Chapter eight
“Nope, we’ll be home alone,” I say seductively into my phone, walking up to Aiden’s front door. I had planned on surprising him with dinner at his place, but right when I answered his call, the security guard downstairs said hello and Aiden immediately knew where I was. Busted. “Lexi is out with Sydney for a few hours.” Aiden growls into the phone. “You better hurry up,” I say before ending the phone call.
I’m thinking about the things we can do without having to worry about little ears as I open the door. My mind is so distracted with Aiden and what’s to come, I don’t register it until it’s too late. Someone is standing in the entryway. Pointing a gun right at me.
“Shut the door, Addison,” Jessie grates out. I quickly look her over. Her eyes dart to the door and back to me. “Now!” I flinch at her demand. There’s a desperate air that surrounds her. She’s rocking back and forth from foot to foot and the hand that’s holding the gun shakes.
“Okay, Jessie. I’m shutting it,” I say, putting up my hands. I still have my phone in one hand. Unfortunately, Aiden’s not on the line. I shut the door but not all the way, hoping when Aiden gets here he’ll be able to hear us before coming in. I’m also hoping she doesn’t notice.
As soon as I turn around, she tells me to drop my phone and kick it away. I do what she says because it’s obvious she’s unstable right now. She looks like shit. Her button-up shirt is askew and her hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in days. Then it hits me. Presley.
“Jessie, where is Presley?”
“No!” she snaps, shaking the gun at me. “You don’t get to ask where Presley is at. She’s not yours!” My chest tightens, worrying about the safety of Presley. Please, God, let her be okay.
“I know she’s not, Jessie. She’s yours.” My voice is rushed as I try to placate her. “Your beautiful little girl needs you, Jessie. Just put the gun down.” I take a step toward her. She straightens her arm, steadying the gun right at me. I stop moving and put my hands up again.
“That’s what you’d like, isn’t it, Addison? How’s it feel to be at the end of a pointed gun? I can tell you, it’s much better on this end.” Her voice drips sarcasm as she regains a little more control. I remember how I pulled a gun on her when she ended up in Aiden’s bed, uninvited. I don’t know if she knows, but I’ve been here before and it never turns out well for the person behind the gun.
I wonder what her original plan was. She couldn’t have known I was coming over. Aiden was her target, not me. But why? She hates me. I take a couple steps to the side, in the direction of the living room. I need to move away from the door so she’s not facing it.
“Stop moving!” she yells. I immediately stop. She’s pivoted enough that the door isn’t in her direct view anymore.
“Jessie, you don’t want to do this. Think about your little girl.”
Her laugh is low and snide. “Oh, yes, I do. You have taken everything away from me.” I feel the crease between my eyebrows form. She twists her lips, studying me. “Oh, you haven’t heard? Your dearest brother is trying to take my daughter away from me.”
“I hadn’t heard.”
“Liar! Who told Brooks he had a child?” She waves the gun around as her voice escalates. I keep my eyes on her trigger finger. How is it I’ve become a psycho magnet? “You know…” she pauses and stares at me for a beat, “…Presley wasn’t even part of the plan.” She shakes her head and mumbles under her breath, then lets out a small laugh. “I hadn’t planned on getting pregnant,” she quips. There’s a small part of me that is relieved Jessie isn’t that much of a conniving bitch that she’d planned on using a child for revenge, but it’s a miniscule part because she did end up using a child.
“What exactly was your plan?” I ask, confused. I need her to keep talking. Aiden should be here soon.
“To make your life a living hell by marrying your brother.” Her tone is matter-of-fact, like it explains everything, but it doesn’t make any sense. That was a huge assumption Brooks would have married her. Even then, I’m not sure how marrying Brooks would have made my life a living hell. It would’ve sucked having her for a sister-in-law, but living hell is a bit of a stretch. I’ve lived in hell and that doesn’t even come close. I think the rational part of her brain is wired wrong. “But then I got pregnant. Timing was close enough to when I saw Aiden and made Ryan think we had sex. It was like a gift from God. Aiden and I were meant to be together. But then you had to show up and ruin everything. Again.” She spits.
My skin prickles from the anger of her words. I know it’s about to happen before it does. The gun goes off and my whole body tenses, and I instinctively put my hands up to my head, waiting for the bullet to rip through my body.
