Bowie stopped by on his break to sit with us. The band on stage was covering one of my all-time favorite songs by U2, “With or Without You”. Bowie hums along in my ear while I rest my head against his chest. I should be content right now. I should be happy. I should be over the moon with where my life has ended up but in this perfect moment a set of chills breaks out over my skin. That eerie feeling sneaks up my spine and wraps itself around me. I can feel someone watching me. I know it’s crazy because who would care enough to watch Bowie and me except… I move my head to look over at Vixx but she is busy looking down at her phone. I had been so certain it was her but if it’s not then who?
Shortly, after Bowie returned to work I got up, nervous energy was making me jumpy. I had to be imagining the feeling of being watched because no one was watching us. I shook my head then decided to excuse myself from the group for a minute to collect myself. I got drink orders from just about everyone to make my excuse believable. Maneuvering through the thick crowds of people turned out to be no easy task. I had almost reached the line to get drinks when I felt a hand wrap around my wrist. Chills spring to life all over my body. Trying to give the person the benefit of the doubt and believe they had accidentally grabbed my arm I try to pull free, but the grip is too tight.
I turn around and come face to face with a pair of dark beady eyes and an evil sneer on his face. He has a gold tooth on his canine, long dark hair pulled back into a low ponytail and neatly trimmed dark beard. His tan skin is marred by a scar that runs from his temple to almost his jawline. The cold sweat returns to my body. I remember him but it feels like a lifetime ago now. “Well, well it has been a long time. You’ve certainly grown up.”
I can’t speak past the lump in my throat and despite the fact that we are outside and a light breeze is swarming around us I can’t seem to pull air into my lungs. I’m completely oblivious to the world around me until I hear the voice behind me. “Everything okay here?” he asks. I wave of relief washes over me. Rex releases my wrist and tries to plant a friendly smile on his face.
“Yeah, I just thought she was someone else, a girl I used to know, but I was mistaken,” Rex says, with his accent less apparent than before. Axell steps around me clearly picking up on my unease. He sizes up Rex before clearing his throat.
“Mistaken identities happen all the time. Enjoy the concert,” he says, obviously dismissing him, however, Axell doesn’t turn around to me until Rex finally gives up and moves away from us. When Axell turns around, I don’t know what he sees in my eyes but I do know I’m lost in a memory and on the verge of a full fledged panic attack. This is why I had left to begin with. My love for Bowie brought me back but did I just put them all in danger?
It was just Alex and me in the house right now but I know we need to get out of here within an hour unless our parents are back by then but that’s doubtful. Who knows where they are? All I know is it is Wednesday night and every Wednesday night a creepy guy named Rex comes by the house to collect the money they’ve made from selling the drugs. I don’t like Rex, he makes my skin crawl.
I have sat here for a few hours while Alex does his homework hoping that my parents would be home soon but they haven’t shown up. I have no plans with Bowie tonight since he was working at the shop. As the time for Rex’s arrival climbs closer my anxiety kicks in full force. What would he do when he arrived and my parents weren’t here with his money? I doubted he was just going to let that slide. Finally, I did the last thing I wanted to do. I told Alex to pack his stuff for overnight in his worn backpack. We walked a couple of blocks to the convenience store on the corner. I used the phone to call the shop.
“This is Bowie.”
I take a deep breath and let the timber of his voice calm my raging nerves. “Bowie, I’m sorry,” my voice is thick with more emotion than I thought was there.
“Baby what’s wrong?” he asks and I can hear the worry in his voice.
I clear my throat, “I’m sorry, I know you’re working and I hate to bother you but my parents aren’t home yet and he will be here soon.” Bowie knew about Rex. He knew how I felt about the creepy guy and he also didn’t want Alex and me around him.
“I’ll be right there,” he replies quickly.
“We’ll be at the house,” I tell him before he hangs up. I’d rather stay at the convenience store but this store is gang land and to be honest I don’t know what is worse, Rex or the possible gang fight breaking out. I guess we’ll take our chances at the house. Alex and I walk back to the house, his tiny hand in mine.
