Forbidden Attraction: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by K. C. Crowne

  You tried, I thought. You tried to save yourself and the baby but you failed.

  Things were moving in slow motion, and I closed my eyes and braced myself for death.

  But as I prepared myself for the end, the sliding door was ripped open and bodies flew into van. A gun was fired, the shot echoing in my head.

  You're dead, I told myself. This is the end.

  “Megan!” came a voice. “Megan, oh my God talk to me!”

  “Jared?”

  I opened my eyes and saw I was very much alive. Then I realized it wasn't me who had been shot. It was Billy.

  His body lay collapsed over the back of his seat, blood flowing from the wound in his chest. In Jared's hand, a gun was gripped, smoke drifting up from the barrel.

  I was too dazed to scream, too shocked to cry. Totally numb, I fell against Jared as he pulled me out onto the street as the police rushed in.

  “You saved me again.”

  Jared

  Detective Lewis sat across the table from me reviewing his notes.

  “It was a clean shot,” I told him. “If I didn't shoot, he would have killed her.”

  He gave me an understanding nod and said, “I know. I know. The officers who raced to the scene witnessed what happened. You're not in any trouble here. But we have to adhere to protocol.”

  He slammed his notebook shut, clicked his pen and rolled it across the desk.

  “If you ask me, you did the town a service. You're a hero. Although we all knew that. That's your second run in with the Mob now.”

  Hero. The word was always banded around.

  But did I feel like one? No. I was just doing what any member of society should do.

  “You're free to go,” Lewis said, shaking my hand.

  I stood up and moved toward the door, but as much as I wanted out the police station, I had to know one thing before I left.

  “Mario...” I said, turning back to Lewis.

  “In custody,” he replied. “Don't worry. He's not getting out again.”

  “Let's hope not.”

  I walked out the interview room and looked down the hall toward the reception. Groups of people were huddled around the front door.

  “What the hell's going on out there?” I asked a passing officer.

  “Reporters,” he groaned, rolling his eyes. “They all wanna get a peek at Mario Gianni before he's moved back to prison. He'll be in solitary for a long time I bet.”

  He paused for a second and looked in the opposite direction toward the fire escape.

  “They'll want to know everything about you too obviously. The hero saving the day again. It's big news when a mobster's van crashes into Red Cherry on stage only to be shot by a local celebrity.”

  “When you put it like that it sounds pretty wild.”

  “I'll help you sneak out around the back,” he said. “Help you skip out on the reporters.”

  He ushered me toward the fire escape, but I would have no luck leaving unnoticed. As soon as the door opened, I was blasted in the face by the flash of photographers' cameras.

  “Jared! Can you tell us how you took down the Mob once again?”

  “Jared are you being prosecuted for the shooting of Mob associate Billy Deacons?”

  “Are you aware of how close Marcus from Red Cherry was to falling from the stage?”

  “Jared? How do you feel about being called a hero?”

  “Jared?”

  “Jared!”

  I pushed my way through all of them without saying a word and pulled up my hood.

  I didn't care about any of their questions or Red Cherry or being called a hero. All I wanted was to see Megan.

  Megan

  “I really don't need to be here,” I told the doctor as he flashed a light in my eyes.

  “You were strangled and then knocked out in a car crash. You'll need both your head and neck x-rayed for fractures. Not to mention you're pregnant. It's better to be safe than sorry.”

  He pulled back and looked down at my chart.

  “You really had a rough time, eh?”

  “You could say that.”

  The curtain at the end of the bed twitched and an orderly poked her head around the corner.

  “Knock knock,” she said. “Megan has visitors.”

  I was too tired to see anyone. All I wanted to do was sleep, but beneath the bright lights of the hospital ward with the doctors poking and prodding me every five seconds, that wasn't likely.

  “Who is it?” I asked, my throat still hurting.

  The orderly grinned widely and said, “You're never going to believe this, but Red Cherry have just arrived to see you.”

  Suddenly, I was sitting up straight in bed with my heart ready to beat out my chest.

  “Are you serious?”

  She nodded.

  “Shall I send them in?”

  “Hell yeah!”

  She disappeared behind the curtain for a second and when she returned, she pulled it open. At first, all I saw were four pairs of leather pants.

  “All right, Megan! You all good there?”

  I stared, star struck and dumb as Marcus walked over to me smelling of tobacco and whiskey. He took my hand between his leathery fingers and said, “Aw, man when I saw that van moving toward us my life flashed before my eyes.”

  I was living my teenage dream.

  “Yeah man we heard all about what happened.,” Cash, the drummer, said as he came closer. “And you knocked out Mario Gianni with a crowbar. That's cold, man.”

  “Totally badass,” Marcus added.

  They all looked to each other and nodded in agreement.

  “So, we were thinking,” Marcus said, still holding my hand. “When you're outta here, we'd love to give you some free tickets to our next gig.”

  “I'd love that,” I beamed. “Where is it?”

  “Paris,” Marcus smiled.

