by Cora Blu
“I’m fattening up the sign on package. And more important to Bethany…I’ve never cheated on her.”
They were using Mikhail’s infidelity against them to break her. Bethany put her face in her hands. All this because of her high dividends? No way.
“Mikhail’s going to do whatever he can to keep her and her numbers here. I can’t fight that, but he can’t fight the past. When we found her in that cabinet, she turned to me, not Mikhail. They may flirt around one another, but Ms. Cansler trusts me.”
Mikhail’s fists were so tight the knuckles paled against his skin.
“Then capitalize on that relationship. You’re missing a big opportunity to get her to leave Heinemann’s.”
“I have one more opportunity then I think she’ll be more than willing to join me.”
The man with the tight voice added, “Let’s get outta here, I need my allergy pill. Who can work in this much dust?” Their steps trailed scratching over the floorboards.
Bethany pushed Mikhail away, getting to her feet. Searching the dark for her jacket large hands closed around her waist. A hard jaw found her cheek and a thick solid chest pressed along the plane of her back.
This was a conspiracy, tearing at her common sense. People were lying to her about who they are and what they wanted. Creating situations to shake her view of Mikhail and it worked. This was her fault for not talking to Mikhail sooner, resolving their issues and making the relationship they had stronger. She leaned back, taking a minute to calm down.
Her heart sank from those words. Did the cunning ever stop?
Mikhail shook his head, then brought his face down to whisper in her ear. “Stay with me on this. Don’t let ’em shake your confidence. I’ve wanted you to succeed here in Austria from the start. It’s why I selected your profile. And if you believe I’ve slept with half the women in the office, I’ll drive you to the airport tonight.”
“I wouldn’t be here, if I felt that way, Khail. You know that,” she reassured him. It helped to hear her conviction. She did want him. Never stopped wanting him and probably never would. “I’m angry that I missed his fangs, going to him like a coward, when you’re who I want and are a part of who I am. They can say what they want, but I’m still right here in your arms.”
“Thank you, baby for trusting me. And I’m not letting you go.” Mikhail clicked the switch on the lamp, shining light on her face. “But from here on out it’s going to get harder, and we have to be there for each other.”
“I’m here,” she said. He held her tighter. She sank against his chest. “How can I be such a menace to them when the office is full of talented investors? And how dare he use me like that, sending those men to harass me.”
“Don’t you see, you’re the face of the modern woman, and I’m the man who brought you to Heinemann’s? The media attention will be worth more in the coming months than the few dollars I’ll earn off the dividends. He wants you.”
“You’ve said all along you believed in my skills.” She stopped trying to get free of his hold on her as he raised a hand to press his palm to her cheek. “Not only do we have some crazy going around, we have to fight corporate and the media.”
“We fight this together, Cansler.”
“I’m sure as heck not fighting this alone.” Bethany held his hand to her lips when she spoke. “Not while I have you in my life.”
Chapter 17
Bethany
Now that she knew why he ran from a real relationship, it was time she brought him into her nightmare. “You trusted me enough to share your pain. It’s time I fully shared why knives have such a paralyzing hold over me.” She blew out a breath, pulling his arms tighter to her body. “I was seventeen and Robert, my brother, was twelve…” The picture began to materialize before her making her words heavy in her mouth and on her heart.
“I won’t judge you, Bethany,” he offered rocking slowly from side to side.
She shuddered. “I killed my baby brother…”
Each word sucked a little oxygen from her lungs, squeezing her body into a mangled twist of nerves. Bethany fought the visions as they crowded into her mind, lining up waiting to spill out on the floor in bright red haunting memories.
