After the prosecutor reads out the allegations, defence counsel responds. Before long, the judge is perusing the documents before him. Every one sits very quietly awaiting his decision. Aliah seems to be fidgeting a little more than the rest.
“Miss Hawkins. You shall not associate or communicate directly or indirectly with Miss Aliah Brooklin or Mr. David H. Gates. You shall abstain from possessing a firearm until a decision has been rendered. The restraining order stands. You shall report to an officer at the specified times. If you violate the terms, you will be right back in here so fast it will make your head spin. Do you understand, Ms. Hawkins?”
Brandee nods her head repeatedly, putting on a good show.
“Bail is set at sixty-five thousand dollars.”
“I object,” Wesley shouts.
“You cannot object to my ruling, Mr. Carver. Sixty-five thousand dollars it is.”
Harley feels like he’s frozen in place, waiting for the Order to issue. When the gavel drops, so does his heart. Aliah crashes into his chest and his daughter’s tears finally break free. With an arm around each of his girls, he glares in the the direction of the accused and her counsel. Both of them turn to glance at Harley at the same time.
Harley snarls and shoots them the finger, not caring if the local paper plasters it among its front page highlights. Brandee’s composure slips for a mere second, but he recognizes the depraved smirk well.
The evil woman walks, but there is no way he’s going to let her harm the ones he loves.
It’s a month before there’s even a semblance of normalcy in the Gates house. Jillian is set up for definite jail time and Brandee isn’t about to walk away unscathed. Together with Wesley Carver, he will ensure that Brandee pays for her crime.
With Jillian locked away, Harley has had to pick up the slack at the office. Aliah helps out where she can, but he doesn’t want her working her life away. Despite Aliah’s insistence that he hire an assistant, he doesn’t have the nerve to hire a new one. He has other plans anyway.
Aliah manages to go back and work for that prick, Joshua Bailey, even after he backstabs her like he did. A conflict of interest has her taken off the case, to the point where Bailey can’t even meet with his client at the office. That’s just the way Harley likes it.
It’s true, he’s been so busy, he hasn’t had a chance to tell Aliah a few things that have been weighing heavily on his mind lately. He’s now ready to make that his priority.
With Hannah’s permission, Harley takes Aliah out for a ride on his motorcycle. It’s their first ride on his new Harley since the insurance claim has processed, and it’ll be their last ride before the snow flies. He wants to celebrate their clean bills of health. They could use a reason to celebrate.
“Are you ready?” Harley asks Aliah, handing her a helmet.
She smiles and nods and then follows him outside.
As Harley pulls out of Aliah’s driveway, he notices an unfamiliar van parked on the street a few houses down. He watches the suspicious driver from the corner of his eye. The female driver crouches down to hide from them, but no amount of headdress and makeup can disguise Brandee Hawkins from David H. Gates.
At the next street, Harley makes a right turn. She doesn’t appear to be following them. He pulls his bike over on the side of the residential road and turns it off. Before he can even think to grab his cell phone, he notices how Aliah already has her phone to her ear.
“Did you see that?” he asks.
“ADNL 971,” she quotes. “The license plate.”
Harley smiles as she is connected with the lead detective on the case. She asks Spencer Caldwell to run the plates. Sure enough, they belong to Brandee, but under another alias the cops have been trying to pin on her.
“Spencer insists that he and his team are maybe five minutes away from making the arrest,” Aliah tells him, with a saucy smile.
Harley lifts his brow in question. “What do you say we pay Ms. Hawkins a visit in the meantime?”
Aliah seems just as eager to confront the psycho. “Let’s go.”
They hustle through the neighborhood on foot, sneaking down driveways, cutting through backyards and hopping a fence. Harley glances over his shoulder at Aliah and presses a finger to his lips. He bends down and pulls a .357 Bulldog from his pant leg. Then he hands it to Aliah, as he pulls out his Glock.
When he peers in the mirror of the van, he can see Brandee staring at the phone in her hand, oblivious to the pair of them coming up next to her. Harley kicks the passenger mirror right of its mount, then bangs on the door with the butt of his Glock.
