Chapter 20 Stella
TWENTY
STELLA
“Move to the couch,” Milo bellowed angrily.
“Milo? What are you doing?” I tried to ask politely and not anger him anymore, but I was so confused.
“Move to the couch,” he repeated, the gun still pointed right at me.
I had no idea what was going on, but I wasn’t stupid. If someone with a gun was telling you to do something, you listened.
However, moving over to the couch meant moving away from my phone in my purse, away from knives or anything else sharp in the kitchen, and away from the door to escape, so I took the only thing I could that was subtle enough to grab—a piece of broken glass the size of my palm.
It was jagged, and I tried to hide my wince of pain from it cutting my palm as I wrapped my fingers around it and stood.
I walked sideways to the couch so I never put him fully behind me. I’d never seen Milo act like this, and that scared me. He didn’t even look like the same person. His hair was unruly, his eyes wild.
“Sit down,” he commanded once I got to the couch, and I complied.
Luna was at her sister’s party and Axel was with his parents, so I was on my own to figure this out.
“I should have known better.” Milo was standing about six feet in front of me, gun still in hand, but now it was moving along with him as he paced back and forth in my small living room. “In culinary school, you told me I was the best friend you had.”
I remembered telling him that, but I had meant my best friend I had at school. I thought he knew Luna had been my best friend since childhood and always would be.
“Then you asked me to move here with you and start this business together, but you suddenly added Luna to the mix, and you all but forgot about me. We were supposed to be a team—business partners—and then Luna got in the way.”
I swallowed nervously.
I hadn’t really asked him to be a partner. I had always dreamed of this being my place, but I was happy to add Milo and Luna to my team, and I truly had thought that was clear.
“Milo, we are a team—you, me, and Luna.”
That comment did not make him happy.
His face turned redder as he stepped closer to me and yelled loudly, “Luna is not part of our team!”
“O…O…Okay.” I tried to appear conciliatory and appeasing as I placated him. I felt it best to just agree at this point and not piss him off more.
He calmed slightly at my concession.
“I knew you hadn’t wanted to date anyone when you first moved here,” he continued. “I wasn’t happy about it, but I was willing to be patient because I always envisioned us as a team both in the kitchen and in bed.”
I tried to hide the shock and the cringe feeling inside me from showing on my face. Even if I had been willing to date in the beginning, Milo wasn’t my type. Plus, I had heard horror stories of people who dated and worked together, so I knew I never wanted to do that.
I stilled my movements, trying to keep him as calm as I could long enough for me to try to come up with a plan.
“I even had your back when that asshole Braden tried to get involved.” He shook his head, as though he were thinking back to that moment in disgust. “I started to have doubts about your true feelings for me after the letters from Braden came and you never took me up on my offer to be your pretend boyfriend. It’s the whole reason I gave you those letters, so you would come to me! ”
What did he just say?
“You wrote the letters?” I asked, stunned.
“You were taking too long to come to your senses about us,” he explained, as though it were so simple. “But instead of you running to me after the letters, you ran into the arms of that jerk from the security company.”
His face turned even angrier, and his nostrils flared. “I saw what he wrote in your stupid flower note.”
That’s when it dawned on me. Milo had been the one to move my flowers. He must have snuck up here at some point to see the note and moved them, which was why they weren’t on the counter like I’d remembered.
The note he was talking about from Axel said, “The pink color in these roses reminds me of the color on your skin when you’re naked, flushed, and underneath me.”
It had made me smile reading them, and I had giggled a little, but I understood why it made Milo angry.
He rolled his eyes as he shook his head in disgust, but he also turned. It wasn’t much, but he shifted while he was lost in deep thought, and it was enough of a turn that I took my chance—I moved.
With the piece of glass still in my hand, I lunged off the couch and jumped right for him, tackling him. I drove all my weight forward, thinking he’d see me coming and brace, except he hadn’t. I hit him hard enough to shove him a good solid five or six feet back.
We crashed into my TV stand. The TV, several picture frames, and a small plant toppled with us. The stand itself was cheap, and it snapped like a twig the second we hit it.
Milo grunted beneath me, a raw yell tearing out of him as I landed on him. My scream followed an instant later when pain exploded through my left arm.
