Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

And in turn, I’d developed a taste for power. And yet, once I had a little, I needed more, like a junkie whose last fix was never as good as the first, and yet I kept trying to score more.

More, more, more…

More money, more power, more sex…

Put them all together and it was even better cocktail.

I inhaled as much of it as I could get. It was a miracle it hadn’t killed me yet. I was sure if I kept going the way I was, it would have. I would have had a heart attack from stress, or something equally repugnant.

But Chloe had come along, knocking me off my pedestal and showing me what life was really all about.

With her smile, her innocence, her irresistible naiveté…her sensuous, stunning body…

Love.

That’s what she’d given me.

Pure, perfect, love.

And all I’d managed to do was screw it up over and over.

I hated to admit it, but fuck if I didn’t know what the hell I was doing here. It was all new to me.

One minute, I wanted to rip her clothes off and devour her body like a goddamned caveman, with uncontrollable and animalistic rage, and in the next, I wanted to throw my entire body over her and protect her from the bullets of life, keep her soft, make her happy, gaze at her beautiful smile all day long, gently kiss every inch of her perfect skin.

I’m sure I was supposed to be doing something somewhere in the middle, but I’d yet to find the sweet spot apparently.

She’d been entirely forgiving and gracious up till now, but I was afraid my latest screw up transcended an entirely new level of fucked up.

That’s why I agreed to give her space.

I stood there staring at her there in that room, her belly covered with slippery goo, her feet up in the stirrups, her eyes raging with anger that I’d never seen cross them…and they were turned towards me.

I hated that more than anything.

That’s why I gave in, agreed to give her space. I didn’t want to. I wanted to insist she come home, I wanted to order her sexy ass into my car and into our bed and make love to her until all of her anger was gone and she looked at me with soft eyes again.

But I knew I couldn’t do that.

I had to give her what she asked for and if what she was asking for was for me to leave her alone, then no matter how much it went against every fucking instinct I possessed, I had to do it.

So, here I was.

Sitting in my car and cursing myself like a fucking love-sick kid.

I started up the car and drove to the Four Seasons, reminding myself that time heals all wounds.

Hopefully some faster than others…

I got the penthouse again, the one that we’d stayed in on our wedding night so I could feel close to Chloe while I was gone. At forty-five grand a night, it was worth it. Sure, it was extravagant for just one person, but I’d spent my money in more frivolous ways.

I didn’t care.

Besides, I hoped Chloe would forgive me sooner than later.

In the meantime, I’d stay out of her hair and focus on other things.

The thought of being in her hair, the sweet smell of her shampoo, sent a shot of pain right through my heart. I fucking missed her already.

This was not going to be easy.

I just had to remind myself that this was the right thing to do—even if I had to remind myself every fucking five minutes so I didn’t pick up the phone to call or worse, show back up at the penthouse before she wanted me to.

Yep. Stupid love-sick kid.

That’s what it felt like.

It was a hat I wasn’t used to wearing and it felt ridiculous.

It felt vulnerable and that was the last thing I ever wanted to feel.

“Fuck!” I yelled to the empty hotel suite. It was too big, too full of memories. I’d taken her that night in almost every room, every corner, up against the window, on this couch I’m sitting on right now.

“Fuck!” I yelled again, punching the leather beside me.

I stood up and walked outside, trying to figure out how I was going to get through this. I wished I could call my best friend, but I couldn’t.

Bruce, I thought, I’ll just focus on finding his killer.

It was still early in the afternoon, and I’d come straight to the hotel after leaving Chloe at the doctor’s office. I knew there was no way I’d be able to just sit here for too much longer, so I grabbed my phone and keys and left the suite.

Something about my last meeting with Lacey Vance had been eating at me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me. I drove to her office, hoping for one more meeting with her. Bruce had never been this easy to meet with. When he was the DA he was always busy, always working. Lacey had talked to me without an appointment twice already and I was hoping my charm and good luck would work a third time.

I was just parking my car in the garage when I saw her exit the elevator. I parked, at first intending to approach her before she reached her car, but instead, I waited. She walked to her car quickly, then jumped behind the wheel and sped off down the ramp of the garage.

