by Lisa Bilbrey
“How big of a discount?” she asked, but then put her hand up. “Never mind. I don’t really care.”
“Yes, you do. Ten percent off my commission. The company won’t lose a dime, honey.”
“I wasn’t worried about that,” she argued, but when he raised an eyebrow, she knew he didn’t believe her. “What’s for dinner?”
“Why don’t you check for yourself?” Derek snickered, reaching over and pulling it up. A carton of her favorite dish from Chang’s Chinese Palace: chicken cashew with steamed rice. There was also an eggroll and three fried dumplings on her plate.
“It’s like you know me or something,” Elle teased.
“Well, you are a creature of habit,” Sadie chirped. “You’ve got so many tells, it’s hardly difficult to read you.”
“Like what?” Elle asked.
“Like when you’re trying to keep from blushing, you tend to bite your lip,” Callum said, reaching over and tugging her lip from between her teeth. “For example.”
“Touché,” she said, giggling. “What else?”
“When you’re scared, you push people away,” Sadie whispered, and when Elle shifted her attention to her, she frowned. “Like you are right now.”
“What is this? An intervention? Thought this was supposed to be a romantic night out?” Elle quipped, reaching for her cane, but Derek pulled it away before she could grab it. “Give it to me.”
“No,” he said with force. “You’re going to sit there and listen to us.”
“Why? So, you can tell me how much I suck? Don’t worry, I’ve gotten the message. I’m letting everyone down. I’m a horrible wife and an even worse mother,” she groused, her emotions getting the best of her. “Just let me go already!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Callum said, sliding out of his chair and wrapping his arms around Elle. “None of that is true. None of it.”
“Yes, it is,” she muttered. “I can’t do anything right anymore.”
“No, baby, no,” he insisted. “Are we worried? Yes, but none of us think you’re a bad wife or mother. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Elle, beautiful, look at me,” Derek said, placing his hand on top of her knee. She shifted her eyes up to his. “We’re worried about you.”
“Everyone is worried about me,” she murmured, trying to stop her tears from falling. “You, the parents, Ivy and Nick. Hell, Aaron even emailed me this week and jumped my ass about me being a bitch,” she quipped. “But nobody has asked how I’m doing. Asked and really, truly wanted to know. I’m supposed to be strong and brave and not admit that I’m terrified all the time, because once again, someone has me in their sights.”
Elle paused, shaking her head. “Why? That’s all I want to know. Why me? What did I do to make this person think they should fuck with me?”
“Nothing. You did nothing,” Sadie insisted. “You never did.”
“I must have,” she snarled. “Leo beat me and called me a whore, tried to rape me, to kill me. Trixie blamed me for everything bad in her life, and when that wasn’t enough, she literally tried to be me. And now, there’s someone else. What’s the common factor? Me.”
“No,” Callum said, placing his fingers under her chin and coaxing her around to talk to him. “It’s not you, Elle. These people: Leo, Trixie, whoever else, are fuckin crazy.”
“I see the way people look at me,” Elle murmured. “The cops think I’m the one who hurt Thomas, that I tried to kill Derek. We’ve lost clients. A lot of clients. And why? The pictures. I’ll never be respected again. I might as well just hand the company back over to Samuel and quit.”
“Wow,” Sadie murmured. “What some cheese with that whine?”
“Excuse me?”
“Sadie, stop,” Derek said, reaching for her, but Sadie pulled away.
“No, I won’t,” she exclaimed. “I’ve been here since the beginning, Elle. I held you when Leo turned on you, I held you when had nightmares for months, when just the idea of dating sent you into panic attacks. I was there, remember?”
Elle didn’t reply.
“And we were there when Trixie tried to kill you. We,” she said, gesturing to Callum and Derek, “were there to hold you, to nurture you, to calm your fears. You sit there and act like we don’t understand, but we do. Hell, we’re scared, too!”
“You are?” Elle asked as a tear slid down her face.
