Fade to Black (The Black Trilogy Book 1)

by MC Webb

Piper jumped up off the bed.

  “Just a second!” she yelled back, looking for clothes.

  Giving up, Piper put on a fluffy white robe, and then tossed me my jeans. I just got them zipped when the door opened.

  “Aw, for Christ sake, I don’t want to see this shit,” Nathan said, putting a hand over his eyes at the sight of me half naked.

  “Nathan, stop it! What’s wrong?”

  Nathan put his hand down, and looked mean.

  “You think it’s okay not to answer the damn phone? For hours? After the shit that’s happened, you think you haven’t nearly killed me? Given me a heart attack? Damn near killed myself to get here. Thought I was going to walk in to find body parts!”

  “That’s not at all dramatic,” I said under my breath.

  Nathan shot me a murderous look.

  “I’m sorry. I am. We fell asleep,” Piper said, trying to soothe him.

  I was not about to apologize. Number one, I wasn’t sorry. Number two, it didn’t sound safe to say anything to Nathan at this point, he was so pissed off.

  “Roger’s on his way. He landed a while ago. He’ll be here any minute. He’s been trying to call. You’ve had him worried sick, but I suppose you were just too busy to answer the damn phone.”

  Piper placed a hand on her hip.

  “Quit being a baby and tell me what’s wrong,” she demanded.

  “Hell, woman, I don’t know. He just said he needed to talk to you, and he would be here shortly. He said everything was okay now, but you should pack a few things.”

  And throwing me another nasty look, he turned his back on us and began to walk away. Pausing, Nathan bent over and picked up Piper’s shirt. He handed it to her with a sour expression. She snatched it out of his hand and shut the door in his face.

  “We better hurry,” she said to the room at large.

  Removing the robe Piper began putting her panties on. I looked at the nightstand clock. It was 11:59. I turned on the radio, twisted the dial, and heard a countdown at twenty. Piper smiled, and we met each other halfway.

  Locking ourselves in each other’s arms, both of us with bare chests, we finished the countdown with the crowd, and began kissing before the first “Happy New Year!” was said.

  We slowly swayed to Auld Lang Syne.

  “Wherever we are going, I want to spend my time with you. Always. Never again to be apart,” I told her seriously.

  Piper placed her forehead on my chin. I bent my head to kiss her hair.

  “What do you say?” I asked, unsure of her answer now.

  I raised her face to look into her eyes.

  “Piper? Roger’s here,” Nathan called through the door.

  She kissed me long and hard, and then finished getting dressed without giving me an answer. I let it go for now, but I would bring it up again soon.

  I followed Piper inside the grand room where Roger stood waiting. He still had on his heavy winter coat. His face was white, and he looked searchingly at Piper. Roger appeared scared, and the sight of him this way unnerved me.

  “Piper, we must speak but…” he trailed off, looking at me and then back at Piper. “You haven’t spoken to Ryan yet, I presume?”

  Piper glanced back at me and then shook her head. That drowning feeling I sometimes got before big news crept over me.

  “I need to speak with both of you, but Piper, it has to be now.”

  Roger was stern and left a ringing warning hanging in the air.

  “What has happened? Tell me. Ellie?” Piper demanded, but Roger shook his head.

  “Everything is okay now, but Piper, you must speak with Ryan now, or I will.”

  Piper looked stunned at his words and watched him leave the room, shutting the door behind him.

  “I have to go, Ryan,” Piper said without preamble.

  I frowned and walked to her.

  “What’s going on?”

  Piper walked to a drawer and pulled something out. Returning to me, I saw tears flood her eyes.

  “This is Ellie. Have I ever showed you her picture?”

  Confused, I took the photo. It was of a smiling little girl with huge blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Ellie was missing a tooth.

  “She’s beautiful,” I said, nodding and smiling at the small face in the photo.

  Piper took a step closer to me.

  “Like a movie star,” she whispered.

  I nodded, agreeing. She was beautiful.

