Gavin: Pure Passion (Hamptons Book 1)

by Taylor, Drucie Anne

  “Hey cutie, how’s Miami?” Macey wants to know.

  “Hi . . . Pretty nice, at least the part I’ve seen so far,” I answer while I walk away from the door a bit. “How are you?”

  “Fine, I’d say. I just got home and remembered I hadn’t called you in a while. Our friendship has gone short a bit in the last few weeks.”

  “I’m sorry I’m away so much.”

  “No problem. I can understand that you need a bit of distance from the Big Apple after all that’s happened.”

  “How’s the musical going?” I say, changing the subject.

  “Tonight’s show was sold out again. Seems to be becoming a long runner.”

  I smile to myself. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “When are you coming back, Lane?”

  “On Friday,” I answer. “I’m going to be so glad to be back in New York.”

  “What’s up?” she wants to know.

  I sigh. “A whole lot and nothing. Well, I just fled from Gavin because he was drunkenly feeling me up . . . in front of all the others.”

  She chuckles. “Man, I’d like to have your problems. I’d be happy if anybody wanted to feel me up.”

  “Not if his friends and groupies are watching.”

  “True, that would only be semi-hot.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Never mind.” She laughs. “Sweetie, I won’t disturb you any longer, will you call me once you’re on your way home?”

  “Will do. Take care.”

  “You, too, Lane. Later, then.”

  “Until Friday.” I hang up, still smiling, and put my phone back in my purse. Then I raise my eyes and look around left and right. I didn’t realize I’d walked so far. When I turn around, I can see a few young women standing behind me. I try to pass them, but they won’t let me. “Hey, what’s this now?”

  “You’re the chick who stole Gavin from us,” the blonde woman, who also seems to be the group’s leader, hisses at me. She has a pretty noticeable piercing in her eyebrow. Normally one would put a little stud or a ring there, but hers looks like a tiny horn.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You’re that dancing whore!” the next one growls at me, she’s a brunette with a nose ring. The other one has brown hair, too, but she’s a little more of a wallflower. She doesn’t have any remarkable piercings, but her shirt has particularly shrill colors on it.

  I nod. “Thanks, but I’m not looking for trouble, so let me pass, please.” I try again, but they push me into a side street. “What’s the deal here?”

  I’m shoved against a Dumpster, but luckily I can catch myself on it. “Are you girls nuts, what did I do to you?” I ask, turning around, and already I can see the first fist come flying at me. I barely manage to dodge it, but two of them grab my arms and push me against the cold metal Dumpster. “Let me go!”

  “Now you’re going to see what happens to anybody who wants to take Gavin away from us!” the leader screams at me and rams her knee into my abdomen.

  I gasp and try to double over. But the other two are still holding me tightly. I struggle, but the two of them are too strong for me to escape on my own. Another kick while they twist my arm onto my back until there’s a cracking noise. That joint will thank me for it tomorrow. “Please stop,” I pant.

  “We’re only going to stop once you’re out of the picture!” she replies indignantly, pelting her fist at my face. She hits me so hard I can feel the blow breaking my nose. Blood runs out of my nose freely.

  “Please let me go,” I beg, crying. “I won’t call the police, but let me go.”

  They let me double over in pain, but it’s only followed by worse things.

  As I’m lying on the ground, one of the girls steps on my fingers. She presses down so hard with the wedge heel of her shoe that I can hear the different bones crack and break. I scream, which brings me more kicks to the face and the abdomen. And finally one of them kicks my knee from the side, which nearly causes me to die with pain.

  “Get your hands off Gavin, or you’ll die next time,” they threaten me, leaving me lying there in the dirt of the side alley.

  I shuffle over the ground to get my purse, which fell down, and pull out my phone. With my left hand I unlock the screen and write a text with an attached GPS signal. Help! Come quick! I put it back and try to pull myself up on the Dumpster, but my knee hurts so much that my other leg buckles under as well. My entire body feels like it’s been hit by a truck. My nose and lips are bleeding; I can’t stop it.

