Dangerous curves, p.20
Dangerous Curves, page 20
“This has been such a wonderful day,” her mother said, sipping her iced latte. “We should do this more often.”
“What were you doing at Berton’s place?”
Her mother paused. Dominique waited for one of three reactions. Either a quick denial, a smooth excuse, or a blank expression of innocence. Her mother selected the latter. “I don’t know—”
“I saw a purse in your closet that looked exactly like one I saw that night in Berton’s house.”
“Are you accusing me of something, dear?”
“Mom—”
“Women carry similar handbags all the time.”
“This one was distinctive. You like one-of-a-kind pieces.”
“Still, it—”
“Plus, I checked.”
Carla shrugged. “Fine, I was there.”
“Why?” Dominique took a deep breath. It wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear, even though she’d suspected it.
Carla reached across the table and patted Dominique’s hand in pity. “Do you really need specifics?”
Dominique clenched her teeth. “Yes.”
“I did it for you.”
“For me?”
“I test them.”
Them? She’d asked about Berton, so why was she referring to ‘them’? “You test them?”
“Yes,” Carla said, pushing her latte to the side, “to see how faithful there are. Some women actually pay for this service, but I do it for free because I love you so much.”
Anger lit Dominique’s eyes and sharpened her tone. “You slept with my boyfriend—”
“Boyfriends,” Carla said, stressing the ‘s’. “Yes, both of them. That pathetic one you dated after college and then Berton. Darling, your love life is woefully limited and—”
“Because you love me?” Dominique continued, her voice cracking in disbelief.
“Don’t worry, darling, I didn’t sleep with Berton until after you’d broken up. That night was just a meeting.”
Dominique remembered the skirt on the ground. “I don’t believe you.”
Carla held up her hand in admission. “Okay, caught again.”
Dominique stared at her mother, unable to comprehend her flippant behavior. “I don’t understand.”
“You didn’t really care about him so don’t pretend to be heartbroken.”
“I’m disgusted.”
Carla crossed her legs and flexed her foot to study the new high heels she’d just purchased. “I know. Men can be pigs.”
“With you!”
Carla turned her ankle to study the side of her shoe. “Keep your voice down.”
“Why? Afraid I’ll embarrass you?”
Carla met her gaze. “Watch your tone. I’m still your mother.”
“You’re a…” Dominique shook her head at a loss for words. “I don’t know what to call you.”
Carla smoothed down the back of her hair. “Aren’t you curious about Kevin?”
Her chest tightened almost painfully. No she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. “You went after Kevin?”
Carla grinned. “More like he came after me. I tried to keep him at a distant, but he insisted. His reputation suits him.”
Dominique felt ill. She pictured them in the hallway, and remembered seeing Kevin releasing her hand. The look on his face when she saw them. Was it guilt? He came after me. No, that was wrong. That wasn’t Kevin’s style. She’d seen him, been with him for months. He didn’t go after women. Women went after him. He came after me. Her sister had said something similar. And that had been a lie. Kevin wasn’t like the men they knew. He wasn’t a predator.
And even if she were wrong, her stomach constricted at the thought. Kevin wouldn’t hurt her like this. He’d find someone else. Are you sure? her mind whispered. Why would your mother lie?
She didn’t know. All she knew was that her heart screamed that he wouldn’t do this to her. “Do you trust me?” he’d asked her. And her heart screamed yes.
“I told you he wasn’t worth it,” Carla said, interpreting her daughter’s silence as shocked acceptance.
Her mother didn’t want them to be together. Why? Her father had wanted dirt on him. What made Kevin so dangerous to them? She stood up. “You’re a liar.”
“I did it because of your father,” Carla said, a note of panic in her voice.
Dominique paused, then slowly sat back down. “What?”
“If I didn’t take control of the men in your life, he would. He has. Many times. He wanted Berton to be caught so you’d fly into a rage. That’s how he and Gloria were able to manipulate and control you. I was able to find out from Berton what he wanted, so I decided to be ‘the other woman.’ Don’t you think it’s better it was me than someone else?”
Was she really asking her this? “I still don’t understand why.”
“He never plans to let you go. He’s made sure to ruin every relationship you’ve tried to have. He thinks that if you don’t trust men, the only man you’ll turn to is him. He’ll never admit it, but he needs you more than you’ll ever need him.”
“And what about you? I know you’re lying about Kevin.”
“I’m not lying when I say he’s not good for you.”
Dominique grabbed her bags. “You’re both crazy and I’m not listening to this anymore.”
“You have to. There’s something else you should know.”
Chapter 50
He’d never heard her cry before.
Kevin gripped his phone, paralyzed as he listened to Dominique crying and apologizing on the other end. He’d been exhausted after a strenuous workout in his private gym, but now adrenaline surged through him. He didn’t care about her apologies; he didn’t even care what it meant. He just wanted to be with her. “Where are you?”
“I know about my mother...” The rest of her words dissolved into tears.
