by Sierra Rose
My eyes welled with tears as I shook my head, staring down at his leg. “But it never should have happened. I should have kept my mouth shut, not gone in there and—”
My rising panic was cut short with a tender kiss, as sudden as it was unexpected, one that left me still frozen in surprise when James pulled away from me.
Without another word, the security guards stepped forward, and James was helped gently into Robert’s car. Robert followed.
Frank clapped it briskly on the roof, then watched as it shot off into the night toward the hospital, then turned back to me. “Come, miss. Let’s get you home.”
Chapter 16
I WOKE UP HOURS LATER and called James. No answer. So I then called the hospital. They wouldn’t give me any information, so I was forced to call Robert. He told me James was fine and not to worry my pretty little head. That’s all the information I could get. I wanted to go up to the hospital myself but I had to respect James’s wishes. An hour later, James sent me a quick text stating that he was fine, and not to worry. I then went back to sleep.
Morning finally came.
I rolled over in bed to find myself in the arms of a mid-century suit of armor. When I sucked in a breath to scream, I was momentarily distracted by the smell of French toast. It took only a moment for me to make the connection and shout, “Madison?”
“Down here!” she called, her cheerful voice floating up the stairs.
“Why is your knight in shining armor in my bed?”
“Perfect companionship.”
“Like one of those giant blow up sex dolls. No thank you!”
“I thought it was only a joke in the movies. Do guys really use those?”
“I don’t know. But I know I’m not screwing a guy that has been screwing a blow-up doll on the side.”
“I hear ya.”
“Now tell this knight to get on his white horse and get the hell outta here. Shouldn’t he be out there slaying a ferocious dragon or something? Because I’m not embarking on a heroic quest for a merry good time.”
“He’s probably the most action you’ve gotten in years.”
“Funny!”
“Hurry up and get down here! I have a wonderful surprise waiting for you.”
“Your cooking. That’s not wonderful,” I whispered so she couldn’t hear.
I grimaced against her early-morning pep and threw a pillow against my curtains to stop the rosy pink light from filtering in through the window. It felt as if I’d only climbed into bed a few seconds earlier, yet I was already staring at another long day before me.
In light of my catastrophic disaster at the office the previous night, I put minimal effort into getting ready that morning. I settled on a plain black sheath dress and swept my hair back in a simple ponytail. I slid my feet into black heels and didn’t bother with make, except a couple dots of concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes. The girl staring back at me from the mirror looked just as glum as I felt, like a woman heading to a funeral or just coming back from one.
“Don’t judge me,” I muttered, glaring over my shoulder at Ronald, the ancient suit of armor, still propped up in my bed. “Great. Now I’m actually talking to you. Tell me, Ronald, do you have an evil twin out in the world somewhere?”
Oddly enough, the knight in empty armor fell over at that precise moment, and his arm clattered to the floor.
After swiftly brushing my teeth, I was out the door, marching sullenly past the rows of polka-dotted teacups and rare Arabian jewelry and artwork on my way to the kitchen.
With that cheery bit of wisdom on my mind, I rounded the corner and found my roommate and landlord perched on the kitchen table, listening to her Cambodian meditation tapes at full volume while balancing a mug of strong-smelling coffee in one hand.
I smacked the side of the stereo, and the chanting went dead. “Did you put Ronald in my bed again last night?” I asked.
Her eyes opened slowly, widening slightly for her to give me a once-over. “Who died?” she asked, arching her eyebrow in disapproval of my morbid attire.
“Answer the question, Madison. Did you put that suit of armor in my bed?”
She hopped off the kitchen table and landed lightly on her feet. “Of course I did. You were all alone, and I thought he might cheer you up.”
It made no sense to me that she was able to move the thing in the first place, let alone place it in my bed without waking me. It had to outweigh her by at least 200 pounds.
“Madison,” I said, snapping my eyes shut and inhaling sharply through my nose then exhaling slowly through my mouth, trying to vent my frustration, “we talked about this. He’s not a teddy bear. You can’t just tuck him in the covers like that. I could get tetanus from that damn thing.”
“What?” Her delicate eyebrows turned up into a sarcastic point. “You’d rather sleep alone than with a brave knight? Now who’s not making any sense?”
“I can’t do this today.” I raised both hands to my temples and rubbed gently as the beginnings of a migraine built up behind my eyes. “You realize Ronald’s not actually alive, don’t you? At this point, I seriously have to ask.”
Her lips parted uncertainly, but she was spared having to answer when my eyes flickered suddenly over her shoulder to a steaming platter of French toast.
“Did you call a caterer for breakfast?” I walked across the kitchen to investigate, wondering if I was going to end up at a funeral after all. “You didn’t try to make this yourself, did you?”
She shrugged cheerfully, looking significantly more lighthearted than she did the other day at the office. “I had a little help.”
As if on cue, the cellar door opened, and James walked in, with a bottle of maple syrup in one hand and a ceramic pot of honey in the other. Somehow, that made even less sense than Madison hauling a 300-lb. artifact into my bedroom to keep me company, but I was still stuck in replay mode.
Wait. What?
“Hi Della,” James said.