  “Paris! Oh, my God!”

  Clearly, I've been put on some serious pain meds because I must be hallucinating.

  “Marcus?”

  “Uhuh, sweetheart.”

  “I'm sorry I ruined your gig last night.”

  “Ruined our gig?”

  “If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have crashed into the stage.”

  He looked over to the rest of the band and they all laughed.

  “Aw, man, Megan. Do you have any idea how cool what you did was? The amount of publicity we got from last night is off the freakin' charts. We're more famous than we've ever been!”

  They all laughed again.

  “I suppose we should be thanking you,” Corey, the lead singer, said. “There's never been a cooler headline than Red Cherry gig gets crashed into by Mob boss and pregnant kidnap victim at small town Halloween festival.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed. “That's quite a headline.”

  “Anyway,” Marcus said, letting go of my hand. “We got a flight to catch for New York. You stay sweet, Megan. And look after yourself.”

  He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. Then the four of them were disappearing out through the curtain and I was alone with the doctor once again.

  “You saw that, didn't you?” I asked. “Please just tell me that happened.”

  He had been standing open-mouthed like a fish the whole time. With a nod, he said. “Yep. That was all real. Red Cherry were literally just in here. And you're seeing them in Paris.”

  Sleep flooded my body in waves until I found the ebb and flow of the ward's activities drifting through my moments of wakefulness. I didn't know how long I had been there. All I did know was that when I woke up, there was a figure standing at the end of the bed.

  “Megan? Are you okay?” Jared’s voice was hushed and anxious.

  I could hear him moving around the side of the bed before his hands reached for mine.

  “Megan can you hear me?”

  “I can hear you fine,” I said. “I was asleep, not dead.”

  “Oh, God I'm so glad you're all right. I've b
een worried sick.”

  My mouth felt like it was stuffed with sandpaper and I sat up looking for a drink of water. Jared saw my eyes focus on the bottle on the bedside cabinet and held it to my lips.

  “I can do it myself,” I insisted, taking the bottle from him.

  “It's amazing how feisty you can be after what you've just been through. And you still manage to look so beautiful.”

  “I don't feel beautiful.”

  Sitting on the edge of the bed, he ran his fingers down the side of my face where the blood had dried.

  “You’re really something,” he said.

  “And you saved me. Once again. I'm thinking we should start some sort of loyalty scheme. Save me from death for the tenth time and you get a free coffee or something.”

  He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes where a sadness lay.

  “I was so worried about you,” he said. “I thought you were dead.”

  “I would be if not for you taking Billy out.”

  I couldn't wrap my head around it. Deep down, I knew I should have been pleased he wasn't around to threaten me anymore, but I never for one second wanted him to die. But if it wasn't him it was me, so I had to be grateful he was gone.

  “Megan, I have something to tell you.”

  And I have something to tell you, I thought. You're going to be a daddy.

  But somehow, I just couldn't tell him. Not now.

  “Megan, I love you,” he said. “I’m totally in love with you.”

  He waited as though he hoped I would say it back, but I couldn't.

  “Jared, what we had was special and I will always be grateful for what you've done for me, but I met Senator Ogilvy,” I explained. “He told me what you did to his daughter.”

  Jared's face turned stony and he reeled away from me.

  “No,” he said. “I never did anything to hurt Marie. I tried to save her! You have to believe me. Her father is deluded. He's blaming me for something I didn't do.”

  “So you never plied her with pills?”

  “No! I tried to get her off them!”

  I so badly wanted to believe him, but I couldn't shake the look of grief I’d seen on the Senator's face. There was a such a deep pain in his eyes, such heartache. He truly believed Jared was to blame for his daughter's death.

  “Megan, please. Listen to me when I tell you this. I'm not responsible for Marie's death. You believe me, don't you? I'd never lie to you.”

  “I want to believe you but honestly, I just don’t know you that well.”

  It wasn't just me I was talking about. It was our baby too. And how was I supposed to let him be a father, when I suspected he was capable of being involved in drugs. When he could be behind the death of a young girl?

  “You have to go,” I told him. “Please. Don't make this any harder than it has to be.”

  “You don't mean that.”

  “I do. I'm sorry but I can't see you again.”

  I could physically see the exact moment his heart began to break as his face fell and his eyes crumpled up.

  “Megan.”

  “Please Jared. Go.”

  He stared into my eyes, pleading with me. Then he slid off the bed and walked away. As soon as the curtain fell behind him, I let the tears fall.

  Jared

  Two Weeks Later

  “What are you doing moping about for?” Jackson asked as we sat in the diner having breakfast. “You're the big hero of the town again. Can't walk two steps down the street without someone wanting to talk about you.”

  “Why would that make me happy?” I said, chewing on my pancakes without tasting them.

  “Because everyone loves you.”

  “Everyone but Megan.”

  He sighed and took a long sip of his coffee.

  “Get her out your head,” he said. “If she's too dumb to not see how amazing you are, then she doesn't deserve you.”

