Fidelity (Infidelity) (Volume 5) Read online

  “And you’re not putting her in danger,” Nox said.

  “Will you agree to stay in here?” The officer asked, motioning around the van.

  “As long as I’m with her,” Nox answered for me.

  The officer looked at me and again at Nox. “Fine, let’s get the call set up.”

  “I’ll do whatever you think is best to keep my friends safe.”

  “MR. DEMETRI?” ONE of the policemen asked, sticking his head in the van. “Can you come out here for a moment?”

  Though Charli nodded her encouragement, I didn’t want to let her out of my sight. “Don’t do anything, no call, nothing, until I get back.”

  “Yes, Nox.”

  I shook my head as I made my way out the small door.

  “Sir, your man on the inside. You said he’s armed?”

  “Yes, but he hasn’t made that known to Spencer. He didn’t want to push him.”

  “That’s good. Our team needs to know what they’re up against. Right now, your man could be working with Edward Spencer. We have to be prepared.”

  I clenched my jaw. “He’s not working with him. His job is to protect Chelsea Moore. He was doing that until she left her room.”

  “He left her alone.”

  “To find out what was happening,” I refuted. “He’s inside that shop with her and if he needs to, hell yes, he’ll show his weapon. Right now Chelsea is his priority.”

  “Can you get word to him?” the officer asked.

  “I can try.”

  A few minutes later, I was back inside the van holding Charli’s hand. “Princess,” I whispered, “you don’t look well. I want that bump on your head checked out.”

  “I will, once Chelsea is safe.”

  “Are you ready, Miss Collins?” the policeman asked.

  Charli took a deep breath and nodded. “Is Suzanna here?”

  “She is. I’d like to bring her inside so she can hear the call. She might be able to help.”

  “Okay.”

  There wasn’t much room as the small door opened and Suzanna climbed in. Her eyes immediately went to Charli.

  “Why are you here?” she asked. “Haven’t you caused enough problems?”

  “He has Chelsea.”

  Suzanna shook her head. “This is ridiculous. She testified for him. He just wanted to talk to her about doing it again. Why does everything have to get blown out of proportion?”

  “He beat her!” Charli said.

  “He wouldn’t do that,” Suzanna retorted, her neck growing straighter by the minute. “Officer, will I be able to talk to him?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We’re about to connect the call.”

  Charli reached out to Suzanna’s hand. “I saw it.” Her voice was tense and low. “He did it in front of me. He hurt me too. He needs help.”

  “You don’t know or care what he needs.” She looked my direction. “I mean, look at you, men falling all over you. Bryce, him, and even Alton.”

  Charli’s expression paled. The way her lips contorted, she looked as if she’d eaten something sour. I reached for her leg as words collided on my tongue. This was Charli’s fight. I was here for her. That didn’t mean I didn’t want my turn in the ring—in the octagon.

  The sound of a phone ringing filled the van.

  “This is on speaker,” the negotiator explained. “Let me talk first. He’ll be able to hear you both.”

  The women nodded.

  “Where is she?” Spencer’s voice filled the van.

  “Mr. Spencer, Miss Collins is right here.” He nodded at Charli.

  “Bryce, please let them all go. There are children.”

  “Witnesses, darling…” Chelsea’s scream sounded in the background.

  Charli leaned forward on the table. “Oh God, Chelsea. Bryce, please.”

  “She’s fine. Just waiting for you to arrive. Remember how this works?”

  “Bryce,” Suzanna said. “Honey, I’m here too.”

  “Mom? Why are you here? Where are you?”

  “We’re here, dear, right outside the hotel.”

  “Both of you come in. Mom, you can be a witness too. Remember, Alexandria,” Bryce said, “you said you’d say yes in front of witnesses?”

  Charli’s face fell forward as her body shuddered with tears. “Bryce, please.”

  “Oh, darling, you know how I like begging.” His voice moved away from the phone, it was distant as he spoke to Chelsea, telling her she could beg. He wanted her to. He demanded it.

