The Wedding Belle (Colorado Billionaires Book 4)

by Regina Duke

  “We want to be surprised,” said Julie. “I don’t want to do any more tests than necessary.”

  “Well, whichever it is, be sure to let me know.” He glanced at his phone. Where had the time gone? “I need to get back to Belle.”

  “Your new bride?” Julie’s eyes narrowed a bit. “I’d love to meet her.”

  “Not today,” said Uly. And not ever, if he could help it. “She’s out and about.”

  “Well,” said Ahmed at last, “as long as me taking Julie isn’t going to ruin our friendship, I think it’s time we get on the road. We’ve got a plane to catch.” He patted Julie’s hand. “I’ll go up and get the luggage, honey, and put it in the car. You wait for me in the lobby, okay?”

  Five minutes later, Uly found himself in the Cattleman’s lobby with Julie draped around his neck.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” she murmured.

  “Yeah, well, you have Ahmed now.”

  “But baby, we meant so much to each other.”

  Uly wanted to disentangle from her and walk away, but he was brought up to be polite, so he figured another few minutes wouldn’t hurt. Still, he wished Ahmed would hurry up with their luggage.

  “Just don’t ever forget me,” said Julie, half whining. She stood on tiptoes to close the distance between them and planted a kiss on his lips.

  Uly patted her shoulder and ended the kiss. “I have a feeling you are unforgettable,” he said. They sat on an upholstered bench. He pulled out his wallet. “Oh, by the way, here’s the money Ahmed gave me for your air ticket home. It was no big deal. You give this back to him, okay? Consider it a wedding gift.” He made sure to include the hundred with her cryptic message on it. He didn’t want Belle finding that again.

  At last, Ahmed entered from the portico. Uly shook his hand and said goodbye. Julie transferred her clinginess to her new husband-to-be, but she managed to cast a longing look back at Uly over her shoulder.

  “Good luck,” Uly called out. Lord knows Ahmed was going to need it.

  Alone in the lobby at last, Uly headed for the elevators. He couldn’t wait to get back to Belle. As the elevator rose, he texted her, but there was no response. He figured she must still be hanging out with Ashley, but he wanted to check the room just in case.

  No Belle.

  He tried calling her.

  He frowned as her phone went to voicemail. That was odd. Why would she turn her phone off? Maybe she didn’t realize she’d done so. Or maybe that Zivo creep was bugging her again. Now it was even more important to find her.

  Then he had a great idea. He called Ashley. They couldn’t both have their phones turned off.

  And he was right. Ashley answered right away. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Ash. Uly here. Where are you guys?”

  “I’m on my way home with the baby. Belle and I had a great visit. Didn’t she go back to the hotel?”

  Uly frowned. “No, she’s not here.”

  “Well, maybe she went shopping. Don’t worry. Did you call her?”

  “Yeah, but there was no answer. That’s why I was checking with you.”

  “Strange.”

  Uly walked while he talked and now he was heading out the side door to the parking lot. He stood there for several seconds, scanning the cars in the lot. “Ashley?”

  “Yes?”

  “Did Belle meet you in her car?”

  “No, she said she walked. We were at The Muffin Man.”

  Uly’s heart lurched. His mind raced back over the events of the morning. “What time did you head home?” he asked.

  “Oh, about half an hour ago.”

  Now his heart was pounding. He rushed back inside and spotted Reese McAvoy. “I’ll call you later, Ash.” He hung up and flagged Reese down. “Sorry to bother you, but have you seen that Zivo creep around this morning?”

  Reese shook his head. “He had the good sense to check out last night. I did see that beautiful new bride of yours a while ago, though. She was pulling out of the parking lot. I assumed you were with her.” Reese’s phone pinged. “Oops, got to go. My head chef has a problem.” He rushed away.

  “Oh God,” murmured Uly. Belle must have seen him with Julie.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Belle wasn’t sure why she headed south on I-25 instead of north. Returning to Denver felt like going back in time, and she didn’t want to relive the heartbreak of that morning again. Seeing Uly kissing another woman broke her heart into so many pieces, she could imagine a thousand shards cutting through her breastbone. She kept expecting the sharp edges to poke through her skin.

