Cocky: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Ashlee Price

Getting out of there, I looked up at the dark sky and said a prayer of thanks. It could have ended so differently. I was thankful that everything had worked out, but there was a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach as I made my way to the bench on the corner to call a cab. Was anyone safe in this city anymore?

  Almost the moment that thought went through my mind, I heard a sound behind me. I wasn’t able to see who put their hand over my mouth from behind, but I could swear that I knew the smell that entered my nostrils right before I felt the prick of a needle on my neck.

  “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?”

  Chapter 4 – Maya

  I woke up and stretched. The light was too bright to open my eyes, but the movement beside me made me peek through one of the lids before closing it back up.

  “Good morning, baby.”

  I smiled at the man’s voice and kissed the lips that pressed against me. He was already so familiar that my body was trying to get more out of him then just a kiss. I was ready for more when I heard the vibration of my phone on the nightstand.

  “Why is the ringer off?”

  “That thing has been going off since about the time you passed out last night. I wanted to let you sleep.”

  It was a thoughtful thing to do, and since I was sure it was Tyler calling because he was angry, I didn’t think much of it. I let Dylan pull me into his web of desire for a time before I finally got up and turned the phone back on. It was a lot of missed calls from a number I didn’t recognize. Whoever it was had wanted to get a hold of me badly.

  Calling it back as I started to get dressed, I got a little panicky when I heard the voice tell me that it was the hospital. I didn’t know why they were calling me, but I had twenty missed calls. It would seem that whatever it was was important.

  I gave the nurse my name, but she didn’t know who had been calling me all night or why. I hung up with a sense of dread and searched the missed calls to see if there were any others that would give me a clue as to what was going on.

  There were a couple of missed calls from another number. When I dialed it a Dr. Loring answered the phone. When I told her my name, she explained who she was and that my husband was in the hospital. I didn’t ask her why she’d been with him in the hospital or anything else. I knew that I had to go to Tyler. He’d been shot, and whether our marriage was over or not, there were things that I had to do. I had to be there for my husband.

  I told Dylan what was going on, and he offered to drive me to the hospital.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Dylan. I’ll call you in a little while when I find something out.”

  He was a little hurt, I think, but I knew that he was going to be okay. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Tyler, and the guilt of what I’d been doing instead of going with him was heavy on my shoulders. If I’d been there with him, maybe none of this would have happened. It was a long shot, but there was a chance…

  ***

  I breathed a big sigh of relief when I got into his room. He was hooked up to some machines, but his eyes were open and he was sitting up. I’d thought of so many scenarios in my mind of how he would be, and this was not one of them. Save for the bandages on his chest, it would have appeared that he was fine.

  “Maya, so good of you to show up.”

  His tone revealed nothing, and the guilt about Dylan had me walking towards him a little more slowly. I was too unsure to play the game of perfect marriage that I’d been keeping up for all these years.

  “I’m sorry. My phone died and…”

  Tyler waved his hands like it was not a big deal and stopped me launching into an excuse of why I was not there for his surgery. I should have been by his side, but instead I’d been with another man. That was unforgiveable in my eyes.

  “It’s fine, Maya. I know where you were, and I can’t say I blame you. I’ve been a shitty husband.”

  What did he mean he knew where I’d been? Did he know about Dylan? The thought made my heart race. Why was he not looking upset? He just looked at me and said the words like it was all so matter of fact. Maybe it was to him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I, Maya, but I guess I learned something waking up like this.”

  “What?” I didn’t think that I wanted to know, but he was the one lying in the hospital bed and I was the one who hadn’t been where I should have been. I was the one cheating this time, not him.

  “Life is too short to be unhappy. You’re unhappy and so am I. It’s time to do something for us.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Was he serious?

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know that you have the divorce papers. I saw them in the closet. I’m going to sign them for you. Take what you want. You know that I was going to take care of you for the rest of your life anyway. I don’t want to fight. I just want you to be happy.”

  “Where is this coming from?”

  He shrugged and told me that it was the first time he’d been able to think. When he asked me about Dylan, the whole thing seemed a little more surreal.

  “Why do you want to know about him?”

  “I just want to know that he’s going to take care of you, Maya. I still love you, even if I’m no good at showing it.”

  “He’s kind to me.”

  “Does he love you?”

  “He asked me to marry him last night.”

  Tyler had a bittersweet grin on his face. “You make a great wife.”

  I was floored. I just nodded my head like an idiot. This wasn’t the Tyler I’d been married to for so long. This was the one I’d met years ago, before everything got complicated.

  “I wish I’d made a better one for you.”

  “You did, Maya. It was me that didn’t see it.”

  Part 9: Pursue

  Tyler has just gotten out of the hospital after being shot, and he has only one thing on his mind. He has to find Dr. Camilla. She was there when he woke up after surgery, but she never visited during the three weeks that he was there recovering. Now that he’s out, all he can think about is finding her.

