TWICE SHY (A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE)

by Ivy Spears

  “She… but she’s gone, Bella. I only got fifteen years with her and here you are just going through the motions when you could have an eternity with the person you’re supposed to be with and you’re just… you’re just throwing it away!” The water was no longer lingering behind his eyes, now evident on the gentle gloss of his cheeks.

  That was only the second time in my life I’d seen my father cry. Once on the day my mother died and once now. It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and hindered with sadness. “Dad…”

  “Never mind, Bella, just never mind.” He moved past me and left out the back door, letting it slam shut behind him. A few seconds later I heard the screen door pound close hard behind him.

  “You’re just pissing people off left and right, aren’t you?”

  I swung around and came face to face with Ralph. He was frowning slightly and bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other. I hadn’t seen him since my dad came home and the papers in his hands told me he was probably here to settle up on the bill.

  “You heard that, huh?”

  He shot me a half smile. “Just a little. Asher’s pretty messed up, you know?”

  I looked down at the ground. “Did he send you?” I told myself I didn’t care about the answer, that it didn’t really matter one way or another. I hadn’t heard from Asher since that day in the parking lot and my heart wasn’t sure if it was relieved or devastated about the fact.

  Ralph shook his head. “No, he has no idea I’m here but a blind guy could see he’s torn up about this whole thing.” He took a few steps closer to me. “I don’t know exactly what happened between the two of you, Bella, but I know that he needs you, especially right now.”

  I swallowed and shrugged him off. “Thanks, Ralph, but it’s more complicated than you could understand.” I gestured toward the papers in his hands. “I assume you’re here to work out a payment plan.”

  He looked startled. “What? Oh, no, not at all. Asher said… I mean I think Asher’s taking care of that.” He moved the papers back and forth in his hands nervously.

  I huffed. “Yeah, tell him thanks but no thanks.”

  Did he honestly think he could pay for my dad’s barn out of guilt?

  Unbelievable.

  Ralph came to stand next to me, ignoring my comment. “That’s not why I’m here, Bella, I’m here because I’m worried about Asher. I think… I think he’s going to do something stupid.”

  “What else is new?” I asked, trying to sound like I could care less even though I clearly did. When I saw the look on his face I sighed. “Okay, I’ll bite… what do you mean something stupid?”

  Ralph grimaced and opened the papers in front of him. “I stole this out of his truck when he was with a client… it’s everything his personal investigator found on your father’s case. I think… I think he’s going to try and do something about it himself.”

  “Do something about what himself?” I looked down at his hands.

  Ralph flipped open the pages. “He found a bunch of things that didn’t add up, Bella.” He pulled a stack of pictures out of the file and started flipping through them. “Trevor’s story about the club is backed up by pictures from the surveillance system at the club.”

  I looked down to his hands and saw Trevor and another guy in a group of photos. Snaps of them walking into the club, lingering outside, talking to girls, and finally one of them getting in the truck together. “That proves nothing.” I picked one of them up for a closer look. “They could have gone to the club and then still hit my dad on their way back through.”

  Ralph shuffled more photos around. “Yeah, but look at this. It’s a picture of Trevor and his buddy at a drive through getting food two towns over. Look at the time stamp, three minutes before the 911 call came in about your dad, it’s at least a half hour drive…”

  “There’s no way he would have been able to make it all the way back here,” I finished for him, squinting down at the time stamp on the picture to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.

  “Exactly, how can you be in two places at once?”

  “You can’t,” I answered. I grabbed the file and started looking through it frantically. “How could the cops not know this? If Asher’s investigator could find it surely the police can find it.”

  “Maybe because they have someone feeding them false information.”

  “Someone like Josh,” I said slowly, still shifting through the papers.

  “Asher thinks maybe Josh is working with someone on the inside…”

  A picture of my dad’s truck jumped out at me on the screen and I squinted down even harder than I had been. “There’s… there’s chips of white paint on here.” I shook my head.

  “Yeah? So?” Ralph looked confused. “A white truck must have hit your dad.”

  “But the truck me and Asher saw in the garage that night wasn’t white, it was red,” I said out loud without thinking. I realized my mistake right away but it was too late, Ralph already had big eyes.

  “What night in the garage?”

  “Never mind.” I shook my head. “It’s not the point, the point is that I have to get back in that garage. I have to get another look at that truck and see if I can prove that it wasn’t the car that hit my dad.”

  Ralph looked alarmed. “What? Oh no, I didn’t… I didn’t bring this to you so you could run off on a wild goose chase just like Asher! I brought it to you so you could talk some sense into him and go to the police yourself!” He motioned toward the folder. “Take this to them, Bella, show them.”

  I shook my head, rejecting the idea right away. Maybe it was everything I had been through or remembering the look on Josh’s face in the parking lot that night but I knew I had to figure this out myself before I involved the cops. As much as I hated Asher at the moment he was right, who knew who we could trust anymore. I mean… I had thought I could trust him.

  I tried to ignore the feeling in the pit of my stomach that was painfully reminding me that all this did was make Asher look more guilty. I had told myself my dad was the only reason I hadn't told the cops about Asher being there that night, he had insisted on not going to the cops after Asher had insisted he had saved him… but deep down I wasn’t so sure.

