17. Marcus
17
Marcus
Two Days Later
“Dad, come on, be honest with me.”
“I am being honest,” Dad replies, his voice sounding weak. “What more do you want me to say?”
“Telling me you like Harper doesn’t explain why you’re so hellbent on me marrying her . I know you. There’s something you’re not saying, and it bothers the crap out of me.”
There’s a slight pause, and then he sighs. “Yes, you’re right.”
Here we go . I sit up straighter in my office chair.
“I’ve been worried about you, Marcus. Proud but worried. You’ve done a phenomenal thing with that company of yours, but you’re still unhappy. I hate how you mask that unhappiness with your extravagant spending and wild ways, because you’re putting a band-aid over a large wound. Eventually, it will fester out of control, and I don’t want that for you. Consider this my attempt to save you from yourself.”
I sigh .
“Harper is a good girl. She’s smart. She made you happy back then. There’s no doubt in my mind that she can make you the happiest you’ve ever been. I’ll rest easy knowing you’re with a woman who will cure that wound.”
“A knife can’t heal a wound, Dad,” I reply, much sharper than I intended. It bugs me that he’s holding Harper in such high esteem. She’s not my savior. She’s the villain in my story.
“You’re still upset she moved twelve hundred miles for a job, I get that, but don’t you think it’s high time you forgive her for something so trivial?”
Yeah, I’d forgive her in a heartbeat if it was that trivial.
Dad soon bids me goodbye and the cell phone buzzes as I set it down on the desk. With a scoff, I answer it, teasing, “For someone on their honeymoon, you sure call often—”
“When have you spoken to Lauren last?” Gabriel interrupts.
I’m not sure if it’s the urgency in his tone or the mention of Lauren’s name that makes my stomach flip. “A few days ago,” I reply. “Why?”
“I’ve been calling her for over an hour, and she’s not answering her phone. I’m not getting through to Joe either.”
Wanting to stay positive, I suggest, “Maybe she’s working overtime.”
“No, she’s been only working half days since her office got torched.”
“ Her office got what ?”
There’s a smacking sound like flesh against flesh. “Crap. I totally forgot to tell you about the shit-show. An electrical issue caused a fire in her office. Lauren swore she saw someone in the room before the fire started.”
I push to my feet, anger flaring inside me. “Who?”
“I’d rather not say. There’s no proof he actually—”
“ Who ?” I press.
Gabriel sighs. “I’m not interested in bailing you out for assault, especially if he did nothing wrong. The fire department will investigate to confirm whether it was an accident. Until then, my lips are sealed. ”
“I’m going to get his name regardless,” I promise. “If Lauren said she saw him, I believe her.”
“As long as there’s no blood on my hands. Now, do you mind driving over to see if she’s okay?”
“Consider it done,” I reply. It’s a twenty-minute drive to Brooklyn, and I have a meeting in two hours. Plenty of time to go back and forth.
After telling my assistant to take my calls, I head to the underground garage while trying to get Lauren on her cell. Worry swells in my chest with each unanswered call, and my foot gets heavy on the gas pedal. I can already envision the speeding violations in my mailbox about a week from now, but I don’t care. The pang in my gut tells me there’s something seriously wrong.
And I’m heading straight toward it.
Dark grey clouds decorate the skies, matching my gloomy mood as I turn onto Gabriel’s quiet street. From the outside, nothing seems amiss, and I keep my fingers crossed that all is well inside too. After parallel parking between an SUV and a dark blue sedan, I hurry up the front steps.
A blur zips past my vision as I step onto the foyer. Before I move another step, something cold nudges against my temple. I raise my hand instinctively, and Joe steps back, the weapon swinging downward.
“Damnit, Marcus. Are you looking to get killed?” he grouses.
“Gabriel has been trying to reach you and Lauren,” I go on. “Where is she?”
“Upstairs, where she’s been since we got in,” he replies, tucking the gun in his waistline. “My phone battery died. I left it on charge.”
Relief makes my steps light as I move even before he’s done speaking, taking the steps two at a time. My knuckle raps on the hard wood of Lauren’s bedroom door.
“Goddamnit, Joe, hold your horses—” Lauren stops short as her face comes into view. There’s a romance novel pressed against her chest. With her free hand gripping the edge of the door, she frowns at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Where’s your phone?” Irritation intertwines with my relief as I step forward, forcing her to move aside to let me in. She looks pissed to see me, and I don’t appreciate it one bit, especially with how frantic I’d been. “Gabriel has been calling you for ages.”
“Oh.” She moves past me and rummages through her bag resting on the vanity table. With a wry scoff, she pulls the phone out. “Turned the ringer off. Sorry.”
“You had us worried,” I accuse hotly, since she doesn’t sound sorry at all. “Why didn’t you tell me about the fire in your office?”
She bounces on the bed, landing beside a stuffed teddy bear, one of many lying around her. “I didn’t think you’d care.”
“What? Why wouldn’t I care?”
I move around to stand in front of her, and she shrugs, fiddling with the teddy bear’s foot. “Okay, wrong choice of words. You had your hands full with running Rosemead, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“You could never bother me, Lauren. You know that.”
“Do I?” Fire sparks in her eyes. “What else should I assume when you’ve been acting like you don’t want to be around me?”
If only she knows what’s going on in my head. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. You’re family. Why wouldn’t I want to be around you?”
“Family.” She chokes out a laugh and rises from the bed, her arms spread wide. “Well, family , you’ve seen me. I’m fine, obviously. Tell my overbearing brother to enjoy his honeymoon and stop calling me. I’ll be okay.”
She’s wearing a smile, but her furrowed brows confirm how forced it is. She pissed. I don’t know why, but I know who . She’s pissed at me.
“Besides being crazy busy, did I do something to tick you off?” I enquire .
