Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
B ex slept. She didn’t know how long, but when she opened her eyes she was surprised to see everyone still in her room. Her headache was a little better and her eyes were more focused.
“What time is it?” she mumbled.
“It’s a little after three in the morning,” Wilder answered softly. She felt his hand squeeze hers and she held on tight. She’d felt safe as she’d held his hand while sleeping. Now that she was awake and able to enjoy the warmth of it in her hand she didn’t want to let go.
“Is it time for me to go home?” Bex asked.
Three phones went off at once in the room. Max and Glen opened theirs and cursed as Wilder handed her phone back to her. Bex struggled to sit up and rubbed her eyes. The alert that had gone off on her phone was for a high-profile warrant. Everyone on the force would have gotten it so they could be on the lookout for the suspect.
Bex opened her phone and froze. Confusion at what she was looking at was the first thing that hit her. The second was Wilder’s very strongly worded curse word as he read the alert off her phone. “What is this?” Bex couldn’t make sense of it as her phone began to ring. It was her brother and she answered it immediately.
“I didn’t do this,” she said to TJ even as her phone rang with all of her family trying to call her.
“Hang up the phone,” Wilder ordered her.
She shook her head. “It’s my brother. TJ, I didn’t do this. Yes, it’s about what I was talking about earlier.” She needed help and she knew her family would help her.
“Do what?” Olivia asked.
“The DA’s office got an arrest warrant for Bexley Moretti, AKA Tiffany Anderson, saying she’s working with the gang that attacked her and moving drugs for them. The attack was due to her holding onto the product being distributed,” Glen answered. “The DA announced they’d been investigating the force for months after an anonymous tip that one of theirs was dirty. They claim they have proof that it’s Bex.”
“She’s their scapegoat. They set her up in more than one way. Either she provided the evidence to take my brother down or they use her to go down for whatever crimes they’ve been covering up.” Olivia had the picture now and so did everyone in the room, Bex included.
“I heard that! What the hell is going on, Bex?” TJ practically shouted in the phone. “Where are you? Who is Tiffany Anderson? Who is in the room with you? Who set you up?”
Bex opened her mouth to answer, but Glen yanked the phone from her and hung it up before he turned the phone off. “We have to get you out of here. You’re not safe. None of us are safe if they know we’re onto them.”
Bex’s heart was racing. She heard the monitor flash as her blood pressure rose. How could all of this be happening to her?
“They obviously know you’re in the hospital. We need to move now,” Max said. “I can stay with my parents. Or cousins.” Bex was trying to formulate a plan but the damn drugs were still making things hard to compute.
“No. We need you out of the city,” Glen told her. “You’re going to be the star witness when we get the evidence we need against Seabrook. We need you safe.”
“She can stay with me in Shadows Landing.” Bex turned to look up at Wilder. He looked fierce and determined as he reached out and took her hand back into his.
“Where the hell is Shadows Landing?” Bex asked. She didn’t like feeling ignored as they continued to discuss their plan as if she weren’t there.
“We can’t take my plane,” Wilder said. “That would be too easy to track. I’ll send it to L.A. to throw them off.”
Bex was struggling to keep up as everyone was talking at once. “Wait, you have a plane?”
Wilder didn’t answer her though as Olivia offered to call someone to get them a plane.
“No, we don’t want to risk them showing up on a passenger list,” Glen said with frustration. “Did you drive here by chance?” Glen asked Wilder.
“I flew in but am using one of the cars I keep here to drive around town. That’s what I used to get here tonight.”
Max shook his head. “No. Don’t drive it to Shadows Landing. They’ll check to see if any of your cars are missing.” Max reached into his pocket and held out a set of keys. “This is a personal car of mine. Take it. They won’t be looking for my plates.”
Olivia nodded. “We took a cab to the hospital. I’ll drive your car back to your building,” she said as Wilder handed his keys to his sister.
“Stop!” Bex finally yelled, causing her head to spin. “I can’t just disappear. My family will go nuts looking for me. They’ve already called me ten times just while I was talking to my brother.”
Glen nodded. “I know your father. I’ll go and talk to him. But Bex, we have to get you out of here. Now.”
Granger, at least that’s what Bex thought his name was, appeared with two plastic hospital bags and handed one to Wilder and one to her. “Get dressed in these. There are security cameras here. They will be turned over to the DA. You need to sneak out.”
The reality of the situation was starting to sink in as she looked at everyone in the room. “I’ve put you all in danger.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Olivia said with a grin. “I know some people who can take care of the security footage.”
“You can’t destroy evidence,” Glen told her as he sighed. That told Bex enough. Glen was a good cop. “Plus, we need to show the video of the man who tried to get to Bex.”
