Second Chance Mine, page 20
“Has he been stalking you too?”
“I’m not sure. He knew where I’d be. He was waiting for me in my hotel room. I’m only in Kentucky for a medical conference this week. Has he been stalking you?”
“Yes.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed out, trying to keep up with what I was sharing. “For how long?”
“Over a year.”
“Oh my God…” She peered around as if it held all the answers before asking, “Do the cops know about this?”
“Yeah.”
Without faltering, she added, “And Adrian?”
I nodded again, wanting to give her a quick response.
“Okay…” She paused. “What about Cade?”
“Yes, but only since yesterday morning.”
“And Adrian?”
“Over two months.”
Silence.
Both of us needed time to process.
We stayed quiet, lost in our own thoughts for a minute before she uttered, “Paige…”
“Yeah?” I replied, thinking of a plan.
Everything finally came to a head when she declared, “I think I know who it is.”
Adrian
“Adrian!” Cade shouted, dragging me back to the present. “Answer me! Why did you tell me you didn’t love her?”
“We don’t have time for this.”
“You’re right. We don’t. But don’t think for a damn minute we’re not having this discussion later.”
“Fair enough.”
For the rest of the morning, we tried finding the missing pieces to the puzzle, searching high and low for any sort of clue. We went straight to Paige’s apartment. We rummaged through drawers, cabinets, and shelves, only to come up empty.
I was on the verge of tearing her fucking place apart, trashing it just to see if I could find something, anything.
“Fuck!” I yelled, frustrated we weren’t finding what we needed.
I looked under her bed, dragging all the stuff she hid. It was shoe boxes filled with pictures of our past. Right there in my face. Mocking me.
Some of the images were aged and worn, almost like she held and stared at them for hours on end.
I was holding somany fucking photos in my hands.
I didn’t have to turn around to know Cade was behind me, looking at what I was, from afar.
“You’re in ninety-eight percent of these pictures,” I stated
“Yeah,” was all he responded.
Shaking my head, I felt the pain of our past deep in my chest.
Unable to hold back, I answered his question from earlier, “I told you I didn’t love Paige because—” I gestured to the boxes “—I didn’t want her to lose this.”
“How long did you love her, Adrian?”
I glanced over at him. “Since before you did.”
He shook his head. “How did we let ten years go by and not talk about this?”
I solemnly shook my head, “I don’t know.”
“How did you find her?”
“Fate.”
“Fuck!” he exclaimed. “If you would have just said that to me back then things could have been so different. Neither one of us would’ve lost her, Adrian.”
Hearing my brother admit that was like taking a bullet to my heart.
“Cade—”
My phone dinged with a text message. A photo of the girls lit up the screen.
Followed by an address and message that read…
Just you and your brother. No cops. Or I’ll kill them both.
Thirty-Three
Adrian
What felt like an eternity later, we were walking into a warehouse building, fully strapped. This piece of shit didn’t think we’d come unprotected. He had to be expecting this. Preparing for it.
The number of times I contemplated how this would all end, I never imagined we’d be walking into a fucking warehouse with no control whatsoever. We were walking in blind, ready for battle.
Once we stepped inside the wide-open space, Charlie was standing there waiting for us.
“You motherfucker,” I spewed, unable to hold back.
He shrugged with a grin, aiming his Glock at my head.
“Are you that big of a pussy, you find the need to show me your gun?” I taunted. “What’s wrong, Charlie boy? Can’t take me like a real man?”
Cade exploded, “For fuck’s sake, Adrian! Can you not piss him off when he knows where Hayley and Paige are?”
“At least your brother has some sense.”
“Oh, so you know he’s my brother?” I questioned, needing more answers.
I trusted this son of a bitch.
He was the head of my security.
I couldn’t let this go, I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. What else do you know?”
He deviously smiled. “Everything.”
I tried to govern my breathing as my blood seared, fuming from the inside out with rage. All I wanted to do was knock him the fuck out, but I couldn’t. I had to play nice to see my girl again.
He pulled out a metal detector. “Toss your guns over to me or I use this. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Choice is yours, gentlemen.”
Growling, I grabbed the guns from inside my suit jacket and threw them over to him. Cade did the same.
“It’s showtime!” Charlie hollered.
On cue, the girls stumbled into the warehouse.
I immediately stepped in Paige’s direction, but Charlie threatened from behind me, “Don’t even fucking try it.”
My chest tightened.
I saw nothing but fucking red.
Rip-roaring red.
Paige’s hands were tied behind her back. Blood was dripping down the side of her face from a head wound at her temple. Through the fear in her eyes, I could also see her relief knowing I was there with her, which would be enough to keep me at bay.
“I’m going to make you regret that,” I warned Charlie, backing down for the first time in my life.
He chuckled. “That wasn’t courtesy of me.”
