Tangled up in Love

by Charlotte Byrd

  “Yes, I’m here. You know where Parker is?”

  “Yes, we do.”

  “And you’re not telling the police or the FBI?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, we don’t really have a good reason to follow him and we don’t need them breathing down our neck.”

  “Why were you following him in the first place?”

  “I like to collect surveillance on people who are connected to people who work for me, just in case I ever need to use it.”

  He may be lying, but he may also be telling the truth.

  “How much is that information worth to you, Jackson?”

  A lot, I say to myself.

  “Yeah, I thought so.”,” Andrew laughs on the other end of the phone, reading my mind.

  “So, what are you telling me exactly?” I ask.

  “You propose to Harley in a lavish, ultra-romantic way and allow our cameras to record the whole thing for the tabloids and in exchange I will tell you the exact location where you can find Parker Huntington.”

  “And why would I want to know that?”

  “Why wouldn’t you? He’s the man responsible for kidnapping your girlfriend and almost killing her, killing your friend and your unborn child. No one knows where he is. Are you really telling me that you don’t want to get your hands on that asshole and put a bullet in his head?”

  “I am not a violent man,” I say, even though he’s right. That’s precisely what I want to do with him. Or maybe even worse.

  “No one is until circumstances require them to be.”

  I take a deep breath processing exactly what he is telling me.

  “No one will know about this. No one will know that this conversation even took place.”

  “Except that we are on the phone together,” I point out.

  “I’m on a burner phone. That’s why you didn’t recognize my number and picked up.” He laughs.

  I still don’t reply.

  “Why don’t I paint you a little picture?” Andrew continues. “You have this beautiful proposal where the love of your life agrees to marry you. And to celebrate, you will get to the precise place where Parker Huntington is sleeping safely in his bed, shoot him in the head with an untraceable gun, and vanish into the night. You and I both know that the world would be a much better place without him in it, especially Harley’s.”

  Every impulse in my body yearns for this. I can see myself doing it exactly as he has described and my mouth practically salivates at the idea. I am not a criminal and I’m not one to take the law into my own hands, but the police and the FBI have betrayed us. They promised to find him and they haven’t. They promised to keep Harley safe and they haven’t.

  “You and I both know that Harley will never be safe while he is out there, walking around free,” he says, reading my mind.

  “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean that I can take this matter into my own hands,” I say. I say this because it’s the right thing to say, in case anyone is listening. I don’t know if he can tell that, but it doesn’t matter.

  “What you do then is up to you. You can call the police and they can arrest him for you, and probably let him go with time served,” Andrew mocks me.

  I don’t say anything in response.

  “Okay, how about this. Think about it and let me know. But I hope that you know that there’s only one answer that I’ll accept.”

  Andrew hangs up, leaving me in a state of limbo. I stare at the phone until it goes black.

  My mind runs in circles until I get dizzy. I sit down and try to collect my thoughts. What Andrew just offered me is a gift bigger than I ever thought I would ever get. I don’t even know if he knows what it is that he is offering me.

  Parker Huntington’s life is now in my hands. I am the only person now who can avenge what he did to Martin and my unborn child.

  It’s also up to me to make sure that he never hurts Harley again.

  29

  Jackson

  When I decide…

  I know that his obsession with her will never stop until his lifeless body is deep underground, but I also know that I need to be careful.

  I don’t know if anyone is tapping my phone.

  It is not likely but I will not be one of those fools whose recorded conversations are blasted all over the courtroom at their trial. No, Parker is the one who should be on trial.

  He is the one who is responsible for all of this and it’s him who will pay.

  But what about waiting for the police to get him? What about allowing time for the prosecutor’s office to make their case?

  It’s tempting, of course.

  But then again, how many chances should we give them?

  I’ve waited for them to make the case against Sam and all they did was let him go. I don’t know how much they have on Parker, if anything, and if they don’t have any evidence of him being the man on the bike then he will not get a life sentence for executing Martin.

  Whatever time he would serve for kidnapping Harley wouldn’t be enough.

  I wait until the evening to call him back with my decision.

  “How do I know that you will let me know where he is located after I ask her to marry me?” I ask when he answers the phone.

  “I’ll have our investigator escort you to him.”

  A smile comes over my face. “Perfect.”

  Andrew’s event planner has all sorts of suggestions for how to plan the perfect proposal and I listen to her carefully as she goes into all the details.

  Apparently, nowadays, proposals can be as lavish as rehearsal dinners with parties being organized and thrown afterward.

  I don’t want anything like that, but I have no idea if Harley does.

  On the surface, she seems like an easy going girl with not too many requests. But when it comes to a wedding proposal, who the hell knows?

  Maybe she does want something fancy and beautiful.