  And if this proof did lead back to Asher…

  I wanted to know before the cops.

  I wanted to be the one who got to decide what to do with it.

  “You better put these back before he finds out you took them.” I shoved them back into his hands and took off toward the door. “Thanks for stopping by, Ralph, really.”

  “Oh, no! No! Bella!” He shouted after me. “Please, don’t go!”

  “Thanks again,” I called over my shoulder.

  “Bella!” He sounded frantic. “Asher will kill me!”

  But I was already gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Getting back into the garage was easier than I remembered. I just did exactly what Asher and I had done the first night we came. Of course.. it was a little harder to get my body through that window without his help.

  I had to get back to the gym.

  Oh, who was I kidding? I had to start going to the gym.

  But once I finally got up and through the window getting down was easy and the truck was exactly where it was the night we’d first come. I pulled the tarp back forcefully and almost lost my composure at the sight of it.

  It was in the same exact condition it had been before. Not one ounce of work had been done on it. I shook my head, stunned and confused. “But… that makes no sense,” I mumbled out loud. Why was it just sitting here for weeks? Unless whoever had put it here had wanted to make sure it didn’t get fixed so when the cops came looking they would have even more evidence against Trevor.

  I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and started snapping pictures of every angle of the truck, closing in on the parts that had specs of paint on it. Now that I was zooming in on it something about it did look a little odd. Something abou
t it was off. It looked almost too perfect.

  I was just rubbing my fingers back and forth over the door handle when suddenly my phone was being snatched from my hand and I was being pulled backward by the lower part of my hair.

  I yelped loudly, swinging toward the back of my body but only catching air.

  Josh stood behind me red faced and rage filled. “You just couldn’t let it go, could you?” He dropped my phone onto the ground and stomped on it, cracking the screen. “You had to keep poking the fuck around.”

  I pushed my body away, trying to steady myself back on my feet. “Josh? I… what are you doing here?” I tried to play dumb but I knew exactly what he was doing here. If he hadn’t crashed into my dad himself he certainly had something to do with the person who did.

  “Oh, come on, don’t be a bitch, Bella. Please? Don’t play dumb, the whole thing is insulting to me.” He ran a hand over his face and kicked my phone away from him.

  “You… you’re the one who hit my dad?” I gulped.

  “Of course I fucking hit him. I would have gotten away with it too if you and your little husband hadn’t of been causing trouble all over town.” He cracked his head from side to side. “I mean this whole thing was Asher’s fault.”

  Josh looked absolutely crazy. His hair was all messed up and his eyes were bloodshot and filled with anger. “Asher’s fault?” I moved a few steps away from him, desperate to put some distance between the two of us. “Why?” I took a few more steps. “What did Asher do?”

  Josh closed the distance between us, catching on quick and pulling me even closer than before by my arm. “Because he ruined my fucking life! I had to drink that night because he was pissing me off! Just like he always does! And who was going to drive me home?”

  “Josh!” I yelped, kicking my legs. “You’re hurting me!”

  He tightened his grip, pulling my body closer to the truck and shoving me against it. “I can’t believe you went and pulled this shit.” He shook his head. “I tried to give you a chance, I tried to show you that file… but even then, even when fucking proof in your hand you still had to go around poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  I looked him up and down, trying to feel out the situation. The odds of me being able to overpower him weren’t in my favor since he was twice my size and all worked up. I did a quick survey of the room and decided my best chance was to try and make a run for it. If I was smaller than him I might be faster than him and might be able to make it out back and into the woods before he caught up with me.

  Not that getting lost in the woods was the smartest plan but it was better than whatever the fuck this was. “You’re right,” I said slowly, trying to stroke his ego. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through.”

  “You’re damn right you can’t,” he snapped.

  “I know,” I lowered my voice seriously. “I do know that… I haven’t been fair to you and I’m not going to tell anyone about this.” I gestured toward the truck. “I’m going to pretend I never even saw it.”

  “Right,” he laughed sarcastically. “Like you would ever keep something from your beloved Asher.” His face filled with a deeper redness at the sound of his name out loud.

  “I’m not with Asher anymore,” I corrected him. “That’s over.”

  “Oh? It’s over, huh? You really think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

  “I swear!” I tried to reassure him again. “It’s over between the two of us and this… all of this isn’t going to get out. I’m gong to go back to Boston after my dad gets better and never look back! I need… I have a life to get back to.”

  Josh threw his head back and sighed loudly. “Oh, poor Bella, you still don’t get it, do you?” He reached into his coat pocket and started to fumble around frantically. “I’m going to have to kill you.”

  And a second later I was staring down the barrel of a gun.

  I took a step away from him, trying to keep the growing panic that was moving through my body under control. “Josh… you don’t have to do this.” So much for running… I’d rather put up a fight then get shot in the back.

  “Of course I have to do this!” He waved the gun around carelessly in the air. “I tried to give you a chance, Bella, I didn’t want it to end up with way.” He shook his head, deep in thought. “But people just keep giving me a reason to kill them, I swear it’s like they want to leave this world.”

