The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) (25 page)

She forced her attention back to Jamison, who was saying, ‘I’ve already had the bellboy bring your bag to your suite. You can keep the Lexus, as I believe it’ll make things a bit easier for you until after the exhibition, but after that, you won’t be needing it any more. Also, as of tomorrow morning, I’ll be replacing Martin Flannery’s security team with a team of my most trusted men to keep an eye on you and on our investment. You may call Mr. Flannery and let him know, or he may be in for a rather rude awakening in the morning.’

‘I’ve already done that,’ she said.

‘Good girl.’ He leaned in to brush a whisper of a kiss against her lips. ‘I was afraid that maybe you’d grown so wild since our last business partnership that I’d have to … reacquaint you with my expectations.’ He ran a thumb across her bottom lip. ‘I’m glad to see you’re already beginning to anticipate me.’ He sighed happily. ‘It’s such a lovely arrangement when one business partner can anticipate the needs of the other.’

He looked down at his watch and then stood. ‘Finish your meal, darling. I’ve booked reservations for a celebratory dinner tonight in honor of our renewed relationship, and since I doubted you’d come prepared for such an occasion, I’ve taken the liberty of seeing you’re provided with appropriate clothing. You’ll find them in the bedroom. I’ll pick you up at 7:30. And now, I have some business to take care of in Valderia. Since I’m sure your assistant can handle anything you’ve not sorted for the day at the gallery, I would suggest you get some rest when you’ve eaten.’ He lifted her chin and held her face so that he could inspect her. ‘You look exhausted, my darling, and I can’t bear to see you so tired. So I insist that you take advantage of the bed, which I’m sure you’ll find very comfortable. I’m sure you’ll agree that you’ll need to be rested for what we have ahead of us. Oh Stacie, I’m so excited that we’re together again. Tonight we celebrate; then tomorrow we can pick up where we left off.’ He kissed her again. ‘You and I have unfinished business, Stacie Emerson.’

Without warning, he pulled her to her feet, nearly tipping over her chair. He pulled her close with such force that she gave an involuntary gasp. He curled his fingers in her hair and held her so she couldn’t look away from his fiercely cold eyes. His breath came in accelerated bursts against her face and there was no ignoring the press of his hard-on against her. He forced a hoarse laugh that barely escaped the tight press of his chest. This time when he took her mouth it was with bruising brutality, causing fear to spike in her chest until the crush of him against her felt suffocating, felt as though he stole her very breath, her very life force from between her lips. She curled a tight fist against the back of his jacket, feeling her nails dig into her palm. At last, he pulled away, breathing hard. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. ‘Yes, we have unfinished business, Stacie, and this time I have every intention of finishing what I started.’

‘What do you mean she gave you the slip?’ Harris catapulted from the sofa, sloshing the array of drinks and water on the coffee table in the process. ‘How the hell could she give you the slip? How the hell could she give
both
of you the slip?’

‘Harris, sit down and shut up. Let me talk, and I’ll explain everything,’ Kendra said. She took a huge drink of the Diet Pepsi Wade had offered her and continued, ‘I thought, both Stan and I thought, she’d gone to the bathroom to throw up. She said she was sick, and she ran off like she was. I mean, no woman wants company while she pukes, so of course we gave her a little privacy. Turns out she wasn’t sick at all. Turns out she climbed out the back window of the bathroom, and believe me that was no small feat. But by the time we figured it out, she was long gone.’

‘Do you know where she went?’ Ellis asked.

‘To the Monaco. That’s where she planned to meet Jamison.’ Kendra nodded down to her BlackBerry. ‘She’s not trying to hide anything. She sent the message not long after we figured out she was gone.’

‘Why?’ Harris felt like he’d just been gutted. ‘Why the hell would she do that?’

Kendra looked at him as though he was a moron. ‘Because she wanted to keep you –’ she opened her arms to include everyone in the room ‘– and the rest of us safe, that’s why. She got a threatening email from Jamison this morning right after she got to the gallery, confirming that he knows you’re alive. Not long after that, K. Ryde got an email explaining what Stacie was going to do and what she wanted from Ryde. That’s when I broke my number one rule and went to see her at the gallery. I thought it would be good to get her away from there. I stupidly thought that Jamison was coming for her there. And really, she did lead me to believe that.’

‘So how long has K. Ryde been involved in this mess?’ Harris asked, sounding a lot more belligerent than he intended, but then he was pretty damned angry that his best friend had just sold the woman he loved up the creek.

