by Sam Crescent
Entering his apartment, he had just shut the door when a vase smashed right next to his head, and he jerked back. Turning around, he reached for his gun and paused. There was Sally. Her eyes were bloodshot, and tears were falling down her face as she stared at him.
“You bastard!”
“Sally?” He went to take a step toward her, and she moved back, shaking her head.
“You knew. After everything that we’ve been through, all the promises that we made, you knew what that phone call was about. You knew why they wanted me to go home today, and you didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t my place.”
She grabbed a glass ball that she had given him several Christmases ago, and launched it at him. He moved again, and it shattered on the floor. “You knew!” She was yelling now. “You said that you loved me, and you lied. I asked that no one go looking into my past, and you did.”
Her hands were clenched at her sides, and she stared at him.
“Sally, you can help.”
“Don’t! Don’t even think for a second of trying to make me feel guilty about this. That was all in my past. It was done. It was over.”
“It’s not over.”
She shook her head. “Do you know what it’s like?”
“What?”
“To tell the truth your entire life but the people you were supposed to trust were believed over you? To have everyone be convinced that all that comes out of your mouth is lies?”
He saw the pain in her eyes, and it was killing him.
“Sally?”
“If you come near me, I will kill you,” she said.
The words were spoken firmly, but he saw that she meant them.
“I don’t want you to come near. I don’t even want to see you again.” It was then that he noticed the bag on the floor beside her.
She was leaving him.
“Sally…”
She shook her head. “I’m done. I’ve spoken to that guy, and I’ve told them everything they need to know, but I’m done. I’m heading back to campus. I’ve already called Drew, and he’s letting me stay in his apartment for the time being. I don’t want to see you, or hear from you. I want nothing to do with you.”
“I didn’t want it to go down this way.”
She moved toward him, and Steven reached out, taking her arm.
He shouldn’t have touched her.
She slapped him hard, over and over. His face, his arms, his chest, everything. She went nuts, and then she pulled away. Her hands covered her mouth, and he saw the pain in her eyes. She was in shock.
“You didn’t tell me. You made me face that shit alone, and I could have been warned. Don’t you fucking try to stop me or tell me I’m overreacting. If you had loved me enough, you’d have left everything alone, or you would have at least warned me.”
With that, she left his apartment.
Steven stood, glancing down at the floor, and then he chased after her, only to stop as Drew was climbing behind the wheel, taking her away from him.
He had fucked up in a big way.
Chapter Eleven
Sally dropped the bag in the center of the apartment, and all she wanted to do was cry. Drew was still there, and it was hard for her to hold everything in. She had become like the people who had hurt her. She’d lashed out at those she loved. Glancing down at her hands, she felt the tears well up, but they didn’t spill over. She had hit Steven. No matter how much pain she’d been in, she shouldn’t have become violent.
“I can quit,” he said. “I don’t have to be part of The Skulls.”
Tucking her hair behind her ears, she spun around to face him. “Why? You love it, don’t you?”
“You need me right now.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
Drew smiled. “Believe it or not, I don’t expect you to. I just don’t want you to be alone right now.”
She stared at her friend. When she had gotten up to leave, Whizz and Lacey had tried to stop her. She wouldn’t listen to them. On the way to Steven’s apartment, the anger had begun to build within her. She’d wanted blood; she’d wanted something.
Grabbing a bag, she’d dumped every single item she’d taken to his place inside. When she had waited for him to arrive, she had hoped that she was wrong, that he’d not known. The instant she saw him though, she knew.
“Steven loves you,” Drew said.
“Please, you cannot mention his name to me right now.”
Everything was hurting. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt, and she’d felt a lot of it in her time.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.
She looked at him then, seeing her best friend with his concern. Even as she fought it, her face scrunched up, and the tears started to fall. “I have no one.”
Drew went to her, pulling her close, and even as she wanted to pull away, she needed his hug right now. She needed her best friend.
“You have me.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t. I don’t have you anymore. I’ve not had you in a long time.”
He held her close even as she tried to pull away. “I fucked up. I know this, and I regret it, okay? I’d rather be your friend than not have you in my life. Okay. I’m crazy. I don’t have feelings for you at all, but please let me be your friend.”
Sally stopped fighting him. She was so tired, so upset, and so broken. After everything she had been through, nothing had prepared her for this. Growing up being passed from one household to another, and then being hurt by the people who were supposed to be taking care of her, she stopped feeling anything. The shitty life became the norm for her. Disappointment was a thing of the past.
Right now, she was hurting, she was sad, she was alone, and there was no one. The love of her life had let her go and be hurt by the very past she never wanted to hear about again. He’d not even warned her.
How could someone who claimed to love her allow that to happen? She didn’t know, nor did she understand, and she didn’t want to.
Pulling out of Drew’s arms, she forced a smile to her lips. “I’m fine. Everything is going to be fine.” First thing she was going to do now was to find a job to help support her. “What will the rent be?”
“Don’t even think about that right now.”
