Never and Always

by Khardine Gray

  Now it looked like something from one of those post-romantic paintings she loved from the Victorian era. Instead of pink, the colors splashed about the room were cream and burgundy. The wrought-iron-framed bed had replaced the child’s bed with tassels, and the medieval-looking chandelier hanging over it carried off the look. The princess was all grown up, had been for many years, but she was still the same girl.

  And Nick knew the girl would have needed him again now. So he went inside.

  The sweet fragrance of her filled him as he got close and sat on the bed next to her. The smell would be vanilla. He knew she liked that. She loved anything with that smell in it, so everything—her shampoo, perfume, hairspray, everything she could get her hands on—smelled like that.

  As she sobbed, her shoulders shook and all that silky hair sprawled out behind her. He couldn’t help but stare at her tiny frame, perfect in all the right places. He could see just a little more cleavage and the swells of her breasts from the angle at which she lay, and the deep curve of her waist only enhanced those shapely hips and thighs.

  She hadn’t been in the house and back in his life for two full days yet, but already she had him consumed with thought, thinking about her nonstop. He couldn’t even acknowledge the scary thought that no other woman had ever managed to do this to him.

  Swallowing hard, he forced himself to focus. When he rested his hand on her shoulder, she responded by reaching across and lightly placing her hand on his. It was a small gesture, but the touch spread heat through him.

  “What am I going to do, Nick?” she asked on the edge of a labored breath. “Glenn wants me gone. I don’t have anywhere to go, I have no money, and I can’t fix this,” she cried, rolling over onto her back.

  “This is your house, Mia.”

  “He told me to leave. If you weren’t here I’d be on the street.” She wiped at the tears that ran down her cheek.

  Nick wanted to tell her things wouldn’t have gotten that far, but he didn’t think he could. Glenn looked serious, and probably would have done it.

  “I could still be on the street.” She sucked in a breath.

  “I wouldn’t let that happen to you.” He smiled.

  “He might throw you out, too. Then we’d both be outside.”

  He laughed at that, because from the way Glenn looked Nick didn’t doubt the possibility, but if it happened he’d be cool.

  “Sounds like the perfect chance to get that gingerbread house we talked about years ago.” He was trying to cheer her up, but it didn’t work. She frowned at him, knitting her perfect brows together and pursing her lips.

  “You still think of me as a child.” She said it with a sort of disappointment that showed a slight hint of hurt.

  “No.” He shook his head.

  “Gingerbread house, Nick? Like Hansel and Gretel.” She frowned even more.

  “Hey, I’m doing my best here. If Glenn throws us into the street, I’d definitely take an edible house over…” He was still trying.

  “Over a regular one?”

  “Not so much. It’s cool, though, right?” He smiled down at her and there it was, the smile he’d been waiting for.

  It was faint and brief, but there. The smile spread across her pink lips and reached her eyes. She sat up and adjusted herself so she could hug her knees to her chest.

  “Thank you,” she breathed.

  He shuffled over so that he was closer to her. “I haven’t done anything yet.”

  “You always stop him from really ripping into me when he gets mad.”

  “I don’t like him shouting at you.”

  Even though her face was blotchy from her tears, her cheeks still warmed into a blush. “Thank you, I don’t have anybody who looks out for me like that.”

  “I’ll always take care of you, Mia.” Maybe that sounded too forward, but on account of the fact that he always did look out for her he thought it was okay to say.

  “Thank you, but…you shouldn’t have to.” She wiped away fresh tears.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I really messed up big time. You must think I’m stupid, too. I should have shown better judgement. I just didn’t think Alan would do that to me. He took care of everything right from the start. I knew him for years, and he helped me build my business into what it was.”

  Nick didn’t bother to tell her that Alan was most probably grooming her. That was standard with con artists. They’d get to know their victims, get them to trust them, and then strike when all defenses were down. The length of time she’d known the guy told Nick that he would have been stealing from her long before she noticed anything.

  “Unfortunately, that’s how guys like that work,” he offered.

  “And I practically had stupid stamped on my forehead.” She winced.

  “No, he could have done it to anyone.”

  “I just wish that it wasn’t me.” She wiped her tears. “I feel like such a fool. I feel like he looked at me like I was some dumb blonde with no sense. The rich princess.”

  “Mia, you can’t feel that way.”

  “I can’t help it. I moved to Florida to get away from here. I wanted to show everyone that I could be successful by myself. My family looks at me like I’m a lost cause; I wanted to show them that I could take care of myself and that my ideas for how I wanted to live my life work.”

  Nick was surprised to hear that. Very surprised, because he didn’t know she felt that way.

  “Babe, I don’t think your family is like that.”

  “Yes, they do. You weren’t here to see it,” she pointed out. “My parents forced me to go to college and study law like Glenn, and I dropped out after the first semester. Then they tried to get me to go back and change courses to economics. That was even worse. Come on, can you imagine me doing either of those? I never finished college and that made them crazy. My dad was furious when I used my trust fund to pay for beauty school and set up my business, but that was what I wanted to do. Finally I knew what I wanted, and now look at me.”

