The Forgotten Night (15 page)

“He won’t get away with this, Cassidy,” Detective Coulter said softly from the doorway. They all turned to face her.

“How did this happen?” Cassidy asked.

“We’re getting to the bottom of it as we speak. Do you know how he could have gotten inside the house? Your father told us the alarm was on. Do you think he could be working with someone inside?”

“I disarmed it,” Cassidy said guiltily. “I disarmed it when I went outside.”

“It’s my fault then, I convinced her to come downstairs. She disarmed it to come and talk to me,” Andrew groaned.

“It probably saved us though,” Rachel supplied. “Had you not convinced her to go downstairs I wouldn’t have woken up, we would have been asleep, and he would’ve hurt us.”

“Your father is on the phone right now with your lawyer, I think,” Detective Coulter said. “If I have any further questions, I’ll call you. I have your number.”

“That was you who called Cassie’s cell phone earlier?” Rachel asked and she nodded.

“Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything,” Cassidy said and they watched Detective Coulter walk out of the room.

“Princess,” her father said as he entered the room. “Are you all right, princess?”

“I’m fine, Daddy, he didn’t touch me. Rachel kicked his ass.”

“I know, I saw him. Good job, I always was happy you and Cassidy became friends.” He gave Rachel an approving look.

“Daddy,” Cassidy said in embarrassment.

“Sorry, princess,” he said, taking her in his arms. “Andrew,” he said when he noticed him standing close by, “what are you doing here?”

“I—uh…”

“He got a call from Detective Coulter too and came over.”

“Oh, I didn’t even see you come in. It was pretty busy down there. Well, it was good of you to come. Cassidy, do you think you can get back to sleep?”

Cassidy looked over at Andrew. “I don’t know, Daddy. It’s all been so scary. I didn’t think that I’d see him again, and he could have hurt us.”

“Do you think staying over with Rachel would help you? I mean, if that is all right with her,” he said.

Rachel narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly what she was trying to do, “Don’t worry, Mr. Ames, I would be fine with her staying over at our house, it’s not too much trouble.”

“What do you think, princess?”

“I think I would feel safer. I would be able to sleep better too,” she said with her perfected puppy-dog look.

“All right, princess, go get some sleep, but make sure you come back here before you head back to the city. I want to say goodbye,” he said, kissing her forehead.

Cassidy nodded and watched her father walk out of her room. She and Rachel gathered what they needed and walked downstairs with Andrew.

Cassidy set the alarm and locked the door behind her. “Cassidy Ames, I never would have thought you would play your father like that,” Rachel said. “I thought you were daddy’s perfect princess.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” she said then paused. “Thanks, Rach.”

“What are best friends for if not to help bail their friend out of sleeping in her own house to come over and sleep with her brother?”

“Aw, I love you too, Rach,” Cassidy said, stopping and pulling her into a hug.

“God, stop it,” she said, pulling away. “Besides you would have done the same for me, not the whole ‘to sleep with your brother thing’ but something similar.”

“I don’t even want to know,” Andrew said.

Cassidy smiled and wrapped her arm around his. “Don’t complain. I did this for you, now you can stop whining. You have me for the whole night.”

“I’m not complaining. You might be in the morning, with only a few hours of sleep after I keep you up all night, but we’ll make some good memories—”

“God, I don’t need to hear this, la la la!” Rachel said, covering her ears and humming to drown out their voices.

Cassidy smiled at her friend. “Yeah, Rach, because we’re going to be making sweet, sweet love.” She laughed as her friend grew louder. “Okay, we’re stopping.”

Rachel uncovered her ears and hit Cassidy playfully on the arm.

“Hey now, the only one going to be doing the hitting around here will be me,” Andrew said.

“Oh. My. God,” Rachel said, opening their front door. “Good night, love birds, please try to remember the rest of us will be sleeping. The house will be quiet and your room is not soundproof.”

“Maybe Mom and Dad should work on that,” he joked, spanking Cassidy impishly.

“All right, I’m glad my room is on the complete opposite of yours,” she said, climbing up the stairs followed by Cassidy and Andrew. “Good night, you two, you know I still love you both, even if you are disgustingly cute together.” Andrew gave Rachel a big loving hug,

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Andrew asked holding her tight to his body once they were safely in his room.

