Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

brADEN

My head was spinning as I got out of bed and robotically pulled on some sweats and a t-shirt.

Someone was dead. Because of me.

Sure, I hadn't particularly liked Leslie, but she hadn't deserved to die like that. Her only crime had been hoping for something that would never happen. And after the way I'd treated her, she'd earned every bit of the bitterness I'd seen yesterday.

Fuck me, she'd been alive yesterday . And today she was lying in a morgue with a bullet in her skull. Because a deranged psycho – a deranged psycho who used to be on my payroll, at that – had seen her as a threat. An obstacle in her path to get to me.

"Braden?" My favorite voice in the world cut through the haze, sounding far away.

I turned to face Dani, who was now dressed in yoga pants, a tank top, and flip-flops. I had no idea what she saw on my face, but her expression morphed from fear and trepidation to heartache and compassion in a split second, and she slid her arms around me, squeezing tight as she rested her head on my chest.

Returning her embrace wasn't even voluntary. It was automatic. Instinctual. Because where this woman belonged was right here, in my arms, for the rest of our lives.

"It's not your fault, B," she whispered.

Damn, how did she know me so well? How did she know how much this was eating me up inside?

"How is it not?" My voice broke as I squeezed my eyes shut, trying like hell to contain my emotions. "Leslie's dead. Because she had history with me."

"No." Dani pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes, gazing all the way down to my soul. "She's dead because an obsessed creep killed her."

"Yeah. A creep who's obsessed with me ," I reminded her.

"And if it hadn't been you, she would have found someone else to obsess over." She put a hand on my face, and I curled my fingers around her wrist while kissing her palm. "You're not responsible for anyone's actions but your own, and you didn't do anything wrong. You and Leslie were both consenting adults. She didn't deserve to die like that, and I'm heartbroken for her family, but you didn't pull that trigger. Vicki did. No one else. Do you hear me?"

With a sigh, I nodded. I wasn't sure I really believed that, but I could deal with my feelings about this later. Right now, I needed to focus on getting us out of Miami in one piece.

"Okay, so I've got our clothes from last night back in their garment bags, all the rest of our stuff in the duffel bags, and I did a once-over of the closet and bathroom," she told me. "Am I forgetting anything?"

"Yeah. This."

Cupping her face in my hands, I crashed my lips to hers, pouring everything into it. All my love for her and our son. All my heartache and regret over everything I'd put them through. And all my heart-stopping terror at the world of danger and uncertainty we now found ourselves in.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the sinking feeling in my gut that something was going to happen before we made it out of Miami. Something big. Something devastating.

One person was already dead thanks to this maniac, and she'd made direct threats to the woman I loved already. How many more people would she hurt before this was over?

"I love you, Dani." My voice was thick with all the emotion that was drowning me as I tried like hell to push my anxiety to the back of my mind. "More than anything in the whole world, except maybe Isaac. I need you to know that. And I need you to know that no matter what happens, you and our little boy are the best thing that's ever happened to me. You've changed me. Made me a better man."

"I love you too," she murmured. "But I'm gonna need you to stop sounding like you're saying goodbye."

I chuckled weakly and brushed my lips over her forehead. "I don't want to. But if?—"

She cut me off by standing on her toes and kissing me again. "Nope. No ifs, mi amor. Nothing's going to happen. No one's going anywhere except back home. You hear me?"

Blowing out a long breath, I nodded, but before I could say anything in response, a knock sounded on the door.

As I headed to look out the peephole, I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. My heart started to pound so hard that I thought I might pass out while terror and adrenaline coursed through my veins like white-hot lava. Even when I found Leo and our second guard, Henry, on the other side rather than the woman who haunted my nightmares, my anxiety didn't lessen.

"Leo. Henry," I mumbled as I opened the door and let them into the suite.

"Hey. You two ready to go?" Leo asked as we walked down the short hallway and into the bedroom, where Dani was now sitting on the couch.

"Yep, all set," Dani said with a tense smile.

"You'll be happy to know we got Lina and Isaac safely into their car and on their way. They'll be waiting to meet up with us in Naples. We're zig-zagging a little to try to get Vicki off our tail if she decides to follow us," he announced.

The knot in my stomach loosened just a fraction at the knowledge that at least my son was safe. We were far from out of the woods – hell, Dani and I hadn't even set foot outside this room yet – but at least Isaac was on his way to safety.

"Thank God," Dani breathed as she stood up and walked over to me, burrowing herself into my side.

"And we did a sweep of the path from here to the parking garage, but we still need to keep a sharp eye out until we get to the car," Henry added. "She could easily still be here."

