DADDY AT THE ALTAR

by Claire St. Rose

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. “I’m worried.”

  “I’m fine, really,” I said and got up. My head spun again, but I managed to keep my balance. A white piece of paper on the floor drew my attention, and I squinted and picked it up. When I turned it over it was a business card, one with Daniel and Ruby’s face on, the same as the one he’d given me. I frowned and climbed into the open door of my car. “Go on in. I’ll go home and sleep,” I said to Hamilton.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “A business card,” I said.

  She nodded and finally left as well. I pulled out my phone, closed my car door, and dialed Daniel’s number.

  “Hello?” he asked, sounding like he didn’t know who he was talking to—even though I was on caller ID.

  “Daniel,” I said. “We need to talk.”

  “Those are never good words, coming from a woman.”

  He sounded serious. I was, too, but not about the same thing, even though he hadn’t exactly treated me right. I wasn’t in the mood for having any kind of relationship talk though. Not when something big like this was going down.

  “I was just injected with the same drug that’s been doing the rounds.”

  “What?”

  I had his attention now.

  “I’m okay, but there’s something you need to know.”

  “What?” he asked, and I thought of the pale face he’d had when he’d seen Taylor on the bed that first time. I would never forget how lost and forlorn he’d looked.

  “There was a business card on the ground next to me when they managed to pull me through.” I swallowed hard, my throat sore. “It’s one of yours. With you and Ruby on it.”

  It felt like just saying her name made my throat worse.

  Daniel was quiet for so long I wasn’t sure he’d heard me.

  “Are you there?”

  “I’m here,” he said, and his voice was brittle. “And I swear if I find out who did this there will be hell to pay. This isn’t funny anymore.”

  “Daniel, you’re scaring me,” I said. This was a side of him I didn’t know.

  “It’s not you that should be scared, sweetheart. It’s whoever’s doing this. They’ve taken it one step too far.”

  He was really starting to scare me, talking the way he was. It sounded like he wanted to take someone out, and judging by what he looked like—even though I was being stereotypical—that didn’t seem impossible.

  “Daniel …”

  “You don’t worry about a thing, Emily,” he said. “I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to make sure you’re safe. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

  I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. He hung up without saying goodbye. I started the engine and drove slowly home. It was nice of him to say that he would look after me. He was a great guy, and it was good to know that he still cared, after all. But I didn’t feel safe. I felt very far from it. I had just been attacked. This was getting a lot closer to home, and it was really started to freak me out.

  I kept on looking in my rearview mirror, making sure I wasn’t being followed. I was almost a hundred percent sure now that the car following us that night and what had happened now were linked. If it was the case, then it wasn’t safe anywhere. Not at home, not where I worked, nowhere.

  Daniel said he would look after me, but he wasn’t even in town. We hadn’t spoken since the club and the sex and the scare that had given me. I didn’t know how he was going to look after me being somewhere else.

  I didn’t know how we were going to fix all of this.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Daniel

  I didn’t catch the last guy. I already had two down, but when I got that call from Emily I made a beeline home. She needed me. Someone else could catch the crook that had managed to beat the system and get away.

  It took me half a day to get back to town which was already too much. Who knew what could have happened in the time it took me to travel all the way back?

  I called Taylor when I was in town.

  “You know anything about Ruby?” I asked him.

  “I haven’t heard from her or seen her. Why?”

  “I can’t get a hold of her. Don’t worry about it.”

  I didn’t want to tell Taylor more than he needed to know. He was already too much a part of this, not just because he’d been hit but also because he knew that I cared about Emily—and I was starting to think that, on some level, he care about her, too.

  I drove straight to Emily’s apartment without stopping at home.

  I’d never been upstairs. When I was buzzed in, I went up to the door Emily had told me, but it wasn’t Emily who’d opened the door. It was her roommate. Her face when she saw me suggested she knew a lot more about my relationship with Emily than just the fact that we were involved.

  “Well,” Sarah said with a cheeky smile. “If isn’t Mr. Leather and Looks himself.”

  Leather and Looks?

  “Is Emily in?” I asked. Sarah chuckled and opened the door wider so that I could come in. Emily appeared behind her. She looked pale, her skin washed out against her brown hair and her eyes had dark circles beneath them.

  “I wasn’t expecting you,” she said in a hoarse voice.

  “I had to come.”

  Sarah made a sound and then disappeared to the kitchen.

  “I’m putting on coffee,” she called. “You guy go and talk, I’ll bring it.”

