Back on the sixteenth floor , Lola and Beau went about their tasks. It was time to return her to Johnny. Her rightful owner. She showered again to rid herself completely of the man with the gun and gathered her things while Beau changed. When she was ready, she sat on the edge of the bed.
Beau hung up his phone and set it on the nightstand next to her. “Warner’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said, looking down at her. “I’m not coming with you.”
He was having seconds thoughts. No—she had to trust him. She took a deep breath. “How come?”
“I want you back here tonight.” He rubbed his forehead with tense fingers. “Warner will sit out front until you’re ready while I take care of things here. I have the suite as long as we need it. Leave whatever you don’t need there. We can figure the rest out once this is done.”
“I don’t think I can just walk in there, get my things and walk back out,” she said.
“That’s why I can’t go. Warner will wait as long as it takes, though. I don’t want you staying overnight there, Lola.”
He was shifting back into business mode as the night dissolved into dawn. Lola bit her bottom lip. “Are you sure about this?”
He didn’t answer right away. He reached out, fingered a piece of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. With his thumb and forefinger, he lifted her chin. “I’m not Johnny. I don’t waver in my decisions. I don’t backtrack. I don’t put anything on your shoulders if I can help it. If I could do this part for you, I would. Yes, I’m sure.”
She drew on his strength, lengthening her spine and holding his gaze. “I can do this part myself. It won’t be easy, but I can do it if you’re waiting for me.”
He smiled. “There’s the girl on the sidewalk I had to have. The one who kicks cars and doesn’t apologize.”
She nodded, but hard as she fought it, her mind was creeping ahead of the moment. It was in her apartment, waking Johnny up from a dream to plunge him into a nightmare. “I think it’s best I call Johnny to let him know I’m on my way.”
“Why?”
“He should be completely awake for this conversation. I’ll tell him to have coffee ready.”
Beau raised his eyebrows at her. “You’re telling me he’s asleep right now? While you’re here with me, he’s asleep?”
If things went like they had her first night with Beau, Johnny would be sleeping off his drunkenness. She shook her head. “It’s a good thing. He’d drive himself crazy otherwise.”
Beau sighed and pointed at the nightstand. “Your cell phone was in your purse?”
“Yes.”
“Use mine. Also—” He paused, hedging. “The other half of your money’s in the closet. I was also going to give it to you in cash.”
“Was?” she asked.
“Like I said, I’ve never broken the terms of an agreement, but I’m making an exception on this point. Understand me when I say—I don’t have many regrets in my life, but making you feel worthless is one of them. This money does not belong to you because you did not earn it. You are not this money. Understand me?”
It was all she’d wanted to hear since this thing had started, she just hadn’t realized it until then. That she, her love, was worth more than any dollar amount. Lola’s chest ached. “I don’t want it.”
“Good.” He put his hands on his hips and dropped his forehead toward the floor. After a deep breath, he opened his mouth. “There’s something else—” He shook his head. Paused. Cleared his throat.
“What else?”
“Nothing. Never mind. We can talk later.”
It was a rare thing to see him nervous. It could’ve been because of what they were about to do, but it almost seemed like something else. “Talk about what?” she asked warily.
“Everything. There’s a lot to figure out, but now you’d better go.” He walked away. “I’ll grab shoes and walk you down.”
She had to make the call. Lola’s body was a tornado of emotion. Her heart beat so hard, it practically reached for Beau as he disappeared into the closet. Her stomach, on the other hand, was in knots. It was not a conversation she’d ever pictured herself having with Johnny, but now she couldn’t imagine not doing it. She’d made the decision to leave him so quickly that she wondered if it’d been waiting just below the surface, and if so, for how long.
She picked up Beau’s phone. As she dialed Johnny’s cell phone, a text message from Brigitte popped up.
Good luck this morning. Remember what I said last night. Stick to the plan. The bitch is just getting what she deserves. Can’t wait to hear all about it tonight. See you downstairs. xo
Lola read it one more time before the screen went black. Bitch? Deserves? Her throat closed. Her hand had begun to shake. It was possible the text wasn’t about her at all, yet it was even more possible that it was—unless Beau was giving someone else what they deserved this morning, and Lola doubted that would be much better. Just moments ago she’d told herself to trust Beau, but that was already crumbling. She stood up in one jerky movement.