  “Motherfucker,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Bryce,” Charli said. “Let the kids go. I’ll beg if you want.”

  My teeth clenched tighter, listening to her words, her fear.

  Fucking impotent was how I felt.

  “You come in here,” he said, speaking again into the phone. “And they can leave.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Suzanna asked. “Why? We know you didn’t hurt that girl. You will be found not guilty. Honey, why?”

  “I can’t spend another night in jail. I won’t.” His volume rose. “Get on the fucking ground, all of you.”

  Screams rang out, echoing through the van from the speakers.

  “Darling,” his voice was again soft. “There’s a guy in here, a priest, minister… or something. Fuck, he could be a rabbi… I’m not sure. It’s not the Presbyterian Church, but he can marry us, just as you promised. Five minutes. Pretend I’m that asshole who you can tell time for. I’m hanging up. Be in here in five minutes or… well, you know how this works.” The line went dead.

  “What the fuck?” I asked.

  “I’m going,” Charli said as she stood.

  “Like hell you are!” I pulled her back to the seat. “Get your sharpshooters. Isaac got the message. He’s working on getting Spencer near a window.”

  “What?” Suzanna cried. “No, you can’t hurt him.”

  “Lady,” I shouted, my finger pointed in her direction, “did you not just hear him? He’s psycho!”

  “No!” She stood. “He’s distraught.” She turned on Charli. “And it’s your fault. It’s all your fault.”

  We all stilled as the sound of a small explosion sounded in the distance. A car could have backfired, perhaps fireworks popped, or had it been a gunshot? The negotiating officer reached the door first as Suzanna slid back to the chair, dropped her head to the table, and cried.

  “Suzanna,” Charli said, “I’m so sorry. I never wanted—”

  “Suspect apprehended…” The announcement came loud and clear.

  Apprehended. Not down. Not shot.

  Charli’s eyes opened wide. “Chelsea?”

  We pushed past Suzanna and climbed from the truck. A multitude of officers were converging upon the front of the hotel. I scanned the windows. They were all intact.

  Maybe we hadn’t heard a gunshot?

  Deloris stood outside the roped-off area; her eyes met mine as she nodded.

  “Oh, Nox,” Charli exhaled as she dropped my hand and ran forward.

  With his arm around her shoulder and Chelsea buried against his side, Isaac was leading her toward us. Charli met them first.

  “Chelsea…” Her words weren’t forming as they hugged and cried.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I got the shot, the one I’d been waiting for,” Isaac said. “When he hung up the phone, he was angry. Before that, it was weird. He was calculating and methodical. No emotion. But after hearing Alex’s voice, he lost it, enough to turn his back. He’d made everyone lie down.”

  “Dead?” I asked.

  “Sir,” an officer said to Isaac. “Sir, come with us.”

  Isaac nodded and turned to me. “No, sir. Wounded.”

  A moment or for twenty years? Deloris’s question came back.

  Twenty years.

  “My private security license is in…” Isaac began to say as he handed his gun to the policeman.

  I turned back to Charli. She and Chelsea were surrounded by u
niforms. I turned to Deloris. Somehow in the mayhem she’d made her way to this side of the tape.

  “Six o’clock,” she said.

  I pivoted, my gaze meeting Alton Fitzgerald’s. He was being held back by the police who were no doubt upholding the restraining order Charli had mentioned.

  “Nox,” Charli called.

  As I made my way through the paramedics, I wrapped one arm around her and the other around Chelsea. “I-I…”

  I couldn’t come up with the words I wanted to say.

  “We’re good,” Charli said. “They want to take both of us to the hospital.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  Charli’s lips quirked upward. “I thought you might.”

  “Isaac?” Chelsea asked. “What will happen to him?”

  “He’s a licensed private-security provider. You were his assignment. He has the right to defend you.”

  “I’m sorry,” Chelsea said.

  “Why?”

  “It’s my fault.” As she spoke, my gaze went back to where Fitzgerald had been. He was gone.

  I pulled Charli closer. “Let’s get you two into an ambulance.”