“I’m fine, Andy, stop asking. Nothing happened. Well, okay, Rachel beat up his sorry ass, but I’m happy about that. I’m glad he got a taste of what it’s like. But really, I’m not scared. I was at first, but now, now I know there’s nothing to fear, not when you’re with me. Not when I know you’ll protect me.”

“What will happen when I’m not there with you? I can’t leave you, now,” he said, rubbing her arm. “I want you to feel safe.”

“That feeling won’t leave just because we aren’t together. Yes, I always feel safer in your arms, but you can’t be with me every second of every day. We both have school to think about. You are in your second year, only one more to go. You can’t put your life on hold just because you think I’ll be scared. I’m a big girl, I can live my life without constant adult supervision, you know.”

Andrew laughed softly. “I know, baby. I just, I want you to be safe.”

“I will, Andy. I’ll be fine. I’m living with Rachel. I’m not scared of him, he’s locked up and the way my dad looked tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s locked up the rest of his life,” she said, shifting around to face him. “I love you Andy, so much that for you to put your life on hold would make me feel guilty. I want you to be happy and before you say it, I know you’d be happy with me, but I don’t want that burden of you having to settle for something less then completing law school at one of the top law schools in the country. I know that’s your dream, and it’s mine too, for you. I want you to finish. I want to see your dream come true.”

“Baby, my dream already has come true, I have you. You were my dream, not to graduate from some top university. Well okay, it is another one of my dreams, but you were my top wish. And I know that you would feel guilty if I didn’t go back to Yale. Even though I wouldn’t feel like I missed out on something I know you’ll think I have, so I’m going back there to finish, but don’t think I won’t call you, not to keep tabs on you, but to genuinely know how you’re feeling. And like I said, if I have time in my schedule, I will take those long drives to see you. I love you and nothing will ever change that,” he said, bestowing a soft kiss on her lips. She opened her mouth slightly and he deepened the kiss, but he pulled back before they could get too heavily into it. “Not tonight, baby. Tonight I just want to enjoy sleeping with you in my arms.”

“I love you, Andy,” she said, kissing him once more before shifting around once more.

“I love you too, Cassie.”

Chapter Ten

Six Months Later…

“H
ow do you like it, Cassie?” Andrew asked as they looked out at the ocean. They had been on the cruise a couple of days and loved every minute of it.

“I love it, and I love you,” she said, turning around to face him. He smiled at her and bent down to kiss her.

“Hey, not in front of the sister,” Rachel said, walking up to them. “Guys, I want you to meet Ian. We met yesterday near the pool.”

Cassidy and Andrew turned to meet the tall man standing next to Rachel.

“Nice to meet you, Ian,” Cassidy said, extending her hand. “What do you do?”

“He goes to NYU too, can you believe it? Small world, huh?” Rachel supplied. “He’s here for a family reunion.”

“So are you two going to be hanging out a lot?” Andrew asked.

“Yes, and don’t give me that look, Drew,” Rachel said. She grabbed Ian’s hand and walked off to the other side of the large cruise liner.

“Sometimes I swear I don’t know who my sister is,” Andrew said.

“She’s just Rachel. I mean he
is
cute,” Cassidy said.

“He’s cute? Why don’t you go hang out with them then?” Andrew said.

Cassidy laughed. “Are you jealous, Andrew Winbright? I believe you are, and just for the record, there is no one who is cuter, sweeter, or more perfect than you.”

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” he said, capturing her lips softly. He pulled back before it could go any further. “You know I’m still freaked that your dad hired some random person to follow us.”

“He wouldn’t do that, Andy. He’s not entirely cool with us dating, but he’s not angry. He likes you.”

“Not now though, now that I’m dating his ‘Princess’.”

“Yes, he does. He trusts me and more importantly he trusts you, which is very rare. He didn’t even trust his company’s senior partner’s son when I was asked to show him around NYU,” she said and Andrew cast her a wary look. “He was a senior in high school, Andy. He wanted to go there for college.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that he trusts me then,” Andrew said.

“Why? What does that mean?” she asked.

“Uh, uh, nope, that’s for me to know and you to find out, much, much later,” he said, kissing her nose.

