Chapter Twenty-Five
Lucas
The lights were on at Charlie's house when I pulled in my driveway, home a day later than I'd expected. I'd been driving for hours and I smelled like stale coffee and fast food.
I hadn't figured out what I was going to say to her.
Like the coward I was, I jumped in the shower to delay just a little bit longer. I needed to see her, but I was terrified I'd end up making everything worse.
The shower didn't buy me much time. I changed, rubbed my hair with a towel, and I was ready to go, still with no idea what to say.
I'd have to figure it out when I got there. Maybe I was going to fuck it up again. I didn't have pretty words or a decent explanation for why I'd been such an asshole.
All I knew was that I couldn't wait any longer to see her. If she felt half as miserable as I did, I might have a chance.
I thought about calling first, but she probably wouldn't answer. I wouldn't if I were her.
Groveling was best done in person, anyway. Fully prepared for her to slam the door in my face, I jogged up her front steps and raised my hand to knock.
From the inside, I heard a voice, a man, yelling. And the beep from Charlie's phone. The proximity alarm. If I could hear her phone through the door, she had to be close.
What the fuck was going on?
I could make out the voice from the other side of the door, but if that was just one of her brothers and they were in the middle of an argument, she would've checked the proximity alert.
Through the door, I heard, "What the fuck is that?"
"It's nothing," Charlie said, her voice thin and strained.
Fuck. I stepped back far enough to clear the sensors, then forward again, triggering them. Another beep from inside the house. I wanted them both distracted while I figured out what was going on.
Pulling out my own phone, I pulled up the cameras at Charlie's house. What I saw sent a bolt of pure terror down my spine.
Bruce Hayward loomed over Charlie, who lay prone on the floor as if he'd thrown her there, a gun in his hand. He was reaching for her. It looked like he was demanding she hand over her phone.
Charlie fumbled with it, and a second later, my own phone lit up. She'd managed to hit the panic button in the alarm system app.
Smart girl.
Now I just had to get in there and save her ass before that fucking maniac shot her.
There was no time for subtlety. I could tell by the way he was waving that gun around that Hayward was not in control of the situation.
I didn't need to give him time to do something crazy. From the look in his eyes, he was already overflowing with crazy.
I still had the key to Charlie's locks. As quietly as I could, I turned the deadbolt on the front door and swung it open.
Charlie's eyes went wide when she saw me. Hayward swung around, bringing his gun up to my head.
"Move," I shouted at Charlie.
After a second's hesitation, she rolled to the side and didn't stop until she was clear of the front hall. It would've been better if she'd taken off for the kitchen and the back door, but for a civilian, she'd done her best.
I dove low as Hayward swung the gun around, going for his knees. He fired just as I hit him. The bullet buried itself in the plaster above my head, showering specs of white over the hardwood floor.
He fired again when he landed on his back, burying another bullet in the ceiling.
Charlie was going to be pissed.
Hayward was not a fighter. Once I had him down, he went limp and started whining about assault and his lawyer.
I grabbed his gun and pulled it from his hand, flicking the safety on. I slid it across the floor into the empty dining room, well out of reach.
"You okay, Charlie?" I called out. "Did he hurt you?"
"I'm all right," she said, her voice shaky. I looked up to see her getting to her feet. "I tried to hit the panic button, but I couldn't get it—"
The adrenaline was starting to get to her. With Hayward unsecured, I needed her focused. I could hold him down all day, but I couldn't help Charlie if I had my attention on Hayward.
"Can you do me a favor, Princess?"
In a cautious tone, she asked, "What is it?"
I slid my key ring across the floor in her direction. "Go next door to my place. The alarm is off. In the top drawer of my dresser, you'll find zip tie restraints. Bring me back three sets so we can get this asshole locked down."
"Be right back."
I may have fucked everything up, but I knew my girl. All she needed was something to focus her energy on and she was ready to go. She still had a crash coming, but she'd push it off long enough to do what needed to be done.
Straddling Hayward's back, his hands held by one of mine, I had him under control. With Charlie occupied, I pulled out my phone and dialed Brennan.
He answered with, "Got the alert, on my way."
