Torn (18 page)

No. We are so not going
there, chick.
I had a three-hundred-pound man-beast and one
hundred-fifteen-pound trained attack dog here to protect me, and I
was going to be locked in a nine-foot square steel box that only
opened from the inside once engaged.

Shutting the door, I armed the system and
looked around the room. “I should really consider decorating this
place. I think I spend more time in here than I do my living
room.”

“Red and black will always looks good with
the steel walls,” Kai joked.

“Hmm, and here I was thinking some blues and
jumpsuit orange.” We laughed.

I sat on the couch and Ruger took his
position in front of me on the floor. For a few minutes I played
games on my tablet before I got bored with that. I thought about
reading a book, but I didn’t want to be rude.

“Should I turn on the monitors?” I finally
asked. Kai had not sat down since we came into the room.

“I can turn them on, you stay seated. You
need to rest right now. Brody says you’re due in the next two weeks
or so.” Kai slid out the chair and sat in front of the computer
system.

“Yeah, and if she doesn’t come soon, I think
I may actually explode,” I said, groaning as I rubbed my large baby
bump.

“Nah, you’re tiny. My wife was bigger than
you when she was eight months and she’s a personal trainer.”

Gee, why was I not surprised? A personal
trainer. I bet she looked like a rock star a week after she popped
her kid out. Bitch.

An hour passed. We made small talk as our
eyes were glued to the screens. We saw no movement on the screens.
Close to 10:30, I caught a glimpse of something moving. I lurched
forward and pointed. “Kai, there. Is that him?”

“I’m not sure, but there is definitely
someone there. Don’t panic, he can’t get to you in here,” he
soothed.

“Right.” I tried to sound confident. Reaching
down, my hand found my furry best friend’s thick coat. His hair was
coarse yet soft. Ruger was a traditional black and tan German
shepherd with the saddle-back marking. He leaned into my touch,
turned and placed his head in my lap.

“Maybe you should read something on your
tablet.” Kai tried to distract me from the fact that there was a
man breaking out a sidelight at the back door of my house. “Brody
said you’re a big reader.”

Kai turned his attention back to the monitors
as I opened the Kindle app on my iPad. There was no chance in hell
that I would be able to read instead of watching Drill slip
unsuspectingly through the house looking for me. I tried to tell
myself there was no possible way for him to get to me.

Just as I was looking through my TBR books, I
had an iMessage come in from Barb.

What’s happenin’? Is the
baby here yet??

She always had the best timing. Okay, well
sometimes. I think Jax would disagree. In this case it was perfect,
she would definitely help keep my mind off the current
predicament.

Me: No baby yet. I wish
though. I’m over being pregnant & peeing every 5 mins. I feel
like my bladder is the size of a freaking walnut.

Barb: LOL… what r u
doin?

Well, how was I supposed to answer that? Oh
just hanging out in the panic room with my baby daddy’s bodyguard
and Ruger. You know, just a normal night in my house.

Me: nothing, just
reading.

For the record, I didn’t lie. I was reading,
well, sort of. I tried to find something to read. Looking up, I saw
Drill ranting and raving outside the closet. Then, all of a sudden,
it was as if he figured out that he’d been set up or he heard
something because he went tearing ass out of the closet. The next
camera picked him up outside the nursery. Looking over to the foyer
camera, I saw Jaxon, gun drawn.

“Oh fuck.” My breathing quickened and I was
practically panting. Next, I saw Drew and another guy come in the
back door. “God, why don’t we have sound?”

“Miss Leila, you have to take a deep breath
and relax. It’s not good for the little one,” Kai coached.

I took a slow, cleansing breath and watched
as Drill and Jaxon had a back-and-forth conversation. I was unable
to understand anything they said because I didn’t read lips, but I
noticed Kai watching the screen intently.

“Can you read lips? Do you know what they are
saying?” Anxiously I walked around Ruger and waddled over to the
desk.

“I can and I do. The long and the short of it
is that Drill knows Jaxon and Mark ratted him out to the Feds. He
said he can’t prove it yet but that he will expose both of them.
Jaxon told him to remember that he’s accusing the sitting president
and vice president so he better be damn sure. Then they talked
about you and the baby.” Kai’s gaze never left the screen.

