James laughed.
“I feel like I should text Mason and tell him that.”
“That would be cheating on our bet. Besides, I’ve been interfering in their relationship since the very start. Let him do this his way.”
“He probably will propose there without me saying anything at all. It just makes sense. Besides, if I’ve learned anything the past couple weeks, it’s how sweet and caring Mason is. Behind that rough exterior. I still remember when I first met him. When we ran into him in that hotel. His gaze chilled me to the bone. I’m pretty sure Bee saved his soul.”
“Saved his soul?” James looked like he wanted to laugh.
“Yes. Like I saved yours.”
“Is that so?” He raised his left eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like that, James.”
“Like what?”
“You know like what. You’re in a hospital bed.”
“I’m pretty sure last time we were in a hospital bed together and the roles were reversed, I told you that I loved you for this first time. And then I made love to you.” He lightly touched my cheek. “I like that I can still make you blush.”
“I’m not blushing.” I tried to hide my smile.
“You are.” His fingers slid to my neck.
“James, you’re supposed to be resting.”
“I’m tired of resting.” His hand slid down my neck.
“The doctor hasn’t cleared you for that yet.”
“Have you asked?”
“Of course I haven’t asked.”
“You’re blushing again.” He gave me one of those smiles that instantly made me wet.
Damn it. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You’re allowed to ask when you’re allowed to make love to your husband.”
“Yeah, when we leave the hospital. You only just woke up. And you can’t even stand up without grimacing in pain.”
“I’m pretty sure that will make me feel better.”
I laughed and stood up as a someone knocked on the door of James’ room. My smile faded when someone I didn’t know walked in.
“Excuse me Mr. and Mrs. Hunter. I’m Detective Lee. I’ve been assigned to your case after the arrest of Isabella Hunter. I have a few questions for you.”
“Of course,” James said. He didn’t look like he was in nearly as much pain as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
“After yesterday’s incident and a statement from Cliff Stern, we know that Isabella impersonated your maid, Ellen Price, in order to gain access to your apartment. Rob Hunter arrived at the scene after Isabella was already inside. He was hit in the back of the head with her gun and proceeded to fall down the staircase where he struggled to get up and was then shot in the shoulder and hit again in the back of the head until he lost consciousness.”
“He was shot after he was already unconscious.”
“You were present for the shooting?”
“Yes. I already told Officer Daugherty all of this. Isabella was trying to stage a scenario that made it look like I was the one that was behind James’ shooting.”
Detective Lee scanned his notes. “Officer Daugherty must have left that out of the notes. Or maybe I’m missing a page. I’ll give him a call this afternoon. Isabella is currently being questioned by him at the precinct. For now, could you just run through said scenario again for me real quick?”
Shit. I had already told Officer Daugherty all of this. He had talked about how the scenario didn’t make any sense because they would have found out that I wasn’t pregnant during my autopsy. So I had to tell him that I was pregnant. I didn’t want James to find out like this. “Could we maybe talk in private?”
“Of course,” Detective Lee said.
“Baby, it’s okay,” James said and lightly touched my back. “I want to know what happened.”
I exhaled slowly. This didn’t really matter. Officer Daugherty already had my official statement. I wasn’t even sure why Detective Lee needed to know this. “Yeah, of course. She just wanted to make it seem like Rob and I were having an affair or something. The whole thing was ridiculous.”
“Got it,” the detective said and jotted something in his notebook. “After you left the crime scene yesterday, we located a duffle bag underneath your bed with a sniper rifle in it. There weren’t any prints on the bag or gun and the rifle wasn’t registered. Does it belong to one of you?”
“No,” James said. “I would never own a gun.”
I shook my head. “Isabella was wearing cleaning gloves. That’s probably why there weren’t any prints. She had broken into the apartment to frame me.”
“So there was no premeditation for violence?”
“No, but she didn’t hesitate at all to escalate it to that. She tried to kill both Rob Hunter and Cole Porter. And if it wasn’t for Cole, she would have killed me.”
“Okay,” he said and jotted something else into his notebook.
“She mentioned that she had a lot of connections. It made it seem like there were a lot of people working with her. And James and I both found it odd that his lawyer insisted that he had a DNR, since James is insisting that he does not. Could you look into that? Maybe he’s one of them?”
“What’s your lawyers name?”
“John Litt,” said James. “He’s a name partner at the law firm Ellis Litt. I really can’t imagine him being behind any of this.”
“But we’d appreciate you looking into it,” I said.
Detective Lee looked back and forth between us and jotted something in his notebook. “I’m going to try again to get a hold of Officer Daugherty to get the rest of the paperwork and an update on the questioning. Hopefully Isabella will be willing to cut a deal to name some of her accomplices.”
“A deal? What kind of deal?” Isabella had been right. She’d never end up in prison. We’d never be able to get away from her.
“We’ll have to see. I see the situation with Mr. Porter and Mr. Hunter as attempted murder, but there are defenses against that. Your brother, Mr. Hunter, not you Mr. Hunter.” He suddenly looked a little flustered. “We’re still trying to link her to the other crimes. Was there anything else that you forgot to mention to Officer Daugherty yesterday? Anything at all?”
I frowned. “What about the note where Isabella threatened to end James if he married me? That was a blatant threat. Isn’t that enough to prove that she tried to kill James? She even told me she tried to kill him twice.”