Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) (30 page)

“She’s going to be fine. She has a concussion and a few fractured ribs. She’ll be in a little pain for a while, but nothing she won’t heal from.”

At that, I could finally breathe again. Knowing she was going to be okay was the biggest relief I’d ever felt.

“Can I go see her?”

“Yes, I’ll take you back there now.”

I didn’t even bother glancing back at Luke as I headed down the hall; my only focus was on the woman who was sole my reason for living. I just needed to get to her and everything would be okay.

I tried to argue with the doctor when he told me he was keeping me overnight for observation. I needed to get out of the damned hospital. I needed to get to my kids and get out of Cloverleaf. I had no idea where we’d go, but I just knew I had to get them away before Lance got out, which he undoubtedly would.

I’d tried my hardest to fight the effects of the pain meds they’d given me, but it was no use. Sleep eventually took over.

By the time I’d opened my eyes again, it was already daytime. The sun was shining so bright, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. It was beautiful outside. So beautiful that the weight currently sitting on my chest, slowly suffocating me, felt out of place. It shouldn’t be possible for bad things to happen on such pretty days. With the dread I was feeling, it would have been more appropriate had the skies been a dark gray, rain falling in sheets as lightning and thunder cut through the air. Looking out the window to see birds chirping and the breeze gently blowing felt like a slap in the face.

My room was full as all of my friends, my new family, had come to give me their support, but as they argued over how the situation with Lance should be handled, all I could do was stare out that window, cursing myself for ever thinking I was clever enough to outsmart him. I should have known he wouldn’t let go. Even with everything I had on him, it still hadn’t been enough.

“Beauty,” Brett whispered from beside me, stroking my hair and pulling my attention away from the window and to those expressive, dark eyes of his. “Running isn’t the answer. You need to stay and fight. Don’t let him win, baby.”

“I
can’t
fight him, Brett,” I stated firmly. “Don’t you get it? I’m a fucking nail tech. He’s a partner at a big time law firm. He has the money and the connections to take everything away from me. He’s going to take the kids.” My voice broke as tears fell down my bruised cheeks. “My babies, Brett; he threatened to take my babies,” I finished on a pained sob.

He leaned over the bed rail and pulled me into an embrace, mindful of my sore ribs. “But what about that stuff you threatened him with? You said you hacked into his accounts. Can’t we use that against him?”

A dry, sarcastic laugh bubbled up in my throat. “It’s useless. He covered it all up after I threatened him. I’ve got nothing.”

“What information did you have, Kenzie?” Luke asked, stepping away from Emmy to come to the other side of my bed. When I’d woken up that morning, I’d been shocked to see everyone I cared about in the room with me. Brett, Emmy and Luke, Savannah and Jeremy, Lizzy and Trevor, Gavin and Stacia, Ben and Mickey. They were all there. Jeremy’s mother had once again offered to babysit the twins, who had been told that Mommy was in an accident but was doing just fine and would be home soon. They’d all come to try and find a way to help me out of my mess. The men tried to think of different ways to make Lance suffer painfully, while the women talked about places to hide the body. My chest warmed with love for all of them, but I knew it was pointless.

“He’d been taking bribes for years. Destroying evidence in cases against the people he was prosecuting in exchange for payoffs. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, prostitutes, drugs, you name it. He framed another lawyer at Spaulding, Jefferies, & Dunn. An innocent person lost everything because I thought I was smarter than Lance.”

“Jesus Christ,” Luke muttered.

“Yeah, so you understand what I’m dealing with now. If he’s capable of doing that to someone, I have no doubt he’d do everything in his power to take my kids away, just to make me suffer.”

“Wait,” Savannah interrupted. “You said Spaulding, Jefferies & Dunn?”

“Yeah, why?” I questioned.

Her forehead wrinkled in deep thought for several seconds as we all stared at her before she turned to look at Ben. The two of them communicated silently with each other from across the room, keeping the rest of us in the dark. I was just about to ask what was going on when she finally spoke again.

“I think I have an idea.”

Everyone eventually cleared out not too long after Savannah and Ben left to go put whatever her insane idea was into motion. With promises to stop by Brett’s house later that night once I was released, they left me and Brett alone in my hospital room, curled up in the tiny bed together. Neither of us had said a word for hours as we lay together. Finally, having had enough of the silent tension that filled the room, Brett broke the silence.

“I can’t lose you, beauty,” he spoke quietly against my neck. The agony in his voice caused my silent tears to fall even faster. I wanted so desperately to tell him that he wasn’t going to, but I couldn’t force the lie past my lips. Because that’s exactly what it would have been. A lie. If whatever harebrained scheme Savannah was working up fell through, I knew exactly what I would do. I would take my kids and run. I’d leave behind the life and people I’d come to love if it meant keeping them safe.

“I love you,” was the only response I was able to give him. “No matter what, Brett, I will
always
love you.”

