Love in the Dark

by 12 Book Boxed Set (epub)

  “Oh we can, can we?”

  “Piper, I know he’s an asshole and perhaps a murderer or a kidnapper or a sex trafficker, but—”

  “But?” I laughed disbelievingly at her words. “Aren’t any of those things scary enough? You still want me to meet up with him?”

  “We can find out the answers.” She stared into my eyes. “This is important.”

  “I don’t need any answers. I don’t even know who Radley is. I never heard of him before the other day. And if this is the only way I will get to learn more about him, then I don’t want to know.”

  “You said you wanted to get to the bottom of this.” Alexa made a face. “Come on, Piper.”

  “Why do you care so much?” I looked at my best friend and she looked away nervously. “What’s going on here, Alexa. What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nothing.” She jumped up off the couch. “I’m going to get a shower.”

  “Alexa!”

  She stopped to look back at me, emotion written all over her face. Why was this affecting her so much?

  “You know you can trust me with anything, right? I won’t judge you and I won’t ever be mad at anything.”

  Her eyes crinkled, and she smiled at me. “I know, girl. I know.” She wavered for a second and then sighed. “Look, there is more. I can’t tell you now, but I will when I can. I promise.”

  “I’m meeting him tomorrow. For a drink.” I bit down on my lower lip. “I didn’t say yes for the story, though. I want to see him. I want to know why—well, you know.”

  “Are you falling for him, Piper?” Alexa’s expression changed to one of worry. “I know you fall fast, but you know you don’t even know him, right? He’s an actor. Just because we’ve seen his movies doesn’t mean we know him.”

  “I know I don’t know him.” I wrinkled my nose and sighed. “But we had a moment. I really felt like we had a moment. I guess I was just imagining it.”

  “Maybe not. He does want to see you again. Maybe there’s something there.” She came back toward me. “Don’t fall for him, Piper. We can scratch everything if you think you’re going to fall for him. This whole thing isn’t worth breaking your heart.”

  “We only had sex. It was a one-night stand. We didn’t promise undying love to each other. I never thought I’d see him again.”

  “I know.” She nodded and gave me a quick hug. “Just be careful. And meet him in a public place.”

  “What exactly do you want me to find out?” I asked her softly, thinking back to our meeting in Starbucks earlier. She’d been so eager to show me the article and the photo of a young Zach and Jackson. I was surprised that no one had recognized them in the photo, but it seemed like the story had never been syndicated and gone national. If Alexa hadn’t gotten the Orlando Sentinel for her research, we never would have known, either.

  But really, what did we know? We knew that the two men had been friends with a missing man. We knew that someone had left a weird comment under an article about Zach dating someone. And that someone had inferred that Zach had been responsible for someone going missing, which may or may not have had something to do with Radley Markham’s disappearance. Neither Alexa nor I had been able to find out much information about Radley Markham, either. It was all quite suspicious, but it wasn’t really my business.

  And, well, I didn’t think that Zach could be involved in something nefarious. Granted, I didn’t know him well, but I felt like I’d connected with him. Under other circumstances, I could have seen myself dating him. I didn’t understand why he wanted to meet up with me and talk so badly, though. What did he care if I thought he was an asshole? He had been an asshole. What sort of gentleman threw money at a woman?

  I sat at the back of Kells, an Irish pub in the financial district of San Francisco, and sipped on a glass of water while watching a baseball game on the screen opposite from me. I tried breathing deeply to control my nerves and deliberately stopped myself from looking at the entrance. Zach was five minutes late and my anxiety was at an all-time high. Was he going to stand me up? After practically begging me to meet him and then texting back and forth with me all day, was he going to just stand me up? For some reason, this made me inexplicably upset. I took another sip of water. I’d give him ten more minutes and then I would leave.

  “Do you think it’s possible to ever have a second first impression of someone?”

