I rush out to grab my Blackberry but as I glance at the screen, I already have a text from him.
Liam: I didn’t go out to smoke, Zandy. I went to meet with Felix. He’s found me a great job.
I cringe at the sight of Felix’s name. I immediately text him back.
Me: Don’t accept his offer, Liam. I’m not joking.
He replies instantly.
Liam: Why in the hell wouldn’t I accept a free, good-paying job, Alex?
Me: Because . . . just don’t. Jules and I have a better offer.
Liam: Jules can’t offer me anything but a piece of art that has been stuck to his wall. No thanks.
I frown and for some reason his words hit me hard. Everyone thinks Jules and art is stupid but I love his art. I love his work and I love the fact that he’s so passionate about it. I jab my fingers at the keyboard of my phone angrily.
Me: Don’t talk about him like that. And I’m seriously tired of the way you’ve been acting. We def. need to talk at dinner. Hurry home.
I huff, tossing my phone on my bed. I want that to be the last of the conversation. I hope he picks up his careless attitude and doesn’t text back. My phone buzzes and that hope has just gone down the drain.
I check my phone but the name on the screen is a name that I don’t want to see at all.
Felix: Liam has a mind of his own, Alexandria. Don’t make me come over and see you. I don’t care who you are with.
My heart leaps to my throat as his words rattle in my head and quicken the speed of my pulse. He really is intimidating—especially if he can do it through a text. And it’s even worse after having that dream about his eyes and hearing about him from Braxton. Crap.
My phone buzzes again.
Felix: And I thought something was wrong with your phone. You’re texting your brother perfectly fine.
Damn it. Double crap.
“Shouldn’t you be doing your hair?”
I whip my head to my right and spot Jules glaring at my phone in my hand. His glare is like stone and his nice-face that he had on earlier is no longer there. He isn’t smiling or happy—he is far from it.
I take a small gulp of the guilt burning in my throat. “I was just texting Liam and seeing if he was on the way.”
“Who else are you texting?” he asks, folding his arms.
I pull my lips in and press down. How does he always know? I guess there is no point in me lying. I know that if I lie, he’ll want proof. He’ll most likely take my phone from me and go through it if he has to. “Is it Felix?” he asks.
I stare at him, baffled. My blank expression is enough to give it away.
“Why, Alexandria?” His features weaken a bit as his arms fall. He still looks angry but he also looks hurt.
“I’m not texting him, Jules. He text me. I didn’t reply.”
“Where’s your brother?” he asks, ignoring my plea.
“I think he’s with Felix right now.”
Jules scowls. “If he isn’t here before it’s time to go, I’m no longer willing to help him, Alexandria. Let him know that. If he wants to choose the foolish side and pick a job over his own sister’s will, I will not condone that. He is idiotic to believe that I will let you be taken away from me without a better proposition. It’s not happening.”
He stares at me for a few moments before turning away quickly to make his way for the living room. I swallow my heart back down before texting Felix.
Me: I thought you were someone better than what you are but it’s a shame that you have to bribe my brother just so you can get what you want. Completely selfish.
I hit the send button then quickly send Liam a text telling him to be here in thirty minutes. Right after that, I turn my phone off because I don’t want to see what Felix has to say. I want to have the last word because it will give me satisfaction and comfort for the rest of the night. It’s already making me feel better to know that I will have him worrying and wondering why I haven’t messaged him back. I could have sworn that Felix was supposed to be out of town anyway. What the hell is he still doing in New York? I smile before prancing to my bathroom again and doing a slight happy dance. After all, I deserve to be happy, not bothered and annoyed by some hot, rich guy that can stare me down cold and shut me up in less than a second.
SNATCHED
Jules said that I could choose where to eat but he had ended up choosing because I took too long, and because he’d already made reservations last night. He knew me well, though. He’d chosen to eat at Red Lobster, a seafood restaurant in the heart of New York City that I adore.
As soon as we stepped in, the smell of salty shrimp and fish filled my nostrils. There were a few people eating and as we met up to the host stand, there was a girl with sun-kissed blonde hair, bright grey eyes, and a petite body standing behind the podium.
“Hi, how are you guys? I’m Libby, the hostess,” she says, mostly observing Liam who is standing to the left side of me with his hands in his front pockets. He was quiet when he’d gotten home and he refused to ride with Jules and I. But I didn’t complain. We all knew that I would have enough time to complain to him while we were waiting for our food.
“We’re great. We have reservations under Maddox,” Jules says, leaning over to look at the notebook on the podium.
“Oh, yeah,” she says, scanning her finger along the paper. “Right this way.” She grabs three menus then spins around quickly. She leads us through the tables, passing by people that are either chatting or eating. Some of them eye the way Jules hovers behind me, almost breathing down my neck with his hand pressed against my waist. It’s like he’s protecting me and all of their faces are twisted and confused but if they knew why he felt the need to protect me at all times, they wouldn’t be bothered by it. They would be relieved that he’s doing it.
