Chapter 12
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Nick Carter pulled his Chevy Camaro into his assigned parking spot at the Palm Court apartment complex. Smiling, he turned the rear-view mirror so that he could look at his hair. Yeah. He looked good.
With a nod, he turned off the car and flung the door open to get out.
"Hey! Watch it, asshole!"
Nick looked out and saw a man standing just outside of the reach of his car door.
The man was thin and barely taller than the Honda CRV he was standing beside.
Knowing that he was in uniform and cut a pretty imposing figure in it, Nick stepped out of the car and took a step toward the man. "Hey, idiot." Nick smiled and lifted an eyebrow. "Why don't you watch where you're going?"
The man took a half-step back and lowered his gaze to the side a little.
Yeah, he knew what was what.
"What? No comment? You're just going to back down?"
The man waved a hand at him. "Ah, go ahead and push people around. You might be in a uniform, but you're still an asshole." He walked off in another direction, turning to give Nick a glare as he went.
Nick glowered at him. It was complete bullshit.
Locking his car, Nick headed to the stairs and just before he used his key-fob to access the stairwell, he felt something like... He felt like someone was staring at him.
Like he was being watched.
He nearly fumbled and lost his keys, but barely managed to get the door open before he slid through the littlest opening that he could manage and jogged up the stairs.
Nick felt a drop of sweat slide down the back of his neck as he yanked open the door to the second-floor landing.
Thankfully, they'd found an apartment with a door less than ten feet from the stairs.
He juggled the keys in his hand and managed to separate the front door key, but stopped short of the door when it lurched open in front of him.
"Charmaine! What-"
"I've been standing inside the door watching for you."
"You were watching for me? What?"
She rolled her eyes. "I can track the car since you put that airtag on it. Like you'd go anywhere without your car."
Yeah. He'd put the airtag on the car worried about someone stealing his baby. "I spent good money on that car, Char. Of course I'd tag it."
She gave him a look with one eyebrow raised and her hand on her hip. "I should think you'd be worried about me more than your car."
Nick shook his head. "Babe, we spend a fortune on this apartment so you can have the best security protecting you, right?"
Charmaine looked away, her eyes rolling. "You mean my daddy spends a fortune on this apartment to make sure I'm okay."
Nick had to work to keep himself from biting back at her. Every time she was upset, she liked to take digs at him. Her daddy wasn't any better than he was. Sure, he had a country club membership and golfed at least three days a week, but that didn't make her folks any better than he was.
"Look, if you're going to gripe at me, can we do it inside. I'd love to put my feet up and have a beer to take the edge off." He tried to move past her to get inside, but she leaned to the side to block him. "Char," he smiled and put a little bit of a syrupy sweetness in his tone that he knew she liked, "gorgeous, it's been a long day and if I can sit down, you can sit right next to me."
She relaxed a little. "I don't know... I've got a lot to talk to you about and I don't want your head all fuzzy with beer."
"Come on, babe. Let me inside-"
"No! I want to talk now!" She folded her arms and that caught his attention. She had a great set of tits. Thanks to her father, he snorted inside his head. Charmaine couldn't seem to find something that her dad wouldn't pay for.
She looked down and then snapped her gaze up to his. "Oh. My. God. Focus for once!"
Charmaine readjusted her arms, covering her breasts instead of lifting them up and suddenly all he could do was focus on her.
"What?"
She recoiled at his abrupt question, but she knew she had his full attention now.
"Someone came to the apartment earlier."
He gestured down the hall at the elevator. "You mean that maintenance guy? Remember? They have that sign in the elevator and in the lobby. They're checking on everyone's fuse boxes to make sure that all the fuses are good. It's why we-"
Her gaze narrowed on him. "I remember."
"Okay..." He gestured with his free hand. "Then what?"
"The guy that came to the apartment wasn't with the apartment complex. He asked to speak to you." She shrugged and had to relax her arms or risk cutting off her air. "I told him I could give you a message or a card and have you call him, but he was rude to me!"
Nick was starting to realize that he was going to need more than a beer. He was going to need some straight up bourbon. "How, Charmaine? How was he rude to you?"
"God, Nick! Stop being such an ass! I was scared and you didn't answer your cell phone!"
