by Lexy Timms
“Did you do it, Mrs. Prescott?”
“Are you guilty?”
“Is your husband going to leave you now?”
“How much did you steal? How long have you been taking it?”
“What happened in prison?”
“Did your husband make you take the money?”
“You greedy bi—”
“Enough!” her lawyer shouted calmly. “Mrs. Prescott has no comment at this time.” He guided her through the throng of people.
The reporters bombarded her with more questions. Questions about whether she was a thief. Whether she and Dane were getting divorced. If she was a gold-digger who had only married him for his money. She forced herself to tune them out as she walked towards the SUV that was waiting for her.
Dane stepped out of the SUV and helped her inside. Even with her husband’s big, strong hands guiding her, she barely felt his touch. Barely acknowledged him. As the SUV pulled away from the mad frenzy of reporters, a terror she never knew existed knifed through her. Now, all she wanted to do was scream.
Chapter 8
His wife slept all day.
Dane was in the living room, poring over documents, when she appeared from their bedroom. Seeing her here in their apartment made the relief he felt more stark. For one night he had thought there was a chance he’d never see her again. It was crazy, he knew, but that she’d been arrested… it didn’t make sense, and scared the shit out of him.
The memory wouldn’t leave him. It flashed before his eyes over and over.
The police had rushed into the awards ceremony and just hauled her off. He’d gone after them. Tried to see her in jail, but they’d barred him from seeing her. That had sent him into a near-murderous rage, which only calmed down when his father begged him to focus on saving his wife.
“You’re awake,” he said. Cringed. It was so stupid and obvious, but he had no clue what to say to her. Her ordeal had been harrowing. Hustling her into the car and away from the press had been bad enough, so jail must have been unbearable for her.
She nodded and sank into the sofa across from him. “I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.” She yawned. “I slept now, but still feel exhausted.”
“You must be hungry,” he said. “I’ve ordered take-out for you.”
“Thank you. I’ll eat later.” Her face was wan. Those dazzling green eyes of hers seemed darker somehow. As if the light had gone out of them. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out where exactly this money is going,” he muttered. “Sorry. Stupid, I know.”
“Trying to clear my name already?” She gave him a shaky smile.
“No.” His jaw clenched. “I’m trying to figure out where it’s going so that, when I turn myself in, I can prove that I did it.”
She stiffened. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m not letting you go to prison,” he said. “We’ll tell them I did this.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
He crossed his arms. “This isn’t up to you.”
“You can’t take the fall for me,” she said. “This is my problem, and I’ll deal with it. You didn’t do this. Neither did I.”
Last night had been the worst night of his life. But when his father had managed to calm him down, he knew the only solution was to save Allyson from prison. Save her by going in her place. He refused to watch as her life was destroyed. He had dragged her into his world of wealth. There was no way in hell he was going to let her pay for something she hadn’t done.
“I’m not asking your permission,” he said bluntly. “I’ve made up my mind.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you do this.” She squared her shoulders and glared.
“Nobody lets me do anything,” he said, his voice like ice. “This is my decision.”
“My lawyer is working on this,” she said. “Mr. Crane suggested a plea deal, but I’m not going to take it. I think we can clear my name by figuring out where the money is going, and find out who the real thief is.”
“That’s your big plan?” he demanded. “Go on a wild goose chase for a thief who’s probably in another country? Risk spending decades in prison because of your pride?”
“If you expect me to consider a plea deal, then you don’t know me at all.”
He stood up. Headed over to the liquor cabinet on the other side of the living room and grabbed a bottle of scotch. “Maybe I don’t. Maybe I never did. Or never will. At least you’ll be safe.”
“I don’t want to be safe—”
“Then you’re crazy,” he said with a snarl. “For once, why don’t you stop trying to do the noble thing? Your lawyer is right to try to get you a plea deal.” He was angry. It wasn’t fair to take it out on her, but at the moment he didn’t know how else to deal with it. All he saw was red. And fear. He was terrified.
“So, if I take the plea deal, you’ll back down from going to prison in my place?”
“No. I’m still going through with this, but at least if you were considering a plea deal I’d know you hadn’t completely lost your mind.” He knew it was a damn harsh thing to say, but his wife needed to get some sense into her head. Doing the right thing was all well and good in most instances, but her life was on the line here. He needed to know she was ready to do whatever it took to save herself.
Her mouth dropped open. Silence. Then she curled her lip. “I haven’t lost my mind. I’m not going to admit to a horrible crime I didn’t commit. I’m not going to let every single person who doubted our marriage have the satisfaction of thinking they were right. I’m not going to disgrace the Prescott name. I’m innocent and I’m going to prove it.”
“How?” he demanded. “What are you going to do? Leave the country and solve this?”
“Yes. I’ll figure out who the thief is and clear my name,” she said flatly. “And you can forget this crazy idea of going to prison on my behalf.”
He sighed loudly. “If I get a plea deal of my own I’d be out in, what? Four or five years?”
“You’d destroy your family name. Nobody would want to do business with you. You’ll be a pariah,” she said desperately.