“Of course you didn’t.” Her response comes even before the last word leaves my mouth. She brushes the hair from her face and lifts her chin higher. “You’ve done your good deed for the day. Go back to whatever you were doing.”
It’s quite unusual for Lauren to be mad at me. Except for some stupid pranks when we were kids, we always got along. My next meeting starts in less than an hour, but I don’t want to leave until I hash out things between us.
“Tell me what I did wrong,” I say, closing the gap between us.
Lauren hugs herself and shifts her body, but she doesn’t step back like I thought she would. Her tongue swipes across her lips and she swallows. I wait for a response, but none comes.
“Lauren,” I prod gently.
Again, she swallows, hugging herself even tighter. “You’ve been acting weird since the night you saw me—” Her teeth clamps down on her lower lip, and she says no more.
The night I saw you naked, I finish in my head.
“You ignore my calls and my text messages. You hardly even check on me anymore.”
She sounds so forlorn, and I’m tempted to take her into my arms, but I suppress the urge, tucking my hands into my front pockets. “I’m sorry I’ve been distant, but we both know what’s happening here.”
“Do we?” she asks, cocking her head.
“You’re not going to make me say it, Lauren, so don’t even try. You’re my best friend’s kid sister. Gabriel trusts me with your life, and I won’t do anything to betray that trust. If that means keeping my distance for a while, then so be it.”
Bright red spots appear on her cheek. “You did what you came here to do. You can go. ”
Her dismissive tone and the sudden appearance of tears make me feel like the biggest asshole alive. Forgetting my reservations, I move forward.
She brushes me off with a sharp scoff. “Go back to work, Marcus. I’ll be fine.”
Less than an hour before my next meeting. There’s no use pushing the issue when Lauren’s getting more upset. Maybe we can seriously hash this out when I have more time and she’s in a lighter mood.
“Call you later, okay?”
“Yeah, whatever,” she mumbles as I make my way to the door. I leave it open, but it slams hard as I walk to the staircase.
I hate this tension. For the last six years, Lauren has been that happy place tucked in the corner of my mind, a place I’d usually visit in the midst of any turmoil, whenever I craved peace. The night I saw her naked sealed the lock on that happy place, and I can’t get in—
Pop!
I pause, my hand gripping the banister as something falls with a hard thud in the foyer. My trained ears tells me exactly what it is, but that’s not possible. Gabriel’s brownstone is secured to the T.
A few seconds later, the sudden appearance of a man in full black confirms how wrong—and right—I was. Gabriel’s high-tech security system is not impenetrable after all. The gun clutched in his hand unfreezes me. I swing myself around and dart up the stairs as a whizzing sound flies over my head.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Bullets ricochet off the walls in rapid beats. A few more zing over my head, triggering sharp stings of panic across my chest as I dart across the landing toward Lauren’s bedroom. The door flies open before I get there, and Lauren’s enquiring expression turns to fear as I grab her arm and yank her with me, adrenaline kicking in. The hallway stretches all the way down to another staircase that leads to the back door, but I fear we won’t make it that far. He’s on the landing. We’re in an open space. Sitting ducks. I push Lauren ahead of me, hoping it’s enough to save her.
With my heart in my throat, I brace myself.
Nothing happens.
I chance a glance behind me and see him reloading the gun. For a split second, I consider doubling back and tackling him, but the gap is too wide. He’ll reload before I get there. Thankfully, we get to the other end before he starts shooting again.
Lauren’s sobs fill the air as we dash down the staircase. The urge to comfort her gets demolished by the crucial need to save us both. I throw open the back door, and the pounding rain greets us. Without hesitation, I drag Lauren across the lawn, my eyes squinting at the high wall securing Gabriel’s property. I only need a minute to get ourselves over it.
I throw another glance behind me as we hurry up the steps to the lounge area, and I make out the figure bursting through the door. My heart sinks; he’s coming fast—there’s no way I’m going to get us over that wall in time. I take Lauren’s arm and switch directions.
“No! Marcus, we can’t go in there! He’ll kill us!”
“We have no other choice.” I turn the knob of the storage room and push her into darkness. A musky scent hits my nose as I secure the lock and nudge her further inside. It’s barely lit, but I’ve been in here enough times to know exactly what’s stored in here.
Hope.
Utility knives, hammers, circular saws, ropes, drills.
Weapons.
Heavy pelting on the roof clashes with the rapid clank of metal hitting metal. Lauren whimpers, her grip tight on my arm as we back away from the door.
Fuck it, I’m not going down without a fight .
My eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and I steer Lauren behind a large lawnmower. “Stay there,” I instruct urgently. “Don’t come out until I say the coast is clear.”
The gunman fires another round of bullets at the door, and she presses her face into my chest, sobbing even harder now. “I don’t want to die, Marcus.”
“You won’t. Not on my watch. Just do as I say. Get down .”
Lauren cowers behind the machine, and I grab a claw hammer from the shelf and a utility knife from a long magnetic strip against the wall. My chest bounces with anxiety as I crouch against the wall near the door. I take deep breaths, forcing myself to think straight. I can’t let fear cloud my thoughts right now. Lauren’s safety—her life—depends on me getting us out of this.
I have the advantage of being familiar with the dark space, and I’m hoping it’s enough. The door rattles, followed by a rhythmic thudding that tells me it’s getting kicked in. With the handle of the hammer pressing deep into my palm, the knife clutched in my other hand, I wait.
A prayer floats on my lips.
I don’t want to die either, but if I get one wish, it’s that Lauren escapes this horrifying experience unscathed.
The door flies open, and I don’t hesitate. With a leap that would make my high school athletics coach proud, I swing the hammer. He’s staring straight ahead, still adjusting to the darkness, but in a split second, he turns in my direction.
Fuck .