  “I wanted him to break the restraining order,” Chelsea explained as we walked. “I wanted him back in jail. I never thought it would go this far.” She broke down, her steps stalling as we moved toward the open door of the ambulance. “Those kids were so scared…”

  Sirens blared as more ambulances pulled forward. They were loading up everyone from inside the shop.

  Charli reached for my chin and turned my face toward hers. “Stop worrying. We’re safe.”

  “He was here.”

  She nodded. “And so are you.”

  Damn straight. I wasn’t going anywhere else.

  “MISS COLLINS, IS THERE anything I can get you?”

  “Discharge papers,” I said to the nurse.

  “It’s only overnight. After what you’ve been through and in your condition, the doctor just wants to be certain that everything is okay and monitor you through the night.”

  I nodded, more tears filling my eyes. I hadn’t been able to stop the waterworks since the emergency room doctor gave me the news. I should have told Nox right away.

  I didn’t.

  Now it was a few hours later. I was tucked into a hospital bed and waiting for Dr. Beck to arrive.

  The door to my room opened. The flowers were the first to enter. Well, those and the long jean-covered legs I knew so well.

  “Look what I found,” Nox said as he placed the ridiculously huge bouquet on the table beside the bed.

  “We’re flying home tomorrow. Don’t you think that’s kind of silly?”

  “No,” he said. “After all the shit that’s happened, if I want to shower you in rose petals, it’s my prerogative.”

  “I was a little shocked that you and Deloris both left me.”

  Nox pulled a chair closer. “She’s with Chelsea. I never really left. I just thought you and the doctors needed some privacy, but…” He leaned over and gave me a kiss, lifting the necklace from my chest and rolling the platinum cage between his thumb and fingers. “…I never took my eyes off of you. And the two men guarding your door weren’t going anywhere.”

  The necklace wasn’t the audible one. If it had been, he’d know what I wasn’t brave enough to say.

  I exhaled. “Bryce is back in jail…”

  “Medical unit. Psych ward. That’s what they’re saying on the news. His gunshot was only a flesh wound. Isaac knew what he was doing.”

  I closed my eyes, imagining what Suzanna was going through. Once she’d learned he’d survived, she was elated, only to learn that he was being detained again. Now it was a psych ward. What would that be like for a mother?

  “Isaac said something…” Nox said.

  I opened my eyes. “Oh, how is he?”

  “He’s fine. They didn’t keep him long. He’s legit. I mean I don’t employ criminals to keep those I love protected. He has the license and permits. He was within his legal rights.”

  My cheeks rose. “I never thought you employed criminals.”

  “Your stepfather did. He has called me and my father criminals in every conversation.”

  “His world is crumbling. He’s the one who’s delusional.”

  “Did you talk to your mom?” Nox asked.

  “Briefly. I’m kind of tired. I told her we’d be back tomorrow.”

  Nox sat in the nearby chair, his ankle crossed over his knee as he leaned back. Seeing him, his calm and cool demeanor after everything we’d been through, tugged at my heart and twisted it in knots. His words from months ago came back to me. They’d been playing on a loop since the doctor in the emergency room explained why they wouldn’t be performing the CT scan.

  I tried to pay attention as he said something about Isaac, something about Bryce. I was hearing his deep voice and watching the movement of his sensual lips, but I wasn’t listening. Instead I was hearing a conversation from a while ago, from the night he’d told me about Jocelyn.

  “I want to know how you feel about children.”

  “I don’t know… I think I’m too young.” I shrugged. “I guess my mom had me when she was about my age, but I want other things first.”

  “But eventually?”

  “I suppose,” I admitted.

  “I don’t.”

  In my mind the words from another time took on new meaning. His voice became more determined, more emphatic.

  He didn’t. No discussion, just no.

  “Charli, are you listening?”

  I shook away the past. “What? No. Sorry.”

  “Is it your head?” he asked, jumping to his feet. “I don’t understand why they didn’t do that scan. We could be on our way. I mean, even Chelsea is out of here.”

  “Nox?”

