Chapter Twenty-One
Charlie
Marissa Archer was brought into police custody and charged with attempted breaking and entering. Attempted because she never managed to use the crowbar to get my door open.
After reviewing the cameras at Jacob's penthouse, the police and the Sinclair team were all confident that she was responsible for leaving the photographs there, as well as at Magnolia's house.
Her son quickly and quietly had her put in permanent psychiatric care. She wouldn't be leaving any more creepy pictures. She wouldn't be doing much of anything. Since she'd told me the killer was still out there, she hadn't spoken a word.
To anyone.
Not the police, not her son, not her lawyer.
No one.
Problem solved. Everyone seemed satisfied that Marissa was my stalker. It made sense. She could have hired someone to leave the note and spray paint my house. She could even have been the one who jumped me, though she could have hired that out as well.
She wasn't young, but she was tall and wiry. Apparently, she played a lot of tennis at the club when she wasn't terrorizing my family.
Lucas had been gone almost all day, leaving me alone at my house. He warned me to keep the alarm on while I was inside, but with Marissa in custody, everyone was less worried about my safety.
I'd told him he didn't have to come to the benefit with me. I still didn't know if he was coming as my bodyguard or my date. I was leaning toward date since he didn't seem to think I needed a bodyguard and had insisted he was coming.
Maggie brought my dress from Winters House and stayed long enough to help me do my hair and grill me about Lucas.
Despite the upheaval of Aiden's announcement that Gage was missing, Maggie hadn't missed the tension between Lucas and me at dinner.
In between twisting and pinning my chin-length curls into a simulation of an updo, she peppered me with questions.
"So, he's still going to the benefit with you?" she asked, too casually.
"He says he is," I said.
"What's the deal? He was all growly and protective last night, and everyone seems to like him. Are you still just friends with benefits?"
"Do I have to talk about this?" I asked. Magnolia Henry was my best friend. If I was going to talk about this with anyone, it would be her. But I didn't want to talk about Lucas. Not even with Maggie.
Proving yet again why she was my best friend, she gave my shoulder a squeeze and said, "No, Charlie, you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. Did I tell you about my dress for tonight?"
Grateful for her change of subject, I said, "No. Why? What are you wearing?"
"I was going to wear something I already had," she said. "But Vance surprised me and took me shopping, and then he talked me into buying this dress . . . I'm going to be blushing all night, I swear."
"Why? Is it really short?" Maggie had a bombshell figure, all curves. She rarely dressed to show them off.
"No, it's actually pretty long, but it's got a slit up one leg, and a deep V neckline . . ." She trailed off.
"Cleavage?" I asked. Maggie had a lot to offer in the cleavage department, even if she usually kept it covered up.
"Yes. A lot of cleavage. Not tacky cleavage, but still. A lot. And he bought me these crazy shoes. I don't know what he was thinking. On top of that, he made me promise to wear my hair down."
"Like the night you got engaged?" I asked.
"Exactly," she confirmed.
"I bet he drags you out of there before it's halfway over." I didn't have to look at Maggie's face to know she was blushing.
"I'm not gonna take that bet."
"Do you need me to help?" I asked.
I'd done her hair for her the night she'd gotten engaged to Vance. She'd looked like a siren in a black wrap dress and all that red hair in wild curls. I wasn't surprised Vance had begged her to marry him. He was too smart to let go of a woman like Maggie.
"Not this time, but thanks. I got a new curling iron and Vance is watching Rosie while I get dressed."
Maggie finished with my hair, gave me a hug, and rushed off to get ready. I didn't spend too long on my makeup. I could do business appropriate makeup in ten minutes and black tie makeup in twenty.
I'd probably look better if I learned to contour and shade and do all those other things to ramp up the glamor, but I'd never learned and tonight wasn't the time to start.
Just before Lucas was due to show up, I finished my face and put on my dress. I'd bought it months before, planning to wear it to a different event, one I hadn't ended up attending. It was formal, definitely black tie formal.
Unlike Maggie's dress, which I suspected was on the slinky side, my dress was a fairytale. Yards of creamy satin in a silver so pale it was almost white, overlaid with a fine netting sprinkled with tiny crystals.
