Rumor's Fury (The Chosen One's Book 2)

by Harlow Brown

  "Fine, but I am bringing my friends. I don’t want to be alone with you. I don’t know you anymore and I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. Out of all of this whole shitty situation, that might hurt the worst. You were the one person that I trusted when

  my whole world fell apart. Then you crushed me just like Crosby did."

  "Whatever it takes to get you there, I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again…"

  "That ain't happening. I don’t even know if I want you anymore, Creed. Get that through your head. I don’t even know if there is an us. I don’t let strangers hold me, you should know that."

  "That cuts deep, Rumor."

  "You cut me deeper than ever before, Creed, even deeper than Crosby and his stunt. I don’t want to hear how you are upset because you can’t hold me in your arms and play house again. Fuck that. Do you know how many nights I sat up crying for you? Just wishing I could hold you in my arms one more time? No, you don’t, because you fucking left me. You are lucky I am meeting you at all. Do you remember what I always said? How if there wasn’t trust, there was nothing. Well, we have nothing. I don’t trust you anymore."

  "I am the same person, Rumor. You gotta believe that."

  "Wrong, Creed. I ain’t got to do shit. I do what I want. If you wanted a say in that you shouldn’t have bailed two years ago."

  "I'm sorry, Rumor. Please meet me at the diner."

  "Whiskey, Charlie, and I will be there in thirty minutes. Don't be late. I am, quite frankly, tired of waiting on you."

  "I deserved that."

  "I know. That’s why I said it. Bye Creed."

  I hung up the phone and looked at my friends. The look of anger in Whiskey's eyes was overwhelming, and the sheer loathing Charlie had at the moment was evident.

  "He used to be a good guy, y'all. I just don’t know what happened.

  "It doesn't matter. We will go and see him and see what he has to say. If you don’t like what he says, then we leave. If at any time during this meeting you feel off or awkward, just let me know and I will gladly make him leave. You are with me now and you don’t have to do a damn thing if you don’t want. Remember that. He is on your terms right now. Stand your ground and don’t give in."

  "Let's go get this chaos started." I stopped and looked at Whiskey. He towered over Charlie, he exuded protection and love at the same time. I needed that. I needed to be wanted like that, loved like that. Creed used to be that guy for me, but then he took my heart wherever the hell he went and left a gaping hole in my chest. Fury had started to fill it and I liked that feeling. I liked him. I missed him. I missed him differently than I ever missed Creed.

  We got into Charlie's 4Runner and headed across town to the diner. I sat quietly in the back. I retraced my last thought of Fury. I missed him differently than I did Creed. How is that possible? I had know him for days. I had known Creed for years. I wanted to hear Fury's voice again and find out when he was coming to see me.

  As we pulled in to the parking lot, I looked for Creed’s old truck and didn’t see any sign of it. I took a deep, calming breath to settle my nerves and closed my eyes and said, "Let's do this."

  Upon entering, we were greeted by the waitstaff. We said we were meeting a guy and she pointed to the farthest booth in the corner. My eyes followed her finger in slow motion. My eyes traveled from her fingertip, passing over everyone else in the diner, they were just a blur of color and muddled voices, and there he was. My eyes went straight to the guy that used to hold my life in his hands, sitting in the booth in all of his sexy glory, looking just as good as he ever did. Clearly, I overlooked the truck. He gave me a sweet smile and headed to me.

  Whiskey stepped in front of me and Creed stopped immediately. "No, go back to your booth and we will meet there. Don’t even think about a great reunion in the middle of the diner. You have some explaining to do." Orders fell from his mouth as he crossed his big muscled up arms across his chest, sure to show his Chosen Legion patch.

  Creed looked around Whiskey and expected me to correct him, which I did not. "Let's get to the table. This is weird here in the middle of the resteraunt." I said.

  We walked to the table, Whiskey leading the way as Charlie held my hand for support. She squeezed my hand and said so softly, "If you want to leave just say the word and I will go get the 4Runner and meet you at the door. The ball is in your court."