“So, what?” He shrugged. “You’ll be safe. That’s all that matters.”
“What matters is that we do the right thing. Save Prescott from a thief. Clear my name.”
“And if this goes to trial before we’ve caught the thief, you’ll end up in prison for years,” he said.
“Thirty years.”
His heart sank like a stone. Weighed him down until he felt like he was falling into Hell. He clenched his fists. Allyson was not going to spend a day in prison. Not one day. “Last night, I thought I’d never see you again. You were locked away from me and I couldn’t get to you. I’m never going to live with that ever again.”
“I was the one locked up, remember?” Her eyes glistened. “It was horrible. I’ve never felt so trapped and alone in my whole life.” Tears spilled down her cheeks and her body trembled. A strangled sob escaped her throat, and suddenly she was rushing across the room and wrapping herself around him on the sofa.
Dane held her so tightly he thought he might break her. Held her in his arms as she sat in his lap and sobbed. Listening to the sound of her anguished weeping was the most gut-wrenching, heart-rending moment of his life. He hadn’t known it was possible to feel this much pain.
He smoothed a hand down over her dark hair and rocked back and forth, trying to comfort and soothe her. She clung to him desperately, each shuddering intake of breath stabbing him in the gut.
Finally, she pulled back and slipped out of his lap and onto the other side of the sofa. “I know you’re trying to help me. But you have to let me do this the right way.”
Before he could reply, his phone rang. Grabbing it from the coffee table, he quickly answered it. The familiar voice on the other end made his body go rigid. Her mother. More trouble.
He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. “M
rs. Smith? You’re outside? Look, she’s not in a good state right now—”
“Is that my mom?” Allyson asked.
He nodded.
“Let her in,” his wife said.
“Allyson says she can see you,” he said. When he ended the call he quickly contacted the concierge downstairs, asking him to let Allyson’s mother up to their apartment.
After several minutes, Dane answered the knock on their front door.
Allyson’s mother looked exhausted. He had contacted her last night after Allyson’s arrest, and then to inform her that Allyson was home.
“Where is she?” Mrs. Smith swept into their apartment and found her daughter in the living room.
“Mom.” Allyson rose to her feet and hugged her mother. “Where’s Dad?”
Mrs. Smith sank into the sofa, the picture of distress. “He decided to stay with James and Holly at their place. Poor Holly was so worried about you, and she’s so far along in her pregnancy. He wanted to stay behind to help her.”
“Would you like something to eat?” Dane asked, shoving aside his annoyance at her mother flat-out ignoring him. She was probably in no state to remember he was even there.
Her mother waved her hand dismissively. “Later.” It wasn’t like her to seem so out of sorts. Usually she gushed whenever she came over to their luxury apartment.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell us you were coming over?” Allyson asked.
“The truth is, dear, I’ve been wandering around the city, utterly despondent. We’ve been in town these last few weeks to take care of Holly, and now you’ve been carted off to jail. How could you do it?”
Allyson stared, taken aback. “Do what?”
“Steal? How could you steal all that money? It’s all over the news. You walking out of jail. The whole city knows what you did,” her mother said.
“You think I’m capable of such a thing?” His wife’s hand flew to her chest, a horrified expression on her face.
“I know you probably didn’t mean to cause any harm,” her mother said. “But you have to give that money back. Save yourself from serious trouble.”
“I didn’t steal the money,” Allyson said shrilly. “I would never do such a thing.”
“A year ago, I would have believed that. But after you got your husband’s company back I realize just how ruthless you really are,” Mrs. Smith breathed.
Allyson gasped. “You think I’m a thief because I saved Prescott from the Handels?”
“I think you’re more cunning and ruthless than you let on,” her mother replied. “You’d have to be to survive as a rich man’s wife.”
He had heard just about enough. “You’re not going to talk to this rich man’s wife like that.” He snarled at the words ‘rich man’s wife’.
Mrs. Smith stared at him, suddenly flustered. “I didn’t mean any offense—”
“You’ve just accused my wife of being a thief,” he said coldly. “You can either apologize to Allyson or you can get out.”
“Dane,” his wife cried.
“I mean it,” he said through gritted teeth. “Say you’re sorry, Mrs. Smith, or leave and never come back.” Ordinarily he’d avoid talking to his mother-in-law like this, but nothing was off limits when it came to protecting and defending his wife. Not even throwing out his mother-in-law for good.
Mrs. Smith rose to her feet slowly, an outraged expression on her face. “I don’t think I know you anymore. Either of you.”
“So this should be easy for you,” he said coldly. “Turn around and leave.”
“Allyson?” Her mother cast her daughter a desperate glance.
“Just go, Mom,” his wife murmured. “There’s no talking to him when he gets like this. Dane means what he says. Just give us a chance to cool off. Please.”
“Fine.” His mother-in-law turned on her heel, stalked out of the living room and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
“She thinks I did this,” Allyson said in disbelief. “My own mother thinks I’m capable of stealing money from my husband’s company.”