Beau emerged from the closet. “Ready?” he asked, patting his pockets. “Oh, I left my phone—” He glanced up at Lola, who’d raised the phone in front of her with the screen toward him.
“What is this?” she asked.
Beau’s expression cleared as if he knew instantly. “Lola.” He held out his hands, either to placate or reach for her. “What did you see? What does it say?”
“A text message from Brigitte.”
He looked up at the ceiling, swallowed and exhaled. “No. You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
She couldn’t breathe. Any doubt she’d had that the text wasn’t about her was gone. Lola gripped the phone until her knuckles were white. “What do I deserve? What plan?”
He looked at her again. “Listen to me. If I tell you the truth like this, you won’t understand.” He put his hands palm to palm in front of him. “Trust me on this. Go home. Talk to Johnny. When you come back, I’ll explain everything.”
That was the reverse of how she wanted to do things. She had everything on the line as she was about to throw nine years down the drain. “Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? Don’t tell me you’ll explain this after I uproot my life for you.”
“You don’t want to hear the truth,” Beau said with warning. “You have to trust me here, Lola.”
“I can’t.”
“You can’t?” he asked. “You put yourself in front of that gun for me tonight, and now you can’t trust me?”
Her eyes darted over the floor. She’d done it without hesitation, and he’d protected her too. At least, she’d thought he had.
But there was a plan.
And it involved her.
“There’s always a plan, Lola.”
The text message was casual, as if it were nothing for Brigitte to call Lola a bitch to Beau—the man who was asking her to trust him. Her decision maker. The man who’d demanded her surrender and who’d received it. She was in his hands, and she trusted him, but in that text, Brigitte had a reason to believe Beau wasn’t on Lola’s side.
“No,” she said. “Before I walk into my home with the intention to walk right back out, I need you to tell me exactly what Brigitte meant by that.”
He took a threatening step toward her. “You aren’t the only one uprooting your life. You think this has been easy for me? Letting someone in who’s in love with another man?”
“You shouldn’t have,” she said, her voice rising. “I didn’t ask you for that. I didn’t want any of this.”
“And I wasn’t the one who was supposed to—” He stopped.
“Supposed to what?” she asked after a silence, but he only stared at her. “Come on, Beau. Tell me what the plan was. Tell me what I was supposed to do that I didn’t.” She grit her teeth. “I did everything you asked. I fought you tooth and nail but I gave you what you wanted.”
“Yes,” he said. “You did everything right.”
“So what is it then?” She cocked her head. The longer he clung to the truth, the more Lola had to know. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to give it up easily, which meant she needed to go deeper. “Maybe it’s not what I didn’t do, but what I did.”
His jaw set. “What do you mean?”
“Power is a funny thing, isn’t it? Sometimes the one who thinks he holds it…doesn’t hold it at all.”
He shook his head in warning, narrowing his darkened eyes on her. “Don’t.”
“That’s it, isn’t it? You want to love me more than you want to control me, and it scares you. You’d let me have that power to keep me.”
“Nobody has that over me,” he clipped.
“Someone did tonight,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “That man could’ve taken everything from you with one bullet.”
He stepped closer to her. “He didn’t, because we protected each other. We were in control. I’m still in control.”
“That’s fine, Beau. Control isn’t what I want. I want truth. You can keep your ridiculous obsession with having it all.”
“Ridiculous?” he asked, his nostrils flaring. “You think power comes over night? You think I decide? No. I fucking earned it. I’ve worked my ass off so people would respect me. So I could buy you expensive dresses and drive you around in a car people would literally kill to have. That man tonight—he could’ve killed you if he’d taken you out there, all for what I have.”
“Who says I want any of that?” she countered, pushing back against his anger. “I could give a crap about your car or your empty lifestyle. Without it, you’re just you, and that scares you. I make you powerless.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He charged forward, and she retreated until her legs hit the bed. He snatched the phone away, launching it against a wall as she flinched. His large shoulders moved up and down as he breathed hard. “I can’t believe I let you get to me like this again.”
“Again—?”
“You’re so righteous, aren’t you, Lola?” He towered over her. “You don’t need or want anything like the rest of us. You can’t be bought. Your pussy’s not for sale.”
