The Rocker Who Betrays Me

by Terri Anne Browning

  Chelsea crossed her arms over her busty chest. She and Noah’s mother had never gotten along and neither had made a secret of that. Noah had started dating Chelsea our freshmen year and they had been connected at the hip ever since. The two might have fought like cats and dogs at least once a day, but they made up before either fell asleep every night.

  Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm hadn’t liked Chelsea from day one because Chelsea wasn’t shy about her feelings for the other woman. That’s one of the things I liked so much about my friend’s girlfriend. You always knew where you stood with her because she told you straight to your face. She was a little spitfire. There had been more than a few occasions where she’d missed school over the years because of suspensions from getting into fights. Not all of them had been with girls, either.

  “Noah told me he already talked to your drunk ass, so don’t act stupid, bitch. I’m here to get Annabelle’s things. These guys are here to make sure you and your fucking loser of a husband don’t get in my way.”

  Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm took a long swallow from her Dixie cup. “Jacob isn’t here.”

  “Good.” Chelsea went to walk into the house, but the older woman didn’t move aside.

  I tensed, ready to step in if they started fighting. I would have paid good money to see Chelsea kick her ass, but I didn’t want to have to bail her out of the county jail when she got arrested for assault. Beside me, Devlin started to step forward just as I did, but Wroth was closer and much more effective. He stepped up behind Chelsea and crossed his arms over his chest. Something on his face must have gotten through to Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm’s drunken mind because she gulped and stepped back in the next second.

  The three of us followed Chelsea through the living room and down the hall to Annabelle’s room. I went to the closet and pulled out a duffel bag and the only suitcase on the top shelf. Chelsea crossed to the dresser and started opening drawers, tossing in bras and panties while I took clothes out of the closet without taking them from the hangers.

  As I put the first load of jeans in, my fingers brushed over a pair of soft panties and everything inside of me went white-hot and my body hardened. Muttering a curse under my breath, I tried to ignore the hard-on that was making it uncomfortable to walk—just from touching Annabelle’s fucking underwear, and helped to finish packing up her clothes.

  Devlin produced a few boxes and he started tossing in the few things on top of her dresser and nightstand before taking the pictures off the walls. It took less than twenty minutes to pack up the room with the three of us working together while Wroth stood guard at the door. I grabbed the suitcase and the duffel bag while Wroth and Devlin each took a box and Chelsea had the small overnight bag she’d used to pack up the things Annabelle needed from the bathroom.

  As we walked through the house, we found Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm sitting on the couch with a full cup of her fruit punch and vodka mixture, watching a rerun of a sitcom. She didn’t lift her eyes from the television as we left. We loaded everything into the back of my truck and headed to Noah’s apartment.

  It took less than five minutes to get to the garage. Wroth pulled up behind me and he helped Chelsea and Devlin unload my truck. I just sat behind the wheel for several long minutes. I needed to man up and go up to the apartment and face Annabelle, let her have her pound of flesh for going behind her back the way I had.

  Knuckles knocking on my window forced me to lift my head to find Devlin standing beside my door. He had Annabelle’s suitcase in one hand and her duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He didn’t say a word, but the look in his eyes said he had my back. Scrubbing a hand over my face, I stepped out of the truck and took the suitcase from him as he led the way up the back steps to the apartment that took up the top floor of the garage.

  Wroth had left the door open for us and I swallowed hard before entering the apartment behind Devlin. The sound of the television greeted us and I quickly glanced around, searching for Annabelle. Noah was in the kitchen, pulling out slices of pizza from one of several boxes and loading it onto a plastic plate. Wroth was already sitting on the couch, but there was no sign of Chelsea or Annabelle.

  Devlin dropped the duffel bag on the floor beside the old recliner. “Got any beer?”

