Wishing on the Water (Water Series Book 1) (22 page)

When Vanessa started down the stairs, my actual phone rang. I closed my eyes, as I reached into my purse and pulled it out. I was already busted; I might as well answer it.

“
Hello.”

“
Where the hell are you?” Jax asked.

“
Your house.” I replied and Vanessa eyed me eerily.

“
I am coming to get you, do not move.” Jax spoke in a determined tone. It was the alpha in him that he used at work.

“
I love you.” I spoke softly and hung up.

Vanessa walked down the stairs and placed her hands on her hips. I still could not find any family resemblance. The look on her face said that the truth was going to come out faster than I had planned. I was winging this, but thought it would take more than a few minutes before I would have to spill my guts to her.

“
Was that
my Jax
on your phone?” Vanessa asked with disdain dripping off her words.

“
Yes, sorry! I must have had my phone all along. I have been so forgetful with being back in town with jet lag and everything” I was lying as fast as I could think of what to say, but they were horrid lies than anyone could have seen through.

“
Is that his mother’s ring you’re wearing?” Vanessa asked, and I noticed I had it out on display with the way I held the phone.

“
I guess this is the moment I tell you we need to talk,” I whispered.

I expected violence, and shouting, but Vanessa merely sat on the recliner next to the couch. She waited patiently, as I had months before, when Christina was sitting in the same seat. I knew what she was feeling because I was feeling the same betrayal that night as well. I actually, for a split second, felt bad about being the other woman.

“
Is Jax going to leave me?” Vanessa asked. The look on her face said she was preparing to hear the worst and my heart twinged with pain for what I was about to say. I didn’t want anyone hurt, I didn’t want any of us in this situation, but I didn’t put us here, I was merely trying to fix it so everyone could go on with their lives.

“
I could tell you yes out of some jealous need to hurt you, but I would be lying. He told me he wasn’t leaving you, but that he wanted me to wait for him.”

I watched as her cheeks flamed on her pale skin, and the same rosy color formed around her eyes as tears formed.

“
Are you sleeping with him?” Vanessa asked, and I was actually shocked she was taking this as well as she was. When I got told there was another woman I wanted to claw her face off. I guess that made Vanessa a better woman than I.

“
Does it matter?” I asked softly.

“
No, I guess it doesn’t. What did I do wrong?” Vanessa asked. Now I was seriously concerned, because she was taking this extremely well. Not to mention how could you forget that your brother is a psycho who wants to kill your boyfriend. I guess this was the moment I was about to ask.

“
Vanessa, what did you expect? Your brother killed my fiancé. Jax was never going to let that go. Even if he had let it go, your brother now is coming for Jax.”

Vanessa wiped the tear from her cheek and looked at me with confusion in her eyes.

“
I don’t have a brother.” Vanessa’s voice had turned brittle as she held back unshed tears.

“
Yes, you do. They were able to link you back to him. Jax has known all along. He wanted to get close to you to kill your brother for killing his partner.”

Vanessa stood up and began pacing in front of the fireplace. She went back and forth as her hands went to her hips, then she crossed them and would repeat this as she continued to pace. Finally, she turned and looked at me as if I was the enemy; and, in a way, I guess I was.

“
I do not have a brother. I have an ex-husband who is Alejandro Torres. He is sometimes called Andrew Thomas. He has a brother Niko.”

Well, I did not see that coming and I am a writer! Brooklyn apparently didn’t either, because she came out of the pantry looking like she had just eaten a bug. Then her face changed and she began making phone calls.

“
Andrew is your ex-husband.” I rhetorically asked.

I stood up from the couch and walked over to the window. There was a storm moving in, but for once it wasn’t pleasant. I felt like this was goodbye. We didn’t know anything that we thought we did. The information collected had been false and Jax was headed here. I took off my jacket and scarf and dumped them on the couch. I then pulled my hair behind my shoulders in a nervous habit and turned to look at Brooklyn, who was obviously talking to Mark.

“
Tell them not to come here.” I hoarsely shouted at her.

“
What the hell is going on? And what is wrong with your neck?” Vanessa asked.

“
My neck was compliments of your ex-husband. He is coming to kill Jax. He is the one who killed my fiancé.”

Vanessa seemed to take her anger down a notch and walked into the kitchen. She pulled out a bottle of whiskey and set it down. Then she poured out three shot glasses.

“
Well, if we are going to die today, I am going out with no pain.” Vanessa muttered as she filled the shot glasses

“
Why would we die today?” Brooklyn asked, as she put away her phone.

“
Andrew takes out anything in his way. If any of us are in the way of him getting to Jax, then we are all dead.” Vanessa stated, as she took a shot. Her hands shook and her face displayed the fear she felt whenever she spoke of Andrew.

Moments like these I thought I was in an alternate universe. Andrew had been so nice and caring. He made me breakfast every morning and helped me get noticed at work after my first boss died and he took over. I guess when people always complained that their bosses were dicks they weren’t kidding, because Andrew was acting like a homicidal asshole.

My writer’s brain was still trying to develop why he would have gotten close to me. I had cut Jax out of my life. I didn’t share many personal details with him until he told me about the trip to New York.

“
I am not going to let him kill Jax!” I shouted, even though it pained my throat. “I am not going to let anyone else die.”

Brooklyn and I walked over to the couch and sat down. Brooklyn opened up her iCloud on her phone and began scrolling through the files that her office had transferred for her to see. We both looked to see what was missed and where someone went wrong. There had to be something there; I would never accept that this man who I knew for months was capable of murdering Chase and now he was trying to murder Jax and there was nothing I could do about it.

