Blue Roses (Reunited Series)

by Sharon C. Cooper

  “Yeah,” he said drawing out the word. “But if I’m caught with a gun, I can get around a - carrying a concealed weapon charge. But you on the other hand, can’t.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” He glanced at the clock and stepped on the gas. Harmony still hadn’t call, so he called her again.

  “Hey.” She answered on the first ring.

  “I take it she hasn’t returned.”

  “Nope, and I’m about ready to cut out.”

  “Okay, but I need you to do something first. Go to her office.”

  “Tyler.” She grumbled.

  “Harmony, Quinn and I are on our way there, but it’ll probably be another twenty or twenty-five minutes before we arrive.”

  “Why are you coming here?”

  “Because I want to make sure everything is okay. Dallas is not answering her office phone and Quinn can’t reach Hank. It might be nothing, but we need you to go up there and check on things. Oh, and when you leave the car, take Dallas’s cell phone with you.”

  “Let me talk to her,” Quinn said reaching for the telephone.

  Tyler handed it to him and Quinn gave Harmony further instructions. He told her to put the phone on vibrate and to listen for anything unusual before going into Dallas’s office. “If anything is out of the norm, or if something doesn’t seem quite right, get the hell out of there and call the police. Then call us,” Quinn told her.

  Tyler had a death grip on the steering wheel as he plowed down I-94 toward Chicago. He had a bad feeling - something was definitely wrong.

  ****

  The telephone rang several times, but Dallas didn’t dare make a move toward it. She hadn’t had a chance to gauge David’s temperament this evening, and didn’t want to do anything to set him off. As long as she didn’t let him see how nervous she was, maybe she could get some answers out of him.

  “So what unfinished business do we have to discuss?” she asked. She sat the files and the pieces of mail that were in her hand down, and leaned heavily against the desk. Suddenly her idea to leave her crutch in the car didn’t seem like such a good idea. So much for running in and out. The thought made her think of Harmony. That was probably her calling.

  “This is your last chance to hand over those papers, Dallas. I’ve been very patient with you.” He paced the length of the office, his head down and arms linked behind his back as if he were deep in thought.

  She only had one shot at getting him to fess up about what he was involved in, but didn’t quite know how to broach the subject. All she knew was that she was so sick of hearing about those papers and was ready to put an end to whatever he was involved in.

  “So where are they? I’m not asking you again.”

  His tone was no nonsense, and she had no doubt he was serious. But she had to know whether or not he was really behind a Ponzi scheme, and why. “David, I—”

  “Cut the crap, Dallas. Hand them over.”

  “Fine. I’ve had enough. You can have your damn papers,” she said with more bravado than she felt. She moved behind her desk and opened her middle draw. After a few minutes of searching, she yanked out the folder and pulled out the stack of papers. She stood and shuffled back around to the front of the desk, her leg throbbing with every move.

  I hope I’m doing the right thing. Since the SEC had copies, what harm would it do to give David his originals back? “Before I give you these, I want to know why they’re so important to you.”

  A wicked snarl covered his chubby face. He crossed his arms. “I have reason to believe you’ve already figured that out. But since you want to play dumb, I’ll tell you what they are. They are a list of investments made for my own special project.”

  Ugh, I can’t stand his pompous ass. “Oh, so is that what they call it now? A special project? And all this time I thought they referred to it as securities fraud or better yet, a Ponzi scheme.” She slammed the papers down on the desk in frustration, but kept a firm grip on them.

  When the smirk on his face quickly turned to anger, Dallas braced herself as he moved closer. Stopping inches from her, he said, “You’re too damn smart for your own good, which is probably why I never liked you.”

  “Why, David? Why would you risk everything like this? Why take people’s hard earned money to use for your own gain when you probably have more money than you know what to do with?”

  His eyes narrowed. “What are you doing, recording this conversation or something? Why all the questions?”

  “Because I want to know how can someone, who is financially secure, steal from people? You probably have plenty of money. Why do this?”