  Maybe she does want me to go the extra mile to make her feel special.

  The one thing that I am pretty certain of is that she does not want this to be a staged situation in exchange for information on Parker Huntington.

  But she doesn’t have to know.

  That’s something that I am doing for her, even if she hasn’t asked me to.

  Parker Huntington has been a threat to her for way too long. He has tried to hurt her numerous times and has succeeded on occasion. How many more chances am I willing to take?

  The answer is that I’m not willing to take any more chances.

  So, even though I know that this is probably the last thing that she wants, I’m going to go through with it. I want her to be my wife, and God-willing, I will take this whole thing to my grave after seventy years of a happy marriage.

  Two more weeks pass as we plan the event. By we, I mean, mainly the event planner.

  I am too busy with work to pay much attention but she does tell me when and where to show up.

  I write it down in my calendar along with a note reminding me to bring the engagement ring.

  Harley never goes into my work laptop so I’m certain that this info is safe here.

  Besides, Harley has been quite busy at work as well. She is working hard on finishing the latest novel, which readers will be snapping up as soon as it goes live.

  She has become quite an expert at Facebook advertising, and is even increasing the spend.

  It’s something that I had encouraged her to do ever since she started, but it’s something that she’s only now doing since she has gained more confidence in the process.

  She keeps promising to pay me back every last cent that she spends and keeps a pretty accurate spreadsheet of all of her costs.

  At first, I thought that this was just an empty promise, but given how many people are buying her books, it’s probably going to happen.

  I keep saying to myself that as soon as we marry, my money will become her money, but I doubt that I will be able to convince he
r of that, even if she were to say yes.

  That’s the thing, though. No matter how lavish the proposal and how beautiful the setting, Harley still has to say yes. And I’m not sure if she will.

  I love her and she says she loves me, too.

  But ever since we got back from the hospital, things haven’t been the same.

  We both lost something that night, something irreplaceable and I’m not sure if we have recovered. No, that’s a lie. Nothing has been the same since then.

  30

  Jackson

  Later…

  Weeks pass in oblivion.

  We spend time together but nothing is really the same.

  She cries a lot and I cry as well, but somewhere apart from her. I am afraid to show her that I am hurting, too.

  Why?

  It’s hard to explain.

  Probably because I don’t want to make this real to myself. I hide my pain and it makes it feel less acute.

  But then one day, I wake up and I feel lighter. It’s hard to say that I feel lighter, it’s more that the weight that has been pressing down on me isn’t as heavy all of a sudden.

  That evening we decide to order takeout and watch something together in the living room.

  I’ve spent so much time buried in work that it’s nice to sit and do nothing.

  Dressed in sweatpants and a loose-fitting V-neck sweater, Harley comes downstairs looking like an angel.

  Her hair cascades down around her shoulders and it moves in slow waves with each step.

  When she sits down next to me, she takes my hand into hers and gives me a little smile.

  “I missed you,” I whisper and she nods.

  Her face glows in the evening light.

  Her eyes are wide and gorgeous, but the sorrow that has settled into them is gone for now.

  I am sure that it is still there, just below the surface.

  “I missed you, too,” she says.

  “I really want to go back to the way things were, you know?” I ask.

  When the words come out of my mouth, they sound callous and cold. But I look at her and realize that she knows exactly what I mean.

  “I do, too,” she says. “It happened and, of course, I want to take every part of it back, but I also don’t want to lose you.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No, I love you. I don’t want to lose the one person who means everything in the world to me,” she says quietly. “That man has done enough to ruin my life and I’m not going to let him ruin this.”

  She doesn’t say his name and I appreciate that.

  “I won’t let him,” I say quietly. “I love you, Harley.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispers, putting her arm around my neck and kissing me just below my ear lobe.

  I press my lips onto hers. Her mouth opens wide, inviting me in. I bury my hands in her hair, tugging lightly until she moans from pleasure.

  “I missed you,” she whispers. “I missed you so much.”

  “I did, too,” I mumble as my mouth makes its way down her neck. She throws her head back and I move loose strands of hair off her collarbone.

  My right hand makes its way under her shirt and up toward her breasts. She’s not wearing a bra and her breasts welcome my touch. I run my fingers over her nipple as my mouth searches for hers again.

  “Will you marry me?”

  The words just slip out. I freeze, but she doesn’t. I don’t know if she heard me.

  “Yes,” she finally says.

  I kiss her again and then pull away, looking straight into her eyes.

  “What did you say?” I ask.

  “I said yes.” She smiles. “I’ll marry you.”

  I kiss her again and again, pushing her down onto the couch and climbing on top of her. I had organized my thoughts into this big speech and written it down, but then…the question just came out.

