Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,4

hands over her cheeks as her tears continued to fall hot and wet, she threw clothes into the bag. She wasn’t quite sure what she was packing, but it didn’t matter. Shoes, she needed shoes. Going to the large walk-in closet she’d spent hours organizing and reorganizing because she couldn’t believe it was hers, she found her cheapest, oldest pair of tennis shoes and thrust her feet into them.

She wiped her forearm across her face as she went to the cubby that held folded sweaters for when Abe wanted her to go somewhere cold. Mostly he never took her with him on tour, but a couple of times she’d attended music events in colder places; events where he’d needed his wife to “hang on his arm.”

Almost bending over from the pain, she gritted her teeth. Once it had passed and though her tears refused to stop, she took out the sweaters and put them neatly in another cubby. Even now, she couldn’t bring herself to treat the beautiful cashmeres and silks with anything but care. Right at the back, hidden in a small box, was her stash of emergency money.

Abe had given her credit cards that had no limit, didn’t care what she bought, but Sarah had never been able to fully trust the cards. So she’d withdrawn money on them. If Abe or his accountants noticed, they didn’t say anything. She’d never withdrawn much. A hundred here, a couple of hundred there. Enough that she had a fund just in case.

She didn’t know what she’d been preparing for. Maybe this.

A woman who knew she wasn’t loved could never quite settle in.

Taking out the two thousand dollars she’d accumulated in the time since their marriage, she put some in her bra, some in her shoe, some in the suitcase, and just a little in her purse. If she got mugged, they wouldn’t get all of it. She took the cards too. A woman who had no family, no one to whom to turn, couldn’t afford pride.

And if the husband she adored thought she was nothing but a gold digger, useful only for spreading her legs and being an ornament, then she might as well live up to that expectation.

Swallowing down the new wave of raw tears that threatened, she carried the suitcase down the stairs and threw it into the dark green Jaguar parked outside. It wasn’t her car, but she could use it whenever she wanted. Trying not to think about how Abe had taught her to drive, how he’d just shaken his head and laughed when she accidentally reversed the Jaguar into his SUV, she checked that she had her purse, then put the Jag into gear and peeled away. She’d leave it somewhere safe after she found a place to stay, call the housekeeper and tell her where it was so one of Abe’s drivers could come pick it up.

Sarah might be trailer trash, but she was no thief.

Her mouth twisted as she thought of the credit cards.

Abe had given those to her, she reminded herself. I have every right to use them and not feel guilty about it. And she would. If she couldn’t reach his heart, she’d hurt his wallet.

Sobs wracked her. “Stop it,” she ordered herself. “No one cares if you cry.”

No one ever had.

Sarah didn’t know where she was going, but when she found herself in front of a good but not A-list hotel, she stopped, parked, and stalked up to the counter. They stared at her when she asked them to pre-charge the room for a week, but since her card was black and clearly had her name on it and she had her ID, they did it. Now, even if Abe canceled the cards, she’d have a place to stay for a week.

She was rolling her own bag to the elevator when the doors to that elevator opened and a well-dressed man in what she recognized as an expensive suit walked out. Patrician-faced and golden skinned with blue eyes and dark hair threaded with fine glints of silver, he immediately made her feel grubby and small. He had wealthy and cultured written all over him.

Then his features creased with concern. “My dear, you look distressed. What’s the matter?”

Sarah just shook her head, unable to speak in the face of his unexpected kindness.

“Shh, it’s all right. Let’s get this bag and you up to your room.” He carried her bag up for her, and when she fumbled the key card, he took