* * *

Wes made love to her all night.

Taylor normally loved watching the sunset and the dawn of a new day, but this was the first time that she wasn’t looking forward to it. She didn’t want to leave him and step back into the real word.

The real world where she’d been run off the road and into Dead Man’s Gorge because this crazy person was trying to kill her. The world where her brother was in prison and her friends and family were in danger. That was her world, and there was nothing to look forward to in it.

Chloe was excited about the idea Wes had to use the camera on the bike. Her dear friend looked so at ease by the thought that there was finally something that could save Wade, having so much faith in this idea.

But what if it didn’t work?

She rested her head against Wes’ chest and he ran his hands along her waist and up to her face.

They lay in his bed wrapped in each other’s arms. That was how they fell asleep. She’d woken up about half an hour ago, attacked by the thoughts that zoomed through her mind.

She lifted her head and met his adoring gaze.

“You’re awake,” he stated with a groggy smile.

“I just… I was thinking.”

He lifted his head slightly and she looked over his incredibly sexy, tousled hair. She didn’t know what state her hair was in, but it captivated her to see that he was one of those guys that clearly looked amazing when they first woke up.

“About what? That look you’re giving me makes me think of one thing, and I’m ready to go again. Just saying.” He winked at her through tired eyes.

She giggled and kissed the edge of his chin.

“I won’t say no to that, but…” She didn’t know what to say. It wouldn’t matter how many times he made love to her, or how good she felt, she’d still have to go back to her life at some point.

His lips on hers soothed her mind and filled her with hope. He lifted a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his thumb. Her white blonde ends looked striking against his sun-kissed bronze skin.

“Don’t worry, Taylor, things have a way of working out.”

There.

Those were the words she’d so longed to hear. How fitting that they would come from the guy she assumed would say that. Wes smiled down at her and she took a moment to appreciate the look of admiration in his eyes.

“Oh Wes, do you really think so?” She wanted so badly to believe that.

“I do, and trust me, I will do my best to do whatever I can.”

“I don’t want to leave you.” She breathed, feeling the back of her eyes sting.

“Then don’t.” He lifted himself up onto his elbows and gazed at her with a broad smile on his face. “Don’t leave me. Stay.”

She sat up, shocked by his answer, and brought the sheet up to her chest. “What?”

“Stay with me. Simple. You don’t want to leave—stay. We’ll go to the beach house, see what we can do about the tape on the bike, and then you can come back with me. Here.”

“You’re being serious?” She couldn’t believe it.

“Yes.”

“Really, but we… What if a week from now you decide you can’t stand me? Or if you think I think you were asking me to move in because I have a bag here or something? What if—”

“Taylor, will you be my girl?” he interrupted, shocking her.

Her mouth dropped and all she could do was stare at him. “Really, you’d want me?”

The easy smile lifted the edges of his mouth. “Is that a trick question, Taylor?”

She had to think about that. And she had to slow things down in her mind. “I don’t want you to move too fast with me.” Because he may see something he might not like. There must have been a reason why Richard thought she was other-woman material and not the leading lady. She didn’t care that he’d told her he planned to propose and bought a ring. Everything else cancelled that out.

“Why’s that, Miss Vanderville?” He chuckled. “You just told me you didn’t want to leave me, I told you to stay and be my girl, and you’re finding excuses to go.”

“I want you to be sure, and I don’t want you to be rebound guy.”

He sat up now, too, and looked concerned. “You’re really concerned about that, aren’t you? I mean, me thinking that.”

She nodded.

“Okay, let’s do this. Do you see yourself feeling the way you do, about me, a week from now?”

That was easy. “Of course.”

“A month?”

“Yes.” She imagined that if she felt like this now, in a month’s time her heart would be overflowing with love for him.

“Okay, let’s go with a year.” He held her gaze and smiled when she nodded without even thinking.

“Yes.”

He continued to stare at her, as if he was shocked by her response. She had to wonder if he expected another answer.