"I couldn't answer your call, Charmaine! I was working! You remember? I'm a Marine. We have shit to do during the day!"
"Oh," she rolled her lips together and didn't even muss her lipstick, "you're not going to come at me with that again, are you?"
Nick felt like he'd been kicked in the ribs. "With what again?"
"So you're going to play stupid?" She lifted her hand off of her hip in a swinging arc that would have made Mister Miyagi proud. "I don't need to get a job that I'm just going to quit when you get me pregnant! I'm going to need to relax and prepare our home for our baby, Nicki."
He bit the inside of his cheek. Nicki was a ridiculous nickname, but he couldn't get Charmaine to stop using it.
"Yeah? I know you want to stay at home. I've got no problem with that-"
"That's not what you said two weeks ago when I got home late from lunch with Trish and didn't have dinner ready for you."
He felt like he'd been thrown back in time with her words. "God, I didn't even think about that until you brought it up."
"Well, I remember it. And Trish does, too. She thinks-"
"Trish thinks? Ha!"
He realized how stupid that was to say when he saw Charmaine's expression.
His words weren't false, but Charmaine took perceived slights to heart and nurtured them like German Shepherd puppies bound to tear his throat out some day.
"Babe, come on! I'm sorry! Let. Me. In."
"There!" She flung out an arm, pointing past his shoulder. "That's the man!"
"Nick Carter?"
Nick had a feeling that sensation he'd felt on the back of his neck was now walking up behind him.
Turning around, he saw a man in beige slacks and a black polo shirt walking toward him from the stairwell and another man coming down the hall from the elevator.
"Sorry? Are you looking for someone?"
The closer man managed just a hint of a smile. "Nick Carter? I'm Frank Driscoll, a process server with Access. "Here." He held out a sealed document envelope with Nick's name on it. "Take it."
For a tempting moment, he thought about refusing to take the envelope and putting his hands behind his back, but he knew he was good and caught. He just didn't know what this was about.
Nick set his bag down and reached out his hand to take the envelope.
"What's going on?" Charmaine put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in.
He wanted to shrug her off, but he knew he'd catch hell later. And he was already feeling a migraine kicking in. "Where do I sign?"
Yeah, he was no stranger to being served.
The man who'd come from the elevator looked around his cell phone and shrugged. "We've got video proof. No need to sign."
"What's going on, Nicki? What are they here for?"
The man in front of him looked like he was enjoying himself a little too much. "We're process servers, Ma'am."
Her nails dug into his shoulder. "You said that, but it doesn't mean a thing to me. What's in that envelope?"
Nick lifted his shoulder trying to encourage her to ease up a little. "I'll look at it later, babe. Let's go inside."
"No." She reached her other arm around him trying to pull the envelope free from his hand. "You're not hiding this from me. You know I don't like secrets."
Frank reached out his hand and shook hers. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't catch your name earlier."
Charmaine snatched her hand back. "I'm Charmaine Carter, obvs."
Nick cringed at the horrible way she sounded using that slang word. "Come on, Charmaine." He turned around, breaking the hold she had on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her middle and moved forward, trying to back her up into the apartment. "Let's go inside."
"Why?" She tried to shrug past him. "Why do you need to know?"
"I don't need to, ma'am. I guess I was just curious. So you're Nick's sister?"
Nick felt something at the back of his head as if a sniper had just laid his finger beside the trigger.
"What? His sister-"
The process server was still talking, and Nick knew he didn't have time to stop what was about to happen.
"Well, we're here to serve divorce papers to Mister Carter from his wife in Hawaii."
Charmaine was suddenly a granite statue, immovable and cold.
"His what?"
"Nick Carter-"
He was really beginning to hate his name.
"Has a wife in Hawaii who's been trying to divorce him for a little over two years."
Charmaine pushed him and he stumbled backwards.
A steadying hand against his back kept him on his feet, but since they'd been the cause of it all, it was the least they could do.
He'd seen Charmaine smiling and he'd seen her livid with anger when he'd forgotten their anniversary. Again.
Now, he'd seen her look like she could peel his skin off his body with her eyes alone. "You're married in Hawaii?!"
What was he going to say now? "Baby, I-"
"Daddy said you were no good."
