Chapter 31
Three months flew by as the three of them settled into a content and happy living situation. Gwen returned to work and was quickly catching up with her projects. Surprisingly, Coral Lyn had stayed on top of things while Gwen had been out.
Gwen was in her office working on her new projects. She’d missed out on the last show that she was supposed to design for, but Cole had moved another designer over and they’d altered, finished and showed a version of Gwen’s original designs while she’d been recovering.
Coral Lyn was sitting at one of the tables cutting fabric. Gwen was at another pinning pieces together for a design when there was a knock on the door. Gwen looked up at Coral Lyn, who mimicked the look of surprise. The door swung open before either could move to open it.
“Gwen Black?” A man with a gun on one hip, a badge on the other questioned as he held open the door. Two other men dressed in black slacks and button down shirts with the same equipment on their hips entered the room.
“Yes. How can I help you?” Gwen stepped back from the table after setting down her pinning needles.
“Ma’am, we need to speak privately with you.” The first man to enter the room spoke. Gwen flicked her eyes over to Coral Lyn, who shrugged. Gwen followed the man out of the room to an empty conference room down the hall, the other men trailing behind her.
“Can I ask what this is about?” Gwen sat down in one of the chairs as two of the men sat across from her and the other stayed near the door. Her eyes flicked to each man. She was thoroughly confused as to why she was being questioned. “Why do I feel like I should call my lawyer?”
“We are just here for a few simple questions, ma’am. But if you would feel better getting your lawyer on the line, we could take you down to the station while we wait for them to arrive.”
“I really don’t understand what is going on. I’ll answer what I can then decide if I need my attorney.” Gwen rested her hands in her lap. She hadn’t been doing anything illegal so she figured they must have the wrong person.
“Do you know who Richard Moreno is?” The first man asked.
“Before I answer anything, can you tell me who you are?” Gwen looked to each man as she spoke, an eyebrow raised. She pulled out a little notebook from her pocket that she normally used to write notes about altercations she wanted to make when she was putting together a design, but now she would use it to write down their names. Gwen was on edge even though she didn’t know what was going on. They hadn’t announced who they were or what department they were from.
“I’m Detective Marvin Jones. This here next to me is Detective Biggs and that over there by the door is Detective Decker.” The man said pointing to the man sitting next to him then the one standing by the door. “We all work as part of the homicide unit for the New York City Police Department.”
“And you are here questioning me because…” Gwen looked at Detective Jones. She really was confused as to what they wanted from her. Had they figured out her past? She started shaking her leg as anxiety shot through her. Was this the same Richard? It was the only Richard she knew. Did Richard turn her in for killing his brother?
“A body was discovered in an underground tunnel. The dental imprints have identified the body as Richard Moreno. When we went to his last known address and found pictures of you plastered all over the walls.. Of every room in the house.” Detective Jones continued. He pulled a file out of a bag he’d been carrying and handed it to Detective Jones. Gwen hadn’t noticed the bag until now. “So, I will ask again. Do you know Richard Moreno?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t recognize the name.” Gwen frowned. Could it be? Richard was dead? Just as she was about to speak again, the door to the conference room burst opened. A red faced Cole filled the door way.
“What the hell is going on here?” Cole demanded as he stalked to Gwen’s side, slamming the door behind him. His hand rested on her shoulder. “This is one of my employees as well as my girlfriend. I should have been notified of this meeting.”
“We are here as part of investigation of a homicide for New York City Police Department.” Detective Biggs spoke up. “And when we arrived, your secretary said you were in a meeting.”
“Homicide? Who was killed?” Cole’s back snapped straighter than it had been a minute before. His grip tightened minutely on Gwen’s shoulder.
“Richard Moreno. Do you know him?” Detective Jones flipped his eyes from Cole to Gwen and back again. As the silence dragged on, an eye brown rose slowly over one of his dark eyes.
“Can’t say the name rings a bell, even after jogging my memory.” Cole finally spoke up. His voice was steady as always but his grip on Gwen’s shoulder never let up. “Does that name mean anything to you, baby?”
Gwen looked up to meet his eyes. They were dark, dark green, a shade she hadn’t seen in his eyes before. She turned back to look at the officers again. “As much as it unnerves me that he seemed to be tracking me. I really can’t say that I’ve met him before, let alone had any type of relationship that would facilitate my image being all over anything in his life.” As much as she tried to fight it, she couldn’t keep her lip from curling in disgust at the thought. “I will say it makes me feel ill that someone was out there following me around and I wasn’t aware of.”
Gwen looked up at Cole again and placed her hand over his on her shoulder.
“Do you know what happened to him? How he died? What do you mean he was tracking you?” Cole questioned the officers. The officers repeated what they’d told Gwen about the images before answering his other questions.
“It appears that he was in a fight of some sort. Unfortunately, his body was in an advanced stage of decomposition when we found it though. The medical examiner and forensic anthropologist are trying to piece together as much as they can but all that is left are his bones. They did find that quite a few of his bones were broken prior to his death which leads us to believe there was a fight. However, there isn’t much other evidence that we have been able to find. We were hoping that you would be able to give us additional leads.”
