“Why were you there?”
“Because she called to tell me that she had found the perfect gift for my mother. A Ming porcelain bowl. Not a vase.”
I snort, a very unladylike sound for a woman wearing couture. “You expect me to believe that she would go shopping for your mother after all that?” Even as the words escape my mouth, I know I’m wrong. Celine was very clearly very madly in love with Jace Everett. She’d do anything to get him back. Finding a gift for his mother may have been one of her tactics.
And I did find that bowl in his office.
“You can believe whatever you want, but it’s the truth.” He sucks his cheeks in with a mouthful of drink. “I felt sorry for her. She was obviously a good girl who had made some bad choices in desperation. Either way, I assumed she still had dirt on me, and I didn’t want to make an enemy of her, so I tried to make peace. I even sent her flowers.”
I sigh. “Yellow roses and a card that said—”
“That I still cared very much about her. Yes.” Jace peers into his glass. “Yellow for friendship. I wanted to leave things on good terms with her. It was an impulsive gesture, an idea that hit me as I walked by a flower shop. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have done it.”
What did a card like that mean to Celine?
Did she think she still had a chance?
If she had any hope that he was still the man who would save her from having to spend one more night with any of Larissa’s clients, she’d go out of her way to help him. To give him a sign that she still cared.
I hate that his account of his relationship with Celine is making more and more sense. This would explain why he left her apartment with that cardboard box that night.
But, then again . . . “You slept with your assistant, and Celine knew that.” I remember Dani saying it was sometime in October. So why would Celine still want anything to do with him?
I can literally hear Jace’s teeth crack as his jaw clenches. “How the fuck did you find out about that? Who the hell are you working with?”
“That would have crushed Celine,” I say, not answering his question.
Jace sighs, rubs his forehead. “I was piss drunk at a work event, we had just split up, and Celine had no right to be upset, given she’d been fucking other men for money while we were together. But, yes . . . She went mental over that. A lot of crying and ‘how could you.’ She wasn’t stable. And then suddenly a blackmail video shows up on my desk, not even two weeks later. But we talked, I called her bluff and told her to post it, and she didn’t. I thought she had calmed down. Come to her senses. And then she left a voice mail, telling me she had found something for my mother. I wasn’t sure if it was another ploy to see me.” His tone says he’s quickly losing patience with me. “So I went to her place, thinking I would pick up the piece if she actually had it, make five minutes of small talk, and leave. She was already drinking, and extremely emotional. She did have the gift for my mom. I think she thought it would somehow fix things between us. When she realized that it wouldn’t . . .” He shakes his head. “What she did to herself after I left, only she will ever know. And the Ming bowl that she gave me? It’s not worth millions. She gave it to me with an appraisal certificate for four to seven thousand. She paid thirty-five dollars for it, and I reimbursed her for that. It’s now mine.”
“I don’t care about a bowl. I want the vase with the red dragon . . .” I say halfheartedly. I was so sure Jace had it.
If Celine actually tried to blackmail Jace—or he thought she had, at least—it would take a pretty forgiving guy to keep any communication with her going. Is Jace that forgiving? I doubt it. Even if some of what he’s telling me is the truth, I’m sure it’s balanced by a few choice lies. But until I can poke holes in his statements, I have nothing. I don’t even have the video, which is inadmissible, as Doug warned me.
Jace must see my wavering confidence. “Don’t keep going down this path, Maggie. It’ll never stick, and you’ll ruin my life, my father’s life, and yours in the process, along with Celine’s reputation.” He stands. “That was a private night between Celine and me, and no one has any business watching it.”
“No one’s going to watch it. For now. Jay.”
He seems unfazed by my use of that name, but he’s clearly pissed off. “If that video ever sees the light of day, you’re going to jail.” He leans over, so close to me that the smell of the scotch on his breath kisses my nostrils. “Just because you had your people erase security footage doesn’t mean you’ll get away with this.”
Erase security footage? Wait. Does that mean . . .
I fail at keeping the surprise from my face, but he doesn’t react. “I’m guessing your fingerprints are all over my office. All I have to do is call the police and report a robbery, and I’ll have you on theft.” Standing tall again, he slams the rest of his drink back. “You also seem to have forgotten that you’ve entrusted me with a large sum of your money. If you suspected me of all this, why the fuck would you do that?”
“To get closer to you.”
I hear “crazy, rich broad” under his breath. “I hope you’re at least covering all your bases before you hang yourself.”
“What does that mean?”
“I mean, like looking into her clients. All of them. Especially that building super.”
Now it’s my turn to glare at him like he’s insane. “Who, Grady? There’s no way he was one of her clients.”
He snorts. “I guess you haven’t been doing your research well after all.” He sets his glass down on the side table in one slow, precise movement before marching away.
CHAPTER 29
Maggie
“There you are!” Ruby finds me, her cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry that I abandoned you to dance.” She rolls her hips in a slow, stiff motion. “That gentleman had moves.”
Normally, that would have made me laugh. But I can’t shake Jace’s last words long enough to find humor in anything right now.
Grady?
She eases herself into the chair that Jace was just in. “Did I just see that moneyman leave here?”
“Yes, you did.”
“And? Trouble?”
“I’m not quite sure.” He’s right, my fingerprints are all over his desk. But what happened to the incriminating footage of me? Did Doug have a change of heart? Or did he simply say all that as a cover? I heave a sigh. “He knows I drugged him. He’s threatening me.”