Entangled (Vice Games)

by Cooper, Alice

  ‘Tristan!’ I screamed. He clutched his bleeding shoulder as Lauren stood there speechless at what she’s done. The noise caught the attention of the hospital staff and within seconds nurses rushed in. The security guards had to wrestle Lauren to the ground as they took the gun off her. I found myself running beside Tristan’s bed as they rolled him into the emergency bay.

  Anna found me covered in blood and was shocked by the sight of me seated on the bench, shaking with confusion. Her assessing psychiatrist was with her.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  I looked up at her and then to Anna.

  ‘Lauren shot Tristan,’ I managed to utter. I felt a sharp pain jolt through me as tears burst out from my eyes. At first the pain was in my heart but it quickly moved down my spine. I could not control myself and Anna swore as she recognized the signs. It must have been strange for her to see it happen to another person.

  ‘She’s having a panic attack,’ she said. Anna knelt down in front of me and took my hands. She was unusually calm about it until she realized that I was dripping blood down my legs.

  ‘Shit,’ she said.

  Chapter 20 – A union of broken souls

  I must have passed out because when I woke up again, I saw Lorraine on the couch on the edge of my bed. Ruth had been called back and as Tristan’s lawyer, she arranged for everything. The trauma of seeing Tristan shot made me lose the child. A strange emptiness filled me as I lay on the hospital bed alone.

  ‘How is he?’ I asked when Lorraine noticed that I was awake.

  ‘He is safe.’

  Lorraine placed her arms around as I cried. Although it was comforting, it did not have the same effect as when Tristan wrapped his arms around me. I felt useless and dejected.

  I remained under observation at the hospital for three more days. Tristan slipped in and out of consciousness as the morphine moved through his system. The police got involved and I soon found myself giving statements about the events that occurred and things that led to Tristan being shot.

  As expected, Karen used this opportunity to attempt at gaining control over the assets but Tristan had been quick in his arrangements.

  ‘He’s named you as the heiress,’ Ruth informed me.

  ‘But he’s not dead,’ I pointed out to her.

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘though he’s made it clear that if anything happened to him or if he is rendered unconscious in any way, you are to gain full control over everything.’

  Despite this, I did very little in the next few months as Tristan recovered. Ruth was efficient and I wondered why I hadn’t met her earlier. She became my point of contact for everything and worked hard to keep Anna out of Karen’s greedy clutch. It did not take long for the lawyer’s assurance to come true. She had been right when she said that we had a strong case against the Vices.

  On Tristan’s orders, Lorraine for Tristan’s seaside beach house to be opened and Jace moved our things there. Being away from the city and hidden from Karen’s meddling saved our sanity. Anna hid with us and only Ruth knew of our whereabouts. Her injunction went through and the Vices could not touch anything. Tristan conducted his business through his laptop and I felt useless as I loitered about doing nothing. The court case for Anna’s custody was already in movement and we estimated by the time everything became processed, Anna would be a legal adult.

  Three months passed quickly. I cracked a false reassuring smile every now and then but could not bring myself to slip into bed with Tristan. We spent our nights in separate rooms and although this was concerning for Anna, she did not force me into her brother’s arms. She knew what had happened and it was strange to have to our roles reversed. Anna kept an eye on me as I sat quietly and stared out with a glassy soul. Tristan had saved my life but the life of our child was still taken nevertheless. So this is what depression feels like – an intense emptiness that threatened to drown me with a sense of stupidity and uselessness. I sat curled up on the porch and stared out into the dark night sky. Tristan came out and sat down next to me.

  ‘Hey,’ he started.

  I couldn’t look at him and had been avoiding his gaze since the incident. I closed my eyes and he leaned over and kissed my eyelids. I allowed his lips to touch my numb skin and it was warmed momentarily. He then took up my hand and ran his fingers over mine.

  ‘You’re not wearing your ring,’ he said softly.

  ‘I can’t.’

  He understood why. There was no need for words. Although I only knew about the child for about a day, the loss still lingered in the corners of my mind. He lifted up my hand and kissed it. A riveting sensation moved through my skin. It has been a while since I felt the electricity of his touch. The sound of waves crashed against the shoreline and there was something peaceful about it.

  ‘Let’s start again,’ he said to me. ‘Out here by the beach.’

  I opened my eyes and turned to look at him. ‘Tristan, why am I still here?’

  He leaned over and kissed me, our lips interlocking mine and melted my soul. It woke up a part of me that I was convinced had died.

  ‘Because I need you,’ he whispered. ‘My family’s a mess and you’re the only stable thing in my life.’

  He took out a small box and I recognized it. It was the same box he had pulled out of his suit jacket several months ago.

  ‘Marry me,’ he said as he looked into my eyes and there was the magic again. The world no longer existed and there was only him. His life is indeed one big mess because of Elliot Vice and his wife. But that didn’t matter. Not anymore. I felt my heart beat once again. He was asking me because he cared for me and not for anything other reason. It was not because of Anna or because he needed a pawn. I saw that Tristan simply wanted me.

  I nodded in agreement. He leaned over and kissed me. In the darkness of the night, I knew that my decision had sealed my fate and no matter what, we would always be together. I returned to his bed that night and for the first time laid eyes on the scar on his left shoulder. I ran my fingers gently over the healed wound, a blemish that marked his smooth ivory skin.

  ‘No heavy lifting for a while,’ he said with a grin as he moved his body over mine. We kissed and I was alive once again.