Fixing Justice (29 page)

The ride from the Sedona hangar out to the Villa also played out in total silence, with the arctic chill wafting from her side of the car neutralizing the red-hot rage he was struggling to contain. When Ben cheerfully met them as they disembarked from the plane, nothing about her pleasant greeting or interactions with the gregarious man gave any indication of the shit-storm they were embroiled in. It was just him that she pointedly ignored. Well, one cold shoulder deserved another so he spent the wordless drive texting his lawyer with a plea for complete discretion regarding a confidential matter he needed handled. Trusting his long-time legal counsel wasn’t a problem, but Drae felt it necessary to indicate from the outset the confidentiality he expected. The last thing he needed was for even the slightest hint of this mess reaching his parents’ ears.

It was a relief when they made the turn down the long private drive to the main portion of the Villa. He needed out of the car and away from the woman next to him who was barely hiding her contempt at his presence. Not wanting to be married wasn’t the same thing as wanting Victoria to be pissed off, making him grimly admit his handling of their situation so far effectively meant that ship had sailed. Pissed didn’t even come close to the vibe she was putting off. Maybe he should have grown a set before throwing that tantrum, remembering that she was just as much a victim of circumstance as he was.

As was always the case, there was activity all over the compound. Dogs were barking, he saw a small group gathered around the horse yard, and several ATVs went zipping by as they drew up to the back parking area. He could have sworn she was out of the car and at the trunk before Ben put the vehicle in park. Drae struggled with the headache thumping behind his twitching eyes. Keeping their messy predicament a secret was going to be difficult if they openly treated each other with hostility.

Alighting from the vehicle, Drae stopped to speak with Ben, keeping an eye on Victoria as she struggled with her bags. He needed to say something although he had no idea what that might be. Getting control of his anger and approaching the problem with a calm mind was still a stretch too far. “Victoria,” he growled at the same moment she turned away from the car, gripping her rolling bag as she stomped along. Nothing.
Dammit.
She didn’t even slow down. “Victoria!”

This time his bark got the surprised attention of Ben who had been securing Drae’s luggage in the trunk for the quick trip down the lane to his home.
Shit.
Catching the man’s raised brows from the corner of his eye, he stood there stunned by her blatant disregard of his command. To his credit, Ben never indicated anything untoward had just happened, but that didn’t mean Drae couldn’t feel the man’s brain working overtime trying to figure out what was going on.

The urge to hit something overtook him again as he watched Victoria’s angry retreat in silent dismay. He wasn’t handling this very well. Before he did or said something to make things worse, as if that was even possible, Drae needed to submerge himself in the distraction that could only be found in his woodshop. He’d run home, get changed, and hunker down with a project while he waited to hear from his attorney and set the legal balls in motion to
fix
the mess he’d made. This time he didn’t try to block the cringe he felt at the word. It was like having his shrill, manipulative mother laughing in his face, smugly rubbing in the irony. The chilling notion that he was, after all, the woman’s only son unleashed a wave of contempt that disrupted his ability to think rationally. After having vowed never to be like her, never to let cynicism and conceit inform his life, he’d turned cold and unreachable anyway. In his determination to avoid emotional attachment, he’d lost his ability to feel. The thought scared him more than it should.

Ben nattered on during the short jaunt to Drae’s house, filling in the empty, silent spaces. It was a guy thing. Having just been pointedly dissed by a furious Victoria, they were hardly going to talk about what had just gone on. The older man, bless his heart, was acting like Drae hadn’t just been shot down in blazing fashion. Once at the house, they chatted about nothing, pulling luggage from the trunk, pretending like pros. He couldn’t ditch the business suit and hide out in the woodshop fast enough.

Tori was running on adrenaline, anger, and something else that felt wretched and gloomy. Taming her temper had always been a struggle, especially when something truly hit a nerve. That blasted egomaniac had shown his true colors, landing one direct hit after another. Whatever happy, shining contentment she’d briefly glimpsed was in flames on the ground.

Relieved to be away from him, she’d practically hurled her heavy suitcase as if it weighed nothing through the apartment door and then slammed it with an angry thud for good measure. It had taken every ounce of strength she possessed to remain silent and still during the car rides and plane trip, when what she really wanted to do was leap on the son-of-a-bitch and tear him limb from limb. Draegyn,
I’m-so-perfect
, St. John had behaved horribly in her eyes. His expression and tone upon discovering their shocking little secret had been offensive at best.

Flinging herself onto an oversized wing chair with enough force to shove it back a few feet, she loosed a sound from deep inside that started off a groan and ended as an angry growl.
Men! Self-centered narcissists, all of ‘em
.

Why the hell was it always about the guy? Watching in stunned disbelief as he’d gone through the steps of an epic meltdown while totally disregarding her involvement had taken Tori back to another time when she’d ended up as nothing more than collateral damage. Well, she snorted, that was not going to happen this time. No effing way. As quickly as her temper flared, so did it sputter out when too-bright images of their physical intimacy knocked on her consciousness demanding equal time.
Not helpful
, she sighed, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear. Now that he’d shown his true colors and behaved like a jerk, it was easier to pretend that getting naked with him, twice in one day, had been an aberration at best. Sexual curiosity. Yeah, that sounded good.

At first, her response to the blond-haired Adonis had been suspicion and distaste. After all, he wore his arrogance and conceit like a second skin. But, little by little, he wore her down without even trying.

