Scattered Thoughts (Betrayed by Love Book 1)

by Kelley, HD

  “I didn’t want to believe it either, but it’s true.”

  Drew finally spoke. “How do they know it was her?”

  “There’s a surveillance video from the hotel. It was definitely her.”

  “Why would she want to hurt you, Mom? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “None of this makes sense,” Anna cried.

  Tears were rolling down her cheeks in a steady stream, the pain on her face ripped at my heart. “Anna, I’m sorry, sweetheart, but we have to face the facts here. She did this.”

  Drew moved closer and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry too, Anna.”

  “But Drew,” she cried, even louder. “It’s not fair. Aunt Val said I was like a daughter to her. Why would she want to hurt us?”

  “I don’t know, Anna. I just don’t know.” She unraveled in his arms, hysterically sobbing. He rocked her gently back and forth, comforting his baby sister, his twin.

  Tears filled my eyes again as I played witness to this bittersweet moment. They’d been through so much— the divorce, the attacks, and now this. Discovering your beloved aunt was trying to kill your mother was enough to rock anyone to their core.

  “If she contacts you I need to know about it,” Alec said after a while, “any calls, texts, emails, and especially if you see her. Are we clear on that?”

  Drew spoke first. “Yes, of course,” he said.

  “She took me shopping this morning,” Anna said through her tears. “I’m meeting her for dinner later.”

  As soon as the words left Anna’s mouth, Alec asked, “Where?”

  “Um.” Anna hesitated before answering. “I can’t tell you. I wasn’t even supposed to tell you I’d seen her.”

  Adrenaline coursed through my veins at the mere thought of my baby girl having dinner with the crazy bitch who’d almost killed me. Aunt Val, yeah, her pseudo title meant nothing to me anymore. I didn’t want her anywhere near my family. “You’re not having dinner with her, Anna.”

  “Mom’s right. What if she tries to hurt you too?”

  “Look, there has to be a mistake. Aunt Val didn’t do this. She would never hurt mom. And she definitely wouldn’t hurt me!” Anna’s voice quivered as she spoke. “Plus, I promised her I wouldn’t tell.”

  “Well, I never thought she’d hurt Mom either, but look where we are.” Drew motioned around the hospital room. “Now, I don’t give a shit what you promised her, tell us where you’re supposed to meet!” Drew’s patience with his sister was waning, his voice raising several octaves when he spoke.

  Anna folded her arms across her chest, her head shaking. An act of stubborn defiance I’d seen countless times over the years.

  “Sweetheart, please,” I begged. “Promise me you won’t have dinner with her. Not today. Not ever.”

  “Mom, she wouldn’t hurt me. And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t do anything in a public place. But she doesn’t even want to. She loves me!” Her tears began falling once again.

  “This isn’t a game, Anna,” Alec barked, standing abruptly. “Now tell me where you’re supposed to meet her!”

  Anna’s face turned white as the color slowly drained from her cheeks. She wasn’t used to having someone yell at her. Spencer was always so gentle, never wanting to upset his princess. “Five Sisters. It’s on West Belmont,” she finally answered, her voice barely a whisper.

  Alec stepped out into the hall, Drew close behind.

  Anna sat back down on the edge of the bed. Her face buried in her hands. “This can’t be true. Not Aunt Val,” she cried.

  I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close to me. “I’m so sorry, Anna. I wish it weren’t true. But you have to accept the facts here, and I need you to promise me you won’t see her.”

  She sat up and wiped the tears off her face. “Are you sure? I mean really sure she did this?”

  I nodded, my silent answer to her pleading question. Breaking her heart was killing me. Anna threw her arms around my waist and burst into tears once more.

  Time stood still as I held my baby girl in my arms, doing whatever I could to comfort her, rubbing her back, kissing her forehead, telling her how much I loved her. It could have been minutes or even hours. None of that mattered. My Anna, her heart was broken.

  When the door finally opened, it was Drew who came into the room. “We have to go,” he said as he crossed the small room to my bed. “I’ll be back in a few weeks though.”

