The phone bleated again. Adam slid out of bed and stumbled to the dresser. He snatched up the cell phone and started toward the study so as not to disturb Lauryn as he punched the Receive button. His eyes were too bleary to read the caller ID. “Adam Garrison.”
“Have you seen the paper?”
Parker.
“No. I was asleep. We had a big bash at Estate last night. You know I keep vampire hours.”
“Your wife made the front page.”
Adam’s steps stalled in the hall. He turned back to stare at the curvy mound in the bed. “Lauryn? Why?”
“Her husband is claiming she’s a bigamist.”
“I did no such—”
“Not you. Her first husband.”
A DEA raid would have been less shocking. “Her first husband? Lauryn’s never been married.”
The woman in question bolted upright with her eyes wide and something in their depths that soured Adam’s stomach.
“That’s not what this guy says,” Parker continued. “What’s more, he’s claiming she’s a tramp who stayed just this side of the law. You’re in deep shit, little brother. I’ve already put a call in to Brandon for you. You’d better ask your wife who the hell Tommy Saunders is and if she’s still married to him.”
The dial tone sounded.
Adam lowered the phone and stared at Lauryn. Her face was as pale as the white sheets. “Who is Tommy Saunders?”
She closed her eyes and swallowed. A pained expression crossed her features. “My ex-husband.”
“You said you’d never been married.”
“I haven’t. Technically.” She clutched the sheet to her collarbones, reminding Adam of his own nak*dness.
The burn of betrayal lit his skin. He yanked on his robe. “Explain technically.”
“I ran away with Tommy soon after I turned eighteen. To Tijuana. For spring break. He asked me to marry him. I said no, but I woke up married. He’d drugged me. I don’t even remember the ceremony. And then he told me he wanted to make us rich by using me as his drug mule to ferry coc**ne out of Mexico. I freaked and ran and called my father. Daddy came and got me, and he handled the annulment.” The words poured from her in a rush, but the meaning was clear.
“You were married.”
“No. An annulment means the marriage is erased. Like it never happened.”
“But it did happen.”
“Yes, but—”
“You lied. Again.” Something inside him curled up and died.
“Adam, please—”
“How many other lies are there, Lauryn? How many more ways do you plan to screw me?”
“I didn’t think my past mattered.”
“According to Parker, it’s front-page news. I told you I needed a conservative wife.”
“And that’s what you got. I’m not the selfish girl I was back then.”
“No. Now you’re the woman that girl turned into. One who set up, used and lied to her husband. If we’re even legally married.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Are we?”
She bit her lip. “I think so.”
Damnation. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Tommy claims our annulment never went through. I think he’s lying. I paid him to be quiet—”
“You paid him? Paid him how much?”
She curled her knees into her chest. “He asked for money and threatened to go to the press if I didn’t pay him. I gave him forty thousand dollars to keep quiet until I could find the paperwork and prove he was lying. But then he wanted more and I couldn’t give it to him.”
“That’s who called yesterday?”
Her hesitation nearly crippled him. “Yes.”
Another lie.
She climbed from the bed. The sight of her nak*d body hit him low and hard before she dragged on the robe she’d left draped across the end of the bed two hours ago. How could he still want her when he knew she was a liar?
“My father was detail-oriented in the extreme and a control freak. I know he wouldn’t be sloppy like Tommy claims. If the annulment was denied Daddy would have pushed for a divorce. But I never had a copy of the annulment, so I can’t prove Tommy’s lying. Not yet. My father’s papers are locked in a safety-deposit box in Sacramento, and my mother is away on a cruise. I’ll fly to Sacramento and as soon as she gets home and I’ll get a copy of all the documentation.”
She’d ripped his guts out. Personally. Professionally.
“Adam. Please. Let me explain.”
“I think you’ve said more than enough.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
Another lie. But this one hurt worse than all the rest combined.
Because he loved her.
He’d fallen in love with his beautiful, lying wife.
And right now he couldn’t stand the sight of her. Adam stormed into the closet, yanked down his suitcase and started throwing clothes into it.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Getting away from you. I’m moving back to the condo.”
“I’ll make it right. I’ll fix it. Please just give me a chance. All I need is time.”
“You’ve run out of chances with me, Lauryn. Save it for the next sucker.”
She silently watched him dress. A lone tear streaked down her cheek before she dashed it aside.
He returned to the bedroom and thrust a pen and pad of paper at her. “Write down everything you know about your boyfriend. His name. A physical description. Where he’s staying. I’m having him arrested for extortion.”
She hesitated. And that brief moment combined with the regret and worry in her eyes shattered what was left of his battered heart. She must still have feelings for the jerk.