She swallowed. He hadn’t left her. The rock solid plane of his chest was still at her back. Could he make it through the entire memory? Forcing herself not to look back at the man who doesn’t have a clue what vault of horror he unchained, Bethany opened her mouth and let the story unfold. “I didn’t mean to do it, Khail. He wasn’t supposed to be back there…I didn’t know.” Her arms wrapped tight around her body as if to keep her heart from slipping down to her stomach, where acids would make it appear as horrible as she felt. Tears poured down her face. Mikhail tried to turn her around, but she needed to talk in the dark, no faces, no I’m sorry looks. She hated those. His grip became lethal his biceps pressing at her shoulders. Mikhail walked back with her in his arm to lower them into a pile of hay in the corner…a nice dark corner…arms still around her.
Leaning into his hand, smoothing hair off her face, Bethany fought her demons enough to talk. She swiped at the tears and runny nose with her arm.
“We were having a party, a barbeque—we had the same chores for every party only it was a pre-graduation party for me, because graduation was Saturday.” You can do this. “Robert was supposed to wait for me to come in there and cut the meat up for him. He could do it, but I was left in charge.” She played a finger over her lips, the picture forming in her mind of the white tile floor in the kitchen and the speckled marble counter.
Trembling, she kept going.
“I started to cut the meat when the dryer beeped. Then I told Robert to go either get the clothes out the dryer or make some tea. He hated when I made tea, because I only used a few cups of sugar so he chose to make the drink.” She turned her face taking comfort in seeing Mikhail’s face. “I ran downstairs and pulled the clothes out of the dryer, making sure to hang up Daddy’s shirts so they didn’t wrinkle…I hated ironing.”
Vision blurred from her tears, his hand rubbed circles over her back. He said nothing, but he hadn’t walked away and that put oxygen back into her lungs.
The soft waves of his hair brushed the tip of her nose. Inhaling his scent deep into her lungs she attempted to finish. “Bear with me. It takes over when I think about it, and I haven’t in a while.” Her words came out thick from tears and the knot squeezing her heart.
His fingers moved through her thick hair massaging her scalp in slow strokes down to her neck where he worked on the tension bunching her shoulders. His voice became a warm blanket when he spoke against her hair. “I’m right here. It’s okay to remember…I’m right here, Bethany.”
She weaved her arm under his knee and held him to her chest…a life raft. The strong scent of the hay disappeared in his embrace and was replaced with his masculine clean safe smell she loved. She burrowed closer.
The words returned. “The minute I came upstairs and saw the tea spilled on the floor I snapped at him. Telling him to run downstairs and get the mop. He tried to explain how it happened, but I already knew. He’d balanced the largest pitcher on the bar in the sink where they separate into two bowls.” She made shaky hand gestures frustrated she couldn’t get her words right, dropping her hands in defeat. “It slipped off and…and tea was everywhere.” Her voice shook. “I didn’t have time to make more. I had to cut up the ribs and turned to tell Robert to go get a bucket of hot water with cleanser…and not to come up here with just a wet mop.” Tears dripped onto his jeans off her face. Mikhail rocked faster. Could he feel it too? “That’s when it happened. He just popped up behind me poking me in the back, trying to startle me to make me laugh. He thought that was so funny when I jumped. But it wasn’t, not that time.” Her tears soaked into his jeans. Mikhail folded his leg around her in a bear hug and she curled tighter, digging her nails into his thighs as the picture became vibrant red. “I still had the knife in my hands when I…when I….” H
er words jumbled together under a mess of tears and grunts— “Blood was everywhere. The blade caught him in the stomach when I whirled around, hitting under his ribcage, blood dripped down the blade. Robert fell against me...the blade sank deeper.” She’d started to gasp between words. She couldn’t catch her breath. “I’ll never forget the thick, nasty horrible sensation of the blade going into his body. His mouth fell open. We looked at the knife, then each other. It was awful. The last thing he said in a scared little voice was, ‘I’m sorry, Sis.’” Mikhail jerked her up his body wrapping his arms around her protectively. He kept rocking. “I couldn’t get the blood off my hands…it was everywhere. In my fingerprints…I scrubbed for days after it happened I had to get it off.”
