***
Savage brings an SUV to the office to pick up Cole and Ashley for the meeting, and I hitch a ride to the coffee shop. I don’t miss the fact that Savage, who is normally quite the personality, is silent. “Good luck, everyone,” I say, hugging Ashley before Cole steps out of the car to help me exit, offering me his hand.
Once I’m on my feet, he pulls me close, kisses me, and in a short stroke of his tongue, he has curled my toes and managed to make me moan. “I’ll come back and get you.”
“Savage is weird. Did you notice?”
“Yes. He never keeps his mouth shut and his mouth is shut. I’ll find out.”
“Make the FBI tell you what’s going on,” I say. “If anyone can, you can.” I kiss his cheek and head into the coffee shop, but I feel Cole watching me. When I step to the door, I turn and wave to him, and only then does he get in the car. He’s still getting used to our normal again and since I’m a little antsy, maybe I am, too. Not maybe. Those tears last night showed I am affected by the attack. I don’t like it, but it’s true. It just drove home that there are too many things in life, like death, that we cannot control.
I find Cat at our normal table, and it feels like old times. I hurry across the coffee shop and the two of us are quickly in deep conversation. “I didn’t think Cole was going to go for this,” she says. “He’s very protective.”
“He’s getting over it. It was pretty intense. Roger was running at me and he’s big while it was a small space.” I think of Cole’s mother, of the little boy watching his mother’s attack, and my gut twists. Certain Cat will read more into my silence and ask questions, I stand up. “Let me go order coffee.” I rush to the counter and order, texting Cole: Good luck. Love you.
He doesn’t reply, which means he must already be in the interview. I sit back down waiting on my order, and Cat and I start plotting. I try to focus, but I just keep thinking about last night. Cole holding me. Me crying. I don’t know why this is happening right now while I’m with Cat. I’m obviously on edge. It’s Ashley. I’m worried about Ashley. She has no control. I know what that feels like. It’s like hanging on a ledge by your fingers that are bleeding, barely breathing as you do. I should have gone with them to the meeting.
***
Cole
I’m back in the SUV with Ashley beside me, but I’m still thinking about Lori. I have no idea why I had to force myself to let her go into that coffee shop without me, but I did. I promised myself I wouldn’t let my demons suffocate her. “How close is the interview location?” Ashley asks beside me.
“Ten minutes,” Savage says from the front seat. “The agents are already at the office, looking all Men in Black or Matrix. Yeah, Matrix. They have on glasses.”
“Wonderful,” Ashley says. “Now all I need is the Terminator waiting on me.”
Savage gives a bark of laughter. “Good one,” but even then, he’s stiff. Maybe it’s personal. Maybe he knows something I don’t know.
We finally arrive at the Walker offices, and Smith is waiting to escort Ashley inside. I fall back to talk to Savage. “What don’t I know?”
“One of the agents is an ex-friend of Royce’s. It’s like having two caged tigers inside who want to rip each other’s throats out. Great fun, if Ashley wasn’t in the middle of it.”
“Wonderful,” I say, steeling myself for war. “Let’s go do this.” I head for the door.
I walk inside and Royce greets me. “Ashley is in the conference room. The agents are in an office. They sent someone I consider a bastard ex-friend. This meeting is not to help Ashley. You need to protect her, while I have someone in the CIA try to get me real answers. I don’t know what Ashley’s ex-fiancé is or was, except trouble. Prep Ashley and let me know when you’re ready. And make sure there’s nothing she hasn’t told you.” He leads me down the hallway and he’s about to open the conference room door when his phone buzzes with a text. “Houston, we have a problem. Roger is free. They let him go.”
“The man who attacked my wife?”
“Yes. Him.”
“How soon?”
“Already done. An hour ago.”
