Flawed Love: House of Obsidian

by Bella Jewel

  “Where have you been?” I ask. “I was worried.”

  “I called you.” He frowns.

  “I know, but I hate not knowing what you’re doing.”

  “Yeah, I know, but trust me, it’s nearly over.”

  I bite my bottom lip, giving him a concerned look. He reaches down and strokes a thumb over my cheek. “Trust me, okay?”

  “Okay Rai.”

  “Now, tell me what’s been happening. I’m taking you out tonight, so you better not have plans.”

  I tuck myself into his side and we start walking towards school.

  “Nothing much has happened. It’s all the same.”

  “No excitement at school?”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  “Jack been keeping his distance?”

  “Considering he probably had to have plastic surgery, I’m going to say yes.”

  Rainer chuckles. “Well, that’s what he gets for touching what isn’t his.”

  “You could have been charged for that. You’re lucky, Rai.”

  He squeezes me. “If he charged me, I would have had you charge him and he knows it. Not worth it.”

  “Well, I think he’s learned his lesson.”

  Rainer grunts. “I fucking hope so. You haven’t had any more shit from Missy?”

  I laugh bitterly. “No, Missy is too busy chatting up the new guy. He is hot, though. I can’t blame her.”

  Rainer reaches over and tickles my side, and I squeal with laughter.

  “Careful, kid. I’m the jealous type.”

  “No shit? I didn’t guess.”

  He laughs. “Fuck I’ve missed you.”

  Yeah, I’ve missed him too.

  More than he knows.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  NOW – MALI

  Tears flow down my cheeks in hard, heavy streams. I’m on my bed, knees tucked up to my chest. Mimi has been sitting with me, but she wasn’t getting anything out of me so she decided to try and make me some tea. I can hear her battering around in the kitchen, no doubt frustrated. I want to tell her what happened, but I can’t stop crying for long enough to get it out.

  I’m crying so hard, and no matter what I do it just doesn’t stop. I’m crying from years worth of loss and pain. My phone has rung more than thirty times, and I finally turned it off. The calls were from Rainer, and Pippa, and even a few from Belle. I don’t want to talk to any of them. I don’t know how to explain what I’ve done. I don’t just blame Rainer; I blame myself for not being honest with him.

  It’s all just a big mess.

  “She doesn’t want to see you!” Mimi screeches.

  “Too fucking bad!” Rainer barks, and I hear pounding footsteps.

  Oh God. He’s in my house. Why is he in my house?

  “If you don’t stop, I’ll call the cops,” Mimi yells.

  “Go right a-fucking-head. I’m going to see her.”

  “Rainer!” she screams.

  I launch off the bed, scrambling to get to the door and lock it, but I’m not quick enough. It swings open and a big, angry Rainer storms in, slamming it behind him, right in Mimi’s face. He reaches back and locks it, then he stands, staring at me, really staring. His body is shaking with his panting breath, and he looks wild.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands.

  “I thought you’d know. I went in there so excited that you were in town, that I was going to have my friend, my lover, back, but when you looked at me and didn’t recognize me, it broke my heart.”

  “I have memory problems, Emy. Fuck! I know who you are, but your face is a hazy mess in my mind.”

  He called me Emy. My heart explodes and I start sobbing again.

  “I get that, but I thought you’d know, Rainer. I thought you’d see it, and the more time you spent with me, the more I realized that wasn’t going to happen. I know I should have told you, but I was so hurt. God, it burned so deep . . .”

  He takes a step forward but I put a hand up. “Please, don’t,” I croak.

  “I would have never done any of that if I knew,” he croaks.

  “Wouldn’t you?” I cry. “God, Rainer, you don’t care about me anymore and that’s okay. I didn’t expect you to, but . . . I just thought . . . after the way you left . . .”

  “Things have happened in my life . . . Do you think if I could remember clearly that I wouldn’t have been happy to see you?”

  I cry harder. “I’m sorry,” I croak.

