Blank: Alpha Billionaire Romance (19 page)

“I just hope Miss Keats gets it right this time. She already fingered the wrong guy once,” he said.

Marks rolled her eyes and refocused her attention on me. It felt good to have someone on my side since Gracen was nowhere to be found, and he’d been the ‘good cop.’

Krazelburg knocked on the two-way glass to signal that we were ready. A moment later, five men walked into the room and lined up against the wall.

“Okay, Preslee,” the ADA said. “Do you see the man you claim was driving the car that struck yours?”

I nodded. I was absolutely positive. I’d picked him out as he was walking in. He now stood in the middle of the line-up, his head tossed proudly back as if he was untouchable. He didn’t appear the slightest bit nervous or anxious. Arrogant to the core.

I pointed at him. “It’s number three,” I said aloud. “That’s the man who hit me. He was the driver.”

“You’re sure, Preslee?” the ADA asked.

“Completely sure,” I said firmly.

Krazelburg snorted. “How can any of us believe you?” He looked at Marks. “This is a total waste of time. She has no idea what she’s talking about. She came in and told us that she had a dream about who hit her. A dream, for Christ’s sake.

Marks shook her head at him. “We have her ID on the record now. That’s what matters, Detective.”

He scoffed. “Are you sure you didn’t have another dream, Preslee? Maybe there was a different guy in that dream. Or maybe some other guy pissed you off and you wanna put the blame for your accident on him instead.”

I refused to be baited. “No. He’s the one. I know it.”

“This is insulting,” Krazelburg grumbled. “How do we know her memory wasn’t affected even more deeply by the accident than we thought? We can’t risk charging a man with a crime when our witness has a proven history of memory loss.”

“Detective, I suggest you back off,” the ADA said sternly. “You’re badgering a victim.”

She might as well have not spoken. Krazelburg took a step toward me, his eyes narrowing. “I want you to be absolutely certain. Can you really trust yourself, Preslee? Aren’t your memories all faded and mixed up?”

I felt a ball of fear in the pit of my stomach. I had felt certain before Krazelburg started chipping away at me…but now I was second-guessing myself.

“Are you willing to destroy any chance of prosecuting the right person by identifying the wrong guy?” He closed the distance between us, bending his tall frame to get right in my face.

I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch, but I was coming close. The doubts swelled within me, pushing to the surface. If I was wrong, I’d condemn an innocent man.

Suddenly the door flew open and Gracen came charging in. “Leave her alone, Nestor,” he said. “You’re under arrest.”

I couldn’t have been more surprised, and neither could Krazelburg. He jumped back from me and faced his partner.

“What are you talking about, Mort?” He laughed, but the sound was hollow.

“We brought Quaid Fields in earlier today,” Gracen said. “One search warrant later and we found your name all over his records. For some reason, the idiot kept careful records of all the people he’s paid off, and for which cases. You’ve been on his payroll for years.”

Krazelburg laughed harshly, looking from Gracen to the officers who had entered the room along with him. “Who are you going to believe? Some dirty lawyer or your partner? C’mon, Mort – we’ve been through too much for you to give me up like this.”

Gracen’s voice was heavy with sadness, and I felt a pang of sympathy for the guy.

“You’re right. We’ve been through a lot, but the proof is there. Plus, he gave you up. Told us the whole thing. His son called him after he hit Miss Keats, and fled the scene. Quaid called you. I’m sure your cell phone records will show that.”

He glanced at me.

“I’m guessing you took Preslee’s purse out of her car after she was pulled out by the EMT’s and delivered the purse to Quaid’s office. You tried to take her necklace at the hospital so she couldn’t be identified. The nurse on duty at the time identified you as the detective she had an altercation with. It’s over.”

Krazelburg seemed to shrink. His shoulders slumped and his head hung low. I’d expected a fight, but he seemed to know that it was over. He handed over his service weapon and badge, then turned, and allowed himself to be handcuffed.

ADA Marks placed a hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right, Preslee?” she asked kindly. “Let’s get you some water and sit you down.”

“I’m okay, really,” I told her once I found my voice again. “I’m just…I mean, is it over now?” This felt like a dream. I was half tempted to pinch myself.

She smiled. “There’s a good chance that it is, yes. I’m guessing this won’t even go to trial.”

She led me from the room and into the hallway where Detective Gracen was waiting for me. He looked torn up.

“Miss Keats,” he started, raking his hand through his silver-streaked hair. “I just wanted to apologize for everything you’ve been through.”

“I understand.”

“No cop wants to believe that his partner is crooked,” he confessed. “But I had a feeling. I should have followed my instincts a lot sooner. It felt like no matter the progress we made on your case, we were no further ahead than before. I should have considered he was on the take.”

“I’m just glad that it’s all over,” I said. I hated what I’d been put through, but it wouldn’t have been fair to take it out on Gracen, not when he’d worked so hard to make things right.

“It looks as though he’s been covering up for his son for a long time,” Gracen said. “You’re the only person who didn’t accept the pay-off right away and drop the case. Smart girl.”

“Lately, I haven’t felt so smart,” I told him truthfully.

“Well, you were,” he said. “Your insistence on finding the truth was what got us on the right track in the first place. When Kris Bedford came in and told us about his history with the Fields family…”

“What?” I cut him off, “what about Kris Bedford?” My heart stuttered at his name.

“When he came in here the other day, he gave us enough information to convince a judge to sign off on a search warrant that got us Quaid’s files.”

It was suddenly hard to breathe. Kris, again, had gone out of his way to help me even though I’d made it perfectly clear that I didn’t want anything to do with him.

“I know you’re pretty pissed off at the guy,” Gracen said. “He lied about his identity, but just try to remember how hard he pushed to get us to believe you and to pursue Quaid Fields and his son. Maybe cut the guy a break.”