"Char-" The door slammed in his face, and he sighed.
Nick turned back around and saw that the cell phone was still pointed at him. He turned and looked at the back of the cell phone with a glare. "Well, I hope you're happy, Kawehi, you bitch."
PALLAS
When he'd gotten the call from Axl, he hadn't thought much of it. When Axl told him the reason he was calling, Pallas wanted to punch a wall. A Nick shaped wall, but he couldn't do that.
He'd have to take it out on a heavy bag later, but that was for him.
He needed to keep his cool and get to Kawehi.
Snatching up his keys from the hook beside his apartment door, he jogged down to his Bronco and got behind the wheel. Pallas had to push Axl's words out of his head while he drove.
It wasn't going to do anyone a bit of good if he caused an accident getting to Kawehi's side.
He remembered when she'd told him about her meeting with Paul. He'd heard it from Paul himself later at the counter in Lanikai Lanes where he'd returned for a meal.
They knew that Allied was going to be serving Nick with the papers, but they hadn't known when it was going to happen.
Axl's call had been short but pointed.
"Maile stayed to cover Kawehi's shift at the alley, but she's about to close down the place and go over to Kawehi's house."
"What's going on?"
"Between curse words and some rather colorful descriptions of Nick's anatomy, she said that the process servers sent Kawehi the video of Nick being handed the papers and she's upset. I can't understand much more. She's saying words I don't understand, but while I know she's pissed, I think she's more worried about Kawehi."
"Yeah. Okay. I'll get over to her house and see how I can help."
"Yeah. Good. I'll tell Maile and hope she'll stay at the alley. I don't think she'd be much help seeing how pissed she is."
"Thanks, man."
"Anytime."
Pallas pulled into the driveway and noticed that the front door was open, but so was the screen door that covered it.
A slight wind had it swinging open and tapping against the door frame.
He locked his Bronco and jogged up the walk and up the stairs to the porch.
"Kawehi?"
He called out loud enough that he knew she could hear him, but he didn't hear her reply.
Pallas put his hand on the screen door's handle and pulled it open. He didn't like that she'd left both doors open and unlocked, but it just told him what kind of a state that she was in.
Toeing off his sneakers, he left them on the side next to a pair of slippers that Kawehi used in the yard, and stepped inside. "Kawehi? Are you in the bedroom?"
He knew she was in there if she wasn't in the front room of the house, but he didn't need to ask if she was okay. He knew she wasn't.
No one called back to him. He closed the wooden door and double locked the door.
His heart was aching for her.
She should be happy that Nick was served with the divorce papers. If she was upset, then something more happened.
He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew that he'd be there for her through anything.
The floor under his feet creaked a little as he moved down the hall. He wasn't about to rush in and startle her, but he was also walking softly so that he could listen for her.
The silence was stressful.
While Kawehi wasn't nearly as gregarious as her cousin, since he'd been spending time with her, he realized that she was almost always humming as she moved around the house. Since the beach day with his team he'd spent hours and hours at her home, whatever worked with their schedules.
There wasn't a note of music being played or the sound of her feet moving across the floor.
He moved into her bedroom doorway and slowly swung the door open so he could see the whole room.
Kawehi was sitting on her bed, her legs crossed, and her cell phone in her hand.
Her hair wasn't pulled away from her face, hanging down on either side, shielding her face from his view.
"Honey?"
"Please, Pallas..." Her voice was thin, shaky.
"Kawehi-"
"I don't want to talk." She kept her gaze down on her cell phone as if she was refusing to look at him.
That was just fine. He didn't need her to look at him. Not yet.
He just needed her to know that he was there.
"Can... can you go?"
He took a step into the room, and she lifted a hand, holding out her palm in his direction.
"I don't... I can't talk. 'kay?"
"You don't have to talk to me, sweetheart. You don't have to say a word. I'm just... I'm worried about you."
She shook her head. He couldn't see that movement, but the long strands of her hair moved a little. "I'm okay."
"Great. Then I can sit here with you."
"I don't want you to..." Her head shot up and he had to hold himself still. Her face was a mask of pain. The tears that streaked down her face were dry in places and wet in others. "How did you know?"
