by Laura Gibson
“If that’s what you want to believe then go right ahead.” He stepped away, heading towards the door.
“I don’t fight with you.” Anna’s voice sounded like a question, as if she were testing her own emotions against her words and her actions.
Jefferson shrugged, “I’m gonna love you till the day I die, Anna Hill. But you’re too selfish to see that. You’re too selfish to see anything.”
Anna looked away, her jaw clenched.
“You know, I really wish you were hollow inside.” Jefferson opened his front door, “Because then it would be easier to hate you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Charleston, West Virginia
August 6th, 2007
Juliet
The air conditioning had gone out in her condo and Juliet hadn’t gotten around to calling the repairman yet. She stood there in the dark of her kitchen, the ceiling fan spinning like mad over their heads, beads of sweat collecting on her brow, threatening to trickle down and paint lines on her stern face.
Juliet’s arms were crossed and her lips were pursed as she stared at the man sitting at her kitchen table holding a bag of frozen green beans to his left eye.
“You’re lucky he got a few licks in.” She was mad at him. More mad than she had ever been. Didn’t Rhett care about his future? Didn’t he know this would mean an investigation? They would look at his history and his sanity and they would look at Jane and they would see… Juliet stopped herself from that train of thought.
She wasn’t supposed to know that yet, that was still a secret. She wasn’t supposed to figure that out. Juliet sighed, it wasn’t something she had purposefully sought out. It was more like she had stumbled upon it and couldn’t look away.
Juliet gave Rhett a hard stare, could he really have been that dense the entire time they were together? He lived with her for goodness sakes! They must have talked about it at least once.
Rhett didn’t bother responding to her, he just shrugged and averted his gaze even further away from her. He was embarrassed and ashamed. Juliet shook her head, the heat making her anger stay at a boil.
“If you didn’t want to talk to me, then why’d you come over?” Juliet pushed, not letting up. Not giving Rhett the escape he wanted.
He had lost control completely that morning and nearly beat someone to death with his bare hands. Just because they took a swing at him. Just because they were just as desperate as he was to escape the life handed to them.
“I had nowhere else to go.” Rhett mumbled.
Juliet felt like she was scolding a third grader. He should have known he was bigger than the other kid. Should have exhibited some self control and acted like a reasonable adult. He was supposed to be the deciding factor on what was good and what was bad. He was the standing line for the law. He couldn’t just lose it like that.
Juliet shook her head, “This isn’t cool, Rhett, you can’t just keep doing things like this.”
“Like what?” Rhett looked at her now, those blue eyes pulled down at the corners, his beautiful half grin she had become accustomed to hidden away by the emotions weighing on his soul.
“You know what I’m talking about.” Juliet sighed.
She had told him repeatedly that she needed space to get things figured out. Space to reassess her life and put it back on track. Space from him and his rejection that still stung when she thought about it. But every time she turned around, he was there, looking like a little lost puppy, asking her to be his friend again.
Juliet knew Rhett was lonely. She knew he didn’t have anyone else, but she needed to take care of her headspace first before she could attempt to fix him. She didn’t need to jump into another relationship just to have it fizzle out months later when she figured out she only liked him for his issues.
She had told herself she wouldn’t do that this time around. Couldn’t do that. She was going to live with Beat and everything was going to be fine and she would stop with the serial dating that lead nowhere. But then Rhett happened. And he kissed her. And he told her she was beautiful. And, what’s more, when he said it, she knew he meant it, because Rhett was too honest to lie. Even to spare someone’s feelings.
So she tried. She put herself out there and he rejected her. Deep down, Juliet knew Rhett had made the right decision. She wasn’t ready for anything serious and it would be serious with him. Anything less would be wrong. He was a man with a tender heart and if the woman charged with the task of taking care of that heart didn’t treat it with delicacy she would end up shattering it.
That’s what happened with Jane.
That’s what Juliet did in all of her relationships.
That was the exact opposite of what Rhett needed, but still, he was here, holding a bag of frozen veggies against his face, looking like the entire world was falling apart around him. She sighed and relented. He needed a friend. He needed someone to be there for him when he kept mucking everything up.
Juliet bit the inside of her cheek, she needed to stop being so selfish. She could be Rhett’s friend without throwing herself at him. It was okay. She just needed to work on it. Maybe this was practice for something else later. Maybe this was just training for harder stuff yet to come. She was only twenty-five. Life wasn’t going to end here for her, she could still move forward and do something else. Rhett wasn’t the last man she would ever find attractive.
She moved forward and gently tugged the frozen green beans out of his hand, “Here, let me look at it.”
She ran a light touch across the yellow swelling, “Now, tell me again, what happened?”
“Why are you being so nice?” He asked, his voice a whisper in the darkness.
She met his gaze honestly, “Because that’s what friends do.”
Rhett smiled and she saw his shoulders relax.
They could do this. They could be friends. It would be okay.
Charleston, West Virginia
May 29th, 2008
Kelly
Kelly licked his lips and stared at Casimir, “So what do you want me to do about this DEA character? This Juliet?”
