Nickolas-1 (18 page)

“Grant.”

Nick watched as he pulled out an electronic planner and started making notes with a stylist. Every once in a while, he would say something Nick couldn’t understand and make more notes. “Yeah, he’s here. Yeah, I’ll bring him with me.”

Morgan. Something to do with Morgan. He would bet his last commission check on it.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave. Hummm, Damon, I need you to come too. There’s a problem and you’re needed as well. Shannon said to tell you to turn your flippin’ phone on.”

“Shit. I forgot. What is it?” He pulled out his phone and because Nick was sitting next to him, could see that he had twenty-three missed calls.

“Morgan’s just confessed to the murder of Alex Denty. They want to transfer her downtown for questioning. Libby Sugar can’t represent her because of a prior commit with Denty’s family. So she’s asked me to step in. I’ll meet you all back in my office first thing in the morning.” As one, his family stood up and began pulling on jackets and picking up stray items off the table. Jacob began pulling on Meggie’s sweater and picking up her crayons.

“I’m going with you,” Nick told his brother.

“Well, of course she didn’t,” Margaret told the room in general. “She’s just confused. We’re all going to support her. Come along, we have to hurry. No telling what that child will tell them next.” He had to grin at his mother. She’d said just what he was thinking.

Morgan was trying to keep her breathing under control, but wasn’t having much luck. She’d do okay for a few minutes then look down at the handcuffs on her wrist that were attached to the bed rail and she’d panic.
Okay
, she thought,
I
can do this
. But in reality, she knew she couldn’t.

“Look at me. Breathe in and out and look at me.” Nick’s voice, so unexpected, had her turning toward him.

“What are you doing here? Go away. And I know how to breathe, you moronic jackass.” When she started to look down at the cuffs again, he put his finger under her chin so that she could see only him.

“Morgan, have you always been this stubborn, or is it just me? I swear, I’ve never met a woman more frustrating in my life.”

“It’s you. And you are the king of frustration. Now, get out. You don’t want to sully yourself with me, remember? You know, for someone who doesn’t want anything to do with me, you sure insinuate yourself into my business a lot.
Get
out
!”

“Shut up and breathe before you pass out. What do you think you’re doing confessing to a murder without your lawyer present? Do you want to end up back in prison, for a lot longer this time?”

She jerked her chin away from him and looked across the room. That’s exactly what she was trying to do, actually. “You got your test, Dr. Grant, so now I would appreciate you leaving me alone. I don’t want nor do—”

“Did you know that my brothers are planning to propose to you tomorrow?

Yeah, Damon, Byron, and Spence. Meggie apparently approves of her daddy marrying you,” he said with a smirk on his face.

Marriage? He had to be lying to her. Why would any of them want to...ah, the baby. They thought they’d ask her before the results were in so that when they found out it was a Grant, it could be kept in the family. For some reason, that hurt more than any of the physical pain she endured the past couple of days.

“I want you to leave me alone. I have a really nice family willing to take it as soon as it’s delivered. I don’t want anything from any of you. Especially you.

Now, I’m not asking you again to get out.”

The door opened then and the Devin Grant walked in, also the detectives from earlier tonight.

“Hello, Ms. Becky. Sir, we need for you to step out, please. We need to ask Ms. Becky some questions. You can wait in the hall.” Detective Carol nodded to the door.

“No, I don’t think so. I’m staying right here with her. And I’d like for you to take those cuffs off her. She is extremely upset with them there, and in her condition, I don’t think she needs any extra stress right now.” Nick crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrow to nearly his hairline.

That look was very familiar to her. He’d used it often enough when she didn’t hop when he told her to. She watched in stunned silence as the big detective reached in his pocket, pulled out the key, and unlocked her cuffs. She took a much needed breath and glanced at Nick. He looked furious.

“Morgan, these men said that you confessed to the murder of Alex Denty.

Could you please tell them how you killed him? It’s important that you give them as much detail as possible.”

Morgan looked at Devin and realized the gig was up. He knew she didn’t do it.

