Chapter Eighteen
“Kiara, if you have some free time from day-dreaming, table number four is waiting for you to take their order.” The restaurant manager, Colin, whispered to me. I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard his voice.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, and walked towards the group waiting to place their order. I walked back to the soda dispenser and filled a tall glass of coke and ice when I noticed Colin’s eyes assessing me. He gave me an apprehensive smile and continued with his work.
If anything, I knew I was going to be fired pretty soon.
The clock ticked to ten pm, and I was almost done with my shift. There wasn’t anything else waiting for me at home other than the suffocating silence, so I decided to help Colin with the cleaning duties.
He was cleaning a table that some patrons had just vacated. I offered to help him clean the mess. “I’ll take it from here,” I said, taking the rag from him. “You can take care of other things. Chloe already left.”
Colin was a nice guy. He was sweet and kind of naïve to believe a sob story I’d fed him when I applied for the job. Calling it applied would be the understatement of the year. I’d literally walked into the diner and begged him to give me a chance. And now that he had, I spent most of my time staring into spaces than working my ass off.
“Are you alright?” He surprised me with that question.
“Yeah.” I passed him a smile; one that I knew did not reach my eyes.
He nodded. “You should know, Kiara, that if you need anything, I can help. But I need to know exactly what is going on in your mind.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t as naïve as I thought he was.
I wasn’t sure he would understand, and I didn’t think I even wanted him to understand. Was I supposed to tell him that my own mother had sold me to a wealthy man for her ticket to a luxurious lifestyle? Or, was I supposed to tell him that I was on the run from the same man for over a month, and that I may have lucked out?
Jasper hadn’t found me yet for two weeks. Either he hadn’t been able to trace my location, or he’d totally given up on me and was out there targeting other women. If that was true, I wondered if Mom was back in the old rundown house; if he had stripped her of the wealth.
The thought of him with other women repulsed me. These feelings that I had for him wouldn’t fade away. You couldn’t just turn off all your feelings, and start hating someone all of a sudden.
Yes, Jasper was selfish, and yes, he was unpredictable, overbearing, and self-centered, but there were also so many good sides of him-the part where he fought that man for trying to hurt me in the alley, when he helped me during my most desperate times by stopping me from making a fool out of myself in a strip-bar, those moments when he’d looked at me like there was no better woman than me. When I was alone in my room, all these thoughts haunted me and kept me awake in bed.
I often woke up in bed thinking I was still in his house and would be turned on by the thought of him. I imagined his seductive mouth moving against mine and that expert tongue of his suckling against my core. It was just too much, and I missed him more than I wanted to admit to myself. When I finished taking care of myself, I would become utterly ashamed at how my heart was betraying my mind.
It was hard to forget Jasper Lockhart.
I lied to Colin about everything. I’d told him that my parents were dead; I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and I needed a job and a place to live desperately. I felt guilty for lying, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I was so shaken by the whole thing that I often spaced out. I lived in constant fear that Jasper was going to come after me. A part of me wanted him to and another part of me didn’t. At one point, my entire world revolved around his axis.
“Colin, I just want to thank you for everything that you have done for me. I really appreciate it,” I said sincerely. If Colin hadn’t helped me out, I’d probably be homeless.
Colin knew better than to press me further, so he walked back into the kitchen. I cleaned up the mess, got changed out of my work clothes, and walked out of the restaurant back door into the breezy cool air. I lived in a small studio apartment just above the diner. It was actually Colin’s old apartment that had been locked up and collecting dust, so he thought it was a suitable place for me to live in.
I’d initially planned on moving to my grandpa’s farm and that’s where I told Dale to drop me off the night I’d escaped after the act. The house was small amid a sea of cornfields. It was an old house that looked like it had been featured in one of Hollywood’s horror movies; infested with cobwebs and a thick layer of dust. I knew it was still better than staying at Jasper’s and feeling like I was his plaything.
The problem was that I didn’t have the key, and I was in no position to knock at the neighbor’s door for help. So I slept the night in the empty shed by the back of the house and took a bus to nowhere.
I had little money that Amy and Dale both had given me and a pair of earrings which I’d acquired from Jasper’s that I saved for later. I dropped down on the last station the bus took, and walked into the first restaurant that I laid eyes on.
I quickly changed into my pajamas, fixed myself a glass of milk and settled down on my comfy bed.
I wondered for how long I was going to be able to live like this.
***
Jasper
I ran my fingers across the keys of the piano and played a piece by Beethoven. I won awards for playing this during the various competitions I’d taken part in. Never had I been interested in playing the piano, but it was something I did to impress my father to no avail. I eventually enjoyed playing it.
I’d always been the son of a mistress; a woman that my father had taken under his wing as a housemaid for the mansion, the woman who kept him satisfied while his wife was away doing charity functions.
