Manage Me (Toven's Circus #1) (31 page)

“Fuckers are arresting Nell for shooting Emily!” Ryker yells.

I release a roar and charge towards the open door only making it to the frame before I am grabbed from behind. I can see Nell, arms behind her back in cuffs, her face turned towards me pleading in her tear filled eyes. I fight the men that hold me, breaking away, and making it to her.

“Sir, we cannot let you…” they start but I cut them off.

“Just give me a fucking minute please.” The detective nods, but doesn’t let her arm go.

“Jaden, I didn’t do this, I would never.” Nell cries, huge tears rolling down her face. I wrap my big hands around her cheeks catching them.

“I know, Beauty, I know and I’ll get you out of this. I love you. I am so sorry for all this shit. I love you, Nell.” I whisper to her taking her trembling lips with mine.

“Okay, Lovebirds, time to go.” The officer says tugging her out of my arms. I stand watching her be dragged away from me. I drop to my knees when she disappears around the corner, my head in my hands, I can’t stop the tears from escaping. My woman and my possible child ripped from me is a matter of seconds.

“Mr. James we need to continue our discussion with you,” Comes Kitchen’s voice and I lose it.

Jumping to my feet I spin around, grabbing the lapels of his shirt and cocking my fist back but just as I am letting it fly, I’m grabbed roughly from behind. I’m throw to the ground, a knee grinding into my back, as my own hands are cuffed while my face is mashed down into the cold linoleum floor.

“Mr. James, I don’t want to arrest you, too, but if you don’t calm down, I will.” Says Madden, crouching down beside me. “We just want to talk to you and find out somethings.”

“You arrested the woman I love on attempted murder charges and you want me to fucking calm down?” I spit out at him.

“You want to help her don’t you?” He asks but doesn’t wait for a response. “You’ll need to talk to us in order to do so.”

I lay there in fuming silence, going over what he just said. I look over at Ashton, who’s on the floor at the feet of an officer, ten feet from me. Her face is in complete anguish while she sits quietly watching me. Ryker and Finn stand behind her, a protective wall but they too watch me with misery written across their faces. 

Nodding my head, Madden jerks his head, and an officer comes over to remove the cuffs and help me up. My insides are still raging, but I need to keep it together, I need to do whatever I can to help Nell. Madden gestures to the room we were in and I go back inside, taking my seat, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Tell us everything you did today.” Kitchen says.

And I sit for what feels like hours telling them everything we did since arriving in Vegas. Everything, over and over again. Only coming to a cluster fuck when I hit the end of the acoustic set, when Nell left the stage by herself, but I tell them the truth, I tell them about after the show. That Nell would have been in the suite for a while. I try asking questions but they either ignore them or say they cannot answer them at this time.

“Okay, Mr. James, I think we have everything for now. If you think of anything else, please call.” Kitchens’ says as he hands me his card.

“Can I see Nell?” I ask.

“No, Mr. James, not right now. We will be talking to her soon but she is currently not allowed any visitors.”

“She didn’t do this. She isn’t stupid either, she wouldn’t have just left her there so she would get caught.” I state matter-of-factly.

“That’s a theory we haven’t ruled out. Rarely is a crime of passion so simple.” Madden says giving me some hope that they aren’t as stupid as I feared they might be. 

They ask to see Ashton next and over the next several hours, they work their way through everyone else. After 10 hours, they have cleared out and the doctor makes his way out to talk to us.

“Mr. James?” He asks. He wears clean green scrubs and a white coat over the top. He looks to be in his late fifties, his hair having gone grey early but his skin faring well against the desert sun.

“Yeah that’s me, how is she? How is the baby?” I blurt and make me way up to him. He worries his hands and steps to the side gesturing to the room, we used to talk to the police.

“May we talk in private, Mr. James?”

“Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of all of them.” I say firmly.

“Um, yes, uh, but I thought we might want to talk in a more private location than the hallway, as the information I have discovered is sensitive.” He says, his voice hushed.

“Uh, yeah…come guys.” I says and lead everyone into the small room. Once we are all inside and seated, we look to the doctor.

“Miss. Snow is doing well. She lost a lot of blood but we were able to do a transfusion and get her regulated back to normal. Her wound was damaging but by some miracle, no major organs or arteries were cut or even nicked, so we were able to stitch her up. Now, as long as no infection takes hold, she should be out of here in a couple days. We have given her something for the pain and she is sleeping but she should be awake by the morning.”

“That’s good to hear. Hopefully, she will be able to remember who attacked her and we can get Nell out.” I say relief flooding into me.

“Mr. James, how far along was Miss. Snow’s pregnancy?” He asks and I am completely confused as to why he is asking. I pull out my phone and scroll back through the text messages, before holding it out to him.

“This is the photo of the sonogram she sent me, it says here she is 16 weeks. What does that have anything to do with anything?” I ask.

“Mr. James, at 16 weeks the fetus would be about the size of an avocado. A size that is pretty big to miss. While I was stitching Miss. Snow up, there was no fetus to be found nor was there any other signs that she was pregnant.” He says glumly and it’s like a bucket of ice water was just dumped on me.