“Taylor, if you can say yes to me so effortlessly to all those questions, then I’m not rebound guy. Also, if I may point out, that I saw you first and I’ve known you since forever. So, what do you say? Will you be mine?” The sexy grin returned to his face and her cheeks warmed.

The answer was a no brainer. “Yes.”

He leaned forward and kissed her tenderly, cupping her face and stroking the skin there on the edge of her cheek. “I’ll take the greatest care of you, Taylor, and you’ll always be able to trust me.”

Wes looked into her eyes as he said that. It was like he could see the worries in her mind and wanted to eradicate them.

“Thank you, and me. I’ll take care of you, too, and you can trust me.”

“Come here.”

She moved to him, releasing the sheet and allowing it to drift down to her waist so that she was naked before him. Her skin molded to his and she giggled when he pulled her into his lap so she could straddle him.

He was, indeed, ready for her again, and she once again allowed herself the pleasure of having him and being his. If only for a few more hours, she would forget the real world.

* * *

* * *

This was it. The moment of truth and reckoning. Wade’s bike had been delivered to the beach house about an hour ago and parked in the garage waiting for Wes and Taylor to come back.

They came in ten minutes ago and she didn’t know which emotion overwhelmed her more: the built-up anxiety of waiting for fifty minutes for them to come back; the happiness of seeing them together and knowing that Taylor left with Wes last night and just returned with him, practically molded to him like she was an extension of him; or the guilty look they both had when she snapped at them and asked them what the hell were they too busy doing that they were late coming back. She’d told them the bike was going to be delivered at two and it came at two and neither of them were there.

She had to calm herself or else she would explode. She stood next to Taylor and Kelly in the garage, watching Wes with the bike. Her skin felt hot and she felt like running around the room and screaming as she watched Wes carefully remove the microchip from a little section near the handle bar.

Its location interested her because she would have never guessed that it was there. She just thought the buttons there were all part of the bike’s functions. Actually, to be truthful, on the occasions that she’d ridden on the bike, she’d been too consumed with Wade to think about the bike itself and how it worked.

“Okay, let’s do this.” Wes smiled and gave Chloe and Taylor a hopeful look. He brought his laptop with him. Moving over to the little work table where they kept things like oil and tools, he slipped the chip into the side of his laptop.

Taylor held onto Chloe and Kelly linked her arm with hers, too. She was grateful for the support because her legs felt so weak she was certain she was going to fall over.

Wes clicked a few buttons on the keyboard and a fuzzy then clear image came up on the screen. He tapped a few more buttons and put the date and time in for when he wanted to view. When he pressed enter, the image adjusted and started showing the footage from that night.

The area was lit by the porch light. It was one of those amber-colored ones that was soft in its glow and just bright enough for the video to capture the surroundings. When she got a good look at the view the video captured, she thanked her lucky stars for Wade’s expensive tastes. If he’d been the kind of guy to grab some old, beat-up bike they wouldn’t have this recording now. And it was showing the exact areas they needed it to show of Merissa’s house. The front door, the hideaway in the front garden that concealed the view of the road, and just the right amount of the corner where the hedges ran.

Wade came into view on the recording. They watched him walk up the steps to the porch and Merissa opened the door. They were talking but they were too far away from the bike for it to pick up exactly what they were saying. Wade went inside the house and that was it.

There was nothing for a few minutes and Chloe’s hopes began to sink. But then Taylor gripped onto her arm and cried out, “Oh my God!” when a person dressed in full black came into view.

The image made her skin crawl and even Wes brought his hands up to his cheeks. The person had a bag, it looked like a gym bag. They went straight for the little hideaway and set the bag down. Seconds later they took out a small can that looked like hairspray and crept around to the side of the house.

Again there was nothing, and then they watched the window smash and something come out of it. To her it looked like a ball or a paperweight of sorts. She had something similar at Runway.

The person came into view again from the corner and they sat cross-legged on the lawn, watching and waiting. She was trying to see their face. It was definitely a man.

