I grab his phone and dial the number. It rings a few times before a woman picks it up. “Thanks for calling Throb. What can I do for you?”
I hang up. Throb? What is Throb?
“What the hell was that about?” he growls. I have a feeling that Jet is the kind of guy who doesn’t like to be kept in the dark.
“Looking up something,” I say as I go to Google and search Throb in Chicago. A restaurant pops up, but it’s not the same number.
“What does Throb have to do with this?” he questions.
“I don’t know.” I take a deep breath and call it again. “Thanks for calling Throb. How may I help you?” a woman asks, but it doesn’t sound like the same one.
“Uh, hello,” I say, trying to sound like I know what I’m doing. “I had a missed call from this number. I was just wondering who had called me,” I lie biting my lower lip. Please let this work. I can feel Jet breathing down my neck confused and impatient.
“Hmm.” She sounds as if she’s thinking. “It wasn’t me. What is your name and the number that was called?”
Shit! “My name is … Tiffany.” And then I give her Tiffany’s number. It’s not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I panicked, and I’m desperate for answers.
“One moment, sweetie,” she says, placing me on hold.
“I’m on hold,” I whisper up at Jet. He rolls his eyes and then snatches the phone from my hand. I’m about to protest, thinking he is going to hang up. Instead, he places it on speakerphone.
We hear a click and then a man’s voice. “Tiffany, darling.” My blood runs cold. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you.”
“Uh …” I panic. I have nothing to say. What the hell is Throb? Why is someone there looking for her?
Jet shakes the phone and arches his eyebrows at me to speak. But I can’t think of anything to say. “James is pissed,” he continues. “Said that you didn’t pay him for your share. You know how he gets …”
I reach up and hang up. My heart races and my mouth hangs open. My eyes start to water. I wanted it to be a lie. I wanted her not to be using again. But God, I was wrong. I let out a scream of frustration and throw the phone across the spare bedroom. It hits the bed and falls to the floor.
Jet goes over and picks it up without saying a word. I stand and spin around to face him. “What the hell is Throb?” I demand.
“It’s a club.”
“Do you know where it is?” I demand. “When I pulled it up online, a club is not what I got.”
He nods. “I’ve been there before.” He reaches up and scratches his head. “It’s known for prostitutes.”
I swallow nervously. Prostitutes? Jet must see my concern because he adds, “Drugs too.”
“Yeah, because that’s so much better,” I snap.
CHAPTER TEN
BRECKEN
Have you ever felt helpless? Have you ever felt like your life was being ripped from your hands and you were powerless to stop it?
That’s what happened to the love of my life. Nicole—the woman I loved. The woman who made me want to be a better person. The woman who made me feel like all those fairy tales you’re told as a child really do exist. The kind of love we had was innocent. I could hold her. Smell her. Taste her. She was every bit of a dream at the same time as reality. But everything we shared was ripped apart.
“I love you, Brecken,” she whispers through a smile.
I brush back her slick brown hair as I smile down at her. I look at her heavy blue eyes and wet lips. “I love you, Nicole,” I say before crushing my lips to hers as I make love to her.
Make love. That sounds so juvenile to say. Everyone told us that seventeen was too young to be in love. They all said that you don’t meet your soul mate in high school. But I had. What Nicole and I shared was very real. It’s been thirteen years, and I still have a hole where my heart was. I promised her that I would never love another woman as long as I lived. And I do not intend to break that promise.
“Promise me something,” she says as she straddles my hips as we sit on the grass in my backyard. The cool evening wind blows her dark hair around.
“Anything,” I say with a smile on my face as I look up into her beautiful blue eyes.
She wraps her arms around my shoulders. “Promise me that you’ll never love anyone but me.”
I laugh because it’s cute that she could think that’s even a possibility. Doesn’t she understand she is all I will ever need? “Stop laughing at me.” She pulls away and playfully slaps my chest.
I grab her hands in mine and place them back around my neck before pulling her close to me. “I promise.”
“You’re just saying that.” She rolls her eyes. “Forget I said anything.”
“I’m not.” The smile drops off my face, and I get serious for a second. “Don’t you understand, Nicole?” Her eyes search mine, and she swallows nervously. “No one could ever replace you.” I place my hand on either side of her face. “I love you more than anything in this world. And no one will ever compare to you.”
When I look back on that day, it’s almost as if she knew something was going to happen. That maybe she had this intuition that we weren’t gonna last, and she needed reassurance to get her through what little time we had left. Which is crazy, right? No one knows when they are going to die. Or can see what the future holds. We were in love, and at seventeen, all that mattered was that we had one another. But just months later, she was lost to me. To her family. To the world. Nicole was sucked into a darkness that I hope she was able to escape. I pray that she didn’t fight. I prayed on bended knee to the very God I hated at that moment that she let him take her. That she wasn’t suffering at the hands of a sadistic bastard.
