“I’ll get us some drinks,” Cole said as we all stood towards the back of the room. The music was so loud that I knew it was going to be hard to have any conversation in here. Luke looked really into the music though, so I imagine he wanted to stay. And Sam looked really into Luke, so that pretty much confirmed we’d be staying here for the night.
Cole brought back two beers for him and Luke, a cranberry vodka for Sam, and my usual cherry Sprite. I appreciated that he never made a big deal out of the fact that I didn’t drink. We didn’t even talk about it, but after everything I’d told him about Ian, I figured he respected my reasoning for it. He looked around the room, taking everyone in. He had a suspicious expression on his face, but then again, he had that same look at Local Joe’s. It’s like he was forever assessing every person in the room.
The current band ended and another one came on stage to set up their equipment.
“These are my buddies,” Luke said with a grin. “Do you want to move closer?” Sam happily nodded and he grabbed her hand and they moved towards the front of the stage.
“Do you mind if we hang back here?” Cole asked politely.
“I would prefer it,” I said honestly. The music just playing was loud and crappy, and I wasn’t overly optimistic for the next band. I had no desire to be closer to it with sweaty drunk guys all up against me. I imaged Cole would be happier that way as well. While the music was on hiatus, I took advantage of the quiet and made conversation with Cole.
“I have an idea,” I said suggestively.
“And if you keep that look on your face while you ask me, I will say yes, to whatever it is,” he replied with a smirk.
“Well you already stayed at my place last night. Can we stay at yours tonight? I mean, assuming you weren’t planning on just dropping me off at home alone,” I said with a sexy grin.
“I definitely wasn’t planning to drop you off alone tonight,” he answered, wrapping an arm around my waist. “But why would you want to stay at my place? It’s not nearly as nice as yours.”
“I don’t care how nice it is,” I stated honestly. “I just want to see it. I want to see your world. I want to know where you stay.”
“It’s that important to you?”
“Yes. If we’re going to be together, I want to know everything about you,” I said sincerely.
He smiled down at me, shaking his head. “You are so hard to say no to.” He kissed me slowly and then pulled back, still keeping a hand on my face. “Do we have to do it tonight? I feel like I just need more time. I have to know it won’t change your mind about me. It’s just where I live, it’s not who I am.”
It was sad to me that he thought I would become uninterested in him over what his house looked like. Surely he knew deep down that I wasn’t that shallow. I didn’t care about houses or motorcycles or things. I cared about him. That was it.
Loud music started up and our conversation was cut short. I could tell he wasn’t ready to bring me into his world just yet. He didn’t even want me going to bars near where he lived, so I suppose it made sense he wasn’t eager to show me where he stayed.
This next band instantly sounded better than the last one, and I wondered why Luke wasn’t playing with these guys instead if they were friends of his. They sounded much more in tune with each other.
As the band played, I noticed a group of three guys walking towards Cole and I. They looked like they recognized him, but they didn’t look happy to see him. Cole must’ve noticed them at the same time I did. He reached down for my hand and squeezed it.
“Where’s your old man tonight?” a stocky guy with a shaved head said above the music towards Cole as he approached.
“Not here,” Cole responded curtly. “I have no business with you.”
“Well I have plenty of unfinished business with you,” he sneered. “Let’s head outside. Now.”
CHAPTER 11
Cole looked down at me and I couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t look worried like I would expect – but he definitely looked irritated. I imagined I was in the way at this point, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried to find Sam and Luke in the crowd by the stage, but there were so many people that I couldn’t make them out.
“I’m not looking for any trouble tonight,” Cole said straightforwardly.
“I can see that,” the bald guy said with a low whistle, looking me up and down.
“Tommy, leave her out of this, I swear,” Cole said sternly.
“I can’t even imagine the sweet lies you have to tell in order to get a girl like this to run around with a lowlife like you,” Tommy replied.
“Leave my girl out of this,” Cole said again, gritting his teeth. “Walk away or I swear you will regret this.”
“Does he talk tough like that to you in bed too, sweetheart?” Tommy snickered. The words were barely out of his mouth before Cole raised up a strong arm and clocked him in the face. I think I screamed.
Tommy continued to come at Cole, but Cole’s unrelenting blows quickly sent him to the ground. Blood poured out of his face. The two other guys with Tommy joined in, one hitting Cole in the face and the other trying to pull Cole off of the bloody man on the ground.
“Cole, stop!” I shrieked. Tommy looked unresponsive, but Cole continued hitting hm. “Cole! Enough! Stop!”
The music kept screaming from the stage, as if this horrible bloody mess wasn’t happening. Most eyes were oblivious to what was going on, although a few people were watching once they heard all of the commotion. Finally two large security guys from the bar came over and tried to break it up. Fists were still flying everywhere and I backed up as far as I could, not knowing where else to go. All I knew is that I so desperately wanted out of that room, but there were too many people. I felt like I was suffocating.
One of the security guys finally got Cole off of Tommy, and there was so much blood. Cole had blood on his face and all over his hands, and even some on his light blue t-shirt. Tears started pouring down my eyes, even though I couldn’t get a handle on how I truly felt at the moment. The whole scene terrified me – the fists, the blood, the look in Cole’s eyes.