Something between them had shifted, changed when they’d declared their verbal truce. Once they’d stopped hissing, snarling, and taunting each other at every turn, she’d quickly succumbed to his wolfish charms. And it wasn’t just because he had the sexiest ass she’d ever seen.

Oh dear God. Was she falling for him? Was that why she defaulted to fire and brimstone the moment he’d morphed into angry, alpha male?
Damn.
This wasn’t good. She shivered and felt her nipples quickly peak against the sheer lace of her bra. Though she was upset and furious with Draegyn, the notion that she had developed real feelings for him scared the crap out of her.

Groaning, Tori turned her face into the upholstered chair and squeezed her eyes shut.
No, no, no
, she chanted. How stupid could she be? High profile, sophisticated men like Draegyn St. John didn’t go for her type. Plain, half tomboy girls like Tori always ended up in the scrap heap in these situations. Allowing her body to override common sense had been a dumb move. And now look where she was. Married by mistake and realizing she had some serious feelings for her unhappy husband. Well, whatever. She had no choice but to put her big girl panties on and deal with the whole stinking mess.

Her cell phone going off startled Tori, bringing her upright in the big chair, silently searching with each ringtone until she found it.
Ah, damn
. It was Alex. She really didn’t want to answer but knew if she didn’t it would more than likely result in him banging on her door next. Another powerful man, another attitude.

“Hello?”

“Hey Tori. I know you just got in but could you come over her after you unpack? I want to run something past you.”

Dammit. She didn’t want to face her boss just yet, not with the secret she carried. Her feet felt like lead blocks as she stood with the phone pressed to her ear, suddenly fretting that Draegyn might actually tell his friend about their predicament. Sure, the fact that there was a marriage certificate between them was a big deal but at the moment, she was struggling to deal with the very real feelings she was harboring. A light bulb went on over her head. “Um, well Alex - to tell you the truth, I’m going to relax here if you don’t mind. Maybe take a pain reliever and put my feet up.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” he demanded.

Trying to sound very matter-of-fact she answered in a way that would have any man backing off in a hurry. “Oh, nothing. Really. Y’know – female things. NBD.”

“Oh!” A few seconds passed while he processed the information, then said, “I understand. This can wait.” She didn’t feed words into the silence. Just let him end the call on his own so he wouldn’t wonder or ask questions. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, no. I’m good but thanks for asking.” Tori shrugged and chuckled. “You know how it is. Nothing a gal can’t handle given a handful of cramp meds and a heating pad. I’ll catch up with you in the morning, okay?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” She thought he might be about to hang up when she heard him ask, “Is Drae with you? He’s not answering his phone.”

Mentally counting to ten before answering, Tori kept her voice neutral, belying the hysteria churning in her gut. “Nah. Ben drove him down the lane. Guess he’ll surface when he’s ready.” That sounded benign, right? Lord, she hoped so.

Call concluded, Tori put the phone on silent and tossed it on the coffee table. Putting Alex off until tomorrow meant she bought herself a little time to wrap her head around everything that happened in the last forty-eight hours. She’d have to talk to Draegyn at some point. Work out the legal details of the mess they were in but for right now she needed to be left alone. Needed time to figure out what she did next.

Alex was not a happy camper. Something was going on between his assistant and Drae. Their behavior was sounding alarm bells in his head that were hard to disregard. Not that he could ignore the fact that three days had passed and his old comrade-in-arms and current business partner had been off the radar the whole time or that Tori seemed unusually distracted.

When she’d turned up in the tech cave the morning following her return from Vegas, she seemed different somehow. The same yes, but also giving off a very subtle vibe that suggested something had changed. She looked the same but something wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t put his finger on it but he knew enough to conclude there was most definitely a disturbance in the force.

Whatever it was, he’d had enough. He’d known Drae long enough that the signs of unusual behavior he was displaying stood out like red flags against a snowy background. They’d done stuff and been through plenty of shit together over the years but this silent, hiding in plain sight nonsense was different. At first, he answered the phone when Alex called but shrugged off any suggestion of meeting face to face. He was,
busy
. Last night, the calls started going straight to voicemail.

The one and only time he dared to mention Drae by name in front of Tori, she had zipped so tight at just the mention that Alex had felt like a huge prick. He couldn’t ever remember a subject being changed so fast in his life. There wasn’t a lot he could do after that except wait them out. See what happened next. After all, if it weren’t for the fact that Tori was his assistant, he would never consider sticking his nose into Drae’s personal business. But the voicemail bullshit had annoyed the crap out of him. After all they’d been through together, it seemed a bit – bizarre. And not like his friend at all. That was why he was on his way to Drae’s lumberjack heaven. So he could find out for himself what was up.

Stopping his quad in front of the unusual wood structure, Alex admired the massive custom-designed house with the wraparound decking and impressive windows that gave every room in the house a breathtaking view of the desert vistas surrounding them.
Drae is a genius for this kind of stuff
, he thought. Sidestepping the main entrance, he headed for the rear of the house and the large woodworking shop where he was sure Drae would be found. The closer he got, sounds of a buzz saw could be heard along with blaring music. Alex heaved a tremendous sigh. All the signs were there, now he just had to figure out what to do next. There was nothing to do but beard the lion in its own den and hope he got out in one piece.