She shushed me. “They didn’t, Nick and Liam showed up just in time. We’re both okay,” she cried, and she pulled away from me. “I don’t know what I would have done if she’d killed you, Rory.”
“Hey, it takes more than a witch like Erica Darling to stop me, girl,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Rory.” Placing a hand on my stomach, she said, “So, I hear that they didn’t just save our lives in there. They saved a little something else too,” she said, still crying.
“I know, Liam just told me. I already feel like a bad mother because I am literally the last person in the world to know about this little one,” I said, sniffing, and everyone collectively said, “Aw!”
“Rory, you didn’t know. No one knew until after you were already out of surgery.” She wiped a tear off her cheek and smiled a genuinely happy smile. “This is amazing. You’re going to be a mom,” she said, and I smiled at her. “How do you feel about it?”
“Elated. Truly elated,” I said, and Marissa leaned in to hug me again.
Vivian smiled. “I can’t believe what a great day this is. We have our girl back, my son is smiling again, and I’m going to be a grandmother,” she cried, and I smiled at her.
At that moment, I noticed Brody had stepped back and was standing by the door, smiling at me. His smile was sad though, and I motioned for him to come to me. “Come and give me a hug, big brother,” I said, and he slowly walked over to me. Marissa scooted down a bit and he sat on the bed, immediately pulling me into a warm hug, and I could feel his tears hitting the top of my head as he softly sobbed.
“Oh, God, Rory, I’m so glad you are okay,” he said softly, and I began crying all over again. “I thought I was going to lose you for good this time. I don’t know what I would have done.”
“Hey, you will never lose me, no matter what,” I said. “Who else is going to kick your ass and make you act right?”
He laughed and sniffed. “No one but you,” he said, and kissed the top of my head. “So, did Liam tell you?”
“That Dad is here? He might have mentioned it,” I said, quietly. “Is he still here?”
“Yes, he’s been waiting in the lobby all day and most of yesterday. He really wants to see you, Rory, but he agreed to let you decide if you wanted that. You say the word and he’s gone.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know yet. How long do I have to decide?”
“As long as you need.”
I took a deep breath and sighed. “And what about ‘mother of the year’? Why didn’t she come?”
Brody looked down at my hospital bed and then looked back up to me. “Dad left her.”
My mouth fell open and I tried to sit up, wincing in pain. “Rory, take it easy,” Liam said.
“I’m okay, babe,” I said, and I looked at Brody. “Dad left Mom? Are you serious? Why did he do that?”
“Well, apparently, Dad had wanted to contact you and make peace for the past few months, but Mom tried to forbid it. Long story short, she gave him an ultimatum that it was either her or you, and he chose you. He’s already filed for divorce and everything.”
I sat back, stunned. I can’t believe my dad is divorcing my mom because of me. It’s sad to see any marriage end, but I felt a twinge of happiness knowing that my dad chose his daughter over the woman that had made her life hell. I looked at Brody and said, “Okay.”
“Okay? Okay what?”
“Okay, I will see Dad. But,” I said, taking Liam’s hand, “do you think he would mind waiting until tomorrow? I just woke up to find out that everyone is okay and safe, and I’m going to be a mother. I just want to spend the rest of the day with Liam basking in the moment before I deal with any more heavy stuff,” I said. Liam kissed my forehead.
Brody smiled. “I’m sure he won’t mind. I’ll go tell him. In the meantime, you get some rest, okay?” he said, and I nodded.
“Yes, doctor,” I said. At that moment, everyone gathered around and bid me goodbye, including Marissa. She and Brody were the last to leave as he took her back to her hospital room. As soon as everyone was gone, I turned my face to Liam. “Okay, now spill it.”
“Spill what?”
“What happened to Erica and those men? I need to know because I have to tell you something.” If Erica was on the loose or even in jail, he needed to know what she had confessed to me. I should have known (because Liam is amazing) that everything I had bluffed about to Erica he had already figured out on his own.