My eyes stayed connected with Paige’s for several seconds. Fuck, it could have been hours. Time just sort of stood still as tears slid down her beautiful face. There was no hiding them from me.
I’d never felt devastation quite like this. It was ripping me apart, crushing my bones, shredding me from the inside out.
One by one.
I was a pile of ash.
It wasn’t until my eyes lifted to the man holding them hostage with a gun in each hand, pointed at their heads that I realized who it was.
“No,” I breathed out. Completely caught off guard.
He seethed, “Surprise, motherfucker!”
“How can this be?”
The amount of agony I felt was almost unbearable. I had no one to blame but myself. It wasn’t only Charlie I allowed into her life. It was her stalker too.
This was on me.
The brutal realization was enough to render me speechless. I felt like a failure. Nothing but a complete and utter fucking failure.
In a daunting tone, I threatened, “Eric, I’m going to kill you for this.”
“What do you mean?” He beamed, looking psychotic. “I did you a favor. Now it’s time to collect.”
From the corner of my eye, Hayley caught my attention.
She asked, “Do you know him too, Adrian?”
“This is like a family reunion!” Eric celebrated, waving his guns around. “Should I introduce everyone? That’s the polite thing to do, right?”
He was truly crazed.
“Let’s start with your pussy ass, little brother who stole Hayley from me, shall we?”
Nothing I’d faced.
Done.
Past or present…
Could have prepared me for what he shouted next.
“She was my girl! My high school sweetheart!”
“Eric, please,” Hayley pleaded.
“Fuck you!” He aimed the gun at her again. “You don’t get to talk anymore! Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this moment?”
“Why, Paige?” I questioned, having to know.
“I mean, Hayley did send me to jail. Right, pumpkin? All I was trying to do was get back into her good graces. I even made friends with her new boyfriend’s brother, doing him a favor at an auction, but that wasn’t good enough, was it, princess?”
“Eric… Please…”
“Why don’t you tell the Drake brothers about how you sent me to jail?”
“That wasn’t me,” she said through a tight jaw. “We weren’t together for years when you got arrested. It was probably one of the other women you stalked.”
“Fuck you! The only reason I stalked other women is because you left me!”
“Eric…you know that’s not true.”
“Hayley,” Cade intervened. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
“I just wanted to leave it in my past. I never thought it would come to this.”
Eric roused, “Why don’t you tell them what happened next, Hayley! Don’t leave them in suspense!”
“He was waiting for me in my hotel room when I landed for the conference. I didn’t realize who it was until he made me film some video of me running through a parking lot.”
“It was staged,” I muttered to myself.
Eric clapped his guns together, bringing our stares back to him.
“We’re going to play a game. Let’s start with how long I’ve been stalking, little Miss Paige, huh?”
Her terrified stare flew to him.
“I got out of a jail two years ago and the entire four years I’m there, I’m wondering where things went wrong. Until finally, one day it all made sense.” He aimed his gun at Paige, and I almost lost my shit.
“It was Paige all along. She was the woman I was meant to be with.”
“And Charlie?” I interrupted, wanting to bring his attention back to me with his gun.
“I mean, Adrian…you have a brother. There isn’t anything you wouldn’t do for him, right? Oh wait.” He paused, aiming the barrel at his mouth. “You fucked his best friend.” He shrugged. “That’s pretty shitty. Good thing my brother Charlie isn’t obsessed with Hayley or Paige.”
I swallowed hard.
My heart was pounding out of my chest.
“So anyway, I was released from prison or whatever and I just wanted to see what Hayley had been up to. When I realized the little whore was married and had kids with your pussy ass little brother, I thought to myself… Maybe I should kill two birds with one stone? If I can’t have his wife, I’ll just take his best friend and you know all about that, Adrian, don't you? But Paige… Look how pretty she is.”
Paige shrieked loudly when he was over to her in one long stride. He roughly placed her in front of him with the gun now pointed at her head.
Cade yelled, “No!” And Hayley broke down into a fit of tears.
Paige shut her eyes, fully aware she couldn’t hide her emotions from me and knowing I needed her to stay strong.
I immediately went into businessman mode. It was how I survived.
“Eric, what do you want that I can make happen?”
His devious glare locked with mine.
“Whatever you want, I have the power to make that happen for you. Money, travel, cars, anything… Just think about all the women you’d have?”
His eyes gleamed. “Is this the part where you tell me that all I have to do is let the girls go?”
Raising my hands in the air, I stepped toward him. “We can go the bank right now. I just have to make one call.”
“You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t what you’re doing?”
Another step in his direction. “I’m just making you a deal you can’t refuse.”
