TORN: A Billionaire Romance Series (Contemporary Romance Novel)

by Love,Michelle

  Then a voice calls out behind us, “We should talk, Bobby.”

  Jason stops and looks at me. “Damn it!”

  I shake my head. “Not another one.”

  He nods and we turn back to see a short woman with a blonde bob smoking a cigarette and walking toward us. “I saw you leaving the courthouse earlier and followed you here. I waited just inside the café, in the little game room to the side entrance. I heard it all. So is your name Jason or Bobby?”

  “Jason,” he says with a sigh. “I was going to send out messages to everyone later this evening. I’ve been lying to all of you.”

  “All of us?” the woman asks as she drops the cigarette and smashes it with her boot.

  Jason looks at me. “Brittany, this is Allison.”

  I nod at the woman who nods back. “Nice to meet you, Allison.”

  “I can’t say the same,” she says. “You see, I just saw this man three weeks ago, and it was my understanding that we were a couple. A couple who didn’t see other people. So when I made a little visit to my hometown and saw him walking with you and holding your hand, well, naturally I was confused. Then I saw this little scene with another woman and a baby. By the way, did you by chance overhear her talking to that other man? He may be the father of that baby too.”

  “We did overhear them talking,” Jason says. “Look, Allison, I’m sorry about all of this. I’ve been living a lie and I’m stopping that. I stopped a week ago when I ran into my first love. My only love, really. I didn’t mean to hurt any of you.”

  The woman laughs kind of manically. “Hurt me? Don’t worry about it.” She pulls out her phone and presses a couple of buttons then hands it to him.

  She has his app. And there on the screen is a blinking green light. He laughs. “So you’re a player too, Allison.”

  With a nod, she says, “Why else would I allow my man to spend a day or two out of the month with me? Of course, I have more men on the side.”

  “So no hard feelings then?” he asks as he hands her phone back to her.

  She shakes her head. “Nah. It was me who pressed the issue.”

  Jason nods. “You were on the aggressive side.”

  “So, what’s up with that woman?” she asks. “Because I’ve seen her around. She’s about four years older than me, but I know her by reputation. A real tramp that one is.”

  “Oh yeah?” he asks. “So is there a chance there’s more than me and that man who could be that baby’s father?”

  She nods. “I also noticed that she and he drive some very nice cars for a nurse and a fry cook. Are you footing that bill?”

  He nods. “The truck is in my name but the house and the car she drives are in her name.”

  “Well, now I’m a little pissed. You didn’t buy me a damn thing.”

  I look at Jason who seems kind of uneasy. “Well, you didn’t ask for anything.”

  “She asked for those things?” she asks him as her hands go to her hips.

  “She did.” He looks a little sheepish and I see the wheels turning in the woman’s head.

  The door opens and out comes Beatrice, sans the baby. She shrieks, “What the fuck are you telling him, Allison Gates?”

  Allison spins around. “What a fucking slut you are, Beatrice!”

  “You stay the hell out of my business,” Beatrice shouts as she comes at Allison with her fists raised, ready to fight.

  “You need to stop this, Jason,” I whisper.

  He nods and moves his body between the two of them. “Stop it! There’s no reason to fight. It seems we’ve all been lying. It ends here and now. No one is the victim here.”

  Beatrice’s eyes are narrowed at the younger woman. “You’ve been fucking him too, Allison?”

  Allison laughs and nods. “But it seems you’ve been fucking him in a few ways. You need to get the fuck out of that house he bought and give him back his cars, you money grubbing, bitch!”

  Jason seems so out of control of the situation I feel it necessary to step in. “Okay, let’s just calm way the fuck down. I step up to stand beside Jason. There’s a lot to think about. I’m sure that each situation can be dealt with as an individual case. And Jason’s lawyer will be the one handling that business.”

  The short blonde seems to be much like a banty rooster as she turns to me. “And why the fuck do you think you get to say anything?”

