“I’m so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing. It’s not your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong.” I pull away from her, holding her face in my hands. “Do you hear me? You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I should have faced this instead of hiding you away. I should have just had the guts to tell my sister we were involved. If I’d have said it upfront, this would never have happened.”
“You have no idea how many times I’ve said that to myself over the past six weeks. If only I’d been a more honest politician. If only I’d been upfront about my involvement in all these deals. If only, if only, if only. Well, you know what? I learned. And I’m being upfront with you now. The only thing I care about right now is you and me. I don’t care about my reputation—it’s ruined anyway. I don’t care about what the media says, or what your sister thinks. I just want you to be safe.”
“I want you to stay out of prison.”
I grin. “That too.”
She takes a deep breath. “She was so mad just now. I’ve never heard her like that before. It’s probably so bad for the baby.”
I chuckle, pulling her in for another hug. “With everything going on, you’re not upset that your sister has tried to tear us apart. You’re not upset that she’s done something cruel to you—you’re worried about her unborn child.”
“Well, they say that the baby can feel everything that the mother is—”
I silence her with a kiss. She melts into my arms, then rests her head on my chest.
“I wish this wasn’t happening,” she whispers.
“Me too.”
The house creaks, as if responding that it, too, wishes things were different. Then, someone bangs on the front door.
“Police! Open up! Stella King!”
Stella pulls away from me, her eyes wide. She glances to the front door and they bang again.
“Open up or we will open the door by force!”
“Coming!” She yells. Her hand is trembling when she pushes away from me. I squeeze her arm and nod.
“They’re here for me,” I whisper.
I watch her gulp and then glance back at the door. She walks toward it, and every step is like a nail being driven into my coffin. Putting her hand on the doorknob, she takes a deep breath, glances back at me, and then opens the door.
“What’s going on—”
“Police!” In an instant, I’m tackled to the ground. Stella shrieks. A vase tumbles to the ground and smashes, a shard of it slicing across my forehead.
“That’s excessive force! Get off him!” My head hits the ground and my ears start ringing. Handcuffs are locked around my wrists and a police officer puts a knee in the center of my back. I groan. Stella is still yelling.
Another officer reads me my Miranda rights, and then they haul me up to my feet. Stella tries to protest, but I don’t hear a word. They drag me out of her house and stuff me in the back of a police cruiser.
The last thing I see is Stella shouting at an officer, pointing toward me. Her face is red and her anger is palpable. Even with half a dozen police officers around her, she’s not backing down.
I’m so completely in love with her, and I’m so completely fucked.
31
Stella
“I’m going to need your badge number. That was unacceptable and completely excessive. He wasn’t resisting, there was no need to tackle him to the ground like that.”
“Ma’am—”
“Don’t ‘Ma’am’ me! Give me the badge number of every single police officer who just showed up at my fucking house or I will have your head.”
“Watch your tone, Ma’am.”
“Badge. Numbers. Now.”
Steam blows out of my ears as the rage inside me intensifies. The police officer in front of me seems unconcerned. He arches an eyebrow and finally pulls a notepad out of his breast pocket. He jots down his badge number and hands it to me.
I nod. “Thank you.”
Within minutes, the police cruisers all disappear and I’m left standing on my front lawn, all alone. I see a curtain move in the house across the street, and I know all the neighbors have seen tonight’s drama.
I don’t care. I’m sick of hiding away. I want to be beside Adrian, to show him off, to let everyone know that he’s not the monster they think he is.
He’s good. He’s a good man with a good heart. Sure, he’s made mistakes, but he’s taken responsibility for them. He gave up his dream, his career—everything. And now, they just want to rub salt in the wound.
It makes me sick.
The media, the public, the police—they’re vultures. They see him vulnerable and they attack. They don’t want to know him, or to know the truth. They just want blood.
So, instead of following Adrian to the police station, I jump in my car and head to my sister’s house. It’s my turn to bang on her door and yell through it. I’m just as bad as the police. I might even tackle her to the ground when she opens the door, too.
When Liam fills the doorway, I take a step back.
“Where’s Ashley?”
“Stella,” he says evenly. He glances over his shoulder and takes a deep breath. “This isn’t a good time.”
“Where is she?”
“Let her in,” comes Ashley’s voice from inside the house. Liam grimaces and finally takes a deep breath, stepping aside to let me in.
I don’t take my shoes off. I won’t be here long. I march down the hallway, glancing in the empty living room and continuing on toward the kitchen. Ashley has her back to me, stirring a pot of food on the stove. Her other hand is on her ever-growing belly.
I’m trembling. I’m so mad that I think I might explode. And Ashley just stands there, stirring her food and ignoring me.
“Are you not even going to face me?”
She scoffs. “Funny for you to say that to me after what you did.”
“After what I did?!”
Liam stands in the doorway for a second and then dissolves back into the hallway. I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to watch this, either. What’s about to go down is a fight of epic proportions—a fight that only sisters can have with each other.
