Chapter Thirty
MICHAEL
That son of a bitch got lucky the police were called. Because that’s what kept him alive.
But, on the other hand, that was also his misfortune. Because he wasn’t going to get away with it so easily.
On the way to the station, I called Janet, and she rushed over to save my skin. And my reputation. And to help me with Camila, who fell asleep before we even got there and stayed asleep, even when she seemed awake enough to walk, guided by me, to a chair where she sat and passed out again.
Janet and I took turns caring for her while we handled the whole procedure.
To my relief, my lawyer managed to get the assault charge dropped, since it was clearly self- defense. The coward got so scared in front of the officer that he confessed everything.
He admitted to drugging Camila’s drink and trying to take her out of the bar.
According to him, the plan was for me not to find her when I came back.
He had paid someone to tell me that my fiancée had left with a guy and gone to a hotel across the street.
I was supposed to catch them in the act, and even if I didn’t, there would be photos of him with Camila leaking to the press.
Hearing all the sordid details made me want to beat that bastard to death all over again.
The correct procedure would have been for Camila to undergo a toxicology test to prove she had ingested the sedative, but Janet, with her persuasive ways, managed to get that bureaucracy waived, especially since the guy had confessed everything.
A man from the bar who came with us said he saw the bastard put something in Camila’s drink.
Plus, a vial of the drug was found in his pocket. There was already enough evidence.
That, of course, along with Camila’s statement, which consisted of phrases like, “What’s going on?”, “I need to feed Waffle,” and “Don’t you guys think Michael has a really sexy butt?”
I seriously hoped that last one wouldn’t make it into the official report.
But the guy didn’t say everything he needed to. He claimed he acted alone, said he didn’t like me because of the news stories about me and wanted to ruin my life. But I obviously knew that was a lie. He was following someone’s orders.
Certainly Margaret and Caleb’s.
“You barely got out of this one...” Janet said to me once we were finally free to go.
The bastard had been taken to a hospital and would go straight to jail from there.
“You almost killed him, Michael. I get that you were furious, but if you’d been arrested for murder, you’d never see your daughter again. ”
That argument hit me hard. I really had been on the verge of doing the dumbest thing of my life.
“I couldn’t control myself, Janet. He was taking Camila who-knows-where, and it was clear from her steps that she wasn’t okay.”
“Poor girl...” She looked over at Camila, curled up asleep in a chair, wrapped in my jacket. “Look at the situation you put her in.”
“The situation Margaret and Caleb put us in. We were definitely drugged that night at the company party. They tried the same method again, just with a stronger dose this time.”
“The bigger problem is proving that. If we had even a scrap of proof, you could easily win custody of Alice.”
“Do you think there’s any chance that guy might talk?”
“He was probably paid a lot to stay silent. Well, at least you dodged another bullet. Just hope no one at the bar filmed you beating the crap out of him.”
“If they did, I have the whole story to prove it was self-defense.”
“You already proved that to the police. Public opinion isn’t so easily convinced.
Anyway, let’s not worry about things that haven’t happened yet.
Better take the girl home—and you too. Get some rest. And I’m going to do the same.
I have to tell you something, kid: your father gave me a lot of trouble.
But he never dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night on a weekend to take me to a police station.
I chose corporate law so I wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of situation. ”
“I owe you one, Janet. Another one.”
“You bet I’ll collect. Good night. Keep me updated tomorrow.”
She could complain all she wanted, but I knew she was worried about me. Janet was kind of motherly, in her own way—which was very different from my actual mother but still comforting in its own style.
She left, and I walked over to the chair where Camila was.
Sensing my presence, she slowly opened her eyes, groggy, and looked around in confusion.
“What’s going on?” she asked, completely out of it. “Where are we?”
I thought about how cowardly it was for someone to do that to a woman. She was completely defenseless. Anyone with bad intentions could have done anything to her.
Thinking about the possibilities made my stomach churn.
“I’ll explain everything tomorrow, Camila. How are you feeling?”
“Sleepy...”
“I bet. I can’t take you home like this — your grandmother would worry, and I can’t tell her what happened. Besides, tomorrow you’ll wake up completely confused, and it’s best that I be nearby to explain everything.”
“Okay...”
“I’m going to call your grandmother and say you’ll be spending the night at my place, alright?”
“Alright...”
“I’ll take you home tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay...”
“...You didn’t understand a single word I just said, did you?”
“Nope...”
I laughed, thinking how Camila was funny even completely unintentionally. She closed her eyes again, and my heart felt like it was being shredded in a blender seeing her like that and knowing everything she had gone through because of me.
I didn’t want to wake her, so I picked her up in my arms and carried her to my car. I managed to open the passenger door and set her gently in the seat.
I had to lean over her to reach the seatbelt, and that closeness triggered some very inappropriate reactions in a certain part of my body. Her scent intoxicated me, driving me absolutely insane.
Of course, this wasn’t the time to be feeling any of that.
I buckled her in and started to move away, but her hand lightly touched my chest, and when I looked at her face, I realized she was awake again.
“Hey, Michael, you saved me, didn’t you?”
I knew it wasn’t intentional, but her whispery tone didn’t help the reaction of that overly eager part of my body. It got even harder.
I cursed myself mentally, trying to act natural.
“Yeah, something like that.”
I didn’t fully agree with her saying I’d saved her, since she wouldn’t have been in that situation if it weren’t for me.
“I didn’t understand what was happening...” she said, still looking into my eyes. “I knew something was wrong, but I was so confused...”
“I can imagine, sweetheart...” The last word slipped out automatically. “You must have been really scared, huh?”
“Not really. I didn’t feel scared at all. Somehow... it was like I just knew you would come for me.”
“You really shouldn’t have so much faith in me, Camila. Remember, I’m just a reckless playboy womanizer?”
She shook her head. “You were like that. But you’re not anymore. You’ve changed... and you keep changing... for your daughter.”
“Well... I’ve been trying... and you’ve helped me a lot with that.”
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Anything.”
“I want a kiss. Not like the one at the party today, but a real one. Like the ones from the night we met.”
Shit. That woman should not be provoking me like that.
“I think we’d better save that for another day, Camila. Tomorrow, you won’t even remember this happened.”
“But I’ll know it’s happening while it is. Please...”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer. She could be persistent, but she wasn’t that strong in her state. And that was one more reason I knew how wrong it would be.
So, before our lips could touch, I lifted my face and pressed a long kiss to her forehead.
It wasn’t anything like what she expected, nor like the kisses from the night we met. It was very different. But to me, it meant much more. Because she wasn’t just some girl drinking with me at a party anymore. She was the girl I wanted to protect from everything and everyone.
She let out a sigh, and I thought she might complain. But then she said something I absolutely wasn’t expecting, “Michael Turner... I think I’m falling in love with you.”
Taken aback by her declaration, I quickly pulled away and looked at her face again. Her eyes were closed, and it seemed she’d already fallen asleep again.
I brushed her hair away from her face and whispered, “And I’m sure I feel something for you that I’ve never felt for anyone else before.”
It felt clear to me that love was, indeed, the name of what I was feeling.
And that was both terrifying and wonderful.