Honeymoon To Die For (18 page)

Her long, thin fingers were placed delicately in her lap...elbows propped on each arm of her wheelchair.

A classic beauty in her youth, Lady Anne held so much power because she’d brought the money to this marriage, and that money had staked Hubrecht in his first venture.

Without Lady Anne’s money, Van Dyke Enterprises would not exist.

As Ryder and Bianca stepped into the private parlor, Lady Anne lifted her sharp chin. Stern lines replaced the smooth ones of only a moment ago, rearranging her high-cheeked features into an unmistakable composition of disapproval.

That brought back memories.

Many journalists had wanted to interview the reclusive Lady Anne, but she kept the private affairs of this family buttoned up tight. Ryder wished he could enjoy how much his notoriety as a prisoner had infuriated her, but he wasn’t proud of any of that.  

Pausing close enough to be heard, Ryder called out, “You wanted to see me?”

Poor Bianca dragged out her new-wife expression for what she had to hope was the last time today. In the ensuing silence after Ryder’s question, Bianca brought out her charm that he should’ve warned her wouldn’t work on the bitch queen.

“So nice to meet you, Lady Anne. Your home is spectacular. I have to admit, I’m a bit overwhelmed by all this. Thank you for having us here. The peace and quiet will be wonderful.”

Ignoring Bianca entirely, Lady Anne pointed her attention at Ryder, raking her gaze over his disheveled appearance. “Must you continually disgrace this family?”

“If that’s all you wanted to see me about, we’re done.”

“No, we are not.” Lady Anne’s contemptuous gaze swung to Bianca. “This is your
wife
?”  She’d said that as if it had taken a supreme effort not to gag on the word wife.

“Yes.”

“You see this as acceptable?”

Ryder shrugged. “If my staying here is an issue, say so. I’ll be happy to reside elsewhere.” He’d snapped out those clipped words as an open challenge.

Bianca squeezed his hand.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Lady Anne threw back at him. “Yet.”

Bianca exhaled a breath that sounded full of relief.

Lady Anne swung her intimidating gaze to Bianca. “You, on the other hand, have made a major miscalculation. You may have fooled the media, the world, and quite possibly Hubrecht, but I know exactly who you really are and what you think you’re going to find here.”

~*~

Bianca’s knees threatened to give out.

Could Lady Anne really know why she and Ryder were here? If so, had she said anything to Hubrecht?   

Did that mean Hubrecht had uncovered something while Bianca and Ryder had been busy having tea and scones with their kidnappers?

If so, that would mean a leak from the team. Had it been Slye? What about the FBI? Murdock had kept her research team in the dark about this mission, even to the point of making them hate her, but they were research geniuses and every agency had leaks.

More questions zinged through her brain than she had any hope of answering right now. Her heart collided with her breastbone over and over again.

And her left hand hurt.

She blinked when she finally realized Ryder was squeezing her fingers to shake her loose from being stunned. She let out a calm breath she didn’t feel and wiggled her fingers in response. She owed him a thank you if they got out of this.

When his grip relaxed, Ryder gave a dismissive snort to Lady Anne’s announcement. “How would you know anything about my wife when you haven’t known a thing about me since I enlisted in the Army?”

Lady Anne swung her formidable gaze from Bianca to Ryder. “I have resources that would rival your employer’s.”

“If you’re talking about Slye Temp, we parted ways the day their attorney suggested I take a plea. Their idea of damage control meant sweeping me under the rug. If not for Bianca, I wouldn’t be standing here.”

“Of course not, but you don’t really expect me to believe this ridiculous marriage, do you?”

Acid churned in Bianca’s nervous stomach. She clenched Ryder’s fingers to caution him on how he answered that, since Lady Anne had not divulged exactly what she actually knew. Now that Bianca had a moment to consider that, maybe Lady Anne only questioned the amount of time Bianca and Ryder had spent together.

Ryder’s tone turned stone cold. “I am here by invitation of Hubrecht Van Dyke,
not
by request, so I
expect
you to respect my marriage and my wife, regardless of what you do or do not believe.”

“
Do you
now.”

