“I don’t know why.” She was right. It didn’t make sense. Why would Gray tell Chloe this mess of lies, making it seem like there was some convoluted plot? Gray hadn’t liked him, but this was downright dirty. He’d have to find out, but the only one who could tell him was Gray.
“I wish I could believe you.” She looked at him, cheeks streaked with new tears. He ached to wipe them away, to start this thing over. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. They had been getting their love back. He was losing her all over again and didn’t know how to stop it. And this time, he was man enough to admit what he would lose, his most important thing. Of all the things he’d amassed, it didn’t mean squat when compared with Chloe. Only he’d realized that a little too late for them last time.
“You’d trust a man you don’t know over me?” Surely she wouldn’t. He’d screwed up in the past. But she didn’t know Gray at all. Surely knowing him for so many years would count for something.
“I don’t know he’s lied to me yet.” She blew out a shaky breath. “I do know, you have before.”
Drake’s stomach rolled with the implication. It was as if he’d been sucker punched to the gut. “I’m not lying.” He had no way to convince her. And it frustrated him beyond anything. Anger rose up in him, making his stomach burn.
“I wish I could believe you,” she repeated. Her head moved back and forth, her crying slowing down.
“Then do.” She had to. He was her husband. Yes, ex, but that could be easily rectified. And he loved her.
Her eyes were stark with pain as she stared him down. He wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Her eyes trapped him, keeping him in their gaze, no matter how much it tore him up to look in them. “I can’t. I won’t let you hurt me again.”
So there it was. The final curtain coming down on the last act of the performance. He’d lost, been booed out by the crowd. Drake pushed his hair back before swinging his legs over the bed to get up. He had to get out of here.
“What are you doing?” She still sat with her legs pulled under her, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. And he wanted to envelop her in his arms and hide from the world that was pulling them apart. But he’d lost that chance. And it was for good this time. No second chances or getting her back. God, nothing had ever hurt so much as this. Knowing what he was losing made it all that much worse.
“I’m going to find out what the hell is going on. I’m going to find Rob Gray.” He didn’t know how, but somehow he’d find the son-of-a-bitch. Gray would have the answers to what was going on. That is, if Drake let him speak before he pummeled him. He was in a pummeling mood right now, not in a listening one. To think, Chloe had had the worst temper when they’d been married. Right now, his would trump hers in her worst fit.
“And, you’ll get the totem back. Back for yourself, that is.” Her voice slipped into sounding like a steel trap. He’d heard the tone before. She was angry. That was O.K.; he was angrier. But her anger was toward him; his was toward Rob Gray. And that made all the difference. If only she believed him. Maybe he had some temper directed to her, too. Because she should have believed him.
He pulled a pair of pants over his legs. “I’ll get it back and get it to you. As soon as I can.” Grabbing a shirt, he put it on and buttoned it. Such normalcy in the face of things falling apart. Gray better be easy to find.
“Don’t bother.” She drew her legs further up underneath her as if she were cold. “Don’t even bother. If the damn thing means so much to you, you’d have someone steal it for you.”
“Dammit. I promised this to you. And I’ll deliver it to you. Even if it kills me.” He sat down on the bed to put on his boots, his body turned away from her. Even if he couldn’t have Chloe, he’d see the Collector got the artifact, and she got the money. He’d make her take it. She would for her sister and her niece, if nothing else. “Promise me you won’t leave here for twenty-four hours after I go. I’ll get it back to you.”
“Drake ...”
“Promise. Please.”
She let out a soft sigh. “Fine.”
Stalking out, he headed for his car. He was a man of his word.
* * * * *
Drake left in a taxi, leaving Chloe alone at the mountain house. He’d had to pay an exorbitant amount to get the thing to come up in the mountains to get him. But that left Chloe with a car to leave when she wanted. She hadn’t talked to him after their initial confrontation. Merely nodded with a sad look to indicate she heard whatever he said to her.
He arrived home to find the house, mainly his study, in shambles. The security system had been disabled.
