Intended for Bristol

by L. P. Dover

  Brows furrowed, Derek glanced over at me. “You okay?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t get in touch with Bristol. With everything going on, it’s not a good sign.”

  “Didn’t you hire her a bodyguard?” he asked.

  I huffed. “Yeah, but I can’t get in touch with him either.”

  “Oh,” he said, his expression full of understanding. “Maybe you should see if Delaney’s heard from her.” I didn’t want to get him involved, but unfortunately, he heard Derek say his name.

  “What’s going on?” Ryan asked, glancing at us both.

  Sighing, I slid on my shirt. “I haven’t heard from Bristol. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” He had no clue what was going on with Sadie, so he wouldn’t understand my concern.

  He scoffed. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he said, walking away. “And you might want to give her some room to breathe.”

  Derek moved closer, his voice low. “He doesn’t know what’s going on, does he?”

  “Nope.”

  “If anything happens to her, he’s going to come after you.”

  My stomach clenched. “Nothing’s going to happen to her.” However, the feeling in my gut said otherwise. Grabbing my bag, I raced for the door. There were reporters and cameras everywhere, but I sailed past them to my car. Every second I spent not knowing what was going on was agony. My first stop was Bristol’s condo and when I pulled in, her car was nowhere in sight. I rushed inside to her place and looked around, but she wasn’t there. M&M was the only other place I knew to look, so I hurried back out to my car, only to stop dead in my tracks when Jason’s number popped up on my screen.

  “Avery, what’s up?” I asked impatiently.

  “Something happened and I think you should get here, stat.”

  The blood froze in my veins. “What’s going on?”

  He sighed, and I could feel the weight of it through the phone. “Corbin was shot, and there’s no trace of Bristol anywhere except for…”

  “Except for what?” I growled, the anger overwhelming me.

  “Her blood, Jaxon. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone, but we need you out here. You’re the only one who knew what she was doing today.” His words went in one ear and out the other. The only thing I could focus on was that they’d found her blood. That meant she was hurt.

  “Where are you?”

  Jason gave me the address and I sped there as fast as I could. The house was in the middle of nowhere and when I pulled in, there were blue lights everywhere. I rushed up the front porch stairs and fell to my knees when I saw the pool of blood right by the door. Jason saw me and hurried over.

  “Dammit, Reed, you can’t be in there,” he growled. He grabbed my shoulder and hauled me to my feet and down the stairs. “I didn’t expect you to get here so fast.”

  “Where is she, Avery?” I shouted.

  The officers around us stared, but I didn’t care. Jason shook his head. “I don’t know yet. My men have been stationed at Sadie’s house, but she hasn’t shown up since the investigation started. And Corbin’s at the hospital, in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the chest. We have nothing to go on just yet. I’m still trying to figure out what they were doing here in the first place.”

  “I’m assuming it’s Jennifer’s house,” I said. “Bristol was supposed to meet her this afternoon.”

  Jason shook his head. “It can’t be this one. This house belongs to the bank; it’s foreclosed.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Bristol specifically said she had two consultations and then she was meeting Jennifer at her house.”

  “Who is this Jennifer?” he asked. “Do you know her last name?”

  “Not off the top of my head. Bristol had become friends with her, but I never met her.”

  Jason pulled out his phone and held up his hand. “This shit is getting solved tonight.”

  —

  After several more phone calls, I followed Jason to M&M Architectural Design to meet up with Bristol’s employer, Galen Matthews. When we stepped off the elevator, he stood there, waiting by the front desk, with an elderly woman by his side.

  “Please tell me Bristol’s okay,” he said.

  Jason held out his hand and Galen shook it. “It’s too soon to tell. We’re here to hopefully get some answers. Do you mind if we take a look at her office?”

  “Of course, follow me.” Galen led us to the back and opened the door to Bristol’s office. It smelled just like her black cherry perfume. “Rebecca is here to help as well. She handles all appointments.”

  I walked over to Bristol’s desk and the first thing I saw was the address to the foreclosed house. “Here’s this,” I said, handing the note to Jason.

