by Tori Fox
When we both find our release, he collapses on top of me, his hands in my hair.
“Anna. Mayberry. I love you. Please don’t leave me like that again.”
I can’t help but laugh. He pulls away from me, a confused look on his face.
“Noah, I was leaving either way.”
“We weren’t okay when you left. We were in a fight.”
I trace my finger down his face, over his slightly crooked nose, across his lips. “Then I guess that was the make-up sex.”
I feel his dick stir as it sits inside of me. “Mayberry, that wasn’t make-up sex. That was I missed you sex. You might not be able to handle make-up sex.”
I giggle at that and his lips fall on mine.
“We need to talk, Noah. You need to explain all of this.” My tone serious as I change the subject.
He sighs and pulls out of me.
He rolls onto his back and scrubs at his face.
I prop myself up on my side, leaning on my elbow, as I pull his hands away.
He looks at me and I know from that one look I want to spend forever with this man.
“This is all a bunch of shit. And I feel like no matter what I do, I am going to lose you,” he admits.
I grab his hand as a reassurance I’m still here.
“Claire contested the divorce.”
“Now? She can’t do that.”
He shakes his head. “She contested it before the divorce was finalized.”
I scrunch my brow. “But I thought you said she never responded to anything.”
“Apparently she did.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Carson’s trying to figure it out,” he says with his eyes closed.
Something about this doesn’t feel right. “So why is she here?”
He pulls away from me and sits up, gripping the back of his neck. “She had nowhere else to go.”
“So, you decided it would be totally fine for her to stay here?” I bark.
“It wasn’t an easy decision.”
“Noah, it’s a very easy decision. No. You should have told her no.” I take a breath trying to calm the anger building inside of me. “And why didn’t you ask me? You should have called me, Noah.”
He turns to face me. “I called you, Anna. I called you a hundred times that first week you were gone. You didn’t answer one of my calls. You didn’t respond to any of my texts. What was I supposed to do?”
“You could have mentioned it in anyone of those damn texts and I would have called you,” I yell.
“Then what?” he shouts. “You would have called me? Yelled at me? Broken up with me? Anna, I already felt like I was losing you.”
I climb off the bed and head to the dresser. “I needed space Noah. But apparently you thought if I decided not to come back you would have your backup plan here.”
“She isn’t a backup plan, Anna. She is my ex-wife,” he growls.
I put on a bra and pull a shirt over my head. “Who is now living in our house!”
Noah gets up as I pull on a pair of yoga pants. “Why do you think I lock the doors? I do it so she can’t get into our space.”
I laugh at that as I storm to the closet for a pair of sandals. “She’s in our space, Noah. This whole home is our space. Or did you forget you asked me to move in with you?”
He stands in the doorway of the closet, blocking me in. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Don’t do this again, Anna. Don’t leave.”
The last two words come out as a whisper. And I almost go to hold him because I can hear the pain in his voice. But then I hear her on the stairs.
“Stud muffin? I got us some lunch. I thought we could have a picnic,” Claire singsongs from the other side of the bedroom door.
I look at Noah with disgust. “Seems she is adapting to being here just fine.”
I try to push past him but he blocks me in. “Anna.”
“Let me through, Noah.”
“She means nothing to me.”
I look up at him with venom in my eyes and voice. “Apparently neither do I.”
I duck under his arm on the doorframe and attempt to leave the room but he grabs me by the arm. “Don’t leave me again.”
I look down to where he is gripping my arm. “Let go of me.”
He must hear the bitterness in my voice because he lets me go. I grip the door handle and look back at him one last time before unlocking the door.
Claire is on the other side of the landing as I make my way to the stairs.
“Oh hi, Anna. I didn’t know you were here.” Her voice drips sarcasm.
I shoot daggers at her as I step over the discarded clothing on the stairs and head out the front door without another word.
25
Noah
I watch Anna walk out the door again and I feel like I lost her for real this time.
“Hey baby.”
The sound of Claire’s voice jolts me from my trance.
“You naked for me? I can be too.”
I grab a pair of shorts out of a drawer and slide them on. “Fuck off, Claire.”
“That’s no way to talk to your wife.”
“You’re not my wife.” I growl.
“We’ll see about that,” she retorts.
I push past her and head down the stairs and grab Brutus’ leash and my keys. I cannot be around that woman. Anna was right. I should have told her no.
I jump in my car and head to Carson’s office. It’s Saturday but that man doesn’t know how to take a day off. I need him to get this shit figured out fast.
I bring Brutus with me as we head inside. I storm past the empty reception desk and down the hall to his office.
I burst through the door. “We need to figure this shit out.”
He looks up at me, startled, from whatever he was searching through on the internet. “Christ. You could fucking knock.”
I pace the floor as Brutus plops down on the expensive carpet. “I don’t know why I listened to you. Why I let you talk me into Claire staying at my house.”
He turns away from his computer screen and looks at me. “You haven’t done your part of the plan.”
