Tempting Mr. Perfect

by Rebecca Rose

  “What!” Jake yelled. “What? Dave loves you. How the hell can you betray him like that?”

  “There’s more to it, Jake. You have to believe me. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  “Then how did it happen?” he commanded.

  Instantly flushed and ready to weep Kathy opened her mouth but only a squeak came out. She already missed Dave so much. The way he’d smile at her from across the room. How he’d take her hand at random moments and squeeze. Then there was the love she felt every time he held her—she was going to miss that the most.

  “Kathy.” Sophie took her hand. “You need to calm down and tell us what happened.

  “Calm down? How the hell am I supposed to do that? I run into my ex who makes a mess of my relationship with the man I love then he kissed me. I tried to push him away and couldn’t, Dave saw us then sped off. I kicked Todd’s ass, and now Dave is missing. Get worked up? I’m already there!” Kathy insides were trying to rip their way out of her body from the silence Jake and Sophie were giving her. “Well?”

  “We can’t find him, either.” Jake walked away from her to stand next to Sophie.

  “Oh, no.” Crushed, Kathy braced herself on the counter next to her.

  “Kathy, can you think of anywhere he’d go?”

  “I’ve tried everywhere I can think of.” Kathy eyed Jake’s back. Somehow this was all her fault, no matter how unintentional her actions may have been. “I’m sorry Jake.”

  “Yeah, well, you can make it up to me by finding my brother.” He stomped across the kitchen and poured himself a coffee.

  The home became eerily quiet. Kathy’s thoughts and fears tormented her as she grasped at every ounce of hope but only found disgrace and blame. She started to weep again for all she didn’t get to say to Dave and all they might not be able to share in the future. Every part of her body shook as she struggled to find any kind of solace in her new reality—life without Dave.

  Jake turned on her. “Stop crying!”

  “I’m sorry!” Kathy held onto her head hoping the rotation would stop before she fainted. The tiny white lights flashed under her eyelids to let her know she was close but she refused to give into the darkness. Dave needed her, she needed him, and that was first priority.

  “Jake—” Sophie darted to her friend.

  “No, Sophie, I’ve had enough of her blubbering. My brother is out there hurting and I want to know where!”

  “I don’t know, Jake! I don’t know where he’d go!” Kathy screamed. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “You were kissing another man!”

  “No, I wasn’t! He kissed me and I pushed him away. I did nothing for Todd to think I’d take him back!” She wiped her face with a damp facecloth Sophie had fetched from the bathroom.

  “Jake—”

  “I swear to God, Kathy, if my brother is in some kind of trouble because of you I’ll—”

  Kathy became hysterical. There would be no consoling her now. She couldn’t understand the words she attempted to say to Jake but in her mind the apology and worry must have gotten through because he closed his eyes, and Kathy saw a tear slide down his face.

  “I can’t lose him, Kathy.”

  “Both of you stop it!” Sophie yelled. “We’re never going to get anywhere if all we do is yell! Jake, let’s go back to Dave’s house. Your parents are probably worried. And I need to lie down.”

  “Why?” Kathy’s world revolved again but this time she was able to stabilize it by concentrating on Sophie’s face. “Are you still sick?”

  “No. It’s wicked late and I’m pregnant. We announced it at dinner tonight.”

  Kathy smiled as a genuine feeling of warmth and love bloomed inside of her while she wiped her tear-streaked face with her arm. “I’m so happy for you two.” She stood and hugged Sophie then turned to Jake. “Are you excited?”

  Jake stern jaw twitched. “Yeah, sure! I’m already picking out baby names. We’re going to call him Buck Wild Sanders. Or Trixie if it’s a girl.”

  To mess with Jake Kathy said, “Soph, don’t twins run in your family?”

  “Awww, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Jake said while turning a light shade of green.

  “Must be a stomach bug going around,” Sophie suggested. “I was sick all morning.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jake. I was only kidding.” Kathy moved past her girlfriend to comfort the expectant father.