Alex tugs my hand and I look down at him, “I’m hungry, Holly.”
“I know buddy but we’ll get something soon. Bowie is on his way to get us,” I tell him. I walk him back to our tiny bedroom with a piece of bread to help with his hunger. I tell him to eat that and lie down until Bowie gets here.
I pull the door then sit on our worn couch to wait for Bowie. I keep checking the time. Bowie should have been her already. I’m so anxious that when I hear the knock on the door, I don’t even think to check to see who it is. When I open the door, though I realize it’s not Bowie’s cobalt blue eyes that meet mine it’s the dark beady ones that make my skin crawl. It’s Rex. He gives me what I assume he believes to be a charming smile. “May I come in?” unsure what to do at this point I just step aside and nod. I check the time, he’s early and Bowie is late. My mouth is as dry as cotton. Rex turns back to look at me, “Are your parents’ home, Hollis? It is Hollis right?”
Again I nod, “Yes, it’s Hollis but they aren’t home. I haven’t seen them since before I left for school this morning.” My voice comes out in a whisper, a weak pathetic whisper and at this moment I hate myself. I hate that I don’t have more strength than this.
Rex makes a tsking sound from his mouth, “Well, that’s not good. You’re old enough to understand what your parents do, right?” He waits for me to answer so I just nod. “Then you also understand what I’m here for?” Again, I nod. He takes a deep breath, “What am I to do?” He assesses me from head to toe and back up again. My skin breaks out in a cold sweat, I can’t breathe, I can’t speak, I can’t even think but somewhere I know why he’s looking at me like that. “I need to collect that money from your parents tonight. Do you know where they are?” I shake my head while I bite the inside of my cheek. Rex starts to inch closer to me “Well, then I guess I’ll just have to take my payment elsewhere.”
He reaches out and runs one of his dirty, skinny fingers down the side of my face. I recoil into the wall but end up only getting myself more trapped. My fear is overriding every other emotion in me right now. Rex leans forward and places his nose into the side of my head. I cringe but he closes a hand around my neck to hold me still. I can feel the tears burning my eyes. I bite down on the side of my cheek to try to keep them from betraying me, from showing this monster how scared I really am. With his hand still around my throat, he moves his mouth to mine. When I don’t give him what he wants, he tightens his grip around my neck. I whimper and those stray tears start to leak out the corner of my eyes, betraying me. He pulls back and chuckles.
Rex really is a monster and before I can think twice about it I spit in his face and kick out with my leg. I meet his knee with my shoe-clad foot. He yelps in pain and I take off across the tiny living room in an attempt to escape to my bedroom and out the window but I don’t make it far before he hits me behind my head, knocking me into the wall, my head spins and the next thing I know I’m on the couch with his body on top of mine. My shirt is ripped, my lip is bleeding and I can’t seem to find my voice. I still find my will to fight him though, I push, I kick, and I scratch to no avail.
My muscles scream in protest as I continue to fight and just when I think all hope is gone something hits Rex from the side. He lifts his head from my chest, teeth clenched, blood oozing down the side of his face. “I’m pretty sure when a girl is fighting you that hard it means no you son of a bitch now get the fuck off her,” Bowie says
deadly quiet, his eyes boring into Rex, a lamp clenched in his hands.
Rex seems to be sizing up Bowie. Bowie is tall and lean but Rex has muscles that scare me for Bowie. Rex is off the couch in a flash charging at Bowie but Bowie is quicker. He swings the lamp and connects it with Rex’s face. Rex falls to the ground obviously dazed. I can see a gash from his temple to his jawline. Blood is streaming out of it.
Bowie keeps the lamp clenched in one fist while moving toward me. He tosses me his button-up work shirt then moves toward the bedroom door. He knocks lightly “Alex, its Bowie can you open up the door so I can take you and Hollis to my house?” The door flies open and Alex jumps into Bowie’s arms his tear-stained face tears at my heart. Bowie carries him and tries to wrap an arm around me. I mumble I’m fine even though we all know I’m not. Once I’m on the porch Bowie puts Alex down, “Wait for me in the car. I’ll be right there.” I want to protest but I don’t I just take Alex’s small hand in mine and do as I’m told.
