The Terms Duet

by Rowe, Ruby

  I jump from a knock at my door. “Come in,” I say as I swivel around to face my desk. Liam skips in with Emma following behind. She’s holding her stomach and is pasty white.

  “Emma, are you OK?”

  “No. I’ve been sick since right after lunch.”

  “Hmm…” I look to Liam. “Sweetie, does your stomach hurt?”

  He smiles. “Nope, but Emma throwed up in my bafroom.” His forehead scrunches, his smile turning upside down. “It was nasty.”

  “Well, I don’t feel sick, either, and we all ate the same thing for lunch. Maybe you’re getting a stomach bug.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You should go home. We’ll be fine here.”

  Her head shakes. “But you started classes today. I need to stay.”

  “No, you shouldn’t. Please go home and rest. Liam’s due for his nap, so I can get more done then, and besides, I’m sort of distracted today.”

  “If you’re sure, then that’s probably for the best.” She grips her stomach tighter. “I’d hate for anyone else to get sick.”

  I follow them out of the room, and once Emma leaves, I put Liam down for a nap.

  “Boss didn’t read me a story last night.” Crossing his arms, he scowls. “Bea isn’t funny like Boss.”

  “Well, Boss was busy last night. Reeeally busy,” I mumble.

  “What was he doing?”

  “Uh, he was playing.”

  “With trucks like mine? Or my Wegos?”

  “Um, no. It was with big-boy toys.” I snicker. Geez, this is turning inappropriate. “He’ll read to you soon, but right now, would you like Momma to read you a story?”

  Smiling from his bed, he pulls the sheet up to his chest. My sweet boy. He’s getting attached to Ellis, more so than I could’ve imagined, and I pray neither of our hearts get broken.

  The only way I see that being preventable is if Ellis and I continue to open up and trust one another. Is it possible we could turn what began so ugly into something beautiful?

  I hope so, but who knows what his response will be when he finds out the truth about Christopher.

  Ellis

  I stroll inside my home, and the familiarity allows me to breathe. It’s depressing at Tony’s, and I feel like the only task I accomplished there today was the act of shuffling papers around his desk. I was too distracted by the images of a beautiful, sexy woman.

  Camilla and I fell asleep in the guest house last night, but it wasn’t until after I exhausted the both of us, which took a while.

  I awoke to the smell of coffee and her in a scarlet satin robe. She was smiling brightly next to the bed, holding a mug out for me.

  I don’t think I could wake up to anything better, and the more days I’m near her, the more I’m certain I want her to stay. Tempted to go see her now, I stop at the top of the stairs and look down the hallway.

  I remember she’s doing schoolwork, and considering the time, I imagine Liam’s asleep in his room. Heading to my office instead, I shut the door and shoot Christopher a text, letting him know I’m home.

  I heard him downstairs in his office when I arrived, but I didn’t stop to talk since I’m avoiding the discussion I need to have with him about my brother being poisoned.

  Christopher’s going to be interviewed any day by the detectives, though, so I need to deliver the news soon. I want to be the first to hear if he suspects someone.

  Knowing that now is the best time to do it, I leave my office. My eyes widen when I see Liam on the third step of the staircase. Camilla is straight ahead, both of us running toward him from opposite directions.

  She yells, and it startles him, so he twists his body back to look at her. His arms begin to swing as he starts to fall backward, so I lunge straight for him.

  “Liam, no!”

  Camilla

  “Liam!” I shout. Ellis loses his footing as he grabs him, and they begin tumbling down the floating, spiral staircase, moving fast and hard. “No!”

  The thuds from them bouncing down the stairs are like cracks of thunder to my ears. They come to a stop at the first flat platform before the staircase curves again. They had to have tumbled down a dozen steps.

  Screaming at the top of my lungs, I run down the stairs after them. Ellis is on his back, holding Liam to his chest. My son’s eyes are full of terror as he stares up at me on his back. He bursts into a blood-curdling cry as the realization of what happened hits him.