In her mind, Bethany could see the State Farm Insurance calendar on the refrigerator with the big circle around Saturday…
“…I didn’t go to my high school graduation that Saturday. My boyfriend at the time never came to see me…he took another girl to the graduation party…” Her words broke off. She rocked against his thigh now.
His hold tightened. “Oh, baby…no wonder you wouldn’t talk to me,” Mikhail murmured over her head, his mouth a welcomed pressure brushing over her hair in loving strokes.
Tears dripped down her face…they weren’t hers.
Through her pain, her words continued to flow breaking over the hard boulders crushing her heart. “And the blood…I just couldn’t get the stain of the blood out of my fingerprints. But Momma said it would wear off…you know over time…but—but every time I picked up something or touched something, there it was—the stain of what I’d done. It was under my nails, in the cuticles.” She sniffed and blew out a breath. “You must think I’m a sap calling my mother Momma…”
“You’re my sap, and I love that you still feel that level of warmth for her.” He trailed over her rocking back and forth.
“I’d never seen that much blood, it ran under his back staining his jeans...his favorite jeans.” She trembled, fighting back the returning nausea that followed when she thought of the kitchen that day. “When the paramedics got there, Daddy carried me into the living room, prying the phone out of my hands so he could throw it away. I clung to him like a baby that day.”
“That’s what fathers are for, to love their little girls even when they’re young ladies.”
She curled in tighter. “When it was time to take clothes to the funeral home…I bought Robert another pair of his jeans, because…” Her sobbing grew louder now as she spoke through the lump in her throat. “They were his favorite and uhm…he was my Robert…my baby brother and I wanted him to …” Shaking violently she forced out her words, through tears that wouldn’t stop. “He looked good in his jeans and suit jacket, and Daddy had his hook up…ah, you know his tie and puff. I pressed his white shirt and made certain everything was perfect. At the burial I put the last white rose on his casket and sat on the grass…my Robert was gone.”
She let all the pain wash over her secure and warm in Mikhail’s embrace.
“You did right by Robert,” he said stroking a hand over her back. “It’s time to forgive yourself and let your heart heal. I’m never leaving you again.”
They lay that way for another hour.
Chapter 18
Mikhail
With the space heaters dials adjusted to warm, the area around the desk was perfect when Bethany began to stir on his lap, her breathing eventually evened out. Watching her gain her composure, he never imagined that she walked around with that heavy load to carry. The relationship between her and Yannik made complete sense. And he knew why Bethany couldn’t forgive him. She’d never forgiven her boyfriend for leaving her or herself for the accident. That was also why she never truly left him; she wanted to forgive.
Stroking a hand over her back he inhaled deep to release the pressure on exhale.
Bethany yawned curled up against his thigh her head resting on his leg. As time went by, he allowed her to sleep and added the two names to the list, jotted down all he’d heard from Mark and he knew who the second voice belonged to. The HR manager at GCT Holding’s, he’d met at the last conference a year ago, criticizing his grandfather for naming Mikhail as his successor. They all laughed when his first attempt at the diversity program backfired and the employee quit.
That was in the past. Bethany was his future.
The sound of people milling around in the barn down below caught his attention. Installing a door at the bottom of the stairs had been a smart move. No one came up to bother them.
Bethany sat up adjusting her clothes. Leaning down he kissed her mouth. Even with red, swollen eyes and a flush face, she was beautiful.
“How do you feel?”
Bethany closed a hand over her stomach. “Weak, actually…like I’ve been throwing up.”
“You did.”
“Oh, you’re kidding—tell me I didn’t throw up on you?” she pleaded.
He smoothed back the hair from her shoulders. “They’re just pants, Beth,” he chided her extending his leg. He showed her the wet stain down the side then raised an eyebrow. “It was for a good cause. You needed to get that out.”
“How do I thank you for listening, after dropping all that on you along with the contents of my stomach? You must think I’m a basket case?” she asked graciously.
