“It made you angry.” I guessed.
“It made me furious.” He corrected. “I risk everything for this company.”
Liam sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. “So you decide to use innocent people in your personal issues with Paul Neil, and Neil Industries? Do you understand what you’ve done to this family? You traumatized two children for god sakes!”
“I didn’t know that he wasn’t—”
“And that makes it better?!” Ross snapped.
Silence. Roman Maxwell had nothing more to say, and he dropped his head again.
“Are you done with your questions Alyssa?” Danny asked pushing away from the wall with his foot and walking over to Adrian and me.
I nodded.
“Then your time is up.” Doc hissed pulling a silencer out of her pocket and screwing it on. “I want this shit done so I can get back to my son.”
“No, no, please.” He begged as Doc stalked over shoving the barrel against his temple. “Please, please, please” He rushed as she clicked the safety to the opposite side.
Though I had seen death countless times and didn’t blink in its presence, I shoved my face into Adrian’s chest my hands clenching his shirt. I heard the click that came along with making a gun able to fire and I couldn’t take it anymore. “Doc please no!”
My voice carried over a lot louder than Roman’s pleading, and it got all of my crew’s attention. Adrian grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back enough so that he could look at me. “Honeyface?”
I looked up at him, and his sweet eyes were a mixture of concern and confusion. “Jail…please.”
“Are you serious? You don’t want to kill him?” Jackson asked in disbelief.
I walked over to Roman, kneeling at him. He barely looked at me, but Doc gaped at me in disbelief. “Roman.” I called again, looking up attempting to make eye contact with him. “Roman look at me. If you value your life listen. You will let them take you to jail. You will plead guilty to everything you were charged with and hire no one to come to your defense and give you any deals. You will spend your life in jail but you’ll live.” Roman weighed the pros and cons for a brief second, and when it seemed like he was going to decline my offer I pressed forward. “Please, don’t reject what I’m offering you. They will kill you Roman.”
Doc grabbed me by my arm pulling me up and to the side closer to her. She whispered in my ear, “You can’t be serious Alyssa.”
“Please Doc.” I requested, because I knew that only part of his asylum was mine to grant.
Doc looked over her shoulder at Roman, her chocolate colored eyes angry. Then looked back at me with confusion, “How can you want that, after everything we’ve done? Everything he’s done. This is Juan we’re talking about Alyssa.”
I nodded, understanding that though I knew part of how she felt I would never know the full extent. “You’re right Tawny. Do as you wish, just don’t become me in the process.”
Doc looked at him, and then at me again. She held up her gun, in his direction again. I turned away again, waiting for the silenced sound, and instead I heard the clicking of a safety returning to its place. “Call Cam and get him out of here. The only way I don’t shoot him now is if he’s sent far away from me.”
“I think that can be arranged.” Liam coughed picking up the phone and making a call to Agent Riley.
Chapter 32- Gravity Investigations
“Marry me, Alyssa," I whispered as my lips pressed to her temple.
"Yes, Adrian," She giggled, rolling her eyes at my umpteenth proposal, because now, it was just a joke.
Paul regained control of Neil Industries a little over a month ago, and her ring was back where it belonged; on her finger. With everything that happened on her last day, my poor girl was dragging her feet towards the chopper. The team and I took the liberty of loading up all of her things ourselves, so at the end of the day we could just make our exit.
We still hadn’t gotten back into normal cases, mainly because Alyssa wanted to give us all a break due to the past few months of not getting much of one. Alyssa was focusing on getting back to normal within our group as a whole before we moved on. It could take another week, another month; hell another year before she decided to get back to work and it wouldn’t make any difference to me.
“How many days are you going to ask me that?” She laughed pulling herself into my arms.
I kissed the top of her head and then tilted her chin up to look at me. “Until the day we say ‘I do’ baby.”