Chapter 18
Liam
The last two days had been sheer hell waiting for Rory to wake up. I couldn’t believe how fast everything happened and how close I came to losing her. As I lay in Rory’s hospital bed with her, I told her every bit of what happened while she was out…
I left for work that morning with every intention of putting in a boring day behind the desk. I didn’t think anything of it when two delivery men approached the door holding a heavy box and asked me to hold the door for them. Little did I know who they really were.
I got to work that morning and after I sat down with my coffee, Nick put a file on my desk. I had been waiting for this. I hadn’t told Rory the extent of it, but Nick and I had been working non-stop on Mason’s case for the past three weeks. The file Nick just gave me were the DNA results from the crime scene. The initial investigators did a shitty job of, well, investigating because there was a ton of tainted evidence that had to be thrown out. However, thankfully, the crime lab still had Mason’s suit jacket he was wearing the night he was murdered. They ran another round of DNA testing to see if there were other fingerprints on the jacket other than his or Rory’s. I was with Nick in thinking that this wasn’t random, and I had my money on that snake Erica.
I nodded at Nick and he stood next to my desk as we opened the folder. “Here goes,” I said, and flipped it open. I scanned the page with my eyes looking for what I needed, and I could feel Nick’s breath on my neck. “Dude, can you back up? Stop breathing on me.”
“You know you love feeling my breath on you, big daddy,” he joked, and I elbowed him in the ribs.
“Come on, dude, this is serious. Stop,” I said, and he backed away a little and we resumed looking. And then…there it was. DNA results…four different kinds were found. I scanned the page looking for names…please don’t let this be another thing the fuck-up investigators tainted too. I read the page carefully…DNA matches…Mason Callahan, Aurora Shaw, Douglas Farmer…and Erica Darling. Shit. “Look, there it is. Erica Darling,” I said, pointing to her name. “That bitch was there!”
“Calm down, man, that doesn’t put her at the scene of the crime. How do we know he didn’t already pick her up and she was with him or that he’d dropped her back off at her apartment?” Nick said.
“Because from what Rory told me and what the initial eyewitnesses reported that the shooting took place somewhere between one fifty a.m. and two. We saw the surveillance of Mason leaving the club he was at with Rory around one forty, and he was heading to the bar Erica was allegedly at which was over a mile away. Mason was shot and killed within ten to twenty minutes after leaving the club, and he was shot only two blocks away from there. There is no way he could have gone to a bar over a mile away and came back to a few blocks from that club in twenty minutes on foot unless he was Flash Gordon,” I said. “And whoever this Douglas Farmer is, I’m guessing this is our shooter.” I said, pushing away from the desk. “Let’s go get our suspects.”
Nick ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll go have them draw up a warrant,” he said, walking away. Just as I was sliding back into my jacket, my cell phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID, and it was Eclipse, Rory’s salon. Puzzled, I slid my finger across the screen and held it to my ear. “This is Tanner.”
“Liam? Hi, it’s Samantha. Listen, I’m sorry to be calling you, but have you heard from Rory?”
Alarm bells immediately went off in my head. I know I joked to Rory to take the mornin
g off, but her walk-in client days were by far her busiest, so I knew she wouldn’t have played hooky. “You mean she’s not at work?”
“No, she sent me a text this morning saying that Marissa had showed up at her apartment right after you left and that they were going to spend the day shopping.”
“What? Marissa didn’t come to the apartment this morning.”
“Apparently you let her up. That’s what the text said that Marissa sent her.”
“Wait, how do you know that?”
“She forwarded Marissa’s text to me along with hers so I would know, I guess. I don’t know, Liam, I’m worried. Neither one of them is answering their cell phones, and I can’t get a hold of either Brody or Nick.”
“Nick is here with me. He’s securing an arrest warrant for Erica Darling and some guy named Douglas Farmer. We think that they were both directly involved in Mason’s murder.”