Someone had strewn stuff around, knocking it off the shelves. It was the Drake Marsters memorabilia which had suffered the biggest hit. It looked like someone had stomped all over it. Such anger had been displayed against him.
And he could guess the motivation behind all this now for Rob Gray.
Jealousy.
Gray was jealous of Drake’s success. That much was obvious looking at the study. All the wealth and things he’d amassed from his magic act, the stuff that now meant so little, that was what had helped to cost him Chloe. If he hadn’t been so successful at being a magician, at employing his real magic, then Gray would have left him alone. His abilities had cost him the woman he loved twice now.
Slumping, he plopped down in his arm chair, his throat closing up amid the squeak of protest from the springs.
The telephone rang, the sound echoing in the empty house. The house would always be empty now. Just him and his stuff.
He stared at it a moment before slowly picking it up. “Yeah?” His hope briefly rose. Maybe it was Chloe.
But he had no such luck. “Hello, Drake.” Gray’s snotty, snooty voice came over the receiver.
“You son-of-a-bitch. I’m going to make you pay.” Drake growled. The man had cost him too much.
“Now now, Drake.” Gray tsked. “Don’t let that temper get the better of you. We have much to discuss.”
“So start talking.” Drake’s hand tightened on the receiver, his knuckles white against the black as he put Gray on speaker phone and hung it up. “You told Chloe I told you to take the artifact.”
“Chloe? Oh, you mean the ex-Mrs. Yes, that seemed to light a fire under her, didn’t it? Especially as you promised it to her. What a dumb dick you are. Thinking with that little head again.”
Drake surveyed the destroyed objects as he fought down the urge to punch the phone, as Gray wasn’t there to provide his smug head. Only one thing was missing. That he was sure of. The totem. Why was that? There was so much stuff here, and Gray had walked out with only one thing. Not that a cheaply made, mass-produced Drake Marsters tarot card deck would have been worthwhile, but why nothing else? “Why did you take it?”
“You think you’re so damn smart. So ... worthy. You aren’t worthy. You’re nothing but a bullshitting, fraudulent hack. You’re less than scum.” The malice in Gray’s voice set Drake’s teeth on edge.
“You hate me.” Drake stated the obvious. He was trying to keep Gray on the phone. He wanted this conversation to complete and not leave him hanging like it had last time when Gray had talked to Chloe. One way or the other, he wanted to know what Gray wanted and where all this was going, instead of waiting for yet another call.
“I more than hate you. You took what’s rightfully mine. Mine!” Drake was almost tempted to check for spit on he phone, so emphatic was Gray’s spouting. Boy, Drake had pissed him off without even knowing it or even trying.
“And what was that? What did I take from you? Your position as a world-famous magician?” He chose the dig carefully to push this conversation along. Gray had always been midlevel talent at best. He’d never gone to the heights Drake had in his career. Of course, he hadn’t had Drake’s edge. Unfair, but so was life.
Rob hissed, the sound harsh across the phone, echoing in the messed-up room. “Yesssssss.”
“But why take the artifact? What does that have to do with me
taking your position? Were you just stealing from me?” It didn’t seem to be random, his taking of that particular thing. Drake was trying to puzzle out what was going on. He needed to somehow get the totem back for Chloe.
“You think I don’t know anything, but I do. I know plenty.”
“So tell me what you think you know.” Drake propped his feet up on his desk. He might as well get comfortable for the rest of the conversation. “And why you took the artifact. Tell me everything.”
“It’s the source of your magic.” Rob let loose a triumphant cackle that vibrated over the phone lines.
The source of his magic? Drake had often wondered it, but he had no idea if that was the case. He had no proof other than it had been in his family for several generations. If the thing was the source of his magic, then it would seem like he wouldn’t be able to do magic when it left his possession, but that had never been the case. Every time he’d sent it away, he’d tested it. He’d always been able to do magic. “Is it now?” Drake made the lights blink off and on and shut the study door before opening it again. He could still do magic even though Gray had the artifact. Maybe the artifact couldn’t be transferred? No, it was special, he knew that by its hum and tingle, yet somehow, he also knew, it wasn’t the source of his magic.