And then one day the maid told him she was pregnant with his love child. My mother was under the false belief that the man loved her, but she was dismissed into the servant’s quarters where I was raised. My father’s sorry excuse for a wife, Faith Lockhart found out about it, because it was hard not to notice the child’s striking similarities to the imposing man. Faith Lockhart used to hit me with a stick as a form of punishment for things I hadn’t done, mistakes that I never made. She hit me until my back was tattooed with scars that I carried to this day.
Funny thing was that bitch would always miscarry her children. I guess that was karma for the things she put me through at the age of four. So my father gave up and made an agreement with my birth mother. She was to never call me as her own, and I was handed over to my step-mom who did continue with the abuse out of jealousy.
I was five when she got pregnant, (a miracle) and a baby boy was born whom I was accustomed to hating. Vincent thought he was the rightful heir to this property, only I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Nobody took what was rightfully mine.
So I did what I had to do. I competed with my younger brother, and finally drove him away. Being the first-born, I had the right over everything. The Lockhart’s Enterprise would have been in a shamble if it hadn’t been for me bringing it back up from the ruins. I had the right over everything. After the death of my father and step-mother, it was just me and my mother in the house while Vincent went to a medical college to be a neurosurgeon. My mother insisted that things should remain the same, and that it wasn’t her place to have any right over the house.
For years, I’d tried to cut out all the memories of abuse from the hands of my step-mom by taking in girls that I liked, but they never helped with my pain.
And then there was Kiara-sweet, beautiful, Kiara Reeves-who somehow broke down the walls of my heart. I thought she was here to stay. She said she loved me. I knew she wasn’t faking the moans of pleasure as she wiggled under me in bed. Women always wanted more. Kiara wasn’t a gold-digger by a long shot; the diamond necklace that I’d gifted her was left in her bedroom on the dresser, and that was proof enough. It also meant tha
t she’d planned on leaving the same day as Lucas party. The box came with a note in her loopy-cursive handwriting.
Dear Jasper,
You may find this letter when I’m long gone. I feel like a complete idiot writing this letter because this is a little too old fashioned, isn’t it? But, I’m writing you this because I never got a chance to tell you how I really feel.
I love you, and it will never change. I’ve loved you since the day we first met in the alley, and as we spent time with each other, my feelings for you kept growing until I didn’t even recognize myself. This is not me, Jasper. I’ve never asked for diamonds, or fast cars or expensive things. All I ever wanted was You. I don’t expect you to love me back, but I also can’t let you treat me the way you’ve been lately. I respect you, and in return, I want to be treated with respect. I have these uncontrollable feelings, and the more I live with you, the more my heart breaks, thinking that we could never have a future together. I sound pathetic, and no matter how hard this is going to be, I have to go.
I understand that you’re not a normal man, although I don’t know what you are exactly. I sympathize with you. I love you for the man that you are.
After much thought, I’ve taken this decision to leave. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me from the bottom of my heart.
Yours,
Kiara.
I noticed the little dried blotches on the paper at the end of the letter, and realized she’d been crying while she wrote it. I read the letter over a dozen times. The mind-blowing sex, the billionaire life…it wasn’t enough for her, and I knew what she wanted, it was pretty apparent in the letter.
Kiara wanted me to love her.
It was the one thing that I couldn’t give to her, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. I knew I was different, my mother kept telling me that. I had consumed a lot of alcohol so my head felt fuzzy, but my fingers continued to assault the piano. Drops of blood trailed down my fingers and stained the white keys.
“Jasper, honey, that’s enough!”
I ignored the voice and stopped playing the piano. I smacked myself hard on the right cheek.
That’s for trusting Lucas.
I smacked my left cheek.
That’s for losing Kiara.
I smacked my right cheek again.
That’s for still wanting to be with her.
My mother, Margret, placed her hand on my shoulder. “Stop punishing yourself.”
I smacked her hand away, but she pulled me close, and I felt her fingers running through my hair. “What’s so special about that girl?”
“I don’t know, Mom. I just want her,” I admitted.
There were a lot of other women I knew who would throw themselves at me. I just needed to throw them a bone. They’d even kill to be my woman, and I’d given Kiara that chance, but she ruined everything. I always got what I wanted, and I wasn’t going to stop now.
Kiara was mine, and I wasn’t going to have it any other way.
I’d looked everywhere for her. I’d even checked at her grandfather’s farm and every possible place I thought I could find her, but I came up empty. This wasn’t a good sign. It only meant she was laying low in some other town.
I would go into the pits of hell to find her if that’s what it took.
Kiara, you better be ready because I’m coming for you.
PART TWO
Chapter Nineteen
Kiara
Four Months Later
It’s almost been four months since I’d last seen or heard from my mother. I hadn’t even contacted my old friend, Kathy, because I didn’t want to involve her into my problems. It was also four months since I last saw or heard from Jasper.
And I would be kidding if I said I didn’t miss him.
Although the man was borderline crazy, I knew there was a part of him that fought to resurface, like the nice guy inside him which I’d seen on several occasions. He was a good listener, and I’d enjoyed our little chats during the evening. It was just that he acted strange sometimes. Indifferent. That was the only part I hated about him, and that drove me away.
