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I RUN FROM THE DOCK I was standing on to the one where the boat is moored, the entire time hearing Mallory screaming. At least she’s alive. I jump onto the aft deck of the boat and pull my knife out. I have to step over what’s left of Erick’s body, but I’m able to cut the ties, pick Mallory up, and get her off of the boat. She wraps her arms and legs around me with a death grip.
As I walk her down the dock, the calvary comes running. I sit on a bench with Mallory in my lap. “Let me take a look.” Olivia says. “I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
I pull Mallory away from my chest a little. “You can look from here.”
She nods, “Mallory. Are you hurt anywhere?” Olivia asks her in a soft voice.
Mallory shakes her head and then pulls back into my chest. She wants nothing to do with anyone, and I can’t blame her. “Olivia. Let me take her away from here. You can check on her later, okay?”
Olivia nods. “Yes, of course. Wrap her wrists, though. The zip ties did a number on them.”
I pick up Mallory and walk out to the parking lot where there are FBI vans, West Palm Beach police vehicles, crime scene trucks, and many undercover cars. But I’m zeroed in on my truck. In the earpiece in my ear, I hear Gabriel tell me to take her home; that he’s got everything under control. I nod, hoping he’s watching me.
I open the truck’s passenger side door and put Mallory in the cab, and I fasten her seatbelt. I run to the driver’s side door and climb in. We don’t say a word all the way to my house. There’s nothing really to say. Erick was going to either kill or trade her. All because I brought her into my world. We have some fucked up people in our lives.
I park my truck in the garage and come around to her side of the truck. She’s in shock and covered in blood and brain matter from Erick’s head exploding from the shot Patrick took. She needs a shower and about a week’s worth of rest. Then a lot of therapy.
First things first, though. I carry her up the stairs and into the master bathroom. I start the water in the tub, drop in something Piper calls a bath bomb, and then undress Mallory.
I throw her clothes in a pile on the floor. We’ll burn those later. I place her in the warm water and then undress myself. “Scoot forward a bit, baby.” I climb in behind her and then pull her back to my front.
We sit here for what seems like forever, but I don’t move other than to turn the faucet on to warm up the water.
Suddenly, I feel Mallory’s shoulders shudder and the tears flow. “Shh, baby. I’ve got you. Let it all out. I’ve got you.” I reassure her as she cries in my arms. She cries for about an hour. Sometimes soft tears and other times heavy tears. She’s been through so much in the last two weeks. She’s lost her mother, her friends at the grocery store, she’s been kidnapped twice, beaten, and molested. Not to mentioned blown up. She’s been through three lifetimes of drama in a matter of two weeks.
Finally, the tears stop, probably because she’s run out of them. She’s snuggled up on my chest and we’re just sitting here in the bathtub silently. No words need to be said. I’ve got her and will let nothing happen to her again.
I look down at her and realize she’s fallen asleep, the exhaustion finally catching up to her. “Wake up, baby. Let me put you in bed.” She wakes up enough to sit up and let me out of the tub. My fingers and toes are wrinkled beyond recognition. I grab a white, fluffy towel. “Here. Come out.” I hold her hand. “Watch your step.” She climbs out of the tub and I wrap her in the towel. It’s warm from being on the towel warmer. I didn’t know what a towel warmer was until Olivia told me about it. I thought it was silly until now.
I lead Mallory into the bedroom and I find one of my t-shirts for her to wear. “Here, let me put this on you.” I pull it over her head as she drops the towel. I pull the comforter and sheets down. “Slide in.”
She turns to me, “Are you laying down, too?” She sounds so lost.
“I’m not going anywhere. Slide in.”
She climbs into bed and I go around to the other side and get under the covers. “Come here.” I hold my arm out and she instantly snuggles into my chest and under my arm. We fit perfectly together. “Go to sleep, baby. I’ll be right here the entire time. I promise.” I cup the back of her head and kiss her forehead. After a minute, she’s sound asleep and I’m left to my own thoughts and demons.
~~~
I feel a big bounce on the bed and I instantly pull Mallory tighter and my eyes fly open. I wasn’t expecting to be face to face with a Great Dane. “Hello Bella.” She licks my face then jumps off the bed, and then back on the bed. Then she flops down in the small space between Mallory and I.
“Hello Bella,” Mallory says groggily. She gets a lick, too. “Blah.” Mallory wipes her face and then looks up at me. “You stayed.”
“I told you I would. Where would I have gone?” I’m absently petting Bella’s head and she’s loving every second of it.
“I don’t know. I just figured you’d have to go answer questions, or handle something about earlier.”
I shake my head, “No. Nothing’s more important than you, Mallory. You’re my priority. Everything else can wait.” I kiss her forehead again.