“I’m sorry that I can’t. Was he married or have any children?” Gwen shrugged.
“No children. He was married but we have been unable to track down his now ex-wife.” Detective Jones frowned as he flipped closed his notebook. “I suppose that is all for now. If we have any more questions, we will be in touch.”
“I’ll be available whenever you need me. I wish I could help more. But honestly, I’m glad he is no longer following me around.” Gwen shivered. She stood when the men did. Her hand clasped tightly with Cole’s as they said their goodbyes and the men left the room. Gwen turned to look at Cole. “Well, that was interesting.”
“Hm, yes.” Cole’s faced showed no emotion at all as he looked into her eyes.
“I would like to go home now, if that’s okay.” Gwen looked towards the door. “I need a long hot shower.”
“Would you like for me to come with you?” Cole moved towards the door, opening it for her.
“I think that would be good.” Gwen smiled slightly at him before heading towards her office to retrieve her things.
“I just need to make a quick call and then I will meet you back here.” Cole stepped down the hall to make his call as Gwen gathered her belongings.
In the car as they headed home, Gwen turned in her seat to look at Cole.
“I think you have some explaining to do.” Gwen spoke softly.
“Yes. I will. When we get home.” Cole didn’t look up from his phone. He was still trying to wrap up thing that he should’ve been doing at work. However, he knew that Gwen would have a lot of questions and be demanding answers that were best spoken in a secure and private place.
Chapter 32
“Speak. Now.” Gwen turned and looked at Cole as soon as they entered his bedroom. Cole shut the door behind him and took a breath.
“Let’s sit down.” Cole gestured towards the small seating area off the bedroom. Gw
en walked over and sat down then looked at him expectantly. Cole sat next to her and took one of her hands in both of his. “Well, simply put, I made sure Richard wouldn’t be bothering you anymore.”
“Did you kill him?” Gwen asked. She didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t a situation she thought she’d ever be in.
“I did what I had to do to make sure the woman I love more than life would no longer be in danger. Especially after the bastard took our children from us.” Cole took another deep breath.
“When did this happen?”
“When you were at McKayla’s. You have an alibi as do I for that time if they were to ever able to pin down a day and time, but I don’t think that will happen. I was very careful to leave a limited amount of evidence.” Cole squeezed her hand. “I couldn’t allow him to live after what he did to you and continued to try to do to you. My people captured him shortly after his run in with you.”
“He was captured and what? Held for months while I recovered?” Gwen was confused at how all this had come to happen and Cole had hidden it from her.
“Yes. I had people with him the whole time. Gwen, I really don’t want to talk about this. The less you know, the better. What was done, needed to be done. What if he got a hold of you again? What if he simply got tired of you and went after another little girl or even another woman? Would you really want that man loose on the streets still?” Cole squeezed her hand again. “The world is better off without someone like him around.”
“Just tell me, did he suffer?” Gwen wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she needed to know. This man had caused her much suffering and pain in her life.
“Yes.” That lone word was all Cole wanted to speak of it. He made sure Richard felt as much pain as he had inflicted on Gwen when she was young. He made sure Richard paid for the fight in the alley. Mostly, he made sure Richard knew how much it hurt Cole to lose his children before he had ever even been able to hold them in his arms.
Gwen nodded. As sick as it might be, she was glad. She was glad he felt a small fraction of the lifelong damage he’d done to Gwen.
A few weeks passed before Gwen heard from the detectives again. They said they were going to put the file into the Cold Case files because there simply wasn’t enough evidence to keep investigating.
Gwen hung up the phone and immediately headed for the elevator and up to Cole’s office.
“He’s on the phone.” Tiffany, Cole’s secretary, informed her. “I’ll let him know you are here.”
“Please do.” Gwen stood tapping her fingers on the top of the counter in front of Tiffany’s desk.
“He said to go on in.” Tiffany said as she hung up the phone. Gwen quickly walked through the heavy door to Cole’s office. He was sitting behind his desk with a pen in one hand taking notes, his other hand was holding the phone to his ear.
“Yes. I understand. I don’t care. Make it happen. I will check in again in a few days and I will be getting better news then.” Cole placed the phone back in the receiver before standing to meet Gwen. “What did I do to get this unexpected visit?”
Gwen smiled as he took her in his arms and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “I just got a phone call I thought you would like to know about.”
She told him the news the detective had shared with her. He picked up and spun her in a circle with the biggest smile she’d seen on his face in a very long time.
“I think it would be great to take a vacation now. You know, celebrate your full recovery.” Cole winked at her. The smile never leaving his face.
“Where would you like to go?” Gwen had yet to take a vacation with him. Their lives had just been so turbulent since they’d met.
“I would love to take you to my property at Duck Island. McKayla too. We could leave as soon as tomorrow, if McKayla can get away that is. Let’s go for a week. And if you like, I’ll make plans for us to spend a few months down there over the summer.” Cole kissed her forehead, then each of her cheeks before landing on her lips again.
“I’ve been gone so much since being hired, I think a week would be doable. I wouldn’t feel good about leaving longer than that after all the time I’ve been gone.” Gwen smiled and kissed him on the lips.