  Anna wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’ll be back too,” she said.

  Reluctantly, I climbed out of bed to get one final hug before they left. Drew kissed my cheek. “I love you, Mom.”

  Anna kissed the other cheek. “Me too. I love you too.”

  The most convincing smile I could manage crossed my face. “I love you both so much. Be safe.” I took one of their hands in each of mine and squeezed. “Call me. Often.”

  Anna walked out into the hall first. I heard her talking to Alec, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Drew kissed me one final time then followed his sister, closing the door behind him. I buried my head in my hands, my heart aching for the pain they were feeling, trying not to cry but failing miserably.

  • • • • •

  Alec hadn’t come back into the room since hearing Anna was supposed to meet Valerie for dinner. The sun had set over an hour ago, and I was starting to get antsy being stuck in the room by myself. I’d wanted to go for a walk, but the security team posted outside the door wouldn’t allow it.

  I’d already finished the magazine Anna brought me and most of the candy. Nothing interested me on the television, but I flipped through the channels anyway, for the third time. I closed my eyes, hoping to relax for a while, but images of the attack quickly flooded my mind—her long red nails, the leather paddle, her hands around my neck, the hatred in her masked stare. Valerie. My friend, my best friend, was responsible for all that.

  The door swung open, pulling me out of the half fitful sleep I’d fallen into. Detective Rux walked through the door, Alec close behind. “What can we do for you, Detective?” Alec asked.

  “The Chicago police have finished searching Ms. Russell’s home.” I sat quietly, eagerly awaiting the news. He looked at me then Alec then me again.

  “Well?” Alec snapped, his patience wearing thin.

  He exhaled loudly. “They found her journals. And they also found some disturbing pictures…”

  My heart beat faster, and I prayed he wasn’t talking about the pictures of her and Spencer. “What kind of pictures?” I whispered.

  “We believe they’re pictures from the attacks.” An uneasy feeling started to wrap its ugly arm around me. Not pictures of Spencer. Pictures of me. The thought of someone seeing me tied up, defenseless, had my stomach turning flips.

  “And it looks like there were several we didn’t know about,” Detective Rux continued. That news didn’t come as a total surprise. My nightmares started months before the attack that sent me to the hospital. I’d figured the broken ribs and fractured forearm had been the result of an attack I didn’t remember. But were there others? Were all of my nightmares real?

  “How many?” I asked, finally deciding I needed to know.

  Detective Rux shook his head. “It’s hard to say, Ms. James. The pictures could be from a few attacks, or from several. Her journals haven’t supplied many clues to that question.”

  Annoyance was starting to set in. I wanted answers, and my patience was in short supply. “Well, did her journals give you any clues about why she wants to hurt me?”

  “We’re still sorting through them, along with all the other evidence the Chicago PD collected, but I can tell you her hatred for you is deep seated. She blames you for taking Mr. James from her.”

  Memories from the last attack flashed through my mind. She’d said I stole him with my sex. It didn’t make sense. Valerie didn’t even meet Spencer until after he and I started dating.

  Detective Rux opened his tiny notebook and flipped through t
he pages. “Yes. Here it is. She refers to him over and over again as her ‘one true love’.” He looked up at me again. “Her hatred toward you grew with each milestone in your relationship with Mr. James: your engagement, the wedding, the birth of your kids.”

  I searched my memory, looking for clues of my own. The trip to Miami, her reaction when I told her Spencer had proposed. It all made sense. She had been in love with him.

  “When Spencer broke off the affair and you began dating her former husband it was more than her psyche could handle and her hatred turned dark.”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with Spencer ending the affair. And Alec and I aren’t dating, Detective.” The words tasted bitter coming out of my mouth. As much as I wanted to believe I meant more to Alec than a quest for control, he’d never made mention of it. If we had been dating, surely he would have come after me when I left the beach house, or at least asked me to come back. Only he didn’t do either of those things. No, all Alec asked was if I was coming back, and that certainly wasn’t a question you’d ask someone you were in a relationship with.