Sadie’s expression softened. “Of course we are. Whoever this person, or persons, is, they’ve proven they’re in it for the long game. First, Thomas and then Derek. Now, what? They’re taking pictures of you, of us, of the girls? I’m terrified to let them out of my sight for a second.”
“Me, too,” Elle cried.
“Have we given you the impression that we aren’t worried?” Derek asked.
Elle shrugged her shoulders. “Kind of.”
“Oh, beautiful, that’s simply not the case,” he said, shaking his head. “When I saw that car coming at me, I thought I was going to die. I thought about you and Sadie, about Callum, about the girls. I was going to miss everything. Their high school graduations, college, marriage, babies. I mean, I want to be a grandfather, and spoil those babies.”
“Ugh, grandbabies,” Callum groaned. “The thought of having grandbabies creeps me out.”
“Why?” Derek laughed.
“Because that means Flora and Willow would have had sex and I can’t handle that.”
Derek gagged. “Dude.”
“Just saying,” he pointed out, shifting his attention to Elle. “We’re scared, too, and the more you pull away, the harder you run, the more scared we get that we won’t be there to protect you.”
“I don’t mean to push you away,” she admitted. “I really don’t, but . . . Well, I guess I wonder how much more you’re going to put up with.”
“What do you mean?” Sadie asked.
“Ever since the four of us got together, it seems like I’ve caused more trouble than good.” And when they opened their mouths to argue, she put her hand up and stopped them. “My mom at the wedding, almost losing Alvarez Park, Claudia and Bruce, Trixie, her going after Samuel, losing myself to my anger, Ivy being pissed because I was pregnant when she wanted nothing more than to have a baby. . .” Elle sighed. “I hate being the center of attention. I hate people staring at me. We’ve spent the last five years rebuilding our lives after Trixie. It took months for the press to finally leave us alone, but now, we can’t even walk outside without them in our faces. I’ve gotten so much hate mail and emails from clients accusing me of being a wicked woman, demanding that I repent, calling me a whore.”
“And you think we’re just going to what? Give up on you?” Derek asked. “We’ve spent the last six years fighting to keep you, fighting to prove that there is nothing abnormal about the way we love each other, and now, you just think we’re going say, ‘oh, well, I’ve had my fill.’? Is that really what you think?”
“Sometimes,” she admitted. “Why would you keep putting up with me?”
“Because we love you,” Sadie said.
“And because we need you,” Callum added.
“And because you need us,” Derek quipped. “Don’t you?”
“I do,” she admitted.
Derek slid off his chair and knelt next to her, taking her hands in his. “We’re dealing with a lot of shit. This person, or persons, is batshit crazy. I wish I could promise you that everything is going to be okay, but I can’t. We’ve learned that shit happens, but I can promise that no matter what, we — me, Callum, and Sadie — will never, ever stop loving you. That we — me, Callum, and Sadie—will never, ever, get tired of putting up with your bullshit.”
“Never?” she whimpered.
“Ever,” he vowed.
“No matter how hard you push us away,” Sadie cried, scrambling around the table and draping her arm around Derek, while placing her other hand on her cheek.
“Or how hard you run, because, baby, we’re faster,” Callum added with a
smile.
“I’m sorry if I’ve been difficult,” she cried, holding on to each of them as tight as she could. “I’m just so scared. Something about this one feels . . . bad.”
“For us, too,” Callum said. “Which is why I’m going to hire someone to watch the girls at school.”
“You are?” Elle asked.
He nodded. “The pictures . . . they really spooked me, and since we can’t lock them away at home, I think we need someone to keep an eye on them when we can’t. I’ve already talked to the school. They’re fine with it, as long as we foot the bill of course, and whoever we hire has to pass a background check, but that’s kind of a no brainer.”
“But who do we trust with our girls?” Elle asked. “Because I don’t trust anyone right now.”
And for that, nobody had an answer.
