I pushed out of his hold and crouched beside Theo on shaky knees, preparing to administer CPR. I pushed with all my might on his chest, again and again. Nothing.
“Come on,” I hummed. “Come on.” Again I pushed, then bent down.
“Maggie.” Before my lips landed on Theo’s, I was pulled back, and Will quickly took my place. Unable to hide his disgust, he took hold of Theo’s nose and blew a lungful of air into him. Hands on his chest again, delivering much more powerful thrusts than I could give. More air. More thrusts.
Then Theo lurched.
“Oh, thank God,” I breathed as we sat back. Theo coughed and sputtered as water spilled over his chin as his body. We watched as his eyes opened, but didn’t focus, only stared blindly at the sky, past the faces looking down at him.
And then they closed, and he didn’t move.
“Oh my God,” I muttered as I stared down at the cold face of my lover. My attacker. I covered my mouth as I started to shake. “Oh my God.”
Will pressed his fingers to Theo’s throat, but it was clear from his face that there was no pulse.
“We—we have to—”
“No, Lil.”
“We have to help him.”
“Lil, he’s gone.”
Will guided me away from the body, pulling me up the face of the rock until I was sitting on the edge, pulled into his chest. I continued to fight him, twisting back around to where Theo’s body lay, silent, wet, and cold. But Will’s voice was as steely as his arms, and though I struggled, in the end I stopped, and let him keep me still, let him observe the death of the man who had tormented me, stalked me and violated me countless times. He witnessed the end of my enemy so I wouldn’t have to.
“Will? Maggie? You guys need to…what the fuck…”
We both twisted at the sound of Calliope’s voice. She appeared through the pines, followed closely by Benny.
“Will, I told you, you need to leave her—whoa.” Benny stopped short behind Calliope, who was staring at Theo’s still form.
Tucked into Will’s arms, I began to shake violently.
“This asshole was trying to fucking abduct Maggie,” Will bit out. “I punched him, and he slipped on the rocks and fell. We pulled him out, and tried to save him…but it was too late.”
Benny’s glance darted to Will’s scraped knuckles, but he nodded. Will continued to hold me, rocking me from side to side while I tried to breathe.
“Someone needs to call the cops.” His voice, strangely calm, vibrated against my cheek while he continued to rock me into him. “We’re going to have to give them a statement.”
“You sure you want to do that?” The implication was clear. This wasn’t the kind of thing that would escape the press or anyone else’s scrutiny. It was going to be a battle, he meant. A giant pain in the ass.
But there was no uncertainty in Will’s voice. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. We’re done hiding.”
Benny nodded. “Okay. Well, I heard the screaming. We saw the whole thing, didn’t we, Ms. Jackson?”
Calliope was still staring at Theo’s prone form with something close to bitter satisfaction. “Motherfucker,” she muttered. Then she shook her head. “Oh, yeah. We saw it all.”
With a nod to Will, the two of them disappeared back around the bend, Benny’s cell phone already pressed to his ear. I tried to twist back to look at the body. Was he really dead? Was it my fault?
But Will wouldn’t let me move, instead restrained me as trauma turned me into little more than a leaf twisting in a vicious wind.
“Don’t,” he whispered as his hand cradled my head to his chest. “It’s done.”
“I-I-c-can’t…” I couldn’t even get coherent words out as rage and shock rattled through me.
“Shhhhh,” Will crooned. I curled into his strong, solid body, and he held me even closer. “I’m here, baby. And I’m never fucking leaving you again.”
31
It had been a long time since the residents of Newman Lake had heard a siren anywhere close to the water. Sure, cops showed up from time to time, but usually for domestic disputes. Maybe a boat crash or two. They usually parked silently outside the houses nestled in the trees and allowed people the ability to keep secrets as best they could.
