“The main suspect, huh?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed and he seemed deep in thought before finally looking back at her and answering, ever so softly, “yes.”
Lila’s blood pressure was quickly rising, so she took deep breaths to steady herself. Now he was throwing Chase under the bus for pictures that he had lying under the pillows of his own bed. The thought of what a wreck Chase had been just hours earlier, spilling his soul out to her, splashed across her mind and an urge to protect him like she’d never experienced almost choked her out. It took every inch of will inside of her not to wring Jack’s neck right where he stood. How dare he put the blame on Chase, knowing damn well that those pictures were his?
How had she never seen it before? She’d always taken him for a good liar but he wasn’t. He was standing right there, lying to her face, and it was clear as day.
Jack was clearly too in his own head to notice the wheels turning in Lila’s and he suddenly fired off. “Why exactly did the two of you end up in Cambridge together on the same day, at the exact same time and on the exact same plane might I add?”
“It was just a coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Do you believe in anything?” Lila asked, tilting her head at him with a squint.
Jack smiled. It was such a beautiful sight even when it was laced with the irony that it was now. “No. I’m a monster. I’m dead inside, Lila, or haven’t you already figured that out?”
Lila stood from the bed and made her way over to him. It was becoming clear to her that the path she was taking in this moment was not the one she’d need to take to get the truth out of him. She needed to know that him having those photos under his bed was completely innocent. If it was, she was sure that he would tell her the truth but she had to stroke him just right. The fighting couldn’t continue.
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to fight.”
Jack allowed her to take the cuffs of his jacket in her small hands, holding his breath when her scent immediately engulfed him in her closeness. His jaw instantly tensed when she pushed his coat off of his shoulders, leaving him in nothing but the white button down that still clung to him. The tips of her nails played down the buttons, inch by inch, until they were lingering at his belt.
“Then why did you come here, Lila? To continue to torture me?” His eyes reluctantly softened with every second her hands were on him until he finally whispered, “did you see him while you were there?”
Lila stared down at his belt buckle before taking a handful of his shirt and pulling it from the waistband of his pants. She popped the bottom button open, then the next.
“You know… I remember very vividly the last time I saw you like this,” she whispered, unbuttoning the shirt completely before tucking her hands underneath and wrapping her arms around his waist, her lips brushing against the sensitive peak between his pecks.
Jack had to take a moment when the feel of her lips on him had him instantly teetering on the edge. Whether it was the edge of bliss or insanity, he wasn’t quite sure.
“Lila, did you see him?”
Lila kissed a trail up his chest and his neck, parting her lips to suck his tight skin between her teeth. The sound of his moans almost sent her over the edge. Even now her body responded to him. Even with the blatant betrayal that lay on the bed behind them, between his sheets. The sheets they’d never made love on. She looked up at him. Was this why they’d never made love in his bed? Because he was afraid of what she’d find? Reaching a, now wet, hand up she took the back of his neck and pulled him with her. She fell backward onto the bed, gasping as he landed on top of her. The weight of him was breathtaking and somehow, even after everything, she still felt safe underneath him, wet and ready for him. Curling her leg around his body she turned them so she was on top, straddling him and grinding her hips mindlessly into the warm bulge between them.
“Why did you really show up at my house that night, Jack? That night in the rain?” It had been the most vulnerable she’d ever seen him, and she was convinced that--even if everything after that night had been fake--that was real. It had to be.
Jack looked up at her, allowing her to lock his arms over his head, holding him captive below her. His breathing grew ragged. “Because I loved you then, long before then... I love you now… I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Couldn’t take what?”
“Looking you in the eye and lying about how I felt. I couldn’t do it anymore.” He was growing frustrated at the confusing need to push her away and fuck her senseless all at once.
“What about now, Jack? Would you still lie to me now?”
“No.”
“Never Jack?”
“Never.”