  He steps closer and I let him. I stare at his boots, because I don’t know what to say.

  “I never thought I’d see you again,” he rasps. “Fuck, Emy, I never . . .”

  “It hurt,” I cut him off. “It hurt so bad when you looked right through me. I was so sure you’d remember, and it felt like someone had reached in and ripped my heart out.”

  He says nothing, and I don’t look up.

  “Then I found out what had happened, and that you were in love with Pippa, and I realized I was in deeper than I first thought. When I heard you say that stuff tonight . . . it ruined me. I’ve loved you since the day you made love to me and every year since and you ruined me.”

  “Emy . . .”

  “And you didn’t even remember me.” My voice breaks on a sob. “You didn’t remember. Oh God . . .”

  “Kid . . .”

  “And that hurt, Rai,” I cry angrily. “It fucking hurt.”

  “Emalie . . .”

  “And now you love another woman, and it hurts, so badly. It’s not your fault, I know that . . .”

  “Look at me,” he demands, his voice thick with emotion. I lift my eyes and gasp at what I see. He’s got red eyes and there’s a tear running down his cheek. Oh God, he’s hurting. He’s . . . broken. “You have no idea what leaving you did to me.”

  “Then why did you do it?” I sob brokenly.

  “Because I was protecting you, and then I got into more bad shit and I got sold. After that, my mind was a mess.”

  I hiccup loudly and wrap my arms around myself.

  “Before I met Pippa, all I thought about on that slave farm was you. Every second of every day, I prayed I had done all I could to protect you.”

  “Rainer,” I cry, my voice shaky.

  More tears run down his cheeks. “I loved you. You had to know that . . .”

  I press a hand to my heart. “You left me.”

  “I saved you.”

  “Rainer . . .”

  He steps closer. “I’m sorry, Emalie. I am so fucking sorry.”

  “I just—I don’t know where to go from here. The fact that you know doesn’t change the fact that you love her.”

  “No, Emy, it doesn’t but this does change things . . .”

  I start shaking. “Don’t come in here and give me false hope . . .”

  “I love Pippa, I do, but Emalie . . . fuck . . . your name is tattooed over my heart. You can’t think I’m not going to see where this goes .”

  “Rainer, please. Don’t let me believe in something that’s dead.”

  He steps forward, catching me in his arms. “It’s not fucking dead.”

  “You were just fucking me.”

  “It’s not dead, Emalie.”

  “You didn’t even kiss me.”

  “It’s not dead.”

  He doesn’t let me respond anymore, because he drops his mouth to mine and then he’s kissing me. It’s an explosive, wild kiss. It starts off slow and desperate, then it becomes deep and frantic. I reach up, tangling my fingers into his hair and tugging desperately, crying out his name against his swollen lips. He groans and spins me around, pressing my body against the wall.

  He never stops kissing me.

  “Emy,” he breathes against my lips. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “This is a dream,” I whimper against him. “It has to be.”

  “If I could explain my life and how it has been, you’d understand what this means to me. Having a piece of the man I lost back makes me feel like there�
��s hope.”

  “There’s always hope, Rai Rai. I’m here now.”

  And I’ll never leave. No matter what.

  ~*~*~*~

  “What happened to you?” I ask later that night, as I’m tucked into Rainer’s arms. “I know you were dealing with bad things, but then you just disappeared. I was heartbroken.”

  Rainer squeezes my shoulders and brings me closer to his chest.

  “As you know, my dad left some bad debts. I thought I could clear them easily enough by helping some people out.”

  “Drugs?” I whisper.

  He nods. “Yeah. I knew a few people, and I figured it would be easy enough to do a few jobs and pay back the debts, but it wasn’t that easy.”

  “It never is,” I mumble.

  “I got in deeper and deeper, and one night I made the fatal mistake of selling the drugs to the wrong person because they offered me more money. I took the money and figured I could pay Dad’s debt off and leave with you. I was young and fucking naive. I was dealing with a bigger drug lord than I thought and he caught up with me. He gave me a timeframe to pay it back, or he’d come after you.”