The detective patted me on the back and assured me that he would call me as soon as anything new happened. I nodded, but I wasn’t really paying much attention. My head was too full.

Chapter 27

Preslee

I hung up the phone with a shaky hand and exhaled in relief. Detective Gracen’s words were still running through my head, but one thing in particular kept repeating again and again: It was over.

“So what did he say?” Ava rushed out, bouncing up and down on the sofa with excitement. “What happened? Are they going to settle? Was there a plea bargain or whatever?”

I turned to her with a smile, but it was a slippery one and I wound up bursting into tears. All of the tension rushed out of me, along with the fear, worry and frustration of the last few weeks. Ava, like a true best friend, just wrapped her arms around me and let me cry.

“I’m sorry,” I finally laughed several minutes later. “I have no idea where that came from.”

“I think you earned a good cry,” she said. “I’m guessing that means everything went okay?”

I nodded. It had turned out more than okay.

“They’re gonna take a plea.” Detective Gracen had told me over the phone. “And the DA made it a point to include as part of the plea that the Fields family be held responsible for my medical bills.”

“So now that it’s all over and done,” Ava reasoned. “It’s time to move forward. Any ideas?”

I shrugged. “Just going in the direction I’ve been going in already, I guess. I should be out of your hair in no time, now that I don’t have to worry about putting money aside for the hospital.”

Ava ran a hand through her purple streaked hair. “Hey – I like you in my hair!” she joked.

I chuckled along with her, but then grew serious. “C’mon, Ava. You know I love you, and I know you love me, but there’s no way we can live this way forever. You need your space, and to get back to living your own life. You’ve spent way too long worrying about me. Time to think about Ava. Don’t you think so?”

She looked down at the sofa.

“Hey, lady,” I said. “Chin up! This is a good thing!”

“I’ll miss you, is all,” she said. “I had gotten so used to living alone, but then you moved in. It’s nice, coming home and having somebody to talk to. You know?”

“Well, maybe you could find a roommate. And,” I grinned wickedly, “maybe your roommate could be a boy whose name is Dan because he loooooooves you…!”

She turned beet-red and threw a pillow at me. “Does not!” she giggled.

“Oh, he so does,” I insisted. Then I got serious. “I mean it, Ava. Time to think about you.” She nodded, and I could tell that she understood what I meant.

The metallic clang of the mailbox being closed prompted Ava to jump up and run down the stairs. I opened my laptop and pulled up a real estate website. Part of me wanted to live in the heart of the city, but I would have to take on some much better paying clients in order to be able to afford that kind of rent.

The thought of an apartment in the city brought back the memory of being at Kris’ stunning apartment. And with that, of course, came the memories of everything I’d done there.

I was saved from being swept up in memories by Ava’s return with the mail.

“Hey, there’s something here for you.” She tossed me an envelope.

I sighed when I saw the now-familiar rectangle envelope. “Another invitation. I’m getting so tired of this,” I admitted, the irritation coloring my voice.

“Come on, it’s not the worst thing in the world,” she said. “So a bunch of people want to meet you after hearing how you stuck it to the Fieldses. Can you imagine how many people they screwed over? I’m surprised the mayor hasn’t presented you with a key to the city yet.”

I giggled. “Yeah, but this is too much. There’s no way these people would give me the time of day if I hadn’t had Quaid and Kris arrested. And it’s not like I even did all that much. I wasn’t the one who convinced them to get the search warrant.” I snapped my mouth shut.

Ava and I had an agreement to not talk about Kris Bedford. She’d honored it. I was finding it a lot harder since I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“Still, you’re an interesting story. Girl loses her memory and goes on a hunt to find the man who put her in a coma and bring him to justice. I guess it makes for intrigue.” Ava shrugged.

I’d already been offered money to give my exclusive story to a number of media outlets, but I’d refused. I didn’t want my name splashed across the headlines. I wanted to put this behind me. Now that I had Gracen’s assurance that things had worked out in my favor, it was time to move on.

“Open it anyway. It looks fancy.”

She was right about that. The thick envelope was embossed with a pretty floral pattern and gold lettering. Odds were this was a special occasion.

“Fine,” I grumbled, giving into curiosity. Inside was an invitation to a gala fundraiser for a local charity being held in the grand ballroom of the most luxurious hotel in the city.

“Whew!” Ava hooted as I read the information off the card aloud. “Somebody thinks pretty highly of you if you’re being invited to an event at the Four Seasons.”

I turned it in my hands, searching for more information. “There’s nothing on here to indicate who invited me.”

Ava held out her hand so she could investigate the invite. “You know, Pres,” she said, scanning the card, “I’ve heard of this charity. They do some pretty amazing work.”

“What do they do?”

“They donate time and money to prevent the spread of human trafficking,” she said. “They were on the news around the Superbowl. Did you know that it’s, like, the biggest event of the year for prostitution and human trafficking?” My eyes widened and Ava nodded her head sagely. “It’s the truth. And this organization did a lot of work this year. I think they said that something like five dozen girls were rescued.”

And I thought I’d had a rough life. It just went to show that someone always had it worse. “It sounds like a pretty good cause.”

“It is,” Ava agreed. Then, to my surprise, she added, “I think you should go.”

“What?” I gaped at her.

“Just hear me out,” she started. “If people hear that you’re going to be there, it could get around. They’ll tell their friends, who will tell their friends, and so on. People who might not have wanted to go will change their minds and decide to attend just so they can get a look at you!”

I shook my head with a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding. Who would want to get a look at me?”

“Um, did you not get phone calls and emails from, like, every major news channel in the city, plus the newspapers? People know who you are. They want to know more about you. All of this could be a big deal for this charity. You could help raise money just by going. So yeah. I think you should go.”