  How could she have trusted yet another man? And this time, she’d trusted him with everything. The night before, she’d given him her heart and her soul. A tiny rational part of her brain told her she should go back and demand an explanation, but the humiliation was too great. She needed distance in order to think. Just like when she was suffering as a teen. Every new medical treatment sent her retreating deeper and deeper inside, putting internal distance between herself and the procedure.

  This time she had a car, and when she made a bathroom stop an hour down the road, she took a moment to examine her resources. She still had the five thousand dollars from Polly and a few hundred left from the money Uly had given her.

  Six hours later in Albuquerque, she was far enough away from the center of her suffering to make a conscious decision. She drove to the airport and bought a one-way ticket for Vegas. She ignored the strange look she got from the booking agent. Surely she wasn’t the only person to ever buy a one-way ticket. She’d loved Las Vegas, and with or without Uly, she felt she could make a new life there.

  Once on the plane, the flight attendant made the usual request that everyone turn off their electronic devices. It was then that she realized her phone was already off. She must have turned it off after calling Ashley. Or maybe she did it in her blind pain when she got into her car. It didn’t matter. She didn’t feel up to reading texts or answering calls anyway. As it was, she could barely draw a breath, much less muster the energy to talk.

  And how could she talk to Uly? What if he called to make some excuse? The sound of his voice would reduce her to tears. No. The phone would stay off, at least for now.

  She knew exactly how she was going to spend the weekend. She rented a car and found a modest motel room near the Summerlin exit. She wasn’t a drinking woman, so it never occurred to her to drown her sorrows. Besides, she already felt like a zombie, lifeless and dead. She had no idea how to handle the tumult inside herself, so she concentrated on accomplishing one activity at a time. Find a WalMart. Buy a few clothes and toiletries. She also bought a backpack, some fruit, bottled water, and Ritz crackers. She forced herself to eat an apple for dinner. For a long time, she sat on the edge of the motel bed and stared at the floor.

  Then she used the motel notepad to write down her plan for the morning. Buy a map. Find the Valley of Fire. Hike until she couldn’t feel her legs or anything else. Stare at the magnificent scenery until it burned the last image of Uly out of her brain. Return to the motel. Sleep. Repeat. It was a good plan.

  So she made it through the weekend. By Monday morning, she’d grown tired of the confines of the tiny motel room. She decided to move up a bit in the world. She found a La Quinta on Tenaya. They offered coffee and pastries in the morning so she wouldn’t have to think about breakfast. She went to a Denny’s and sat in the booth for an hour, dawdling over a hamburger she didn’t really want. She made another list. It helped her ignore the pain that clawed its way to her tear ducts. If she was going to make a life in Vegas, she would need a job.

  Losing Uly meant losing a million dollars.

  Now her inner pain was compounded by an enormous sense of loss. And yet, she’d never seen that money. All she’d seen was the wad of bills in her purse. She comforted herself with the knowledge that she really hadn’t lost the money, no more than fantasizing about the MegaBucks was losing that jackpot when you didn’t win. It was all a fa
ntasy. Everything.

  The money meant nothing. But losing Uly was killing her.

  When the waitress started boring holes through her with her eyes, Belle paid for her uneaten hamburger and left.

  She needed to find the Board of Nursing and make herself legal to work in Nevada. Her smartphone could find it for her, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn it on. She still wasn’t ready to fend off excuses and lies passing for explanations. Or worse yet, what if there was nothing on the phone? No texts, no messages. What if Uly was thinking good riddance? That was even more painful to contemplate.

  She went back to the hotel and found that some things could be counted on. Hotel rooms had phone books. She looked up the Board of Nursing, and spent the afternoon laying the groundwork for her new life. Alone. Like she’d always been.

  When she returned to the hotel, she felt much better about her prospects. She had enough cash to see her through until the paperwork was processed, and the clerks at the Board of Nursing were very optimistic about her job opportunities once her license was active. Belle felt like she could breathe for the first time since leaving Eagle’s Toe.