“Who said anything about destroying? We can’t help it if their security footage is glitchy.” Olivia typed away at her phone. “Bex, can you get in the wheelchair? Wilder, I need you to push her out into the hall. Act as if you’re leaving. Open the doors and when you go through them, stop and wait ten seconds and come back. Meanwhile,” Olivia frowned at her husband. “I’m sorry, honey. I need you to take one for the team.”
Team? Was that what they were? Bex had no idea what was going on. This seemed more like a chaotic family game night than a law enforcement team.
“Anything for you, love.” Granger sighed and turned to Wilder, Glen, and Max. “Who wants to punch me in the face?”
“What the hell is going on?” Glen asked slowly as Wilder pushed the nurse button and requested a wheelchair and to be discharged.
“We are here because my husband was attacked,” Olivia explained. “I called my friend and client, Sebastian Abel, and he called his friend, Detective Max Caldwell to tell him to check on this himself. Max, tied up at the crime scene at WET, called his boss, you. We are going to put Granger in the bay next door during a security camera ‘glitch.’ That way, when someone from the NYPD or the DA’s office arrives, we can see who it is but also have a reason for being here. Since you won’t let me scrub all the footage, we can use some strategic glitches to make the story fit. Wilder and Bex will appear to have left. Then they’ll come back, change into scrubs, and walk out the employee exit. No one will find them when they look at the parking lot footage.”
“But won’t they know that Chief Wise and Detective Caldwell saw me?” Bex asked as a wheelchair was delivered and the doctor joined them. Everyone quieted down as he did one last exam, declared her clear to go home, and sent the nurse to get the discharge papers.
“That’s the best part,” Olivia said with a smile that somewhat scared Bex. “It’s all on camera. They heard raised voices, checked it out, and saw it was Wilder and a gang member asking for the victim. We can glitch any surveillance showing them entering your room. We will claim Glen and Max looked in on you but you were still unconscious. When they got notice of the warrant, they came to check on you, and you’d been discharged. As for Wilder, most people don’t know he’s my brother. We just won’t mention it.”
“I don’t like lying, but we have to. We’ll even call it in saying we checked and you were discharged, which means we need to get you out of here now,” Wise told her.
Bex nodded. She was beginning to understand. She was in danger and she was also putting everyone else in danger if she stayed. “Get me out of here, Wilder.” Bex looked up and held out her hand. “Bex Moretti. Nice to meet you and thank you for saving me tonight.”
Wilder didn’t shake her hand. He scooped her up and held her to him as he smiled down at her. “Nice to meet you too. Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”
They faked their discharge and rushed back to the room. Olivia helped her get into scrubs as Wilder got into his. Bex could have turned her back and never seen Wilder strip off his shirt, but she was always too curious for her own good. She pulled on the scrub pants as she caught sight of Wilder pulling the dark blue scrubs top over his chest. Bex swallowed. She was used to men changing in the locker room at work. She didn’t expect Wilder to be so muscular and she certainly didn’t expect all those glorious dips and ridges along his abs.
“I’m in section D about a third of the way down on the side closest to the hospital. It’s a black pickup truck,” Max told Wilder who just nodded. Bex almost rolled her eyes. What was it about cops and their pickups? That’s what all her brothers and cousins drove too.
“Get ready,” Olivia said, keeping her eyes on her phone. “Glitch coming up in ten . . .”
Olivia counted down as Bex slapped a pair of disposable booties on over her bare feet. No way she was going to be able to sneak out wearing her heels. “Leave your things. I’ll bring them to you when I come home in a couple of days,” Olivia told them as if reading her mind. “Max, Glen, Granger, we move at the same time to the bay next door. Now, will someone quickly hit my husband?”
Bex gasped as a punch was thrown.
“Dammit, Wilder! Did you have to do that so hard?” Granger groaned as blood poured from his lip. “And my lip? Now it’s going to hurt to kiss my wife when I have to get a stitch or two.”
Wilder smirked. “I know.”
Bex almost laughed at the happy grin on Wilder’s face.
“The glitch will last for ten seconds. Get as far away as you can. See you at home.” Olivia looked at her phone. “Now!”
Everyone moved, but Bex was finding it hard to move like she wanted. It took less than a second for Wilder to realize that and she was in his arms as he ran down the hall. As Bex looked over his shoulder she saw Olivia calling the nurse to say someone attacked her husband and he needed to be cleaned up as they entered the empty bay next to him. They disappeared into the bay just as Wilder took the corner down another hall. With two seconds to spare, he put her down.
“Can you walk?” he asked from under the surgical mask.
“Yeah, just not very fast.”