  I gasp. “I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t; I wanted it that way. I knew I had to protect you, so I started pulling away. I figured if I wasn’t with you anymore, he wouldn’t come after you. When the time came and I still didn’t have the money, he told me he was going to take you out. I told him you weren’t even with me anymore and that I’d get his money back. He decided then he had bigger plans. I guess he figured he wasn’t going to get his money back.”

  “So he sold you?”

  He nods. “Yeah, he did. He got all his men to take me down and they drugged me. When I woke, I was in the hands of a monster.”

  “That’s where you met Pippa.”

  “Yeah. As you know, we were paired up. It was hell, Emy—I can’t even explain it. It changed me. When I escaped, I thought my life would be so much better, but it wasn’t. Pippa was still there, and I couldn’t find her. I sunk into depression and started drinking heavily. I ended up in rehab.”

  “Oh, Rai, I’m so sorry.”

  “Buying the bar grounded me; it helped me fight my demons. When she came to me that night, and I saw she was alive and free, things finally started looking better for me. Not being able to find her was hell.”

  “I understand that,” I admit, because I can only imagine how hard it would have been, knowing she was left behind.

  “I had memory problems after returning, and when I started drinking. I know who you are, Emy, but even now I can’t remember your face from back then. I had no photos—nothing. My father’s house was raided and cleared out when I went missing.”

  “I know,” I croak. “I watched it being auctioned off.”

  “I’m sorry, kid. Please know that.”

  “When you look at me now, do you see it?”

  He’s silent a minute. “If I try really hard, I do, but my mind is a fuzzy mess. I know certain features you had, like blond hair, but you don’t now, so it’s not sparking anything. When I look into your eyes, now I know, there’s a familiarity.”

  “Then how do you know I’m not an imposter?”

  He chuckles. “Because you’re the only person in the world who has ever or would ever call me Rai Rai.”

  I smile and nestle into him. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  We fall silent. “What do we do from here, Rainer?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “You love another woman. I don’t think I can just look past that.”

  “I know that, and I can’t just turn off what’s there for her, but I can tell you that I want to keep doing this. For ten years my life has been a mess, up and down, high and low—I’ve been unable to do anything right. I can’t hold relationships; I have few friends. Having you back, it makes something inside me feel like there’s hope . . .”

  “There is hope, Rai Rai. We just have to find it.”

  “One thing is one hundred percent sure,” he says, pressing a kiss to my hand. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too.”

  He adjusts the blanket around me, then says, “Tell me how your life has been. I want to know.”

  “I went to college,” I say. “I didn’t end up getting very far. I was heartbroken after you left and things just weren’t working out for me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to move on.”

  “That’s a shame. You are so fucking smart.”

  “Anyway, I travelled a bit, dated a little, but in the end I’ve been restless for ten years. Nothing ever felt right. Then I heard you were back in town, and God, I was so scared to come and see you. I never knew why you left; I didn’t know if it was me, or if something horrible had happened. There were times I thought you were dead.”

  My voice hitches and he squeezes me tighter.

  “When I walked into that bar, I was so sure you’d know who I was and you looked right through me . . .”

  “I’m sorry, Emalie.”

  “I know you are.”

  “I can’t change what happened then, but can we try and see what happens now?”

  “Of course,” I whisper.

  I hope I’m being one hundred percent honest, because knowing he still loves Pippa is a big problem for me.

  Because I’m so in love with him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  THEN – MALI

  “You said it was nearly done with!” I cry, staring at Rainer’s black eye.

  “Emy, you have to trust me,” he growls. “Honestly, I’m doing the best I can.”

  “You’re being beaten. What’s next, Rainer? Will you get killed?”

  He flinches but he doesn’t say no. That does something inside me—it rips my chest wide open. He’s in danger, more than I’d first thought. Fear creeps up my spine and I start to tremble. “Rainer?” I breathe. “You’re in that much trouble.”

