“Where are they?” I ask again through my clenched teeth.
“Downstairs, level three.” His voice comes out choked and strained. I release him and he sucks in a sharp breath. “I’ll have you arrested for this. I’ll throw you back in prison where you belong and this time you won’t get out alive.”
“I think you will be busy dealing with other things, Senator. You might want to call your PR person and deal with the press before you make any threats. You’re not the only one who knows people.” He looks at me with wide eyes and I know he is trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth.
“It’s over, I released everything to the press. How you got a stripper pregnant and then screwed her over with your fancy lawyers, how you let one of your own daughters grow up in foster care and then try to hide it from everybody. Your career is over.”
“No… no, you’re lying. No…” He keeps shaking his head as if that would make everything untrue. “I can fix this, everything can be fixed.”
He looks up and I can see his eyes fixating on something behind me. When I turn around to follow his gaze I see two of his security guys heading my way.
“Take care of him, I want him out of my way for good.”
I see the two goons grab for their guns but before they have to opportunity to shoot at me I twist, push the senator out of the way and run down the narrow hallway. Following the signs to the stairs, I take a sharp turn and run down the flight of stairs until I’m at level three. I stop for a moment and listen for anyone following me. When I hear nothing but silence I take my phone out and send Jaxon and Hunter a text.
DOWN THE STAIRS. LEVEL THREE.
There are two long hallways with dozens of doors each. I go down the right hall first, checking every door, rattling every door knob while calling for Josie. I make it halfway down the hall when I hear it… someone banging on a door just a few feet away from me. I run towards the banging sound.
“Josie?”
“Colt!” I try to turn the door knob but it won’t open. Then I see the deadbolt at the top of the door. “Hold on.” I slide the large deadbolt to the side and open the door. Josie comes into view and falls into my arm as soon as the door is open enough for her to get through. She buries her face in my chest and starts sobbing.
“It’s okay… it’s going to be okay Josie.” I hold her close to my body and take in the first full breath since that phone call. When I open my eyes and look over Josie’s head I see Jenna and Eliza staring at us with wary eyes. Judging by their facial expression, she’s already told them about us. They don’t seem too surprised to see me, instead, they’re eyeing us like they’re trying to figure out how this makes sense… how Josie and I make sense.
“Jaxon and Hunter are here too, we just split up so we could find you faster. Come on, let’s find them so we can get out of here.”
The girls hesitate for a moment, looking at me like they are deciding if they can trust me or not. Josie pulls away from me so she can look at them.
“I promise you guys it’s okay. Let’s go home… well, you guys go home, I guess I really don’t have a home right now” At Josie’s words Jenna and Eliza start moving out of the room. I want to tell Josie that she can live with me if she wants. I would love to have her stay with me, but I think discussing this in front of her sister might not be a good choice right now. Instead, I just squeeze her hand hoping that she knows anyway.
We’re starting to head down the same way I came from when a loud dinging sound echoes through the hallway. We all turn around to look at elevator doors opening at the very end of the hall.
Everything happens in slow motion. The doors sliding open, two guys in suits stepping out and spotting us in the next instant. Both of them already have their guns in their hands which are raised and pointed at us the next moment.
All the girls are standing still like deer caught in headlights.
“Move!” I yell and push Josie and Jenna back in the room. Eliza is standing out of my reach but she isn’t moving. The men start shooting, bullets whizzing by us. Jenna and Josie start screaming at Eliza but she is frozen in fear.
I close the distance between us with two long strides and grab her. Picking her up, I turn her so my body is between her and the idiots shooting at us. We almost make it to the room when I feel something hitting my leg and burning through my skin. My legs give out underneath me right away. Somehow I manage to push Eliza into the room before falling forward onto my knees and then down to my arms. I flatten myself out on the floor to make it harder for them to shoot me again.
Josie screaming my name, but her voice goes almost unnoticed with all the gunshots. I gaze up and see her reaching for me. She is trying to come out in the hallway but Jenna is holding her back. Eliza is on the floor looking at me in complete shock and I’m still in the hallway exposed to the shooting.
