by V J Lee
* * *
Was someone trying to waterboard her? Rissa coughed and gagged, trying to breathe, but inhaling more water. Someone was gently slapping her cheek.
“Sweetheart, come on … wake up for me.” Was that Trevor’s deep timbre trying to rouse her out of her drug-induced coma? No chance. He wouldn’t be here, in their house … no, her house … no, his house. She just lived here.
Prying her eyes open was the worst idea she’d had in a long time. The light assaulted her, causing her to slam them shut again.
“How many of these did you take? Were you trying to kill yourself?”
Wait, what? Kill herself? Why would she do that? “Why would I try to kill myself?” she asked through the cottonmouth, which was somehow even worse than before. Trying to work up some saliva to moisten her mouth, she swallowed over and over again.
“I thought … because you were upset over us.” It really was Trevor looming over her body.
“Oh, please. You give yourself too much credit. No one is worth killing myself over. I just couldn’t remember how many pills to take, so I took three.”
“Three?” Trevor screamed at her. “These are ‘special recipe,’ babe! The Agency made these for 300-pound men … one is too much for you! You should be taking half of one every four hours.”
Rissa blinked slowly. Oh, that was it. Half of one. No wonder the room was spinning. Good thing she didn’t have anything in her stomach, or she would be heaving it up all over Trevor. The image made her smile.
“What’s so funny?”
“I just thought about puking on you.”
“Oh, so you think that’s funny, do you?”
“What are you doing here, Trev?”
“Jock sent me over, seeing how you have been out of contact for over twenty-four hours. You haven’t answered your phone or your door. We were worried … I mean, everyone at the Agency was worried.”
“I’m fine, you can go now. Please, go now.”
“Not gonna happen. You need some food, a shower and your bandages changed.”
“Someone else can do it. One of the medics will come take care of the bandages, and I can get my own food.” She tried to sit up, but her head started swimming, making the room spin. She fell back down, wincing at the pain.
“Yeah, you really can do this all by yourself,” Trevor said, his words soaked in sarcasm.
“Hey, did you break into my house?”
“No. I have a key.”
“Yeah, that’s right … Can I have it back?” She held out a shaking hand.
“No.”
“Oh.” She was way too doped-up to fight about it. It was his house, after all.
“Here,” Trevor said, pressing a straw up to her parched lips. She sipped the ice-cold water and swore she had never tasted anything so satisfying. She gulped the elixir down her dry, scratchy throat, cooling down her burning stomach. “Whoa, slow down there, or you really will puke all over me.”
When he took the glass away, she actually moaned, as if in pain.
He gently leaned her forward, pulling back the bandage on her shoulder. She heard his sharp intake of breath, as he examined her wound.
“Jesus, Riss … what the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed out there.”
Jerking away from him as her head started to clear, she argued, “I was thinking that we needed to save a mall full of people from a horny Spirit Wolf. That I needed to do my job and protect people, by any means necessary. The boys had my back.”
Trevor snorted. “Yeah, it really looks like they had your back. I can see that from all the slash marks marring your perfect skin. I’m worried about you going out there at night, almost getting yourself killed.”
Narrowing her hazel green eyes on him, Rissa said coolly, “You have no right to worry about me. You gave up that right when you walked out that door.” She pointed to the front door. “I don’t have a death wish; I have a job to do. I did my job. No one died, and what do I get for all my hard work? The entire city now thinks I’m some sort of a drugged-out sex freak.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, he hesitated. “You saw that, did you?” Trevor asked with a look of guilt on his handsome face.
“Um, yes. I’m pretty sure everyone in the state saw it.”
“Just so you know, Jock was so pissed off, he screamed at her for like an hour.”
It shouldn’t have made her feel better, but it did. It really did. But now that it was out there, there would be no taking it back.
“Hey,” Trevor offered, “it’s not like anyone knew it was you.”
“I did.”
“Why did you send your flowers back to my house?”
