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He still wanted to marry me, which made me want to laugh and scream at the same time. He also kept asking me to forgive him, acting all pathetic and contrite. As if I’d ever want to marry him?
That’s what landed me in the hospital in the first place. After he asked, “So we’re marrying soon, right? When should we set the date?”
I shook my head repeatedly. Like one would at the suggestion of having an arm chopped off. “There’s no way I’m marrying you.”
Silly me. I should have kept that to myself. He’d been drinking heavily, because his drug dealer hadn’t delivered, which was a double whammy, I soon discovered. Drunk and desperate for a hit turned him into a crazed monster.
“Don’t mess with someone’s head when they’re chasing, Bitch.”
“I’m not marrying you, Bram. I want you gone from my fucking life. Like now. Do your worst.”
Well… he did.
Next thing, I was lying in the hospital battered and bruised.
“Declan visited Lochridge a couple of years ago,” my mother said, helping me snap out of that horrible re-run of Bram attacking me.
“That was the last time anyone stayed there,” she continued. “He found it run-down and, like with all those old sprawling places, damp and cold. It’s now got central heating. The roof leaks have been repaired, I’m told, and the main sitting room and lounge freshly painted and restored. I was meant to go down and inspect it, but life’s gotten in the way.” She paused. “I’ve asked Jim to hire staff for your stay.”
A flurry of excitement ran through me, thinking of that long trip with Carson as my bona fide bodyguard.
Maybe he’d become my lover again. It had been torture not being with him.
The lurid contents of that sex tape had affected him more than I’d imagined. I would have thought him a little more open-minded. But at least it meant he cared. He made that plain enough when he visited me in the hospital. His gaze held mine forever like he’d never let me go, making me feel loved and cherished. At the mention of Bram, his eyes darkened.
“Are you sure you want to stay away for a month?”
“I’m enrolled in an online design course. And away from all the distraction here, I might make a go of it.” I sighed. “And to be honest, I need a break from Manon.”
My mother splayed her hands. “Darling, I need her here. Otherwise, goodness knows what she’ll become.”
“She’s already become it. Under your very nose. She’s screwing Crisp and working for him at Ma Chérie. Mum, you need to put a stop to that sleaze happening on our doorstep.”
She frowned. “She hasn’t slept with him, and Rey’s reassured me he’s stopped pursuing her.”
“Yeah, right. And he’s donating his billions to charity.”
My mother smiled at my irony. “He’s not as bad as you make out.”
“You obviously don’t know him that well.”
“I know Rey better than most.” Her raised eyebrow wasn’t lost on me.
I was dying to know why she kept him close. And how he owned land that once belonged to our family.
She rubbed her long fingernails, something she did when challenged. Over and above everything, however, I couldn’t understand why she was turning a blind eye to the young girls entering through the back of the casino almost nightly.
“They might be trafficking underage girls for all you know.”
“They’re not.” She sounded tetchy.
“Then what the hell is going on with those girls arriving in vans? It smells like something rotten.”
“They’re auctioning themselves off.”
I frowned at how cool my mother’s tone sounded at that preposterous idea. “Like their virginity, you mean? So it’s a sex club for older men to fuck young virgins?”
She winced. “It’s a gentleman’s club. What a misnomer that is.”