My whole body felt like it was trembling as Cole was shoved outside of the bar. Tommy still laid on the ground and I heard people screaming to call 911. I stood against the wall, covering my mouth, hoping everything I just witnessed wasn’t true.
Some guy in black clothes came and grabbed my arm, leading me towards the front of the bar. “You need to get out of here or he won’t leave,” the stranger said loudly into my ear. The band was still playing and I just wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to scream until someone carried me out of here – until I was tucked under the covers of my own, warm bed. Alone.
The guy physically escorted me to the front and shoved me outside where Cole was pacing. “We have to go,” he said in a firm voice.
“What the hell was that?” I hissed. “He didn’t even do anything to you. You kept hitting him and he wasn’t even fighting back. There was so much blood everywhere,” I rambled, unsure how to compose myself. My hands were shaking so bad.
“I’m serious, we have about ninety seconds before the cops show up,” he urged. He still had so much anger in his eyes, I swear I barely recognized him.
“I don’t want to go with you,” I said through my tears. I wanted to leave, that was true. These surroundings couldn’t have felt more foreign to me. But the look in Cole’s eyes, and the amount of blood all over him – I was petrified. I felt like I couldn’t move.
“Syd, you have to,” he said sternly. “I swear I’m going to carry you out of here if you don’t start walking, the cops are coming!”
“Probably because you just beat the shit out of some guy who didn’t lay a hand on you,” I sneered. “What was that? This is not okay, Cole.”
He flexed his arms into fists and I could see the frustration rise in his eyes. “You can lecture me about this anywhere else,” he said through gritted teeth, “but not here. We
have to go.” He picked me up in his strong arms, and I could feel the blood on him rubbing onto my bare skin. Tears continued to pour out of me.
“Put me down,” I sobbed, “I don’t want to go with you.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” he replied firmly. “If you refuse to come with me, I will get arrested and thrown in jail before I drive away without you in my truck. I refuse to leave you here.”
I wanted to continue arguing with him but he carried me to his truck anyway and I knew it was a conversation I would lose. He seemed to do whatever he wanted to anyway.
Sure enough, I could hear sirens in the distance. There was no doubt in my mind they were headed this way. Cole quickly opened the door of his truck and set me down on the seat, hurrying over to the driver’s side. He climbed in and started up the engine so fast, we were peeling out of the bar parking lot before I could even get my seatbelt on.
I had no idea where he was headed, but it sure wasn’t towards the downtown lights of Mountain Ridge. I sat next to him, crying, unable to speak. He drove for three or four minutes up a dirt road, nestled back into the trees, then finally pulled over and parked the truck.
“Sydney,” he began, running his fingers through his light brown hair, looking frustrated.
“Don’t Cole,” I said angrily through my tears. “I just want to go home.”
“You can stay at my place tonight,” he replied softly, as if him giving in on that made up for everything that just happened.
“I don’t want to. I want to go home,” I repeated.
“I thought you really wanted to stay with me?” he said quietly.
“Cole, you’re covered in blood. That doesn’t seem like a problem to you?” I said a little too loudly. I hated the way he made me feel like I was being irrational.
“That guy, he…”
“I don’t want to hear about it,” I cut him off, throwing up my hands and shaking my head. “I told you I wanted to know everything about you, I know that. But I don’t. I don’t want to know anything else about you.” More tears poured out and I knew I wasn’t going to get any stronger throughout this conversation. “Look at your fists. Do you realize what they just did?”
He looked down at his swollen, bloody fists. Both of them looked twice the size. The cut on his forearm, the one from the night we met – it was opened back up, and blood poured out. His left cheek was also red and beginning to swell. “Syd, he’s not a good guy,” Cole began, as if such simple words could erase anything that just happened.
“And you are?” I asked unsympathetically.
“No,” he said quietly. “But I never told you I was.”
“I want to go home,” I said again, wishing I could just close my eyes and be somewhere else. “Please take me home.”
He stared into my wet eyes and the look on his face broke me. His eyes looked like I imaged they did as a twelve year old boy, when he realized no one was coming for him. He looked hurt and abandoned, like he just realized yet again that he had no one on his side.
“I’m sorry Syd, I really am. But please don’t look at me like that,” he begged, resting his arm on the steering wheel.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re afraid of me,” he said softly.
“Well I am,” I whispered as the tears continued. It was the truth. What I saw in him tonight – all that anger and rage he couldn’t seem to hold back – I didn’t know that was inside of him. It was truly terrifying.
“I would never hurt you, you have to believe that,” he pled, keeping his eyes on mine.
I leaned my head back and shut my eyes, unable to stare into his anymore – all the possibility I saw in them before was now gone.
“You already have,” I whispered.
CHAPTER 12
I thought I would struggle to fall asleep, or worse, I feared I would toss and turn all night from bad dreams of what happened at the bar. Instead, I awoke around nine a.m., feeling somewhat refreshed, even though my eyes were still swollen from all the crying the night before.
