Fashion Jungle

by Kathy Ireland

  It took another seven minutes of traffic for them to get to the abandoned warehouse. And things quickly went from bad to worse.

  Makeup and hair got locked out when Frederick sent them away because it was making Chrissy uncomfortable.

  So, the only individuals inside the building were Chrissy, Everlee, and a very angry Frederick.

  Dane dialed the police chief and briefed him on the situation and then started to search for other ways to get into the building.

  Zoe and Roger helped.

  They tried not to look too frantic. According to everyone else, they were just worried that something had gone wrong, and the three of them were trapped.

  But inside, Dane knew it was worse than that.

  Frederick had violent tendencies. He’d thrown Everlee against a wall. And in a few days, he was going to be charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography.

  “I think I found something,” Zoe yelled at them, gesturing to a door that led to the back of the warehouse. She tried the knob. “Locked.”

  The window was big enough for someone to fit through. Or something.

  He was out of time.

  Dane grabbed the scarf that Roger kept perpetually tied around his right hand whenever he was out on a shoot and wrapped it around his fist then punched in the glass. It shattered around his knuckles like a thousand tiny needles.

  He reached inside and tried to turn the lock. But it was too far down.

  “Let me.” Zoe moved in front of him. “Move the glass so I don’t get eviscerated through my stomach, and you can lift me.”

  “Are you sure?” He would die before he let anything happen to her. Her emerald-colored eyes lit up with determination.

  “Do it now.”

  He shoved the pieces of glass still protruding from the window and double-checked to make sure it was seamless, then lifted her in his arms as she crawled through the window, using his body as leverage. “I think I got it.”

  Something clattered, and then the door opened.

  He carefully pulled her back to the ground, tempted to kiss her senseless. Instead, he shoved her and Roger behind him, held a finger to his lips, and moved around all the old equipment until they reached the main part of the warehouse.

  Crying. Someone was crying.

  “I wonder what it feels like to know that you’re being replaced, right in front of your very eyes, by someone more beautiful,” Frederick said in a low voice. “Do you remember how our shoots used to go, Everlee?”

  Chrissy winced as Frederick wrapped his hands around her neck. “It was so easy to seduce you, to get you to want me, and now, you’ve ruined everything because you got too curious. All those files, all of them, point to me. Me!” he roared. “My entire career is gone because you got too needy, too jealous.”

  “I got needy?” Everlee sputtered. “Jealous? I’m your wife!”

  “Guess you forgot about those vows the minute you hacked into my files and ratted to the police, huh? What did you think you were going to find? Sex tapes of me and young models like this?” He thrust Chrissy forward. “I keep those under the bed so that when I’m forced to sleep with you, I can imagine I’m with them, over and over again.”

  Chrissy whimpered.

  “Let her go,” Everlee said in a strong voice as she tried to approach him. “She’s done nothing wrong, she’s just a kid.”

  “You were too, and now look at you,” he sneered. “My entire life is on the line because of you. It’s only fair I take you down with me, don’t you think?”

  Everlee froze. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I’m a liar, it’s what I do. I’ll make sure they realize that we worked as a team, the girls trusted you, and in return, you lured them to me with promises of stardom. Isn’t that right, Chrissy?”

  “No.” Chrissy tugged at his hands, but he was too strong.

  Dane had seen enough. He moved to get up, but Zoe kept him down and shook her head slowly as she pulled out her cell and started to record.

  “Frederick, there’s no way out of this, and that’s perjury, plus blaming it on me just makes you guilty.”

  “My lawyer says I’m already going to prison!” he bellowed and then burst out laughing. “And the worst part of it? I wasn’t working alone! I was told to keep quiet.”

  “What do you mean?” Everlee asked, clearly trying to keep him talking, buying them time, praying for a savior. “With the pornography ring?”

  “Do you know how much money’s in the black market? Millions. Do you know how many young girls will do anything just for a chance to be like you and your friends? Even more.”

