Page 91 of Fatal Attraction

“Dad…”

“This is all her fault, you know,” he continued despite my protest to hear any of it. “The reason why this feud between us ever started is because of her. I told her to back off and let you handle things the way you wanted with the divorce, but she—”

“Dad!”

He clamped his mouth shut, peering up at me through worried, glistening pupils.

“Can wenotdo this right now? I’m hours out of surgery, and I just found out the son of a bitch that kidnapped me, murdered Peter. I’m grieving and not in the mood for any of this shit.”

“What? Pe-Peter’s dead? Oh, sweetheart, I-I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know!” He got up, wrapping his arms around me as I broke down, crying out in pain when he put too much pressure on my injury. “Damnit,” he hoarsely whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He sat back down and grabbed my hands, squeezing them. “Are you okay?”

Now it was my turn to glare at him. “Really, Dad?”

“What can I do? Wh-what do you need?” He squeezed my hands even tighter.

“Space,” I said flatly. “All I want right now is to be left alone.”

So much for that because the door opened again, and in came Spike, Phoenix following behind him.

“Charlotte…” Phoenix locked eyes with me, ignoring my father as he skittered around the bed, kissing my lips before peppering more all across my face. “Are you okay?”

From the corner of my eye, my dad gazed confusingly between Spike and Phoenix. That was a conversation I damn sure wasn’t ready to have right now, so I asked him to please leave the room so I could talk to the guys. Thankfully, he left with no objections.

“What the hell happened to you?” I looked at Phoenix, actually looked at him, and discovered his cheeks were bright red. His left eye was swollen, sporting a gnarly bruise that was already turning purple. His bottom lip was busted and there was a tiny trace of dried blood residing under his nose.

“It’s a long story,” he whispered, tears swimming across his sad green eyes. “I know you’re going through a lot right now, so I’ll tell you all about it when you’re ready to hear it.”

“Your mom,” Spike said a bit nervously. “She’s a real piece of work. She interrogated me out in the hall before she finally left for the cafeteria.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. Why was I not surprised?

“Just ignore her,” I said tiredly, reaching up to rub my aching temples. Great, now I have a headache. “Who the hell called them anyway?”

“It wasn’t me,” Spike retorted, “and it wasn’t Phoenix. It was probably Harley, Captain Burgess, or Chief.”

I nodded to that and let out a painful sigh. Out of the three, it had to have been Harley. She had access to all of my emergency contacts and since I’d taken Karl’s name off the list once our divorce had been finalized, there was nobody else to call but them.

“Speaking of Harley,” Spike said again, a miserable frown marring his handsome face. “She called just a minute ago. Perry is in interrogation. She needs me and Phoenix back at the precinct ASAP.”

“What?” said Phoenix, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “But I just got here. I-I want to be with Charlotte.”

“I know you do. I want to be here too, but we have to go, Phoenix.”

“Ha-has anyone updated Carter?” I asked.

Spike nodded. “I talked to him after you came out of surgery. He told me to tell you he’s glad you’re okay and that he’ll see you soon. Dr. Giles wants to keep him another week or so for observation. Your injuries aren’t as severe as his, so you’ll likely get released before he does.”

“Just tell me this,” Phoenix demanded, his eyes tightening when they locked with mine. “Did he…”

I immediately shook my head. “He didn’t rape me. He beat the shit out of me, but he didn’t rape me.”

Phoenix closed his eyes, and his jaw trembled for a moment before he got himself together and stormed out of the room with a shallow, “I love you,” tumbling from his lips.

Forty

Spike

My chest ferociously heaved as I tightly glared at the bastard through the window, wanting nothing more than to plow through the door and stomp the fucker’s brain into jelly. Ben, un-fucking-fortunately, was Percious’s lawyer, and was currently inside the interrogation room, having a privately heated conversation with him.

---