by J. M. Madden
Cringing, she reached out and took a swig of her coffee. It was too hot for her mouth but she swallowed it anyway.
“That woman, Donna, had noticed an exchange that seemed a little odd at a restaurant before she and Ray married. We dug into it and tracked down a family here in town that had their own run-in with Ray, but the daughter kept it secret till now. Actually, she kept it secret until last night when I went over to talk to the family.”
Shock paralyzed Lilly. She’d known Ray was a skeev, but she’d had no idea it had gone this far. “Did he hurt her?”
Diego cringed. “She thinks so, yes. He was driving her and her friend home after dance practice and he gave her a Coke. She remembers falling asleep in the car, then waking up later and with her clothes rearranged and some tenderness on her body. She doesn’t think she was actually raped, but about as close to it as you can get.”
Furious tears filled Lilly’s eyes. The man was sick, absolutely sick. “How old was she? What’s her name? Do I know her?”
“She was sixteen at the time. Her name was Brenna Walton, although she’s married now. She hadn’t told her family about the incident until last night. Her husband seemed to know, though, and I think she’s gotten the support she needed.”
She shook her head in a daze. “Brenna and I went to the same dance school although we were several years apart. I went to New York and lost track of her. Her parents are incredible people, though. They’ve been friends with my parents for years. And Ray…”
Anger coursed through her veins. “How do we stop him? If he’s done this through the years there have to be more women that have been attacked by him.”
“I agree,” Diego nodded. “That’s why we’re still digging. Grif said he has an idea on how to snag him, but we’re still working out the details. For now can you hold off on looking for office space? We want him to get a little cocky.”
Lilly nodded. “Yes, I can hold off for a little while, especially if it means taking him down. That man needs to fry. After that he needs to be castrated with a dull knife and every one of his fingernails pulled.”
Diego leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Yes, he does my little bloodthirsty angel. Yes, he does.”
Chapter Eleven
Diego left the house more impressed with Lilly than he’d ever expected. She could have cried and wailed and would have been totally within her rights, but she’d manned up and gotten angry rather than be defeated. That was impressive and sexy as hell.
Though she hadn’t said outright, Diego knew she would still be pursuing those charges. And who knew? He hated to think that there could be more women or girls victimized by Ray, but if there were maybe they would come forward when Lilly continued with her charges.
Even if nobody else came forward, though, he knew she would do what was right.
* * *
Lilly stewed for most of the morning. She picked up the house and put the few dishes in the dishwasher. Then she headed to the bathroom to pluck her eyebrows. And did some laundry. Matched her socks. Every mundane task she could think of she completed in the hopes that she could keep her anxiety under control. Ray had abused women. Not just one or two, but there were three separate incidents, and those were just the ones that they knew about. She had a heartbreaking feeling there were more out there. Ray Chambers had been in the Vail area for a long time—all his life. That was a long time to wreak havoc and devastation in many lives.
And he grinned the entire time.
The thought of that long-ago fashion show flashed through her mind. Ray had touched her, then laughed at her later.
He was a disgusting slug.
Lilly called her lawyer. Everything on her end was done. Ray had gone to court last week and pleaded not guilty. The trial was scheduled for several months out so they had plenty of time to prepare. She debated telling him about the other women but decided to hold off. There was no sense getting him excited about something that may not matter. If the women decided not to go public with their claims, that was up to them.
She would continue.
In spite of what her parents said, in spite of what the public might say or how it might affect her business, she would go forward. If she could stop Ray by herself she would.
If Diego would stand beside her she could do anything.
* * *
Later that day Lilly drove to Rosella’s house with two dresses on the seat beside her. She didn’t know which one the woman would choose, so she’d brought them both for her to pick from. Lilly knew which one she liked, but Rosella could pick. It was her party.
Rosella’s housekeeper Jane answered the door and led Lily up the winding pine staircase to the master bedroom. Lilly knocked lightly, then entered.
Rosella sat in a window seat reading a book. She looked up with a wide grin when Lilly walked into the room, two plastic-covered dresses in her arms.
“Oh, this is like Christmas. I’m so excited to see what you’ve brought me.”
Lilly was excited too. Both of the dresses she’d brought she had designed herself, stitched herself. They were complete Lilly originals. Crossing to the bed, she draped them both on the super king mattress and began to unzip the bags.
The first dress she drew out was a brilliant peacock blue, subtly shaded to be darker on top and lighter on the bottom. There were swirls of color through the skirt, then corresponding curls of crystals on the bodice. Personally, this was her favorite and she hoped Rosella picked this one.
The second dress was a shimmering champagne color with strings of dangling beads, delicate lace sleeves and a bit of a train.
Rosella gasped as Lilly hung them both on one of the bedroom doors. First she stretched the skirt of one out, then the second, gushing about the quality of the workmanship. “Oh,” she cried, “I just can’t choose. They’re both so beautiful. You have truly outdone yourself, Lilly.”
“Thank you, Rosella. I enjoyed making them. Once we get the fitting done you’ll be set. I still had your measurements from the last dress I made you, so I hope they fit.”
