The Forever Series

by Trilina Pucci

  I look into his eyes and see the all the horrors flashing through them that are flashing through mine. I know he needs me to be safe and a large part of me just wants to let him care for me, but my mind keeps interrupting that feeling.

  “I want you to care for me too, but to what extent? My life has to be my own, Cole. I can’t be locked in a tower like some kind of city Rapunzel,” I counter, taking a bite of my burger.

  “Obviously Mia, I’m not trying to turn you into a kept woman. All I’m saying is quit the job where the possible sociopath works. Is that so unreasonable?”

  “Yes! Yes, it is when I have a whole security detail that is on me every day. I promise not to be alone with him and I promise not to keep you in the dark, but I’m not hiding away,” I emphasize, shaking my head.

  “You are the most pigheaded person,” he grunts, tossing the bag from his lap.

  “Oh, don’t take it out on the food, big baby,” I laugh, handing him back his bag and watching him open it and start eating, begrudgingly.

  “This feels too easy, Parker,” my disbelief obvious as I raise my eyebrows.

  “Well, Mrs. Parker, we are at an impasse, so it seems it’s every man for themselves. You won’t listen to reason, so I will just have to try another method.”

  “What does that mean exactly?”

  “I guess we will find out, won’t we?”

  “If you interfere with my career, I will be beyond pissed off, Cole.”

  “If you interfere with your own safety, then I am left with no other alternative but to handle it myself. I love you and I will take on even the likes of you if it means I’m protecting you. I’m starting to think I need to protect you from yourself, too!”

  “What exactly does that mean, Cole?” I ask through gritted teeth.

  “None of your goddamn business, my love.”

  “So help me God… I will not pu—” Before I can finish, I am lifted and placed into his lap, our mouths becoming a tangle. Pulling away, I look into his eyes and see desperation.

  “Are you going to try and fuck some sense into me?” I ask with a smile.

  “If it were only that easy,” he winks, “To answer your question, no, but I’m going to ask you to check those messages, because if he is as crazy as I think, he may prove my point.”

  Looking down at my phone, a feeling in my gut tells me he is probably right. Shit, I can’t even begin to think about leaving my position, but if he is a psycho what are my choices. He did leave a lot of messages and voicemails. Here we go…

  Shifting back into my own seat, I slide my finger across the screen to open my phone and take a last look at Cole. Seeing him eyeing me, the tension radiating off his body. Despite myself, I put the phone down.

  “Cole, this is ridiculous.”

  “How can you say that, Mia? Why do you act like I’m being some kind of controlling caveman? You know me better than that, I love you. You are my every reason for everything and I have to protect you, even from your own stubborn pride.” He runs his fingers through his hair frustrated, leaning his head back, blowing out air.

  I scoot closer to him and remove his hands from his head, making sure I look directly into his eyes for what I’m about to say. I want him to see how sincere I am being.

  “Cole, that’s why I said, this was ridiculous. I trust you and you would never ask me to do something on a whim. You are not impulsive or controlling. I love you and if I need to leave that place for my safety, well then, we better get home so I can give my notice. I’m sorry for even waiting a beat. I feel like my senses are dulled. I’m so focused on getting through all of this insanity that I think I may be living in a bit of denial. I really just wanted this to be the happy ever after part. I like the job, but I really like feeling normal and boring, even if it was for ten seconds. I know you understand, thank you for being in my corner while I spun my wheels! I love you.”

  Cole picks up my hands and kisses the palms. “Thank you,” is all he whispers and pulls me into his side, wrapping his arms around me.

  We stayed like that, silent and cuddled until we pull up to our new home.

  “Let’s go, baby.”

  As I exit the car, the exhaustion from the day catches up and my feet feel like lead. Cole takes one look at me, sensing my exhaustion, dips down and swoops me up, kissing my neck as he does.

  “Come on, princess.” The twinkle in his eye is too adorable to resist.

