“Time to finish what we started, Princess.” He growls from behind me, but instead of crying I struggle with renewed strength, shifting, trying to gain any sort of leverage and get out from my bent over position. I hate it even more that he’s calling me ‘Princess’. That he’s tainting that word, the word that reminds me of Pike and the beauty of what we have together.
Just as I realize my futile struggling is no match for his strength and fury, the door swings open. I see him from the corner of my eye, like a knight in a fairytale, and my heart nearly leaps from my chest.
“Get your fucking hands off her.”
Pike crosses the room in what looks like one step, and in an instant both his hands come to Derrick’s throat, tossing him like a rag doll, off of me and across the room. He stumbles over the chairs and falls like a rotten tree onto a small table in the corner, spilling his cup of coffee right onto the crotch of his perfectly pressed gray suit pants.
“You okay?” Pike’s panicked attention is on me as he pulls me up to face him. His eyes are wild as he runs his hands over me, looking up and down.
“I’m fine.” I gasp, hoarse, my throat still raw. “He tried, but nothing happened.”
He turns his head to the side, giving Derrick a look that would topple kingdoms.
“Pike. I mean it. I’m fine. I will be fine. Let’s go.” More than anything I just want to be out of this room and away from whatever might happen next.
“Go? Oh hell, no. This piece of shit is getting what’s coming to him. We’re calling the cops.”
Pike’s phone is in his hand in the next instant.
Derrick is on his feet, panic washing over his face, but Pike just points at him. There’s no mistaking his meaning. Stay put. To my shock, Derrick stops dead in his tracks.
Pike relates to the 911 operator the general scene he encountered, answers some questions, then he shoves his phone into his pocket.
By now a crowd has gathered outside the open conference room door and Derrick is trying to look cool with his wet crotch. He pulls out his own phone and frantically starts typing away on the screen. After a moment his eyes come to rest on me.
“She wanted it. She was begging for it.” Derrick says, pointing his phone at me. I’m not sure if he’s speaking to Pike or to the group of nervous looking lemmings gathering around the door, but his words sound weak, desperate.
“I didn’t want it, you ass. Just like I didn’t want it when I was sixteen.” I yell the last word. All the years of holding back come out of me in that moment. “This time, no one is going to shut me up. No one is going to say it didn’t happen. Not now and not then. So you better lawyer up, asshole, because this time I’m not staying quiet!”
There’s a bit of a ruckus behind the gathered crowd and I see two officers in blue uniforms parting the bodies and heading our way. Pike drapes his arm over my shoulders and squeezes. I straighten my back and take a deep breath.
The next hour, we give detailed statements to the police. Derrick’s father shows up spitting venom in my direction and threatening Pike with ruining the merger.
When they take Derrick away in handcuffs, his dad shouting legal nonsense at them, Pike stands right behind me. Having his hands on my shoulders as we both stare him down makes me feel safe. Derrick is beaten and he knows it. As he passes us, his eyes are glued to the Turkish rug. It’s a walk of shame, everyone knowing what he did, everyone can see it. He’s led away, out into the open area of the law firm where he was once the golden boy. The lawyer of the rich and famous called upon to get them out of trouble. Now he’s going to learn what it feels like to be in the limelight on the opposite end of the law.
C H A P T E R T W E L V E
PIKE
On the way back to my place in the limo, I ask her about the details of what happened with Derrick. My heart breaks as she talks but I see her strength. I’d kill him if I thought it would help her. Tear down kingdoms to make it right, but right now, I can see she just needs me to be her for her, which I will do until my last breath.
I explain to Willow why I didn’t make it to LA. I got on the plane, but I couldn’t leave. Something tore at me. Told me to get off that plane and come back.
The tracker in my phone told me where she’d been. I saw she’d visited Maisy, then arrived at the law office address. As soon as my car pulled up in front of the building, my stomach sank. I knew something was wrong.
I tore through the offices until finally someone with some sense pointed me in the direction of the conference room where I found her inside, bent over the desk.
I decided right then that I would kill for her if I had to. But, instead, it was more important for me to live for her.
“Okay.” My voice has stopped shaking as I take her by the hand and then set her down on my lap on the sofa. Back safe in the living room of my apartment. “So, Margaret knew all along that Derrick was guilty of assaulting you and she just kept you quiet about it? Why?”
I knew Margaret was always focused on her career. When we married, it was a benefit for us both. I know that. There is an advantage to a good partnership marriage, and for Margaret, it certainly helped her career. And fulfilling an old, albeit silly, college promise for us both seemed the thing to do at the time. It made sense. Even for me, having the comfort of taking someone to functions whom I knew understood the business world we lived in was an advantage. Looking back, I’m not sure what I was thinking. It was a stupid thing to do. Exc
ept that I’m a man of my word. When Margaret said she needed me and our old promise came to pass, I felt obligated. Stupid, perhaps, but nonetheless.
Only, the woman that she turned into is not the friend from college that I once knew. The woman Margaret has become is beyond evil. To sacrifice her own daughter for the sake of her own professional interests turns my blood cold.
If only I hadn’t left when I did, maybe I could have saved her. If I hadn’t let those two months go by before I started keeping track of her maybe I couldn’t have prevented it.