  Losing his breath from his screams, he turns almost blue and starts grabbing for me with his little hands. Ellis’s eyes are shut, and I don’t know what to do. I shouldn’t move Liam, but he’s begging for me to take him.

  I drop to my knees. “Ellis, Ellis! Wake up. Please wake up.”

  “What happened?” Christopher yells from the bottom of the stairs. I hear his footsteps next as he runs up toward us.

  “Call 911, and tell them to send two ambulances!” I hold Liam still by the thigh and chest. “Momma’s right here, sweetie. Don’t move.” God, I want to pick him up.

  “Ellis. Can you hear me?” It’s noisy now as Christopher stands next to me on the phone, and Irene is present, too, crying and asking what she can do. Ellis opens his eyes and tries to focus.

  “Oh, thank God,” I mumble.

  “Is he OK?” he asks, referring to Liam.

  “I don’t know, but you both need to stay still in case something’s broken.”

  “Cammy, the ambulances are on their way,” Christopher announces from beside me. I look to Ellis, and he furrows his brow.

  “I don’t know if Liam hit the floor. I tried to prevent it.”

  “I know. I saw,” I say. My head is spinning as Liam continues to scream over us. The sounds billow in the grand hall, and once I see blood seep out from under Ellis’s head, I feel like I could faint.

  I don’t know how much time passes before I’m moved out of the way by Christopher so the paramedics can get through. He pulls me to his chest and rubs the back of my head.

  “He’ll be OK. He’s crying, and that’s a good thing.”

  “I only went to use the bathroom, and when I came out, he was already at the top of the stairs. I tried to get to him. I swear I tried,” I say before I’m sobbing, too.

  I pull away once the EMTs stabilize Liam’s neck and get him strapped down on the backboard. I grab his hand as they lift him.

  “Momma’s right here. Everything’s going to be OK.” I look back at Ellis as he starts to stand. The EMTs yell for him to stay on his back. Grumbling something, he looks to me with an array of emotions. Confusion, anger … fear.

  Shit, Christopher.

  I have no time to explain as paramedics start down the staircase with Liam. My son comes first, so I follow them to the ambulance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Ellis

  I fumble as I type another text to Camilla. We’ve been communicating back and forth since we arrived at the hospital hours ago.

  One of my arms is in a sling, and I’m about to remove the damn thing and launch it across my room in the ER, along with my cell phone. Autocorrect is royally pissing me off.

  She replies to let me know she and Liam are on their way to my room. I carefully lay my head back against the pillow. God, what if he’d been hurt or killed? All because of my fucking stairs–my wealth–my pretentious life.

  And what the hell is going on between her and Christopher? I’m not surprised he hasn’t shown his face. He’s probably worried he’ll end up in the ER next.

  Camilla’s head pokes inside before she steps in the room. Liam’s latched on to her like a monkey, and she’s holding his legs snug around her waist.

  As she comes closer, I see that he’s asleep. Once she spots the knot on my forehead, she frowns and gently touches the skin next to it.

  “I’d lean over to kiss you if it wouldn’t wake him.”

  “You’re fine. Sit. We have things to talk about. Are they sure there’s nothing more serious wrong with him?”

&
nbsp; “Yes, they’re sure. Did you not read the fifty texts I responded to with that same answer?”

  “Do you not see how I still have one good hand?”

  She gives me a wary smile. “He was examined thoroughly. He has a goose egg on the side of his head, along with a nasty bruise on his arm, but they don’t believe he has a concussion. I’m supposed to keep a close eye on him tonight, just in case, but it could’ve been so much worse.

  “As soon as he got a sucker and some cartoon bandages for his boo-boos, he was back to his old self. You saved him.”

  “No, my fucking stairs almost killed him.”

  She shakes her head. “No. He’s my responsibility. I should’ve insisted on doing something about the stairs.”

  “The both of you are my responsibility, and you did tell me how you felt about the stairs when you moved in.”