“I knew they were from you. You’re the only one who knows what kind of flowers I would choose for myself. I couldn’t accept them. Not from you.” Her voice was sad, without her even trying to make it come out that way.
“I get it, I do. I just wanted you to know that I was worried …” When she narrowed her eyes at him, he said, “I know I have no right to worry … but you know I will. We were together for three years. I can’t just stop caring about you.”
“Well, please don’t. Care anymore, that is. For me to let go of you, I need you to let me go … completely.” Rissa shut her eyes for a moment and took a breath.
“Rissa, you looked so fragile, so helpless when you slid down that rock in the forest, and again when I found you barely conscious on your couch just now. It scared the hell out of me, and I just wanted to hold you. I still do.”
Now it was Rissa’s turn to snort in disbelief. “Is that what you want? Someone who’s scared of their own shadow? Someone who runs to a man, every time she hears a bump in the night? That’s Petra, that’s not me. If I had known that was the kind of woman you wanted to marry—one who needs her hair and nails done, needs perpetual maintenance and attention, needs the very best of everything—I never would have agreed to that first date. That isn’t who I am, and I won’t change that. Not for you. Not for anyone.”
“I never wanted you to change. I love what you are, who you are.”
“Well, you changed one thing about me. Now I know what I want. I want to be married. I want my own children. And that wasn’t even your doing—Jacob changed that for me. No one will ever tell me that getting married doesn’t matter, that it’s just a piece of paper.” She eased up off the couch, standing on unsteady legs. “I’ve got to believe that had we been married, if we had that piece of paper, it would have been a lot harder for you to leave me. You would have given me a fighting chance to keep you in my life. Now, if you will show yourself out, I need a shower.”
Using the walls for support, she made her way down the hallway and left Trevor in her living room. In the bathroom, she shut and locked the door, turned on the shower, and got in under the warm water. It tenderly, yet painfully, washed down her body.
Chapter 5
Trevor knew it was wrong. He felt like a pervert, but he did it anyway. He had bugged Rissa’s house and phone … not to see what she was doing, but to make sure she was going to be okay. He told himself that it was just for his piece of mind. It wasn’t to hear the sound of her voice; it wasn’t to spy. It was so he would know she was all right.
He sat in his study with headphones on. When she was in the shower, he had stocked her cupboards and fridge with food. He knew she always went shopping for food on Tuesday, but since that was when she got attacked, she probably hadn’t gone. He had made her breakfast and left the covered plate on her kitchen counter. Pancakes, eggs, hash browns and bacon … lots and lots of bacon. She was the only woman he knew who would cut you for the last piece of bacon.
When she came into the kitchen, he heard her gasp, then call him an asshole. He smiled. He could hear her eating, because she did so with gusto, just like she did everything. Moans, groans, mmm’s, ahh’s. When she was done, she cleaned up the mess. He was an ass; he should have known she couldn’t leave the dishes out.
Her phone rang
.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Rissa. It’s mom.” She must have had the speakerphone on.
He could see her slight smile in his head. “Yes, mom, I know. I have caller ID, remember?”
“Hey, buttercup. How are you doing?”
“Oh, hey daddy! I’m good, how are you guys doing?”
“We’re good. How’s that fellow of yours doing?”
It broke Trevor’s heart that he knew it was breaking hers.
“Oh, he’s good. He is, umm, getting married soon,” Rissa stammered.
Her mother gasped. Her father groaned.
“Oh, I’m so happy for you, darling! When is the wedding? I can come down, and we can start planning. You shouldn’t wear white, but I was thinking a cream color would look great on you. What kind of flowers? Your sister can be the maid of honor. Oh, we can go shopping for a dress for me, and your dad’s tux will need to be cleaned. That is, if it still fits.”
“Mary, stop!” Her dad barked. More gently, he asked, “He’s not marrying you, is he, sweetheart?”
Rissa paused. “No, he isn’t.”