He didn't see any reason to hide the truth. "Axl called me. He said Maile was worried. She couldn't get a hold of you."
Her shoulders hunched forward even more. "I didn't take her call because there's nothing to say."
He took another step forward before she nailed him with a look. "And she's supposed to be working. I didn't want to bother her."
"I doubt she'd consider it a bother, 'Wehi. Your cousin loves you."
"She has to pay attention." She swallowed and it was an audible gesture. "She's already doing me a favor by taking my shift. I'm not going to call and cry to her on the phone."
"You can cry to me."
He was almost to the bed, but she turned her head to face the far wall, completely hiding her face from him.
"You could yell at me, too. If that would help."
"You're not the problem."
He could hear the ache of pain in her voice.
"I still want to be here to help." He was close enough to the side of the bed to feel her cotton sheet dangling off the side of it. "I've got strong shoulders."
She nodded, turning back toward him, but keeping her face obscured by her hair. "I know, but I can't imagine you'd want to hear even more about my piece of... junk husband."
"You're soon to be ex-husband." He put a knee on the edge of the bed and the other one joined it a moment later. "I think I might need to hold you, so I won't worry about you."
Her head jerked toward him and he almost froze in place. He could see one eye beyond the moving wall of her hair. "I feel like I'm so... so brittle right now that if you touch me I might shatter into a... a thousand pieces."
He moved around behind her, slowly moving one leg around her back to the other side of her body.
Pallas leaned in near her shoulder and spoke softly to her. "If you fall apart, Kawehi, I'll hold you together."
"I... I don't know if it would be worth the effort."
Her voice shook so much that he knew she was dangerously close to breaking apart.
"You're more than worth the effort, Kawehi. You're worth the world."
He wrapped his arms around her and as soon as his skin touched hers, she sagged back against his chest and curled up against him. She cried, her whole body shaking like an earthquake.
"I s...saw him in the video."
He held her against him, not trying to do more than that. He just wanted to keep her safe and give her what support he could.
"He... he's married."
The words confused him at first, but then it hit him square in the chest.
"He's married. Again?"
She didn't answer him with words.
Kawehi curled in tighter against his chest and he used his arms to bring her as close as he could against his chest before he started to rub his hand slowly against her back.
"I'm sorry."
She drew in a deep breath and he stilled his hands on her back.
"I don't know what I expected," her next in drawn breath was more of a gasp for air, "but it wasn't that. I didn't know..."
He held her as close as he could without cutting off her air and rocked her slightly back and forth.
As he held her, and touched her, she shifted against him, wrapping one arm around him, and then the other.
Somehow, they ended up cuddled around each other, barely awake.
And it seemed like moments or hours later when she whispered against his neck. "Thank you."
His own words were murmured against her temple. "You don't have to thank me, baby. Whenever I can be here to hold you... comfort you... love you... that's where I want to be."
"I want to be with you, too."
He smiled, his heart swelling in his chest.
"If you want..." Her voice was like a warm breeze across his skin. "You can watch the video they sent me."
Pallas moved his hand over her back, barely making contact. "I don't need to see it."
"Oh."
He stilled his movements. Listening to the silence around them, he had to ask. "Do you want me to watch it?"
"I don't know." Her hand moved along his side and over his hip to his thigh where it settled. "But you don't want to?"
His fingertips stroked over the same spot a few times. "I'll watch it if you want me to, but right now I'm trying to keep my anger in check where it comes to him. If I see it and know exactly what you heard and saw, I'm going to have to get on a plane to Florida and kill him."
She shifted in his arms and leaned back so she was looking into his face. "I don't want you to do that, Dom. I don't want you to get in trouble for me."
"I'd do anything for you, honey. But get in trouble? No." She didn't have to know that he knew enough and was trained to do that and more without leaving a trace. There were ways to end this man without leaving behind any signs of who did it, but if she didn't want to him to do it, he wouldn't.
"Then, I'll have to keep holding you, 'Wehi."
She snuggled back into his embrace as the sound of the ocean surf and a breeze swept through the open window. He held her until she fell asleep, her breath warm against his skin.
And then he kept holding her until sleep claimed him, too.
This, his thoughts echoed through his head and heart, this is where he was meant to be. with her. Together.
Forever.