Just A Woman (Marina: Part Two: Naughty Nookie Series) Read Online Free Page B

perjury.  Maybe for having
contacts with the Russian mafia in the Big Apple.  Maybe for owning a
brothel!  Christ knows what I’d have been charged with.  As it is, my
freedom is still my own. 
    Before I can put
my thoughts in order and reply, Betsy mutters, “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t
have asked.  It’s none of my business.”
    Quickly, before
she can think I’m insulted by her curiosity, especially after all she’s done
for me this last month ̶ hell, she’s kept me sane after the endless bouts
of silence in Nate’s room ̶ I shake my head.  “No.  It’s just
hard to think about that night, that’s all.  Nate blames me for the
accident, I guess.”  That much is the truth.
    Betsy
frowns.  “That’s hardly fair.  Unless you pulled the trigger, it’s
not like you deserve to be blamed.”
    I might as well
have pulled it; the guilt still rests on my shoulders but I don’t tell her that. 
I just shrug and tell her the lie I told the police.  “Maybe it’s
irrational of him.  I guess he deserves it, because I was stupid.  I
put our safety at risk.
    “We went out that
night and I was wearing a necklace that was worth a lot of money.  I
refused to take a taxi back, when it would have been far safer, with a piece of
jewelry like that around my neck, to be dropped off outside our hotel. 
But I wanted to stretch my legs.  It was a hot night, too nice to waste on
a cab.  I didn’t know a mugger would follow us to the hotel.  Or that
he’d make it past hotel security and force his way into our room.”
    “Oh my God. 
He didn’t just attack you in the street?”  Betsy’s mouth drops open as I
shake my head. 
    “No.  The
police figure that he saw my necklace, thought I’d have more of the same stuff
in my hotel suite and got greedy.  He sneaked in past security and broke
into our suite.  He was unlucky, because we’d packed everything away into
the safe for the night.
    “He waited until
we were asleep to break in.  I don’t know why the security cameras didn’t
pick him up, because he must have been skulking somewhere in a corridor.” 
Shaking my head, I lift a hand and rub at my temple.  The ache gathering
there isn’t a fabrication.  “Nate woke up when the guy broke in and got a
bullet to the gut as a reward.”
    The lie burns a
hole in my belly and makes me wish for the antacids I’ve been popping like
candy.  But I manage a weak smile, when Betsy pats me on the shoulder
again, her fingers squeezing in a noiseless apology for asking me to talk about
something so painful.
    Christ, if she
only knew the whole tale.
    Thankfully, the
Russians had done something to the security footage that night, which had made
my story plausible.  The police hadn’t been able to spot anyone, never
mind my fictional mugger on the CCTV. 
    On top of that,
they’d done something to the door to force their way in, which also
corroborated my story. 
    I’d shown the
police the contents of my safe, my tablet and laptop, some jewelry and the
‘necklace’ at the heart of the fictional tale.  A recent purchase and
something that had cost me nearly six grand. 
    I’ve tried to
cover myself at every opportunity and I guess lying comes to me too easily,
because they bought the simple story.
    “But it’s
irrational to blame you.  You weren’t to know some creep would do that!”
    “No, but I should
have listened to him, when he told me we should be careful.  That we had
to think of our security.”  I shrug.  “If I’d have listened to him,
instead of being obstinate, we wouldn’t be here today.”
    “I guess, but
still, he’s taking it a bit far, Marina.  Nearly three weeks without a
peep to you and after everything you’ve done for him?  Most people leave
that kind of thing to us.”  I guess by thing she means my
nurse-maiding him.  “He should be thankful for that alone.”
    I pat Betsy on the
shoulder and make to turn on my heel to return to Nate’s silent