Way to go, Ryder. That should get us tossed out the front gate any minute.
Bianca had no way to stop this train wreck, so she held her peace and waited for the track to run out.

He’d helped her a minute ago, but he ran too hot and cold for Bianca to have any sense of comfort. Still, this household was his area of expertise, the whole reason he was on this mission. He should be able to fix this, but that might be tough when he was pissing off the queen bitch.

Ryder added, “Out of curiosity, just
who
do you think Bianca is?”

Bianca managed not to flinch when Lady Anne turned a caustic glare her way and said, “I don’t
think
...I know who she is. She’s a back-woods nobody with her eyes on the gold ring. Help the poor little rich boy overturn his conviction in trade for the chance to be a ‘somebody’.”

Yes!
Until now, Bianca had never thought being snubbed would be a blessing. She’d hated being ostracized in college because of her Appalachian twang that had labeled her a hillbilly and she’d spent time with a voice coach learning how to shift her speech. She could have no accent—or a classy southern one.

Ryder’s entire body tensed from his rigid jaw to his locked shoulders. A vein pulsed in his neck, aggressive body language that said a war was brewing.

Whoa. Why wasn’t he laughing that off and acting happy their cover hadn’t been blown?

“You know nothing about Bianca,” he challenged.

“Oh? You think not?” Lady Anne countered, hands calmly placed in her lap. “I have a file compiled by a reputable firm, but I admit that there are some gaps in the information I want filled.”

“No.”

“Why not, if she has nothing to hide?”

Bianca said, “I don’t mind an—”

Without a blink, Lady Anne fired a question. “Who are your people?”

“No,” Ryder snapped. “My wife will not be interrogated.”

The female side of Bianca appreciated his gallant defense, but they weren’t in a real relationship and this was all about winning.

What would a new wife say? Bianca licked her dry lips, and Ryder’s eyes shot to her mouth then up to her face. At least she’d managed to distract him. She lifted a hand to his cheek to take him another step off balance.

“I’m fine, Darlin’,” Bianca said, leaning heavy on the Southern this time. She even let a little of her natural country dialect come through. “I wouldn’t have made it through Quantico if answerin’ a few questions would rattle me.”

Bianca lowered her hand and turned back to the bitch who had better be as prepared as she claimed. If Bianca was going to be interrogated by the society police, she’d give as good as she got.

Lady Anne raised her chin, the equivalent of ordering Bianca to continue, so Bianca lifted a finger to her chin in thought.

“Let’s see. I grew up in a small town called Thatcher set in God’s country, the Appalachian Mountains. I went to a school where I knew everyone, their parents and their extended families. During the summers, I split my days between part-time work with local law enforcement and helping the Calhoun family with their farm.”

Lady Anne broke in. “I have a dossier on you with those insignificant details.”

Bianca recalled the old hound dog she’d named Lady and said a silent apology because
that
bitch had been a sweet dog. Those details were not insignificant to a young girl whose family toiled day in and day out to give her a chance to have more in life. “Well, if that’s not what you’re after, just what can I tell you?”

“Explain your interest in Ryder.”

He growled something that sounded like another “no,” but the future of Bianca’s mission could turn one way or the other on this meeting. She was starting to see why he’d left at seventeen.

At least, she could answer this question truthfully. “As for my interest in Ryder, I’d have to tell you how I came to meet him. I was raised by loving parents, who taught me the importance of being fair, and that the truth is what matters most in any situation. The Sheriff was my daddy’s fishing buddy and thought I’d be content to file and help out in his office one summer, but I liked law enforcement. Just before I graduated from the University of Georgia, the FBI approached me about entering their intelligence gathering department because of my aptitude and mad skill with computers.”

Ryder’s harsh breathing settled into an easy rhythm.

Bianca took that to mean she was doing okay and continued. “Through the diligent work of our research department, Ryder was singled out as the person most likely to have shot J. K. Kearn. But I have a reputation for never stopping until I have the truth. To the point my peers often complain that I don’t know when to let something go, but my tenacity resulted in finding something that no one else had.”

“And this was what?” Lady Anne asked, no hint of acceptance in her voice.

