Vows of Revenge

The next day a high-end digital camera showed up with a dozen lenses and other pieces of equipment.

Melodie didn’t even bother scolding him. She was too delighted.

She was happy. Happier than she’d ever been, so she ignored how tenuous things felt, not wanting to cause ripples.

Which was why the call from her father a few days later nearly had her dropping her brand-new camera onto the deck. When her phone rang she was so distracted with trying to work out one of the high-tech menu options, she picked up the call very absently, expecting Roman was being too lazy to come and find her from his office.

“Charmaine,” her father said, and she managed to catch the camera with her thighs and drop herself into a cushioned chair. Her stomach curdled. She hated that name. It was his mother’s name, and she’d been a horrible woman, bullying Melodie’s mother in a hundred ways, not the least of which being her insistence of being the namesake of her granddaughter.

“What—?” she asked faintly, unable to compute. “How did you get this number?”

“That doesn’t matter. The fact you have a new lover is the important piece here.”

Her fingers were going numb, her mind racing. “It’s none of your business.”

“Oh, I assure you it’s very much our business. Something we’re going to turn to our advantage.”

“How?” she choked. “By stealing from him again? There is nothing you can do to make me do anything for you.” Hysteria edged into her tone. “You have nothing to offer me. Nothing to hold over me.” A distant memory came to her of Roman using a certain phrase. “Lose this number,” she spat. “I don’t ever want to hear from you again.” She drew her arm back, ready to throw her beloved phone into the sea.

A hand caught hers from behind, nearly making her jump out of her skin.

Roman.

Oh, God.

She knew instantly by his grim expression that even if he hadn’t heard everything that had been said, he knew who she was talking to. He would believe she’d betrayed him and this would all be over, everything they had—

He pried the phone from her vice-like grip and ended the call, then moved so he stood facing her.

“I didn’t call him,” she stammered out quickly, beginning to shake. “I don’t even know how he got the number.” Her vision blurred as she grew convinced he was about to reject her. It was like seeing the car coming, yet having her feet stuck in cement. “I’m sorry,” she started to babble. “I didn’t know what to do—”

“Melodie,” he said firmly. “You did the right thing.” He set aside her phone and squatted in front of her, stilling her trembling hands as she tried to keep the camera in her lap. “Aside from the part where you nearly gave my prototype a burial at sea. Although it might have been a fun exercise using the signal to retrieve it.”

“Don’t make jokes,” she said, fighting tears, clinging to his hands with cold fingers. “Maybe it was my neighbor, the one getting my mail and watering my plants,” she sniffed, brain starting to work as she realized Roman wasn’t going to throw her overboard. She swiped at the wetness tracking to the corner of her mouth. “She doesn’t know anything about my relationship with him. If he got hold of her, she probably would have thought it was okay to give him my number. Roman, I’m so sorry. I don’t want him badgering us, making trouble—”

“He won’t,” he assured her, sounding so confident, the tears simply wouldn’t stay put behind her lashes.

She laughed bitterly. “I don’t think of you as a naive man, but surely you realize that he’ll do awful things now, try to get between us. Why didn’t I see this coming?”

“Melodie,” he chided, cupping the side of her face and brushing a thumb beneath her overflowing eye. “I’ll have the number changed. You won’t hear from him again. Now please stop crying. I don’t like seeing you upset by him.”

“He’ll keep trying!” she insisted.

“Let him try. I won’t let him near you. Believe me.” So commanding.

“How could you possibly stop him?” she asked, accosted by the kind of hopelessness she’d thought she’d managed to escape for good, that feeling that a dark lord could leap out of the shadows to rake her through the coals of hell at any moment. “I don’t know why I didn’t see that being with you, of all people, would make him—” She would have to break up with him if she expected to find any sort of peace.

Roman scowled, silently regarding her for a long, frustrated minute, before his brows lifted and a smile ghosted across his lips. “I’ll call our new friend, Nic Marcussen.”