“You have to be fucking kidding…” whispers Ryker from besides me and I just sit there staring down at me hands.

“I’m afraid not, Miss. Snow was not pregnant in the last 16 weeks.” He states again and I honestly have no idea what to be feeling at this moment. Part of me is stoked that I dodged that bullet but on the other hand, What the Actual Fuck!? I sit in stunned silence, absently thanking the doctor as he leaves but zoning out when the room around me erupts into anger and chaos.

******************************************

Nell

I sit in my cell by myself on a paper thin mattress cot going over the last day, trying to make sense of everything. During the interrogation they informed me Emily had awoken while on the operating table at one point and said my name. What? Frankly, I am not convinced it’s true. It seems too convenient and I think they were trying to get me to confess to something I didn’t do, so they could just tie it up and go home.

But I didn’t do anything, I would never hurt someone, no matter how big of a cunty- bitch they are. I won the guy, Jaden is mine. She might be having his kid but that isn’t reason enough to hurt her, if anything that was even more of a deterrent. One, because the baby wasn’t at fault here. He didn’t have a choice in who his asshole mother was and two, because of Jaden. That baby might be a part of him, and despite also being a part of her, I would love the child because it was his.

I’m scared though, I’m scared Emily is trying to set me up and I don’t have any alibi to cover my ass. I was in the room by myself for around forty-five minutes before Jaden got there. I’m not a cop, but I get that doesn’t look great for me. I shake my head to clear it, I have to believe that I will be found innocent despite Emily’s apparent lies. Karma cannot possibly hate me, as much as it hates her. 

The sound of a jingling keys startles me awake. I must have passed out sometime during my mental tirade. Sitting up, I rub the sleep from my eyes as Detective Madden and Kitchen’s make their way into the cell both taking a seat on the cot across from my own.

“Miss. Craven, we wanted to let you know that Miss. Snow is going to be fine. She has been stitched up and should be waking up anytime. We wanted to give you one more opportunity to talk to us before going down to talk to her.” Says Madden in a detected tone, like he could care less that Emily is going to be okay.

“Oh good, I am glad that she is going to be okay. What about the baby, is he okay, did he make it?” I ask true concern lacing my voice.

The two men glance at one another, before Kitchen’s says, “Miss. Craven, when were you told about Emily’s pregnancy?”

“Jaden told me last week when we were in Seattle. It was within the first couple days of our relationship.”

“Were you angry? Jealous that he had gotten another woman pregnant?”

“I was shocked and disappointed. I wasn’t angry because it happened before we’d even met and we don’t even know if the baby is his or not. As for being jealous, no, I was disappointed because we’d only just started seeing each other. Jaden made it very apparent that Emily and him had never been anything more than a weekend hook-up and what he wanted with me what much more. I had no reason to be jealous of Emily.”

“Miss. Snow joined the tour with you all in George, Washington, correct? Did Miss. Snow and you ever have a private conversation or arguments about her being there or her pregnancy?” Madden asks.

“No, I went out of my way to avoid Emily. I never had any private conversations or arguments with her about anything.”

“Miss. Craven, when we talked to the doctor about Miss. Snow’s condition, he informed us that, during surgery he was unable to find a fetus or any other signs that she was pregnant.”

“What do you mean? She sent Jaden a sonogram photo and a video where the doctor pointed out the heartbeat. Are you saying that she made it up?”

“We are looking into the photo and the video that she sent Jaden, but it wouldn’t be hard for her to get them online.” Madden says, my mind reeling. “Have you ever met a, Juan Sanchez, Miss. Craven?” He asks, abruptly changing the subject and making me feel confused.

“I don’t believe so. Should I?” I finally respond, racking my brain trying to place the name but coming up blank.

“He is someone who has come up in the investigation.”

“Oh, I don’t think I can help you.” I say softly feeling dejected. “She’s really not pregnant? I don’t understand why someone would lie about something like that.” I ask rhetorically, I get she was attempting to trap Jaden. What I don’t understand is, why someone would stoop to such a level to trap someone that doesn’t want them.

“Passion makes people do crazy things.” Kitchen’s says as they both stand. “Sit tight.” He says and they both leave the cell. Leaving me to think over everything they just told me.

******************************************

I fall back to sleep shortly after the detectives leave, my body reaching the end of its bullshit resistance and just wanting to shut down. Once again the jingling of the key wakes me, I lay snuggled on the cot underneath the scratchy wool blanket that they gave me and hope they aren’t coming to badger me with more questions.

“Come on Princess, you’ve made bail.” Comes Jaden’s happy voice. I fling back the blanket and launch myself into his waiting arms, instantly breaking into the hysterical sobs I’d been holding in.”Shhhh, Beauty, its okay now, I’ve got you.” He says wrapping his arms around me, his spicy scent a welcome invasion to my senses. I don’t know how long I cry for but Jaden never lets me go, he holds on tight, gently rocking from side to side.

“How are you here?” I ask pulling my head back to look up at him.

“Jack over there is a fan and I promised him tickets next time we’re in town.” He grins at me while brushing tears away with his thumbs.

“No, how are you here? I am in jail for attempted murder, I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to get visitors. We don’t need you in trouble, too.” I worry.