“Oh wow, well, I’m sorry I bothered you, but Liam, something just doesn’t feel right. It’s not like Rory to blow off a walk-in day thirty minutes before she was scheduled to be here, and even if she did, I know for a fact that she and Marissa would answer their phones, especially if someone has called them twenty times each.” She was right about that. Something wasn’t right, and I could feel it.
“Let me try to call her, okay? I’ll see what I can find out and I will let you know if I hear anything.”
“Please do, I’m worried. There were two big guys here yesterday and they were asking some strange questions about Rory, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“Wait…did you say two big guys? What did they look like?” Oh no.
“One was tall and had spiky hair and the other one was kind of chubby with a bald head. They were asking what times she worked and if she lived far from the salon. I just thought they were admirers, she gets them all the time.”
“Oh shit, those guys were at the apartment this morning. I thought they were delivery guys and I let them in! Fuck!” I said, and I hung up the phone. “Nick!” I yelled, and he came walking toward me with a paper in his hand.
“Calm down, dude, I got the warrant right her,” he said, and then he looked at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“I think Rory and Marissa might have been abducted,” I said, panic racing through me. “We have to go, now!”
“Why do you think that?” I went over the story that Samantha told me, including the two men that showed up at Eclipse and at our apartment this morning. “Fuck! Do you know where they might have taken them?”
“Well, if I knew, I’d be there right now wouldn’t I?” I said, nervously pulling my hair.
“Look, calm down, all right? We will find them. Let’s head to the apartment and check for anything there, anything she may have left behind. I’ll have someone track Rory and Marissa’s cell phones and see if we can get a location on them,” he said, and I nodded and ran out the front doors with Nick in tow. We drove to my apartment building and once we reached the front door, I found it was unlocked. When I went inside, there were no signs of forced entry but Rory’s purse was scattered across the floor. My heart sank and I thought I would swallow my tongue. As I started to fight the rising panic, Nick’s phone rang. “It’s the precinct, finally,” he said, answering his phone. “Ramirez. Uh huh, okay, great, thanks. Yeah, we’re going to need back up. Okay, on our way, meet you there.” He hung up his phone and tugged on my arm. “They tracked both Marissa’s and Rory’s phones to a warehouse in Brooklyn. We got squad cars en route, let’s go!” he said, and we raced out of the apartment back to our car.
As Nick drove as fast as he could, I fought hard to keep my emotions at bay. “I swear to God, Nick, if those fucking guys harm one hair on her head…”
“They won’t, Liam. We’ll get there, she’s going to be fine,” he said, trying to keep me calm when I know he was panicking too. Eventually, we made it to a run down, rusted warehouse and it wasn’t long before we had four squad cars pull up behind us. We wasted no time and everyone got out of their patrol cars with guns drawn. We made it to the door and some of the responding officers busted down the door and I fought to move past them. As soon as I entered, I heard Rory’s blood-curdling scream, Marissa’s cries of terror, and Nick’s voice yelling, “NYPD! Don’t move! Hands in the air!” I stepped closer and saw both Marissa and Rory tied to a chair. Marissa was flanked by the two men I recognized from this morning, and they look like they’d been trying to rip her shirt off. I looked over and saw Erica backing away from Rory with a bloody knife in her hand, and then Rory’s chair fell over. Nick and the guys descended on the scene pretty quickly and while they were dealing with the men and Erica, I rushed to Rory’s side and tried to free her ropes. They were pretty loose and her wrists had rope burns on them, which meant she was struggling to free herself and almost made it. I couldn’t make out anything else but her and my dire need to get her free, but I was told later that there was a struggle and a whole lot of gunfire. Once I got her untied, she fell slack in my arms, and that’s when I saw all the blood covering her lower back. I fought my urge to go and kill Erica with my bare hands but Rory was starting to slip out of consciousness. “Oh God, baby, I got here as fast as I could. Just hang on, angel, help is on the way. Please don’t leave me,” I begged her, and suddenly she was silent. I yelled and shook her, thinking I was too late, but the paramedics came and Nick had to pull me away from her so they could check her out. Thankfully, I heard one of them say they found a pulse, and Nick urged me to ride with her to the hospital and that he would be there soon.