  A few minutes later I can hear Thally saying, “Where is she? . . . Lane?”

  “No idea, but your phone says she was here somewhere,” Jayden answers.

  “Here!” I cry out.

  “Do you have a flashlight, Jayden?” Thally asks.

  “No, just the phone app.”

  “So turn the damn thing on!”

  A minute or maybe a second later, I’m bathed in a blinding light.

  “Oh, fuck! What happened to you?” Thally cries, running over to me. Jayden is at her side.

  “Thally, call an ambulance,” he instructs her while he looks at me. I can only see him with one eye, the other must be swollen shut. I can only hear Thalia’s voice in the corner of my mind, listening to her talk to the operator. Jayden gently feels my face, which makes me hiss. “Yeah, I know it hurts, but let me see how bad it is.”

  I nod feebly and close my eyes as he touches my nose for the second time. After he pulls back his fingers I look at him again.

  “When’s the ambulance here, Thally?”

  “They sent one out immediately. Can I help you?”

  My perception sinks deeper and deeper into a darkness that feels ominous to me.

  “Hey, Lane, you need to stay with us, OK? Talk to me, will you? It’s important you stay awake,” Jay tells me, but he sounds like he’s talking through glass. “Lane, where are you from?”

  “East Hampton, New York,” I answer quietly.

  “And your family? You have that French last name . . . Where’s your family from?”

  “Dad’s from . . . France and Mom’s from . . . Canada,” I reply groggily and close my eyes.

  “Lane, try to stay awake,” Jayden urges me.

  “Why does she need to stay awake?”

  “Because I don’t know if she has internal bleeding. She should stay awake so she doesn’t die on us. Go get the others and tell them what happened.”

  “OK.” Then I hear the muffled sound of heels clicking on tarmac.

  “Lane, what happened?”

  “I was . . . attacked,” I whisper. I’m still lying on the ground. All that’s changed is that Jayden turned me over onto my back. He’s plumped his jacket up into a pillow, and he’s holding a tissue against my nose, that’s all I can register.

  The wailing of sirens makes me open my eyes, and the first thing I see are the eyes of an EMT. He’s talking to Jayden, who’s explaining to him that he’s a doctor and tells him what happened, or at least what I explained to him in my delirious state. I still feel like I’m hearing everything through a layer of cotton and try to answer, but not a single word escapes my lips.

  “Lift her onto the stretcher carefully. I don’t know if she has internal injuries, but there are probably a few broken bones to speak of.”

  “What happened?” I can hear Gavin’s voice, which sounds a lot more sober than before.

  “Lane was beaten up quite brutally,” Jayden answers, shielding me from him as I’m lifted onto the stretcher. I gasp as I come down, or maybe I moan, I don’t know. All I know is I’ve never hurt so badly before in my entire life.

  “Good God,” Mike exclaims as he looks down at me.

  “Ms. Dubois?” the EMT says.

  I look at him with my one eye that’s not quite swollen shut.

  “I’ll be giving you a painkiller now, which is probably going to make you tired, but please try your very best to stay awake, OK?”

  “’Kay.” My jaw feels like it’
s been knocked from its joint.

  “Lane?” Gavin asks. “I want to be with her, goddammit, let me go to her!”

  I shut my eyes as I feel the redeeming stab of a needle in my arm. Not much longer and I won’t feel the pain anymore.

  “Lane?” Gavin repeats, worried.

  “You need to move over, sir, we have to bring her into the ambulance.”

  “Can I come? She’s my girlfriend,” Gavin explains.

  “Of course,” the EMT replies.

  “Which hospital are you bringing her to?” somebody else I can’t recognize in the mixed-up jumble of voices asks. The answer is so quiet I can’t understand it. Then they move the stretcher, and after some bumping around, I find myself inside the ambulance.

  I wake up in a room and look around. After gingerly touching it, I note that my left eye is swollen shut. There’s a tube stuck in my hand, maybe for sedatives, and at the edge of my vision I can make out something white, which probably is a cast on my nose.