“Leave her alone for now.” Casimir nodded, gathering up the papers from one of his many folders. “Without Alice around, her case will fizzle out and die and she’ll be left with a dead end.”
“What do you mean without Alice around?” Kelly frowned, “I thought she was fine?”
Casimir narrowed his eyes and stared at the papers, and he exhaled heavily, “Kelly, Alice has done some things that can’t be forgiven, you know that.”
Kelly shook his head, “No, you know it’s not true. She wouldn’t sell us out like that. She’s smarter than that.”
“Is she?” Casimir asked, looking at Kelly, “Is she really?”
“I’m not the one who decided to drag her into this mess!” Kelly shouted at Casimir, his angry voice ripping through his throat. He had never lost his cool in front of Casimir before, but now, here Cas sat, telling Kelly that Anna had made some mistakes. But she hadn’t. Not really. She was just being Anna. They had no control over her. If Casimir had just listened to Kelly in the first place, none of this would be happening.
But Casimir just had to have everything his way. Had to be in full control the whole time.
“Listen, Jefferson will take care of it and it’ll be fine.” Casimir waved away Kelly’s outburst as if it didn’t phase him at all.
“Jefferson?” Kelly’s blood drained from his face, “You’re going to have Jefferson deal with it?”
“Kelly, he needs to learn sooner or later.” Casimir folded his arms over his chest, “And you know just as well as I do, if she talks to this Juliet again, we’re all dead in the water.”
Kelly furiously shook his head back and forth and stood up from the table, knocking his chair over and tripping over it as he tried to get away from what was happening.
“You can’t stop this, Kelly.” Casimir called after him, “You know it’s for the best. Someone has to pay here and someone has to
protect us.”
Kelly was still shaking his head back and forth as he left the house and stumbled into the driveway, taking out his phone and texting Jefferson.
‘Stay away from her, Jeff.’
Then he called Ryan for one last job. He knew Anna planned on meeting Juliet tonight at the restaurant. He would be there instead. Not because he had to protect Casimir or any of them, but because he had to save Anna.
As Kelly hung up the phone with Ryan, he noticed he had missed a call from Anna from last night. He tried to call back but was sent straight to voicemail.
After the sun had set it had begun to rain and Kelly watched as Ryan silently flipped the wipers on.
Kelly’s cigarette flared in the dark of the car as he inhaled and waited for Juliet to exit the restaurant, understanding she had been stood up by the enigmatic Alice. The rain peppered the windshield and was quickly whisked away before they could obscure anyone’s eyesight.
“This isn’t a good idea.” Ryan’s voice was almost a whisper, “Cas isn’t going to like this.”
“It’s either her or Anna.” Kelly responded, taking another drag, “You know that.”
“But what if it’s not?” Ryan was ever optimistic, “What if Cas meant something else? He never called me, he never talked to me about it.”
“Ryan.” Kelly looked at his cousin, “He was very clear this afternoon about what was going to happen to Anna.”
“And this Juliet? He didn’t talk about her either?” Ryan was frowning, he was afraid.
Kelly didn’t have time for fear. He didn’t have the room, emotionally for one, and he didn’t have the patience for the panic it tried to induce in his chest. He would swallow his fear and he would put aside his soul and he would save his sister’s life and that was that.
“You don’t have to do it.” Kelly was looking on, waiting for her to exit. Waiting for her to show herself.
“I don’t want to.” Ryan was honest with him, “Cas is going to flip shit.”
“There she is.” Kelly cracked his window and through the spent butt out while Ryan turned on the engine and pulled off down the road a little before turning his hazard lights on.
“She’ll stop right over there.” Kelly nodded a few feet down the road, “Make it look like you’re working on the car.”
Soon, Kelly could see the detective’s car coming down the road. He made a show of waving his hands to flag her down. This was it. No going back.
Ryan sighed, “Fine. I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to.” Kelly tried not to look his cousin in the eye. Damaged as he was, Ryan was still his cousin. They were still blood.
“Anna is blood. You said it’s this detective or Anna. So, I pick the detective.”
Juliet
She had waited as long as she could for Alice before finally calling it a night. She should have known the girl would stand her up. Everyone was running scared these days. Everyone had something they’d rather be hiding.
Juliet thought back to the two pictures Alice had initially handed her. The ones of Kelly Hill and Ryan Prescott.
“If you ever see these two men, run.” Alice had told her, “Don’t try to fight them, or book them or whatever, just run.”
Juliet felt for her gun as she pulled off to the side of the road, her frown highlighted by the flashing hazard lights on the car parked in front of her.
Two figures walked towards her window. One of them tapped on the glass.
She swallowed as she recognized them. She thought they were young, that’s what they had said. The wolf had pups.
But this. He was still a child. His young face still clinging to the thought of adolescence.
The figure behind him seemed to change his mind about something, through the rain Juliet could see all the blood had drained from his face. She was too focused on him and not focused on the man in front of her as she rolled down her window.
“Juliet Hilliard?” The first cleared his throat.
