by DL Gallie
“He’s looking for Charli ‘cause he obviously did something stupid again,” she says, taking a sip of the coffee she stole and from her sass and snark just now, I hope she burns her tongue, or chokes, or both. “He’s going all out with coffee and I presume cheeseburgers, since we have coffee from McDonald’s.”
“I haven’t done anything but after yesterday, she said she needed space so I presumed she was here with you.”
“What happened yesterday?” Baylor and Corey ask in unison.
“She was fired. Dean and Darren planted fake evidence.”
“That dude seriously needs to be dick punched,” Baylor says, “But she’s not here. Did you try her place?”
I nod and the sinking feeling that woke me earlier comes back with a vengeance. “Well, if she’s not here, where is she?” I ask them, but they both shrug.
Without saying anything, I turn around and stalk to my car and head into the office, that’s the only other place I think she’d be. Since it's early, traffic is light and I arrive quickly. Looking around the parking garage, I don’t see her car. Picking up the coffee and burgers, I head up to our floor. It’s empty when I step out of the elevator; this place is eerie when no one’s here. I walk over to Charli’s office but when I push the door open, a brown packing box sits on her desk. My heart hurts when I see that, but it doesn’t last long because I know today we will have the evidence in hand to prove Charli is innocent and then she can get back to work.
Dejectedly, I walk to my office. Grabbing my phone, I pull up Charli’s number and I hit dial. Once again it rings out. Throwing my phone onto my desk with more force than I intended, it slides across the top and bounces onto the floor. “What did that phone ever do to you?” Bec asks as she bends down, picks it up, and hands it back to me.
“Charli is missing.”
“What?”
“She left here yesterday and now I can’t find her.”
“You don't think Dean and Darren did something? I know the girlfriend confessed to all last night, but can we really trust what she’s saying?” I shrug. “I think you need to go pay Dean a visit.”
Nodding, I grab my keys and head toward the elevator. The car arrives and I step in, Bec and Amanda follow. “We’re coming too,” Amanda says. “I heard what you told Bec. It's not like Charli to disappear like this and Bec is right, until Dean confirms what Lana said, we have to presume it was all ruse to throw us off track.”
Silently we exit the elevator. We walk over to my car and climb in. Twelve minutes later, we arrive at the prison. I may have broken a few road rules to get here, but Charli is totally worth the fines. It’s still early and the guards are less than impressed with our surprise morning visit, but fuck them, my girl is missing.
After what feels like an eternity, Dean is escorted into the interrogation room. “Good morning,” he cheerily says, his demeanor of nonchalance pissing me off.
I snap. “Where is she?” I snarl. Grabbing him by the collar, I throw him up again the wall and press my forearm across his chest. I stare into his eyes waiting for him to answer.
“Where’s who?” he asks.
“Charli, where the fuck is she?”
He shrugs. “Beats me, you should keep better track of your baby momma.”
Pulling my fist back, I slam it into his face. A loud crunch echoes through the room and blood sprays all over me. “Fuck, my nose,” he cries.
“Cruz,” Amanda warns, “step back from the asshole. If you beat him to a pulp we won’t be able to find Charli.” She turns her attention to Dean. “Take a seat, Chikatilo, you and I need to have a chat and you will not lie or deceive me. Understood?”
“Yes, Boss Lady,” he says, as he shoves past me and takes a seat across from Amanda.
“Call me that again and I will let him,” she flicks a finger toward me, “have at you again. Now, your little girlfriend paid us a visit last night. Is everything she said true?”
He nods. “Yes, it's all true.”
“Why should we believe you? You’ve had months to confess.”
“Desperate times. Desperate measures.”
“You were so desperate that you threw your partner of four years under the bus and then blackmailed the IA agent investigating your mess?”
“Desper—”
“No,” Amanda emphasizes, “that’s a cop-out and you know it. Charli is one of the best agents we’ve ever had, as were you. She was your friend and of all people you know, she doesn’t deserve this. Now, where is she?”