  He looked at it and sighed. “Now all we have to figure out is who led her there.” He looked at Rebecca. “Is there any way to give us the names of the people Bristol was seeing today?”

  She nodded. “Give me one second and I’ll get them for you.”

  “I do know she saw a woman named Shayleen,” I added. “She’s apparently someone huge in the fashion world.”

  Galen agreed. “She is.”

  Rebecca came back with a list of three names in her hand: Shayleen Harris, Maggie Donovan, and Jennifer Hallowell. “What all do you know about Maggie Donovan and Jennifer Hallowell?” Jason asked Galen.

  “Maggie Donovan is a good friend of my wife. She’s expecting twins in a couple of months and wanted Bristol to design their nurseries.”

  Jason and I looked at each other, and the more I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t. That left only Jennifer Hallowell, Bristol’s friend. “What about Jennifer Hallowell?” Jason questioned, glancing back and forth at them both.

  Galen shrugged. “I don’t know who she is.”

  Rebecca raised a hand. “I’ve seen her before. She’s come in several times to see Ms. Thomas.”

  “Do you know what she looks like?” I asked her.

  “Oh yes,” she said with a nod. “She’s tall, with bright blond hair and a tattoo on the back of her neck.”

  Eyes wide, I stared at her as if I’d seen a ghost. “A tattoo? Of what?” I could only pray I was being paranoid and that it wasn’t who I thought it was.

  Rebecca’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “I couldn’t really tell, but to me it looked like a flower.”

  The blood rushed from my face and I felt sick. It was Sadie; there was no doubt about it. She had been playing Bristol the entire time. “Could you identify her if you saw a picture?”

  She looked at me and nodded. When I turned to Jason, his concern was clear. “You’re not thinking this chick is Sadie, are you?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m thinking. Do you have a picture of her?” He opened the file in his hands and pulled out a paper with Sadie’s face on it.

  Rebecca’s eyes widened when she looked at it. “That’s her. That’s Jennifer Hallowell.”

  Jason sighed. “On the contrary…her name is Sadie Mitchell.”

  And we had no fucking clue about how to find her.

  Chapter 28

  Bristol

  My head throbbed so hard it felt like I was going to throw up. From the hit I took, I no doubt had a concussion. My mouth was dry but when I tried to move, I was stuck in place. My arms were pulled behind me, my wrists bound together with a rope so tight I couldn’t feel my fingers. Everything on my body was numb except for my head.

  “Wakey, wakey,” Jennifer sneered, smacking me across the cheek. My vision was blurry, but there was no mistaking the soulless eyes that stared back at me. All I could see was red and if I weren’t tied to a chair, I would have beaten the shit out of her. Not only had my brother taught me self-defense moves, but I’d learned a thing or two on my own over the years.

  “Jennifer, why are you doing this?” I growled. When my eyesight cleared, I glanced around the room, my throat burning like acid. “Oh my God.” There were candles all around and there, lounging on the bed, was Jennifer i
n red, lacy lingerie. We weren’t in a secluded place where no one could find us; we were in Jaxon’s very own bedroom.

  “That’s the thing, sweetheart,” she said sweetly, “my name’s not Jennifer…it’s Sadie.”

  After she shot Corbin, there was a place in the back of my mind that knew, but I had to make sure. My thoughts drifted to him and I prayed he was okay. The last thing I remembered seeing was him lying on the floor, bleeding from his chest.

  “How could you?” I said. “There’s something wrong with you.”

  She lay on Jaxon’s bed as if she owned it, but her smile faded. I didn’t realize she had the gun on the bed until she reached for it, pointing it straight at my head. “You’re what’s wrong with me!” she shouted. “Jaxon never would’ve left me if it wasn’t for you. But now all that’s going to change. I’m going to make him see that I’m the one for him.”

  I scoffed incredulously. “You’ve literally lost your mind.”

  She shook her head. “Not exactly. By now Jaxon knows what I’m capable of. If he doesn’t do everything I ask, I’ll put a bullet right through your pretty little head.”