Twelve
“Tell me why you picked him,” Elle asked, nervously tapping her nails on the kitchen table as she watched Callum mixing the girls’ oatmeal.
Callum sighed and turned toward her. “Again?”
“Yes, yes, I know. I’m OCDing hard right now. Just tell me.”
“After sorting through more than a dozen possible bodyguards for the girls,” he said, giving Elle a look, “I picked Andrew Flynn for several reasons. First, he spent twenty years in the Marines. He’s a certified black belt in Karate. Second, he has spent the last decade working in private security, and most of those years were protecting children. He’s never let one of his kids get as much as a scratch on them. Third, he has excellent references, all of whom I called and had nothing but the best things to say about him.”
Elle nodded. “And you really feel we need to have someone at the school with the girls?”
Callum placed the bowl of oatmeal on the counter and walked over to the table, sitting in the chair next to Elle. “I’d like to think whoever is after you, would look at those two beautiful, little girls and know that they are out of bounds, but I don’t. Since I can’t be with them at school every minute of the day, and neither can you, Sadie, or Derek, hiring Andrew is the next best thing.”
“But we don’t know him,” Elle fretted. “What if he’s the person after me? We could be falling right into his trap.”
“Why would he want to hurt you?”
“Why would anyone?” she asked, exasperated. “Yet, here we are again. Same fucked up bullshit, different psychopath.”
Callum frowned. “Yeah, I know. Just trust me when I say that Andrew will protect the girls with his life.”
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,” Elle whispered mostly to herself, but she knew Callum heard her.
Half an hour later, he and Elle had the girls in the backseat of his car and were on their way to the school. Sadie had had an early meeting across town, and seeing as none of them were allowed to go anywhere alone, Derek went with her. They’d already met Andrew the week before when Callum interviewed him.
Samuel had offered to babysit Elle — his words, not hers — because she had a meeting with a potential new client. Seeing as they had lost dozens of accounts thanks to the nude photos scandal, they needed any account they could get, but she hadn’t heard from them since the meeting, which meant they probably weren’t getting the account.
“Mommy!” Willow screamed, startling Elle.
She turned in her seat to yell at her daughter, but stopped herself when she realized they were parked in front of the girls’ school and both girls and Callum were waiting for her get out of the car.
“Oh, sorry,” she murmured, cursing herself for not paying attention. It was no wonder that a psychopath had gotten close enough to take pictures of her with the ones she loved. She let herself get lost in her thoughts way too much.
“It’s okay, Mommy,” Willow said with a smile. “I daydream all the time during reading. Mrs. Morrow keeps telling me to get my head out of the clouds, but I don’t understand what she means. My head has never been in the clouds!”
Elle laughed softly as she climbed out of the car. “She means you need to pay attention in class, silly girl.”
“But that’s no fun,” Willow giggled as she slipped her hand into Elle’s.
“No, it’s not.”
Unlike the first day of school, the hallways were much less crowded. Teachers stood in the doorway to each classroom, hustling kids inside and telling them to get ready for the day. Each one made eye contact with Elle, some scowling at disappointment with her chosen lifestyle, others smiling politely. Elle hated both of them.
As they rounded the corner toward Flora and Willow’s classroom, Elle felt her shoulders tense. Standing just outside the door was a large man, easily over six and a half feet. He had large thick arms, a rock-solid chest, and thighs that were each bigger than Elle’s waist. His blond hair had been shaved along the sides and back and the top was short, a true Marine cut. He shifted his eyes from Callum to Elle and down to Flora and Willow, smiling at the two little girls.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice firm yet kind at the same time. “I’m Mr. Flynn. You must be Flora and Willow Davis.”
“How’d you know our names?” Flora asked, her eyes narrowing.
Andrew smiled wider. “You’re the only two who haven’t checked in yet. Mrs. Morrow has been nice enough to let me assist in her class for a while.”
“So,” Willow said, slowly, “you’re going to be our teacher, too?”