“Ms. Becky, we found some of your, hummm...some of your personal items at his house. There were several pair of your panties and a book,” Detective Brownville said.

The detective had been so gentle with her earlier that she had broken down in tears when he told her he didn’t believe her capable of killing a man Denty’s size. He’d patted her hand and said the stupidest things to her while she sobbed.

“How do you know they were her panties? They could have been anyone’s.

And as for the book? Why, I probably have several hundred in my apartment right now,” Nick said heatedly.

“They had her name in them and an ID number. They’d been scorched, the panties anyway. The book had been mutilated, but still readable.”

“They were white?” At his nod, she continued. She knew where he’d gotten them. “I’d only been out of prison for a few days when my things were torched at the halfway house on Brendan. I think the police were called during an altercation. I was taken to the hospital with Dr. Grant. My things... I’d had a fight with one of the people there and she, Big Martha, claimed she was going to get me and got to my things first. I was approached by Denty in the hallway here.

He...he told me that he’d like to...he wanted me to perform oral sex on him. I refused. He...he grabbed me when I came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and hit me. I must have fallen or something. The next time I woke up, I was being treated for injuries I didn’t have before.” She looked down at her hands.

There were bruises forming on her wrist from her fighting with the cuffs.

“You and Dr. Grant, you were seeing each other? That why he came to the...” the detective started.

“I’m not seeing Dr. Grant. None of the Grants. I...I don’t know why he was there at the halfway house. Stupid schmuck almost got himself seriously hurt. It ended up that he...he, ah, got in the way of my foot and I took him down. He was waiting for me to come out and talk with him when Big Martha attacked him,” she said hastily.

“I see. Then what happened? Why did you kill him? I understand that he accosting you in the ER was bad, but why did you wait five months to murder him?” Detective Brownville asked.

She didn’t look at anyone in the room for several long, tense seconds. For as much as she wanted to be guilty of this, she knew she couldn’t lie.

“On Saturday evening, I was leaving my place to deliver some work site proofs to another client. I do web site creations for clients who want to expand their...never mind. Denty was waiting outside the building behind Mick’s. I...he was in his cruiser, just sitting there. Him and another man I didn’t know. I’d like for Dr. and Mr. Grant to leave, please. I don’t think... They don’t need to know what I did.” She had been stupid when she hadn’t reported him the first time she’d been attacked.

“We aren’t going anywhere, Morgan. Finish the story. What happened next?” Nick sat down on her bed as he talked to her and took her hand in his. She looked down at them and didn’t look up as she spoke.

“He and the man got out of the cruiser and approached me. I didn’t say anything to either of them, but tried to go on my way. I don’t move as well as I did before and Denty trapped me hard against the wall. He...please go away,” she begged Nick softly.

“Go on, Morgan. He what?” Nick said.

“He groped me and pinched my breasts. I’ve learned not to fight him. It just seems to...to excite him more.” She looked up at Nickolas to see how appalled he was at her behavior. She looked away quickly at the anger she saw there.
Well,
why wouldn’t he be?
she thought. She wasn’t anything more than a slut to him.

“He told me that he was going to make me take him in my mouth that I was going to give him the best blow job I had ever given. The other man came up behind him and started to grope Denty from behind. When Denty switched me around so that the other man could come up behind me, I slammed my knee hard up into Denty’s groin. When he doubled over, I grabbed his gun out of his belt and jerked away from both men.”

Morgan lay back against the pillows behind her and looked at the couch again, seeing nothing but the scene reenact itself in her vision.

“Denty smelled of beer and sweat; the other man smelled of cigarettes and bourbon. I screamed at them to stay away, but as I took a step back to get away, I stumbled and nearly fell. The gun dropped from my hand and they attacked as one. I don’t know how long they beat on me. I just curled myself into a ball to protect my belly. When I woke up, it was dark. Someone came along not too much longer. The rest you know.”

Morgan pulled the sheet up over her shoulders and never looked up. She waited for them to say something, anything.