“Ryan Prescott?” Juliet looked at him, making out his face clearly through the rain.
She could see him think something over and the second one started shouting something.
The last thing she saw was Ryan raising his arm.
Chapter Nineteen
Phillips Academy
Charleston, West Virginia
August 28th 2007
Anna
Anna leaned her back against the cool marble of the bench and stretched her arms out to either side, waiting for him to show. She closed her eyes and felt the warm summer sun cover her face and exposed shoulders, counteracting the chill from the speckled marble.
Her usually pale skin was sun kissed this summer and her dark hair seemed to sparkle with hints of gold as it caught the light that nestled in its slight curls. Both facts that revealed she had spent a lot of time outdoors in the past few months, more so than she was likely to admit to anyone. But who wouldn’t want to be outside during a summer such as this? It was gorgeous and she was planning on soaking up as much of it as possible.
With a sigh, Anna rocked to her feet and stood. She felt the small bundle of goodies shift in her front pocket and she adjusted the belt that kept her short shorts from sliding just below hip level. Bringing her left arm across her body in a slow stretch, her dark green eyes scanned the campus. This was getting ridiculous. If they weren’t going to show up soon she was just going to leave.
Or maybe she could just find somebody else to do business with for awhile. Anna caught the eye of a younger kid across the parking lot and pushed her wavy brown locks out her face, biting her lip while she thought about the possibilities.
Anna had made a lot of money on playing it safe and she was never one to bet against a winning horse, but something about this afternoon was making her angsty. She had just turned twenty and wasn’t sure if she really wanted to play it safe anymore. What was that thing her mom always used to say? Something about never forward… Anna shook her head, refusing to think too much about her parental caregiver for longer than she had to. They didn’t have the best relationship in the entire world and she usually tried not to take the advice that was offered.
As Anna made up her mind and started to go see if she could drum up a new client, a small blonde girl came bounding over to her.
“Anna!” Melody Jeffords half shrieked as she hugged the older girl. “I didn’t think you’d be here!”
Anna felt herself stiffly pat Melody’s back and try to take a step backwards at the same time. Touching was usually off-limits for Anna. Physical acts of affection made her uncomfortable and Melody always found a way to make sure that she pushed those boundaries every time they met.
“Yeah.” Anna tried to think of a reason as to why she would be at Phillips instead of coming out with the truth.
“Are you meeting Ryan and Jefferson for lunch?” Melody asked, supplying Anna with the perfect explanation.
“I thought I would surprise them.” Anna laughed, pushing her hair back once more. “I mean, I know Kelly doesn’t go here anymore, but I thought it would be fun to see some old friends.”
“Me too!” Melody’s face was elated with the fact that the old gang was back together again. Well, sort of. Caleb, Kelly, and Connor weren’t here, so Anna couldn’t really call it too much of a reunion. Just half of the original seven.
Anna wasn’t aware that Melody was going to be back in town and she abhorred surprises, Kelly should have told her. To solidify this thought, Anna pulled out her phone and sent an angry text to her little brother.
‘Melody’s here. Hugging me.’
“Do you know if Kelly’s going to be free tonight?” Melody asked as they started to walk towards the dining hall and Anna’s hopes of selling that day faded away.
“Didn’t you call him before your plane landed?” Anna asked, feeling her phone buzz out a response from Kelly.
‘That’s weird.’
Anna made a face and slid her phone into the other pocket, apparently K
elly didn’t know about Melody’s visit either. That was odd. It wasn’t like Kelly to not be on top of every aspect of his life. He was usually more organized than that.
“No, I wanted to surprise him.” Melody beamed with her supposedly successful plan.
Anna had never really been okay with the relationship between Melody Jeffords and her brother, but Kelly had always kept Melody at an arm’s length so Anna never worried about it getting too serious. Now, she was more skeptical than ever before. What else didn’t Anna know?
Anna had never met a Jeffords that she liked. All the men seemed to be two timing over privileged white doctors and all the women were social climbing troglodytes.
When it all boiled down to it, Melody Jeffords was just another money hungry bimbo waiting to happen, and what she was doing with a Hill was beyond Anna.
Of course, people could say the same thing about Anna if they wanted to. If they never bothered to look below the surface of everything. She was a poor girl grasping at the threads of the entitled. Always had been, ever since she was born. Thus was the curse of being born from the womb of the less successful of the two Bloom sisters. She felt it and Kelly felt it, they just never decided to talk about it.
Where Kelly had taken it as a bitter pill to swallow, Anna saw it as a challenge. Sure, she wasn’t handed the happiness and the education, but she was still a Bloom somewhere and that meant something at the end of every day. She still possessed high society blood and she planned on showing it off as soon as it was allowed.
Starting early, Anna had easily assimilated into the lives of the elite, even managing to gain the upper hand by dating a senator’s son.
But it was different with the Jeffords and she knew it. They had zero class and weren’t afraid to flaunt the fact. Even the distant cousins were terrible people. ‘Bad breeding,’ her mother would say.
