Play Me to Infinity (The Broken Men Chronicles Book 3) (21 page)

“I know something’s up,” she said as we entered the cottage.

I locked the sliding glass door behind us and stared at the lake, taking a deep breath in preparation for what I was about to tell her.  “Nic…”

“Michael, what’s going on?”

“I thought it was a good idea.”  I groaned and ran a hand through my hair.  “Maybe I was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

“I should have told you from the beginning.”  I looked down, guilt ever consuming.

“Michael, you’re freaking me out here, what the fuck is going on?”

“Peters thought it was a good idea that I take you away for a couple of days.  He said that it might help him with finding-”

“Are you trying to tell me that I’m bait?”

“To put it mildly,” my gaze met hers, “yeah.”

“So me feeling like I’m being watched…?”

I nodded.  “It’s most likely one of Mercer’s guys but it could be-”

Her face turned a bright crimson.  “How could you?”

“Mercer and Peters thought it better that you didn’t
know,” I said.  “I wanted to say something, honey, believe me, I did.”

“Then you should have!”  Her laugh came out lacking any humor.  “Mike, I’ve been losing it since my house burned down.  I’m trying so damn hard to keep my head above water and I thought I’d be fine, but I’m not.”

“I know,
Nic.”  I reached out to her.

She backed away.  “Don’t!”  She shook her head.  “You can’t make this better by holding me, or with your sweet words and kisses, Michael.  You know how I feel about being played.”

“It wasn’t my intention.  I want this to be over as much as you do.  I know it hasn’t been easy.  I’ve seen how it’s affected you, and it hasn’t been easy on me either.  I’ve been worried sick about you… about us.”

“I need some air.”  She walked toward the front door.  “I can’t stay here right now.  I need to think.”

I grabbed on to her arm.  “You’re not running from this.”

“I’m not running, Michael, I need space.”

“I can’t let you go out there, Nic.  I’ll go to another room and let you be, just don’t go outside.”

With a defeated look, she conceded.  “Fine.”

“He’s right, you know.”

We turned to face the voice.

I found myself face to barrel with a rather pissed off looking Lisa standing behind it, and that’s when the feeling of familiarity from the police station came back.  Everything clicked.

“You were there.” I moved to stand in front of Nicole.

Nicole’s hand reached for mine and within seconds an idea struck me as I squeezed it.

I moved her hand to my back pocket.  Nicole tried to snap it back, but I forced her to cup my ass cheek and guided her fingers over the edges of my phone until she stopped pulling away.

“You might want to move,” Lisa said.  “You don’t want to know what happened to the last guy that stood in my way.”  Her laugh bordered psychotic.

“Lisa, what did you do?” Nicole asked.

“Sweetheart,” Lisa called out, “can you bring in the rope?”

Turner made his appearance with what Lisa had requested, and my head began to spin.

“Where’s Dean?” Nicole asked the question that had just come to my mind.

“Why do you care?” Lisa said.  “Oh, right!  It’s because you two are still fucking, right?  I followed him, you know.  He’s been following you like a lost puppy.  Should have known he was still up to his old tricks, that you’d want back what was mine.  Tell me, does your man here know what you’ve been up to?  Look at me when I’m talking to you, bitch!”

Nicole gasped, sliding my phone back in my pocket.  “You know that’s not true.”

“Don’t lie to me!”  The woman gestured toward me with her head.  “Tie him up first.”

I didn’t wait, pouncing on Turner and praying to God that Lisa was a lousy shot if she decided to pull the trigger.

Turner crumpled onto the old kitchen table and the thing collapsed to the floor in pieces with me on top of him.  Chaos ensued, and next thing I knew, people were barging into the cottage from different entry points.

In the midst of the commotion, I looked around to make sure Nicole was all right and felt Turner’s punch to the side of my head.

It sent stars and spots across my vision, but I still had a fight to finish.

I laid into the man, swinging like a lunatic and didn’t stop until someone pulled me off of his unconscious heap.  Seeing red, I reared and tried to swing at my detainer, but a familiar face halted my fist before it could make contact.  Detective Peters.

“Drop the gun, Lisa,” an officer said.

When I turned, I nearly crumpled to my knees, but the adrenaline kept me from doing so.

Lisa was standing with a fist in Nicole’s hair, the gun wedged into my girlfriend’s side.  She was using Nicole as a shield.

“Lisa…” I began.

“What do you see in this slut anyway?”  The woman snorted her disgust.

“Lisa,” Nicole’s eyes were swollen with tears, “please don’t-”

“Shut up!” she screamed.  “Dean and I were happy.  Why the hell did you have to come along and ruin things?  We were happy, dammit!”

“Where is he, Lisa?” Nicole asked.

“He’s dead!” Peters answered for the woman.  My heart skipped a few beats and then hammered in my chest.  “Lisa, drop the gun.  You don’t want to do this.”

She shook her head.  “You know I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you
can.” Peters moved toward her as I felt someone else’s grip take hold of me.  He pulled out his gun and pointed it at her.  Nicole winced, but what I saw in her eyes was more than just fear.