I pulled her sexy face to mine for another kiss and groaned when it didn’t last as long as I wanted, interrupted by a miniature nuisance. “Enough, enough, enough.” Tink ordered coming into Alyssa’s office with a handled shopping bag about three feet in size.
I looked down at the tiny woman, still not letting go of my girl. “Oh Tink, it’s you. For a second I was wondering why Juan was out of school so early.”
She poked out her tiny tongue, “I’m taller than Juan.”
“Not for long,” Alyssa added finally unwrapping her arms from mine, curiosity getting the best of her. “What’s in the bag?”
Tink’s face relit as she sat the bag on Alyssa’s desk. “Things that you will need in order to survive.”
This got my attention, and Alyssa’s. “What’s going on, more trouble?”
“Hell yes there is trouble.” She answered somewhat outraged. “Your wedding is less than six months from now and you’ve yet to pick a venue, guest list, caterer, cake, or even look at a dress.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes when her friend pulled out an album with “wedding planner” embossed on it in gold script, along with wedding books. “I still have time for all of this, don’t I?”
“No, no, no.” She insisted. “You have nowhere near enough time. It would take a miracle to get everything done in time.”
Alyssa ran her fingers through her dark hair, putting the wedding planner on the desk. She looked back at me, “Well we can always push back the wedding—”
“No we can’t.” I rushed. To be honest I didn’t care how we did it. We could be married in a church six months from now, or in a court house tomorrow, but I wasn’t going to wait another day after May 23rd.
“Nope, nope, nope.” Tink insisted backing me up. “You two have been at this too long as it is. You don’t need to change the date. What you need to do is get some help. You need someone that loves to plan things like this, a wedding coordinator.”
Alyssa looked at her tiny best friend and then up at me. “Do you think we can find one that will work with us on such short notice?”
I shrugged and chuckled. “I don’t know shit about this stuff baby. Though, I am pretty sure for the right price anyone can—”
“It can’t just be anybody.” Tink blurted in a rush, her tiny face almost pouting before she straightened her features. “I mean, you’re a very picky person Chance, and not very decisive when it comes to things like this.”
Alyssa’s eyebrows furrowed. “No I’m not. In fact, I’ve already decided my colors. Royal Blue and Black.” She said rather decisively, her head nodding once to emphasize.
Tink’s eyes widened. “You can’t have black as a central color for a wedding. Royal Blue? It’s a spring wedding, Alyssa.”
“But they’re my favorite.” She rebutted, winking at me as she watched Tink’s temper flare.
I laughed deciding to mess with the pixie even more. “Don’t worry darling, we’ll take it up with the wedding coordinator. I’m sure she can work out what you want.”
“But, your wedding planner should be like a friend. Someone that knows what you want, and takes away the stress of doing the grunt work. You don’t really get close to people Alyssa, so how will he or she ever know what you like?” Tink added, her face pouting even more.
By this point Alyssa was bent over in hysterics. It was obvious to anyone that knew, and didn’t know Tink what she wanted, she wanted the roll of wedding planner. “Margaux, stop, please
. I can’t take it. If you want plan my wedding, the job is yours.”
“Really, really, really?!” Tink burst wrapping her arms Alyssa’s torso. “I mean, it won’t just be me, Kristen, Joanne, and Tawny will help too.”
Alyssa nodded, “Yes, I trust you guys.”
“Good, good, good. I was hoping you would ask, because, the four of us have already come up with something.” She admitted sheepishly pulling out a wedding planner that matched Alyssa’s almost exactly, except the letters “Alyssa and Adrian’s wedding” were embossed on it instead. “Guy’s she said yes.” She called out towards the hallways that lead to the lobby.
In rushed Kristen and Tawny with all smiles. “I told you she would want our help.” Doc laughed smugly walking over to the desk as Tink opened her book that was already starting to overflow.
“Now based on the fact that you’re having a May wedding, we should go with the lighter color option.” Kristen suggested flipping towards the middle of the book.