  The acidic taste of bile rose into Dane’s throat; he was going to be sick if he had to hear much more of this.

  “Maybe you should just turn on them,” Everlee said in a strong voice while Chrissy still struggled against the photographer’s hold. “Instead of me. Sounds like a better idea.”

  Frederick’s eyes were wild. “Don’t you think I thought of that? But I can’t. I can’t. They know too much, we all did… too much.”

  The guy was starting to sound like a lunatic.

  “Too much?” Everlee prodded. “What do you mean?”

  “We didn’t mean for it to happen.” Frederick loosened his grip on Chrissy, then threw her to the floor and pulled out a gun. “Stop talking!”

  Chrissy crawled to Everlee and grabbed her legs. To her credit, Everlee didn’t look like she was about to pass out.

  “What happened?” Everlee asked softly. “If you’re going to kill us, if you’re going to prison, you may as well say it, get it off your chest. It’s obviously been weighing on you.”

  “Stop.” Frederick moved closer to them with his gun. “Talking.”

  Everlee held Chrissy in her arms. “So, what are you going to do now, Frederick? Kill us? Frame us? Let us go?”

  The gun shook in his hand.

  “I’m curious, as well.” Dane stood and slowly made his way over to them while Roger and Zoe remained hidden in the darkness. “You have so many wonderful choices. Prison, death, blood… Then again, you know all about choices, don’t you, Frederick?”

  “I didn’t do it.” Frederick shook his head. “I did nothing wrong.”

  “You mean other than taking pictures of eleven-year-old girls? Okay, sure…”

  Dane lunged for him and knocked the gun out of his hands. They both scrambled for it, but Dane was faster. He hit Frederick in the temple and pushed to his feet. Then he kicked him in the ribs.

  Frederick howled with pain, then charged Dane kicking him in the shin before Dane had a chance to shove him backward causing Frederick to stumble to the ground.

  “You have two choices.” Dane pointed the gun at Frederick’s head. “Answer a question, and you live. Fail to answer, and I’ll make sure that you get the death sentence. It will be easy to frame you, easy to make things look like a happy accident. You know who I am, you know what I can do. So, I’m going to ask you something, and you’re going to tell me.”

  Blood dripped down Frederick’s chin. “No.”

  “Fine.” Dane fired a shot into Frederick’s left kneecap and waited until the guy stopped screaming obscenities. “I can do this all night. The police chief and I golf every Sunday, and the DA owes me a favor. Need I go on?”

  Frederick stared him down, his teeth chattering.

  Another shot, this one into the other kneecap.

  “Danica died from blunt-force trauma to the head,” Dane said in a calm voice. “You were one of the last people to see her alive, the police proved that. I want to know what happened. I want you to tell me the story once and for all. I have enough proof to put you away for a very long time, I could probably frame you for her murder at this point, especially after your horrible decision-making in trying to put the blame on your wife and using Chrissy as bait…” He trailed off. “What happened that night? Because you’re suspect number one.”

  Frederick paled and then shook his he
ad in defeat. “It wasn’t me, it was an accident! We were going to talk to her calmly and you know Danica, she was anything but calm, threatened to expose everything, she tried running past, I shoved her back, we didn’t know she would trip and hit her head. You have to believe me, it was an accident!”

  “So you say.”

  “She knew about the pornography ring,” Frederick said through clenched teeth. “Jauq, well… Jauq helped build the website. Marnie—” He stopped himself and looked down. “Marnie supplied the models. Some of the ones who didn’t make it out here were given other… opportunities to prove themselves. That was all Jauq and Marnie.”

  “Are we talking sex slavery?” Dane asked in shock.

  “It’s easy for someone to disappear in the big city, and if someone pays enough…” Frederick winced in pain. “Marnie had an operation in the UK, and it was booming. We were new in the industry, young. The money was good and it was easy! Danica and Jauq were fighting one night and she went to his office and the idiot had his email open, it didn’t take her long to connect the dots.” He winced, “Like I said, we were younger then, stupid, Marnie’s very convincing!”