  I laugh, just happy not to have to walk the steps up to our new home. Squeezing him extra tight, I whisper sweet little, dirty nothings in his ear. His growl and nip at my ear tells me he likes what he hears.

  “Baby, stand up for a minute, I need to open the door.” Cole rights me before letting go to open the door of our new home. He walks through the door and turns on the lights and that’s when I notice his face is beaming.

  “What have you done? You have that look. You only get that look when you are about to surprise me with something insane. I don’t even want to walk in the house!” I say, letting out a laugh. Grabbing me, he tugs me through the door and I squeal.

  “Look!” he spreads his arms, motioning to the completely furnished rooms.

  “Oh! My goodness! Cole! You had all our stuff brought home, here… to our home! Are you serious?”

  I stand stunned at the incredibly amazing and sweet gesture. I was dreading having to move, I honestly just wanted to walk in and be settled and he just made my dreams come true.

  “Are you mad? I know you may have wanted to decorate it yourself, but you still can. I will dutifully move any couch you want. I just wanted to see you comfortable.”

  Smacking a kiss on his lips, I look directly into his eyes and say, “Race you to the bedroom.”

  We take off up the stairs, forgetting our fatigue and stumble through the door. I’m beyond giddy and I don’t even take time to look around the room. Instead, I am hurled onto the bed by my husband. I scream out, laughing loudly as he jumps on top of me, covering me with kisses. We kiss and caress and make love before he gets up out of bed and heads out of the room bare-assed.

  “I’m headed for water, would my girl like some as well?”

  God, I fucking love it when he calls me his girl.

  “Yes, I’m in need of some serious hydration.”

  With a wink, he walks out of our room and I can hear him pad down the stairs. I stretch out my limbs and relish in this moment.

  Alex is alive, Cole and I are happy and living in our new home, any suspicions about his involvement in Carter’s murder seemed to be losing ground and Foster is in love with my best friend. My life is insane. Perfect, really. Instinctively, I look around for that other shoe to drop again. Getting out of bed, I see my bag on the floor and my phone is lit up. I walk over and rummage through to grab it and see three missed calls from an unknown number. Oh man, I hope these aren’t from Jack because if they are, Cole is going to close the whole building down. I don’t hear Cole coming, so I decide to take a peek at the messages Jack left. Swiping my phone open, I can feel my heart start to beat quicker. I think I’m more nervous that they will be something so terrible that I will have to show Cole. I start reading the first one.

  Hey thanks, I appreciate the olive branch. Maybe we can catch lunch sometime?

  Then the next.

  Or not, whatever. I thought this was a friendly but apparently, we are more of a one and done kind of relationship. Ha ha… no worries, I’m sure your boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate us having lunch anyhow.

  I shake my head seeing where this is going and scroll down to the bottom message.

  I should have known you were still such a cock-tease. After all these years, all this time and you still haven’t figured out that turning your back on the wrong person will never work in your favor.

  Holy shit! I don’t even know what to do. Staring at the phone, my mind is wandering, bouncing off a thousand fears. My mind scrambles to make sense of everything as I re-read the last message.

  All th
ese years? I haven’t known him for years, what is he talking about? Cole was right though, he is psycho and something isn’t adding up. All I can think to do is find Cole. I turn to run out of the room as Cole walks in chugging a water bottle.

  “Whoa, baby, what’s up?” He steadies my shoulders as I hold out the phone to him. Taking the phone from me, he walks over to the chair and throws on his sweatpants.

  “Look. It’s… I don’t even know. Oh my God, Cole, you couldn’t have been any more right! I’m totally skeeved out, but the part that has me freaked the most… look, he writes ‘years,’ Cole. I haven’t known him for years!”

  He keeps one hand on my shoulder pulling me close to his chest as he reads the messages. We stand in silence as he reads and strokes my back. Setting my phone down, he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone and hitting dial.

  “Foster, we need to talk, I think we are more on target than we thought. It’s Jack… all of it. It’s him. I know it! Come to the penthouse. I will meet you there. We need Alex to try and remember. I left her belongings at the penthouse, we can start by checking out her phone. Call your friend and share the new information I’m sending you now. I sent you a text with messages to Mia’s phone from him. See you in twenty.”