  His words sent a chill up and down my spine. He’d killed before. Who and why immediately stuck out in my mind but I knew better than to dwell on it in the moment. “Please,” I said softly, taking a new approach.

  “As hot as it is to hear you beg,” he moved closer to me and ran the tip of the gun up and down the front of my shirt. “You really should have thought about that before.” He looked down my shirt and smirked. “Although…”

  I closed my eyes and prayed like hell for a way out.

  “Maybe before you go you can make good on that favor you owe me, huh?” He slipped one of his fingers inside of my shirt and sent a chill up and down my flesh. “I’ll show you things you never knew existed, Bella.”

  Tears started to well up in my eyes, just like the first night I had been in town. Only this time Asher wasn’t here to save me, I was completely and totally on my own. I had told myself if something like that ever happened to me again I would be ready for it this time, I would know how to deal with it this time… I would know how to fight back harder this time. But now that it was actually happening I realized just how silly and naive those thoughts had been… you could never be ready for a situation like this because situations like this should never be happening. Not to me and not to anyone else.

  “Josh…” I tried to steady my voice but it shook with fear anyway.

  Josh smiled, liking the effect he was having on me. “What’s wrong, Bella?” He reached to the left of my shirt and grabbed my boob hard with his hand. “You aren’t scared, are you?”

  I smacked his hand away off impulse. “Please don’t…”

  His eyes grew deeper with satisfaction and then he grabbed me by the neck and pushed me so hard against the car that I felt like my throat was about to snap off of my body. “What? Asher didn’t show you what it’s like to take it deep, huh?” He leaned in closer and pressed his crotch against me. “I’m going to have to show you what a real man is packing, aren’t I?”

  I felt like I couldn’t breathe… like if I had to look inside of his crazy eyes one more time I might never close my eyes and never wake up again. His hands were all over me, rubbing the parts of myself that I had reserved for no one but Asher but I felt frozen, paralyzed in place and unable to stop him.

  His grin grew wider when I finally started to squirm and it wasn’t until I felt him shoving his hand between my legs that I realized what would happen if I didn’t find some way to fight, so I did the first thing that popped into my mind. I brought my knee back and kicked him in the balls as hard as I could.

  Josh leaped away from me, protecting himself as he howled out in pain. “You stupid bitch!” His face had turned in a million different directions, eyes closed in torture at the sensation of his most private parts being violated.

  Good, now he knew the feeling.

  I took the tiny amount of time it gave me and made a run for it to the front of the garage but I didn’t even make it two feet before he was latching onto my hair and pulling me backward against his chest. He wrapped his hands around my neck and latched his teeth onto my ear, biting and sucking on it.

  I tried to pry his hands off me but he overpowered me.

  “I was going to just fuck you but now I’m going to tear you apart.” He pushed me forward and then grabbed me by the ankles, pushing my body down onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  I yelped loudly as the pain absorbed into my body.

  “Oh, come on,” he laughed. “Don’t cry already, way to take all of the fun out of it for me.” Then his hands were all over me again. “That’s it, I like it
when you fight, Bella.”

  “Get off me!” I was screaming now, panic mode completely taking over.

  Josh reached down and started fumbling with his pants. “Come on, you know you want it.” He undid his belt and tore it out of the loops, tossing it across the hard floor.

  “No! No!”

  “Yes! Yes!” He reached down and ran his finger over my lips. “Those lips, baby, damn. I bet you can suck a good cock, can’t you?” He ran his tongue over his lips as the vision played out in his mind.

  I opened my mouth and screamed as loud as I could, desperate while I latched onto the nonexistent chance that someone might hear me. I didn’t even realize how hard I was crying until I could feel the water soaking into my clothes and my vision growing more and more blurry.

  And then, just as fast as it had happened before, Asher was there.

  And josh was getting pulled off me and thrown across the room.

  Asher looked down at me, pain and worry written across his features with a hint of absolute rage that told me he wanted to rip Josh’s head off. He looked me up and down slowly and once he met my eyes asked me silently if I was okay.

  I nodded slowly.

  I wasn’t really but I didn’t want Asher to get caught up in me when Josh was still crazy and carrying a gun around. Asher held my gaze for another second and then he turned around and took off across the room to where Josh was slowly getting back on his feet, confusion consuming him.

  “Asher,” I whispered. “Be careful, he has a gun.”

  Asher tensed just a fraction, something that would be missed by the naked eye but that I noticed right away. He didn’t let it stop him from moving closer to him though, slow and steady like a lion that was about to pounce. “Don’t… ever touch her again.”

  The sound of Asher’s cold voice sent a chill up my spine.

  Josh sighed like this whole charade was growing old to him. “Well, well, if it isn’t Asher Dawson to the rescue! What a shock, I never saw that one coming.” He laughed evilly at his own joke. “But if I’m being honest, I’m actually happy you’re here.” He pulled the gun further into Asher’s vision and started waving it up and down in the air. “I mean why kill one of you when I could kill two of you?”