  “That may be all well and true, but her perception is what led her to escalate the attacks, and until she’s caught, I’m afraid it’s her perception that matters.”

  The detective turned toward Alec. “I’m afraid she’s after you too, Mr. Payne.”

  “Why would she be after me?”

  The detective turned a page in his notebook. “According to her journal, she wants you dead because you betrayed her.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Detective. Charlee, I mean Ms. Russell, ran off with my finance manager soon after we were married. If anything, she betrayed me.”

  “Look, I’m not saying anything she’s written is true. But it’s how she sees it.” He closed his notebook. “Did you know she’s broken into your office three times already?”

  Alec nodded. He nodded! My head was starting to spin, the words around me suddenly making no sense. He knew Val was behind the break-ins and he hadn’t bothered to share that with me? I shook my head, trying to still the thoughts that were racing through my mind.

  “And I’m afraid we found evidence of bomb material at her house,” Detective Rux said. “Add that to her mention of having you killed in the parking garage of your Manhattan apartment and that’s enough evidence for some serious jail time.”

  “Well, what are you doing to find her then?” Alec snapped, finally ending that unpleasant trip down memory lane.

  “We’ve issued an arrest warrant and put out an APB for her car. We’ve also notified the airlines and Port Authority. If she tries to board a plane or train, we’ll know about it.” He shook his head slowly. It made me wonder if there was something else he wasn’t telling me. “We consider her extremely dangerous,” he said finally.

  “Anna!” I shouted, suddenly. “She was supposed to meet Valerie for dinner. I begged her not to go, but she wouldn’t promise me.”

  “You knew Ms. Russell was here and you didn’t call me?” It was Detective Rux’s turn to be mad now. “Where are they supposed to meet?”

  Alec answered for me. “Five Sisters. I already have a team in place in case she shows.”

  “What if she lied about where they’re meeting?” I asked.

  Alec tilted his head to one side. “Anna wouldn’t lie to you, would she?”

  “She certainly wouldn’t be the first teenager to lie to her parents, now would she?” Detective Rux said sarcastically before bolting out of the room.

  Alec pulled his hands through his hair. It was as if he hadn’t even considered the possibility Anna wasn’t telling the truth. He tapped the Bluetooth earpiece, “Anna, its Alec. Where are you? Call me.”

  He touched the button again. “I want to know where Anna is. Now. Find her.” He touched the button one more time then turned toward me, his stare so intense it felt as though I would burst into flames any second.

  “If anything happens to my daughter, Alec…” I dropped my head in my hands. “Please, you have to find her.” In that moment nothing mattered but the safety of my daughter. Not Valerie, not Alec keeping things from me. Only Anna.

  He sat beside me on the bed and pulled me back into the safety of his arms. “Don’t cry, baby. She’s going to be okay. We’ll find her.” He leaned back on the bed, his arms wrapped tightly around me as I tried to stop the flow of tears.

  After a while, Alec spoke again. “Why did you tell Detective Rux we aren’t dating?”

  “Are we?” I asked, confused by his question.

  “Are you in the habit of casual sex, Isabella?”

  “No. Of course not.”

  He kissed me on the top of the head. “Well, neither am I.”

  I wrapped my arms tighter around him. Dating. Not casual sex. Not his latest fling, but his girlfriend. I was in a relationship with Mr. Control Freak, with Alec Payne. But did I still want to be after everything I’d learned recently?

  “Payne,” he said sharply and I knew he was no longer talking to me. He sat up quickly, bringing me with him. “Good work, Marcus. Yes. Go. Text the address to Detective Rux.”

  “You found her?”

  “Yes. Marcus tracked the GPS in her car.”

  “Detective,” Alec called out. Detective Rux rushed through the door. “We have an address. My head of security is sending it to you now.”

  “Is Ms. Russell with her?”

  “I don’t know yet. My team is on their way now.”

  “You better leave the police work to us, Mr. Payne. Ms. Russell is very dangerous. There’s no telling what she’ll do if she feels cornered.” He looked down at his vibrating phone then raced toward the door.