Cole dropped me off after our conversation in his truck last night, and I didn’t say another word to him. He told me he wasn’t leaving me as I got out of the truck, but he didn’t make a move to get out and follow me either, which I was thankful for. I came in, took a long shower to get the blood off my arms, and that was it. Sleep came easy after that.
I immediately called Sam before climbing out of my bed, eager to make sure she was okay. If we had been at the bar alone, just the two of us, I never would’ve left her, not under even the worst of circumstances. But since she was with Luke, I figured she would at least make it home safely.
“Hey, what happened to you guys last night?” she answered, sounding way too happy for my somber mood.
“You really don’t know?” I asked wearily.
“No. Syd, are you okay?” her concerned voice replied. I heard a male voice in the background, and I could hear her whisper something about giving her a minute.
“Are you with Luke?” I questioned.
“Yeah,” she said happily. “When we realized you ditched us, we had to get a ride from one of his friends. I assumed that was your way of encouraging me to stay with him,” she explained with slight giggle. “I’m still at his place. What’s up?”
I choked back the tears, hoping not to shed a single one about this today. “I just, well, I want to talk,” I said hesitantly, not even sure where to begin. “What are you doing later?”
“Hanging with you,” she said warmly. She was truly the best kind of friend. “What time? Do you want to catch a volleyball game at the beach or just go somewhere to chat?”
“Yeah, later,” I agreed, wanting to give her plenty of time to enjoy her morning. My problems could wait. After all, I guess I really didn’t have a problem anymore. Cole dropped me off and left, so maybe that would be the end of it. I think he finally realized how mad I was.
We made vague plans to hang out sometime that afternoon for a little beach time and some grub. She was going to call me later whenever she parted from Luke. We worked together at the clinic tomorrow, so I knew we would have plenty of time to talk about it then, but a beach day and some food with my best friend after the traumatizing night I had, it was so needed. I wondered if she would even be able to sympathize with me though considering how love-struck she sounded.
I didn’t plan to have a productive morning at all. I stretched, worked on some commands with Dexter, trying to ignore the fact that it was my last day with him, and made some eggs for a late breakfast. Finally around ten I decided to head out for a walk to clear my head.
I threw on some shorts and a tank top and opened my front door. My heart stopped as I realized there was someone sitting on my steps, leaning up against my house. He appeared to be sleeping.
“Cole?” I questioned, causing him to stir. “What are you doing?”
“I told you I wouldn’t leave you,” he replied directly, trying to stand up. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before and his hands and arms were still caked in blood.
“You’re a mess. Why didn’t you go home?”
“Because I’ve never said anything to you that I didn’t mean,” he said candidly, wincing in pain as his muscles moved. “I know you were pissed at me last night, and now that I’ve had twelve hours to think about it, I’m understanding it a little better.”
I didn’t want to smile at him, I swear. But his words were so sincere that I couldn’t help it. And the fact that he spent the entire night and half the morning on my steps as he was, I knew that meant something. He was really trying.
“Cole, I just…” I hesitated, unsure of what to say. I didn’t rehearse this conversation beforehand, because honestly, I wasn’t sure I would even be speaking to him again.
“I know I’m not good enough for you, Syd. I’ve known that from the moment I saw you. But you make me want to try so hard to be that for you.”
I stared at him as he spoke, and my heart hurt.
I believed his words. I really did. Not because the way he said them, or how he phrased them. But the look in his eyes as he said it, that mattered. He had to be the only man in the world who could look so gentle and honest while covered in someone else’s blood. I wanted to be mad at him. I was so fearful of him just hours earlier, but the way he looked at me – there was nothing to fear in his expression.
“You told me last night that I hurt you,” he continued. “That crushed me.” His eyes looked so sincere. “Please don’t give up on me.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” I said truthfully, trying to hold back some emotion in my voice. “Everything that happened last night, it was terrifying. I didn’t even recognize you.” Despite my best efforts, a slow tear fell down my cheek. “You really scared me last night.”
“Syd, please don’t cry. I hate this. I never want to be the reason you feel like this.”
“Me either,” I said quietly. I didn’t mean it to be hurtful, I was just being honest.
“There’s so much I want to tell you,” he replied with such sincerity. “I’m not making any excuses for what I did, I know it was horrible. But there’s so much more to the story. You have to trust that you are safe with me. I would never hurt you. You are as safe as you’ll possibly ever be with me. I would never let anything bad happen to you. I’m sorry you were scared, I really am. But you have to know I will stop at nothing to protect you. You have nothing to be scared of.”
“Cole, I don’t see violence the same way as you do. That was really awful under any circumstances. The way you lost control like that – you were hitting him and he wasn’t even moving.”
“I know,” he replied somberly. I could hear the regret in his voice. “When I get like that, it’s like I’m outside of my own body. It’s like I can’t control what’s happening.”
“When you get like that? How often does this happen? How are you not in jail?”
“I’ve been in jail before,” he said hesitantly. “I’m not going to tell you this is the first fight I’ve ever been in. But there’s so much more to tell you.”
The Falling Kind Page 12
