Matter of Choice (22 page)

Chapter Thirty Two

Rick Stockard was waiting in her office when she opened the door. She smiled, laid her things on the desk, and shook his hand before giving him a hug. He smiled, and stared at her eye.

“Did he do that to you?”

She nodded. “It’s okay, Rick. I’m taking care of things. How are you?”

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “Ready to come back, if it’s alright.”

She smiled. “It’s more than alright. I’m glad to have you back. Can you start tomorrow?”

He nodded, face shining brightly. “Mom and Dad filed the suit against Mr. Winters. I thought you’d like to know.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Rick. Tomorrow morning at eight?”

“I’ll be here.”

“See you then.”

She watched him leave, and shadowed his steps to close the office door. Returning to stand before her desk, Shannon picked up the memory stick and stared at it for a moment, considering the waiting computer. Drawing in a deep breath, she circled the desk and stuck the device into the USB slot. An audio track opened up, Greg’s voice filling the office. He sounded breathl
ess, disoriented, and frazzled.

“Lauren, baby. What’s the matter with you? There’s no reason to be pissed off with me. I just pulled out of your driveway. I just hit a man. Don’t know if he’s alive, didn’t go back to see. If anyone a
sks, you never saw me tonight.”

The recording ended with a loud crash, and Shannon slowly hit the replay button three more times. On the final playback, the office door burst opening, Lauren standing
before her with a bloodied lip.

Shannon jumped to her feet. “Lauren? What happened?” Rushing to her side, Shannon wrapped an arm around Lauren’s shoulder and led her to the chair, easing the woman against the
seat, and reached for a tissue.

“Greg’s out in the parking lot. I think he was here to see you, but when he saw me come out of the hotel,” she dabbed the crimson drops, “we argued, and he hit me when he figured out I’d come to talk to you. He’s drunk, and furious –"

“Conspiring against me?”

Shannon and Lauren both spun to face Greg, disheveled with rumpled shirt hanging out of khaki pants. He stepped into the room, calmly closing the door. “Seems my wife and lover are in cahoots to bring me down. Strange pairing, don’t you think? Of course, what else could I expect from a couple tramps.” Greg lurched forward, stumbled and roared with laughter. “Oops, not as graceful after a few drinks. But still tough enough to leave a calling card on your mouth, eh, Lauren? Did you tell your buddy here how we enjoyed a very physical evening last night? Maybe Shannon enjoys hearing of our escapades. A dirty little secret I didn’t know about, wife of mine? Maybe I gave up on
you too soon.”

The audio track
, Shannon’s mind screamed,
turn off the audio track
. She reached backwards to the computer, fingers searching for the power button and instead brushing against the space bar. The recording started, the drunken familiar voice resonating in the confined space. Shannon stabbed at the button, but it was too late. Fury erupted, blanketing Greg’s countenance. Darkness like she’d never seen engulfed him, and for the first time, she was sure it was the real man standing before her.

The anger targeted Lauren as he rushed at her. “You gave that to
her
?” Lauren cowered backward, eyes wide. “What, I wasn’t good enough in the sack? Got news for you, trailer trash, you have no clue on how to please a man.” Veins bulged in his neck and forehead, hands pumping for action.

Lauren crossed her a
rms to guard a frightened face.

“Back away from her Greg. I’m calling 911.” Shannon reached for the receiver, index finger
pounding at the first number.

Greg’s hand shot out and ripped the phone away, flinging it across the floor. “You’re not calling anyone princess. The cops, that boy toy of yours. It’s just you and me, baby. Right after I finish with this trash.”

Eyes wild with fear, Lauren whimpered, “Shannon.”

Greg grabbed a bicep, whipping Lauren around like a rag doll. “Shut up! More, you always want more. More, more, more.” Throwing her to the ground, he dropped to his knees, straddling the smaller woman’s frame. “Now you get more.” Lauren shrieked as he pummeled her face, punch after punch. “More, and more and more.”

Shannon launched at him, wrapping both arms around him, struggling to pull against the heavier weight off the helpless woman beneath him. Greg whipped to the side, arm yanking Shannon off balance. The rocket of his strange reeled back and blasted into her, with full strength, and sent her careening across the room. A table leg jarred the back of her neck, sharp electricity riveting down the spine.

