I tucked her under my arm, grateful that Rumi, and Cadence, who had well and truly proven tonight that she deserved nothing from me, had already left.
“Let’s go, Catnip,” I murmured, tugging my phone out and sending a quick text to Lucian.
Henry: SOS
He’d know that meant get the car as close to the building entrance as possible and get us the hell out of here.
“I’m such a stupid fool,” Ri muttered, clutching the framed photo to her chest. I couldn’t work out if it was to hide the picture from me or because it was precious to her. “How did she get in?”
“We’ll figure it out,” I promised, confused about what she meant, but knowing now was not the time to be discussing it. We had to get past the media rabble in the foyer, so I kept us walking as quickly as I could while still appearing casual. I didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention in our direction. “Let’s just get to the car, and then we’ll talk.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Okay. We’ll talk.” She sounded like I’d just issued her a death sentence. I wanted to pull her into me, to reassure her that whoever Bogdan Lupucojoc was, it wouldn’t change anything for me. Not regarding our agreement, and certainly not regarding how I felt about her.
But I kept my mouth tight as we entered the foyer. A frenzy of cameras clicked, almost as if they’d been primed that they might get something juicy from us.
Rumi, no doubt. The woman was diabolical. I wouldn’t underestimate her again. There were too many people I needed to keep a closer eye on, and Lucian could only be in so many places at once.
“Head down, Catnip. Just keep walking,” I told her in a low voice, picking up my pace as the photographers started shouting.
“Henry! Why the shotgun wedding?”
“Mr Baxter, rumour has it that your wife is pregnant—is that why you rushed to tie the knot?”
“How much were you paying her by the hour before you decided to put a ring on it?”
Irina flinched, and rage boiled in my blood. My free hand clenched into a fist, and I turned in the direction of the vulture who had dared to insult her.
“Henry, don’t!” Ri hissed frantically, pulling me in the direction of the huge wooden doors that would spill us out onto the sidewalk. “You do not want ‘Billionaire Assaults the Media’ being headline news tomorrow.”
I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. And then another. And another, letting my vision tunnel on the exit as we hurried towardsit. She was right, but I thought it might kill me not to defend her honour.
Lucian was waiting just outside the door. The second he saw my face, his expression turned grim, and he ushered us towards the SUV, wrenching open the back door so we could scramble inside. I gripped his arm before he could close the door.
“There’s a man in the foyer, a photographer in a plaid shirt, open over a black T-shirt. Find out who he works for.”
Lucian frowned, but gave a quick nod, closing the door and locking the car with his key.
“It’s not the worst thing anyone has ever said about me, you know,” Ri murmured, digging in her clutch with hands that shook. She tugged out her phone, tried to unlock it twice, but she trembled so violently that she couldn’t keep it still enough to get face recognition to work.
I gently took it from her. “What’s your passcode?”
She rattled off some numbers, and I unlocked the phone. I went to hand it back to her, but she shook her head.
“I’m too messy right now to text. Can you type something out to Kat for me?”
“Anything you need,” I rasped, navigating to the text app and finding her conversation with Kat, tapping out her words.
Irina: Rumi hasn’t been bothering you, has she? She hasn’t asked to come over and collect anything she might have left behind in my bedroom?
Heart hammering, I sent the message. “Do you think that?—”
Ri squeezed her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The only place Rumi could have gotten her hands on this …” She dropped the framed photo onto the seat between us— “was inside my bedroom.”
Her phone buzzed.
Kat: I haven’t seen or heard from her since that night she was screaming at you in the hallway. Why? What’s she done now? Even if she had contacted me, I’d have told her to fuck right off
Ri dictated another message to me.