He took out his phone and spoke to someone for a few minutes. When he was finished, he got up and retrieved a long-reach knife from the bag. Kelly gasped when she saw that. Chloe felt weak even though she was watching the images that she’d hoped they would see.

“One more to kill,” the guy sang. The recording captured that. “One more to kill.”

Her stomach tightened and she felt bile rise into her mouth. The man went around the side of the house again and then nothingness filled the screen.

Moments later he emerged again without the knife. He looked over at the bike and bile rose into her throat when she saw his face.

Right there in full view was Zeek.

Zeek, the man she’d been introduced to at Adrenaline. He worked with Wade and Jared.

“Oh God, I know him,” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I know him.”

They went straight to the police station and called Regina and Ben on their way there. Once they got there, they asked for Detective Fray. Again, Chloe was proud of the way Wes handled himself, acting confident and with authority as he told the receptionist, who tried to get them to wait, that he had key evidence in a murder investigation.

They didn’t have to wait long after that and by then Regina, Brian, and Ben had arrived. Chloe watched the tape again when Detective Fray took them to an interview room with access to a computer that could play the chip.

Again that that creepy, stomach-wrenching feeling washed over her when she saw Zeek’s face.

She’d spent the whole journey trying to process it. Zeek was their psycho. He seemed so nice.

“This man works with Wade?” Detective Fray asked her. He’d taken notes through the whole viewing of the tape.

“Yes. He does the marketing for Wade’s company,” she explained. It was Jared, Wade’s friend that had talked Zeek up on the day that she met them both. She’d been so impressed with Zeek and even thought of how talented he must have been to do such a good job for Wade and Jared. Little did she know that he was the psycho.

“This guy may have killed Merissa, but that isn’t Aaron,” Ben suddenly said. “This is our second guy.”

Chloe glanced over at him; everyone else looked, too.

“How do you know?” Regina chimed in.

Chloe didn’t know what they were talking about. She wasn’t aware of a second person, and they seemed to have more information.

“It’s not him,” Ben repeated.

“Regardless to who it is, it looks like we have our killer,” Detective Fray stated.

Regina nodded and smiled. She turned to look at Chloe and Wes and the smile fell from her face. Chloe knew the expression on her face all too well. She’d seen it many times when she was a child and had disobeyed her parents or Regina. Regina was always scarier than her parents, though. Way more scary.

“What happens now?” Chloe asked, ignoring the look. She directed her gaze and question to Detective Fray. She wasn’t a child anymore and didn’t have to answer to anyone, no matter how much Regina meant to her. Chloe agreed that what she did with Wes wasn’t by any means safe, but it had worked. And she would happily point out that their little side mission worked above everything else everyone else was doing. They found the killer and cleared Wade’s name. It was as simple as that. “Can Wade come home now?”

“The evidence needs to be processed first. Once that’s done he’ll be released.”

She looked at him, understanding the answer but not wanting to accept it. “But you have the killer, the evidence is all there.”

“Yes, when can he be released?” Regina asked.

“A few days, tops.”

“A few days?” Chloe winced.

“Miss Matthews, if he was being kept here then we’d release him immediately, but since Wade is in prison this has to be checked out properly and go through the correct procedures. I promise you he’ll be out in a few days.”

The answer still wasn’t good enough, and since she didn’t want to be rude she rose from her seat and left the room, leaving everyone staring after her.

“Chloe.” It was Wes, he came after her.

If it was anyone else she wouldn’t have stopped. He rushed up to her and turned to face him, practically falling into his arms as the tears took her and she broke down.

“There, there,” he said, stroking her head.

“I just want him home, Wes. I just want him home,” she cried. “Wade’s in prison.” She thought of the visits she’d had and how he looked. Both times he looked like he’d been in a fight.

Wes released her and held her shoulders so he could look at her. “He’ll be home soon. Honestly, the worst part is over. This next part, the waiting, is gravy. I know it’s the last thing you want to hear, but they have to process the evidence and verify it.”