  Tracey was on the other side of the counter dropping coffee beans into the top of the machine.

  “Go easy on him,” she said to Jackson. “He's obviously heartbroken.”

  She gave me a kind look and set down the giant bag of beans.

  “How long's it been since you saw her last?” she asked.

  “Two weeks. Since she told me to leave her at the hospital.”

  “Two weeks is a long time. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try again.”

  “I don't grovel.”

  “I'm not talking about groveling,” Tracey replied. “I'm just saying, the last time you saw her she was recovering from the worst night of her life. I bet she's looking back at things and regretting everything she told you. She just doesn’t know how to take it all back.”

  “You think?”

  “I know.”

  “So what do I do?”

  “You can stop hanging around here moaning into your pancakes for one thing and go down and see her.”

  “What? Like just turn up?”

  “Girls love surprises,” she said. “Just go see her.”

  “If you say so then I guess I can give it a shot.”

  She gave me a wink and I set my knife and fork down.

  “Let me know how it goes!” she called as I walked toward the door.

  Arriving outside her house, I expected to see her moved back in after Billy's death, but as I arrived, I could see right into the living room where all her furniture was gone.

  Walking up to the living room window, I cupped my hands over my eyes and looked inside. There was nothing. Not even a picture on the wall or a stray dog toy lying on the floor.

  “Can I help you?” came a terse, female voice from behind me.

  I turned around to see a real estate agent stepping out of her car and striding up the driveway.

  “You're not here for the viewing, are you? It's not for another hour.”

  “I'm looking for Megan,” I said. “She lives here.”

  “Not anymore,” the woman said, flipping her heavily sprayed hair over her shoulder. “She moved out a few days ago. Just placed the house on the market.”

  “She moved out?”

  “Gone to Denver,” she told me. “Said she was starting a new job there soon.”

  My stomach sank and my body felt like lead.

  “Oh...” was all my brain could muster to say. “Did she say exactly where in Denver she was going?”

  The woman glowered at me suspiciously as though I was some sort of stalker.

  “No, she didn't,” she replied, skirting around me to enter the front door. “All I know is that she moved somewhere close to both her work and a nursery for the little one on the way.”

  I froze, assuming I'd heard wrong.

  “Excuse me, what? A little one?”

  “Yes,” replied the woman. “Now if you don't mind, I have to set this place up for the viewing.”

  And with that, she closed the door and left me out in the snow staring in shock.

  She's pregnant?

  I'm going to be a father?

  Megan

  “How are you liking your new house?” Ruby asked over the phone.

  Since I’d moved, we'd taken to calling each other at the exact same time every night so we could pretend we were hanging out watching TV like we used to.

  “I love it,” I said. “And the dogs love it too. The only thing missing is you.”

  “I'll be there every other weekend,” she insisted. “It's not like I'll never see you again.”

  “It's just so weird not having you around.”

  “I know. I feel like I'm missing a limb without you being here.”

  She fell silent for a second. In the background I could hear her flipping through TV channels.

  “What are you watching tonight?”

  “Urgh, no idea,” she said. “Just trying to find something I've not seen a hundred times already.”

  She continued to flip so it sounded like she was endlessly tuning in and out of radio channels.

  “Fuck!” she suddenly
screamed. “Turn to ADC now!”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  I fumbled for the remote wondering what could have got her so excited.

  “This better be good,” she said. “Because if you're making me tune in to one of your fucked-up horror movies again...”

  “I promise I'm not. Honestly, you need to see this.”

  Finding the remote, I clicked the buttons to find the channel and prepared myself to be totally underwhelmed by her television choices. It was most likely going to be some garbage about the paranormal.

  But as I focused on the face on the screen, I realized there was nothing spooky about what I was seeing.

  “Oh. My. God.”

  “Are you seeing this?” she asked.

  “I don't believe it.”

  A documentary was playing out with a concerned mother sitting in a black studio in front of a blonde reporter with a bad face lift and a serious expression.

  “So, as Senator Ogilvy's wife, you've had to become accustomed to having a certain amount of publicity in your private life,” the reporter said. “But I bet you weren't expecting this painful area of your life to be in the public eye.”

  The camera panned back to the older woman. She was beautiful and mature with a shock of white hair styled into a neat bob. Small, diamond studs adorned her ears and her face, though streaked with tears, was covered in perfectly applied makeup.

  “No,” she replied with a sniff. “When my daughter Marie died, the last thing I wanted was for it to be all over the news. But it was of course.”

  More tears fell and she dabbed at them lightly with a silk handkerchief.

  “Are you able to discuss the manner in which she died?” the reporter asked.

  She nodded solemnly and replied, “Yes. My Marie died of an overdose. At first, she was addicted to the pills the doctor prescribed her after her skiing accident. Then when they stopped working, she looked for stronger drugs. No one could have anticipated the downward spiral she would tumble down. No one.”

  “And your ex-husband, Senator Ogilvy,” the reporter continued. “He took the news badly, didn't he?”