Order of Protection

by Lexi Blake

  He glanced back, his lips curling slightly. “You always did understand.”

  “I know what you did when you dropped your own company to take care of my dad’s.” She’d been taught from a young age that family sacrificed.

  “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if your father and mother had lived, if you hadn’t been the only one to survive,” he mused. “I wonder if I would have been his competitor. That would have been fun. Two brothers fighting it out. I miss him, Win.”

  “I wish I missed him. It’s not that I don’t. I think I’ll always feel like I lost something, but I wish I could miss them by thinking of something other than their pictures. Though I’ll admit today I’m glad they don’t have to see what’s happened to me.”

  He moved back to her. “Your father would stand beside you and I will as well. I’m unfortunately going to have to do it from L.A. for a week or so. If you want me to stay, I will. I know I don’t say it often, but I love you. We might have started out rough, but if I could have picked a daughter, she would have looked a lot like you. It’s funny how things work out. I think that’s what you learn as you get older. You make plans and follow through and never think about what the consequences might be years down the road.”

  “You’re thinking about the company you left behind?” She couldn’t remember ever seeing her uncle so contemplative. It worried her. Uncle Bellamy was a take-charge guy. He made decisions quickly and then plowed ahead with single-minded intent.

  “No,” he said. “I was wondering what your life would have been like if that yacht hadn’t gone down. I wonder if you would be here or if you would have already finished grad school and started on your life. I know how hard it’s been to be you, Winnie.”

  Because of the press. Because she’d been famous before she’d understood what the word meant. “I know who I am now. I know what I want. I’m not going to fall into a hole again.”

  “See that you don’t.”

  He’d started to lean over when the door flew open and a woman entered.

  The girl was wearing scrubs, but Win hadn’t seen her before. She looked far too young to be a nurse. And she had a nose ring. Not that a nurse couldn’t have one, but it seemed odd. That was when she lifted something no nurse making her rounds would have. Win saw a gun waved in front of her face. “You bitch. You killed her. You killed my friend. She was all I had.”

  Win couldn’t move. She couldn’t defend herself or do anything except scream. Her uncle started to say something, and then just as she was sure the young woman would fire that gun her way, the door opened again and Henry was there.

  The young woman turned and Win realized it would be so much worse if Henry took a bullet. She struggled against the cuffs that held her to the bed.

  “Hey, no. It’s me you want,” she shouted. “Not him.”

  Henry’s hands were out. “Come on. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to ruin your life.”

  The young woman’s hands shook, but she held the gun up. “I do. She killed Brie. I’ve seen every episode. Every single one. I go to all the clubs Brie goes to. We were going to be friends. I can’t let Taylor get away with it. You’re so fake, Taylor. Everyone sees through you. You faked the anorexia thing so you could take camera time away from Brie. I hate you.”

  It was true. Win could see that plainly. This young woman hated her. Though she’d never met the woman with the gun, there was such rage in her eyes, all of it directed toward Win.

  Tears pierced Win’s eyes. Why would someone hate her like that? This woman had never met her. She’d never laid eyes on her, but it was clear she thought she knew who Win was, and all because of a television show.

  “Put the gun down now.” The police officer had made her way inside and stepped in front of Henry.

  “It’s not fair that she’s alive when Brie is gone.” The hand holding the gun started shaking.

  The officer held her ground. “You have three seconds before I shoot. Am I understood?”

  “It’s not loaded.” The young woman dropped the gun, tears streaming down her face. “I only wanted her to know how horrible she is. Everyone hates you. Why did you have to kill her?”

  “Where the hell were you, Officer?” Henry moved into the room, his hand on his cell phone.

  The officer had the young woman cuffed in seconds. “I’m sorry. We had a disturbance down the hall. I walked away for a second. Someone yelled for help, but when I got there he was gone.”

  Win’s hands were shaking. “It was a setup to let her in.”

  “Probably.” The officer hauled the young woman up. “I’m going to get my ass handed to me for this. Come on. I think you’re going to spend some time in the psych ward, you freak.”

  “I hate you!” the girl screamed as she was hauled out.

  “Noah, we’re moving that timeline up,” Henry was saying into his phone. “After what happened a few moments ago, there’s no way I’m allowing her to even go to the prison infirmary. I want those bodyguards up here now.”

  “You’re in good hands,” her uncle said quietly, his voice shaking a bit. “You’ll see. This is all going to blow over and we’ll go back to normal. It’s going to be fine, Winnie.”

  “No, I’m not sending her to her place,” Henry said. “It’s too dangerous for her. I’ll take responsibility. We’ll move her to my building, and I’ll let the judge know that I’ll personally ensure that she doesn’t go anywhere.”

  She looked up at him, his words seemingly sweet to her ears. But then she saw the way he was glaring at her.

  It was a little like the woman with the gun.

  Win lay back, too weary to even cry.

  NINE

  “You understand all the conditions of your release, Ms. Winston-Hughes?”

  Two days later, Win signed the paperwork and passed it back to the woman speaking. She was an older woman dressed in a nice suit and comfortable shoes. She had a badge around her neck, identifying her as a representative of the court.

