Fade to Red (34 page)

She hadn’t been this angry in a long time.

Three years.

This might even surpass that anger … in fact, she was sure it did. Loving Beckham had cost her something. It had not been easy. She’d made sacrifices, lost years of her life, and the people she loved … she’d risked
everything
to have him.

She shook the chain and felt it cutting into her skin. Tears rolled down her face.

Her parents tried to stop her.

When they realized she wasn’t going to let anyone stand in her way of getting Beckham Woods, they threatened to put her away, lock her up.

“You can’t stop me,” she screamed.

Her parents had forced her to kill
them
. She’d lost part of herself that day. It hurt. The rage nearly sunk her. It wasn’t fair. They’d been decent parents—older and reclusive. She still missed them every day. They were ‘building wells in Africa’ and other exciting things in remote destinations. She periodically went through their email and had ‘them’ touch base.

She should be able to have whoever she wanted and still have her parents around to enjoy it with her. In a way they were. They weren’t far.

It felt like poetic justice somehow.

One day, when he moved in with her, it would be complete.

But this was the worst—two people who had everything,
everything
handed to them, and they still stood in her way. Ian had a successful career, a beautiful wife and daughter. Roxie could have a dancing career anywhere in the world and she had a perfect little boy. And they couldn’t let her have Beckham?

She screamed and cried and twisted and shook until she felt the chain begin to loosen. One hand got free. She shut her mouth and focused in earnest then to escape.

Melissa, Ian’s nurse, came in the room and smiled. “You ready to break out of this joint?”

Sparrow roused out of her place on the couch and sat up.

Ian grinned. “So ready. You letting me out of here?”

“Dr. Michaels is on his way to tell you when, but like he said earlier, your scan looked fine.” Melissa took his temperature. “You’ll be sore for a while, I expect, but we’ll send some meds home with you. Temp is normal.” She wrote on her chart. “The police are wanting to speak with you again. You up for that?”

“Sure,” he said. “You’ll be glad to see me go. Grand Central can slow down.”

He looked over at Sparrow and Journey. When Sparrow wasn’t checking on Roxie, she’d been in the crowded room with him for hours, along with a revolving door of other people. He’d talked to Dion and several guys from his team, three police officers, doctors, nurses. Between answering questions and having tests run, he felt he’d hardly gotten to talk to Sparrow.

She’d been quiet and looked exhausted. Journey had finally settled down after a long stretch of being restless.

“I’ll be back shortly with a prescription list,” Melissa said.

Ian turned to Sparrow. “Have you gotten any sleep at all since … everything?” he asked.

“No.” She laughed lightly. “I’m a mess.”

“You’ve always been a thousand kinds of beautiful,” he said. “Inside and out. My Little Bird of a thousand and one faces.”

Her eyes filled.

“I made it out of there—I’m fine.” He lowered his head but kept his eyes on her. “I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you, not knowing where I was. I was going crazy not being able to get to you.”

Her tears spilled over. “Right before you called, we’d gotten word that your car was found in the ocean. The thought of you being in that water…” She shook her head. “I don’t think it’s all hit me yet, everything that’s happened. I’ve imagined every worst-case scenario since you didn’t make it home for our anniversary dinner.”

He groaned and picked up her hand, kissing her knuckles. “Happy Anniversary. I want a do-over. I had a … it doesn’t matter.” He touched her cheek. “We’ll have our celebration. I need a date with you. Bad.” He grinned at Journey sleeping next to Sparrow.

Sparrow looked down at her hands. “I need to ask you about something.”

There was a long pause. “Okay…”

“Beckham and I got texts of you and … Roxie…” She looked up at him then.

He stared back at her, his heart pounding. “You
saw
those?” He sat up higher and winced. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sparrow leaned forward but didn’t come as close as he wanted, so he shifted his legs off the bed and pulled her closer.

“Baby, come here. Coco is sick in the head.
Sick
.” He shuddered. “You’ve seen how awful Roxie looks. I’m guessing that didn’t show in the pictures? And Beckham saw that too?” He made a face and leaned back against the pillows. “I’m sorry you saw that. I … really hoped you wouldn’t. That crazy bitch forced us into those poses.”

“Beckham didn’t believe it was real. He talked sense into me,” Sparrow said.

“So you believed it?” He couldn’t hide the hurt he felt over that.

“No. For a moment, I was … uncertain. It did
look
real. But I knew I could trust you.”

Ian’s shoulders sagged as he exhaled. “You can. Always.”

Someone knocked and a police officer leaned in. “Mind if we ask you a few more questions?”

Ian shook his head. “Come in.”

Two officers walked in. One had a folder in his hand and opened it up to show Ian a picture. “Do you recognize this room?”

Ian’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. It’s where I was locked up, and where I left her chained to the bed.” He swallowed. “Did you find her?”

The officer looked down at the picture. “There was no sign of the suspect. We have a team searching every inch of that property. Her picture is already up on every news channel. We
will
find her.” He closed the folder and stood with his arms crossed. “The fact that Beckham Woods’ girlfriend was kidnapped makes this already a high-profile case. But add you to the mix, and the public is in an uproar. No one is going to let her get away.”

Ian looked at his wife and little girl and wished to God he’d made sure Coco couldn’t walk out of that house alive.

“God help us,” he said.