  She found a group of people gathered around the TV in the lobby, chatting and craning their necks to watch the handsome reporter on the screen.

  “Yes, it seems for the third day in a row, the mystery message in the sky has been repeated. We’ve called the company that owns the plane, but they are refusing to reveal any more details than what we can determine from the skies.”

  Belle stopped at a soda machine to buy a diet Pepsi. She popped it open and glanced at the TV screen. She froze.

  “Someone loves Belle, and she’s somewhere in Las Vegas. How long will this continue? This is day three.” As the reporter droned on, the cameraman focused on skywriting over the city.

  Belle blinked at the screen, unable to process what she was seeing. A small plane was finishing the final E of the message in puffy white letters, “ULY” and “BELLE” with a heart drawn in the middle.

  Belle felt a flush of heat rush to her cheeks. She nearly stumbled as she followed half a dozen people out into the parking lot. They scanned the skies.

  “There it is!” someone shouted.

  Belle looked up. Sure enough, there it was. She had no doubt that it was meant for her. How many men were named Uly, for heaven’s sake? She turned and raced to her room. Her heart was pounding. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

  The answer was obvious. She’d spent the weekend hiking in the Valley of Fire and by the time she’d returned to her motel, she was too tired to do anything but shower and sleep. Three days?

  She dug her phone out of her purse. Hope tickled her rib cage. Could there be a chance that Uly really loved her? Did she have the strength to turn the phone on?

  Her hands trembled. No, she did not. She envisioned dozens of “Where are you?” messages and feared that some of them would be from Zivo. Now that she had no protector, the specter of his harassment loomed on the horizon.

  She sat at the little table and laid her phone on it. What should she do?

  “Coward,” she grumbled. “Poor little Belle can’t even turn on her freaking phone?” That didn’t feel like the Belle she’d fought hard to become. Now that she knew she could take matters in her own hands and build a new life from the ground up, she felt stronger. In one swift movement, she turned the phone on. When the screen lit up, her heart pounded. Twenty-seven messages. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Her hands shook so much, her fingers tapped the screen randomly. The camera roll app opened and showed her a picture of Lulamae’s pool.

  Then it came to her, as clearly as if they were in the room together. Lulamae’s voice sounded in her head. “You’re welcome here any time, cherie.”

  She opened her map and found Lulamae’s neighborhood. Once she got that far, she’d remember how to find the house. After all, she’d driven to it before.

  For the first time in days, she had an appetite. She opened the last pack of Ritz crackers and munched one down before she even left the room. Five minutes later, she was back in her car, crackers and map on the passenger seat. She was going to get an answer. One way or another, she was going to know today whether she and Uly had a future together.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Monday evening

  Uly paced relentlessly beside Lulamae’s pool.

  “What if she didn’t come to Vegas? What if she went somewhere else?”

  Lulamae sipped delicately at a frozen rum drink. “Uly, darlin’, whatever are these called? They are delicious, but make my next one without the rum, please. Be still now. Sit and wait. I told you, that girl yearns to live down here. She called it paradise.”

  “But three days, Lulamae! If she was here, she would have seen the skywriting.”

  “Give her time. If she saw what you think she saw, you shook her faith in you to the foundations. Maybe she needs time to think. And I don’t have to remind you that if you’d been up front and forthcoming about your entanglements, you wouldn’t be in this position.”

  Uly ran both hands through his hair. He finally perched on the edge of a chaise. “If I lose her, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  Kamal appeared at the kitchen door. “A guest, madame.” He turned and made way for Belle to pass.

  “Belle!” Uly shot to his feet and took two strides toward her before her cool, reserved demeanor stopped him.

  “Hello, Uly.” She sounded all business, but her voice softened when she greeted Lulamae. “Mrs. Franklin, I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. I came to ask your advice.”

  Lulamae waved her closer. Both women ignored Uly, who danced on the balls of his feet. Relief and agitation fought for control. He thought his heart would explode with joy at any moment.

  “Why, cherie, I’d be happy to offer any counsel I can. What seems to be the problem?” Lulamae patted the edge of her chaise.