Anger.  No, fury.

And determination.

I could tell that Nicole was thinking something, and whatever it was, I knew that there was a possibility that things wouldn’t go well.  Good shot or not, Lisa’s aim was flawless at point blank range.

“Don’t!” I begged Nicole.  I held her gaze, pleading with her in silence so she didn’t do anything rash, to let the cops handle the situation.

Nicole teetered on her feet causing Lisa to dig the gun into my woman’s side harder.  My life, my love, whimpered, but took a deep
breath with her eyes shut, maintaining whatever calmness she had left.

“Make another move and I will shoot you, Nicole,” Lisa said.  “You should have burned in that fire.”

“Lisa, drop the gun now or I’ll be forced to shoot.  You don’t want to do this, I know you don’t.  I know you loved Dean.  Wouldn’t you want a real chance with Guy here?”  He nodded toward the still unconscious form of Turner who was now cuffed and lying on his stomach.

To show her degree of insanity, Lisa turned her armed hand and shot Turner in the back.

In a quick flash, Nicole made a move and multiple shots were fired.

The moment may have felt as if it had dragged on forever, but in mere seconds, it was over.

Both women lay on the floor of my cottage kitchen, blood pooling everywhere.  There was no movement from either of them and I kicked back at the officer that held me back.  He turned me loose and I rushed to Nicole’s side as Peters hurried to Lisa’s, kicking her gun out of reach.  The detective felt for a pulse, looked up at Mercer who was standing by the back door, and shook his head.

My eyes widened at the possibility that Nicole might have suffered the same fate.

“Nicole!”  I grabbed her face, tapping her cheeks, squeezing her shoulder.  She wasn’t waking up.  “Where the fuck is all this blood coming from?”  I palpated her body in search of a wound that seemed invisible.  “Honey, wake up.  I need you.  I’m sorry.  Why did you do that?  Fuck, Nic, wake up, dammit!”

Peters came to me and pulled me away from her.  “You’ve got to let them work,
Withers,” he said as I fought him to remain at Nicole’s side.  I turned to find three medics standing there, waiting to do their job, and that’s when my knees gave way.

Mercer came up beside me and put his hand on my shoulder.  “They’ll take care of her.”  All I could do was nod and watch the three as they worked on Nicole.  Each second without a response from her was killing me.

The medics checked her vitals.  They inspected her front and then rolled her over.  That’s when I saw the wound in her side.

“Flesh wound,” the female paramedic called out.  “I’ll clean and cover it and then let’s get her loaded up and out of here.  She’s lost quite a bit of blood.”

As she finished securing the last of the medical tape, the woman treating Nicole turned to her colleagues. “Let’s roll!”

I followed the ambulance in my car as the medics refused to let me ride with them because they were full up.

On arrival at the hospital, Nicole was pulled into surgery.

I called Danica and Jake to let them know what had happened.

The doctor made his appearance and asked for Nicole’s next of kin while I was busy pacing the room.  Panic overwhelmed me in that instant.

“She’s fine,” the man was quick to reassure me and proceeded to confirm what the paramedics had said was right.  “It was a flesh wound and she’s lost some blood.  We didn’t see anything else, which is great, and she’s awake.”

“Can I see her?”

The man nodded.  “She’s been asking for you.”

He escorted me to a room. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was shocked at what I saw.

Nicole was sitting up in bed and, if it weren’t for her pale coloring, I would have pegged her as a healthy person.  It was a drastic difference from the sight I remembered in my cottage’s kitchen, or the ambulance where she’d been looking like she was knocking on death’s door.

“Thank God!”  I rushed to her side and grabbed onto her shoulders.  “Honey,” I kissed her hair, “I’m so sorry.”

“Did they get her?”  Her voice was slurred and hoarse.  “No one’s telling me anything.”

“She’s dead, Nic.  What the hell were you thinking?  Why didn’t you let Peters handle it?  Why’d…”

The surge of emotion was too potent and I broke, my ass meeting the edge of her bed as my knees gave way.  My body shook with sobs.

Nicole’s arms wrapped around me and tightened.  She didn’t say anything, only held me as I let it all out, my face buried in her neck.

“I thought you were gone.”  I sniffed and wiped at my eyes with the back of a hand.  “When I heard those shots and saw you lying on the floor, I thought I’d lost you for good this time.  You scared me, worse than the fucking fire.”

I pulled away and stared into her eyes.  Her hands came up to my face and tried to dry my tears.  She was crying too.

“I can’t seem to keep you safe.” I tried to avert my gaze.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, Michael Withers!”  There was that stubborn lilt to her chin, and that stern tone of hers.  “I’ll never blame you for anything more than taking me away for a weekend with a hidden agenda.  One, I might add, that worked.”

“Yeah, well…”

“I love you, Michael,” she said, “more than you’ll ever know.  I was mad and yeah, I felt betrayed, but Peter’s plan worked.  It’s over.”