“Kind of,” he said, chuckling. “Why don’t you go inside while I meet your mom and dad?”
“Okay,” the girls said together, and rushed into the classroom without as much as a hug or a kiss. Elle hated that they trusted this stranger so much, yet at the same time, here she was leaving her daughters with him.
Andrew waited until they were in the classroom before he shut the door and turned his attention to Callum and Elle. “You must be Elle. I wish we were meeting under different circumstances.”
“Me, too,” she admitted. “I’ve been told you’re very good at your job.”
“I’m not good,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m the best. The very best, and I’m giving you my word right here, right now, that I will protect those girls.”
“Even if that means giving up your life?” Elle asked.
“Absolutely. From this moment on, my goal in life is to keep those two little girls happy and healthy.”
The amount of conviction in his words moved Elle nearly to tears, but she managed to keep them from falling. Instead, she simply nodded and gestured for him to get started. As she and Callum walked back down the hallway and out of the building, Elle felt the tension in her shoulders tighten. Was she a horrible mother for relying on someone else to protect her daughters? Wasn’t that supposed to be her job?
—FA—
Elle found herself lost in her own thoughts as Callum drove them to the office. Or so she thought they were heading to work. It turned out, however, that they were headed to their favorite coffee joint. It rivaled the big named chains that banked on their brand rather than the quality of their product.
“What are we doing here?” Elle asked, shifting in her seat as Callum parking in one of the empty spaces.
“I need coffee.”
“We have coffee at the office,” she pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
“I know, but not this coffee.” Callum quickly slipped of the car and rushed around to open her door, even though she was quite capable of handling the job herself. “Come on. Let me spoil you a little.”
Elle sighed, but nodded. “Fine. Who am I refuse an offer so enticing?”
Callum smiled and helped her out of the car, keeping his arm around her waist until she had her cane supporting her. Even then, he left his hand on the small of her back as he led her inside. Her attention was immediately pulled to her left when she saw Sadie and Derek sitting with Leigh, Tyson, and most surprisingly, Thomas.
Unsure why her legs were trembling, or why she felt the urge to flee, the five of them stood as Callum nudged
Elle forward, but she resisted.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, addressing her question to everyone, but keeping her eyes locked on Thomas.
Nobody spoke as they shifted their attention between her and Thomas, who frowned. The bruises around his eyes, his jaw, and below his left ear were turning a deep purple.
In fact, it was Thomas who answered her. “I came to talk to you.”
“How’d you know I would be here?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and gestured toward Derek and Sadie. “They might have suggested this would be the best place to meet.”
“Oh.” Elle sucked the inside of her lip between her teeth as she finally shifted her eyes from him and onto Leigh and Tyson, both of whom didn’t appear glad to be there. “I, um, I need coffee.”
“You sit,” Callum said, gently nudging her toward the chair Sadie had been sitting in. “I’ll get you a coffee, and then the five of us will give you two a few minutes alone.”
“Okay.”
A few minutes later, Elle was seated in the chair across from Thomas and their loves were hovering around a table on the other side of the small shop. Close enough if either of them started freaking out, but not close enough to hear what they were saying. She hoped, at least.
Elle took a sip of her coffee before placing it on the table between them. “I, um, I don’t what to say,” she admitted. “Are you okay?”
“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “Not physically, mentally, emotionally. I’m scared all the time, Elle.” Thomas paused. “When she came up to me, I didn’t recognize her.”
“Who?” Elle asked, regretting it the moment the word left her mouth. “Who took you, Thomas? Did you know her?”
Thomas closed his eyes. “I had never met her, but . . . I’d seen her picture in the paper, in the news.” His eyes opened and he looked right at her. “Six years ago, she was arrested after she broke into the home of Samuel and Lydia Davis and assaulted Samuel. This was just months after she broke into Davis Architecture and Design and fired two bullets into you.”
Elle gasped, her hands clenching into fists. “It was . . . It was Trixie Maxwell?”
