Best (Change Series Book 3)

by Melanie Jayne

  I would go to work. I’d sit at my desk and do my job. After work, I’d go to the gym. I’d become a little lax, because I’d liked coming home and making dinner for us. Since there was no more “us,” I had more time for new adventures. Maybe I’d join a club or take a class. There was so much I had yet to see and learn about the city. I’d give myself time to mourn what we’d had and what could have been, and then I’d go on.

  The fact Forde told me not to give up didn’t mean I should wait around for Tye. I had my own life to live.

  I checked the football scores and stood in front of the freezer with the door hanging open, trying to figure out whether I was hungry. I decided I wasn’t, so I ended up doing a workout video. Anything to keep busy.

  I woke at two AM. I was shaking and my calves were cramping. I felt the terror closing in around me. Knowing this was an attack, still, I couldn’t convince my body I wasn’t in danger. I tried to do the counting exercises, but I was shivering so badly my teeth rattled, and I feared I might bite my tongue.

  Tears ran down my cheeks. God, I hated this. I hated the stress on my body. My legs were killing me. I tried to flex my feet, but it wasn’t helping. The need to walk hit me. I felt powerless to fight it. I rolled to the edge of the bed and tried to put weight on my feet, but I stumbled and fell to the floor. There, I stared at nothing. I made small yelping sounds that didn’t sound human from my throat.

  This was getting worse. I rolled to my belly, crawled a few steps, and grabbed my phone from my nightstand. I went back down on my side on the floor.

  “Tye would know what to do,” I mumbled, and then tried to push the thought out of my head. There was no Tye anymore.

  I sent out a text to the Limited Group.

  Anyone up. It took me four attempts to hit the right letters.

  A response beeped immediately.

  Tony: What do you need?

  Call me

  My phone rang.

  Before I could speak, I heard Tony say, “I’m here Billie. You okay?

  He sounded calm and composed. It helped. “B-bad attack,” I stammered, and finally got the words out.

  “How bad, babe?”

  “Hurts,” I panted.

  “I just finished getting Livy back to sleep. I’ll be there in twenty, thirty at the outside.” Tony talked fast.

  “I, I don’t want…” I had to stop because the tremor made my jaws lock.

  “Honey, it’s no problem. I told you, you’re not alone in this.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to gather enough control to speak.

  “Billie, I’m coming. It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.” Tony stressed the “we’ll” part.

  “’Kay,” I whispered.

  Somehow, Tony got into my apartment and lifted me from the floor. He moved me to the bed and put me on my side. He wedged his big body behind me and wrapped an arm around my middle. My legs were still moving so he wrapped one strong leg over my lower thighs. When my legs finally stopped, he wrapped my comforter around my body and returned to cover my back.

  To say the next hour was horrible would not be an exaggeration. I shook and cried.

  Tony held me throughout. He talked to me in soothing tones and counted with me. He didn’t act surprised or shocked, just held on, doing what he could to help.

  When it finally ended, I was soaking wet and exhausted.

  Tony loosened his hold. “I’m going to get you some juice. When’s the last time you ate?”

  “Afternoon.” God my throat hurt, and my voice was like gravel.

  “Your body’s going to need to recharge. I’ll make you something.” He got out of the bed. “It won’t be heavy, but you need to eat.”

  I nodded.

  “Try to rest,” he ordered.

  I heard him in the kitchen, so I worked on sitting up. Before I shuffled to the table, I’d washed my face and pulled back my hair with a band. I’d wrapped my heavy robe around me.

  Tony placed a glass of orange juice in front of me. “Sip slowly.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said with a tiny smile.

  He returned to the kitchen, and soon I could smell bacon.

  “How’s eating pig considered light?” I asked his back.

  “I said not heavy. You can have a little, but I’m going to eat a lot.” He smiled as he put a plate in front of me.

  It looked really good, and my stomach growled.