“Hi James. It’s great to see you. I was so damn worried about you. Thank God you’re okay!”
I lifted my head suddenly and saw four concerned eyes staring down at me, James and Madison wearing identical expressions, tilting their heads at me as if I was drifting away before their very eyes.
“I’m sorry. I just... What? I’m just a little confused.”
Madison smiled gently as James glanced down to hide a bemused smile. “I said,” she continued, handing me a cup of coffee, “James came by to check on you this morning. He even made breakfast so you could sleep in. Because today was your turn. Nice of him, no?”
James set the toast toppings down and smiled at me brightly. “I feared I might be eaten by rabid dogs on my way in here.”
I glanced toward the front door, wondering if there were swarms of press outside, only to realize he was referring to dogs in a more literal sense. “Oh, that’s just the doorbell,” I said hastily before setting my mug of coffee down and looking up at him in a daze. “Wait. You came to check on me?” I then lowered my voice, hyper-aware of Madison hovering nosily in the background and wishing very much that we were alone. “What about you?” I whispered frantically. “I can’t believe Robert would do that to you! I thought he broke your leg. I can’t believe you’re even up and walking around, let alone—”
“Just a dislocation, not a break,” James said, as if that solved the entire problem. Of course, I was sure that in his unfathomable mind, it probably did. “The doctors popped it right back in, and it’s good as new.”
“But what about Robert? Did you press charges?”
“Against my own brother?”
“Yes.”
“Blood is thicker than water. I will deal with him in good time,” he said confidently, coaxing the coffee back into my hand.
The two of us shared a long look before a sardonic voice broke the peaceful quiet: “It sounds like you already dealt with him, quite nicely, I might add.”
We turned to see Madison smirking
behind us, her arms folded accusingly across her chest.
“The office is closed today.”
“Seriously? That never happens,” I said.
“You’re telling me.” She then cast her glare on James. “Had a little showdown in the CEO’s office, did you?” She sauntered forward with a wicked smile, thoroughly enjoying the drama of it all. “Tore the thing apart, eh?”
James flashed her a sweet smile. “Nothing I’m sure you haven’t done yourself...or at least wanted to a time or two”
I pictured the devastation with a little shudder, but then I remembered he was talking about Madison and realized he was probably right.
“At any rate,” she said, moving even closer, “it’s good to know that the right brother came out on top, literally. And on that note... I hope you don’t mind if I copy Della’s idea.” Then without another word, she walked straight up to him and poured the entire mug of coffee down his shirt.
“Okay, I didn’t do that!” I said. “Mine was accidental.”
My mouth fell open with a gasp as James yanked his soaked shirt quickly over his head, peeling the fabric away from his skin.
“Madison!” I cried. “What the hell are you...” I trailed off suddenly as her eyes fixed on his tattoo, glowing with satisfied triumph as she finally had the proof she needed.
“Just checking,” she murmured before she breezed out into the hall. “Let me fetch you a towel, love.”
“What the...?” James asked and stared after her in shock and some sort of odd admiration, as if he’d finally found someone who might be as unpredictable as himself. His eyes flickered twice between the hall and the spoiled shirt in his hand before he turned back to me with an incredulous grin on his face. “Is this a female thing I am unaware of?” He tossed the shirt in the sink, just as he’d done at his own house with me not long before. “Some primal quest for dominance?”
I hesitated a second, then nodded briskly. “Yep. Girl Code. Or maybe she really wanted to see you naked.”
“Then she has bad aim. She should’ve went for the pants.”
“The thought of you walking around in your undies is quite exciting.”
I glanced up with an apologetic smile, then cocked my head toward the hallway. “She has a whole bin of exes’ clothes upstairs though.”
James flashed every one of his pearly teeth, then headed off to retrieve a clean shirt. On his way out, he threw a glance over his shoulder. “I’ll try to find something depressing, nice and black, so we can match.”
I looked down at my solemn dress with a scowl of indignation, but he was gone before I could reply. Instead, I perched on the counter and sipped my own coffee, never losing my little smile.
James looked at me. “If she wanted to see my tattoo to confirm my identity that I was indeed the man who rocked your world that amazing night, all she had to do was simply ask.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s really Madison’s style.”
He laughed.
“But at least she’s finally convinced now,” I said with a smile.
Considering how the night had ended, the morning wasn’t half-bad. James wasn’t lying in a hospital bed somewhere, refusing to let me see him. The office was closed, so I didn’t have to face that place again for a while, and Robert had not yet even made an appearance to set the place on fire or kill me with an axe
My smile faded as I considered Robert. While my memories were a bit stilted and scattered when it came to everything else, a few things remained perfectly clear. Robert’s reaction to his crime of assault and battery was at the top of the list.
Never before had I seen a man so instantly transformed by the power of guilt. Never before had I seen anyone make such a complete, quick turnaround. I was willing to bet that if James hadn’t called a cab, his twin brother would have moved heaven and earth to get him to the hospital himself, but that begged a question: Where the hell do we go from here?
“Morning, stranger!”
I jumped as the booming voice echoed and spilled some coffee on my dress. My eyes snapped open, and I whipped around to see Caleb standing behind me, armed with a bag of donuts and an apologetic grin.