  I looked up to see that Zach was standing in front of me with a pair of aviators on. He pulled them off and his blue eyes pierced into mine. He grabbed the chair and sat down with aplomb, giving me a wide smile. “Sorry I’m late, Piper, I’d forgotten how bad the traffic is in the Bay Area.”

  “You live in LA.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “The traffic is way worse in LA.”

  “True, but I know that I so always leave thirty minutes earlier back home. That was my indirect way of saying that I regret being late. Well, maybe not so indirect because I did start off saying I was sorry.”

  “Hi, Zach.” I gave him a small smile. “It’s fine.”

  “Knock knock.”

  “What?”

  “Knock knock.” He gave me a knowing look.

  “Who’s there?” I asked reluctantly.

  “Amos.”

  “Amos who?”

  “A mosquito just bit me.” He grinned, but I didn’t respond. “Knock knock,” he said again.

  “Really?”

  “Knock knock.”

  “Who’s there?” I rolled my eyes.

  “Andy.”

  “Andy who?”

  “And he just bit me again.” He laughed this time and leaned forward across the cedarwood table.

  “Funny,” I said with a small smile.

  “I’d rather it was you, though.”

  “You’d rather what was me?”

  “I’d rather it was you that had bitten me twice. Even one time would do. Or three. Or ten.” He winked at me and I just shook my head at him, even though my insides were warming up.

  “No disguise today, Jethro?”

  “The aviators are enough.” He shrugged. “Everyone in SF is too cool for school, no one cares about me.”

  “I don’t know about that. There are a lot of rich people, but they’re nerds. Trust me, they care.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing I had a driver drop me off right outside the door. Cool bar. Do you come here often?”

  “That sounds like a pickup line.”

  “Maybe I'm trying to pick you up, hmm? Have you considered that?”

  “Can you pick someone up that you’ve already had sex with?” I laughed then and he grabbed my hands and squeezed my fingers.

  “Thanks for meeting up with me. I’m sorry for how I ended things.”

  “You mean throwing two thousand dollars at me?” I gave him my angriest stare.

  “Yes.” He sighed deeply. “That wasn’t my proudest moment.”

  “I agree. I’m worth a lot more than two thousand dollars,” I said with a small wink and he dropped my hands and leaned back and started laughing harder than I’d seen him laugh before. “What’s so funny? You don’t think I’m worth more?”

  “I’m not laughing at you. I think you’re worth way more than two thousand dollars. I’m just surprised that you’re even talking to me and joking with me. I didn’t expect you to be so nice.”

  “Nice? Is that a word that means anything?” I said, but I knew what he meant. I had surprised myself as well. I hadn’t planned on even smiling at him.

  “Hey, I’m Sarah. Did you guys have a chance to look at the menus yet or do you need a minute?”

  “Can we have a moment?” I said with a small smile. She nodded and backed away. “Do you want to get a drink?”

  “I do. Is the food here good?”

  “As good as you can get at an Irish Pub that’s not in Ireland.”

  “What are you getting to eat?”

  “Is that really what you came here to talk about, Zach?” I folded my hands and leaned
forward on the table. I wasn’t going to let him flirt his way out of this one. Something about him just made me enjoy being around him. I felt a lightness when I was with him that I hadn’t felt in years, and that scared me. I didn’t like someone having power over me like that, especially him. He had too much power to hurt me, he already had, and I didn’t want to be hurt anymore. I had way too much going on in my life for that.

  “No.” he stood up and then he got down on his knees and stared up at me. My heart was thudding now, racing so fast that I thought that I was going to have a heart attack. There was no way that he was going to propose, was there? Oh God, I could feel myself starting to panic. What if he proposed? I mean he was an actor. Didn’t they call it Hollyweird? Didn’t actors get married really quickly sometimes?

  “Zach, I uh, I—”

  “Piper, will you—”

  “No, I can’t, Zach. This is way too much too fast. We seriously do not even know each other.”

  “What?” He blinked up at me, looking confused, and then he started laughing. “Oh no, did you think I was about to propose?”