Another pause, this time from the other side. “The boy’s mom?”
“Jacob, yes. They need to be a family. They deserve to be happy.”
“What about you? Don’t you deserve to happy?” Her dad sounded pissed.
“Joe, your blood pressure,” Rissa’s mother interjected. “You need to watch it.”
“I think maybe I need to come down there and have a talk with this boy.” The way he said “boy” scared the hell out of Trevor. Was that her mom crying on the other end of the phone?
“No, daddy, you don’t. I’m fine. I’m going back to working nights. I love my job and the people I work with. Trevor needs to be with his son and his son’s mother. They’re doing what’s best for their family. No one can fault them for that. I won’t let anyone be upset at them for it, not even you.” He could hear her take a ragged breath. “Mom, please stop crying.”
“I can’t; my heart just breaks for you. You are the sweetest, kindest, most perfect girl in the whole world. I know how much you loved him. I saw how you looked at him. Just like your father looks at me, like everything is right with the world. You rarely find that, so when you do, you have to grab it and hang on tight.”
“Mom, it doesn’t matter how I feel about him. He doesn’t want me. I’m not going to hang on to someone who is always going back to someone else. I want to be someone’s one and only.”
“Is this about Jacob? You feel that way, because of his love for the child?”
“Oh God no, mom. I love Jacob as if he was my own. I want someone who sees me as the other half of their whole. For Trevor, that has been and always will be Petra. Don’t worry, I will find my other half.”
“Oh, buttercup, do you need us to come up there? Because we will. We can have the RV packed up and ready to go in less than thirty minutes.”
“No!” she shouted. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. But, no. I’m very busy at work, you know? Just throwing myself into it full force. It wouldn’t be fair to you and dad. I wouldn’t have time for you.”
“Okay, well you just let us know if you want us to head your way, and we will be there.”
Trevor listened, as her mother talked about what was going on with other members of the family. He could hear the fatigue setting into Rissa’s voice, but being who she was, she never once let her parents know what kind of pain she was in. When she finally hung up, she must have settled back down on the couch. The phone rang again.
“Hello?”
“Ms. Jackson?” Still on speakerphone. It must have pained her to hold the phone up to her ear.
“Yes?”
“This is Maxwell Miller, from A1 Property Management. I left you several messages over the past several days, but you have not gotten back to me.”
“Yes, Mr. Miller. I’m sorry about that, but I’ve been busy. Anyway, I think there is some kind of mistake. I am not renting a house. This is my house.”
“Well, Ms. Jackson, I am looking at the deed right here. The names on the deed are Trevor Snow and Petra Ezekiel. Nowhere does it show you on here. So, with that being said, the rent on the house is two thousand a month. You have been in the house for three months, plus we’ll require a damage deposit of two thousand dollars. The last month’s rent is required as part of the lease, a condition that we stipulate in the event a tenant tries to skip out or move out early. You understand that, right? Oh, and late fees, of course. Don’t forget those.” Trevor could hear him adding up the numbers on the calculator. As the numbers rose, so did Trevor’s temper.
“We will need ten thousand, six hundred dollars by noon tomorrow, or you will need to vacate the premises.”
Rissa let out a long, slow breath. “Mr. Miller, thank you for your patience with me, but two thousand a month is way too much for this house. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place. I just can’t afford that on my own. Maybe if you gave me some time to find a roommate, then I could stay.”
“Oh, no. It says here that you are the only one renting the property. No one else can stay with you.”
“Okay, I can pay you up to this month and then I will move out the first of next month. If that’s okay?”
“Well, if you give me notice now, that’s not a full thirty days, so then it would be another two-hundred-dollar fee.”
Rissa let out an exasperated breath. “Okay, but I don’t have that cash on hand right now. Can you give me until the end of the week to bring it to you? I had an accident, so I’m a little incapacitated.”