She nodded. He sat her down on one of the nearby benches. That was when she saw Regina. Chloe watched her approach and stop beside them. Wes made a move to go but Regina stopped him.

“You really helped us out a lot, son. Taylor’s extremely fond of you. She talks about you a lot. I never dreamed that you’d be the one to help us like this,” Regina said. She reached out and touched his shoulder and a wayward tear ran down her cheek. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. No one would have even thought of what you did. No one.” She shook her head.

“It’s okay, Mrs. V.” Wes could get away with calling anybody anything. It was the nature of his character. “I’m glad I could help.”

“Because of you my son will be free.”

“It was good to help.” He gave her a curt nod. “I’ll leave you two to talk.” He glanced over at Chloe before he made his way back inside the room.

Regina then looked to Chloe and another tear ran down her cheek.

“Please don’t tell me off. I can’t bear it,” Chloe said before she could open her mouth.

“Chloe, one of these guys ran Taylor off the road, I received the severed finger and head of a man I used to know, Wade was framed for murdering his ex-girlfriend. Please understand why I’d be a little upset with you right now. I’m grateful, Lord knows I’m grateful, but something could have happened to you and Wes.”

Chloe got it. She did. She understood and would probably feel the same if the situation was reversed. However, she had to stand by her actions. Sometimes you had to be brave and take courage to help the ones you loved. If she’d listened to Regina and just sat around being safe, they wouldn’t have had this evidence.

Not only that, Regina just revealed more to the story that Chloe didn’t know.

“You knew who the finger and the head belonged to?” she asked, glossing over the other things she had said. “And there’s two of these guys? Regina, what’s the point in holding back important information?”

“Chloe, the less you know the better it is for you. There is a lot more to this story than you realize.”

“This man is screwing with our lives.” In just a handful of weeks, Taylor, Wade, and Ben were all in the news for various scandals, and then all the events. It would have helped to be armed with knowledge.

“Sweet girl, I know you love Wade and you want to help us, but this is bigger than you. You can’t deny that there was a possibility of something going wrong with your plans.”

Chloe opened her mouth to protest but couldn’t because Regina was right. “I just wanted him to come home.” She wiped away a tear.

“I understand.” She took both her hands into hers. “I just wished you and Wes had at least come to me. We could have achieved the same result, but together. It would have been safer.”

Chloe nodded, agreeing. That was true. She doubted that anyone would have been against any of the ideas Wes had come up with, but neither her nor Wes had been thinking at the time. They just did what they would normally do when they had an idea and got into it by themselves.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have come to you.” She pulled in a frustrated breath and gazed at Regina. “The waiting is driving me crazy.”

“Me, too. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait too long. Detective Fray has been working with us for some time now. I know that if there’s a way to speed things up, he’ll do it.”

Although Chloe was nodding in agreement, she was screaming inside.

The next day, having had no sleep and hardly anything to eat, she thought she was going to go completely mad. By nightfall she’d had enough and snuck out of the beach house while Kelly was watching Fashion Police. Taylor was with Wes so the task was much easier.

Chloe then went home. To Wade’s house. Their house.

The place was exactly the way that she had left it, but she busied herself cleaning, even though everything was spotless. She cleaned the house from top to bottom until the early hours of the morning when tiredness took over and she could no longer move around. When her legs gave out, she went to bed.

It was nearly ten when she woke up, but she got ready for work and went to Runway. Chloe expected another telling off from Regina, and additional scolding from Kelly, Wes, and Taylor, because she awoke to a series of messages from each of them. She didn’t care, though. Everyone had their ways to deal with different situations. This was hers. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, not what everyone else was telling her. That way would make her go crazy quicker.

“The designer list for Fashion Week has now been finalized.” Lisa beamed, coming up to Chloe’s desk. Chloe had just rose from behind her computer. She was going to grab some lunch.

“That’s fantastic.” She tried to sound happy.

