Chasing Him: A Forbidden Second Chance Romance (Dark Love Series Book 4)

by Kat T. Masen

  “You won’t fucking lose her. She loves you. You have two children together, and because he made a bad decision, it ended up saving your wife and child’s life. I can’t understand how you can have what the two of you have and still be so insecure.”

  “And so, you tell me you love him and yet look at where you are? Did your insecurities not get the better of you?”

  Touché. It did get the better of me. It’s ugly, a disease that spreads like wildfire and can’t be tamed.

  “You’re right. Look at where I am. I failed. I just couldn’t control the jealous side of me. With Elijah, it was easy. It’s not like girls didn’t look at him, but it was never like this. Everywhere I turn, some woman has their eyes on Julian or even their claws. Who’s to say that one of those women will give him what I can’t?”

  “And if you asked him the same question, he will probably say the same thing. You just deal with it, Adriana. Charlotte is… well, fucking stunning. I don’t turn a blind eye to every glance she gets, but I can’t exactly dress her in a burlap sack and place garlic around her neck to fight off the dirty fuckers who look at her.”

  “True, but Charlie will make a burlap sack look hot. You’re screwed either way.”

  Lex’s mouth widens into a cheeky grin, his eyes light up as he hopelessly smiles acknowledging the sentiment.

  The clock on the wall ticks, it’s the only sound that can be heard in the room. Tired and sleepy, I let out a yawn. Lex appears to be wide awake, ignoring my need for sleep. “Andy asked for him tonight.”

  “Oh, it was bound to happen. What did you say?”

  “He asked if he went to the same place his daddy lives at.”

  My heart drops into my stomach leaving me nauseous and completely gutted. Andy had a bond with him, and during the shit-storm I started, I forgot about how he’d be affected in all of this. My eyes pool over, and not wanting to cry in front of my brother, I raise my head toward the ceiling and remain wide-eyed because the second I blink, I won’t be able to stop the tears.

  “I don’t know how to make this right,” I admit.

  “Lord knows I can’t change what your heart wants because, trust me, I would if I could. You’ll figure it out, but for now, just get better, okay?”

  He’s right. I need to get better for my son and me.

  “Lex, can you take me somewhere tomorrow?”

  He places his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into an embrace. Kissing the top of my head, he responds softly, “Anywhere you want to go, sis.”

  ***

  It’s dark yet bursting with light.

  The candles are flickering as they sit in a row besides the altar. The flame is bright and mesmerizing, igniting the tiny ounce of hope I’m barely clinging onto. I’m surrounded in a place which protects me. It eases my fears and calms my nerves.

  The pictures on the wall remind me of suffering, and as I kneel on the pew and pray in silence. I’m not sure what or who I am praying for, just guidance and peace. Lex is sitting in a pew behind me. He stares straight ahead with a barren expression. My knees give a slight crack as I stand, walking behind to where Lex is sitting. In silence, we both sit alongside each other, and just before I tell Lex it’s time to go, a warm feeling suddenly rushes over me. It’s unfamiliar and follows with a slight breeze. I don’t even check to see if the doors are open. Instead, I close my eyes, and his voice echoes all around me. I can’t make out the words he is saying, but his tone is calm and at peace.

  I jump as Lex grabs my hand to squeeze it tight.

  The voice stops, and unknowingly, the tears have fallen silently down my face. I miss Elijah, I’ll always miss him, but Julian is here, and I need to make things right. I must, once and for all, show him how much I love him.

  I speak to Elijah, barely a whisper, and whether or not he can hear me, I say the words I need to get off my chest. “I’ll never truly understand why you left us. I know you can see Julian. I want to tell you, Elijah, that I love him. It’ll never be the same as the love I feel for you, but it’s just as valuable. He makes me happy, and he loves Andy. I’m finally moving on, just like you told me to. Forgive me for my mistakes and my anger.”

  Lex’s grip on my hand is tight, and he continues to be mute.

