Page 129 of Ruthless Ambition
Chapter 30: Onyx
Cooper walked in and sat in front of me. “She’s fine,” he told me with no preamble.
“That’s good.” I kept my eyes on the screen as I read a contract.
“You are so full of shit,” he said as he leaned back and looked at me.
“So you’ve told me.” I rubbed my cheek where I had a faint bruise. A reminder of how much I’d failed her.
“She’sfine, Onyx. She’s going to be home either tomorrow or the next day.”
“Good.” I continued to look at my screen.
“Fuck this, you’re a fucking coward.” He stood up abruptly. “I’m going home. Go see her.”
“I’m sure she’s fine with your company,” I told him smoothly.
“Shewantsto see you.”
“And has she asked for me?” I asked him quietly.
“No.” He groaned. “Because she isAngel, and you are both stubborn, impossible assholes.”
He left the office, and I glanced at the door as he walked out in a huff. “Touchy,” I murmured to myself as I read the police reports again.
I had caused quite the stir for the police as they tried to determine who they were actually arresting at the side of the road. Burt Christie, who lay half-dead at my feet? Me, who looked like I had possibly half-killed Burt Christie? Or Cooper, who had Angel in his arms, or all of us as we assembled in front of a burning car?
But Angel was the only one who mattered.
Charlie and Owen had worked the story out of Will, and he’d confessed all to the first officer who saw him when hegot dropped off outside a station, in cuffs and a gag. There were anonymous tips, and then there were anonymousgifts, especially when they came with taped confessions and told the same story when they were questioned.
As Cooper and I were both where Burt was, we were immediately cleared of any wrongdoing against Will. It was a little harder to plead innocence when my ring had cut Burt’s face open, but I wasn’t trying to plead innocence. If Cooper had let me go, I would have happily killed him.
She was beaten and unconscious when we got to her. Face down in the dirt, her clothes ripped, her body battered, and vomit all over her. I don’t know how I stopped hitting him when Cooper yelled the cops were coming.
Coop snuck into her room the first night to make sure she was okay and then to find out what she planned to tell the cops. He was a PI, and it was perfectly legal for her to have employed his services.
Slowly, he worked her through it. She told him she wanted to be honest, and he had encouraged her to do so, with limitations. Our use of the city’s CCTV, she didn’t mention, or the other means of tracking that we used. The police had a record of her reporting the incident, and, of course, my own chat with the police.
The detectives had looked at me, and I had looked back. I could play poker all day, and I was not in the least bit remorseful that I had almost killed him.
My dad had been more vocal in his admonishments, and I had listened and nodded in all the right places until he gave up and sent my uncle to me. My uncle had strolled into my office, been told the details, told me he would have done the same thing, and then went for lunch with Neil.
I think the term my mom used wasenabler.
I had spent days airing all the shit there was to be had on Will Hershman.Hewas who I wanted in my hands. It was his fault she was taken, and the fact that he was in a twenty-four-hour psych ward pissed me off, because he’d been in there forfivedays. The fucker knew how to play the system, and patience wasn’t a game I played well.
I hadn’t been to see her.
It was pissing Cooper off. It was pissing them all off, but I had to make sure she was safe. That there were no more worms waiting to crawl out of the woodwork and fuck her over.
But I should go see her.
What if she didn’t want me there? She hadn’t asked for me, and she hadn’t contacted me. My cell ringing was a welcome distraction, and I smiled when I saw Jer’s name.
“Hi,” I greeted him.
“Have you been yet?” Chrissy demanded.
