I laughed. "What about my ultimatum? Don't you want to teach again? You don't even have to sell your company. You just need to find someone else to run it. Maybe unload some of the stress?"
He smiled up at me. "You think I'm stressed out too? Rob was just telling me that the other day. Maybe I should just retire and we can move to the country."
"Maybe." Despite what he thought, I didn't save him. Becoming a professor did. And as his soon-to-be wife, I'd do anything I could to ensure that he was happy. "You can retire if you want, but I want you to consider teaching again. Besides, you'd be bored out of your mind if you didn't do anything at all."
"I didn't say I wouldn't be doing anything." His hand slid up my thigh.
"James!" I laughed. "I just want you to think about it."
"Okay. I'll consider teaching again. Will you accept those conditions?"
"Conditions accepted." I stuck out my hand for him.
"Oh, I have a better way to acknowledge our deal." He pulled me against him as he rolled over, pressing my back against the mattress.
This is so much better.
Chapter 6
Friday
James drove straight instead of turning right toward our apartment. The whole drive back to New York had been fun and relaxing. We had so desperately needed some alone time. And now I felt closer to him than ever. He had finally opened up to me about his worries and fears. I was so in love with him. Maybe he didn't want this car ride to end either. He made another turn, in the opposite direction of our apartment.
"Where are we going?"
"The police station."
"Why?"
He glanced at me for a second and then back at the road. "Blackmail is a felony, Penny. I'm not letting this go."
"You're going to report it to the police?"
"Of course I am. I'm sick of dealing with her shit. I told her to leave us alone. I gave her fair warning."
"James, I don't even know if there is any evidence of her blackmailing us. The money was sent to Tyler, not her. I feel like she was careful about covering her tracks."
"So they'll call Tyler about it."
"No, I mean, there's no evidence that she was even the one that sent it there. Yes, I was getting text messages from her, but it was from a restricted number. They might not be able to trace it."
"Her handwriting was on the pictures and notes she sent you too."
"Maybe. Or maybe someone was helping her."
"Well, that's what the police are supposed to find out. She should go to prison for this. It's not like 20 million dollars is a petty crime. I don't care about the money, but I'm not just letting this go. And we can at least file a restraining order while we're there. I'm not going to risk her showing up to our wedding. Not after all this."
"You think she'd try to stop it?"
"I think that's all she's been trying to do. She can't accept that I'm happy with someone that's not her." James pulled to a stop outside of the precinct. "I think maybe you were right when you called her a psychopath."
I laughed, but stopped when he didn't even so much as smile. "I don't think she'd ever try to hurt us or anything though. Right?"
"Well, I never would have thought she'd blackmail me either."
"James, technically you blackmailed her in order to get her to sign the divorce papers. Maybe she was just returning the favor. What if she gets arrested and brings that up?"
"A one minute conversation where I never even exchanged anything with her won't hold up in court. Besides, what she got from that conversation was half my money. And there isn't a shred of evidence anyway."
"There were photos..."
"Penny. I took care of that. Let me take care of this too."
"When I talked to your parents, they said they'd handle this. Maybe you should check with them first. Maybe they already filed a complaint."
"A complaint?" He laughed. "They invited her to our engagement party. As far as I'm concerned they're just as much to blame." He climbed out of the car and slammed the door.
I quickly climbed out of the passenger's side. "James, your parents seemed sorry about that. Especially your father. You should call them."
"Penny, Isabella tortured you for a week. She tried to break us up. She threatened you. She stole our money. Those are crimes. She doesn't deserve to be out there walking the streets. You said yourself that she had a backup plan when her original pictures and notes didn't work. What if she's planning something else? I won't have peace of mind until she's behind bars."
"Okay. If you think we should, then let's do it."
He grabbed my hand. "You seem like you're scared to go in there."
"A little nervous, maybe. I've never even been pulled over before. "I'm awkward around authority figures."
James laughed. "Oh, is that why we ended up together? Maybe I shouldn't let you in there then."
"No. That was different." I shoved his arm playfully. "I mean law enforcement. Those detectives that questioned us at the University of New Castle really knew how to crawl under my skin."
"You have nothing to worry about. Like you said, you've never even been pulled over for speeding. Which is great, because I have a terrible record. They'll trust your word more than mine."
"I didn't even think about that."
He pulled me toward the front doors. As soon as we stepped inside, the air turned stale. It didn't look anything like it did in shows and movies. No one was jumping up to talk to us, eager to close a case. There was a large desk where officers sat behind glass and their eyes were glued to their computer screens. I couldn't help but think that the glass they were behind was bullet proof. It made me glance over at the people sitting in waiting chairs. They looked harmless enough. One of them was clearly homeless. Well, at least the police officers were nice, letting him stay here like this. It was so hot in New York in the summer and it was definitely cooler in here.
I heard a fly and glanced toward my right. I grabbed James' arm. "Oh my God, there's blood on the floor," I hissed.
James laughed. "I'm pretty sure that's soda. Probably. Come on."
My eyes stayed glued on the spot as we approached the desk.
"Good afternoon officers, we'd like to report a crime," James said calmly.
The woman on the computer didn't look at us. "Is anyone dead or in immediate danger?" she asked as she typed something on her keyboard.
"Not yet," James said.
I elbowed him in the ribs at his joke. "Not funny," I mouthed silently.
The woman paused and looked up at us. "If you could please fill out this form," she said and shoved a clipboard under a small slot in the glass partition. "We'll be with your shortly."
"Thank you," I said.
James lifted up the pen and quickly filled out the information as I tried not to stare at the blood stain. He pushed the clipboard back through the slot and we walked over toward the seating area. Before we even had a chance to sit down, we heard a beeping noise. I looked over my shoulder at an officer who had just opened up a door.