I've lied. I've done things I used to look down on other women for…and I'm done with it. No more.”
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. “Fuck-ing hell.”
Without thinking, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, then took his hands away and stood up. Unable to contain himself, he paced the length of the living room, up and back. Then did it again. She watched him the whole time, one arm draped along the back of the ornate chair she was on.
“I gave the police my cell phone number,” she said, “and I'll come back to testify if I have to. I figure Robbie and I'll pack up tonight and just go. If the press doesn't know how to find me, my face isn't going to show up anywhere.”
Vin stopped in the archway to the living room and thought of that security tape with his so-called face on it. Marie-Terese had no idea what she'd dropped herself into, because there was a fuckload more going on than simply an assault case. So, yeah, it was best that she just get out of town. He had a feeling he and his freaky-ass buddy Jim were going to have to figure out a way to get rid of Devina, and it wasn't just going to be a case of telling her to go pound sand.
As for who might be on Marie-Terese's tail? It couldn't be Devina because the trouble had started…shit, the night he'd first seen Marie-Terese at the Iron Mask.
“What?” Marie-Terese said.
He replayed the details of that evening. Devina had left before he and Jim had thrown down with those two college kids. Which meant it was theoretically possible that she could have killed the pair in the alley…except it made no sense. Why would she go after men who had been with Marie-Terese? Like that ex-husband, she wouldn't make others a target, and besides, Vin hadn't had anything much to do with Marie-Terese at that point.
“What's going through your mind, Vin?”
Nothing he could tell her, unfortunately. Nothing at all.
He paced down and back one more time—and then it dawned on him. Courtesy of her stepping up to the plate for him, he had her over a barrel. And he was a man who always took advantage of those kinds of things.
“Stay here,” he said. “I'll be right back.”
He strode out of the room and headed for the study.
Five minutes later, he returned with his hands full, and the second Marie-Terese saw what he was carrying, she opened her mouth to no-way him.
Vin shook his head and cut her off. “You say you pay your debts.” One by one he laid out five stacks of one- hundred-dollar bills. “Well, I'm sure you'll allow me to do the same.”
“Vin—”
“Fifty thousand dollars.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Take it. Use it to pay off the debt and carry you for a couple of months.”
Marie-Terese shot up from her chair. “I'm telling the truth, not doing you a favor—”
“Sorry. You're not going to win this. I owe you for protecting me, and I have determined the going rate for that obligation is fifty grand. You're just going to have to deal with it.”
“The hell I will.” She picked her purse up from the table and slung it onto her shoulder. “I'm not
“A hypocrite? I beg to differ. You think you're the only one with pride? You're saying I'm not allowed to feel indebted to you? Pretty damn closed-minded.”
“You're twisting my words!”
“Am I.” He nodded at the cash. “Don't think so. And I also don't think you're crazy enough to bolt out of town with no resources. You use your credit cards, there's a trail. You withdraw the funds from your bank account, there's a trail.”
“Damn you to hell.”
“I have a feeling I've done that to myself already, thank you very much.” He leaned down and shoved the piles in her direction. “Take the money, Marie-Terese. Take it and know that there are no strings attached. You never, ever want to see me again, that's okay. Don't go with nothing, though. You can't do that to me. I wouldn't be able to live with it.”
In the tense stretch of silence, he realized that this was the first time since he'd started making paper that he was giving any of it away. Or at least trying to give it away. Over the years, he'd never supported charities or causes of any kind—if money was going out of his pocket, he had to get something tangible in return, and always at an increase in value.
“You're going to take this,” he murmured. “Because this isn't knight-in-shining-armor time. I'm not trying to save you. I'm repaying a debt and giving you one of the tools you're going to need to build your better future.”
When she didn't reply, he tapped one of the bundles. “Think of it like this—I'm helping you buy your own white horse…Gretchen, for God's sake, you need to take the money.”
The bastard used her real name. Damn him.
God…it had been so long since anyone had called her Gretchen. To Robbie she was “Mom.” To everyone else, she was Marie-Terese. She'd always loved her real name, though, and hearing it now, she wanted it back.
Gretchen…Gretchen…
She stared at the money. Vin was right: She took that and she had serious breathing room. Except…how was this different from before? It was still a man bailing her out. It just didn't feel right.
She stepped up to him and put her hands on either side of his face.
“You are a lovely, lovely man, Vincent diPietro.” She pulled him down to her lips and he went willingly, his palms settling lightly on her shoulders as their mouths met. “And I want to thank you.” Happiness flared in the hard lines of his face. But only for a moment. “I'll always remember your gesture,” she murmured.
“You don't have to take the hard route,” he said, his brows drawing together. “You—”
“But see, that's what I learned. Things are hard for me now because I tried to take the easy way out first.” She smiled up at him, thinking that she was going to remember how he was looking at her now for the rest of her life. “That's the problem with white horses. You have to pay for them yourself or you'll always be using someone else's reins.”
He stared down at her for the longest time. “You're breaking my fucking heart in half right now, you really are.” His hands tightened on her arms and then released as he stepped back. “It's like…I can reach out and touch you, but you're already gone.”
“I'm sorry.”
He looked over at the cash. “You know…I've never realized this before. But money is really just paper when you come down to it.”
“I'm going to be okay.”
“Are you.” He shook his head. “Sorry, that came out wrong.”
Except he was right to be worried. Hell, she was, too. “I'll stay in touch.”
“I'd like that…Any idea where you're headed?”
“I don't know. Haven't given it a lot of thought.”
“Well…what if I told you I had an empty house I could lend you. It's out of state—” He held up his hand as she went to interject. “Just wait a minute. It's in Connecticut, in horse country there. It's a farmhouse, but it's close to the town, so you wouldn't be isolated. You could crash there for a couple of nights, get your feet under you, figure out where to go next. And it's better than a hotel, because you won't have to use a credit card. You could leave your house tonight after dark and get there in less than two hours.”
Marie-Terese frowned as she thought it over.
“Not a handout, not cash, no strings,” he said. “Just a place for you and your son to lay your heads. And when you're ready to leave it, just lock the place up and mail the keys back to me.”
Marie-Terese walked around to the windows in the dining room and looked out at the stunning view as she tried to think through what the next day and week and month would be like…
She got nothing back. Not a clue.
Which was a pretty clear signal she needed somewhere safe to figure it all out. “Okay,” she said quietly. “This I will take you up on.”
She heard Vin approach from behind, and as his arms went around her, she turned and embraced him as well.