“Nicole,” I cupped her face in my hand, “I have something to ask you.”

“You do?”

I nodded and got to my feet.  “This isn’t the way I planned it,” I took a deep breath, “but I can’t wait anymore, not after today.”

“Michael,” she pulled me back toward her and shook her head, “if you’re about to ask me what I think you are… please, not here, not like this.”

I nodded and sat back down.  “Let’s go away.  I don’t care where.  Let’s just disappear for a while, for real this time.”  I leaned my forehead against hers.  “I need you, Nicole.”

“You have
me.”  She pressed her lips to mine. “You’ll always have me.”

Two weeks went by and between working from home, and dealing with the authorities who were working on closing Nicole’s case, it’s safe to say that things were chaotic.

With the trauma Nicole suffered from the cottage incident, she’d been having nightmares.  Can you blame her?  Hell, I had my own.

Visions of alternate outcomes of that day and losing Nicole plagued me when the darkness fell and slumber prevailed.

I hadn’t been to the office or run any errands, refusing to leave Nicole’s side for more than what was needed, so that meant that Danica and Jake, even Jordan, had been helping a lot.

Today was the first day where Nicole forced me out of my own house.

Ben came over at her request and dragged me off to
Fairfax
.  She told him that if he didn’t come and fetch me, she was going to strangle me and do away with the evidence.

Yeah, we’d been fighting.  A lot.  Cooped up around the clock for a few weeks was bound to cause friction between any two people.

“You need to give her time to breathe.”  Ben handed me a beer, knocking me back to the present from the thoughts of our latest dispute.  “She’s fine, but she needs you to be.”

I snorted at his statement.  “She’s not fine, she’s got night terrors.”

“It makes sense, with everything she’s been through,” he said.  “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You look like you haven’t slept in weeks.  What are you doing to deal with everything that’s happened?  I know it hasn’t been easy on you either, so don’t feed me any bullshit.”

What was I doing?  I’ll tell you what I was doing.  I was busy looking after the woman I love.  Knowing that she was safe and within reach put me at ease.  I knew it wasn’t healthy for me to be so obsessive.  If she were home alone right now, I would have been in the middle of a panic attack, but Danica had showed up before I left.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” my best friend asked.

“I’m terrified.”

“Of what?”  I saw the look of recognition cross his face after a moment.  “You’re scared of losing her.”

I nodded.  “I don’t know what to do.  I know that it’s over now, but I’m scared that I’ll lose her without the chance of living my life with her.”  I took a healthy sip of beer.  “I saw what happened after you lost Candace.”

“Buddy, just because it happened to me doesn’t mean that you’ll go through the same thing.”

“I know.”  I looked down.  “I just know how it was with you.  I don’t think I’d survive if I lost Nicole.”

He seemed to ponder that and looked me straight in the eye, speaking with conviction.  “You’d survive.”  He paused to take a drawn out breath.  I wish that I could be as convinced as he sounded.  “It’s not easy, but you’d find a way.  With great friends and family, it’s hard not to keep going, but let me tell you something…  You’re not going to lose her; not in the way that you’re imagining.  But you will if you keep this up.  You’re choking her, Mike.  She needs time to deal with things on her own, find her feet just like you do.  She’ll let you know when she needs you.  Women tend to do that.”

I nodded and decided to change the subject.  “I need your help.”

“With what?”  He took a pull from his drink, his brow arching.

And so I spilled my thoughts over a couple more beers.

Ben dropped me off.  Leave it up to the man to put things back into perspective when his life wasn’t even close to being whole.

It took me everything I had to walk, instead of rush, through the front door when I realized that Danica’s car was no longer in the driveway,
which meant Nicole was alone.  The panic churned my gut, but I managed to keep it at bay.

Ben was right.  I couldn’t keep doing what I’d been doing.  I was ruining what Nicole and I have.

“Hey!”  Smiling with her greeting, Nicole got up and gave me a large hug and then kissed me nice and slow.  I hadn’t had a kiss like that since the hospital.  Damn had I missed them.  “Did you have fun?”

“I wouldn’t call it that, but it was good.  Listen…” I pushed her back and held her hands.  “I know I’ve been a real jerk this week and I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to-”

“I understand.  I’m fine.  I know it might not seem like it with the nightmares right
now, but I’m okay.  I’m worried about you, though.  You haven’t been sleeping, Mike.  You’ve barely been eating.  Now that the cops have closed the case, I think we need that trip you were talking about.”

“Aren’t you sick of spending every waking moment with me?”

“Only when you’re in this depressed funk you’ve been in.  I can’t stand seeing the panic in your eyes whenever I mention one of us leaving the house.  You can barely stand being in a different room without looking like I’m about to vanish.  I need my Michael back.”

I pulled her tight against me, filled with relief that things were looking up once again.  “He never really left.” I kissed her hard, then pulled away and pressed my forehead to hers.  “I’ve missed this.”

“Me too.”  She smiled.  “So what do you say that we get back to it?”

“I think there’s no better idea.”