Lila’s eyes grew moist. His voice was so filled with passion that she almost believed him. So why wouldn’t he just tell her what was going on?
Jack watched as her mind raced before him, yearning to touch her as she continued to hold his arms tight above his head.
“Please tell me you didn’t see him,” he whispered. This time his voice shook with the question.
Lila leaned down so her arms, her breasts, her thighs and what felt like her entire being were completely flush with his. “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to ask me?”
“I’m asking you if you saw Chase in Cambridge.”
“You mean did I fuck Chase in Cambridge?” she asked, licking his lips softly. Jack didn’t respond, but she felt him hold his breath. As she watched his eyes slowly grow closed beneath her, she released his wrist and reached under the pillow behind him, taking the photos in her hand.
Jack’s eyes flew open when the weight of her body on top of his was suddenly gone--quickly replaced with dozens of photos falling across his damp stomach and scattering across the bed around him. His heart seized in his chest at the sight—a sensation so extreme he was sure he was having a heart attack. His eyes jumped to hers, wide with shock.
“Lila. I can explain this…I…” He jammed his eyes shut. “I just can’t explain it right now.”
“I’m sure you can’t. It takes a lot of time to think up the kind of lies you’ve been firing off left and right. Call me when you’ve got your story straight. Actually, scratch that. Lose my fucking number.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Lila stood before him with her arms crossed over her chest. “You know what Jack? Fuck you,” she spat, before turning on her heel and barreling out of his room.
For the first time in his life, Jack Almeida was speechless. Watching her walk away from him for what might have been the last time threw a shockwave so deep into his bones, it jarred him out of his stupor almost instantly. He leapt from the bed just as she turned the corner out of his room.
“Lila!” He barreled down the stairs behind her, watching her long curls fly after her as she raced towards the front door.
Jack threw himself in front of the door just in time, grabbing her hand as she reached for the handle.
Lila snatched her hand back like it was on fire. The feeling of him touching her in any way made her come undone with fury.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” she screamed, so violently that her hair flew sloppily into her eyes. Her dark brown skin grew almost maroon as blood pumped through her at lightning speed. “You son of a bitch. Do you have any idea what we’ve done to him? Do you have any idea?” Tears fell from her eyes as she thought back to Cambridge and everything that had transpired over the last few months. “For fucking nothing,” she screamed.
Jack struggled to breathe and he held his trembling hands out towards her, careful not to touch her. “It wasn’t for nothing, Lila. I would never hurt him for nothing. I would never hurt you. Please believe that I can explain this.”
“You’re a liar,” Lila shrieked. “I hurt him for you, Jack. I fucking hurt him for you. I loved you and this is what you do to me? Get the fuck out of my way.” She charged toward him
and pushed him with all her might, to no avail. When he grabbed her arms to steady her she pulled away once more, tossing her hair out of her eyes as she backed away from him. “I will never forgive you for this. You’re crazy!”
I loved you. Jack blinked, still rocked by the words she’d just said, and let her back away from him, afraid that if he continued to touch her he might really lose her for good. Knowing that she loved him too, hearing her say it, suddenly made everything fall away. All of the bullshit fell away, and everything was so clear. Seeing the look on her face at that moment so full of distrust and fear… he didn’t care about anything but her. “Lila… please. On my mother’s grave, I swear to you, I can explain this.”
“I don’t need to hear your explanation. You’ve been following me! You’ve been terrorizing me and sleeping with me all in the same breath. And without missing a beat!” When she realized she was holding her breath she gasped and covered her heart with her hand. “Was it worth it, Jack? Huh? It wasn’t enough to follow me, rip the most important person out of my life and scare me to death? That wasn’t enough? You had to fuck me too?!”
“Lila you have to believe that I was only trying to protect you.”
Lila’s face collapsed. “Protect me from what?” she cried.
“I can’t…” Jack jammed his eyes shut. “I can’t tell you, baby.”
