Page 42 of Queen's Ransom

“Goodbye, Dex.”

“What about the arraignment?” he blurted out. “Will you be there tomorrow?”

“No, but I’ll be sure to have Helena give you my regards.”

She hung up before he could respond, almost missing the receiver cradle because her hands were shaking so badly. Fight or flight—she recognized the response now—and for the first time in her life, she’d fought back against Dex. She was proud of herself, but she was also shaken, expecting reprisal even if she knew it wouldn’t be coming. She needed to talk to someone.

She grabbed her cell, thumb hovering over the speed dial for Helena, until the earlier pain and doubt flooded back in. Already weakened, it would have taken out her knees if she weren’t sitting. As it was, it tossed and turned her insides, leaving her even more of a mess, which Helena no longer wanted to have anything to do with, no matter what she’d led Dex to believe. She scrolled down her contacts list to the counselor and survivor who led her domestic violence support group.

“Celia, hey,” Bonnie answered. “How’s it going?”

“It’s been a rough few days,” Celia said. “And I just had a bit of a run in with my ex.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, it was a phone call, and I actually stood up to him, but now I can’t stop shaking. I could use someone to talk to.”

“Good for you, and after that kind of a rush, the crash is totally normal,” Bonnie said. “Caffe Trieste in a half hour?”

Celia sighed a deep, relieved breath, her first one all day. “I’ll see you soon.”

Chapter Eighteen

Helena slid in beside the man dressed in worn jeans and a long-sleeve tee and rested her forearms on the metal rail overlooking the lush green canopy of Cal Academy’s indoor rainforest. “Do you come here every week because you actually like science and nature?”

Hawes assumed the same position on the other side of August Ferriello. “Or is it because there’s a mark within five feet at all times?”

Maybe even closer in here. The rainforest walkways were narrow and the flow of foot traffic steady. Two steps back and she’d be right in the stream of it. And then there was outside the giant glass dome where the multi-floor California Academy of Sciences teemed with countless visitors and patrons.

“Does it look like I’m scoping marks?” August replied, his voice rougher than she recalled, and Helena wondered when he’d last spoken to anyone. She didn’t wonder, though, what August’s sharp eyes were assessing.

“Marks, no,” Helena said. “Exits, yes.”

He aimed his smirking light brown eyes at her. “You always were the smart one.”

“Yet you slept with the other one?”

“Mistakes were made.” August resumed his roving downward stare and jutted his chin toward the crowd below. “Not like I’d steal from any of them.”

“You gone clean?”

“Ninety-nine percent of tourists aren’t worth it.”

“That’s right,” Hawes said. “You’d rather rip off us locals instead.”

August pushed off the rail, only to turn and rest back against it, arms crossed over his broad chest. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

Hawes leaned a hip next to his and adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves beneath his suit coat. “It’d be nice to have my father’s cufflinks for the wedding.”

August shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh?” Hawes said, a whip in his tone that made Helena worry for August’s safety. “So that wasn’t you who fucked me, then stole the family jewels while I slept?”

Chris’s growl through the comm in Helena’s ear was likewise worrisome, but at the same time highly amusing. In what was turning out to be a brutal day, made more so by the distance she was forcing herself to keep from the one person she wanted to get closer to, she welcomed the momentary amusing distraction of Hawes snipping at his one-night stand while Chris fumed.

“I don’t think that ex-fed would be marrying you if I’d stolen all the jewels.”

“Get to the fucking point,” Chris ordered.

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