She watched him as he took another drag, leaning back against the desk.
‘Don’t you think it’s time to stop this, Jimmy?’ Charley was almost pleading now, but it was all she had left. She was lost, she was scared, and she had no idea what else she could do, except get out of there. ‘Haven’t you made your point? Haven’t you achieved what you set out to do?’
‘Have I?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow, flicking ash onto the already filthy floor around him. ‘You really think I’ve achieved everything I wanted to?’
Charley felt any strength she had left slowly fading away as exhaustion flooded her body. She’d never wanted to get out of a place faster than she wanted to get out of there. ‘How can you possibly hurt me any more than you already have?’ she whispered, trying to keep her voice steady as she spoke.
‘I thought you’d know the answer to that one by now, honey.’ He fixed her with one more cold and determined stare, his eyes never leaving hers as he spoke. ‘By hurting others, Charley. By hurting all the others.’
CHAPTER 30
Reece couldn’t help feeling slightly relieved that, for him at least, filming on this movie had drawn to a close. He’d found the whole process exhausting, but that had had nothing to do with the workload. It was everything else; the constant media attention that he’d thought he’d be used to after all these years – but then, when your famous daughter’s new boyfriend turns out to be the long-lost son of her ex-husband the only outcome that could ever have had was to step things up a notch or two – the worry of India getting herself into something else that could only end up in yet more heartache, and the feeling that, once again, something was going on that he didn’t know about.
‘How about a vacation, now you’re done here?’ Martha asked, coming out of the en-suite bathroom, towel-drying her damp blond hair. ‘Maybe a couple of weeks in Aruba?’
‘Aruba?’ Reece asked, not looking up as he sat down on the edge of the bed, tying his shoe laces.
‘Yes, Aruba. Palm Beach, I thought. Remember when we went there a couple of years ago? Those beautiful sunsets, the walks along the shoreline and, oh, those cocktails…’
‘What’s going on, Martha?’
Martha stopped what she was doing and looked at him. ‘What do you mean, what’s going on? I’m planning a vacation.’
Reece stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. ‘Forget the vacation.’
‘You need a break, honey…’
‘No, what I need is the truth.’
Martha threw the towel she’d been using to dry her hair down onto a nearby chair, looking at Reece with an expression she hoped relayed nothing but confusion. ‘I don’t understand…’
‘Something’s going on, Martha.’
She felt her stomach take a dip, but she didn’t miss a beat. ‘Nothing’s going on, what are you talking about?’
He stood completely still, fixing her with a determined stare. He could tell by her body language that he’d hit a nerve. He was on the right track; he just had to push a little harder.
‘You’d never planned to come and join me here in Vegas.’
‘Are you saying you’d rather I wasn’t here?’ She knew that wasn’t what he was saying at all but she really needed to distract him from taking this conversation any further.
‘No, of course I’m not. And you know that. I love having you around, I miss you when you’re not here. All I’m saying is that you had never originally intended to come here to Vegas. I know you had work lined up, interviews, promotion… and you don’t normally re-arrange anything like that without a very good reason.’
‘I… I just wanted to be with you, that’s all. We haven’t been together for a while, what with me being away filming…’
‘Cut the crap, Martha! I know you too well. You’re a professional, you don’t cause hassle without a bloody good reason, and we both know that. You don’t like letting people down. Do you?’
She looked at him, taking a deep breath, exhaling louder than she intended, what felt like the weight of a thousand secrets weighing heavy on her shoulders.
‘Nothing’s going on, Reece. I just wanted to put my husband first for a change, that’s all. What’s so wrong with that?’
‘Nothing’s wrong with that. It’s just a little coincidental, in my opinion.’
She narrowed her eyes, pulling the towel that was covering her body tighter around herself. ‘Coincidental?’