Julian~
I wanted to insist on a recognition ribbon over the fact that I was handling this situation with a lot less violence than was being demanded of me.
I wanted to hurt, beat, destroy and obliterate everything around Isabella.
I wanted to find out who was sending the flowers and make them swallow every shard of the glass from the soon-to-be broken vase.
I wanted to hold them up in my basement and torture them until the life left their eyes.
I wanted to eviscerate the piece of shit for, ever, causing Isabella one second of unease.
Every second of her life belonged to me and it was my responsibility to make each one of them the happiest they could be.
This motherfucker better hope the police pick him up before I’m ever able to get my hands on him, because I’m pretty sure I’ll kill him.
The elevator dinged and we all filed out, letting Isabella lead the way. We’ve never had any business dealings with Willshire and I respected Isabella’s career, so we’ve never visited her here at work. But that was going to end today.
I’d be making frequent visits from now on, no matter how much I disliked the public at large.
We came to an office door with the center window reading ‘Isabella DeLucci’ and I wanted to call someone and have them come change it from DeLucci to Moretti, but I didn’t want to piss Isabella off. But she seriously needed to hurry the fuck up and marry me.
She pushed the door open and I immediately saw the flowers. They were fucking hard to miss. If they weren’t being sent by a creeper to my girlfriend, I’d think they were beautiful. But they were, so I didn’t.
“So, do we CIS this thing and put on some gloves?” Chase walked around the back of Isabella’s desk to take in the flowers.
“Do we have any idea which flower shop sent them? Or are the deliveries ordered online?” Nick asked.
“I honestly don’t know. I usually just take the flowers and dump them in the garage dumpster,” Isabella explained.
I tried to sound calmer than I was. “Call the reception desk and ask if they’ve been delivered by plain clothes or uniformed delivery.”
Isabella shook her head. “But they’re going to wonder, since they all think you’re sending them. They’ll wonder why I don’t just ask you.”
Nick reached for the phone. “What’s the reception extension?”
“7100. The receptionist’s name is Stella,” Isabella answered him, reminding him of the receptionist’s name.
“Hi, am I speaking with Stella? Oh, yes. Good, great. Hey Stella, Ms. DeLucci had to go get some files for our meeting and I noticed the beautiful roses on her desk. I would love to send my fiancé a bouquet of this quality. Do you happen to know the floral company? Hmm..okay, hmm…thank you, so much.”
He hung up and looked us over. “She said except for this recent one, Baily’s Floral & Design have been delivering them. She said this bouquet was walked in this morning by some woman who said she was delivering them for a friend.”
Different thoughts and scenarios started battling around in my mind. “Okay, so I’m going to say that since this person hasn’t made himself known, he’s trying to keep his identity a secret until he’s ready. That means he’s probably placed the earlier orders online using a prepaid Visa or something. No way this guy is using his personal credit card.”
Chase jumped in, “He’s also not going to risk a camera getting a hold of his face.”
Nick started pacing near Isabella’s office widow. “So, is the woman really his friend or did he pay her to walk them in? I mean, what’s on the card that he couldn’t add the card to an online order?”
“Do you think his fingerprints might be on the card?” Isabella asked.
I shook my head. “No. The more I think about it, the more I think he probably thought of that.” I reached over and plucked the card out of the stem holder. I looked over at Isabella. “Do you want me to open it, or do you want to do it?”
Her eyes were wide and anxious. She shook her head. “You can open it,” she whispered.
I tore the flap open and pulled out the card. It was a plain white cardstock card. The message turned my body cold and my blood hot.
At least I still know where you work, Sweetheart.
Nick and Chase were regarding me like coiled snakes; ready to pounce I gave the word. I’m sure they were also worried they were going to have to subdue me. And Isabella was looking at me with pure anxiousness.
I couldn’t find my voice for a second.
I wanted to kill.
Every instinct I possessed had me wanting to go out and kill in the name of protecting what was mine.
I swallowed a couple of times, trying to work up some calm, but I knew myself well enough to know that this wasn’t good.
I needed to find a way to rein it in. I needed to be calm for Isabella.
I handed the card to Nick, and I could see out of the corner of my eye, Chase saddle up next to him to read the card.
I kept my eyes on Isabella. “He wrote ‘At least I still know where you work, sweetheart’.”
I had to stand there and watch as all the color drain out of her breathtaking face.
I had to stand there and witness as fear crawled across her features.
I was going to find this sonofabitch and kill him with my bare fucking hands.
I rushed towards her and gathered her up in my arms. She latched onto me and I was torn between the rage in my veins and the need to comfort her.
I pulled back from her and took her face in my hands. “Listen to me, Dove.” I searched her eyes to make sure I had her undivided attention. “I am not going to let anything happen to you. Ever.”
Nick piped up from behind her and I’d never been more grateful for him and Chase as I was in this moment. And considering how we were raised, that was saying a hell of a lot. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you, Iz,” he stressed.
Her head started nodding in my hands. “What if-”
I stopped her. “There’s no ‘what if’, Dove. I’ll die before I let anything happened to you.” She closed her eyes and nodded.