“Your mother has always been unfairly hard on you,” he pointed out.
“Not like this,” she said. “She used to pressure me to get married. Told me my job wasn’t good enough. But she’s never ever believed I could commit a crime. You heard what she said. A year ago, she wouldn’t have believed this. But now she does. Everything has changed.”
The truth was, his wife had been the one who’d had to do most of the adjusting when they got married. She was the one who’d had to enroll in college. Take etiquette lessons. Set up a whole new division at Prescott Global. Make friends with elites who would more than likely always be suspicious of her. And with these allegations coming out in the news, they’d be a hell of a lot more suspicious now.
Her entire life had been turned upside down. All because of him. All because he had pulled her into an upper-class life she hadn’t been prepared for. “The only way to convince her otherwise is if I take the fall. If I go to prison instead of you,” he said, trying to seize another opportunity to talk some sense into her.
“No. The only way to convince my mother is if I clear my name by figuring out who the real thief is,” she said.
“We don’t even know where the money is going,” he reminded her.
“Then we have to figure that out,” she said, “because I’m not letting this go. Doing the right thing means that neither of us has to go to jail.”
“It means that if this goes to trial and goes badly, you’ll end up in prison for thirty years,” he said, desperation lacing every word. The thought of Allyson being locked up for that long made him sick to his stomach.
If he lost Allyson, all their dreams of a happy married life would die. They’d never have children. The house he had just bought would end up being a monument to their doomed love. A hideous reminder of his wife’s imprisonment.
“Give me a chance,” she pleaded. “Just one chance to solve this. Then, if we can’t figure out who the thief is, we can revisit this.”
It was the best she was going to give him. He was never going to let her go to prison. However, if giving her what she wanted for now could buy him some time to reason with her, he was willing to take it. “I’m going to call my father,” he said stiffly. “Maybe he’s finally figured out where the money is going.”
She nodded. “I’ll go get something to eat in the meantime.”
As she headed into the kitchen, Dane reached for his cell phone. He got a hold of his father on the phone and together they started going over files, documents. Searched through their laptops until his father found something they’d all overlooked. Hidden. Almost so out in the open that it could be missed. But also buried deep enough to be flagged as off. He didn’t think he could explain it to his wife. Yet it made sense. But there it was. A massive and unexplained amount of money moved into a bank account overseas.
He rushed into the kitchen. “I know where the money’s going.”
“Where?” Allyson asked from her seat at the kitchen island. “Should we go to the police with this?”
“Yes; we have no choice but to tell the cops,” he said. “The money’s being sent to London.”
Her mouth fell open. “The Handels are in London.”
“They run Prescott’s London office,” he said. “We’ll be heading right into their territory.”
His wife threw her shoulders back, a determined light flashing in her green eyes. “Then that’s where we have to go. And so help them, if they’re the ones doing this I’m going to hang them myself.”
Chapter 9
The flight to London seemed to go on forever. Dane spent most of it holding his wife’s hand, grateful he had access to a private jet. The flight would’ve felt even longer if they’d had to fly commercial.
After they touched down at Heathrow Airport, they got into one of the black cabs that London was famous for. They could have easily taken a private car, but Allyson wanted to trav
el in an authentic London cab.
The ride to the London Prescott Hotel seemed to last even longer than the flight. When they finally checked in to their luxury suite, his wife flopped down onto the huge king-sized bed.
Exhausted, he got into the bed beside her, too tired to even bother taking off his shoes. His father and Allyson’s lawyer had flown in days earlier and were already staying at the hotel, but he was way too tired to go search them out right now.
“I can’t believe I’m here. In London.” The breathless excitement in her voice made him smile.
“We aren’t here for a vacation,” he reminded her.
“I know,” she said, “but I’ve never been to Europe and now I’m here. I know it’s for a bad reason, but I’m still going to make the most of this.”
A week had gone by since she had gotten out of jail, and they had spent most of it making travel plans and trying to convince a judge to let Allyson leave the country. Dane knew that the judge had only agreed because of his family name. Outside of having the charges dropped, a Prescott could get a judge to do just about anything. At least, that’s what his father had told him. The thought still made him queasy. How could anyone think Allyson would do something like stealing money?
If Allyson had been merely an employee at Prescott Global rather than the wife of the CEO, she wouldn’t have been granted permission to fly to London. Hell, she probably wouldn’t have had the money to make bail.
Still, she had been through a terrible ordeal with the allegations, and she deserved a little happiness.
He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. The flowery, feminine scent of the shampoo she always used was intoxicating. Holding his beautiful wife in his arms was something he could never ever tire of. Especially now that he knew how easy it was to lose her. “You’re the only person I know who could make the best of something so terrible,” he murmured against her silky hair.
“Can you blame me?” she asked. “Our room is so beautiful.”
He sat up to glance around, realizing that the huge suite hadn’t even registered with him. Dane wasn’t sure if that was because concern for his wife made him block out everything else, or if it was because he had taken his wealth for granted for so long that very little impressed him.