The next morning, I spent a disturbing amount of time staring at the diamond studded platinum earrings that I’d been wearing on the night I escaped from Lucas house. I was in dire need of cash because even after all the savings, I didn’t have much left. Although Colin sometimes gave me an advanced paycheck, it just wasn’t enough to cover my other expenses. So I decided to sell the expensive pair of earrings that I knew would at least show me good days, at least for a while.
When I went to the shop to sell them and the sales guy inspected the earrings, I noticed that he assessed me with a wary look. I knew that look. He was probably wondering what a shabby girl like me in a cheap suit was doing with an expensive pair of earrings. He told me the price he was willing to pay for it. I pushed him some more, but he was adamant on the given price. So I decided to take what I could get. I had to literally put a rock on my heart before I traded the pair for the money because the earrings were gorgeous, and I knew that I would never be able to afford them in future. I felt like I’d stolen from Jasper. But I guess if I made enough money I could pay him back somehow.
By the time I was back at the restaurant, it was already past six pm, and hidden under my cushion was an envelope filled with cash that could sustain me for months if I used it wisely.
It was almost closing time when the bell dinged which meant another customer had walked into the diner. Colin patted my back. “Chloe will take the order.”
I’d forgotten to turn the Open sign to Closed. So now we would have to tend to the customer because Colin didn’t like to send away a waiting customer.
Chloe placed the order at the kitchen. It was the weekend special-Fish & Chips with tartar sauce and a side dish of Caesar salad.
“Here. Order for table number three.” Colin handed me the tray of food, “This is the last order. Would you please turn the sign on the door for me?”
“Sure.”
I walked out of the kitchen, towards the table. “Here you go...”
I stopped short when I first noticed the familiar shiny shoes. My eyes then traveled up towards the face of the man seated in the booth. My breath hitched in my throat. I didn’t know how long I was shell-shocked because I think I heard Colin call out my name. My hands shook, and the tray of food crashed and shattered on the floor.
I took a step back, then another and dashed into the kitchen and collapsed on the floor by the counter.
Those blue eyes curiously assessed me. He seemed shocked to see me the same way I was, and I wondered how that was possible. It’s been four months since I last saw him. His once clean-shaven face had slight stubble and his usual short brown hair had grown longer. He looked different, but I could never forget that face.
I covered my mouth with my hands and cried. At one point, Colin was kneeling down next to me, whispering something, but I couldn’t hear him because my mind had wandered to the man in the booth.
There was no mistaking who it was. It was Jasper Lockhart.
“I...I can’t go out there,” I told Colin.
Colin looked concerned and didn’t seem furious about the wasted food. “Who is he, Kiara?”
“Ex-boyfriend,” I said. It wasn’t a lie basically because that’s what people thought of our relationship.
Colin nodded. “Stay put. I’ll handle him.”
I caught his hand. “No. Please. Don’t say anything to him. He is... he is very dangerous.”
Colin chuckled. “I may look like this, but I can fight, babe.”
I shook my head. If the guy had a gun which I’m sure he did, Colin’s fighting would be useless, and Jasper was a Karate black-belt, Colin didn’t stand a chance.
“Just keep him busy. I’m going to sneak out of the back door,” I whispered.
”Okay,” he said.
“Colin.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned to face me.
“I will tell you everything tonight, but please be careful.”
He nodded, and I watched Colin make his way out of the kitchen. When I was sure he was already out tending to him, I picked up my bag and made my way towards the staff back door. I heard Colin calling out to me which was when I knew I had made the wrong decision.
I walked out of the diner, and that’s when a tall dark shadow who was leaning his back against the wall stepped into the street light.
“Kiara.” That icy voice called out to me.
I was breathing heavily.
He reached out towards me but I took a step back.
I knew I was trapped. There was no way out now.
A shudder ran down my body as Jasper watched me intently. I folded my arms across my chest as if that was some kind of a shield to protect me against him. I tried to stand tall, act confident but I felt my resolve slipping away slowly.
His hand rose towards me. I flinched and backed away. Jasper’s hand fell to his side, his expression wounded. “How are you doing, Kiara?”
“I’m fine,” I replied. “What do you…what do you want?”
”Do you work here?” he pressed.
Was Jasper back because he wanted me to come back to his house and repay our debt in other ways again?
“You didn’t answer my question, Jasper. I asked what you want.”
I thought I saw his jaw harden, but I couldn’t be sure because it was dark. If he decided to drug me and kidnap me, it wouldn’t be very hard, but so far, he hadn’t made a move. I had the mace spray in my bag just in case.
I noticed Colin watching us from the kitchen window. He wasn’t spying on us but checking to make sure we were fine. He was probably chalking this up as another common breakup between couples; ex-boyfriend showing up at girl’s work, convincing her to take him back, blah blah blah. I wished it was that simple.
I shifted from one foot to another. “Why are you here?”
Psycho Billionaire: A Dark Romance Page 13