  I look down at the barely five-foot young woman and stifle a laugh. “Because I seem to be the only one here who actually loves and cares about this man. You two seemed to only want things from him. You both are about as aggressive as I’ve ever seen.”

  Suddenly, I find the women standing next to one another as they look me up and down. Beatrice says, “This one here is pretty bossy. I think she needs to wake the fuck up about this man. Maybe you and I should let her know what kind of man he is.”

  Jason holds up his hands in surrender. “Hey now, let’s stop this! We’re leaving. Come on, Baby.” He grabs my hand and we go toward the rental car.

  Behind us I can hear both women shouting about how they’ve fucked the man by my side and how he’s fucked them and my ears are on fire as he puts me in the car.

  I know Jason is no innocent in this but damn those women are awful. As he gets into the car I find myself asking, “How in the hell did you find either of them attractive, Jason? They’re such bitches.”

  He pulls out of the parking lot. “I honestly do not know, Brittany. What I’ve been doing up until I found you again is a real cluster fuck in my head. I guess I do need to see a therapist because I don’t know why I’ve done any of the things I’ve done.”

  Leaning back and resting my aching head against the headrest, I close my eyes. This is all too much to deal with. These women may all be kind of loose cannons. Is that what I want to deal with for the next couple of years until they move on?

  He hands me his cell phone. “Can you send out a group message to all the women on my app telling them I’m sorry? I’m a liar and a cheat and am getting the hell out of their lives for their own good. Then I’m getting rid of that phone which is apparently bugged by at least that one nut job.”

  Taking his phone, I look at it and think about what he’s asked of me. Then I look back at him. “Don’t you think you should write the message, Jason?”

  He shakes his head. “Baby, my mind is soup right now. I’ve finally found exactly what I want, and it’s not coming to me as easy as everything else has in my life. It’s infuriating and I don’t know how to handle it. I want to take you, marry you, and go back to Bora Bora where no one knows us.”

  “That’s kind of running away from your problems. You know that, right?”

  He looks straight ahead. “That’s my M.O. after all, Britt. Things get tough, I move on.”

  “That’s always been your problem, Jason. You have to stand up and face things. We could go with what you want but then you won’t learn a thing. You need to face the consequences of your actions. When you get involved with aggressive people bad things happen.”

  He looks at me with a chuckle. “Britt, do you think I haven’t learned that? I have. I have completely learned my lesson.”

  “If something happened to me, let’s say I died. Would you be able to keep your ass out of those situations on your own?” I ask as I watch his face go tense.

  “First, never talk about you dying.” He looks at me as he stops at a stop light. “And yes, I think I could keep myself out of these situations. I never had the want to before you. But even if I lost you, I don’t want this kind of life anymore.”

  His hand moves over the top of my leg as his eyes hold mine. I want to believe him so badly. And that alone has me wondering if I’m being gullible. I haven’t been naïve and gullible over anyone else since him.

  I’ve built up the walls to stop that from happening, but here I am again. Just like that nineteen-year-old girl who placed her hope in this man. He’s spun the biggest web of lies I’ve ever seen.

  His ha
ndsome face seems to be begging me to understand him. Is that all he really has ever needed? Someone who can understand him?

  Can I understand him? Can anyone understand why he’s chosen to make these fake relationships with not one but many women?

  “Jason, if I asked you to take a lie detector test, would you?”

  He glances at me as he pushes on the accelerator as the light has changed to green. “Why would you need me to do that? I’ve been upfront with you this whole time. I’ve told you everything. You’re the one person I’ve done that with.”

  “How do I know that for sure? And how do I know you’re being completely upfront with me now?”

  The hurt in his eyes has my heart pounding. I can’t stand to hurt this man. Being hard and honest with men has never been a problem with me but with Jason, it seems to be so hard it actually hurts me too.

  Chapter 6

  JASON

  Brittany having doubts in me not only hurts, it pisses me off. “I can’t understand how you don’t see how different I am with you, Baby.”