  Emily smiled and held out her hand. I took it and she led me to her bedroom. When I walked into the room, it was the opposite of anything I’d ever owned. There was so much white, with billowing curtains and puffy pillows and sun falling in through the window that it made my head ache. This was the kind of place my mom would have liked.

  There was a desk in the corner filled with stacks of papers and a photo frame lying face down.

  Emily got onto the double bed and nestled down into the pillows. I sat down on the edge, aware of my leather and my hard lines among all the soft shades of white.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  Emily shrugged. “I’ve been better. At least I’ll know what to expect as I go on.”

  I nodded. It killed me that she had to go through this. I thought about the business card Emily had found.

  “Can I ask you exactly what’s in the injection?”

  Emily frowned, got up off the bed, and walked to her desk. She sifted through some papers until she found the one she was looking for.

  “Crystal meth, methanol, embalming fluids, and formaldehyde.”

  I frowned. “Formaldehyde? Isn’t that something they use at mortuaries?”

  Emily nodded. “And embalming fluid. It’s really not supposed to be inside living bodies.”

  I pushed my hands into my hair and sighed.

  “This is even worse that I thought.”

  Emily sat down on the bed again and pulled a blanket half over her legs. She looked exhausted. Exhausted and beautiful against the white pillows. She didn’t say anything; she waited for me to go on. So I did.

  “Ruby works at the mortuary at night now and then,” I said. That was the most important bit, after all. “She’s the kind of girl that fit into my life because she has hard edges.”

  When I said that Emily winced. I could see she was trying to hide it, and I knew this was uncomfortable for her, but it had to be said.

  “She has a nasty habit of roughing up the fugitives she gets ahold of. No one really said anything because they were all criminals and, well, we’d been dating for so long the gang kind of respected her.” I took a deep breath and looked down at my hands. Emily was competently quiet, and I didn’t know what she was thinking. “When I broke up with Ruby, I didn’t cut all ties because she’s got a business mind like I’ve never seen on anyone before. It was something we could use, seeing that we never really grew up with a lot.”

  I glanced at Emily. She nodded. There was no sympathy, which was nice. There was no judgment, either, which w
as a lot better.

  “Do you think she’s behind this?” Emily asked.

  I thought about the card next to my bike.

  “I think that she’s lost it. I think she’s trying to get back at me—and everyone I care about—because I dumped her. She’s gone to extremes. I’m scared of who she’ll get next. She’s already gotten to so many people I care about.”

  Emily’s eyes slid to the side, and I wondered what she was thinking about. Taylor? Herself? Maybe she was wondering if all this was worth it.

  “Well,” she said. “The upside is that she already got me. What are the chances she’ll try again?”

  “You didn’t die,” I said. It was a fact. In my world, that was the final product. It wasn’t in Emily’s, and when I looked up at her again, her face had paled.

  “I’m not going to leave your side until it’s safe, okay?” I said.

  She nodded and swallowed, wincing like it hurt.

  “I’m serious.” I shifted closer to her and kissed her forehead. “I’m going to stick to your side until we have this sorted out. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY Emily

  Daniel kept his word. He stayed. He didn’t leave my apartment without making sure I was safe wherever I needed to be. When I was going to be alone, it was either him or Taylor with me. He got his gang to follow me on their bikes on the way to work and on the way back. When I stopped at the hospital, I would wave at them—and only then could I do what I planned.

  But he didn’t make a nuisance of himself, either. He stayed in the apartment with us, but there was no reason to complain. He pulled his weight. He paid for his food. He even helped clean.

  “If his brother is half as good as he is, I’ll take him,” Sarah said one morning while Daniel was in the shower.

  “Maybe Taylor is a slob,” I said.

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Daniel is housetrained. Did you see him wash the dishes this morning? Next time you have a trauma case coming in, call me. I’m willing to help the hot relatives.”

  I chuckled. Sarah was loving the extra guest, the drama, and everything that created the intrigue. She didn’t know what was going on, of course. I didn’t want to involve her in business that had nothing to do with her. The less she knew, the better.

  ###

  The night of the great launch arrived. Daniel went back to his apartment to get ready. Sarah and I stayed behind to pretty ourselves up. Sarah wore a black sequenced dress that was way too short and she rocked it, making it look spectacular anyway. Her hair was curled behind her head up and off her neck, and she wore bright red lipstick to finish off the look with high heels that were so high I didn’t know how she could balance in them.

  I wore something a little less daring. A red dress that flared from an empire waist with black wedges, and I had my hair half-up, half-down. The dress came to just below my knee and crossed over the front.

  Black jewelry and dark makeup with it and we were ready to go.

  “Look at you, all power-dressed,” Sarah said, coming out of her room.

