Page 53 of Palace of Betrayal

Twisting fast, Bebe kept the men in front of her, not wanting a repeat of Denis’s hands on her.

Denis grabbed his crotch and shook his vile body, his tongue stuck out. “How about some fun, now?”

“Not even if humanity depended on it.”

Bebe saw his face change from cocky to angry as he pounced at her and pushed her to the bed, his long, greasy dark hair falling over her neck as he pinned her to the bed.

“You think you’re too good for me, whore? You only fuck royalty?”

Bebe reared back and spat in his face. “I know I’m too good for you.”

She then raised her knee and smiled as he cried out in pain and fell back, grabbing his balls.

“Bitch.”

Bebe saw his hand coming but couldn’t do a thing to stop the blow to her cheek. Pain smarted as her eyes watered and her nose stung with tears, her ears ringing from the blow to her face.

“Enough!” The loud cultured voice bellowed from behind Denis.

Bebe looked toward the sound and smiled inwardly. Now they were getting somewhere. “You look pretty good for a dead man, Atticus.”

Nineteen

His mouth felt like cotton wool as Leo blinked to clear the fog from his brain. Something was very wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. He rolled and fell to the floor from the couch he’d been sleeping on. The air rushed from his lungs in a loud ‘oof’ as he came to his knees. Nausea roiled in his belly and his head was banging like Phil Collins was playing the drums in his brain.

Swallowing against the dry feeling in his throat, he looked around trying to remember what had happened. Slowly conscious thought came back to him, and he realised he recognised the room. This was Chelsea’s house, but he couldn’t remember why he’d come here. Standing, he pushed his uncoordinated body onto the couch and sat with his head between his legs for a minute as he fought to remember.

The swirls on the carpet kept moving so he looked up and out the window to the back, the dark night sky turning blue as the sun rose. How long had he been out? A flicker of memory had him grasping to take hold of it and clear the cotton from his head.

Bebe!

They’d come here for some reason, but where was she now?

Staggering upright, he found his legs a little steadier as he walked to the bathroom off the hallway, using the walls to hold his weight. Reaching the entranceway, he looked to the front door and then the bathroom. Water. He needed water to help him metabolise whatever was in his body. Reaching the bathroom, he turned on the cold tap and splashed his face with water, before cupping his hands and taking several large gulps. Resting his hands on the sink, he looked in the mirror. Seeing the bedraggled man in front of him made him frown as he tried to capture the memories chasing through his brain too quickly.

Where was Bebe? Was she with Chelsea somewhere in the house?

Taking a last drink of cool water, he felt his mind begin to clear, his body already feeling more in his control as he walked unaided to the front door. He pulled it open and saw his yellow Lamborghini with the passenger’s door open. The sun began to crest over the horizon, and he shielded his eyes. Whatever drug he’d ingested made everything feel overly bright.

Urgency sprinted through his veins as he moved toward the car and saw Bebe’s handgun on the floor. Dread filled his belly with lead as he looked for any evidence of what had gone down. Seeing her shoes in the footwell of the car, he reached out to pick up one of the nude sandals and turned it over in his hands as if it might give him the answers he sought.

A sound from the front of the house made him look up to see a smiling Chelsea headed his way.

“What are you doing up? You should be resting.”

As she got close, she reached for his arm, an enchanting look he knew so well on her face, but he reared back. “Don’t touch me.”

Chelsea’s smile faltered, and she stepped back, a look of uncertainty on her face. “León, why are you being like this?”

“Where is Bebe?”

Her bottom lip dropped, and she tried to scowl at him, but years of Botox stopped her expression from forming. “How should I know? Perhaps she got bored and went back home, where she belongs.”

No, she wouldn’t do that. They had a mission to finish, a job to do and she’d never leave him without saying goodbye.

As he glanced back at the shoe in his hand, he remembered Bebe putting them on to come here. Her sexy smirk coated her face and made him crave her like a drug addiction he never wanted to recover from. His mind flew to arriving here and Chelsea opening the door and being salty about Bebe’s presence. Bebe saying she’d wait in the car, and the feeling he’d ignored that something was wrong.

Dropping his hand to his side he stepped forward and grasped Chelsea by the upper arm, seeing fear in their blue depths. “No, you’re lying. What did you do, Chelsea?”