Figure Eight (Celtic Knot Book 2)

by Cassy Roop

  My mind was spinning as it tried to process what my ears were hearing. I was beyond flabbergasted by their conversation. If Victoria was in love with Dominic and trying to keep them apart, it was seriously fucked up, especially since Nic was in love with Ashley. Was Victoria responsible for what was going on with Ashley?

  “Listen, you little fuckwad. I don’t care what you want. I own you, remember? I can have your sick ass put in jail for what you have done to some of my girls at the club. Don’t mess with me. You won’t be getting Ashley anytime soon anyways,” Victoria spat at Asher.

  “Oh, really? And why is that your royal fucking highness?” Asher retorted back.

  “Oh, because I made sure Ashley understood where she stands. The initial blackmail was good, but Dominic had a real chance of actually going to jail. Now I am going to make sure he doesn’t,” Victoria said with confidence.

  “How?”

  “When she is called to testify, she is going to tell them she lied. She is going to tell the judge that she planted the evidence and she will be the one to go to jail, not Nic.”

  “And just how did you get her to agree to that?”

  “I threatened to do away with Kelly. Honestly though, I would be doing the world a favor. That girl is too fucking perky for her own good. The world would be thanking me if I got rid of her bubbly ass. I’m sure no one would even miss her.”

  Victoria’s admission sent shivers down my spine. Ashley was blackmailed into lying. She was forced to tell the police that she accept sexual favors. Then she was forced to plant evidence incriminating Nic and Knox only to be forced to testify in the end that she lied about it all. I felt like a huge shit. Ashley had been having to deal with this the whole time while I thought she was changing into someone I no longer knew.

  An audible gasp left my lips. Quickly my hands flew up to cover my mouth like I could keep the sound from traveling.

  “Who is there?” I heard Victoria ask. I ran over to the elevators and jammed my finger into the button like it would make the car arrive faster. I had to get to the boys. I had to tell them what was going on.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Victoria said as she leaned her shoulder against the wall with her arms folded across her chest. She pushed away from the wall and sauntered towards me like a bird circling its prey. I took a few steps back, trying to get away, before she lunged toward me and captured me by the wrist.

  “I think we need to have a little chat, don’t you?” she asked sardonically. Asher came up behind me and pushed aside his sports coat to show a gun he had stuck in the waistband of his pants.

  “I think you’d better listen. It would be the smart choice,” he said in a threatening tone.

  “Knox is expecting me. What is he going to think when I don’t show up upstairs?” I questioned them trying to keep a hold on the fear that coursed through me. I felt like the lowest friend on earth for judging Ashley. I should have known better to think that she could be so vile to do the things she had done on purpose.

  Victoria held onto my wrist as she used her other hand to retrieve the phone from her pocket.

  “Knox, Kelly and I will meet you at the courthouse. I have an errand I need to run and she said she would go with me. Yea, we are down in the lobby right now. Ok. See you there.”

  She hung up and put her phone back into her pocket before flashing her too white teeth at me from behind blood red lips.

  “See, all taken care of,” she said as she batted her eyes at me with false sweetness dripping off of her tongue.

  “Move it. Let’s go,” she barked as she shoved me forward, causing me to stumble.

  I had no idea what I was going to do. What did they have planned to do with me now that I had key information?

  I thought about it all the way to when we got outside and I was practically thrown into a black car with dark tinted windows. Wherever we were going, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  I walked on shaking legs as I entered the courthouse. My heart pounded in my chest because I had yet to come up to a solution to get out of this mess. If the prosecution decided to call me to the stand today, it was all over. Rownan was meeting me here in about twenty minutes to be supportive. I tried to get him to stay at the art gallery today, not wanting another person to have to witness my admission on the stand. The judge had decided to allow media coverage of the trial, so there were reporters and journalists floating all around the courthouse. I walked up to the security guards who then took my purse and sent it through the x-ray machine while I walked through the metal detectors. I actually prayed that I would set it off, so that my entrance into the room where I was going to have to admit to more than one hundred people that I lied would be delayed, but I had no such luck. After the uniformed guard handed me back my purse, I walked tentatively toward the courtroom.

  Suddenly, I was pulled into a small section of hallway that led to a set of what looked like offices.

  “What the he…” I started before looking up to come face to face with Victoria and Asher. They both had smug looks on their faces and my emotions along with pregnancy hormones had rage filtering through my body.

  “What do you two want?” I asked in frustration. I was in no mood to put up with them today. Even if it killed me, I was still going to do what they asked. To protect Kelly.

  “We just wanted to give you a little incentive to stay on track with what we told you, in case you were getting any ideas about trying to back out.” Victoria looked back at Asher and nodded her head in my direction. Asher pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled a picture up on the screen before turning it around and showing it to me.

  There on the screen was my best friend, tied to a chair with duct tape over her mouth. Her eyes were closed and her head was lulled to one side as if she were either sleeping or passed out.

  “You two are fucking sick you know that?” I said raising my voice. “If you harm her so help me God, I will ruin both of you. You aren’t going to get away with this, I hope you realize it.”

