“Yeah, not to mention wild, we’ll be hanging from the ceiling and all.” Victor practically purred the words at her and my fists clenched painfully under the table.
“Yeah.”
Julia didn’t look at Victor at all, but I had a clear view of him. He stared at her longingly. There was no mistaking it. I watched as he pushed his dark bangs out of his face.
“You okay, Jewel?” Victor reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. She looked up at him, flashing a weak smile.
“I’m fine, hon. You okay?”
Victor shook his head. “I’m good, as always. I’m just worried about you.”
“I’m okay.” She returned her gaze back to the computer.
“You don’t want us to go, do you?” Victor asked.
She smiled up at him sweetly. “Are you kidding? I’m so stoked for you guys. Chris is finally getting the chance to follow his dream.”
“Yeah, but what about you?”
“I’ll be fine, Vic. You know I will be.”
Victor rubbed the side of his face with his free hand, his other still over Julia’s. My blood boiled. “But you know you could come with us.”
Victor’s words made my heart freeze in my chest. Like an idiot I hadn’t considered that possibility. What if she went with them? What would I do? I spent a lot of my time in New York as it was. I’d lived there for the last five years, but I put in all my work here. I’d worked for the last two years on this, on Julia.
“You know I can’t. My life is here.”
Relief flooded my veins.
“It’s probably a good thing, because I would make you throw this hideous sweatshirt away.” He laughed and she punched his arm.
“Oh shut up.”
“Tomorrow night will be it, then,” Victor added, staring at her intently.
She didn’t really acknowledge him, didn’t notice the desperation on Victor’s face. I knew that look. It was the look of a man who loved a woman. Victor loves her? That very idea made me want to fucking murder him. He couldn’t have her.
Chris returned before Victor could say anything else. Their talk turned to moving plans and nothing else was said about Julia coming along, or the Rapture X party the next night. I stayed long enough to see Victor throw a couple looks of longing at Julia, enough of them to make me leave and go directly to a gym where I demolished a couple of punching bags. All the while my head ran in circles with questions.
Has he always loved her? I hadn’t noticed it before. Not in the pictures, not when I had seen them in person. Why is that? Is it because they’re moving? He feels sentimental?
Julia was the one who did this, the one who roped me, and I wasn’t the only one. The pathetic longing on Victor’s face proved he was a victim just like me. He was gay, for God’s sake, and he wanted her. Badly. I knew that look. It was the one I’d been wearing for the last two years…and I hated it. I hated it more than anything else. Looking in the mirror at my pathetic puppy dog eyes made me hate myself. It was all for a woman who took her clothes off and fucked for money.
She’s going to destroy me. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
TWENTY-TWO.
“Who the fuck sent that text?”
I stared wide-eyed at Cole from my seat in the conference room at his home in Summerville. He wasn’t yelling at me, but at two men I’d never seen before. Both were a few seats down from me at the gray table. Both were clicking away on laptop computers frantically.
“We haven’t been able to ID who sent the text. It appears to be from some sort of texting app where the purchaser doesn’t have to enter personal information to download,” said the younger of the two men.
“So they don’t have to have some sort of account to download the fucking thing?” Cole’s voice reverberated off the walls.
“We’re working on it, sir,” the other one said, not looking up from his computer.
I watched numbly. The last eight hours were a complete blur. I’d found the text, Cole had gotten up, made a few phone calls, and we were out of the hotel in a flash. Five men in slick black suits had escorted us from our room to the car where more guards were waiting. This time it hadn’t been just the two of us in a jeep with no doors. We were escorted to the private airstrip in a bulletproof limo, with a motorcade of cars surrounding us. I had known he was rich, that he had men working for him, but I had no idea he had this many just within reach. From the time he jumped out of bed to the time they escorted us from the room encompassed less than ten minutes.
Cole sat with me on the plane, his hand clasped firmly around mine. He kept telling me I was okay, whispering words of encouragement over and over. I heard him, but it didn’t help. My vacation from reality had come to a jarring halt and I was still recovering from it.
“You’ve had the damn information for hours! You should know something by now!” Cole roared and slammed his fist on the table.
I didn’t even flinch. In between the sweet nothings he whispered in my ear in the car, then the plane, and from the plane to here, he was speaking heatedly into his cell phone. The veins in his hands had bulged from how tightly he gripped the electronic. He was pissed. Worried. All because of me. I didn’t like it. Who would do this?
Elaine. She seemed like the most obvious person.
“We will get it,” the older one said with utter confidence. “We just need time.”
“You don’t leave this room until you’ve found it,” he said, offering me his hand. “Come on, Julia. You must be tired.”
I was. I hadn’t slept at all on the plane or otherwise. I took his hand. He opened the door and led me out of the conference room. Once the door closed behind us, he pressed his lips to the back of my hand.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find who’s doing this.”
I nodded, seeing the love in his eyes.
“What the hell is this?” Elaine’s screech made me jump. She stomped down the hallway, clad in a tiny black sports bra and pink exercise shorts. “You disappear for a whole day, don’t answer my phone calls, and then I come home from my run to find this?” She gestured toward me, her expression dripping with disgust.
