Unmasking Charlotte (a Taboo Love series) (30 page)

Charlotte

Calvin’s eyes flutter closed and his body goes slack against Nick. He’s losing a lot of blood. I rush to the closet in the hallway for a towel. I return and carefully wrap the towel tightly around the knife to try to stem some of the blood.

Parker hangs up the phone and squats down next to me. “What can I do?”

“Hold this here
and put pressure on it,” I murmur and have him take over holding the towel on Calvin’s thigh.

Delilah is sitting on the couch with her head in her hands, her whole body trembling. I start toward her. I pass DeShawn and his bloody face as I go. I just get past him when his hand clamps down on my ankle. I screech in surprise and yank my leg away.

“You bitch!” he rasps, rolling over and pushing up to his hands and knees. “You think you can stop me? I will continue to come after you for as long as I’m breathing!”

Fury flashes fast and hot. No way will this man continue to ruin my life and the life of my unborn children. I spot the gun on the coffee table. Nick must have put it back down when Calvin tackled DeShawn. I snatch it up and with shaky hands, point it at DeShawn.

He slowly gets to his feet and starts toward me, a menacing look in his eyes. “You won’t do it. You won’t shoot me.”

Nick and Parker yell for me to see if I need help. I tell Parker to keep pressure on Calvin’s
leg, and for Nick to stay with my best friend. I am going to take care of this once and for all.

“Yes, I will,” I say, my tone hard.

“No, you won’t, you don’t have the balls,” he taunts, still stalking toward me.

I don’t realize I’m backing up until my back hits the wall next to the broken door. He keeps coming.

“Don’t come any closer!” I scream at him.

“That baby is mine and I will take it!” he barks.

DeShawn lunges for me. I hear multiple screams, but don’t have time to think about that as I pull the trigger. DeShawn stumbles back but remains standing. He frowns and looks down at the neat little hole in the center of his chest. Blood blooms from the hole, making a large dark circle on his gray T-shirt. I watch in utter shock as he leadenly drops to his knees then falls face first onto the floor at my feet, a pool of blood spreading quickly from beneath his body.

I rip my gaze away from him to look at my friends. They are all gaping at me. Parker is still with an unconscious Calvin, and Nick and Delilah are now standing by the couch, looking like they are both ready to pounce. I can hear the sirens in the distance and am thankful that the police will be here soon. Delilah rushes over to me, gently extracting the gun from my hands, and places it on the floor. Then she pulls me into her arms.

“You were so brave,” she whispers in my ear.

“I killed him,” I breathe.

“Yes, and you will never have to worry about him again.”

I nod and hug her tighter. She leads me over to the couch where we both sit, holding onto each other for dear life.

A minute later, police fill the apartment. Paramedics take care of Calvin, and Nick switches into lawyer mode as he explains to the police what happened. Paramedics come over to check out Delilah and me, also. They decide that I need to go to the hospital, too, just to make sure that everything is okay with the babies. I tell them that the only way I will go is if I can ride with Cal
vin. They reluctantly agree and let me go in the same ambulance.

I sit on the bench next to the gurney that he is lying on and take his hand. The paramedic hooks him up to an IV and stabilizes the knife with medical tape until we get to the hospital where they will remove it. The paramedic also keeps an eye on my vital signs to make sure that I don’t go into shock or anything.

Calvin’s hand tightens on mine, making me look up at his face. His eyes are cracked open and he is looking at me. “Did the police get him?” he asks, his voice gravelly.

I shook my head. “No, baby, he came after me again and I shot him,” I whisper.

Calvin squeezes his eyes shut. “Shit.”

“I killed him.”

Calvin’s eyes fly open and his tormented eyes meet mine. His mouth works but he can’t seem to find the words.

Finally, he asks, “Who was he?”

“DeShawn, the man who raped me,” I say with disgust.

Calvin’s eyes harden and his top lip curls up. “Good girl.”

More Charlotte…

I am stuck in the hospital bed with bands around my belly that are monitoring the babies’ heartbeats, and a cuff on my arm that is monitoring my blood pressure. Delilah stays with me the entire time I get checked out. Nick and Parker go with Calvin, who has to have surgery to remove the knife from his leg. The doctor is giving me a full work up, while the nurse continues to check my vitals. The doctor diagnoses me as healthy, but refuses to discharge me. The babies are perfectly fine and he tells me to try to relax because they are going to keep me for a couple of days to be safe, since my body went through so much trauma. Personally, I think they want to make sure that I don’t have a nervous breakdown after all that went down. They also want to send someone down from psych to check on me as well. Something about shooting and killing a person can cause PTSD. Not when you kill to protect your babies. That’s called maternal instinct. I don’t have PTSD.