  "Thanks. I owe you."

  "Rumor, you look, wow, you look amazing. I don’t know what else to say."

  "Let's start by ordering dinner." I said, totally avoiding his comment.

  He patted the seat next to him. I stared in disbelief. He seriously can’t think that I am going to get at arms length does he? No, I don’t want him touching me. I'm afraid of what it will feel like. Would I miss it and welcome it back? I didn’t want to give it a chance. Would it feel as good and warm as Fury's?

  "l'll sit over here with them, thanks."

  Creed's eyes sank like I had burst his bubble. I suppose he thought I was kidding and I would run hopelessly in love back to him. "Don’t be delusional, Creed. I said I didn't trust you. That means I don’t trust you to sit beside me. I don’t trust that you will respect my space."

  "Of course, I would. Why wouldn’t I? I'm not a monster or some random stranger, Rumor. It's me, the same Creed you fell in love with a few years back."

  "See, that's where you are wrong. My Creed wouldn't have left me without an explanation because he knew what kind of heartbreak I had been through. No, my Creed isn't here. I don’t know where he is, or if he is coming back. I've wondered where he is for the last two years."

  "Ouch. I guess you deserve an explanation. I just don’t know that I can be as forthcoming as you wish."

  "Then I don’t know if there is a point to being here. I promise you one thing. I will know all about your two year hiatus. You will tell me every detail, I deserve nothing less. Even then, Creed, I don’t know if there is a chance that what we had can survive this. Start talking or I walk."

  "I had to leave." he paused.

  "Right. I've gathered. But why? Why did you feel it was more important to leave and break my heart again? What was so important that you had to destroy me?"

  "I," he paused again. "I got in with an agency that protects people."

  "What in the hell are you talking about? Protects them from what?"

  "People that are going to kill them. I am now a U.S. Marshall. I had to leave to help people escape certain death. I help criminals that provide damning information against other criminals live normal lives again."

  "Since when are you all up in the law?"

  "I have always been intrigued by witness protection. I got offered a job in Witness Protection, WITSEC, but I had to go away for training, and no one could know. I wanted to call you and let you know I was okay. I had the phone in my hands several times, but it’s against the rules. I couldn’t risk it."

  "Rumor, are you okay?" Whiskey asked.

  I nodded as I tried to think of my next move. Thoughts were whizzing around in my head like…I don’t know, but something damn fast. The only thing I could say came out of my mouth as vicious as venom.

  "You abandoned me for two years so you could play cops and robbers? Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The tone of my voice was getting higher pitched.

  "What I do is help save people from serious situations that are sure to end terribly. These are people who are trying to turn over a new leaf, not ones that are sorry they got caught and will repeatedly offend. I'm not out to harbor snitches. I want to help legit people that realized they screwed up and are trying to right some wrongs."

  All of this new information was like a punching bag coming back and smacking me in the face, and I felt disoriented and confused. I was here seeing stars and feeling light headed. I put my head in my hands and started to cry. Tears of confusion, anger, and sorrow all came from my eyes. I looked up at him and just let them fall. His face sank, and I could tell that he felt terrible.
He seemed sincere when he apologized, but I could not bring myself to forgive him.

  "You did this to me," I sniffled. "After all I had been through, you broke me worse than I have ever been broken before. I don’t know that I can even look at you. Creed, I don’t know what to say or what to think. What I do know is you should know what you’ve done to me. You should also know that I just, this past week, came to terms that you weren't coming back. I found a guy that I can be myself with and that really understands me. He has been through some fucked up shit, too."

  "What are you saying, Rumor?"

  "I'm saying there is someone else."

  Confusion, anger, resentment, heartache, and sorrow all consumed his face.

  "I don’t understand."

  "I met someone else and we are starting a relationship. Or we were, until I had to come home abruptly. Then here you come waltzing back in to my life, and now I have two men to deal with. I haven’t had a man in years and now all of a sudden there are two."

  "You didn’t wait for me?"