  “Weren’t you?”

  “Nooo, I was just asking you to forgive me in the most dramatic way known to man.” He jumped up to his feet; a huge smile on his face. “But it’s good to know that you weren’t going to say yes.”

  “Who would say yes in this position?”

  “A gold digger.” He held his hands up. “Not that I’m calling you a gold digger. I’m just saying that a gold digger would have been all up on me …” He stopped talking then and just made a face. “I’m not making it better, am I?”

  “You’re not making it worse,” I said wryly.

  “I’m on the bottom rung already, huh?”

  “No, not really.” I shrugged, not wanting to smile, but not being able to stop myself. “To be honest—”

  But before I could finish my sentence, three women approached the table, talking loudly.

  “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, is that you, Oracle Lion? Oh my gosh, Joanie, it’s Oracle Lion.” A lady with short dark hair and a Green Bay Packers sweater started squealing as she interrupted my conversation with Zach. “We love you, Oracle! We love the Babymaker movies. Oh my gosh, you’re so hot.”

  She was giggling as she talked to him and the other two women were staring at each other with gobsmacked expressions while reaching for their cell phones.

  “Hi, Oracle, I’m Katie, Katie Jones. We’re here in San Fran visiting from Wisconsin. This is my sister, Joanie, and that’s my friend Mickey. She’s the one that was just talking to you. Can we get your autograph? We are legit your biggest fans.”

  I stared at the conversation in amusement. Zach didn’t look fazed in the least, and I imagined that this was what he had to deal with on a daily basis. No wonder he’d been dressed up in the cupcake store that first day I’d met him.

  “Hi, Oracle, I’m Joanie, Joanie Jones.” The last girl spoke in a breathy voice and I watched as she touched him on the shoulder. She was very pretty, with long blond hair and a short white dress on. She looked to be about twenty-two, and I was very jealous when I noticed the way that Zach was smiling back at her. I recognized that smile. He’d given me the same smile a couple of times when he was trying to charm me.

  “Nice to make your acquaintance, ladies, I’m Oracle Lion.” He winked at them, and they all practically swooned. “Would you like a drink? It’s the least I could do for three Wisconsin women. I’m going to guess you pretty ladies would all like a beer?”

  He stood up then and gave me a little shrug before turning his attention back to them. I sat there feeling uncomfortable and foolish. Just a minute ago, I’d been joking around and contemplating sleeping with him again, already having forgotten how rude he’d been to me and the questions Alexa wanted me to ask him, and now he was flirting it up with a bunch of skanks who hadn’t even had the courtesy to acknowledge me at all. Granted, I knew that they couldn’t care less about me, and Zach had to be friendly to his fans, but for him to be so dismissive of me and to offer them a drink? Hell no! I wasn’t putting up with that.

  I’d given him a second chance and he had blown it once again. I watched Oracle and the ladies walk to the bar, and then I stood up and left. I wondered how long it would take for Oracle to realize that I’d gone.

  15

  Zach

  * * *

  “Oracle Lion, will you sign an autograph for me?” One of my fans pushed her breasts up against my arm and batted her eyelashes up at me.

  “Sure, what’s your name, sweetie?”

  “I already told you, it’s Joanie.” She pouted, and I chuckled as her name left my brain again. I waited for the bartender to bring over the three beers and it suddenly struck me that I hadn’t asked Piper what she wanted to drink. I looked toward the table to call her over to the bar, but the table was empty. I frowned and took a step forward to look around the bar. Maybe she’d changed tables. I still couldn’t see her, though. I walked over to the table we’d been sitting at but there was nothing there except her empty water glass.

  “Oracle, what are you doing?” The three girls followed me back to the table, each one holding a beer in her hand. “Joanie just ordered us shots of whiskey.” They stopped next to me, but my attention was not on them at all. I looked around the bar, my heart racing, and tried to figure out where Piper had gone.

  “The girl you were here with left, mate,” one of the guys that had been seated at the table next to us called out. “You showed up late and then left with three other women, I think she’s had enough.”