  “Lane?”

  I turn my head and look at Pax. What’s he doing here? Did he come to Miami just for me? “Hey,” I say quietly. “Where . . . ?”

  “After your father insisted, they relocated you to Southampton Hospital,” he explains.

  “When?”

  Pax slides closer with his chair. “You arrived yesterday.” He sighs. “You should have gone to the police.”

  “I . . .”

  “Stop overexerting yourself.”

  I take a deep breath, which I can only manage through my mouth. “Where’s Gavin?”

  “No idea. When he arrived here your father nearly tore his head off. I’m guessing he’s out taking care of something to do with the incident.” He gently strokes my hair. “You always seem to get into trouble.”

  “I didn’t know . . . they’d show up there.”

  “You shouldn’t have left the club on your own. Gavin told me what happened, and he regrets that he hassled you like that. Your brother nearly tore him apart, too.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Etienne thinks Gavin shouldn’t have left you alone.”

  “I was just going to freshen up a bit, but then Macey called.” I look around. “Does this bed move so I can sit up, somehow?”

  Pax gropes around next to the bed and finds a remote control. “Say stop.”

  I nod gingerly.

  The bed whirs, and when I’m halfway upright, I say, “Stop. Hey, do you know if I’ll still . . . be able to dance? They kicked my knee really hard.”

  He inclines his head, observing me. “I didn’t hear them say anything. Can you move your leg at all?”

  I pull both of them closer and hiss with the pain that comes shooting up through my right leg. “Ow.”

  “Should I call a doctor?”

  I shake my head. “No. I’ll just ask about it when they arrive.”

  The door opens and I turn my head. Gavin and Jayden enter the room. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” Jayden says, wearing white scrubs. “How are you feeling?”

  “A bit roughed up,” I reply.

  He squeezes his lips into a thin line. “I’d say you’re making it sound more harmless than it is.” His gaze is stuck to a file, probably mine, and he jots something down.

  “Will I still be able to dance?”

  “Luckily, your knee only has a big, swollen hematoma, so you should still be able to continue your job,” Jayden answers. “You were pretty lucky under the circumstances.”

  Gavin sits down on the edge of my bed and lays his hand on mine, but I pull it back. I don’t know why, maybe a protective instinct, because all this only happened because we fell in love. “When can I go home?”

  “In a few days.”

  “I backed out of the show and gave an interview, because they published a clip about the attack on you on the Internet,” Gavin says. “Joel’s seeing to it that you’ll be paid anyway, so you won’t lose any money.”

  I sigh. “Thank you.”

  “We need to inform the police, since this was an actual mugging. We already did in Miami . . . but since you weren’t responsive, the local police here will take your statement,” Jayden explains.

  “OK.”

  “I should notify them soon that you’re awake so they can do their job.”

  Gavin clears his throat. “Did you see those people clearly?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t remember them very well. I only know that one of them was blonde with an eyebrow piercing. The other two were brunettes, one of them had a nose ring, the other one was wearing a pretty freaky shirt.”

  “Can you remember anything else?” Jayden asks.

  I shrug slightly. “Not really.”

  “Did they call each other by their names?”

  “I can’t remember.”

  He exhales slowly. “That’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

  “Yeah, but even that can eventually be found,” Gavin grumbles.

  Pax gets up. “I need to get back to the shop. Let me know if you need anything, Lane.”

  “OK,” I reply, closing my good eye as he leans over me to give me a kiss on the forehead. I can hear Gavin’s growl as Pax briefly presses his lips against my skin, but I ignore him. I’ve known Pax for an eternity, and I’m sure not going to stop him if he wants to give me a kiss good-bye.

  “I’ll leave the two of you alone now,” Jayden tells us. “See you, Lane.”

  “Yeah, see you,” I reply, smiling at him, which probably looks awful with my split lip. They leave us alone and I turn my head to look at Gavin. “You don’t have to stay here.”

  “But I want to,” he replies quietly, sliding forward in his chair. Then he lays his hand on mine. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Gavin, I . . .”

