Bad Boy Exposed

by Ashlee Price

  Chapter 2 – Tyler

  I couldn’t believe that Maya was going to ditz out on me. She’d been acting stranger and stranger, and although I knew why, I still wasn’t able to confront her. I didn’t even know what I would say. It wasn’t like I could be outraged or anything like that. I wasn’t even mad at her. In truth, I was kind of happy for her in a way. At least one of us could be happy. Ivy was a distraction, but she didn’t hold a candle to happiness.

  Going into Camilla’s, I knew that there was only one woman who could make me even think about happiness. Camilla had become more to me than I would have imagined. I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead, but the way she’d felt in my arms the last time I’d seen her was enough to make me wonder if I could do more. I didn’t have to know the future, but I wanted to know that she was going to be in it.

  Thinking of everything that was going on, I tried to push it all away and spend my time thinking about nothing but Camilla. I wasn’t going to think about what I was going to say to my parents and how I was going to explain it all away.

  “Excuse me, buddy.”

  I looked up to see a grungy man that I’d apparently almost run into. I didn’t know how I’d done that, as I was far away from him, but just out of courtesy I apologized anyways. I wasn’t thinking about where I was going. I was thinking about Camilla, and hoping that she would be able to help me forget about everything else for a time.

  The meeting was a little more awkward than the last one. I knew that it was going to be different after the kiss, but there was something definitely off about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I asked her what was going on, she stiffened right up, shaking her head that she was fine. I didn’t know what to say or do. I felt deflated when it was time for me to go. Had one kiss changed everything so drastically? Should I apologize for doing it? I didn’t want to, but I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get a choice one way or the other.

  “I’m sorry if my kiss made you feel uncomfortable, Camilla. That was not what I wanted, not at all.”

  “Please, let’s not speak of this again.”

  “I don’t want to pretend like it didn’t happen.”

  “Well, you need to, Tyler. You’re my patient and I’m your doctor. That’s as far as it goes.”

  “What about Zane?”

  She stopped me and shook her head like I shouldn’t be saying anything. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but my attention was piqued.

  “How about I walk you to the door?”

  It was a strange request, but I didn’t really think about that as I told her that would be fine. For some reason, I was under the assumption that she wanted to appease me because I was upset that our kiss had meant nothing. It was only when I had said goodbye to her and was walking out of the building that I realized that she’d wanted to talk to me. I didn’t know why she didn’t feel safe talking in her office, but once I realized what was going on, it was too late.

  I turned to walk back in, sure that she was giving me some kind of sign that I was too stupid to see. It wasn’t that there was anything that I could do, but maybe there was something that I wasn’t seeing. I wanted to think that it was a sign that she just wanted to keep the session separate from the talk of what came next with us.

  I liked the sound of us. I was almost to the side of the building when I saw a shadow behind me. It was the man from before. Instead of saying anything, I moved to get some money out of my pocket. I was going to have to say something to Camilla about the man. He wasn’t going to be good for business, outside of her place begging her patients for money. But I just wanted him to go away so that I could listen to what the doctor was trying to tell me.

  “Here, pal. This is all that I’ve got on me right now. It’s enough to get you a decent meal and a bed for the night.”

  I finally looked up when the man didn’t take the money. He had a strange look in his pale blue eyes, and I knew then that he wasn’t there for money. I realized that the man wasn’t homeless, even though he was trying to look that way. His coat and shoes were of too fine of a quality for him to be what he was trying to project. Nothing about the man in front of me made any sense at all, and he was getting closer.

  “Hey, buddy, that’s all I got.”

  “I don’t want your money, Tyler.”

  How did he know my name?

  “Do I know you from somewhere?”

  The man shook his head, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This was not a chance meeting. “What do you want?”

  “How about that watch? It will buy me a few more nights in a hotel than that bill will.”

  I looked to the watch that he was talking about. It was the one my father had given me after I’d made my first million. It had been a proud day. One of the only days that I thought the old man was actually happy that I was his son.

  “I can’t do that. Why don’t you take the money and I’ll be on my way?”

  He shook his head that it wasn’t going to happen like that. The sinking feeling was back in my mind and heart. I knew that something bad was about to happen.

  “Who are you?”

  He just smiled at me, and before I could put my hands up in defense, I saw the shiny reflection of something metallic in his hand. I knew what it was subconsciously, way before my mind was able to tell me what I was seeing. The man had a gun, and it was pointing at me.

  “You messed with the wrong person, Tyler Hudson.”

  As the gun went off, I felt an instant heat in my chest and waited for the pain to take over. The man’s eyes never showed an ounce of remorse, and before everything went black, I had to ask myself what it was over. I was a businessman, and I’d made my fair share of enemies through the years. This wasn’t a coincidence, but I had no idea who I’d messed with. I remember hoping that I would wake up and be able to find out. What if this was my last moment?