Lila’s entire body seemed to collapse right where she stood--shoulders, torso, as if her whole being was being dragged down to nothing at the mere sight of him. She held a finger up to him. “I never want to see you again for as long as I live, Jack Almeida. I don’t need you to explain the pictures because it doesn’t matter.” She attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes, but just made an even bigger mess of her make-up and hair in the process. “I want you out of my life. I mean it.” She stomped toward him, hesitating when it seemed like he might touch her, again. “Please move. Move. Move!”
Jack jolted and finally jumped out of the way of the door, covering his heart when she grabbed the handle. “Lila, I’m sorry. I love you—“
“Love?” Lila had to laugh. “You know what? I should say thank you. You just made this all so much easier.”
Lila stepped out and slammed the door.
---
Later that night, Lila found herself sitting in front of her cell phone. The device was shining up at her from the middle of her coffee table. The numbers ‘911’ glowed in her pitch black apartment and allotted the only illumination in the entire room, but it wasn’t the darkness that was sending chill after chill up Lila’s spine.
Every inch of her was telling her to call the police and have Jack arrested for stalking. That was the only sensible thing to do.
Every second that passed, she found herself reaching for the phone, her finger lingering over the ‘call’ button, before she’d change her mind and throw the phone back down onto the middle of the table.
She thought about what would happen to Chase if Jack went to jail and she went off to Cambridge. He would truly be alone. She couldn’t let that happen.
As difficult as it was for her to admit, it wasn’t just her concern for Chase that kept her from calling the police on Jack, but something else. Something that had been nagging at her just beneath the surface from the moment she’d left his apartment in a rage earlier that day.
He had to have a good reason for what he’d done. And with each passing minute she was becoming more and more curious about just what the hell Jack Almeida had been thinking to have done what he’d done.
Since she’d made a pact with herself to never speak to him again for as long as she lived, Lila was still at a loss as to how she would get the answer to that nagging question, if she ever got one at all. Perhaps she should just disappear to Cambridge and forget all of this. Forget New York City. Forget Dalton. Forget Jack.
Forget Chase.
Her heart seized in her chest. She picked up her phone, erased the three numbers she’d been staring at all night and dialed Chase’s number.
Before it could ring, Lila slammed the phone shut and proceeded to bang her forehead against it. Perhaps if she did it hard enough she could knock herself out and stay knocked out until all of this went away?
She knew it wasn’t going away.
Everything else seemed perfectly possible… but forgetting Chase?
Time had proven that was something she simply could not do.
---
The next morning Lila pushed through the busy hallways at Dalton and made a mad dash to the front office, grunting reluctant hellos to the familiar faces of students and faculty as she moved. No one was getting small talk out of Lila James that morning, but the moment Lila laid eyes on Marsha sitting behind the front office desk, she suddenly had plenty to say.
Stomping up to Marsha, Lila pointed a finger. It was trembling so badly that it prompted the chatty receptionist to quickly end the personal call she’d been in the middle of. Marsha almost went completely cross eyed as she took in Lila’s wildly shaking finger which was, at the moment, placed almost squarely between her eyes. “Hey, are you…” Her eyes rose to Lila and went wide. “Okay?”
“I’m fine. But I won’t be fine, Marsha, if--for any reason—you so much as let Jack Almeida come within spitting distance of me or this office, for any reason. Jack Almeida is, dead to us, in fact… Jack Almeida does not exist. That is officially the most important rule of this office: Jack Almeida does not exist. Is that understood?”
“Uh… yeah?” Marsha was growing more confused by the moment. “Oh, by the way, Jack Almeida was in here looking for you earlier today.”
If Marsha was being ironic, Lila was too furious to notice. “No, no, see? See you’ve already broken the most important rule, Marsha. What’s the most important rule?”
“Jack Almeida does not exist,” Marsha recited, robotically. Her perfectly manicured hand lingered surreptitiously over the phone on her desk, ready to dial 911 just in case Lila had a pistol in her pocket and became any more unhinged than she already was.