  Judging by what she did to Corbin, I had no doubt she’d shoot me the first chance she got. She was probably going to do it no matter what Jaxon did. “What do you want him to do?” I asked.

  An evil leer spread across her face. “You’ll see. And kudos, by the way, for fixing this place back up. I was hoping to get rid of you the easy way, but you’re just too damn hardheaded. If you’d just stayed away, we could’ve been friends.”

  “And now you’re ready to kill me because Jaxon has sense enough to stay as far away from you as possible. I’ll bet a million dollars you’re the one who killed Nate Bryson and his wife. There were witnesses who described a woman like you as being Nate’s mistress.”

  Her jaw tensed and her eyes flashed like fire. “You need to shut the hell up, now,” she hissed low.

  “Why? Can’t face your sins? Why would you kill the man you loved?”

  “I said, shut up!” She was holding on by a thread, her chest rising and falling with her rapid breaths. “Nate loved me. He said he did and he betrayed me. For months, he talked about leaving her and marrying me. That night he was supposed to tell her the truth, but instead, I found them together. If I couldn’t have him, neither would anyone else.”

  The girl was severely messed up in the head. There was a part of me that felt sorry for her, but her actions made it hard. She probably grew up without love and had to find it in the worst ways possible. Many women fell for celebrities, and some unstable ones felt like they had a connection to them by watching their movies or seeing them on television. Sadie needed to be in an institution.

  “Is that your grand plan with Jaxon?” I asked. “Kill him if he doesn’t want you?”

  She shook her head, her blond hair falling in her face. “He wants me, Bristol. I don’t want to kill Jaxon. You saw the pictures, so I know you could see the passion we shared. It was the most unbelievable night I’d ever had with anyone.”

  I scoffed in disgust. “Please, you’re making me sick. Anyone can have a night of passion and that be all it is. It’s called a one-night stand.”

  That evil smile was back and she approached me. “Oh no, it was more than that. Shall I enlighten you?” She walked over to the TV and turned it on. “The pictures have nothing on this.” When she put a DVD into the player, I could feel the bile crawling up my throat. I knew what she was about to play and I didn’t think I could stomach it. The pictures were bad enough.

  The screen came to life and there were she and Jaxon, taking off their clothes in a fit of lust. I couldn’t watch so I closed my eyes, humming as loud as I could to get their moans and the sound of their bodies slapping together out of my mind. “Open your eyes,” Sadie commanded.

  “Fuck you,” I snarled, humming even louder.

  Her hands slapped against my cheeks, squeezing my face so hard I could feel the pressure in my skull. “What’s the matter? Can’t handle it? I thought you were stronger than that.”

  It was as if everything snapped and I didn’t care what the consequences were. I took a deep breath and head-butted her as hard as I could in the nose. The sound of it cracking was music to my ears, along with the strangled cry that escaped her lips. Her blood splattered across my clothes and I smiled. If she was going to kill me, at least I could go down knowing I’d hurt her.

  “I am stronger, Sadie. You’re the one who tied me to a chair. If anything, you’re the weak one. Now play your goddamn video if that makes you feel better. We both know it’s not going to win you Jaxon.”

  She stormed out of the room, leaving me to the endless torture of their night together. My vision started to blur again and I could feel the darkness creeping its way back in. Head-butting her might not have been the best decision with a concussion, but it had felt good to do it. And in this case, I welcomed the darkness.

  Chapter 29

  Jaxon

  “What’s the plan now? If Sadie’s not at her house, where could she be?” I asked. Time was running out, and if Sadie was as fucked up as we thought her to be, there was no telling what she was doing to Bristol. Standing around in the M&M parking garage wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

  Jason sighed. “Not sure. I would say we’d trace Bristol’s phone, but she left it in Corbin’s car. It’s like everything is working against us. Sadie doesn’t even have a phone registered in her name.”

  “What about in Jennifer Hallowell’s name?” I suggested. “It’s the name she used when she tricked Bristol.”