  Chapter 3 – Camilla

  I was getting off work for the day when I saw the lights flashing outside of the building. It had been a long and confusing day, but I shouldn’t have been so out of it that catastrophe could happen outside of my workplace without my noticing it.

  “What is going on here?”

  “Get back, ma’am.”

  I tried to talk to the paramedic, but he brushed me off. Just then I realized who they were carting off on the stretcher. What had happened to Tyler? There was blood everywhere, and I wasn’t going to be put off by the EMT anymore.

  “This is one of my patients! What happened to him?”

  The young, overweight man finally really looked and me and then motioned to Tyler. “He was shot on the side of the building. A passerby saw him bleeding out in the street and called us. Lucky that they did or I don’t know if this man would still be alive.”

  It was too much information to process. The EMT asked me if I wanted to go with him. I hadn’t known it was an option, and it might have looked wrong, but I didn’t care. I was torn up about how I’d talked to him during our session. The idea that it would be the last time I talked to him occurred to me then, and I would have done anything to have another chance. I would say something better, tell him what his kiss and arms around me had actually meant to me.

  “Yes, I’ll ride with you if I can.”

  “Come on, then. We need to get him to the hospital right now. He’s losing a lot of blood, and I don’t know how much longer he can hold out.”

  He didn’t have to say anything else. I was climbing into the back of the van. I crouched down next to him as the man worked. I finally had to move away, but I hated the fact that I had to let go of his hand. It was like my lifeline to him, to knowing that he was going to be okay. I couldn’t imagine a scenario that ended any differently. It was the first time I’d prayed since I was a kid. I’d never wanted anything more than how badly I wanted Tyler to just be okay.

  My phone rang several times. Finally I had to answer it, just to get it to stop ringing.

  “Why didn’t you an
swer?”

  “I’m a little busy right now, Zane. You’re just going to have to wait on our meeting.”

  “You know what happens if you don’t do what I want.”

  I was too frustrated to deal with him, and at the moment I didn’t care about my career. I didn’t care that I was being blackmailed. All I had energy to worry about was the fact that Tyler was bleeding out in front of me. That was all that I was concerned with, and before I could get any more abuse from Zane, I hung up the phone and turned it off. I had enough to worry about without having to worry about him as well.

  While the call shook me up a little bit, I didn’t let it bother me too much. I would worry about Zane later. Everything that I’d been feeling for Tyler was coming to a head, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if something happened to him. It reminded me of how dangerous the city was becoming and how uncertain life was in general.

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  The young EMT just kind of shook his head like he wasn’t sure one way or another. I wanted to shake him and make him give me details, but I knew that I couldn’t. “Just do what you can to help him. He’s important to a lot of people.” I didn’t say out loud that he was important to me and the very thought of being without him made it hard to breathe.

  ***

  “Doc?”

  I looked over at Tyler and was more than a little surprised to see his dark blue eyes looking back at me. I had wondered if I would ever see those eyes again. I wanted to cry, and as my vision blurred and I rubbed away the moisture, I knew that I wasn’t even able to stop myself. I was just so happy to see that he was okay.

  “What’s the matter, Doc?”

  He tried to get up and I stopped him. “Don’t get up. You’re going to rip the stitches. If having money wasn’t enough, I hear that a lot of women like scars. They are going to think that you’re bad ass.”

  Tyler moved his head to the side and looked at me kind of strangely. “You know, I think that’s the first time that I’ve ever heard you curse, Doc.”

  I kind of shrugged, not caring if I sounded like a sailor or not. There was nothing that I cared about more than making sure that Tyler was going to be okay. I’d gone through a whole range of emotions during the several hours that he was in surgery, but now I was able to relax. “Let me call the nurse to make sure that everything is okay.”

  “I wake up to you beside me. To me, that’s better than okay.”

  I sighed and leaned over his body to push the call button. I didn’t care how good he was feeling, they had just taken a bullet out of his chest. There was no answer on his wife’s cell. I’d been trying to call her for hours, but she never answered, so I was the one that had to talk to the doctor when he was finished with surgery. It had all depended on if he woke up and how coherent he was. They hadn’t given any promises, but Tyler was strong and he was going to pull through it.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because you were shot, Tyler, and I want to make sure that you’re okay. You can’t be moving around. There was a lot of damage and the doctor said that you were going to need some time to let it heal. If you don’t, you can hurt yourself worse.”

  He kind of scoffed at me, and again I had to push him gently back down to the bed.

  “I know that you aren’t going to believe me, so I’ll let the doctor tell you the same thing if it makes you feel any better.”

  The nurse wasn’t in the room but a minute before she was confirming what I’d already told him. Tyler was still cynical, but the doctor wasn’t far behind the nurse.

  “Well, it’s good to see you up.”

  “I’m not up. I want to get up, but I’m being told that I can’t.”

  “You sustained some serious injuries, Mr. Hudson. You don’t want to mess up what took me hours to put back together, do you?”

