Filthy Rich (22 page)

***

“Mr. Lupan?”

Celeste heard the voice and tried to wake up. For some reason, she wanted to go back to sleep. In fact, the urge was so strong, it was almost impossible to resist. She felt like she was slowly twisting around in a circle while floating. Around and around and around…

“Mr. Lupan, do you need assistance?”

She blinked and wished she hadn't. Pain shot through her face. She moaned, completely awake, and rolled over as she balled up and tried to endure the agony burning in her abdomen. Her face was throbbing, and she could feel her right eye swelling shut.

“Help!” she called out, but her lips were stiff. She took a deep breath. “Police!” she yelled at the security system.

Why the hell hadn't the security company already called them?

She shivered, trying to master the pain so she could look around. Her right eye was completely swollen shut but she got a look at the garage, sweeping it twice to make sure her assailants were gone.

“Did you say ‘Police'?” the person on the other end of the security system inquired.

Celeste cursed under her breath and struggled to her feet. She stumbled to the control panel and hit the panic button.

“Idiot,” she grumbled at the control panel. She started to go into the house but froze. Since she was unsure where her attackers were, the house wasn't the haven she longed for.

“Police and fire services have been summoned.”

Her thoughts began to clear with the help of the pain. She straightened, relieved to find that only her face was battered. She punched the garage door and it began to open. At least it was an option for escape if they came back. But there was nothing outside but the corral. No one to appeal to for help. She sagged against the doorjamb, her knees feeling weak and her body shaking. Her vision swam in blurry waves and she lost track of time.

Light flashed and she blinked, trying to decide if she was passing out again.

“Celeste?”

Nartan was still stuffing his keys in his pocket when he came into the garage. She opened her mouth, but pain shot through her jaw and all she managed was a moan.

“Holy shit!”

She made a little sound of relief as he ran the last few steps to her. Then he held himself back, his eyes wide as he searched her face. She couldn't stand the separation and huddled into his arms. He hesitated to embrace her, giving in at last and holding her shoulders gently.

“What the fuck happened?” He gently cupped the sides of her face and pushed her back against the car. Then he lifted one hand away from the bruise forming around her eye, letting his hand hover in indecision as he studied her.

“They…might still be here,” she managed to get past her swollen lips.

“I hope to fuck they are,” he snarled.

The cops pulled in without sirens and skidded to a stop.

“Get your hands up!”

“This is my house,” Nartan snarled.

“Do it, Nartan,” she advised as she struggled to lift her hands. She was shaking so badly, it cost a lot of effort.

Nartan cursed and lifted his hands as two more black-and-whites skidded to a halt in the driveway.

“Listen up. Put your hands on your head and walk toward me,” the officer commanded.

Nartan looked back at her, then lowered his hands to his head and locked his fingers. He started back through the garage while one officer kept a gun trained on him from behind the open door of the police cruiser. When Nartan reached the driveway, he was ordered to stop.

“Turn around and put your hands behind your back. Do it now.”

She watched in a haze as Nartan was handcuffed and pulled back toward one of the cars. “She needs medical help,” he growled at the officers.

“Now you.” The officers were containing the scene before listening to anyone.

Celeste took a deep breath before stepping away from the doorjamb. Her knees held her and she made her way toward the driveway. As she stepped into the light, she watched the cop lift his head above his gun. He was holstering it a moment later as he came around the open door.

An ambulance pulled up, and she lost track of who blinded her with flashlights while examining her face. She ended up sitting on a gurney as a paramedic checked her vital signs.

“Who did this to you?” the police officer asked.

She looked up, pushing away the paramedic who was trying to tape a gauze pad over her swollen eyes. “I don't know. Two men were in the garage when I got home. I didn't get a good look at them.”

He grunted. “I don't need you to name him. Your blood is all over his shirt and hands. I can take you in because of the physical evidence. There isn't a mark on him, so you're safe. Help me, help you.”

“No.” She sprang up off the gurney. “There were two men in the garage when I got home.”

“Why didn't you mention them before?”

“I did,” she argued.

His face was set in stone. Behind him, another officer was facing Nartan and reading him his rights.

“He didn't do it.” She tried to control the emotion coursing through her.

The
first
cut…

“You crave my strength in your life. You're really quite lost without my presence.”

Caspian would never come for her. He'd force her to come back to him. It was a game to him, and he never played anything but high-stakes games. Nartan was her weak spot.

Nartan was shouting at the officer in front of him, resisting as two others tried to put him in the back of the cruiser.

“Marcus Flynn,” she insisted. “Make them call Marcus, Nartan!”

He made eye contact with her for a brief moment before he was shoved into the back of the police car. It was a nightmare, watching him through the barred windows. The legal realities were flooding her brain, terrorizing her with just how dire the circumstances were.

She wasn't going to be Caspian's Trojan horse.

“I refuse treatment.”

She pulled the blood pressure cuff off her arm with a rip of Velcro and stood up.

“Ma'am…you really need X-rays.”

The paramedic tried to get her to sit back down. She brushed past him and ducked around the cop trying to get her to go back.

“I need my purse.”

“You need to get back on the gurney.”

Celeste made it back into the garage before the cop hauled her to a stop with a hand on her bicep.

“Lady, you need treatment.”

“I need my lawyer.” She ducked down, but with her eye swollen shut, her balance faltered. She ended up bumping her head on the side of the Lamborghini before landing on the hard concrete.

“Lady—”

The cop tried to haul her up, but she caught a glimpse of her purse and grabbed it before he got hold of her. He pulled her up and she ended up leaning against the side of the Lamborghini. She only spared a momentary thought for the paint job on the car before fumbling in her purse for her cell phone.