  He looks into my eyes, or at least into my good one. His look betrays the reproaches he’s throwing at himself. “What do you want to tell me?” he asks quietly.

  My heart contracts in my chest, but it’s just safer if we’re apart. Safer for me and better for him. “I . . . This isn’t easy for me, but . . .”

  “No, don’t leave me, Lane.”

  “It’s better that way,” I whisper.

  “Why? I love you, you love me. We can’t let those people tear us apart. That’s just what they want!” His voice rises with desperation. The tone hurts me deep inside.

  “I don’t want something like this to happen again. You’re . . . a wonderful guy, but . . . this won’t work. I thought I could do this, but I can’t. Being your girlfriend is too hard, and I don’t want to . . . You know, Brooke . . .”

  “You’re not going to kill yourself. I’m with you, Lane, I swear to you. I’ll never leave you alone. I’m not Jonah, who left you hanging in a difficult phase,” he tells me urgently.

  “But I’m not strong enough to be your girlfriend,” I reply, about to cry. My vision becomes blurry and distorted from the tears.

  “Then I’ll be strong enough for both of us, but you can’t leave me. You’re the first girl since Meredith who won my heart. I don’t want to be without you anymore!”

  I take a deep breath. “Please leave, and . . . don’t come back.”

  Gavin bites his lip as he gets up. “I won’t just give you up. Let this be a warning or a promise, but I will fight for you.” Then he leaves me alone.

  I let the tears flow as soon as he’s gone. I turn slowly onto my side and curl up into a fetal position. All my emotions, the frustration, the pain, and the fear break out of me. I purposely lie with my back to the door so nobody outside can see how I’m feeling. I don’t want them to look at me; I hate crying in front of people.

  Chapter 16

  Two weeks later

  I’m sitting on the chaise longue in my parents’ library. In my hands I’m holding a book that my brother handed me. He’s sitting across from me in an armchair and regards me with his blue eyes. “How are you feeling?”

  “Awful,” I respond quietly. I haven’t seen Gavin or any of the other guys
in over a week. Only Jayden, because he’s my doctor.

  After I broke up with him, Gavin came by two more times to ask how I was. The encounter with my family went smoothly, although I could see my father still would have liked to shred him to pieces.

  “Why did you break up with him? Because Dad said he isn’t good for you?” he presses.

  I shake my head. “Because it’s safer for me.”

  “What do you mean, Maddy?” Etienne’s the only one who calls me Maddy, probably to stand out from others.

  “I’m scared those people will make good on their threat of killing me next time. I . . . want Gavin to live happily and freely, not for him to constantly worry about me.”

  “That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” my brother tells me, appalled.

  I look at him with a raised eyebrow. Meanwhile I can fully open my other eye again. The video was in the media, and last weekend they stated on the dance show that Gavin and I wouldn’t be taking part anymore, because he’s backing out after the attack on me.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you love that guy. I don’t see why, but you do, and you shouldn’t throw everything away because of a few jealous idiots that threaten you. Sure, they attacked you, and yeah, you were lucky you can still do your job, but you shouldn’t deny yourself love. And I’m positive your feelings for him are far stronger than the ones you had for Jonah!” he tells me firmly.

  “Huh . . . How would you know?”

  “Because I’ve been hearing you cry for an entire week now. When things ended with Jonah you didn’t even cry, you just stuffed your face with chocolate, is what Macey told me when she was at the hospital.”

  “Macey doesn’t even know . . .”

  “I don’t give a damn. Either you get your shit back together, or I’m taking you with me to see Gavin McLeod and I’m arranging a shotgun wedding!” he growls at me.

  “Etienne, the times in which you could forcibly marry off women are pretty long past,” I say.

  My brother’s practically tearing his hair out. “Maddy!”

  I slump down against the back of my chair, opening the book. Dracula? The title is written as a question.

  I turn the page. The next one says, No, not Dracula. It’s Gavin McLeod’s song “Why Did You Leave Me?”