  “I thought about being with you so many times, and if it weren’t for my family and Julian, I’d have caused more damage than good. I’ll never stop loving you and never stop thinking about you. Every time I see Andy’s face, you’re looking right back at me.”

  With my voice trembling, I say my final thoughts. “I love you, Elijah. May you finally rest in peace knowing we’re okay.”

  I sob uncontrollably, turning into Lex’s arms. My chest hurts, and my ribs ache with every breath I try to catch. Lex moves his hands to the back of my head and holds me tightly to his chest as I clutch onto his jacket.

  How long I remain like this is uncertain. When I finally peel myself off him, he stares into my eyes, and in full confidence, says the one thing that reassures me more than I can ever imagine.

  “You’re going to be just fine, Adriana,” he says, followed by a loving smile.

  Does it mean what I think it means? That my happiness is important to him, and Julian will finally be accepted? I search his emerald green eyes for an answer, and as desperate as I am to find one, looking back at me is my big brother. Someone who has been by my side from the moment I came into this world, a man who tries to protect me from all the evil in this world, a man who will forever be my blood.

  This is no longer a game of who won, and just maybe, I won’t be forced to choose one or the other.

  In the car, the mood is quiet, but it’s what both of us need. The mellow sounds of Bob Marley play softly over the car stereo. With Lex concentrating on driving, I lean my head against the window and watch the city pass us by.

  Twenty minutes later, we pull up into the daycare. Both of us get out of the car and make our way to the gated entrance. I punch in my code to open the main door. Lex tells me he is just going to look through the glass window to watch the kids while I sign Andy out. Amelia is at my mom’s today along with baby Ava so that Charlie can work.

  With the pen in my hand, I go to the clipboard but notice a signature beside his name. I don’t recognize it at all and query the young girl working behind the main desk.

  “Jennie, why is there a signature beside Andy’s name?”

  “Oh, about an hour ago his grandpa picked him up,” she says plainly.

  “My dad’s in San Francisco. You must have got it wrong. I’ll just go get him from the room.”

  “No, Mrs. Evans. The man said he was Andy’s grandfather,” she responds, but this time her face looks panicked. This girl is fucking hopeless, and if this is a joke, it’s beyond ridiculous now.

  “Jennie, this isn’t a joke,” I say sternly. “Where’s my son?”

  Lex walks back from the room with a concerned face. “Andy isn’t here.”

  The bile in my throat rises, and my body starts to shake manically. Jennie begins to stutter out words I can’t comprehend. She leaves and returns within seconds with the manager.

  “Andrea, where’s Andy?” I beg her for answers.

  Andrea’s face turns to Jennie, and they speak in code, something passes between them, and Jennie begins to clutch her chest while shaking her head.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Evans. Jennie is new here. We can watch the footage and see who it was.” She rushes back to her office, and I follow, hoping it’s Julian who picked him up. With the video footage rewound, I see an older-looking man with his head down as Jennie speaks to him. I don’t recognize him at all and look over to Lex as the panic sets in.

  This isn’t happening.

  It’s a nightmare—just wake up now!

  “Where’s my baby?” I demand, sobbing as the scream echoes through the office.

  Lex grabs his cell and dials 9-1-1. The sound of his voice drowns out as I struggle to find Julian’s number, the screen is blurred as I
tremble in fear. Finally, the call connects, and I pray he will answer.

  “Adriana?”

  I sob into the phone, mumbling, paralyzed with shock.

  “Adriana, what’s wrong?”

  “My baby… someone took my baby.”

  Julian demands to know where I am, but I can barely speak let alone recite the address of the daycare. The cell slides out of my hand and crashes onto the floor. With hope that this is all a cruel joke, I turn to Lex for reassurance, but his face is red as he howls at the manager, her pleading with him to calm down as she cries uncontrollably.

  Helpless and frightened, I slide against the wall and sit on the floor hugging my knees as I rock back and forth.

