AllFreeNovel
Share Us
How the hell could she begin to tell him how much she was sorry? How much she wished she’d listened to him instead of blocking out everything he said as if his words were poisoned? His warnings should have made some sort of sense, given she’d been starting to have her own concerns about Grace’s hunger for money. Instead she’d blocked it out with walls made of her loyalty to Grace. Her stupid, ill-placed loyalty that had been shattered until it tumbled down and now lay in ruins around her.
She turned her head a fraction and glanced at his profile. His jaw looked set, his eyes rigidly glued to the traffic. Hardly a surprise. He was bound to be angry with her. She hadn’t believed his claims and then she’d all but accused him of cheating the foundation out of a million dollars. And that was all before he’d found her standing over his sister, preparing to operate, as if she was the one who was crazed.
She had to be crazy.
But suddenly being crazy seemed the easy option. No longer did she recognise her world. It had tilted way off axis, turning truth to lies and lies to truth and heroes to villains. And still none of it made sense. She was a stranger in a strange new world.
Even the fact that it was Loukas who had come to her rescue tonight was crazy. He was the last person she would have expected to whisk her away from more embarrassment and more pain. He must hate the very sight of her.
So she’d ensure he didn’t need to put up with her company any longer than was absolutely necessary. She took a deep breath.
‘Thank you,’ she said finally, sounding too loud as she fractured the silence between them. But she owed him at least her thanks for getting her away from the reporters—even if being trapped with him in his car was hardly what she’d call sanctuary. ‘You can drop me at a hotel anywhere convenient.’
He only grunted in response and kept right on driving. She turned her head away, determined not to be affected by his obvious distaste for her. But when they’d passed an entire strip of hotels she turned to him again. ‘I said you could let me out. What’s wrong with any of these places?’
‘You’d be tracked down by the media in ten minutes flat.’
‘Look, I can take care of myself.’
‘Which is what you were doing back there so impressively, no doubt.’
‘Then where are you taking me?’
‘Where do you think? Somewhere you’ll be safe, and the last place they’ll think to look for you.’
Panic welled up inside her. He couldn’t be serious!
‘No! Not the beach house. I won’t go. You can’t expect me to stay there.’
‘You have no choice. Right now you have nowhere else to go,’ he said, closing down the argument.
Loukas was garaging the car when she entered the living room. The first thing she noticed were the newspapers scattered on the coffee table, the headlines screaming out at her.
Fallen From Grace
The Deepest Cut
No Saving Grace
A Foundation of Evil
She picked up the least inflammatory-looking paper and skimmed the front-page article before dropping the newspaper back down on the table and sliding open the glass doors leading out to the deck.
The story was splashed all over every one of the papers, with the Demakis name everywhere, and yet for all that it looked as if it wouldn’t do the Senator’s chances in the upcoming primaries any harm at all.
Pia was clearly the helpless victim, with Loukas painted as the hero—saving her from disfigurement or death or maybe even both.
On the other hand Grace was portrayed as a crazed psycho who believed the myth built up around her so much that she actually thought herself to be a goddess—way above both other mere mortals and the law.
Maybe there was some truth in that, Jade acknowledged as she leant down and rested her forearms on the deck balustrade, relishing the tang of the fresh sea breeze after being stuck in the airless box of a police building answering questions for so long.
Grace had always loved the celebrity that came from being a vital part of the world of the rich and famous. She’d loved the buzz that came from being courted by the fabulously wealthy who needed to be fabulously beautiful as well. She’d wielded the power to change lives and fortunes in her hands. She’d been a goddess to them!