  "Of course, I did. Then you never showed up. I am too young to put my life on hold indefinitely. I waited for you for two years. Two years. I finally decided to start living again. I was lonely and I needed someone, and so did he. We were good together."

  Whiskey looked at me as I revealed secrets from the last few days. I shrugged and blew him off. Clearly, he was caught off guard, but not as much as Creed.

  "I…I don’t know what to say. I really thought we had something special; something that could stand the test of time."

  "We did until I was left to wonder when and if you were ever coming home, how long you would be gone, and what you were doing. My Creed wouldn’t have left me like that. The cops were the worst. Always blaming me for your disappearance."

  "They were checking on you." He revealed.

  "What? You couldn’t have had someone follow me, or have them just drop in and offer to provide extra patrol so I felt safer, or hell, even say they are here if I needed them? You had them badger me repeatedly and pour salt in a wound that was so deep you could see my heart. For the record, it was broken, not that you care. Did they not tell you how I cried every single time they came and accused me of something I am incapable of?”

  "That’s how I knew you were okay. I had them go in and interrogate you, and then they got back to me. Hindsight, it was the wrong way to do it. I’m sorry. Who is the other guy?"

  "He isn't here, so it doesn’t matter. If you must know, his name is Fury. He is in Panama City Beach."

  "He rides with me, he's my brother." Whiskey said with a boom.

  "You are with a club now? Wait, Charlie, who is this and where is Hensley?"

  "Hensley was a terrible person, and I haven't seen him for a few weeks now. This is my husband. Whiskey."

  "Husband?"

  "When it's right, it's right, and you just know it."

  "Tell her that. It was right for so long. Now it isn't."

  "Again, Creed. Not my fault. I refuse to feel guilty anymore. I did for two years. I waited and longed for you for two fucking years and you never showed up. What was I supposed to think? Was I supposed to hold on to some false hope that you were out there and would come back to me someday? I was lonely and confused. I did the waiting thing. I did it for too long. You shouldn’t have asked that out of me. That isn't fair."

  I took a breath before I said something that I never imagined I would say to the man who had my whole heart a couple of years ago. "If you were the one for me, you would’ve told me you were at least interested in the WITSEC program, or that you were interested in being a marshall. As it turns out, I knew nothing and that makes me question our whole relationship." I turned to look at Charlie and nodded that I was done. She got up and went to get the car, and left me and Whiskey there with Creed. I needed to get out of here. I couldn’t handle anymore of this chaos. "Creed, I’m sorry that I can't just open my arms to you, but I am not sorry about meeting Fury. You should have came back two weeks sooner."

  "Are you serious with him? Did you…"

  "That is none of your business, and I’m not sure what we are. We were going to find out and try a long distance thing."

  "I have a right to know. You are my fiancé, damn it."

  "Was. I was your fiancé until you left me with no notice or no warning. I have nothing else to say to you Creed. Except, you caused of all this. I was so happy with you. Couldn’t wait to marry you, have your children and grow old with you, and then you just weren't there."

  "We can have that again, Rumor. Please, let me back in. I never really left you."

  "You're wrong. You did leave me. And when you did, you killed my soul. I’m just now finding out who I am without you. I stopped living when you left. If it weren't for the Regulators, I'd have become a recluse. Goodbye, Creed. If you need a place to stay you can stay at the house. I won't be there. I can't go back," I said as I nodded at Whiskey that I was ready to leave. He got up, walked in front of me, and I followed him out the door. I turned around and looked at the man that used to be my forever. Pain and anguish of my revelations were clearly etched on his face. My heart broke for him, and for me. Seeing him again was harder than I imagined, however, it was easier, too. I never dreamed I could see him again and not go running back to him. I gave him a sad smile as a tear fell down my cheek. I lowered my head toward the door and followed Whiskey out to the 4Runner.

  "Rumor?" Charlie asked.

  All I could do was silently cry. The tears streaming down my face made it all too real. I hoped it was a bad dream. That my life wasn’t nearly this complicated, but the tears reminded me otherwise. There were no sobs, no shoulder shuddering cries, only silent tears as I stared out the window.

