BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Five Read online

  Yet, I already knew it—especially as soon as I saw his face change from normal angry to an enraged angry, with a lobster-colored face and bursting veins. “Are you seriously going to believe this crazy woman?” He laughed in a horrific cackle—one that sounded almost psychotic.

  “Explain why I don’t have cancer, Joe,” Derek said, his eyes unmoving from the man.

  However, Joey looked at me, breathing heavily, glaring.

  “Don’t look at her!” Derek shouted. “Look at me!”

  “I don’t need to look at you, little brother,” Joey whispered in the most terrifying voice I had ever heard. He sounded like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings!

  “You’re dying, Derek. If some idiot doctor is telling you that you’re not, then they don’t need to be your doctor.” He was speaking, but it wasn’t normal speech. It was different. And his face was scrunched, eyes narrowed. He looked possessed as he spoke, and his words didn't seem quite directed at anyone. “I just don’t like to sugar coat it, Derek,” he continued, his voice finally going back to normal.

  I looked on, hardly blinking, not believing what I was witnessing.

  I wanted to be wrong, but I knew more than ever that I wasn't when I saw his craziness creep out from the shadows and rear its really ugly head.

  “He’s only dying because you’re making him die by pumping poison into his veins!” I defended, launching my body upwards in a fit of equal rage to his before.

  “Shut the fuck up!” he bellowed, slinging his arms in front of his body in chaotic rage.

  “I won’t! I know what you did!” I wasn’t backing down. I couldn’t. I moved closer to Derek, standing almost between the bed and Joey, as if I was protecting him.

  “Oh yeah?” he cackled. “Good luck proving that crazy accusation! If he doesn’t have cancer, the best you have is a misdiagnosis!” I could tell by the way he said “misdiagnosis” that he was still trying to sound like he was innocent in all of it. However, I knew that he wasn’t. I knew that he was a psycho. I knew that something was going on.

  “I don’t need luck!”

  “Well, country bitch, you can’t prove it,” he sneered.

  “I can prove it,” I said again. I could.

  He laughed for a moment, clearly underestimating me, but all I did was smirk in response.

  “Well, Doc,” I began, “Derek confirmed his appointment with you for this afternoon, correct?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” he snapped, as if he was so incredibly sick of hearing me speak. However, we had that much in common; I was sick of hearing me speak to the likes of him; and I was even sicker of him. “He missed that appointment!”

  I smiled. “And when you noticed he was missing his appointment, you called his office, right?” His eyes contorted in confusion. “Well, you called his office. Do you remember the name of the gentleman you spoke with on the phone?”

  I smiled, knowing that I had him, knowing that he had fallen in my trap.

  I circled him, a cocky smile plastered all over my face.

  “Frank. Why?”

  I laughed. “Joey, Joey, Joey. Didn’t you know that Frank was fired?”

  “Well, then I don’t know who I spoke with; I thought he said Frank!” he shot. “What does this have to do with anything?”

  I continued to circle him, explaining what I deemed to be probably the most brilliant thing I had ever done in my life.

  Derek stared at me, his eyes darting all around, still too weak to properly hold his head up to view what was going on.

  “Well, if you had paid any attention, Frank would have sounded a lot like a certain friend of ours.” I almost laughed. “He goes by the name of Fredrick.”

  Dr. Freeman was silent.

  “Well, Fredrick pretended to be Frank and told you that Derek was in this hospital…in this room.” I moved to stand just in front of him, so that I could continue explaining how and why he was caught. “So here you come, like a bat out of hell, completely forgetting that you had already prepared your room for Derek, that you had already prepped all of his treatments.”

  “You set me up?” he asked, just under his breath, in a hushed whisper. I could tell that he was in shock, in utter disbelief. However, there was also a part of him thought he might still be able to pull it off, that he would be found to be innocent after all.