After Ian was discharged and assured Sparrow he was fine—a little sore, but
fine
—they went to Roxie’s room. The hospital was willing to bend on the rules a little bit for him. He didn’t have to leave in a wheelchair. No one was quite sure where they should go anyway, with Coco still out there. It seemed like more guards had accumulated outside his door during the night, and when they reached the outside of Roxie’s room, it was also fully secured.

Dion smiled when he saw Sparrow and Journey, and he shook Ian’s hand.

“Good to see you up and around. You had your wife worried sick,” he said, patting Sparrow on the back.

Ian cringed and leaned over to kiss Sparrow’s temple. “Not my finest hour,” he said.

“I was just getting ready to head to your room,” Dion said. “We need to talk.”

Ian bit his bottom lip and nodded.

“Any word on Roxie?” Sparrow asked.

Roxie’s dad stepped out of the room, looking exhausted. He introduced himself and apologized in the same sentence.

“Sorry I’m leaving … I’ll be right back—gonna pick up Chloe and Leo to come see Roxie. Just wanted to see her before I brought Leo…” His voice cracked at the end. “You should check on Beckham. He hasn’t left the side of her bed all night.”

Beckham leaned his head back and his neck and shoulder blades made a loud protest. When he righted himself, he looked at Roxie and she was staring back at him.

He gasped and stood up then quickly sat back down.

“Roxie!” He wanted to wrap his arms around her, but he was afraid of hurting her. “How are you feeling?”

She swallowed and sounded hoarse when she finally spoke. “Like I’ve been beat up.” One side of her mouth lifted and she briefly closed her eyes. “You look so tired, Beckham.” It seemed like it hurt for her to even talk. “How long have you been here?”

“Ian let us know you were here yesterday afternoon. I came as soon as I heard. Not leaving you,” he said with a smile.

“How is Ian?” she asked.

“He’s doing well. In some pain, but Sparrow texted that he’d be discharged soon. They’ve been asking about you every ten minutes. When you see all the texts on my phone, you’ll see how popular you are,” he teased.

He remembered the text from Coco and his smile dropped. He pushed it down. It didn’t matter.

“I’m … so sorry, Roxie. I can’t imagine what a nightmare that was.”

Roxie’s eyes filled and she leaned her head back on the pillow. A tear dropped on her cheek. “Yeah.”

“I need to let your mom know you’re awake. She just went to grab coffee. She hasn’t left your side before now.”

“Has Leo been here?”

“Your dad said he was gonna bring him in a little bit.”

“Good,” she whispered. Her eyes closed and she dozed for a few minutes. She jolted and her eyes were huge when she opened them.

“You’re safe. I’m not letting anyone near you,” he said.

He stood and leaned over her, kissing her hair, the one spot on her that didn’t look hurt.

The nurse came in and thoroughly examined Roxie. Beckham watched in amazement as she didn’t flinch even once. His insides cringed just looking at her bruises. And the broken ribs—she had to be in so much pain.

“The doctor is on his way to see you. He was pleased with the way your night went, but he’ll want to see you now that you’re awake,” the nurse said with a smile.

She looked at the tray of food that Roxie hadn’t touched. “Can you try to eat a little something?”

“I’ll try,” Roxie said.

“Good. Time for meds. Why don’t you try some of that juice?”

After the doctor had been in, Dion arrived. Roxie was taking a nap and Beckham stepped toward the door and held his hand up to keep it quiet. Dion was in full business mode, so much so that Beckham was about to tell him to come back later, when he brought up leaving the hospital.

“Once Roxie is physically out of danger, I think we should get you both out of here. The Sterlings too. We can hire full-time care until Roxie is feeling 100%, but I’m not comfortable with this…”

Beckham got in Dion’s face.

“
They haven’t found Coco
?” Beckham snapped. He tried to clear his head with a shake but just wanted to punch the wall. “What have you guys been
doing
all this time?” He knew that was a bit of a low blow, but he couldn’t seem to rein in his rage.

Dion lowered his head and nodded. “Trust me, I understand your anger. We’re going to find her
and
we’re going to protect you in the meantime. We’ve been questioning Ian on this, since he has more insight on the house and Coco’s state of mind. And I know you’ve needed to concentrate on her. Now that we know she’s going to be okay, we need to talk about the next plan.”

Beckham took a deep breath.

“One of my men took pictures of the scene and I’d like you to go through them. I tried earlier, but you were in no state of mind to look then. Are you up for it now?” Dion asked quietly.

Beckham swallowed and rubbed a hand over his scruffy jaw. “Yes.” He suddenly felt all the energy eke out of him.

Dion held up a folder. “You sure?”

“Yes. I’m sorry for blowing up.”

“No apologies necessary,” Dion said.

He handed the folder to Beckham. The first picture showed a room with photographs on the walls. There were so many it was hard to tell what the pictures were. He flipped to the next one. It was a close-up of one of the walls. He took a step back and dropped some of the pictures. Different shots splayed out on the floor, the charred ones of him with Roxie shocking him the most.

Dion helped him pick up the pictures and handed him one of a bedroom. “Do you recognize anything in these pictures?”

“Other than the pictures of me that I never knew she was taking? No. Some of these are from when I was a
teenager
. Family events … who is this girl?”

He went through dozens of pictures and then reached a photograph of the outside of a house. His blood went cold.

“I recognize this house. I … know who she is.” The truth hit him like a brick. “Oh my God. She’s been watching me for at least half of my lifetime. How is that possible?” He stumbled back and sat down in the chair by Roxie’s bed.