  “Look, I could easily say this is my fault for leaving him alone or for yelling at him. He’s had no trouble taking the stairs with us, so he probably fell from turning to see me. It was an accident.”

  “Where the hell was Emma?”

  “She went home sick. I put Liam down for a nap, and I thought he was sleeping when I went to the bathroom. I guess he was looking for me.” Sighing, she runs her fingers through his hair.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I’ll find a gate wide enough to go in front of the staircase, or I’ll have one custom-made if necessary.”

  She giggles. “That’s going to have to be a mighty wide gate.

  “Fine. We’ll move into a smaller house, or I’ll add on to the ground level.”

  “Stop, Ellis. Liam’s OK. How are you feeling?”

  “Eight stitches to the back of my head, bruises and this damn sprained arm. I’m pissed. I know how to fall from my martial arts training. I don’t know what happened.”

  “Your focus was on protecting Liam. The way you held onto him …” Her head shakes like she’s trying to shake away the image of us tumbling down the stairs. “You were determined to save him, not thinking about yourself at all.”

  She tears up. “Anyway, thank you.” Looking down at Liam, she continues to glide her fingers through his hair. “Um, Christopher and Irene left.

  “I told them to go home, and Fletcher’s in the waiting room. He said he wasn’t leaving without us, so as soon as you’re discharged, he’ll drive us home.”

  “Speaking of Christopher… Why the fuck did he touch you and call you Cammy? Any other time I would’ve laid him out cold.”

  Leaning her head back against the wall, she struggles to look at me.

  “This is the thing I needed to discuss with you last night. I swear I was going to tell you.”

  My hand fists. “Tell me what?”

  “I knew him before I moved in with you.”

  “He told me he’d never met you before. So, did you meet him while you were dating Tony?”

  “No. He lied to me, too.”

  “I don’t understand.” I bring my hand up. “Wait. First tell me there’s nothing going on between the two of you.”

  “No, there’s not, and I’m hurt you’d suggest it, especially after the time we’ve spent together.”

  I purse my lips. “Just explain, Camilla.”

  “After you told Christopher that you were moving me in, he was forced to confess to me a secret he’d been keeping. Tony had him befriend me while I was pregnant with Liam. Your brother knew all along that he had a son.

  “Once I found out I was pregnant, I left Octavia and went to work at a restaurant where I waited tables. I didn’t return to Octavia until Liam was six months old.

  “Anyway, Christopher started coming into the restaurant almost daily, and we became friends. I was clueless that he had another motive.

  “He claims Tony wanted nothing to do with Liam and was worried I’d come after his money. So, he paid Chris to keep an eye on me and find out what my intentions were.

  “Once Christopher told him I wasn’t a threat, he could’ve disappeared, but he said he had already developed romantic feelings for me. We grew closer, but I’ve never thought of him as more than a friend.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “No, I withheld the truth, and you should understand why. I was terrified over having to move in with you, and I had a child to protect.

  “Chris and I agreed to keep it a secret so that I would have a friend in the house. At the time, I felt I needed someone, Ellis. Someone who would look out for Liam and me. Surely, you can get that. I didn’t know you then.”

  “But you still should’ve told me before today.”

  “I know. I’ve wanted to, but things went from bad between us to all at once good, and I didn’t want to screw it up.” She exhales a long breath. “I swear I was going to tell you last night.”

  “Where the hell do we go from here? He’s fucking fired for sure.”

  “Please, don’t fire him. I agree it has to happen at some point, but first you need his help in finding out who poisoned Tony. Your brother confided in him, so Christopher may have known who Tony’s enemies were.

  “Besides, I need to put distance between him and Liam gradually. Liam’s fond of Christopher, and he’ll wonder why he vanished from his life.”

  I huff, wishing there was something I could punch.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Tony knew about Liam?” I ask.

  “I was afraid if I told you, you would fire Christopher and still make me move in, or you’d be furious over the whole thing and take Liam from me.”