I feel a pair of arms wrapped around me, a set of lips pressing into the side of my head and his voice near my ear asking me if “I’m okay” over and over.
“She blinked,” Axell says from in front of me.
My world starts to rebuild around me as the memory fades but no matter how fast that memory fades it can’t take away the fact that Rex is still around. Rex is still a threat and I’m pretty sure he has a score to settle with Bowie and that sends chills over my body.
Chapter 20
Bowie
It’s been a couple of days since the concert and Hollis’ freak out. I haven’t left her side but all of my family have made sure to text and check in on her. She’s going back to work today which means so am I but I did make Ace and Roscoe promise to be at the shop while she’s there. I’m worried about her. She’s not really sleeping and barely eating. The dark circles are so predominant on her face that it’s scary. I’m more worried about her now than I was when she was living with her drug-dealing parents.
I can’t help but wonder if maybe all this was too much too quickly. Maybe, us giving this another shot and getting married was too much for her. Maybe, she regrets it all and wants out but just doesn’t know how to say so. I shake my head at the last assumption because I know Hollis and I know that look in her eyes when she looks at me is love. Hollis does love me but maybe we did move too fast. I sprung all of this on her so maybe she didn’t have time to really think it through. I’m sitting on the bed putting on my shoes when she walks in, “I’m going to head to Inkredible okay?”
I nod and meet her eyes, “Yeah, be careful okay? Let me know when you get there.”
Before I know it she’s standing in front of me and has her arms wrapped around me. I wrap mine around her as well, she sighs, “I know I scared you and I know you’re worried and I’m sorry for that but I am okay, I promise.” She leans down and presses a kiss to my mouth, “I love you,” she tells me before she turns to leave. I run my fingers over my lips because that sealed the deal that something is off with her. That wasn’t a Hollis kiss. Hollis has always been so passionate, but that kiss was reserved which means something is bothering her.
I head to the auto shop because I need to catch up on work there and I’m off from the radio station today. As I walk in Axell greets me, “Hey man, how’s Hollis?”
“She says she’s okay but I know she’s not, something is bothering her,” I say, as I run a hand through my hair. Now, that I have some time to myself I can finally talk to Axell. I haven’t had a chance to find out from him what happened at the concert. He was the one that found her like that so maybe he can shed some light on the situation. “So, I need to ask you something since you were the one that found Hollis like that.”
Axell gives me a questioning look, “I didn’t find Hollis like that. I went to look for her because almost everybody wanted something brought back and I knew it’d be too much for her to carry alone. Plus, I haven’t exactly been nice to her so I thought she deserved for me to put a little effort in. When I went looking for her, I found her a few feet from the lines but this guy had her by the arm. I could see by her posture that it was unwanted so I intervened. The guy claimed he had mistaken her for someone else but I don’t know, for some reason I didn’t buy it. Also, he didn’t really seem like he wanted to leave and he kept staring at Hollis. I finally got him to leave but when I turned around to face Hollis she was stuck in that trance-like state. I just figured the best thing to do was get her away from the crowd for a moment.”
I don’t know why I had thought that Axell had found her like that. I mean Hollis refused to talk about whatever it was so I guess I just assumed that he had found her. “The guy… what did he look like?”
Axell takes a deep breath while he thinks, “Hmm… dark eyes, long dark hair that he had pulled back into a low ponytail and one gold tooth.”
“That doesn’t sound familiar to me,” I comment
Axell shrugs then raises his eyebrows, “Maybe not to you but it did to your wife.”
“I’m going to get to work if you think of anything else let me know,” I tell him.