“Okay, well, when you need it let me know.” She pushed some of her hair off her face. “I’m going to go and get settled in.” She had stayed here a few times. Drew had always offered her a place at his apartment, and she always turned it down. She had a dorm room, and she’d wanted the whole college experience.
“I’m going to head back, and let Lash know I’ll be staying here the rest of the summer.”
“You’re not quitting, are you?” she asked.
“No, I’m not quitting. I’ve got things to do.”
She nodded, and didn’t say anything more. She wasn’t ready to talk.
Entering the spare bedroom, she smiled as she saw Drew’s housekeeper had made her up a bed. Putting her few things away, she grabbed her laptop, sat on the bed, and began to look for work. She was never one to be idle, and she didn’t want to start now.
This was not how she intended her summer to be, but right now, she didn’t see an alternative.
****
“You want to quit?” Lash asked.
Steven watched as Drew stood his ground. The guy had balls of steel, there was no denying that.
“No, I don’t. I took Sally to my apartment near the campus. She’s hurting, and I don’t want to lose my place at The Skulls, so I was hoping you’d give me the opportunity to protect her. To keep an eye on her.”
This was killing him, hearing Drew offer to take one of their places.
“What makes you think you qualify to take care of one of our own?” Lash asked.
“I’m the only one that she’s allowed near her. She’s upset, she’s hurting, but even though we’re having a few troubles, she still called me to help her. I�
�m her friend. I won’t let the club down.”
Steven gritted his teeth. He’d been called to church that night, and he was still reeling from the events of the day. Glancing over at Whizz, he saw the other brother wasn’t handling anything well.
“Whizz, do you have a problem with him taking care of her?” Lash asked.
“No, I don’t have a problem.” Whizz rubbed the back of his head. “What did she say? Did she say anything to you?”
Drew swallowed, glanced at the floor, took a deep breath, and turned toward Whizz. “She said that she was all alone.”
That hurt Whizz, and it hurt Steven.
Damn!
He had fucked up royally, and he was feeling it now.
“Do whatever you have to do to make her realize that she’s loved. Don’t let her … don’t let her hurt herself or anything.”
“She’s strong. She’s been through a lot.” Drew went to take his leather cut off, but Lash stalled him.
“No, that jacket is yours. This is your job for now.”
Drew nodded, and made his way outside of the clubhouse. Steven was close to the door, so he followed him out.
“How is she?” he asked.
No one was outside, and when Drew turned to face him, he saw the pain on his face. “She’s hurting right now. Everything is fucked up, and I don’t know how to fix it. What did you do? I know what I did, but I don’t know why she didn’t come to you.”
“I fucked up, that’s all you need to know.”
Drew gritted his teeth, and stepped toward him, and then back. “You know what, I get that Sally went through shit when she was younger. It doesn’t take a fucking genius to read between the lines. She was honest about a lot of stuff, and for everything else, I filled in the blanks. Keeping me in the dark about everything is not going to help me help her. I’m going to do the best I can to make her feel okay, but she won’t let me in, not now.”
Steven watched as Drew walked away. “Sally’s one request was that we didn’t go looking into her past.” This had Drew stopping, and turning toward him. “We broke that promise, and today I didn’t prepare her for a conversation that was going to hurt her. That’s what I’ve done, and it was bad enough that she told me she never wanted me to see her again.”
Drew stopped, closed his eyes, and Steven saw that he was breathing heavily. “She loves you, Steven. You’ll win her back.”
“Not if I can’t get her to stomach being around me.”
“This … conversation, is it dangerous? Will it get her killed?”
“No. We’re going to handle everything. You don’t need to worry about that. Just … let her know that I love her, more than anything, and that I’ll be waiting for her.”
Drew stepped to his car, reached in and wrote something down on a piece of paper before coming to hand it to him. “That’s my address. She’s there until college starts again.”
With that, Drew left, and Steven watched him go. Folding up the piece of paper, he placed it in his back pocket. He didn’t need it, would never need it. When it came to Sally, he’d already had Drew checked out. The moment he’d said that Sally was staying at his apartment, Steven had known where she was.
“What did he have to say?” Whizz asked, making Steven turn.
“That he’d keep an eye on her, protect her. What the hell happened?” Steven asked. Right now was not the time to be telling Whizz that he was in love with Sally, that he’d been sneaking behind his back.
“We fucked up. It was scary. I watched her withdraw from all of us. She just didn’t want anything to do with any of us. It was like the past years with us hadn’t happened, you know?”
“She went on the defensive?”
“Yep, and then none of us could reach her.” Whizz rubbed a hand down his face. “When it was over, she just got up and left. We tried to stop her, and she told us to back the fuck off. She looked so broken, so hurt, that I didn’t even question it. I just went right ahead and did what she wanted.”
Steven glanced toward the open fence of the parking lot. He would do anything to have Sally there with them.
“What shit is going to happen?” Steven asked.
“Michael’s heading back tonight. He’s going to give us the rundown on shit that is going on.”