‘Stacie Emerson and New World Gallery have been clients of K. Ryde from the start. Though in all honesty, it was against both our better judgments when we agreed to keep working together after we became friends. But there was no one else who could do what Ryde could.’

‘And just what the fuck could Ryde do?’ Harris asked.

Dee laid a hand on his arm. ‘You know that’s confidential, Harris.’

He jerked away. ‘I don’t give a fuck. If that bastard harms one hair on her head, one hair …’

‘Ryde is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen,’ Kendra said. ‘You know that, Harris. And even if I could tell you exactly where Stacie is at the moment, your life would be in danger if you went to her, assuming that you could get to her at all. And whether I’m K. Ryde or Kendra Davis, there’s no fucking way I’m putting you in danger. Now, will you shut the hell up and let me do my job?’

Harris settled back on the couch with his arms folded across his chest glaring at her. ‘Go ahead, then. Do your job.’

Kendra glared right back. Then she looked down at her BlackBerry. ‘This was the email she sent me this morning.’ Kendra scrolled down her screen and began to read.

There are things that none of you know, that I have good reasons for keeping from you. For that, I’m truly sorry, but if you’ve ever trusted me, I’m asking you to trust me now. I’m asking you to let me do what I have to.

I’ve asked K. Ryde to deliver this message because I trust K. Ryde, as I have long before I knew most of you, long before breaches were healed and I got my friends back.

At the moment, I’m safe. Please believe that I am. I’ll continue to work at the gallery every day. The exhibition, the grand opening, the gala for Vigilant Trust will all go on according to plan – everything exactly according to plan, and I’ll see you all there to toast new beginnings. I promise you that.

In the meantime, please don’t try to see me. That’s essential. I won’t ever be alone, and Jamison has replaced Flannery’s men with his own. Martin, I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done and for all your efforts to keep us all safe. You’re a good friend.

If you need me or if you need to talk to me, send a message through K. Ryde at an address Ryde will pass on to you shortly. If you come to the gallery I won’t be able to speak with you, but my associate, Jenny, will be happy to welcome you there.

Please believe that all I’ve done, I’ve done of my own free will, and that every debt will be paid in full as soon as I’m able. It was never my intention to drag any of you into this, nor to involve you in any way. I deeply, deeply regret that, and I’ll do all that’s in my power to make it up to you.

In the meantime, please, for your safety and mine, honor my requests.

SE

The room was silent. Harris couldn’t breathe. He felt like he’d been slapped. He felt like his heart had been ripped out and stomped on, and all there was of the woman whose arms he’d slept in, the woman whose body he’d been inside only hours ago, was this distant, impersonal email sent through someone who didn’t even exist.

He stood. Wade’s Dungeon felt almost unbearably claustrophobic.

‘Harris, what are you doing?’ Dee’s voice came from a long way off. ‘Harris?’

‘I’m getting the hell out of here. I assume as long as Stacie agrees to be Jamison’s pet, I’m no longer under a death threat. If she’s the price, then it’s too damned high.’

The room erupted in chaos. Ellis grabbed him by the arm. ‘Let me go, damn it!’ He jerked away.

‘Stop being a jackass, then.’ Ellis looked like he could breathe fire. ‘Sit down, shut up, and let’s see what we can do to help Stacie.’

‘Nothing!’ Harris growled, balling his fist, ready to fight his way out if he had to. ‘Didn’t you hear the fucking email? We can’t do a goddamned thing, and I’m sick and tired of sitting around playing dead. I’ll find her and drag her away if I have to.’

Then everyone was talking at once, and Harris and Ellis might have come to blows if there hadn’t been a loud knock at the door, and Ellis’ secretary stuck her head in.

‘Excuse me, but a taxi just dropped off an Ingrid Watson. She’s been with Stacie Emerson, and she insists that she be brought directly to you or K. Ryde.’

The room was instantly silent as Lynn opened the door and stepped out of the way for a woman Harris had only seen once and, sadly, recognized by the bruises on her face that looked as if she had hastily tried to cover them with make-up. Even the smart designer clothes she wore couldn’t cover the battered, haunted look about the woman, who appeared to be barely more than a girl. Her gaze settled on Harris, and her eyes welled. It took him a second to realize that he was probably the only one in the room she recognized.

‘Ingrid?’ He spoke softly. ‘I’m Harris Walker, you remember me?’

She nodded and her lip quivered.

He moved forward, and slipped an arm around her shoulders, which seemed incredibly fragile. Ingrid flinched then relaxed. He guided her to sit on the couch next to him. Wade brought her a bottle of chilled water and she drank it down thirstily.