The thought of Felix bothered me again. What if he was the one escorting me? What if he was the one that people were staring at instead of Jules? Jules has on a long-sleeved black sweater, dark blue jeans, and his curly hair isn’t pushed back like usual. Most of it is hanging over his face freely. It honestly looks like he just hopped out of the shower, pushed his hair back, and let it air dry on the way to my apartment. His hair is much curlier and the pieces of hair that are hanging over his face makes him seem so irresistible.
Libby finally takes us to a corner table by the window. “The windows don’t let in any air so you don’t have to worry about getting cold,” she says, placing the menus down. “It was a request to have a table beside a window.” She smiles.
Jules nods as he takes the seat right beside it. I guess he really does like corner tables by windows. I’m not really sure why, though. What makes them so special?
I sit in the seat beside him that is closest to the aisle and Liam sits across from me, making sure that he makes no eye-contact with Jules.
“Your waitress will be right with you,” Libby says then bounces away to the front again.
After she leaves, there is an awkward silence between us. If the people weren’t scraping their forks against their plates and chatting casually, it would be dead silent. Jules reaches for a menu and begins to scan it. Liam folds his arms with an aggravated sigh as he leans against his seat.
“Do you like seafood?” Jules asks. I know he’s talking to me.
“Yeah, I do. I love fish,” I say as politely as I can.
His lips quirk up at the corners. “Well get anything that you desire. I don’t care about the price.” He looks at Liam who is focusing on the brown table tops. “Liam, I can pay for you as well. You don’t have worry yourself about it.”.
Liam gives a sarcastic laugh. “Hell no. I invited you to come and eat and I’ll be damned if I let you pay for me,” he growls with a scowl.
Jules chuckles lightly, taking Liam as a joke. “Well you don’t have a job anymore. I was just being considerate.”
“I actually do have a job, thanks to Felix.” He glares at Jules.
“Okay,” I say, cutting
their argument off. This is too much intensity that I can’t deal with and I can tell by the way that Jules’ jaw has just tightened that he was about to say something rude that would have ended the whole dinner. “Liam, Jules and I have an offer that we think will help you.”
“I don’t want your offer. There is no point in bringing it up. I already have a job interview starting next week,” he replies selfishly.
“Does it matter that I’m moving to London with him next week then?” I ask, adding a notch of acidity to my voice.
Liam frowns, looking from Jules to me. “You’re going to London . . . with him? What the hell is wrong with you, Alexandria? What’s in London for you?”
“It beats being here. And I feel like I would be better off there with him than with a brother that can’t seem to go a day without drinking or smoking.” His features weaken and he shudders, as if I’ve just shot him right in the heart. “I need a new start, Liam. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be here.”
“But why him?” He narrows his eyes, pointing a finger at Jules.
“I just feel like he knows me more than anyone else,” I mutter.
Liam stops talking. Even he believes it. “Oh, but has he told you about your memory loss, Alexandria? Has he told you what really happened before we’d both lost you? I bet he hasn’t gone there with you!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, glaring from my brother to Jules.
Jules’ jaw tightens again but I can tell that he isn’t going to say anything. I can see in his eyes that he knows exactly what Liam is talking about. Is this what Jules meant when he’d said he was going to let Liam have his fun?
“Yeah, before your memory loss,” Liam nods, “Jules took you on a bonfire trip to the park with a few other friends. They all disappeared out of nowhere but you were the only one that was left alive without being hurt at all. All of the bodies that they’d found were battered and broken, but not yours. Yours was fine and you were sitting on the road unconscious until someone spotted you and immediately took you to the police station.”
I gasp as the flow of his words reminds me of my nightmare. So that must have been real. That really must have happened. I knew those girls weren’t there for no reason at all. And those Hellions—those must have been the ones that hurt those girls. I then think about what Braxton said about his mother being brutally battered and all of her bones broken as they’d found her body in a lake of London. It all adds up now.
“I bet he didn’t tell you that yet, huh? But you’re still thinking about going to London with him—with someone that doesn’t like to tell you anything?” Liam asks, almost growling. “He ran away and didn’t bother to show his face after they’d found you. He was the only one left alive and he was the only suspect. I don’t trust him . . . and neither should you.”
“Alexandria,” Jules reaches for my hand but I pull away slowly.
“Why wouldn’t you tell me that, Jules?”
“I didn’t want to scare you,” he whispers. His words haunt me. The words he’d said after we’d left from the park:
“I’ll let him have his fun with this because we both know that I deserve it. We both know that we could have lost you and that it is my fault for it happening in the first place.”
“I hate to bring up to you after so many years but it was his fault, Alex. So stop thinking he’s innocent. He’s far from it. It’s his fault that you ran off with them in the first place,” Liam mutters.
“How is it his fault?” I ask, trying my hardest to ignore the dark, hovering body beside me.
“I’ll let him tell you. I can’t remember all of what he’d told me.”
I turn to face Jules cautiously, now being more afraid of him than ever. Why wouldn’t he tell me this? I guess I should have told him about my nightmare. But he should have told me all of this from the beginning. Why would he wait for Liam to say something about it?