  After we both were finished, Tony poured more juice and set a bottle of water in front of me. When he returned to his seat, he leaned back and studied me. “You wanna talk about what happened between you and Burke?”

  “Not really.” I moved my glass closer to me.

  “Had to be bad. You guys are tight.”

  I continued staring at my glass.

  “Zoe told me some. You love him.” He waited.

  Lord, those women shared everything. “He wasn’t ready for a relationship, and I wasn’t sure I could be a, ah, fully active partner.” I figured he could guess where I was going with that.

  “So you settled for the friend thing,” he said, nodding.

  “I wanted him in my life.”

  “B, I don’t know of too many friends who share a bed.” Tony used a mocking tone.

  “He’s a really good man,” I said, feeling the need to defend Tye.

  “So what happened?”

  I sighed, knowing I was going to have to tell him. “I went to his place. There was some business with my mother—an excuse really, to be there. I was going to tell him how I felt, but...” I blinked hard because it still hurt to think about what had happened. “Let me back up,” I said, shaking my head, fearing nothing I was saying was going to make sense. “Since I told everybody about Tampa, Tye’s spent every night with me.” I paused and inhaled roughly. “Then the day after the limo ride, he said he had things to do, and he was going to sleep at his house.”

  “That’s an odd change.” Tony frowned.

  “I didn’t know what to think. He said he had to do some house stuff, and he hadn’t been there very much....” I again shrugged, feeling a little stupid at how silly that story was. “I got an email from my attorney in Tampa. It seems that my mother and the widow have teamed up to get a movie made about the abduction. I needed Tye to look at it and help me decide my next step.”

  “You’re not going to cooperate, are you?” he asked fiercely.

  “I won’t. So I sort of forced Tye to see me. We ended up back at his house. He’d told me that the night before he’d gone straight to bed. So when I spotted two wine glasses in the kitchen sink and an empty bottle, I put one and one together...” I frowned and dropped my head.

  “There plenty of explanations for the two glasses,” Tony rumbled.

  “There are, but one had lipstick on it.” I paused to let that clue sink in. “When the doorbell rang, and a woman with her boobs hanging out walked in with two bottles of wine. She made it clear that she’d been there the night before.”

  His frown deepened. “Billie, you know how neighborhood women are. I bet Tye has to hold them off.”

  “He didn’t deny anything, Tony.” I let out a sad sigh, “And the thing is, being just a friend, I have no right to be upset.” I blinked hard, because my eyes were burning.

  “You two can call it whatever you want, but you were together. You’re both too dumb to know it. There was plenty of love there.”

  “He hasn’t called,” I blurted.

  “He’s probably scared we’re going to kick his ass,” Tony growled.

  “You can’t,” I said. “He doesn’t know how I feel, and he doesn’t feel that way about me. He thinks I won’t be able to have sex, and that’s not fair to him. We all know that Tye likes sex.”

  “It’s different when you’re with someone you love.”

  Tony said it with such authority, that I hated him just a little. I doubted I’d ever find out whether it was true.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Tye

&nbs
p; Yesterday was shit, and it was just after noon, but today was even worse. I turned down my street and dared the universe, “Lay it all on me, Karma—I deserve it all.”

  I slowed my car because the way things were going, I’d probably hit something like a deer or a neighbor. I needed to focus. When I let my mind wander, all I saw was the look of pain on Billie’s face when she saw the evidence of my evening with Veronica. “I suck,” I said under my breath.

  Today was shot to hell. I’d had a pre-hearing conference in the next county north scheduled for first thing this morning. When I’d arrived for my nine o’clock conference, I was told the judge was running ninety minutes behind due to a personal emergency. I called my admin and asked her to shift my schedule. She hadn’t taken kindly to my tone, and told me she thought it best that I work from home today. Apparently, the word had spread, and she was with Team Billie.

