by Knight, Amie
“Don’t be. I didn’t black out. Just knocked it on the doorjamb. I’ll let you know if I start feeling funny.”
“Okay,” I said, cleaning up the mess I’d made from fixing up her face.
She stared off into space. “I know they’ll find me soon. I just need to figure out what to say. What to do.”
I assumed she was talking about Sebastian and Braden. I stood in front of the couch, looking down at her with a thousand questions running through my mind, but I probably asked the hardest one for her to answer. “Who did this?”
Her face transformed and her eyes took on this manic, crazy look that could only be described as pure terror.
I sat next to her on the couch and pulled her into my arms. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me.”
“But I need to,” she sobbed into my neck. “I should tell you, so you know to stay away. Or he could hurt you, too.”
That’s when I noticed it, the rip down the back of her shirt at her shoulder and then I wondered what this mystery person had done to her besides beat her.
I pulled out of her embrace so I could look her in the eye when I asked her this next question. “Did he do anything else? Did he…?”
“No. No, he didn’t. I promise,” she cried. “But he wanted to. I had my taser with me, thank God. I always thought Sebastian was being neurotic and crazy making me carry that thing around, but the truth is it probably saved my life tonight.”
Relief flooded my body. “Oh, thank God.”
She stared at the floor for a long time and I wondered if she was suffering some kind of shock. She seemed to be lost somewhere in her mind and I didn’t like the thought of her reliving something that was so obviously horrific, but before I could say anything she finally spoke.
“I have to tell you, Liv. So you can protect yourself and Adam.” One lone tear trekked down her face. “It was Carlisle.”
I stared at her, not sure I’d heard her right. And when it finally registered that I had indeed, I stared at her some more.
“What was Carlisle? Like Carlisle as in Sheriff Carlisle Rothchild? The same man who’s married to Sebastian’s mother? My stepmother’s husband?”
I didn’t mean to bombard her. I truly didn’t, but I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say.
She grabbed my arm. “Liv, he’s a bad man. He’s always given me the creeps. But this time he tried to hurt me and I think he hurt Adam’s mom, too. He could hurt you.”
“Wait. What? Slow down. What does this have to do with Adam’s mom?”
“Braden told me Adam’s mom used to work for them when he was little.”
“Wait.” I couldn’t think. My head was spinning. I remembered the night Adam told me his mom had been assaulted and I thought of how he told me she worked for someone on the island and then I thought of him saying the person got away with it. Oh, God. I was going to be sick. But how did this relate to Mel and what had happened to her tonight?
“What happened, Mel? What happened tonight?” We needed to start somewhere and I thought maybe that was the place.
“Oh, Liv. Sebastian is going to lose his mind. He’s told me so many times to stay away from Carlisle. But I didn’t really take it too seriously. He gave me the creeps, but he seemed harmless.”
She scrubbed at her face with her hands before continuing. “Georgina invited me over to dinner this evening. Sebastian had to work. I showed up and the house was empty. I’ve known Georgina my whole life, we’re practically family.” She bit her lip and looked at me. “I’m going to marry her son, Liv.”
I nodded. “I know. It’s okay.” I cradled one of her hands in mine. My heart went out to her. She was so clearly distraught.
“I thought maybe I was early, but I checked the front door and it was open. So, I just walked right in like I’ve done a million times before. I figured maybe she left it open for me while she ran to the store or something.”
She pulled her hand from mine and stood up. She started pacing the room and the pit in my stomach was now a full-on pain.
“He was in the kitchen with a decanter of whiskey. I knew he was drunk right away. He was leaning on the counter and his shirt was half untucked. I paused at the entrance to the door and asked him where Georgina was.”
Wetness poured from her eyes again and I wanted to get up and hug her, but I could tell from her nervous pacing that wasn’t what she needed right now.
“He was on me before I could blink. He hurt me, Liv. He pushed me against the counter, and his breath. Oh, God. It could have been so much worse.”
