Uncorked (21 page)

Fists pounded the other side of
the door. “Don’t talk to me that way, you bitch! You’ll pay for this! You’ll
never be with anyone but me!”

His shouts and kicks ricocheted
through the door…

The 9-1-1 operator answered.
“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”

“My ex is trying to kill me.”

“What is you location, ma’am?”

“The Harbor at Three Market
Place. Room 3301, thirty-third floor.”

“What is your name?”

“Chella… Chella Noon,” she cried.

A military boot blasted a hole
through the door.

 “Oh God…his foot just came
through the door…I’m in the bathroom…he’s kicking in the door…he has a
knife…please, hurry.”

“They’re already on their way,
ma’am. What’s his name?”

“Aaron…Stewart”

At the same time she answered the
operator, she heard Mitch’s voice. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh God, oh God… my boyfriend
just came into the suite,” she relayed to the operator.

“Look, asshole, Chella is mine.
She will always be mine, and if I can’t have her, nobody will. That includes
you. I’ll kill you both! That’s a promise!”

“You sick son-of-a-bitch. Stay
the fuck away from her. I will kill you if you ever lay a hand on her again.”

Chella couldn’t see what was
happening, but she heard something fall hard. More glass shattered.

Through the hole in the door, she
saw Aaron lying on the bed. He wailed in pain, his hands clutching his
blood-soaked head.

“Mitch?” Chella called, still not
able to see him.

“I’m fine. Do you have your
phone?”

“Yes.”

“Call 9-1-1?”

“I’m on the phone with them now.
Can I come out?”

“Not until the police get here.”

“I can’t see you.”

“I’m good. Just tell them to
hurry.”

Aaron tried to get up.

Mitch said, “Trust me when I tell
you I’ll break your other arm if you move.”

Moments later, hotel security
swarmed the bedroom.

“Ms. Noon are you still there?”
asked the 9-1-1 operator.

“I am. Are they on their way
yet?”

“Yes, they should be there any
minute now. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“The fighting has stopped. I can
see him lying on the bed. I think he’s injured. Hotel security just came in.
Thank God, the police are here.”

“You can hang up now, ma’am.”

“Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.”

Chella hung up the phone and ran
out to find Mitch. The police cuffed Aaron to the bed while a paramedic
attended to his broken arm. The mirror from the wall lay shattered on the
carpet. Mitch stood in the corner of the room. His shoulder and upper chest
were bleeding.

“Oh God, you’re bleeding?”

Mitch circled her in his arms and
kissed her on the cheek. He ushered her into the living room, away from Aaron’s
protests to the police that he was the victim.

“A few stitches, that’s all. Oh,
Sweetheart. I thought—”

“I know.” Her voice sounded as
shattered as glass at her bare feet.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Chella.”

Police with evidence kits and
photographers combed the space, and a paramedic attended to Mitch’s wounds.

Detective Carter entered the
room. “Are you two all right?”

“We’re fine. Can we do this at
your office? I need to get Chella out of here.”

“Quick question. How did he get
in?”

“I don’t know,” said Chella. “When
I got out of the shower he was sitting in the chair over there, waiting. Mitch
had gone to the gym. After he left, I put the chain and the safety lock on the
door. I have no clue how he got in.”

“Meet me at the station in a
couple of hours?”

“Sure.” Mitch replied.

“Get those wounds stitched up.”

“I will. Thanks.”

The hotel manager
arranged for them to get a ride
back to Mitch’s penthouse. Chella was silent all the way home, but the
continuous, rapid pulse Mitch felt as he held her hand told him she wasn’t
okay.

When they got to the foyer, she
couldn’t hold back anymore. She collapsed in his arms and cried. It was over,
finally over, after ten years of threats, stalking, moving. It was all over. He
held her in his arms in a strong embrace as she let go. There were no words
between the two. None were needed.

After leaving the
hospital, they headed over to
the station. Detective Carter escorted them to a stark gray conference room and
poured them coffee.

“You’ll be happy to know Mr.
Stewart has been read his rights. He’s recovering from his injuries at the
hospital under police guard. Nasty fight.”

“Nasty guy,” Mitch replied
nonchalantly.

“He has a concussion and four
fractures to his arm.”

“He deserved it.”

“Detective, Mitch was only trying
to protect me,” Chella said, holding Mitch hand.

“There’s no need to worry, Ms.
Noon, there won’t be charges. Mitch was protecting you and defending himself.”

“How did he get into our room?”
Chella asked.

“We found a master card key on
him. We’re still trying to figure out how he got it and how he found out your
room number.”

“But the chain was on the door.”

“You’d be surprised how easily
those can be removed with a rubber band.”

“Detective, he said my parents
fucked up his life, so he had to return the favor. And it was too bad I didn’t
get killed in that crash, too. When I asked him what he was talking about, he
laughed and said, ‘We’ll never know.’ I think he had something to do with the
accident that killed my parents.”

“When was their accident?”

“August 16, 2002.”

“Their names?”

“Francis and Heather Noon.”

“I’ll look into it and see what I
can find out. Did he say anything else?”