  “Dallas, Dallas, Dallas. Don’t you know you can never have too much money?” He leaned against the back of a chair. “If people are stupid enough to give me money for my special project, then they deserve to lose it. Besides, some of them made a nice little chunk of change, and the others … well, they’ll soon find out that the investments just didn’t work out.”

  “Is William involved in this nonsense?” She hoped not. William was like a father to her, and she couldn’t imagine him stealing money from people. And no way would he know about this and not do anything.

  “Of course not. His holier than though attitude would never allow him to take any risks like this and live on the wild side.”

  “So where do I come in at? Why did you run me down with a car? And what was the point of the telephone threats and ransacking my home?” She wasn’t sure if he was behind those things, but she decided to test Tyler’s theory.

  He laughed and shook his head, moving away from her to stand near the bank of windows. “For awhile I didn’t know what you knew or if you were going to cause trouble for me. But when my notes turned up missing, I knew that if you didn’t know anything before, you’d probably figure it out. And just for the record, I didn’t do those things you’re accusing me of. I might have an idea of who did, but it wasn’t me.”

  Dallas leaned against the edge of the desk for support. “You know, David. I’m a little surprised you’re admitting to any of this. What gives?”

  He turned toward her and chuckled. “I can say whatever the hell I want to now. I told you that this would be your last chance to come clean. I just have to decide how I want to handle things from here on out.”

  He walked up to her and snatched the papers from her hand before she could react, but at this point she didn’t care. As he examined them, she glanced at the door wondering what was taking Hank so long to return.

  “We got a problem.” Jerome stormed in, but froze upon seeing Dallas standing near David.

  Jerome? What’s he doing here? Fear gripped her as realization dawned on her. He and David must be working together.

  She hadn’t seen Jerome since the time he and Harmony stopped by Tyler’s house. She hated the way he had looked at her back then, and she definitely didn’t like the way his dark, lethal eyes bore into her now. Her stomach clenched and panic gnawed away at her confidence at the thought of being in the office with the two of them.

  “Now, what’s the problem?” David turned impatiently.

  Without taking his eyes off of Dallas Jerome said, “I had to take care of a little situation in the men’s room. But it looks like you’re having more fun in here.”

  “What situation?”

  “The bodyguard.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  He finally looked at David. “Didn’t I tell you? She has a bodyguard. I guess my threats freaked her and the boyfriend out so much that they had to get her some protection.”

  “What did you do to him?” Her voice quivered despite her efforts to put on a brave front. Jerome crept closer to her, and she inched her way back until the back of her thighs bumped into the arm of the sofa.

  “Ah, he’ll be alright in a couple of hours,” he said touching her cheek. She flinched and knocked his hand away, but he grabbed her. His hand was like a vice-grip around her wrist as she struggled to pull away. “You’re e
ven more beautiful up close.” He held both her arms and pulled her toward him, slamming her body against his rock hard chest. When he lowered his revolting mouth to hers she scratched his face.

  “Why you little bi—”

  “Knock it off and tell me what you’ve done. Where is this bodyguard now?” David yelled.

  Jerome increased his hold on her and Dallas didn’t know what he’d do next. Instead of retaliating, he released her and caused her to stumble back.

  He turned to David. “I left him in the bathroom with a nice gash on the back of his head. Where do you want him?”

  David looked down at the papers in his hand and then back at Jerome. “Since I have what I want. You can do whatever the hell you want with him as long as you get them both out of here … now.”

  Dallas was going to be sick. It was all starting to come together. Jerome’s role in all of this was to do David’s dirty work.

  “What are you saying?” She croaked and watched David exit the office without responding, leaving her with Jerome.

  “That means I can finally have my way with you. I’ve wanted to tap that ass since the moment I laid eyes on you in Milwaukee.” His hands snaked around her waist and pulled her close to him.

