A/N: I'm excited for y'all to read this chapter!
"She's not in there," Maggie said, breathless more from worry than from running from the bathroom. "I told her which bathroom to use. I know she was there, I can smell her vomit. Do you think she went up to her room?"
"Let's check the cameras," I said. Bella had been gone for fifteen minutes and when the pit manager came to tell me they'd spotted James on the cameras near the Blackjack tables, I got worried at her absence.
I was walking fast to the security office, Maggie hot on my heels. I was worried when James fell off our radar even before Maggie was added to the lawsuit. It was a slam dunk and his attorney was interested in a deal with jail time in lieu of fines, since James didn't have any money. A plea of guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence was fine with me because it would show up on every background check for the rest of his life. I would ensure his employers were aware of who he was if they hired him.
"Pull up the footage from twenty minutes ago near the Ballroom women's bathroom," I barked the moment I walked into the room. The guys sitting in the chairs looked alarmed at my sudden appearance and they looked to Maggie. She was the hospitality manager and they didn't see much of her, but the grim look in her expression must have told them it was serious if my tone hadn't already clued them in. It was managed in a few clicks and it only took a few seconds to see James enter the bathroom about a minute before Bella did.
"Fuck!" I declared. "Why wasn't he seen before?" I demanded, still watching the footage, waiting for them to reemerge.
"Because we only record from these cameras, we don't monitor them, sir. We monitor the pits," the youngest one on the right said. What he said was true and I knew it. He didn't need my anger over something he wasn't expected to do, so I just took a deep breath. We watched as James reemerged with an unconscious Bella slung over his shoulder.
"Can you follow him on the other recordings?" I asked as calmly as I could. He didn't answer, he just did it. He was a good kid and good at his job and we watched as James took her down the back hallways and into the storage closet and shut the door. "Good job!" I said and left the room headed towards the closet. I heard Maggie tell them to continue to monitor that room and if he reemerged to call her directly.
James must not have been aware that shortly after I fired him I had cameras installed in all the hallways in the back and not just directed at the pits. His little sexual escapades made that necessary. What boggled my mind was how he knew to take Bella. Had he been watching me? Researching me? I'd clearly underestimated him.
I arrived at the door and deliberated what to do. I didn't know if he was armed, his intentions, nor what he was truly capable of. Maggie was a few seconds behind me and three security guards appeared a few seconds after that.
"What should we do, boss?" one of the guards whispered. I was glad he didn't say it loud, he'd been trained well. I shook my head in response, listening to see if I could hear anything. I pressed my ear on the door which was completely unnecessary given the events that followed.
I heard a loud thump and James howl in pain. I didn't think, I just reacted. I slammed into the door, wood splintering from the frame, just in time to see James backhand Bella who fell backwards into the shelves and hit her head. Her body slumped and would have hit the floor if I hadn't have caught her. The guards, hot on my heels, rushed in and threw James to the floor and cuffed him before I even had time to bark the order to call 911. But Maggie was already doing that.
"You've gotta pay, Jacob Black!" James yelled from the floor and a guard told him to shut up.
I scooped Bella's limp body up into my arms and carried her to my office. "Thanks," I muttered to Maggie as she opened the door for me. I lay Bella on the sofa there and ran my thumb over the bruise that was blossoming across her cheek bone.
"Here," Maggie said, handing me a rag. I looked up at her, confused. "She's bleeding. You need to stop the bleeding." I looked down at my shirt and sure enough he was covered in blood where Bella's head rested. I gently turned her head to the side and pressed the cloth there to stop the flow seeping out of the gash where her head must have hit the corner of the shelving.
"I'm so sorry, Bells. I'm sorry I pulled you into my shit!" I whispered. "All I ever do it hurt you."
"You didn't do this, Jake. This was James," Maggie said from behind me. I looked up at that kind, concerned face. "Let's make sure we place blame where it belongs," she admonished.
I nodded, but I didn't take her advice. "Do you think the baby is in danger?" I asked, revealing my biggest concern.
"It depends on what he used to knock her out," Maggie said. "The ambulance should be here soon."
One of the guards that had followed us stepped in. "We found chloroform and a rag in his bag in the closet, sir. He's in one of the holding cells and we're waiting for further instructions."
"Chloroform? Really?" I said, disbelievingly and relieved.
"What?" Maggie asked.
"It's just so old fashioned," I said. "I mean, it's takes a large dose and lot longer than the movies show for it to work. But she should be fine. Sounds like she got a good shot in before he hit her. That's a good sign." I said.
"He always had a fascination with old detective movies," Maggie said. We heard a commotion from the hallway and Maggie stepped out to see what it was. "Down here!" she called. She poked her head back in the office, "the EMTs are here."