  “And right about now, there are a whole slew of police officers investigating you—especially after our doctor friends reported you to the board. Right about now, they’re finding all that rat poison you put in the IVs you were to administer to Derek.” I grew colder with every word, angrier, more heated. “Am I right, Doctor Freeman?”

  He stood there, completely silent for a moment, and I felt the need to continue.

  “And I didn’t set you up. I just knew your move before you did.” I could see his veins as they jutted out from his flesh and pulsated with adrenaline, an adrenaline that likely caused his body to lunge over to me and slap me with a ferocious blast.

  Derek screamed out and tried to move, but his body wouldn’t let him.

  He was struggling—not only to move his body, but to even so much as lift his head.

  Joey’s arms wrapped tightly around me and pulled me away from the hospital bed and towards the wall—violently. He was squeezing me hard, gripping me tighter than I had ever been gripped. I felt like I was in a vice.

  Was this seriously happening?

  I sucked in a deep breath and looked at the door. Where the hell was security in this son of a bitch? How could he be making this much ruckus and no one have heard? “You seriously need to just shut your fucking mouth.”

  My nostrils flared and blood boiled; I wanted to seriously stab him straight in the face.

  “You’re always talking, always sticking your nose in areas it doesn’t belong.” His words were malicious and so evil that it caused goosebumps along my flesh.

  “Hey, Zoe, Laura told me to bring you some lunch…” a male voice sounded loudly as he rounded the corner.

  I knew it was Stephen.

  I knew it before I could even see who it was.

  “W-what the fuck?” he said, turning the corner. His eyes widened, and he knew almost immediately that something was wrong. I mean, I would have hoped so. I was being held—against my will. And all I had to do was grunt under Joey’s restraint.

  “Get away from her, you asshole!” Stephen screamed, as he threw the glass Tupperware container to the floor, his muscles rippling with adrenaline.

  He seethed in anger, as he watched the man hold me threateningly.

  “Come and make me get away from her,” Joey replied, smiling maniacally.

  Stephen clenched his jaw. ”Let her go,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “I’m warning you.”

  But he apparently hadn’t intimidated Dr. Freeman as much as he had intimidated me because he laughed in response, still holding me tightly

  “What are you going to do about it?” he sneered, just before maneuvering in a way that allowed him to pop me in the face.

  I could literally see Stephen’s anger heighten as soon as he hit me because his nostrils flared like a bull and he stampeded towards us.

  I couldn’t even really recall what happened after that point until I found myself sitting on the bed beside an unconscious Derek. The men struggled between the other’s grasp and banged and clanked into literally everything in the room until Stephen grabbed Joey’s arm and turned it so that it was twisted behind his back. Stephen, now behind him, held Joey’s arm in a position that looked like he could have broken his arm then and there, but he didn’t.

  And I wondered why he didn’t.

  Instead Stephen kicked him in the back, knocking him to the ground face first.

  I wondered where he had learned the moves, but thought, given his size and level of activity that he had likely taken some sort of martial arts or something. I didn’t figure it was a good time to ask, considering it was like a damn action movie
unraveling before my very eyes.

  I could do nothing but stand there, frozen, in the corner, guarded up beside Derek’s bed. I watched as Stephen stepped in front of Joey once again, so that he was between us and him. It was like he was trying to defend us, even though Joey was clearly un-moving on the floor below.

  But it wasn’t long that he was un-moving. Not nearly long enough…

  Just as Stephen poked his head out over the threshold to call for help, he was back up.

  He lunged forward in an attempt to tackle Steven to the ground, but instead was met with none other than Stephen’s large, steel fist, clear in his face.

  Blood spurted out and flew across the room, landing on the white floors and walls. Suddenly, Joey fell to his knees in what appeared to be defeat.

  “That company should fucking be mine!!!” he bellowed from the ground. “It’s my company!” he screamed out once again. “You said you’d sign it over to me!”

  Well, hell, I didn’t know that little tidbit of information. Once again, another way Derek wanted to throw me for a loop.