  “Oh, but darling, we already have. Now get your ass in that courtroom and the only peep I want you to mutter is when you admit your sins on that stand. Understood?” she demanded before she brushed past me leaving me standing alone with Asher. My body trembled with fear, dread and anguish. I felt sick to my stomach from both the pregnancy and the situation and I leaned my hand against the wall so that I didn’t lose my balance from the wave of dizziness that overcame me.

  “What is wrong with you? This part had nothing to do with me. My plan was to take you with me remember? You aren’t the only one under blackmail. This could all be over if you just come with me. Forget about all of these people. Think about yourself for once, Ashley. You know you want to. I have a place I can take you where the only thing you would have to worry about is pleasing me. I could give you everything you ever want,” Asher said as he reached into trace a finger across the arm I had leaned up against the wall.

  I yanked my arm back like I had been burned and fought against the bile that rose up in my throat from his touch.

  “Go to hell,” I snapped at him. The nausea became more than I could handle and I darted for the trash can that was sitting in the hallway. It was one of those ones that had the flip lid in the front that you would see at fast food restaurants, so I quickly pushed the lid off before I vomited into the can.

  “Gross. Every time I am around you are vomiting. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Asher complained. I continued to get sick into the can, as my stomach revolted against the breakfast I had this morning and from having to deal with all of this stress.

  “I’m fucking pregnant, you twit,” I managed to choke out in between heaves. I reached into my purse and grabbed a napkin to wipe my mouth when the heaves managed to come to an end. Only I was frozen in place when I saw that Asher was gone, and Dominic and Knox stood staring at me.

  The sound of someone getting sick from the hall that intersected to the one that led to the courtroom
could be heard upon entering the courthouse. When Knox and I approached, I saw a familiar blonde bent over a trash can as she heaved into it.

  “I’m pregnant, you twit,” she said in between heaves. She produced a napkin and wiped her mouth before her eyes lifted and our gazes collided. My heart stopped in my chest as Ashley looked at me wide eyed and horror crossed her features. A grenade going off in my chest would have felt better than the pain I was feeling at that very moment.

  I’m pregnant.

  The words rolled around in my head like a million different voices had taken residence in my skull repeating the words over and over.

  She’s pregnant.

  No matter how many times my mind said it, I still couldn’t believe it. The look of horror on her face did nothing to help control the raging inferno that was building inside of me. The thought of another man’s seed inside of her did crazy things to my system. Even though we weren’t together anymore, she was my first. My first love, my first...everything. My heart felt shattered, more than it did by her deception.

  “Dominic…” she whispered as she wiped at her mouth with a napkin. “Please, just let me explain. I didn’t mean for you to find out this way.”

  What the hell did she mean she didn’t mean for me to find out this way? Having to find out at all that she was pregnant by another man, was more damaging to my system than any tornado or hurricane did to land. My heart felt irregular, skipping beats as if trying to jump ahead in time so that I could be anywhere but here at this moment.

  “What? You just thought it would be less of a blow if we were somewhere else when I found out you were carrying Kleinfield’s baby?” I bit out allowing all the frustration and anger to come out in my words.

  “What? No...you don’t understand,” she began. I had heard enough of her lies to last me a lifetime.

  “Oh, believe me, I understand completely. Were you pregnant when I found you at The Knot last week? The same day you planted the fucking file for evidence against me?” I said interrupting her as I approached her.

  “Dominic, it’s not what you think…”

  “What the fuck am I supposed to think, Ashley? You have been nothing but a fucking virus to me. You came into my life and took possession over my body and soul. There is no medication, no comfort, and no relief to get over you and what you have done to me. Why? Just give me that, please. Tell me why?”

  She bowed her head, looking as defeated as I felt. I paid attention to every one of her teardrops that fell and watched as they disintegrated upon the floor. It was a reflection upon our relationship, a wild, freefalling ride just before crashing and becoming no more.

  “I did it because I love you, that’s all I can say,” she said through sniffles.

  “You love me? You FUCKING love me? You have got to be kidding me, right? You destroyed my heart, destroyed my business, my life, and destroyed my control. I surrendered everything to you for the first time in my life. And you did all of it because you love me? You have a real sick way of showing it, princess.”

  “Dominic, please...just listen to me,” Ashley begged as I turned to walk away. Her small delicate fingers wrapped around my wrist and the same electric current that I felt every time our skin touched, made its presence. Something as small, as her five digits slinked around my wrist made me burn with the passion that my traitorous body still signaled wasn’t over. But now, knowing that another man’s baby was growing inside of her was the final straw in our fucked up relationship.

  “What’s going on here?” Victoria said as she rounded the corner and saw the tension between Ashley and me. I watched the sudden change in Ashley’s eyes and she dropped my arm like it was a hot coal that singed her flesh, while my skin still scorched from the memory of where her touch had been.