Rosella’s bright blue eyes twinkled and she grabbed the peacock dress. “I want to try this one on first.”
The woman disappeared into her massive closet, then returned just a few minutes later. She swirled in front of the floor length mirror beside the bathroom door. “Oh, I love the feel of this one. It’s so swingy and comfortable.”
Lilly was impressed with herself. The dress fit her friend almost perfectly. There were two places that needed a few stitches to draw in a gap, but it was nothing major.
After looking at herself ten different ways, Rosella disappeared into the closet with the champagne dress. She appeared a few minutes later and turned her back to Lilly. “Zip me up dear.”
Lilly did as she was asked and beamed. This one looked just as good on the older woman’s still-stunning frame.
Rosella posed in front of the mirror. “This one has a completely different feel and look. I don’t think you could have brought me two more difficult choices. Your work is stunning, Lilly, simply stunning.”
Lilly was proud of herself. Both dresses looked red carpet worthy. And the gold didn’t appear to even need any work. It fit Rosella as it was supposed to.
“I don’t know which one I like on you better. They both flatter your shape so well. I thought I liked the peacock more, but this one is striking, exactly what you want for your birthday.”
Shaking her head, Rosella stared at herself in the mirror. “I just don’t know. They’re both absolutely incredible.”
Lilly grabbed her Dooney and Bourke bag. She’d slipped a small sewing kit into it before she’d walked out the door. While Rosella stood in front of the mirror she looked for any places that needed to be taken in. The seam on her hip needed reinforced a little maybe, and there was a strange fold across her right boob. Lilly went over every inch of the dress and could only find a couple of tiny things to address. Turning Rosella around she unzipped her. “Put the p
eacock back on, please.”
Rosella disappeared into the closet and reappeared a few minutes later wearing the vibrantly colored dress. Once again Lilly pinched and tugged, looking for any minor inconsistency, but again, not nearly as many as she’d expected. She left a couple of pins in the dress to realign the right hip. “Don’t poke yourself taking it off,” she warned.
Rosella smiled sadly. “I don’t want to take it off at all. It’s gorgeous. I’ve run out of adjectives to describe the two of them.”
A ball of tension in Lilly’s tummy eased. When Rosella had commissioned to have two dresses made, she’d been blank for weeks. Then something had struck her and the lines had flowed to her sketch paper. In spite of what had gone on with Ray this week, she’d managed to get them done.
The thought of Ray’s evil dimmed her happy mood.
“What’s wrong dear? It was like the sun just went behind a cloud.”
Lilly shook her head. “Go change and I’ll meet you in the library for tea.”
“Sounds lovely, Lilly.”
When Rosella came in a few minutes later the entire story spilled out of Lilly. She even went as far back as that first modeling show she’d done when she was a kid, and the feeling that something wasn’t right. Rosella knew about the charges she had filed from the night of the gala, but she’d had no idea about any of the other incidents.
“My God,” she breathed. “The man is deranged. Twisted.”
Lilly nodded. “Then my father called me, wanting me to sweep everything under the rug.”
Rosella shook her elegantly coiffed head, clicking her tongue. “Dear, I tell you this with the utmost respect. Your father is a putz. He’s too concerned about keeping up appearances. And your mother is too much of a mouse to say anything about it.”
Lilly knew she was right and appreciated the hell out of the woman for saying it. At least she had someone on her side.
Well, two someones, counting Diego.
“The guys are still investigating but right now there’s nothing concrete. Brenna didn’t report anything after the incident in the car and neither did the second wife. There’s nothing concrete.”
Rosella frowned. “Then we need to find something concrete. I assume Grif is still investigating his background.”
Lilly nodded. “Yes.”
A twinkle brightened Rosella’s gaze. “I know I’ve been watching too many cop shows but what if we set him up to catch him doing something?”
Lilly shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t want any woman in a compromising situation with him. We’d need to get him to confess. I think that would be the only thing that would work.”
Gasping, Rosella sat up in her chair. “My party. He’ll be there. He’s already rsvp’d. If we can get all of you in the same room you know he would have to say something. If all three of you are standing in a group talking, looking at him, you know for a fact he would be nervous as hell.”
In spite of herself Lilly grinned, loving the idea. They could be talking about anything at all. As long as they looked at him while they did it he would think they were comparing notes.
“That is so incredibly generous of you. Are you sure you want to involve yourself that much? You do business dealings with him too.”
Sighing, Rosella shook her head, lifting her teacup. “After all of this there’s no way I’m doing business with him.”
Lilly blinked, amazed that this woman she’d known only a few years supported her more than her own parents did. “Thank you so much. I’ll talk to Diego about it when I see him tonight.”
* * *
But later that night Diego did not seem as enthused about the idea.
“I don’t want you interacting with him at all.”
Lilly crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t think I would have to. I think just the fact that I’m there will be enough to rattle him.”
Diego shook his head. “He’s done this several times before. I think many more times than what we’ve uncovered. I don’t think he’ll be as rattled as you want him to be.”