Suddenly I notice that the shooting has stopped and is replaced with a smashing sound. I look don’t the hallway to find Jaxon and Hunter fighting the two security guys. Jaxon is smashing the one guy’s head against the wall. Hunter being injured still has trouble fighting, but he is able to keep him busy long enough for Jaxon to knock his guy out. As soon as he does, Jaxon grabs the other guy by the shirt and starts to starts to pound on his face before he has a chance to resist
Hunter collects the guns from the floor and starts running toward me. I look over for the girls and motion them to come out. Jenna sticks her head out first, but when she sees Hunter she starts running out to him.
Josie is on her knees next to me a few seconds later. “Are you okay?” Her bottom lip is trembling and her shaking hands are gently touching my arm and my shoulder. A small smile tugs on my lips while having a deja vu from the first night we’d met. I try to get up, but my leg hurts like it’s about to fall off.
Instead, I roll over into a sitting position and look down at my wound. Blood is already soaking through my pants but it doesn’t look bad enough for it to be an artery.
“I’ll be fine.” I take Josie’s hand and bring it to my lips, kissing her knuckles. “We’ll all be fine.”
I notice someone coming up beside me and glance up. Jaxon already has Eliza in his arms.
“Can you walk?” Hunter appears on the other side of me.
I try to get up again, pain shooting through my leg. Josie is trying to help me but she’s not strong enough to hold up my body weight. I’m about to let myself sink back down to the floor when I feel Hunter and Jaxon come up on either side of me to grab my arms and help me up.
They brace me while we walk up the stairs with the girls following closely behind us. Just when we get back up on the deck, we hear police sirens approaching.
“I wonder how my father is going to spin this story?” Josie asks.
“I think the times of him spinning stories are over. I released everything I had on him to the press before we came here.” All eyes are on me.
“You did?” Jenna asks me looking directly at me.
“Yeah, there is no going back now. Everybody is going to know what he did. He will lose a lot of pull but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be connected anymore. We still need to be careful. He might still come after you two.”
The police and an ambulance pull up to the dock and the guys sit me down on the deck leaning against a wall.
“We’ll go talk to the police and send the EMT’s up here,” Jaxon tells me and I nod. Everybody starts walking off except Josie.
“I’m staying with him.” She sits down next to me taking my hand. I fully expect Jenna to make a scene and drag her sister away from me but she makes no move to do so. Instead, she just says, “Okay, I’ll see you at the hospital.”
I watch them all walk off wondering if there is actually a chance that they’re actually okay with me and Josie being together. Josie interrupts my thought by cuddling up to my side. “I’m kind of homeless now, you okay with dating someone homeless.”
“I’m not actually. You’ll have to move in wit
h me for this to work out.” I wrap my arm around her and kiss the top of her head.
“I love you… I don’t know how and when it happened but I really love you and all I care about is that we’re together and you better be serious about me moving in, cause that’s happening.”
“I love you too and yes I’m serious I want you with me always.”
Epilogue
Josephine
It’s been six weeks since my father tried to ship us off to France, though it feels like it’s been years. In the last few weeks, my life has changed so completely that I hardly recognize it as my own. I still haven’t gotten used to being able to make my own decisions, wear whatever I like, do what I feel like, and see who I want and when I want.
I haven’t gone back to the house I grew up in. I don’t speak to my parents and nor do I want to. I can never forget what they’ve done to us. Luckily they have not tried to contact me either.
I was able to get a scholarship to the same college Jenna is going to. It’s the school closest to where they live and Colt agreed to move back here with me.
“Is this the last box?” I ask when Colt comes back in from the truck closing the door behind him.
“Yup, that’s it. We’re officially all moved in… well after we unpack everything I guess. Let’s work on that tomorrow though. I want to show you something. Put your shoes on,” he orders with a big smile plastered on his face.
“Okaaaay.” I do as he asks and slip my shoes on my feet. Colt holds the door open for me and we walk outside together.
We get in his car and he starts driving through town. Curiosity gets the better of me and I have to ask, “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise. We’re almost there.”
We drive a few more minutes before Colt stops the car in front of an old building. “This is it.”