  “Yes, she is. She’s even prettier than a movie sta—” and I broke off, unable to finish what I was saying.

  The words sunk in, and then I tried doing the math. How many years had passed since our time on the beach? I looked at Piper’s face for confirmation. She eyed me expectantly. I looked at the photo and back to Piper again.

  “Piper? Are you saying- Wait, what are you saying?” I asked stupidly.

  She took a deep breath.

  “Her name is Ellie Grace, and she has a God-given talent for music. She loves her horses, and makes As and Bs. I rarely ever have to scold her. Ellie is a good girl. The best,” she told me, tears running freely.

  My lips felt cold. I had the sudden urge to sit down as if my legs could no longer hold my weight. I took a deep breath realizing I wasn’t breathing.

  “But Piper?” I breathed out the name, nearly passing out. “She’s mine?”

  Piper nodded slowly, and I finally had to sit.

  “Have you always known?” I asked skeptically. Maybe she had, and she didn’t want me to ever know.

  ”No. Not long ago something made me suspect the truth. Then I had it proven with a test.”

  Piper began to tell me her story. I understood the importance of why she “needed” me to be clean now. I got it. There was more for me, like she’d often told me the past few weeks getting sober. During those sick days when I wanted to die as my body suffered the withdrawals of Heroin and Opiates I feed it to functions.

  I was not living the life I was meant to, and there was always something better, if I only had the strength to seek it. The unforeseen, she had told me I understand now things which can be parallel to your everyday living, but they exist without your knowing their importance. I rubbed my eyes, feeling a little dazed.

  “A daughter.” I looked up at Piper, who watched me cautiously, as if I were about to explode. “We have a daughter, Piper,” I said in disbelief.

  chapter twenty-nine

  No doubt this was going to take some getting used to. I didn’t know how to feel exactly. Happy? I suppose. Shocked? Absolutely, but for the most part I felt weary, like I had on the wrong size shirt and it was too short in the sleeves, something that annoyed me more than I can say.

  After Piper and I exhausted our conversation about Ellie, Jean-Paul, and the last few years, I understood our situation a little better, and we were ready for Roger.

  He walked into the room, with Nathan behind him carrying coffee and cups. Setting down the mugs, Nathan poured one for each of us. Roger began by saying again that everything was all right. Piper interrupted and said, “You’ve said that before, and it sounds like things were not alright earlier?”

  “There was an attempt to take Ellie earlier tonight,” Roger said

  Piper put the cup down with a hard thud.

  “What? How could you wait this long to tell us?”

  Roger held up his hand.

  “Please Piper, let me tell it all, and then we will discuss it together, but know that she is fine and safe with Sheldon and Beatrice. Plenty of protection.”

  I reached for Piper’s hand.

  “Protection? Where is Josh? I thought he was escorting her?” Piper asked, looking scared now.

  Roger closed his eyes and sighed.

  “Josh, I’ll tell you about too, but let me start by saying correspondence has picked up between Jean-Paul and his family recently. One brother in particular has outright ordered him to stop this vendetta against you. But Jean-Paul is determined, and has enough hired hands to do his work
for him. There are all kinds of investigations going on, yet people keep ending up dead, and they seem to always be one step ahead of everyone else. They are very organized. You can’t have their kind of power and money and not be. The one thing we have going for us is Jean-Paul does not have the resources as the others do, and his power is limited within the family.”

  Roger set his untouched coffee on the table in front of him. I could tell he needed Scotch, but as I’m a recovering addict the alcohol has been taken out of the house.

  “This morning I received a call from a guard at the prison where Jean-Paul currently is. The guard went into great detail, explaining how for months Jean-Paul has paid to have messages delivered to and from his family. This particular guard, who called, intercepted one such message this morning. Inside it was Ellie’s location and description, also a time. Taking into account what happened in the past, we wasted no time and had Josh remove Ellie immediately, taking her to a separate location and leaving whoever was coming for her to find FBI agents.”

  He paused and took a sip of coffee. Roger was visibly shaken. I could never recall seeing him so upset.