And now I know why I didn’t want to leave Lori at the coffee shop. My demons were winning. I felt this. I felt him. He was there. “Get someone to her. Get me to her.” I pull my phone out and dial Lori, but she doesn’t answer. I run for the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lori
Cat and I are digging into the list of people we want to interview for the book when I realize I’ve finished my coffee in about fifteen minutes. I hold up my empty cup. “Guess what? Empty and I can’t think until I go to the bathroom.”
Cat laughs. “Want another? I’m going to grab one. I can get you one.”
“Yes, please.” I’m already standing. “Can you watch my purse?”
“Your phone is ringing,” she yells as I head for the bathroom.
“I’ll call whoever it is back!” I call out, certain it’s not Cole since he’s in the interview, and my bladder will not wait. I reach the door I’m seeking to find it locked. Great. Just great. I eye the men’s room. I might have to use it. A man passes me and enters, stealing that great idea right out of reach. I am dying. I knock despite the fact that I hate when people do that, but I’m desperate here. Another full minute passes and finally, the woman in the bathroom exits with her lipstick freshly polished, which she clearly did while I suffered.
I quickly enter the bathroom, lock myself inside and do what I need to do. Sixty seconds later, I am a new person and I wash up, glancing in the mirror while flashing back to last night with Cole. He pushed me hard. I grab the sink, a rush of so many memories filling my mind. Cole touching me, kissing me, taking me, and us, places that we have never been, but I know it wasn’t about the physical. It was about trust.
Cole doubts my trust, but he’s wrong to do so; I trust him. I hate that he feels otherwise and all because when I feel unsettled, or out of control, I immediately insulate myself. I know I do. I needed to be there for him, so I blocked out everything that might make me weak, including my attack. I don’t know how Cole would have dealt with my attack, though, if I’d been weak, if I’d crumbled. I did the right thing. I was strong for him, but deep down I know I’m still guarded, still afraid of being hurt, or loving Cole so much that I can’t live without him and then I have to. I need to just talk to Cole. I love that man. He listens. We’ll figure it out. And that certainty is why I shouldn’t be afraid. I know him. I know us. He is a part of me.
I suddenly remember the phone call and the idea that it might be my mother and she might need something hits me, though of course, she has her new man. She’s fine. Everything is fine. I breathe. I’m not running out of here in a panic to call my mother. I need to deep breathe. I need to stop expecting the worst. I can. Will. Because of Cole. I’m stronger with him than without him and I don’t say that enough. I’m going to tonight.
I open the door and gasp. A tall, bulky man who is all too familiar is standing directly in front of me, as if he was pushed up to the door, waiting for it to open. Shock radiates through me. “Roger,” I gasp t and back up. “What are you doing here? How are you here?”
He stalks toward me, forcing me further into the bathroom, and when he’s able, he seals us inside. “I only shut the door so I can talk to you without someone stopping me.” He holds up his hands. “I mean you no harm.” His eyes are bloodshot, pained. “I don’t know who I was the day I came at you. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Anger rushes over me and so many pent-up feelings. I’m shaking all over. “You didn’t mean to scare me? You ran at me. You trapped me. You punched my husband.”
His face reddens. “I thought you were—I thought you got off a killer. Her killer. My sister’s killer.” He runs fingers through his hair. “I lost my mind. I’ve never done anything like that.” He leans against the door. “We lost our parents in a car accident. I was a teenager, sixteen
. She was twelve. I dragged her out of the car and—” He looks away and then back at me, tears streaming down his cheeks. “The car exploded. My parents died. Our parents died. I’ve always protected her.” His lashes lower, torment ripping over his features, seeming to gut him and it’s then that I realize that I’m crying with him, shaking with the impact of his emotions slamming into me. He looks at me. “I didn’t protect her this time. I thought you didn’t either, but you did. You and the people around you are why he’s in jail now.”
“This wasn’t your fault,” I say. “You aren’t the reason she died. He is. He’s a monster.”
“I was supposed to take her to dinner that night. I had a woman I’d been asking out finally agree to have coffee with me. I cancelled on my sister.” His fists ball at his sides. “I fucking cancelled dinner.”