  His eyes flash to mine and I know, I just know, that he most certainly is.

  “Is it really worth it?” I scream. “God, Rainer, is it?”

  “I have to sort this mess out, or it’ll come back here and ruin my life and yours. Trust me on that, Emalie. If I could just walk away I would, but there’s no fucking way I can. I’m in too deep.”

  “So it’ll all be worth it when you get killed?” I wail.

  “I won’t get killed, I—”

  “You can’t promise me that, can you?”

  He steps forward, extending his hand. “No!” I yell, slapping it away. “Don’t touch me, Rainer. Don’t you touch me.”

  “I’m sorry, kid. I’m doing everything I can.”

  “What about me?” I whisper, my voice shaky. “What about what this is doing to me?”

  “I know and I’m sorry . . .”

  “I’ve barely seen you; I worry myself sick constantly. Why did you do it, Rainer? Why did you enter into this with me if you didn’t want to be here?”

  He steps forward, his hands in his hair. “Because I fucking love you and want to keep you safe.”

  “I’m not safe without you,” I sob. “I’m nothing without you. Can’t you see that?”

  “It’ll be over soon,” he whispers.

  Tears run down my cheeks as I meet his eyes. “You said that three months ago.”

  “Emalie . . .”

  “It’s my eighteenth birthday tomorrow,” I whisper, “and you’re not even going to be there, are you?”

  His eyes flash with pain. “If I could . . .”

  “Don’t finish that sentence.” I hiccup. “Just don’t. Leave, Rainer.”

  “Baby, listen to me . . .”

  “Leave!” I scream.

  He drops his head and turns, walking out and leaving me in agony.

  ~*~*~*~

  “Happy birthday!” everyone cheers, throwing their hands up and clapping.

  I smile weakly at the mass crowd, but it’s not there and it doesn’t reach my eyes. No one can see t
hat, though. No, these are all people from school who came along for the sake of pretending to be my friends so they could see my house and relish in my parents’ money. I don’t care for it. I don’t want anything but Rainer, and part of me hoped he would be here, but he’s not.

  “How are you liking your epic party?” Kenny asks, throwing his arms around my shoulders.

  “Fine,” I mumble, taking a knife and cutting the cake.

  People clap and cheer again, and a Happy Eighteenth sash is thrown over my shoulders. I smile for a few cameras and then I disappear through the crowd and outside into my courtyard that thankfully, no one is in. They’re all favoring the pool. I flop down onto a bench seat and put my face in my hands.

  “Hey,” Kenny says, sitting down beside me. “You okay?”

  “He’s not here, Kenny,” I say and my voice cracks. “He’s into something bad and he’s not here. I never know if he’s going to come back to me, or if I’ll get the call that tells me he’s dead.”

  “It’s that bad?” Kenny asks, giving me a concerned look.

  I drop my head again. “Yes, I think it is. Something awful could happen to him, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

  “Have you considered talking to the police?”

  “No,” I whisper, rubbing my hands over my face. I’ve thought about it a million times, but when I found out about the kind of people he’s been dealing with, I realized I could put him in more danger than it’s worth. “Because that could end up being the thing that kills him.”

  “Maybe you have to trust him on this one.”

  My body shakes in a sob. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I love him, but how much more of this can I take of this? It’s my eighteenth, Kenny, and he’s not here.”

  Kenny goes silent and just sits, rubbing my back for what seems like an age. I stop crying but keep my head hung. About fifteen minutes in, he stops rubbing and makes a gasping sound. Then he taps my shoulder. “You have a visitor.”

  I lift my head and gasp when I see Rainer standing at the entrance to the courtyard. He’s wearing a pair of faded denim jeans, a black tee and boots. His hair is perfectly messy and his eyes are warm. He’s got flowers and presents in his hands. People are standing behind him, girls gasping and fanning themselves over the gesture he’s presenting to them.