Club Prive Book V(5)

It hadn’t been until the early hours of the morning, after he’d fallen asleep in the chair next to the bed, that I’d realized what the truth most likely was. All that Gavin had told me about Camille and his daughter was true up to the reasoning behind why he didn’t have custody of Skylar. I was willing to bet that when Howard had approached him after Camille’s death, he’d given Gavin purpose all right. He’d given him a job where he could make a lot of money and, twisted and bitter as he’d become over Camille’s death, Gavin had chosen that over his daughter. I still hadn’t been able to figure out how a father, especially one of a little girl, could not only allow such horrible things to happen to others’ daughters, but participate in preparing them for it. What made it even worse, I had thought, was that he’d used the story of what had happened on women like me, ones who wanted to see a vulnerable side to the big, strong man. Ones who were stupid enough to fall for his bullshit.

I’d still been berating myself for being so gullible when I’d fallen asleep. I’d kept up the charade all through the next day and was doing it now even on the plane. Gavin had kept asking me if I needed to go to the emergency room, but I’d managed to keep finding excuses as to why I didn’t need to go. Now, as we were heading home, his hovering was getting worse. I was pretty sure he’d thought it was either something I’d eaten or a stomach bug, but it had been more than twenty-four hours and I was still telling him that I wasn’t feeling well and that I didn’t want to be touched. I knew I was going to have to come up with something better.

“I really think I’m on the upside of this.” I gave him a weak smile. “If I’m not better by morning, I swear, I’ll have Krissy take me to the doctor.”

He leaned over me and I avoided looking at his eyes. It was bad enough that he could lie with his face and his body. The fact that his eyes had fooled me made everything so much worse. His hand brushed over my forehead and I closed my eyes, hoping he’d think it was because I wanted his touch rather than because I couldn’t lie with my eyes like he could. The sick thing was, part of me still did crave his touch.

Tears burned at my eyelids and I fought to keep them back. If he saw me crying, he’d know it was something more than just me feeling sick. I’d made it this far. We were only a few minutes out. Once we landed, a car would take me home and then I’d be safe.

One of the other things I’d been thinking about while I’d feigned my illness had been how much to tell Krissy. The heartbroken girl inside wanted to fall into her best friend’s arms and sob out the entire story, but the harder me, the one forged by this betrayal, wanted to keep it all to myself. I told myself it was because I didn’t want Krissy to get hurt, but if I was being completely honest, I knew it was because I wasn’t sure that I wanted justice over revenge, and I didn’t know what side of that argument Krissy would take.

I’d finally decided on something halfway between. I would continue the lie I was telling Gavin, and tell Krissy that I wasn’t feeling well. I’d then spend the rest of the evening in my bedroom, pretending to rest. I’d get up before her and leave a note saying that I had to stop by Howard’s office to pick up some files for Mimi. I didn’t want to get her involved by telling her what was going on, but I also wasn’t going to be dumb enough to walk into the lion’s den without a bit of insurance. If things went smoothly, she’d never know what had happened until it was all over. If things didn’t go smoothly... well, I was counting on Krissy to worry and tell someone where I’d gone.

With my plan firmly in place, I gathered my strength and waited for the moment I was alone to finally succumb to the tears that had wanted to come since the moment I’d learned the truth.





Chapter 5


I didn’t have any problem getting up before Krissy because I hadn’t really slept at all in the first place. I’d thought that maybe I could cry myself to sleep, let the toll of the last couple days take over. I’d had times in my past where emotional exhaustion had let me sleep when nothing else could. This time, however, I couldn’t get my brain to shut down enough to doze for more than a quarter of an hour or so at a time. Then I’d wake up, the same old thoughts repeating over and over in my head. Finally, when my clock said that it was five o’clock, I decided it wasn’t worth it to keep lying there, waiting for the five-thirty alarm.

I got up and headed for the bathroom. I’d showered the night before, but ever since I’d heard Howard say that Gavin was grooming me, I hadn’t been able to shower enough. I felt like there was a film of filth covering my skin and, no matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn’t get rid of it.