  He lowered the side rail and sat by my side, his weight dipping the mattress and causing me to roll toward him. It wasn’t far, but his warmth was there, beside me, comforting me.

  “I-I’m sorry.” The words stuck in my throat, bubbling up with the sobs I could no longer suppress.

  He exhaled as he smoothed my hair away from my face. “There’s no reason to apologize. I’m sorry. I should let you sleep. We can talk about Isaac and Spencer, about all of it, tomorrow or never. I don’t care.”

  “Dr. Beck is coming to see me.”

  “Okay, who is he and I thought you’d already been seen.”

  I nodded. “I have. He’s my doctor, or was while I lived here.”

  “That’s nice.” Nox’s eyes widened. “Your mom’s doctor too, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I remember his name from all the stuff my dad put together on your mom.”

  I tried to explain. “I wanted to see him when I first got here, to Savannah, but I never got the chance. If I had, I would have asked—”

  “If you had,” Nox said, interrupting the prelude to my explanation, “you could have found out all that stuff about your mom. He ran tests and everything. Oren thinks that’s why your stepfather changed doctors.”

  My stomach twisted as my limbs became weightless. It was like I was floating suspended. It was disconcerting and odd.

  “Charli, you are sure you’re all right?”

  I exhaled as I focused on his stare. Feigning a smile, I said, “I think I need to rest.”

  Nox pushed a button on the control lying beside my pillow. As the bed moved back, he kissed my forehead. “Let me turn down the lights.”

  “I love you,” I said.

  “I hope that’s not the bump talking.”

  The tears came back. “I-it’s not. I just…”

  “Shhh,” he soothed. “I love you too. Get some rest. We’re going home tomorrow.”

  “Limits… hard limits?”

  His blue eyes shone in the dimmed room. “Get some sleep. You know mine. We can keep looking for yours.”

  Tears sealed my eyes, the moisture gluing my lashes to my lids as I clos
ed out the world.

  The nurse used the phrase: barely pregnant. Can a person really be only a little pregnant? Was I ready? I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how to answer.

  It wasn’t planned. I could say that without a doubt.

  I’d wanted to get birth control. I’d planned it, but things got out of hand. With everything that had happened, I couldn’t even remember my last period.

  As Nox settled again in the nearby chair, I heard the cushion exhale.

  My head throbbed more from pent-up anxiety than from my injury. Quietly, I allowed the tears to ease down my cheeks. I didn’t want Nox to know I was crying, but it was getting increasingly difficult to hide. If only I’d brought my pills. I should have had them in my purse, but I didn’t.

  Did it happen at the hotel? Maybe in Rye? That wasn’t that long ago.

  A little pregnant.

  The swish of the door against the floor caused my puffy eyes to open.

  Nox stood as I focused on Dr. Beck. When our eyes met I shook my head, praying he wouldn’t mention in front of Nox the reason for his visit at this late hour.

  Oh, please don’t congratulate him.

  “…Lennox Demetri, Alex’s boyfriend.”

  “Mr. Demetri,” Dr. Beck said, “nice to meet you. I’ve known Alexandria, well, before anyone.” He smiled. “I delivered her.”

  I struggled to push the button, bringing me up to sitting. “Dr. Beck, it’s been awhile.”

  “And look at you, you’re lovely.” He turned to Nox. “The first time I saw her she was a little tiny pink thing with bright copper hair.”

  Nox smiled while I continued to pray that Dr. Beck would stop talking about babies.

  “I’ve grown up,” I said.

  He tapped a small laptop, one I was sure had my current medical records. “Yes, you have.” He looked between Nox and I. “Before we begin, can you tell me about your mother?”

  “She’s doing well. Much better.”

  “I tried to get into Magnolia Woods,” Dr. Beck explained. “I don’t have privileges there, but I hoped…”

  I shook my head. “It wasn’t you, Doctor. It was Alton. He didn’t want you there.”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  “It’s not common knowledge, but she’s going to file for divorce.” I wasn’t sure why; however, Dr. Beck’s reaction surprised me.