A few hours later Axell appears under the hood of the car I’m working on, “The guy had a pretty bad scar on his face from like his temple all the way down.” I stop everything as my world slows down. I close my eyes and let out a breath. What the hell is Rex doing back in our lives? When I turn around, I throw the wrench in my hand across the floor to the wall while letting out a string of curses. “I’m guessing that was familiar.”
I nod while trying to control my temper. Why the hell didn’t Hollis tell me? “He’s a guy from her past.”
“What kind of guy?” Axell asks even though he probably already knows the answer because my whole family basically knew Hollis’ living situation back then.
“His name is Rex or at least that’s what he went by back then. He’s the guy that used to come by and collect the money her parent’s had made, the guy that tried to hurt her, the guy that I beat with the lamp then went back and threatened,” I let out a heavy sigh, “I’m the one that put that scar there.”
“Shit,” Axell mumbles.
“Yep.”
****
A little while later I’m back to working when something crosses my mind. I abandon the current car I’m working on to find Axell. He is in his office on the phone but when I come in he quickly gets off. “Remember a few weeks ago when Hollis’ truck was here,” Axell nods. “Well, it looked like it could have been messed with but I wrote it off because I couldn’t think who would want to do that but now with Rex back in the picture it makes me wonder.”
“So you think this guy has been back in her life for weeks and she didn’t say anything?”
I shake my head, “No, I think he’s been back in her life and she didn’t even know it. That night I went to tow the truck in she was scared and in a panic. She kept saying she had seen a shadow outside the shop. There was even some noise coming from the alley and we went to look at it but it turned out to be a cat or so we thought but what if it wasn’t? What if it’s been him all along?”
Axell seems to be thinking, “You know Sadie mentioned something about Hollis being jumpy and even saying something about feeling like she was being watched but we both wrote it off too.”
“Damn it! How did I miss all of this?” I tell him just as Ace enters the office but I can already tell by the look on his face that I’m not going to like whatever he has to say.
“I don’t know how or when but Hollis apparently sneaked out of the shop.”
“What?” I nearly yell. “How?”
“I don’t know but I was up front trying not to hover and be obvious that I was there to watch her. She was in her room. I figured maybe she just needed time alone but when her appointment time came and went, I got worried. So, I went back, and she was gone. I called her appointment, and she said that Hollis had called and apologized but she needed to cancel the appointment because she
was having to leave town for a while and that if she needed a tattoo before she got back that she recommended me or Roscoe,” Ace says, but with each word from his mouth my heart sinks further into my stomach.
“I need to get to the apartment,” I tell them as I pass Ace.
“I drove by there on my way here but I didn’t see her truck. I called Kynlee who called everyone else, and no one has seen or heard from her,” Ace says sounding defeated.
I’m not mad at Ace it isn’t his fault. I should have seen this coming but I had missed all the signs. I’m mad at myself, so mad that I punch the wall as I leave the office and head for my car.
As I pull up to the apartment, I know Ace was right, Hollis isn’t here. Her truck is nowhere to be seen but I take the stairs two at a time until I reach our door. I unlock it to see a very distraught Elliott. Once I reach our bedroom, I check the closet and bathroom and just as I feared most of her belongings are missing. I see the note on my pillow in her handwriting.
Bowie,
I’m sorry I had to do things this way right now. I know you might not understand or maybe you do. You have always known me better than anyone. Once upon a time that used to scare me but now it’s a comfort because I know that you’ll understand on some level. I know that you know I love you with all of my heart that you are my family and soul. It’s because of how much I love you that I can leave because I know that someday you’ll understand I did it for you, for your family, our family now. I can’t let anything happen to you or them, I’d never forgive myself. For now, this is the only way I know to try to fix things. I’ll be back that I promise but I can’t tell you when but I can tell you that I hope it’s soon. You may never forgive me for this and I understand if you don’t but I won’t have another cement slab for you to visit. This all started with me and my family and I will end it that way we can start our own family someday. I look forward to that day. I may be leaving but my heart is here with you, always.
Force of Impact (The James Brothers Series Book 3) Page 12
