No Coincidence

by Tiffany Patterson

  Adrenaline began coursing through every vein in my body, and I headed to the secret entrance into my apartment that no one else knew about. The main elevator was too loud and would alert him that I was coming up. That could put Resha in even more danger. I needed to get the drop on him before he had time to think, or hurt her.

  Punching in the code to the secret entrance, I barged through the elevator doors as they opened, pressing the up button to my floor. This particular elevator let me out down the hall from my loft, where I then used a key to open a door that led directly into the spare bedroom that resided on the main floor of my loft. It was the bedroom where I’d set up a desk and office space for Resha’s new computer, even though she still came to work in my office most days when she didn’t have shoots.

  Moving quietly, I could hear the fucker yelling at Resha, saying how much he loved her and demanding to know how she could betray him by shacking up with another man. I toed out of the heavy boots I wore as to not make any noise against the hardwood floor. Moving slowly down the hall, I could see Resha standing there with her hands suspended in the air, looking frightened as hell. The fucker was now pointing his gun directly at her. I couldn’t take watching that scene any longer.

  In two quick steps, I made it to the middle of the living room, wrapping my arm around the fucker’s neck from behind.

  “Wh—” was all he was able to get out before my bicep and forearm began crushing his windpipe. This had been a favorite move of mine in many fights where anything was legal. Usually, however, I used the move just to put my opponent to sleep for a little while. This time, that wouldn’t be the case. This fucker was going to sleep permanently.

  Dropping the gun, he thrashed and used his fingers, trying to claw his way out of my grip. It wasn’t working. I felt nothing as I replayed the fearful expression on Resha’s face just before I put him in this death grip over and over in my mind. The satisfaction was better than any belt I’d won in the ring. I literally felt the life draining out of his body. He was dying, and with the last few slaps he gave to my arms, I could tell he knew it.

  Once I was certain that he was dead, I let up, tossing his body to the floor. I stood there staring for moments just to make sure I didn’t catch a twitch of activity.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. Looking up, I caught Resha’s stunned face moving from the lifeless body on the floor to me.

  “You never gave me a chance to use my defense moves.”

  I grunted and stepped over the body, tugging her into my arms, smashing my lips to hers, all the fear I’d felt pouring out of me.

  Pulling back, I stared into her eyes, my hands running all over her body, assessing. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “Yes. And no, he didn’t hurt me, but that’s the second time I’ve had a gun pointed at me today.”

  My eyes bulged and she quickly explained the situation that happened with Gary and Mark and how she interceded.

  “Okay, well you and I are going to have a fucking discussion about running in front of guns,” I demanded.

  “But it was Mark and he—”

  “I don’t give a shit. Mark knows how to protect himself. I taught him well. He would’ve been fine. Trust me. And speaking of Gary, where the hell—”

  “He has a daughter …”

  I gave Resha an and? expression, to which she explained how he had to leave early.

  “He’s lucky if he doesn’t get my foot up his ass.”

  “Don’t do that. He sounded really concerned for her.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I pulled out my phone to call Brutus and let him know that his special clean-up crew was needed.

  After hanging up, I looked at the pile of shit on my floor.

  “I know him,” Resha stated, moving next to me. “He worked as a security guard in my building about a two years ago. Mainly at the reception desk. I first spoke to him when Destiny and I used the building’s gym to work out. He creeped me out even then. I went down to the gym a few times by myself but it seemed like he was always there. So, I stopped going. A few months later, I didn’t see him anymore. I asked at the front desk and they said he’d been relocated. I later heard through building gossip he’d been fired for sleeping on the job or something like that.”

  “Explains how he knew where you parked, your apartment number, and was able to get a key to your place. You remember his name?”

  “Santos. Santos Lovato. He yelled it at me just before I saw you behind the stairwell. But when he worked in my building everyone called him Ricky.”

  “Sounds like Santa. That was one of the leads we got,” I explained when Resha gave me a quizzical look.

  A few people we talked to had mentioned a Ricky, but they didn’t know his first name.

  I led her into the kitchen to sit and remain while Brutus’ crew showed up to remove the body as well as any evidence that Santos Lovato had ever been there. They would head over to his place as well to delete any evidence of his obsession with Resha just in case someone tried to trace his disappearance in the future. But according to records, he didn’t have much family, no friends, and had infrequent employment. Chances are no one would miss him much.

  Epilogue

  Resha

  Nine months later

  I sat in my hospital bed, staring down at my little miracle, tears filling my eyes, unable to wipe the smile from my face even if I tried. Looking into the sleeping bundle in my arms, I silently wished for him to open his eyes just so I could catch another glimpse of those hazel eyes that mirrored his father’s.

  “He’s so handsome,” Destiny gushed as she stood beside my bed.

  I lifted my gaze to my cousin. “I thought my wedding day was the happiest day of my life, but … well, it may have just gotten moved to number two on the list.”

  Destiny reached over, lightly running a hand over little Colin’s head. “I don’t think your husband would mind you saying that.”

  I smirked and looked down at our son again, thinking over all that transpired over the last year. And as it turned out, I got pregnant again soon after the miscarriage. I waited until our wedding day to reveal the news to Connor, as part of my wedding gift to him. He’d picked me up and spun me around on the dancefloor that Destiny and Tyler had set up in their spacious backyard especially for our nuptials.