She flushed. He made her sound high and mighty for that, as if any other woman would’ve rolled over and given him what he wanted. She had nowhere to put her hands, so she covered her stomach.
He laughed, and it was as hollow as his eyes. That emptiness was even more frightening than his indifference had been. “You were wrong. You said it couldn’t be done, but I did it. Me.”
“What did you do?” she asked, dread softening her voice. Suddenly she didn’t want to challenge or push him—she just wanted him to be himself again.
“Imagine this, Lola. Ten years ago, it’s the biggest moment of my life—what everything else has led up to. I’ve just signed a contract to sell one of the companies I practically killed myself to build. For years, I’ve denied myself everything for work—women, fun, sleep, life. It doesn’t matter, though, because it’s finally paid off. I’m going to be a multi-millionaire.
“I want to celebrate,” he continued. “But I have no one. I’m alone. So I walk into a strip club looking for anybody, but I see this girl on stage with long, black hair and kitten ears on her head—furry black triangles. She looks over her shoulder and directly at me with the bluest eyes. She’s got this body men kill for and is wearing a fucking—are you still with me?” He gestured up and down at her. “It looks like a bikini made of goddamn diamonds. It’s so bright, it almost blinds me when the spotlight is on her. She’s the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen. I have to have her. Her.” He pointed into the distance. “That one. I pay for Cat Shoppe’s most expensive room. I pay to see her dance, for her attention. She gets so close to me that our legs touch, even though that isn’t allowed. She’s flirting. I tell her I need her—I’ll do anything, pay anything for her. I offer her a grand, but she shakes her head. Five grand. She just smiles. Ten thousand dollars. She looks me right in my eyes, bats her lashes like a little cunt and says—”
“I’m not for sale,” Lola whispered.
“That’s right,” he said. “But you were wrong, weren’t you?”
Lola wavered on her legs, reaching back to steady herself on the mattress. She narrowed her eyes on him, recalling the young, handsome man from that night. “That was you at Cat Shoppe.” Her entire body shook. “You knew who I was on the sidewalk at Hey Joe?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
“You thought you were too good for money I broke my back to earn. Because you couldn’t give me that one fucking thing on the most important night of my life. Because—” He faltered, leveling his eyes on her.
For a brief second, he looked as pained as she felt. The whole thing was made even more shocking by the fact that there were depths to him she hadn’t even scratched.
He’d earned that money so he would be enough. So nobody could turn him down or walk away from him, because in his eyes, everybody had a price. Perhaps he was right. She’d once thought she could never be bought, no matter the amount.
“I hurt you,” she said, hating the break in her voice.
The pained look vanished. “I promised myself nobody would ever make me feel that way again. There would be nothing my money couldn’t buy. And then there you were again out front of Hey Joe, just as beautiful as that night ten years ago. It was like no time had passed. And when you returned my tip and insisted there was no connection between us, I was just as weak.” He splayed his hands over his chest. “You’re the only person who does this to me, Lola. You’re a threat to everything I’ve worked for.”
She shook her head. “I’m not a threat. I didn’t hurt you on purpose. You…you can’t do this.”
“It’s done. I’ve proven anything can be bought. Today, I get back the power you took from me.”
“I am not a thing to be overcome. I’m a person.” She clutched her throat. Her skin was burning. “If this were true, you would’ve told me after the first night.”
“I tried, believe me.” He crossed his arms. “But you, so stubborn, had to go and say that buying someone’s body didn’t count. It had to be their heart.” He hesitated only a moment, but he’d gone too far down whatever path he was on. He couldn’t seem to stop himself, even as Lola’s heart broke right in front of him. “I was going to end it there, but you wanted to play. And as you know, I’m not one to turn down a challenge. She thinks her heart isn’t for sale? I’ll buy that too, I thought. You only have yourself to blame for loving me.”
A challenge. That’s what this had been about. Conquering her, teaching her a lesson, winning a game. He’d been dropping hints along the way, most likely for his own amusement. “Fuck you,” she uttered. “You think my life is a game?”
He uncrossed his arms and ran both hands along the bridge of his nose. “It was until it wasn’t. I realized tonight, with you in my arms, telling me you love me, how wrong I’ve been. But I promise you, from the first minute, I meant everything I said, Lola. I never lied about how I felt. I want you—”
She scrambled back so fast when he reached for her that she landed on the bed. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me.”
