Sweet Sunshine (26 page)

She giggled as I reached for my cell, resting in a cup holder in the center console to call Chloe and tell her we were on our way. It rang until finally going to voicemail. Maybe she’d fallen back to sleep. Or maybe she was in the shower. No telling.

We were about five minutes from the house when my phone rang. I answered without taking my eyes off the road, thinking it was Chloe calling me back.

“Hey, baby. We’ll be there in five.”

“Anderson,” the familiar
male
voice spoke. I pulled it away from my ear long enough to look at the screen.
Why the fuck was someone from the station calling me
?

“Carlson?” I asked, recognizing the young deputy’s voice.

“Man, I hate to have to tell you this, but I need you to get to St. Vincent’s as soon as you can.”

“The hospital?” Everything inside me grew frigid. “Why do I need to get to the hospital, Carlson?

Then he said the two words that had the power to bring my entire world crashing down around me.

“It’s Chloe.”

Chloe

I FELT HELPLESS
. I was so concerned for Eliza, for Derrick, but I didn’t want to call and distract him from taking care of his daughter. I don’t know how long I wandered through the house, restless, knowing there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be able to go back to sleep, not that I wanted to. I wanted to be awake when they got home. I’d been a mess of nerves all day long knowing Derrick was meeting with a new attorney, then his subsequent lapse into silence at the not-so-helpful news he got from the meeting, and that phone call had done nothing but twist my already unsettled stomach into knots.

If something happened to Eliza because of
that woman
, I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. All I could hope was that this latest stunt would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I wanted Derrick to have his little girl, and I wanted Eliza to live in in an environment that would make her
happy
.

I just hated that it took something like this to reach that point.

I’d just decided to start a pot of coffee for when Derrick returned, knowing he’d need it, and that he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore more than I could, when my phone went off. The chime was the notification I set up for the security system I’d had installed in the bakery a few years back.

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself before the phone starting ringing.

“Hello?”

“Yes, Miss Delaney? This is Daniel with Security Solutions. It appears the sensor for the front window to your store has gone off. Are you on the premises?”

I propped the phone between my ear and shoulder, thankful I’d gotten dressed after Derrick’s call from Eliza. “No, but I’m on my way there now.”

“Okay. We’re alerting the authorities now.”

“Thank you, I’ll meet them there.” I disconnected the call and was out the door in no time.

Derrick’s house was only a few minutes from the bakery, and considering I was the first call, I knew I’d make it there before the Sherriff’s department, and seeing as there were no cruisers in front of Sinful Sweets when I pulled up, I was right.

“Shit,” I gasped as I parked along the street, climbed out of my car and stepped onto the sidewalk right in front of the bakery. The plate glass windows that made up my entire storefront had all been smashed out.

With my hand over my mouth in complete shock, I made my way to the front door, the glass also broken into a million pieces, and stepped inside, in complete disbelief by what I saw.

Everything was destroyed. The pastry displays, the cake stands that decorated the wooden bar top. Stools were overturned, chairs looked like they’d been picked up and smashed against the walls. Unbelievable damage done in such a short amount of time. My dream, my livelihood, looked like a tornado had gone through it. Tears clogged my throat as I took in the damage. I couldn’t believe that someone had done something so heartless, so cruel.

I turned to make my way back outside, pulling my phone from my pocket to inform the police about the break in myself as my mind spun in a million different directions.

Who could have done such a thing?

Why did they target my bakery?

Or was it something personal against me?

Then I remembered.

I dialed 911 on my phone and brought it to my ear as I ran out of the bakery. “911, what’s your emergency?”

I was only a few feet away from my car, mouth opened to answer, when the squealing of tires and sudden flash of headlights took me by surprise. The last thing I remembered were the lights so close they blinded me before pain smashed into my body with a force so strong I wasn’t sure I’d survive it.

Then everything went black.

Derrick

“DADDY, WHAT’S HAPPENING?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” I answered honestly as the blood roared through my ears. I jerked the wheel, causing my tires to squeal as I pulled into the hospital parking lot. “Just stay close, okay?”

We got out of the truck and, hand in hand, ran through the emergency room doors. There was no one at the front desk, so, not having a clue where I was going, I just started running, Eliza doing the best she could to keep up.

“Derrick!”

I spun around to find Harlow and Noah standing in the doorway of a waiting room, equal expressions of concern marring their faces. “What’s happening?” I demanded to know. I needed answers fast. My heart was beating against my breastbone so hard my chest ached. “Where is she? What happened?” I fired off at a rapid pace.

“Calm down, brother. Just calm down,” Noah soothed, placing his hand on my shoulder to try to calm me down. But that wouldn’t be possible until I had some fucking answers. I couldn’t lose her. I just…
couldn’t
.

