Maverick wheels around to face me. “I told you to wait outside,” he growls, but I’m too transfixed on Jessica and her wild eyes to react. Wild eyes that are pinned to mine.
“You said it was another Beth.” Reaching down, she grabs the tablet, but doesn’t let go of the bow.
My heart feels faint as fear claws its way up my throat like a mutated amphibian.
“Is this another Beth? Are you another Beth?”
I don’t answer. I can’t answer.
“Jessica,” Maverick says, his voice softer than I’ve ever heard it. Jessica bares her teeth at him and tosses the tablet across the room. It lands with a soft thud into the plush leather sofa.
“Jessica,” Maverick tries again. He’s standing upright now, concern giving way to irritation. “Why did you break into my flat? You knew it would trip the alarm. What were you trying to accomplish here?”
Her cheeks flush red and she looks away for a brief second with the innocence of a child before looking back up at him.
“I wanted you to come back here,” she explains. “Tripping the alarm meant that you would have to come back here.” She’s not right, of course. I’ve sat beside Maverick as he tossed around his Lamborghini, wrecking the entire thing in one fell swoop. He didn’t even bat an eye. If he was out partying it up, he’d have allowed a tripped alarm to go unanswered.
“But then,” Jessica continues, “I got here and she’s everywhere. You have her stuff here? Her actual, personal, stuff, Maverick. Are you screwing her? The peasant?”
“Enough!” His voice bellows over hers and she whimpers like a tiny pup caught in the midst of an earthquake.
“You’re defending her?” She asks the question in quiet devastation, fresh tears trickling down her face.
“Jess-”
“No!” she snaps, fury returning to her eyes. “No! You keep putting everyone else before me. You keep choosing everyone but me.” Her arms are flailing around, and I start to move towards her, not to trigger her, but because there can only be one broken woman in Maverick’s life and Jessica she wrecks my violin…
She wipes at her nose with the back of her hand and fixes her eyes on Maverick.
“All I’ve ever wanted was you,” she tells him and I believe her and pity her all at the same time. Maverick might be great, but he’s not great enough to warrant her losing herself.
“You need to leave, Jessica. If you put that down and leave now, we’ll just pretend that nothing happened here today.”
“You’re mine,” she says defiantly, angrily. Like she can’t fathom why he’s not understanding. Why he’s not promising her forever and tomorrow. Why he’s not explaining away my picture on his iPad and my toothbrush on his sink.
Maverick shakes his head at her and in retaliation, she heaves the bow across the room. Instinctively, my knees bend and then I’m propelling forward, diving to catch it before it falls.
On my knees, I breathe a sigh of relief. Relief that doesn’t last for very long. I regret my actions the moment I look up into her eyes. It’s like I can see the thoughts spelled out in the slow deranged grin that spreads out like moth wings across her face.
“You broke my heart, Maverick,” she whispers, her eyes still fixed on me.
I start scrambling off the floor and Maverick starts moving towards her, but it happens so quickly I can hardly gasp at the impact of broken notes tumbling down my ear as Eloise cracks and shatters against the coffee table.
It feels like I’ve physically been stapled to the ground. I have not budged.
Maverick, on the other hand, crosses the room with rage in his jaw and fury in his irises. He grabs Jessica by the shoulder, shaking her as she smiles. My eyes fall to the floor, to the splintered pieces of the thing I love the most.
In the background, chaos reigns. But it’s hard for me to focus and hard for me to give a damn about anything but the crumbling of my heart. I know that they leave though. The security guards. Maverick. Jessica. Their voices fall deeper and deeper into the background giving way for real heartache to pierce the air.
I’d cared for Eloise, respecting my instrument before I ever truly understood what respect was. Finding discipline in her cords and love in her tone. It seems unfair than in just an instant, a deranged misguided, love-struck little girl can push my world so far off its axis.
Maverick reenters the room to find me crying over the remnants of his mother’s name-sake.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he whispers from across the room, as though he’s afraid to come closer.
I nod, unable to look up at him because maybe I’m afraid too. If the both of us fall apart, who’ll be left to pick up the pieces?
Silence paints the air a somber color, only being brought to a halt by the ringing of Maverick’s phone.
“I don’t know,” I hear Maverick groan and I focus on him again. “Her parents are going through a horrible divorce. No. No Collin I don’t want to press charges, but she fucking broke Beth’s violin so we have to do something!”
As though noticing the impact the sharp blade of his words had, Maverick points to his phone and nods toward the balcony. I don’t stop him from leaving. When he’s no longer in my line of sight, I focus on my breathing and work up the courage to collect the pieces of my violin, taking them to the bedroom where I deposit them into the case.
My eyes wander around the room at the mess Jessica managed to make. My clothes lay strewn across the floor and all my personal items with them. Then I see it. Laying in a pile on the night table.
Holy shit.