  “Get your hands off of me!” she seethed. Her arms thrashed against him, pounding his chest, his shoulders, and she even managed to whack him one good time across the face. With that, he backed up, but not before she saw the raw fury in his eyes. “Please … just let me go. I promise I won’t say anything.”

  With the speed of lightning, the back of his hand came up and across her face with such force she fell back onto the sofa. He pounced on her, temporarily knocking the wind out of her, but she kept fighting. She cried out when he ripped her shirt open and kept swinging at him in an effort to get away, but he was too strong.

  “Get off of me!” They fell to the floor with him on top of her, a searing pain charged up her back. Yet, she continued to kick and scream to no avail. She couldn’t move him.

  “So you want to play rough huh? Baby, I like it rough,” he said and brought his mouth down over hers.

  She sputtered and spat, moving her head side to side to keep his lips from hers, as his large, callused hands explored under her shirt. Suddenly, through her tears, she saw Harmony ease up behind him with a lamp held over her head. Jerome must have seen something in Dallas’s eyes because he turned at the moment the lamp came down. He blocked the blow and pushed Harmony into a wall, knocking her out cold.

  “Harmony!” Dallas kicked him in the groin and tried to crawl away, but all it did was make him angrier. She cried out when he grabbed her bad leg and pulled her back, ripping her skirt in the process.

  “Help me!” she screamed. “Please, somebody help me!”

  “Shut up! Or so help me, I’ll give you something to really scream about,” Jerome said and slapped her.

  In the next second he was jerked off of her. Dizzy, Dallas attempted to scramble away, but stopped when she heard Tyler’s voice.

  “I am going to kill you!” he said in a low deadly tone, his hands wound tight around Jerome’s neck. She hadn’t heard Tyler come in and cried harder at the sight of him. Somehow he had found her.

  He threw Jerome down, slamming his face against the carpeted floor continuously, while maintaining a relentless hold around his neck. Jerome clawed at Tyler’s hands in an effort to get free, but Tyler wouldn’t let up. It wasn’t until Jerome’s movements ceased that Tyler went for the gun he had tucked in the back of his waistband.

  In a flash of an eye, Jerome heaved Tyler off of him, causing Tyler’s gun to fly across the room. Tyler crashed hard into the corner of her desk.

  Dallas screamed and crawled toward his gun, but Jerome was faster. He kicked it away and pulled his own gun from under his pant leg. She froze. A cold chill crept up her spine when he pointed the gun at her.

  “This has been fun and all,” Jerome said, his breathing labored as he wiped his bleeding nose with the back of his free hand. “But it ends here.” He turned the gun on Tyler. “Which one of you wants to die first?”

  ****

  Still somewhat dazed from hitting his head against the edge of the desk, Tyler struggled to bring Jerome into focus through half opened lids. He had every intention of killing him when he walked in and saw him on top of Dallas.

  When he and Quinn arrived, the first person they saw when they exited the elevator was Hank stumbling down the hall holding the back of his head. Quinn ran to him while Tyler went in search of Dallas. The fine hairs on the back of his neck rose as he walked up to Dallas’s office door.

  Dallas’s tortured cry filtered through the large space as she begged for help. Tyler’s heart lodged in his throat when he saw what was going on and he lost it.

  “Please,” Dallas sobbed, bringing Tyler back to the present. “Please don’t shoot him. David already has the papers, and I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt him.”

  Seething anger, fueled by an adrenaline rush rippled through Tyler’s body. He wanted Jerome to die for putting her through all of this.

  “Oh, that’s very touching.” Jerome mocked Dallas. “I’m thinking that if I go ahead and kill your boyfriend, then I can have my way with you without any interruptions. Or better yet, maybe I’ll tie him up, and make him watch while I familiarize myself with your juicy body. First I’ll finish what I started and rip off the rest of your clothes, and then I’ll let my tongue explore your baby soft skin. And then, when I have you screaming my name and begging for more, I’m going to fu….”

  “Grrr,” Tyler growled and plowed into Jerome. His heart pounding, his head throbbing, he’d die before he allowed Jerome to put his hands on Dallas again.