  “Wait a second.” She laughs, sitting back up. “Aren’t you supposed to have a ring for me?”

  “I do!”

  “You do?”

  She is surprised, but I tell her to wait. I search the drawer in the console table by the foyer and find the box. Once it’s in my hand, I get on one knee before her, open the box, and ask her again.

  “Oh my God!” she whispers, covering her mouth with one hand. Her eyes get fixed on the ring and she doesn’t answer.

  “You’re supposed to look at me, not the ring,” I joke. She wraps her arms around me and whispers, “Yes, a million times yes,” into my ear.

  “I can’t believe you got me this,” Harley says, looking at the ring on her finger. “It’s too big. Too opulent.”

  “It’s perfect,” I say.

  “Yes, it is.”

  I tell her that I had it in my pocket on her parents’ wedding day and that my only regret was that I waited so long to ask her.

  “It’s okay,” she reassures me.

  “My only regret is that we’re not married already.”

  “I love you,” she whispers, placing her head on mine.

  As we sit here in silence for a few moments, that’s when I remember. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

  I was supposed to do this in front of the cameras. This was supposed to be a show.

  Something that would raise Minetta’s profile in the press. And now…we had this perfect moment and it’s over. Or is it?

  “What’s wrong?” Harley asks.

  “I have to tell you something.”

  I tell her everything about what Andrew Lindell asked me to do. Well, almost everything. She listens carefully and at first doesn’t respond.

  “So, were you really going to go through with it?”

  “I didn’t want to. And that’s not why I asked. I’ve had that ring since your parents’ wedding. That’s the truth.”

  “I believe you,” she whispers.

  “I didn’t bring this up to ruin our night, Harley. I brought this up because it’s something that’s weighing on me and I’ve promised myself that I won’t be keeping any more secrets from you.”

  “So what do we do now?” she asks.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think we should do it?” Harley asks after a moment of silence.

  I shrug.

  “What if he’s right? What if this is the kind of storyline that will raise Minetta’s profile in the media?”

  “It will.”

  “So what happens then?”

  “Well, hopefully more people will find out what we do and have a positive association with it and that will in turn raise the page views and the subscription rate.”

  “And what then?” she asks.

  “His plan is to take the company public. That means that it will be traded on the open market. And all the initial investors are typically paid off handsomely in the process.”

  “Initial investors like him?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, he wants to get out of the company? Not use it as a front for money laundering?”

  “That’s what I thought he was after before but I guess he has changed his mind. He wants to off-load Minetta and take his profits and leave.”

  “Wow,” she whispers, surprised. I am surprised, too.

  “Do you believe him?” she asks.

  “About him wanting to take the company public?” I ask. She nods.

  “It seems to be the only way that he will exit this deal with a lot more than he came into it with.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Harley says.

  31

  Harley

  When I say yes…

  Sometimes you just have to decide to start living your life again even though you don’t want to.

  This is what I did when I lost my brother and this is what I had to do after losing my baby.

  There’s nothing else to do.

  You have grieved and cried and spent days mourning.

  And then…one day, you wake up and you know that you have to start doing something else again o
therwise you might lose yourself in your grief completely.

  That’s why I said yes.

  Jackson asked me to marry him while we were kissing on the couch.

  His hand was up my shirt and our bodies were touching for the first time since before that happened.

  That moment felt so good. I forgot about my pain and everything that was wrong with my life, and instead I lost myself in the man I love.

  And that’s why when he asked me that question, that seemed to have taken him by surprise as well, I said yes.

  There’s a saying from a movie I saw a long time ago called Shawshank Redemption.

  An innocent man finds himself in prison for life. It’s unfair, and unjust, and horrible but he still has a decision to make.

  His friend tells him in there, “You have to get busy living or get busy dying.”

  That’s what I have to do, too. What happened was horrible, and unfair, and unjust but now it’s up to me to live the rest of my life. I may not want to, but unless I get busy living, I will get busy dying.

  So, I say yes. I say yes to Jackson. I say yes to hope. I say yes to life.

  I am dressed in a gown, long and black. It is textured with little feathers lining the bottom.

  It’s hard to explain because I don’t know much about dresses or what they are made from, but I know how this one makes me feel.

  I am a goddess.

  This gown wraps around me in such a way that it makes me a vision.

  My breasts are reaching for the heavens and when my breath quickens, they move up and down.

  I am standing before a tall ship with enormous sails moving slightly in the breeze.

  The boardwalk is empty except for the thousands of lights twinkling all around us, creating an atmosphere of romance and magic.

  Jackson is standing before me, dressed in a tailored black tuxedo that hugs his every edge in just the right way.

  It makes him look chiseled, and manly, and so sexy, it’s everything I can do not to put my hands on him and rip it off right there.