I am so frustrated and decide that I am not staying here. I am fine and my babies are fine. That’s all that I came here to find out. Plus, I haven’t even gotten the chance to see Calvin yet. And I have to pee. All I can think ab
out is how I am going to get myself unstrapped and untangled from this bed so that I can go seek out Calvin - after I pee first – that I am not really paying much attention to Delilah’s ramblings. Something about Calvin’s dad speaking to the prosecutor, along with Nick, regarding not charging me with anything because DeShawn was in violation of the restraining order and me acting in self-defense. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

A lifetime later, I convince Delilah to help me escape this prison cell – no pun intended
- and help me find my man. She calls Nick, and he tells her that Calvin is already out of surgery and in a recovery room. Apparently, he has been asking for me and about me, but nobody will give him any information since he is not “family.” The term belligerent is being tossed around by the nurses and hospital staff. I can only imagine how pissed off he is. Nick finally gives LaLa the room number and operation sneak past the nurses and not get caught commences.

The door is open when we reach the room, so we walk in. Calvin is lying on the bed, IV in his hand, blood oxygen thingy on his finger, covers pulled up to his waist. He’s awake and talking with Nick and Parker. Relief crashes down on me, threatening to bring me to my knees. Calv
in turns his head, his caramel eyes landing on me. A small, tired smile curls his beautiful lips.

“Baby girl,” he rasps, holding out a hand for me.

I rush over to him and wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He hugs me back, tucking his face in the crook of my neck.

“I’m so sorry, for everything, I’m sorry,” I whisper, “I should have told you about DeShawn.”

“I’m sorry, too. I should never have said what I said to you, I was completely out of line. Your past doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is you and our babies,” he says quietly into my neck.

“We’ll give you guys a minute,” Nick says.

After the door shuts and we are alone, I pull back from our embrace so I can kiss the shit out of him. His big hands cup my face as we kiss. God, I missed him! The kiss turns frantic and needy. His hands drop to my hips where his fingers tease my skin at the waistband of my pants. I slip a hand down his chest and stomach, snaking under the blanket where I find his rock hard cock ready to go.

“Climb on,” he breathes.

“I don’t want to hurt your leg,” I protest. The thought of where we are doesn’t even cross my mind. My only concern is not hurting him any more than he already is.

He shakes his head. “You won’t. It’s closer to my knee, on the outside part of my thigh, it’ll be fine, I need you right now,” he says, his eyes pleading with me.

I need him, too. I glance at the door before I drop my pants and climb onto the bed. He pulls the blanket back so I can climb onto his lap. He then covers my bare ass and legs with it. We grin at each other before I lean in and kiss him again. He uses his hand to hold himself up so that I can lower myself down onto him. I go ever so slowly, just to torture him a bit. Calvin groans, his hands gripping my hips tightly.

Once I’m fully seated, I wrap my arms around his neck and start to rock my hips. My baby bump is smashed up against his granite abs but I don’t care, I need to be as close to him as possible. His lips brush mine as I move and he keeps his eyes locked on mine. This has to be the most emotionally charged sex that we’ve ever had. And damn, is it good! I clutch the back of Calvin’s head as I continue to roll my hips.

Calvin snakes his arms completely around me, one hand on my ass to help me grind against him. Our breathing becomes more labored the closer we get to coming. Calvin growls low and bares his teeth. The raw masculinity of it sends me over the edge. I gasp as my body spasms around him. My nails dig into his scalp as I press our foreheads together. Calvin follows, his mouth slamming down on mine as he moans. I can feel him pulsing inside of me. So hot!

Just then, the door opens and Nick walks in. We both whip our heads around to stare at him, wide eyed.

“Hey, we’re gonna go grab something to…” he starts, but then snaps his mouth shut as he takes in the scene. He glances down at my pants on the floor then rolls his lips in, takes a deep breath, and nods. Looking up to the ceiling for guidance, he chides, “First your tit, now your ass? Jesus, Charlie, what’s next? You two are…ah…yeah…I’m just gonna go…”

He continue
s to mutter under his breath, glares at us as he makes a show of locking the knob on the door before he walks out, tugging it shut tightly behind him. Calvin and I look at each other and burst out laughing. That’s twice now that Nick has caught us in the act.

Calvin sighs, gently tucking my hair behind my ears. “I thought I was going to lose you today, Pinky,” he says softly, emotion filling his tone.

I nod. “You saved me. Saved us.” I rub my belly protectively, terrified of what we could have lost.

He then places his hands over mine on my baby-filled belly. “I love you and our babies so much. I don’t ever want to be without you again. You are my forever, Charlotte. Please say that you’ll marry me.”