  As he rests against her in the chair, I feel like shit for threatening to separate them. Now that I’ve witnessed their bond, I know the pain it would’ve caused them, and I hate myself for instilling that fear in her.

  “Christopher’s in love with you. How am I supposed to accept him being in the house every day?”

  “You do it by trusting me. I don’t like him, and that’s not going to change no matter what he says or does. I promise.”

  Camilla

  “This says you have a concussion,” I exclaim as I read the patient instructions sent home from the hospital.

  “I feel fine.” Ellis rolls his shoulder back, grimacing from his pain. Or maybe he’s grimacing over his arm being in a sling. It’s probably a little of both.

  “You were trying not to tell me.”

  “Because you need to focus on Liam, not me. I’m a big boy.”

  “Boss plays with big-boy toys,” Liam says excitedly as his eyes bounce between us in the kitchen. I fold my top lip over my bottom, attempting not to laugh.

  “What’s he talking about?”

  “He was upset you didn’t read to him last night, so I told him you were playing … with your big-boy toys.”

  Ellis grins for the first time today, and that devilish gleam returns to his eyes.

  “There were definitely toys involved, but there was something else more exciting and sexy to play with that I enjoyed more.”

  “No. Don’t try to schmooze your way out of not telling me about your concussion, and speaking of Boss, would you care to explain how that nickname came about?”

  “Oh, my arm’s hurting. I think I should go to bed.” Hunching over, he groans dramatically, feigning pain, but the grin gives him away.

  “I should run and get your pain medication. This paper says they called it in to the drug store.”

  “No. I’m not taking something that could affect my thinking.”

  “Then, will you please take ibuprofen?”

  “That I’ll do.”

  Struck with a thought, I bite my lip.

  “You can’t be left alone tonight … and neither can Liam.”

  “I’m well enough to sleep alone in my room.”

  “OK, but I have to check on you frequently.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Maybe I need to call my mother to come over and take care of me.”

  “Oh, my gosh. We should’ve called your parents. Will they be angry at me for not calling them from the hospital?
”

  “Camilla, I was joking; I’m barely injured.”

  “Momma, I’m tired,” Liam says with a whine as he tugs on my jeans. Picking him up, I then groan from the weight of him.

  “He shouldn’t be in your bed tonight. He’ll run with that and want to sleep in there every night.”

  “I’ll sleep in his then. It’s big enough.”

  “Momma are you gonna sleep with me?” Liam asks enthusiastically.

  “Yes, and since Ellis has boo-boos, and needs to rest like the doctor said, I will read you a story tonight.”

  Leaning back in my arms, Liam sticks his hand in his front jeans pocket and pulls out a Spiderman bandage.

  “Here, Boss. This will help your boo-boo.” He holds out his bruised arm. “See, put it on like mine is.”

  Ellis takes it from him and smiles. “I think we should save this for you. You might need a new one to put on your arm tomorrow.”

  “I better get him to bed. It’s been a long day.”

  Ellis’s fingers graze my cheek. “Don’t worry about me, and get some rest. I can tell you’re tired, too.”

  “Yes, I am, and I started my period at the hospital, so that didn’t help the situation.”

  Ellis reveals a fleeting look of irritation before he messes with Liam’s hair.

  “I’ll see you in the morning, Mikey.”

  “Night, Boss.” Without giving Ellis warning, Liam stretches over and wraps his arms around his neck. Ellis’s eyes widen as he stares at me, and it takes him a second to hug Liam back. “Thank you for–for catching me on the stairs,” my little guy adds.

  Pain flickers in Ellis’s gaze, but he quickly recovers.

  “Of course, Liam. I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  “OK, I guess we’ll head upstairs.” Giving Ellis a kiss on the cheek, I leave him alone in the kitchen before I become more emotional and cry. I could’ve lost them both today, and I don’t know how I would’ve recovered from that.

  Ellis

  For fuck’s sake. “Camilla, go back to bed,” I say after my bedroom door creaks open. Neither of us can sleep since she won’t stop checking on me every thirty minutes.