  “No one came at the time given. I never heard back from the guard as we had arranged. It appears now that this was a trap to move Ellie out into the open. Josh let her think she was headed to the museum, a field trip he called it. We didn’t want to frighten her. We had no reason to think they would be followed.”

  Piper sat on the edge of her seat, giving the impression she was about to run at any second. I was a nervous wreck myself, but I tried to soothe her by rubbing her back.

  “They were both grabbed on the street and shoved into an SUV.”

  “Dear God,” Piper breathed.

  “Josh must have fought them hard, and I don’t think they knew what they were getting into. He killed two of them outright, and the other one most likely won’t live. Ellie was not harmed in any way, thank God.”

  I waited for the rest, but Roger seemed to be lost for words.

  “Ellie is fine?” I said for clarity, and Roger nodded. “And Josh?”

  Roger closed his eyes, and keeping them closed, he said, “He’s hanging on. His parents are with him now.”

  Nathan turned his face away from us. He did not show surprise, so I figured Roger had told him Ellie was mine already. I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling like someone had hit me there. Piper sat beside Roger and hugged him.

  “I would be dead, and Ellie lost to us had you not saved us. I’ll have no pity, thank you very much.”

  Letting go of him, she turned and started talking about packing, but Roger pulled her back to him and said in a desperate whisper, “He knows, Piper, and he will show no mercy. He will be released in five days. There’s no stopping it.” Pausing, he looked at me with deadly seriousness. “And we are all at risk.”

  Piper sat back, defeated now.

  “It’s only been a few months. We had everything planned out. Why would he get out this early? He knows about Ryan?” Piper fired off the questions one right after another.

  Roger nodded answering the latter first.

  “And that I’m…” but I couldn’t say, “…her father.”

  It was too weird. Roger nodded again, understanding.

  “Yes, and he was granted an early release because of the politics and money. There were issues from the initial trial as you are well aware of and it gave his lawyers a lot of things to argue for his release.”

  Piper and I looked at each other.

  “We need to get to Ellie and see about Josh. I refuse to think anything, but that he’s on the mend.” And with that she hurried from the room.

  …

  Ten minutes later we were on our way to the airport. We took Roger’s private jet back to New York. I knew about the man Jean-Paul. I knew there were criminal things about him, and where he came from. This could be very bad for all of us, as Roger continued to stress.

  “They are a family that has limitless amounts of cash and has no issue with murder and mayhem, there are so many things we still don’t know about them.” Roger was telling me.

  “It is rumored he killed his own father,” Nathan added.

  I listened as he and Roger filled me in on what we were up against. Roger leaned forward, and squeezed my shoulder.

  “I’m proud of you, by the way. The doctor has told me you sleep through the night and have been completely off the meds for the last three weeks?”

  I nodded and looked at Piper. She was not talking. She sat like a statue looking out the window.

  “Yeah. I feel good,” I told him.

  I looked back to Roger, who was now looking at Piper, a sad expression on his face. I couldn’t think about my sobriety right now. I was feeling so many conflicting emotions and dreaded what was coming.

  Ellie being safe, Josh surviving, Piper also being safe, but selfishly, I wanted her right with me. As if reading me, Roger handed me a magazine. I didn’t think it would be possible to shock me anymore tonight, but as I looked at the cover, I was just that.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Piper moved for the first time since our take off, resting her chin on my shoulder to see what I was looking at.

  “Oh, no. Ryan,” she said.

  Splashed in bold letters on the cover of the magazine was: “Ryan has a Princess Piper,” and in smaller text it read, “Mystery lady of the Hollywood hunk finally REVEALED!”

  Two photos. The first was a blurred image of Piper and me on a beach years before. It was clearly me, and if you knew Piper, it was clearly her. She sat straddling me, with her long, lean arms and legs circled around my body. I had my hands on her hips, and we were obviously in the throes of a very passionate moment.

  Piper’s breasts were blurred, but that hardly hid the erotic nature of the photo, which was in fact the reason it was on the cover, because that, along with the headline, would make the magazine sell big-time.