Tink nodded, “And based on your skin tone, we decided that the central colors are pearl, honey, and lilac.”
“We have a few different venues with availability, so it’s a matter of picking inside or outside wedding.” Doc went on seamlessly, “Joanne thinks we should chose a venue that we can have an outside ceremony and indoor reception, and just in case the weather doesn’t permit, we are prepared.”
Chance looked through the pages in amazement, and then stared up at her friends in disbelief, “When did you guys do all of this?”
“When you said ‘yes’ of course.” Tink answered as if it were obvious. “We didn’t know when you were going to set a date, so we picked options for any season.”
Kristen nodded, “The best part is that they’re all completely customizable to you, you can pick as many or as little as you want change colors or whatever.”
“We aren’t trying to plan your day for you, just give you something to point you in the right direction.” Doc nodded.
Alyssa smiled, “You guys are the best. Where is Joanne so I can thank her?”
“She will be back in about an hour. She wanted to get some other sample shades in case you wanted something salmon themed or even a richer purple, maybe an eggplant.” Kristen reported.
Lilac, honey, pearl, eggplant, and salmon? Those were colors? I took that as my cue to leave the girls to their wedding planning because I would obviously be of no help.
“Those are colors?” Alyssa asked dryly.
I laughed, because my poor girl had the same thoughts as I did. “I’ll leave you girls to the wedding plans.”
I turned on my heels to vacate as soon as possible, and Alyssa grabbed the back of my shirt. I turned around to meet the most beautifully innocent face. Her mouth caught in a pout and her eyebrows puckered together, a face that wasn’t Alyssa’s at all. “Help me…” She pleaded in a low whisper after giving me a desperate peck on the lips.
I couldn’t help but laugh, because even if I wanted to stay and help her with the wedding plans, the girls would never have allowed it. “No, no, no. We can’t have girl talk with you him in here. Bye Adrian we’ll take good care of her.” Tink snorted, her tiny frame all but shoving me out of the door.
She barely had the door closed I heard her threaten, “No one is allowed in here but Joanne when she gets back.” She clicked the door shut after that.
There was a low whistle from the lobby. Hunter was sitting on the sofa, reading a paper, “Wedding plans huh?”
“Uh, yeah.” I shrugged walking over to the front desk, flipping through the mail to see if there was anything important.
He cleared his throat, “You excited?”
“I’m excited about the marrying her, not the wedding itself.” I clarified.
There was a short pause, and I realized that this was the first time we had talked about anything other than the case since our ‘conversation’ outside. We had an unspoken agreement not to piss either person off for the sake of Alyssa. She was the only thing the two of us had in common so it wasn’t hard for both of us to raise the white flag to save her. Hell even when she came back our truce held for the sake of the case and Alyssa’s sanity.
Now that the case was over, the terms of our truce had expirednot to mention the one thing that united us was the reason we hated each other. He wants Alyssa; I have Alyssa, so now the question was whether or not the white flags would remain.
“I’m sure Alyssa is getting excited,” Hunter speculated returning to his paper.
I scoffed at that, my poor fiancé was mortified at the thought of having to plan a wedding. She wasn’t into all things frilly and sweet, though she had a side like that privately, she was practical through and through. “I’m sure she has more dread than I do. She practically begged for me not to leave her alone in there. You’re supposed to be the one that knows her right?” I half- joked, smug that I knew my girl better than he did; childish I know but I didn’t give a damn.
“I do know her, and I’m telling you she’s excited.” Hunter replied simply, not even looking up from whatever article he was reading. “She may be a lethal soldier, but she’s still a woman. You should ask yourself, if she were really dreading the wedding so badly, why would she go through with a large ceremony rather than go to a justice of the peace tomorrow?”
I didn’t answer him right away, but when I did I turned to face him, “Because she wouldn’t want to let her friends down, and they want to make an occasion out of this.”