I didn’t have time to figure out why. I needed the gun out of his hand. Now.
He lay wheezing under me as I pushed up, scanning the floor. The pain in my arm sharpened when I lifted it, but I ignored it when I spotted the gun—two feet behind his head.
Everything in me ached as I crawled toward it. I extended my arm and fingers to reach it, when my sore arm was yanked back with brutal force.
“Don’t even think about it, bitch.” Milo’s voice was raw but filled with fury.
Fear raced through me. I’d dropped the piece of broken glass when we fell and had nothing to use to defend myself.
He dragged me over and shoved me to the floor again. I twisted, ready to fight as much as I could, when his body was suddenly yanked away.
“Do not touch her.” Axel’s voice came from nowhere as he slammed Milo facedown.
I sat there in shock, trying to catch my breath as I watched Axel pin him easily, planting a knee on his back.
“Don’t move!” I had never heard Axel’s voice like that before—angry, cold, leaving no room to argue. It scared me, even though I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
Then, just like the flip of a switch, his tone softened as he turned to me. “Stella, do you have string or rope? Something I can use to tie him until the police get here?”
I froze. I understood what he was asking, but it was like my brain was working on overdrive. Like it couldn’t process words fast enough.
“Stella, ?lskling,” he said, interrupting my thoughts by using my favorite endearment. His voice was gentle but firm when he continued. “I need something to tie him up with before the police arrive. Can you get it for me?”
I nodded, moving to my kitchen almost on autopilot. I grabbed a roll of cooking twine and a pair of scissors.
“Will this work?” I asked as I returned.
“Get off me, asshole!” Milo grunted from underneath Axel.
“Stop moving,” Axel growled back.
“Perfect, thanks.” Axel took the twine and started to bind Milo’s wrists while he jerked and twisted, fighting uselessly against Axel.
“I’ll get the gun,” I told him as I walked over toward it, but Axel quickly halted me.
“Don’t touch it. Just use your foot to kick it over there out of his reach.” Axel pointed over toward my kitchen. “I don’t want your fingerprints on it.”
Oh yeah. I hadn’t thought of that.
“Get off me,” Milo spat, but Axel ignored him while still resting his knee on his back to keep him from moving too much.
“Stella, are you hurt?” he asked as I used my foot to nudge the gun the last few feet. “Come here.”
I moved back toward him, the adrenaline finally loosening its grip enough for the pain to register. My left arm throbbed, hot and persistent. “I landed funny on this one,” I said, lifting it between us.
When I glanced down, my stomach dipped. Blood streaked the back of my arm, dark and wet along my bicep. “I must have sliced it up when we fell into the TV stand.”
Concern was etched onto Axel’s face as he reached for me. Before he could say anything, two voices shouted from the bottom of my stairs. “Police!”
The shout carried up the stairwell, sharp and commanding.
“We’re up here!” I called out.
“Step back,” Axel said, low enough for only me to hear, as he pushed my stomach, nudging me back several steps away from him.
I wasn’t sure why at first until the cops came up—with guns raised—and immediately assessed Axel on top of Milo as something dangerous.
“There’s a gun on the floor to your right that we kicked out of the way,” Axel informed them as they topped the stairs. “This man was attacking my girlfriend when I walked in. He’s been restrained, but my girlfriend needs medical attention.”
“He assaulted me! I’m innocent!” Milo yelled from the ground.
Both officers took a quick scan of the scene before looking at me. “You live here?” the first one asked.
“Yes, and my bakery is the business below. The man on the ground is my employee, and he assaulted me and held that gun to my head and threatened me until Axel arrived.” I spoke quickly, hoping to diffuse the situation so the officers would lower their weapons, as it was making me extremely nervous.
“No!” Milo shouted. “She has it all wrong. I’m the victim here!”
The closer officer radioed in some codes over his walkie-talkie while the other walked over to Milo.
“Sir, you can get off him. We’ve got him,” he said to Axel.
Axel walked over to me at the same time the other officer did.
Five minutes later, I was sitting on the narrow bench in the back of an ambulance as an EMT gently examined my arm.