  When he can’t get her on the phone, he goes to her office and asks around. No one has seen her in weeks. She’s supposedly taken some time off for her mental health, but it doesn’t feel right. Something is wrong, and he isn’t going to stop until he finds her.

  Nothing makes sense, until Tyler starts looking into the patient that she was seeing, Zane. The man has a criminal record a mile long, and Tyler has a feeling that Zane knows something about where Camilla is. He can’t prove it, but he’s sure that if he finds Zane, he’ll find Camilla.

  Chapter 1 – Tyler

  “I think you’re going to be okay, Tyler. Your recovery is going quite well, and I know that you’ve been dying for this day.”

  “I’m just ready to get back to it. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  “Just make sure that you rest up. I don’t want you back in here because you’re doing too much.”

  I grinned and then winced a little. I was sure that I wasn’t going to be doing too much. I still hurt too much. Pain was a good reminder to slow down, and I was feeling it firsthand today. There was nothing that I wanted to do more than get out of the hospital, but the idea of what all was ahead of me was overwhelming.

  Signing off on the paperwork that he put in front of me, I grimaced at the bill and heard him chuckle. “Come on, you’re not worried about the price, are you?”

  “No, you guys saved my life. I would have paid more.”

  The doctor just shook his head. He’d seen and heard it all before. The weeks that I’d stayed in that bed were going to be a part of my life that I never forgot, but to him it was just another patient in his docket. I would never forget Dr. Franks, though. I knew that it was because of him that I was even here. He’d been with me from the very beginning, and if I was a more emotional man, I would have hugged him and thanked him properly. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t.

  “Thanks, Doc.”
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  “No problem, Tyler. I’m just glad to see you doing better. There was a while when we didn’t know.”

  “I know. Me too. I feel like I got a whole new lease on life.”

  “Then don’t waste it.”

  I told him that I wouldn’t, and I didn’t plan to. Being in that bed for so long had given me a lot of time to think about everything that I was doing in my life. I wasn’t going to say that I liked what I’d learned, but I was thankful for the lesson. I’d been living a life that wasn’t my own. It didn’t have to do with Maya, though the marriage was a glaring failure, but so many other aspects. My job was something that my father had pushed me into, and even the car I drove was because Ivy had liked the way we looked in it. When I really started to think, I realized that I wanted to change everything.

  The driver was new. I’d lost a few of my staff while I was in the hospital. I knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg, and I absolutely dreaded the idea of going back to work to find out what needed to be fixed. I had no false hopes that everything had been running the way it was supposed to. There would be problems that had come up, and I was going to have to make sure that I was there to put the fires out.

  I took the phone out of my pocket and decided to call Camilla again. I’d been trying her since I woke up and she was gone from the hospital. I’d thought that she would come back, but she never had. Instead I’d spent time with my soon-to-be ex-wife and spent even more time thinking about the future. If the bullet had been a bit more to one side or the other, I might not be here. That weighed heavily on my head and cemented the idea that life was short.

  When she didn’t answer, I threw the phone to the floor. I’d called and called, left so many messages that I was sure I was going into stalker territory. She wasn’t answering and hadn’t even let it ring for some time. Now it just rung once and went right to voicemail. After a few minutes of stewing, I called her cellphone one more time before I sighed loudly to myself.

  Rolling the divider screen down, I asked the driver to take me to her office. I didn’t know the address, and he didn’t know where I was talking about, so I had him drive around in the vicinity while I called my mother about it. I knew that she would have the address, and sure enough she did.

  “Are you okay, Tyler? I wanted to come get you, but I had to go to a meeting.”

  “It’s fine, really.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re out. Are you going to come by for dinner? Your father is going to be here.”

  “No, I don’t think that we’re going to have those dinners anymore. It was weird enough when we started them up again. You and dad aren’t together, and Maya and I are getting divorced.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She wants a divorce, and I agree with her. We’re unhappy and I’m sick of pretending. I don’t know how you and dad can stand each other after everything that you’ve been through. You won’t have to pretend to like each other anymore. It’s exhausting.”

  “Well, your father and I have always cared about each other. I know that we’ll never really be together again, but I liked the dinners. It helped me feel closer to you, and I really liked Maya. Are you sure that you can’t work it out?”

  “She’s getting married to another man, so I think that ship has sailed. It’s the right thing to do.”

  “What about you?”

  “I don’t know. There’s a woman that I think I’ve fallen for.”

  She was silent for a time, and I wondered what was going through her mind. I was usually so careful with my words, but that was another thing that was going to change. I just wasn’t going to do that anymore. I wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for anyone anymore.

  “Well, you’re going to do what you want. At least now you’ve learned to follow your heart. I’ll be down there this evening, okay?”

  I wanted to tell her not to come, but she’d been a constant visitor, and that had made my hospital stay a little more tolerable. “I’ll see you later.”

  The car stopped in front of the building that I’d been going to for therapy. It seemed different now. Now that I’d been shot there and everything in my life had changed.