  “Don’t blame something like this on stupidity and innocence.” Dane dropped the gun to the floor.

  “That’s it?” Frederick struggled to sit, grunted, his face twisting in agony as he fell back to the side. After a couple of deep breaths, he stared up at Dane. “I can go now?”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Dane said with fake enthusiasm. “Let me just make sure we have the devil ready to escort you to Hell.” Dane pulled out his gun, the one he always used, not the dirty, discarded one Frederick had probably bought at a pawn shop while wearing a disguise. He held it up. “Give me one reason not to shoot you.”

  “Don’t.” Zoe came up behind him. “Don’t do it, Dane. You don’t want his blood on your hands… he’s not worth it.” Her voice wrapped around him.

  He slowly lowered the gun just as she touched his arm.

  “Roger, open the doors.” His voice sounded hollow as adrenaline buzzed through him.

  Footsteps, and then the door opened.

  “Let’s go.” He lifted Chrissy into his arms while Zoe and Everlee clung to each other.

  “Hey!” Frederick called from his spot on the floor. “Hey!”

  Police moved past them as they walked out.

  It was going to be a long night.

  For everyone.

  Chrissy shook in his arms, and he was reminded of his little sister, with stars in her eyes and joy reflected on her face.

  She had been killed for doing the right thing.

  She had been murdered for being that same young girl who’d moved to the city to pursue her dreams. She had been killed for robbed innocence and the need for justice.

  Dane shuddered as Chrissy held him close, tears streaking down her face.

  He stopped walking when Roger finally caught up to them. He asked, “Did you know?”

  He didn’t have to specify.

  Roger sighed. “I heard rumors about Marnie, but there’re always rumors swirling around her and her models. No, I didn’t know.”

  “Then why? Why is she so scared of you?”

  “She’s not scared of me. She just knows I know a few of her secrets. She’s ten years older than she claims, and she came from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Many years ago, when she was still fresh-faced and new to the industry, she tried to seduce a gay man,” He pointed at himself, “And the real clincher… she’s Frederick’s mother, and Jauq’s lover. Take your pick.”

  Dane’s jaw dropped to the floor, or at least it felt like it. “What?”

  “It’s the jungle, things get wild,” Roger said with a hint of sadness. And then he was cupping Chrissy’s face. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know—”

  “I know.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I know you didn’t, I just… I really need my mom.”

  Dane cursed as he realized he was yet again giving Brittany life-altering news while holding her daughter in his arms.

  History.

  It had no choice but to repeat itself and beg of you to make the right decision a second time.

  The limo felt the same, even though Brittany knew it wasn’t. Maybe it was that the air hung heavy with those same tense feelings from before? From all of the events she’d attend with Ronan, both political and personal.

  The only thing that had changed.

  Was her.

  She smiled at him.

  Finally.

  She finally felt like she could give him at least that and mean it. Maybe it was Oliver. Perhaps it was finally reconnecting with Chrissy. Whatever it was, she felt at peace, something she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  “She’s beautiful, you know.” Ronan released a deep sigh as a tear rolled down his cheek and dripped onto the new iPhone with the bright pictures of their daughter’s childhood. “Just like her mama.”

  Brittany put a hand on his arm. “I’d like to think she has the best of both of us.”

  “Sometimes, I wonder if my best still isn’t enough,” he rasped, grabbing her hand and kissing her fingertips. “Sixteen years. I lost sixteen years because I listened to my mother. I gave in to the fears, and I left—” His voice cracked. “I’ll never forgive myself for leaving you.”

  Brittany pulled her hand away as sorrow wrapped its hands around her throat and squeezed, making it hard to breathe. “But you did, Ro. And a part of you will always belong more to the people than to me, or to her.”

  “Don’t say that.” He shook his head.