  Chapter Thirty One

  “You can’t be too mad at her, Isabella.”

  “And why not?” I folded my arms in protest. “I told her it wasn’t safe. I asked her not to see Valerie, but she went anyway.”

  A smile crossed his face. “Like mother, like daughter, huh?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Doesn’t this sound even vaguely familiar?” His smile widened, but I didn’t find humor in what he was saying. “I remember telling you it was too dangerous, asking you not to go to.” He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “She’s just as stubborn as you are, baby.”

  I opened my mouth to object but closed it again. He was right. Anna was a lot like me. She insisted she’d be fine. I bet she even thought I was being too controlling. I frowned, my lower lip protruding, which Alec instantly bit.

  “You’re not pouting again, are you?” he said with a smile.

  Under normal circumstances that might have made me smile too, but I wasn’t in the mood for him right now. He’d kept information about the break-ins from me, and now that I knew Anna was safe I had to find out why. “If you knew Valerie was behind the break-ins at your office, why didn’t tell me?”

  His smile quickly faded. “I had no idea Valerie was involved, Isabella. Until yesterday I thought Charlee and Valerie were two different people.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me after you found out you had been married to my best friend? Didn’t you think I’d want to know that she was trying to hurt you too?”

  “As far as I knew she wasn’t trying to hurt me, Isabella. Do you know what she stole from my office?” he snapped.

  “Information.”

  “Yes, that’s right. She stole information. About you! The background check Marcus ran on you. Your client list. Even your credit report. Every detail I’d collected. She knew where to find you because of me. The mistakes of my past had come back to hurt you. How do you think that made me feel, Isabella? I failed, just like I had with my family. I was supposed to protect you but she got to you because of me!”

  Silent tears rolled down my cheeks. The torment in Alec’s eyes was too much to take. I hadn’t even considered what Alec could be feeling about his unlikely connection. He had to know none of it was his fault. Didn’t he?

  I reached out to tou
ch his arm, but he pulled out of my reach. “You didn’t do this, Alec.”

  He didn’t look at me, his hands still fisted in his hair, out of my reach.

  “Valerie knew where I lived. And after thirteen years with the same company she even knew most of my clients. None of this is your fault, Alec. Not even the attacks. Those started long before I met you.”

  “You heard the detective. The attacks didn’t escalate until after you met me. If only I’d left you alone.”

  “A couple of hours ago you were calling me your girlfriend. Now you’re saying you wish you’d just left me alone. Is that what you want, Alec? You want me out of your life?”

  “No, Isabella. God, no, that’s not at all what I want.” He sat down on the edge of the bed again, holding both my hands in his. “I was miserable when you left. There’s something about you, this feeling deep inside, this need I have for you, it confuses me.” A pained look crossed his face and he closed his eyes. “I was confused about why you left, about what I should do about it, about how it made me feel.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again he continued. “I was mad, Isabella. Mad at you for leaving. Mad at myself for not going after you. And when Drew called and told me what happened…” He pulled me closer to him. “I was so afraid I’d never see you again. Afraid I’d never get to tell you how much you mean to me.”

  Abruptly, he released me and stood up, running his hands through his hair. “I love you, Isabella. I’ve loved you since the first time we met. I’ve tried to deny my feelings, to convince myself they aren’t real, but when you left I couldn’t deny it any longer.” He sat back down and wrapped his arms around me. “I love you,” he said again.

  My mouth dropped open. I didn’t know what to say. Well, say something, my inner voice pleaded. Tell him you love him too. I shook her off. I loved spending time with him and was definitely attracted to him. But did I love him? Did I even believe in love after all that had happened?

  “I don’t want to lose you again,” Alec whispered.

  I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, saying a silent prayer I could make him understand my feelings without hurting him anymore than I already had. I leaned in, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “I love being with you, Alec, but I’m afraid.” The tension in his body had me wishing I could tell him what he wanted to hear, what I was incapable of saying, no matter how much I thought it could be true. “What I mean is, well, I loved Spencer with all my heart, and I thought he loved me too, but look how that ended.”