Falling to her knees, she bent over and buried her face in her hands again, bawling. I raced over to her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
“I’m so sorry.”
It was all I could think to say. “But we need to tell someone, Mel. He can’t get away with this.”
Her head jerked up at me and her eyes were wild. “No. No, we can’t do that. Georgina and my momma are best friends. What will everyone think? They’ll say it was my fault. No, we can’t ever. I can’t tell anyone. Especially Sebastian and Braden.”
I could tell she was half out of her mind with shock and horror, so I just held her and said, “Okay, honey. We won’t tell anyone.”
I knew we wouldn’t have to tell Sebastian and Braden. I had no doubt in my mind they would be here sooner than later.
“Let’s get you up off the floor. I bet you need a shower and a change of clothes. You can stay here tonight.”
She looked up at me, wetness shimmering in her eyes. “I don’t deserve this.”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her up off the floor and toward the bathroom in my room. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” I sat her on the toilet and turned the shower on just hot enough. “Do you need help getting undressed?”
Her head went from left to right before she said, “Thanks, Liv. I know we aren’t friends anymore and I know it’s my fault, but I didn’t know where to go.”
I gave her a sad smile. “Hey. I’m always here for you if you need me. And maybe we can try that friends thing again.”
She perked up. “Really?”
“Yeah, now get a shower and I’ll hunt you down some clean clothes.”
I closed the bathroom door and went to the kitchen, finally unloading the groceries I’d bought, and set about. I made some canned soup and bread for Mel. Soup always soothed me, so I thought it would help her, too.
Soup. Soup was all I could fucking do for her. It pissed me off.
While the soup warmed, I went to the bedroom and found Mel some clothes of mine I thought would fit her skinny frame and took them into the bathroom.
I knocked but didn’t get an answer, so I cracked the door open only to be hit by a wall of steam. The water would have to be pretty hot to make it so thick.
“Mel, I have some clothes for you.”
She didn’t respond so I called out again.
“Mel?”
I still didn’t get a response, so I walked over and pulled the shower curtain back just enough to check on her and what I saw brought tears to my own eyes. She was sitting in the bottom of the tub, curled around herself, the water beating down on the top of her head.
I pulled the curtain all the way back. “Come on, honey. Let’s get you out.” I held out a towel and she looked up at me with crystal clear eyes. And they told me a story I didn’t want to see. In just one glance, I could tell her soul was ravaged.
I wrapped the towel around her, helped her up, and turned off the water. I sat her down on the toilet and dried her hair with the towel before helping her slip on one of my T-shirts and a pair of sleep shorts.
She was still crying and seemingly lost when I helped her to my bed and put her under the covers.
I was heading to the kitchen to get her soup when she finally spoke. “Do you think you could stay with me for a while?”
Her voice was so broken, so sad there was only one thing I could say. “Of course. Let me just turn off the soup.�
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I came back from the kitchen and crawled in bed with her and wrapped my arms around a girl I hadn’t seen in a damn long time. It didn’t feel wrong. I’d always liked Mel and right now my heart went out to her so much. I lay there with my arm numb for what felt like hours until I was finally sure she was sound asleep.
It was late when I finally made it back to the kitchen. I rewarmed the soup for myself and ate on the couch alone, which gave me entirely too much time to think.
I couldn’t believe all that Mel had just told me. It all made sense now. Everything was clicking into place so perfectly. And my anger grew. Of course, Adam’s mother had worked for Sheriff Rothchild. I remembered that night on his bed when he’d first shown me the stars in his room. When he’d told me someone on the island had assaulted his mother. He’d known who it had been all this time. And he hadn’t told me. Not then and not now and it wasn’t like he hadn’t had the fucking chance. I seethed. I was disappointed and hurt. And really fucking angry.
Everything was becoming crystal clear. The night Carlisle had found Boone and Adam fighting. How he’d come for Adam and not Boone, because they already had a history because of Adam’s mother.
