by A. M. Myers
I’m sure he’s taking the Dina situation pretty hard but it’s best to let him work it out himself. We all knew when we got started doing this that we wouldn’t be able to save everyone, and if she went back to him then we did all we could for her. The memories that it brings up, though, propel me forward. I can’t get out of that door fast enough because the only thing that’s going to make me feel any better is waiting for me at home.
* * * *
Dusk is falling over the neighborhood, the streetlights just starting to come on as I pull my bike into the driveway and shut it off. The entire drive home, I was swallowed up by memories that haven’t plagued me since the day I met Ali, and I’m eager to get back to her. Climbing off the bike, I start toward the front steps, knowing that I can’t leave Bear unattended all night or I’ll come home to more holes in the drywall. I’m pretty sure the dog’s got some kind of separation anxiety, and he loses his shit when I leave him alone.
Opening the door, I call out his name, and a fraction of a second later I hear him barreling down the hallway. He skids into the kitchen and stops, staring at me with his tail wagging back and forth. I take a quick scan of the room, making sure everything is the way I left it, and he doesn’t move which only makes me suspicious.
“What have you been up to?” I ask him, and he just fucking grins at me. I never knew dogs could smile until Emma decided I needed this mutt.
“Well, come on, then. You want to go see Ali?”
At the mention of her name, his ears perk up, and he starts running at me full speed like a maniac. I step out of the way just in time, and he hits the wall before righting himself and looking up at me, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, and his tail wagging like crazy.
“Let’s go. You know the way,” I tell him, and he walks out the door and down the steps before sitting and waiting for me to follow him. I lock up and as soon as my foot hits the sidewalk, he trots off, leading the way to Ali’s house. I swear, he loves her more than me and I’m the one that fucking feeds him.
Not that I can blame him.
I honestly don’t know how I resisted her this long. The very moment we met, I felt it. Like a bolt of lightning, she sparked something in me, and I was resurrected. There’s still so much shit from my past that she doesn’t know, and I’m going to have to tell her someday, but I want to put it off as long as I can. The things I did, while justified to me, may seem wrong to her, and it would fucking kill me if the way she looked at me changed.
I’m addicted to it. The way her blue eyes sparkle in amusement when she tells a joke or the heated look she shoots my way after I kiss her. I need it all. For as long as she’ll let me have it. No, that’s not even true. I won’t ever be able to let her go, and I knew it from the start. Ali is mine until the very moment I take my last breath.
Bear slows in front of me, lowering his chest to the ground as he lets out a low growl, and I stop, scanning the street. He takes a step forward, his gaze locked on an older dark-colored sedan across the street, and I reach for the gun tucked into the back of my pants as I study the car. The window rolls down, and a face I never thought I’d see again grins at me as he pulls away from the curb and races down the road.
I look up at Ali’s house, my heart pounding and fury seizing my body. This isn’t over, and I don’t think I can leave her – even if it would save her life. There has to be another way. I’ll find another way to end this and keep her safe that doesn’t involve me losing her.
“Bear,” I snap as I start jogging up the sidewalk to her house, needing to see her as panic rips me apart. I just need to see her, make sure she’s okay before my heart rate will go back down to normal. I pound on the door but she doesn’t answer, and I pound again. The door flies open, and she gapes at me.
“Jesus, where’s the fire?”
Reaching out, I grab her arm and pull her out onto the porch, into my arms, as I lean down and possess her lips. Everything rights itself as soon as I hold her, and her kiss breathes life into me again. She melts against me, gripping my cut in her fists as she clings to me like her life depends on it. I fucking love it. Eat it up as she kisses me back like the hour I was away was just too goddamn much to bear. When I finally pull away, she looks up at me with a dreamy little smile.
“Oh, there’s the fire.”
I laugh and hold her tight against my body, breathing in her intoxicating fruity scent as I try to force myself to breathe regularly. She pushes against my chest so she can lean back enough to look up at me with a scowl on her gorgeous face.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and I know there’s no way to lie my way out of this. She always sees straight through me no matter how hard I try to hide.
“Let’s go inside.” I glance over my shoulder, feeling like we’ve got eyes on us, and I won’t relax fully until I’ve got her locked away safe and sound. She nods and leans up on her toes to kiss my cheek before spinning around and marching into the house. I follow her down the hallway into the kitchen, and she goes straight to the refrigerator as I sit down on one of the barstools lining the island. She sets a beer down in front of me and cocks a brow.
“What’s up with you tonight?”
I fiddle with the label on the beer bottle for a minute before standing and walking around the island, pulling her into my arms. “When I was coming over here, there was someone sitting outside of your house watching you.”
Her face pales as she stares up at me. “Oh,” she whispers, her voice so quiet that I almost don’t hear her, and it breaks my fucking heart. I can’t believe I brought her into this mess, and I hate myself for it. I should have ended this six years ago. She looks away from me as she starts chewing on her bottom lip, and I try to read her.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Kitten,” I say, gripping her chin between my fingers and guiding her gaze back to mine. The fear in her eyes grips me like a fist squeezing my heart, and a huge fucking part of me just wants to lock her away until this is over. He can’t fucking have her – not again – and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep her safe.