‘I ordered Chinese,’ Ellis’ secretary said. ‘Poor girl looks like she’s starving. ‘You hungry, sweetie?’

Ingrid nodded.

‘It should be here shortly,’ Lynn told her. ‘I asked Chang to hurry it along.’

After Lynn left, Wade, who was a surprisingly attentive host, brought the girl a cup of cocoa.

‘What?’ he said when he saw they were all staring. ‘Everyone knows cocoa’s the cure for trauma.’

She took it gratefully and sipped.

‘What happened?’ Ellis asked her. ‘How did you get here?’

‘Stacie Emerson came for me. He made her wait while he …while we …’ She swallowed back a sob and slopped the cocoa onto her hands and onto the bright yellow skirt.

Harris took the cup from her and offered her a couple of tissues from the box on the table.

‘When he was … finished with me, he left. I heard them talking. She asked for me. She said she had a cab waiting.’ She wiped her eyes on one of the tissues Harris had given her and left a smudge of mascara. ‘At first I thought it was only another one of his games, but then he told me to get dressed and come out. And she was there. And she did. She took me downstairs all the way to a taxi that was waiting for me. She told the driver to bring me here and not to leave until he knew I was safe. I didn’t want to be alone. I was scared. I wanted her to come with me, but she said she had to stay.’

Harris felt sick. It wasn’t just what Ingrid Watson had been through, but that Stacie now willingly submitted herself to Jamison to guarantee the girl’s safe return as well as his own safety. The thought was almost more than he could stand.

‘Is K. Ryde here?’ the girl asked. ‘Stacie told me that K. Ryde could tell me about my father.’

‘I represent K. Ryde,’ Kendra said. ‘And your father’s safe. He’s taking that long holiday abroad he always dreamed of, and if you’d like to join him, K. Ryde can arrange it.’

The girl wept openly, making no effort to still the sobs that ripped at her. ‘I’d like that. How soon can I go?’

Kendra looked at Ellis, and Ellis nodded. ‘If K. Ryde will just let my pilot know where he’s flying to, I’ll have the jet on standby for when Ms. Watson’s ready.’

‘Thank you,’ Ingrid managed. ‘It can’t be soon enough.’ She blew her nose and worried the tissue between nervous hands. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a bother, but is there someplace I can have a shower?’ She tugged at the blouse as though it fit too snugly. It was Dee who stood and motioned her back into the area where the guest suite was, but as Ingrid stood to go, she stopped. ‘Oh, I almost forgot. Stacie asked me to give this to you.’ She handed Harris a folded piece of paper.

The note was short and handwritten.

I’m sorry that I ran, Harris. You can’t know just how sorry I am, how much I wanted to stay there with you. Please, please trust me in my decision and let me do what I have to. And Harris, thank you for the mountain lions.

Love,

Stacie

Kendra, who had now moved to his side, slid an arm around him and spoke softly. ‘She asked me to tell you something, Harris. She wanted me to tell you that she loves you. I told her to tell you herself, but then you know I’ve got a big mouth. I’m sure it’ll be much better, though, when you hear it from her.’

If the note and Kendra’s words eased his misery, it did nothing to ease the fear and dread he felt for Stacie. As Harris watched Ingrid Watson disappear into the bowels of the Dungeon, leaning heavily on Dee, he loved Stacie more than he ever dreamed he could love. Fighting the sudden tightness in his chest, he turned back to Ellis.

‘Can you get a doctor for Ingrid? Seems to me that after what she’s been through, she should probably have a check-up before she flies, then –’ he turned to Kendra ‘– maybe K. Ryde can make sure she gets any medical attention she needs wherever she’s going.’

‘K. Ryde’s already done that at Stacie’s request,’ Kendra replied.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Stacie had done her best to provide good arm candy and stimulating conversation for Jamison. If she had to endure being with him, then she would try to make it tolerable, not because she cared about his pleasure, but because she recalled only too well what happened the last time she was uncooperative. And really, with the exhibition just days away, it was the perfect topic of conversation that was of interest to both of them. Focusing on the optimism she had for the exhibition and for the money it was already raising for the Vigilant Trust, even before it opened, helped keep her mind off Harris and how much she missed him.

She had received a cryptic text from K. Ryde saying
The package is safely sent
.
The photographer is fine –tho not happy abt situ.
That was a positive to focus on, and that made what she’d had to do seem worth it. The one thing that she didn’t want was for Jamison to have any reason to be angry at her, nor to turn that anger on any of the people she loved.