“Open up, Hawkins. You have company.”
When he nods at Aliah to take cover behind him, she does as he silently asks. Psycho bitch does the unbelievable. Brandee propels herself from the driver’s side door and whips out an oversized handgun. Aliah runs for cover behind her neighbor’s car. Harley stays plastered to the side of the van. A shot is fired. Harley instantly glances to where Aliah has run.
“I’m okay,” Aliah hollers out.
A depraved laugh rings from Brandee’s throat. “You make this too easy. I was only doing a bit of recon, but if this is how you want it to go down, then so be it.”
“We don’t want any trouble,” Harley shouts at her. “We just want you to fuck off already.”
“Really. Is that it? And let this bitch get away with everything?” she chants.
Harley watches Aliah peer over the roof of the car. He hears Brandee tisk tisking, using her own gun as a dramatic prop, waving it side to side like an inverted pendulum.
“It’s bad enough that my dear friend Jillian has to do jail time. And for what, David? Loving you? That’s hardly a crime. She was only trying to help out a friend. Unfortunately, my girl is a little cuckoo,” she admits, making her gun revolve in circles next to her head.
Who is the cuckoo one?
“Drop the act,” Aliah hollers. “I know it was Jillian calling the shots. It was her all along, wasn’t it? Just like in high school, Lori.”
“Aliah, what are you doing?” Harley shouts, not liking where she’s taking this. Egging on the psycho holding a gun is never smart.
Aliah had explained to him how Brandee looked strikingly similar to Jillian’s best friend in high school. But they weren’t able to find any hard evidence to make the connection, until Spencer ran the van plates. Facial reconstructive surgery and a little hair dye can go a long way. Harley had never once doubted Aliah’s hunch. Fact: Brandee Hawkins and Lori Eagleton are one and the same person.
“No!” Brandee shouts. “It was me. It was all me. I had planned everything myself. I even had to take things into my own hands, but that bitch didn’t drown,” she screams toward Harley. Then she glances back at Aliah and blurts her threat, pointing her gun right at her. “You were lucky then. You won’t be so lucky this time.”
“Bull shit!” Aliah hollers, trying Harley’s patience. “You don’t have what it takes to take me out.”
“You wanna bet? Remember Casey Jacob’s trial last year? You should; you worked the case with Bailey. Even he couldn’t get his guy off. And he’s supposed to be the best. That’s how good I am. The dumb ass cops can’t seem to pin anything on me. I don’t know how anyone in Rose Arbour can sleep at night, when killers like me can get away with murder time and time again.”
Aliah lets out a sigh of relief. “It’s over now, Brandee. Drop your weapon. We’ve got all the evidence we need to drop you in that cell right next to your dear friend.”
Brandee laughs again, a long hearty laugh that has her exposing her chest to the sky. “In your dreams, lady. There’s no way they’re going to trace any of that shit to me. You think I haven’t thought this through? There are no links to me to be found. The guns have been disposed of. And I’ve taken care of those useless doofuses who couldn’t get the job done. There’s no one left to testify against me. Except for you.”
She points her gun at Aliah.
Aliah stays cr
ouched behind the car with her gun aimed at Brandee’s heart.
“Put the gun down, Brandee,” Harley threatens. “Or I will shoot you.”
“I dare you to try,” Brandee states.
“Do it,” Aliah hollers, heating Harley’s blood to a boiling point.
“Why should I surrender to you?” Brandee screams. “So you can have me arrested? So you can go back to my Mitchell and fuck him some more behind my back?”
“You don’t really believe that,” Harley says, trying to regain her attention and redirect it from Aliah.
“I sure as fuck do. Just because she’s screwing around with you, doesn’t mean she isn’t playing my man too,” she barks, growing more agitated the closer Harley gets to her.
She backs away, until she’s standing in the middle of the street, scratching her head with her revolver. “She’s an evil seductress. She must be stopped.” Brandee laughs again, aiming her firearm at Aliah. “I might not have succeeded before, but that won’t stop me from finishing the job now.”
