I hit the mute button.
Megan gave me a questioning look
“What’s all that about?” she asked.
“He says he wants me to come back to work for him. That I’ll get more money and even a car.”
“Whoa, Sister. That’s amazing. What’s the catch?”
The catch? Was there always a catch when something sounded too good to be true?”
I unmuted the phone
“Mr. Garcia, what’s the catch? What have you not told me?”
“There is one condition,” he said. “You will need to end your relationship with Leonardo. While we could definitely use someone with your skills and background, we can’t afford to be associated with such a liability.”
He wanted me to dump Leo for the best job opportunity I could wish for?
As much as Leo confused me, as much as I was terrified of where he was and what he might be doing, I didn’t know if I could walk away from us.
But hadn’t he walked away?
When he was at his most desperate, shouldn’t he have naturally turned to me for comfort?
And since he didn’t, what did that say about our future?
Did we even have a future?
The baby in my ever-expanding belly needed a stable family. Not one that would splinter and head for the hills when the hard times came.
And nobody made it through life without their share of hard times.
It wasn’t about living a life of unmarred perfection.
I knew that now.
It was about how you endured the hardships without losing yourself to the misery. It was about how you pushed through to reach for the brighter tomorrow.
Leo’s soul had dug so deeply into my heart that I wondered if it would ever be mine alone again. But I couldn’t wait for him to live my life.
To share a life with the baby in my belly.
“Mr. Garcia, you are an asshole for firing me before.”
He coughed and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I was. I hope to be able to make up for that mistake.”
“I accept your offer.”
The words came out sounding so final.
My heart and my brain waged war in my soul and there could be no true winner.
Only the less-mutilated survivor.
“Thank you, Ms. Young! I’m so happy to have you back on board. I’d like to discuss an issue that—”
“I’ll call you on Monday.”
“Oh, okay. Yes, that will work. Thanks ag—”
I hung up.
Megan clapped her hands and bounced up and down.
“You got the job back? A better job even?” she asked.
“I did.”
She beamed at me and her joy touched the outer edges of my grief. She stopped. “Was there a catch?”
I wrung my hands together and chewed my bottom lip. I didn’t want to say it out loud. It was the right thing to do, but that didn’t mean it was easy.
Maybe that’s how it always worked.
The right thing was always the hardest thing.
I didn’t know.
“What’s the catch?” she asked.
I looked at her and the words spilled out like a confession.
“I have to end my relationship with Leo.”
Her eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped in stunned silence.
“It’s fine,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “Leo and I weren’t meant to be.”
“You sure?”
I nodded.
“I have my doubts,” she said. “Anyway, hold on a second.”
She grabbed her mobile and pointed it at me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sorry, I know it’s stupid. But you just got the job of your dreams. It’s kind of a big deal. I want you to have a little video to remember the occasion.”
“You’re weird,” I said.
“I don’t disagree. Rolling. Is that what you guys say?”
“Not really,” I said.
“Whatever. Ms. Alexis Young,” she said in her best reporter tone, which wasn’t half bad, “you’ve just been promoted—”
The intercom buzzer rang and Megan jumped up to answer it. She punched the button next to the front door and yelled, “Go away!”
Had Leo come back? Now, when it was too late?
“Is this Megan?”
Megan’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe. Who’s this?”
“It’s Robert Graves,” said the voice. “Is Alexis there?”
“I’m calling the police,” Megan said.
“Wait!” he shouted over the crackling intercom. “I need to talk to her. “
Megan thumbed off the intercom and looked at me. “Want me to get the police over here?”
What could Robert Graves possibly want with me? What could he possibly say? He’d been attacking my ex-boyfriend for months.
Maybe he had news of Leo’s whereabouts. Even if we weren’t going to continue our relationship, I still wanted to know father of my child was safe.
Robert had a nose for trouble like a bloodhound with a crack addiction.
“Buzz him up,” I said. “He won’t be here long.”
“Okay, your call.”
She thumbed on the intercom and spoke with a tight, unfriendly voice, “Head up to the third floor. We’re 301.”
“See you in a minute,” Robert replied.
Megan walked over and started wiping my face down with fresh tissues. She dabbed and patted and scraped away until she felt satisfied I was presentable.
A knock sounded on the front door.
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” she said.
I nodded. I opened the door to the man that I’d sworn to never be open to again.
He smiled in that lopsided way that I used to find so endearing.
“Hey, Alex. Can I come in?”
It felt like inviting a vampire into your house. Like as soon as you gave consent, you were done for.
He didn’t hold any power over me anymore though, other than a fading sense of bleak regret. I had a fresher case that made it feel positively remote.
“Fine,” I said and stepped back to let him in.
He looked around our apartment, sizing it up.
“Not as bad as I was thinking, considering the neighborhood,” he said.