I looked back down at Bella, still unconscious, and cursed myself. I flipped the rag over and when I looked back at her face her eyes were open.
"I knew you'd find me," she whispered.
"Shhh, don't talk, you're bleeding," I said.
"You don't think I can do those two things at once?" she asked and I laughed. Bella always used humor when she was hurt.
The EMTs entered and I briefed them on what happened. I moved away from Bella so they could examine her. I sat back onto my desk and Maggie came and stood by me. She wrapped her arm around my waist and squeezed a little bit.
"She's going to be fine. She knew you'd find her and you did. Stop beating yourself up over it," she said. I looked over at her, her eyes earnest. "I know you're worried, but adding misplaced guilt is not going to help anyone. Concentrate on adding this to the long list of charges you already have on James, not blaming yourself for something you couldn't control."
"How are you so great?" I asked her. I knew she was right and her words had started my mind in the right direction.
"Years of being a dumbass have taught me a lot," she answered. "I like being a smartass better," she added giving me a nudge.
"Do I have to?" I heard Bella ask. She was looking at one of the paramedics and then her eyes moved to me.
"What's going on?" I asked. Maggie's phone rang and she stepped outside to answer it.
"He wants me to go to the hospital for stitches. Jake, I hate hospitals," she pouted.
"Can you do sutures?" I asked the paramedic.
"I can, but they won't be pretty," he said. "And I don't have the same pain meds as the hospital."
"It's on my hairline, I don't care," Bella said.
"She's had enough stitches in her life, she's used to it," I said with a grin at her. "Bella, you should go to the hospital and have the baby checked out. I'll take care of some things here and meet you there, okay?"
"Can one of you guys go to the holding cell?" Maggie said, reentering from the hallway. "It looks like Bella may have ruptured James' testicles." She grinned at Bella.
"Good," Bella said.
"Is that the guy who hit her?" the other paramedic asked.
"Yes," Maggie, Bella, and I all said together.
"What is going on here? Why have you all left my reception?" Rosalie asked, looking around the office. She saw the blood on my shirt and her eyes darted to Bella. "What the fuck is going on here?"
"I'll go down, but there's really nothing we can do here if that's true," the paramedic said, with no emotion.
"And if she's pregnant, we do need to get her to the hospital," the other one said. Maggie was whispering what happened to Bella to Rosalie who looked horrified.
"You kicked him in the balls?" Rosalie said, impressed. "Good for you! I'm going with you to the hospital. Jake, you stay here and make sure that bastard pays for ruining my wedding reception!" I'd gotten to know Rosalie well enough that she relieved her tension by playing selfish. She really was a caring person, but for some reason she didn't want anyone to really see that.
"I don't want to go to the hospital," Bella tried again.
"You are going to the hospital to make sure that little blip is okay. This is not just about you anymore," Rosalie admonished. There's her concern, I thought.
"She's right, Bella," Maggie added. "Just go and we'll be up there as soon as we get this taken care of." Emmett, Embry, and Quill appeared just then.
"I'll take you down to see James so it looks like we're a little concerned," Maggie said to the EMT. He nodded.
"I'll get her ready for transport and we'll meet outside," the other one told him.
"What's going on?" Embry said, concerned.
It took about fifteen minutes for everything thing to be settled. Bella convinced the paramedic to give her the four stiches she needed so that they could focus on the baby when they got to the hospital, I told Embry and Quil about James and the other situation. Rose and Emmett left to tell her family what was going on and then left for the hospital. One of the casino wheelchairs was brought to take Bella to the ambulance, much to her mortification, but she agreed it was better than being wheeled out on the gurney. I was left in my office with Embry and Quil, grateful for the silence that filled the air.
"You okay, dude?" Embry finally asked.
"I will be. I'm going to have to process this," I said.
"How long on the treadmill with that take?" Quil asked. I smiled at him.
"This is going to take some sparring at the dojo," I remarked. I really did have the best friends in the world. "Meanwhile we'll plan your wedding and have a nice vacation in Hawaii." Quil blushed and looked very pleased I had remembered.
"Can I talk to you?" Maggie asked, haunting the doorway. Embry and Quil looked at her and then to me.
"Why don't we go see how Rosalie's parents are doing?" Embry said to Quil.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Quil said, catching on quickly. Maggie flashed a grateful smile at the two of them as they left. She shut the door and slowly walked over and sat in the chair in front of my desk. Her eyes lingered on the huge blood stain on my shirt and then moved to my face.
"Jake, it is so obvious how much you still love Bella," she began. I tried to protest, but she held up her hand and I stopped. "Let me get this out." I nodded.
"I've been thinking about this since she arrived and announced her husband had basically kicked her out. You love her. You've admitted that. And now you have a chance to be with her after all these years. I don't want to be in the way of that."
