by Amber Lacie
“What do you have to say for yourself?” he chastised.
“Me?” I asked. “I’m not the one who wanted to talk. Spill it so I can get back to my date.”
“You don’t even deserve a date. You did this. All of this. Don’t you get it? We were supposed to be together with a perfect family. One little stitch of pain and you decided to close up the factory. Bullshit. You lost the baby because you were whoring around on me. Everything that’s happened since is your fault. Call it karma.”
Gutted. Shattered. Broken. There were a lot of ways to explain everything I was feeling at that moment, but those summed it up. It had been years since I was with Paul, even longer since I had lost my baby. I was only twenty-three years old and eleven weeks along when I started getting a sharp pain in my side. Paul and I had only been dating for six months when I found out I was pregnant. He wanted me to move in with him, but I felt a baby shouldn’t rush things along, so I stayed with Eve.
The pain had started early in the morning, and after a few hours I had noticed some blood when I went to the bathroom. I had Eve call Paul, who rushed me to the hospital. I vaguely remember the room I was in, and the doctor standing in front of me saying ‘ectopic pregnancy’. My right ovary had ruptured. With no time to waste, they took me back for emergency surgery, removing the damage. They assured me my chances of getting pregnant in the future wouldn’t be affected as badly as I had originally thought since they had left my left ovary intact.
Nothing was right after that moment. A few months after my surgery I began to feel a dull pain, but it was on my other side. Fearing the worst, I went to the emergency room once again. Only that time, I had found out I had ovarian cyst. The doctor didn’t seem to be concerned though. After a few years of continual pain, and having four cysts removed surgically, I decided being a mom wasn’t something I was meant to do and had another surgery to remove my left ovary. Paul never forgave me after that. Not only had I ruined his image of what we were supposed to be, but after that, I was damaged goods to him. I’m not sure if he was cheating on me before that, but it was the catalyst to all the hate I would endure from him. I didn’t blame him though. In my mind I was damaged, it was only fair for me to be treated that way.
Every choice I had made in life had led up to that moment. Paul claimed it was karma that was after me. After all, in his mind it was what I deserved. Tears stung my cheeks as I took his berating without saying a word. Nothing I could have said would’ve changed his mind. He yelled at me repeatedly to say something, but I just stood there, unmoving. I wasn’t going to react to him. In my heart he no longer had control of me. I was simply standing there to prove to my mind that it was time to let it all go.
“Paul, just stop. I made choices that affected my life, not yours. You can’t punish me anymore. We’re not together. This is my life and mine alone.” Stepping back, I started to turn away from him when he suddenly reached out and grabbed my wrist with his hand, halting my escape.
“You don’t get to walk away from me,” Paul snapped.
“Let go. None of this is my fault. It’s the way God made me. You were supposed to love me in sickness and in health. You did it all wrong. You failed me. Now let me go.”
“And if I don’t?” I watched as his face twisted from monster to frightened almost instantly, as he released my wrist, taking a step back. In my confusion, I turned around just in time to see Evan rush towards him, grabbing him by his shirt and slamming his body against one of the brick dividers.
In my entire life I had never seen a person as angry as Evan. His eyes appeared to be pitch black with hate as his hands tightened around Paul’s throat.
“Do not touch her. Do not even fucking breathe near her.” His voice thundered around us, prickling my skin. “I will kill you. That’s not a threat. It’s a fucking promise. I will hunt you down and I will fucking kill you.”
Paul’s fingers dug at Evan’s grip around his throat. I yelled for Evan to stop, but if he heard me, he made no notice of it. He gripped what hair Paul had left on top of his head and lifted him higher making sure they were eye to eye. “It’s hard to be so tough when you’re gasping for air. Forget about her. If you see her walking down the street and the only direction you can go is towards the fire or her––you go towards the fire. Do I make myself clear?”
Spit flew from his lips as Evan released his grip just enough for him to catch his breath. “Ye-yess,” Paul stammered as his feet kicked wildly in the air.
“Look at my eyes. Do you see me?”
“Ye-yes.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve killed someone. Funny thing is, it’s just like riding a bike. It’s not something you forget. I can, and will end you if you even think of her. Not even a thought. Got it?”
“Ye-yes.” Paul sucked in air savoring his newfound breaths as Evan released his grip a little more.
“Good. Now, just in case you’ve already forgotten, this is a reminder.”
Evan’s fist swung back releasing two quick punches to his face before dropping his body to the ground and giving him a few kicks.
“Evan!” I yelled his name again, trying to make him stop. Paul wasn’t worth it. “Evan!” I rushed towards him, grabbing his arm and spinning him towards me. His hand immediately clenched into a fist, however, when he saw it was me every ounce of anger was replaced with worry as he lifted me into his arms.
“You and I are going home. Fuck this party.” Nodding my head in agreement I locked my arms around his neck, wrapped my legs around his waist, and buried my face in his neck, slowly breathing him in. The arms that had been so violent only moments ago were holding me safely against him. I felt a sense of peace I had been searching my whole life for. Evan was the calm to my storm. After everything I had been through, I had finally realized I was holding onto guilt that wasn’t my own. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. If Evan wanted to swoop in and steal my heart, I wasn’t going to stop him.