“I would offer to help, but we’re on camera now. I don’t want anything sticking out.” Wilder stopped at a nurses' station and she followed suit. It was crazy how easy it was for him to chat up the nurses about nothing at all. But she understood what he was doing. Now it wasn’t a man and a woman leaving the hospital. It was a group of colleagues chatting. “Your shift is over too. It’s been a hell of a night.” Wilder said as he watched the group of nurses grab their coats. “You in the back lot?”
“Yeah,” one of the nurses said, batting her eyes. Bex wanted to roll hers.
“I’ll walk you ladies out. It’s a dangerous city and we need our nurses safe. Let’s go.” Wilder, Bex, and four nurses all walked out chatting as if they knew each other, which is exactly what it’d look like on the security feed. It was actually quite brilliant even though for some reason Bex was jealous of the way the nurses all managed to touch Wilder as they walked to their cars.
“Thanks for walking us to our cars, Doctor—”
“My pleasure. Goodnight, ladies.”
Bex was already looking for Max’s truck as she called out goodnight to the group. If anyone asked, it appeared they were all leaving separately. That and it was cold and her feet were ice cubes since she didn’t have any shoes on under the disposable booties.
The parking lot filled as the shift ended. People were either chatting or were making a beeline for their cars. Wilder pressed the unlock button from behind her and the lights flashed on a pickup truck three down from Bex. She hurried to the pickup and got in the passenger seat before Wilder even made it to the truck.
Wilder slid into the driver’s seat and turned the truck on. Bex pushed the button for the seat warmer as she shivered. Wilder leaned over and blew on his hands to warm them before he rubbed them up and down her arms as fast as he could causing them to heat up from the friction. “Sorry. I should have grabbed a coat for you. I was just trying to get us out of here as fast as I could.”
“It’s okay. I’m from here. The cold won’t kill me. Not like you. You’re from South Carolina? This must be freezing for you.”
Wilder put the car in gear. “You might want to duck down until we’re out of the parking lot.” Bex slid to the floorboards of the roomy cabin. She might be the cop, but Wilder was right. No reason for them to appear together in any footage. “I actually just moved to South Carolina. I’m from Upstate New York, so I’m used to even colder weather than you city folk get. And certainly more used to the snow.”
“That wasn’t in your file,” Bex told him. “In fact, your file and background online is very vague. That usually means you’re hiding something, but you’ve been nothing but cooperative. You’re an enigma, that’s for sure.”
Bex felt the truck turn onto the street in front of the hospital and waited until he took another couple of turns before she crawled back up into her warm seat.
“That’s deliberate. I paid a lot of money for my public profile to be as vague as possible. It gives a certain allure to me and my clubs, but it also respects my privacy and that of my family. I don’t want reporters hunting down my retired parents or figuring out the top attorney in New York is my sister or that one of the top pro hockey players is my brother.”
Bex loved hockey and her mind started going through all the rosters. “Wait. Stone Townsend is your brother?”
“Yeah. We don’t hide our relationship. Hell, I go to as many of his games as possible. We just don’t put it out in the media. I like to fly under the radar.”
“I’m from a large Italian family. I don’t know what it’s like to fly under the radar. Every part of my life is picked over by them,” Bex told him as he headed for the interstate.
“Trust me, I understand that. We all went our separate ways, but we’ve all come back together recently. All of us, except my youngest sister, have moved to Shadows Landing. I hated that they’d been all up in my business before. But when I needed a business loan to buy my first club, they were the ones who helped me get the loan. Now I can’t imagine living apart from them again.”
Bex smiled into the darkness and snuggled into the warm seat. The heater was blowing full blast and she was finally warm. Her eyes began to droop as exhaustion reclaimed her. “Thanks again for saving me, Wilder.”
“Anytime, Bex.”
“Running doesn’t sit well with me. I became a cop to fight against corruption and criminals, not run from them.” Bex sighed and glanced at the passing scenery.
“With a little help, we’ll do just that. We are not running. This is a strategic retreat in order to gather our forces and attack the target when they least expect it.”
Bex gave a little snort of laughter. “Are you hiding a military record too?”
Wilder chuckled. “No, but my brother Hunter is Special Forces. I’ve picked up a thing or two over the years.”
“Another brother. How many siblings do you have?”
“A lot. Get some sleep, Bex. You’re safe now.”
Bex nodded as her eyelids closed. She knew she was. She’d known it from the first moment she’d seen Wilder Townsend. Tonight proved it. He was so much more than the carefree playboy nightclub owner the media portrayed. The trouble was, he was someone Bex could fall for. If she hadn’t already started to, which only complicated things further. That was a worry for another time. Now, it was time to sleep.