She knew? How did she know? And why was she apologizing? “Dominique, it’s okay. Where are you?”
“I’m so ashamed.”
Kevin took a deep breath. He couldn’t get angry, although he was beginning to panic. It wasn’t like her to cry, to sound so defeated. He softened his tone. “Baby, where are you? Tell me where you are.” Please, he silently added. Please turn to me. Let me be your man. Don’t shut me out. That’s what she wants.
“I’m sorry,” Dominique said once more and then disconnected.
Kevin called her back. His call went directly to voicemail. He texted her and received no reply, then called her again. Nothing. He threw his phone against the concrete wall and watched it smash.
Ferguson hurried into the room. “What happened?”
Kevin calmly draped his towel around his neck. “Get me a new phone with the same number.” He caught Ferguson’s glance at the damaged phone. “I hate dropped calls,” he said then left the room to go shower. He had to think. Where would she be? Her father made her angry, but her mother could make her cry. What had that woman said to her? How could she have made Dominique ashamed of something that wasn’t her fault?
Two hours had passed by the time Ferguson arrived with his new phone. Kevin dialed Dominique’s number again. Nothing. He should have put a tracker on her phone.
Why wasn’t she calling him back? Why was she handling this all alone? Where was she?
His landline rang. For a moment he didn’t know what the sound was. People rarely used it to reach him. “Hello?”
“I need to talk to you.”
He bit back a curse. He knew that voice. That catlike purr. “Where is Dominique?”
“That’s what I need to know,” Carla said.
Damn, that wasn’t good. “What did you say to her?”
“I said too much and I shouldn’t have. I need you to meet me.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“It will if you want to know more.”
“More?”
“About my husband. Hurry. I’ll be waiting.”
“But—”
“Come around the back, the door will be open.” She disconnected.
Kevin’s first thought as he walked down the hall after entering through the back door of the Cartwright mansion, was that the house was too quiet. Of course it could be a trick, but Dominique was all that mattered. “Hello?”
Silence greeted him.
He pulled out his phone and dialed the number that Carla had used to call him. He heard her cell phone ringtone and followed the sound. He walked into a room on the far side of the hallway and saw Dominique kneeling on the ground.
He opened his mouth to say her name, but stopped when he saw blood and her mother’s body.
Chapter 51
“Did you touch anything?” Kevin asked in a sharp tone, searching the room for the weapon that had sliced Carla’s throat.
Dominique looked up at him, bewildered. “No. She was like this when I got here.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“No.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No.”
He touched Carla’s skin. It felt warm, maybe there was still a chance. He pressed a sheet against the wound then searched for a pulse. “Get out. You weren’t here.”
“I’m not leaving. I didn’t do anything wrong, but you shouldn’t be here.”
He didn’t have time to argue. He found a pulse, though faint. He reached for his phone to dial 911.
Dominique stopped him. “Go, I can take care of this.”
“What?”
“If you stay, the police could arrest you,” she said.
“On what grounds? Where’s the weapon?”
“Why were you coming here through the back door?”
“She called me and I came. That doesn’t make me a killer. Let me get help, if she has a chance of surviving we’d better take it.”
“What do we tell the police?” Dominique asked, watching him dial.
Kevin held the phone up to his ear as it rang. “The truth.”
Abraham left his wife’s bedside and stared out the window. She would live. But it would be a few days before she could communicate with anyone. The police wanted to question her, but he knew she wouldn’t have much to give. That was good. That would give him time.
His phone alerted him to a text.
Your wife is just a warning
He deleted it. Warnings bored him. He wasn’t going to change his mind.
He walked back over to Carla. She was the ugliest he’d ever seen her and she looked older too. He hoped the knife mark wouldn’t leave a scar. It would bother her and he’d have to spend money on more scarves and chokers she didn’t need. He touched her hand and squeezed it. She was exactly where she needed to be right now. No more complications.
He tucked his phone away and walked out of her hospital room, wondering what he needed to do.
“Why didn’t you call me back?” Kevin asked Dominique hours later as they both sat in his living room. They police had their suspicions but not enough evidence to hold either of them. Although all the lights were on, the room still felt dark, as if the night had entered the room with them. He also felt cold, even with her sitting next to him. She was safe, but that didn’t settle him. He felt anxious and on alert.
“I just needed time to think,” she said.
“And you went to see your mother again?”
“Yes, like I said. After I spoke to you, I had more questions so I went there. I found her like that.”
Dominique had told him about her confrontation with her mother after their shopping spree, but it didn’t sound like it was enough to make her cry the way she had on the phone. The apology was for something bigger. Something more. Something she wasn’t telling him. Why? He sighed. Now wasn’t the time to pressure her. He’d be patient. “I’m glad you weren’t there, because it could have been you. How are your sister and father taking this?”
“In stride. You wouldn’t think anything was wrong. He’s convinced it was a burglar.”
“So he’s not rattled?”