“Quit the bullshit. I know it’s the source of everything you do. It’s why you were successful. A successful fraud.”
“So you took the source of my success. Why tell Chloe the lies, though? You already had what you wanted.” He’d destroyed Drake’s one shot at happiness. When Drake caught up with him, he intended to make Gray pay. First, he had to find out where Gray was, arrange a meeting somehow.
“It won’t work! The damn thing won’t work.” The frustration cut Rob’s voice like a knife.
“Ahhhh.” So now Gray thought he needed Drake. That was good for arranging a meeting and maybe even getting it back for Chloe. “So you need me to show you how to work the artifact?” Drake moved in the chair, making it squeak.
“Yes, dammit. You either come show me or ... I’ll destroy it. If I can’t have it, neither can you. Or your Mrs.”
Drake had to save it for Chloe. She needed it. “Rob, listen to me. It’s not the source of my magic.”
“Bullshit. You’re trying to pull one over on me. You think you’re so damn smart. You’re nothing.”
“It’s not the source, Rob.”
Rob sputtered a few more loud, vitriolic protests. Drake let him rant a minute before trying to speak. He’d had his parentage questioned several times in one day. It must be a record.
“I’ll show you the source. I’ll give you my magic. You can have it. All you have to do is send the item to Chloe.” He offered up what would tempt Rob. Come on, take the offer. Rob had to. Chloe’s retrieval of the totem depended on this.
Rob hesitated. “You’ll show me the source of your magic? You’ll give it to me?” He sounded doubtful.
“Yes. Trust me, it’s not that thing.” Drake yawned. He hadn’t gotten much sleep. He clamped down on the thoughts about why, even as his cock hardened to remind him. There was no need to think about Chloe and the loving they’d shared, no matter how spectacular it had been. Because it would never happen again.
“Then why did you have so many people looking at it? Why did you send it to so many historians? And wouldn’t allow any testing?”
Drake blinked, staring into the phone before sitting up straight. Damn. Rob had been tracking him, checking up on him for a long time.
This went way beyond a spur of the moment jealousy attack. This was outright obsession.
Drake would have to proceed carefully if he was to get out of this after going to Gray. “I was curious about it. It’s an old family heirloom. But it’s not anything to do with my magic.” The magic must be in the genes of the family somehow. Which left Rob completely out of luck unless there was a Marsters bastard somewhere back in his line. But Gray didn’t know that. “As soon as I come to you, I want you to send the object to Chloe at my mountain house. I’ll pay for its delivery and supply a deliveryman. Once I know it’s off safely to her, I’ll tell you how to collect my magic.”
“Agreed. When do you want to meet?”
Chloe would get her artifact. Not the completion he’d wanted, but at least that would happen. And the sooner he got the artifact to her, the better. He wasn’t sure he trusted her promise to stay at the cabin. “Now. I want this over with.” For good.
Chapter Nine
Drake drove up to the farmhouse in a county just outside of Richmond. Cutting the engine, he looked around.
The Cape Cod had a sagging front porch and black stains on the roof. White with green trim and roof, it looked like any other house in the country. The only odd thing about the place was the knee-high grass in the front yard. Guess Rob had been too busy ruining Drake’s life to mow.
He waited a few minutes in his own car until the delivery van showed up.
The courier company would deliver the item to Chloe. He’d had to pay the value of Fort Knox to secure a truck to meet him and go up into the mountains to her. But it was all set. And it was well worth it. Chloe would at least get the totem.
He got out, meeting the driver in the driveway. “Hello, I’m Drake Marsters. The item for pickup should be in here.” The gravel cracked and popped along with their footsteps as they fell in side by side.
“Yes, sir.”
They walked up to the house’s front porch along the crooked, cracked walk, and Drake rang the doorbell.
Rob Gray opened the door.
