commodity and bartered in a transaction? If that’s the case, please, let’s chat. If your difficulty sleeping was caused by anything other than that demeaning occurrence, I’m afraid I can’t relate.”
He shook his head. “Let me tell you what I’d planned.”
The sound of his voice and his drawl no longer made me smile. On the contrary, it caused the acid in my stomach to churn and percolate in my throat.
I threw back the blanket that had recently brought warmth to my legs and toes, warmth that I didn’t realize I’d been missing. Moving my legs to the other side of the chair and out of his reach, I said, “You’ll have to excuse me, Marion, I’m not feeling well.”
As I stood, he seized my wrist. “Hear me out, Madeline.”
“Why? Why should I listen to you or Andros or any of the vile, contemptuous men who found sadistic pleasure in my agony?” I freed my wrist. “You said yesterday that you and the others thought I was enjoying myself seventeen years ago. Did you hear yourself? Do you truly believe an eighteen-year-old abused and starving child enjoyed having the eyes of men twice and three times her age staring at her, leering, fantasizing, and judging? Is that the kind of lies you told yourself to justify your behavior?”
“Some were closer to your age, such as Antonio.”
The confirmation caused the acid bubbling to move upward in my throat.
“Didn’t you know?” he asked with a sneer.
“I didn’t, but I’m glad he’s dead. One down.”
His grin grew. “We really must move on. There are more pressing matters.”
“My daughter is sixteen years old. Do you believe that I want her near any man who found perverse pleasure in the suffering of a teenager?”
“Andros was there—”
I lifted my hand. “Stop right there.”
“I can assure you that when it comes to Ruby, my intentions are pure.”
“Pure, as in you want to adopt her, you want to claim her as your own, and you want to stake a claim on an empire she has never known or known of her connection. Tell me, is that your definition of pure?”
“As I said,” he replied, standing, the long chair now separating us. “We must move on. There are matters at hand.”
“You know what?” I asked, slapping my thighs as I turned away and then back. “I thought I had moved on. Somewhere and sometime during Ruby’s lifetime, I thought I had moved beyond that horrible night, the hell that preceded it, and the one that followed. I dedicated my life to her and her well-being.”
“That is why you need to hear me out,” Marion said. “We—my men, not Andros’s—have been looking into what happened yesterday.”
“How you sent Antonio Hillman to retrieve the most precious person in my world and how he double-crossed you.”
Marion inhaled. “It appears as though Mr. Hillman had a small aircraft chartered near where his body was found. It was set to fly into Mexico, a small town only seventy miles south of the border. I have private detectives going there today.”
I had to remind myself that this should be new information.
“Why?” I asked, pretending that I wasn’t confident she was now safe with her father. “Do you think Ruby is there?”
“Not via the plane Hillman chartered. But it’s a lead, Madeline. I promise we’ll find her.”
Inhaling, I let out the breath slowly. As I did, I recalled Marion’s first words as he came closer. “Why did you refer to me as Mrs. Elliott? Saying it doesn’t make it so. I can’t and I won’t marry you.”
Marion nodded. “After you left the library last night, Andros and I discussed that possibility.”
My neck straightened. “Of course you did. The two of you have this all worked out.”
Marion reached into the pocket of the suede jacket he was wearing over a light blue button-up, complete with a bolo tie.
My eyes narrowed as I waited for another ribbon or symbol of my servitude.
Held between his thumb and finger was a small velvet box.
My chin rose. “I told you that I don’t care if it’s a ribbon or a ring, I won’t wear it.”
He opened the box. In the early morning sunlight, the diamonds glistened. There was one ridiculously large center stone surrounded by multiple smaller stones. “I contacted a jeweler in Dallas late last night and described what I wanted,” he said. “He worked all night.” Marion plucked the ring from the velvet grasp. “I didn’t know your size and neither did Andros. The jeweler promised me that it can