“Thank you for taking care of me...” she turns to see the time, “this evening. God, we slept most of the day away.” Then her stomach growls and mine growls in solidarity with hers. “Apparently, we’re hungry.”
“Let’s get up and I’ll make us something to eat. And Bella’s here, which means at least one of my brothers is probably home. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of questions to answer. We’ll need our strength.” I pull the covers off of us. “Bella, down. Let’s go eat.” She jumps off the bed, grabs a squeaky toy from her toy bin and runs out of the bedroom.
“I’m going to grab some clothes.” Mallory stands up.
I open the dresser drawer and pull out a pair of my boxers and toss them to her. “Wear these.”
She smiles, “Okay. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“You want me to wait?” I ask because I’m not sure how fragile she is right now, and I want her to feel safe.
Being the strong person she is, she shakes her head. “No. I’m fine. I’ll be right down.” She dashes into the bathroom with my boxers.
I head downstairs and smell food. “Who’s here, Bella?” I ask her as she runs around squeaking her toy obnoxiously.
“Piper ordered in for you two. She figured you wouldn’t want to cook.” Gabriel says from my dining room table. “I figured Bella would wake you up, so I brought her over here.” He has a devilish smile on his face, but then turns serious. “How’s she doing?” he uses his chin to point to the second floor.
“She’s been through a lot.”
He nods, “Yeah, she has. How are you doing? You’ve been through a lot, too.” I can hear the concern in his voice. Ever since our parents died, he’s taken on a more parental role with Matt and I. He feels responsible for us being the eldest child.
“I’m okay. I’m thankful everyone’s come out of this in one piece, except for Coleman. What the fuck was his issue?” I unpack the Thai food that Piper ordered for us, and putting it on some plates.
“He said that you stole his company out from under him. That his uncle wouldn’t wait for him to get the financing to buy ST Securities.” Mallory says from the doorway. “He’s the one that stole the gems and returned them, all to show how inept Hughes International was, so he could take his company back.”
I walk over to her and pull her into my arms. “You don’t have to do this now, if you don’t want to. It’s okay.”
She shakes her head, “No. It’s fine.”
“Okay, but do it while you’re eating.” I hand her a plate of food. She takes it and sits next to Gabriel.
“If you want to and feel up to it, tell us what happened as you remember it.” Gabriel goads.
She takes a bite of rice and slowly chews it. Then she take a deep breath, “He told the driver, John, that he would drive us to your condo.” She looks at me as I sit down with my plate of food and I nod. I silently tell myself to be prepared to stop her if it gets too much for her and to not break anything when I get mad over what she tells us.
“He stopped for gas and bought a bottle of water. I watched him pump the gas, and he drank a sip of the water and then gave the bottle to me. I didn’t think twice about it when I drank the rest of the water, but the next thing I remember was waking up tied to the pole on the boat.”
Gabriel looks at me. “GHB. He drugged her. He saw his opportunity and took it when you sent him to watch over her.” He states the obvious. I’m already feeling guilty over this. I don’t need his commentary, but I say nothing.
“When I woke up, he ranted over how he arranged someone to take the gems and then return them to show the world how much Hughes International sucked and that he would get his company back. He talked about how his uncle sold out to you guys instead of his family. Then he talked to Patrick on video chat and negotiated me for fifty thousand dollars. Told him I’d be on his yacht. Was that Patrick’s boat?”
Gabriel and I both look at each other and then at her, “Yes. That is Fusco’s boat.”
She takes another bite of food. “I didn’t know he had a boat.” She twirls her fork in the noodles, but doesn’t take a bite. “Then you called, but he hung up on you. He then talked about how you all were just rich playboys and weren’t serious about what you do. I told him you were, but he claimed you had everyone fooled.”
Don’t punch the table. Don’t punch the table. This is the mantra in my head right now. My brothers and I are very serious about all things. We care about our clients, our community, and our work. We’ve all served our country. Yes, we have money, but we’ve earned every red cent we have through hard work and dedication.
Mallory takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “That’s when you called again and you know what happens after that.” She puts her fork down, not eating any more. I want to make her eat, but even I don’t have an appetite after hearing her tell what happened.
“I have a few questions, though.” She asks shyly.
“What’s your questions?” Gabriel asks.
“Um... who shot him? Erick, I mean. Who shot Erick?”
Gabriel and I look at each other, having an entire conversation without saying a word. I knew this was going to come up, but I was hoping to have this discussion later. But she asked the question. Gabriel gives me a small nod.
I take Mallory’s chair and turn it towards me. “You have to know that I was beside myself trying to find you. I had no idea where you were and Erick had turned off the GPS in his phone. I was panicking.”
She looks confused, “Okay.”
“I mean it, baby, I looked everywhere for you. Traffic cams, security cameras. EVERYWHERE.” I emphasize.
She nods again with her eyebrows scrunched up, “Okay. Tell me what you’re trying not to.”