  “And look at you, all prowling.”

  We laughed together. There was a knock on the door, and when Sarah got it, the boys walked in.

  Daniel looked dashing in a pair of faded designer jeans, a shimmery black shirt, and square toe shoes that I didn’t even know someone like him could own. I tilted my head up and kissed him.

  “You look stunning,” he said.

  “You clean up really well, too.”

  We smiled at each other. Sarah groaned, and I looked at her. She stood next to Taylor who was fidgety and nervous. He had none of the swag Daniel rocked, but he looked really good, too. His darker hair and faded eyes stood out against a blue shirt that was the exact shade as his eyes, and he wore a black pair of jeans and heavier boots.

  “We are going to be hottest couples tonight,” Sarah said.

  Taylor blushed when she said “couple.”

  We went to the bar together. There was already a crowd outside. We slipped around the back and unlocked a back door where we slipped in. The inside was stunning.

  “Oh, my God, Sarah. This is fantastic,” I said turning around, looking at everything. She’d gotten the perfect combination down, a mix between retro vinyl and modern chic. The walls were all paneled wood, except for one that was a deep red. There were modernist paintings of old stars on the walls, and old records had been broken and reassembled to carry through with the abstract idea.

  The bar was polished and gleaming. I glanced at Daniel, and he was already looking at me, and judging by the dark look in his eyes, he was thinking about the same thing. He winked at me, and I blushed.

  “I’m just going to make sure the bouncers are ready, and then we’ll open the doors,” Sarah said and disappeared through the back again. I turned to Daniel.

  “Thanks for coming to this thing with me,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”

  “I wouldn’t miss a chance to see you dressed up,” he said and smiled.

  “And thanks to you, too, Taylor,” I said to the little brother, who leaned against the bar looking out of place.

  We waited. The time ticked on.

  “Shouldn’t Sarah be back by now?” I asked. “She’s been gone for a long time now.”

  Daniel looked around. “I’ll go check it out.”

  He disappeared through the back, too. I looked at Taylor. He looked very relaxed, leaning against the bar. I was nervous. Seemed like I was the only one.

  Daniel came back a moment later.

  “She’s not out back. Don’t you want to try her cell?”

  I pulled out my phone and called her. The line was busy all three times I tried.

  “Maybe she’s doing last minute arrangements.”

  My phone rang just as I said it, and it was Sarah’s number.

  “Thank God,” I said and answered. “Where are you?”

  “Hello, Emily,” a voice said that I didn’t recognize. It was rich and silky, and something about it was sinister.

  “Who is this?”

  “I’ve got your friend, Sarah. If you want to see her again, you’ll do as I say.”

  “What? Who is this?”

  “Bring Daniel. I’m going to send you an address. The two of you are going to meet me alone if you want nothing to happen to Sarah.”

  I looked at Daniel. He must have seen my face because his features became serious. The line went dead. A moment later a text came through with an address.

  “She’s got Sarah,” I said. My voice came out in a croak, and my throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper when I swallowed. “She’s got Sarah.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Daniel

  We stood in a bar that was set to open in less than half an hour, and the host had just been kidnapped. There was a queue of people outside and no one to receive them. We were all too strung out. Emily looked like she was going to collapse, and Taylor’s face was dark and brooding, the kind of face that suggested you shouldn’t look for trouble with him, not now.

  The atmosphere all around us was painful. The fear mingled with the smell of fresh varnish to create a toxic air that seemed to make Emily worse. It did the opposite for me. A strange calm came over me, but then again, that was usually how it worked with me. I’d been in enough situations that had hell written all over them to be able to keep a level head.

  At least, I thought I had that ability until Emily told me that “she” had her. And by “she” there was no one else it could possibly be—other than Ruby. The woman who was still in my picture somehow. The woman who always managed to make life difficult for me, whether it was about something big or something small.

  Or something monumental, as the case may be. This was a new level—even for her.

  It all added up. Ruby was missing. The business cards that were dropped everywhere whenever something significant happened…like Emily being poisoned and my tires being slashed. Warning signs that I hadn’t interpreted the right way. And no
w a message. It wasn’t rocket science. She was the only female who knew how to play this game. She was the only woman who would break all the rules, but in this round there were none. Not with her. You had to have morals for rules.

  Anger tackled me in waves. It started with a low heat under my skin bringing me to a slow boil. As the panic in Emily’s voice and on her face grew, the fury inside me kept right up until I was a furnace, waiting to explode. I’d been through a lot and lost a lot, but it hadn’t mattered because mostly the only person it affected was me. This time it was all about Emily, and my first priority had become to look after her.