“I think I know who started that fire. It was no accident.”
Finely trimmed brows furrowed into the deepest scowl Alicia had ever seen on that already stern face. “Tell me. Now.”
Alicia didn’t doubt that Danica saw herself as her savior. The woman who would protect her for the rest of her life. The only one fit for such an honor. Money? She had billions at her disposal. Love? Her heart was tepid at best, but the intent was there. The woman wanted to love. She wanted to create domestic harmony and spoil one woman for the rest of her life. Security? What kind did Alicia want? She could have it.
All Alicia had to do was say a name. She was waiting. An old boyfriend. A stalker. Someone from work. A good-for-nothing neighbor. Danica was ready for any of those. She would sic her own militarized team on them if the police refused to do their damn jobs.
But her own father? Was she ready for that?
“I should clarify,” Alicia began. “I don’t know who set the fire, exactly, but I do have a pretty good idea who arranged to have it happen.”
Something glistened in Danica’s dark eyes. Did she know? Did she have an inkling, even subconsciously?
“Your father.”
Was Alicia imagining the deafening silence in the room? Did she make up how hard her lover squeezed her hand? No? She really was crushing Alicia’s bones and making her wince and cry for relief? One thing was for sure. Alicia did not imagine that visage of pure, unadulterated disbelief taking over the entirety of Danica Moreau’s face.
“Don’t jest about such things at a time like this, Alicia.”
She whimpered from her crushed hand and the disapproving look on Danica’s face. “I’m not joking,” she insisted, even with the meekest voice she could muster. The tears returned yet again. This was what she feared. “Your father has threatened me multiple times.”
“He’s all bluster.” Danica spoke with finality.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t know him like I do.” At long last, Danica dropped Alicia’s hand, both landing on her hips as she pushed back her jacket and exposed the fashionable belt around her midsection. “He threatens and bullies people into agreeing with him. I’ve seen it a million times in the boardroom. He says he’s going to cut someone’s throat, but the only cutthroat business he engages in is decimating banquet dinners.” A scoff of disbelief escaped her. “Put that idea out of your mind. If it wasn’t an accident, I’ll find out who did this.”
This wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the damn place. Yet Alicia couldn’t hold back the words frustratingly pouring from her mouth. “Even your mother has warned me! She told me all aboutthe horrible shit your father did to her! Which includes healthy doses of physical abuse and lighting her on fire, Danica!”
She had never seen this woman shocked before. Not truly. She had been surprised. Startled, maybe. Shocked? Never. Apparently, the only way to shock Danica Moreau was by accusing her father of foul bullshit.
And bringing up her mother.
“What are you talking about?” No emotion existed in her voice. Even her face calmed into the blankest expression donned before Alicia. “What’s this about my mother?”
Alicia swallowed. Where was her mother and that water? “I’ve met your mother before. Three times.”
Danica loomed over the bed, head slowly coming down toward Alicia’s.
“Start. From. The beginning.”
Now Alicia knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of Danica Moreau’s ire. Was this what her employees felt like when she was on a tear? Did she inherit this wild and cold look from her father? Was this what Alicia had to look forward to should she marry this woman and accidentally piss her off?I can’t. I can’t look at her.Alicia turned away, fear gripping her heart.
Somehow, she spoke. She started from their second meeting, after they had sex in her family’s penthouse, and she sent her on her way. Russell’s first threat in the building lobby. The deranged woman with the burn scars who hopped into the back of Alicia’s ride home.
When she mentioned the burn scars… that was the only time Danica’s eyes whirled in anything but anger.
Alicia explained what happened in Chicago. Julia, back again, this time dropping in on a café and subsequently inviting Alicia to another hotel, where she told the most harrowing tale. It was not easy to replicate for the woman’s daughter. How could Alicia even gloss over the atrocities Danica’s estranged mothersuffered at the hands of her father? All the fear she lived with? Recounting a moment of abuse in Danica’s own childhood that she claimed not to remember? The tipping point for Julia to finally leave… and then have the nightmare grow?
How did she tell the woman she loved that her father tried to have her mother killed in one of the most horrific ways?
Plus, it was fire! Clearly, it was Russell’s go-to weapon against the women he deemed too big a nuisance in his life.I wasn’t good enough for his daughter. I was a threat. So, he tried to kill me. That’s what one does, apparently.
Danica remained standoffish through this tale, but she did not interrupt. Instead, Alicia received the hard look of a woman who didn’t want to believe a single word. This was the moment she realized that Danica actually did not know this woman she claimed to love so much in so little time. Alicia wanted to agree that she was an idiot.For all you know, I’m crazy.
“You always talk about trusting your gut,” Alicia finished with. “My gut tells me that your father wants me gone so badly that he’ll kill me. What are you going to do about that?”
Danica didn’t speak for another minute. Her eyes glanced around the room, from the thin blanket on Alicia’s legs, to the sun setting outside, to the drab clock on the drabber wall. Baseball players walked to bases on the TV screen. Nurses argued whether to ram into Alicia’s room. Linda crowed in the background that she had a right to be in there, too.