"Maggie," I tried again.
"Shut up and let me finish!" she said again. She tried to smile, but I could tell this was hard for her so I did as she asked. "Jake, if this thing between us goes forward, it will be great. I already have strong feelings for you. I won't deny that I even love you. But right now, that love is nebulous. What you have done for me and Frankie, it's just wonderful. But seeing how much you are in love with Bella, I'm going to choose to keep that love for you platonic. You've allowed yourself to feel something for me after all these years, and that is great. Knowing you chose me after all these years has done wonders for me mentally and emotionally. But that was before you knew that Bella was free."
"Maggie," I tried one more time.
"Still not done," she sang. I had to smile. She really was wonderful, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. I loved her too, and her describing the nebulous aspect of it made perfect sense. The emotion was there, but it was undefined; shapeless.
"Right now is the perfect time to step back. I can do it with the least amount of pain and no regret. The love I feel can morph into a friendship with no bitterness. I see your conflict Jake. You finally opened up to me and I laid some very intimate and personal things at your door and you are the kind of man that does not walk away from that. And, damn, that makes my love you more. And, because love is doing what is best for the object of that love, I am stepping away because I know you won't. I want you to be happy, Jake. And, if Bella wasn't so wonderful, I couldn't and wouldn't do it. But she is. I've learned that in the last twenty-four hours. So, I'm ending what we started on the one condition that we remain friends."
I didn't know what to say. I was at a complete loss. I have thought of almost nothing else but this topic since Bella announced she was pregnant and Edward kicked her out. And everything Maggie had just said was true. So I stood up, walked around my desk, reached for her hand, and pulled her up. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a bear hug. It was the only way I could think of to express my deep gratitude and relief and she seemed to understand.
"I love you, too," I finally said, still holding her. "But like you said, it is nebulous. I was cursing the gods for their timing, but now I see that the timing was perfect." I pulled back a little so I could look in her eyes. "I can see that we both needed this little interlude. You talk about what I have done for you, but you have done as much for me. I haven't quite put it all into words, yet, but as soon as I do, I will tell you." I leaned back against my desk again making us level.
"I don't know what I could have possibly done for you," she started, but this time I held my hand up to stop her.
"Still not done," I mimicked her. She smiled. "I haven't figured it all out. But what you said hit the nail on the head. I have been conflicted for the past twenty-four hours. You saw that. I would have chosen you out of a sense of obligation, but I wouldn't have been able to give my all of my heart because Bella will always have a piece of it. Forever. And you deserve to be more to someone than an obligation. And we would have been great, just not the best." She reached for my hands and squeezed them. "You stepping back makes me love you even more. And we can be the best of friends. Would you be okay with that?"
Her eyes panned mine and she nodded. There were unshed tears there, but I think they were more gratitude than sadness. She leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on my cheek.
"You're a good man, Jacob Black," she said.
"And you are a wonderful woman, Maggie La Croix."
There was a light knock at the door and Maggie sat back down in the chair. I opened it and it was the guard.
"The police are ready for you in the blocks, sir," he said.
"Thank you, Lenny," I said. He looked surprised that I knew his name. "Will you go to surveillance and thank them for all their help and to expect a bonus in their next check? You can, too, and tell Mike and Joe the same for responding so quickly and efficiently."
"Yes, sir!" he said excitedly. He reached out and shook my hand gratefully and left quickly.
"Shall we go down? They'll probably need to see you, too," I said. But she was looking at me with an amused look. "What?"
"You don't have to reward them for doing their jobs well," she said.
"They need to know that their diligence is noticed. I was terse with them. There is already uncertainty after the takeover. Rewarding them for helping catch a disgruntled ex-employee will give them an incentive to alert me if and when it happens again," I said.
"They already love you, Jake. You kept the loyal people after the take-over. It was so much better after the corrupt people were gone, it strengthened that," she said.
"Well, it doesn't hurt much to show them with a little bonus," I replied. "Come on," I urged, pulling her up from the chair. "Let's go be done with this whole James thing once and for all."
We walked down the hallway and down two more flights of stairs. The casino had a holding cell because we were often targets of graft, theft, and cheating. The cells looked like the interrogation rooms you've seen on television and it was effective for most small time crooks out to make a little extra money at the expense of others.
Since the Choctaw started the casino, they had in their own jurisdiction. They were happy to unload the unprofitable mess on me so they could concentrate of fixing the issues in their Oklahoma casinos. It was an amicable deal that we both profited from and they agreed to allow their local tribal law enforcement to deal with these kinds of issues. That's who still staffed the onsite security.
"How did he think kidnapping was going to better his situation?" I asked, my voice echoing in the stark hallway past a row of doors to the end of the hall.