The bodice was strapless and embellished with more crystals and finely stitched embroidery in the palest pink, the back held together with lacing, like a corset.
The dress was more fanciful than those I usually wore, but I'd fallen in love with the sheen of the satin and the sparkle of the crystals the moment I'd seen it.
It had been more expensive than what I'd planned to spend, but I'd talked myself into it when I'd remembered that I had the perfect shoes to match waiting in my closet.
I was halfway dressed when Lucas walked in, already in his tux. Heat flushed my skin and my nipples peaked.
Lucas looked good in anything, but in a tux, he made me crazy. All that black-and-white elegance wrapped around his raw strength. I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off him all night.
When he saw me, his eyes went wide and he froze.
"What? Is the dress no good?" It was a little over the top between the sparkles and the full skirts. Maybe it was too much.
He shook his head.
"Can you help me with the back?" I asked.
There was a zipper hidden in the side seam, but I still needed the wide satin laces tightened so they didn't droop. Lucas moved behind me and went to work, pulling on the laces here and there until he had them in place.
He gave a last tug at the bottom, pulling me backward so I bumped into him. Slowly, he tied the lacing in a bow and secured it, then leaned down to press a kiss to my shoulder.
"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he said quietly.
I flushed with pleasure.
He straightened and stepped back. "We'd better get going," he said. "If we stay in here much longer, I'll undo that bow, strip off that dress, and we'll never leave."
I took a long look at him in that tux and agreed. If I hadn't promised my family that I'd be there, I'd forget the benefit and jump Lucas. But I had promised, and he was right. If we didn't get a move on, we'd never make it.
Lucas was quiet in the truck on the way to the benefit. He'd been out all day, I thought with Detective Brennan or Cooper, but he hadn't said.
"Did you find out anything else about Marissa Archer?" I asked.
"She's not talking," Lucas said. "She hasn't said a word since last night. But it's looking like she's responsible for everything. The police are ready to pin it on her."
"What about you?"
"I'm not completely sold. She fits, and she had opportunity. She's also bat-shit crazy."
"Does that make her more or less likely to be guilty?" I asked.
I was still thrown that Marissa Archer was involved at all. I knew she'd been friends with my parents back in the day, but to stalk us? Send us pictures of their bodies?
She seemed so certain she knew the story behind their deaths, had taunted me with it, and now she wasn't talking. None of it made any sense.
"Neither," Lucas said in answer to my question. "It just makes it harder to pin down her motive. If she's completely cracked, it could be impossible to determine why she fixated on your family."
"And if she's not completely cracked? If she really does know something?"
"Princess," Lucas said, reaching out to take my hand in his, "I don't want you to get your hopes up. It's possible she does know something. But we can't make her talk, and even if we could, her accusations won't hold any weight. Not with her locked up under psychiatric care."
"I know it wouldn't bring them back," I said in a low voice. "But I still want to know what happened. Someone took them from us—"
I stopped talking. I wasn't going to cry and ruin my makeup. I took a quick breath in through my nose and let it out.
I was fine. Everything was fine. Once I had my roiling emotions under control, I said, "So you guys think she was the stalker the whole time, right? I'm in the clear?"
"That's the working theory," Lucas admitted.
"Hayward has had eyes on him nonstop since before you left Winters Inc.
If he were pulling the strings here, he did a better job of hiding it than he did hiding all the shit he was up to with his company.
Which would be out of character. Still, you should be careful for now.
Keep the alarm on when you're home. Carry your panic button. Just in case."
"I can do that," I said. "But you think I'm probably safe now?"
"We'll see," he said, shooting me a sidelong glance.
We pulled up to the valet parking line outside the hotel where the benefit was being held. A few minutes later, Lucas led me inside.
Vance and Maggie were in the lobby, and my jaw dropped when I caught sight of Maggie's dress. Lucas let out a low wolf-whistle. I elbowed him in the side, grinning.
Maggie had been right. She never would've picked a dress like that for herself, but I could absolutely see Vance choosing it.
The navy silk clung to her curves, outlining the hourglass of her figure, a high slit on one side revealing most of her leg, covered in sheer creamy stockings.
The deep V of the neckline revealed the inner curves of her breasts.
I hoped the fabric was taped in place, otherwise she risked a wardrobe malfunction.