If she did the thing she most wanted to do in the world right at that moment, could she forgive herself? With a mournful gust, she shoved away from him and moved to the far end of the couch. She pulled her top back up, nearly crying at the loss of his skilled hands.
“I can’t be a cheater,” she said. “My mom was a cheater. Three of her husbands were cheaters. I can’t. I won’t.”
His face was stricken, surely a reflection of her own unmet desires. He took a deep breath and nodded. “Of course.” With shaking hands, he poured a glass of wine and downed it, not caring about the taste this time.
She sat there trying to catch her breath and gather her thoughts when her phone buzzed. When she shot out her hand to snatch it off the coffee table, she heard Daniel hiss out a breath. Defeat? Disgust? Embarrassed to be so pathetic, she turned away to read the message.
“It’s from Reynolds’ boss,” she said, confused.
Sorry to bother you, but Reynolds didn’t make our six o’clock meeting. There’s a file due that only he has access to and I can’t reach him. Please let him know we need that file.
She felt a burning humiliation that Reynolds’ boss would assume that he was with her when she hadn’t heard more than a few words from him herself. It was quickly replaced with worry. What if Reynolds had been in an accident and was in the hospital? What if he was sick and burning with fever in his bed, unable to even reach for his phone? She dialed his number and it went straight to voicemail.
“I-I have to go,” she stammered. God, she was still far too tipsy to drive. She ordered a cab and put her phone on the table. “I’m going to change. Holler for me when the taxi gets here.” She had no time to explain what a taxi was or how to work her phone. She was growing more anxious by the second. “It’ll light up when it’s here.”
He nodded, still with that indiscernible, but clearly not happy face. “Please stay, Jade,” he said.
She could tell it took him a good deal of effort and for a split second she considered it. Reynolds was a grown man, after all. And grown men were notorious babies when they were sick. He might need her.
“Just yell for me when the phone lights up,” she said.
***
Daniel stood and paced the living room, prowling around the plush couches and trying not to knock anything over in his rage. How could that maddening woman not see that her betrothed was lower than the belly of a snail? Did he even know Jade might have died that day? Did she even tell him? He didn’t think so, she was clearly more worried about the needs of that jackanapes than her own.
And of course his needs would go unmet. He paced not just out of anger but frustration. He couldn’t believe or understand why he wanted Jade as much as he did. It was worse than being under her control. A wretched buzzing directed his attention to the coffee table.
Against his will, he called for Jade, telling her the taxi was here. He supposed she was going to look for the piece of scum she was chained to. There was nothing he could do to make her see that Reynolds was all wrong for her. And that he, Daniel, was right. He stopped his restless pacing, thinking that sudden realization through.
Was he right for Jade? Yes, he was quite sure of it. It didn’t make sense that he was stuck in that painting for centuries, in the presence of thousands of people over all those long and lonely years, and that he would only be freed when in hers? There had to be a reason. He didn’t think it was only to do her bidding. If that was the witch’s intention, he could have been freed to be the servant of any number of people. But he’d been freed for Jade.
He found he didn’t mind having to do her bidding that much anymore. Not that much. He only wished he could have at least a little of the same power over her. He’d keep her from going out, keep her from the inevitable pain the jackass betrothed was sure to cause.
But there was nothing he could do except watch her leave him. The damned phone buzzed again and once again he hollered for Jade. Was there nothing he could do? He took the phone and slipped it into his trouser pocket. Scurrying to his room so she wouldn’t see him on her way out, he called out to her.
“Be safe. I’m going to sleep.”
A bit of the bitterness he felt came out in his voice and he waited with held breath until she called back for him to have a good night. At least he’d gotten something from her. And it wasn’t a command to stay in the house. There were no commands at all. He was as good as free.
For a split second he thought about bolting out the back and running far and fast, but it was gone as soon as it came. He knew there was no leaving Jade. His heart was enslaved by her, and he no longer cared. In fact, he liked it and bristled with excitement at the coming challenge.
It took him some time to figure out her phone, but found the last message was an address and a request to come as soon as possible. That must be her means of transportation. He poked around some more and found a list of names. He scrolled up and down, finally settling on Seda’s. He pressed the name and blinked when the phone screen changed and he heard a tinny ringing from within it. A few seconds later, he heard a female voice saying hello.
He slammed it to his ear as he’d seen Jade do. “Seda? Is it you? Have I reached you?”
“Daniel?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, how did you know that?”
“Well, it’s Jade’s number, but you’re clearly not Jade, so I guessed. Are you all right?”
This thing was miraculous. No wonder Jade couldn’t keep it out of her sight. He smiled at his foresight in swiping it from her.
“I need to know where the despicable bastard lives,” he said. “If you please.”
“You mean Reynolds? Sure, hang on.”
She gave him the address, which he wrote on a slip of paper he found in the kitchen. The fact that he was speaking to someone without knowing where they were and able to move around freely as he did so continued to amaze him.
“Thank you, Seda. I don’t know how to release you from this call.”