But Adam hadn’t shared those things with me, just like he hadn’t shared with me why he’d moved to the island. Or why he’d come back in the first damn place.
And Sheriff Rothchild. God, he was married to my stepmother now. Did he hurt her? I never in my life thought I’d worry about someone hurting Georgina, but here I was. Mel was still asleep in my bed, so I pulled the same pillow and blanket out of the closet I’d given Adam what felt like ages ago but in reality was just a couple of weeks ago.
I climbed onto the couch, feeling sorry and just so damn weary about everything. Why didn’t he trust me enough for the truth? I’d always trusted him, implicitly. And Mel, God, I’d never wish what had happened to her on anybody.
I was curled into a ball, trying to decide how I was going to handle tomorrow. Because I knew I’d have to deal with two crazy men. Adam and Sebastian. Because there wasn’t a chance in hell that security specialist Sebastian wasn’t going to figure out where Mel was and I knew he was going to be all kinds of hotheaded about it.
And Adam. He was going to come for me, thinking everything was okay, when everything was definitely not. I wanted him to believe in me like I believed in him. I wanted his everything. He had all of me. He always had. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t know how far I’d gone to show my faith. All I’d given.
My phone rang from the coffee table in front of me, but I just looked at it as it vibrated. I knew it wasn’t Raven. She was out with Olivia. That left one person who gave a shit about me, or pretended to, anyway.
A text came through shortly after the phone rang, but I still didn’t pick up my phone. I couldn’t keep doing this to myself.
I’d loved the same man for almost half of my life. Maybe it was a mistake loving Adam Nova. He could only give me parts of him and I deserved it all. He had all of me, unequivocally. Maybe it was time I took care of me.
I tossed and turned all night on the couch and it wasn’t because it was the most uncomfortable piece of furniture on the planet. And even when I managed to fall asleep my worries sat right there at the subconscious of my mind, plaguing me.
I was finally in a deep sleep when I heard a thundering knock against the door. The kind of knock that said the police were here and not the neighbors with cookies. I cracked one eye open and looked at the clock over on the wall across the room. Six a.m. It wasn’t even light outside yet.
I knew who it was, so I unrolled myself from the burrito that was my blanket and stumbled to the door barely awake. I looked through the peephole in the door to see brown eyes glaring back at me.
I took a long breath and girded myself for the confrontation I knew was coming.
I took the chain off the door, then unlocked and opened the door. “Good morning, Sebastian. Long time, no see,” I said like the asshole I was being. It was early. I hadn’t slept and he had the absolute gall to look pissed at me.
“Where is she?” he asked so deadly calm that the creepy boy from my childhood who used to scare of the crap out of me didn’t have anything on this big, intimidating man.
“I’m sorry, who?” I asked, batting my lashes and throwing him a creepy smile. One that was beyond forced.
“Stop fucking around, Livingston,” he boomed back at me and I decided right then and there that I’d just let him do what he needed to do.
I opened the door wide and swept my hand out. “Come on in. She’s in my bedroom. The one to the left.” I motioned with my hand. Harry barely lifted his head as Sebastian came inside. He was an awesome guard dog.
He thundered across the threshold and then the living room in black combat boots and jeans, a black T-shirt over his broad shoulders, and if my mood was shit last night it was even worse this morning. How did Sebastian age so well? Get better looking? And I was over here squeezing my love handles into jeans. The world was a fucked up place.
I walked to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee, making sure to listen for Mel and any signs of distress and what I did hear broke my heart.
Him shhing her, her sobbing loudly. I finished the coffee and peeked into my room quickly to find her in his lap, cradled against him and clutching him tightly as she cried into the front of his T-shirt.
Maybe Sebastian wasn’t so bad. He didn’t seem like it in that moment, anyway. It made me glad that Mel had someone who actually loved her and wanted to take care of her. Although I could definitely understand why she didn’t tell him right away. The man who banged on my door this morning was scary as hell when he was angry.