Drake fought back any reaction. “We’re here.”
The delivery driver backed up a step or two from the apparition that stood in the doorway.
This was a Gray Drake had never seen before. He looked like he hadn’t slept for days. His hair was long, ratty, and uneven. His clothes had stains and were wrinkled. He had at least three days’ worth of beard. His eyes glowed red from being bloodshot. And from the smell, he hadn’t showered in a while.
“Good. Good.” Rob waved a hand, grinning maniacally. “Here’s the artifact.” He let out a mad cackle.
It sat in a living room that had trash and papers strewn all over it. It looked as if a trash bag had exploded in there.
The delivery man curled his lip up, wrinkling his nose. “This is what I’m supposed to take?”
“Yes.” Drake nodded. “I gave the address and directions for the delivery. Deliver it to Chloe Mar... Richards.” After the divorce, she’d gone back to her maiden name. He swallowed. Now it would stay Richards forever.
His gaze sought out Gray, whose eyes flicked back and forth. Somehow he’d imagined a much angrier confrontation. Not this politeness. But when the man looked like this, Drake couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him. It would pass. Especially once the driver left, and whatever Gray had in mind failed.
The driver picked up the totem, hefted it up, and headed out the front door with it. “Thank you, Mr. Marsters.”
Gray growled before slamming the door behind the delivery driver, making a wham sound. After clicking the lock into place, he turned to face Drake with a vile sneer. “Now let’s get down to magic, shall we?”
* * * * *
Chloe blew out a deep sigh. The sound hung heavy in the empty room. A bird chattered in the distance. Or maybe it was a squirrel.
Looking around the cabin, she lovingly patted the couch she rested on, feet slung up on the coffee table. Her last time here. Tears threatened much as they had been doing since Rob Gray’s twisted little phone call.
Flicking them back by blinking, she reminded herself of her promise not to cry anymore. Not over Drake. She’d lost too many tears over the man the last few years. She refused to lose anymore.
Her packed bags sat by the front door along with her sneakers.
He’d asked her to stay for twenty-four hours, but after a few hours, the romance of the place, the importance of it to her and Drake’s relationship, had begun we
aring at her nerves, which were strung taut like a stretched string anyway. Why she’d agreed to the twenty-four hours thing, she didn’t know. But he’d lied, so she had no guilt about breaking her word.
She’d gone to pack her bags an hour ago and found something she’d forgotten.
Etched into the wooden bed was a heart that had “DM and CM forever” in the center. Drake had done it right after they’d bought this place.
She’d traced the carving with a shaking finger, remembering watching Drake put it there. He’d tried to do it before she woke up as a surprise, but she’d caught him. She’d sat behind him, legs pulled up under her, stark naked, and watched her husband carve their initials into a bed. She’d barely let him finish before she’d attacked him to celebrate the moment.
Had she had a pocket knife she would have gouged it out from the wood. But she didn’t have anything to remove it, so she had to leave it intact.
She’d hadn’t been able to see much after that and had tossed stuff in her suitcase, not caring what went where.
So now she was packed and ready to go. All she had to do was walk out.
Only making herself leave was proving harder than she thought. She’d been sitting on the couch ever since. Something wouldn’t let her get up and make the few steps to his car, which he’d told her she could leave at the airport. Little he’d said had registered the first time so he’d repeated everything until she’d nodded at him.
Once she walked out that door, it was goodbye. She’d be leaving the cabin behind forever. And she’d be leaving Drake behind. For good this time.
There’d be no second chances. No magical chances would emerge out of the shadows for them.
This was it.
A few dozen shed tears, a broken heart, but with much more wisdom, and she’d drive away from this life.
With no money.
But somehow that had lost its importance. Even though it meant she and her sister would still have to struggle to pay the medical bills for her niece. Maybe she’d move closer to her sister. Hell, there was nothing tying her to her old life. Nor was there anything tying her to Virginia. Not anymore.
THE COLLECTOR 1 - Magical Chances Page 9