  Belle went and perched on the side of it.

  Uly couldn’t take his eyes off her long legs. She was wearing white cotton shorts and a skimpy white tank top, and her natural skin tone appeared darker than ever in contrast. Uly was certain she’d been out in the sun. Did she care so little about him? Or was it her way of coping? He had often headed for the woods when life got him down.

  “Belle, please let me explain.”

  Belle didn’t even look at him. She focused on Lulamae. “There’s this man who is trying to get my attention,” she said. “He sent a skywriter up to make sure I’d see his message.”

  Uly crossed his arms and lowered his head.

  Lulamae played along with Belle. “A man, you say? Is he handsome?”

  “Very. Stunning, in fact.”

  Uly hid a smile.

  “And is he rich?”

  “Rich enough,” said Belle, “although I haven’t really seen his bank account. I’m used to having nothing though, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “I see,” said Lulamae. “This sounds like love. Is he kind?”

  “I thought he was,” said Belle, “until he broke my heart.”

  Uly made a sound, brief but full of regret.

  “Is he intelligent?” asked Lulamae, relishing her role.

  “He’s much smarter than he knows, but he lets his father manipulate him and that complicates his life terribly.”

  This time Uly laughed, a short bark of a sound.

  Lulamae was struggling not to smile. “And do you love him, cherie?”

  Belle took a deep breath and exhaled noisily. “With all my heart and soul. However, I don’t know if he loves me.”

  Uly couldn’t stand it. He fell to his knees beside Belle. “Yes, he does! I mean, I do. I love you so much, Belle. When you left, I went mad. Oh God, you scared me. You wouldn’t answer your phone. I called the highway patrol, I checked hospitals, I hired private detectives—”

  Belle pulled back a bit. “Private detectives? Really?”

  “I was desperate.”

  Belle relaxed a bit.
“The skywriting was brilliant.”

  “Why did you wait three days?”

  “I just saw it today. I was hiking in the Valley of Fire.”

  Uly’s heart swelled. “See, Lulamae? She’s perfect for me. That’s exactly what I would have done. Oh, Belle, that woman you saw me with? That was Julie, the one I told you about. My twenty-first birthday, running off to Reno? Remember? She was in a mess in Kuwait. She got pregnant and she wanted to come home, but she needed help with the airfare.”

  “It’s not your baby?”

  “Heavens, no. I wouldn’t touch that woman with a ten-foot pole. Her very presence means a dark cloud is coming into my life. Look what she did to us with one single visit. I was giving her the money that Ahmed gave me at Tex’s party. He was trying to pay her debt. He’s the father of her baby. They needed a copy of the divorce papers because she lost hers. I—”

  Belle pressed a finger against his lips to stop the flow of words. She turned to Lulamae.

  “What do you think? Should I forgive him?” Her eyes twinkled.

  “Yes, I believe you should,” said Lulamae. “On one condition.”

  Uly’s brows rose in a question.

  “He should buy you a mansion here in Las Vegas, a big wonderful house with fans in every room, and central air, and a huge swimming pool. If he does that for you, then you may assume his apology is sincere.”

  Belle finally looked into Uly’s eyes. “Is that acceptable, Mr. Garrison?”

  Uly stood up and pulled her into his arms. “Only if you forgive me for keeping so many secrets.”

  “You’re okay with us living here in Las Vegas?”

  “Totally. In fact, I may not be welcome in Eagle’s Toe for a while. I sort of went off on my mother while I was frantically looking for you. And my father and I had a few words, too. I told him the truth, everything about Julie and the mix up. Oh, I’ll tell you all about it, okay? I’ll fill you in on everything. I’ll never keep a secret from you again, but the upshot is, I told my father he was through telling me what to do with my life. I told him if Hussein withdrew from the deal, he should fire back with assault charges against the man’s sons. They were the ones who beat me up. That’s why I had to keep it all hush-hush. And guess what? My attackers have suddenly made large donations to the Eagle’s Toe hospital. I also told Dad I’m staying in the U.S. I’m married to the woman of my dreams and he’ll have to find someone else to help him land deals in Kuwait.”