Thirteen years later, I’m a different man. I wouldn’t say I’m still broken, but I’ll never be the same. I changed. I became a monster that, if she knew me now, she would run from. I became the very man she would fear. But I still love her. I wish things had played out differently. I wish we would have got our happily ever after. But just like people say, ‘fairy tales don’t exist.’ And that God that I used to pray to? Well, I quit praying on bended knee. Instead, I became the devil. He is just as powerful, after all. He can take just as much as God gives. So I decided to take a different approach to life. I buried myself so deep in a world full of drugs, sex, and evil that I sometimes get lost and forget which team I play for. Am I the good guy pretending to be bad? Or am I the bad guy pretending to be good? All I know is that when it’s all over, I’m not gonna beg God for forgiveness because some sins cannot be overcome. But what if Skye is my second chance? What if she can right my wrongs? I’m not talking love. I’m talking about being able to be there in a way I wasn’t there for Nicole.
That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. The way she cried at the morgue brought back too many memories that made me want to cry as well. But I tried to block them out the best I could, focusing on Skye and not my own demons. She’s cried for two days now. I’m not even sure if she knows what day it is. I haven’t been to the club once. Thank God for Miller. And Case, well, he doesn’t even know that I haven’t been there because he has been too busy with his wedding. Which is why I had to leave Skye with Jet tonight for a few hours.
“You okay?”
I look up at Case, who stands in front of me at the altar. I had to leave Skye at my house to come to his wedding. I’ll admit the thought crossed my mind more than once just to stay there with her. “Hmm?” What did he say?
He smiles as he runs his hands down the front of his black tux. “You seem distracted. Everything okay?”
I nod my head. “Everything is good,” I lie. Skye and Nicole are just overtaking my mind.
“I wanna marry you,” Nicole whispers as she reaches over and grabs my hand.
I smile at her so hard my cheeks start to hurt. “I wanna marry you, too,” I say reaching up and cupping her face in my hand.
“I hope you like kids,” she says wiggling her
dark eyebrows.
I laugh. “Love them.” I’m not sure that I do. I’ve never really been around them, but if she wants kids, then that’s exactly what I’ll give her.
“Good,” she says excitedly. She moves to straddle me, and my hands go straight to her hips. She grinds her hips into my hardening cock as she wraps her arms around my neck. “’Cause I want lots of babies.” She leans and brushes her lips against mine. I open my lips to her kiss her, but she pulls away.
“Teasing me, are you?” I ask bringing my hands up her back and to the base of her neck.
“I know you love it,” she says with a giggle.
“Now, let’s practice making those babies,” I say as I push her onto her back, and her giggles grow louder.
I do not want kids! Not anymore. I don’t even want a wife, let alone children. The life I have chosen to live is not the kind that you bring children into. But Skye deserves kids, if that is what she wants for her future. And to get her there, I have to keep her safe.
I straighten my back and try to clear my mind as I hear the music start to play. I look at the back of the little church and see Savannah, Taylor’s sister-in-law, start to walk down the aisle. She has a big smile on her face as she walks toward us carrying a bouquet of flowers.
The music changes up a little bit, and the door opens as Taylor walks in escorted by her brother. Her father is in prison. The twisted part is that Case was the one who put him there. But that sorry bastard deserved it. Taylor and Blane are better off without him.
Is Skye better off without me?
Taylor smiles at she stares at Case, and I hear him let out a long sigh as he stares at her with an emotion I wish I could feel again. I reach up and tap him on the shoulder. “Congratulations, man,” I say softly, and he nods his head.
When she finally reaches us, she already has tears running down her face, but her smile is infectious.
I stand as they go through their vows, and with every word that they say, I feel my body get heavier. My heart pounding harder. How many times had I thought of this day with Nicole? How many times had I dreamed to one day be the man she gave her life to? God, I would have given that woman anything. I would have given my life if it meant she was the one standing here right now.
The ceremony ends, and we find ourselves in an even smaller room for the reception. I sit at a little round table, sipping on a scotch when I see someone sit down next to me out of the corner of my eye. I sigh inwardly when I see the same whore from the night Case proposed to Taylor in Seven Deadly Sins. “Can I help you?” I ask, lifting my drink to my lips.
“I hope so,” she says seductively.
I turn to look over at her; her eyes are covered in something sparkly but dark. Too dark. Looks like she took some dirt, mixed it with glitter, and then caked it on her eyelids. Her lipstick is a dark red, and it reminds me of blood. It reminds me of the blood running down Skye’s cheek when I saved her outside her apartment. “Not now,” I growl and go back to my drink.
She leans into my side, totally ignoring my ‘get lost’ attitude. “You seem like you need some cheering up.”
“I’m a ray of sunshine,” I say dryly, and she laughs. I roll my eyes.
“You are so funny.” She places her hand on my arm, and I yank it away instinctively.
“Look, I’m not in the mood to play this game with you,” I growl, and her laughter cuts off. “I’m not playing hard to get. And if I wanted you, I would have already had you.” She gasps as her eyes widen, as if I just told her some big fucking secret. Can’t a woman take a hint when a man doesn’t want them? If a woman is throwing herself at a man and that man doesn’t do something right then and there, then he doesn’t want her. Plain and simple. “So go and find someone else to throw yourself at,” I finish.
She huffs as she stands up and stomps off. Thank God.
I pull out my cell to call Jet. I worry about Skye. I have held her in my arms so many times the last couple of days as she cried her eyes out, and I find I like how it makes me feel needed.