I grip the short strands of my hair. “I looked through her shit when she left the house the other day but there is nothing there.”
“What about her purse?”
“She always has it with her.”
“Even when she showers?”
I stop pacing and stare at him. “I’ve never seen her shower.” I sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Fuck. She must only do it when I’m not home. There’s got to be something in there.”
Carson stands and walks over to the credenza. He pours us each a glass of bourbon and I gladly take it. “Maybe you should go back to your house after you leave for work.”
I nod. “I can try. But I don’t know what she does when I’m not there.”
“We could send Mason.”
“I’m not pulling him into this more than he already knows.” I sip on my bourbon.
Carson stares at me like he is trying to read me. “You told Anna?”
I groan as I lean over my knees on my elbows. “Yeah. She didn’t take it too well.”
“Your ex-wife is living with you. I can’t imagine she would.”
I glare at him. “You told me to do it and you told me you would talk to Anna about it.”
“And I thought we would have this figured out before Anna came back.”
“She was supposed to be back a week ago. You know we wouldn’t have figured it out by then.”
Carson shrugs as he walks over to the window looking out onto the park behind his office. “I told her to stay longer. In Nashville. I was hoping this would all be cleared up by then.”
“You did what?” I growl.
He turns toward me, sympathy etched on his face. “I’m sorry, Noah. I didn’t want to tell you and piss you off.”
&n
bsp; “What did you tell her?”
“It’s not important,” he states.
“It’s fucking important, Car. She was already upset when she came home. And then I had to walk around the truth and all it did was piss her off more. She fucking left, Carson. She left and I don’t think she is coming back this time.”
Carson sits in the chair next to me. “I’ll make this right.”
“It’s too late,” I mumble.
I feel Carson’s hand on my shoulder as I hold back tears. I am not crying in front of him. But I feel as if my life is falling apart again. But this time it feels worse than when Claire left me.
I groan as I roll over and look for my phone.
Carson and I got shit faced after our conversation.
And it was a stupid idea because I am on-call this weekend. If I got called in last night, I could have been suspended.
“Fuck,” I groan as I look at my phone. It’s my partner. “Hello?”
“There’s been another murder.”
“Okay. Text me the address. I’ll meet you there.”
“You sound like shit.”
“I’ll be there.”
I hang up on him and grip my head. It feels like a thousand drummers in my brain, banging against my skull. I sit up and see my bedroom door is wide open. Did I forget to lock it in my drunken stumble up the stairs last night?
I rub my eyes and look around the room. Why the hell is there women’s underwear on the floor?
Footsteps sound up the stairs and Anna walks into the room. She stares at me and I stare right back. Did she come home last night?
“I just came to get some things.” She pauses. “You look like shit.”
I nod as I get out of bed. The urge to puke rising up my throat. I watch Anna as she heads toward the closet but stops in front of the panties on the ground. “What’s this?”
Fucking hell.
“What the hell, Noah? You really did decide to move on. Didn’t take long.”
That’s when I notice the bra on the floor too. Way too small to be Anna’s. “Anna, I don’t know—”
“You don’t know what happened?” She spits in my face. “Let me guess. You got drunk last night with your ex-wife and then fucked her in our bed.”
She storms into the closet and walks out with a duffel bag. She starts shoving clothes from the dresser into it. “Dammit, Noah. I just needed space. I needed to think and you do this to us.”
I can hear her voice waver as she is on the verge of tears. But I also know I would never touch my ex-wife. And I sure as hell know I didn’t have sex with anyone last night. I was too drunk for my dick to do anything. I get up and walk over to her. “Anna…”
She puts her hand in my face. “Don’t, Noah. I can’t take this again.”
I grab her despite her protests and wrap her in my arms. Her tears fall and she struggles against my arms.
“I loved you, Noah. I loved you so much.”
I don’t miss the past tense of her words. The words breaking my heart into more pieces than it was already in. “I didn’t do anything.”
She pushes off me. “The evidence says otherwise.”
Claire walks through the door wearing one of my t-shirts. She has a plate of food in her hand and a glass of orange juice. “Hey babe. Thought you would want some breakfast after last night.”
Fucking psychotic bitch.
My eyes dart to Anna who is taking in the entire scene. Her lip quivers as she picks the duffel up off the ground.
“Oh hey, Anna,” Claire says with a hint of pride in her voice. “I didn’t realize you came to get your things.”
Tears stream down Anna’s face and I try to grab her but she backs up before I can touch her. She shakes her head at me and mouths a fuck you before she takes off down the stairs.
“Anna,” I shout as I take off after her, pushing Claire out of the way. I run out into the front yard, aware I only have on boxer briefs and watch as she struggles to throw the bag in her car. “Please, listen to me.”
She slams the back door and opens the driver’s side door. “Noah, there is nothing you can say to me anymore. I’ve heard enough. I’ve seen enough.” She points toward the house. “The minute you let her walk through that door when she showed up on your doorstep was the day we were done.”