  “I see that.” She looks out the window and sighs. “I’m kind of torn about what to believe.”

  “You know what?” I ask as I find myself speeding down the highway toward our hometown. “I’ll take a fucking lie detector test if that’s what you want. I do want you to know I’m mad as hell that you don’t have any faith in my ass. But I’ll do it if it’ll ease your mind.”

  She looks at me for a while. “I can’t make you do that. I don’t want to bring distrust into this. You’re right, you have been honest with me. I could tell each time you told me things, you’d have skirted around before, that it was hard for you to make yourself do that.”

  Taking her hand, I kiss the top. “I love you so much I doubt you even have a clue to how deep my love is for you.”

  Her lips curve into a smile. “I have some idea. Because I love you that much too.”

  With a two-hour drive ahead of us, the last thing I want is tension hanging in the air. “Good. Let’s put this shit to bed for now. For the next couple of days, I don’t want to think about any of it. I only want to think about you and I and our future together. So where do you want to live?”

  The frown on her beautiful face has me frowning too. She looks at me with a furrowed brow. “Jason, I don’t think we should be getting into that just yet.”

  “And why not?” I ask as my insides heat up with nerves.

  “Because I think we shouldn’t get married as fast as we were thinking.” She looks at me as she pulls her hand up to bite one of her nails.

  “Stop biting your nails, Britt,” I say as I let go of the one hand I have to take the other away from her mouth. “And why should we put our plans on any type of hold, other than waiting for the test results, that is?”

  “Because this is not ordinary.” She looks away and makes a groan. “This is so far from an ordinary situation. And, in all honesty, I don’t want to see my parents right now. I don’t feel up to it. I’m going to have to defend you to them as it is. God forbid that baby is yours and I have to add that to the pot that is you.”

  Fire rushes through me. “Embarrassed of me, Princess Perfect?”

  She shakes her head. “No! That’s not it at all, Jason! God damn it!”

  “You know what, I am sorry I did all I’ve done. I will deal with my fucking consequences. If you don’t want to help me raise that kid if he is mine, then you don’t have to. Fuck!” I slam my hand against the steering wheel and notice her cringing.

  My damn temper has done it again. I’m too mad to even apologize, though.

  She goes quiet and looks out the window. The tall pine trees zip by in green blurs as I speed down the highway. My pulse is racing and my head is pounding.

  She doesn’t even want to go to see her family so now I’m wondering why the fuck I’m hauling ass to a place it seems neither of us really wants to go. “I’m taking you to the airport and putting you on a jet back to New York. It seems you’d rather be back there than here with me, waiting to find out if I have a burden or not.”

  “Don’t Jason! Don’t you do that to me! I have a right to be worried about moving too fast into something I have always thought of as permanent.” She glares at me and I think that’s been about three times today that she’s done that to me.

  “I have never even thought of getting married before at all, Britt. And with you, that’s all I can think about. All the time. I want you like I’ve never wanted any other person. I’ve come out of the man I was and I did that for you. So please tell me now if you’re going to flake on me.”

  I sit and wait to hear her. I trust this woman to be honest with me. She seems to have no problem letting men know her true intentions after all.

  “Flaking? No, I’m not going to be flaking. I’m just saying a lot of things are coming at me very fast.”

  “Me too, Baby!”

  “I know that. I also know that you’re very good at making quick decisions that end up being bad ones.” She reaches out and takes my right hand off the steering wheel. Holding it to her heart she says, “Jason, I just want to be sure you really can be faithful.”

  “Marry me and give me a reason to be,” I say as I look at her.

  Her eyes go wide as she points. “Jason, watch the road!”

  The taillights of the truck in front of me are red as it comes to a complete stop in front of me. Slamming on the brakes, I manage to come to a stop, millimeters away from the huge bumper that would’ve surely turned this little car into rubble.

  “What the fuck?” I shout.

  “Jason, there’s a wreck,” she says as she opens the car door and jumps out, running at full speed.