Still, it didn’t take long for word to get out that the Newman Lake sheriff had sent an ambulance and three deputies to our house, their red and blue lights blinking through the trees at the top of the hill. It took hours while they collected Theo’s body; even longer when Calliope, Benny, Will, and I were all driven to the station in the back of the squad cars to give statements, followed by Hakeem in the SUV. But in the end, everyone was allowed to leave. There were three witnesses who could verify what had happened that night, not to mention the simple fact that I had been stalked here by a man previously convicted of raping me. No one was going to argue that Will shouldn’t have defended me, especially not after the police took photos of the bruises and scrapes left all over my body. Theo and I both had remnants of each other’s DNA under our fingernails, evidence of the fight. That he had drowned after losing consciousness was just an unfortunate side effect, or so Will said. And the deputies agreed. The pang in my stomach said otherwise.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. His father was notified, and we listened from the other side of the station as Max del Conte screamed through the tinny speakers of the deputy’s desk phone. He threatened again and again to charge someone, anyone for murder or worse. Privately, Benny said we needed to get a lawyer, and quickly, but no one seemed that alarmed by the threats. Theo del Conte was a known felon who had also broken the terms of his parole by crossing state lines without permission. He had a long history of harassing me, and I had the documentation to prove it. My restraining order might have been overturned, but in the end, the only person who had killed Theo del Conte was himself.
By the time Hakeem parked at the top of the hill leading down to my house, the sun had already slipped past the trees, and the sky was the dusk color of lavender fields in spring. Benny and Calliope got out quickly.
“We’ll go down to the house, make sure everyone is cleared out for the night,” Calliope said, and they left.
Will came around to my side of the vehicle. We’d been kept mostly apart while the police had conducted their interviews. And there were a lot of things for us to say.
He opened my door to help me out, but stopped when I placed a hand on his wrist.
“We need to talk,” I said softly. I didn’t want to do it down at the house, where prying eyes would track our every move.
Will shook his head, concerned only with shuffling me out of the back of the car. “Later,” he said. “We need to get you inside. That ankle…” He pointed at my swollen limb, which had been twisted in the scuffle on Moon Rock.
“But, Will—”
His hand floated over my shoulder, around my hip, and paused over my stomach, covering the almost flat expanse with his wide palm. He stared at the spot for a long moment.
“You are not allowed to feel bad about what happened,” Will said quietly.
I shook my head. “But—”
“No,” he said vehemently. “Maggie, he was going to—if I hadn’t—he wanted to—” He dropped his head, as if the force of the unfinished statements was too much to handle, then squatted down and laid the side of his face on my belly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “So fucking sorry I wasn’t there earlier. But I won’t feel bad for protecting you. The both of you.”
Without thinking, I threaded my fingers into his hair, stroking the soft waves while Will’s eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“But you did come,” I said. “And if you hadn’t, I’d be—”
“Don’t say it—”
“Dead.”
The word hung in the air for a few more seconds, like a gong that had been rung.
Will stood up, and for the first time I noticed a few tiny creases at the sides of his eyes. He looked like he had
n’t slept for days.
“I love you so fucking much,” he said, his voice ragged and torn. “If anything had happened to you, to…” He gestured toward my stomach. “I swear to God, Maggie, I would have followed you right to the grave.”
I blinked, but my body trembled. A breeze shook the trees above us, and a few pine needles flew down, landing on Will’s shoulders and my dress.
I brushed them off. “Come on,” I said weakly. “Let’s go down.”
I slid from the car only to find that my ankle was still too bad to walk on.
“Dammit,” I muttered as I tried and failed to stand up again.
“Your ankle?” His smile was crooked, and I loved and hated how it tugged at my heart the same way it tugged at his cheek.
Shaking, I nodded my head. “Y-yeah.”
Suddenly, I was swept up into Will’s very strong, very solid arms. My hands wrapped naturally around his shoulders as he cradled me close.
But I couldn’t look at him still. I knew—I knew—that he was here in part to make amends, along with the traumas of the evening, but there were still so many things that I wasn’t sure how to fix. I didn’t want to spend my life hiding. And I didn’t want to hide my child either.