She huffed. “If we can get the other women to attend the party he’ll absolutely be shaken up. How could he not be?”
As he paced the length of the rug in front of her fireplace she could see the anger in the rigidity of his shoulders. They were pumped with muscle, the skin stretched taut across them beneath the fabric of his T-shirt. For a moment Lilly was distracted. She knew what that body could do and she wanted him all over again, because he was trying to protect her. I would do the same thing if he were in my position.
“Did you talk to Kendall about this? Or Grif?”
She shook her head. “No. I wanted to see what you thought first.”
Sighing, he stopped in front of her. “If it wasn’t you I would say it’s a hell of an idea. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Lilly reached out to tug him close. “I won’t get hurt. But I can’t help thinking that if I had said something about him touching me when I was a kid the other two women maybe wouldn’t have had to deal with him. I’m the oldest incident, chronologically, that we know of.”
Diego cupped her face, stroking his calloused thumb along her lower lip. “But would your dad have actually done anything about him? I think this happened at exactly the right time. You have the support around you that you need to get through this.”
She blinked up at him. “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
“I love you. Where else would I be?”
Lilly gasped, looking up at him in shock. “What?”
He shifted in front of her, drawing back a little. He seemed to be a little shocked that he’d said it as well. “I know it’s a little sudden but I think I’m in love with you. I’ve never actually been in love, so I’m kind of feeling my way here. But the thought of you being in danger terrifies me, more than anything else. I want to be with you all the time. If I could gut Ray and strangle him with his own innards I absolutely would. Just to make sure you’re safe, taken care of.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “I never expected to hear you say that to me.”
Diego leaned forward, kissing her tears away. “Why wouldn’t I love you? You’re one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met. You’re sexy, competent, damn good looking.” He paused there and looked a little unsure. “But I’m not good looking. I mean, you have to look at this damn thing for the rest of your life.”
He motioned to the eye patch, adjusting it a little.
But Lilly grinned at him. “You mean I have to wake up with a pirate in my bed every morning?”
But he wouldn’t be teased. Slipping off the stool she stood before him and very slowly reached up toward his face. But he grabbed her wrists, staring at her hard.
“Please be sure, Lilly. I don’t know if I can take seeing disgust on your face.”
She shook her head, fresh tears flooding her eyes. “I would never turn away from you.”
His jaw clenched and he released her hands, forcing his own arms to his sides. That right hand went to the knife at the corner of his pocket. Very carefully Lilly lifted the black patch from his face and away from his head.
In the light of day the wound was shocking, but she had prepared for it. Instead of shying away like he feared she leaned forward, pressing kisses to his scarred cheek and moving up to the eye socket. It was obvious he’d suffered a lot of trauma there. She ran her finger along the lower edge of his black brow. The ridge of bone around the socket wasn’t shaped the way it was supposed to be. But the scar tissue was actually very smooth where it dipped into the deficit of his eye. “I wish I could have been there for you when you were injured. I hope you had someone at the hospital for you when you got home.”
Diego laughed, but it wasn’t a nice laugh. “My mother drove out but the first time she saw the nurses change the bandage, she made the sign of the cross and turned her head away, like I’d been marked by Satan or something.”
Lilly huffed in exasperation. “I don’t think I’m goi
ng to get along with your mother.”
“And I don’t think I’m going to get along with your father,” he admitted.
Lilly nodded, then with a final kiss to his cheek she wrapped her arms around his neck. “There is nothing there to turn me away, Diego. I promise you.”
His arms tightened around her until her ribs creaked. Then, swinging her up into his arms, he carried her to bed.
* * *
Lilly’s words rattled around in his head as he carried her up the stairs. His muscles trembled, not from her weight but because of the after affects of too much adrenaline pounding through his system. His heart had been racing in fear. First because of the I love you, then the double whammy of showing her his injury. Looking back he thought saying I love you was the easy part, even though he’d never told anybody that particular phrase before.
The emotion itself had been more clearly defined since he’d seen Grif and Kendall’s relationship develop. He’d arrived when they were going through their rocky period. It hadn’t been easy for them to begin with. But they’d worked through everything and it had stirred feelings of wanting that for himself.
Lilly cupped the side of his neck in her hand as he entered the bedroom and set her on the bed. “I love you,” she whispered. “I’ve loved you for a long time. You were just too obstinate to hear me.”
Diego paused and absorbed the words, awed that they were being spoken to him. “I love you too, Lilly. And I heard you say the words the other night but it was too soon for me.”
She nodded, smiling up at him. “That’s okay. You figured it out.”
Diego pulled her clothes away and as she stretched before him, nipples hard with want, legs scissoring with need, he knew he’d never seen anything so beautiful as the look in her eyes when she smiled at him. Shucking his own clothes he crawled across the bed to settle between her sleek thighs.
Chapter Twelve
Grif thought the plan to use Rosella’s party as a catalyst was brilliant. So even though Diego felt the whole scenario was a bad idea he was overruled.