There was a soft knock on the door before another word could be said. Savannah came through, pulling us both out of the depressing thoughts running through our heads.

“Hey, sweets, how you feeling?”

“I’ve been better. I’ll be great if this plan of yours works.”

She graced me with a small smile before pushing the door all the way open. Ben walked through, quickly followed by a short, older man. If I had to guess, I would have put him in his late sixties, early seventies. He had a gentle disposition and a kind face. With his white hair and round belly, it felt like I was meeting the real life Santa Claus.

“Kenzie, Brett, this is our boss, Bradford Pruett. He’s the founding partner of Pruett & Carter.”

“The law firm here in town?” I asked in confusion.

“Yeah, I’m a paralegal there and Ben’s an associate. We specialize in handling family law cases.”

“Oh, dear girl,” Mr. Pruett said softly as he walked up to my bed and extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I just wish it could have been under different circumstances.”

I sat up in the bed as Brett moved to the chair next to it to give me room, and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“When you told us the name of the law firm Lance works for earlier, I knew it sounded familiar, but it took me a moment to figure out where I’d heard that name before. Then it hit me.”

“You see, Ms. Webster,” Mr. Pruett chimed in. “My cousin is Reginald Spaulding.” When I just continued to look at him in bemusement, he pressed forward. “The
Spaulding
in Spaulding, Jefferies, & Dunn and the managing partner of the firm.”

My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped as I tried to wrap my brain around what he’d just said. Unable to form an intelligible sentence, I was struck mute as Brett spoke an excited, “No shit?” from beside me.

“That’s right. Our family founded that firm years and years ago. It was actually where I started my career before deciding something smaller was more my pace. I moved here and started up my practice, but I’ve remained close with all of my relatives in Ohio. I make an effort to travel there at least twice a year. Funny thing, that six degrees of separation, isn’t it?”

“Mr. Pruett, please forgive me, but I’m just not seeing how this pertains to my situation.”

Ben stepped forward and placed his hand on the old man’s shoulder. “We did some digging into your allegations against Lance. We wanted to make absolutely certain there wasn’t anything left out there that could lead back to him being the one accepting bribes.”

Hope burst in my chest as Ben talked. “Were you able to find anything?”

“Our highly skilled, very well paid private detective was able to track something down,” Mr. Pruett answered.

The grin that spread across Savannah’s face was positively beaming. “Apparently, the dude turns into a talker after he gets off. He had a little thing on the side he’d spill all his dirty little secrets to after they had sex. Only problem was, he didn’t take into account how pissed off she might be when he up and left her to come track you down. Turned out, she had his bun cooking in her oven when he bailed. The woman’s all too happy to spill every last dirty detail as revenge for being knocked up and ditched.”

“You’re kidding me,” I gasped.

“It’s also been discovered that he enjoyed videotaping some of his more…illicit adventures. My guess is he didn’t expect Baby Mama to make copies of her own as a failsafe. He’d know all of this if he bothered to return any of her calls.”

“Oh, my God!” I laughed. “Never underestimate a woman scorned.”

“No matter how smart a man is, it’s guaranteed their dicks will always make them stupid in the end.”

The three men in the room all turned to glower at Savannah.

“What?” she asked with a shrug. “Don’t act like it’s not the truth.”

Ben chuckled and shook his head. “Anyway, it would appear the asshole thinks he’s so untouchable that he managed to let this slide past his radar.”

“So what now?” Brett asked.

Mr. Pruett’s gaze bounced between the two of us. “Well, I think that with this, paired with the assault charges for what he did to Ms. Webster, it’s safe to say his career will be coming to an abrupt end.”

“And jail time?” I cut in.

“Well, he’ll have to go to trial for the assault. Charges will undoubtedly be pressed for the bribery, not to mention that he framed a colleague. At the bare minimum, he’ll lose his license and be hit with unbelievably steep fines.”

“So there’s no guarantee he’ll serve serious time for any of this?” I could see the muscle ticking in Brett’s jaw as his hands clenched into fists by his sides. He looked like he was ready to blow. He was out for blood where Lance was concerned. Anything less than hard time wasn’t going to cut it for him.

But I had other plans. The last thing I wanted was to sit through a trial. I didn’t want to have to see Lance every single day or testify against him. I just wanted it to go away. I wanted
him
to go away. I didn’t care about revenge or payback. I just wanted the chance to get back to the life I’d built. I wanted to live happily, knowing that I never had to look over my shoulder again, and that my children were always safe.

“I’m not pressing charges,” I stated firmly, catching everyone’s undivided attention.

“What? Are you kidding me?” Brett shouted, shooting up from his chair and leaning over me. “Beauty, you can’t let him get away with this. He needs to pay.”

“Honey,” I said softly, stroking his cheek, covered in stubble from a few days of missed shaves. “I don’t care about vengeance or making him pay. None of that matters to me. The only thing that matters is that he’s out of our lives for good. Don’t you see? With this information, we can make that happen.”