“Can I kick her ass now, Thad?” I see someone say. “Or maybe I should just kick yours.”
My body bounces off the bed along with Mal’s as she screams to be let go. Then I think I see Julian say, “you’ll have to wait in fucking line,” right before I see red wormhole trails before my eyes. And then . . . nothing.
Chapter Thirty
Mallory
The sun set long ago and my behind hurts from sitting on the hard wooden planks for hours. Every time I think there aren’t any more tears for me to cry, I picture Chad underneath her in our bedroom—on our bed—and the waterworks start all over again. I’ve gone over it a thousand times. Why would he do that to me?
There’s only one explanation and it breaks my heart almost as much as the fact that he cheated on me. Cocaine. He’s told me before the addiction is still there. The draw is still strong. I guess he wasn’t strong enough to resist it after all.
The thing is, I know he hates her. He would have never been with Heather if he hadn’t gotten high. But it really doesn’t matter anymore. Even if he wouldn’t have been with Heather, I would still have left him. And he knows it. Yet he still did it. Stupid bastard.
He promised.
“There you are. Jesus,” I hear someone say behind me, following an exasperated sigh. I close my eyes, squeezing more tears out. I don’t want to see anyone. Not even my best friend.
Julian climbs the rest of the way into the treehouse and sits down next to me. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere, Mallory. Everyone has been worried about you. Chad was right. He knew you’d be here.”
I shake my head in anger. “Don’t, Julian. Don’t even say his name.”
“It’s not what you think, Mal. It’s not even close. You ran out so fast,” he says. “Shit hit the fan after you left. In more ways than one.” He holds up his hand for me to see, using his phone to illuminate the inside of the treehouse.
His hand looks bruised and swollen and I’m hoping the stupid bastard’s face looks a sight worse. The last thing I remember—other than Chad’s hands all over Heather—is Paul asking us to come quickly and then Julian and Hayden rushing past me into the bedroom.
I look at Julian like he’s crazy. “Not what I think? It’s obvious to me what happened, Julian. They had their shirts off.” My throat stings and my heart hurts as I say the painful words. “He . . . He was touching her. They were both high, I’m sure. If that’s what he wants, fine. She can have him. I don’t want him anymore. Not after that.”
But the thing is, that’s all a lie. Even though he’s betrayed me in the worst way, I keep hoping it’s all just a terrible joke. Some big misunderstanding. Because I do want him. I love him. I’ll never love anyone but him. And I’ll never be the same without him. But that’s exactly what I am now—without him. And there is no way it can ever be any different. I won’t take him back. Not ever. Not after what he did.
“I know that’s what it looked like, but Mallory, I need you to listen to me. I need you to hear what I’m telling you. Chad didn’t use cocaine. He didn’t cheat on you.”
I scoff at him. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that wasn’t Chad. Does he have some evil twin I don’t know about? Because that would be the only explanation that would even come close to making any of this okay.”
Please, oh please, let him have an evil twin.
“The whole night was orchestrated so you’d walk in on them, Mal.”
“What? What do you mean?” I shake my head and then look up through the hole in the ceiling, catching a sliver of the moon. “It doesn’t matter if I was meant to see it or not, the fact is it happened.”
“Look at me, Mallory. Listen.” He cups my chin and moves my head towards him so I have no choice but to watch his face as he speaks to me. “His dickhead manager set it all up. He didn’t want you two together. And he wanted Chad to do the movie he kept turning down. So they came up with a plan. Heather drugged him. It wasn’t cocaine, although it looked like she tried to get him to do that, too. She put PCP in his drink. Angel dust. Kyle said it’s a quick-acting hallucinogen that loosens you up and makes you feel invincible.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “How do you know all this? How can you be sure Chad isn’t trying to cover up his actions by blaming everyone else?”
“Lila told us,” he says. “She was beside herself after everything went down. She just thought they were there to convince Chad to do the movie. It was her job to distract you so Heather and Paul could corner him and talk him into it.”
