Chapter 37
chapter
thirty-seven
Olivier
B eing one of the featured guests on Laurent West’s Late Night on the Right Coast meant a twenty-four-hour turnaround. Still, there were perks to flying first-class and nonstop. If only Stella wasn’t still tied firmly to Seven’s contract negotiations, then I could have lured her to come with me and we could have made it a long weekend in the city.
Next time , I promised myself. Maybe she’d like Broadway or sightseeing. Either way, I’d stayed long enough to sign autographs for the audience and the fans waiting outside the studio, then headed out to dinner and drinks with Laurent and a couple of the other guests.
It was good networking, but as much as I enjoyed the opportunity, I would rather have left earlier. As it was, I crashed for about three hours in a hotel room by the airport, then boarded a flight first thing in the morning. Time difference was a wonderful thing.
A driver waited for me at the airport, and I only had my carry-on, so I didn’t have to wait for luggage. If only the drive from LAX wasn’t quite so dense with traffic. Still it would barely be seven by the time I got to the house.
Perfect.
Hopefully I could kiss Snow awake. If she was up, I’d see about luring her back to bed. Twenty-four hours was far too long to be away from her. The closer we got, the more I felt like humming.
I used my code to let us in, and the driver took me up to the house. I made sure to add a generous tip and waved the man off as he left. Once I was inside, I disarmed the alarm, then reset it.
After I verified the driver was out, I headed for the stairs. The downstairs was quiet, which was perfect. Seven was always an early riser but could be doing laps in the pool or blowing off some pent-up tension in the gym. Totally fine by me.
I was halfway up the stairs when the first shriek ripped through the air. While I couldn’t identify who was actually shrieking, there was no way that sound heralded anything good.
Racing up the stairs, I hesitated where the halls split. Snow’s room was to the right, Seven’s straight ahead, and mine and Gem’s were to the left. The wild sound repeated, far angrier this time, and it came from straight ahead.
A part of me really hoped this was just Seven pissing Stella off. The man had a gift for pushing her buttons, and it was so obvious he got thrills out of having her bite back. I would happily sweep in and steal her away. At the same time, that scream didn’t sound like her.
“Get the fuck away from me!” That voice, however, did. All playfulness vanished. Whatever was going on was bad…
Not letting myself think much past that, I shoved the door to Seven’s room open. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. Light from the hall spilled inside. It didn’t really give me much time to track what was happening.
Stella was on the far side of the bed, stark naked and wild-eyed. Another woman, armed with a knife, was lunging at her.
“Stop!” I yelled the word, hoping it would shock the woman or surprise her enough to make her stumble.
“Ollie!” Stella waved an arm at me, like she wanted me to get out. So not happening. Her assailant lunged forward, slashing the knife in the air.
The world slowed—I was never going to get there in time. Light from the hall glinted on the blade as she sliced toward Stella’s outstretched arm. A hiss escaped Stella as a line of crimson decorated her flesh.
I wrapped an arm around the woman’s middle and locked a hand around the wrist of her knife-wielding arm. “Stop,” I ordered her again as I hauled her backwards. I had no fucking idea who this woman was, but I didn’t care.
She was in our house and attacking the woman I loved. No way in hell was I going to let this continue. Despite the size difference, I found holding on to her incredibly difficult, considering how wildly she started fighting.
Legs kicking back at me, she tried to stomp on my feet. She kept trying to jerk her hand out of mine as I increased the pressure. I just wanted her to let go of the damn knife.
I narrowly avoided her head slamming back into my face. Then she twisted and bit down on my arm so hard, I was pretty sure she ripped skin through the shirt.
“Fuck.” I gritted my teeth through the pain, but even my nerves spasmed and my fingers unlocked briefly. She sliced with her weapon, but I flung her away with all my might. She hit the side of the dresser with a sickening crash, knocking something off that thudded to the floor.
“Ollie.” Stella sounded exhausted and pissed right off . Not that I could blame her. She stopped at my back, which was good. I had no intention of letting her get past me.
“It’s okay, babe.” I tilted my head toward Stella, but I didn’t take my gaze off the woman crumpled in front of the dresser, panting wildly as she glared at us. “Just stay behind me. I’ll deal with her.”
The woman’s lip curled in an ugly sneer. “Of course you want to protect the slutty whore cheating on Seven. What kind of shitty friend are you?”
Oh good. One of Seven’s rabid fangirls. “Tell you what, Looney Toons, you get some help for your defects and I’ll get back to you on that. Now put the goddamn knife down.” This was insane. Somehow she’d managed to hold on to it through everything, like it was glued to her hand. Crazier shit had happened in Hollywood, I guessed.
Every bedroom had a security panel near the bed. All we had to do was hit the panic button. But that panel was on the other side of the bed from where we were.
I really should have triggered the security before I got up here. Idiot .
Stella’s attacker was dressed like one of our cleaners, but I couldn’t place her face to save my life. Her hair was done like Snow’s, like if she were the Dollar Store version of Snow or something. Black box-dye could never replicate my girl’s inky tresses.
Now would be a great time for Seven to stroll in—or Gem. Fuck, I’d even take Jerry if he moved his ass. The wild-eyed look on the woman’s face kept me on my toes. Twice more, she tried to get past me, both times with a feint, and both times, I blocked her.
