Being Me(Inside Out 02)(82)

Setting my purse beside me, I slip out of my jacket just to have something to do. The intense pull willing me to look at him overwhelms me, and before I can stop myself my lashes lift and our eyes lock. The familiar jolt of awareness he creates in me spreads through my body and becomes the crackle of our mutual bad moods.
Ricco sits down across from me and slides my coffee in my direction. He then glances over his shoulder at Chris before turning back to me. His lips quirk and it’s clear he is aware Chris was at his house. He opens his mouth to speak and I hold my breath, preparing for a confrontation.
“Have you reconsidered my offer?”
Relieved to be on the hot seat with a topic I have a clear answer for, I say, “I’m committed to the gallery.”
“Honorable,” he comments dryly. “I told Mark he doesn’t deserve you, any more than he did Rebecca.”
My eyes go wide. “Oh. I … Ricco, I—”
A low rumble of laughter escapes his lips. “Don’t worry, Bella. It’s no reflection on you. Besides, I plan to give you job security today. I have an auction piece I have given to Crystal, which I’m sure you know is Riptide’s biggest competing auction house. I’m considering pulling it and giving it to Riptide”—he pauses for obvious effect—“in your care, of course.”
My scalp prickles with warning. “Why, and on what condition?”
“I want you to find a way for me to reach Rebecca.”
I blanch, shocked at this turn of events. “But I don’t know her. I have no idea how to reach her, Ricco.”
“I’m aware of that, but you can tell me if she has contact with the gallery. You might even be able to access Mark’s personal files.”
Is Ricco the other man in the journal? Is he the man Rebecca used to make Mark jealous? “No.” My voice is firm, certain. “I won’t touch Mark’s personal files.”
He scrubs his jaw and casts a glare at the ceiling I suspect is meant for me. “Acceptable,” he states tightly, returning his now unreadable gaze to mine. “All I ask is you do what you can within your comfort zone.”
His insistence is both compelling and frightening. If he loved
Rebecca, I cannot imagine the pain he must feel at her absence, but there is another, more insidious possibility. He hurt her and he’s trying to stay in tune with what is being discovered about her absence.
“I want your business, Ricco. I’d hoped you’d give it to me because you have confidence in my skill.”
He leans in closer, his hand sliding over mine on the table, his torment over Rebecca clear. “Just tell me you will try, Bella,” he presses. “That is all I ask.”
Imagining Chris seeking me out if I suddenly disappeared drives me to promise, “I’ll try.”
The tension in his body eases considerably. “Excellent. We have a deal, then.” He pushes to his feet and I follow him. He takes my hand and kisses it and I feel the weight of Chris’s crushing stare. “I have fifteen days to pull my painting from Crystal before I’m contractually incapable of doing so. I expect I’ll hear from you by then.” He turns away, sauntering toward the door.
I gape after him. Have I just been blackmailed?
Chapter Twenty-four

I’m just gathering my things to leave when I hear Mark’s voice in the reception area. I step out of my office and catch his attention. “Can I speak to you a moment?”
He motions me back into my office and follows me inside.
He leaves the door open. “Can you shut it?” I ask, and I regret the request almost instantly. Suddenly we are in a tiny office facing each other, and there is a simmering awareness of that fact between us, and I want to run from it. “I saw you met with Alvarez today.”
He leans on the door and crosses his arms over his chest. “We completed some final business matters.”
He’s intentionally making me pull teeth to get what I want.
“Nothing about my meeting with him?”
His lips twist wryly. “He told me not to corrupt you as I did Rebecca.”
I am speechless for a moment. “And you told him what?”
“I told him you are quite capable of deciding who corrupts you on your own.”
I think this is a compliment. Or not. I really am clueless with Mark. “He asked me to have coffee with him.”
“And did he get what he wanted from you during this coffee meeting?”
“I don’t know what he wants from me.” I sound as exasperated as I am. “You both talk in coded messages.”
“Well, then, let me decode for you, Ms. McMillan, because frankly I’m tired of playing Ricco’s games. He wants Rebecca. He can’t have her. He blames me. I’d thought perhaps you could help him separate business and personal. After talking with him today, I don’t believe that is possible.”