  When I’d left court, I stopped for an iced coffee from the drive-thru where my streak of bad luck continued. The lid to the coffee hadn’t been properly secured, and coffee spilled down the front of my shirt and pants. I tried to shift a little because the cold and wet feeling was uncomfortable. Cramps hit my glutes and thighs, letting me know I’d overdone my workout the day before. I hadn’t wanted to be alone yesterday, so I’d called Brian to see if he was free. He’d suggested we go for a run.

  It got a little competitive after he’d asked about Billie. Grinding my teeth, I knew he was thinking about making a move now that I was out of the picture. I grew more upset with myself and unhappy that he might be dating her instead of me. Not fair of me to begrudge him. Brian is a good guy, but he was still working through the damage his wife had left in the wake of their separation. Even though I had no right, I wanted to warn him away from Billie. I wasn’t ready to see her with another guy although, like a dumb fuck, I’d panicked and screwed everything up with her.

  When we’d returned to my house, he’d offered to buy me a beer and dinner. I’d countered by offering to grill on my deck. From his appreciative comments, I could tell the guy loved my place. He’d begged for a tour and seemed interested in what I showed him. After he left, I realized that it had been radio silence from the Forde family all day. One of the guys had picked Billie up the previous night, so that meant she’d sent out a request. Because I had no broken bones, I knew it hadn’t been Forde who’d picked her up. He would have locked her in the SUV, and then beaten the shit out of me. Still, I’d expected some sort of response from him, even if it was ugly. Needless to say, I hadn’t slept much last night and that added to the shit that was my Monday.

  I pulled into my garage. The moment I exited my car, I was lifted in the air and thrown against the rear door of my SUV parked next to it. The force knocked the air out of lungs.

  Before I could retaliate, Tony Alessi’s hand was around my throat. He leaned into my body hard. “Time for a talk Golden Boy,” he growled.

  Christ, the guy moved like a ghost. I never sensed him. I tried to nod, but couldn’t.

  He must have sensed my agreement, so he dropped his hand and moved off of me, but he was still in my space.

  “What the fuck?” I railed. Actually the idea of a fight sounded good. Maybe if I got my ass kicked, the pain would mask my misery over losing Billie.

  The badass stared at me for a few beats. “I’ve been with Billie since three. You’ve got a lot to answer for.”

  My heart thudded with alarm. “Is she all right?”

  “Somehow she’s at her fuckin’ desk,” Tony said, his voice and eyes cold. “I don’t know how she made it in today, because she had a really rough night.”

  “She had an episode?” God, she hadn’t had one since that second night I’d spent with her. There had been a few nightmares, and some anxiety attacks, but nothing bad like that first one I’d witnessed. “How is she?”

  He continued to stare at me.

  My worry rose exponentially as he continued to look at me with quiet fury. Without thinking, I reached for my phone to call her.

  “Not going to happen,” Tony barked.

  “Okay, okay...” I said, trying to ease the tension. “Can we at least move this inside? I need to grab a shower and change.” I pointed to the large stain on my shirt.

  Tony took a step back then looked at my shirt and lower. “Hmph,” he snorted.

  I needed time to regroup, and he needed time to dial back his anger, before we had our heart to heart. “I need food. How about Grimes?” It was a sandwich shop that delivered.

  “Then we talk,” he ground out.

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t looking forward to what he was going to say, but I figured the delay decreased my chances that he’d rearrange my face—for now.

  As soon as I returned from showering, dressed in shorts and a long sleeve T-shit, Tony looked at my attire and moved to the refrigerator to get a beer and a water.

  He put the beer in front of me. “Figure, you’re not going into the office today.”

  I grimaced as I twisted off the bottle cap. “I was told my attitude was not appreciated and that I was to work from home until I could be civil.”

  Tony folded his arms over his chest. “I’m here for one reason only.”

  “I can guess the topic,” I said under my breath. I sat down and took a long pull from the ice cold bottle.

