“I’m going to steal Josie and take her around the room. I want to introduce her to a few people. Drink up and we’ll be back in a few minutes,” Ash said.
The girls waved and then turned back to their own men who were more than happy to get them back. Ash led her through the crowd, stopping and introducing her to people she could barely stammer hello to.
She was tongue-tied and had no idea what to say to the people who gushed about her work. She’d never dreamed that anyone would be that excited over her paintings. And she had Ash to thank.
“Thank you,” she whispered, slipping her arm around his waist as they threaded back through the crowd. “This is the most awesome night of my life!”
“Glad you’re enjoying yourself, darling. This is your night to shine. But don’t worry because there will be many more. Judging by how fast your paintings have sold, you’re going to be in high demand. I may regret doing this because you’re going to be spending all your time painting and you’ll forget all about me.”
She laughed and hugged him tighter. “No chance of that. You’ll always come first, Ash.”
He kissed her, long and lingeringly, uncaring of the people in the crowded ballroom. She sighed, blissfully happy. So much had happened over the last two months. She’d been released from the hospital after having to stay for nearly two weeks. The police had questioned her and Ash, this time with his lawyer present. They’d also questioned Gabe and Jace and had combed through Ash’s life, leaving no stone unturned. But there had been nothing to find.
Then they’d turned their attention to Charles Willis’s business practices and it was there that they’d struck a gold mine. He’d stolen from numerous people. Embezzled money. Set up fake accounts. He’d billed for work never done, and at least three offshore accounts had been discovered with millions of dollars in stolen money.
Worse was the people he’d stolen from. They weren’t exactly the legitimate businessmen that Ash and his partners were. They were not the kind of people you steal from because, if discovered, it wasn’t jail time you had to worry about. As Charles had no doubt discovered far too late. He even had ties to the mob, and Josie hadn’t even realized the mob still existed outside of books and movies.
The police had investigated one man in particular, convinced that he was behind Charles’s murder, but had been frustrated by their inability to pin anything on him. As a result, the case was still open, but Ash was no longer a suspect.
Josie had breathed much easier when the police backed off. She knew Ash hadn’t been directly behind Charles’s death, but he had been involved to an extent. But as he’d promised that day in the hospital, they never spoke of it again, and she didn’t ask.
Maybe that made her just as murky and gray as Ash thought he was himself, but she couldn’t spare any real remorse over Charles’s death. He’d hurt a lot of people and she could have died from the beating she’d received. She was ready to move on with her life. With Ash.
“Have something I want to ask you, baby,” Ash murmured next to her ear.
She looked up, curious as to why he sounded so serious all of a sudden.
“Jace and Bethany have asked if we want to get married with them. A double wedding. I told them I’d discuss it with you. It’s something they’d really like. Jace is impatient and wants the wedding to be soon. But I don’t want us to do it with them if you want or need more time. If you want your own big day separate from theirs, I understand. I want it to be special for you.”
“But what about you?” Josie asked softly. “What do you want?”
Ash smiled. “All I want out of the deal is you. Nothing else matters. Don’t care where it happens or when, though I’m not a fan of waiting very long. I want you to have my name. For me to know you’re legally mine. How we do it doesn’t matter.”