She laughed and then was gone. He stared at the screen and saw it had returned to the list of names. He got back to the message Jade had sent to get transportation and finally figured out how to send the exact message again. Now he too would have means to get where he needed to go. He looked down at his buttonless shirt and hurried to change into another, feeling quite proud of himself. He could survive in this time just fine.
And he knew he wouldn’t just survive, he would conquer.
Chapter 11
Jade hurried into the lobby of Reynolds’ swanky bachelor apartment building. Everything was sleek and modern, all black and chrome. She hated it. The doorman was one she recognized but couldn’t remember his name. He clearly knew who she was, though. He jumped out from behind his desk and raced to open the door for her, clearing his throat multiple times.
“Ms. Carter, how nice to see you,” he said, walking backwards as she strode toward the elevators. He waved his arms toward his desk as if to herd her in that direction. “I don’t think Mr. Whittaker is home. Shall I ring up for you and find out?”
Something about the way he kept flapping his hands around pinged her suspicion radar. He’d never acted this way before. So what if Reynolds wasn’t home? She’d gone there dozens of times and waited for him to come home from work, or dropped in to pick something up for him. All her worry for Reynolds turned to misgivings.
She narrowed her eyes at the doorman. “I have a key.”
She kept heading for the elevator and he cleared his throat so many more times she thought he might be choking.
“Oh, of course. Yes. Certainly.”
As she punched the button for the elevator, he hurried back behind his station and rested his hand on his desk phone. He smiled stiffly, never taking his eyes off her until she got in the elevator. As the doors slid shut, she saw him lift the receiver. If he thought he was being discreet, he was wrong.
Her stomach twisted into knots as the elevator swished speedily to the upper floors. Should she
try and call first? Something told her she didn’t want to surprise Reynolds if he was actually home. Her phone wasn’t in her bag or any of her pockets and she wrung her hands together, feeling lost without it. She’d left in such a hurry it was probably still on the coffee table.
The mirrored elevator showed a wild-eyed, twitchy woman she barely recognized. It was the last two days. There was no way anyone could have a sixteenth century pirate wine seller jump out of a painting without looking somewhat wild.
She had to force herself to remember that Reynolds didn’t know that Daniel wasn’t her cousin. He didn’t know she’d had a near death experience. He was probably holed up in his apartment trying to finish that report his boss was looking for so desperately. He was always behind on some project or other. Too much golf, too many boat parties. He’d been born into wealth and never had to work hard for anything. It was an annoying trait, but it wasn’t anything to get as upset as she was about it.
She forced aside all her negativity and drew in a deep breath. Everything would be fine as soon as she talked to Reynolds. If he was behind on a project, she could order some food for him, help him organize his notes.
She almost rang the bell, but used her key instead. She was probably imagining things and the doorman hadn’t acted suspiciously at all. When she opened the door, something red got caught on the edge, whisking along the polished marble floor. She flipped on the hall light and leaned over to see what it was, recoiling as if it was a cobra and kicking it out of the way.
Red lace panties. Super expensive ones. A few feet away she saw a silk blouse, then a matching red bra. This rendezvous had been planned. Nobody wore matching underwear unless they were expecting it to be seen. She stepped over a tie and a belt, then one of Reynolds’ work shirts, the cuff links still in the sleeves. Bile rose in her throat when she heard a female giggle. Apparently the doorman hadn’t been able to reach Reynolds, because his throaty laugh followed.
Leave, she thought. Pretend you never found out.
If she threw open the bedroom door she’d never be able to unsee whatever was behind it. She’d have to choose if she could forgive him. She nearly doubled over, wondering if he’d even want to be forgiven. His phone was on the floor next to his pants, with six missed calls in consecutive order. It looked like the doorman had tried his best, but Reynolds had been in too big of a hurry to get his clothes off. This wasn’t his lucky day at all.
Rage bubbled at seeing an earring in the clothing trail that was exactly the same as a pair Reynolds had given her. Was that in case one got left behind in his bed? She chucked her bag at the bedroom door and then flung it open with a war whoop.
Too much skin, way too much skin. She picked up the duvet off the floor and tossed it over them.
“What in the hell?” she screamed.
Reynolds jumped out of bed, dragging a sheet with him, thankfully leaving the woman covered by the duvet. All Jade could see was some glossy brunette hair and a slender hand. With not only a giant diamond on it, but a thick, diamond encrusted wedding band.
“A married woman of all things?” she yelled again, feeling the tears start.
“Exactly,” Reynolds said, holding out his hands to keep her from tearing him apart, which she very much wanted to do. “She’s married. This doesn’t mean anything, doll. Just a random screw. You know you’re the one I love.”
At this, the random screw sat up straight and flung away the covers. Jade couldn’t look away as the trainwreck unfolded itself. The naked woman flew at Reynolds and raked her manicured nails down his face.
“How dare you, you little punk. I will end you,” she hissed as she kneed him in the groin. He went down like a bag of bricks, clutching the damaged bits. “You owe everything to me,” she continued. “Everything! Do you think you could have been promoted without me backing you? Random screw? I will randomly screw you right into the ground.”