  “Good idea, Reed. I just need to get home to my laptop.”

  I started toward my car. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to keep moving. I can’t just sit here.”

  He nodded in understanding. “I’ll call you when I find something.”

  We separated ways and I got in my car, not knowing where the hell I was going to go. I wasn’t a man to fear anything, but for the first time in my life I was terrified. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to Bristol. She was paying the price for my mistakes. Driving around without a plan was useless, but I didn’t know what else to do. However, that was exactly how I felt…useless.

  I was close to my house, but I kept going until I reached the public boat landing about a mile down. My chest was so tight I could barely breathe; I was desperate, my body shaking from every emotion fighting inside of me. I sat there for what felt like only a few minutes, but it ended up being an hour. My phone rang, bringing me back. It was Jason.

  “Hey,” I answered quickly.

  “You were right,” he blurted out. I could hear his car in the background, roaring to life. “I found several cellphone accounts for the name Jennifer Hallowell. I traced them all, and only one is in our area…right at your house.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I growled. Heart pounding, I sped out of the parking lot toward my house. I was only a mile away, but it felt like it took an eternity.

  “Reed, don’t do anything stupid. I’m on my way there. Where are you?”

  “Almost there. I can’t wait.” I jerked my car into the neighborhood and when I pulled up to my house, there was no one parked there. “I’m going inside.”

  “Dammit, wait for me!” Jason shouted.

  I hung up the phone and pressed the button for my garage. When the doors lifted, Sadie’s car was revealed inside. “Sneaky bitch,” I hissed, pulling into the vacant spot beside her. The only weapon I had was a knife in my center console, so I stuck it in my pocket. Avery was about fifteen minutes out, so I had to play the game right. There were drops of blood on my garage floor leading up to the door. Seeing Bristol’s blood consumed me with rage.

  Racing up to the door, I burst inside and looked around. Everything was dark, but there were voices coming from above. I hurried up the stairs and the closer I got, the sicker I felt. The voices I heard were mine and Sadie’s, the night we had sex. That stupid bitch had not only t
aken pictures, but videotaped it too. I could see the glow of candlelight coming from my bedroom along with the flashes of light from the TV. What I didn’t expect to see when I walked inside was Bristol restrained in a chair, covered in blood, and parked right in front of the TV, where she had a front-row seat to the night that ruined my life. Her head was downcast and my first thought was that I was too late, but then I could see her chest moving.

  “Fuck,” I hissed, rushing over to her. I fell down to my knees beside her and gently lifted her head. Sadie wasn’t anywhere in sight, but I knew she had to be close. “Bristol, it’s me.” There was tape across her mouth, so I gently pulled it off.

  She moaned and her eyes fluttered, and when she focused on me, she gasped. “You’re here.”

  More moans came from the TV and I growled. Grabbing the DVD player, I ripped it out of the wall, ending it once and for all. I carefully placed my hands on Bristol’s face, her gaze sad as she stared at me. “I’m so sorry,” I murmured. Circling around behind her, I noticed her bloodstained hair. I pulled my knife out and started slicing through the tape around her wrists. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “She has a gun, Jaxon.”

  And as soon as she said it, Sadie appeared at the door, dressed in see-through lingerie, with a gun pointed straight at Bristol’s head. The skin underneath her eyes was dark and her nose was blue. I could only hope it was Bristol who’d caused it. She stepped farther into the room, her gaze wild. What made the situation worse was that she wasn’t simply holding the gun to where I could knock it out of her hands. It was connected to an attachment at her wrist. Fuck me. It definitely complicated things.

  “Get away from her now or I blow her head off.”

  By the sadistic look in her eyes, there was no doubt she’d do it. I slowly backed away, but not before surreptitiously placing the knife in Bristol’s hands. She squeezed my fingers and I could feel her determination. I didn’t know if she could get free, but I had to believe she could.

  “Let her go,” I demanded.

  Sadie’s eyes gleamed as she watched me walk away from Bristol. “Not until you give me what I want.”