She fires the gun at Aliah. She shoots to kill. Harley takes a shot of his own. Time seems to stand still as the bullets sail through air.
The first shot shatters the windshield of the car and lodges in the passenger door, only inches from Aliah’s chest. Harley’s aim isn’t quite as unpracticed. It catches Brandee in the left shoulder, tearing into her flesh and knocking the gun from her hand. She cries out in pain, as three police cars, two marked ones, one dressed in black, come racing up the street behind her.
“You fucking shot me,” she screams in disbelief, as blood begins to drain from her gunshot wound. She clutches the injury with her other hand, the injured arm gone limp.
Aliah steps out from behind the car, with a gun raised to Brandee’s face. She walks straight toward her with a steely glint in her eye. The police have now exited their vehicles and are hollering at Brandee to get down on her knees. But Aliah knows her loaded gun is right there on the ground.
Brandee’s eyes grow wide when she realizes that she is in danger, but Aliah moves quickly.
She kicks at the gun and it scatters toward the police. “Nice try, Brandee, but your luck has run out.”
Aliah points her gun at Brandee’s face, positioning the muzzle some three inches from her forehead.
“Don’t do it, Ally. She’s not worth it,” Harley rasps.
The bitch smiles, believing that the cops will save her from Aliah. No one speaks, except Brandee. “I dare you to shoot me.”
Aliah presses the revolver against Brandee’s skin and cocks it. She can now see the fear in her eyes.
“That,” Aliah states, showing Brandee exactly how it feels.
Harley too fears what is going to happen next, seeing the determined look in Aliah’s eyes. Aliah pauses, lowers her hands, and then whips out her pistol. It slaps across the girl’s face, knocking her to the ground. Aliah promptly drops the gun and puts her hands up over her head.
“That was worth it,” she announces to Brandee’s bloody face, then waits for the police to cuff her.
To Harley’s surprise, they push her aside and collect the woman off the ground, reading Brandee her rights as the ambulance tend to her life threatening wounds. It takes a moment for it to sink in, but eventually Aliah puts her hands down, once she realizes she’s off the hook. She turns to face Harley. He hands his gun to a police officer and holds his arms out to her.
Aliah runs to him, crashing into his chest. She squeezes him so hard that he wonders if she’s trying to make his head pop off.
After the ambulance tear off for the hospital, and Spencer shares the story of today’s events with his fellow detectives, he comes to speak with them.
“That was a dumb move you made there, missy. Entertaining - but stupid. Are you looking to put yourself in jail?”
“No. But don’t ask, because I’d do it again if given the opportunity.”
Spencer chuckles. “I’m sure you would, love. Lucky for you, my team’s been gunning for this girl for a long time. I can pull a few strings to make sure you never see the inside of a cell. I can only hope we have enough on her to keep her locked up this time.”
“She’s violated the restraining order. That’ll at least keep her off the streets,” Harley tells him.
“Yeah, but for how long?”
“Spencer’s right,” Aliah admits. “You’ll need video evidence to put this one away. Good thing I got it this time, eh?”
Both of the men stare at her.
“Come again,” Spencer says, then chews on his lower lip.
She pulls her phone from her pocket and clicks on the video she’s taken. “This should come in handy at trial, wouldn’t you agree, Sergeant?”
Spencer takes the phone from her hand and watches her homemade video with disbelief written across his brow. “In all my years…”
“I know, Spence. I’m that good.”
Harley’s smile is enormous.
“May I?” Spencer asks.
“It’s all yours, love,” she teases.
Spencer nods at her. “I guess there’s no reason for you two to hang around here anymore. I think we have everything we need right here.”
How convenient is it that the video ends when the bullet lodges in the door right in front of her face?
Harley wraps his arms around his hotshot woman and squeezes her close. “Let’s get out of here.”
Aliah curls into his arms and hugs around his waist. Together, they walk around the block, and manage to avoid the herd of onlookers.
