“Shit.” I hang up the office phone and run to the car.
It only takes twenty-five to thirty minutes to get here; less if he was at the hospital. I’m mad at everyone. The couple making me come in, Emma for telling me late, myself for not insisting we go to my parents’ house last night, and Wes for being a despicable waste of human life.
Every time Celeste’s phone rolls over to voicemail my heart drops farther. She’s supposed to be safe in my building, but if he was able to get pictures, there must be a loophole somewhere.
Emma video calls me when I try to get to the cameras. “What!”
“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
I’m driving like a demon on a mission and not looking at the screen. “I’m trying to get to Celeste. I don’t have time for this right now.”
“I didn’t know he’d go this far. I would’ve never said anything.”
I hit a red light. “YOU told Wes about us after I told you not to talk to ANYONE about it?”
“I didn’t know—”
“IT WASN’T YOUR BUSINESS! I swear, if you think my indifference hurts, see what happens if anything happens to my wife or child.”
“Wife?” The words fall out of her like the wind was knocked out of her. I glance at the screen then double-take at the dark bruise over the right side of her face.
I don’t have to ask to know what happened to her. Even with getting a taste of the hell Celeste endured, Emma still doesn’t give a damn about her or the situation her meddling placed her in. All she cares about is me not getting hurt.
“Yes, you’ve released the same monster you just met on my pregnant wife, and you don’t care. That’s the part that hurts most. You act like you care about me, but don’t get that hurting her, hurts me! I’ll never love or forgive you. You should have left me alone when I asked.”
I end the call when the light changes. Celeste’s phone rolls to voicemail again. I do the next best thing.
“Yeah?” Brett answers.
“Wes found her! I’m doing my best to make it before he doe—”
I’m interrupted when the alarm on my security app goes off.
Fuck.
* * *
Celeste
I hum happily in nothing but my robe as I prepare dinner for Beau. We did some light packing, and he should be home in a few hours to move to the mansion. The light bounces off my ring as I stir the gumbo. Stopping, I smile big as I stare at Beau’s surprise.
When I asked him why he didn’t go to work in the morning like I’d expected, he just smiled at me and said he was waiting for something special. A little over an hour later, Danny knocked on the door to deliver a package. Beau accepted it with a tip then ripped it open with the excitement of a kid at Christmas. I smiled as he did while trying to imagine how he looked as a boy. I’ll get his mom to show me some pictures. My body pinged with love as I tried to picture our boy. Will he look like Beau or me? Maybe both…
“What are you thinking about?” he asked although he was smiling with me.
“Our son and what you looked like as a child,” I answer honestly.
“I think about him all the time as well,” he admits. “But first, I have something for you, Wife.”
He opened the box and a platinum ring with a round, blue diamond was nestled inside. My mouth fell open. It was so beautiful. Gently I picked it up to notice the band is a mermaid with her head and tail arced to hold the diamond.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Your real wedding ring, for my gift from the ocean.”
I snap out of the memory because the chill of uneasiness washes over me. To my dismay, I realize my phone is on the charger in the bedroom. Hoping I’m being paranoid, I take a deep, cleansing breath, but it’s no use. There’s only one person who makes me feel physically ill.
“Hello, Celeste,” Wes taunts from behind me.