Was she serious? “You don’t thank me. I thank you,” he corrected, closing his fingers over her hand in his lap. “A few days ago you couldn’t look me in the eye when we found you in that cabinet. Now you let me hold your hand while you walked through one hell of a nightmare to let me see the pain you live with because you trust me,” bringing her hand to his lips, to press a gentle kiss to her palm. “You’re an amazing woman, Bethany Cansler.”
She toed hay away from around the legs of the table with her boot and held his hands to her heart. “I think it’s time you had something soft next to you in bed, don’t you?” she snuggled close to his chest.
“It’s past time.” Could she hear his heart pounding?
“Then we’ll eat dinner in your cabin tonight,” she said, nipping his chin between her teeth. Bethany leaned back abruptly. “You’re planning. I can feel your heart racing.”
“I thought of a way to bring Mark out, but I’m leery about bringing you into it.”
Bethany closed her arms around his neck. “If you want to help me, let me help bring him out. Whatever it is, I’m willing to do it to stop this.”
He didn’t want her to be the one he used as bait. Time for choices was gone. “You do exactly as I say,” he lowered his face to hers.
“What do I do?”
“Call GCT Holding’s. Accept their offer.” He brought her face to his. “Mark will come for you thinking he’s won, and that’s exactly what we want him to think. Be careful, Beth, a cornered dog will bite.”
She blinked, nuzzling her forehead to his in a gesture full of love he felt streaming through his body.
“Then what? How do I get him to confess?”
“You don’t. You get him to talk. Get him to trust you. He’s going to suggest going out on a trail. But you make him stay in the barn. Try and get him to tell you who held you in the cabinet and sent the lingerie?”
“And you’ll be outside the barn?”
“Me, Seth, Crazy, and a few instructors. I won’t let you be alone. I hate even asking you to do this.”
“I can do it.”
“You don’t even know what it is or if it’s dangerous? Don’t bat those thick lashes at me, Bethany. I’m serious. You take on things without regard to your safety, and I can’t lose you.”
“That’s my point, Khail. I’m tired of being afraid, looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for some crazy freak to jump out with a knife. Don’t shut me out now, please.”
Don’t shut her out. If it were up to him, they’d be on a beach in the Cayman Islands right now. Did she know how hard this was for him? He tugged her face closer to his and blew out a long exaggerat
ed breath staring into pleading brown eyes. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Khail, from the knives, lewd letters in my email, to people staring at me from across the room. I’m not living my life afraid of my shadows.”
“You think I like keeping you in a glass box, knowing some freak’s out there ready to hurt you? I want you to smile and be happy, but I want you alive more.” He wrapped his hand in her hair dragging his fingers through the length watching it curl over his hand. “I don’t want you to live like that either.” She watched him swallow his worry to give her a smile.
His chest burned knowing he was sending her into the fire, but this was the only way to make the bottom feeders come to the surface.
“Remember, tomorrow, meet him in the barn. No place else.”
He let her lead him to the ladder with a hand hooked in the pockets of his jeans. “You have a hot tub on the back deck, right…?”
“Why?”
“I’m certain I’ll need it in the morning. Let’s go to bed.”
Chapter 19
Bethany
The Alps wore a fresh new blanket of snow this evening, sparkling under the waning daylight, slipping behind its tall peaks. Its beauty fed romance to the atmosphere of their first time together as they left the chalet making their way across the parking lot to his cabin.
Inside, the flame in the fireplace roared with a flick of the remote from Mikhail’s fingers before he held her in his arms to kiss her face.
“Give me a minute to take care of a few things then I’m yours,” he offered, while his hands smoothed down over her hips holding her to his groin. A few minutes was all she could spare. His perfect impressive length nudged her sex. His blue eyes held a patience she’d long since abandoned after deciding this would be their night to embrace the next level of their relationship.
Not by the door. Pressing herself to his hard chest after removing his jacket, she said, “I’ll take a shower while you do whatever.”