Harley remounts his bike. “Are you ready now?” he asks her, as she snaps up her helmet.
She climbs onto the bike behind him. “I’ve never felt more ready than I do right now.”
With a smile, Harley turns forward. Then he pulls away from the curb and they motor off into the sunset.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Aliah doesn’t ask questions when he speeds out of town and she even keeps her face clear of emotion as he turns down the familiar dirt road. She looks surprised when he takes her back to the farmhouse he’d shown her before, because this time there’s a SOLD sign tagged to the large tree out front.
After rolling to a stop, he turns off his bike and tugs her back to their field of dandelions, now covered in tall dry grass and fallen leaves. Her smile is a picture of ultimate beauty. The atmosphere remains unchanged since their last visit. There’s a serenity in the air that you just don’t find in the City.
The air is fresh and he’s glad he has a blanket, so he can wrap it around Aliah. Even with her jacket on, she shakes for the entire walk; her nerves a little shot from the day’s events.
He pulls the blanket over her shoulders, and glances down into her eyes, hanging onto the edges. He smiles, appreciating how she’s let him capture her between him and the blanket. After a pleasant silence, Harley sucks in a breath. He’s prepared to take the next step in their relationship. He only hopes that Aliah is prepared to make that move.
His gut instinct has been off ever since she’s come around, and he hopes he’s not misreading how she feels about him. He needs her to say yes. If she doesn’t, then he knows what it will mean for them. And it won’t be good.
Harley clears his throat and takes a leap of faith. “You know how I’ve been looking to expand my business?”
“Right.” Aliah smiles up at him, respect glimmering from the emerald depths of her eyes.
“I wonder whether you would ever consider joining me.” He smiles. “I could use a mouthpiece.”
Aliah slaps at his chest. “Oh, you’re so kind.”
Harley turns more serious. “I like having you around.”
Her smile is out of control. “I know.”
He swallows the lump from the back of his throat, but it doesn’t clear the obstruction. “I know you have a secure job, and that you like it. But Bailey’s an ass. He doesn’t deserve to have you.”
Harley pauses and scrubs a hand across the back of his neck. “I think
you’d like it with me too.” He glances down at her. “What do you think?”
When she hesitates, his heart seizes in his chest.
“Can I think about it?”
He nods, not at all satisfied with her answer. She hasn’t said anything about how big of a douche Bailey is and she’s barely responding to him at all. Something is up.
What is she not telling him?
Aliah’s smile looks coy; a look he never expects to appear on her face.
“That’s a major commitment,” she answers, with an anxious laugh. “Michael, my massage therapist, is already jealous. You’ve stolen me away from him. How do I know you won’t fling me aside for the next girl in line who turns your crank?”
Is she being serious?
An all-over ache consumes him. “I’m not about to push you into anything you don’t want to do. But if that’s your only concern…”
Does she want him to beg?
Aliah looks upset by his reaction. “I didn’t say no.” When she swallows and turns her head down, he feels like a jerk. She’s acting so standoffish.
He really shouldn’t push her, but Harley feels like a bull. He has to plow on. “Look at me,” he orders, softly lifting her chin. “If you’ll consider it, then that will have to be good enough for me.”
Her blackened lashes flutter open, so she can look into his eyes. “I can put you out of your misery now, if you like. I have thought about it,” she whispers.
When the words come from those beautiful ruby lips, his heart takes a full stop. “Already?”
Once she regains her nerve, she says, “I’m one step ahead of you, Harley.” Then she smiles. “I would love nothing more than to join you.” Her smile lights up her beautiful features, as she turns to teasing. “Of course, I would have to be the boss.”
“Of course,” he agrees. “In the bedroom, anyway.”
She outright laughs this time, readjusting the blanket over her shoulders.
“I was hoping you’d say yes.” He tugs her back toward the old barn that appears to be sealed up by tree roots and weeds, but he’s already had it stocked and secured. “So I could give you this.”
Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) Page 24
