For weeks now he’d felt something like this coming—building. Every time she responded to another one of Simon’s many texts to her, every time she’d turn to Simon whenever Damian left her hanging, but he kept telling himself he was comparing her to someone for whom he’d never felt even close to what he felt for Bethany.
Then he thought of her calling him Simon today. He squeezed the steering wheel, keeping his eye on the bike as he got closer to them in the lane next over. Even then his heart insisted it was just a slip—nothing more. His eyes could’ve burned a hole through her back. He didn’t even care that he wasn’t a few cars behind anymore; he was right behind them. Damian was this close to honking his fucking horn and making them pull over, because he wanted answers now. He hadn’t planned on confronting them if they’d gone straight to the theater, where she said she had to be. He’d blamed himself for her feeling the need to lie about her ride if that had been the case. But now he sure as fuck was going to, because this was a boldfaced lie, and he wanted her to look at him in the eyes when she explained why she’d said it.
His heartbeat doubled as the bike pulled into the valet parking lane of the Crown Hotel Casino. The flashing sign for the big show here, Imagine, reminded him that she’d once taken on the lead in it. His heart was grasping here, but there had to be a reasonable explanation for her being here now with Simon. Maybe they’d called her back, and she was planning on surprising him.
If that’s what this was, he was forbidding her to ever surprise him again, because she was about to give him a heart attack. He slowed, falling one car behind them now, and watched as they pulled up to the front door of the hotel casino and parked in what looked like a loading-zone-only space. They started getting off the bike as an attendant came over and greeted Simon with a big smile. They obviously had no qualms about his leaving his bike there.
The guy pulled off his helmet, and Damian saw now it wasn’t Simon. “What the—?”
Damian stared as Bethany pulled off her helmet as well. It suddenly made sense. Damian knew enough about motorcycles to know this one was expensive. As far as he knew, like Bethany, Simon was barely getting by. And this guy was getting the VIP treatment here.
Just knowing she’d be walking into a hotel with another guy stabbed at his heart. He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, clenching his teeth. This is not just a hotel. It’s a huge resort. Opening his eyes, he saw the guy tip the parking attendant.
Breathing a sigh of relief when neither reached out for the other’s hand, Damian tried in vain to calm his anxious heart. There was an explanation for this. There had to be.
He reached the parking attendees just as Bethany and this guy walked through the casino entrance doors. Damian jumped out of his car, handing the attendee his keys and a couple of bucks. The guy started to say something to him as he ripped the ticket off the booklet he held and handed it to Damian. “Sorry, I’m in a hurry,” he said, grabbing the ticket out of his hand and rushing up the steps of the casino’s entrance.
He spotted them walking alongside the casino. Relieved that they hadn’t gone to check in, he followed cautiously behind them, watching them closely. They were talking, and if he had to go by body language and the way Bethany walked with her arms crossed in front of her, he’d say she was tense. Nervous about an audition maybe?
They turned into a hallway off the side, and Damian looked up to read where the hallway led to.
Royal Tower A Elevators
Executive suites
Penthouse suites
Lucky 7 suites
Bachelor pad
“What?” Damian practically sprinted now. He was done guessing. He turned the corner in time to see the guy hit the elevator button. “Bethany!”
They both turned, startled to see him. The guy turned to Bethany with obvious disdain. “Why’s he here?”
Damian didn’t recognize the guy. He was dressed in full Harley gear from top to bottom, leather chaps and all, and though it all looked expensive, and he could see that under the chaps and leather vest he wore business attire, there was something sleazy-looking about him. He turned to Bethany. She looked terrified. If he hadn’t seen her get on his bike of her own free will, he might think she had been brought there against it.
“What’s going on? You said you had to work. Why are you here?” He turned and glared at the guy. “And who’s this?”
“Damian.” She shook her head. “I can explain all of it to you later.”
The elevator doors opened, and the guy gave Damian a once-over, then began to walk in. “Let’s go, Bethany. I don’t have time for this.”