  “Jesus. I can stare down the enemy. Shoot and hit a target hundreds of feet away but the thought of being a father terrorizes me,” Jake told both women.

  Kathy rubbed the big guy’s back. “You’re going to be a great dad, Jake.

  Sophie raised her hands in defeat. “We aren’t going to find him like this. Kathy, where have you checked?”

  “I think we should drive to the Lion,” Jake suggested. “And where’s my damn coffee?” He clomped around the kitchen in search of it.

  Defeated Kathy followed him, “I’ve already been there.”

  “We might have to check his old stomping grounds,” Sophie told them. The emptiness in her voice confirmed it was the last thing she wanted to say, do, or think about. “Just to be sure.”

  “He wouldn’t go back there,” Jake insisted. “He just wouldn’t.”

  “Sophie’s right. We should think about checking.” Kathy’s stomach churned as her voice hitched. “This is all my fault!”

  Sophie frowned into her tea. “He’s an adult and makes his own decisions. When we find him we may not like what he’s done but we’ll need to be understanding.”

  “I’m telling you,” Jake insisted with a slam of his coffee cup. “He won’t go back to those places.”

  Before another word could be spoken Kathy’s cell phone rang. In desperation she dumped her purse on the kitchen table and sifted through the pile to find it.

  “Yes? Hello? Dave?”

  “Actually, Miss Smith, I was looking to see if you’ve seen Mr. Sanders,” Detective Owen informed her.

  “What? Why are you looking for him? What’s going on?”

  “Miss Smith, please calm down.”

  “Calm down! People need to stop telling me that! Dave’s missing and we can’t find him anywhere. You just happen to call looking for him and—”

  “There was some trouble at a downtown strip club and Mr. Sanders’s truck is here.”

  “Where?” Kathy wanted to know.

  “What the hell is going on,” Jake demanded.

  Kathy put a finger up signaling for him to give her a moment while Detective Owen continued to explain and give her an address. Her mind rushed in every direction as the fear of not knowing told her to panic. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Well?” Sophie asked.

  “There’s a strip club downtown called the Triple X—”

  “I know the one,” Jake grumbled.

  “Apparently Dave’s truck is there but he’s not. The place got robbed about a half hour ago and a bartender was shot.” But what happened to Dave? Why was his truck still there?

  “Let’s go!” Jake jumped to attention and grabbed his jacket. “Kathy, we’ll take your car. I have a spare key to Dave’s so I’ll get it out of there before somethin’ happens to it.”

  Sophie weaved a little as she stood. “Let’s go.”

  “You should stay here,” Kathy told her and Jake agreed. “You don’t look so good.”

  “I’m fine, damn it, and I’m going!”

  Kathy’s brows scrunched together at her friend’s outburst. “I’m sorry Sophie.”

  “Don’t be. I’m a little testy, that’s all.” She shrugged her jacket on and looked at Kathy. “Sorry.”

  Twenty minutes later Dave was still nowhere to be found. If he had been in the bar no one was talking. Charlie, the owner of the place, only smirked at Jake and said he hadn’t seen him. It was obvious the man was lying.

  “I don’t understand,” Kathy said to Jake. “Why wouldn’t he tell us the truth?”
r />   “Because men like that don’t know what the truth is, Kathy. They lie so much that their views of the world are warped,” Jake explained.

  Sophie looked around with a helpless frown. “Now what?”

  “Don’t know,” Kathy told her.

  “Kathy? What happened? And I want the whole story.” Jake asked as if reading her mind.

  “Oh, this big crazy mess, Jake.”

  “And?” Sophie put an arm around her friend.

  “And I might have really screwed things up by not telling him the truth right away.”

  Jake looked at the sky and let out a long, loud puff of air. “Lying is never a good thing.”