I slowly blow out the breath I was holding and gather myself, standing up straight. I haven’t been hit. Jessie, still holding the gun pointed right at me, flashes a wicked grin. “You have destroyed me. I have nothing left to lose because of you. You have taken everything from me,” she seethes. Her eyes are cold and empty.
“Jessie, don’t do this. You’re not thinking right now,” I plead. Tears well up in my eyes. I am at her mercy. I know she’s past the point of reason. I send out a silent plea. Please, God, I don’t want to die.
I close my eyes briefly and a tear escapes down my cheek. My mind races through images of Aiden and Lexi. I hope they know how much I love them. When I open my eyes, I catch a glimpse of movement toward the backside of Jessie. Aiden. He opens the door slowly, walking behind her.
The gun goes off simultaneously as Aiden takes a flying leap.
Darkness follows.
***
“Addison,” I hear Aiden repeating my name. My head feels like a hammer is beating down on it. My vision blurs at first when I open my eyes, but everything becomes clear quickly. I bring my hand to my head. I’m lying on the ground and Aiden is crouching beside me.
“Damn, my head hurts.” I try to sit up.
“Wait, let me help you.” Aiden slips his arm around my back and pulls me up. I hear sirens outside. My mind grasps onto the last thing I remember.
I frantically start looking over my body, running my hands all over. “Did she shoot me?”
“You’re okay, Addison,” Aiden says, grabbing my hands. “She missed.” He leans over and presses his forehead into mine. “Thank God she missed,” he whispers. I exhale, releasing the tension in my shoulders.
“What happened,” I ask, opening my eyes and staring into his.
“You passed out right after Jessie took a shot. You hit your head on the floor pretty hard.”
I scrunch my nose up. “Really? I passed out?” I mean, I guess it’s better than being shot, but I’ve never passed out before.
“Yes. I want you to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
“I’m fine. I’ve hit my head before, worse than this. I’ll be fine.” I look around Aiden, wondering where Jessie is. She’s sitting on a barstool, handcuffed. Her head hangs and tears run down her face. “Presley. Where’s Presley?” I look back to Aiden in a panic.
“She’s safe. Ryan called me earlier and said they were taking care of Presley today. He thought Jessie had a doctor’s appointment.”
“She’s sick, Aiden.” I look at Jessie with a twinge of guilt. “She needs help. She doesn’t need to go to jail.” I think of Presley not having her mom in her life. I know having a baby messes with your hormones, on top of the questionable state of her sanity before she even got pregnant. She’s definitely not in the right frame of mind now.
Aiden brings my hands to his lips, and he slowly nods. “I agree with you. But God, Addison…if I hadn’t gotten here when I did, she would have killed you.” The pain in his voice is all too familiar. I say the only thing I can think of to make him feel a little bit better.
“You’re my hero.”
He chuckles as he closes his eyes and shakes his head. “You’re a smartass,” he murmurs.
The pain in my head has started to lessen, but I wince as I try to get up, still holding it with one hand. Damon and the police storm in, assessing the room before continuing to enter.
“It’s clear,” Aiden states. Damon and an officer walk over to us while another officer heads in Jessie’s direction. Aiden informs the two officers about what happened when he got here. I fill in the rest. This is where I find out Aiden had texted Damon before he walked in telling him he needed backup. Still, Damon had no idea what was going down.
“I don’t know how many lives you have, woman, but you might want to save one,” Damon jokes. I hit him on the arm. The impact makes my head hurt.
“Ouch,” I say, rubbing my head.
“I’ll get you an ice pack. Get the medics in here to look her over,” Aiden instructs Damon as he walks away. I look around and notice Jessie is gone. The officer must have already taken her out.
When Aiden returns, handing me the icepack, I ask him, “How did she get in here?”
Aiden shrugs. “I never changed the locks. Since she was at my place at the beach, she could have left and made a key without me even knowing, I guess.”
I walk to the couch and gently sit down. Leaning back into the cushion, I close my eyes and reflect on the last half hour. I think about what happened and what might have happened. I can’t believe it came to this. I hope Jessie can find help; Presley is going to need her mother.
“Did you know Brooks filed for custody?” I open my eyes and look up at Aiden. He shakes his head. “I think that’s what broke Jessie. She blames us for telling him he had a baby,” I say. The cold pack on my head makes me shiver. “I can’t say I understand her, but I can see how that might throw her off the deep end.”
“Addison, you do know none of this is your fault, right?” Damon asks, sitting down next to me. I let out a bitter laugh, thinking nothing is ever my fault, yet things always seem to happen to me. Same old shit, different day.