I blow out a deep breath. “The tour of the apartment,” I say, remembering how Lila seemed overly interested in everything I showed her.
I nod. “Yup. Lila had no idea about the drugs. Or at least that’s what she told us before the police came.”
I snap my eyes to him. “The police?”
“After I punched Chad, I realized he would never do that to you, Mal. He loves you more than I’ve ever seen a man love a woman. And then it all started to make sense. I mean, why would Paul tell you that you were needed in the bedroom? And why would he call the rest of us along? So I pinned Paul against the wall until he cried Uncle. He said he had no idea she was going to drug him. But at the time, nobody had said anything about Chad being drugged. Then Ana dumped Heather’s purse on the floor and saw a tiny non-descript bottle of liquid along with a bag of cocaine. We asked her what was in the bottle. She wouldn’t say, but she insisted Chad took it willingly. That’s when we called the cops. I stayed at your place while Kyle and an officer took Chad to the hospital. A urine test confirmed the presence of PCP.”
I gasp. “Oh my God!”
“They tested his blood, too. Nothing else was found in his system, not cocaine—nothing. Paul, Lila, and Heather were all taken for questioning, but Heather was the only one arrested. She’s been charged with possession, not to mention assault and battery.”
My hand comes up to cover my mouth, trying, but failing to hold in the cries that pour out of me. She drugged him? Assaulted him?
“Ethan thinks the hate mail you got was probably from her as well. She’s been obsessed with him for a while now, so it makes sense.” He scolds me with his punishing stare. “He told us about the package you got last week. You can’t keep that shit from us, Mallory.”
I sniff back more tears and then wipe my nose with the back of my hand. “I was going to tell him after the party. I didn’t want to ruin it for him.”
“Chad is a wreck,” he says. “He’s physically okay, and the drugs are out of his system, but he’s scared of what you must think of him.”
I get on my knees, wanting to plow past him to go find Chad. He must be out of his mind with worry. I can’t imagine if the tables were turned and he was the one to find out I was drugged. “Where is he? I have to find him.”
Julian grabs my shoulders, settling me back down where I was. “He found you. He’s here.” He nods out the door of the treehouse. “Right down there. We came straight here as soon as they released him from the hospital. He wanted to come up first, but I thought hearing the truth from someone else might be best. He’s already been punched once tonight,” he says, raising his injured hand. “I was afraid you might give him a second shiner before he could tell you everything.”
“Thank you,” I say to the person who knows me almost as well as the man standing at the base of the tree.
“Are you ready to see him?” he asks.
I nod over and over as tears well up in my eyes in anticipation.
Julian touches my hand in support before he backs out and climbs down the rope ladder. My heart is beating so wildly I can hear it pounding in my head. Never in my life have I been so happy and so sad at the same time. He didn’t use drugs. He didn’t cheat on me. We’re still Chad and Mallory. But at the same time, he’s been violated. And I’ve never wanted to kill someone as much as I do right now.
I feel the treehouse shake as Chad climbs up the ladder. Before he gets all the way up, he pushes a sleeping
bag through the entrance. I wipe away the tears that spill over my lashes when I realize it’s the same old sleeping bag I brought up here as a kid. He must have asked my dad for it. When he completes his ascent, I push the rolled-up bag out of the way and catapult myself into his arms.
“I love you,” I say at the same time that he says, “I’m sorry.”
Then he says, “I love you,” when I say, “I’m sorry.”
Then we simultaneously ask each other if we’re okay. Then we laugh through our tears. Then we kiss through our tears. Then we hold onto each other like we’re the lifeboat that will save us from drowning.
When I can finally get myself to pull away, I take in his face in the moonlight. “Can I see?”
He pulls out his phone and turns on the flashlight. I trace my fingers lightly across the red and purple bruise that surrounds his left eye. “Does it hurt?”
He shakes his head. “Not nearly as much as my heart does. I’m so sorry this happened. It’s all my fault, Mal. If I had never gotten mixed up with her. With drugs . . .”