Terrance Jamison was as she remembered him, completely capable of being charming and intriguing. That was what had drawn her to him in New York. It was stunning that a man who came across as such a charmer could be such a monster underneath. But for the evening, he was attentive and considerate. She did her best to focus on that, to focus on how pleasant it was at the moment. It helped take her mind off what he really was and what he was capable of doing. And she had done a fair job of placating him until they were back in her hotel suite together and the grab of nerves in her stomach was nearly painful. She knew that he had no intention of ending their evening with dinner. There was never any thought that it would be otherwise. She had always known he would expect sex from her, and she had always believed she could do it, as she had done in New York. But that was before Harris Walker pushed and shoved his way into her life. It didn’t matter, though. She’d do what she had to.

There was champagne chilling in a bucket on the table; he poured them both a flute while she opened the curtains, desperate not to feel quite so shut in, not to feel quite so much the prisoner she knew she really was.

‘To new beginnings, my darling,’ he said, handing her the glass and raising his in a toast. ‘To us.’

She raised hers and sipped the tiniest bit. Jamison offered her a teasing smile. ‘Come now, sweetheart, I seem to remember you love good champagne.’

‘Oh I do.’ She managed another small sip. ‘But I don’t drink much before a big exhibition. I find my system’s very sensitive and not very tolerant of a lot of things I normally have no problems with. You know, the stress of it all?’

The look of concern on his face would have surprised her if she hadn’t known him so well. He smoothed her hair away from her cheek and pulled her into his arms. ‘Of course, my poor darling. And this has been a very stressful time for you what with the money situation and all, hasn’t it?’

She nodded against his chest. With a solicitous hand, he stroked the middle of her back where it was exposed by the dress. ‘I’m so terribly sorry you’ve had to go through such a time, and I’m so glad that I can now be here for you to ease the burden.’ His hand slid to her hip, and the he pulled away enough to meet her gaze. ‘You do feel a bit thin, Stacie. Oh, not as thin as you were in New York, but you were working yourself to death there, never willing to let me take some of the weight of it, never willing to let me make it easier.’

Her stomach lurched and burned with the rage of it, the insult that he could even bring up her efforts in New York, as if there had ever been any choice. But she pushed it down deeper, saving it all, saving it for the time when it could do her some good. For the moment, he didn’t have to know the quiver of her lip was anger and not the threat of tears at the memory of how she had turned away his help. For now, he could see the emotions on her face and think what he wanted.

‘And you’re so pale, darling. But all of that’ll change now you’re with me. I’ll make sure you eat well and rest, and you know that whatever you need is yours for the asking, my darling, even before the asking. So you see; there’s no need to stress.’

She offered a weak smile that she hoped would pass as gratitude, but then surely he had to know that she was only playing the game with him, only doing what she had to in order to get what she wanted.

His hand moved from her hip up along the outside of her breast and to the bodice of the dress that showed more cleavage than she would have preferred. ‘Your curves, Stacie, your lovely womanly curves; it wouldn’t do for you to lose them, now would it? He ran the slight cup of his palm over each of her breasts in turn, catching his breath at the feel of her nipples responding to his warmth.

‘Oh my dear, you have no idea how exquisite you are, do you? You never have. That’s a part of what’s always made you the most intriguing woman I’ve ever known.’ He kissed her collarbone, then slid one strap away from her shoulders. His cool lips nibbled an arc of kisses along the rounded muscle of her shoulder. ‘You were the work of art I most wanted to possess that first night we met in New York. I could see nothing else, think of nothing else, dream of nothing else.’

He reached behind her and, with a slow, practiced hand, unzipped her dress.

And she held herself. She didn’t flinch, she didn’t stiffen. She held everything inside. This was not unexpected. This was a part of the price, the price she was willing to pay. She ignored the rise of bile in her throat and swallowed it back. She could do this. She had to do this. And she would.

With a flick of his thumbs, he slipped the dress off her shoulders. As it slid down her body to pool around her feet, he caught his breath. ‘Dear God, Stacie Emerson, how you have haunted me all these years, and tonight –’ He cupped her cheek and took her mouth in a lingering kiss. ‘Tonight I’ll have you again at last.’ He took her hand and steadied her as she stepped out of the dress, standing before him in nothing but stockings and garter belt and dangerously high heels. His gaze felt as physical as his touch had been as he studied her body the way he would a piece of art. Then he took her hand and led her to the bedroom.

And Stacie Emerson did what she had to do.