The doors were still open, allowing me a view of Axel standing just outside the emergency vehicle, speaking in low tones to one of the officers.
Diego and Vince had arrived sometime during the chaos and were now hovering close to Axel and me.
“How are you holding up, Stella?” Vince asked, trying to hide the worry on his face.
“I’m okay, all things considered,” I told him, though I wasn’t sure if I was saying that to reassure him or myself.
Axel filled everyone in on what had happened, his voice calm and measured, despite the craziness of everything that had happened. After a few quiet exchanges, Diego and Vince offered to stay behind and deal with the police so Axel could go with me to the hospital.
“This is definitely going to need stitches and likely an X-ray just double check nothing is broken,” the EMT beside me recommended.
“Go,” Vince said, waving Axel off before he could even hesitate. “Diego’s calling Archer now. We’ve got this handled here, and we’ll text if we get any updates.”
Two hours and ten stitches later, I was ready to leave the hospital.
My arm wasn’t broken, but the glass had ripped a good gash along the side of my arm.
I also had numerous other bruises and marks from where I had fallen, but the doctors felt I would make a full recovery and be back to normal in two to three weeks.
Anna and Archer had shown up to check on us and offer any help I needed.
“Do you want me to call Luna?” Anna offered.
I smiled wryly, knowing this was not what I meant when I offered to call her with an emergency to get her out of the evening with her sister. “Yes please, but you may want to send a picture of me, or her mom won’t believe her that it’s a real emergency.”
Anna laughed briefly, snapped a photo, and left to go into the hallway to make the call since the nurse had stepped in to check my vitals again.
Anna had stayed with me while the police had asked more questions. They’d needed to talk to Axel separately, which she and Archer had told me was pretty standard for the police. Archer, being a former cop, had gone with Axel, and Anna had stayed with me. I’d been happy to have the support.
Now we were just waiting for the nurse to get my prescription and bring my discharge paperwork, but I knew that meant we would likely be here for another hour at least.
“Do you want something to drink?” Anna asked as we filled the time with chatter while waiting for my doctor to return.
“Stella!” Luna practically shouted as she appeared in my doorway, looking frazzled.
“Hey, Luna,” I said and then greeted her mom who was right behind her. “Hey, Beverly. Sorry you had to leave Terra’s party.”
“Mom and I were miserable, so don’t apologize,” Luna responded.
“I love both my daughters dearly, but I’m happy to have left, though I’m definitely not happy about the reason.” Beverly’s eyes softened with sorrow.
“What happened?” Luna asked me. “Anna didn’t give me much to go on.”
“It wasn’t my story to tell. Sorry,” Anna apologized, and Luna waved it off, obviously understanding.
“Oh good. Story time. We made it just in time,” Tammy’s voice called out from the doorway, where she was standing next to Ruthie.
I sighed but realized it was better to only have to tell this story to all of them once rather than each of them individually. I broke down the whole story of what had happened, starting with the vase.
Apparently, Milo had seen me carry my flowers up to my apartment and snapped, realizing I was falling hard and fast for Axel and he was losing his shot.
Axel grumbled what I assumed were Swedish curse words as he walked back into my room, likely not happy about the number of people in here.
I continued telling them all what had happened and ended with the ambulance ride here.
“I feel stupid for missing the signs,” I said, rubbing my hands over my face in embarrassment. “I should have paid more attention to Milo, because now that I look back, I definitely ignored some red flags.”
“One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou,” Ruthie interrupted. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.”
Her voice was softer than usual. Kind, as if she understood what I had gone through on a personal level.
It was a perfect quote. “Thanks, Ruthie. I needed to hear that.”
“I don’t know which ones of you need to hear this,” Tammy said, her gaze bouncing between Archer and Axel, “but if anyone in the room needs an alibi, I’ve got one for you.”
Ruthie and Anna chuckled, so I assumed Tammy was joking, but the looks on Axel’s and Archer’s faces suggested she might not be.
Tammy was a force of nature, no doubt about it. She was also a brand-new friend, and I found myself loving this unexpected friendship more than I’d thought I would. I couldn’t wait to spend more time with her and figure out what made her the chaotic delight she clearly was.