Read Online Falling Star by Diana Dempsey - Free Book Online

.
    By this time she was flat-out scared. She
forced herself to do another, more methodical search, then returned
the box to its metallic slot and went looking for the clerk.
    "All done, Miss Daniels?"
    "Actually, no. I can't find what I'm looking
for." Natalie kept her voice steady. "Will you check my file? I'm
trying to remember whether my husband has access to—"
    "Oh, yes, he does." The clerk nodded
cheerily. "In fact, it's so funny you're here now because he was
here this morning. Of course I remember because he's sort of"—she
giggled—"Mr. Natalie Daniels."
    Natalie felt as though the wind had been
knocked out of her. "He was here this morning?"
    "Oh, yes. He was very charming."
    "He had a key to the box?"
    "Yes. On his key ring. He … Miss
Daniels?"
    Natalie was out the door and on the street.
The enormity of Miles's perfidy struck her like a physical
blow.
    That's why he came to the house last
night. Not to talk. Not to see me. But to get the key to the
safe-deposit box, the one he knows I keep in the study. So he could
steal the prenup .
    She threw herself in the Mercedes and tore
off in the direction of Wilshire Boulevard.
    He used me. He used me to get inside the
house. It didn't mean a damn thing to him that we made love. He
just wanted me to fall asleep so he could get the key, and figured,
"Hell, may as well get laid while I'm here."
    She drove like a woman possessed, dodging and
weaving through the midday traffic, fuming at all the people going
shopping and to school and back to their offices after lunch,
living normal lives.
    I won't let him get away with it . . .
    At Barrington she turned right and sped
north, racing like a bullet through a just-red light at San Vicente
Boulevard. A woman wheeling a stroller did a fast backward step to
the curb, and Natalie had a fleeting image of the woman's face
contorted in shock and anger. Left on Sunset, faster still, making
very good time as she headed toward the coast, careening right
around the corner at Pacific Coast Highway, tires screeching on
asphalt Other drivers honked their horns and screamed at her out
their windows.
    I don't give a flyer! Natalie silently
screamed back. I can't let him lie and cheat. And now steal
…
    Pacific Coast Highway was a blur, the ocean
side lined with deceptively simple multimillion-dollar houses that
ran together in hazy pastel as she whirred past. From the road she
was actually seeing the backs of the properties; their grander
facades fronted the beach, one of the most exclusive stretches of
sand in the world.
    How in the world did Miles get the money to
buy here?
    Then she remembered. Of course. No doubt
after selling the pilot for Forget Maui , he leveraged
himself up the wazoo to get his hands on a Malibu beach house. That
was just like Miles. He believed in living large. He believed he
deserved it.
    And he thinks he deserves even more of mine.
Even after I supported him for twelve years while he wrote the damn
thing!
    She located the beige clapboard house and
made an angry left onto its gravelly driveway, parking behind a
brand-spanking-new red Porsche. So the bastard was home.
    She jabbed at the doorbell till her finger
stung. Nothing. "Miles!" She kicked at the door, leaving scuff
marks on the fresh navy blue paint. "I know you're in there, you
lousy scum! Open up!"
    Still nothing. He was skulking around inside,
no doubt, pretending not to hear her. So what else was new?
    She stood, panting. Then she went back to the
driveway and surveyed the house. Beige clapboard, one story, lots
of windows. She snorted. Typical three-million-dollar Malibu beach
house.
    Still being remodeled, she could tell from
the debris abandoned on the beachfront deck. Apparently the work
crew hadn't finished the fireplace yet. They'd left a mound of gray
stones, cut into rectangular chunks.
    She walked over and picked one up. It felt
good in her hand. Heavy. Slowly she returned to the driveway and
studied the house.
    There were four big windows,