I take his whole face in my hands. “This is not your fault, babe. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I’m the one who insisted they come into the party. I invited Paul. You did nothing wrong. And you know if this wouldn’t have happened tonight, she probably would have found some other way. At least this way, Julian was there, and Kyle, Ethan, and my dad. They had your back. If they hadn’t called the police and figured this all out, it could have turned out much differently.”
“It scares the shit out of me to think how this could have turned out. What if I’d . . . God, Mal, what if I’d slept with her? I thought she was you. She smelled like you. She looks like you. She was in our bedroom. Our fucking bedroom.”
Tears stream down his cheeks at the thought of what that would have done to him. To me. To us. “Shhhhh,” I say, pulling him close to me. “I’d still love you, Chad. Even if that happened. I promise you I’d still be here.”
“It was like I was in a dream,” he says, holding me tightly. “I knew everything that was happening to me, but it was like my mind was disconnected from my body. Reality was altered. The laws of physics didn’t exist. I remember all of it. Every detail. You offered me coke, but I wanted you more, so I pushed it away. Then when you came in the room, there was two of you, the one on top of me and the one yelling at me. And then I was being punched by Julian, but I didn’t feel a thing. I didn’t even know it was Heather until they told me later at the hospital.”
I shake my head in utter disbelief. “I can’t believe she did that. Did she think she’d get you hooked on drugs again?”
“I guess so,” he says. “She was desperate for work. Desperate for the pathetic life we once shared. Paul was in on it, too. Although he claims he didn’t know about the drugs. I don’t believe him. Not even Paul would be so dense to think that bitch could seduce me.”
“So what’s going to happen to him?” I ask. “Julian said he wasn’t arrested like Heather was.”
“There wasn’t enough evidence to hold him.”
I frown in disgust. “He should have to pay for what he did.”
“Oh, he will,” he says. “If nothing else, at least he’ll feel it in his wallet.”
“You fired him?” I look at him with a reluctant smile.
“Hell yes, I fired him. So did Lila. And I’ve called two other people who I know he represents. So I’m pretty sure by this time tomorrow, the only clients he’ll be able to get are the small, furry, four-legged kind.”
“What will you do? Who will be your manager?”
“Kendra is already putting together a list.” He sees the concern etched across my face. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. If Paul knows what’s good for him, he won’t fight me on this. I’m fairly confident a few of our party guests recorded the whole thing, and Julian tells me Paul cried like a fucking baby.”
I can’t keep my hands off him. I want our bodies close, so I can protect him.
He points to the sleeping bag. “Let me set that up for us. We can lie here and stare at the stars like when we were kids.”
“Good. I think I’d like to sleep here,” I tell him, as he spreads the bag open. “Because there is no way I’d be able to sleep in that bed.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” he says. “I’ll burn the damn thing. Hell, we don’t even have to go back there if you don’t want to. We can find a new place.”
“I love that apartment, Chad. But the bed has to go. I’d never be able to look at it again without picturing how she was leaning over you and how you were touching her.”
“And the perfume,” he says, cringing. “It has to go, too. While I love it on you, it’ll always remind me of what happened.”
I pull away and look at him in confusion. “She was wearing my perfume? Did she steal if from my vanity? Wait—it’s still packed. How . . . ?”
He shakes his head as if in pain, still clearly affected by tonight’s events. “Do you remember last spring at Ana’s party when Heather asked about your perfume? I thought it was strange and completely out of character.”
My hand comes up to cover my gasp. “Oh, my God. Was she planning this all along?”
He shrugs. “She was planning something,” he says. “But it just goes to show you, she would have gotten to me one way or another. You can’t beat yourself up over the Paul invitation.”
Another tear rolls down my cheek. “I thought I’d lost you,” I tell him. “I wanted to die, Chad. I wanted to lie here and rot away so I didn’t have to feel what I was feeling. But I knew that would never happen. I knew I would always love you even if you betrayed me.”