He grabbed the comforter on both sides of her and pulled it, sliding her back toward him. He jerked her to her feet by her biceps. “You want to test me? You’ll lose. Want to fucking run away from me? You can’t. Fight me all you want.” He kissed her hard. “Hurt me. I can take it. But you can’t outrun me. You’re strong, but you’re not strong enough to take me on. You might as well give in.”
Her knees threatened to buckle. There was undiluted pain and frustration in his voice. He loved her, even if he couldn’t say it. She loved him. And she’d never wanted to hurt anyone worse in her life. She looked him in the eye and said, “I want my money.”
It took a moment for anything to register on his face. His mouth parted. “Your money?”
She had to fight not to look away from him. He’d hurt her, and words were all she had. She struggled to push him off. “That’s all you’re good for. All I am is my pussy and all you are is your money. So give it to me so I can go.”
He tightened his grip. “That’s not true, and you know it. That isn’t what we are.”
She dug deeper. Sank her claws into her pain. What he’d done deserved her worst. “Go buy some more people, and get the fuck out of my life. Build your empire and run it all by yourself. Alone. No matter how much money you spend, you will never have me, and you and I will never have what Johnny and I do.”
He tilted his head with a jerk as if his lid were about to fly off. “Liar. Earlier you said—”
“Earlier I was hysterical,” she spat. “I thought I was going to die. I don’t even know what I was saying. I love Johnny, and I just want to go home to him.”
He raised his chin, looking down at her. His jaw worked back and forth as he breathed through his nose. He pushed her backward hard and stormed to the closet. Her chest stuttered viciously as if collapsing in on itself. She wanted to run away from him and to him in equal parts. She needed to believe in his arms around her, but every time he’d touched her, it was a lie. It was to get something from her—not just something, but the most valuable thing she had to give. Her heart.
He reappeared with a brown package like the one he’d brought to her apartment the night before. “Here’s the other five hundred grand,” he said, tossing it. It landed with a heavy thump at her feet. “Now get the fuck out.”
She only needed to be strong long enough to leave that presidential suite in one piece. The money was heavier than she expected, and she had to heave it from the floor into her arms. She walked right up to him, standing under his nose. “Coward. There’s a reason you had to have me that night and a reason you’re still thinking about me ten years later, and it wasn’t to win some stupid game.”
“You’re probably right. And it’s the same reason you’re still standing here when I told you to leave.”
She gripped the package until her fingers hurt. “You could’ve had me without the money,” she said. “You could’ve come back for me, but you were too scared to even try. Now you’ve lost me. I took your power, and that means you’ve lost your game.”
He didn’t shy away from her anger. His green eyes fixed on her, the thick of the forest, the dark, inconceivable pit. He was a monster, but a beautiful one with his sharp, dimpled chin and mussed coffee-bean hair. If only, with his confession, he’d also been forced to shed the mask he’d used to lure her in.
“You’re wrong. I haven’t lost anything,” he said. “Because I’m not the one who fell in love.”
“Yes, you did. I want to hear you say it. You made me say it, you fucking coward. Now you say it.”
“You will never hear me say it,” he said. “Get out.”
He might as well have slapped her. She almost wished he had, because at least then she’d be able to feel her pain in a physical way, instead of as a gaping hole in her chest. “You can thank Brigitte for me. She saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life.”
Lola left the suite. She had somewhere to be and not long now to get there.
But she wasn’t finished with Beau. He’d committed the greatest crime there was—he’d played with love. And nobody should ever be able to get away with that.
He’d made mistakes, thinking she hadn’t been paying attention, but she had. He’d exposed his weakness to her and handed her the weapon she needed.
He survived on power—she would take it from him.
He was in love with her—she would use that to do it.
As she rode the elevator down to the ground floor, she made a decision. Somehow, some way, Beau would get what he deserved. She would break him too, and she’d do it without the mercy he’d tried to afford her. He’d hidden behind his money so long, he’d never let anyone close enough to hurt him. Except for her. She was there. She was certain that he loved her—and that he’d come to regret it.
She wasn’t sure how.
She wasn’t sure when.
She only knew one thing.
Beau Olivier would be sorry he’d ever laid eyes on her.