I look up at the plain old building that looks like it has been abandoned for a while. I must be missing something here. “So… what exactly am I looking at?”
“It’s an old gym. Come on, I’ll show you the inside.” We get out of the car and walk up to the large metal door in the front of the building. Colt pulls a key from his pocket and unlocks the door with a grin on his face.
We step into the large room, dust flying around us as if no-one has been in here for a while.
The first thing I notice is a boxing ring in the center. Mats are covering most of the floor around it, Punching bags are strung up on one side and on the other side weight benches and free weights are set up.
“I bought it,” Colt announces.
“You did?”
“Yes, I thought about what you said, about how Sarah changed her life to help people. I bought this to offer classes to at-risk kids. I can give them a place to deal with their anger. Teach them how to manage it the right way. Maybe teach self-defense…” He trailed off and shrugs. “I haven't made a solid plan yet but I’m working on it. Jaxon and Hunter said they would come to help me fix it up.”
“Colt, this is amazing!” I know that he’s been missing his friends like crazy. Nothing between Colt, Jaxon, and Hunter will ever be the same but I think they are working on building a new relationship… a better healthier version.
“Maybe I can work here too. You probably need a receptionist.”
“I told you, you don’t need to work. Concentrate on your school. Don’t worry about money.”
I know Colt is being nice taking care of me and I really appreciate it but I do feel a little bad about not contributing anything financially. “I just…”
Colt holds up his hand to stop me from talking. “Please let me take care of you…” he pauses for a moment before continuing. “Would it make you feel better if we were married?”
I freeze, blinking my eyes a few times I look up at him half expecting him to add “just kidding”. But he just looks at me like he is waiting for an answer.
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
“Kind of,” he smirks. He digs for something in his pocket and pulls out a little black box. “You want me to get on one knee?”
“No,” I giggle and shake my head.
“No you don’t want to marry me or no you don’t want me to get on one knee?”
“No, I don’t want you to get on your knee, and yes I’ll marry you.” I barely get the words out before Colt’s lips are on mine and his hands are on my hips pulling me close.
When he finally releases me I’m out of breath and light headed. I take the box from him and open it to look inside. I need to make sure that there is actually a ring in there and this isn’t a joke.
“It’s beautiful.” I take out this silver diamond ring and slide it on my ring finger. It fits perfectly. “Did you measure my finger while I was asleep?”
“No, Jenna helped me pick it out.”
“She did?” Jenna has been okay with me dating Colt but that’s been the extent of it. This gives me hope that at some point Jenna will be able to forgive Colt and we can all be a family together.
I wrap my arms around Colt and bury my face in his chest. “I love you and I can’t wait to get married.”
“I love you too.”
We might not have met under normal circumstances, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a normal life together and I will enjoy every minute of it.
The End
Also by Cassandra Hallman
The Pushed Aside Series
The Quiet game
The Things We Hide
The Lies We Tell
Bayshore University
(cowritten by J.L. Beck)
When Rivals Fall
When Rivals Lose
When Rivals Love
A North Woods University
(cowritten by J.L. Beck)
The Bet
The Dare
The Secret
The Vow
About the Authors
Cassandra Hallman is one part of the international bestselling author duo Beck & Hallman
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Jenna Reed
Bestselling Author Duo J.L. Beck & C. Hallman
A Friends to Lovers Romance
Everyone knows the rules of friendship, right?
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Bailey Renshaw is my best friend.
Kind. Sweet as a peach, and so beautiful it should be a crime.
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That night she broke me, ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. Anyone else would’ve hated her for it, but it only made me value her more, and realize that I would do anything I could to keep her in my life even if it was only as a friend and nothing more.
As a permanent resident of the friend zone, I promised myself that I would never cross that line again no matter how badly I wanted to, and I wanted to, badly.
Every time she smiled at me, licked her pink lips, or flashed her doe eyes my way I came a little closer to breaking the rules again… but I didn’t. I couldn’t do that to us. Until one night when we decided to break the rules together.
One Earth shattering night together and I knew nothing would ever be the same.
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The Lies We Tell: An Enemy to Lovers Young Adult Romance (Pushed Aside Book 3) Page 12