Satisfied with that answer, Lila stood tall. “Good. Good.” She attempted a smile, which to Marsha was nothing short of frightening. “I’m glad we’re in agreement. If you need me, I’ll be in my office.”
“Uh, the kids are already there waiting for you.” Marsha almost made a quip about Lila being late, but thought the better of it.
“Thank you,” Lila shouted, waving a hand over her shoulder. She was relieved that the students from the grieving club were already there. This was a morning that she wanted to get over with fast.
---
“What the hell do you mean you’re leaving?!”
“What about us?”
“What the actual fucking fuck?!”
“HARVARD?!”
“Okay guys, okay, I know.” Lila clutched the edge of the desk where she sat with her legs swinging nervously back and forth, bracing herself for the eruption she knew she would never be ready for. When the shouts in her office grew from angry to downright profane, she was forced to hold a hand up and wait for the room to quiet down--which took quite a while. She realized that her kids were heartbroken over the news of her putting in her resignation and, though she had yet to officially resign from her position, she still felt like they had to be the ones to hear it first. She truly loved them as if they were her own family, and she didn’t want them to hear about her leaving through word of mouth. They were too good for that.
“So you just up and leave, just like that?” Heather asked. The stunning, petite brunette had been Captain of the Cheer Squad since she’d graced Dalton with her presence three years ago and, though she ruled the halls of the school with a mean-girl iron fist, she was easily the glue that kept all of the kids together. The first one to plan social events, fundraisers and emergency meetings, Heather was like a savior to Lila, so seeing tears in her eyes at that moment almost made Lila come undone. “What about all for one?” The young girl’s high voice trembled as she recalled the group’s secre
t motto.
“Common Heather, that was just bullshit, wasn’t it Ms. James?”
Lila knew that she would probably cry, but as she locked eyes with Omar, the class clown that was in the Principal’s office more than she was, but was always ready with a joke, her heart sank. “Of course it wasn’t.”
“The first sign of a few more zeros at the end of your paycheck and you’re out the door?”
“Of course not, Jose,” she said, taking in Jose the ‘Latin Lightening Rod’ and the finest running back Dalton’s football team had ever seen.
“Look, Ms. James, if we can’t afford to go to Hawaii, that’s okay. We don’t give a shit about that. Just please stay.”
Lila sat tall, “Oh no, guys, Hawaii is still very much on. Okay? Hawaii is happening! And thank god for that because… it’ll be perfect for our last big hurrah.”
The mention of Hawaii had Lila, once again, wondering who the angel was that had anonymously donated that money because her kids reluctantly grew more positive now that they knew Hawaii was back on. Plans for what they would wear, where the best beaches were, and who did the prettiest hair braiding quickly grew around the room.
Little Heather, however, was not only Captain of the Cheer squad but also a straight A student, smart as a whip and not so easily influenced by the distant promise of fun in the sun. “What the fuck is in Cambridge, anyway?”
And, just like that, the room erupted again.
“Did you ever care about us, at all?”
“Nice to know it’s so easy for you to leave us.”
“FUCKING HARVARD?”
Lila’s nails were surely digging holes into the wood under her desk.
This was going to be a long morning.
---
By the end of the school day Lila was almost pulling her hair out at the frustration of it all. Students from her club had been coming to her office in spurts all day with attempts to convince her to stay. Some cried, some yelled, most took the smartest road and simply attempted to bribe her with gifts. She’d never taking into consideration how lucrative being a mentor to a bunch of rich kids could really be. If she saw another iPad mini or bouquet of a dozen roses walk into this office she would have to turn it away simply because she was running out of room. She could have opened a flower shop right there in her very office. How her students had managed to get out of school in the middle of the day to buy her all of the beautiful gifts they’d bestowed on her was a question she still didn’t have the answer to.
Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One Page 19