Ashley taps the wooden spoon on the edge of the saucepan and places it down on a plate. She turns slowly, lifting her eyes up to mine. They’re bloodshot. Her mouth is pinched into a tight line and she looks very pale.
“What the fuck, Ashley? How could you?”
“How could I? Are you listening to yourself right now? You shacked up with the one man that tried to ruin my life and my relationship, and now you’re turning around and telling me that I’m in the wrong? Are you fucking delusional?”
“Who are you calling delusional? You’re ruining that man’s life, Ash.”
“Good.” Her eyes darken.
“You shouldn’t have given those files to the press.” I try to keep my voice steady, but the anger building inside me makes it waver.
“Why the fuck not?” She leans against the counter and crosses her arms. “Huh? Why not? He did the same to me!”
“He did not! He was an asshole, yes. I agree. But did he ever actually do anything with the dirt he found on you? Did he do anything except get you fired from the job you already hated?”
“What, so threatening me is okay?”
“You don’t know him, Ash. He never actually did anything to ruin your life. But you! You could have just sent him to prison!”
“Good. That’s where he belongs.” Her lips pinch even more.
Every word she says slices through my heart. I don’t know how to explain to her how much she’s hurting me. I don’t know how to put into words how I’m feeling. I feel lost and alone and hopeless.
Bile rises in my throat and my face crumples.
“I wanted to tell you,” I whisper.
“Well, you didn’t.”
“He’s not the man you think he is.”
“No? So why did he threaten to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets? Why did he
use that information to break Liam and I apart? Why did he never—not once— speak to me and apologize for that? Huh? Why not? Does he sound like such a great guy to you?”
A sob shakes me, and I sink down onto a chair. I drop my head in my hands and rock back and forth. My little sister, the one person that I’ve always taken care of, is right. Adrian was not a good person to her. But that’s not who he is. I’ve seen who he really is—who he’s becoming, and he’s not a monster.
Back and forth, I rock on the chair as my thoughts swirl. Forward—loyalty to my sister. Back—love for the man I’ve gotten to know. Forward, back, forward, back, until I can’t make sense of any of it. Another sob shakes me and I dig my fingernails into my head.
Through the depths of my anguish, I hear Ashley sigh. She takes a step toward me and sits down beside me. She puts her hand on my thigh as I rock back and forth. My tears drop, soaking my jeans, her hand, the chair. I can’t stop them. I can’t control them.
I don’t want to lose Ashley, but I don’t want to lose Adrian, either. I have to choose between them but either one that I choose leaves me with a broken heart and a broken home. I cry some more as Ashley curls her fingers into my thigh.
I glance up at her and see that she’s crying, too. She wipes a tear away and shakes her head.
“I’m sorry.”
She barely makes any noise saying the words, but they reverberate through me. They bounce around my ribcage, circling my heart until I’m able to take a full breath for the first time since the police knocked on my door. She leans into me, wrapping her arms around me and we both cry on each other’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Stella. I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” I manage to say, sniffling. I wipe my snot on the back of my hand and groan, using my other hand to brush the tears off my cheeks. I take a deep, rattling breath and shake my head.
Ashley chews her lip, glancing at me. “How long have you been together?”
“About six weeks.”
“Six weeks?!” Her eyes widen, and another arrow pierces my heart.
I just nod in response. She sighs, arching her eyebrows.
Ashley nods. “Okay.”
“I should have told you.”
“Yeah.” She glances at me. “I shouldn’t have given those files to the media. I only gave them a couple—not everything.”
“The police just came to my house and took him away. Nearly knocked down my door and then tackled him in my hallway.”
“What?” She gasps, her eyes wide.
“They broke Mom’s favorite vase.”
Ashley gasps. My lip trembles as I try to hold in my tears. I’m sick of crying. I’m sick of the chaos and the drama and the uncontrollable emotions.
I don’t want any of this. I just want my sister to love me and Adrian to be by my side. I don’t want money or fame or a career case to put my name in the history books.
I just want to be happy. I want a family.
Ashley sighs again. “You have terrible taste in men.”
I snort-laugh, glancing at her. “You’re not exactly great yourself. Before Liam you didn’t do so well.”
A grin tugs at her lips and she shrugs. “Two peas in a pod, I guess.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I whisper.
Ashley takes a deep breath. “Me neither.”
32
Adrian
When I get to the police station, someone wipes the blood from my face and slaps a bandage on my forehead. I sigh—that broken vase is yet another thing I’ll have to apologize to Stella about. The list is growing.
They stick me in a tiny interrogation room and leave me there, stewing in my own thoughts. I sit there, unmoving, until the door opens and two men walk in.
The first is the taller of the two, and has short, salt-and-pepper hair and a nasty snarl on his lips. He doesn’t look at me when he sits down. The second man is stockier, with an ill-fitting brown suit. His face is impassive, and he stands in the corner watching me. His full beard is streaked with white and it does much to hide his expression.