I expected Cole to drop my hand and act like he hadn’t been comforting me. If he did, I would know that what we shared hadn’t been real—a figment of my imagination.
But he didn’t. He continued to hold my hand; if anything, he held it tighter.
“I don’t have time for this, Elaine.” He pulled me down the hallway after him.
“You’re kidding, right?” she snapped.
“Does it look like I’m kidding?”
“You’re going to just walk by me with that little bitch, flaunt that shit in front of my damn face?”
Something about her words triggered something. I couldn’t tell if it was the fact she’d called me a bitch, or that she was implying I was some sort of mistress. I was mentally and physically exhausted. Whatever the reason, I snapped.
“Fuck you.” I whirled around, jerking my hand from Cole’s.
“Excuse me?” Elaine pressed a delicate hand to her chest, the hand that wore the large sparkling diamond Cole had given her. He proposed to her, not to you.
“He always comes back to me.” Her words from the other night echoed in my head.
I ignored my conscience and stomped over to her. “Don’t call me that again.”
She raised a single dark eyebrow. “Call you what, a bitch?” She smirked. “It’s what you are. Just some fucking pussy on the side. You don’t mean—”
I would never know what Elaine was going to say next because I balled up my fist and punched her in her stupid, perfect face. She wasn’t expecting my fist to slam into her cheek. Most girls pulled hair and scratched with their nails. Not me. My dad, for all his mistakes, had taught me how to throw a punch. I’d needed it a few times over the years, but no punch ever felt as good as this one.
Elaine stumbled backward, her hand on her face. “You dumb cunt!” she wailed. “What the fuc
k is wrong with you?”
I followed her retreat, my knuckles aching a good kind of hurt. Do it again.
“You’re just going to let this happen, Cole?”
Strong hands gripped my shoulders, stopping me in my tracks. “Julia, don’t.” He tugged me back.
“No. I’m not done!” I shook my head vehemently. I wanted to take out all of my frustration and fear on her dumb ass.
“Yes, you are,” he said sternly.
I kept trying to resist until he picked me up put me over his shoulder.
“Put me down, Cole. Now!” I yelled into his back.
“You’re gonna be fucking sorry you did that, you dumb whore!” Elaine shouted.
I raised my head and peered at her through my hair. A positively evil look had fallen on her swelling face.
A shiver of fear traced down my body and I stopped fighting Cole, letting him carry me away from Elaine. He didn’t put me down until he was inside the room I had stayed in two nights ago. He slammed the door and spun around angrily.
“What the hell was that?”
“I punched her in the face.”
“Well, obviously.”
“I’m tired of people walking all over me, Cole.” I ran a hand through my hair. “But that’s not important.” My mind rushed through a bunch of scenarios, all of them clouded with Elaine’s malevolent expression.
“Look, I know you don’t like her—”
“Don’t like her?” I snorted. “Come on, Cole. She’s your fiancé.”
“Yes, but—”
“And she tried to kill me,” I whispered, cutting him off.
“What?” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I told you it wasn’t her.”
“How do you know, Cole? How can you be certain?” I hated the pleading in my voice.
“I just know she wouldn’t. She doesn’t have the funds to cover an operation like that. Plus, I control her money. I already had her bank accounts looked into. No suspicious activity.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Ah-ha!” I pointed at him accusingly. “See, you don’t trust her. You made it sound like you knew without a doubt she wouldn’t do something like try to have me killed, but you had her looked into.”
“Of course I had her looked into.” He took a step closer to me. “I’m not taking any chances when it comes to your safety. Not again.”
His words tugged at my heart and nearly had me falling into the comfort of his embrace. No, stay strong, Julia. Elaine has something to do with all of this.
“Okay.” I twisted my hands together and started to pace. “So her bank accounts haven’t had any weird activity. Maybe she hasn’t used them on purpose. How do you know she doesn’t have other bank accounts?” I stopped pacing and stepped closer to Cole. “Or maybe she hasn’t paid them yet. I don’t know, Cole, but something isn’t right about her.” I wrung my hands together. “You didn’t see her face when we were walking away. The things she said to me the other night…”
Cole drew his eyebrows together. “The other night? What happened?”
“She told me to be careful. She said it under her breath, but I heard it just the same. And when I asked her what she said, she brushed it off. Something isn’t right about that, Cole.”
He sighed and shook his head, but I didn’t miss the anger in his expression. “Don’t worry, okay? Elaine is the last person to be concerned with.”
I stared at him dumbfounded. His trust in Elaine was starting to bother me even more than his relationship with her already did, which was seriously saying something. I wanted to demand that he make her leave, but some small part of me was afraid he would deny my request. I didn’t think my damaged psyche could handle it.
“How else would the person who texted me know where I was last night?” I asked.
“You heard her. She had no idea where I was or that we were even together last night.”
I considered what he said. She had looked pretty surprised to see us. “Oh, so she can act. Did you have any of your men watching us last night in the swamp?”
“I had a few scope the area before we went, just to be safe, but that’s all.”
“So there it is,” I said with utter conviction. “They watched us and told her!” All the pieces were starting to fit together now.