“I don’t know where she is, honestly,” he tells Amanda, and from the tone and sincerity in his voice, I think he’s telling the truth. “But I’ll go out on a limb here and say that Darren has her. He called me yesterday and threatened he was going after her. I told him to hold off, hoping that Lana would confess all to you then she and Charli would be safe, but seems my dear old brother decided to go against my wishes.”
“Where would he take her?” Bec asks. I completely forgot that she came with us.
Dean shrugs. “I don’t know. You could try his place but I don’t think he’d be stupid enough to go there.”
“Fuck,” I growl, raking my hands though my hair when it hits me. “Her phone.”
“What about it?” Amanda asks.
“Charli texted me which means it's still on and it rang out to voicemail earlier this morning, we can get IT to trace it.”
Before anyone can argue or agree, I turn on my heel and race out of the room, heading back to my car. Pulling my phone out while I wait for the elevator down, I dial Kat, our tech guru. “What up, Cruz?” she answers on the first ring.
“I need you to trace a cell ASAP.”
“I love when you go all super secure agent suave on me, what’s the number?”
“It’s Charli,” I say.
“Baby momma Charli?”
“Yep,” I reply, letting the ‘P’ pop.
“Okay, leave it with me and I’ll send you the coordinates of the last location as soon as I have them,” she tells me.
“You’re a rock star,” I tell her.
“I know, find our baby momma and let me know if I can do anything else to help.”
“Roger that,” I tell her and disconnect the call. I climb into the driver’s seat and I look over to see Amanda and Bec racing toward my car. Amanda opens the passenger door, just as my phone pings with a text from Kat. “I’ve got her location.”
“Give it to me and I’ll call for backup,” Amanda says, as she takes her seat and the phone from me, she gets to arranging backup. Glancing in the rearview mirror as I back out of my spot, I see that Bec has her phone to her ear, no doubt arranging medical for my girl.
Pressing my foot down, I haul ass out of the parking lot and head to the location that Kat sent me a few moments ago. Pulling into the morning gridlock, I slam the steering wheel in frustration. “Fucking traffic,” I growl. Gripping the wheel tightly in my hands, I whisper, “I’m coming, Angel. Just hang on a little longer.”
36
Charli
Tears pour down my face as I lie here trapped. The pain in my abdomen isn’t as bad as it was earlier but it’s still there. Every time I look down, I see all the blood that I’ve lost and more tears fall. There’s so much blood. I’m sure there’s no way that munchkin could have survived. She’s a fighter but I don’t think she will survive this, because I don’t think I will. I’m going to die here trapped. Alone. And pinned under a chair.
As I lie here, a vision of Nic appears before me and I realize that he’s my everything. I hope he lives a full and happy life without me and munchkin. Nic will never know how much I’ve truly fallen for him. I fell so hard for that man, he came into my life when I didn’t even know I needed him. “I love you, Nic,” I whisper, as a guttural sob breaks free at the thought of never seeing him again. I cup my belly with my free arm and I cry.
My self-pity moment is interrupted when I hear a commotion upstairs, followed by a lone gunshot.
&n
bsp; My eyes widen.
Fear builds within.
I hold my breath waiting.
I’m frozen and then I hear, “Charli, Angel, where are you?”
“Nic,” I whisper. “Nic,” I shout a little louder but I’m so choked up with emotion that I can hardly speak. “Down here,” I yell, but I don’t think anyone can hear me. With all my might, I scream like I’ve never screamed before. “Niiiiiiiiiic!”
“I’m coming, Angel,” he yells, and then the door above slams opens. Footsteps pound down the stairs; I can’t see who it is but I know it’s him, “Charli,” he yells, “I’m here.” He flies down the stairs and his eyes widen when he sees the blood and me trapped.
Sobs wrack through my body when my brain registers that he is here. He’s really here. “You’re here,” I whisper, as he drops to his knees and stares down at me.
“Nic, help me. I’m…I…I think I lost the baby,” I cry.
“Shhhh,” he coos, as he brushes a tendril of hair off my face, “I’m here, Angel.” He cups my face and looks lovingly at me. “I’m here,” he repeats, his voice instantly soothing me.
“I’m gonna get you out of here,” he says, “I’ve got you.”