Carrying me in his arms to the front entrance of the bar where a scene of people of gathered, no doubt to watch the horrific events that had just unfolded, Evan pushed through the crowd and sat me down on the first barstool he could find. Gently cupping my face in his large hands, he kissed where my tears had burned me.
“No more tears. I won’t make you cry, I promise.” Grabbing two small napkins he wiped my cheeks and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m going to go find Theron.”
“No need. I’m right here.” Theron was standing behind Evan with two black shoes with red soles awkwardly standing beside him. “What the fuck just happened? The bartender almost called the cops, I had to pay him off.” Theron turned to me with a sympathetic smile. My eyes flashed from him to Eve, who was sheepishly hiding behind him. She tucked one foot behind the other while using Theron as a shield. I knew she was the one who had alerted Evan I was outside. Eventually, I would confront her––in my own time. This wasn’t the right place or time.
“He touched her.” Evan spoke as though his words alone were enough to explain it all. To my surprise, Theron just nodded his head. It was like some unspoken agreement between them. Paul had touched me and therefore had to be taught a lesson. Evan laid his hand on my thigh and lowered his head until we were eye to eye. “Did he hurt you?”
“Not with his hands.” Evan’s jaw ticked at my reply. I didn’t want him to search Paul out again, so I linked my fingers with his. “But I’m better now.”
“You ready to go home?”
“Yeah. I just want my bed and you.”
“Anything you want.” And when he said anything I wanted…well, he wasn’t kidding. His soft lips pressed against mine and I was lost once again in his strong arms. I barely got out a wave to Eve as Evan carried me from the bar to his Jeep.
When we got back to my apartment he ran me a hot bubble bath, and I laughed when he climbed in to rest behind me. His long legs were too much for the tub, so he hung one over the edge as he sank in behind me. Water sloshed all over the floor, but I
didn’t care. All I needed was him. Until that point, I had never felt so safe in my life.
Once the water was too cold for our liking, we dried off and headed to bed. That night, I fell asleep next to a man who had surprised me over the last week. Has it only been a week? It feels like so much longer. Maybe it was because we already knew each other, or maybe it was because that was the way it was supposed to be. Either way, it didn’t matter. I loved it nonetheless.
Evan
I t had been two days since I had left Paul in a pile on the ground outside the bar. Kayla was headed back to work, though I tried convincing her otherwise. However, since she had already missed Friday and Monday, she insisted on going. While I sat in her apartment with nothing to do, three things kept playing back in mind.
One, Paul wasn’t going to walk away quietly. I knew better than that.
Two, there was something seriously wrong with her roommate, and my mind automatically connected the first thought to the second. I just had to figure out where they linked together.
Three, Kayla wasn’t telling me everything. I knew she couldn’t have kids; she had made that part clear. To be honest, it made no difference to me. I just wanted her to be honest with me. I would have loved her no matter what. Shit. My heart skipped a beat at the surprise realization. It is too soon to throw that into the mix. I need to sort out this huge ass mess first.
Deciding to act on my gut feeling, I grabbed my keys and headed back to the guesthouse. I needed access to my laptop.
On Saturday, while Kayla was getting ready for the party, I was knee deep in files I had some old friends of mine pull on her dad. Turns out, her dad was really good at washing his money through various banks offshore. He did a decent job hiding his tracks, but it’s almost impossible not to leave some sort of trail. Lucky for me, I had left some breadcrumbs along the way.
Chandeleer was a fraud. Whatever contracts or bids Kayla thought she had been working on all turned up fake. I was so caught up in everything I was sorting through, that I had lost track of time. Thankfully, I just happened to glance up at the clock. When Theron and I had gone to lunch earlier, I had asked him to pick up the girls without me, so I could look into some things. Unfortunately, my sorry ass had left my phone in his truck. By the time I got to the party, Kayla had already had a few drinks, but she was holding her own in a room full of people.
I knew she hated going. Hell, I hated going, but we both went anyway. When I saw her blonde ringlets pulled over her shoulder, with a bow at the back of her neck, holding up the thin pieces of material covering her body, I knew I had made the right choice. She was sexy as fuck and she was all mine. I was convinced, that night I was going to prove to her that we were supposed to be together. Regrettably, Paul crashed the party and fucked everything up. My only regret was not finishing the asshole off. He didn’t deserve to breathe. Though, it didn’t matter anymore, he was going to get what was due to him. That was Saturday, and today was a new day. Which meant a new chance at proving myself to her.
Gravel kicked up beneath my tires as I drove down the long drive to Theron’s place. It was still odd to think of it as his. Isa had built that place from scratch using her imagination and love for architecture, and now her grandson was running things. My heart panged at the thought of Isa. She had given me everything and when I lost her, I tossed it all away. Kayla was my second chance. She was my saving grace, and I needed to protect her.