34
For every win, there is a loss. A truer statement has never been made. Except today, I didn’t want to have to deal with the losses. I guess, in a sense, I should be grateful. Focus on the good. I’ve had a lot of wins piled into less than twenty four hours. For starters, Beth turned the tables, saving me from wrecking my leg the way Jared intended – putting him in the eye of his own disaster. And Beth’s father reached out to me. Though he didn’t watch the game, our conversation made me know there was a chance we could find a better foot to walk through our relationship on. To top things off, we won the game, I scored my goals, did all the impressing I’d set out to do. But even stacked on top of each other, it doesn’t feel worth it. Not when the tradeoff looks anything like the tears pooled in Beth’s eyes as she watched her violin get smashed to smithereens.
I press the cellphone tighter against my ear, listening to Collin’s words.
“I think a restraining order would be the most appropriate alternative in this case,” he says and he sounds as irritated as I feel.
“I don’t know, Collin.” There’s a part of me that wants to storm into Jessica’s home and break the thing that will hurt her the most. The only problem is, I’m pretty sure I’ve already done that. Every move I make away from her, is a step that crushes her heart even more. I can feel the throbbing in my temples increase in intensity before shifting gears and migrating down to my neck.
“Maverick, I don’t think you understand how serious this is. She knows about you and Bethany. This could spell big trouble for the both of you. If she goes public with what she knows, you could be staring down the barrel of deportation and Bethany will be on her way to jail in a heartbeat. Is that what you want?”
“She doesn’t know anything!” I hiss. If she did, she wouldn’t have gone mad with assumptions. “She’s just going through a lot right now, and -”
“You know who else is going through a lot right now?” Collin says, cutting me off. “Your fiancé.”
That’s all he needs to say to silence me. All he needs to say to bring me right back to reality. I suck in a deep breath, sighing as I let it out. When the fuck did life become this complicated?
As though reading my mind and wanting to raise me, Collin adds, “I did an extensive background check on Bethany.”
“A what?” I ask, not really sure I’m hearing him correctly. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t like the worry he coated
the words in.
“The money you sent to her is almost all gone from her account.”
“I’m not really sure what you’re getting at here, Collin.”
“She transferred all the money to another account. Her parents’ joint account.”
“Yeah. So? The money is for tuition and schooling and whatever. She’s free to use it however she wants, really.”
“Sure. But she’s not saving any of it. I did some digging into her parents as well and it turns out they both got laid off from work just a few days before you guys decided to get hitched. Perhaps the day you got the marriage license. Now imagine her dealing with that, plus you. I’d say she’s going through enough for you to do every damn thing it takes to make her your number one priority.”
All words fail me. Despite how fucking unbelievable all of this feels, deep down, I know Collin isn’t lying. Beth, unlike Jessica, has always been careful with her heart. She’s secretive, combative and knows damn well when to put her walls up and when to let them down.
“She’s putting up with you and all the insanity that comes with you and she won’t even get out of it what she wanted in the first place. So yeah, she’s not saving to go to college, Maverick. She’s taking care of her family. She’s going through a lot. She’s having a hard time. You don’t see her breaking into people’s houses and destroying their things, do you?”
Somehow I feel like I should have known that this was happening and the fact that I didn’t unsettles me more than I care to admit.
“I get it. But, Collin, pressing charges against Jessica when we’re already breaking the law seems like we’re poking the universe with a hot metal rod and karma will flip around and brand us on the ass.”
“Bullshit. You don’t want to press charges because you were both bed buddies once upon a time. I need you to stop thinking with your dick and think with the logical side of you that wants to make it to the state games and get drafted straight out of high school. Let me talk to that guy. He’d understand how serious Jessica knowing about this potential marriage really is. You keep underestimating the extent of her insanity and she keeps proving you wrong.” None of this has to do with the sexual aspect of my relationship with Jessica. But guilt, guilt has a funny way of making a man make fucked up decisions. Even if I wanted to deny it, deep down, I know that I’m responsible for Jessica going off her rockers today. She might deserve a night in jail. But so do I. Beth though, Beth only deserves the good.
I let a long breath out. “Jessica doesn’t know that Beth and I are married. She saw pictures but those can be explained away.” Collin’s seriously wrong thinking calling the cops is the right move to make. They won’t put Jess behind bars, nor will they throw her in the looney bin and throw away the keys. If anything, calling the cops will rile her up even more. A restraining order doesn’t mean shit to someone who’s determined to break the rules. There has to be a different way, a better way, to handle this.
“She knows?” I turn to see Beth standing in the doorway. She slowly walks over to where I’m standing and hands me the torn pieces of the signed prenup.
“Is that Beth in the background?”
“Yeah. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Hi Bethany.”
“Hi Collin. Is there anything we can do about this?”
She’s all business and I’m impressed all over again by her ability to switch her feelings on an off and get laser focused on her mission. Bethany Hendrickson is amazingly resilient and it’s both erotic and infuriating.
I can feel the confusion from earlier this morning returning to my stomach as she stands close to me, her head tilted to one side exposing the soft skin of her neck as she quietly nods along with Collin’s responses. In this moment, the only damn thing I want to do is protect her. No matter the cost. No matter what I’ll lose.
“I gotta say I agree with Maverick on this one, Collin. Don’t you think taking her to court is too much of a ballsy move considering what we are trying to get away with?”
