Page 37 of Beauty and her Billionaire Beast
“Will you stop and just calm down for a minute? You don’t have all thefacts.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” She goes over to the walk-in closet and drags her empty suitcase with her, dumping it on thebed.
“What are you doing with that?” I ask and run a frustrated hand through myhair.
She goes back into the closetand brings out a handful of her clothes, still on their hangers. “I’m goinghome.”
“No. You’re not.” I stand in front of the suitcase, blocking herpath.
“Move, Knox. Get out of my way.” She tries to move my body, but it’s impossible with our sizedifference.
“Why? For you to run again? Like you did at the engagement party? Or back in thelimo?”
“Like you can talk,”she shouts at the top of her lungs. “You left me for ten whole years! I didn’t have a fucking clue what I did to you! And you didn’t give a crap whether I was alive or dead, happy or in the worst fucking pain of my life! You still don’t give a shit about me. I’m just here so your grandfather will get off your back and stop putting pressure on you to settledown.”
“That’s nottrue.”
“Well you know what? It doesn’t matter. I know what I need to know. I’m not staying here a secondmore.”
“All right, fine!” I’m at the end of my fucking rope. I can’t keep a leash on my rage for much longer. I’m fucking done. Stepping to the side, I walk out of the room and return to the guest room where my things are. We’re supposed to stay here another night, and I won’t leave Popshere alone. I grab my car keys and head up to the mainhouse.
“Pops,” I call from the main floorfoyer.
“In here.” I follow his voice to his smoking room and find him sitting in his easy chair with a pipe hanging out of his mouth. Senator Harrison is in the dark red leather sofa, about to cut the tip of acigar.
“Hey there,” I say, trying to keep a lid on my anger. “Pops,I’ll be back in a fewhours.”
“All right, son. You and Isabelle going into town? Keep your eye out for those pesky paparazzi people. Damn snoops,” hegrumbles.
“Actually, I’m taking her back to the city. She wants to gohome.”
Her father leans forward in his chair, interested now. “What? Is she allright?”
“Yes, she’sfine.”
He rests the cigar on the coffee tablein front of him. “She probably saw that article. I know first-hand how much she hates when the media makes a spectacle of her. She’s just like her sister, but Bethany is a lot worse.” He chuckles. “Her sister moved two thousand miles away to get away from all this public scrutiny. Can’t say that I can blame her.” He gets to his feet. “I’ll talk toIsabelle.”
“All right,” I answer, and motionfor him to go ahead of me. I follow him to the pool house, but we quickly see that there’s no sign of Isabelle. “She was just here. I don’t think she’d take mycar.”
“Let’s check the front,” Senator Harrison suggests. “We drove here in Tandy’sSUV.”
We hurry to the front of the main house. My car is still there. Tandy’s SUV is also parked in the same spot. But we turn to the drivewayentrance in time to see a catering van leaving through the wrought iron gates. Both windows are rolled down, and in the passenger seat, I seeIsabelle.
“She can’t leave like this,” I say, not hiding my anger. “I can stop them with mycar.”
“No.” The senator puts a firm arm on my shoulder. “Let her go. She’ll calm downeventually.
“We don’t even know who that driver is,” Iobject, but it sounds weak andidiotic.
“Nothing will happen to her. More likely than not, they’ll drive her to the Hamptons Jitney bus. Trust me, son. She’ll be fine. She just needs a minute to get over…everything.”
I don’t agree, but if this is what she wants, I’ll give her whatever space sheneeds.
“Okay,” I concede. “I need to get my phone from the car. I must’ve leftit in there last night. Just in case she phones.” Turning, I head to my car and click the remote to open the driver side door. As I lean down to grab my phone in one of the drink holders, I notice something and smile alittle.
Isabelle just high-tailed it out of here—without the keys to herapartment.
The Senator heads inside, and I take my phone with me back to the pool house toconnect it to thecharger.
She’ll seeme.
A lot sooner than shethinks.