“Alexandria—we were hiking through that very park that I took you to. But that night, we had been arguing about something that I can’t even remember. I hate that you were angry with me but I was angry as well. I can’t even remember what we were arguing about and that makes everything worse the more that I think about it. You were upset with me so you decided to walk with the girls of the group and chat with them instead of walking with me. I was a few feet ahead with a few of the guys—pretty distant from you and the girls. I felt like something was wrong, I could smell it—feel it—but I couldn’t figure out what it was. But all I know is that after a few miles of trail-walking, you and all of the girls had disappeared. The guys and I started looking for you and the group of girls but we couldn’t find any of you. And after a while, none of the guys were around either.
“They had disappeared and, to this day, I still don’t know what happened to them—what happened to you. I just couldn’t figure out who could have done it. I searched and searched from that night to the next—I refused to leave—but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find you.” His eyes plead guilty as he looks into mine. He grips my hand and surprisingly I don’t pull away. But it’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t have the strength to. I’m numb all over and my mouth refuses to speak. There is a still silence around us again. I turn to look at Liam slowly and his eyes are already regretting the conversation. Neither of them wanted to bring it up again. And now I see why. That nightmare was a reminder of what had really happened.
“Alexandria, please say something,” Jules begs. I shake my head, unsure of what to say.
“Zandy,” Liam calls, reaching for me. I shake my head again then push away from them both.
“I need some air,” I say, trying to keep my voice as steady as I can, but of course I’ve failed. I stand and rush through the aisle quickly.
“Alexandria,” I hear Jules call. I hear a chair scrape against the floor and I know he’s coming after me but I don’t want him to. I don’t want to speak with him or deal with him. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Now I’m having second thoughts about moving to London. How can I trust someone that refuses to tell me the most important stuff that I deserve to know? I’m sure I would have understood more than he thinks I would have if he would have just told me. I hate when stuff is hidden from me—especially when it is about my life and I can’t remember a damn thing about my past. I deserve all of the facts. Just because someone wants to protect me, doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve the truth and I guess Jules wanted to look perfect because he tried his hardest to hide it from me.
I burst through the glass doors and the cool air brushes against my face. The bangs of my short hair push back and the breeze wraps around me but I ignore it because on the inside, I am on fire and I am in need of relief. I need to cool down. I rush down the sidewalk but the doors of Red Lobster burst open behind me with a heavy thud.
“Alexandria! Stop! You can’t walk off alone like this!” he calls, following after me.
“I don’t care, Jules. Just leave me alone!” I shout over my shoulder. I start to walk faster but I’m obviously not fast enough because in one swift dash, he catches up with me and wraps his arms around my waist. He pulls me in front of a closed shop—that is filled with pots and pans—and pushes me against the cool glass gently.
“Stop it, Alexandria. I mean it,” he demands, his eyes hard and bothered.
“I’m not stopping anything. I just want to go home . . . please,” I beg.
“No. You’re not going home. You’re staying the night with me. Our night isn’t finished. I can order some pizza or some take-out Chinese. We don’t have to eat there, just calm down. I promise I was going to tell you.”
“When? After I was over in London and had nowhere else to go, Jules?” I ask, shoving him away from me as much as I can but he’s like a brick wall. He hardly moves.
“No—I was going to tell you soon, I swear. I just didn’t know how to, Alexandria. That story was hard for me to tell. I hate that it happened. I wish that we weren’t angry with one another. I�
��m sorry,” he whispers, his face growing paler, softer. He pushes his untamed curls away from his face. “I understand if you don’t want to see me anymore, Alexandria. This is exactly what I was afraid of . . . You hating me.”
I narrow my eyes at him, feeling some sort of sympathy that I know I shouldn’t feel. But this is Jules—the guy that I’ve been spending so much time with. The guy that has been there for me during some of the craziest and hardest times—even if I can’t remember them. “I don’t hate you, Jules,” I shake my head, sighing. “I’m just—I’m scared.”
He studies the anguish in my eyes briefly. “There is nothing to be afraid of Alexandria.” He moves in closer. “I would never hurt you like that again. This is why I don’t like when you get angry with me. I only want you to be happy. This is why I try my hardest to tell you everything instead of hiding it.”
“I know, but I’ve been having these nightmares. All of them scare me. Some of them feel so real—” I break off thinking of the icy hazel eyes and then the dream about Jules almost killing himself over my rejected attitude of this angelic lifestyle.
“It’s because you’re worrying.” He cups my cheek again and—like always—I melt, like a brewing pot of sweet chocolate fondue. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I care for you too much, Alexandria.” He kisses my lips gently but I don’t want a gentle kiss. I want to be locked in his arms and kiss him all over. I want him to let me know that he isn’t going to let me go, that he isn’t going to let anything happen to me. I hook my arms around his neck and pull him in. He kisses me harder, passionately as the cool wind nips at our skin and pushes our hair back but it doesn’t bother us because our kisses are heating up the moment. His tongue slips into my mouth and I savor the taste of him, sharing my tongue as well. His hands drop from my face to my hips to pull me in even more. He touches me delicately all over and right now all I want to do is hop on top of him and have him carry me to his Challenger, all while kissing on the way there. I don’t want our lips to fall apart.
OBTAINED (Book One) Page 21