  I put the car in park and find my entire body shaking as I run after her. “What are you doing?”

  “We have to help,” she calls out over her shoulder.

  My eyes catch a pool of red coming from a mangled mess of what used to be a car door. A few others are getting out of their cars to rush to where it seems two cars have plowed into each other.

  The sound of children screaming and crying suddenly make me feel as if I’m drowning. I can’t breathe. Then I see one red-faced little girl pounding on the unbroken window of the little blue car she and what seems to be her family are in.

  The doors are crushed and everyone else in that vehicle seems to be knocked out as they hang limply in their seat belts. Britt stops at the window, holding her hand to the glass.

  “You’re going to be okay,” she tells the poor kid who looks about three. Britt turns back to me. “In my purse is a small tool. It’s black and it can break the glass. Will you get it?”

  I turn around and haul ass to get the thing, rushing past people who are heading this way. Once I get to the car, I find the tool she was talking about and grab the little blanket out of the backseat she threw in here.

  Making my way back, I can hear the sirens letting me know help is coming and I have never felt more relieved to hear that sound in my life. More people have gathered around the window where Brittany waits for me.

  “This is it, right?” I ask as I show it to her.

  She nods at me then looks back at the girl. “Move back, Sweetie. He’s going to break the window and we’ll get you out.”

  The kid moves back just as I hear a man say, “That smells like gas.”

  Breaking the glass, I can hear an odd sound inside the car. It’s the sound of only a child crying and screaming and nothing else even though the car has four other people in it.

  A chill runs through me as Britt touches my arm. “Pull off your jacket, Baby. Lay it over the window so I can pull her through it without her getting cut.”

  I jerk off my jacket and lay it over the broken glass then the little girl moves like lightning into Brittany’s arms. I can’t stop looking at the other people in the car.

  There’s a little boy about five. He’s hanging at an odd angle in his seatbelt. He was too small to be in that and that alone. As was this l
ittle girl who also wasn’t in a car seat. Her seatbelt is still intact. She must’ve slipped right out of it.

  It’s a miracle she’s alive. As I look at the woman who was driving and another woman on the passenger side, I have to pray they’re still alive. It doesn’t seem they are to me.

  We step back as paramedics pull up. The crying girl is clinging to Brittany. After putting the blanket over the child, I put my arm around Britt and find her steady as a rock. Not shaking in the least bit.

  “Are you okay, Baby?”

  She nods. “This isn’t about me.”

  The woman is the most selfless person I think I’ve ever known. Looking at her as she holds the hysterical child and soothes the poor girl fills me with respect for her.

  A police officer comes up to us. “Is this child part of the people in this car?”

  I nod. “Yes, she is.”

  He holds out his hands. “I’ll take her.”

  Brittany shakes her head. “She’s very upset, sir. Please let me calm her down.”

  He looks at me. “Don’t leave the scene with this child.”

  I nod in agreement and he walks away to tend to other matters. The girl starts to ease her cries as she realizes she’s in safe arms. Brittany hums to her and I watch the child going limp in her arms.

  The little girl murmurs. “I want my daddy.”

  “Is that your momma who is driving?” Brittany asks her.

  “Uh, huh.”

  “Ask the officer if he can try to call the father, Jason.”

  I try to get to the officer who came up to us and finally manage to get to him just as they pull the driver out. I see a horrible gash on her head then my eyes move to the hole in her stomach.

  Fighting my gag reflex, I touch the officer on his shoulder. He looks back at me. “Sir, you really shouldn’t see this.”

  “Tell me about it. The kid said this is her mother. Do you think you could see if her cell phone is in there and call the kids’ father?”

  “Sure.” He reaches over the pool of blood on what’s left of the seat and pulls out a phone with blood all over it. “Poor man.”

  I nod and find a lump in my throat. “We’ll stay around until he gets here for his daughter. If he can come. We want to take care of her until some family comes for her.”