“What happened?” I repeated, the calmness of my voice was a complete surprise considering how frantic I felt.

“We don’t know everything,” Harlow spoke up. “I’m listed as her emergency contact so we got the call and woke Ethan up to watch Lucy then we rushed right over. All we know is there was some sort of car accident. They rushed her back as soon as they got in. We haven’t even seen her.”

Car accident
. What the hell? Eliza squeezed my hand tight, her little body plastering itself to my side. “Why the hell was she even driving?”

“Anderson.”

My head jerked around to find Carlson standing there. “Tell me what’s going on.”

His eyes moved from me to Eliza and back again. “Think we can talk somewhere a little more private?”

Catching his meaning, I squatted down, eye to eye with my scared daughter. “Honey, I need you to stay here with Harlow and Noah for a few minutes, okay?”

Her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Please, baby girl. Just stay with them, okay? It’ll only be a few minutes, I promise.”

“Hey Eliza,” Harlow spoke, keeping her voice light. “I have Netflix on my phone. Why don’t we watch a movie while we wait?” I could tell she didn’t want to, but she nodded her head and moved to her anyway.

Carlson and I moved out of the waiting room and into the hall, moving down and away from the door.

“What the fuck happened?”

“We don’t have all the details yet, but we know that the security system to her bakery went off earlier this morning. The company called her then called it in to us. We were in route but she beat us there, not by much, couldn’t have been more than two minutes, but when we were pulling up, we saw her crossing the street. We spotted another car driving erratically and it hit her before she had a chance to move out of the way.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I bellowed, raking my hands through my hair. I began to pace as Carlson continued recounted what had happened.

“We don’t think the car intentionally hit her. From the looks of it, it tried to swerve at the last second, but it was too late. The driver jerking the wheel last minute is probably the only thing that saved Chloe. She came to in the back of the ambulance. She was in severe pain, and there was some damage done, but she was awake, man. That’s the good news.”

“Good news? That’s the fucking
good news
? HOW COULD IT GET ANY WORSE!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Carlson rubbed the back of his neck, pulling in a deep breath. “Derrick, after the car swerved, it plowed straight into a light pole so the driver wasn’t able to get away.”

“Well that’s a silver-fucking lining,” I growled. “Where’s that bastard now? Tell me you’ve got him in custody, or so help me God—”

“We have
her
in custody.” He paused. “Derrick, it was your ex-wife.”

My entire world stopped.

“What?” I didn’t even recognize the scary cadence of my own voice.

“We don’t have the security footage yet, but I’m willing to bet she was the one that trashed your girl’s place, too.”

“This has to be a nightmare,” I mumbled more to myself than to Carlson as I started pacing once again. “A seriously fucked-up nightmare.”

Then I remembered something, the knowledge hitting me like I goddamned sledgehammer. “You get her to blow?”

He shook his head. “She was too out of it. We had to bring her in too, but we had the doctor do a blood test when she got here. Man, she was more than twice the legal limit. So fucking much it had to have been straight booze running through her veins.”

I’d never hit a woman in my life. God knows, dealing with Layla as long as I had, she’d test the patience of a saint, but I never laid my hands on her. But right then I wanted nothing more than to find her and choke the life out of her.

Carlson spoke up again. “Just thought you should know, she’s been asking for you since she got here.”

“Chloe?”

His face grew grim as he shook his head. “No.”

I couldn’t remember a time in my life where I’d ever felt more rage, more inescapable fury than I felt right then. I was downright murderous. “You keep that fucking bitch away from me. You understand?” I warned Carlson. “I don’t give a fuck who she’s asking for or what she wants. If I get anywhere near her right now, one of you is gonna have to lock me up, because I’ll kill the bitch.”

Carlson nodded. “I get you, brother. And I don’t blame you one fucking bit. That woman is certifiable.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. And keep a deputy outside her door. The minute the doctor clears her I want her ass behind bars. Got me?”

“I got you, man.”

“Derrick?” I turned to find Noah standing next to an older man in a white doctor’s coat, standing near the waiting room door. Turning on my heels, I started in their direction at a fast clip, desperate to know what the hell was going on with Chloe.

Please God, please, just let her be all right. I’ll do anything. Just don’t take her away from me.

“How is she?” I asked in a panicked tone as soon as I reached them. “Is she all right?”

“All I can say is Miss Delaney is a very lucky woman.”

My lungs expanded with that one sentence and it felt like it was the first real breath I’d taken in hours.

Chloe

THE FIRST THING
I thought when I woke up was “Sweet mother of Hell, everything hurts.” God, even my hair and toenails ached.