  She’d had several court employees in her hospital room over the last forty-eight hours. She’d gotten to listen to the DA argue that she needed to be placed in jail or she would flee the country and live like a queen. He’d made her sound like some crazed tyrant, killing her opponents and using her money to get away.

  David Cormack had quietly made the case that she was a young woman with no record and deep ties to the community. He’d talked about how dangerous it would be for her to have another brain injury, pointing out how heated the case had already gotten in the media. Did the judge want to put a young woman in jail with those who would likely view harming her as a way to make a name?

  The judge had asked her a few questions, and she’d promised she wouldn’t leave and would comply with all court dates.

  The judge had seemed relieved to be able to wash his hands of the whole thing.

  One million dollars’ worth of bail and she was going home.

  Not home. She was going to Henry’s place, and she wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t come to see her since that first day. One of the other lawyers checked in on her every day, but she hadn’t seen Henry once. He wasn’t here now. A man named Noah Lawless was here, and they were waiting for her bodyguards to bring the car around.

  She was wearing actual clothes for the first time in days and her head was clear. That was good because she wasn’t in pain, and bad because she remembered she’d been arrested for murder and her life was in the toilet.

  Yeah, she was taking the good with the bad.

  “I do understand,” she replied to the court rep. “I thank His Honor for not forcing me to wear an ankle monitor.”

  The woman gave her a sympathetic smile. “Not many people have the kinds of community ties you do. It was brilliant of your lawyer to have all those letters introduced. Oddly enough, I don’t think it was the mayor’s praise th
at swayed the judge. It was all those nurses and doctors.”

  Hearing that was bittersweet. “I think my mom would have been happy being a doctor or a nurse. She lived to help people. My mom was a big proponent of helping New York’s hospitals. I suppose I followed in her footsteps as a way of feeling close to her. Though now I kind of wished she’d done the same for the NYPD.”

  The court rep laughed and handed her a copy of the paperwork.

  She’d managed to avoid the ankle monitor, but she knew this fight was far from over. She moved to the window as the door closed and she was left alone with Noah Lawless. She glanced down and saw there was still a crowd. Reporters and “fans.” She could barely think the word. “Do I have to go out the front way?”

  “No,” Noah replied, moving toward her. He had blond hair and blue eyes that would catch any woman’s attention. Well, any woman who hadn’t seen Henry. “We’ve got a car in the underground parking garage. David is going to give the press a statement and we’ll take you out then. It’s Henry’s favorite sleight of hand. They’re looking one way. We’re going another.”

  She deeply appreciated that, but she was confused on a couple of fronts. “Why am I not going home? I’m not leaving the country. I swear. I really want to fight this out. I didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s zero reason for me to leave.”

  “I think Henry’s worried about you being alone.”

  “The building is secure.” Although it hadn’t been for Brie.

  “No building is perfectly secure.”

  “I’ve got two large bodyguards,” she argued. “I assume they’re there to keep me in as much as they are to keep others out. Does he really believe I would run and leave everyone high and dry?”

  “It could happen,” a familiar voice said. Henry stepped into the room. “You wouldn’t be the first wealthy person to use your money and privilege to attempt to escape the justice system. I believe the only reason we managed to avoid the ankle monitor was how pathetic you looked in that hospital bed. That was excellent, by the way. I couldn’t have coached you better. With the addition of all those upstanding citizens willing to speak for you, it was a one-two punch. It doesn’t hurt that you look a little like the judge’s granddaughter. It was excellent theater.”

  Who was he? This wasn’t the man who’d shown up in her bedroom the night of the storm. This man was cold as ice. “It wasn’t theater. I was miserable and pathetic.”

  He glanced around the room. “I suppose being stuck in a plain old regular hospital room would be considered one of the worst things that could happen to you. I suspect you would normally have a suite of rooms they reserve for their wealthiest clients.”

  She was done with that ass. Two days she’d sat in this room, hoping and praying he would show up and be the Henry she’d fallen in love with. She wasn’t even going to pretend that wasn’t what it had been. She’d fallen for him and he’d been an illusion. There was no question that he could have felt the same way. He couldn’t talk to her like this if he had felt even a tenth of what she’d felt for him.

  She turned back to Noah because at least he seemed reasonable. “I would very much like to go home. I’ll take the ankle monitor.”

  Noah sighed. “That’s a bad idea. The minute the press gets a picture of that, it’ll go viral. It could prejudice potential jury members against you.”

  “Do you intend to call some of your hacker friends?” Henry asked the question as though he didn’t care about the answer but was merely curious. “You think one of those kids you’ve been hanging out with in Durham can manage to get the monitor off you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He glanced down at his phone. “I’m talking about Colin Knapp and Harley Prior. Your new friends. They’ve left several messages on your cell phone.”

  She wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “I’ve made a lot of friends down in North Carolina. Colin and Harley are in one of my classes. We’re in a study group together. Why do you know about them?”

  He gave her a chilly smile. “I’m going to know everything about you and anyone you come in contact with. Did you know that Colin Knapp has some ties to a couple of ideological groups on the web?”