"I won't even pretend to understand what he was thinking. He was at the end of his rope. He was probably waiting for me and found Bella instead," she said, with a shake in her voice.
"I'm glad he didn't. He had to figure out what to do with Bella. I think your punishment would have been immediate," I said, shuddering at the thought of what he would have done to her.
"I'm just glad Bella took Rosalie's self-defense class," she smirked. I nodded at the guard outside the door and he opened it. We spent the next two hours giving testimony and witness accounts and answering for the pictures that were found on James' phone of Maggie and me kissing. Luckily we could honestly say that we weren't in a romantic relationship, that it had ended that day because of her revelation. It wasn't rehearsed and it was true, so both our accounts matched. The thing that made the whole ordeal worth it was watching James through the two-way glass in pain because Bella had totally kicked him in the nuts.
The Choctaw police decided to turn James over to the local police and add to his charges. I called the DA and make sure he had no option for bail, something he assured me he could get. Back up in my office I finished up some paperwork, revised my to do lists, and added some details to Bella's divorce decree. It had a very eventful, yet productive day. Frankie came in with Maggie's daily reports.
"Here," he said, petulantly, "my mom made me bring these to you." This was not the happy kid I'd introduced to Emmett only yesterday.
"What's wrong, bud?" I asked. He frowned.
"What makes you think anything is wrong?" he asked. He was showing all of his twelve year angst, which was really unusual.
"Um, because you've never acted this way around me, ever. Did I do something to offend you?" I'm pretty sure I knew why he was upset and why Maggie sent him to talk to me.
"You dumped my mom," he blurted out and plopped down in the chair. I liked that he was honest about his feelings and didn't need much prodding.
"I didn't dump your mom, she dumped me!" he returned, because it was true—mostly.
"Because you're in love with that Bella woman. Why is she better than my mom?" he asked, and tears filled his eyes.
"She's not better than your mom, Frankie. I've just been in love with her since I was your age. And your mom gets that and that's part of what makes her so great." He thought about that and I could see him thinking about the complexity of that simple statement.
"But if that makes her so great, how can you walk away?" he asked. I sighed and thought about how to explain it.
"There are many kinds of love and many different ways to show it. Your mom and have love for each other, but I have a longer and stronger history with Bella. What your mom did was a very loving thing to do, and Frankie, she never would have had my whole heart. She knows that."
"Because Bella will always have it," he said. "That's exactly what mom said." His voice was still a little bitter.
"What's really wrong?" I asked, seeing way too much emotion in his face for that to be all.
"I thought we were becoming friends?" he said, quietly.
"You think we can only be friends if I'm dating your mom? Who gave you a job even when your mom was trying to keep you a secret? Huh?" I asked, with a smirk.
"You did," he muttered.
"Do you think that's gonna stop just because I'm not dating your mom?"
"I don't know," he said, honestly. But his the anger had turned to hope.
"Your mom and I are still friends and we're friends no matter what. I won't be around much for a while," I added.
"Why won't you be here?" he asked.
"I'm licensed in Washington and I want to help Bella with some stuff up there. But I want you to know that if I'm away for a while it doesn't have anything to do with your mom or you, okay?"
"Really?" he asked.
"Really," I replied. "And we can Skype if you want. It'll almost be as good as being here. You can keep me up on everything that's happening here. You work at gossip central, remember?" I asked, taking us both back to one of the first conversations we had when I asked him if he wanted to work the shoe shine stand.
"I can be a spy! People say all sorts of things around kids they normally wouldn't say!" he said, now excited.
"Yep. And I think Embry will be around a little bit more than he has in the past. Would that be okay?" I asked him. I'd been realizing that the only reason that Maggie stood out in my mind so long ago was that Embry was always talking about her. I was beginning to believe, more and more, that Embry liked her much more than he let on.
"Yeah! He's so cool! He takes me to the arcade and he doesn't let me win. So when I do, I know it's because I'm getting better!" he said in a gush.
"Good." Now all I had to do was figure out how to tell Embry he was going stay on permanently here, for a while anyway. "Are we good?" I asked, pulling out my phone.
"We're good," he agreed.
"Give me your number so I can text you," I said. He did and I sent him a text with my name so he knew it was me.
"You're really serious? You want to be my friend?" he clarified.
"Dude," was all I replied, like it was obvious.
"Okay, but you're going to have to help me with my homework, still," he warned.
"If I'm not in a meeting, I'll answer," I promised.
Annnnd, this is why I told y'all to lay off Maggie. This chapter was written way before I started posting. But Jake needed to try. And Bella needed to try to save her marriage. Hang in there, the worst is over. Next up: Edward.
Thoughts?