Leaning over me, he reaches behind me and unties my trapped arm. I collapse to the floor, wincing in pain when my shoulder connects with the cold cement. It was only a few inches but after being pinned in this position for a few hours, it felt like I fell off a cliff edge.
Rolling to my back, I take a deep breath at finally being free, but it doesn’t ease any of the pain coursing through me right now. The room above me starts to spin. My vision blurs and everything around me becomes muffled. Nic is hovering above me, I can see his lips moving but I can’t hear anything he’s saying. All I can hear is a loud whooshing noise echoing in my head.
The last thing I see is Nic’s gorgeous brown eyes staring at me before the darkness engulfs me.
When I open my eyes again, a bright light shining above causes me to close them quickly and groan.
From my side, Nic says, “Angel,” and he squeezes my hand.
Turning my head toward the voice, I carefully open my eyes. “It’s so bright,” I whisper. He stands up and reaches over me. The sounds of a switch flicking vibrates through my head but the overhead lights turn off, leaving only a yellow glow from the wall behind me.
He sits back down and grips my hand and with the other, he runs his fingertips up and down my cheek. “Hi, Angel.”
“Hi,” I croak out. “Where am I?” I ask, everything is fuzzy and I can’t remember why I’m here.
“You’re in the hospital,” he says. “Darren had you.”
When he mentions Darren’s name, my eyes widen and it all come crashing back to me. I pull my hand free from his and drop it to my stomach. I still have a slight pooch, “Munchkin?” I ask.
He stares at me, not saying a word, his silence is unnerving and then he smiles. “She’s fine.”
“Really?” My eyes widen at his words. He nods at me, “Really, really? Carter is okay?”
“Ohh, I love that name,” a voice says from behind me. Turning my head, I see a group of people standing huddled together. My gaze flits over the group and then I realize my mom and dad are here. And so are Mr. and Mrs. Cruz, Abi, and Elena. I recognize them from photos Nic has around his place and Elena from my visit here when I was shopping with Bay.
“You’re here?” I say, my eyes locked on Mom’s.
“Of course,” she says, pushing past Dad and walking over to me. “As soon as we got the call from Dominic, Dad and I jumped in the car and drove straight here.” My eyes well with tears, Mom and Dad are here. Munchkin is fine and I’m safe.
I go to move my hand toward her to squeeze it but I wince in pain. Looking down I see my arm is in a sling and then I remember I was pinned. Turning my head back to Nic, I ask him the one question I’m not sure I want the answer to, “Where’s Darren?”
“He’s dead. Amanda shot him when we found you. He pulled a gun on us, she didn’t hesitate and pulled the trigger.”
“And Dean?” He doesn’t get a chance to answer because the door to my room opens and Dr. Flynn Kelly walks in.
“Charli, you’re awake,” he says, as he walks to the end of my bed. He picks up my chart and looks over it. Lifting his gaze back to mine, he smiles. He really is good-looking, add in that sexy as hell accent and I can see why Avery fell for the dashing doctor.
He looks over to my family. “Can I ask you all to step out for a moment?”
They all nod and a chorus of “Glad you're okay,” “We’ll be back,” and “I need coffee,” can be heard as they all shuffle out. Nic stands too, bends down and kisses my forehead. “I’ll be just outside.”
Squeezing his hand, I shake my head. “Please stay.”
He looks to Flynn and he nods. “That’s fine by me.”
The door closes behind our family and Flynn steps around to where Mom was standing. “How are you feeling, Charli?”
“Wiped,” I tell him.
“That’s to be expected. You have a dislocated shoulder and you suffered a placental abruption.”
“What’s that?” I ask, he’s speaking English, I think, but I have no clue as to what a pla-thingy abruption is.
“A placental abruption is when the placenta partly or completely separates from the inner wall of the uterus. It occurs in one percent of pregnancies. It can occur at any time after twenty weeks. It's most common in the third trimester but I’d say the trauma of the last few days is the contributing factor to this happening to you now at just shy of twenty weeks.”
“What does that mean for munchkin?”