  “Nic, it is time to go into the courtroom now,” Victoria said as she slinked her arm in to wrap with mine. Ashley took a few steps backward, as if trying to escape from both of us. I was intrigued by the sudden change in her demeanor upon Victoria’s presence. Was she jealous? I fucking hope so. I hope she felt the pain of seeing Victoria’s arm entwined with mine intimately as she rested her hand on my forearm. I unwrapped my arm from hers before snaking it around her and pulling her to my side. Victoria had no issues snuggling into my side as Ashley watched our interaction. We put off a vibe of an intimate couple, and seeing Ashley's face distort in discomfort gave me a sick, tiny sense of accomplishment, accompanied with a huge pang of guilt for the pain I was causing her.

  “See you in the courtroom, I guess,” I said to Ashley as Victoria and I walked off together. Just before we rounded the corner, I paused, and looking over my shoulder said, “Congrats on the bundle of joy by the way,” before walking away.

  “All rise for the Honorable Judge Hudson,” the bailiff said just before everyone in the courtroom rose to their feet. Knox and I both dressed in our suits, sat next to Toby at the front of the courtroom after the judge dismissed us to have a seat. The trial was just getting underway in what was to determine the rest of my life. Would I be prosecuted for a crime I didn’t commit, or would Toby miraculously get us out of this giant hole we were in?

  “Case number 548365—the State of Illinois versus Dominic Michaels and Knoxville Tanner is now in session. Counselors, are you both ready to present your case?” the judge asked both Toby and the prosecution. Both attorneys confirmed, and the next couple of hours were spent between Toby and a Mr. Hopewell who was the prosecutor on our case. Both men presented their arguments before the judge, and by then end of the day, the judge didn’t give any indication as to whether he believed us, or believed the evidence that Mr. Hopewell offered.

  All in all, nothing major happened in court, and I was more than ready to get out of there as soon as the judge dismissed us.

  “Kelly.”

  “Huh?” I asked Knox when I didn’t understand what he was trying to say as we walked out of the courtroom.

  “Kelly was supposed to be here with Victoria, but I haven’t seen her,” Knox replied explaining to me his concern.

  “Maybe she went out front to wait for you after court was dismissed,” I offered.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think I saw her in the courtroom at all. I know things were busy, but I looked for her a few times and didn’t spot her.”

  “She could have been hidden by the damn press that the judge allowed into the proceedings. Asshole. I don’t know why he couldn’t have a closed courtroom. The case has become a fucking media circus,” I said making conversation on the way out of the courthouse. Toby stayed behind to wrap things up, and all I wanted to do was go home and drink a beer. Hell, who knew how many opportunities I would have to be able do something simple like that

  We walked out into the late afternoon air, and we were hit in the face with the humidity outside. Sweat instantly formed on my skin as the soon to be setting sun, blazed upon us. Knox lifted his hands to shield his eyes and scanned the crowd around us. Many reporters approached us, but a man of Knox’s size just plowed through the story hungry vultures like a heavy bowling ball knocking down pins one by one. The sun glistened off of the sweat on his bald head as he desperately searched through the crowd.

  “Kelly!” he yelled searching for her. I stopped walking when I came upon Ashley and Rownan in what looked like a passionate embrace. She had her head resting against his chest as he rested his cheek on the top of her head. Heat crept up into my face. No matter how angry or upset with her I was, I would never get over the sight of seeing her with another man. She was still a big part of me, still had control over my heart no matter how much my head told me otherwise. I don’t think I will ever stop loving her.

  “Kelly!” Knox’s shout brought me out of my fixation on Ashley and Rownan. His brows were furrowed as he did a full three hundred and sixty degree turn around the courthouse and parking lot.

  “I don’t see her man. Where the hell is she?”

  I could see the panic start to build. Knox was really starting to fal
l hard for Kelly. If she chose to abandon him right now when he needed her the most, then she was no better than Ashley.

  “Calm down. Maybe she went to get the car or something.” Several minutes went by and there was still no sign of Kelly. Even I began to get a little bit worried myself. Victoria was busy trying to placate the hounds of media so we couldn’t ask her where Kelly was since they were supposed to have ridden together.

  “I’m going to go ask Ashley if she has heard from her,” Knox said as he quickly jogged away. I stayed put, not wanting to have to have another interaction with Kleinfield, seeing as how our last one wasn’t a success. He still had bruises and cuts on his face and it made me a little proud to know I put them there.

  Knox came running back a few minutes later and said that Ashley told him she hadn’t seen her, that she was with Rownan all night. That fucking tidbit of information the jackass could have kept to himself.

  “Let’s go by her place and see if she is there,” I suggested. We left Victoria to finish up with the media and signaled to her that we were leaving. She lifted her chin in understanding, still playing the ever poised spokesperson for us.

  We climbed into my Aston Martin and headed for Kelly’s apartment. A nervous vibe radiated from Knox as he wrung his hands together and cracked his knuckles every minute or so.

  “Kell isn’t like your ex, Knox. She wouldn’t take off on you like that. Not after knowing what she did to you,” I said trying to bring his mind to ease.

  “Just like I never thought that Ashley would do the shit she did? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she is out to gain something from us, and her friend is a backup,” he said harshly and I knew that he felt that history was repeating itself. His words stung me a little because at one point I didn’t think Ashley would ever betray me like she did. At one point, I saw us heading in a direction that could have been something genuinely great. The idea was impossible now.