She moaned as instinctive hands wrapped around the source of pain, rolled into a ball, eyes closed. The sparks eased into coolness in Shannon’s back as Lauren screamed. Easing her eyes open, Shannon saw Lauren’s face swollen, bruised black and flowing with ruby liquid. Greg wound for another attack, Shannon screamed at him to stop as she scrambled to her feet.
The office door barreled open.

Triston thundered in, ripped Greg off Lauren. “I’ve been waiting to do this since I met you.” The attack came quicker and harder than any Greg launched. Triston hung to Greg’s collar, pounding sure fists
into his Greg’s face.

His head flopped to the side, unconscious. Triston dropped him to th
e floor and crossed to Shannon.

She’d made it to Lauren’s side, who was breathing but unconscious, face a bl
ooded meat of cuts and bruises.

Hand on her back, Triston stooped next to her. “She’ll be okay. I believe Naomi’s already called 911. Are you okay?”

Shannon tried to nod, but a second conduit of pain barreled down the back, and she collapsed in his lap. “I don’t know Triston. Are you sure she’s okay?”

He stroked her hair as she lay against the floor. “She’s fine, you’ll be fine. Hang on.”

Police and ambulance arrived, took Greg into custody and questioned Triston as the EMTs strapped Lauren and Shannon to backboards. Once he was released, Triston climbed into the ambulance with Shannon, and held her hand as they whisked to the hospital.

*

X-rays and CT scans confirmed Shannon’s spine had not been permanently injured, but the doctor insisted she be held for observation. One night of bed rest, and Shannon didn’t argue. Triston was relieved, he wasn’t as sure he would have been as successful forcing her to rest at the Grande, despite her complaints of a headache threatening to graduate to migraine status and a neck stiff with pain.

And either way, he wasn’t leav
ing her side.

Triston sat next to the hospital bed, holding her hand, listening as she recounted the moments before the attack, disbelief f
ighting the pain for attention.

“The memory stick is back at the office. But I don’t think I’ll have to turn it in. He’s in enough trouble now. The divorce shouldn’t be an issue.”

“You have to take it to the police, Shy.” Triston said, softly rubbing her hand with two fingers. She had been lucky. Lauren suffered a broken cheekbone and jawbone, multiple bruises and lacerations. He shuddered, possibilities running through his thoughts, and thrown out. It didn’t happen, that was good enough. “You said he admits hitting the man?”

She nodded. “Like he didn’t care a bit. Said he didn’t even go back and check on him. Greg could have killed the man and wouldn’t have cared one bit.” She dropped her eyes. “I don’t know the man I’m married to. All those years together, and I have no idea who he is. I don’t care about the divorce. I couldn’t stay with him another day, even if you never came here. But how did I live with a man who faked amnesia and not have a clue he was doing it? Not know he had the propensity for all this?” A hand brushed across the room. “That he could run over a man and not care? What kind of wife am I not to see
my husband?”

Triston leaned down and kissed her forehead. “A good one. The kind who believes in and stands by her husband, ignoring every instinct telling her something is off. You’re loyal, devoted, and amazin
g. None of this is your fault.”

“No, it’s not my fault. But if
I had been paying attention –"

“There still wouldn’t have been anything yo
u could have done differently.”

She sighed. “Maybe not. I guess it’s too late for that now anyway. Now, simply by turning this over to the police, I’ll be putting him in jail, as well as Lauren. That’s not an easy thing to do.” Another sigh. “And if I’d filed that restraining order with the black eye … I never did. It would have stopped him.”

“No, it wouldn’t. And the punishment’s too light, if you ask me,” he smirked. Way too light.

Shannon smiled ruefully. “Maybe.” She shifted her we
ight against the hospital bed.

“And a part of you hurts to do this, even though it’s doing what’s right. That man Greg paralyzed deserves justice, and peace of mind that the person who did this to him won’t be able to do it to someone else.”

She blinked, and turned away.

He rubbed her shoulders. “See? I told you you’re too good. You should be hungry for vengeance.”

She attempted a giggle, groaned against the effort. “Revenge does have its flavor of sweetness, but this is a bit steep in the get even department.”