There were hundreds of photos of Vanessa with Andrew, but in every photo his face is obscured. It was as if he knew where the surveillance was. It must have dawned on Brooklyn and I at the same time that he had someone on the inside.

Brooklyn and I both looked at each other and the knowledge was evident that we both knew this was higher than just some drug dealer. There was no record of Chase ever arresting him, which made it more of a mystery.
Why would he kill Chase?

I ran upstairs to Jax’s room and pulled out the key that was taped to the top of his drawer in the nightstand. I then went over and opened the gun safe.

“
What are you doing?” Brooklyn asked, as Vanessa came to a halt in the doorway beside her. They both stared at me as if I had finally lost my mind, and maybe I had, but if I was going to lose my life tonight, I was going out armed and ready to battle.

“
If he has someone on the inside, then he would know that Mark and Jax were headed here. Call them back and tell them to go radio silent.”

“
How do you know that?” Vanessa asked.

“
If this were a story that I had written, it would be the next step. It just makes sense for the next plausible step to be Andrew going to where Jax was headed and killing him.”

I started loading guns. I started with the AR-15 that Jax had gotten right before Chase had died. From the looks of it, he had not even cleaned it. They had both gotten one to take to the shooting range days before Chase had died.

Then I moved on to the 12 gauge and the four 9mm hand guns. I was grateful that Jax liked to spend his paychecks stocking up on ammunition. We had enough here to go to war and that was exactly where I was headed.

Brooklyn called Mark and explained what I had said. I heard a lot of complaining coming through the phone, but Brooklyn knew how to talk to Mark to get them to agree. I actually smiled when I heard her talking to him. No matter what he seemed to say she was able to curve it so the conversation went her way.
She must be a hell of a prosecutor.

I don’t know where the guys were going to be, but my head was telling me in a great story they would be somewhere nearby, which made me nervous for their safety. I put two guns in the waistband of my jeans and handed one each to Brooklyn and Vanessa.

“
You ever fired a weapon before?” I asked Vanessa. It was a given that Brooklyn knew how to handle a gun, she wore one on her body.

I passed out the rifles and I kept the shot gun as Vanessa shook her head no. I looked at Brooklyn who began explaining how to check to make sure the safety was off, and where to look down the sights. We briefed Vanessa quickly but the whiskey bottle in her hand said she wasn’t retaining anything we said.

Brooklyn and Vanessa headed down the stairs as a noise drew me into the guest room. I opened the door to see the window was open and the rain was pooling on the floor. Even in the anxiousness of the moment, my brain reminded me of better moments like that first night with Jax when rain pooled on the floor and even splashed on his lip. As if an angel had dropped it there to entice me after I had had my heart broken.

I had to shake the thoughts from my mind and force myself to go downstairs. I placed the shotgun beside the recliner on the side where the fireplace is so it was not visible, but it was close to me. I sat down in the gray recliner that I had sat in talking to Christina and waited for Andrew to come.

Within a half hour there was a knock on the door. I leaned back in the recliner. Vanessa went and ran to the pantry like a coward. Brooklyn went to the door and opened it with her hand on the grip of the gun in the back of her pants.

Once again, a knock on the door held something unexpected. I was going to have lingering issues about people knocking if every time someone knocks it is not what I am expecting.

“
Christina, what are you doing here?” Brooklyn asked, as she opened the door and Christina walked in.

“
I wanted to make sure Candice was alright.” Then she turned to look at me.

It was at that moment everything became clear. Her green eyes were the same as Andrews. Her lightly tanned skin was just a shade or two lighter than Andrews. The red hair threw me, but she naturally had dark brown hair. They even walked the same and talked the same.

Brooklyn let go of the door and the wind from the storm slammed the door shut as the winds carried through the house. Christina stared at me and knew that I knew. I placed my hand on my gun and waited.

“
You love Jax?” I asked, and her green eyes glared at me.

“
I did, until you ruined what we could have had.”

“
You slept with my fiancé and had his baby. You think you could have had something with Jax and now you have a psycho brother coming after him. What the fuck do you think I did?” I asked, as rage flooded my veins.

I could be accused of being a coward for running away. I could be accused of being the other woman for sleeping with a taken man. I could even be accused of being gullible enough not to have seen this coming from the beginning. I couldn’t wait to hear what else I was being accused of.

“
Your letter.” Christina gritted her teeth, as she placed her hands on her hips. Brooklyn moved to the kitchen and pulled Vanessa out of the pantry. They sat at the island and watched as the invisible daggers got thrown in the air between Christina and me.

“
What letter?” I asked, as I stood up and walked around the coffee table. Christina reached into her pocket and unfolded an envelope with a pink note inside. I suddenly realized what letter, but we were already circling the couch.

“
Dear Jax,” Christina started reading the letter out loud. I lunged for it, but she moved away from me. Then we began circling each other as if we were animals in a pen and only the strongest would survive.

“
Dear Jax, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to run away without a goodbye. You gave me something I can never thank you for. You made me feel good when I felt my worst. You gave me the good to go with the bad. I have strong feelings for you that became evident when I let you inside me. I am not strong enough to replace stay. There are memories of Chase everywhere I look and am just not ready to have anyone replace the role he played in my life. I loved him with all my heart and soul, and the way I feel right now I love you with all my heart and soul as well.”