Love Beyond Words (City Lights, #1)(71)

Natalie’s skin suddenly felt cold all over, another layer of fear settling over the first. “David…did you poison Julian? Oh my god…”

“No. So? I was trying to help him…”

“He could’ve died…”

“He could die now!”

David shrieked so loud, Natalie prayed one of her neighbors would hear and call for help. A noise complaint. Anything. But David took control of himself and wiped his face in the crook of his gun-toting arm.

“So that’s the deal,” he said in a calmer voice. It was as though sharing his terrible secret had been eating him alive and now that it was out, he could breathe a little easier. “Cliff and his guys won’t hurt Julian if I keep paying them every month. But if I don’t—” he gave her a look that chilled her blood—“they’ll kill him.”

Natalie felt the bile rise to her throat. “David, you have to go to the police. You have to...”

“You’re so full of yourself, aren’t you?” David said. “I saw that about you right off. You don’t think I haven’t thought of that a thousand times since this whole nightmare began? You don’t think I would have done that if I had thought it would save Julian?”

“David…”

“It won’t. I don’t know how many friends Cliff has or how deep this thing goes. So Cliff gets arrested and then what? He gets pissed off, that’s what. What happens to Julian then? What kind of revenge do you think they might take?”

Natalie had no answer. She reeled as this strange, horrifying reality settled into her bones like a deathly chill. “Damn you.”

“Oh, shut up. Don’t take that holier-than-thou tone with me. This is all your fault. Things were going along just fine until you showed up.”

“Were they?” Natalie spat back. “Things were fine and dandy as you’ve been stealing from Julian to keep a bunch of blackmailing criminals from killing him?”

David raised the gun as though he meant to strike her with it. She cried out and cowered again.

“I said shut up,” he said. He lowered his hand and said in a dirty voice, “You wouldn’t know any of this if you hadn’t wormed your way into his life. You just want him for his money and now that you’ve convinced him to reveal himself, you’ll soak up his fame too.”

“That’s not true,” Natalie said through her tears. “I love—”

“Don’t say it!” David thundered. He rubbed his eyes with one hand; the rollercoaster of emotion was clearly exhausting him. “This is what you’re going to do: You’re going to tell Julian you’re breaking up with him. You’re going to leave him and never see him again. He’ll retreat into anonymity where he belongs, and he’ll be safe.”

“It won’t work, David. He’s still going to reveal himself. It has nothing to do with me.”

“You are such a liar,” David whined. “You told him to reveal himself. You told him…”

“I did not,” Natalie said, wiping her tears. “I told him I’d support him either way. The decision is his. He—”

“He’s happy with you,” David said, as though the words tasted sour in his mouth. “Or thinks he is. Breaking up with him will crush him enough that he won’t have the energy to finish his book or deal with press. And by the time he gets over you, I’ll have convinced him to stay where he is, that he’s better off. Where’s your phone? Your cell phone?”

Natalie raised her tear-streaked face. “What? Now? Over the phone? With you here? How on earth am I supposed to do that? What can I tell him that he’ll believe? I saw him yesterday. David, I’m supposed to see him tonight.”

“That’s not my problem.” He spotted her iPhone on the coffee table and thrust it into her hand. “I don’t care what you tell him but you had better make it believable and you had better do it now.”

She tilted her chin, defiant. “And what if I tell Julian the truth? He can go to the police himself, get protection, leave the city if he needs to. I—”

Natalie’s words ended in a choked gurgle of terror as David laid the muzzle of the gun to her temple. “If you try to take him away from me, I’ll kill you.”

Natalie whimpered, sobs caught in her chest. She imagined his finger would slip—he was so nervous—and then she’d know nothing. She’d just cease to be. Every moment was possibly her last. She fought the urge to vomit.

“O-okay,” she whispered. “Please. I’ll do what you say. I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt me…and don’t hurt him. Please…”

“Don’t make me hurt him.” David withdrew the gun. Natalie sagged against the pillow. “I don’t want to hurt him. This whole thing is to protect him. That’s why you have to break up with him believably. He has to think you’re serious.” He waved his gun at the phone in her hand. “Do it. I want to hear this.”

“I-I don’t know what to say.”

“You know,” David said, his voice low and dangerous, “I was just going to come in here and…and end you. Make it look like a robbery gone bad. But I decided to give you a chance. Besides, Julian would think you died loving him and then where would I be? He’d mourn you, when he should hate you. So you call him now and you tell him you never want to see him again. Right…now.”