I didn’t think twice about following her. It’s not like I had anything else to do at the moment.

Chloe’s face haunted me as I trailed behind Lacey. She headed down several streets, finally getting stuck behind a group of taxis for a while before hastily speeding around them.

I followed behind at a good distance, keeping a few cars between us.

Ten minutes later and we were in Harlem. I kept following and when I saw her turn down the same street Santiago lived on, my heart starting racing. When she parked her car down the street from it, I thought maybe it was just a coincidence. I found a place to park not far from her, dropping down low in my seat as I watched.

She walked right up to Santiago’s building.

“What the fuck,” I whispered, my eyes darting around. There were dozens of people wandering around, but they were all minding their own business and I didn’t recognize anyone. Lacey entered the building and I jumped out of my car, crossing the street and standing at the side of the entrance. I peeked around the corner and froze.

Lacey was standing in the garden of the building, talking with a very large, very familiar man. The man I’d seen in Bruce’s cabin. Alonzo.

I hid behind the corner, straining my ears to listen.

“Is Santiago around?” she asked.

“Nope, he just left,” he said.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“No, but you might want to wait till tomorrow. After you told him that rich prick was sniffing around, he got all pissed off. He went to take care of him, so I don’t think he’ll be in the mood to talk when he gets back.”

“Dalton?”

I bristled at the sound of my name.

“Yep. Now that your old boss is gone, he figures Dalton is fair game. Especially now that’s he’s fishing for information.”

“But he made a deal with Bruce,” she said.

“Can’t keep a deal with a dead guy, now can you?”

“Shit,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told Santiago that Dalton came to visit me.”

“Doesn’t matter. He’d have figured it out anyway. Someone told him he had another guy digging around, too. Nothing gets past Rio.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” she said. “He sure does hate Dalton. I’ve never seen someone hold a grudge for so long.”

“Yeah, well, Ruby was his girl…”

My phone rang in my pocket and I almost jumped out of my skin. I ran down the sidewalk away from them, my heart pounding in my chest. I pulled out my phone and saw that it was my assistant, Sarah.

/> “Fuck,” I muttered, turning my phone off and shoving it back into my jacket pocket. I jogged back down towards the building and peeked around the corner again. They were still talking.

“…I’ve never seen Santiago so happy as when he was with Ruby. That didn’t stop him from turning her out, of course,” Alonzo laughed. Lacey laughed with him and I cringed. “When she met Dalton, that was all she could talk about. I think she thought he was her way out, I don’t know. She should have known better. Nobody gets out of this life. Anyway, she was never the same after that pinchazo dumped her. She came back, all depressed, didn’t want to work, talking about all the shit she’d done with him. Santiago let her get away with that shit, too. That’s how much he loved her.”

“Wow,” Lacey said. My head was spinning, trying to recall my time with Ruby. It was so long ago, so insignificant, so meaningless, really.

“He tried to save her, but he couldn’t. Everyone said he should kick her ass, straighten her up, you know? But Santiago never laid a hand on her. It still didn’t work, though and when she jumped off that parking garage, it fucked him up big time.”

My heart sank. Ruby was dead? Fuck!

“He already hated Dalton by then, just because he knew Ruby was in love with him, but he’d let him live as long as the DA helped him out in exchange. Once he figured out Dalton and the DA were best friends, he convinced the DA he’d kill Dalton if he didn’t hide the evidence. I think even Santiago was shocked he took the bait at the time.”

“Everyone was,” Lacey said.

“But you know what? He still kept holding out hope for Ruby, even after he went to jail. She killed herself six months later and I tell you, it wrecked Rio. He came out of the pen angrier, harder, with nothing left to lose. Once he served his sentence, he wanted blood.”

“I probably shouldn’t have told him where Bruce was living,” she said. Rage filled my veins when I heard that. It took all my strength not to come out from my hiding spot.

“And what? Let him kill your husband? You had no choice once he threatened you and you know he’d have done it in a heartbeat.”

“I just wish none of this shit had happened. It’s just snowballing and I never expected anyone to die, for fuck’s sake.” Her voice was filled with anguish, but it did nothing to quell the anger raging through me.