Just A Woman (The Porter Trilogy Book 2) (21 page)

Wishful thinking, I guess.

I will tell you what though, I’d take a life filled with drama as long as Alex was in it. Being alone is not an option at this point for me, and sure, maybe the next revelation may change my mind, but I’m done trying to make it work. It IS going to work between us. I’ve got my secrets too, and one day soon we will both share them. Until that time, I will nurse him back to mental health as best as I can with the limited information I have.

Maybe I could talk to Rachel? I mean, technically, he said that she saved him from his past, maybe she can clue me in on what to do to help? I guess that might not be a good idea either, but I am at a loss. I’ve never seen Alex so vulnerable. He is always so in charge and in control. Sometimes, I don’t even believe Alex has a softer side.

I know that’s not true, especially after this evening.

If I could insert a gigantic audible sigh right now, I would, but you guys wouldn’t hear it anyway.

I don’t know what the plan is, after tonight. I don’t know if he will be going back to California or staying here with me, and if I’m being honest with myself, I want him to stay. I need him to stay. I need the support he offers me.

I guess we will see what happens when he wakes up. But for now, I need to get some sleep. As I said before, it has been an emotionally and physically draining day. Alex told me he loved me multiple times today, I didn’t say it back, and he probably thought I was sleeping, but I heard him. I love him too, and I always will. He’s given me the greatest gift, and I know I’ll love him until my dying breath.

Alex

Sitting in that hospital waiting room was pure torture. The machines whirring and beeping, the silence of people walking by, sadness gracing their features, and nurses, who are overworked and overtired, patrolling the halls. It was only seven in the morning in California, so most of my employees were either still getting ready for work or just leaving to get to the office. I’d already checked and dealt with all of the important emails Brigitte had flagged for me and I was starting to get restless.

Charlotte was in the room with her mom, and even though she had already said I was welcome to join them, I wasn’t fully comfortable with sitting in the room with a woman I barely knew, and another woman who I loved with all of my heart, but who wouldn’t say it back. Thinking of Charlotte, though, prompted me to pull my phone back out and check her blog.

Sure enough, there for the world to see, was another piece of Charlotte’s capable writing. I cringed at first. She wanted to go to Rachel and ask questions. I knew Rachel wouldn’t spill anything to her, but I was worried none the less. I wanted to be the one to tell her everything that has happened in my life, but she was determined to make me spill sooner than I was ready.

At the loss of control I felt, I almost contemplated going into her mom’s room to tell her what I thought about it, but I wasn’t quite ready to blow my cover yet. I enjoyed her writing, even when she was talking bad about yours truly. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten, I completed her post, smiling at the end.

She did love me. Even though I knew it was true, seeing her words made it more real, and seeing that she thought my love was a gift, made my heart soar. The fact that she thought I was going to leave her here to fend for her upset me a little. I was never leaving her side. Ever. I was here to stay for the long haul.

Lizzie was doing much better than most people in her predicament, so I didn’t anticipate her letting Charlotte stay for much longer. Elizabeth Hightower loved her daughter and wouldn’t want her staying at her bedside. If I had learned anything in the brief moment I had known her, I could confidently say she would be sending Charlotte away much sooner than her daughter would like, and I would be there to make sure she got on that plane and back to her regularly scheduled life.

I also knew that Lizzie would never ask for help, and the hospital bills alone would put a huge burden on her, and in turn, Charlotte, and
that
I could not live with. With a mental nod, I stood and approached the nurse’s station. A woman in her late thirties, wearing purple scrubs and donning a name tag stating her name was Jaime, looked up from her computer and smiled, “Can I help you sir?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you. Who do I need to speak with in order to pay for hospital bills?” I asked, clearly registering the look of shock on her face.

“The billing department is on the first floor, next to the entrance. Talk to a woman named Melissa, and she’ll take care of you,” she responded, pointing out the elevators to me.

“Thank you.”