“It’s not,” Aiden barks out, reading my mind.
I sigh heavily. “I know it’s not my fault…directly,” I add.
“Not directly or indirectly.” Aiden kneels in between my legs, his hands resting on the top of my thighs. “You couldn’t stop the slippery slope Jessie was on. She made her own decisions and now she has to live with the consequences. Just because her decisions were based on you, you can’t blame yourself.”
I nod because he won’t change his mind, but I’m the one who has to live knowing it’s because of me Presley won’t have her mom around, at least for a while.
A paramedic walks into the room, and Aiden calls him over to check me out. He doesn’t think I have a concussion, which is good because I want to go home tonight.
Damon joins us when the paramedic leaves and tells me he called Sydney. He chuckles, telling me about Sydney needing to give Lexi money for the bad word jar. I think that’s the first time Sydney has ever had to donate to Lexi’s jar.
“She’s going to keep Lulu a little longer, give you guys some time to decompress. I’m getting off right now, so we’re going to take her to dinner.”
“Thank you,” I say softly.
“Agent Roberts,” a police officer interrupts, “we’re almost done here.” Aiden pushes off my legs to stand up and follows the officer to the other side of the room.
“Get some rest and we’ll call you when we head back your way with Lulu.” Damon leans over and places a kiss on my head. Thinking about him and Sydney makes me happy.
“Oh, hey, congrats on finally pulling your head out of your ass,” I joke.
“I guess I didn’t have a choice if I wanted a chance with her. She seems to be in high demand.”
“Don’t forget that. You better treat her right or I’ll kick your ass.” I grin up at him.
“I promise I will.”
A couple hours later, Aiden and I return to my apartment after we stopped and grabbed some Chinese takeout. Aiden spreads the food out on the coffee table while I grab a couple Coronas from the fridge. He’s been quiet since we left his apartment. I know why. I just don’t know what to say to make it better.
He’s sitting on the floor with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. I place the beers on the table and then run my fingers through his hair. He pushes up on his knees, turning toward me, and wraps his arms around my waist. I feel him breathe in a ragged breath. His body falls lax against me as the tension in his shoulders leaves. I can’t help but feel at fault for bringing this grown man to his knees. My fingers fist the back of his hair as I swallow back the guilt. He digs his head into my stomach. “God, Addison. I love you.” His voice breaks and he squeezes me tighter. When he looks up at me, I see the pain in his eyes.
The fear of losing me.
“Aiden, I’m right here.” My breath hitches from the raw emotion reflecting in his eyes. I hate that I keep putting fear in them. I drop to my knees and wrap my arms around him, needing to comfort him and remind him I’m here. Alive. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“When she took a shot and I saw you fall to the floor, I had no idea if she had shot you.” His hand cups my neck. “I don’t think I’ve ever unarmed someone and handcuffed them so fast in my life.” He chuckles softly and ends his mirth with a sigh.
“I can’t believe I passed out. I remember seeing you and then…nothing.”
“How’s your head?” He presses gentle kisses across my forehead.
“Better. I have a knot from hell on it, but it doesn’t hurt too badly now. What’s going to happen to Jessie?” I say, sitting on the floor.
Aiden sits down by me. “I’m sure her parents will get her the best attorney possible, which is good. He’ll probably have her plead insanity.”
“I don’t think that is too far from the truth.” Aiden nods in agreement. “Someone needs to call Brooks.”
“Ryan texted me. Brooks is already on his way to New Haven,” Aiden says.
“I’m surprised how much Brooks wants to be involved with Presley.” Aiden looks at me and cocks his head to the side.
“We’re not all assholes,” he teases. “There are men out there who want to take responsibility for their kids.”
I shove his shoulder with mine. “I know. He didn’t waste any time trying to get custody. He’s this millionaire playboy. I didn’t see him as the dad type from what I’ve read about him.”
“Well, he’s about to get his wish and be a full-time dad now.” It makes me respect him a little more.
“Growing up without a mom, it makes me sad.” I lie my head on Aiden’s shoulder. I sigh, wishing things could be different.
“You haven’t forgotten she tried to kill you just a little bit ago, right?”
“I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, but I know she’s sick. She’s being held captive in her own head. I know how it feels.”
“Hopefully it won’t be forever,” he murmurs into my hair. He’s saying it to appease me. He’d be happier if we never saw Jessie again.