“You think you’re so much smarter than everyone! You weren’t smart enough to figure out it was me this whole time! Everything was going great until you came barging into her life like you own her, when I do!” He licked the side of her face, and she whimpered the entire time.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve fucked my hand watching her shower? I’ve seen her naked more than you have. I was so close to making her fall in love with me and then you had to show up and fuck it up for me!” In a big dramatic movement, he shoved Paige away, and shouted up toward the ceiling, “I’m so fucking tired of the Drake brothers ruining my life and taking my women!”
It was the only opportunity I had to make things right again.
I exploded.
It was loud.
Harsh.
Boom!
I charged Eric, ramming my shoulder as hard as I could into the man I fucking despised. Attacking him with everything I had left in me. The women’s screams echoed off the metal frame as we tumbled to the ground, each of us trying to get the upper hand on the other.
Punched to his ribs.
Fist to his face.
Knee to his balls.
A shot fired in our direction, making my eyes fly across the room.
For a second, I thought it was Paige.
Behind her, Cade was on top of Charlie, trying to get the gun from his hands. Eric used my distraction to his advantage, slamming me onto the floor and getting on top of me.
Another shot was fired in our direction, this time it nicked my right arm.
“Fuck you!” Eric shouted, glaring right at me. “I’ll kill you for this!
“Stop!” Paige begged. “Please, stop!”
The next few seconds played out like a horror movie, becoming my new reality where none of us would ever be the same again.
He drew out his gun and aimed it at my head. Right when he was about to pull the trigger, Paige rammed her shoulder into the side of his body.
“No!” I roared in disbelief as he fell to the ground.
Time once again stood still, or maybe it moved faster, I couldn’t tell anymore. I was there, but I wasn’t.
My eyes watered.
My lips trembled.
My body fucking shook.
I was choking, hyperventilating, drowning deeper in my despair. There was no saving me from myself.
Before his back hit the concrete floor, two shots were fired. One was behind me.
The other was heading towards my Cherry girl.
I’d remember this split second for the rest of my life. I swear it felt like a slow-motion bullet as the sound of gunfire shook off the walls. Eric’s body jolted back from the recoil of the gun he just shot fired off.
I sprang into action, grabbing Paige. I clung to her , tackling her to the ground with my body breaking her fall.
Bang!
Another shot was fired.
At first, I didn’t know what the fuck happened. All that could be heard was the distinct sound of gunpowder exploding in the shell. Another bullet whizzed through the air and popped when it hit its target.
It wasn’t until Eric’s head exploded a few feet away from my face, that I realized Cade just shot him and I could finally rest.
“Help him!” was all I heard next.
Cade was by my side. “Shit! He’s bleeding! I can’t stop the blood!”
Then…
I saw my angel from above.
She held onto my body.
Repeating over and over again, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
It was then, I told her for the first time, “I love you too.”
Before I shut my eyes…
And said goodbye.
Thirty-Four
Paige
Inever imagined the words. “It was a clean shot through his right shoulder,” to be the best ones I’d ever heard.
After I called 911 and told them everything that happened, the warehouse was swarming with cops. Thank God Hayley and Cade could deal with them while I rode in the ambulance with Adrian to the hospital. I hadn’t even had the opportunity to process what the hell just occurred.
All I wanted was for Adrian to be okay.
The hospital stitched him right up. We spent the new few hours debriefing with the police and by the time we walked back into the hotel suite, it was night.
Hayley and Cade were staying in another suite, wanting some privacy, and I didn’t blame them. The good news was that it was over and now we could all hopefully heal from here.
One thing was for sure, Adrian Drake took a bullet for me.
Like where do we go from here?
He was lying on his side of the bed, propped up on a few pillows with his eyes closed. I helped him wash up, except the entire time my mind wouldn’t stop reeling with the possibility of the bullet being a couple of inches to his left. Right over his heart.
I don’t know how long I stood there, fresh out of the shower. I was leaning against the headboard, envisioning a life without him.
“Cherry, I’m fine.”
“How do you know I’m standing here?”
“I can feel you.”
Swoon.
“I can’t believe you took a bullet for me, Adrian.”
His gaze land on me. “Come here.”
“No.”
“Paige, please.”
I deeply sighed. Hearing him beg was always my biggest weakness. “I thought…”
He lifted his good arm, triggering tears to stir in my eyes.
“Come home.”
I struggled to keep my tears at bay.
When he grabbed my waist, pulling me toward him I went willingly, crawling onto his lap. I straddled his thighs, careful not to hurt him.
“I’m sorry, Adrian.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
“Everything. Look at you, you’re hurt because of me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“My Cherry girl is sitting on my cock. It can’t get any better than that.” He teased.
“Adrian…”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I leaned forward, placing my forehead onto his and cried.
For the past.
For the man I lost.
For the love I longed for.
“Shhh…” he lulled, kissing my tears away. “I’d do anything for you. I love you, Paige.”
