Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

“Well, it’s not over yet. He’s on his way to Dalton’s place right now. Said he wanted to do this one himself, since it’s personal. For Ruby, you know?”

My heart dropped when I realized exactly what he was saying.

I ran down the block to my car, fear gripping my heart as I raced home.

Chloe

I blew my nose for the millionth time since I’d left the doctor’s office. I hadn’t stuck around to finish the appointment. Instead, I cleaned myself up and dressed quickly before sneaking out a back door, grateful I hadn’t run into the doctor.

I’d call tomorrow and reschedule.

I was devastated and being all alone in the penthouse wasn’t helping. Why had I sent him away? I was still angry, but after being home alone for a few hours and processing everything, knowing now that at least he’d had some reason for paying off Randy, even if it was still unexcuseable, helped just a bit to ease my anger towards him.

I understood he was trying to help.

But he’d gone about it completely wrong.

I desperately wished he’d come to me first. But he hadn’t. Nothing I could do would turn back time. And now, I’d sent him away and here I was, all alone with nothing but my tears and this huge penthouse that did nothing but remind me how very alone I was.

I thought about calling him, but then I remembered all the other times I’d forgiven him so easily. Not this time.

I said I needed space, and no matter how much it hurt, I wasn’t going to back down. At least not right now.

I thought about calling Matilda, but then I’d have to explain the whole thing about Randy trying to blackmail us with pictures of her naked, and the whole thing grossed me out. I couldn’t deal with it. I’d have to tell her, of course, but right now, I just didn’t have the strength to deal with her reaction, whatever it may be.

Instead, I picked up the phone and called Marie.

I’d never been more grateful to hear her voice. As soon as she answered, I burst into tears.

“Whoa, whoa, Chloe, what’s up?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I said, sniffling into the phone. “No…”

“What happened?”

“Bear…” I said.

“You mean your dreamy billionaire husband?”

“Yes…” I sobbed. She wasn’t helping by pointing out what I was missing.

“Okay, maybe a few more details might help.”

“Randy…” I managed to sputter out through my tears.

“Randy? Do you mean the parasitic good-for-nothing scoundrel that impregnated your mother and by some miracle created my amazing best friend? That Randy?”

“Yes…,” I said, smiling in spite of my misery.

“What did Bear and Randy do?”

“God, Marie, you aren’t going to believe this!”

“Oh, this sounds juicy, tell me. Wait! Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Hmm,” she murmured. “I’ll reserve judgement. Keep going.”

“Randy apparently tried to blackmail Bear…or me…or Matilda, I don’t really know…all of us, I guess.”

“Blackmail? That’s…creative. With what?”

“Pictures and video of him having sex with Matilda.”

“Oh, my God!” she screamed, her sheer voice piercing my ears. “You saw them?”

“No, thank God!” I said. “I think Bear did.”

“You think?”

“Well, yeah, I guess he did. I don’t know I wasn’t there.”

“Lucky you,” she said. “Sounds like you dodged a bullet. You’d never be able to scrub that image from your head.”

“God, shut up already! I don’t even want to think about that!”

“Well, then why are you crying?”

“Because it worked!”

“What worked?”

“The blackmail, for fuck’s sake, aren’t you listening to me?”

“You aren’t exactly being crystal clear, Chloe. So who did he blackmail?”

“Goddammit, Marie.”

“Okay, all of you. So what, you paid him off?”

“Not me!” I protested. “Bear!”

“I see. Okay. And?”

“And I told him not to! But he did anyway and he didn’t tell me. He said he was going to tell me, but then…well, I was waiting for him…never mind…anyway, he didn’t tell me. He gave him a check for ten thousand dollars, Marie!”

She whistled and I rolled my eyes.

“It doesn’t matter how much, because he shouldn’t have given him a penny, don’t you understand?”

“Well, if you told him not to, then why did he?”

“Because Randy brought the pictures to him. When I told him not to, I didn’t know the pictures existed.”

“Well, what did you think he was blackmailing you with?”

“Nothing! He wasn’t blackmailing us, not at that time. Look, never mind.”

“Chloe, maybe I don’t understand, but it sounds like Bear did you a favor. He paid off Randy, saved your mother from a lot of embarrassment and saved you from a lifetime of therapy from seeing your mother have sex. I still don’t understand why you’re crying.”

Her words made me sob even more. I cried into the phone, snot and tears running all over my face.

“You sound terrible, Chloe,” Marie said. “Where’s Bear now?”

“At a hotel,” I said.

“You kicked him out of his own penthouse? That’s kind of bad ass…I’m proud of you.”

“I didn’t kick him out. I was going to leave. Her offered to go instead.”

“Oh, I see. Okay, well…when is he coming back?”

“I don’t know!” I cried.

“Well, just call him, Chloe. I don’t think this is a deal breaker unless there something you aren’t telling me. Is everything else okay? Is the baby okay?”

“The baby is fine,” I said, running my hand over my stomach.

“Well, it’s probably not good for you to get this upset. You should try to call him, or maybe take a bath or something first to calm down. Then call Bear and tell him to come home and you guys have some really good make-up sex so you can tell me all about it later.”

“Hush,” I said.

“Chloe, I saw you guys fuck. It’s hot. Okay? I wanna hear about it.”

“Shut up!” I said.

“Okay, okay, whatever. Jeez, I thought we’d reached a new level in our friendship, but I guess not.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Stop rolling your eyes,” she said.

“I’m not,” I lied.

“Yes, you are. Whatever. Look, I can only wish I had a husband like you do. Be grateful for him. Even if he went against your wishes, it sounds like he only did it to protect you and how can you be angry at that? It’s fucking sexy.”

“Is everything sexual to you?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” she said.

“You’re impossible. But you’re right, I guess. I’ll call him later and tell him to come home. He’s been so distracted lately with all the stuff with Bruce…everything was going so great, though, and then Randy decides to blow everything up.”

“What about Bruce?” she asked, her voice softening. I paused, remembering her crush on him.

“I thought I told you? Bear doesn’t think he killed himself. He thinks maybe someone killed him. Maybe someone from a case he was working on before he quit his job. Apparently, Bruce was in hiding up in the cabin, nobody knew he was up there. So Bear is trying to find out how someone might have found him. I don’t know, there’s more to it, but it’s complicated.”

“That’s not true, Chloe.”

“What isn’t?”

“That nobody knew he was up there.”

“How do you know?”

“I was on the phone with him one night and he got a visitor. He said it was an old coworker. A woman…Lacey, Casey…something like that.”

“Oh, r

eally?” I asked. “Okay, well I’ll tell Bear. He’ll want to know that.”

“Yeah, tell him. And then, have that make-up sex. You know my number.”

“Shut up!” I said again. I couldn’t help but laugh, though. Maybe things weren’t so bad, after all. Maybe I just needed my best friend to show me that.

The doorbell rang and I jumped.

“Someone just rang the bell, Marie, I gotta go,” I said, hoping it was Bear. But why would he ring the bell? I wondered. Maybe he’s just trying to be respectful.

“Tell Bear I said hello. And you know, if you wanna Skype that make-up sex later, just let me know ahead of time so I can dress appropriately…”

“You’re terrible. I’m hanging up now.”

I walked to the door with my phone in my hand, my palms sweating with nervousness and my heart filling with hope, all at the same time.

Maybe we could work this out.