Page 226 of Handsome Devil
It was me. And Dane. The argument we had two days ago. Before I walked out on him. Right here, in the penthouse.
“I thought that was what you wanted,” Dane said on the recording. “A divorce, after I get my inheritance.”
“Well, if that’s the plan,” I replied, “honestly, why wait? We’ll just separate now and no one even has to know. You need me as arm candy at any events? Just send a car to collect me and tell me what to wear. I’ll show up at your birthday and smile pretty for your grandmother. And meanwhile, we don’t have to put up with each other’s shit anymore.”
Oh. My. God.
My fingers fumbled as I turned it off and ejected the flash drive.
The goosebumps were freaking out all over my body. I looked around the empty penthouse, turning in a slow circle. Looking for hidden cameras or microphones or God-knew-what.
Then I packed up my laptop, shoved the flash drive into my purse and snatched up my bags. I opened the steel door and got the fuck out of there.
In the morning, I was dead tired. I hadn’t slept well. I’d barely slept at all, even though I was at Jesse and Katie’s house again and they had a top notch security system.
I couldn’t stay at the penthouse, or even set foot in it again, after I received that recording. We’d need Dane’s security team to sweep for bugs or something. And change the security codes.
But I hadn’t called Dane yet.
He hadn’t contacted me, either. So he definitely hadn’t been sent an audio clip like I was. If he’d heard that recording, he’d know the penthouse was unsafe and make sure I was out of there.
It had been sent to me, and me only. With my name on it.
I’d been going over and over my next move all night. Alone.
I didn’t run to my parents or my brother or anyone with this. I figured whoever sent that audio recording,to me, wanted me to run straight to someone—probably Dane—for help.
And very possibly destroy his life.
I’d listened to the audio recording, over and over. It included the sounds of me leaving the apartment at the end of the conversation.
The whole thing was damning. Because it revealed two things that could hurt Dane: that the marriage was fake, and that we’d separated. At the end, it definitely sounded like we’d separated.
I mean, we had. Sort of.
Ugh.
If his mom or his grandmother heard that recording before he had a chance to talk to them himself? Who knew how’d they’d react. From what Dane had told me… I couldn’t imagine they’d take the lie of our marriage very well, and they certainly wouldn’t like finding out about it this way. Lying to the world at large would be one thing; I didn’t think his family cared much about that. But deceiving them, in order to secure his inheritance?
And knowing that someone out there had a copy of this audio clip? Someone who sent it to me as an obvious threat?
No. They’d freak.
So I kept it to myself.
And instead of running to Dane with this, I was up early, waiting for the time in New Zealand to be a little less insane, so I could call Jude. I was just having a coffee and trying to wake up, mentally preparing for that call which was probably going to get Jude out of bed, when the buzzer rang. There was a ringer on Jesse and Katie’s front gate, and while the gate wasn’t always locked, it was definitely locked right now.
I answered on the intercom thing by the front door. “Hello?”
“Hey. Devi?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Shane. Madrigal.”
I didn’t respond. What the hell was he doing here?
And how did he know I was here?
