Grounded (Up In The Air #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Mr. Wretched

James hadn’t wanted me to, but just a few days after I’d returned to Vegas, I went back to my old house to collect some things. Most of it would be packed away and moved to the bigger house, but I’d wanted to go through things myself before I let strangers tackle the project.

I shared a car with Stephan and Javier, who were giving Stephan’s house similar treatment. Having Stephan nearby for the excursion had gone a long way towards easing Control Freak Cavendish’s mind about the whole thing. Not that he could have stopped me, though he didn’t have to leave work to escort me once he realized that Stephan was going. I didn’t know what he thought that Stephan could do that my escort of armed guards couldn’t, but that was just the way it was. The two men had bonded on a fundamental level that even I didn’t fully understand. I could only be grateful for it.

I had tags to mark where I wanted my things to be moved to, since much of the household goods would be going into storage, and some to charity. James obviously had all of his properties stocked to the nines.

I only had a few small boxes for packing right away, and they filled slowly with small keepsakes and photographs.

Blake hovered in the house near me, Paterson patrolling directly outside, with Henry patrolling the neighborhood. Williams had a family emergency in California, and so was taking some personal leave. They hadn’t been able to find him a replacement with just one day’s notice, which was one of the reasons James had been so nervous about letting me come back to the house without him, even in the middle of the day.

Their boss’s nervous reaction to this mundane outing seemed to have Blake on edge. I got nervous just looking at her. She kept pacing the house, looking out windows for no reason that I could see.

“Is everything okay?” I finally asked her.

She nodded, but her mouth was tight. “Yeah, just antsy today, I guess. I don’t see Paterson out there, but that’s normal. It’s not even time for him to check in yet. I don’t know what my problem is.”

This was the chattiest I’d ever seen her, and it only seemed to make me more nervous, because it was a tell of her own nerves. Whatever strange mood had such an unflappable woman so anxious wasn’t good for my peace of mind.

I went back to packing up some old pictures, smiling when I saw some old shots of Stephan and me. There were several shots from my twenty-first birthday party, when we’d run around like fools on the strip. Someone had taken about a dozen shots of Stephan giving me a piggy-back ride through the fountains at Caesar’s Palace. We’d been dressed up, and we looked like crazy people, with the bottom of his pants wet, and my heels dragging in the water. I smiled at the picture. It was a fond memory, right around the time when things had really started to look up for us. The smile on Stephan’s face warmed my heart, both now and then. He was grinning at the camera, and I was smiling at him, the fact that he was the dearest thing in the world to me clear in every line of my face.

I took the stack of photos to my purse, thinking to myself that I had to give some of the photos to Stephan, and find a place of honor in my new house to put at least one of them.

I was just digging into my purse, still smiling at the memories, when my phone started to ring. I checked the screen.

It was James.

“Hey,” I said into the phone, still smiling. “How’s work going?”

“It could be going better, but at least it’s almost done. My lawyers and Tristan’s agent are making some revisions, but that shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes or so, and then we’ll be done, thank God. Tristan is trying to bankrupt the casino for some two-bit magic tricks.” James had gone into work to hash out some details in Tristan’s new contract, and I could tell by his tone that the other man must be close by and that he was trying to harass him.

“Tell Tristan I said hi,” I told him.

“Bianca says hello,” he relayed on the other end.

“I’ll be heading over there when I finish,” James explained to me. “Are you about done?”

I glanced around the room. I was pretty sure that I’d gotten everything that I’d wanted to pack myself, but I wanted to give the place another once-over, to be sure. “Yeah. That should be perfect.”

“Tristan is coming over for dinner tonight. As if I’m not paying him enough to make rabbits disappear, now I have to make him dinner.”

“I have a new trick where I can make pretty boy CEOs disappear,” Tristan said loudly on the other end.

I laughed.

“Will you let the guys know that they’re invited, as well?” James said.

I could hear the smile in his voice.

“That sounds fun,” I said, meaning it. There was just something so playful and mischievous about Tristan. There was never a dull moment when that man was around. “I take it he got a favorable contract for next year’s shows,” I added.


“He signed on for another year, but we had to double the bastard’s pay,” he said without rancor.

