Chapter Twenty-Three

~ Beck ~

We had been expecting Cynthia and my sister to show up since the moment we got here. Frankly, I was a little surprised it had taken them three weeks to find us. Maybe they were using this time to circle the wagons and hatch more parts to their evil plan.

"Sir, can I ask you a few questions?" the detective asked.

"Yes, of course," I replied.

"Can you give me your name?"

"James Beckerman Prescott, but everyone calls me Beck."

"And you're the sibling of Julia Beckerman?"

"Younger brother."

The detective wrote something down on his little pad of paper before glancing up at me again. "You said you and Mr. Prescott are married?"

"Yes, sir," I replied. "We've been married for over three weeks now."

"Do you have documentation to that fact?"

Miles pulled a piece of paper out of the file he was holding and handed it over to the detective. The man looked at it for a moment before handing it back.

"I have a few other items for you to look at," Miles stated as he put the marriage license back in the file and reached for another one. "This is a list of medications that Cynthia had the nurse she hired give Mr. Prescott. As you can see from this report, all of them were designed to keep him in a vegetative state. Now that a new doctor has taken over his care and taken him off all of those medications, Mr. Prescott is recovering and in good health."

Nothing could have kept the smirk off my face as Miles handed the detective paper after paper, each one bound to bury Cynthia.

"Contrary to what Cynthia may have said, Mr. Prescott put his son in charge of Prescott Textiles before he had his stroke. He also made a will giving the company to his son, and had a power-of-attorney giving his son full power of him and the company if he was in capacitated at any time."

Miles handed him a small stack of papers. "You're going to want a forensic accountant to go over these. Cynthia has been embezzling money from the company since Mr. Prescott had his stroke."

Detective Waterston let out a small smirk. "Jesus, you guys are thorough, aren't you?"

"We knew that Cynthia would find us eventually," Scotty said. "We wanted to be prepared."

"So far," Jake started, "I suspect you can charge her with filing a false police report because I have no doubt she went to you with some sob story about Scotty had kidnapping her husband."

"She did," the detective admitted.

"Our records can prove embezzlement, falsifying legal documentation, bribery, assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and stalking. I'm not sure what the charge is for giving someone bad medicine to keep them in a vegetative state."

Detective Waterston grimaced. "I think that falls under attempted murder."

"I didn't try to murder anyone!" Cynthia shouted.

"That's for a judge to decide," the detective said as he brought out a set of handcuffs. "You're under arrest, Cynthia Prescott. Please, place your hands behind your back."

"No!" she screeched as she backed up. "You can't do this to me!"

"Ma'am."

"That's my money," she shouted "I earned it."

"You did not," Scotty's father stated. "You don't deserve a single penny of that money, and you won't get any if I have anything to say about it."

My stomach clenched when I saw the anger and hatred in her eyes when she glanced at Scotty. I was getting a very bad feeling about this.

"You!" she snarled. "You did this. It's all your fault. You just couldn't go along with the program, could you? You would have been married to a beautiful woman and never have to deal with the headache of becoming the CEO. You could have just sat back and worked in your little cubicle and gone home to fuck your little boy toy."

Well, if that wasn't a confession, I didn't know what was. Too bad I didn't have my cell phone handy.

"You honestly think we didn't know about you fucking him?" Cynthia's laughter was harsh and a little creepy. "We've always known. You could have continued to fuck him if that's what you wanted. If you had just done what you were told."

I resented being called a boy toy, but now didn't seem the time to point that out.

"Ma'am," the detective tried again. "You're under arrest. Please, place your hands behind your back."

I felt as if he was being too polite. I'd just knock the bitch out and drag her out of here by her hair. Guess that was why I wasn't a cop.

"No!" Cynthia slammed her high heel into the hardwood floors. "I am not going to let this end like this. I earned every cent of that money. I deserve it for putting up with him and his brat. You're not going to take it away from me."

I'd worked in a bar for a very long time. I knew what to look for when someone was doing something they shouldn't. The moment Cynthia reached for her purse and I saw a flash of silver, I screamed, "Gun!"