  Moments later, Julian bursts through the front door behind the police. He spots me and rushes over falling to his knees. I look directly into his eyes, and suddenly, my blood drains as the realization that Julian is alone and without Andy. Julian places his hand on my face, the panic reflecting in his eyes confirms what my head refuses to believe every parent’s worst nightmare.

  Someone has kidnapped my son.

  LEX

  As a parent, we’re programmed to protect our children from the moment they lay in their mother’s womb. Just like in the wild, our instincts are to nurture, care for our children, and ensure they are never harmed or experience suffering or pain. We guide them, educate them, give them the tools to succeed to become the greatest person they can be. The emotions attached to becoming a parent are ones that nothing in life can prepare you for, but somehow, we get through each day, and if there’s one thing I know in my life that I did right, it’s creating my beautiful girls with Charlotte.

  Andy isn’t biologically my son, but he is my blood, and from the moment I rested my eyes on this little boy, the connection between us was a force so strong that it caught me by surprise. He’s the beautiful, innocent little baby who, at only one week old, has suffered more pain than I have in my entire lifetime.

  He lost his father.

  I knew I had to protect him. He may not have called me Dad, but I treated him no different to my own daughters. It isn’t fair he had a rough start to life, and it’s not fair he’d grow up and not understand what it’s like to call a man Daddy.

  No kid deserves that.

  Adriana was bound to find someone, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon, and the giant fucking curveball bigger than planet Jupiter, it was Julian Baker.

  How this motherfucker managed to waltz back into our lives without me knowing rang alarm bells. I had Bryce do a background check on him again, and it came back all clear. He’d been in Australia promoting some book bullshit, but that didn’t ease my apprehension. I was beyond livid, outraged, and lashing out at everyone around me the moment they revealed their affair. It almost cost me my marriage, jumping to all sorts of conclusions that Charlotte was somewhat aware of the situation. I refused to lose my wife, fucking her into oblivion every moment we had spare. She was mine, and who would’ve thought that even I’d complain about a sore dick. Fuck, even so I still carried on. I was on a mission.

  And my sister—I’ve never felt so much hatred as I did when she told me the truth—to disrespect my brother, Elijah, to bring that low-life scum back into our lives after what he did to Charlotte. Just because he ‘saved’ Charlotte and Ava that night she crashed the car, didn’t mean I owed him a damn thing, let alone be grateful he was fucking my sister.

  But throughout all this, I remained one step ahead of him, feeding off his weaknesses and creating the temptation. It isn’t a coincidence Charlotte was dressed in that costume. She looked hot, and no man could resist her, especially the one who had stalked her for almost a year. The fight between my sister and him was the highlight of the night. The moment I’d been waiting for—he had given up and told her it was over.

  I didn’t expect to feel guilty, but it hit me like a wrecking ball, watching my sister suffer. She was spiraling into a depression similar to losing Elijah, and suddenly, I found myself desperately trying to avoid this at all costs, even if it means that I need to show remorse over the whole sorry episode.

  That scum I keep referring to—I was no different, and it was Andy’s cries for Julian that was a wake-up call if ever I needed one. It killed me to admit that watching Julian with Andy was what hurt the most. He replaced me. I was no longer the man he asked for, and his face stopped lighting up every time I walked into the room. He may have been just a kid and totally unaware his actions could cut so deep, but nevertheless, my hate for Julian grew to an entirely different level.

  I was glad to see the back of him, and making sure Andy and I repaired our relationship was my top priority. What I didn’t expect, what no parent ever expects, is to be living this fucking nightmare.

  Andy has been taken.

  The police are a bunch of fucking idiots, spitting out their bullshit to file a report. I’m furious, yelling at the useless fucks for not helping us find my nephew quicker. Adriana is inconsolable, her body limp as Julian holds onto her. His feeble attempts to calm her down are fruitless as she begins to hyperventilate, vomiting all over the floor.

  Charlotte rushes to her side, having just arrived as both of them attend to her aid.

  This is all his fucking fault.

  I cannot reason.

  I cannot think straight.

  My Andy is missing.