  “Yeah, there’re a few left over from Wroth’s last visit.” Noah grabbed a paper towel and folded it in half before picking up the paper plate. “Thanks for getting Annabelle’s things, guys. There’s plenty of pizza, so make yourselves at home. I’m gonna take this in to Annabelle. She’s not up for company right now. We can watch a movie or something.”

  I dropped the suitcase beside the duffel bag and held out my hand for the paper plate. No way was I just going to sit out there when the only person I wanted to be around right then was in another room. “I’ll do that.”

  Noah lifted a brow at me but didn’t say a word as he relinquished Annabelle’s plate of pizza. Clenching my jaw, I moved across the living room to the bedroom door and knocked twice before opening it. Annabelle was lying on the bed with her back to the door. The TV that sat on top of an old dresser was tuned to some old sitcom that I knew she liked, but from the way her head was pressed into the pillow I knew she wasn’t watching it. Chelsea was in the connecting bathroom, putting away Annabelle’s things but stuck her head out when I entered the bedroom. Like Noah, she lifted her brows when she saw me standing there but didn’t say a word as she pressed her lips together and left the room.

  I waited until the door was closed behind her before stepping farther into the bedroom. As I stepped closer, I could hear her sniffling, and my stomach twisted.

  She was crying. Fuck. Her tears were like daggers slicing through my chest.

  Her back was still turned to me when I sat down on the edge of the bed and placed the paper plate on the nightstand. Her shoulders tensed and I knew she knew it was me and not her brother, but she didn’t lift her head to look at me as I kicked off my shoes and lay down behind her. A small sob left her when I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her back against my chest.

  “I’m sorry, Anna.” Another small sob that left me feeling like I was being shot with a fucking machine gun escaped her and I tucked her closer. “Don’t hate me, baby. Please don’t hate me. I had to tell him. If anything happened to you I would lose what little was left of my fucked-up mind.” I pressed a kiss into the hair at her temple.

  She moved so quickly I didn’t have time to react. One minute I was facing her back, the next I was assaulted by the bluest eyes in the world. Tears were pouring down her beautiful face, but she wasn’t glaring at me. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders and she buried her face in my chest.

  “I c-couldn’t hate you, Z. Not ever,” she whispered brokenly.

  Some of the tightness around my heart eased at her confession that she didn’t hate me and I stroked my hands down her back. “Don’t cry, Anna. Please, don’t cry.”

  “I want to be m-mad at you, but I c-can’t.” She rubbed her face against my shirt. “I was so hurt that you broke your promise, but I understand. Really, I do. You’re tired of having to take care of me so much, and I’m sorry you’ve had to. If I’d known it would be so simple to just tell Noah and let him take care of everything, I would have told him months ago and you wouldn’t have had to deal with my crap.” She lifted her head, pushed away from me and finally sat up. A small, sad smile lifted the corners of her lips. “You can go back to doing whatever it is you do, Z. I promise not to bother you again.”

  If her tears had been like knives and bullets, her words were like fucking grenades, eviscerating my heart with each syllable that left her perfect mouth. So that was what she thought? That I’d broken my promise to her by telling Noah because I was tired of taking care of her? Was she out of her fucking mind?

  “Anna, that isn’t why I told him,” I began, but she shook her head, offering me yet another sad smile as another tear spilled from those baby blues.

  “It’s okay, Z. Really.” She scooted to the edge of the be
d and stood, leaving me lying there, unable to find the words to tell her she was wrong. “I need a shower. Thanks for helping the others bring my things. I swear it’s the last time you’ll ever have to do anything for me.”

  “Anna…”

  She opened the bathroom door and glanced back at me over her shoulder. “I owe you so much, Z. I’ll never forget that. Maybe one day I can repay you for all the help you gave me.” She gave me another sad smile that made my stomach roll with nausea, and then she was stepping into the bathroom, leaving me alone.

  All day I’d been stressing over how to deal with Annabelle’s anger, her possible hate of me for breaking my promise. Never once had I thought she would think I’d done it to get away from her. This… I didn’t know how to deal with this. She was beyond hurt. It was almost as if I had broken her heart.