  “You stole the ideas I had and made them like they were your own and you were the genius!” Joey started towards Derek, seething rage and disdain evident in his eyes.

  “You couldn’t make anything work!” Derek retorted, half conscious, and immediately I cringed. Why was he egging him on?! Why he was provoking?! Especially considering Joey was insane and he was half-way unconscious.

  “I could never do anything right when it came to you!” he screamed. “You were always the favorite!”

  He made his way to his feet, his stance aimed towards a weak Derek.

  “Oh, boo-hoo!” Stephen yelled out. “Nobody loves me!”

  He was mocking him. And I knew why. He wanted to keep him away from Derek. He wanted to keep Derek safe.

  And it worked.

  Joey launched towards Stephen, just before tackling him into the wall. Instruments flew and clanked to the ground as they wrestled against the wall and knocked over trays and trays of items. Joey gained the upper hand for a moment and pinned Stephen to the wall, holding his throat in place with his elbow, choking him.

  He cocked his arm back and began hitting Stephen in the face, likely as hard as he could. Only it didn’t appear to be hard enough.

  It was all happening so fast; I couldn’t see or even really understand everything that was happening. All I saw, after Stephen got hit was a smile appear on his face, a mocking one. He wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

  I felt a piece of me leap for joy when I saw the smile appear. It meant that he had the upper hand; and it meant that he might finally put Joey in the place that he deserved to be in.

  But Joey didn’t let up, and Stephen didn’t push him away. Instead, I witnessed blast after blast of lashing punches to Stephen’s face, and I cringed as I watched blood spew from his mouth and cheek, clearly having been ripped open from a multitude of punches.

  My mouth was agape in both shock and terror, as I watched Joey beat my brother-in-law to a pulp.

  “Get off of him, Joey!!” Derek bellowed, but Joey didn’t listen. He didn’t care; he only kept on and on.

  Over and over…

  I could do nothing more than stand and watch the incredibly dangerous and terrifying scene unfold in front of me. My breath was caught in my throat, and my legs were quaking with fear and adrenaline.

  I couldn’t move.

  I could hardly breathe.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  I didn’t know how to stop it.

  And as soon as my eyes shifted to Derek, I knew that he didn’t know how to either.

  He clicked and clicked at his call button, clearly trying to get anyone’s attention, and hopefully he would before Stephen got hurt. However, Stephen seemed just fine as he grabbed Joey by the shoulders and tossed him backwards like he was nothing, apparently finally getting sick of being hit.

  It was crazy how far Joey flew backwards. He was far from tiny. In fact, he was a pretty muscular guy—not as muscular as Stephen, but muscular nonetheless.

  The two were screaming, roaring bellows of war cries, their lungs fueled by adrenaline. I wondered how in the hell no one had gotten there yet. Where the hell was security!

  And just like that, I could hear feet scrambling down the hall, and I knew that security was finally on their way. I sighed, almost too little, too late.

  However, when they appeared around the corner, it wasn’t just security guards, it was also a hoard of police officers. And I was glad to see it—especially when Joey was restrained by three men and handcuffed almost instantaneously.

  I zoned out for a moment on anything Joey related and tended only to my brother-in-law who leaned breathlessly against the wall, bleeding profusely.

  In fact, I stopped caring so much as they dealt with Joey, that I caught only a glimpse of his face as they hauled him away. And I couldn’t tell exactly what emotion was plastered over it. Hell, I wasn’t even sure he was capable of real emotion.

  But his expression was unsettling, nonetheless.

  I wasn’t sure if it was despair, or if it was just what ultimate defeat looked like, but whatever it was, I was glad that he was gone, and that I would never have to see that expression or any other expression on his face again.

  Chapter 11

  Derek was silent the entire night. And I understood why…

  His parents had called…both of them…at separate times and then together, but he wouldn’t speak to them.

  I was sure he couldn’t.

  He didn’t have the emotional stamina. However, it didn’t matter, his mom showed up anyway; and she stayed, along with my family.