Triston leaned down, brushing his lips against hers, pained to see the suffering she’d endured. Mental, emotional, now physical. All in the past now. She’d be safe from now on. “Whatever happens, Shy, whether you keep the hotel, or we live here along the Hudson, or go back to Wisconsin, I’m not letting you go again. I’m going to marry you, I’m going to make babies with you, I
’m going to grow old with you.”

Thoughts of lying next to him the night lightened her head and eased some of the pain, better than the morphine drip in her arm. Endless nights next to one another, holding one another, making love, and sharing life’s ups and downs. The dream was intoxicating. “Is that a promise?”

“Honey, that’s a guarantee.” He pressed his lips against hers, tongue brushing past her lips she parted to allow him passage.

Triston lifted inches from her lips, and she whispered, “Shouldn’t be making out in the hospital room.”

He stood with a smile. “Does that mean you’ll have me? I won you back?”

She nodded. “You shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have allowed half of what’s happened between us until after I was divorced. But I’m yours, Triston. Let me just finish what I have to do, and I will show you just how much.”

“I can’t wait.” He brushed the hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I love you, Shannon. I’ve always loved you. I’m so sorry for how I hurt you all those years ago. I never should have let you go.”

“I shouldn’t have been so mad at you. We were young, making a commitment at that age …” Her voice trailed off. “The past is in the past, and you don’t have to apologize ever again.” She lifted his hand to her lips for a soft fluttering kiss. “Thank you for coming back for me.”

“Baby, I would have chased you to the end of the earth.” He smiled. “Now, let’s call the police.”

Shannon nodded, waited as he handed her the phone.

Chapter Thirty Three

One year later

Shannon and Triston stood in the center of the hotel room. He arrived from handing over managerial rights to his Vice President, Jenn. Most of his belongings had already been relocated to a quiet little home not far from where the Stockards lived, and though he lived alone for the past eight months, Shannon planned on moving in the following weekend. A modest, two-story colonial with three bedrooms and a bath and a half. Simplifying things was working well, and for the first time in more than three years, she could breathe freely. It was a good feeling.

Now she held her divorce papers in the air, the winning raffle tickets to a new life. “It’s over. It’s official, and it’s over.”

The smile and eyes lighting like the sun spoke all she needed to hear, better than any words Triston could have said. All she had been looking for in a life was standing before her with this man she’d known for what felt like a lifetime. Promises not made off the cuff or in passing thought were solidified in space between them as he looked at her.

Triston’s arms wrapped around her neck. “Are you okay? I imagine it was hard to see him in that orange jumpsuit.”

She nodded. She had driven out to the prison earlier, though she knew Triston hadn’t agreed with the decision. But regardless of all Greg had done, she’d needed the closure seeing him provided. The rich-boy-I-own-the-world mentality was gone, and Greg was nothing but a broken man with a face that had aged decades in a mere sixty days. He still had four and half years left on his sentence, although Shannon was confident he’d get out early for good behavior. She hoped Greg’d get his life together, and move on to something better. Somewhere far from her.

They said goodbye, he wished her the best an
d apologized for the stupidity.

There was nothing Shannon could s
ay to that. It was simply over.

She nodded, but smiled. “It was hard. Seeing him like that, it wasn’t anything I ever expected to happen. But he was fortunate, the judge gave him five years, he’ll be out in two or three for good behavior.”

“And you get to keep the Grande.”

She smiled and nodded again. “The house is for sale, our cars, everything. But I get to keep the hotel, and that means the world to me. I wouldn’t want those other things, anyway. That was my life with him, and that’s over. I don’t need any reminders.” She wrapped her fingers in the tips of his hair. “How’s the new office coming along? Things back in Wisconsin okay?”

“Jenn is handling it like the pro she is. And after the success with the company where Veronica worked, other New York offices are clamoring for contractual information. Keyes Associates should have expanded a long time ago.” He kissed the tip of her nose and smiled. “I remember a promise you made to me not that long ago, about showing me how much mine you really are.”

She laughed and smiled coyly. “You remember that, do you?” She looked around the hotel room. “Well, we are alone.” She held up the ring finger. “And I’m no longer married.”

“Does that mean I finally get to have my way with you?”

“I think it means something like that.”

Triston scooped her up in his arms and their lips met as he walked towards the bedroom, closing the door behind them.