Cole studied me for a moment. “I’ll have the guys brought in and talk to them,” he relented. “But I know that’s not what happened.”
Why is he so adamant about this? His denial was making me more uncomfortable by the second. “How are you so sure?”
“Because the two guys who checked things out were Randy and Leon.”
“They helped you stalk me,” I countered. “You hired them to work in my apartment building just to watch me. So who’s to say they wouldn’t help Elaine try to murder me?”
Pain flickered across Cole’s features. “I will talk to them,” he said quietly.
I almost felt bad for him. I wanted to jump into his arms and tell him it would be okay, that he was right about his friends, but I couldn’t do that. Fear clenched at my gut. I wasn’t going to take any chances just because he thought he knew someone. I thought I knew my father, I thought I knew Kevin, and my mom to boot, yet they had all fucked me over. I thought I knew Cole, but he’d been stalking me. I learned the hard way I couldn’t trust anyone.
“I can’t stay here.” I rushed over to my suitcase, which was still packed. “I’m going to stay somewhere else.” Suddenly the true reality of my thoughts started to sink in. If Elaine was doing this, if Randy or Leon were tipping her off, then I wasn’t safe anywhere, especially with Cole disbelieving that any of them could be involved.
“No. You’re safe here.”
“Really?” I whirled around. “With that crazy bitch down the hall and your men crawling all over this place. Ha!”
I turned back to my suitcase, but Cole stopped me by grabbing my shoulders. “Fuck, Julia, you’re trembling.”
For the first time I noticed my teeth were knocking together. “I-I can’t stay h-here.”
A look of torment washed across his face. “Of course, baby. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. Anywhere that makes you feel safe.”
“But your men can’t come.”
Emotion warred on his face. “You won’t be safe without them. You weren’t attacked until my men stopped watching you. I’m telling you my guys didn’t have anything to do with it, and neither did Elaine.”
I considered what he said. His thought process made sense, but too much pointed directly at her and their aid. “Maybe that was the point so it wouldn’t be obvious. She thought I would die that night, Cole. She hired someone to murder me, only I didn’t die. So now she’s anxious, sloppy even. It makes perfect sense!”
“Why would she have you attacked when I finally let you go, when I finally pulled my men off you?” He rubbed his hands against my shoulders.
“I don’t know.” I bit my lip. “But I don’t trust them. Any of them. I won’t stay anywhere near them.”
“You’re being irrational, they’re here to protect you. To protect—”
“Fuck Cole!” I threw my hands in the air and stepped back from him. “You aren’t listening to a damn thing I’m saying. I’m not staying here with that bitch or with your men. If you won’t let me go, I’ll call the cops and get an escort.”
“Julia.” He eyed me, frustration painted all over his gorgeous face. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you go anywhere without me. We’ll leave here, just the two of us, if it makes you feel safe,” he relented. “I’ll do it.”
“Where are we going?” The bedroom door opened revealing Mandi, grinning ear to ear, her black hair tied up in a ponytail.
“Oh my gosh, Mandi! You’re here!” I rushed over and threw my arms around her. I couldn’t explain why I was so happy to see her, but just her presence comforted me while I was so uncertain. She wore a black shirt with the word BITCH printed across her bosom in white letters. It was so cr
ude, so Mandi. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Yeah, I came over to see Randy.”
“Randy?” I questioned. “Oh, yeah.” I leaned back and looked at her. “Are y’all seeing each other now?”
She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “I fucking hope so.”
A bubble of laughter escaped my lips.
She continued, fiddling with the gauge in one of her ears, “I was surprised when he texted me a little bit ago and said y’all were back in town. I thought you guys were gonna be gone longer.” She eyed Cole.
My face fell.
“What’s the matter?” She frowned at me.
“I’ll tell you later. Come with me?”
She glanced between me and Cole. “Okay, does this have something to do with bitchzilla’s black eye?” She pointed her thumb behind her. “Cause that shit looks bad.”
Laughter tumbled out from between my lips as I grabbed my stomach and bent over, unable to control myself. It wasn’t really funny, but for some reason it just set me off—probably because I was so tired.
“Wait, you did that?” Mandi asked.
I couldn’t form words, only nod.
“Well, fuck girl, you just made my day!”
“You’re sure this is where you want to stay?” Cole asked skeptically.
I wasn’t sure at all. I hadn’t had any particular place in mind when we loaded up in Cole’s truck. I just knew I didn’t want to be in the house with that evil bitch. I hadn’t seen her on our way out, which was fine by me. A good part of me wanted to punch her in the face again.
“Yeah, this is real classy, Julia.”
I gave Mandi the finger and set my bag down on one of the two queen-sized beds in the room. This run-down motel wasn’t ideal, but it seemed like the best option.
Why do I always end up in places like this when things go to shit?
Last time, I’d wanted to go someplace where Cole couldn’t find me. This time, I wanted to stay out Elaine’s reach. I had considered a lot of places. My gran’s house, even my dad’s, but the thought of putting them in danger made me reject those ideas. I was already endangering Cole and Mandi.
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