  They slammed hard into the wall then tumbled to the floor wrestling for the gun. Tyler punched him in the face then straddled him, hammering Jerome’s gun carrying hand against the floor.

  Jerome fought back, a relentless hold on his gun while he struggled beneath Tyler, both unwilling to give up. But Tyler’s blood ran cold when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dallas go for his gun. “No!” he yelled when Jerome twisted his body and pointed his own gun at her.

  The gun went off with a jolt, and Tyler tackled him again, not having a chance to see if Dallas was alright. He and Jerome, both their hands on the gun, rolled back and forth on the floor. Jerome shoved him against the wall, sending a sharp pain up his shoulder and to his neck, but Tyler wouldn’t let go, he couldn’t. He had to protect Dallas.

  Suddenly, a shot went off and Tyler jerked back. His head connected with something sharp and intense heat permeated through his shoulder and across his back. Dallas screams could be heard in the background, but he couldn’t move. Seconds later there was another shot and everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty

  Dallas sat in a chair next to Tyler’s hospital bed, her head rested on the mattress as she caressed his hand. The last few hours had been a nightmare that she was glad they’d survived.

  Tyler had saved her life. Had he not reacted as quick as he had she could’ve been the one lying in the morgue. She had watched in horror, as he and Jerome wrestled for control of Jerome’s gun. It wasn’t until she saw an opportunity to grab Tyler’s gun, a few feet away that she found the courage to move. But moments before she reached the gun Tyler screamed “no” and she froze. His heart wrenching, agony filled command immobilized her with fear but saved her life. Jerome’s gun had gone off and missed her by inches.

  Jerome had quickly gotten the upper hand. He knocked Tyler into the wall, rolled on top of him, and then Dallas’s heart stopped. The gun was pointed at Tyler’s chest. A second later the gun fired. She screamed and on instinct dived for Tyler’s gun, but never had a chance to use it. Everything happened so fast. When she looked up, Quinn had appeared out of nowhere and shot Jerome without batting an eye. That one shot sent Jerome straight to hell.

  “How are you holding up?” Quinn asked, interrupting her thoughts as he an
d Harmony walked into the room.

  “I’m doing alright,” she stood and hugged Harmony. She hadn’t seen her since they’d arrived at the hospital. The doctor had insisted on running some tests on her because of the blow to the head. “And are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. You know how hard my head is. It’s going to take a lot more than that to do any major damage.” Dallas smiled and hugged her again.

  “Were you able to reach Tyler’s parents?” Dallas asked Quinn and reclaimed her seat next to Tyler.

  He shook his head. “Nah, but I caught up with Skylar and she said she’ll find them and they’ll head down here. And before you ask, Hank is fine.” Though Jerome had caught him off guard - attacking him from behind, Hank wasn’t out long. By the time Quinn found him, he’d had David restrained in his office, and was on his way to Dallas’s office.

  Massaging Tyler’s hand, she said to Quinn, “Thank you for what you did for Tyler tonight.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’d do anything for him. He’s like a brother to me. Anyway,” he shrugged, “I have no doubt you would’ve blown Jerome away had I not stepped in. Your training showed in how you held the gun. Considering the situation, you looked very much in control.”

  Dallas hadn’t felt in control. She had never been so afraid in her life, but like Quinn, she too would’ve given up her life to save Tyler. Even if it meant killing Jerome with my bare hands.

  ****

  Tyler opened his eyes slowly. He knew by the tubes attached to his hand and the beeping sounds coming from the machines that he was hooked up to, that he was in the hospital. He drew in a painful breath as he remembered what had landed him there.

  In the next moment his heart rate increased and his eyes grew large with fear when he remembered Jerome’s gun going off. Dallas. He tried to sit up, but was halted when a sharp pain in his shoulder rooted him in place. It was also at that moment he saw Dallas sitting next to him, her head resting on the bed and her hand covering his. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed her the moment he’d awaken.