After poking my head in and letting the girls know I was heading down to the cafeteria, I made my way to the ground floor per Nurse Jaime’s directions. As she stated, I found a sign pointing to a small corner of the hospital marked ‘Billing’. After locating Melissa, I sat down in front of her and pulled out my wallet.

“How can I help you today, Mr.?” she asked.

“Porter. Alex Porter.”

“Excellent, how can I help you, Mr. Porter?”

“I need to take care of the bill for a current patient and leave my information on file for any future bills, inpatient or follow-up,” I answered.

“And the patient’s name?” she asked.

“Elizabeth Hightower.”

I watched as she typed in the name into the computer and waited for the results.

“And your relation to Ms. Hightower?” she asked, skepticism clearly lacing her tone.

“She is my soon to be mother-in-law,” I ground out. I shouldn't have been angry at the intrusion, but I was. This woman didn’t need to know who I was, she just needed to take my money. I knew it wasn’t her, it was hospital policy, but I couldn’t help the situation getting under my skin.

“I understand HIPAA laws prevent you from telling me much information, and I’m ok with that, I’d just like to make sure that her bills are paid and she is free and clear from any debt resulting from her accident,” I said more calmly, making sure to stay away from her bad side.

“Alright,” she said, as I blew out a puff of air. “How would you like to pay for this?”

Handing her my black American Express work card, I waited as she ran the numbers before handing it back.

“If I can ask you one more thing, Melissa? I would prefer this payment be kept anonymous. The Hightowers are proud women and I wouldn’t want to offend either her or her daughter.”

“I can mark this as anonymous, Mr. Porter, but if either of them do any real digging, hospital policy dictates they can request to find out who paid for the bill,” she retorted.

Nodding my head at her, I signed the paper pushed in front of me and then stood up. “Thank you, Melissa,” I said, before marching back to the elevators. If I knew anything about Charlotte, she wouldn’t let it go, she would dig to find out the mysterious anonymous donor that paid for her mom’s hospital bills. My only hope was that neither her, nor Lizzie, thought about it with the hubbub of the accident itself.

Walking off the elevator on Lizzie’s floor, I noticed Bracks in the waiting room, clearly here for me.

“Bracks?” I asked.

“Porter, I know you didn’t ask my opinion, but this has been on my mind since we found out, and I thought I would run it past you.”
“Shoot,” I said. I valued Bracks’ opinions, not only as my bodyguard, but as my friend.

“Although the mugging seemed coincidental, what if it wasn’t? The cops believe it was a simple robbery attempt, but a beating that bad is personal, and they didn’t even take her watch, which I happen to know is pretty pricey. I don’t know, something feels off about this.”

He was right. Something was off about the entire situation, and I had been too clouded in lust to even work together this piece of info. What a fucking idiot. How can I take care of Charlotte when I can’t even figure out something as simple as this?

“I also took the liberty of going through local surveillance footage from around the area to see if I could find anything, just don’t ask how I tapped into the feeds. It wasn’t strictly legal. The bank across the street’s ATM caught all we needed,” Bracks stated.

“When was the last time you had a raise, Bracks?” I asked sincerely.

“Just doing my job, sir,” he responded, clearly uncomfortable with the indirect compliment.

“So, what did you find?” I eagerly asked.

“It appeared to be a male attacker, but his face was covered pretty well. I would say he was about five foot eleven, one hundred and sixty pounds. He didn’t have a weapon on him either. He caught her from behind and hit her in the back of the head, bringing her down, where he then proceeded to kick and punch at her, and what makes me believe this wasn’t just a mugging, was the after. He walked about fifteen feet away, before he jogged back, grabbed her purse, and then ran away. If he was just after her money, he wouldn’t have beaten her so severely or forgotten his bounty at the end.”

“You’re right, Bracks,” I commented, deep in thought.

“I also copied the footage to a flash drive and deleted it from the database at the bank. If this is something you would like to take care of on your own, Mr. Porter, we don’t need authorities getting their hands on this.”

