Page 109 of Ice Cold Christmas
“I got away,” Melody repeated. “And suddenly, I was in a hospital. There were new witnesses. New problems. It spiraled, didn’t it? I started working at a diner. Made some new friends. What were you going to do? Come all the way back up there to kill me? Make me vanish a second time? Perhaps that’s when it became easier to just leave me there. After all, I didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t know who the hell I was. The docs said I might never know. If you could marry Dario and get me declared dead, then you’d still have everything you wanted without the trouble of coming for me again.”
Olivia’s expression slowly shifted. Hardened. “Do you think I enjoyed being your fucking poor best friend all those years? The pity pal that you loaned your dresses to because I couldn’t afford to fit in with those stupid, pretentious assholes that were all around us?”
Melody pressed her lips together.
“I wasn’t going to be some hanger-on for the rest of my life. I was going to have everything.” Olivia’s eyes blazed. “I deserved to have all the things that you did! I deserved my turn!”
“Speaking of all the things that I had…” Melody rolled back her shoulders. “I notice that your rings are gone. Those sparkly diamonds I saw you wearing at the estate. Did the police take them into custody?”
“We did,” Laila stated. “Bagged and tagged.”
“I’m pretty sure they were mine.” Something Melody had realized in the boardroom. Her stare didn’t leave Olivia. “You’re trying to act like you were forced to do so much. Who forced you to wear my engagement ring? You had the diamonds separated. You put them on your own fingers, and you wore them like some kind of sick souvenir.”
Laila whistled. “Well, that will sure be handy evidence.”
Disgust—and fear—flashed on Olivia’s face. “Why the hell did you have to come home, Melody? Why? We were just going to leave you there! You could’ve had a life.”
“I already had a life,” Melody snapped back. “You took it from me. I came to get it back, you bitch.”
Olivia’s mouth dropped open.
“Really have to know.” Melody had to choke down her rage. “The big plan of yours—it involved you marrying Dario, huh? What were you going to do, kill him eventually? Then live happily-ever-after with your detective? Or was the detective gonna die, too?” She tapped her chin as she pretended to consider things. “If Dario died, did you believe that you could get all the Mage money and the property? The business?”
“There is no money any longer. No property. Victor has it all!”
“Bet you wish that you’d known all of that before you started spinning your plans.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” Laila called.
Uniformed officers entered. A male and a female in dark blue.
“We’re here for the prisoner transfer,” the male announced.
Olivia began to cry.
“Guess it’s time for her to go home,” Hunter said, finally speaking. “But I don’t think she’s going to like the new digs.”
“You fucking asshole!” Olivia shouted at him.
“I get that a lot.” Hunter rolled one shoulder. “Merry Christmas to you, too, sunshine.”
“I think you should have stayed in the hospital for another day,” Melody fretted as she stood on the front porch of Victor’s home. Snow fell lightly, fluttering in the air around them. She’d bundled into her coat and a warm, red scarf wrapped around her neck. “We could have celebrated Christmas there. I had a tree in your room.”
Victor turned. Frowned at her.
She smiled at him. Happiness surged inside of her. Sure, her best friend had tried to kill her. There had been a million questions to answer. Details to sort out but…
Victor was alive. He’d gotten cleared from the docs at the hospital so that he could actually be home for Christmas. Her father was safe. She’d been talking to him more and more. Yes, his mind slipped. Sometimes, he would forget her.
She could certainly understand forgetting…
But sometimes, her father would look at her with such love that it stole her breath.
And someone else who looked at her with love? The big, tall, dangerous man before her. The man who was currently frowning. Frowning with love. It was a thing.
“We are not having Christmas in the hospital,” he growled. “We’re having it at home, together. I’m going to make love to you all night long…”
