Chapter 68
The minute Reese and I are in the back of the SUV with Savage in the front seat, I ask the question, “Why did court dismiss? What’s going on?”
“There was a delivery to the judge, meant for me,” he says and holds up a finger. “Hold on, sweetheart.” He looks to the front seat. “Savage, before you drive, you need to see this.” He pulls an envelope with the photo from his briefcase and hands it to Savage before turning to me. “A photo of me with words written over the top of it. It’s an obvious threat.”
“Debbie,” I say. “She’s telling you she’ll go public. Gabe was right. She’ll do it just to get us to pay her off and make her go away.”
“Reid’s made her a small offer,” Reese says. “I’m counting on him ending this.”
Savage hands the photo back to Reese. “In a rare move for me, I’ll hold my thoughts until we’re in the company of Royce.”
Reese takes the photo and hands it to me. I suck in a breath and open it, reading the words written across the surface. I hate the word “cheater,” scrawled over his image, not because I don’t trust Reese, but because it just feels bad, like our perfect relationship, and it is perfect, is being questioned by the world. It shouldn’t matter what others think, and it really doesn’t, but it still twists me in knots.
I shove the photo back in the envelope. “I want this to end.” I look at Reese. “But I do not want to reward someone for this behavior with money. Part of me really just wants to write about this, Reese. It ends this. We take control. We handle the blow. I go back to the money I could make. I’ll go to my publisher, pitch a book about it and we can take the payout to invest in the firm, to offset any damage.”
“There’s no guarantee she goes away,” he says. “We don’t know her mental health.”
“Someone else is helping her,” I say, rejecting that idea. “There’s no other way she found me today. It has to be about money. We take away the payout, and they move on.”
“Let’s wait and see what Royce and Reid have to offer.”
“I’m here you know,” Savage reminds us.
“You and Royce are one,” Reese says, to which Savage murmurs something incomprehensible.
Reese tunes him out, rotating to face me. “I’m going to make this go away. I promise.”
I cover his hand with mine. “We’re going to make it go away. You and me.”
He brushes his lips over mine, but there is a shift in him, an edginess, that defies the delicateness of the kiss. I know this man. When he’s on edge, he needs certain things, he needs me. As if reading my mind, he presses his lips to my ear. “I need you alone,” he whispers. “Really damn badly.”
“Soon,” I promise as my cellphone rings.
Reese presses his forehead to mine and then breathes out as if the interruption is an unwelcome reminder of the here and now, but he kisses my temple and says, “Take your call.”
I grab my phone to find Lauren’s number. “Hey,” I say.
“I’m meeting you at your apartment. I have your meds. I’m sorry it took me so long. I had a client with a crisis. What’s happening?”
“We’re pulling up to the apartment now. I’ll explain upstairs. And thank you on the meds.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a few.”
We disconnect and as soon as we pull up to the door Savage says, “Don’t move. My man is taking the car and I’m coming around to get you.”
Reese takes my hand, and we are quickly ushered inside where Royce is waiting by the elevator. “The judge on my case received this,” Reese says, handing him the envelope. We step into the elevator and Royce glances at the contents once we’re there, but says nothing. Despite my urgency to hear his opinion, I like this about Royce. He’s discreet. He won’t say anything in a place that could have a camera.
And so I endure the elevator ride and walk to the apartment. We’re just heading inside when Lauren comes running down the hall. “I’m here.” She holds up a bag. “I have the meds.”
Reese opens the door and lets Royce, Lauren, and Savage, inside, but holds me back just inside the hallway. “How do you feel?”
“Right now, I’m okay,” I say, “and I hope that means it’s over.”
He presses me against the wall. “Cat, we need to make an agreement right now. If Royce believes you’re in danger, I need you to go to the ranch, and take Savage along for the ride.”
“My job is to cover this trial and even if it wasn’t, I’m not leaving you with a crazy woman stalking you.”
“Sweetheart, we’re going to fight over this and I’m going to win. That’s just how it is.”
“You don’t get to say that’s how it is. I’m going through this, too. And we don’t even know what’s happening with her and Reid or even what Royce’s assessment is.”
His hands go to the wall beside my head. “I’m going to win on this, Cat. I don’t do this to you often. I don’t want or need to win with you, ever, until now. Because I love you, you will do this if Royce thinks it’s best. Because you love me, you will do it.”
His voice is hard, and yet it radiates with emotion. He’s coming out of his skin, I realize now. He’s really worried, beyond just trying to be cautious. I press my hands to his face. “Let’s go talk to Royce, then you and I will talk.”
He covers my hands. “You understand that I—”
“I don’t need you to finish that sentence. I understand. I just—can we talk about this alone?”
He takes my hand and kisses it. “The sooner the better.” He laces his fingers with mine and we walk into the kitchen where everyone has gathered around the island. Lauren has set a bottle of pills on the counter with water. “Thank you,” I say, stepping to the spot across from her, while Reese stands across from Royce. Savage is at the endcap between Reese and Royce.
“What’s the assessment?” Reese asks.
Royce replies, “We have footage of Debbie with an attorney named Wilson Moore, who I believe is your competitor.”
“Hardly,” Reese replies. “He’s just not that good and I know this because—”
“You went to school with him,” Royce supplies. “We’re operating on the assumption that he’s looking to ruin you, and get a payoff. Is the baby his? Could be. Right now, we’re working through all of his electronic data, looking for proof. What we need you and Reid to do is buy time with Debbie. Keep her from going public before we can take them down. Even if Reid gets Debbie to blackmail you, something damning from Moore seals an arrest.”
“This is good news then in some ways, right?” I ask. “We know what we’re dealing with.”
“This doesn’t make Debbie any less crazy,” Savage says. “This just means that Moore knew how to manipulate that crazy.”
“I want Cat to get out of town,” Reese says. “Go to my family ranch and stay off the radar.”
“While I’d feel the same way,” Royce says. “I don’t want to make a sudden move that somehow triggers a retreat that would be temporary and keeps us from taking these two down. Give it twenty-four hours. If between us and Reid we have nothing, then yes. We’ll get her off the radar with protection.”
Reese’s jaw clenches and I can tell he’s not pleased. “What about the photo?”
“We’ll run it for prints,” Royce says, “but my gut is that it’s simply meant to pressure you into settling. Reid’s already told her you’ll settle. He just needs to drag this out and make them think they have a chance. That’s what I told him, but I also said that I’d confirm once I talked to you.”
“When was the last time you talked to Reid?” Reese asks before I can.
“Right before we got on the elevator. She’s still in his office.” He narrows his eyes on Reese and I have this sense that he gets how on edge Reese is and as a friend, he knows very well how abnormal that is. “Why don’t we let you two have some time to deal with this your way? Give me until five. I’ll stop back by, but I’ll call if we get a big breakthrough.”
Lauren rounds the island, hugs me, and Reese walks everyone to the door. I wait for him in the kitchen and when he doesn’t return timely, I exit to the living room to find him standing at the window, staring out over the city. I walk to him and squeeze between him and the window. “Talk to me.”
His fingers tangle into my hair. “Talking before fucking is overrated.” His mouth closes down on mine.