  “Ro…” Tears filled her eyes. “It’s okay to be that person, to be someone that others look up to. We need more people like you in this world, in politics. Don’t focus on the lost sixteen years. Focus on the fact that you have time now.”

  He gritted his teeth and shook his head, sliding his phone back into his pocket. He didn’t answer, just stared straight ahead, shutting her out again. He was good at that.

  And now, she knew the signs.

  He’d only ever let her get close enough to see pieces of him. He never wanted to show her the ugly, the bad, the unloved side that drove him to want to succeed in every area of his life—to prove his mother wrong and his father right.

  “Time. Right.” Voice heavy with sadness, Ronan turned to her, reaching for her hands. “Is it us? Is it the universe? I’m ready to start over, I need that, I think…” He looked down at their hands. “I think I could be a fantastic father. I want to try, why can’t we try?”

  Words she’d always wanted to hear from him. But now, they were too late, not just because it had been years, not even because so many hurt feelings stretched between them like a ravine, but because she’d already given her heart to someone else.

  The temptation was there, though.

  To have that happy family. The perfect house, American Dream. Everything she’d always wanted. Except now when she looked at the picture in her head, it was Oliver’s face smiling back at her.

  She needed to tell Oliver about Chrissy. It was time. It wasn’t fair. And that was a risk she was willing to take because regardless of Oliver’s feelings, she had her daughter back.

  And peace in her soul.

  No matter what, she would be okay.

  “Ro…” She squeezed his hands. “You’ll be a fantastic father to Chrissy. I know it, and so do you. You’re a busy man, just don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “My father was good to us,” he said in a serious voice. “He was busy, but he was fair, he was good.”

  “I know he was, Ro. Everyone loved him. Your mom lost a part of herself when he was killed. And I think you did, too.”

  He just nodded.

  The limo came to a stop, and all too soon, his door was opened for him.

  He put one leg out, and then turned and gripped her face between his palms. “One more chance, please.”

  Tears filled his eyes and hers. “Ro—”

  “I love you.”

  Bu
t he didn’t.

  She knew what love was now.

  He loved the idea of them, the possibility of getting a do-over. He might love her with the pieces of himself he allowed her to see, but he didn’t love her with everything he had.

  And she wanted it all. Regardless of how painful it might be to lose it—she wanted it, was greedy for it. Needed it like her next breath.

  “I can’t.” The words were painful, her tears felt like knives falling down her face, pricking her skin, causing a river of blood to wash over all of the hurt feelings between them like a baptism. “You know I can’t.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “I know. I just wish I hadn’t been so stupid to let go of you once, let alone watch you walk away twice.”

  “I never walked away.”

  He hung his head and dropped his hands. “He’s a lucky man, you know, that surgeon.”

  “This isn’t goodbye, Ronan. We’ll figure out a plan for Chrissy, all right?”

  “It’s not goodbye, but it hurts the same, Britt. It feels like my heart’s getting ripped out of my chest, and yet I know it’s going to be okay. It has to be, right?”

  “Yes.” She relaxed and pulled him into a tight hug. “I prayed for you, you know.”

  “I felt it, you know,” he said back just as quickly. “I don’t know what I would do without your prayers. I highly doubt God hears mine anymore.”

  “Of course, he does—because for sixteen years, I prayed that we’d finally find peace between us.”

  “Me, too.” He let out a sigh and hugged her tight again. “I have to go.”

  “Be safe, Ro.”

  “Always am.” He shot her a mischievous wink. “I’ll call you when I land, all right?”

  Something twisted in her chest at the sight of him getting out of the limo with his two bags. The plane wasn’t big. It was one of his private ones that his mother hated, but Brittany knew Ronan. He was happy in the sky. It was the only place in this world where he had control.

  Above the Earth, floating, he could be free.

  He was always like a bird, wasn’t he? Trapped in a gilded cage of his family’s making.

  The perfect life.

  Ha. She knew it too well.