  And that just wasn’t acceptable to my fucked-up mind.

  Annabelle

  I waited for several long minutes until I heard the bedroom door close behind him. Then and only then did I let go of the tears I’d been desperate to hide from him. I’d been helpless to keep some of them at bay, but I’d be damned if I’d let him see me completely break down. That would be the ultimate humiliation.

  I heard the soft click of the bedroom door finally closing and rushed to turn on the shower to drown out my broken sobs. I dropped down beside the tub and pressed my forehead against the cool tiles as the scalding tears flooded out of me.

  I only had myself to blame. I’d pretended that Zander had let me climb through his bedroom window because he secretly loved me as much as I loved him. The night before had only driven that hope home for me. The way he’d treated me all evening and then held on to me so tightly as I’d fallen asleep… All of that hope had crumbled into a pile of ashes that morning when I’d realized that he was probably only trying to let me down easy.

  Zander Brockman didn’t want to be my white knight. He wanted his life back and I couldn’t blame him. He was a great guy and he deserved to have the life he wanted.

  It wasn’t his fault that my heart was shattered, that I couldn’t fucking breathe for the pain. I’d lost him…

  No, I’d never really had him.

  If I was lucky, I wouldn’t have to face him again. I’d no longer be living next door to him so I wouldn’t risk running into him every day. He had to work and I still had school, so avoiding him wouldn’t be hard. That was the only way I’d ever be able to move on.

  There was a tap on the bathroom door and I lifted my head as the door opened a few inches. My heart stopped, thinking it was Zander and my humiliation would be complete. When Chelsea’s dark blond head appeared around the edge of the door, I was able to breathe again, barely.

  Her eyes landed on me where I was huddled up against the bathtub. Sympathy filled her dark blue gaze. She closed and locked the door before dropping down onto the bathroom floor beside me. Holding open her arms, I let her pull me against her and I bawled like a baby until my throat was raw.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Annabelle

  The weekend dragged by.

  I tried to study for my make-up test, but couldn’t take in anything I read. My head ached from crying myself to sleep Saturday night and most of Sunday morning. Thankfully, Noah left me alone. I guess he realized I wasn’t in a good place because he brought me a Pop-Tart and a glass of orange juice—his equivalent to breakfast in bed—before heading out to spend the day with Chelsea.

  Monday, I took the bus to school and went through the day on autopilot. Somehow I managed to get a B on my make-up test, but I honestly didn’t know how. Maybe my teacher took pity on me since I had dark circles under my red-rimmed and bloodshot eyes. Who knows, I was just glad to have the whole thing behind me.

  After school I returned to the garage and worked a few hours in the office before climbing the steps to the apartment and doing my homework in bed. Noah had tried to talk to me, but I hadn’t had the energy to do more than answer him with as few words as possible. Even Wade had tried to get me to smile, a rare thing for the old mechanic, but I wasn’t able to make my face muscles work to satisfy him.

  That became my routine for the rest of the week. School, work, then straight to bed to do homework. I didn’t sleep much during the night. I no longer needed to worry about a possible surprise attack so it wasn’t because I was scared to close my eyes. It was the lack of a certain warm body lying in bed next to me that kept me awake most of the night. I missed Zander. Missed his hogging the bed, missed his warm body curled behind me, holding me all night. Missed the damn scent of his harsh soap and mint shampoo he used. Missed the sound of his heart beating under my ear and the sound of his slight snore when he was tired after a long day of working.

  I missed talking to him every day, damn it.

  I should have been happy to be out of my mother’s house. I was safe with Noah, and I knew that it was where I needed to be. My heart, however, didn’t care that I was supposed to be happy. It missed Zander the most.

  Finally, Friday arrived and I was able to pass a calculus quiz and a history exam without much trouble. Neither were the A’s that I was used to, but at least they were high enough scores that my teachers didn’t give me disappointed looks and a frigging lecture as they handed back the papers.

