The Billionaire's Secret Love Child(9)

"Is everything all right, Officer?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I'm afraid I've received some bad news. It looks like your brake lines were cut. Do you know anyone who would want to hurt you?"

Cambry looked at Brooks and they both shook their heads. "No, not that I can think of," she told him.

The cop pulled a business card out of his pocket. "If you think of anyone, call me on my cell. In the meantime, we'll be considering this a homicide attempt and an investigation will be opened."

"A homicide attempt?" Cambry exclaimed, sitting up straight.

Nodding, the officer said, "I'm afraid so. Cutting someone's brake line is serious business. You're lucky you weren't injured more. Try to get some rest and I'll contact you tomorrow."

He left and Cambry took a hold of Brooks' hand. "Somebody was trying to kill me," she said, her voice shaking. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

"We'll figure this out," Brooks said calmingly. "I'll spend every minute with you until they figure it out so that you're safe. For now, just try to get some rest, okay?"

Cambry nodded and closed her eyes. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for a while, but she at least wanted to try. In the meantime, she was going to wrack her brain to figure out who it was that wanted to hurt her.





Chapter 5

The next evening, Cambry and Brooks were at his parent's house discussing plans for the wedding. Connie kept trying to get them to have a bigger reception but neither of them wanted that. She was putting together a guest list for the invitations that were to go out at the end of the week. "We'll of course be inviting Peter, Jessica, and Ashley," Connie said, writing their names down on a legal notepad.

Brooks shook his head. "Don't you think it might be a bit awkward to have the woman whom both you and her parents wanted me to marry at my wedding to another woman?"

Connie waved her hand dismissively. "Oh don't worry about that," she said. "It will be fine."

"Have you known Ashley for long?" Cambry asked as Connie left the room, muttering to herself.

Brooks nodded. "Most of my life."

"Were you two ever close?" she prompted. She had been curious about Ashley since the first time Brooks had brought her up, but he had seemed fairly reluctant to talk about her.

"Not really," he told her, looking at her out of the side of his eye. "We dated for a short time, trying to get things to work for our parents, but neither one of us were really into each other."

"Is she pretty?" Cambry asked.

Brooks laughed. "There's probably a picture of her here somewhere, if you'd like to see it. Our families often went on vacations together."

Cambry nodded eagerly so Brooks pulled a few photo albums from the book shelf in the room. He sat down on the couch with her and flipped through the first album without finding anything. The second album was much thicker and it took a moment to find a picture. "Ah, there she is," he said, pointing to a blonde-haired woman standing next to him in front of a cabin.

Cambry leaned in studying the picture. Brooks' parents were also in the picture, along with two other people that she assumed were Ashley's parents. Her eyes skimmed across them and then back to Ashley. However, she realized she recognized the man and quickly looked at him again. "Who is that?" she asked, pointing to him.

"Oh that's Ashley's Dad, Peter," Brooks told her.

Cambry's stomach dropped. She had stopped at a gas station the morning before on her way to work. She knew she had seen that man at the gas station, because when she came out with her coffee she thought she saw him quickly moving away from her car. She had assumed she was wrong and moved on, but now she wasn't so certain.

"What?" Brooks asked. He had seen her face turn pale white and was concerned.

"I saw him yesterday morning at the gas station," she said quietly. "I thought he was hanging around my car, but he moved away when I came out so I decided I was imagining things."

Brooks inhaled quickly. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Cambry nodded. "Yes. He stuck out to me because of the way he reacted."

They stared at the picture for a moment before Brooks set his jaw. "If he tried to kill you, I will kill him," he said.

Placing a hand on Brooks' shoulder, Cambry said, "Honey, calm down. You don't know that he did. And even if it was him that cut my brake line, we need to let the law take care of it. I'd rather have you around for the future of our child."

Grimly, Brooks nodded. "Okay. I'm going to call the officer we talked to in the hospital and let him know what you've just realized."



Two days after that, Cambry and Brooks heard from the policeman. "We've arrested Peter. After we questioned him, we felt like he was acting suspiciously. A judge gave us a court order to check the security cameras at the gas station that Cambry had seen him at. After reviewing the tapes, it was clear that Peter was the one who cut her brake lines. We've arrested him and charged him with attempted homicide."

"Well that's a relief," Cambry said, placing her hand on her heart. "Did he say why he wanted to get rid of me?"

She heard the policeman sigh. "These cases are always difficult, but yes, he did. He told us that he needed his daughter to marry your fiancé in order to save his family. I guess they are broke and he was hoping that her marriage to Brooks would save them. When he found out that Brooks was engaged, he thought up the plan to kill you off. Then he was going to send in his daughter to comfort Brooks and get in good with him."