  "Whiskey, what do you want to do?" Charlie asked.

  "I'll call Briar and have him keep an eye out for him around town. See if he hears or sees anything suspicious. I will call Fury let him know, too. He needs to be clued in on what his girl is dealing with."

  I hear the beeps of keys on a phone being dialed followed by, "Fury, this is Whiskey. How are things on the beachfront? Shit. I hoped things would die down some. Damn cops sniffing around. Did you get all the equipment disassembled and disposed of? Good. Hey, I don’t really know how to say this delicately, so I won't try. Rumor saw someone tonight and she needs you."

  There was a brief pause in the conversation, and the air in the car stalled.

  "Yeah, it was her ex, Creed. He is back and he wants her. She told him you two were trying this long distance thing for a while and that she had moved on, but she needs you. Can you get Mag or Chief to cover? You need to get here if you are going to make this work."

  I wish I could hear what was being said on the other end of the phone. Curiosity was getting the best of me.

  "No he wasn’t threatening her, just told her there still a chance for them, he never really left her, and a bunch of other shit. Something about him being a marshall now and working for WITSEC, some witness protection organization. He left because he had to go under cover or some dumb shit. It didn’t all make sense to me."

  Another pause from Whiskey gave my mind time to wonder what Fury was thinking. He has to be thinking that my life is one seriously fucked up three ring circus and that he wants no part of me. That’s what any sane person would do. I tuned them out at that point and mentally checked out til’ we got back to Acres.

  "Guys, thanks for going with me. I don’t know what I would have done if I would have gone alone. Would it be too rude of me to go lay down? I need to think about this whole thing and I need to be alone."

  "Sure, Rumor. Whatever you need. Make yourself at home. We will see you in the morning."

  I went upstairs and changed into my night clothes. Memories of my nights on the beach came rushing back as I fell to bed, lost in my memories. Soon enough I was taken back to the warm night breezes of the ocean and nights of conversation with Fury, if only in my dreams.

  Chapter 15

  Fu
ry

  HER EX IS NOW working for WITSEC. I let that rattle around in my head for a while. As I mulled it over, I began questioning everything, but mainly whether or not to go to her. He would surely be snooping around, and find me out.

  "Yo, Mag." I yelled as I came into the living area. "What else is there to do as far as getting the stills disassembled and mash out? Everything out of the basement?"

  "I think we are good dude. You just need to get your shit to my house," Magnum said, as if he were put out.

  I had all of my things, clothes pretty much, a few knickknacks I had acquired, all loaded in a bag. I had placed my prized picture of Daisy in my cut pocket. With the threat of a fire, I couldn’t afford for it to be out of my possession.

  "What's wrong with you?"

  "He is hangry and tired of moving shit," Shooter piped up.

  "I've been doing this for what seems like days now. I'm tired and want to get the hell out of here for a while. I want food and sleep, in that order. Pronto.”

  "Okay, princess, let’s get you some food before you go postal on us. I'll go get Chief and tell him that we are going to get some grub and see if he wants to come." Shooter said sarcastically as he curtsied to Mag for added theatrics.

  "Mag, I have to get to Rudy soon. I gotta see her. There’s some shit that is going down. Whiskey called me earlier. I need this shit to be handled here first though. We are done with clean up, yeah?"

  "Fuck, we better be."

  We went outside and waited on Shooter and Riddick.

  "I guess Chief ain't coming?" I asked.

  "Nah, he said he was good here. He wasn’t hungry. Let's just go so we can get back."

  We rode out to Flapjacks, our usual hangout. Mag ordered his food before he even sat down at the booth. The waitress jotted down our usual and left to go put it in the kitchen.

  "So, I am thinking of heading to Rudy for a little while. Rumor is in a little bit of a situation and I want to go help her. Whiskey called and said that it would be a good idea for me to get there if I could."

  "Everything okay, boss?" Shooter asked with a sincerity to his voice.