  The second photo was taken within the last few days. In the picture, Piper and I are on horseback. I’m in mid-sentence, and Piper is looking back at me, laughing. She was beautiful. Even now, under these awful circumstances, I was in awe of her.

  “Jean-Paul must’ve had you watched. A local? Or maybe someone from the reservation? A little cash goes a long way. It wouldn’t take much to get these, and match the old with the new,” Roger told us.

  I looked at Piper as she reached to open the magazine.

  “It’s never anything nice, love. You’re better off not reading it.”

  She glanced at me but continued turning the pages.

  “Ryan, you have commitments coming up, and I think that’s for the best. This is an easy way for Jean-Paul or anyone else to track you. This way you’re hunted by good hunters, and let’s face it, the paps are ruthless when there’s a bounty. Right now, it’s a million for a photo of you two kissing. That ensures you will be followed day and night. It’s smart, and it’s what I would’ve done,” Roger said, pointing at the magazine.

  For the rest of the flight, we made plans. As much as I hated it, we agreed that Piper would stay with Ellie and fly to Denver for a few weeks. It was cold and remote where Roger’s cabin was. Whatever it took to keep them safe, I was all for it. I would visit when I could, but I had to be cautious, as now, more than ever, I would be haunted by paps trying to get pictures of Piper and me together.

  So far, and thank God, there was no mention of Ellie. I’d grown used to the attention, but I still loathed it. I hated to bring Piper into that. Being constantly chased and shouted at, not to mention the constant flashes from the cameras isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.

  Nathan was snoring quietly, his head leaning against the window. Roger left us to use the phone. Piper and I sat in silence, holding hands, anticipating our future and what it held for us all.

  chapter thirty

  Piper ~

  Seated on the divan with Ryan on Roger’s prized Learjet 85, I felt for the second time in my life that
I was not in my body. How could I be? My daughter had nearly been taken today, and I didn’t know if my best friend in the world was even alive. I couldn’t dwell on it, or I would break, and I could not afford to break right now.

  I promised myself that later, after I saw Ellie and Josh, I would allow my feelings to surface, but right now, I would concentrate on what I could control. Roger was still speaking to us about the tabloids, and how Jean-Paul could easily track us by feeding the magazines stories.

  “No way did Jean-Paul know until recently about you two in Louisiana,” Roger was saying.

  I was barely listening now. I slid my hand down at my side. Out of sight. I watched out of the window for the lights of the city. I dug my nails into my hand, to the point of drawing blood. I could not cut myself, but I wanted to.

  Ryan was quiet, watching Roger on his iPad. I wholeheartedly regretted bringing him into this mess. I wanted him well and had agreed to Roger’s insistence that Ryan stay with Nathan and me to recover. I was selfish and wanted him to know about Ellie, but more selfishly I wanted to see if Ryan still wanted me.

  If I had just kept it quiet, Ryan could have gone back to his life, happy and unknowing. Then, there was Ellie to consider. It was a good thing for her to know her real father. I could trust Ryan along with Nathan, Roger, Sheldon, and Beatrice to raise her if Jean-Paul did get to me.

  That was a thought that grew ever more solid in my heart. Jean-Paul would not stop. He would be released in a matter of days, and he would come for me. I shut my eyes, and felt Ryan push his hand between my knitted knees.

  “Almost there,” he whispered.

  I looked at him with sadness in my heart. I loved him. I knew that, but my love would cost him, as it had everyone I loved. I touched his arm.

  “Daniel was right about me all along,” I said not realizing I was speaking out loud.

  Ryan frowned.

  “What?”

  Roger stopped what he was doing.

  “Piper,” he said sternly, as if scolding a child for saying a cuss word.

  I wouldn’t look at him. This man in most ways was a dad to me. I turned to look out the window some more. It was true. Daniel told me years ago that I was unlovable, undesirable, and would never be normal, but forever diseased. At this moment, I was defeated and ready to call it quits altogether.