  Charlotte is surrounded by paper towels and a bucket, panicked and in tears. She passes a wet towel to Julian, and taking it, he gently wipes her face. Adriana is pale, ghostly white, her eyes dull and lacking any emotion.

  Charlotte stands up and walks over, pulling me aside for more information.

  “We don’t know who this man is,” I mutter.

  “Can we see the video again? Maybe I might know him?”

  I nod, anything to find out who this fucking low-life is who took Andy. We head back into the office and rewind the footage.

  Julian enters the room and watches in silence. “I’ve seen him before.”

  I turn abruptly to face Julian. Talk, fucker! I glare at him waiting for a response.

  “The night that Mary Jean was staying at the house, she went out to meet a friend. It was the same man waiting in the car down the street,” he says anxiously.

  “How do you know? It could be anyone?” Charlotte asks in desperation.

  “Pause the footage… there,” he commands. I stop the tape. “He has a mole. It’s oval-shaped near his mustache. I recognize it.”

  I call Adriana in, questioning her about Mary Jean.

  “She never mentioned him, but I remember that night, I transferred five thousand dollars to her.” Her voice is rattled, Charlotte supporting her physically by holding onto her arms. I motion for Charlotte to take her back outside.

  Alone with Julian in the room, I think out loud, not expecting a response from the worthless punk. “They couldn’t have gotten far. Mary Jean is behind this, and she’s not smart enough to cover her tracks.”

  His voice follows. “Okay, so say they flew out. LAX will have them on file.”

  “Or they drove… but which way? Fuck!” I slam my fist against the desk, the jolt knocking a coffee cup down spilling its contents all over the keyboard.

  The fucker ignores me, pulling out his cell and making a call. He begins to speak to someone, and I have no idea who. Seconds later, he hangs up, and his face no longer looks calm.

  “I have to go find Andy,” he tells me.

  “Where the fuck are you going?”

  “I’m not sitting around waiting for the cops to do shit. I’m gonna find Andy.” He walks past me, and I follow him outside to the hallway. He drops to the floor and cups Adriana’s face. “I’m not coming back without him. I promise you.”

  She can barely move her head, and he kisses her lips reassuring her. I turn away. What the fuck is going on here? I pull Charlotte aside and promise I’ll call her as soon as I know what the hell we’re doing. She understands, quickly jumping up and hugging
me before I race out of the building to follow him.

  “Fucking tell me what you’re doing!” I shout at him.

  “I have someone who can help.”

  “Well, I’m coming with you,” I demand.

  “Fuck off, Edwards. You don’t want to be involved in my shit.”

  “If your shit will help us find my nephew, then you better believe I’m going to be involved,” I seethe. “We’re taking my car.”

  The car is clocking record speed, but I don’t give a fuck, following his directions to a run-down part of town. The streets are lined with dilapidated homes and groups of teens hanging around watching us drive with caution. I pull into the driveway of a brown brick home and turn off the engine. The front porch light is on, and all the windows are dark. A shadow peaks through the curtains. It’s times like this I wish I carried a gun. In the distance, the sound of a car backfiring startles us.

  Julian looks reluctant at first but quickly exits the car. He leans back into my window, commanding me to stay in the car.

  I wait impatiently, giving him a few more minutes before I go after him.

  He emerges with his jacket closed, nervously checks his surroundings, then hops back into the car, disturbed with a look of sheer terror in his eyes. It would be proper manners is to ask him if he is okay, but fuck that bullshit, where’s my nephew?

  “A lady and man accompanied with a young boy have checked into a Motel 6 about three hours north.”

  “How the fuck did you find that out?”

  “Just drive. Now.”

  I start the engine and reverse out of the driveway, the tires screeching as I slam my foot on the brake and shove the stick into gear. He gives me the directions, and I punch them into my GPS.

  “Now, fucking tell me how you found that out?” I yell at him.

  He doesn’t tell me. He throws a bag carrying white substance into my lap. I lower my head to look.

  Is this what I think it is? Fuck, it’s a bag of cocaine.

  “Why is this shit in my car?”