“What about me and the baby?” Alarmed, I
hoped he didn’t antagonize Jaxon too much, who was itching for a
reason to shoot him. Both men had guns pointed at each other, just
waiting for an excuse to pull the trigger.

“Hang on, they are talking about the money,”
Kai updated. “The money is gone.”

“What? How is it gone?” How did two hundred
grand just disappear?

Kai fell silent for a minute then explained
that Drill moved the money to several different offshore accounts
all over the globe.

Just as I thought it was all over, Jaxon’s
gun went off and the muzzle flash lit up the whole screen. Drill
grabbed his chest then looked down. Shock registered across his
face as the gravity of the situation hit home.

“Oh. My. God.” Flinching, I looked away as I
saw Drill fall and start bleeding out all over the foyer’s hardwood
floor. My training kicked in and I no longer looked at him as a
crazy man who tried to kill me, but instead as a patient. I was
torn over whether to go out and try to help or to stay put. “What
did they say?”

“I’m not sure, Jaxon looked down slightly
when he spoke and the other guy was laughing too much to really
understand.”

“We need to get out there. Now.” Standing, I
rushed to the door and started to unlock it.

“Miss Leila.” Kai’s massive hand covered the
number pad. I whipped my head around and glared at him. “Sorry. You
need to stay in here until Jaxon comes up. I’m under strict
instructions not to open the door until I get my safe word.”

Turning back to the monitor, I saw the rest
of the team converge in the foyer. Drew approached Drill, gun
trained as Drew checked Drill’s pulse.

Drew shook his head. Commander Gorden
approached Jaxon, placed his hand on Jax’s shoulder, and took the
gun from his right hand.

Oh thank God, it was over.

I knew that was so horrible to think. A man
had lost his life, but I was grateful I no longer had to fear for
mine or my child’s.

I must have zoned out because the next thing
I knew Kai’s massive hand shook my shoulder, pulling me from my
thoughts. “Leila, I need your help. We need to turn on the intercom
on so we can hear Jaxon.”

I was sure he could have figured it out on
his own but I guessed he was trying to get my mind off the dead man
lying in my foyer.

“Oh, okay.” Walking over to the door, I
opened the alarm panel and pressed the code for the intercom right
outside the door. Jaxon had just come into the closet and was
banging on the door.

“Lei, open the door. Quantico,” Jaxon
rasped.

My body blocked the keypad as I entered the
series of numbers that made up our alarm code, disarming the
system. Kai pulled the door open and Jaxon rushed in and grabbed
me.

“You’re okay, right?” he asked, clearly
rattled.

“I’m fine. Are you all right? We saw what
happened,” I mumbled into his neck as he held me against his
chest.

“I’m fine.” Jax pulled back, kissed me on the
forehead and turned us to Kai. “Thank you, man.”

With a nod, Kai replied, “Anytime.”

We descended the stairs, passing by Drill’s
lifeless body by the front door. Jaxon rushed me through the
kitchen and out the back door. Since our house was now the primary
scene for a homicide investigation it would be a little while
before we could get back in, so Drew drove us to his home, my old
place.

Drew, Joe, and Tommy assured us that it would
be a quick investigation as Jaxon fired in self-defense. He
shouldn’t be facing any charges but there would be an internal
investigation. Gorden promised to make it short and sweet and they
would do nothing to blow Jaxon’s cover.

My concern: I didn’t think it was
self-defense.

Chapter Twenty-three

Brody

Ikaika called to check in sometime around
midnight. He reassured me Leila was fine. When I tried to call her
myself it went straight to voicemail. I hoped that meant she was
sleeping. She’d had a bad week. I was grateful that the stress of
all of the events hadn’t had any adverse effects on the baby or her
pregnancy. Then again, knowing Leila, she had probably been having
contractions and just hadn’t told anyone.

Picking up the glass of single malt
Glenfiddich, I knocked it back and poured yet another before
stumbling to the couch in my office. I came here instead of going
home after leaving Leila. This way I was close if something
happened.