  “I met him a few weeks ago, Hen . . . Mr. Garrison.” It was a good way to distance. Henry had been her lover. The man in front of her was definitely Mr. Garrison. “No. I don’t know what his web habits are.”

  “He’s been involved with a group of hackers. Hacktivists, I believe they call themselves,” he continued. “Though law enforcement hasn’t been able to prove anything yet. Your friend Harley has been arrested several times.”

  “For political protests.” She did know that. “He was arrested for peacefully protesting.”

  “Of course he was peaceful,” he remarked dismissively. “Both men have knowledge of mechanics. I suppose you could invite either one up and perhaps get the monitor off you. Hackers tend to be good at those types of things. You know what they say. Judge a man by who he hangs out with.”

  Noah cleared his throat. “Yes, you’ll come out well in that case, Henry. I assure you I’ve had far worse connections to the hacker world than any kid from Duke. Would you like for me to leave, or do you suspect I’ll help her run, too?”

  “That’s not what I said and you know it. It’s not the same. You left that life behind.”

  “And yet it’s still a part of me. You need to remember that you’re not the prosecutor on this case. You’re supposed to be on her side.” Noah’s eyes were squarely on Henry.

  “I can’t be on her side if she flees the country,” Henry replied. “And it’s a good thing for me to think like the prosecutor in this case.”

  The idea of Henry standing over her, interrogating her, made her sick inside. “I don’t want a lawyer who is constantly questioning me.”

  “That, my dear, is what a lawyer does.” He looked through the window. “You’re coming home with me. I don’t like the situation any more than you do, but I think it’s for the best. If you go home, you’ll be subjected to your cousin, who despite all my best efforts has gone on several talk shows stating he can’t be sure you didn’t kill his beloved Brie.”

  “What? They hooked up a couple of times. It only lasted a few weeks, and it was more about making me uncomfortable than Brie being in love.” Why was Trevor such a massive ass?

  “I believe your uncle now has him on a tight leash,” Noah explained. “But some damage was done, and I agree with Henry that you don’t need to be close to him. I’m still not sure it wasn’t Trevor who distracted the officer that day.”

  “We have him on a security camera talking to some of the . . . I don’t know what to call them. Protestors? Fans? People with way too much time on their hands? Anyway, Trevor spent about fifteen minutes talking to some of the young women outside before he joined your uncle and came up here to see you,” Henry explained. “It would have been easy for him to set something up. Why does he hate you so much?”

  Why did everyone hate her? “Because I breathe, Mr. Garrison. He didn’t want a sibling. Trevor likely would have hated anyone who took attention away from him. There was also the fact that apparently my aunt wasn’t happy with having to take care of me. They fought a lot about how to deal with me and then my aunt divorced my uncle and took off for Europe. Trevor blames me.”

  “But you were an orphan.” Noah looked at her like he didn’t quite understand her words. “Of course your uncle would take you in. I don’t understand why your aunt would have had a problem with it. You were her niece.”

  Win sighed and sat back down on the bed. So weary. She’d lain in bed for days. How could she be so damn tired? “She didn’t see it that way. I don’t think she liked my mother much, and she thought my dad held Uncle Bellamy back or something. There was some jealousy in there. I don’t know, but that’s why Trevor hates me. I don’t think he’ll
kill me. He’s more into annoying the hell out of me and trying to make me feel small. I’ve dealt with that all my life. And now I have two bodyguards to watch over me.”

  Remy Guidry and Wade Rycroft. They were massive hunky men who had rings on their fingers and loved to talk about their wives, who had come up to stay with them while they were working here. They were the kind of men she could look at for hours. Gorgeous and majorly in love with their wives, so they were perfectly safe.

  “Yes, two guards who need to stay close to you,” Henry pointed out. “I’ve already gotten a place for them in my building. There’s no place in yours. They would have to stay in a hotel to remain nearby. This could be a long-term assignment. Do you know how much more comfortable they would be in an apartment? Is your comfort worth more than theirs? I guess you probably don’t care.”

  “Yep, I’m a vicious monster who uses everyone around me. I would keep them chained on the street if it meant I could have all my luxuries.” She was sick of listening to it on TV. She didn’t need it from her lawyer.

  “Damn it, Win.” Henry stood over her. “I don’t want you in that house right now. Have you thought about the fact that you would be staying in the same room where she died? I’m not trying to be an asshole.”

  “But he’s doing a fabulous job of it anyway,” Noah offered.

  Henry ignored him. “This is the best scenario. David’s place is far too small. Margarita is in and out of the city all month. And Noah’s place has a revolving door for the women he sleeps with. I’m worried I could get an STD just walking into it.”

  “Hey,” Noah said.

  Henry shook his head. “You’ve got a horrible reputation with women.”

  A bright smile suddenly lit Noah’s face. “It’s actually quite a good reputation. I promise. They all leave satisfied.”

  “See. You would seriously cramp his lifestyle.” Henry turned again and began to pace, as though it helped him to think. “We’ll be able to work on your case in relative peace, since as far as anyone knows, David is your attorney. So far we’ve been able to keep our personal indiscretions off the press’s radar, so they shouldn’t come looking for you at my place.”