“I can walk,” I said.
He snorted and carried me toward the path that led to the house.
“Let me help you home,” he said quietly. But instead of starting the walk around the property to the house, he stopped before the stairs and sat down on another big rock, keeping me securely in his lap.
“Will—” I started to move, but he just squeezed me to him tighter.
“Please,” he said. “Give me a second before I have to face the crowds again.” I watched his face, which was etched with frustration.
“Will,” I tried again.
It was too far away to see, but I could hear the clamor of people. Even after sitting at the police station, talking about Theo’s death for hours, I still had a reception to finish, apparently. A mother to mourn. A house to let. A day that would never end.
But Will only held me tighter, keeping me securely on his lap, and pressed his nose into my hair.
“I didn’t do it,” he said finally. “I didn’t take anything at that party, Lil.”
“I know.” He had been telling me that for hours, but generally, I’d been too shell-shocked to respond. “But you were on something.”
He blinked, surprised. “How do you know that?”
I shook my tired head. “Theo actually fessed up to it. He and Amelia apparently were working together. She slipped some Rohypnol in your drink. Amelia and Tricia were supposed to keep you occupied while Theo, um—”
“Son of a bitch,” Will gritted out. “That fucking snake roofied me?”
“Amelia or your mother?”
“Both.” He shook his head. “Time to call another lawyer.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what that will do without any kind of evidence. Right now it would be my word against theirs. Theo’s g-gone.” It was still hard to believe. I closed my eyes, and the vision of his body, floating face-down in the water, immediately appeared. I knew it would be a long time before I’d ever be rid of it.
“Yeah, well, there are other ways to blacklist someone in that town,” Will said darkly to the trees. “Privilege of being Hollywood’s prodigal son.”
“No, don’t.”
I laid a hand on his arm. Despite the fact that I was sitting in his lap, it was the first time I had voluntarily touched him. Will looked at my hand for a moment, his gaze softening before it met mine.
“Why?” he asked. “You can’t expect me to do nothing here, Lil.”
“Will, you just—” I didn’t want to say it. But I had to.
“Killed a man.” His voice was tight, but matter-of-fact.
I exhaled. “You punched him. He fell. You were protecting—”
“The love of my life and my child.”
I gulped. “Well, y-yes. But this would be different. Don’t—don’t ruin Amelia’s life out of vengeance. Don’t attack your own mother. It will eat you up inside. Will, I think you have to learn to forgive.”
He looked at me for a long time. “We’ll see.”
“Will, please.”
“Maggie, these people conspired to keep us apart. To ruin you, to ruin what we have. Don’t tell me to forgive what’s fucking unforgivable.”
In the end, I let it go, in part because I understood it. Underneath my shock, there was a small ball of fire that burned when I considered what all had been done to us. If I was asking Will to forgive, I’d need to do that myself. And if I was being honest, I wasn’t sure I could.
We sat there for several more minutes. It was clear that neither of us wanted to return to the land of people. There would be more questions, more strangers. The prospect of facing a room full of people hanging around mostly for the gossip potential was disheartening, to say the least.
Particularly considering what still lay between Will and me.
He placed a hand over my stomach. He’d been doing that all afternoon.
“Please,” he whispered. “Baby, please let me back in.”
The uncut pain lacing his voice broke me all over again.
“You…you said you didn’t want to be a father,” I whimpered into his shoulder. “And then, Will, I was standing in that church, and you blocked me out. You wouldn’t let me in!”
“Maggie, I’m so sorry for that. More than you know. But, baby, you walked away. You keep walking away. You left LA knowing that you were pregnant, didn’t you?”
I sniffled. He was right, and we both knew it.
“I understand why,” he said as his hand came up to stroke my back. “But…fuck, Lil. It hurts. It really, really hurts.”