Yeah, we were not getting anywhere this way.
“Snow, babe,” I said, holding the rabid chick’s gaze. Granted, she wasn’t foaming at the mouth or anything but she might as well have been. She also wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “I need you to get out of here and head to your room or mine or even Gem’s. Just get there and close the damn door, lock yourself in, and hit the alarm.”
“She’s not going anywhere!” Oh look, Looney Toons found her voice again. “Neither are you. Seven needs to be free . You two can be a lovers’ murder-suicide pact. He might be upset for a little while but then he’ll be free, and I’ll be here to take care of him.”
“Houston,” I intoned, “we have a problem. Actually, we have several.” I wanted her to focus on me, despite how ridiculous it was to try and reason with a wannabe murderer. I kept one hand outstretched to her and moved it whenever her gaze started to wander to Stella.
With my other hand, I motioned Stella to the door. She’d have to go over the bed and that was fine. I’d tackle Lady Straightjacket here before she could get to Stella. And once Stella was out of the line of fire, so to speak, I could hopefully talk the crazy lady down—or at very least disarm her so she couldn’t do any more damage.
We just needed an opening.
“Problem number one,” I continued in a conversational tone, like she wasn’t threatening my naked girlfriend with a bloody knife. “Seven and I have been friends for years. I hate to break this to you, but we’ve never let a woman come between us unless we were the ones making her come.”
Confusion creased the knife-wielding bitch’s face. She really thought Stella was cheating with me, and it’d never crossed her mind that it was all fully consensual.
“Problem number two,” I said, “one of the first things we’re taught is to never stick our dicks in crazy. So you’d be shit out of luck, even if you succeeded in killing us.”
I swore I could see the loading sign playing out over her head. Stella moved, hurtling herself over the bed as the psychotic lady snapped her gaze forward. She let out another of those banshee shrieks. It was enough to make my ears bleed but I launched forward to block her from reaching Stella nonetheless.
She managed to slice down my left forearm, but I caught her and her knife arm again. This time, I didn’t let go. She was not getting near Snow.
Twisting, I held her hand away from me and bashed it against the footboard of Seven’s bed. The knife finally clattered away from her loosened grip. Now I just needed to secure her. Somewhere else in the house, the alarm went off, likely triggered by Stella.
I didn’t get long to enjoy the victory as the woman raked her fingers down my face. It didn’t quite draw blood, but fuck, it hurt to get nailed in the eyes. I jerked my head back, and she tried to take advantage of my distraction to surge past me.
Stella was out of sight, but I couldn’t risk this woman getting anywhere near her. Lashing out an arm, I caught her around her waist and shoved, sending her flying backward.
There was a heavy thump as she hit the wall, and she crumpled to the floor in a heap once again. I shook my head to try to clear the stars and scrubbed at my watery eyes thanks to her claws.
“Oh my god,” Stella exclaimed, and I snapped my head over to look at her. She was in the doorway, wearing a T-shirt and wielding a baseball bat with violence and determination etched over her gorgeous face.
What a picture.
I looked back at our assailant—she wasn’t moving. If anything, she lay awkwardly against the side of the dresser and there was blood leaking from a crease along her scalp.
“Fuck,” I swore and double checked where the knife landed before I approached the woman.
“Ollie, be careful…” Stella was ready to back me up and she came right in after me, but I waved her off.
Mad Maxine wasn’t moving. I crouched down and gingerly checked for a pulse. She had to have one; she’d been screaming a minute ago. The blood kept trickling downward steadily.
The sinking feeling of dread hit me a few seconds later. A shout echoed up from downstairs and the alarm cut off a moment before the sound of feet pounding on the stairs reached us.
The men who burst in had black suits and guns drawn—private security. “Mr. Griffiths? Miss Charles? Are you both okay?”
We’d made sure that security knew Stella belonged here. “She attacked us,” Stella blurted out, and all at once, she was explaining, spilling the whole story without even pausing for a breath as she recounted the whole saga from the moment she woke up.
Her hand found mine, and I dragged her close for a hug. I didn’t give a damn if security saw it—or got a good look at Snow’s gorgeous legs.
She also didn’t pull away until she found I was bleeding. Leaving the knife where it was and the room untouched, we retreated downstairs while our security called the incident in to the police.
I called Peter, my lawyer, while Snow pressed a cloth to my arm. Then I groaned when I called Jerry to fill him in.
Seven chose that moment to show up with fucking pastries of all things. When the fuck had he gone out for pastries? Gem was also heading home. Paramedics showed up and so did the coroner.
The house was a total circus, but Stella stayed with me. I made the paramedics treat her cut first, then let them look at mine. When the cops wanted to separate us, I shot a look at Seven. He nodded and went with her. He also called another attorney to represent her.
Holy shit. I’d killed someone.
There were going to be consequences, but as much as I wanted to find some guilt for it, I couldn’t. That bitch would have murdered Stella if I’d been even a minute later.
So no, I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. Not even for the publicity fallout we were going to face.
Stella was alive. I was alive. Seven and Gem were safe. We were all together.
It was a good fucking day.