  “I’ll be right back out, Case. I just need to check something.”

  The driver nodded and waited for me behind the wheel. I walked a little slower, but I made it to the receptionist area eventually. I waited for the redhead to get off the phone before I asked about Camilla.

  “She hasn’t been to work in about three weeks. I think she called in or emailed us about taking some time off.”

  I couldn’t believe what she was telling me, and I had to wonder if that was just the story for me. So I called a few minutes after I left, trying to get an appointment with her as a new client, but I was told the same thing. Dr. Camilla was taking some time off, and no one had seen her in weeks. That seemed strange to me. Where would she have gone?

  Chapter 2 – Camilla

  “Come on, Camilla. You’ve been sleeping long enough.”

  I felt a splash of water on my face that was so freezing cold it made me jump. I’d been partially awake when I started to hear Zane ranting and yelling, but now I was up and looking at him. I tried to stand up, but found a chain around my waist that wouldn’t let me stand up completely.

  “What is going on?”

  “What’s going on? Well, Camilla, I told you to stay away from Tyler, but you just wouldn’t. You never did listen very well, did you?”

  “Tyler, he was shot…”

  “Yeah, I know. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but you made me. Just like Janice. You made me do it, and now I want you to pay attention so I don’t have to do anything like that again.”

  I didn’t know who Janice was, but it was clear by my surroundings and bindings that Zane had gone off the deep end. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat back down on the cold concrete floor and tried to close my eyes again. Squeezing them shut, I was sure that when I opened them, everything would be back to normal and all of this would be a dream.

  Opening them back up, I found that I was wrong. This wasn’t a dream at all. It wasn’t a nightmare. This was real life.

  ***

  “Come, Camilla. This is getting old. It’s been almost a week since you ate anything. What’s gotten into you?”

  I looked at my captor and I wanted to scream. He asked the question as if he genuinely didn’t know what was wrong with me. In his eyes, he’d given me everything that I wanted. But the way I saw it, he was refusing me the one thing I needed. I needed my freedom, and Zane wasn’t going to give it to me. He knew that if I had a choice, I would leave. He wanted me to stay, that much was clear, and he was willing to go to any length to keep me. This wasn’t love, this was obsession, and I was ready to just give up.

  “I want to go home, Zane. I’ve been here for weeks! What do you think? That I’m just going to go along with this and have nothing to say? Do you really think that I can just let this happen?”

  “No, but you can make the best out of the situation. I think you told me that one time a long time ago.”

  That was before I knew he was crazy. I had thought everyone had a chance of coming out of it, no matter what traumatic event had changed them, but Zane needed more help than I could give him. I’d talked to him for hours and days upon days, and nothing was going to change his mind. He saw what he was doing as love, and there was nothing that I could say to change his mind. I had tried, but it was no use.

  So I was ready to just give up. I didn’t want to live like this anymore. With everything that I’d endured as a child at the hands of my uncle, I was not going to go on like this. Life was just too painful. I didn’t even get hungry anymore. That part of it had passed, and even though I hoped that he would let me go when he realized that I wasn’t going to eat anymore, I knew that he might not. I had to be prepared to go all the way with it, and I liked to think that I was. I liked to think that I was strong and I was going to be able to get through this, but if not
, I was okay with that too.

  “I don’t remember what I told you. It was a long time ago, Zane. I just know that I’m not eating, so you can waste your time bringing it or you can just leave me alone.”

  “If you don’t do what I say…”

  “You’ll do what?” I lifted my hand, which was chained to a bed mounted to the cement floor. I was in a warehouse full of old computers. There was never anyone but me and him there, no visitors and no chance to get away. I didn’t know where I was, but there was nothing else that he could do to me that he hadn’t already done in the last few weeks.

  “If you don’t care about yourself, maybe you care about the people that are close to you?”

  He was grasping at straws, and I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t have anyone that I cared about. My childhood and family were a tragedy, so none of it really mattered, not like he’d expected. My answer made him mad and he threw the food that he’d tried to offer me. It had smelled better than I would ever admit, but I was stubborn and this was the only power that I had left.

  “I don’t have anyone that I care about to hurt. You don’t know enough about me, Zane, or you would know that.”

  The man was getting thinner and there were bags under his eyes. As a doctor, I put that down to the stress he was under. He looked like he might crack at any time. I didn’t really want to help him, though. I’d spent all of my life wanting to help everyone, but now I’d finally found one person I just didn’t care to help at all. Zane was just going to have to do what he needed to do, because I wasn’t going to play his game anymore.

  “What about Tyler?”

  There was a hint of fear in me, but I didn’t let Zane see it. “What about him? You failed the first time, and I’m quite sure that he won’t give you another opportunity.”

  “He just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. I’m sure that I could get close to him if I wanted.”

  “Why? He means nothing to me.”

  “You kissed him!”

  “Yes, one time, and it meant nothing. I’ve told you that since you overheard it all. You didn’t listen then, and you aren’t listening now. He means nothing to me.”