Damian stepped in front of her. “What the fuck’s going on? You’re not really going up there with this guy, are you?”
“I have to,” she said, almost in a whisper.
“You heard her. She has to,” the guy barked from inside the luxurious elevator.
Feeling his insides set ablaze, he didn’t even try to stay calm now. This was bullshit. “What do you mean you have to?” He looked up at the sign, jabbing his finger toward it. “What? To his hotel room?”
The elevator started beeping as the guy, looking even more impatient, continued to hold it open with his hand. “It’s a bachelor pad, and why wouldn’t she be coming with me?”
Taking a step toward the elevator, he felt Bethany touch his arm. “Because I’m her boyfriend, asshole, and I say she’s not.”
The scowl on the guy’s face softened into a sneer, and he began to laugh. With the urge to charge in there and beat the asshole off every wall in that elevator, he took another step. “Damian, don’t.” Bethany squeezed his arm, lowering her voice. “His name is Max. He’s a long story. I can explain all this later, baby, and I know you’ll understand.”
“Why don’t you tell him now?” Max asked, forcing a laugh, but Damian could see he was losing his cool. “Tell him the cold, hard truth?” He laughed again. “Let’s see how understanding your baby is about it.”
He was taunting her now, and Damian readied his fist, taking another step forward, ready to beat the shit out of him. Bethany jumped in front of Damian now, her hands flat against his chest. “No, please.”
Max banged his hand against the outside of the elevator. “Let’s go, Bethany. I told you, I don’t have time for this shit.”
“And I told you, she’s not going anywhere with you.”
The guy smirked. “Oh, yeah,” he chuckled into his fist. “That’s right, because you’re her boyfriend, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, maybe,” he said a little louder, stepping out of the elevator, “your girlfriend should’ve mentioned she’s married!”
It didn’t even register at first, and Damian heard himself ask, “What?”
“Awe!” Max pouted, walking around to try to get a glimpse of Bethany’s face. “You didn’t tell your boyfriend about your husband, Bethany?” He turned to Damian with a gleam in his eye. “How’s it feel now, you clueless idiot? I’m her husband, and I say she is coming with me.”
Stunned and feeling as if the air had been sucked out of him, Damian looked down at Bethany, whose eyes were closed now. Max was cackling, and Damian didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d just dropped a monster grenade on him. One he never saw coming.
It was a struggle, but he managed to at least appear composed. He stepped back from her as she opened her eyes. “Is it true?”
“I can explain it all, Damian.” Her eyes began to flood. “I swear.”
He stared at her; the tightness in his chest making it hard to breathe, and all his shattering heart could think was she wasn’t saying no.
Chapter 21
The Truth
“Just tell me one thing. One fucking thing, Bethany. It’s all I need to know. Is it true?”
Her pinched brows over her pained and flooding eyes said it all. The very weak nod was the final confirmation. Just as with everything else that had happened between him and Bethany—at lightning-
fast speed—the lava in his veins was instantly frozen, and the murderous rage he had felt just moments ago was replaced by something so numbing he could barely breathe. His heart was still fighting it, but there was no way around this. No reasonable explanation, as he kept telling himself the whole way there. Not anymore. Damian had no choice but to accept it now. The relationship he’d dived into so impulsively, never imagining he’d fall as profoundly in love as he had, or so quickly, had been viciously pulled from under him like a rug, flipping him over on his back and knocking the wind completely out of him.
He began to make words out of the sound coming from her mouth as the blood thrumming in his ears calmed slowly. Over Max’s obnoxious cackling, he heard two sentences that enraged him now.
“I love you, Damian. You have to believe that.”
“You’re fucking married, Bethany!” Damian’s voice boomed in reaction to hearing those words from her. She flinched, backing away. He hated that even for a moment he’d scared her, but he couldn’t help himself. There was no way he was going to go along with this. “This whole thing’s been a lie! Why?”