  I look up to Cole for an explanation, because I’m seriously reeling right about now. I know we all think Jack is sketchy, but this is too much and I’m not sure how to process all of this information. If I’m being really honest, I’m more afraid that Jack will finish what Carter started and the thought is leaving me paralyzed.

  “Don’t.” Cole’s voice pushes past my daze and pulls me back into the present.

  “Huh?” Shaking my head, trying to shake off my thoughts.

  “Don’t,” he repeats, keeping his eyes trained on mine.

  “Don’t what?” I respond with barely a whisper.

  “Don’t start thinking about what could happen, because the only thing that will happen is the end of this nightmare. You are safe, Mia. No one will ever lay a hand on you or I will end them. Do you understand?” To accentuate his point, he grabs both my shoulders and gives them a reassuring squeeze.

  All I can do is nod. My entire body wants to believe him, but at this very moment, I’m not even in my right mind. I can feel the other shoe dropping. I feel that horrible gut feeling that tells me things will not end well.

  Realizing Cole has let me go, I reach out to him as he turns to walk away.

  “Where are we going?”

  “We?”

  “Yes, we! You are not leaving me alone, even with the Calvary outside.”

  “The penthouse and I know you don’t want to be there. Mia, it’s not a good place for you to be. I just need to grab the phone for Foster. I know I’m grasping at straws, but I can’t ignore my gut!”

  Panic. That’s all I feel. Sheer fucking panic.

  Driving up to our old home, I can feel my palms sweating and my heart racing. I don’t want to see the place where my best friend was so brutally attacked, I’m not sure I can. This is all too close for comfort and I am doing everything I can to maintain a sense of calm on the outside.

  “I’m right here, Mia. It’s okay to freak out, but you don’t need to walk in the house, stay here with security. I’ll be right back. Foster is already here.”

  Squeezing his hand, I nod. He is right, one hundred percent, but I don’t even know what I would even be able to piece together and for some reason, I can’t seem to shake the fear that we are in imminent danger. I look around as we walk through the garage to a waiting Foster and Alex. Wait, Alex! Why is she here? How is she here?

  She looks tired. I realize I’ve said that out loud when Cole responds, “She’s strong, she’ll be fine. She didn’t really give Foster a choice whether or not to bring her.” He shakes his phone in the air to indicate Foster just text him.

  Walking up, I motion to Alex shrugging my shoulders. “What are you doing out of the hospital? I thought you had to stay for observation?”

  “Nah, I wasn’t going to be left out of this Scooby mission. I checked myself out and made Foster bring me. I’m hoping maybe I can have flashbacks like the way you had them. I would really like to know who the hell busted my head open!” She levels intensity on the last part of the sentence. “Plus, this is like a real-life Mission Impossible, we should have coordinated our outfits,” Alex adds as the elevator doors close.

  “For fuck’s sake, Alex, I told you to be serious,” Foster grumbles.

  Cole laughs, shaking his head and I just smile.

  “Be quiet, or I will tell them all the mushy romantic shit you said to me tonight,” she warns Foster.

  He doesn’t look at her, instead just stares ahead with a crooked grin on his face.

  I’m momentarily lost in their moment when the elevator rings, making me jump. Cole looks down at me, holding my gaze and my hand back as the others exit the elevator. Holding the door open, he looks out and then back at me.

  “Mia, speak. No nodding, are you good, baby?”

  “Yes, but let’s just get this over with. I don’t know how Alex can come back here. I’m so creeped out!” I shiver and let him lead me out.

  Walking into the house freezes me on the inside. Not at all like uncontrollable panic, but a stillness that is full of dread. I can feel it, that same feeling I had when Carter had me by the throat. I knew I was going to die, to be torn away from Cole. It must be what people feel before the end. I feel like I’m having an out of body experience. I look down at my hand joined with Cole’s and I can feel the heat from our hands. I just keep concentrating on our hands. Everything will be okay, everything will be okay.