  Nick kept his focus on her as she poured out her feelings. “I’m going to look into it all for you guys,” he told her. “I don’t know what I can do, but we’ll see. Don’t worry about your family and what they think. And don’t worry about your business, either. What’s happened is in the past, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t rebuild and start afresh. You just have to get through this part first. Okay?”

  “Okay.” She nodded slowly, accepting, but then worry filled her face again. “Nick…um.”

  “What, babe?”

  “I’m worried about something else. In fact, I’m terrified about it.” Her eyes widened and she brought her hands up to her cheeks.

  “Tell me.”

  “It’s really bad.”

  From the look of her, he got the feeling that things were about to get a lot worse.

  Chapter 5

  Talking to Nick last night had helped, and it helped now, too, to take the edge off her fears. She’d revealed her deepest emotions. Mia had never even told Claire about how she felt about her family. She’d never told anyone, but it was all true. That was how she was treated, and it would be worse now that, in the pursuit of her business, she’d managed to lose two million dollars and, damn it, she was sure the art collection was gone as well. Those gut instincts were shouting so loud her whole body tingled.

  She pulled in a deep breath as she was about to unleash her biggest worry.

  “Our grandmother left us some of the paintings she collected. Glenn and I were going to open a small gallery at some point, but we placed them in a storage facility in Rochester. Just until we had the time to set everything up.” She watched Nick’s expression change.

  He was very aware of the types of paintings that her grandmother collected. He knew that Mia wasn’t talking about any old collection.

  “Did he get the password for the facility?” Nick asked biting the inside of his lip.

  Mia nodded, feeling the anxiety gnaw away at her s
tomach.

  “Oh shit,” he said, standing up. “Mia, why didn’t you tell us about that? The money is a lot harder to keep track of. Something like paintings are easier to manage.”

  He’d been incredibly sweet so far, and understanding, but it looked like she’d just lost that edge.

  “I was scared. Nick, the paintings are worth billions. The password was in the safe with everything else.” She grimaced, feeling the impact of the fear weigh in on her. It nauseated her.

  “Do you know if the paintings were stolen?”

  “No. I tried to find out but I didn’t get anywhere.” She brought her hands up to her cheeks again. “Nick, if the paintings get taken and Glenn and my parents find out, I might as well jump off a cliff.”

  “No.” He shook his head at her. “Don’t you dare think like that. Come on, let’s get to the station. I have a friend I work with. We can see what we can come up with and take it from there.”

  “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She was grateful that he wanted to help, and for his understanding.

  She quickly got up and grabbed her jacket and purse.

  Glenn wasn’t in the living room when they went downstairs. She wanted to let him know where they were going and that she was doing something to fix the problem, but it seemed like he was in his room.

  It was okay; maybe it was best that they didn’t speak. He’d never been so mad at her, so mad he would throw her out on to the street. She felt bad that it had come to this, and that she’d lost his trust.

  Hopefully they’d have some news when they got back, and hopefully Alan hadn’t gotten to the paintings.

  An hour later they sat in one of the offices at the police station with Nick’s friend Sawyer, who was a detective.

  She explained all that had happened and was asked to provide all the information she had, from business documents Alan had dealt with to receipts. Thank God she’d had a majority of that stuff stored on a file that she had saved to a memory stick. She could give that to them later.

  What was hard was showing Sawyer the pictures she had of Alan, and then feeling her heart drop into an abyss of shock when he showed her an actual picture of Alan in their system. Their system that listed all the people who’d been charged with various crimes.

  But he wasn’t called Alan. His name there was Simon, and he had at least ten other aliases.

  All Mia could do was stare at the computer screen, feeling fragile like if someone touched her she’d shatter. How could she have gotten involved with this person. It was all good and well to look back at mistakes and think of all the if only’s but she’d definitely exercised no care whatsoever in all her dealings with Alan. He’d been in prison for theft and embezzlement, had offenses built up from the same thing, and had the added bonus of drunk driving, drug-related offenses, and a host of other things.

  If she felt like a fool before, she felt even worse now. And it was embarrassing because Nick was here. He saw her stupidity in choosing a shady accountant, but what was worse was he’d seen the poor choice of a man she’d been with.

  “We’ll get the fraud and embezzlement team on this,” Sawyer told her.

  She watched him straighten up in his seat, squaring off his shoulders that were nearly as massive as Nick’s. Nick had told her that he and Sawyer met when they served in the Marines.

  “But there is some bad news. I managed to get through to the senior manager at Hamptons and he’s confirmed that the paintings were released.”

  Her heart jumped into her chest at that declaration and she couldn’t breathe.

  Shit! What was she going to do?

  She looked over at Nick who was sitting in the chair next to her and couldn’t help the bout of tears that gripped her. He put his arm around her but she didn’t feel comforted.

