. Her big, powerfully magnificent man was
breaking down in her arms.

“It’s okay, baby. I’m here. It’s
okay.”

He shuddered and slowly raised
his head. Tears spiked his lashes and smeared over pale, taut cheeks. She wiped
them away and kissed his trembling lips.

Gritting his jaw, he continued. “Her
family argued back and forth about the decision and they resented the fact that
her life, such as it was, was in my hands. And I…I wanted it to be over.”

She jerked and his arms tightened.

“No. I don’t mean her life. I
meant fighting with her family, watching their suffering and knowing I was
responsible.”

“You weren’t responsible. She
chose her own path and you went out of your way to help her over and over when
many people would’ve walked away at the first sign of trouble.”

“Knowing that didn’t make it any
easier. I should’ve made sure the drugs never got on board the plane or
anywhere near her.”

She didn’t argue. In his own way
Zach was working his way through his guilt. She needed to let him. “How long
was she on life support?”

“Six weeks. And every day was
hell. I was torn between letting her go and sparing her family the final
goodbye. But I woke up one morning and realised I couldn’t do it anymore.” He
released a shaky breath. “I called Nabila and she agreed they would meet me at
the hospital. But she got there before me.” He gave a fractured laugh wracked
with torment. “I think she suspected I would chicken out and I had by the time I
reached the hospital. When I got to Farrah’s room she was there, on her own
without Fawad or Karim. She told me her daughter was now really dead and I
needed to do the right thing and let her go. I had no idea what she meant. Until
she showed me the empty morphine syringe in her purse.”

Ice slithered down her spine. “My
God! Did you…what did you do?”

His jaw clenched tight for so
long, Bethany thought he wouldn’t answer. When his gaze met hers, her heart
shredded for him. “I called the doctor and arranged to switch off her life
support.”

“And you let Nabila go?”

“The way I saw it, the events
leading to Farrah ending up on that bed, hooked up to machines, was all on me.
What good would it have done to destroy her family as well? Deep down I knew
she would never wake up, but guilt held me back from doing what needed to be
done.”

“So the doctors didn’t suspect
anything?”

“No one knew. The only way to
find out whether Nabila really injected her with morphine would’ve been to
request an autopsy. I couldn’t do it. I turned off the machine and…killed her.”
More tears welled in his beautiful eyes. He blinked them back and swallowed. “Then
I arranged for the records to be destroyed. Now you know everything.”

Her insides shook as she grappled
with the enormity of what Zach had divulged. She threw her arms around his neck
and hugged him tight.

“Thank you.”

“Baby, what--” He stiffened as a
knock came on the door.

Stanley poked his head through
the door. “They’re threatening to walk, Zach.”

Zach cursed and looked at her.

Taking a deep breath, Bethany
stood and returned to her seat. “We’re ready.”

Stanley’s gaze swung from her to
Zach then he nodded and retreated.

“Bethany--”

“Go easy on Karim. He loved his
sister. He’s reacting from a place of pain.”

Zach’s jaw flexed. “He came after
you. I can’t excuse that.”

“I know. But do it for me.”

His eyes gleamed as he watched
her. “You know how to knock my fucking legs from underneath me, don’t you?”

Her smile made his breath catch.
“I’ve had a great teacher.”

She was aware of Zach’s intense
gaze on her face as the others walked back in but she wanted to get this done as
quickly as possible so she could be alone with him. To tell him what he’d been
yearning to hear. What he
needed
to
hear.

Farrah’s father looked
shell-shocked and her brother was much more subdued than he’d been twenty
minutes ago. Nabila’s eyes met hers and skittered away. Despite what she’d just
learned about her, Bethany’s heart ached for her.

She turned to Stanley Reed. “I’m
ready to sign the agreement,” she said.

***

“You’re very quiet, Peaches.”

Zach watched her raise her head from
where she’d rested it on his chest. Clear blue eyes met his and some of his
panic abated a little. She’d been silent since they left his attorney’s office
and the coward in him hadn’t wanted to push his luck. But not knowing what she
was thinking had finally become unbearable.

“It’s a lot to process.”

He held his breath. “But?”

“But I’m glad I know. We can deal
with it, Zach. We
will
deal with it.
I’m not going anywhere.”

His breath fractured out of him
and he pulled her soft body closer. “You don’t think I’m a monster?”

“You’re not a monster, Zach. You
were caught up in a series of circumstances that you couldn’t control. You
hated that loss of control and have been punishing yourself for it ever since.
It’s time to let it go. To let Farrah go. I’m insecure enough to admit that I
don’t want any woman, dead or alive, coming between us. I can’t handle it.”

“You won’t have to. Nothing and
no one will come between us. Believe that.”

Her eyes clouded and her mouth
trembled. “Karim said she would’ve turned twenty-eight two weeks ago. That
night you were dreaming about her. It was her birthday, wasn’t it?”

Tension gripped his neck as the
ground shook beneath his feet. They’d come so far. But still he couldn’t let go
of the fear that he could lose her. “Yes.”

“God, Zach, I’m barely managing
to process the fact that you bought the Marrakech house for her. After she was
dead. Please don’t tell me you took me there as some form of guilty substitute?”

Shock jerked through him and he
grabbed her arms so she could face him properly. “Are you fucking insane? How
the hell do you come up with that?”

“Because you built a shrine to
her!”

His jaw worked. “No, I didn’t.”

Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

“I didn’t build that memorial.
Her family did. She told me how much she loved the place. When I saw it, I knew
why. I didn’t think it was a big deal to buy the house and let them put up the
memorial. And frankly, I wasn’t in a position to deny them.”

“You didn’t build it?”

He shook his head. “No. And I
took you there because I had no choice. I didn’t want to be without you after I
met you and I knew deep down that would be the last time I went there. Before I
came up to bed that night, I went to say goodbye.”

The shadows slowly receded from
her eyes. “God.”

“Is that a good ‘God’ or should I
be even more terrified than I am right now?”

Her eyes widened. “You’re
terrified? Why?”

“I don’t deserve you, Bethany.
Every time I hold you in my arms I’m scared it’ll be the last time.”

She yanked herself from his arms
and released her seatbelt.

His breath slammed out of his
lungs when she launched herself onto his lap and took his face between her
hands. “You really, really need to get over the fact that I’m going to walk any
minute. Or I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”

Excitement washed away a little
of his panic. He forced himself to relax in the seat as she spread her fingers
in his hair and dragged her nails against his scalp.

“Hmm, I should warn you I was
never a very good student.”

“You’re asking to be punished, Savage?”

“What can I say, I’m having very
dirty thoughts about teacher.”

The swiftness with which the
atmosphere turned from pain and misery to happiness blew him away. But that was
what Bethany brought to his life.

Happiness.

Something tugged hard in his
chest as he watched her stunning face turn even more exquisite with her saucy
smile. “Well, it’s a good thing you happen to be teacher’s pet.”

Her hands went to his shirt
button and started undoing him. His hands slid from her waist to grip her ass as
she undulated her hips over his hardening cock.

Her mouth bypassed his hungry
lips straight for his jugular. She tongued his escalating pulse and laughed
under her breath when he cursed.

“Bite me,” he urged roughly.

“Hmm,” she complied. He jerked at
the not-so-gentle graze of her teeth. “You taste so good,” she murmured.

“Bethany?”

“Do I need to tell Philip to keep
driving or do you want to go home?”

She slowly raised her head and stared
down at him. Her face was grew serious as she took his face I her hands. “Let’s
go home.”