The man sitting across from me carefully intertwines his fingers on the table and finally swings his eyes up to mine. He arches an eyebrow.
I don’t know how to act, so I just wait for him to speak.
“My name is Special Agent Dawkins, and this is Special Agent Ulster,” he nods to the man in the corner. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“I’ve seen the news.”
“Mr. Maguire, you’re facing some very serious charges here.”
“I’d like to speak to my lawyer.”
“You will.” Dawkins pinches his lips together and looks me up and down. He exhales, leaning back in his chair. It squeaks gently against the floor, but otherwise there isn’t a sound in the room.
It’s hard to keep your face neutral when you’re thinking about keeping your face neutral. A thousand questions fly through my brain. I’m somewhere between panic and resignation, with my nerves balled up in a tight spot in the pit of my stomach.
Maybe I deserve this. I made a dirty deal with Hansen Constructions, and I should be punished. Dropping the case was one thing, but I haven’t really atoned for my sins. I haven’t paid. I lost my job, my reputation, my dream of one day sitting in the White House, but I haven’t lost everything.
If anything, the past month has been the happiest I’ve been in years. A part of me feels like that’s wrong. I shouldn’t be allowed to be this happy. I haven’t done anything to deserve a woman like Stella. I’ve been selfish and cruel and power-hungry, and the past month was just a taste of what I could have.
The other shoe has dropped. Now, I truly understand what I’m losing. All the things I thought I wanted—I don’t actually care about at all. But losing my chance to be with Stella…
That hurts.
I keep waiting for her to burst through the door in a blaze of lawyerly glory, and with every second that goes by, my hopes sink deeper and deeper.
Maybe seeing the police burst through the door was the last straw. Maybe it made her realize that she doesn’t want the trouble of being with me. She already hates the public eye—the last thing she’ll want is public condemnation of her new boyfriend.
Is that what I am, even? A boyfriend?
I take a deep breath and shake my head. A boyfriend would be someone that Stella is proud to be with, not someone she hides away.
I glance at the door of the investigation room and shake my head. She won’t come. This isn’t the life she wants, and it’s not the life that I want for her, either. What Stella should do is run as far away from me as possible and not look back.
I’m cursed. I only bring chaos to the people around me, and there’s no happy ending for me. This is the end of the road.
I take a deep breath and swing my eyes to Dawkins. I nod.
“What do you want to know?” I run my fingers through my hair and take a resigned breath. Dawkins and Ulster exchange a glance, and Ulster’s eyebrows draw together ever so slightly. It’s the most movement I’ve seen on his face since he walked in.
Dawkins clears his throat. “I want you to tell me about Hansen Constructions, specifically John Hansen.”
I nod. “Okay. I met him at an industry event—some gala or fundraiser, about three years ago.”
“Which gala?”
I sigh. “I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
“Do you have any idea how many of these things I go to in a year? In a month? In a week? Multiple.”
He leans forward. “Try.”
Sighing, I rub my temples. “It was a Denver Broncos event—they were starting some foundation for the kids, I don’t remember what, exactly. All I know is that John Hansen was a part owner, and I was the City Councilor in the district where they were building the kids’ center.”
Ulster takes a step forward. “John Hansen is a part owner in the Denver Broncos?” His voice is gruff and low.
I shrug. “That’s what h
e told me.”
“And that’s when you told him of your political ambitions? You were campaigning at the time, no?”
“Not yet. He gave me some tickets to the next Broncos game—good tickets. A private box with full catering and an open bar. I took my father. It was a good time.”
Dawkins waves his hand to silence me. “When did you start discussing the deal for the riverfront development project.”
Ulster’s eyes are boring a hole through my skull. Dawkins is holding his breath, staring at me with beady black eyes. My heart thumps and I take a deep breath. Something feels off. I shake my head.
“I’d like to have a lawyer present for the rest of the questions.”
The two men exchange a glance. Without a word, Dawkins pushes his chair back and Ulster knocks on the door. It swings open from the outside and they walk out.
“Hey!” I call out after them. “Wait! What’s going on? Are you charging me with something?”
I stand up, but the door closes and locks with a deafening bang. I slump back down in my chair, staring at the four walls around me.
Even though Stella should stay away, I still wish she was here.
33
Stella
“What do you mean I can’t see him? This is unconstitutional—it’s been almost two hours. Let me see him now.” My chest heaves as I take big, gulping breaths to try to calm my racing heart. The police officer behind the glass looks at me with an arched eyebrow, her dark brown hair pulled back in a tight bun.
She shrugs. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I can’t do that right now.”
“I’m his lawyer!”
“Hold on, please.”
She turns away from me and walks through a door and out of sight. I let out a frustrated growl, spinning back around toward Liam and Ashley.
Ashley wrings her hands. Her forehead creases and she looks at me with eyes full of worry.
“I’m so sorry, Stella,” she whispers.
I shake my head. “Stop saying that.”
Love/Hate: The Complete Enemies to Lovers Series Page 49