“Girl, I would believe you more if you’d tried to smile.” Lisa giggled. “Your boy’s going to be home soon.” She smiled brightly at Chloe.

The good thing about Lisa was that she was one of those genuine people who you could be real with. Chloe could always talk to her and she was definitely a friend.

“I know, and I’m sorry, I just… It’s been a difficult time,” Chloe expressed.

“Why don’t you go home? Everyone understands what’s been going on.” Lisa sympathized, her brown eyes full of concern.

“I’ve already had a number of days off. I don’t want to seem unprofessional.”

Lisa looked at her askance. “Are you kidding? You unprofessional? Chloe, things happened and no one here is going to think that of you. Like I said, we understand, and hey, I have your back.”

Chloe thought for a moment and thought it might be a good idea to go home. Maybe she could go back to the beach house. “Thanks, I appreciate you a lot.”

“I know. Come on, let’s walk.” Lisa smiled.

Chloe picked up her little purse and they walked out of the Closet and onto the balcony. Lisa started talking about the designers again and Chloe took the clipboard with the line up from her. When she saw it, she actually felt excited. Everyone that she loved was going to be there, all the usual big names like Gucci, Dior, Chanel, and Tom Ford. But the new ones were, too, like Pierre.

Seeing his name on the list made her think back to months ago. It was as if something changed that day when she submitted her application to be creative director. Everything had changed since then. It felt like her mind had expanded to accommodate the changes in her life. A lot of bad things had happened, bad things that made the good things feel weak. It was easy to wish that life could be different, much simpler, like when all she had to evade was Kelly’s disgusting tea and weird guys from the dating site asking her out.

But she wouldn’t want to change things and take away the good. Nothing on Earth would make her want to do that. Her love for Wade was something that she loved feeling, there weren’t any words yet that could capture a good description of how she felt about him, and that was why she just couldn’t wait to have him back.

“This year is going to be good, Lisa.” Chloe smiled at her. They stopped at the top of the stairs on the second floor.

Lisa nodded with pure excitement. “You know, I have a good feeling about this. Runway is going to benefit from this a lot. Wait till you see the request list for the months after the show. We have magazine requests coming out of the windows and the doors.”

At that, Chloe widened her eyes. That genuinely got her even more excited. Being able to see the figures and everything more on a senior level gave her that step above what she used to be. When she first got the position, she decided to make Lisa her assistant and allow her the same privileges she had. Hearing this was happening was big news and she imagined Fashion Week would give them enough stability to run until the next one and the one after that. Runway was going places.

“Maybe I should stay. I’d like to see the requests.” It would give her ideas, if only for the upcoming shows after Fashion Week. There was no harm planning ahead, and the distraction was most welcomed.

“Um…” A brighter smile beamed from Lisa’s beautiful face. “I have a very good feeling that you’ll want to keep that idea to take the rest of the day off, and possibly the rest of the week.” She was looking over Chloe’s shoulder and at something below them. When Lisa took back the clipboard, Chloe turned to see what she was looking at and froze.

She wasn’t looking at something. It was someone. It was Wade.

He’d seen her, too, the minute she looked down at him. Clutching her hand to her chest, she immediately left Lisa and flew down the stairs. She’d never gotten down those stairs so quickly. Her legs took on a life of their own and she moved as if she were flying and couldn’t actually feel the ground. He moved to her, too, looking at her as if she was all he could see. Into his awaiting arms she went. Straight home, because that’s what it felt like. Being in his arms, or anywhere near him, felt like being home.

He lifted her and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him hard. Hugging him with all the strength she had in her being. She was so consumed with the feel of his arms around her that she just barely managed to hear the sounds of cheers around them.

Chloe lifted her head to see everyone around clapping. She slid down him as he released her and she took a moment to smile at those who cheered.

He was already looking at her when she returned her gaze to him. Those enchanting gray eyes beamed back at her with so much love it made her heart swell. In that confident, cocky manner he usually exuded, he took her hand and said, “Come on, let’s go.”