  “Thanks.” I pursed my lips and sighed. Why had Piper just left? This was my life. I had to be nice to fans. Didn’t she understand that? Every other woman I’d gone out with had understood and known to just take care of themselves when situations like this happened. I pulled out my phone and was about to text Piper when I changed my mind and called her. This was a time when a call was needed over a text.

  The phone rang and rang and went to voicemail and I let out a huge sigh as I hung up and rushed to the front of the bar and the street to see if I could find Piper outside. Maybe she’d just been trying to make a statement. She wouldn’t have actually left, would she?

  “Want to come back to our hotel, Oracle?” One of the women had followed me and was now whispering in my ear, and I shook my head. “I’ve heard you’re a wild boy. Why don’t you show us?”

  “Not tonight.” I dialed Piper’s number again and started pacing back and forth.

  “Watch where you’re going, asshole!” a man shouted through a car window as he slowed down next to me. “I nearly ran over your foot.”

  I looked up at him in surprise, not having realized I had walked into the road. “Sor—” I started to say, but he drove off before I could finish.

  I walked back to the pavement and took a seat at one of the small round tables outside the pub. The woman who had whispered in my ear hovered near me but I just completely ignored her. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. How could Piper just leave? She hadn’t even said goodbye. I called her number again and clenched the phone tightly.

  “Stop calling me!” she snapped.

  I breathed a sigh of relief that at least she’d answered. There was no way I was leaving San Francisco without having a real conversation with her.

  “You just left,” I said accusingly. “How could you do that?”

  “Actually, I think you’re the one who just left,” she retorted. “We were sitting at a table chatting and you just got up and left me.”

  “I was just trying to be nice to fans. That’s a part of my job.”

  “That’s good for you, but you already disrespected my time when you showed up late. I wasn’t about to just sit there and wait for you to return to me when you were done flirting up a storm.”

  “No one else I know has a problem with me being friendly to fans.”

  “Don’t try and twist this, Zach, or should I say, Oracle Lion.” She took a deep breath.
“Look, whatever. You have to do you, but I don’t have to stick around and be a witness to that. I have a life.”

  “Don’t hang up, please,” I said, trying to process what she’d said.

  Didn’t she know that I was the Oracle Lion? That I had duties to my fans? Why couldn’t she just accept that? No other woman had ever complained to me, let alone walked out. But for some strange reason that made me like her more.

  “I didn’t intend to be rude. I’m sorry. I was lucky that you even agreed to meet up with me again, I know that.”

  “Yeah, well, it seems like you don’t intend to be rude a lot. But almost every time I’ve met you, you’ve been rude as hell.”

  “Not in the cupcake shop, though.”

  “Yeah, maybe not there.” She sighed. “Look, I gotta go. I’m hungry, and I need to find something to eat.”

  “Can I buy you dinner and we can talk about your historical romance book and what you’re working on now?”

  “Why did you even read the book?” She sounded nonplussed. “Doesn’t seem your style.”

  “Heaving bosoms are always my style.”

  That got a small laugh out of her. “Zach, you’re a typical bro. Were you in a fraternity when you were in college?”

  “Actually, yes, Delta Upsilon. I pledged with my two best friends.”

  I froze. I’d nearly slipped up by talking about Radley and Jackson. I’d already forgotten the main reason for me coming to see her, forgotten as soon as I’d seen her beautiful face in the bar, waiting for me. It was strange how I felt when I saw her and talked to her. We bantered like we’d known each other for years, and when I touched her skin, I felt like I was a part of something real. It was hard to explain, even to myself, but being around Piper made me feel alive in a way I’d never felt before.

  “Two best friends?” she asked lightly, but there was a slight change in her voice. “Jackson and who?”

  “So can I see you?” I cut her off. “Please?”

  “Maybe. It depends.” She hesitated and then continued. “I’ll meet up with you if you let me ask you a few questions.”