His grin faded slightly, and his eyes widened as he looked me up and down. “Shit, Della. Who died? Please tell me it wasn’t one of the partners. Is that why we’re closed today?”
“Enough with the death jokes already!” I said and hopped off the counter in frustration, sopping up the coffee as best I could with a handful of paper towels. “I’ll change my damn dress. I sort of have to now.”
Caleb lifted his hands innocently, waving the bag like a white flag. “It might be why I did it.”
“Seriously?”
“Relax. I come bearing gifts. Since the office is closed, I figured I’d stop by and see how Madison is doing. Yesterday really shook her up.”
My face paled, and my hand froze in place. “Yesterday?” I repeated, every muscle in my body stiffening. “What have you heard?”
“Uh...that Billings thing,” he said, his face blanked in surprise.
Madison seemed so normal that morning that I had forgotten about her trauma, the one issue that sent me to Robert’s door in the first place. I had to suspect that Caleb had a lot to do with restoring the silver lining after her cloudy day at the office.
“That meltdown wasn’t like her,” he said, sitting the donut bag down as he frowned. “What do you mean, what did I hear? Something juicy, I hope.”
As if on cue, James walked back into the kitchen, still buttoning a shirt left over from one of Madison’s former lovers.
“Oh, I see.” My face flushed a million shades of red as Caleb glanced at the ground with a discreet smile. Then he raised his voice a little louder and nodded politely at James. “Nice shirt. I used to have one just like it.”
I buried my face in my newly poured mug of coffee to hide my grin at that, wondering if Caleb remembered where he bought it. I would have placed all my money on the fact that the label was the same.
“Caleb,” James greeted warmly, “what a surprise. Are you here for breakfast?”
“Actually, I brought breakfast.” He gestured to the bag before glancing up at the platter of French toast. “I see someone already beat me to the punch.” There was a slight pause as a faint trace of panic flickered through his eyes. “Tell me Madison didn’t attempt to cook. There are laws, you know, and I don’t want to involve the Health Department.”
“Goodness, no.” I stifled a shudder and pulled down a stack of plates. “I think we’ve all been through enough lately without adding a Montgomery cooking disaster to the list.”
“A Montgomery what?” Madison breezed back into the kitchen, sans towel, wearing a pink sundress and looking like the princess of spring. Her blue eyes widened when they landed on Caleb, and without a word of warning, she leapt straight into his arms and planted a huge kiss on his lips. “I had no idea you were coming by today. Good morning!”
“Good morning.” He pulled away with a grin, his wrists locking behind her back as her legs locked around his waist. “Someone’s in a better mood.”
She flashed a seductive grin, then gracefully untangled herself and dropped softly back to the floor, as if the entire outburst was the most normal thing in the world. “Just got a bit of a fresh perspective last night, that’s all. Are we all ready for breakfast?”
“Yeah,” I cooed, still grinning at the handsome blush on Caleb’s face. “I think we can all use a little warm and sweet right now.”
Chapter 17
IN A STRANGE WAY, THE four of us sitting down for breakfast felt like it the most normal thing in the world, especially when comparing it to the bizarre rest of the week. Any social, financial, or international celebrity boundaries that might have divided us fell completely away as we laughed, talked, and passed around the maple syrup. Conversations grew longer, stories were exaggerated, and it wasn’t long before the troubles of the previous day melted away completely. We chose to live in th
e moment and just enjoy each other, and that felt great.
Unfortunately, we could only keep those shadows at bay for so long. By the time the second round of coffee had been brewed and consumed, those troubles popped right back up again.
“I came by this morning to check on Madison,” Caleb said suddenly, glancing down self-consciously at his placemat, “but it’s also because I think the three of us should brainstorm and come up with a solution to the Billings situation. The competition is still on, Madison’s job is on the line, and we don’t have to take off work just because the office is closed.”
I nodded in agreement and finished the last of my fifth cup of coffee. If we wanted to crawl out of this hole we’d made, we had to get started right away. The look on Madison’s face, however, told me she didn’t quite agree.
“What do you mean?” she asked in confusion. “Yes, the competition is still on, but we’re not all on the same team. Why the hell would we help you solve Billings?” When he didn’t answer, she kicked him under the table and pressed again. “Caleb, what are you doing here?”
James and I shared a quick glance, then lowered our eyes discreetly to the table, giving the two most resistant people in the world a chance to start things fresh—even if one of them happened to be adorably oblivious.
“I’m here because I don’t want you to lose your job,” Caleb muttered, hoping like hell she’d just let the subject drop. By then, though, having known Madison as long as he had, he should have known better.
“But you’ll lose the trip to the Alps,” Madison insisted, not fathoming a world in which such a sacrifice could possibly be made. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
Caleb shot her a pained grimace before rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “So I’m a masochist, Madi. I’m attracted to things that cause me pain.”
She blinked slowly, then lowered her eyes to the table. For the first time, Madison Montgomery was at a complete loss for words. That melted my heart into a happy little puddle, but I was careful to keep my emotions under wraps, to hide my sheer delight under the guise of a brisk smile.