Jenny knocked softly on the open door to Stacie’s office and stuck her head around it, looking slightly nervous. ‘Um, Harris Walker’s downstairs. What do you want me to do?’

Stacie nearly dropped the sandwich she’d been nibbling while going over the schedule of events, and everything in her tensed and ached with yearning. She was about to tell Jenny to send him away, but then she remembered he hadn’t yet seen the finished film loop.

‘Good. Jenny, take Mr. Walker into the small guest lounge and put the film loop on for him to watch. Tell him it’s important that I get his final approval while there’s still time for Carla to edit it.’ There wasn’t time for Carla to edit it. It was a done deal now, but that didn’t matter.

She listened, with her heart in her throat, to Harris’ protests as Jenny escorted him into the small guest lounge. She could hear Jenny explaining what Stacie wanted him to do, and then, at last, there was silence. She waited another minute, until she could stand it no longer, and then she slipped into the control room for the security cameras and pulled up the monitor for the small lounge, keeping the door open just in case any of Jamison’s men got suspicious. Sure enough, Harris was there. She made a grab for the chair and nearly missed it, she was trembling so badly. She could see his impatient face waiting for the film loop to begin and no doubt planning to storm the ramparts the very second it was done. A quick search of the other security monitors showed two of Jamison’s men at either end the main exhibition hall, seated as though they were docents at a museum, looking rather bored. A third stood at the main entrance and a fourth was at the private rear entrance. A look around the parking lot showed no sign of any vehicles she didn’t recognize. She didn’t know how Harris had managed to sneak in, but it didn’t matter. No rules had been broken. If any of the security team entered the lounge or her office, what they’d see was Stacie checking out the security system and one of her key exhibitors downstairs in the lounge, watching the film loop that he starred in. With a trembling hand, she flipped the switch. Harris nearly jumped out of his seat when, rather than the film loop, the image of her, finger pressed to her lips to shush him, came onto his screen.

‘You’re not supposed to be here,’ she said.

‘No, I’m just not supposed to be here with you.’ He offered her that wry smile of his that she’d love to kiss off his face and, in happier times, she would have. ‘I couldn’t stay away, surely you know that. I had to know you were all right.’

‘I’m fine, Harris. He didn’t hurt me, and anyway, once Ingrid was away and I knew you were safe I was a good girl, and did what I was told.’

His face darkened; the look of pain made her ache to touch him, to hold him and reassure him. For a second, he struggled to find his voice, and when he spoke, the words were tight, as though something horrible might happen if he lost control. ‘I slept at home last night, and I … I couldn’t stop thinking … and I wanted to rip his throat out and –’

‘Harris,’ she interrupted. ‘I didn’t have sex with him.’

She heard his groan of relief, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. ‘How? Surely he wanted you? I mean, how could he not want you?’

‘Oh, he wanted me all right.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘I threw up on him,’ she said, as matter-of-factly as if she’d been telling him the weather.

Harris shoved his hand over his mouth to fight back a sob of laughter. ‘Seriously? On purpose?’

She nodded. ‘It wasn’t that hard to do under the circumstances.’ For a second, they only sat smiling at each other, and then she felt her smile slip. ‘Harris, my convenient little stomach bug is just a temporary fix. You know that. In the end, I’ll do what I have to. I need you to understand that.’

‘No! I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all. And, Stacie, when this is over and we get you out of this mess. He’ll pay. He’ll pay dearly for everything he’s done to you. I promise.’

‘Harris, I don’t want to talk about him, OK?’ She leaned closer to the control panel, a poor substitute for the intimacy she craved with the man whose face on the monitor looked so pained. We only have a few minutes. Tell me something good. Tell me something that I can hold on to.’

‘Doug saw our mountain lion again yesterday. He says she’s looking pretty pleased with herself.’

Stacie closed her eyes for a second, letting his words sink in. Then she smiled back at him. ‘There’ll be kittens in a few months.’

He nodded. ‘I’ll take you to see them when Doug gives the OK.’

‘I’m counting on it,’ she replied, not daring to think that far ahead, but wanting to so badly. ‘What else?’

‘Wade’s working on some promising technology that will help prevent erosion and reclaim damaged land that’s already suffered from erosion.’

‘That’s good news.’

‘I went for a swim this morning in the waterhole. Water’s just freezing, and not nearly as much fun without you.’ He pressed his hand to the screen. ‘Stacie, I love you.’

But before she could respond, in the background she could hear male voices heading toward the small lounge. With an urgent gasp, she flipped the switch. The film clip continued, and Harris’ face was gone. His last words settled around her with an impossible mix of pain and hope.