I’m not entirely sure she believed me, but I wasn’t going to push her. I looked up and over and Nick and Chase and they looked just as furious as I felt. “Call Avery and Quinn and let them know what’s going on. They are, both, getting drivers starting tomorrow morning. We’ll-”
“Julian, do you think that’s necessary? I mean, do you really think he’d go after Quinn and Avery?” Isabella asked.
“I’m not going to chance someone using them to get to you.” I was trying really hard not to scare her, but I wasn’t going to take any chances with any of the girls’ safety. “Better safe than sorry, right?
Nicholas almost lost Avery once to her psycho ex-boyfriend and Chase almost lost Quinn in a car accident, so I knew both men needed no convincing on this plan. Case in point, they were already on their phones calling the girls.
“Okay,” she acquiesced. “You’re right.” She peered up at me and I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “How do you think he knew I had moved?”
Chase had already hung up with Quinn and answered, “Maybe he sent one to your condo and it got returned?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. The last one was just placed in front of my door. Why wouldn’t they leave one again?”
Then the horrible reality hit me. “Unless he’s taken the steps to actually physically stalk her, it has to be someone in her condo complex. We moved her in one day on a Saturday. There’s no way that’s random, public knowledge.”
“Did you tell anyone you moved, Iz?” Chase asked her.
“No. No one other than my mother,” she shrugged.
“But if it’s someone that lives in her condos, they’d know about Julian by now, wouldn’t they?” Chase wondered.
Fuck. There were just too many variables. “Who the hell knows?”
Nick nodded his head in thought. “Okay, so we bu
y the condo complex and do backgrounds on all the tenants.”
Chase huffed. “We could. Or we can call Carson and have him put a PI on it.”
“Call him, Chase. And if he can’t help, we’ll buy the building,” I semi-agreed with Nick.
“Maybe we’re all overreacting a bit,” Isabella injected. “I mean, maybe he’s just some shy guy who developed a crush and doesn-”
Nick and Chase stepped back at the incredulous look on my face. “I don’t give a flying fuck if he’s an 86 year old, cane-wielding, arthritic, four foot, great-great-great grandfather, Isabella! This motherfucker is sending you flowers at your work and home and then scrawling out a fucked up cryptic message knowing you moved!” I couldn’t control my rage any longer. “You’re out or your mind if you think it makes one bit of difference to me who this person is.” I leaned into her. “You are mine, Isabella, and no man should think he has the right to pursue you in any fashion.” And because I was enraged, I hit her hard with it. “You’re the one who doesn’t want to wear my ring and let motherfuckers know that you’re taken, so until then, drivers and security are what you’re going to get, whether you fucking like it or not!”
“Yo, man, Julez,” Chase placed a hand on my chest and eased me backwards. We both knew I stepped back by choice and that was reassurance enough for Chase that I was still in control of my temper and emotions.
I felt like shit the second tears started spilling from Isabella’s big, beautiful eyes. I stepped back from Chase and took a deep breath. Isabella was the only person who should be safe from my wrath and my reaction had nothing to do with her and everything to do with pure, unadulterated worry.
“I’m fine, Chase.” He nodded and stepped aside. I walked back over to Isabella and took her face in my hands again. “I’m sorry, Dove. I…this isn’t your fault or…I’m sorry. But you can’t tie my hands about this or play it off like it’s no big deal when the very thought of something happening to you paralyzes me. You can’t stop me from protecting you. If you do that, then you take everything away from me that makes me a man. Everything that makes me your man.” Her tears really started flowing. “You can’t ask me not to do what I feel is necessary to protect you. Not when you’re the only person in the world who can keep me sane.”
Isabella jumped into my arms and wrapped herself around me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You’re right. I…I don’t know what I was thinking, especially because I am a little scared by all this.”
I just held her to me, not saying anything. I didn’t care that Nick and Chase were witnesses to this moment. I had no shame and felt no embarrassment around them. We’d grown up seeing each other in our worst of times. There’s nothing we’d judge each other for.
“Just let us handle this, Dove. Okay?”
She nodded into my neck. “Okay.”
I held her for a few more seconds before I set her down and wondered how I was going to get through this without murdering the entire city.
Chapter 8
Envy: Because I want a guarantee that doesn’t exist.
Isabella~
Julian was in the kitchen cooking dinner, while I was lying on the couch feeling anxious. Julian had demanded a meeting with my boss, Phillip Westmoreland, and informed him of the situation. Phillip he agreed to make sure security walked me outside each evening.
My driver, Garret-who happened to be ex-military-would walk me into the building and escort me into the car once I was outside the Willshire building. Quinn and Avery were given drivers also, and after an hour long phone call with all three of us, I convinced them that I was okay and the situation would work itself out.
I was more worried about Julian’s state of emotions than I was anything else. He was handling all of this with way more calmness than I expected.
My third night here, I had made dinner and Julian had taken exception. He didn’t want me working all day long and then coming home to cook. When I pointed out that he worked hard all day too, he replied by explaining how he’d be cooking dinner for himself with or without me here, and so it made no sense for me to cook.