  It wasn’t until my new husband put me down that he turned me to face, outward, looking over the bushes, beyond Destiny’s yard, out to see some of the neighborhood houses in the distance.

  “That one …” He pointed over my shoulder. “That’s the one I have Joshua holding for us.”

  I turned, my mouth ajar. “Holding?”

  He nodded. “I won’t let him put it on the market. I haven’t made the purchase yet. Need to see if you like it. If it’ll fit your needs for office space and closets and all that shit, but it’s ours if you like it.”

  I giggled at his constant interjections of curse words even when being romantic. And as it turned out, I loved the house. It was perfect for my home office needs, the yard was big enough for a backyard pool and playground set, and for hosting parties and events. We were all moved in by the time I was six months pregnant. And on the days I woke up afraid that this was all just a dream, or something was going to destroy our happy ending, Connor steadfastly reassured me we were in this together and there was nothing we couldn’t take on as a team.

  “You ready to take this little guy home?” Destiny questioned.

  “Never been more ready for anything in my life.”

  Connor had gone down with a member of the hospital staff to assure them that we had a carseat and it was strapped in properly.

  “My husband’s taking an awfully long time,” I told her, my head raising.

  “Yeahhh … about that …”

  “He’s freaking out, isn’t he?” I giggled, shaking my head. He’d been so strong throughout all of this. I knew the time would come when the weight of what we were a
bout to take on, truly hit him.

  “I wouldn’t call it freaking out so much as—”

  “Mrs. O’Brien,” a nurse interrupted Destiny as she entered the door, rolling a wheelchair ahead of her.

  I had my cousin hold Colin while the nurse helped me from the bed to the chair. Taking my son back into my arms, I felt ready to head out, as the nurse began pushing me.

  “Hey, sis, looks like we’re twins,” Mark joked as I exited the room.

  “You must be the jokester in the family,” the nurse chimed in behind me.

  “Jokes aren’t the only thing I’m good at,” he added, smoothly, and not for the first time I noticed how similar Mark looked to his brother. The O’Briens were definitely a handsome family. Connor had shown me pictures of their father. They both took after him. And even at just forty-eight hours old the baby in my arms already looked the spitting image of the man who helped conceive him.

  “What the hell do you mean you don’t know the safety rating of the damn car seat? This is my family we’re talking about here!”

  The anger caught my attention and pulled my gaze toward the bellowing man down the hall.

  “Of course I fucking checked the rating before purchasing but that was months ago. You don’t know if there have been any recalls since then, do you?” Connor demanded of the staff standing behind the nurses’ station.

  I looked up at my cousin. “Not freaking out, huh?”

  “I was trying to be nice.”

  “Hey!” I called as the nurse rolled me closer to my husband. “Are you trying to wake your son up?”

  Connor looked down at me and then the baby, a timid expression on his face, which I found extremely sexy. “Did I?”

  I shook my head and he sighed in relief.

  “But how about we take Colin home before he wakes and needs to be fed again, huh?”

  Connor nodded, placing a soothing kiss to my forehead, before giving another light kiss to our son’s forehead. My heart broke open again for like the hundredth time in the two days this little guy had been here on the planet.

  “Ready to go home, Colin?” I whispered while Connor moved behind me, pushing the wheelchair as Destiny and Mark flanked my sides.

  I loved his name. Connor and I had gone back and forth. Once we found out it was a boy, I wanted him to be a junior but Connor nixed that idea. He wanted his son to have his own identity which I didn’t understand at first. We bickered over it until one day I was looking through names and said, “What about Colin?”

  It was close enough to his name that they would almost have that in common, but it was his own name, his own identity. Connor liked that idea and we stuck with it. And as we entered the elevator and I stared down at my son, I knew the name was fitting.

  “Next stop, home.”

  Connor leaned over me from behind, placing another kiss to the top of my head. I took his hand into one of my own while keeping Colin resting in my lap and other arm. Destiny placed her hand on my shoulder and I looked up at her through tears. My Aunt Donna was waiting for me at our home, deciding she’d stay with Connor and I for a few weeks to help care for her new grandson as she referred to Colin as. This was the family I’d always longed for.

  Who knew one lonely night in New York would’ve turned into all of this?

  The End

  Looking for updates on future releases? I can be found around the web at the following locations:

  Newsletter: Tiffany Patterson Writes Newsletter

  FaceBook private group: Tiffany’s Passions Between the Pages

  Website: TiffanyPattersonWrites.com

  FaceBook Page: Author Tiffany Patterson

  Email: TiffanyPattersonWrites@gmail.com

  More books by Tiffany Patterson

  The Black Burles Series

  Black Pearl

  Black Dahlia

  Black Butterfly

  Forever Series

  7 Degrees of Alpha (Collection)

  Forever

  Safe Space Series

  Safe Space (Book 1)

  Safe Space (Book 2)

  Rescue Four Series

  Eric’s Inferno

  Carter’s Flame

  Emanuel’s Heat

  Non-Series Titles

  This is Where I Sleep

  My Storm

  Miles & Mistletoe (Holiday Novella)

  Just Say the Word

  Jacob’s Song

  The Townsend Brothers Series

  Aaron’s Patience

  Meant to Be

  For Keeps

  Until My Last Breath

  Tiffany Patterson Website Exclusives

  Locked Doors

  Bella