“Okay.”
They were silent for several seconds. Steven didn’t have anything to say, and Whizz looked … broken.
“She’s never coming back,” Whizz said.
Steven shook his head. “She’ll come back. It’s not Sally’s way to leave forever.”
Whizz nodded, but he didn’t look convinced. “I’ve got to go. Lacey’s waiting for me.”
He watched his brother leave, and it killed a part of Steven to know that he didn’t help with this shit.
Heading back into his room in the clubhouse, he sat on the edge of the bed, and stared at his cell phone. Checking her number, he hesitated in calling her. He didn’t want to hurt her. All he’d wanted to do was help her, and to take away the monsters from her past.
Leaving her number for a moment, he checked through the photos. He’d taken so many when she hadn’t even known about it. Should he have done that shit, or was he wrong in that now as well?
Fuck! Everything was fucking fucked.
Steven couldn’t take it anymore, so he pressed her number, and placed his cell to his ear. It rang so many times before going to voice mail.
At first he hung up, and then knew the only way he’d be able to talk to her, for her to even begin to understand, would be if he told her truth, and talked to her.
Ringing her cell again, he waited, only this time when it went to voice mail, he didn’t hang up.
“Hey, baby. I know you fucking hate me right now, and believe me, I completely understand why. I’m a fucker and all that. I’m sure you can think of a gazillion names to call me, and I know I’ve called them myself all the time. You’re right. I shouldn’t have gone delving into your past. That was yours, and I breached that trust. I’m sorry that I did that and that you feel like I betrayed you. To you, I know that I did. There’s nothing for me to say other than I love you, and I only wanted to make everything better for you. This doesn’t take away what I did though.” He stopped and released a breath. “I love you more than anything else in the world, Sally. There’s never going to be anyone else for me, and I hope one day soon, you can forgive me.” He rubbed at his temple, not really sure what the hell to do. “I love you, baby, and I hope one day you can forgive. I’m here for you, always.”
He hung up his cell, and sat back, feeling defeated.
Chapter Twelve
The days passed, and with it, Sally’s anger dissipated and all that was left was disgust with herself. She had lashed out and hurt the man she loved. She had become violent. Now she didn’t know what to do, and because of that, she didn’t speak to any of The Skulls, the women or men. Even though Drew was there, he understood that she didn’t want to talk about anything. She just couldn’t bring herself to admit out loud her own feelings about what had taken place.
Angel called, and Sally ignored her.
Whizz and Lacey called, and she did the same with them.
She completely blanked them out of her life because it was easier than to let the revelations tear her apart. By the end of the first week, she had spent an hour listening to the messages, and at the end of it, she felt like the world’s biggest bitch. She was supposed to be better than this. That life was in her past. It wasn’t their fault, and she’d done this. She had hurt those closest to her, and it was destroying a part of her. Thinking about her own pain made her feel so fucking selfish. This was the longest she had gone without talking to anyone, and it was driving her crazy. She felt sick all the time, and hadn’t eaten much.
Her days were spent looking for work, which just didn’t come.
Sitting at the table, she sank her fingers into her hair, resting her elbows on the table, and her head in her hands. She had hit rock bottom, or
at least that was how it felt.
They’d wanted to know about a sheriff, and about what went down. They’d wanted to know the woman who had taken her statement. Closing her eyes, the pictures that she’d been shown many years ago flashed across her mind.
“You tell anyone, and this is what is going to happen to you.”
The woman who had believed her initially had turned up dead. Sally would never forget those pictures for as long as she’d lived. That woman had taught her a great deal, the biggest thing being that the only person she could rely on was herself.
“Are you okay?” Drew asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She lifted her coffee to her lips, and took a sip. It was black, and she breathed in the scent, hoping it would open her up. “I need to go and take a shower.”
She stood up and left him alone, heading back into her room.
Her cell phone buzzed in her hand, and it made her freeze on the spot. Releasing a breath, she chanced a glance at the screen and saw it was Lola.
In the past week, the only people who’d tried to call her were The Skulls. Intrigued, she accepted the call.
“Hello,” Sally said.
“First, I’m not calling because Steven asked me to. I’ve not spoken to him for a few days, and I’m not calling because of him.”
“Okay.”
“I’m calling to see how you’re doing,” Lola said.
Sally sighed. “I don’t know anymore.”
“I’m going to be honest here, and tell you that I’m the one that helped Steven. He loves you so much, and because of everything that was going on, he wanted to get rid of the monsters from your past.”
“You knew?”
“Of course I knew about what you’d been through. I didn’t want to hurt you, and I knew what Steven and I were doing was wrong, but it was all in a place of love. I know you’re hurt and you’re upset, but I wanted to tell you that they couldn’t ignore this sheriff guy. You were gone, but the girls didn’t stop. Some of them killed themselves, and they all got a witness statement that claimed they were liars. We don’t know who at the department is making these statements, or hiding them is a better word, but he needs to be stopped, Sally.”