Two weeks later, Gwen, Cole and McKayla were all departing from Cole’s private plane on Duck Island.
Gwen turned around looking at the vast lush scenery. The island was thin and long while covered with lots of greenery, houses and a couple resorts.
“I can’t wait to get in the water!” McKayla exclaimed as she rolled her bag towards a waiting car.
“Aren’t you afraid of sharks?” Gwen made a scary face at her.
“No! Silly.” McKayla laughed and jumped up and down a bit. “Plus, if I was going to get eaten by a shark, this is the place to do it. So beautiful.”
“Come on ladies. If we hurry we can get settled in and still have an hour to play on the beach before the sun goes down.” Cole handed his bag to the driver and stood by the door waiting for them to get in.
McKayla and Gwen quickly climbed in the back of the car and Cole slid in closing the door behind him. Gwen held McKayla’s hand in one hand and Cole’s in the other. The driver pulled away from the airport.
Before long, the car came to a stop. All three of them stepped out to see a beautiful cottage surrounded by lavender and calla lilies.
“Wow! It’s so beautiful!” Gwen loved the combination of flowers with the brown and white rustic cottage.
“This has been my getaway for a few years. It’s mostly families that come out to the island on the weekends. During the week it’s so quiet and nearly deserted. All the beaches are private too so it is much more peaceful than most places. The house isn’t very big but that’s just how I wanted it. It’s cozy.” Cole explained as they made their way down the lavender lined pathway.
The interior of the house was surprisingly modern but still rustic feeling. There was only two bedrooms with a small living room and small kitchen with 2 bathrooms connected to the bedrooms and one you could access from outside. Cole gave them a quick tour showing them the path from the back that led down to the beach.
“You just have to walk through a small patch of trees to get to the beach right there. There is no fences or anything but the neighbors are quite a way away on either side so we should have the whole beach to ourselves.” Cole pointed to either side of the house, which was surrounded by tall brilliant green trees.
“Sweet! I’m going to change and go swimming. You two coming?” McKayla asked.
“I’ll come watch but I don’t want to get in the water.” Gwen shrugged. “Beautiful or not, I’ll pass on any shark or fish bites. Maybe later in the week I’ll get the water.”
“I’ll go down and check on everything while you two change. It takes me much less time to change than you.” Cole winked and gave Gwen a quick kiss before slipping out the back door. The two of them went to the master bedroom and changed. McKayla picked a black bikini and pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail. Gwen changed into a white pullover and a white one piece.
Cole was coming in the door when they opened the door. “Great, you are both ready. Let me put on my trunks and we can head down. There should be towels in the cabinet right there.” He pointed to a cabinet near the back door before going to change.
Gwen got a couple white beach towels out and the three headed out a few minutes later. Walking down the path was an adventure. There was more lavender and calla lily plants along both sides of the path until they stopped and the lush forest took over. There was about ten feet of tall thick trees to walk through before the forest stopped and the beautiful sandy beach started. The beach wasn’t very wide before the clear green water lapped up on it.
Gwen and Cole spread towels out on the beach to sit on while McKayla ran out into the water throwing off her shoes as she went.
“This is actually low tide right now. When it’s high tide it will actually come almost up to the trees here. We’ll have to watch as it
rises otherwise we might end up having the water catch up to us sitting here.” Cole laughed. “I’ve had it happen a time or two when I was caught up in work or taking a nap. It’s a bit of a surprise when you find yourself in water when an hour before you weren’t.”
They spent an hour on the beach before the water started to rise and the sun was setting on the horizon. They made their way back inside. On their walk back inside, they decided to go out for dinner to a nearby restaurant so they all separated to get ready.
The girls dressed similarly in light sundresses and heels with their hair down. Cole dressed in a well-fitting pair of dress slacks and a button down black shirt.
Once they were seated at the restaurant, McKayla tapped her nails on the table impatiently.
“You okay?” Gwen asked her as she put a hand on top of her tapping fingers.
“Yeah, fine.” McKayla said with a small smile. “Just hungry.”
“You sure?” Gwen didn’t believe her but didn’t want to push her if she didn’t want to share whatever was on her mind. They were here to have a good time, not fight over anything.
“Yep.” McKayla looked towards Cole briefly then pulled her hand into her lap just as the waiter brought their drink order. They each ordered their dinner and the waiter left again.
“I guess now is just as good as after dinner.” Cole spoke up after clearing his throat.
“For what?” Gwen cast a confused look at Cole then McKayla and back to Cole. “What is going on?”
“Well, McKayla and I have been talking.” Cole reached out and took one of Gwen’s hands in his. “And since the loss of the babies and the fact that the doctors had to remove one of your ovaries. Plus all the damage that your uterus has been through. When the doctors said that the chances of you ever having another pregnancy was extremely unlikely, we started throwing ideas around. McKayla and I that is.” Cole swallowed hard and looked briefly to McKayla then settled his eyes on Gwen again. He continued, “We wanted to put an idea out there for you. Since we both know that you want children, there is a way to possibly give you that option.”