I went back to the living room and curled up on the couch and gave them the privacy they needed.
I was reading over some papers for work when Sebastian came into the living room and stopped right across from me. I put the papers down on the table and looked at him, waiting.
“She doesn’t want to leave with me.”
I nodded. “Well, she’s welcome to stay here as long as she needs.”
His hands on his hips, he stared at the floor hard, breathing deeply, and I honestly couldn’t believe I felt this way, but I hurt for him.
“She won’t go with me.” His voice was full of disbelief and I could tell he was saying it more to himself than he was to me.
Still, I rose from the sofa and walked over near him. “She just needs time, Seb.”
His head whipped up, his eyes colliding with mine. “You think so?” He looked terrified at the prospect of her hiding out in my bedroom for the rest of her life.
“Definitely. She’s still in shock and scared.”
He rubbed his hand over his mouth before saying, “Thanks, Livingston. Thank you for taking care of her.” He looked absolutely broken apart that he couldn’t be the one to take care of her right now.
In that moment, I saw a part of Sebastian I’d never seen as a kid. The sweet part. The beautiful part. The part that said he loved Mel more than anything.
He danced back and forth, toe-to-toe nervously, and then asked, “Did Adam pass my message along to you?”
I didn’t quite understand the words coming out of his mouth because Adam and I had been spending an exorbitant amount of time together and he hadn’t even mentioned he’d seen Sebastian.
“I’m sorry?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah, he came by the office one day to talk to Braden and me.”
“Oh.” That was all I could say. Because I was pissed and embarrassed. Wasn’t Adam my boyfriend again? Weren’t we going on dates and having sex? And he was living some kind of double life. God, I’d known he was hiding things from me and not telling me everything, but I didn’t think he’d intentionally not deliver a message to me. It pissed me off. Bad.
“Well, it’s probably best I tell you this myself, anyway.” He ran a hand over his jaw nervously. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for being an asshole when we were kids.
My mother wanted us to be together and I didn’t handle it the right way. I know I was terrible to you and I’m really sorry.”
“Oh.” Well, I was really freaking eloquent today, but it seemed the surprises just kept coming and I wasn’t quite sure what to say.
We stood there awkwardly, looking at each other for about ten seconds, but it felt like one hundred years. Eventually his chest puffed out and he stood up straight. “Anyway, I should get going. I have some business to handle.” His jaw ticked and he looked ready to rip apart every piece of furniture in my living room, so I could only assume his business had something to do with Carlisle. “Can you give me your phone?”
I grabbed my cell off the table and handed it to him. I watched as he punched a bunch of numbers and then handed it back to me.
“I put my number in. Can you call me if she needs me or anything? Anything at all.”
“Of course.”
“Thanks, Liv. I really appreciate it.” It was the first time he’d ever called me just Liv in his life and I didn’t hate it. As I watched him walk out the door, I thought Sebastian had become quite the man and I was happy for that. I was thrilled for Mel that she had someone to take care of her and love her and I was pissed and sad as hell for me.
I’d known it would come to this, but I was sad it was going this way and I was even more devastated at how I’d found out. From people who I’d thought were my enemies. From people who didn’t love me like Adam claimed to. It was heart-wrenching. What else was he hiding from me?
THERE WAS ONLY SO MUCH a man could take. And I’d hit my limit. Twenty-four hours of her avoiding me was pretty much it. It was all I could handle. So, I hopped in my Tesla and drove the few minutes it took to get to Liv’s apartment.
Her little car was parked in the parking lot and I didn’t know why, but it pissed me off. She was here. She could have answered my calls or returned them.
Why was she avoiding me? Again. I thought we were past all the bullshit and finally together.
I knocked on her door softly at first and then a bit harder when no one answered. I rang the doorbell again and again like an asshole when no one still answered. The more I thought about it the more I worried that maybe something had happened to her and I needed her to answer the door yesterday so I could see she was okay.