“I understand what you’re both saying, but I need you to trust me. A restraining order would affect the credibility of anything she says against your marriage if you can show that she’s willing to go to such great lengths to move against you guys.”
“Who says she’ll say anything bad?” I interject.
“She might be angry now,” Collin says, “but once she’s had some time to sit down and think, she might start putting different pieces to a very dangerous puzzle together.”
Beth purses her lips and nods. “Even if her credibility is shot, whatever she has to say might make them want to dig deeper.”
“Sure, but at the very least, it’s a bullet in your gun. Don’t be fooled, Maverick. If she goes public with this, everything afterwards becomes war. You will have to fight to prove your innocence. Please promise me you’ll both consider it.”
“We will.” Bethany nods, bringing the phone call to an end.
Offering me a smile as forced as it is small, Beth takes off her shoes and walks over to the edge of the pool. I know better than to give her time to spin that pretty little brain of hers around all the reasons she should go running for the hills and so I make my way over and take a seat beside her.
“I’m sorry, Beth,” I say. For the first time in my life, I know just what it feels like to really mean something by it.
She turns to look at me with a questioning look on her small face.
“Why are you apologizing?” she asks quietly.
“Your violin,” I start, and my throat tightens as I recall the way the wood had exploded into tiny irreparable pieces. “I know how much it meant to you.”
She looks across at me and nods, the sadness in her eyes penetrating the last layer of resistance around my heart.
“I’m sorry too.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I assure her.
“I named my violin after your mother, Maverick. What Jessica did couldn’t have been easy on you either.”
Her most prized possession gets smashed to shit and she still somehow manages to be concerned about me? I’m only slightly aware of how foolish I must look to her now as my face contorts into a sort of confused reverence.
I despise how undeserving I feel as she looks up at me with kindness and a trace of something I don’t dare to name. She stares at me silently, as though studying the contours of my face for a few beats before she speaks again. Her voice is low and melodic, and I find myself leaning into her.
“You do that a lot, don’t you?” she asks quietly.
“Do what?” I sigh, feeling the electricity buzzing between our hands without them touching.
“Blame yourself for things that aren’t your fault.”
Her words slice through me like sharpened knives and I feel completely and utterly exposed.
“No,” I say, more confidently than I probably should.
Beth turns to face me, her fingers lightly passing over mine, sending jolts through me before they fall softly beside my hand.
“No? Are you sure about that?” Her voice isn’t accusatory and the more she stares at me, the less in control I feel. The beating of my heart picks up by a fraction and my breathing comes out like jagged rocks as I look into her eyes. This is the part of relationships that I’ve spent my entire life avoiding. Not that we’re in a relationship – marriage and all that aside. If Beth were any other girl, questioning me the way she is, I’d have two choices.
Kick her the fuck out of my condo.
Or, 2. Bend her over the edge of the pool, plant my hand firmly over her lips, and pound her hard enough for her words to turn to screams.
Except, Beth isn’t any other girl and so I keep my hands to myself and try with all my might to hold onto my composure.
Silently she dares me to unravel. To expose my heart. In silent defiance, I refuse.
“I only blame myself for the things that are my fault,” I say, my tone clipped, my eyes not even considering looking into the d
epths of hers.
She nods, contemplating. “How is this your fault Maverick?”
“I broke her.” The admission feels like a weight released as well as a burden on my shoulders all at the same time. All of it made harder when, stupidly, I look over at Beth to see her shoulders dancing and her lips spread thin as she chuckles softly.
A part of me feels like I should be upset, and maybe I am, but I haven’t quite got the strength to show my anger towards her and so I push down on the side of the pool, intent on walking away.
As I start to move, however, Beth breaks the invisible barrier between us and grabs my hand.
“Beth,” I sigh.
“Don’t run away from me,” she whispers, and I close my eyes, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of her request and the even more absurd desire in my chest to comply.
“Today was supposed to be a good day,” I say.
Her expression looks pained, but her fingers still linger gently over mine. Her face becomes a mirror and all I can see is my own reflection staring back at me with the kind of compassion I had always longed for. I don’t know how, but I know she sees me.
I should hate it. I want to hate it, but something about the way her eyes shine free of judgment despite seeing behind my first mask leads me down the tunnel of hope that I shouldn’t dare to reach for. She will hate me the same way my father does if she ever finds out the truth about me. And if, by some miracle, her self-righteousness doesn’t allow her to sink as low as that, she’ll pity me, and I cannot decide which one is actually worse.
The silence between us stretches on into the night around us. Her breathing remains even, though I can see a subtle change in her eyes. Slowly, her hand moves away from mine and it feels like I’m getting paper cuts all over me.
She smiles at me and then stands.
“Fine,” she says with a smirk tugging on the sides of her lips. “We don’t need to talk about that.”
She isn’t wrong. What she isn’t right about, however, has more to do with her actions than her words. Slowly, carefully, she peels her top away from her body, revealing smooth, untainted skin.
Vile Intentions: A Dark Sports Bully Romance Page 17