T W E N T Y-F O U R Man in the Cooler
Devereaux’s POV
One of the servers came up and managed to discreetly let me know there was an issue in the kitchen. I wasn’t able to get away just then. As soon as I was, a server and the Sous chef were standing on the opposite side of the room.
This can’t be good, I thought as I excused myself from Sarah, leaving her momentarily with the promise of a dance after.
I mumbled there was a kitchen issue and I’d be back after solving it.
I underestimated how minor an issue it would be.
They led me back to the cooler where one of my longtime servers was sitting, bleeding from the back of his head, in his drawers and socks.
I pulled out my phone, looking at the Sous.
I demanded his phone, my hand out as if he had already agreed.
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bigger was going on here, and I was behind by a few yards in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
He handed it to me, and I used it to call an ambulance and the police. On my phone, I called Jenson.
“I have a server at Lake House Manor who’s been assaulted, stripped naked, and left in the cooler. He’s alive, breathing, bleeding from the back of his head, so I don’t want to move him.”
“Dev. What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“I’m on the other line with my lawyer. I have a feeling it’s my fiancé’s ex-husband or his fiancée. They’ve been behaving erratically lately. We filed a police report a few weeks ago about her showing up at my fiancé’s shop.”
I heard Jenson talking to Petey, telling him to activate the trackers, that it was an alien invasion and not a drill.
Whatever the fuck that meant. The 9-1-1 operator was asking more questions as I poked my head back outside to see what was happening.
I saw Paloma, dressed like she was going to a funeral, standing a few feet from Sarah, Will standing behind her, gripping her arm.
“It’s them. They’re here, in the building. I need police here now!” I growled into both phones. I didn’t know who or what I needed, but I needed something.
“Dev, hang up with me, stick your phone in your suit jacket pocket, and get video if you can. Stay on with 9-1-1 and stick them inside your jacket. We’re on the way!
” The line went dead, and I pulled up the camera on my phone.
I checked it from my pocket, and you could see most of what was happening.
I switched the view to 0.5, and it was able to get everything.
“What’s happening now, sir?” I watched as Sarah was saying something.
“My fiancé is speaking. She looks calm, but I’m too far away to hear what she’s saying. I’m going to get closer.”
“Sir, we don’t advise that,” I had stopped listening. I needed to know she was okay. I quietly, slowly moved toward Sarah. I slipped the phone into the pocket inside my jacket, microphone up.
“Stop!”
I watched in horror as Paloma pulled a gun from her tiny purse she clutched between her fingers. I watched as she pulled the hammer back into the firing position.
“She has a gun,” I said to my jacket, hoping the lady from 9-1-1 could hear me. “It’s pointed at my fiancé and her ex-husband.” I kept moving, slowly, steadily, hands raised to show I wasn’t a threat.
“Take your hands out of the bag.”
Paloma had her finger on the trigger, and I could feel my heart beating harder. Not faster, just harder, hammering in my chest at the thought that someone could die tonight, and it might be someone I know and-or love.
“Paloma,” she spun, turning the gun on me. I paused my movements as more people shouted, scattering, trying to stay away from the aim of her weapon. “I just want to talk. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I want to try to talk it out first.”
“Your whore ! Has been seducing my man back to her! Can’t you keep her entertained so she leaves other women’s men alone?!” The fucking irony was not lost on me, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting until I was sure she was done.
“I’m sorry for the pause. I wanted you to say everything without being interrupted,” she seemed caught off guard by that. “I’m not sure what’s been going on, but Sarah has been showing me the messages she’s been getting from Will.”
“No!” She shouted, breathing heavily, “No! That’s not right! She’s chasing him! He loves me!” She was shouting at me.
“Paloma, I’d really like to help you figure this out.
Can you take your finger off the trigger for me so I can do that?
I want to help.” She seemed to think for a bit, then slowly started to lower the weapon.
I kept my hands up, but was able to breathe a little easier knowing the gun wasn’t pointed at anyone at the moment, but that could change at any given second.
“If you let me, I can call a guy. He’s a PI I know who’s been on Sarah’s case for months. He’s how she was able to get such a quick divorce, so the two of you could have your happily ever after, isn’t that right, Sarah?” I kept my eyes on Paloma and prayed Sarah would play along with me.
“Y-yes,” her voice was shaky and detached. She was dissociating. “I didn’t want to come between the love the two of you shared. I knew, after seeing the pictures and how happy you two were, that he didn’t love me.”
I watched as Paloma weighed her response, and finally she nodded, tears forming in her eyes.
“Yes. Yes! I knew you would understand! We’re in love,” she smiled as she cried, nodding her head like it all made sense.
“So, ask yourself, Paloma. You’re a smart woman.
If Sarah knows how it feels to love someone, why would she try to take that from you?
We’re getting married. She even made sure the boys weren’t in his life anymore, so it could be just you and your daughter.
Why would she undo everything after she went to all that effort?
” I started walking again, slowly, as I talked.
I wanted to be as unassuming as possible.
I tried my best to spin some bullshit that made no fucking sense, make sense.
I had to twist it just so, praying that it was believable.
“What?” She seemed confused by my stance.
“Why would she go through all the trouble of leaving no trace of herself behind in his life, to pop back up all of a sudden? She’s happy.
You’re happy. Everybody wins, right? He even hit one of my servers from behind like the bitch he is!
He did it just to steal a uniform to get in here to see her.
My guy’s in the cooler with a bleeding head.
” She nodded like it was starting to make sense.
I took a few more shuffled steps sideways towards where Sarah stood.
“You!” She hissed, the gun immediately coming back up.
I froze, partially in front of Sarah, still kind of in front of Will.
I didn’t move, felt like I didn’t breathe, nothing until she started screeching again.
The crack that echoed through the hall sounded like a whip cracking, over and over and over, and over.
When she kept squeezing, but nothing was happening, that was when the police came charging in, disarming her and arresting her.
It felt like I was watching this happen from someone else’s point of view, because there was no way that this was my life.
How? How was this my life right now? I turned to check on Sarah and felt myself stumble, momentarily lightheaded.
Probably the adrenaline was leaving my body. It was an intense twenty minutes.
I went to take a step and stumbled to the ground.
I felt her arms come around me as she tried to get me to lie down.
I didn’t want to lie down. I was lying down when I opened my eyes again.
She was over me, tying her shawl to my leg and twisting it tight as fuck with her shoe.
She ripped part of her dress and pressed it to my arm.
Did I get shot? I looked up at her, confused, before remembering something she said to me yesterday.
I was on my way out of our room when she stirred and saw I wasn’t in bed with her. “Hey,” came her sleepy voice, stopping me from walking further, “Wake me up.”
“Huh?” I asked, looking at her like she’d lost her mind. She hated mornings.
“Wake me up,” she insisted, “I want to say goodbye to you before you leave. I want to kiss you before you walk out the door. You never know when it might be the last time. And I want you to know that I love you. So…wake me up.”
That was all I could think about as the weights on my eyes pulled them closed. I couldn’t fight it anymore. I just needed a quick nap.
Fuck.