I swept past him and plopped down on the couch.
“Did you come here to insult my living situation?”
He flinched. “No. I came here to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About us.”
“There is no us. You demolished that concept the instant you chose to insert your laughably small cock into my ex best friend.”
His eyes darted to his crotch involuntarily.
I almost laughed. Guys were so touchy about that.
Perfect.
“Yes,” I said, “it’s exactly what you’re thinking. Leonardo’s hung like a bull. Thank God I got past you so I could find out what a real man’s cock feels like.”
Robert didn’t know Leo and I were Quitsville and the venom in my soul was happy to find an easy target.
He cast his eyes to the carpet and twisted his mouth up.
“I’m sorry for what I did,” he said. “It was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Yes, it was. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Come back to me, Alex.”
My stomach dropped three floors to street level. Was he serious? What kind of an idiot would think he could come in after all this time and take me back?
That I’d settle for that.
Did he have any respect for me whatsoever?
Unbelievable.
I stood up with my hands shaking and longing to punch him in the mouth. Leo was rubbing off on me.
“Have you seen the news?” I asked. “I’ve moved on. I found someone that …”
He stared at me, waiting for me to continue.
“Someone that
helped me understand settling for you would’ve been a disastrous mistake.”
“He’s a mistake, Alex. You’re blind if you can’t see that.”
“And you’re an asshole, Robert. I’m lucky enough to see that.”
“Don’t do this,” he said. “We were so good together.”
“The only place we were good together was in my imagination. Now, I’d like you to get out of my apartment.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you give me a real chance to make it up to you.”
“Megs?” I said.
She popped her head out from around the kitchen corner. “Yes?”
“Call the police.”
“On it.”
“Hang up now or I will crucify,” he looked at me with a disgusted grimace, “the degenerate gigolo you ignorantly call the father of your bastard child.”
My blood boiled. My top would’ve blown if it wasn’t held in by a bony skull.
Robert was a wonder at attacking people. In one sentence, he managed to shit all over the most important things in my life.
Then it hit me.
A cold realization about the man in front of me, a man I must’ve been insane to think I was going to marry.
“All your attacks on Leo,” I said. “It’s all been about us! Hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, so what? That egomaniac needs to be dropped down a few pegs.”
He pointed to his lip.
“Look at this scar I get to carry around for the rest of my life! I owe him plenty!”
I bolted upright and shouted in his face.
“You’re a coward and a backstabbing lowlife!”
He blinked as droplets of spit flew from my mouth.
“Now get out of my life!”
“Gladly!” he shouted back. He shoved me aside to make for the door.
Unfortunately, my foot caught the edge of the coffee table and I didn’t have another on that side to keep me upright. I pitched over and crashed to the carpet. On the way down, my plump belly caught the arm of the couch.
I crashed hard to the carpet and lay there in a daze.
Robert stood above me with his mouth moving.
A jolt of pain stabbed through me.
Straight through my uterus.
Straight through my growing baby.
A hot wetness leaked out from between my legs. I looked down as red pooled in the fibers of the carpet.
“Where’s Leo?” I said in a strained whisper.
Megan knelt above me saying something.
Her mouth moved but the words seemed so far away, like she was speaking through a tube that was ten miles long.
Darkness circled around the edges of my vision.
Another jolt of pain doubled me up.
Leo?
The edges all contracted to the center in a rush of dar …
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Leonardo
I should’ve called Alex last night. My fingers hovered above her name on my mobile screen countless times. Some invisible barrier wouldn’t let it drop another millimeter to place the call.
I should’ve called her today.
I wanted to.
I needed to.
But I couldn’t.
Why was I so fucked up?
I crashed at Rodrigo’s last night and had spent most of the day tossing and turning in bed. He dropped off some burgers at some point, but I couldn’t touch them.
I never wanted to eat again.
I didn’t deserve to live.
Rodrigo came in sometime after it was dark outside and told me to get my ass out of bed. He was having a party to get my spirits up.
Fuck parties.
He didn’t lay off though until I hobbled out to a sun chair beside the pool.
I stared up at the dark sky above and wished it would swallow me whole.
Twenty or more half-dressed girls scampered around the pool with their fake tits barely bouncing along the way. They should’ve paid more.
The guys on my team that paid for them should’ve paid more.
They ran around in front of the same cheapskates that should’ve ponied up for quality implants.
The nightlife in Barcelona hummed in the distance.
Some girl that looked too young to have already surrendered to this debauchery stretched out in a reclined chair across the pool. She was naked from head to toe.
Rodrigo leaned over her and squared up a line of coke between her tits. He got it sorted, and then paused to admire his work.
Or maybe her tits.
Probably both.
He snorted through it and kept going lower until he landed between her legs. He gobbled her pussy and then jumped up into the air like his feet were springs.