I had to make a deal with him that if he cooked, then I cleaned. He wanted to argue that point too, but I reminded him that if we were going to live together as a couple, then we were going to do it as a team. He relented and that was the deal.
I felt his lips on the top of my head. “Dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes or so.” My eyes followed him as he lifted my legs and sat down, placing them over his lap. I still found myself amazed at his attentiveness. Julian was an incredible soul.
I was on the verge of sitting up and jumping his bones-dinner be damned-when a knock at the front door ruined my master plan.
He looked over at me with his brows raised in surprise. “The girls?”
I shook my head. Nick and Chase each had a key to the house, and with all the boundaries we’d all crossed already in our weird friendships, they weren’t afraid to use their keys even though I was living here now. And the girls would have called or texted first. Julian sighed, but got up to go answer the door.
I wanted to throw myself off the couch and roll underneath it like a full blown coward at the sound of the voice greeting Julian.
Ugh….my mother.
I’d been dodging her for a couple of weeks now, because she was just so…so…just soooooo. But instead of giving into my cowardly instincts, I sat up and rubbed my hands across my thighs before standing up to go save Julian. He must have heard or felt me coming up behind him, because he angled his body, letting me through, so I could stand in front of him.
The look on my mother’s face was screaming with such distain, I’m surprised she didn’t just turn her back on us and leave.
Geez, what the hell was her problem?
I decided I might as well find out. “Hello, Mother. What are you doing here?”
She arched a perfectly groomed brow at me. “Wow, Isabella. Is that really any way to greet your mother?”
I did my best to keep my eyes from rolling upward. “I’m just surprised, is all.”
She looked from me to Julian and then back to me. “Well, are you going to let me in or not?”
I felt Julian’s hand on my shoulder as I stepped back into his body, making enough room for her to walk in. This was the first time she’s been here and she wasn’t trying to be discrete in her perusal of my new home.
She was making her way into the living room when she turned around and addressed us. “I thought you were worth billions, Julian. Why would you subject Isabella to these living conditions?” she asked, snidely, shocking the shit out of me at her level of rudeness.
To hell with that shit!
Loretta DeLucci could say and do what she wanted to me, but not Julian.
Never Julian.
“Get out of my house, Mother,” I demanded with no fanfare whatsoever. She was not going to come into the home I shared with Julian and insult him.
“Isabella!”
I stepped to her and I felt Julian behind me with every single step. He may be letting me handle this, but he wasn’t going to let me handle it alone. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you are crazy if you think I’m going to let you come in here and insult our home!”
Her face was rigid with anger and resentment, but she knew she had overstepped. “I wasn’t trying to insult you or Julian. I was just surprised, when he can afford so much better.”
This woman! How could she not hear the crap coming out of her mouth?
“See, that’s what you don’t understand, Mother. It could be a mansion or a cardboard box, but as long as Julian is with me, I don’t care which it is. I love Julian for him and not his money or what his money can buy me.” I was shaking with so much rage towards this woman, it scared me.
I was itching to slap the shit out of the woman who gave birth to me and I’m not violent.
I felt Julian’s hands squeeze my shoulders. “It’s okay, Dove.”
I kept my gaze on my mother
. “No, Julian, it’s not okay. I won’t stand for anyone insulting you or criticizing how you take care of me.” And I wouldn’t.
Julian was magnificent and I was not going to let my mother judge him and how he took care of me.
My mother threw her hands up in a placating, surrendering motion. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, Isabella. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She took a quick glance around before returning her eyes to mine. “You have a lovely home.”
And that’s when I really knew something was up. Loretta never rolled over easily.
I curled my fingers into fists at my side. “What do you want, Mother? What are you doing here?”
Her eyes darted to Julian behind me really quick. “Can we speak privately?”
I was already shaking my head no before she had even finished her sentence. “No, we can’t. Julian and I don’t do ‘privately’, and even if we did, I’m not inclined to offer you any courtesies at the moment.”
“I can-”
I stopped Julian before he finished. “No, Julian. It makes no sense since I’ll tell you whatever she said anyways as soon as she leaves.” He squeezed my shoulders again.
“Well, may I, at least, sit?” she asked.
I stretched my arm out indicating she could take a seat on one of the arm chairs. I sat down on the couch as Julian sat next to me. I knew it was killing her to see Julian silently supporting me. I had what she’s been waiting for her whole life. I had a man who belonged to only me.
She cleared her throat a little before speaking, “I’ve been trying to reach you for a couple of weeks now, as you know. Your father reached out to me and asked me to speak with you.”
The bottom of my stomach fell out at the mention of my father asking her to speak to me. In all my years of living, he’s never reached out to me once. Well, not that I knew of. Who knows what kind of secrets my mother is keeping.
I stared at the woman who birthed me and wonder if it was the fact that I looked nothing like her that fueled her criticism and hostility towards me. But no matter. I didn’t care what my father had to say in the least. I prayed my voice could hold all my ire. “I can’t imagine why and I don’t care.”
Claiming Isabella Page 9