Slapping Bracks on the back, I thanked him again for doing everything I should have done myself, or at least thought of, but I couldn’t dwell on that, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about this new information. Sitting down in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs, I placed my head in my hands and thought about our predicament. I needed to figure out who was behind the attacks. I had a pretty good guess, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. There had been no word, or sight, of Robert since Charlotte’s kidnapping in New York. Bracks had been trying to locate him since he jumped out of the window.

“Alex? What’s wrong?” Charlotte’s beautiful voice asked from above me.

I knew I couldn’t keep this from her. No matter how many times she said in the blog she was in for the long haul, I couldn’t risk hurting her again with my omission.

“Why don’t you sit down, Charlotte,” I suggested, grabbing her arm and tugging her down next to me. I wanted to be as close to her as I could, in case she broke down.

“I need to apologize, because I should have told you sooner, and now it seems like it’s coming back to bite me. Bracks and I found evidence that the brakes on your father’s car had been tampered with, which is what caused the accident,” I said, pausing to give Charlotte time to process the news.

After a few moments, she looked back up at me and whispered, “Go on.”

“We also believe the attack on your mother wasn’t random, but was purposely done. The attacker grabbed her purse as an afterthought. I’m so sorry, Charlotte.”

Grabbing her tight, I pulled her into my chest as the tears started. I knew she was going to take it hard, which is why I never wanted to tell her. But, I wasn’t about to lose her because I didn’t speak up. I pulled her onto my lap and rocked her back and forth as she let out all the hurt and the rage she must have been feeling. I knew she was blaming herself for both her parents’ accidents. She felt responsible because her past was now haunting her present. I wanted to protect her, but how could I protect her from her own mind?

After a few minutes, the sobbing racking her body ceased, and Charlotte looked up at me. “Thank you for telling me, Alex,” she muttered.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this, Charlotte. Please don’t blame yourself. What’s happening isn’t your fault, and you didn’t ask for this. You weren’t to blame for what happened all those years ago, and you aren’t to blame for what is happening now. I will keep you safe, and I’ll do whatever needs to be done to keep your mother safe.”

Tipping her chin up to look me in the eyes, I made my intentions clear as I slowly made my way to her lips. Her eyes left mine for just a moment as she looked at my own mouth, recognizing what was happening, before she searched out my eyes again. “Thank you, Alex,” she said, right before my mouth found hers in a soft, gentle caress. It was unhurried and compassionate all at the same time, and even though we weren’t attacking each other, as was our normal way of proceeding, it was completely sensual, my cock twitching below.

Pulling away gently, I placed my forehead to hers and planted a small kiss to the tip of her nose. “Come to dinner with me tonight?” I asked. “Let’s have a normal night out and not think about all of this,” I said, with a wave of my hands around the hospital.

“Ok,” she acquiesced quickly, kissing my nose in the same gesture.

When she smiled at me, I couldn’t help the grin that overtook my own face, only faltering when Charlotte shifted in my lap, her ass grinding against my now fully hard erection. My smile came back full force when she giggled and whispered ‘sorry’, before jumping off my lap to tell her mom of the dinner plans.

Crossing my legs to cover my apparent arousal, I waited for her to emerge, so I could take her away from this sterile hell and place her into my dirty heaven.

Alex

It was only around four pm when Charlotte and I made it back to the hotel. The sexual charge in the car was too much to deny and, by the time we entered the suite, neither of us could keep our hands off of each other. I felt a little guilty that we didn’t even make it to the bedroom before I was inside her, but she didn’t seem to mind. Pushing her against the wall, my lips locked with hers. She unbuckled my belt, released my raging hard on and, in one swift move, she had impaled herself on top of me before I could suggest a softer location than the side of the wall.

Taking her lead, I started a punishing rhythm with her legs wrapped around me, driving into her with a need I couldn’t quite name, but didn’t care one way or the other. I couldn’t get enough of her and I told her so, over and over again, as I slammed inside of her. When she finally screamed out her release, I let go of my own, spurting my seed deep inside her while my legs threatened to give out below me.