  But he spoke to no one—not even me.

  He felt betrayed. I knew that; and not only that, but I was sure he wondered if he could fully trust anyone ever again.

  I sat beside him, with his mama to my left, my mama to my right and Laura just beside her. I wasn’t sure exactly why my family was there all of a sudden, but it did seem like they were standing guard. Over what, I had no clue. Joey Freeman was going to be locked away for an incredibly long time. I had no idea what they were worried about.

  But still, I accepted their presence, cherished it even. And I was sure that Laura wanted to be around us, just as much as I did her, because her husband was currently down the hall—out of sight—being stitched and cleaned up from his epic battle.

  I sat in my signature seat, flicking pages of the one Vogue magazine that I found in the nightstand beside Derek’s hospital bed. I was unsure of what to do or say to make it better.

  Hell, as far as I was concerned, I was perfectly content staying silent because I knew that there was nothing that anyone could say to make whatever just happened any better.

  His brother had tried to kill him…for months. He had slowly been killing him, little by little, torturing him physically and emotionally—all while Derek trusted him. There was no making it better. There was no getting over it. There was nothing that I could do or say to soften the blow or make it to where Derek came out of it unscathed and unscarred.

  He’d be damaged forever in some way because of it all. I knew that, but I’d be right beside him, just as I was now. I’d see him through everything.

  “Why do you love me?” Derek asked, all of a sudden, just as our mamas and Laura had left the room to visit with Stephen.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, my brows and head raising in confusion.

  “I mean, why do you love me? It doesn’t seem like anyone else can.”

  “Stop it, Derek.” I sighed. I knew he was hurting, but I couldn’t handle the ‘pity me’ act. I knew he felt betrayed, felt like Joey never loved him. But Joey wasn’t everyone. “A lot of people love you. Your stepbrother is sick. That has nothing to do with you, or all the other people that love you.”

  “But he was there with me, through so much, and he didn’t give a damn. Not really.”

  “And he probably didn’t give a damn about any
body else either!” I shot, throwing my magazine over to the chair my mama was sitting in just moments before.

  “I know, and I’m sorry…for not believing you.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, a tear falling down my cheek.

  “I’m sorry I was right.” And I was. I hated that I was right in this particular case. I wanted to be wrong. Hell, I never wanted to have the thought to begin with.

  “All we can do is go on from here, though,” he said with a sigh, finally able to lift his head to look at me properly.

  And he was right.

  All we could do was go from there.

  And go from there, we did…

  We went forward and moved on.

  It only took another week or so for me to reflect, unable to believe how fast he had recovered since his transfusion. I couldn’t believe how incredible he was beginning to look physically, but more than anything, I couldn’t believe how much I missed him being quiet.

  He was back to his old, cocky, feel-good, idiotic self.

  The only thing different from before—back when I hated Derek Sholts—was his playboy demeanor. At least, he better have been different in that regard.

  My eyes narrowed just before crazily muttering to myself.

  What killed me the most was that he was back at work, and not only was he back at work, but he was just as needy at work as always—if not more so.

  He constantly monopolized my time, and if he weren’t my boss and I didn’t know him before we dated, I would have sworn that he was being completely possessive.

  Yet, I did know him, and I knew that Derek Sholts sucked as a boss and as a human well before me; so ultimately it wasn’t my time as a girlfriend that he wanted to monopolize. It was me as his assistant and public relations rep. He wanted the work-me. Not the personal one.

  Indeed, he was back to normal.

  After treatments galore and a bout of emotional struggles—I knew that he wasn’t completely over it; he never would be. However, I also knew he would be fine; and it’d hurt a little less as time went on.

  Yet, he wasn’t the only one who had gone through a bout of unexpected emotional whirlwinds. His dad had left his wife—Joey’s mother—as soon as the entire thing went down. It wasn’t just about Joey; it was about the relationship itself. He claimed that it hadn’t been healthy or good for a long time.