I nodded and grabbed the two duffels off the couch, slinging them across my back, then laid the garment bags containing my tux and Dani's dress over my arm. Throwing our second diaper bag – the one we hadn't left with Lina – over her shoulder and grabbing her purse, Dani pulled up the app for the hotel up on her phone and checked us out.

"Okay, let's do this," I said, blowing out a long breath.

We were maybe twenty yards away from the Hummer when the door to a small, run-down coupe opened not even ten feet in front of us and a woman I barely even recognized stepped out. Tripping over her own two feet, she slapped a hand on the roof of her car to steady herself before turning toward us.

Gone were the slimy, calculated smile, perfectly straightened bottle-blonde hair, and name-brand dresses that were a size too small. Now, Vicki was disheveled, frizzy hair sticking out all over the place like she hadn't brushed it in a day or two, and the red dress she was wearing hung loosely off her stick-thin frame. She'd easily lost twenty pounds in the past few weeks, and her eyes were glassy and bloodshot like she was drunk or high…or both.

"Braden!" she slurred as she started to stumble in my direction.

"Stay the hell away from me, Vicki," I warned, moving in front of Dani and guiding her to stand behind me while I used every last bit of energy I had not to completely lose it.

My heart was pounding in my ears, so fast that my head was spinning and I felt like I was going to pass out. Nausea churned in my gut, threatening to expel last night's dinner, and my entire body was trembling in terror.

"Don't do this, baby," she whined like a small child as she kept walking toward me. "Don't throw us away like this! I love you! I've always loved you!"

"Don't come any closer," I choked out, barely audible.

I was trying like hell to keep the terror out of my voice, but damn it, I just couldn't do it. A fucking hippopotamus had taken up residence on my chest and was slowly crushing me, depriving me of oxygen.

"But we're supposed to be together!" she wailed. "Why the fuck couldn't you just see me?! Don't you know how much it killed me to see you fuck all those other girls? To watch you play happy fucking family with this bitch and her little brat? It was supposed to be me , damn it!"

My knees buckled as I registered the flash of metal before she was waving a snub-nose revolver that looked like it had been bought on the street in the air. Within less than two seconds, Leo and Henry had their guns trained on her while she pointed hers at me with quivering hands.

"Put down the gun, Vicki," Leo warned. "Don't make me shoot you."

"Shoot me, and I'm taking him with me," she growled. "He was supposed to love me ! He wasn't supposed to ruin my fucking life! I've lost everything because of him!"

"Vicki, I know how much you're hurting," came Dani's wobbly voice as she stepped out from behind me.

"Shut up, you fucking cunt!" she screamed, firing a shot into the air.

I heard the shattering of glass nearby and then the blaring of a car alarm, so loud I could barely hear myself think.

"Just listen, Vicki!" Dani exclaimed. "I know how it feels to lose the person you love most in the world."

"Fuck you, bitch!" Vicki spat. "You don't know anything! You didn't lose the love of your life! You got the fucking man and the baby and the goddamn white picket fence! I have nothing. FUCKING NOTHING! "

"You're right. I didn't lose the love of my life," she trembled out, taking shallow breath after shallow breath as she slowly stepped further away from me, her shaking hands out in front of her in a surrender position.

FUCK!

She was moving away from where I'd been shielding her with my body. Trying to draw Vicki's attention away from me and toward her instead. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it because I knew even the slightest sudden movement could set Vicki off.

"But I did lose my parents," Dani continued, swallowing hard as her voice broke. "And just when I thought everything might be okay again after that, I lost my sister. I didn't even want to get out of bed every day because I didn't know how I was supposed to go on when the people I loved the most in the world were dead. But I had no choice. Because I had a baby to care for. He became my reason for living. On the days when I couldn't show up for myself, I showed up for him. I poured everything I had into being a good mother, into raising that sweet little boy the way my sister would have wanted. And I kept doing that until I found other things to live for.

"That's what you have to do, Vicki. Find something to live for. Find one reason to show up every single day, and one day, you'll realize it doesn't hurt as much anymore. You'll realize that you can have a life again, even if it's not the one you thought you'd have."

Tears were trailing down Dani's cheeks as she spoke, opening the gaping emotional wounds that had only just started to heal in the hopes that it might get through to Vicki.

And much to my surprise, Vicki's arm started to come back down as she listened.

"We can get you help, Vicki," Dani sniffled. "Please let us. Let us help you get back on your feet."

Time seemed to both speed up and slow down at the same time, leaving me powerless to do anything but watch as the horror unfolded.

One moment, Vicki was starting to lower her weapon. The next, it was back in the air, aimed right at my girlfriend.

"Fucking bitch! You're not going to lock me down again!" she screeched.

Then a gunshot rang out.

And the love of my life collapsed to the pavement with blood gushing out of her shoulder.