SKYE
It didn’t take much convincing to talk Jet into taking me to my apartment to get some clean clothes. He waited outside my apartment while I changed. I have to say I find the fact that he doesn’t invade my personal space much nicer than the way Brecken does.
“You don’t have to go in with me,” I say as he drives down the interstate.
He snorts. “You think I would let you go alone?”
I grip the door and the side of my seat. Jet drives a little two-door car. I’m not even sure what it is called, but it reminds me of the Batmobile. He drives it as if the world is depending on him, which totally terrifies me. Brecken doesn’t drive much different, but at least if we rolled, his Range Rover would have more cushion than this little tin can. “You can just drop me off. I’ll get a cab home.”
“Brecken would kill me,” he says as he grips the steering wheel tighter.
“He won’t even know,” I say as we pass a car that honks at us. Pretty sure Jet cut him off. He shifts and then speeds around another car. “Tell him I went home. That I was doing better,” I offer.
“You’ve been a mess for two days. You think he’ll believe that?” he asks doubtfully.
“Why are you helping him?” I ask, changing the subject. Jet was right. I’ve missed two days of trying to find her killer by crying in Brecken’s bedroom.
“I’m a cop working on Tiffany’s case. Why wouldn’t I help find her killer?”
I shake my head. “You totally just ignored my question. You did say you were going to help me at the police station when I came in. But at what point did you go to Brecken? When did you ask him to help you?” It doesn’t make any sense. Although Brecken doesn’t take no for an answer. Maybe Jet thought working with someone who isn’t a cop would be the best way to go.
“We decided two heads were better than one,” is all he says.
I can’t help but say, “You don’t mind working with a criminal?”
He throws his head back and laughs. A deep laugh that makes his chest shake. But he never answers. He just shakes his head to himself as he continues driving through traffic and cutting people off on this dark night.
I sit back in my seat. He’s keeping something from me. Or is Brecken keeping the secret?
I lean my head against the headrest as he passes a car that honks its horn at him. I take a deep breath as I lift my hand and rub the simple pink diamond around my neck. It was Tiffany’s. She had not worn it out that night, and I found it in our bathroom. I’m never gonna take it off.
He pulls off the exit, and I swallow nervously. But I take a deep breath because now is not the time to be scared. Now is the time to suck it up and get some answers. Jet was right. Brecken doesn’t want me to look for Tiffany’s killer. He wanted me to move. He wanted to keep my mouth shut from what the surveillance tape had shown. But Jet—he believes that I can make a difference. He believes I can make the right man pay for Tiffany’s death. And I plan to do exactly that.
He pulls up to a black building. Two big spotlights sit out front as they shine up into the night as if they are signaling for Batman himself. Jet pulls in and goes around the back. He turns his lights off and parks all the way in the back of the lot. He turns the car off, and we sit in the darkness and silence. “What are we doing?” I ask looking around. “I told you to just drop me off. I don’t need you to go in.”
“I’m not leaving you,” he says, and I know it’s final. He undoes his seat belt, and his phone starts to ring. He smirks as he looks down at it before placing it on speakerphone. “What’s up, Brecken?” he answers.
“How is she doing?” are his first words.
I almost feel bad for keeping him in the dark. But he would have stopped me. Jet is trying to help me. “She’s fine,” he responds.
I can hear Brecken sigh. “Have you even checked on her?” He sounds irritated.
Jet snorts. “Of course,” is all he says.
“I’ll be home in about an hour.” There’s a long pause. “Thanks for looking after her.” He hangs up.
I feel my shoulders slump. I don’t know what is going on with Brecken. I don’t know the man very well, but I feel sorry for him. A part of me sees the hurt he is going through. And if that isn’t already enough, I have him mixed into this mess.
We get out and go inside the club. We sit down at the bar, and I look around. This isn’t like Seven Deadly Sins. The ceiling isn’t high, and it’s not dark. There are no neon lights, just a soft dim glow. Music is playing, but not so loud you can’t hear someone else talking. Tabels line the walls and a dance floor sits in the middle, but no one is dancing. Everyone is sitting at the tables drinking tall glasses of wine or what looks to be champagne. This place is very upscale, which I would have never guessed from the outside.
“I have to use the restroom,” Jet says to me. “Can you stay in your seat for five minutes?” he demands. I nod and give him a smile. “Good. Stay here.”
I sit alone as I observe the people around me talking and laughing. A man dressed in a three-piece suit walks behind the bar. I watch him as he talks on his cell. He has sharp features and square jaw. He’s not muscular by any means, but he’s also not skinny. He looks up at me, and I smile. It was too late to look away because he already saw me staring. He looks at me for a long second before finally returning it. He then looks away and goes back to talking on his phone. A few seconds later, he hangs up and places it in his pocket. “Hello. Can I get you a drink?” he asks.
“Sure,” I say shyly.
“What would you like?” he asks.
I don’t really know what all this place has. There has to be over a hundred bottles on the wall behind him, but I can’t even read half of them. Their labels look French. “Surprise me,” I decide to say.
Obsession (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2) Page 13