He lies down and pulls me next to him as I rest my head on his chest. “I will never betray you, Mallory. I know it may seem like I did, but I would never willingly break my promise to you.”
“I know you wouldn’t. I know you didn’t.” I rest my head on my hand and peek up at him. “I promise I won’t jump to conclusions again. I’ve done that twice now.”
“With damn good reason both times,” he says. “I promise I will do everything I can to make sure we’re never put in a position like this again.”
“I promise to throw away every bottle of ‘Desire Me’ that I own.”
He kisses the top of my head. “I promise to buy you a whole damn magnum of any other perfume.”
“I promise to always let you know when I get dead rodents in the mail.”
He laughs and my head bounces up and down on his chest. “I promise to never use tongue when I kiss other women.”
“Any other fiancée would be offended,” I say, giggling. “But I think that’s very romantic of you.” I kiss him through his shirt. “I promise to be the best wife I can.”
He wiggles beneath me and pulls something from his pocket. “Give me your hand,” he says. I hold it up, sad that for a few hours the ring I threw at his head was missing. He slips it back onto my finger. “I promise to never be a stupid bastard.”
I admire the ring back in its rightful place. “I promise to never take it off again.”
He pulls me on top of him. “Did we just write our vows, future wife?”
I laugh. “Those are some pretty crazy vows,” I say.
“To go with our pretty crazy life,” he says. “But it’s our crazy, and I love it. Just like I love you.” He threads his hands into my hair and pulls my lips to his. “I promise to make you scream my name every damn day of our lives.”
Right before our lips meet, I make one last vow. “I promise to let you.”
His lips capture mine, gently at first and then demanding. Almost like how a whisper becomes a shout. We taste each other knowing after what we’ve endured, nothing can tear us apart. Our kisses are salty reminders of the bond we have that can never be broken.
His hands come up to unbutton my blouse. He reaches inside to cup my breasts and I quiver. I want to remember every touch; every kiss; every sound of our love. Because it was almost taken away from us in an insta
nt.
“Mal, I want you so much,” he says. He turns to his side, spilling me off of him as his hand reaches down to unbutton my pants. “I promise to fulfill your every fantasy,” he says, looking at my bare chest. “Because right now, you’re sure as hell fulfilling one of mine.”
My eyes mist up thinking of the time he told me he used to fantasize about what we would do in this very treehouse. I wanted him, too. Even way back then. Even when I couldn’t comprehend that the tingles running down my spine meant I was falling for a twelve-year-old boy. Even when I didn’t understand that the butterflies in my stomach meant my heart belonged to a sixteen-year-old man.
Our clothes become a heap on the clapboard floor of the old battered treehouse. He peels my panties slowly down my thighs, inhaling my scent along the way. He spreads my legs and buries his mouth in me making me writhe and buck beneath his expertly placed tongue. I grab his hair, weaving my fingers through it, holding him tightly to me until his name rolls off my lips in pleasurable waves.
He climbs up my sweat-slickened body, kissing my scar, my breasts, my neck, as he works his way on top of me. And as he enters me and we become one, his hot whispers caress my ear. “I’ll promise you anything. I promise you everything. Just promise me you’ll always be mine.”
I moan at the feeling of him filling me so completely. At the feeling of his hot flesh on mine. “I’ve always been yours, Chad. Since the day we met. Maybe even before that. I was made for you.”
He rocks his body into me, faster and faster with every delicious thrust. “I need to hear you say it, Mallory,” he begs, as he works a hand between us, bringing me once again to the precipice of ecstasy.
I lift my hips and squeeze my thighs, my stomach tightening with my impending explosion. “I promise,” I say breathily, just as he shouts into the night, emptying himself into me as I pulsate around him.
~ ~ ~
Dawn wakes us, our backs sore from sleeping on the hard wooden floor. Our bodies battered from the love we bestowed upon each other time and time again. Pain has never felt so good. Chad wraps our naked bodies in the sleeping bag as we hold on to this moment that will be etched into our memories until the day we die.
The Stone Brothers: A Complete Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 60