He said something else but a noise outside distracted me at just that moment. What had it been? It hadn’t been particularly loud, just something slamming against the concrete, but it sidetracked me enough that I completely tuned James out as he continued to talk on the other end of the line for several pregnant moments.

“Bianca?” he asked, snapping me out of my momentary distraction.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry,” I said, trying to focus.

It could have been anything. A neighbor had been working on building something on his back patio earlier, and that had been much louder than that single slam had been. What about that noise was troubling me so much?

I kept my phone to my ear as I moved through the house, looking for Blake. The noise was probably nothing, but I figured that we would both feel better if she checked it out.

I heard it again as I moved into the kitchen. This time it was louder, and I could have sworn that it was accompanied by a low grunt of pain.

“Blake,” I called out, sure now that something was wrong.

She burst into the kitchen right as James began to sound a little frantic on the other end of the phone.

“Bianca, what is it?” he was saying. “Is something wrong? Talk to me, Love.”

I opened my mouth to answer, my eyes meeting Blake’s, when I heard a noise that made my blood run cold and my heart stop in my chest. It was a loud echoing boom that I knew all too well, and it made me freeze in terror. A gasp escaped my throat, my free hand flying to my chest.

Blake was moving instantly, pushing me to the ground, her gun already in her hand. “Stay down, Bianca,” she said. “Don’t move, and whatever you do, don’t leave this house. I’ll be right back.”

She disappeared towards the front of the house, though I thought that sound had come from the back.

I was listening so hard for what was going on in the back that it took me awhile to remember that James was still on the phone, which was surprising, since he’d been keeping up a steady, desperate dialogue the entire time.

“Tell me what’s going on, Bianca? What was that noise? Why did Blake tell you to stay down? Where did she go? I need to know what’s going on!”

I blinked, my mind going very shocky in reaction to that noise and the memories it dredged up. How did he not know what that noise had been? Could it sound so very different across the line?

That dreaded noise sounded again, and my body jerked as though I’d been hit, even though I was safe inside.

“We’re on our way to you, Love, and we’ve put in a call to the police, but I need you to tell me what’s going on. What was that noise?”

I swallowed hard, trying to focus on that beloved voice. I closed my eyes tight. “I love you, James,” I told him softly.

I heard him take an unsteady breath. “What’s happening over there?” he asked roughly. His voice broke on the words.

I shook my head, but of course he couldn’t see it.

That noise sounded again, and I whimpered.

“I love you, James,” I said again, my cheek on the cool linoleum of my kitchen floor. I was so happy, so unutterably relieved that he wasn’t close enough to be hurt by whatever was happening in my backyard.

“Talk to me. I have to know what’s going on. We’re in the car now. We’ll be there in less than twenty minutes, but you need to talk to me. What’s all that noise?”

I didn’t want to say it. It was completely ludicrous, but saying it would make it more real. The noise sounded again and I shuddered helplessly on the floor.

“Are those gunshots?” James asked in the most wretched voice. I could tell just by his tone that he was already certain of the answer, had likely guessed it with the first shot.

“Yes,” I breathed. “In my backyard, I think. I’m scared, James. I need you to tell me that you love me back. Please. Just in case.”

“No,” he whispered. “I’ll be right there. Are all of your doors locked up? Just stay hidden, and stay down. You’re going to be fine, and I will be there so soon…”

I closed my eyes, just wanting to listen to his voice until the danger had passed. As though it would just magically pass after that many gunshots…

I was doing so well, just planning to stay right where I was, when I heard another sound that changed everything.

A rough shout sounded in the back. It was the shortest noise, and it should have been indistinguishable from all of the other sounds, but somehow I knew with absolute certainty just who it had been. I fought to breathe, because I suddenly felt like I was drowning. That shout had changed everything. I went in an instant from being a scared little cowering mouse to being so desperately terrified for someone other than myself that I began to stand on trembling limbs.

Another gunshot sounded, and then another. A rough shout that tore my heart into jagged little pieces was stopped short somewhere amidst those two loud bangs.

I began to move resolutely through the house. I didn’t forget that I still held the phone. I’d gone from being in shock and into a desperate kind of clarity.

“I love you, James,” I told him again. “So much. I’m so sorry.” I hung up the phone, feeling it drop from my hand before I’d reached my back door. I took one deep breath before unlocking the door and sliding it open. Resolutely, I stepped outside.