“No, it was more the way he said
it. He laughed in this sick, creepy way that gave me goose bumps.”

“I’ll check it out.”

“Did he say anything else that
might help with the case?”

She relayed details of the
morning to the detective. At certain points, Mitch would clench his fists. She
realized how much not being there had affected him.

When they got
back to the penthouse, Mitch was
exhausted. He went to his room and took a nap. Chella cuddled up on the veranda
sofa and played the incident over in her head. Until now, she had relied on no
one but herself, but now she had Mitch in her life, and he had been there for
her. She thought of the events of the last few weeks. She was anxious to get
back to work, to keep her mind occupied.

 One thing she knew for sure was
that she needed a new home. Buy or lease? House or condo? These were questions
she never thought of entertaining before, but the dark chapter in her life was
over. For the first time—ever—she thought about her future.

Her thoughts were interrupted
when Mitch entered the room.

“Hey you,” he said, sitting next
to her.

“Hey you. I thought you were
going to take a nap.”

“I tried. Couldn’t sleep. I
couldn’t get this morning off my mind.”

“I’m sorry. You were really angry
at the station. Are you okay?”

“When I saw that knife in his
hand, and I realized he was trying to hurt you, I wanted to kill him myself. I
thought about it, Chell. That way he could never lay a hand on you again.”

“But that’s not you.”

“No, I guess not. I just put his
head through the coffee table and the mirror. When he continued to come after
me, I broke his arm.”

“You did what you had to do.”

“I don’t want you to see that
side of me. I don’t like to see myself that way. It takes me back to a time in
my life I’d rather not return to.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll tell you one day,
Sweetheart. I’m just not ready to talk about it. It’s nothing like Emily. It’s
not that type of secret. It’s just something really painful that happened in my
past.”

“Okay,” she replied. She was
curious, but she respected his wishes. If it was something that caused him
pain, he needed to tell her about it in his own time.

“Thank you. For being there for
me. For saving my life.”

Mitch smiled and kissed her on
the forehead. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere you want to go.”

“Let’s go down by the harbor.”

They walked along the water’s
edge. The sun was poised to dive into the ocean once more. They sat on a bench
and watched the boats float by.

“I’m thinking about moving
somewhere more…permanent,” Chella said.

“I think that’s great. Your
safety is my primary concern, though.”

“Well, I’m going to explore my
options sometime this week with an agent. Would you like to come with me?”

“I’d love to. This must be
exciting for you.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Feel free to stay with me as
long as you like.”

“Thanks, but I could never impose
on you that way.”

“You’re not imposing. I’m
offering.”

“It’s barely been a month since
we started seeing each other, only a day since we agreed to see each other
exclusively. I think I’d be more comfortable if I found my own place.”

“If you change your mind, the
offer is always open.”

Finding a new
place wasn’t easy. Chella and
Mitch had one, two, or three fights as to where she should live. He was excited
about two units available in his building, but Chella wanted more of an ocean
view, as opposed to the city or harbor view. The last of their arguments was
just before he dropped her off at work a couple of days later. She was so
furious with him, she stormed from the car the moment it stopped. None of the
usual kisses or have-a-great-day or I’ll-miss-you goodbyes. Nada.

While she would have been happy
to move into a house or town home or a smaller-unit condo on the beach, Mitch
had serious concerns about her safety. Aaron might have been in police custody,
but his accomplices had yet to be identified, and he had no idea what they were
capable of.

When she got to her desk, she was
eager to start work on her summer and Christmas promotions for her Teen Sassy
product line. She was happy to think about something other than Aaron Stewart
or the fight she’d had with Mitch earlier that morning.

Teen Sassy was on par with the
competition, but she needed to find ways to increase their market share. While
in-store promotions and sampling at the malls helped sales, she needed to think
of one big idea to circulate these events around. To get her mind juggling, she
looked around the local mall after school to see what interested both teen
girls and boys. Two names of pop groups kept coming up repeatedly. The boys
seemed to be in love with a female group called The Sparkplugs, who were into
fast cars, and the girls seemed crazy about a group of heartthrobs called The
West Coast Boys.

She thought about putting
together a series of ads starting in July and running through to Christmas. The
culminating event would be a joint concert between the two bands the day after
Christmas. Now all she had to do was work out the details, send over proposals
to the bands’ mangers and come to an agreement.

Mitch picked her
up that evening. They had an
unusually quiet drive home. At the penthouse, Chella turned to him and said,
“Mitch I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”

“I don’t want to fight with you,
either. I just need you to see things from my point of view.”

“Which is what? That I move into
your building?”

“I realize that where you move is
your choice, but I want you to consider your safety.”

“What makes you think I’m not
doing that?”

“You’re not looking at the
broader picture.”

“What broader picture?”

“Aaron may not be out there but
there are other crazy assholes he’s been working with. We’re not sure what
they’re capable of.”

She stayed silent as he made his
point.

“Your safety will always be a
concern of mine, especially in light of recent events.

“I get that, but just because I
don’t want to live in this building it doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about
my safety.”