And then something bitter and ugly coiled inside him.
How blind can you be, Garrison?
“Did you call your lover the minute I proposed and cook up this scheme to get more cash?”
“No. And Tommy isn’t my lover. He hasn’t been for nine years.”
“Forgive me for having a little trouble believing you.” He slammed the suitcase closed. “You and the bastard deserve each other.”
“Adam, you’re wrong.”
“Forget your big plans. You won’t get another dime out of me, sweetheart.”
She flinched at his acidic endearment.
He grabbed his suitcase and his keys and headed for the front door. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he couldn’t help but look back.
Lauryn stood on the landing, both hands clutching her robe. “Adam, I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt.”
“Sorry? You’re sorry? Lauryn, you have destroyed everything, everything that matters to me. Sorry doesn’t cut it.”
He turned on his heel, went out the front door and slammed it behind him.
Paparazzi milled on the other side of the wrought iron gate, circling like vultures around the corpse of his marriage.
“I don’t want any more surprises,” Adam said to Brandon. “I want to know every single detail Lauryn neglected to mention.”
“Then you need a good private investigator. Ace Martin is the guy for the job. He’s discreet and fast.” Brandon pulled a business card from his wallet.
Adam knocked back his bourbon. “Hell, for all I know Lauryn could be the Jefferies brothers’ spy.”
Brandon’s head jerked up and his eyes sharpened. “Is that likely?”
As the Garrison, Inc. lawyer Brandon knew about the troubles the company had been having with info being leaked. “I don’t know. Maybe. She keeps to herself. She has access to a lot of confidential financial information, but more from Estate than Garrison, Inc. I’ll ask your P.I. friend to look into it.”
“Do you think she’s involved?”
“I hope not.” Because if she was Garrison, Inc. would have to prosecute, and while he was furious, and yes, hurt, dammit, he didn’t want to send her to jail.
Brandon extended the business card to Adam.
Adam rose from the sofa and crossed the library to take it, but at the last second Brandon snatched it out of reach. “You fell for her.”
Adam recoiled. “Wrong.”
“You did. You fell for Lauryn Lowes. Even Cassie saw and commented on the sparks between you.”
“That was lust.” He’d never lied to Brandon before, but Adam refused to admit Lauryn had completely duped him. Hooked him. Duped him. And given him the best sex of his life.
“You’ve been lied to by women before, and it’s never bothered you this much.”
Adam crossed to the drinks tray and helped himself. He was as at home in Brandon’s place as Brandon was in his. In fact, he was more comfortable at Brandon’s than at his brothers’.
“I’m not bothered. I’m pissed off. Everything I’ve been working toward has been destroyed. Bigamy, for godsakes.”
“She would be the one guilty of a crime if her ex is telling the truth. Not you.”
“I hope to hell he’s not. And you’re wrong. I haven’t been screwed over like this before.”
“That’s your third drink. One of the things I respect about you, Adam, is that you’re around liquor all the time, but you don’t abuse it. Are you planning to change that tonight?”
Adam splashed a finger of Booker’s into his glass. “I’ll take a cab home. You won’t be sued for negligence for letting me drink and drive.”
“That’s not what worries me. And you have been screwed over. What about that redhead who was secretly having an affair with Parker and you at the same time? Or the brunette who faked a pregnancy to try to get a wedding ring out of you. Or—”
Adam winced and held up a hand. “You’ve made your point. But I wasn’t in love with any of them.”
Brandon noted Adam’s slip by cocking his head.
Damn. Adam emptied his glass. The liquor burned all the way down his throat and hit his stomach like acid. He wanted to drink himself into oblivion. To forget Lauryn Lowes and her lover. His marriage. His decimated plans to win more say in Garrison, Inc.
Parker would never take him seriously now.
But drowning his sorrows ran a little too close to his mother’s problem.
“At least Cassie’s honest,” he muttered under his breath.
“Cassie and I think Lauryn is, too.” Brandon refilled his own tumbler. “Lauryn’s right. In the eyes of the law once a marriage is annulled no valid marriage ever existed, and the grounds for getting a legal annulment aren’t easy to get around. Maybe you’d better focus on that.”
Adam looked at Brandon in surprise. His best friend would not mislead him. Intentionally. “You’re saying her ‘he drugged me and married me’ excuse could be the truth?”
“Absence of consent is a valid reason for annulment, but she would have had to prove it. Let Ace find out the details for you. He can also check into her other questionable stories.”
“The stuff about her birthmother sounds preposterous, but it’s true. I told you about the letters, diaries and the birth certificate.”