  “What am I going to do?” All she could think of was Glenn and her parents.

  Nick gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze, then released her so that he could sit forward.

  “When did they get released?” he asked Sawyer.

  “On Monday, so well before the money went.”

  Mia closed her eyes, shutting them tight. Alan had only been in her home Saturday making her dinner and acting like he cared for her. That was all part of his plan to get into her bedroom. What a damn mess.

  “What can we do now?” Nick asked, breaking into her thoughts.

  “We can track the paintings because they fall under our jurisdiction. Hopefully try to intercept any sales. The money is a different story. We’ll do our best to liaise with the police in Florida on that, but this could all become a federal matter.”

  “Federal?” she asked in a weak voice.

  “FBI, sweetheart. We’re talking about millions here and priceless paintings. And he’s working across states. There’s only so much we’re allowed to do. If he leaves Illinois they’ll have to be contacted.”

  “Am I okay to work with you on this?” Nick asked. She could see that he’d noticed her further distress. “I’ll need access to your systems.”

  “Of course, bro.” Sawyer smiled.

  “Thank you. Both of you,” she told them. The tears still came, but she wanted to show her gratitude. “I know it looks bad, but how long could something like this take?” she asked.

  “I won’t lie to you, or give you false hope, but this could take a while, especially since we’re dealing with a real con artist,” Sawyer answered and ran a quick hand through his short black hair.

  “Alright, keep me posted. At least now we know what we’re up against. I’ll come back here in an hour or so and do my thing,” Nick said standing up, ready to go.

  She joined him.

  “See you later,” Sawyer said to Nick.

  Mia followed Nick outside, back to his car in the parking lot. He didn’t say anything to her and there was a tenseness about him that told her he was put out by the situation.

  “Nick.” She stopped just before they got to his Range Rover.

  He turned to face her with an irked expression. “What is it Mia?”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  “Mia, I don’t want to rip into you the way Glenn did. But damn, didn’t you do a little research first before you got involved with that guy?”

  She couldn’t answer, because she didn’t do much. She’d put out a job posting for an accountant and Alan responded. His references checked out, but then they were just from previous employers, which could have been fake, or set up to set her up. She didn’t bother with a criminal record check because the references were glowing. He seemed perfect.

  “I wish that I could have done things differently. I trusted him.”

  “Mia, babe. I know you think that’s an excuse but it isn’t.” He shook his head and walked away to get in the car.

  With reluctance she followed, feeling numb because it now felt like she was alone again.

  Claire came to see her later that evening.

  She brought tubs of chocolate and coconut ice cream, Mia’s favorite. It was comfort food that could cheer them both up in their younger days. They’d been friends since birth.

  Claire came to see her in Florida at the start of the year and actually met Alan. She hadn’t liked him and thought Mia could have at least gotten someone better looking. At the time, Mia thought the comment was cruel, but wished she could have been shallow enough to break up with him based on his looks. He was tall and lanky and had what she called average looks. He definitely didn’t have the gorgeousness of Nick, but then few people she knew had. If she’d been shallow she wouldn’t have been in the mad situation she was in now.

  Claire tucked a wayward strand of her long black hair behind her ear. Mia noticed how well put together her friend looked the minute she walked in earlier. Her hair was silky smooth and smelled like she’d just been to the salon, her nails were perfectly manicured with a glossy pink color on them, and her eyebrows had been shaped to a perfect arc. It was all what Mia classed as simple things but knew that, while she
could do a lot of those basic treatments on herself, it would be a while before she could afford to buy what she needed to do so.

  Mia, who had always been the rich friend that bought everyone everything, was now completely broke.

  Broke-broke, with no one to turn to. When she got back from the police she decided to call her parents.

  The hollow in her soul had overwhelmed her the minute she heard that the paintings had been taken, and she just couldn’t keep the situation away from them any longer. So she told them everything, but withheld that Glenn didn’t know about the paintings.

  It was like tangling herself up in a deadly spider’s web, but she did it for her sanity. She’d tell Glenn when she felt strong enough. Maybe by then Nick would have come up with something.

  As predicted, her parents were furious and thought she showed lack of care by not carrying out the necessary checks she should have on Alan. When she saw how mad they were she conveniently left out the part where she’d actually been involved with Alan. Mia knew she’d made a massive mess and didn’t need to be reminded from them, too, that she’d shown complete incompetence.

  Her dad had ripped into her, making her feel worse than Glenn had. Her mother was slightly more sympathetic, but still just as firm. Instead of offering to help they told her to get a job and try to find her feet again.

  As if it was that simple. As much as she’d been hell bent on not taking any money from them and taking care of herself, she was actually hoping that they would offer her some money, at least enough to survive on.

  But, no.

  “This is oh so good,” Claire smiled, placing a decent-sized helping of ice cream into her mouth.

  They both had a tub each. While Claire got through hers with little effort, Mia struggled. She hadn’t eaten properly in days and hoped the ice cream would offer some sort of comfort. It didn’t.