Chapter 49
CHAPTER 49
I woke up to a crash. Lifting my head from my pillow, I peered into the darkness of the room. It was 5 AM.
“Porter?”
“I’m here,” he said from the floor.
I turned on the lamp. Porter laid on his back on the floor. His white shirt was streaked with blood, and he had a fat lip that suggested he’d been in a fight.
“What happened?” I shot out of bed, crouching beside him.
He worked to focus on my face. “You waited up for me,” he enunciated really slowly, in a way that only drunk people did.
“What happened to you?” I grabbed his hand, examining his bloody knuckles. “Were you in a fight?”
“You know I’d do anything to protect you, right?” He struggled to sit up.
“I know that.”
“Beth, I really need you to know that. I’d do anything for you.”
I put his face in my hands. “I know that.” I kissed him, and he pulled away to focus on me.
“You’re so beautiful. You dazzle me. ”
I half-laughed and stood, using all my muscles to bring him to his feet and guide him to bed. “Come let’s get you on the bed.”
“Things are going to shit, Beth.” With a gentle push, he went down to the mattress like a felled tree.
“Things are just a tiny bit complicated.”
He caught my hand and tugged me, so I sprawled over him. “Promise me you won’t leave me.”
“Porter, please,” I begged. “Tell me what is going on?”
“I want to, but I should get sober first.”
I pulled a pillow down and tucked it under his head. “We need to talk.”
“I have something I want to ask you.”
I froze, staring down at this beautiful man. “You do?”
“I’d do anything for you,” his words were getting slower.
“When are we going to talk?” I was a bit desperate.
“Tomorrow,” he managed to say before he slipped into a drunken slumber.
Would he remember this conversation in the morning?
The next morning, I got up and left Porter to sleep off the alcohol in my bedroom. I fretted about our impending marriage—in eight hours. Emily appeared in the kitchen.
I yelped in delight. “Where are Theo and Jackson?” I hugged her hard.
“Jackson took Theo to the park. After the flight, Theo had some pent-up energy.” She grinned. “How are you?”
“Still engaged.” I explained how his entire family had shown up and taken over the party.
Her eyes were wide. “So, you didn’t call it off?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s happening. We still have to talk. ”
A member of my security team interrupted us. “There’s a Detective Christensen here to see Porter?”
“Did she say what it’s about?”
He shook his head. “I seated her in the living room.”
Emily and I exchanged glances before I went to my bedroom to find Porter. He was passed out hard on my bed.
“Hey.” I sat next to him. “Detective Christensen is here to see you.”
He cracked open his bloodshot eyes. “Right now?”
“Yes.”
He sat up, wincing, “Okay, tell her I’ll be right out.”
His dress shirt was covered in brown blood stains. “You might want to change your shirt.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, okay.”
“What happened to your face?” Detective Christensen said the moment she set eyes on Porter.
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. It was amazing how he could be hungover and probably even drunk yet present himself as entirely in control. “What brings you here today?”
She sighed and glanced between the two of us. “Porter, where were you between 3 AM and 4 AM last night?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Michael Renner was beaten up last night, and then he was shot.”
My head jerked back. “What do you mean, shot?”
She eyeballed me. “With a gun. He took one slug to his arm and another one to his chest.”
All I could think about was how Porter had shown up at 5 AM, covered in blood, talking about how he’d do anything to protect me. “Is he alive? ”
“Renner’s alive and out of surgery. But the bullet wounds are the least of his concerns. Someone took one of his own golf clubs to his head, and he currently remains unconscious and in critical condition.”
“You think I had something to do with that?” Porter asked.
“I prefer to think of this as me clearing you, but I need to know where you were last night between 3AM and 4 AM.”
Porter’s eyes flickered to me. “I’d rather not say.”
“We can do this two ways, Porter,” Detective Christensen advised him. “But to be honest, I’d rather not drag you down to the station.”
“If I wanted to kill Renner, he’d be dead.”
“You’re not helping your cause,” she warned.
He sat beside me on the couch. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
Relief hit me hard. If Porter said he didn’t do it, I trusted him. “I believe you. Just tell her where you were.”
“You promise you’ll let me explain?” His eyes were on my face.
“Of course.”
He gave a short nod and said to Detective Christensen. “I was with my brothers until the bar closed. About 3 AM, I left the bar to go talk to my ex-girlfriend, Felicia.”
W.T.F.
I’m pretty sure I’d stopped breathing.
“We’re going to need her address.” Detective Christensen opened up her pad of paper.
He rattled off her address while I sat, frozen. Unable to move.
“And how did you get that fat lip?” she asked.
“My brother and I got into it at the bar.”
I moved further away from him on the couch while my mind raced. Porter had been with Felicia? Last night? I felt cold, then hot. I couldn’t even look at his face.
“Beth,” he said calmly. “Let me explain.”
Detective Christensen stood. “Sorry for this. I know this is your wedding day. I’ll be in contact with your ex-girlfriend with the purpose of clearing you from this crime. Don’t go far.” She let herself out.
“Beth,” he said in a soft voice. “Let me talk.”
I turned on him, feeling so much right now, I couldn’t even distinguish my emotions. “So, after you got into a bar brawl with your own brother, you decided, in the middle of the night, that you needed to go see Felicia.”
“I needed to talk to her.”
“You needed to talk to me . That’s what you told me.”
“I needed to talk to her first.”
“About what?”
“It’s a long story.”
“You want her back,” I accused him, standing up.
“No.” He grabbed my hand.
I was close to yelling. “No one goes to see their ex in the middle of the night unless they have feelings. Feelings that come out when they’re drunk. And you were stinking drunk.”
“You said you’d listen.”
“Not right now.” I yanked on my hand.
“Come on.”
“I know I have no hold over you. I know this isn’t a real relationship, but right now, everything I feel is real. And I’m too pissed to listen to you. I need to calm down.”
“We have to talk.”
“We will talk when I’m ready.”
I fought tears.
Fought emotion.
Fought the panic and fear threatening to bubble out of me.
Fought him .