She slides into her car and slams the door. I watch her drive away until her taillights turn the corner.
“Motherfucker,” I shout as I storm back into the house.
Claire is standing in the living room, that snake-like grin on her face.
“What the fuck was that!” I yell at her.
She shrugs. “Poor timing on her part.”
“What the hell did you do, Claire?”
She grins at me. “Whatever I needed to make you mine again.”
I walk up to her and get in her face. “When are you going to realize I will never be yours?”
Her hands go to my briefs. “That’s not what you said last night.”
I push her hands off me. “Nothing happened last night. You set this whole thing up.”
“Baby, I would never do that.”
I clench my fists. “Get out of my house.”
She looks up at me and smiles.
“I mean it, Claire. I need you gone. Out. Take all your shit and leave. And get that fucking underwear you planted out of my room.”
She pouts. “But where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t fucking care!” I start to walk away.
“You’re just like him. You don’t care about me.”
I stop in my tracks and turn. “Who?”
Her eyes go big and I know she didn’t mean to say those words.
“Like who, Claire?”
She shakes her head and runs to the guest bedroom shutting the door behind her.
I can hear my phone ringing upstairs and I take the steps two at a time. Marcus called me again. I text him that I’ll be there in twenty and jump into the shower, hoping to wash away the shit show that just became my life.
Twenty-five minutes later I am standing next to Marcus at the crime scene. It looks just like the one from last week. We do our job and my headache slowly dissipates.
We head toward Marcus’ car. I had to Uber here since I left mine at Carson’s house.
“Where’s your car?” Marcus asks me.
“At my brother’s,” I answer honestly. He knows I was off my game today. And I am sure he knows I am hungover.
He nods at me. “Want a ride?”
“Sure.” I know he is going to hound me for my behavior. I just hope he doesn’t report it and get me suspended.
I give him the address to my brother’s house and he pulls out on the road. “How much did you drink last night?”
I look out the window. “Enough to not do it again.”
“I could report you. I know you weren’t drunk when you showed up but you weren’t one hundred percent.”
“I don’t usually drink like that. It won’t happen again.”
“What’s going on, man? You were great your first month. But these last few weeks it’s like a whole other person is my partner.”
I sigh as I hear it. I was hoping I had managed to keep up my appearances.
“And in case you are wondering, no one else has noticed. Just me.”
I breathe a sigh of relief at that.
“I know we don’t know each other all that well. We’ve only been partners a handful of weeks but I see this as a long relationship. I don’t see either of us quitting anytime soon. So whatever is going on in your head or your life, you can tell me. That’s the benefit of a partner.”
I know he’s right. My first partner I was close as hell with before he retired. He helped me get through Claire leaving me and the divorce. Niko and I hit it off from the beginning. But for some reason I have kept all this shit under lock and key this time.
“Everything okay with you and Anna?” Marcus asks me.
I clench my jaw as
this morning plays on repeat in my head. I can feel Marcus looking at me. I might as well tell him. “No.”
“You two looked chummy has hell that day at Jimmy’s.”
“Things changed,” I mumble, my head turning back to look out the window.
“As in?”
“My ex-wife showed up on my doorstep.”
“Oh,” Marcus says flatly.
“And she claims our divorce is false and is trying to win me back. Of course, she was dismissive and horrible toward Anna. And I didn’t defend her.”
“Bad move.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah I know that now. We got into a fight and then she left for Nashville.” I pause before I say the worst of it all. “And then me being the guy I am let Claire, my ex, stay in my guest room when she came crawling back to me and said she had nowhere to go.”
“Another bad move.”
“I know. And I didn’t tell Anna. Not until the night before she came back. Of course, she came back and we got into another huge fight. Then this morning she came home to pack a bag and Claire staged a whole scene that makes me think I lost Anna for good.”
Marcus looks over at me. “Do I even want to know?”
I shrug. “I got shit-faced with my brother last night even though I knew I shouldn’t but all this stuff was pissing me the hell off. I’ve been keeping my bedroom door locked but I passed out last night. Claire threw underwear on the floor of my room. I don’t know how she knew Anna was stopping by or maybe it was just luck she did and Claire wanted me to think something happened between us. Anyway, Claire walks into the room in one of my shirts, nothing else, and starts making comments about last night being fun.”
“Ouch.”
I rub my hand through my hair. “Yeah, so now I feel fucked.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“The worst part is my brother convinced me to let Claire stay with me. It wasn’t my idea and now it’s biting me in the ass.”
“Why would your brother do that?”
“He wants to see if I can dig up dirt on her.”
“Why does she say the divorce isn’t valid?”
“When she left me, no one could find her. It took a year before my brother’s P.I. found her in New Jersey. He tried to get her to sign papers for six months and not once did she respond. The judge filed the divorce. And now she is saying she did sign papers contesting the divorce but we never got them.” I am not telling him Carson is a corrupt asshat who hid them.