I didn't bother to call Sinclair security. I already knew they'd be racing for Charlie.
She was back a few minutes later, four sets of zip ties draped over one hand.
"I brought extra, just in case." She handed them to me, watching as I secured his hands, then his feet. I dragged Hayward back to the base of the stairs and used the extra zip ties to secure his hands to the thick banister behind him. He wasn't going anywhere.
I wished I'd had a gag in that drawer. He was still mumbling and whining under his breath. Charlie stood in front of him, looking down, her hands on her hips, and opened her mouth to speak.
He glared at her. She shook her head.
"You're not worth it."
She was right. He wasn't. He'd been in deep shit, and with what he'd just pulled, it had gotten immeasurably worse. Every inch of Charlie's house was under surveillance.
No one was watching the cameras live, but they were recording around-the-clock and every second of his attack on Charlie was now on the record in high-definition.
We only had a few minutes before the Sinclair team and Brennan showed up. Closing my hand around Charlie's upper arm, I tugged her gently down the hall.
"He's not going anywhere," I said. She let me lead her to the kitchen, squinting a little when I flicked on the overhead lights. "It looks good in here."
It did, but that's not what I needed to say.
Facing down a guy with a gun—not remotely scary.
Coming clean with Charlie—fucking terrifying.
Time to stop stalling and lay it out.
"I fucked up," I said, meeting her blue eyes directly. I wasn't surprised to see suspicion there. I deserved it. "I broke things off because I'm in love with you."
"What?" She took a step back and threw her arms out to the sides. "What?" She said again, her voice rising, bordering on hysterical.
I sucked in a fortifying breath and said again, "I'm in love with you. And I decided I would rather give you up than run the risk of having you regret being with me."
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me, her eyes narrowed on mine. She said nothing for an endless minute.
I had to force myself to breathe.
Finally, she tilted her head to the side and said, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You're not in love with me. If you were in love with me, you'd trust me to know my own mind. Why would I ever regret being with you?"
Fucking Aiden and Evers were right.
"I do trust you. I fucked up. It doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means I was an idiot."
"So?"
She wasn't going to make this easy on me.
Not that I deserved it.
"I'm sorry. We both know if we try to make something out of this, people are going to talk. I was trying to spare you from that—"
She opened her mouth to speak and I put my hand up to stop her. Surprised, her mouth snapped shut and she glared at me.
"I was wrong. You know what we'd be getting into, and you know what you'll have to deal with. If you're willing to put up with it, that's your choice. I shouldn't have taken it away from you, and I'm sorry."
"I can't stop people from talking, Lucas. If you're worried about what people are going to say, there's nothing I can do about that," she said, sounding so tired I wanted to ditch this whole fucked up apology and pull her into my arms.
That wasn't what she needed. She needed to understand where I stood.
"I don't give a shit what those people say about me, Charlie. I wasn't trying to protect myself. I was trying to protect you."
"You can't," she said quietly. "People will gossip, Lucas.
It's human nature. They gossip about us most of all because there's scandal and money and people love that.
I've spent my entire life surrounded by it—people who pretend to be my best friend and tear me down the second my back is turned.
I don't care about them either. I'm not afraid of gossip.
I'm afraid of giving my heart to a man who doesn't believe in me, who doesn't think I'm strong enough to love him the way he deserves. "
"Charlie," I said, searching for the right words, the words that would convince her that I knew I'd been wrong and I wanted to start again.
"That's what made me realize I'd fucked everything up.
I love you because you're strong and smart.
And then I didn't treat you like you were strong and smart. I get that now."
I shoved my hands in my pockets and studied her, searching for some sign she was softening. "If you give me another chance, I promise you, I won't ever underestimate you again, and I'll never let you down."
The front door slammed open and Evers stepped through, followed by Cooper. Brennan was right behind them. Goddammit.
They had the worst fucking timing.
Charlie stepped back and turned to face them. She was going to leave me hanging.
Pretending that the rest of my life didn't depend on her answer, I tried to focus on the problem at hand. Taking out my phone, I pulled up the video feed from the front hall of Charlie's house, selected the section that started when Hayward stepped into view, and emailed it to Brennan, saying,