  The last bell of the day rang and I tossed all my books into my backpack before following the rest of my classmates out. Pushing my hair back from my face, I headed to my bus¸ wanting nothing more than to get to work and have the week end.

  “Annabelle!”

  Great. Now I was hearing things. My mind told me that it was just a figment of my imagination, but it was my heart that had my head snapping up at the sound of Zander’s voice calling my name.

  From across the parking lot, I spotted Zander climbing out of his truck and my heart actually stopped for a second. He was still dressed in his work clothes, but he wasn’t as disheveled as he normally was at the end of a workday. Briefly I wondered what he was doing there, since his workday didn’t end until five and it was only two thirty. That thought was quickly brushed aside as my gaze ate up the sight of the beautiful boy/man walking toward me with a determined gait to his step.

  The uniform jeans and work shirt that stated he worked for the county DOT fit him well—the jeans hanging low on his narrow waist and the shirt pulled tight over his lean, muscular chest that I’d been aching to lay my head on. His hair was unkempt, as if he’d been running his fingers through the slightly curly locks all day. Even from the distance that still separated us, I could tell he had dark shadows under his hazel eyes, but there was no hazel remaining today; just pure green jade and a few golden flecks.

  My heart twisted painfully, wondering how close to the edge he was feeling. The fewer gold flecks in those amazing eyes of his, the more his OCD seemed to rear its head.

  I stood on the sidewalk, frozen with a mixture of excitement at seeing him for the first time in nearly a week and anxiety after the humiliating way I’d cried all over him. Other students had to move around me as they rushed to catch their buses or whatever ride they had home.

  As Zander came closer he thrust his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. His jaw was clenched but his gaze was locked on me. I swallowed hard, wanting nothing more than to throw myself into his arms and beg him to hold me one more time. One more damn time. The only thing that kept me from doing just that was the knowledge that he wouldn’t want that. He was done holding me.

  “Um…hi?” I greeted with a forced smile when he was only a few feet away.

  “Hi.” His voice came out rough, as if he hadn’t spoken much that day.

  I adjusted my heavy backpack on my shoulders and glanced at his truck, expecting to see Devlin sitting in the passenger seat. Of course he wasn’t since I hadn’t seen him the first time I’d looked that way. It wasn’t like Devlin Cutter would have been hard to miss, after all.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”

  He shrug
ged. “I took half the day off.”

  I frowned. “You did? But you never do that.” Not even when he was sick. He’d had the stomach flu at the beginning of the summer but he’d still gone to work. No one had wanted to be on the road crew with Zander that day.

  He pulled his hands free from his jeans and offered one to me. “I couldn’t wait until after work to see you. Thought maybe I’d give you a ride home. Come on.”

  I barely hesitated before putting my hand in his. My heart was doing backflips in my chest and my head was so curious, wondering what was going on, that it didn’t yell at me as I placed my hand in his much larger one. He linked his fingers through mine and everything inside of me seemed to relax for the first time all week. Suddenly it was easier to take a deep breath. My heart seemed to trip over itself as it started beating normally again. Stupidly, tears burned my eyes and I kept my face averted so he wouldn’t see them as he led me to his truck and helped me into the passenger seat.

  I busied myself putting on my seatbelt as he climbed behind the steering wheel and started the truck. I kept my eyes on the buses that were slowly leaving the parking lot while he put the truck in reverse and backed out of the space he’d been lucky to find so close to the front of the school.

  Somehow I was able to get my tears under control before he pulled into traffic and I let myself look at him again. His jaw was still clenched, but his shoulders didn’t look nearly as tense. For a brief second I wondered if he had missed me as much as I’d missed him over the past week, but quickly called myself an idiot for even thinking that it might be a possibility. He’d probably been jumping on his damn bed Saturday night he was so happy to be done with having to take care of me.