Red on the River - Page 77

No one spoke on the ride to the airport or boarding the private jet. They waited until the plane was in the air and they could gather together again. On the plane was a small dining table and they sat around it, all of them looking at Raine expectantly.

“I’m really sorry, Vienna. I suspected something wasn’t right almost immediately. I couldn’t understand why Zale and Rainier stayed at the hotel after their cover was blown. That made no sense. I tried to come up with reasonable explanations that might fit, but there just weren’t any, not when they were agents of that caliber. And then there was the taking of your blood over that little assault in the hotel. That didn’t seem right either.”

Raine put her head back on the seat. “I hate being the one to make you so miserable. They knew what that bet was between Daniel and Liam. They could have told you. They knew that Liam had a son, Elliot.”

Vienna sighed. “Elliot Blom is their boss, isn’t he?”

Raine nodded. “Yes, he is.”

“Blom had an affair with Avril. He’s the man she was so upset over when she went to Mitzi. He’s my father.” Vienna forced herself to state the truth aloud. “He rejected me and ultimately her because of me.”

“We don’t really know that,” Raine cautioned. “But he does know you’re his daughter.”

“That’s why Zale and Rainier were at the hotel. They weren’t there to look after Daniel Wallin. They were there because Blom wanted them to look after me,” Vienna said. “That was why Zale got close to me again.”

They can’t be trusted. They lie to you. They’ll say anything they think you want to hear in order to get their way.

The pain was so much worse than the last time. Far worse. She couldn’t look at her friends. She got up and paced away from them, refusing to cry. She’d already shed far too many tears for Zale Vizzini. She just needed time to come to terms with his betrayal. They were going on a four-day hike, so there would be no chance of seeing him until the actual wedding. She could get through the wedding.

“Wallin invited me to the tournament in order to see if I really was Blom’s daughter,” she mused aloud. “He must have been looking for me.”

“I suspect he wanted both you and Blom dead,” Raine said. “With both of you dead, no one would be the wiser and the shares would revert to him. His son stands to inherit a tremendous amount of money if anything happens to him. They want to open a second casino, at least the other investors do.”

Vienna turned that information over and over in her mind. It fit, but that meant that Zale already had those facts. He was aware that Daniel Wallin had a reason to want her dead and he hadn’t told her. She pulled up the memory of the two men coming into her room, the security detail she absolutely knew were there to kill her, and how terrified she’d been. Zale had soothed her, stayed with her, made her feel grateful to him.

“Why wouldn’t Zale just tell me the truth? I can handle the truth. So Blom doesn’t want to admit he’s my father, big deal. I’m all grown up. He doesn’t have to tell the world. He doesn’t have to be in my life. Zale didn’t have to pretend he wanted to be with me long term.” But she knew why. Her mother had told her long ago, many, many times.

They can’t be trusted. They lie to you. They’ll say anything they think you want to hear in order to get their way.

She’d been so easy. Falling right back into his arms. Making such a fool of herself again. He was able to get close to her and she didn’t question him. She made his job easy.

Her throat closed and she had to stop talking. She kept her back to the others because she knew if she saw sympathy on their faces, she’d break down completely.

“They can’t think he’ll stop coming after you and Blom just because you’re no longer in Vegas,” Stella said.

“I think Blom believes it will be that much more difficult for Wallin to get to you. Blom and his people can keep track of Wallin’s men’s movement,” Raine said. “In Vegas, Wallin had the advantage.”

“I’m the bait,” Vienna said. “Run, little rabbit.” There wasn’t any bitterness in her voice because she wasn’t bitter. Just sad. Brokenhearted. Humiliated perhaps, but mostly sad. Zale could have been honest with her. She was an adult. She didn’t have daddy issues. She would have cooperated, especially knowing that Wallin had killed good men in order to lure her father out into the open, where he could have him killed.

“I’m really sorry,” Raine said again. “I feel like I’m always that one that has to tell my friends the worst possible news.”

Vienna did turn around then at the sheer sadness in Raine’s voice. “Please don’t feel like that. If I didn’t have you, I’d still be being played. I’m grateful to you.”

“We don’t know for certain that Zale’s feelings for you aren’t genuine,” Raine cautioned. “If his boss told him he wasn’t to tell you that he was your father, what could he do? He’s under orders and has to comply.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Raine,” Vienna disagreed. “He didn’t want to tell me or he would have. He broke the rules several times. Zale isn’t a rule follower, as much as I’d love to give him that excuse. I want to say I’m going to be like Stella and get a happy ever after, but I don’t think that’s in the cards for me. Suffice to say, I cheat when I win big, so maybe I don’t deserve the big happy ever after.”

Shabina shook her head. “It’s them. The way they think, Vienna. We have all these issues from our childhood traumas or whatever it is that happened to us along the way, so we blame ourselves, but really, it’s them. Look at Blom, your birth father. He decided to sleep with a beautiful woman, carry on with her to the point that she believed he loved her. She gets pregnant and he doesn’t say he wants to dump her. He tells her he isn’t ready to be a father. They can still get together whenever he has time for her, but she should get rid of the baby. Do you see how selfish that is? It’s all about him. His career. What he needs. What he wants. It still is. Blom sent his men to protect you—yes. But he dictated the terms to them. They couldn’t tell you. He didn’t want you to know about him for whatever reason.”

Vienna crossed back over to the little table and sat down. Her legs were shaky. She was exhausted, but not sleepy tired.

“Some would say he was being very honest with her,” Harlow pointed out. “Better that than lying.”

“True,” Zahra agreed. “But did he lead her on in the first place? Or did he commit the sin of omission and let her believe they were going to have a future when he knew they weren’t?”

Vienna frowned. “Zale over and over has insisted he wants a future with me. He told me he’d marry me right now. He said he’d be happy if I was pregnant with his child. He also was up front that he had a commitment for another year but after that he would get out. Each time I said I was worried he would find life boring, he pointed out all the things one can do in the Sierras and said he would have no problems living there with me and starting a family.”

There was a long silence. Vienna heard her heart thudding. She didn’t want to hope. She didn’t want to be that woman who kept going back and getting kicked in the teeth. No matter how much she thought that, she had to admit there was a small part of her that couldn’t help hoping Zale hadn’t lied to her about wanting to share his life with her. Maybe he hadn’t told her the truth about why he was in Vegas, but surely, he wouldn’t sleep with her to keep her close to him for his job. That just didn’t make sense.

They can’t be trusted. They lie to you. They’ll say anything they think you want to hear in order to get their way.

She detested Avril’s voice creeping into her head every time. She had enough demons.

“Vienna,” Harlow began slowly. “That doesn’t sound like a man lying to get you in bed. He wouldn’t have to go that far.”

Tags: Christine Feehan Romance
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