When You Dare - Lori Foster [147]
“But…how?”
God, did she really consider him such a fool? Well, no more. “You think a man can’t tell when his wife is fucking someone else?” He moved closer to her. “You honestly believe I’m that obtuse?”
She shook her head. “It’s not like that.” And then, beseeching, “I did it for us. For you.”
Incredulous, Bishop stared at her.
Exasperated, she explained, “To protect your reputation.”
Was she insane? “Having a whore for a wife is supposed to help me?”
“I’m not a whore! How could you say such a thing?”
Bishop just stared at her. “You disgust me.”
“Don’t you see?” Kathi reached out, almost touching him, but he stepped away. “She would have ruined everything.”
Sickness crawled in his guts. He closed the phone, belatedly preserving his privacy.
Already knowing what she’d say, but praying he was wrong, he asked, “Who?”
“Molly.”
Dear God. So it was her.
Energized by his apparent interest, Kathi surged forward, trying to get hold of him, but again he stepped back. If she touched him, he’d kill her.
“What did you do, Kathi?”
“You heard Dare. They’re going to make her book into a movie. Don’t you understand? You haven’t read her, Bishop, or you’d know that I had to do something to protect you, and me, from being tainted by her popularity. Her stories are…depraved, just as you’ve always said. The characters are entertaining, yes, but they’re without moral standards. I tried to tell her, but she’s ignored my letters.”
Sweat gathered on the back of his neck, his temples. “What letters? What are you saying?”
Kathi looked off, talking as much to herself as to Bishop. “She refused to change anything, and now it’s going to be a movie and all the world will know. They’ll find out that she’s your daughter, and they’ll know what type of person she is, what type of daughter you raised.”
She was insane. Trying to make sense of everything, Bishop asked, “You…ransacked Molly’s apartment?”
“I had to. Somehow that horrid man got her out of Mexico. I didn’t know where she was, or what she was doing.”
Christ almighty. “You had Molly kidnapped?” His daughter could have died…because of his wife. Repercussions slammed through his brain; he couldn’t bear it. “But…how?”
“Oh, that part was easy.” She half laughed. “Mark knows all kinds of people. He easily arranged everything.” Going smug, she added, “For me.”
So, Dare was right. She had involved Sagan and in the process left them both exposed to unthinkable consequences.
He looked around, expecting thugs to jump out of the bushes at any moment. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
She twittered a laugh. “Don’t worry. Mark thinks we have something special, but he doesn’t understand that I did it for you.” As if sharing a confidence, she leaned forward to whisper, “George is going to kill him for me. After he’s taken care of everything else.”
Her twisted logic left Bishop floundering. She spoke of killing with the same detachment she gave to housekeeping duties. She actually appeared proud of her cunning, as if she’d helped him to handle a tricky business deal.
Suddenly what she’d said presented a new horror. After he’s taken care of everything else. Heart thundering, Bishop grabbed her shoulder and slammed her up against the brick facing of the garage bay. His fist twisted in her finely made top. “Where is George now?”
“Bishop,” she complained, trying to wriggle free, fussing at the damage he did to her clothing.
“Where is he?”
Her bottom lip came out in a pout. “He’s gone after Molly and Dare, of course. You heard what Dare said. He wants to destroy you. But I’m not about to let that happen. Thanks to you, I have everything I ever wanted, everything that’s important to me, and no one is going to rob me of it.” She put her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I love our life together too much to ever risk it.”
Arms at his sides, strangled by loathing, Bishop accepted the truth; everything he’d worked so hard for would be destroyed. And though indirectly, he had no one to blame but himself.
He couldn’t cover up something this monumental. That she’d whored around