Everything happened so fast but yet dragged on and on as I waited with Brody, Mom, Dad, Samantha, and Brian and the girls from Eclipse for news while Rory was in surgery. I had my head in my hands and Mom was sitting on my right, rubbing my back soothingly and Brody was on my left, his hands in knots. “Why the hell is it taking so long?” I demanded.
“It’s only been three hours, son, calm down. It’s going to be okay,” Dad said.
“I can’t believe Erica did this,” Mom said. “Why the hell couldn’t she just leave Rory alone?”
“And why did she take Marissa too?” Brody said, his eyes red from crying. As much pain as I was in, I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling after almost losing his sister and the love of his life in one afternoon.
“My guess is that she took her as well because she attacked her too that day at the Hamptons. She probably wanted to pay them both back for humiliating her,” Dad said.
At that moment, Nick came breezing down the hall. “Hey everyone, have you heard anything yet?” he asked, looking at me. I shook my head.
“So, what happened? Did they arrest that bitch?” Brody asked.
“Erica is definitely in custody and she’s not getting out any time soon. Liam and I already had a warrant for her arrest after finding her DNA on Mason’s jacket the night he was killed, but after Marissa overheard her confession that it was all a set up that had gone way too far and one of the men there was the actual shooter, we got enough to charge her with murder, kidnapping, and a whole lot more.”
“What about the men that kidnapped the girls?” Mom asked.
“One of them was killed in the struggle, and the other one, who turned out to be Douglas Farmer, was wounded and is in custody at another hospital. He’s being charged and going straight to jail once he gets released. Those assholes are never going hurt anyone again,” he said, and he took a seat next to Brody. “They didn’t get the chance to really hurt Marissa, and Rory is one hell of a fighter, bro. They both will come out of this, I know it,” he said, clapping Brody on the back and giving me a nod.
Just then, a doctor came through the doors and was taking off his surgical mask. Brody rose to his feet and extended his hand. “George, how is she?” he asked.
I walked over to the pair of them. “Is she okay? I am her fiancé and I want to know if she’s all right, now,” I said, a little harsher than I probably should be.
Looking at me wit
h an amused look, he said, “I’m Dr. Kilpatrick, and I’m happy to let you know that Rory made it through her surgery just fine,” he said, and everyone breathed out a sigh of relief. “She’s currently in recovery.”
“When can we see her?” Brody asked.
“Well, you know the drill, Brody. She has to stay in recovery for at least an hour before family can go back.”
Brody nodded at him, and he continued. “I did want to discuss the results of her blood work with you,” he said, still speaking to Brody. “Maybe we should speak in private.”
I was irritated. “Excuse me, I am her fiancé, and I think I have a right to know,” I said, and Brody nodded at me.
“George, it’s okay, he has every right to hear this. Just tell us.”
Dr. Kilpatrick sighed and motioned us over to the corner. We followed him and he stopped. “All of her blood work came back fine, but one thing showed in the results. There were small traces of HcG in her blood stream,” he said, and I was panicked. What the fuck was that? I looked to Brody, and he looked stunned, but he was smiling.
“What the hell is HcG? Someone tell me, please, because I’m starting to freak out.”
Brody place a hand on my shoulder. “HcG is the pregnancy hormone, man. Congratulations, daddy,” he said, giving me a shake.
Suddenly, I felt very warm, and a strange feeling over took me. Every protective cell in my body suddenly jump started. “S-she’s pregnant? Oh wow,” I said, and I ran my hands through my hair and placed them behind my head. I started to feel happy, but dread slammed me and almost knocked me down. “Oh God, is the baby okay after what Erica did to her?”
Dr. Kilpatrick nodded at me. “Everything looks okay on that front. In fact, we want to do an ultrasound before she’s moved to her room to check how far along she is, and start her on some vitamins when she wakes up.”
“Thank God, okay. Thank you, doctor,” I said, shaking his hand.
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