“It was not a lie. I was gonna tell you!” She cried openly, trying to reach for him, but he backed up.
“When!” he demanded loudly, feeling like he was about to lose it. “When were you gonna tell me you belonged to someone else!” A couple that had started toward them turned around and walked away when they saw the commotion.
Unable to take Max’s cackling anymore and needing to unload on someone, he charged at him, slamming him against the marble wall, his head bouncing against it. He buried his fist in his face twice, but seeing the blood splatter, even through his rage, he knew he’d be hauled away in cuffs if he didn’t stop and get out of there soon. So he settled for lifting Max away from the wall and slamming his head into it again. “Did your wife tell you this clueless idiot has been fucking her for weeks?” Max’s eyes widened, and he heard Bethany gasp. “Oh, yeah, she’d spread those pretty little legs for me so wide again and again and begged for it.” He turned to Bethany now, wondering if she’d actually been with Simon last night or here in Max’s bachelor pad. Feeling like a complete idiot, he let go of Max with a shove. “Take your wife back. I’m done with her now.”
Whatever she said to him as he blew by her in a mad rush to get the fuck out of there, he didn’t hear it. He didn’t want to hear anything anymore. He’d been had. If she hadn’t confirmed this herself, he probably still wouldn’t believe it. His heart still didn’t want to. But the truth was this entire time, he’d been the other man. Bethany, the girl he was so desperately in love with, was a married woman.
Chapter 22
One month later . . .
Damian took that much-needed break from work, as he’d planned to after the Mahoney case was handed over to the prosecutors. He was now on a personal leave, and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever go back. He knew he didn’t have to. The money coming in from his real estate investments and the family business was more than enough for him to keep up his lifestyle. A lifestyle that didn’t mean anything anymore.
He’d just as soon sell the big empty house he lived in and move into one of the small condos he owned near the strip. He’d refused to sleep in his bed ever since . . .
It hadn’t even been a few days after the blowup when his weak ass had gone running back to Bethany’s apartment. At first he’d been furious and overwhelmingly hurt that she’d played him for such a fool. He’d been certain that she and Max were con artists and had planned the whole thing from day one to try to extort money from him and his family. He’d almost given her the money for her aunt’s mortgage, and he wondered, after the fact, if the aunt even existed. Did she even have siblings, or was that Max she’d been so jumpy about his catching her on the phone with all the time?
What had him running back to see her only days after the big blowup was a couple of things that had kept him hopeful. His mind kept going back to that first night he’d been with her, when he had to stop and confirm it wasn’t her first time. She was so tight. No married woman engaging in regular sex would feel that way. The other thing that haunted him those first few days, and still did, was that in the midst of his dazed reaction, trying to take in what had just been dropped on him—that Bethany was married—she’d said something he still couldn’t get out of his head: “It’s not at all like what you’re thinking.”
What did that mean? his wretched and hopeful heart begged to know. After almost a week of lying on his sofa sulking and feeling like the biggest fucking schmuck on the planet, it was suddenly something he needed to know. The tiniest bit of hope had resurfaced that maybe there was a valid explanation. Maybe she wasn’t a cunning barracuda who’d played him so hard that he’d been sucked in to an extent he never would’ve believed possible if he hadn’t lived it. His heart was grasping, but it kept asking. Why would she still beg him to believe that she loved him even after the truth was out? Words that had enraged him that day, just days later loudly challenged him to find out!
He’d practically raced to her apartment, only to find out she was gone. There was a “For Rent” sign on her window he’d seen before he even got out of his car. The slimy landlord, who’d finally come to the office door after Damian had banged on it for too long, said she’d paid up her last month’s rent a few days before and left, leaving no forwarding address. When he asked about her lease, the landlord cackled annoyingly, reminding him of Max. “No one signs a lease to live in this paradise,” he’d said, cackling even louder. And the lies were mounting.