“Well, there would be another fine if the funds aren’t in here by noon tomorrow. I could extend it until maybe three tomorrow, but that’s the best I can do.”
“No, I’ll be there at noon tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Miller.”
“Ms. Jackson, I have to say, it has been a pleasure talking to you. Most people in your situation would have gone off on me.”
“I know you’re just doing your job. Goodbye, Mr. Miller.”
The sound of silence filled Trevor’s ears, as he sat there wondering what was going through Rissa’s head. That’s when he heard the sobbing—heart-wrenching, chest-heaving sobs. Petra had finally broken Rissa. First, she took him away, then Jacob, now her home … not to mention trying to publicly ruin her reputation. How low would this woman go? And how the hell did she get her name on his house?
Trevor wanted to rush to the little yellow cottage to comfort Rissa, but he knew he couldn’t. She would know he had been listening. Plus, he was probably the last person she wanted to hear from right then.
After calling the property management company to try and release her from the contract, Trevor found out it would take both his and Petra’s signatures to stop the contract. Just fucking great. This was going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight with Petra.
He stormed out of the home office to find Petra sitting on their black, wrap-around leather sectional with her feet up, Jacob in her lap, reading him a story. His son was sound asleep, yet she kept reading. Her voice was sweet and calming—nothing near what he was feeling. As he came into her view, she put her finger to her lips. He scooped his son from her lap and climbed the stairs to his bedroom. After putting him gently to bed with a teddy and switching on the nightlight, he came back down. Petra was no longer on the sofa.
He found her in the kitchen getting a glass of wine. “I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I have earned this. What a day I’ve had. First, all those reporters coming on to me at that press conference. Then, getting screamed at by Jock just for doing my job. All I want to do is sit in a hot bath and wash my cares away.”
Stepping in front of her so she could see the full effect of his fury, Trevor began. “First, you are going to shut up and listen to me. You will only talk when I ask you a question. No more, no less. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Petra blinked at him. “You’re scaring me.”
“Not an answer. Do y
ou understand? Only answer the questions I ask you.”
She had the good sense to act scared, which worked in her favor, as she mumbled, “Yes, I understand.”
“Good. First question: Why is your name on my cottage?”
“Well, when we bought this house, I rolled the cottage in on the mortgage. You signed the papers.”
“That cottage was bought and paid for, free and clear. Why on earth would you think it would be okay to take out another mortgage on it?”
“I was just thinking that keeping both houses together would be best for us. I mean, if something happens to you, then I need to know where everything is.” She ran her hand across his chest, affectionately.
He grabbed her hand and threw it away from him. “So then, tell me this … what was your reason for turning the cottage over to a property management company?”
“Well, I figured we might as well make some money off it. With the company in charge, we don’t have to do anything. We could just sit back and collect our funds.”
“I told Rissa she could stay in that house as long as she wanted. That is her home. I will not kick her out.”
“No one is kicking her out, we are just charging her rent. Why should she get a free ride?” Petra’s eyes narrowed. “What, did she come crying to you about it?”
“I said I would ask the questions, and you would answer. Two thousand dollars a month for that place is outrageous. No one would ever pay that. And, a ‘free ride?’ She has never gotten a ‘free ride.’ Letting her stay in that house is the least I could do, after everything she’s been through.” When Petra rolled her eyes, he continued. “When you showed up out of the blue, she accepted not only Jacob into our lives and home, but you as well. She took care of him and loved him like he was her very own son. When I wanted to spend more time with the two of you, she encouraged me to be with my family. Then, when I told her it was over, she just said, ‘do what needs to be done.’ She told me that you and Jacob were lucky to have me, a real man, someone who sticks by their family.” Trevor’s whole body trembled with his barely-controlled rage. “The only thing she asked of me was to be able to see Jacob. I told her, ‘of course, we would never be heartless enough to take him away from her.’ But you didn’t want them together. And now you want to take her house away, after everything else? Why? What exactly has she done to you?”