Oh my God. I feel punched. I don’t know how to help him, but I want to. I need to. “It’s not your fault.”
“Stop saying that. I wanted to scare you. I wanted to scare your husband. I wanted to make you pay. I don’t deserve your sympathy. Just—I’m sorry. I won’t ever bother you again.”
He opens the door and exits and I follow him, gasping as Savage shoves him against a wall. “Cuff the bastard,” he shouts at Smith.
“No!” I shout. “No. No! He was apologizing.”
Savage looks at me. “By cornering you in a bathroom. I don’t think so.”
“Please,” I say. “He just—he’s—”
“Lori!”
At the sound of Cole’s voice, I rotate to have him grab me, pulling me to him. “Tell me you’re okay. Tell me.” He pulls back to look at me. “Lori—”
“I’m okay, but he was just apologizing. Please make them uncuff him.”
“No. No, I’m not making them uncuff him. I can’t. He violated his restraining order.”
“He’s in pain. He said—he said so much.” I start crying again. “Please. I can’t let him get taken away.” I turn in Cole’s arms to find Savage shoving Roger out the back door. I press my hands to my face, and tears burn through me.
“Lori!”
At the sound of Cat’s voice, I just can’t turn. I’m too tormented by that man’s pain and the idea that I’ve just added to it. She steps in front of me and hugs me. “He pulled her from a car before it exploded,” I whisper. “And watched his parents die in the car.”
She pulls back and Cole must have heard because I feel his hand tighten on my waist where they’ve settled. “Oh God,” she whispers, tears springing to her eyes.
“He was supposed to have dinner with her that night and he cancelled for a date.”
“Oh my God,” she says, again. “That poor man.”
Savage opens the door and shouts, “This way.”
I rotate in Cole’s arms. “We have to help him. Please.”
He cups my face. “There are many ways to help him,” he says. “But everything you just said only makes me fear his instability. We have to be careful.”
“I know, but—” I cover my face again and my knees wobble.
Cole scoops me up and starts carrying me toward the backdoor. Not more than sixty seconds later, I’m in the backseat of an SUV with him, and no one else in the vehicle. “You weren’t there,” I say, rotating to face him. “You didn’t see his face.”
“Exactly,” he says. “I’m objective.”
“I’m your wife,” I say, grabbing his lapels. “You’re not objective.”
“There is not a man on the Walker team that believes he doesn’t need a further psych evaluation. He was failed, and not by us. He needs help. We’ll get that for him.” He strokes my cheek. “Protecting you comes first. Think if it was reversed.”
I catch his hand. “I know. It just—it was powerful, Cole. You heard what I told Cat?”
“I heard, sweetheart.”
“What happens now?”
“The police will want to talk to you and we could put it off, but if we want him back in a hospital, I think we need to do it tonight. If you’re up to it.”
“Yes. Tonight. I am. I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me. He scared me and then he just gutted me emotionally. Let’s talk to the police.”
***
Hours later, Reese, Cat, and her brother, our attorney, Reid, have all joined us at our apartment and we sit around the living room. Cole has me plastered to his side like he’s afraid Roger will come snatch me away. I’m pretty okay with that, though. My walls—gone. My defenses—gone. Tonight, I’m just going to lean on my husband.
“How did this even happen?” Reese demands, standing up to pace in front of the window.
“A paperwork issue,” Cole explains. “They let him out without informing us.”
“My ass,” Reese says. “The DA is behind this.”
“He’s pissed about the lawsuit,” Cole concedes, “but a revenge act would be foolish. What if Lori had been hurt?”
“But he would have been told Roger was cleared and safe,” Cat interjects. “Maybe he thought he’d spook us when we found out Roger was free and we didn’t know.”
“And it backfired,” Reese says, looking at Cole. “He knows we’re investigating him. This was a threat that went further than he expected. I’d bet my right arm on it.”