The sound of the kids laughing put a smile on my face as I walked through the door of the guesthouse. I hoped Theron knew just how well he had it. Not only did he have a wife that loved him, but he also had children that adored him. He was immensely loved. It was the kind of love I wanted to share with someone else. But before I could do that, I needed to take care of some things.
Propping my laptop up in my lap, I made myself comfortable on the sofa in front of the stack of papers I had already collected. I had cleared the room of everything except the table, the couch, and me. The floor was completely bare, and I was ready to lay out all of the crumbs.
It took me three hours to lay each of the papers out according to their date and connections. One thing was evident; Chandeleer had been laundering money for the last ten years, through two specific accounts, one of which belonged to Paul. I wasn’t the least bit surprised. It explained why Kayla’s dad would keep him around, despite the way he treated her. It also gave me the leverage I needed to get them both of out of her life for a very long time.
What didn’t make sense was the other account. Who is Beatrice Sheffield? I couldn’t find anything on her. Not even a picture or a car registration. She held two accounts with the company, and according to what I could find, she had two separate birthdates; one being September 6, 1958, and the other being July 3, 1983. Kayla’s father had worked hard to erase everything about himself, but he had forgot to erase Chandeleer. Whether he was fully aware or not, I wasn’t sure. The only thing that mattered was that he was the president of his company and the main shareholder. He knew exactly what he was doing.
I was staring at the connections I had made to Beatrice when my phone started to buzz on the table. A smile spread across my face when I saw Kayla’s name light up my phone screen. “Hey, you on lunch already?”
“Already? It’s after three. I’m taking a quick break. It’s nice out so I thought I’d just sit outside for a few minutes. What are you up to?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I lied. “Nothing crazy. I decided to get some laundry done, so I’m at Theron’s place.”
“Am I going to see you tonight?”
“Baby, you’ll see me every night. I’m not going anywhere. I keep telling you this.”
“Maybe I like hearing you say it. Tomorrow night is the last night it will be just the two of us.”
Shit. “What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“Jyllyan comes back on Thursday, so unless we hide out at Theron’s, we won’t be alone anymore.” Fuck. I have less than forty-eight hours to figure out Jyllyan’s connection to this mess. I am missing something. Something in the back of mind was telling me it was right in front of me; I just couldn’t see it.
“Do you know what time she’s getting in?”
“Nope. I didn’t ask. I was hoping she just wouldn’t come back.”
“Wait, have you talked to her?” Rubbing my hand on the back of my neck, I nervously waited for her reply.
“Sort of. She texted me to let me know she would be back on Thursday. I sent her a text back saying, ‘K’. Why?” she asked, her voice laced with concern.
“If she did that to your fish, what can she do to you? Why would you text her back?”
“It’s not like I was nice. I replied, ‘K’. You don’t send that to someone when you’re happy with them. It’s like a passive aggressive ‘fuck you,’ minus the fuck and the you. It’s like me flipping her off, but instead of my middle finger I used bad grammar,” she tried to placate me. “Don’t be mad. I can’t find out what happened if I don’t confront her.”
Nothing she had said made sense. The only thing I knew was I worried about her. “I’m not mad. I just don’t trust her. Don’t text her back if she texts you again.” I thought after everything that had happened she would know it was safer to create distance between them. Maybe I need to clarify it for her. “It’s not safe.” A few moments of silence passed before she spoke again.
“K.” Her voice was short—clipped and filled with irritation.
“What kind of response is that?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, feigning innocent.
“I’m trying to protect you and you snap back at me with a simple ‘K’, but it’s laced with anger. I don’t want you to be upset with me.”
“I’m not. But, now you know how ‘K’ works.”
What the hell is this girl talking about? First, she tells me it means fuck you and then she responds to me with it. Lightbulb. She had just proven her point.
“Now I get it. Point made.
”
“Good. I gotta get back to work. See you later?”
“Absolutely. Dinner at your place?”
“Sure. Meet me there at six?”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
“K.”
Damn it. “Kayla.”
“Evan.”
“Are you being funny right now?”
“Um, I was trying. Sorry. I’ll see you at six.” The line went dead and left me feeling more perplexed than I was before I had spoken to her. She could be a handful at times and I adored her for it.
As much as I enjoyed the interruption, I needed to figure out how Beatrice fit into this mess. There had to be something I was missing. The brilliance of being me was having connections already made. Within five minutes, after a couple of quick emails, Beatrice was found. She had a house. The deed was solely in her name and it had been paid off for at least fifteen years. She didn’t appear to have a car or any loans. She did, however, have one credit card. Sadly, the trail on her stopped cold two years ago. Beatrice was dead.
How can a dead person possess an account? I wondered. Someone had obviously gone out of their way to make sure she was still active. Perhaps that was the reason the date of birth didn’t match. No matter how I laid everything out, it all pointed to one person.
Nick Chandeleer held the answers to everything, and if I didn’t have Robert’s wedding this week I would have already been on a plane to Ohio. It was time for me to pull the big cards. I couldn’t be there to take him down, but I knew someone that could.
Sending a quick message to Kayla, I let her know plans had changed.
Change of plans. Meet me at Theron’s place.