“Few things rattle him.” Dominique fell silent, then said, “She was the woman who was with Berton that night.”
Kevin frowned. “That night?”
“The night I found Berton cheating on me.”
“It was your mother?”
Dominique flashed a sad smile. “You don’t sound very surprised.”
He drew her close, wishing she didn’t feel so far away. “I’m sorry, but I met your mother, remember?”
To his relief, Dominique rested her head on his shoulder. “I know,” she said with a heavy sigh. “I’m too numb to feel anything right now. I’m glad she’ll live, but I’m also angry with her at the same time.”
“It still bothers me.”
“What?”
“That story about how you caught Berton cheating. It was sloppy. There was no reason he should have gotten caught.”
“You were right about that, he got caught on purpose. Mom said it was suggested by my father and she’d found out through Berton. If she hadn’t been Berton’s lover someone else would have been. My father did it to manipulate me. It seems he’s done it before. I’m just a puppet.”
Kevin paused, feeling a chill course through him. There it was again. That tone. That hollow, defeated tone. He didn’t like it. It wasn’t like Dominique. She was a fighter, but she sounded as if she’d given up.
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?”
“My father?”
“No, Berton.”
“Not since that night.”
Kevin stroked her arm. “Tell him what you know.”
Dominique looked up at him. “I don’t know anything.”
Yes, you do, but you’re afraid to admit it. “He doesn’t know that. Bluff. See what he reveals.”
A tiny smile touched her mouth. “That might be good.”
She sounded pleased with herself and that bothered him more. She was planning something more than just talking to Berton.
“I don’t like secrets, Dominique,” Kevin said. He felt her stiffen and knew he’d said the wrong words, but didn’t care. “I don’t think they’re good in a relationship.”
“But didn’t you say that sometimes there are things someone shouldn’t know?”
“There are things you may not want to find out, but once you know them keeping it to yourself can do more harm than good.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “I thought you said you trusted me.”
“I do.”
“By keeping secrets?” He released her. She stared at him, bereft, but he kept his distance determined not to comfort her. “Dominique, tell me what happened.”
“I told you.” She widened her eyes. “Do you think I killed my mother?”
“No,” he said, unmoved by her outrage. “But you’re hiding something. Is that how it’s always going to be with us? Secrets and lies?”
She stood. “Maybe I should go.”
“Is running your answer?”
“I’m not running.”
“I’ve asked you to trust me, but you’ve never once asked me to trust you. Is it because you don’t care?”
She looked at him with tears shinning in her eyes. “Why are you saying this to me? Especially now? I need you to—”
He surged to his feet, the sight of her tears making him angry. “Because I want the truth. I’m tired of trying to figure out who you are. Lies keep coming between us. Even how we met was a lie. Is anything between us even real?”
“Of course it is.”
“Then how come it doesn’t feel that way?”
Dominique stared at him for a long moment, but as if by a switch, the tears disappeared and her expression changed. It changed in a manner that made him realize he didn’t know her as well as he’d thought. That somehow the Dominique he’d come to love had disappeared and been replaced by a stranger. “Maybe because it was never meant to.”
It was when she turned to leave that he knew what he had to do. Kevin grabbed the side of his head and collapsed to the ground.
Dominique spun around and rushed to him. “What’s wrong?” she demanded, kneeling at his side.
“I don’t know,” he said through clenched teeth. “It’s my head.”
“Tell me the pain level on a scale of one to ten.”
“I can’t.”
“Okay, close your eyes and let me call Ferguson.”
Kevin grabbed her hand before she could stand. When she turned to him alarmed, he smiled. “Just what I thought.”
“What?”
“You scared me for a moment, but you still care, don’t you?”
“That was all an act?”
“Go ahead and be angry with me, I had to know the truth. At least about you.”
Dominique folded her arms. “That was a dirty trick.”
He sat up, holding her gaze. “Don’t you think I have a right to know that you love me?”
Her arms fell to her side. “Who says--”
Kevin shook his head and let his gaze fall. “Never mind, I just said it to tease you. I know you don’t.”
He could feel her gaze on him, could almost hear her thinking. Strategizing. He was doing the same. He had to be careful not to let his guard down so that she felt safe with him. She always opened up when she thought he was the most vulnerable. When she thought he needed her.
“My mother told me that my father has another business.”
Yes, that’s it. “Hmm.”
“He’s very protective of it.” She hesitated.
Keep talking to me, don’t stop.
“And it’s very lucrative,” she said.
It’s okay, you can trust me.
“It may be illegal.”
Good girl.
Kevin felt the tension in him ease. He hadn’t lost her. She was still his and she trusted him. Carla hadn’t won and her father wouldn’t come between them. He’d defeated them both. Although Dominique kept talking, her words became a buzzing in his ear. His senses became more in tune with the quick rising and falling of her chest, the shadow of a strand of hair against her cheek, the deep huskiness of her voice, the scent of her skin.