Hunter closed his paper, meeting my eyes, thoroughly amused. “Wrong, they want to make her happy. If Alyssa wanted a court wedding they would put her in the cutest sun dress they could find off the rack and drive her there personally. Though I agree she will need their help since she doesn’t know the first thing about centerpieces and catering, but she wants this.”
I didn’t have a response, because part of his argument made sense. I assumed that she wanted a private ceremony, but only chose a wedding because she knew my family wouldn’t let me hear the end of it, not that I would mind either way. But she picked the date, as well as agreed to the ceremony. How much of that was for me, and how much of that was for her? Hunter’s cocky chuckle pulled me out of my thoughts, “Why are you even here? The case is closed.”
“Easy, easy.” Hunter joked flicking his wrist as if waving an invisible flag. “I need some files from Dario; I have to actually do an ‘official’ report for looks. You started it anyway I’m around because Alyssa wants me around and neither one of us wants to hurt her now do we?”
“So I’m stuck with you…” I groaned at the thought.
He clapped a hand on my shoulder just before the bell sounded from someone opening the front door. “At least for now, but I’ll play nice for Alyssa’s sake. Hey Dario, you got a sec, I need some of the files you pulled on Maxwell.”
“Yeah man, they’re on my computer, come on back and I’ll pull em’ and print em’.” Dario offered, leading the way that Hunter already knew.
Jackson came in behind him, giving a quick glace to Hunter’s back and then to me. His eyes missed nothing. “Something going on?”
I shook my head. “He just irritates the hell outta me Jack.”
Jackson took a seat where Hunter once sat and I did the same in a chair across from him. “Look boss, I can’t pretend to understand how you feel in this, I mean if some guy came out of nowhere with the hots for my Margaux I don’t know how I’d react. Hell I’d probably shoot him first and figure out the rest later.”
I laughed at his joke, pretending to mull it over, “The thought crossed my mind, trust me. I just, don’t know how in the hell to compete with that amount of history.”
“So don’t compete.” Jackson shrugged like the shit was simple. “She is with you, and has been for over two years. You have a house together, you work together, fight together, and hell come May, you’re going to be married bro. There’s nothing to compete with, you won that girl long before we even left Cuba. Sure it’
s been tough, but trust me trying to compete with Hunter will only get her angry at both of you, and you’re the one that stands to lose the most.”
“I never thought about it that way.” I admitted. He was right, May 23rd was already marked as the day she would become my wife. It was only a matter of time before it happened. I had Alyssa, long before Hunter came into the picture, and I will as long as I didn’t screw it up with my possessiveness. “Thanks man.”
“No problem brother, it’s my job.” He chuckled.
I thought back to when Alyssa and I first started, how there was something that drew me to her even though she had tried to kill me before I had gotten a chance to know her. I remembered how annoyed I was when I watched her warm up to every single member of my crew one by one until I felt excluded. People had always flocked to me easilyblame it on my charisma, looks, or whateverbut it completely blew my mind that this girl would be the exception.
“What’s got you deep in thought?” Jackson asked throwing the remote to the lobby flat screen at me to get my attention.
I grinned, “Thinking about back when we first met the girls of Gravity.”
“What about it?” Jackson asked smirking, probably thinking of his own view of the memories.
“Back when we all first met,” I started, “I thought that it would be you and her.”
Jackson’s eyebrows shot up, “Chance and me?”
“It drove me nuts.” I divulged.
“Chance and me?” He repeated, a little more of his southern drawl smothering the sentence, and I could tell the thought never came to him.
Macon came in with a brown paper bag full of food. Why we were all assembling in the Gravity office when Chance gave us the day off was beyond me, but I welcomed the six pack he pulled from the top of the bag. “What we talking about?” He asked handing us beers.
Jackson popped his open, “Let me ask you something man,” he took gulp before continuing his sentence. “Did you ever feel like something would happen with Chance and me?”
The Law of Motion (Law Series) Page 52