“A time discrepancy in statements by people who claimed to have seen Ryder in person right after he left Kearn the night of the killing.”  Bianca felt Ryder’s fingers twitch at that, but he showed no other outward sign of reaction. “I pursued that lead and interviewed those witnesses again, corroborating a time element that proved Ryder couldn’t have been in place to make that shot.”

“Why did you leave the FBI?”

Bianca affected a shamed look. “Unfortunately, my team felt betrayed because I’d basically embarrassed them, plus someone at the prison leaked that more was going on between me and Ryder than ... just finding justice.”  She’d let her voice drift to whisper soft and raised adoring eyes to him. When he looked down at her with those startling silver eyes, she forgot where she was until he gave her fingers another gentle squeeze.

Bianca finished. “My superior was not happy to find out I had fallen in love with a prisoner that the majority of the intelligence gathering department believed was guilty.”

For just a moment, Ryder stared at her as if she really had done all those things. He lifted his hand to her cheek and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

Butterflies did an Irish jig in her chest.

“How nauseatingly sweet,” Lady Anne remarked, killing the moment when Ryder dropped his hand.

Evil woman. Bianca answered cheerfully, “I admit it. I am head-over-heels about this man.”

Ryder sounded bored when he said, “Bottom line is we’re married. Anything else?”

Lady Anne looked out her window so long that Bianca thought they’d been silently dismissed, but the matriarch wasn’t through yet. She said, “She’ll have to get rid of that twang. She’ll need a tutor to groom her before we entertain.”  

I don’t have a twang, dammit
. Bianca had smoothed out the country twang to be a sophisticated Southern dialect and had thought Lady Anne would realize Bianca was intentionally pulling it out a moment ago. Bianca felt heat creep up her neck just like when she’d overheard someone mimic her speech the first time in a bathroom at college. She didn’t need a tutor. She was not some backwoods bumpkin who couldn’t be trusted to act properly in a social setting.

Ryder reacted as if someone had cursed her. “How dare you insult my wife?”

“Better that than insult guests. Hubrecht has requested a party in two weeks for you and
her
. I won’t have our family shamed.”

“I won’t have Bianca subjected to this.”

“Oh? Then leave if you want, but be sure to tell Hubrecht that you chose to do so. Show him your true colors. Show him you ran away, which should convince him of what I’ve been saying since you were released. That he would be a fool to bring you back into the family business.” Lady Anne did have facial muscles capable of smiling. Like a cobra. “He doesn’t need you when he has Terrence.”

After listening to what Ryder had said about his brother, Bianca read between those lines quickly enough. Lady Anne saw Ryder as a threat to Terrence’s position. She didn’t want Ryder here and insulting Bianca was the perfect way to make him back away.

Ryder turned to leave and Bianca had no doubt he’d follow through, even if he regretted it later. Every person had a limit and Lady Anne was clearly a pro at testing Ryder’s.

Bianca held firm without moving.

Ryder turned back to her. “What?”

Lady Anne smiled with the pleasure of someone who had gotten the best of an underdog.

Bianca matched her smile, prepared to show her how they handled bullies back home. “Are you sure you don’t want to ask Ryder to stay, Lady Anne?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I did learn a
great
deal while researching Ryder’s background, which included a detailed file on you as well.”  Bianca paused to let that settle in, gratified when Lady Anne’s smile disappeared. “I found very little information about the private homelife of this family.”

“That’s because unlike the
poor
, we avoid being in tabloid news,” she sneered.

Bianca ignored the dig about poor people and said, “Then I’d think you wouldn’t want someone talking to those media outlets, right?”

The first sign of concern flitted through Lady Anne’s cold eyes. “What are you threatening?”

“Me? I’m not threatening. I’m just saying it will be much harder to avoid the media with us staying in a hotel. Just can’t get away from them. And being that I’m so clueless about social graces and such, I might just make a mistake and share something I shouldn’t.”

No one said anything for a moment, then Lady Anne unclenched her jaw to tell Ryder, “You can stay.”

Ryder squeezed her hand as if high fiving her for out-playing Lady Anne, but Bianca was determined to make this bitch treat Ryder with regard. “That didn’t sound like an invitation for the both of us.”