  Tyler shook his head and put it down a little like he was being properly admonished. I’d never seen him like that before, and once the nurse gave him something for the pain it wasn’t long before he was out again. The excitement had my heart racing, but when he was back to sleep, I was able to breathe again. The doctor told me that he was going to rest through the night. I told him I would be back in the morning.

  Getting out of there, I looked up at the dark sky and said a prayer of thanks. It could have ended so differently. I was thankful that everything had worked out, but there was a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach as I made my way to the bench on the corner to call a cab. Was anyone safe in this city anymore?

  Almost the moment that thought went through my mind, I heard a sound behind me. I wasn’t able to see who put their hand over my mouth from behind, but I could swear that I knew the smell that entered my nostrils right before I felt the prick of a needle on my neck.

  “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?”

  Chapter 4 – Maya

  I woke up and stretched. The light was too bright to open my eyes, but the movement beside me made me peek through one of the lids before closing it back up.

  “Good morning, baby.”

  I smiled at the man’s voice and kissed the lips that pressed against me. He was already so familiar that my body was trying to get more out of him then just a kiss. I was ready for more when I heard the vibration of my phone on the nightstand.

  “Why is the ringer off?”

  “That thing has been going off since about the time you passed out last night. I wanted to let you sleep.”

  It was a thoughtful thing to do, and since I was sure it was Tyler calling because he was angry, I didn’t think much of it. I let Dylan pull me into his web of desire for a time before I finally got up and turned the phone back on. It was a lot of missed calls from a number I didn’t recognize. Whoever it was had wanted to get a hold of me badly.

  Calling it back as I started to get dressed, I got a little panicky when I heard the voice tell me that it was the hospital. I didn’t know why they were calling me, but I had twenty missed calls. It would seem that whatever it was was important.

  I gave the nurse my name, but she didn’t know who had been calling me all night or why. I hung up with a sense of dread and searched the missed calls to see if there were any others that would give me a clue as to what was going on.

  There were a couple of missed calls from another number. When I dialed it a Dr. Loring answered the phone. When I told her my name, she explained who she was and that my husband was in the hospital. I didn’t ask her why she’d been with him in the hospital or anything else. I knew that I had to go to Tyler. He’d been shot, and whether our marriage was over or not, there were things that I had to do. I had to be there for my husband.

  I told Dylan what was going on, and he offered to drive me to the hospital.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Dylan. I’ll call you in a little while when I find something out.”

  He was a little hurt, I think, but I knew that he was going to be okay. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Tyler, and the guilt of what I’d been doing instead of going with him was heavy on my shoulders. If I’d been there with him, maybe none of this would have happened. It was a long shot, but there was a chance…

  ***

  I breathed a big sigh of relief when I got into his room. He was hooked up to some machines, but his eyes were open and he was sitting up. I’d thought of so many scenarios in my mind of how he would be, and this was not one of them. Save for the bandages on his chest, it would have appeared that he was fine.

  “Maya, so good of you to show up.”

  His tone revealed nothing, and the guilt about Dylan had me walking towards him a little more slowly. I was too unsure to play the game of perfect marriage that I’d been keeping up for all these years.

  “I’m sorry. My phone died and…”

  Tyler waved his hands like it was not a big deal and stopped me launching into an excuse of why I was not there for his surgery. I should have been by his side, but instead I’d been with another man.
That was unforgiveable in my eyes.

  “It’s fine, Maya. I know where you were, and I can’t say I blame you. I’ve been a shitty husband.”

  What did he mean he knew where I’d been? Did he know about Dylan? The thought made my heart race. Why was he not looking upset? He just looked at me and said the words like it was all so matter of fact. Maybe it was to him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I, Maya, but I guess I learned something waking up like this.”

  “What?” I didn’t think that I wanted to know, but he was the one lying in the hospital bed and I was the one who hadn’t been where I should have been. I was the one cheating this time, not him.

  “Life is too short to be unhappy. You’re unhappy and so am I. It’s time to do something for us.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Was he serious?

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know that you have the divorce papers. I saw them in the closet. I’m going to sign them for you. Take what you want. You know that I was going to take care of you for the rest of your life anyway. I don’t want to fight. I just want you to be happy.”

  “Where is this coming from?”

  He shrugged and told me that it was the first time he’d been able to think. When he asked me about Dylan, the whole thing seemed a little more surreal.

  “Why do you want to know about him?”

  “I just want to know that he’s going to take care of you, Maya. I still love you, even if I’m no good at showing it.”

  “He’s kind to me.”

  “Does he love you?”

  “He asked me to marry him last night.”

  Tyler had a bittersweet grin on his face. “You make a great wife.”

  I was floored. I just nodded my head like an idiot. This wasn’t the Tyler I’d been married to for so long. This was the one I’d met years ago, before everything got complicated.

  “I wish I’d made a better one for you.”

  “You did, Maya. It was me that didn’t see it.”

  Part 9: Pursue