“And what would you have done?” I asked. “Every time things get a little bit crazy, you check out. You run away too, Will. So much more than me. First it was literally running, and then it turned to liquor. Even if Amelia and your mom hadn’t slipped you a pill, can you honestly say you hadn’t thought about it? I watched you look for the escape, and like you said, it hurts.” I shook my head, allowing my curls to fall around my face. “Will, I grew up with a parent who wasn’t ever really there for me. I was scared, all the time, because the person who was supposed to be there no matter what so often wasn’t, whether it was because sh-she was literally missing or was so far d-down the bottle she might as well have been gone. I won’t do that to my child—I won’t!”
“And you won’t have to!” Swiftly, Will pulled my face to his, cupping my cheek so I was forced to see his wild, anxious eyes.
“Will, I just lost a parent to addiction.” My voice choked, and now tears fell freely. “I…I can’t deal with losing you too. We can’t deal with losing you too.”
“Lil, you’re never going to lose me.” He pushed my hair away from my face, pressing his lips up and down my cheeks, all around my eyes. Kissing away the tears. “Do you hear me?” he whispered fiercely. “It doesn’t matter how many times you try to push me away, Lily pad. You can run all you want, but I’m done with it. The first thing I did when you left LA was find a therapist and sign up for AA.”
I hiccuped. “You did?”
Will nodded. “I’m done running, Lil. I won’t run to the bottle. Not to pills. And not to the road. And, Lily pad, I will always come back for you. You, and one day, this little person in here––I. Belong. To. You.” He pulled my face back so he could focus all of his energy on me. So I could see the depth of us in those big green eyes. “All I am. All I’ll ever be. All of it belongs to you.”
His eyes drifted down, like he wanted to kiss me, but he held still, held me still, until I was ready to respond.
One last time, I wondered if I should say no. My soul was torn apart by the people in my life who I’d loved. Theo. My mother. Here stood a man who had torn it up more than most, who had the power to ruin me in every way possible if he so chose. If I stayed and he left me again, I’d neve
r recover. Maybe I wouldn’t ever recover now as it was.
But Will’s gaze was unwavering, and the currents of love and devotion I saw there matched the intensity of his words. He was mine, he said. And in my heart, I knew I belonged to him as well.
There was never really a choice to leave. Not when it came to him.
“Okay.” My voice, my breath, everything shook with the emotion that had been bubbling inside me all day.
“Okay?” The hands on my face softened, and he brushed my cheekbones lightly with his thumbs.
I closed my eyes for a moment, overcome. But when I opened them, he was still there. Still watching. Still waiting.
“Kiss me, Will,” I whispered. “Kiss me, and don’t stop.”
His green eyes popped open, hungry. Maybe even starving.
“Never,” he said before his lips crashed into mine.
Kiss wasn’t strong enough to describe it. Will kept me on his lap, one hand cupping my face, the other around my waist while he devoured me, tasted me, drank from me like an oasis spring, and he quenched both our thirsty, barren souls.
Because I was equally parched. I grabbed at his hair, pulling him closer, urging his lips to my neck, my chin, my ears, my chest. Our tongues grappled, bodies smashed in a desire to get closer, so much closer than we could ever really achieve. Sob after sob erupted from my throat each time I broke for breath, but Will swallowed them all, taking my pain and burying it with everyone else we’d lost. Replacing it with his love and devotion in every touch of his lips.
“Let’s—go—down—” I could barely get out the words as his mouth trailed down my neck. Maybe it was being pregnant, but my skin tingled everywhere—all I wanted to do was feel that healing touch all over. I wanted to shed my clothes like I wanted to shed the past.
“Yessss.” Will growled against my neck, then, somewhat reluctantly, pulled away so he could help me stand back up. “Let’s go.”
But before we could start the rest of the way down, Will’s phone buzzed in his pocket. As he read the incoming text, his face whitened.
Indiscreet (The Discreet Duet Book 2) Page 33