Still, in his desperation, he’d knocked on Trinity’s door and even gone to City Lights and spoken to Amos and Simon. None had answers about why she left, nor were any of them aware she was married. All were stunned when he told them, and the only one who’d shed even the slightest bit of information was Amos, when he mentioned her leaving him a forwarding address to her family’s home—in California, not Arizona as she’d told him—throwing more water on the already tiny spark of hope that she wasn’t a complete fraud and there was an explanation for this.
Out of respect for Bethany’s privacy and because it was illegal to give Damian any more detailed information, such as a specific address, Amos couldn’t tell him more.
Her phone number was no longer a working number. Just as on the very day he met her, she’d once again dismissed him unceremoniously, and Damian was left to wonder. Had she planned on doing this from the very beginning? Or had something happened to make her just up and vanish from his life as if their entire incredible experience had meant nothing to her?
Sure, he’d said some harsh things that day. But he was pissed, damn it. She had to know what an unexpected blow her betrayal had been. There was no graceful way to handle it. He’d been beyond furious but even more hurt.
Any normal person would’ve cut his losses and walked away at that point. And he did try to do just that and move on for almost another week, but nothing in Damian’s life had been normal in weeks. Not since he’d met Bethany. The way their relationship had unfolded had been exceptional, to say the least. His gut told him he’d never feel normal again. Bethany had come into his life, and in just a few months changed him forever.
That’s when he decided. He might never work another case for the LVPD, but he had one more case he needed to solve before he left the department. He’d use every resource available to him to figure this out. He needed peace of mind, no matter how painful the truth might be.
He sat in his home office now strumming his guitar as he waited for a call. He rarely used the office, but it was also one of the rooms in his home visitors never entered. It’s where he’d set up his investigation headquarters; if anyone came over he could lock the door so no one would be witness to the madness he’d become obsessed with. He’d even rolled in the giant dry-erase board from the garage. Usually, it had the layout of the most current restoration he was working on, or planning on working on. Now it was full of notes dating back to the day he met Bethany. He’
d written down all the clues he could remember about her odd behavior and things he should’ve picked up on.
He’d begun to build on a hopeful theory based on her statement: “It’s not at all like what you’re thinking.”
So he’d written down at the top of the board what he was thinking. He had a ton of theories, but he narrowed it down to the two most likely. She was a married woman who decided to have an affair with Damian on her own. Or she and Max had been in on this together, something that began as a scam, but Bethany became emotionally involved, and when Max found out the truth, he took her away. His mission now was to come up with a reason that would prove it wouldn’t—couldn’t—be either of those two scenarios.
Putting all the facts together, the most telling was that she was living alone in an apartment she had no qualms about inviting him into. They’d even been intimate on more than one occasion in that little apartment. Damian followed up with another visit to Trinity to find out if in fact Bethany lived there full-time or if this was a side apartment she kept, as some married men were known to do for their affairs. But Trinity had confirmed that as far as she knew, Bethany slept there every night.
With his theory coming together, he was beginning to really get his hopes up that perhaps Bethany had married that crazy bastard on a whim or maybe in exchange for something—money, perhaps—and had moved out here to try to get out of it. Hell, maybe she was drunk when she did it. Who knew? Bottom line was Damian had done the math; she hadn’t been living with the guy for over ten months now. The marriage had to be some kind of sham. It’s what she’d been trying to tell him.
He’d been staring so hard at all the clues on the board that when his phone rang, he literally jumped. Putting the guitar down, he picked it up. Seeing who it was, he prayed he had good news. The guy working on the background he’d ordered for Bethany didn’t know why Damian needed it run. But Damian wanted specifics on her marriage, mostly, so he told the guy he was doing this as a favor for his insecure cousin in California who was looking to hire Bethany as an assistant. Based on Bethany’s looks and age, her cousin wanted to know how solid Bethany’s marriage was before she brought her into her home to work alongside her and her husband. Damian was hoping for a slam dunk “The marriage is a sham” finding.