“Goddamn!” he shouted. “I love the taste of pussy after a line of blow!”
The party roared with approval.
Why was I here?
It felt so familiar and yet so utterly alien.
Rodrigo walked over and clinked his bottle on the neck of the warm beer perched on my good knee.
“Bottom’s up, brother! It’s been too long!”
I took a half-hearted sip of the half-full bottle.
Was it my injury that had everything thrown out of whack?
Why couldn’t I connect with Alex and allow her to shoulder some of my burden? She was willing. She said so. I believed her.
But it was like a chain hung around my neck and I didn’t know how to let her carry a few links.
“Amigo, I’ve got a big surprise for you,” Rodrigo said.
“Oh yeah?”
I couldn’t have cared less.
“Yeah. Huge. It’s gonna perk you right up!”
I shook my head.
“I can’t do any coke, man,” I said. “I’d take off across the lawn and tear my knee to shit. Besides, I’m not in the mood for crazy.”
“Different surprise. Better!”
He looked behind me and a wide grin spread across his electrified face.
“Here they come now,” he said.
I looked up and guess who stepped into my world?
Jennifers.
They both waved and giggled.
“We missed you,” Jennifer said.
“We didn’t get to show you a few things last time,” Jennifer said.
They were both butt-naked and doing their ridiculous best at looking sexy.
Rodrigo slid between them and wrapped an arm around each of their waists.
“Did I tell you? Or did I tell you?”
I stared at them and wished alien abductions were real. I’d have signed away my bank account balance to get sucked up into the sky.
I shook my head.
“You can thank me later,” Rodrigo said. “And, I’ll take seconds if you’re feeling generous.”
Looking at them, all I could see is that they weren’t Alex. They didn’t have the same amber sparkle in their colored contact lenses. They didn’t have the same full lips that could smile so sweetly your heart would explode.
They weren’t what I wanted.
Not anymore.
Not by a long shot.
I wanted the woman who carried my baby in her belly. I wanted my family.
What was I doing here?
None of this appealed to me anymore.
It was like a cheap theater show where all the lights were angled just right so you didn’t notice the glaring lack of substance.
It was all show.
All fake as fuck.
It disgusted me that I once found it so compelling. Like this was the goal every man had in life.
Jennifer touched my injured knee and I flinched.
“Don’t worry, baby,” she said. “We’ll take good care of you.”
Rodrigo reached into his pants and stroked his dick.
“Sorry, ladies,” he said, “but you guys are getting me rock-hard.”
They giggled like brainless idiots.
Jennifer knelt beside me and placed her hand on
my crotch.
“How’s your big cock doing? I’ve dreamed about it every night.”
I shoved her hand away and shuffled up off the chair.
“That’s all you’re ever gonna do, too,” I said.
Rodrigo looked at me like I was crazy.
Maybe I was.
Crazy in love.
Crazy to not be with the woman I loved.
I grabbed my phone and keys off the table and slapped Rodrigo on the shoulder.
“I know you meant well,” I said, “but I gotta get out of here.”
I grabbed my crutches and knew exactly what I had to do.
Find Alex and beg her to forgive me for being such a dumbass.
Rodrigo shook his head.
“If you say so, bro.” He pulled the Jennifers to him. “More for me.”
I tossed a few goodbyes to the guys as I headed around the side and out toward the long driveway. My Bugatti Veyron was locked in by a sea of hundred-thousand dollar sports cars.
“Fuck,” I said to no one in particular.
My phone buzzed in my front pocket. I tugged it out and saw a message from Alex’s number.
Alex> Leo, this is Megan. Alex has had a bad fall and we’re at the emergency room of Barcelona Centro Medico. She’s asking for you.
Another message popped up.
Alex> The doctors just took her back for examination.
I frantically punched in a reply.
Leo> On my way!
No!
NoNoNoNoNoNoNo!
Centro Medico was less than five miles away, but my ride was going nowhere fast.
At the edge of the driveway, I saw the golf cart Rodrigo used to get around his ten-acre property. It had fifteen-inch chrome wheels, red LED lights glowing out the bottom, and a two-foot chrome cock and balls mounted on the front.
It would have to do.
I hopped over and fired it up. The tiny gas engine coughed and sputtered to life. I smashed the accelerator to the floor and nearly launched my ass out the back as it shot forward.
Damn!
He’d made some serious mods to this sucker.
I pulled out of the endless driveway and took off down the street.
I managed to escape attracting too much attention … until I zoomed up the on ramp to the freeway.
Cars honked and people rolled down their windows, some laughing their asses off and others shouting at me to go the hell back to the freak-show golf course I came from.
If they only knew.
I made it down the road a few miles and saw the exit approaching. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been pulled over and arrested.
Balls: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (A Cruz Boys Novel Book 1) Page 20