“I’ll be paying him a visit in the morning,” Reid says, speaking for the first time, eyeing Cole. “Care to join me?”
“I’ll be there before you,” Cole says.
“I’ll be there as well,” Reese adds.
“I want to go,” I say.
“No,” Cole declines quickly, turning to me.
“Yes,” I say. “I might be shaken, I admit that, but never have I been better ammunition for that man’s defeat.”
He studies me several long moments and then looks at the rest of the room. “I need to be alone with my wife.”
They all agree quickly, and Cat and Reese hug me. Reid gives me a stoic nod. They head to the door and Cole follows them. I grab the blanket on the couch and wrap it around me, walking to the floor-to-ceiling window wrapping the room to press my hand on the cool glass, stars twinkling in the dark sky, tiny lights in the darkness. The way Cole was my light in the darkness, but Roger has no light. He’s been cut and cut again, bleeding rivers, and I felt like I was drowning in them tonight.
I feel, rather than hear, Cole approach. He steps behind me, pressing his hands next to mine on the glass, his big, hard body a shelter I welcome. “You scared the hell out of me tonight,” he whispers by my ear.
I rotate to face him. “Please tell me you aren’t going to fight me about going to the DA’s office. I need to do this. I need to not only do this, but I need to be the best at my job I can be. I need to learn from you and do more. I need to make a difference.”
He studies me for several long moments, his expression hard then softening. “I’m not going to fight you.”
“You aren’t?”
“No, but there is much I want to say and do to you tonight. For me and you. To remind us both we’re here, and we’re staying here, present, together. For fucking ever.” He tangles fingers in my hair. “You want to deal with this by fighting back. I do, too.” His mouth closes down on mine, in a passionate, burning kiss I feel in every part of me, and then he is picking me up and carrying me toward the bedroom.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Cole
I carry Lori into the bedroom and set her down on the bed, and as much as I’d like to make love to her, now is not that time. We need to talk and she needs to come down from tonight’s high, not be taken on another one. “Are you hungry?” I ask, standing in front of her.
“Actually yes. Starving.”
“How about Chinese?” I suggest.
“I’d love that, but can we hold off for a few?” she asks. “I just want to sit in a hot bath and get my thoughts together.”
I stroke her cheek. “Of course. I’ll give you some space to unwind. We can talk over dinn
er.”
She catches my hand and kisses it before her eyes go wide. “Oh, God. Is this on the news? Will my mother hear about it and freak out? I don’t want her stressed. I never even told her about Roger. We had it so hush-hush and she was in the Hamptons at the time. Now, what if it’s not?”
“I’ll call her to be sure and reassure her you’re fine. If she seems worried, you can call her after your bath.”
Her body softens, tension easing from her muscles. “Thank you, Cole.”
“Go take your bath.” I step back to allow her room to get up and she pushes to her toes, kisses my cheek and heads off.
I turn and watch her enter the bathroom, amazed at how strong she is. I’d really believed that she was hiding from a meltdown over Roger, but I’m not so sure anymore. Sure, she cried tonight, but over his pain, not her fear, and her response to all of this was—she has to do more. That’s what she needs and realizing this helps me shove my own demons back in the box. I cannot love a woman and keep her by my side as I want to for the rest of my life if I suffocate her, if I keep her from her version of more.
I walk down the stairs, forcing myself to give her space. She deserves time to process what she feels, not what I feel. Once I’m well out of her hearing range, I dial Reid. “Any updates on anything?” I ask as he’s promised to make phone calls and get to the bottom of the mess.
“Still working on it and I have a stockholders’ meeting for a takeover I just managed in the morning. I’ll come to your office when I’m done.”
“Any idea when?” I ask, sitting down on the coffee table.
“After lunch. And that’s a better option anyway. We all need cool heads and more information before we make our next move. I would have told you that earlier, but I didn’t want to set Lori off in any way.”
Dirty Rich Cinderella Story: Ever After: Lori & Cole Page 13