I take a deep breath and look at Gabriel for encouragement. He’s useless. I look back at Mallory, “I got so desperate that I got word to Fusco that if he’d help me get you back that I’d give him the key he was looking for.”
“You what?!” She tries to push her chair back from me, but I hold on to it.
“I was desperate. I didn’t know where you were and I knew he had resources I didn’t have. At least as fast as I wanted them. When he called me, I told him what was going on and that I’d get his key back from the FBI if he’d help me find you.”
“So, you basically put a hit out on Erick?”
“No, Mallory. Owen didn’t put a hit out on him. We asked him to find you, that’s all. Fusco killing him was all his plan. We knew nothing about it. None of us did.” Gabriel defends me. Okay, so maybe he’s not completely useless.
“Coleman had a gun to your head. I’m glad he took the shot.” I tell her. “If he didn’t... who knows what would have happened? Erick was losing touch with reality fast.”
She turns to me. “So, now what? Did you give him the key? Is my life still in danger?” She’s shaking like a leaf, so I take both of her hands into mine.
“You’re not leaving my sight. You are not in danger as long as me or either of my brothers are around. I promise you, baby. You’re safe.” I pull her hands to my lips and kiss them.
“Actually, that’s why I’m here.” Gabriel interrupts. “After Fusco took the shot, he attempted to leave the country on his plane.” Gabriel looks at me, “You know, the one that’s in his mother’s name?”
I nod. “Yeah, the one Sergeant Jones told us about yesterday.”
“Right.”
“Wait. Patrick has a plane, too?”
“Yes, well, not anymore.” Gabriel shakes his head. “Let me explain. He attempted to fly out of the country. He was headed for Monaco, but they had the surveillance on him and when he boarded the plane, they were there to arrest him.”
“Who arrested him?” I ask.
“Officially, the FBI. Unofficially, the pilot on his plane was an undercover Army Specialist.”
The room is silent for a few minutes while both Mallory and I try to process what my brother just told us. Gabriel pulls out his phone and taps a few buttons. “I wasn’t going to show you this yet, but I promised Fusco I would. And... well, he did us a favor, so.... Here.” Gabriel hands me his phone.
I tap the video, and Fusco’s face appears. He’s standing next to a plane in handcuffs with an agent on either side of him, holding onto him. “Hughes. I know my arrest isn’t your fault and, to be honest, it’s a kind of relief. No more looking over my shoulder. I have just one request. Keep our girl safe, okay? She deserves it. Tell her I’m sorry for what it’s worth.”
The video ends and I look up at Mallory. She doesn’t look back at me, but she gets up and heads upstairs. “Excuse me.” She calls over her shoulder as she leaves.
“Should I have not shown you that?” Gabriel asks as he takes his phone back.
“No. I’m glad you did. She needed to see that he’s been arrested. Can you thank Piper for the food?” I stand up to go upstairs.
“Yeah. Of course. One more thing.” He stops me. I turn around to see him pull a business card out of his back pocket. “Lucy tells me this attorney has been calling the office daily trying to get a hold of Mallory. He ended up stopping by the other day and left his card. He refused to tell her what it was regarding, but insisted that he must speak to Mallory.” He places the card on the table on his way out.
“Thanks.” I ignore the card and head upstairs. “Mallory?” I find her sitting on the side of the bed. “Baby, are you okay?”
I hear her sniffling as I sit down next to her. I’m going to let her steer this conversation. “It’s over.”
I nod, “Yes, it is.”
“I can’t believe it’s all over.” She wipes her tears away.
“The scary part is over. Now, there’ll be a trial, but we’ll work with the District Attorney to see if you can testify remotely, so you won’t have to see him again. We have a great attorney, Harvey, that’ll walk us through it all. I’ll be here by your side the entire time. We’ll get through this together.”
She turns towards me, putting her knee on the bed. “This nightmare has been going on for almost three years and now it’s over.”
I mimic her position. “Yes.”
“So, now what do I do? I’ve been running from him for so long. I don’t know what to do with myself. Tell me what I’m going to do.” A lone tear falls down her cheek, but I don’t think it’s a sad tear. I think it’s a tear of relief.
“Baby, the first thing we’re going to do is go downstairs and finish eating. We both need nutrition. Then we’re going to come back up here and sleep for a few days.” I wipe the tear away and cup her cheek. She tilts her head into my hand. “Then there will be questions from a lot of agencies. We’ll work to get them all in a room together so that you only have to tell your story once. I’ll get our attorney on that first thing in the morning.”
“I like that. Tell the story only once. Just one more time.” She takes a deep breath. “Okay, but then what do I do for the rest of my life? I have no job, no family, no place to stay. I have nothing.”
“You have everything.” I pull her to me and kiss her lips. “You have me. I have you. Together, we will conquer the world.”