“I’m going to go talk to Rach and her new flame,” she said. “I’ll come find you later.”

“I’ll be hanging out by the pool, I think,” Andrew said, smiling.

“Of course.” She headed off to find Rachel and Ian, who were walking around the upper deck. It was a few hours later before Cassidy went in search of Andrew.

She rounded the corner and saw him lounging on a chair by the pool. “Anything interesting happen while I was away?” she asked, sitting down next to him.

Andrew opened his eyes at her voice, “Nope, I’ve just been sitting here trying to get a tan.”

“I hope you’re not going to burn. Did you put any sunscreen on?”

“Yeah, about an hour or so ago, can’t really remember,” he said and looked around the pool area before turning to look at Cassidy. “Are you going to join me or shall we go somewhere more comfortable?”

“I told Rach we’d eat dinner with her and Ian.”

“What time?”

“About an hour, we’ll meet them in the dining hall,” she said, noticing a tall lanky beach-blonde woman walking toward them.

“That still leaves us with plenty of time—”

“Did you need some more sunscreen, Andrew?” the blonde woman asked, sitting in the recliner on the other side of Andrew. “It’s been a little over an hour and I figured you could use some.” She gave him a sexy smile.

Andrew’s jaw dropped and he gave Cassie a pleading look. “Cassie, it’s not—”

“I could rub some more on your back,” the woman said, squirting some sunscreen in her hands.

God, could this get any worse?

“Cassie, this is not what it looks like. I don’t even—”

“I could give you a massage too, like last time. You really seemed to like it,” the woman purred.

Cassidy looked at the blonde and knew she was just trying to bait her. Andrew would never do anything like that.

“Cassie, baby, nothing happened. Yes, she did start to give me a massage, but I stopped her—”

Cassidy snorted, trying to contain her laughter. Andrew was trying so hard to explain himself, and she was trying so hard not to laugh.

The blonde looked at Cassidy then to Andrew and tried one more time. “You should really let me put this on you and then maybe afterward we could go for a swim, like we did earlier. I had a lot of fun. I’m sure we could have a lot more fun elsewhere too.”

“Cassie.”

“You’re right, you should give him a rub down,” Cassidy said flatly. “Then maybe afterward you could take him right here on the pool deck.”

“Baby, I don’t—I didn’t, nothing happened. I love you,” Andrew tried again.

When the woman heard the words she opened her mouth to say something then thought better of it. Instead she stood up and gave an apologetic look toward Cassidy.

Cassidy stood up and turned around to leave and tried her hardest not to laugh.

“Baby, no wait!” Andrew called, rushing after her.

She stopped by the side of the pool and turned around.

“Cassie, I pushed away her advances. Nothing happened, I swear. She did give me some sunscreen, but I pushed her away when she started getting too physical.”

“‘Started getting too physical’?” Cassidy asked and suddenly an idea popped into her head, she tried not to show the amusement she was having on her face.

“That came out wrong, that’s not what I—” he started to say but Cassidy pushed him back and he fell backward into the pool. When he surfaced, she stood by the edge, laughing and smiling down at his wet form.

“Cassie, why are you laughing?”

“Baby, you were really scared for a moment there. You really thought I was going to leave.”

“So you aren’t mad,” he stated, pushing up on the side of the pool and getting out. He stood next to her. “You were joking with me this whole time?”

“Well, I have to admit I was pretty upset at first but then after she continued talking I realized she was just baiting me. I trust you, Andy. I know nothing happened and nothing will happen.”

“So why did you push me in?” he asked

“Well, to teach you a lesson for one and because you’re just so damn sexy when you’re wet.” She smiled flirtatiously.

“You know you’re pretty damn sexy when you’re wet too,” he said wickedly and before she had a chance to react he pulled her with him into the pool. She screamed but managed to hold her breath just before they hit the water. Andy pulled her to the surface and she wiped the water away from her face.

“I can’t believe you!” she cried. “You know I don’t like the water that much then you go and pull me in. I could have drowned! I could have—”

Andrew slammed his lips on hers and she quieted. She knew in this moment that no matter what would happen that they would last. Nothing could keep them apart and nothing would tear them apart.