  Tony leveled a hard glare on me. “I figure since Billie doesn’t have any family worth a shit, I’d step up. You see, for months I kept an eye on you with her. First, you watched her. Then you two started to talk. She seemed to like you, and you behaved yourself.”

  “Even before I knew about the abduction, there was something about her that made me want to handle her with care.” I admitted.

  “After she talked about her family and what happened in Florida, I find out that you’re with her. Spendin’ the night with her, showing interest, treating her right.”

  I’d never backed down from a fight, but the dark look in Alessi’s eyes actually made me nervous. He was stone cold in his delivery, but I was certain he was enraged.

  “We all agreed to not ask questions about what was going on, to let you two continue. Billie never confided in the women. It drove Zoe crazy, but even with your history, we let it ride. I heard her say one time that you two were friends. I didn’t give a shit what you two wanted to call your relationship because, buddy, you were in one. Not a friendship but a relationship.”

  His use of the past tense was a blow to my sternum.

  The alarm signifying that someone had pulled into the drive told me our food had arrived, giving me a reprieve. I moved to the door.

  We ate in silence for a few minutes. My food tasted like sawdust. I put down my sandwich and took a pull on my beer.

  Tony gave me another of his stone-cold glares. “She told me what you did.”

  I braced myself in case he came across the table at me. “She knows some of what happened, but not all of it. She wouldn’t wait for me to explain.”

  “What? You were gonna tell her all the details?” He sneered. “Fuck, Tye. I get some of where you’re coming from. Before Zoe, I fucked around, got my share. When I met her, I knew I wanted her—and not for a night or week. I wanted her to be mine. To lock her down so no other man would ever touch her. If she was hungry, I’d be the one to feed her. If she hurt, then I’d dry her tears. I thought you had that with Billie.”

  “Let me explain,” I started, stalling a moment to figure out how much I wanted to say.

  He held up a hand. “No, I don’t give a shit. You can spin your side for somebody else. I came here with one thing to say, and then one question to ask.”

  “You’ve taking a long goddamn time getting around to it,” I fired back.

  He dropped his sandwich.

  I tensed instinctively.

  “She loves you.”

  Maybe I hadn’t heard him right. “What?”

  “This morning, after she stopped shaking and could speak in full sentences, she told me that she loved you. She
told Lay and Zoe the same thing on Saturday. She thinks you won’t let yourself be in another relationship, because you’re still pissed that you fell for Holly. That you made a bad choice.”

  “But that’s…” What? Sort of true. At least at the beginning. However, after I’d moved in with Billie, I’d never thought about Holly.

  “Probably true,” Tony said, his gaze narrowing. “We all know you hate being wrong.” He’d summed up my psyche in a few words. “To stay in your life, she agreed to be friends.” He glared at me a few seconds longer. “And she didn’t think she could handle the sexual component. But I was in the limo the other night, and it didn’t look like that was a problem anymore.”

  I nodded. That made sense. But I wanted to circle around to the other tidbit of news I couldn’t quite process. Jesus, she’s in love with me!

  “Want my opinion?” his mouth forming a tight, mean smile.

  I killed my beer before answering. “Do I get a choice?”

  “I think she was so happy, and probably relieved she could connect with a man, that she would have promised you anything.”

  For a long moment, I thought about what he’d said. She’d let me touch her. She’d even touched me. With others, she never touched them first.

  “That was your ‘in’ man. You two were making it work.”

  I closed my eyes briefly as the meaning of his words sank in.

  “She’s going to have issues,” Tony continued. “Not just the episodes, but problems with darkness, parking lots, and maybe certain positions during sex.”

  I rubbed my hand over my face, trying to figure this all out. “I know. She was brutalized. It takes time to recover,” I said, my voice dropping an octave.

  “Recovery is different for everybody. From my own experience, when you’re convinced you’ll never feel something, and then you do…it’s a huge high. At the same time, it’s terrifying, because you worry over whether it will last.”