  Foster is walking Alex through her possible steps as Cole and I head for the back office to collect Alex’s phone.

  “Do you know what box it’s in?” I ask Cole.

  “No, honestly, I just know it’s in here. They aren’t sealed, so we just have to open the tops.”

  We go through at least thirty boxes before I open and spot the familiar hospital bag.

  “Got it!” I yell victoriously.

  “Thank God, I was starting to worry that we were going to be here all night! Come on, baby, let’s get out of here.” Cole extends a hand for me to take and we exit back to the front room where Alex and Foster are still talking through her attack.

  “No, Fos… I just remember getting a call or something. Oh good, Mia, here, hand it to me and I will open it.” Alex puts her finger on the button and her phone unlocks.

  “Look at the call log, maybe I missed something,” Foster urges.

  “Nope, I only have your texts, Foster, see,” she holds the phone up to him, but what her phone shows is that she was writing him a text with a picture attached. Foster clicks the photo and it enlarges.

  “What is this, Alex? It’s a picture of you and Mia at a Halloween party? Do you remember why you were sending this to me?” Foster looks confused, passing the phone to me.

  “Oh yeah, this was the Halloween party at the Sigma Chi house; fun, but not really my cup of tea. I think we left right after this picture was taken,” I stare, looking at the picture more intently.

  The room starts to change, blur and then I see it. Jack is standing in the shadows next to Carter. Just like Jack was sitting in the corner watching from the shadows while Carter held me down on the floor. Like a shot, everything focuses in on the present and I collapse to the floor.

  “Mia!” Alex screams as I’m caught in Cole’s arms. He carries me to the couch and I can barely make out what everyone is fussing over.

  “Get her a glass of water,” Cole barks out. “Dammit, I knew better. I shouldn’t have brought her here.”

  “Cole, stop! You had no way of knowing how this would affect her. Frankly, I don’t think she would have let you leave her behind,” Alex states with a nodding Foster behind her.

  “Mia, baby, drink this,” Cole pleads, extending a water bottle to my lips.

  I take a small sip and steel myself fo
r what I’m ready to tell them.

  “Listen, because I’m not sure I have it in me to repeat myself. He was there, Cole. Jack was in the room when Carter attacked me. He was participating. I must have blocked it out. Look! It’s him in the picture. He knew Carter and I would bet that Jack is the cousin! I feel sick, I need to…” Motioning to the bathroom, I stand. Cole helps me to my feet and Alex comes and takes my hand walking me to the restroom.

  I walk into a room I used to love and all I can do is cry, not out of sadness, but anger. My life has been destroyed by an “almost.” I almost died, I almost had my sex ripped from me. I almost became a victim… well, maybe not almost. I sure as hell feel like I’ve been victimized, and I sure as hell feel like a piece of me died in that room. Looking up at Alex, I can see that same anger on her face. The same uncontrollable rage that bubbles right under the surface.

  “Fuck Jack,” I answer to her matter of fact, my nausea subsiding.

  “I couldn’t agree more. All I remember is being here and seeing our yearbooks and scrapbooks on the table. I must have looked at them, but it’s all a blank. Thank God I took that picture. Maybe we can give it to the cops and with everything else they can round him up.” I can see the hope in her eyes. She perches on the counter and I sit on the edge of the tub, we sit in silence.

  “I’m sorry I asked you to look at the books! I’m so sorry, Alex, I feel responsible for all of this.” My guilt washes over me as I reach my hand out to hold hers.

  “I was happy you did it! Mia, if this hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t know how devious and crazy Jack is… HOLY SHIT! Do you think he killed Carter? Maybe he was trying to frame Cole! Hear me out. If he was in on your attack by Carter, that means he has been obsessed with you for years, way before Cole came along! It makes total sense, he weaseled his way into your life and tried to fuck with your head. Jesus Mia, he’s been in the background forever!!”