Jesus, man, listen to
yourself. She’s not yours to worry about anymore.

No, I was still allowed to worry about her,
she was the mother of my child.

You mean the child you
didn’t want? The same child that caused you to walk away and stay
gone for months? That child? You think that’s a good reason to try
to hang on to someone who’s already gone and engaged to another
man?

“God damn it,” I roared and threw the glass
across the room. Hitting the wooden double entry doors, it
splintered across the marble floors.

Oh that was such an
ingenious idea, you self-loathing asshole. Let’s act like a child
and throw things. Smart.

Grateful I’d lost my temper in the office and
not at home, I acknowledged that Jane cleaned up after me entirely
too much when Leila moved out. Nothing felt worse than knowing I
caused myself the pain of having to watch the woman I loved with
the guy into whose arms I threw her. Far worse, surely, because it
was entirely my own doing.

Now I was sitting here pining over someone
whose love I’d had and pushed away.

My cell buzzing on my desk broke my mental
self-hatred rant. “Davis,” I barked without looking at the caller
ID.

“Brody, it’s Robert. I’m sorry to call so
late, but we have a situation here in New York.” Robert Vanderbilt,
my parents’ longtime friend sounded distraught.

“Robert, it’s,” I looked down at my watch,
“almost one in the morning.”

“I’m sorry. You know I wouldn’t call if it
weren’t important. It’s Jenifer. She started dating this guy and he
got her involved with drugs. She was supposed to meet us for a late
dinner. When she never arrived, Whitney and I came over here to her
place. That’s when we found her. Brody…she’s dead.”

My knees buckled and I dropped to the couch
with a thud. The moment I heard
dead
I
sobered immediately. Unsure what to say, I said the first thing
that came to mind. “How?”

“It looks like she overdosed on something. We
found her in the bedroom. The police suspect she was not alone when
it happened.” He paused to compose himself. “They say she was
redressed after…after she was…gone.”

“Robert, I am so sorry. I know that over the
years Jenifer and I didn’t see eye to eye, but I would never have
wished this on her. Please tell me what I can do.”

“Honestly, son, I’m not sure what I can do. I
need to make arrangements for…” Robert momentarily got choked up.
“I’m sorry.”

“Robert, you don’t need to apologize. You
just lost your only child,” I tried to sympathize.

“God knows she’s had her share of issues, but
I loved her despite the hell she put her mother and me
through.”

“I know you did. How is Whitney?” Worried
about my mother’s best friend, I asked a question I already knew
the answer to. Whitney was devastated, as any mother would be.

“I had our driver take her home and the
family physician met them there. He gave her a sedative. She was an
absolute wreck. I hated to send her home alone but I had to stay
with Jenifer, but I called Joyce, Whitney’s best friend. She’s
heading to the house now.”

“Robert, I hope this doesn’t sound too
appalling but how soon were you thinking about having the service?
I only ask because I want to be there, but Leila is due to have the
baby in less than two weeks and with all that’s happening here I
don’t know if I can get away before the baby is born.”

“I’d never ask or expect you to miss the
birth of your daughter.” Robert sniffled quietly. “It looks like
there will be an investigation and autopsy, so it may be a few
weeks. They can’t rule out homicide yet. Since she was redressed
and the drugs aren’t here.”

“Jesus, Robert, I can’t tell you just how
sorry I am. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling.” Hanging my
head, I silently prayed I would never know what he was going
through.

“Son, I hope you never know. A parent should
never have to bury their child. Brody, you will have to excuse me,
there is a detective here who needs my attention. I will call you
later today with more details.”

“Of course. Please give my deepest
condolences to Whitney and let her know I will be there just as
soon as I can,” I said with a heavy heart.

“I will. Goodbye, Brody.”

“Bye.” I set the phone down next to me on the
leather couch.

I must have sat there for several hours
before I finally fell asleep.

My sleep was plagued with Jenifer’s face,
asking why I didn’t help her. Telling me that if I had only spent
more time with her and forgave her for her many misdeeds, she
wouldn’t be dead right now. She haunted my dreams.