  “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell him.” Her defense sounded pathetic even to her own ears. And now she might have lost the one person who loved her completely for who she was and where she’d come from—the one person who would protect her from her family. “I’m such an idiot!” No longer able to stop herself, Kathy fell to her knees in the Triple X’s parking lot. “I can’t believe this is happening. We have to find him. What if he’s dead?” she demanded while glancing at Jake.

  The large man only fidgeted on his feet. “Don’t do that, Kathy. Come on, stop crying, get up.”

  Sophie bent down and wrapped an arm around Kathy. “He’s not dead, Kathy. And, Jake,” she said while turning a stern look his way, “be more supportive.”

  “I am!” he insisted. “Let’s go to the Lion and see if he’s there so I can choke him for making all of us worry.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes at Kathy. “Sorry, this is Jake being helpful.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Thank goodness he had strong hands to hold up his head because without them Dave feared his noggin would otherwise roll off. He’d been sipping on coffee for the past half hour after downing a few pills. His stomach wasn’t feeling that hot either—as if it had been lined with hot lead that was slowly melting into his intestines. Yeah, he was going to be real sick but first he wanted to make sure he was good and sober for it; this way he could yell at himself for being such a dumb schmuck. Dave shook his head. He could have gotten himself into some serious trouble by going to the Triple X, and then where would he be? Not only would he not have Kathy but he’d have let his family and himself down. Dave had worked too hard for too long to flush it all away.

  When Dave’s body lunged forward in a massive heave, he ran to the bathroom to purge the night’s mistakes away. As he rested his head on the seat of the bowl he found a little humor in the situation. It had been a long time since he had drunk himself sick and now he remembered why he swore to never do it again.

  Rising from the porcelain throne, Dave headed to his office for the toothbrush and paste he always kept in there.

  Toothbrush in mouth and brushing vigorously, Dave stepped out into the bar area and came to a halt. There stood his brother holding Dave’s coffee cup, Sophie telling him to calm down, Kathy who was staring at him with tears streaming down her face.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. “You’re okay.”

  Jake and Sophie turned toward him—shock, surprise, relief on their faces. Running to him, Jake picked Dave up in a bear hug, and spoke, “You son of a bitch! Do you know how worried you had Sophie? She’s been beside herself, and Kathy…” He put his brother down and glared at him. “The girl won’t stop crying and I can’t take much more of this. I don’t know what the hell happened but you two need to make this right,” Jake demanded.

  “I was only looking for a little time for myself. I really don’t see why everyone’s so freaked out.” Dave defended himself. “Geez.”

  “Don’t know why?”

  Sophie put a hand on her man’s arm. “Jake, relax.”

  “Relax? I’m going to kick his ass. First he runs off and doesn’t answer his phone. Then he leaves his truck at the Triple X without an explanation—”

  “My phone died and I didn’t have a charger with me. I had been drinking at the X but didn’t want to drive.” Dave shrugged. “So I took a cab here for some quiet.” No, he didn’t want to look at Kathy. She’d been kissing another man after she had promised to spend her life with him. Yet looking at her now, seeing the dark lines of worry streaked across her face, his heart told him there truly was more to the story than what he saw.

  “Dave.” Kathy stepped to him. “You’re okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Well, except my heart.” It might have been a crappy thing to say but Dave couldn’t help telling her the truth. He only felt half a man without her.

  As they stared at each other, Jake cleared his throat. “I’m going to call Mom and Dad—”

  “Really, guys?” Dave’s shoulders dropped. “This wasn’t that big of a deal.”

  “Well, it felt that way.” Sophie tapped Dave’s cheek with her hand. “And if you ever do this again. I’ll be the one to kick your butt.”

  “I don’t know why everyone is so mad at me. I’m not the one who was kissing someone else.” The words blurted out before he could stop them and he instantly regretted them.

  “That’s not what happened.”

  Dave shot a bland look her way. “Then you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

  “Tell me about it,” Jake griped.

  “Well I’m first.” Dave nodded his head toward the back office.

  Kathy’s agreement was quiet. “Okay.”