“Lady, you need—”

“To call my lawyer.” She punched the speed-dial button. “You're arresting the wrong man.”

The cop only hooked his hands in his belt and regarded her with a stony expression that he'd perfected through countless domestic violence calls where he saw the same people over and over, heard the same lies again and again. It had hardened him until he wasn't able to sift through the damning evidence Caspian had made sure was on hand.

This was exactly what her ex wanted. All of the pressure would be on her. He'd keep increasing it until she bent. She had the bitter memories to remind her just how determined Caspian could be.

Marcus answered on the second ring.

“What's happening, Celeste?”

***

“Lupan.”

Nartan stood up and walked to the booking desk. The officer behind it checked the mug shot of him against his face. “You're being released. Sign here to acknowledge your court date.”

Nartan scribbled his name across the line before the cop slid an envelope across the desk to him. He didn't bother to open it before making his way through the sliding door to the outside.

Marcus Flynn was standing on the other side. He held his index finger to his lips and jerked his head toward a large sign posted on the wall warning that the area was under video and voice surveillance.

Nartan fell into step beside Marcus as they walked through the dingy halls of the jail on their way to the parking garage. The moment Marcus drove them out of the building, he turned.

“Where is Celeste?” Nartan asked.

“Hospital.” Marcus had his eyes on the road. “I insisted. One of my guys is with her.”

“Good.” Nartan rubbed his eyes. “Thanks.”

“Don't thank me yet.” Marcus cut him a hard look.

“You don't think I did it?” His temper was a hairsbreadth from exploding.

“Wouldn't be here if I did.” Marcus cut him a side look. “I just don't need to wake my buddies this time of night to help me hide a body.”

Nartan was digging his fingers into the seat. “What the hell do you mean?”

“I'm about to get free with my opinions. You might not feel so thankful when I'm finished.” He made a left turn and pulled into the hospital parking lot. “Your security is shit. I never would have let Celeste leave the office today if I knew how open your house was.”

“I'm working on that.” But it wasn't good enough. The sight of the emergency room sign turned his insides as he realized Celeste had paid a huge price for his lapse.

“And you have a big problem, because I think her ex is coming after you. He's got a lot of resources. He sent a replica of her wedding bouquet to the office.” Marcus pulled the card from his shirt pocket and offered it to Nartan.

“You should have called and told me about this,” Nartan growled.

Marcus parked the car and turned off the engine. When he turned to look at Nartan, the man was deadly serious. Nartan felt everything inside him shift to something hard and deadly.

“I fully intended to, but I was going to give Celeste the chance to do it first. I don't want her pissed at me because I didn't give her a chance to handle her own affairs.”

“Shit! I didn't let her get a word in edgewise because I was dealing with my horse. Just about the only thing that could distract me from Celeste.”

Marcus grunted. “He's good, or at least he hires people who are good, because I let her go and you were distracted. My guess is he's watching both of you, and your horse's untimely illness was no accident. We got lucky this time. He's planning to use you to break her.”

“I'm not waiting for him to make the next move. He isn't the only one with resources.”

One side of Marcus's mouth rose. “I'm beginning to like you.”

***

“Nothing broken.”

Celeste breathed a sigh of relief as the doctor searched through the results being fed to the mobile computer parked in the corner of the emergency-room bay she was in.

“But you're going to be in a fair amount of pain for a while.”

“I can deal with it.”

“You shouldn't have to.” The curtain was pulled aside as Nartan appeared. She drank in the sight of him, realizing she'd been tense since the police had taken him away.

She never wanted to feel that way again.

Marcus stood a pace behind Nartan, his eyes narrowing when he got a look at her face.

But nothing mattered as Nartan made it to her side. The tears she'd been fighting rolled down her cheeks, making her swollen eye smart even more. He slid his hand along her neck, cupping the back of her head and giving her the support she needed.

But the memory of him in the back of the police car remained. Caspian didn't know how to lose. Nausea filled her as she realized the only way to keep Nartan safe was to leave him.

***

Celeste woke up in Nartan's bed. She shouldn't have. But she'd been foggy from medication, her weakened senses unable to have the conversation she knew was coming. She rolled out of bed well into the morning and went into the bathroom.

Nartan was nowhere in sight, but a rumpled towel hanging on a hook proved he'd been there. She leaned on the vanity and studied her face. The entire left side was black and blue, but at least her eye was less swollen. Her lower lip was split but not badly enough to need stitching.

Of course not. Caspian wouldn't tolerate her being scarred.

She fought off a wave of nausea, refusing to let the thought of him make her sick. She leaned her head back, drawing in several long breaths before turning on the shower and letting the water run over her face.

It didn't wash away her dark mood, which only deepened when she stepped out and saw the backyard with the island.

She
had
to
leave.

Nartan's paradise, his sanctuary, was being invaded and it was all her fault.

The hard truth dug its claws into her, flooding her eyes with tears. She wiped them away, struggling to find some way to console herself, but there was none. Leaving was going to rip her heart to sheds.

But she was absolutely determined to make sure Nartan never ended up so helpless again.

She dressed and pulled her bag out of the closet. After stuffing her clothing into it, she slung it over her shoulder and left the bedroom. She walked down the hallway toward the kitchen and the garage door.

“Celeste?”

Nartan looked up from the kitchen counter, where he'd been leaning over a large document of some sort.

She stiffened and turned to face him. “I need to go.”

He came around the table and closed the distance between them, drawing closer when he noticed the bag.

“You need to go back to bed.”

“You were arrested last night because of me,” Celeste implored him. “You have to see reason.”

Nartan pegged her with a furious look. “I have to?”