I shoved Scotty to the side and dove toward Cynthia, slamming into her and taking her down to the floor. I heard the loud retort of a gun going off right before I raised my fist and punched her in the face.

Cynthia was out like a light.

Panting heavily, I stood up and took a hesitant step back, watching her for a moment to make sure she wasn't faking it, and then turned to look at Scotty.

"Are you okay?" I rushed to my husband and then started looking him over. "You didn't get hit, did you?"

Scotty grabbed me by the arms and gave me a big shake. "Don't ever do something like that again. You scared ten years off my life. What if she had shot you?"

"She didn't," I assured him. "I'm fine."

"You almost weren't."

I grunted when I was suddenly crushed in Scotty's arms. I wrapped my arms around him when I felt him tremble against me. I winced, my heart heavy with guilt when I realized how much I had scared him.

"I'm okay, Scotty. I promise."

"Promise me," he whispered against my hair. "You'll never do something like that again."

"I can't promise that. If someone tries to hurt you again, I'll do everything within my power to stop it." I leaned back so I could cup Scotty's face with my hands. "You're my world and this doesn't work without you in it."

"The same goes for you," Scotty countered. "If something happened to you..." He shook his head. "I can't lose you."

"You're not going to lose me. That I can promise."

Assuming I didn't get arrested for assault.

I turned in Scotty's arm to assess the situation. Cynthia still wasn't moving, but now she was on her stomach and Detective Waterston was cuffing her arms behind her back.

When he stood up, I noticed the silver gun in his hand. "Am I going to be arrested for assault?"

I needed to be sure.

"No," the detective replied. "But I get to add attempted murder to her charges." He sighed before turning to Jake and Miles. "I'm going to need copies of everything you have."

Miles handed the folder he'd brought with him over. "If you need anything else or need anyone to explain anything in the file to you, give me a call."

The detective took the file, tucked it under his arm, and then pulled out his cell phone. "I swear, I'm going to stop accepting assignments to this building." A moment later, I heard him talking to someone and requesting backup.

"What are we going to do about Julia and my father?" I asked. "I don't know how much involvement they had in Cynthia's schemes, but I don't want them coming after us either."

"From what we've been able to figure out," Miles said, "Julia had nothing to do with what Cynthia did to Mr. Prescott, but she was aware of it. I'm pretty sure she was aware of all of this."

The door to the apartment suddenly flew open and Chelsea came running inside. She skidded to a stop and looked around. "Uh, I was coming to tell you that Julia and her father were downstairs, but I suspect you already know that."

"We didn't actually," I replied.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Cynthia lost her marbles and tried to shoot Scotty."

"And my husband saved me by diving at her and then punching her lights out." Scotty glared down at me. "Which he is not going to do again."

I snorted because come on. Could anyone expect me not to act if Scotty was in danger? If they did, they were as crazy as Cynthia.

"Jake, can you have some of your men escort Julia and my father up here?" I asked. "I think we need to have a little conversation with them so we can settle all of this."

"Yeah, sure, might as well." Jake pulled his cell phone out and made a call.

I looked at the detective who was staring down at the papers in the file. His brow was furrowed and he looked on the verge of a major migraine.

"Detective, can I get you a cup of coffee?" I'd offer him a drink, but he was probably still on duty.

"Please," the man replied. "Dispatch is sending someone, but it'll take them about fifteen minutes to get here since this is just a pick-up."

"I'm sure Jake can have one of his guys keep an eye on Cynthia if you want to sit down somewhere."

Jake was still on the phone, but he must have heard what I said. He snapped his fingers and pointed to his bodyguard. Fred nodded and pulled out his phone.

Surprisingly, Jake's guards arrived before Julia and my father. It was almost as if they had been waiting for the phone call. I wouldn't be surprised if they had. Jake's guys were pretty well trained.

When the four security guards arrived, two of them took up spots on either side of the door. The other two took up spots on either side of Cynthia, who was still unconscious.

Damn, I didn't realize I'd hit her so hard.