“There’s been some weird things going on at work, and I just dismissed it all, but if someone was watching me…” Her voice trails off, and my ears ring as I process through what she just said.
“What things? And how long?”
“Since the column went viral. And it’s just this guy, Chris. He called in to the radio interview I did, and he’s written a couple of letters.”
Jesus, of course. I’d totally forgotten about the article going viral, and it would have made it so much easier for Ian’s brother to find her. “What did you do with the letters? I want to see them.”
“I threw them away.”
I blow out a breath and nod. “What did they say?”
She pulls away from me and goes to the sink, grabbing a glass from the counter next to it and filling it up. Glancing over at me, she chugs the whole thing before leaning back against the counter and closing her eyes. I go to her, stopping just in front of her and pressing my body against hers. She lays her forehead on my chest and takes another deep breath.
“What did the letters say, Baby?”
“The first one just said that he loved all my work and he thought I was really talented and that he couldn’t wait to read the column,” she says, not lifting her forehead off my chest. I want her to be comfortable but I need to see her eyes. I slide my hand into her hair and give it a little tug, urging her to look up at me. She does and it almost guts me. She’s so fucking scared right now, and I don’t have any way to make it better.
“How many more have there been?”
“Just one more.”
I nod, running my fingers across her scalp in an effort to calm her. “And what did it say?”
“He was talking like we were in a relationship, and he was sad that I had been working so much and not seeing him. He sent a teddy bear and a rose with that one.”
All of this feels so familiar, and I know that Ian is behind it
but I won’t be making the same mistakes again. I’ll end this before he ever lays a finger on Ali.
“Are you sure he was watching me?” she asks, chewing on her bottom lip again, and I reach up, pulling it free from her teeth.
“Yeah, Baby, I’m pretty sure.” The less she knows right now, the better. I don’t want to scare her, and I can’t protect her if she runs from me.
She shakes her head and pushes me away as she straightens her body and walks over to the end of the island and paces back. “No, this has to be a mistake.”
“Ali…”
“No,” she says, cutting me off. “This is a mistake. He was just checking his phone or something, and you misinterpreted it.”
“What about the letters?” I ask, wondering if I really want to poke holes in her theory right now.
“The letters are just from a fan who’s gotten a little carried away in his crush for me. My article went viral so a couple of weird letters are to be expected.”
As she passes me in her pacing, I reach out and grab her, pulling her into my body again. Her head drops back as she looks up at me, and I press a quick kiss to her lips.
“Maybe you’re right, Kitten. But if you’re wrong, I’ll never let anything happen to you so you don’t need to worry either way.”
She searches my eyes for a moment before she buries her face in my chest, and I hold her, mentally promising her and myself that I’ll die before I let anyone hurt her. I may have fought this but she’s my life now, and I won’t lose her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chris
Rage twists through my veins like heroine as I stare down at the photo in my hands. How? How could she do this to me? Even looking down at the snapshot of them together turns my stomach, and hatred simmers in my soul. I crumple the photo and turn away from it but it doesn’t matter. In my mind, I can still see him on top of her, his lips pressed to her neck as her naked body stretches out beneath him. I’ve been sitting here in my car, watching her house for what feels like hours and yet, I still can’t understand why she would betray me like this. I thought we had something real and special but the moment I go away, she’s with him. I’ll make him pay for this. He’ll regret ever touching my girl but what the hell am I supposed to do about her?
Even now, I still love her.
Looking down, I unfold the photo and stare at it again, letting the anger take hold as I look at the way he thrusts into her like he has every goddamn right to. But it’s the look of ecstasy on her face that drives the stake into my heart. The anger builds and builds until it feels like I’m going to explode, rising up from the pit of my stomach until I’m forced to scream out into the car, slamming my fist down on the steering wheel.
My perfect angel.
She’s been destroyed by this insignificant piece of shit. Who the fuck does he think he is? I glance over in the passenger seat where the rest of the photos of them together are. I threw them in a fit of rage, and now they’re scattered across the car, taunting me with the image of my beauty being fucked by the devil from every angle.
I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that she would do this to me. We were building something together. Why would she go and destroy it like this? Then again, I suppose she thought she could get away with it. Pain like I’ve never known stabs at my chest again and again, and I can’t believe I trusted her. Leaning back in the seat, I look up at the house again, my heart shattering in my chest.
There is so much that I imagined for us, for our future, but that’s all gone now, and someone needs to pay. And I’ll start with him.
Just as I’m turning away, I spot a different photo, and my eyes widen as I pick it up. It’s my sweet Ali crying on her bathroom floor, and it hits me out of nowhere. Of course! She’s not there voluntarily. I stare up at the house like it might tell me the answers. It makes sense, actually. He’s in a motorcycle gang, a lowlife. He’s keeping her there against her will.