“We will keep you in for the next few days so we can monitor you, since you are still bleeding quite heavily. You’ve already had one transfusion but at this stage, everything with the baby seems fine. Her heartbeat is strong and she’s still wriggling around in there.”
“What happens if I don’t stop bleeding?”
“You’ll need to discuss those plans with your OB, but from what I remember from my stint in maternity, we would get you past the thirty-four-week mark and then you’d have an emergency C-section to deliver the baby. You’d be administered medication needed to help your baby's lungs mature and to protect the baby's brain due to the early delivery. I’ve spoken with your OB and updated her of what recently transpired. I’ll inform her that you’re awake and she’ll stop by to discuss the rest of your pregnancy.”
“But right now, the baby is fine?” I question him, my hand hasn’t left my stomach since he started talking.
“Baby is strong. She’s a fighter, like her mom.” He points to my shoulder. “We’ve popped your shoulder back in and you’ll need the sling for a few days, but you will make a full recovery from that injury.”
“Thanks, Dr. Kelly,” I tell him, relieved that munchkin and I are okay.
“Please call me, Flynn.”
Before we can discuss anything else, the door to my room swings open and Baylor barges in, Corey is close behind her. “Don’t do that again, lady. I’ve been worried sick about you and BJ,” she says, hugging me tightly. I wince from the pain in my shoulders but I can’t really do much so I one-arm hug her back.
“Who’s BJ?” Nic ask.
Bay turns to face him. She points at my stomach. “Baylor Junior,” she says in a ‘duh’ tone of voice.
“We are not calling our baby BJ,” Nic tells her.
“Well, what are you calling her then?” Baylor huffs, clearly annoyed we won’t name our baby after her.
“Carter,” Nic and I say in unison.
“I don’t hate that,” Bay tells us, “therefore I will allow it.”
“Don’t think you really have a choice, Kitten,” Corey says, pulling Baylor into his chest. He whispers something into her ear and from the pink tinge that fills her cheeks and neck; I’m guessing it was something dirty.
“Glad you’re okay,” Bay says. Grabbing Corey’s hand, she pulls h
im to the door, yes, he whispered something dirty to her. “I’ll be back tomorrow with a billion cheeseburgers.”
Before I can say anything, she and Corey are gone. If this was a cartoon, there’d be a Baylor and Corey shaped hole in the door to my hospital room.
“She really is something,” Nic says to me.
Nodding my head I laugh. “You have no idea but she’s my someone.” Looking at him, I pat the mattress beside me. “But you’re my number one so come snuggle with me.”
“You sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m sure.” I shuffle over and try hide the discomfort on my face but I don’t do a very good job. “I’ll be fine, Nic. I need you to hold me.”
“Well, when you put it like that, how can I resist?” He looks to Dr. Kelly. “Can I?”
“That’s fine. I’ll leave you for now but page me if you anything changes or if you have any questions.”
Dr. Kelly turns and leaves my room and Nic climbs onto the bed. Carefully we maneuver ourselves so I’m snuggled into his side without injuring my shoulder, or Carter.
“You really sure we want to call her Carter?” I ask him.
“Yep, Carter Davis is a badass name.”
“You mean, Carter Cruz is a badass name,” I tell him. I press a kiss to his chest. “One day we will all be Cruzes,” I say. My eyes become heavy and I drift off to sleep in Nic’s arms. Our baby is safe and everything is right in the world again.
37
Dominic
After her ordeal with Darren, Charli spent two weeks in hospital. The bleeding from the placental abruption stopped after ten days and our doctor agreed that if Charli promised to stay off her feet, she’d be allowed to go home for the rest of the pregnancy, as long as no other complications arise. And by home, I mean my place. I managed to convince Charli to move in with me…
…We’re lying together in Charli’s tiny hospital bed, My Angel is asleep and wrapped around me like a monkey. Even though I’m uncomfortable, I wouldn’t be anywhere else in this world. It’s been ten sleepless nights but knowing that Charli and Carter are safe, I don’t care that I’ll need to see a chiropractor for the rest of my life. Their safety and happiness is all that matters to me.