She punctuated her screeches with kicks and she was so upset Jade almost felt sorry for her. Until she rounded on Jade.
“We’ve been together for a year,” she said, voice hoarse from her shouted threats. “Before you got engaged. Did you believe he was ever going to actually make it down the aisle? You poor idiot.”
Jade had actually believed they were going to make it down the aisle, but come to think of it, any time she tried to make concrete plans, Reynolds always changed the subject.
“Don’t listen to this stupid whore,” Reynolds croaked, crawling toward the bed and hoisting himself to standing again. He rounded on said whore. “Get out of here and stop calling me begging for sex. I can sue you for harassment if you even think about trying to get me fired.”
Who were these people? Were these the high class people she wanted to be a part of? It was like she had been transported back in time to any number of scenes that played out between her mother and her various husbands.
The woman sat on the edge of the bed sobbing now. Reynolds ignored her as he stumbled toward Jade. If he tried to— Yes, it looked like the delusional bastard was going to. She jutted out the heel of her hand and clocked him in the chin just as he tried to put his arms around her. He reeled backwards, almost crashing into the sobbing woman.
“Goodbye Reynolds,” she said, pleased with how calm she sounded. She wasn’t even crying anymore. He didn’t deserve her tears.
“Damn it, Jade, quit making such a thing about this. She’s gone, okay? I’m done with her.”
The sobbing volume increased and the woman made for his throat this time. “You’re done with me when I say you’re done with me, you little—”
“I’m out,” Jade said, turning on her heels and fleeing that awful, about-to-be crime scene.
She didn’t like the Reynolds who would call a woman he’d just had sex with terrible names. She didn’t like that he expected her to think it was somehow okay just because he said it was. She didn’t like anything at the moment.
In the elevator she took out her brush and arranged her hair, then smoothed on some tinted lip gloss, adding a few dabs to her cheeks for color as well. When she reached the lobby floor she didn’t think she looked like a woman whose life had crumbled into tiny pieces. She forced a smile and strolled calmly toward the doorman’s desk.
“If it’s part of your job description to cover for cheating louses, you’re very bad at it. Perhaps reconsider your profession.”
“I didn’t want to,” he called weakly as she strolled out the door in a dignified manner.
She made it out of sight of the entrance and sank onto the sidewalk, glad it was a posh enough area that she didn’t have to share her spot with a homeless person. She’d only have a few minutes to recover herself before someone shooed her away.
Oh God, was this really happening? She thought nearly falling to her death was going to be the worst part of her day.
“And I don’t even have my phone to call for a ride,” she mumbled.
She put her face in her hands. All the calm dignity she’d managed to portray in front of Reynolds and the doorman dissolved into shaking. In a few minutes she’d walk to a store and ask to use their phone, but right now all she could do was tremble uncontrollably.
She sensed a presence next to her. Someone was about to tell her to keep moving. “I’m fine, I’m leaving,” she said before she could suffer yet another humiliation.
A big hand reached down to help her up. She looked up to see Daniel standing there, in a white golf sweater of all things.
“My white knight,” she said, bursting into tears.
He gathered her into his arms and patted her back while she cried out a very bad day.
“I will not say I told you so,” he said.
She pushed away and looked at him incredulously. “That’s exactly the same as saying I told you so. Exactly the same.”
He smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I hope you’ll believe me from now on, when I make a judgment call about someone’s character.”
“I’m not goi
ng to get a shred of pity?” she asked.
“Do you want pity?”
She smirked. He really did seem to know her. “Wait. How did you know to get here? How did you get here at all?”
He looked extremely proud of himself. “I stole your phone and figured out how to get the taxi to come. Seda told me the address of the reprobate.”
“Thank goodness you have my phone. We can call for another ride home. But how did you pay for the ride here, though? I don’t leave money around the house.”
Now he looked embarrassed. “Ah, well. I didn’t think of that until the driver asked me to pay him. I’ve been out of the world for some time, you know.” He fell silent and she poked him in the side to get him to continue. “I don’t have your phone anymore. I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“It’s how I paid.”
“That phone has every single bit of my life on it,” she wailed. This was almost more upsetting than losing her fiancé.
“That speaks poorly of today’s society,” he said, ducking away before she could swat him.
“This is serious. If you managed to get past my screen lock, he probably can, too.”
Daniel shook his head. “I only knew how to do it because I’d been watching you use the thing and even then it took several tries.” He traced the shape in the air. “I don’t think he’ll figure it out. And look, I have his number. I promised him you’d pay the fare in exchange for your phone back.”
“I can’t believe I have to ransom my phone,” she said.
Despite everything and this new inconvenience, her mood was inexplicably lifting. It had to be Daniel. She couldn’t believe he’d followed her, couldn’t believe the lengths he’d gone to. Could Seda have been right about fate?
Renaissance Rogue (Cursed Painting Book 3) Page 9