Needing validation, I slip out of the car and creep across the street before sneaking into her backyard, careful not to alert anyone of my presence. The last thing I need is him going off on her if he realizes that I’m here. God, this must be why she hasn’t responded to any of my letters and why it’s been harder and harder to see her. She was probably trying to save me, and I responded by assuming she cheated on me. I’m filled with remorse as I carefully open the gate and creep along the house.
When I reach the window that leads into the family room, I crouch down next to it and take a deep breath before standing off to the side and creeping over until I can see her. She’s there on the couch next to him, and he’s got his arm wrapped around her, holding her close to his side. I see red and every cell in my body wants to charge through that back door and rip them apart, but I take another deep breath, reminding myself that I need to be smart here so she doesn’t get hurt.
Looking over at her, my heart breaks. She glances up at him and smiles. God, she’s putting on one hell of a show but I can see the fear lingering in her gaze when she looks at him. Slipping back to the side of the window, I let out a breath. I can’t believe I ever doubted her. Of course she wouldn’t cheat on me. Not my Ali. She’s a good woman, through and through. This situation presents me with a whole new challenge though, and I have no idea how I’m going to get her out of there.
“I promise I’ll save you, Sweetheart,” I whisper into the night before slipping back out to my car and driving back to my apartment to formulate a plan.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alison
“So, since I didn’t hear from you all weekend, does that mean things are good with Logan?” Carly asks, standing at the doorway to my office, and I can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face as I look up at her from my laptop.
“Yeah, things are good.”
She grins at me. “Good. I’m happy for you. You hear from your enthusiastic fan again?”
At the mention of Chris, my face falls and I think back to Friday night and the car that Logan saw outside my house. Carly picks up on it instantly and steps into my office, planting herself in one of the chairs across from my desk.
“What is it? Did you hear from him?”
“I’m not exactly sure.”
She studies me for a second. “What does that mean?”
“Well, Logan was coming over Friday night and he saw this car outside my house, and as soon as he noticed it, the driver sped off. He was really on edge about it but I don’t know. I mean, it could have been nothing, right?”
“It’s either nothing or really, really bad.”
I wince and nod. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping you weren’t going to say that.”
“Miss James,” Jeremy, the new intern, calls from the office door, a large box in his hands.
“Yeah, just set them on the couch, Jeremy. Thank you.”
He smiles. “No problem, Miss James. There are three more so I’ll be back.”
He leaves and Carly laughs as she stands from the chair and moves around the desk to hug me. I stand, and she wraps her arms around me.
“Just be careful, okay?” she asks, and I nod as she pulls back.
“I promise I will.”
She leaves, and I step out from behind the desk and walk over to the couch to sort through the first box of letters. I grab the first one off the top and open the flap just as my phone rings on the desk. Rushing back over, I grab it and answer as I plop down in my chair.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kitten, you all right?” Logan’s voice comes floating through the phone, and a giddy smile stretches across my face as I fall back into the chair.
“Yeah, just rushing to the phone. What are you up to?”
“Thinking of ways to convince you to call in sick and play hooky with me,” he says, and I laugh as I sit up straight and scoot my chair into the desk.
“Any good ideas?”
“Oh, I’ve got a few but you’re not going to like them. We both know how much you hate to wait.”
I laugh and pull the sheet of paper out of the envelope. “Don’t you have a job to go to or something?”
“Not until later this week and Bear is so lonely here without you.”
“Just Bear?” I ask, flipping open the letter and setting it down as I wait for his answer.
“No, but he is the one being the most pathetic about it.”
Laughing, I lift the letter and start reading. “Well, I’m very sorry but…” My voice trails off, and my hand starts to shake as I read the words in front of me, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Ali? You still there?”
“Yes. I’m here,” I whisper, my voice shaking as tears well up in my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Logan’s voice is panicked, and I can hear rustling through the phone.
“I got a letter,” I tell him, my voice cracking as a tear falls down my cheek. Why the hell am I crying right now? I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I mean, it’s a stupid letter except I’ve never been more scared in my life.
“Read it to me,” he demands, his voice tight.
“Okay,” I whisper and start reading to him.
Dear Alison,
I’m so incredibly sorry, my love. God, I’m sorry for so much but most of all, I’m sorry for thinking that you would ever leave me willingly for that man. No, man isn’t even the right word. Monster. I should have known that you wouldn’t leave me for that monster. I should have known better. It was a momentary lapse in sanity, and I can assure you that it won’t happen again. And I’m sorry that I ever allowed him to get close enough to you for this to happen. As soon as I saw your face the other night, I knew you didn’t want to be there. I don’t want you to be afraid, Sweetheart. I have a plan, and I’m going to get you away from him. We’ll run far away, and I’ll keep you safe for the rest of your life, I promise. Just hang on for a little longer.