“Can you describe the man? I can have a sketch artist come in and have you work with him,” Detective Brownville said gently.

“Would you like his picture? I took it with the cell phone that fell out of his pocket. I just kept pushing the little silver button on it. They didn’t know I had it or I’m sure they would have taken it. I had it hidden and took them while I was on the ground. I don’t know if they’re any good. I don’t... I’ve never had one before, so it could be for nothing.” No one said anything so she turned around and looked at Devin and the other two men. They were all staring at each other oddly. “Or not. I don’t care if you take them or not. Besides, I’m sure the battery is dead by now.”

“Where is it? The phone, where is it?” Detective Carol snapped at her. She flushed with embarrassment.

“Look, detective, she’s cooperating. The least you can do is be polite. In fact, I demand that you be polite, or I pull the plug right now, and see where that gets you,” Devin told the man.

“Are you threatening me? Because I don’t take well to being threatened by anyone. Especially a two-bit lawyer that is—” Morgan limped between the two arguing men and went to the little cabinet that held personal things for patients. She dug around until she found her pink bag and hauled it back to the bed. When Nick started to protest about something, she just glared at him and continued her search.

“Ms. Becky, please just tell me where it’s at in there and I’ll get it out.We would like to keep the fingerprints down to a minimum, all right? I have an evidence bag here that I’ll put it in.”
Oh
, she thought as Detective Brownville explained what he needed.
Of course, fingerprints.

Morgan stepped back from her bag when she’d located the phone and let him retrieve it for himself. She could see her blood on it, along the front of the screen and on the silver button too.

“I didn’t think to turn it off. To be honest, I never thought about it again until just now.”

“You want to tell me now why you claimed you killed Denty, Ms. Becky?” Detective Brownville asked her while he sealed the little baggie. He was writing on it while she gathered up her things and her answer. No one was going to like what she said, she thought, and just blurted it out.

“I’d like to go back to prison as soon as this is born. I liked it there. I didn’t...

I fit in; it was safe and uncomplicated.”

“You can’t be serious. You
want
to go back to prison? Who in their right mind... You are certifiable, did you know that?” Nick could not believe anyone would want to go back to prison.

“I am not certifiable, you arrogant ass. I’m a realist. I can’t live here. I don’t understand people. I can’t even raise a... I want you to get out of my room. I’ve had enough of you today.” He watched as she struggled to get up on her knees and move toward him on the bed.

“I’m not going anywhere until we get this resolved. You are
not
going back to prison. Final.”

Morgan was close enough now that he could see her eyes. They were darker because of her anger. They sparkled with fire and emotion. He suddenly had an overwhelming need to kiss her. To pull her mouth to his and take, to taste her again. He suddenly stepped back from her and she stumbled forward. He had to steady her, or she would have fallen off the bed and onto the floor.

Nick didn’t want to get involved with her. Not now, not ever. She could be carrying anyone’s child. Even his, but he didn’t... He couldn’t deal with that right now.

“I have to go. I have to be...I have to go.” Nick was stammering and stumbling as he made his way to the door. He didn’t even turn around and look at his brother as he made his way out. He’d almost kissed her.

After he left her room, he wandered around until he ended up leaving the building and along Maple Avenue toward the mall. Nothing was open this early in the morning, but he moved along the sidewalks just thinking. He turned to back to the hospital after a few miles of wandering aimlessly.

What if she was carrying his child? Then what? Should he marry her, give in to her tricks? They didn’t seem to even like each other most of the time, so he wasn’t sure how that would work. Of course, that could be a part of her plan too.

Marry then file for divorce, taking him to the cleaners. And what about his brothers and their proposals? Would she accept one of them over him? But he didn’t think they were tricks. The more time he spent with her, the less and less they seemed like tricks and more like she was—

“Dr. Grant?”

Startled out of his musings, Nick turned toward the voice and saw Libby Sugar standing in the shadows behind him.

“Yes. Is there something wrong?” He realized that the sun had started to rise while he’d been sitting there. Pulling back his cuff to see his watch, he realized it was almost six-thirty.