  He followed Kathy’s shuffling feet to the back room. “Could you hurry up, please? I’d like to get this over with.” He heard her give a slight whimper and checked his temper at the office door. There was no need to make her suffer when her own conscious was doing it for him.

  “Dave, you have to believe me I never meant for anything like this to happen.”

  “I hope not because this is a pretty messed-up situation. I thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me.”

  “I do. I just… well, you see there’s this whole thing with Todd—”

  “Obviously.” Standing before her was excruciating. Every inch of him wanted to take her in his arms. He didn’t know he could love someone so deep that forgiving this type of betrayal was bittersweet; being able to hold and love her but never trust her.

  “You don’t understand. Detective Owen wasn’t coming around to look for you, Dave, he was watching me.”

  “What?” Never in a million years would he have come up with the idea that it was her the cops were after. She didn’t have a criminal past and she sure wasn’t hiding anything he knew about.

  “My parents showing up and the stream of robberies isn’t a coincidence. Detective Owen figured it was only a matter of time until they came to find me.”

  “But why? And that still doesn’t explain why you were kissing your ex. Your parents have nothing to do with this.” Dave crossed his arms in defiance.

  Kathy sat on the office couch and buried her head in her hands. “Dave, Detective Owen asked if I’d help him trap Todd. He’s wanted in multiple states. He’s a pedophile.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “That’s not the worst of it.” She looked at him then, sad and defeated. With no choice of his own, Dave went and sat next to her.

  “Tell me,” he said while putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close to where he wanted her to be for the rest of his life—in his arms.

  “Todd also is the primary suspect in my aunt’s murder. I didn’t know she passed away a few weeks ago and left me her entire estate.”

  Silence. What words could he find to comfort this latest blow from her parents? They deceived her on so many different levels. And yet she had seen through them right from the start and had never given in to their words of love and guilt. Shame on her parents for not caring about what they’d done to their only daughter by defending a wanted pedophile.

  “What happened with Todd tonight?” Dave finally asked.

  “I was going to meet up with everyone after I had a meeting with Detective Owen. He asked if I’d be willing to set my pare
nts and Todd up.” She took a deep breath. “Despite everything they’ve done to me, it was still hard, Dave. They are my parents; not very good ones but they’re the only ones I’ve got.”

  “I’m so sorry, Kathy.” Dave wrapped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. “What you did tonight was very brave.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I didn’t know Todd had followed me there. And when he grabbed me and tried kissing me I thought, ‘This isn’t happening. Where is Owen to get this freak away from me?’ Then I saw you.” She looked up and into his eyes. Dave saw not only her fears and worries but the burning question: “Did I ruin everything between us tonight?”

  The question was a sock to the gut. All the air in his lungs rushed out of him, leaving a dizzy feeling in its place. She wanted to know if she ruined everything between them? Hell, it wasn’t her who almost did that, it was him by running away and not demanding an answer right away. “Forgive me, Kathy.”

  “What? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I didn’t fight for you when I should have. I should have walked over to that jerk and laid him out on the pavement.”

  “It’s okay. I did that after you sped off.” There was a little glint in her eyes showing how proud she was of how she’d handled her ex.

  “That’s my girl.” Unable to put off the yearning any longer, Dave cupped her chin in his hand and kissed her. “I love you so much.”

  “Oh God, Dave. I love you too. I thought I lost you and—”

  He broke her train of thought with another kiss. Words weren’t needed to heal what happened because there was nothing to forgive.

  Kathy’s body melted into his as the kiss went deeper. Everything he was, everything he’d been working for, all led up to this moment. And now that he had her, Dave was never going to let go. “Let’s run away and get married.”

  “What?” Kathy blinked at him.

  Dave cupped Kathy’s face in his hands. “This weekend, let’s take off to Vegas and get married.”

  “I… um. What about your parents and Jake and Sophie. And—”

  “Thank goodness you’re okay.” Renee came bursting into the office. “We were worried to death!”