Real Shadows

by M. E. Clayton

  Arrogance is a motherfucker.

  “Baby, I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “But I’m going to go throw some clothes on, and we can go to the store and buy some cameras. I’ll install them immediately.” I had thrown on some sweats I after pissed and brushed my teeth because the crashing of the coffee mugs had caused me to run out of the room half dressed. “Let’s get dressed, Fallon.

  “No,” she whispered, and I was sure I heard her wrong.

  “What?”

  “I said no,” she repeated.

  “Why the fuck not?” I was getting whiplash here. She was scared, but she didn’t want me to buy any cameras. What the hell?

  Fallon shook her head, dislodging my hands, and jumped off the counter. I didn’t miss her wince as her feet made contact, but she didn’t complain about the sensitivity. Tomorrow her feet were going to be more tender and that was going to suck.

  She looked up at me and fucked me up further by stating what was running through my mind not minutes before. “This was expected, right? We knew there was a chance he’d come after me. Cameras don’t help, Xander,” she said. “Or, at least, they haven’t helped in the past.”

  “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get them,” I argued. “They’re good to have for a million different reasons, Fallon.”

  Fallon reached out and wrapped her fingers inside the waistband of my sweats. It was an oddly intimate thing to do. It was something couples did, and even though we slept together last night, I hadn’t expected her to become so comfortable and affectionate so quickly.

  “Xander, I’m tired,” she replied, her lips trembling, but her voice was tired sounding as fuck. “I’m scared, but, God, am I tired.”

  “Fallon, I…know we agreed that…I knew why you chose to stay and make a life here. I knew you were ready to stop running, but…” Christ, I wasn’t ready. Even if she was ready to stop running, I wasn’t ready to face this so quickly. “Fallon, baby, I need the cameras,” I told her. “There’s no way I’ll be able to go to work on Monday knowing he’s here.”

  “Cameras don’t help, Xander,” she repeated.

  “Well, then let me call the police,” I replied. “If nothing else, they can be on the lookout for strangers new to town.”

  “Why don’t we-”

  The sound of shattering glass had me racing towards the back of the house. I looked back over my shoulder and yelled, “Get in the fucking attic now, Fallon!”

  “Xander-”

  “Get in the goddamn attic now!” I needed her safe, but when I heard another window shatter, it turned me back down the hallway towards the kitchen, and Fallon racing down the hallway towards the attic access. The attic was the safest place she could be.

  When I didn’t see anything or anyone near the kitchen, I decided to follow Fallon into the attic to get one of my guns. Both of us being half dressed, I knew Fallon didn’t have her phone on her, so I raced towards the bedroom to grab my phone before heading to the attic. We needed to call 911 and this was the first time I’ve ever cursed not having a landline.

  Racing out of the bedroom I came to an immediate halt when I was faced with a man at the end of the hallway, a gun pointed straight at me, and I knew he hadn’t shattered one of the kitchen windows. He had shattered one of the glass panes on the door leading to the backyard.

  Now, I knew my security alarm had been set off, but would the police get here before he killed me and Fallon? That was the question.

  Chapter 21

  Fallon~

  Hiding out in the attic like a coward was not how this should be going down. I should be wherever Xander was. I should be the one facing this thing head-on, not him. I didn’t even know the combinations to his safes, so I could grab a gun.

  “Faaaaallon,” came a faint voice underneath my feet.

  “Don’t come out, Fallon!” Xander yelled, and I dropped to my knees. There’s only one reason Xander would be calling out to me instead of being up here with me.

  “Faaaaallon,” came that voice again.

  Watching movies, I always used to wonder who was right in situations like this. Was the man right for trying to protect the girl, or was the girl right to try to save the man? A man’s protective instincts are vicious, but a woman’s love is fearless. Besides, this was my mess. Even though Xander walked into this with his eyes wide open, I wasn’t going to let him go down alone. He might hate me. He might see me die. He might even strangle me his damn self.

  But he’ll never doubt what I feel for him.

  Was it love? Not sure, but I knew whatever it was, it was enough to make me drop the stairs from the attic.

  As soon as the latch sounded, Xander’s rage was unmistakable. “Fallon! What the fuck are you doing?!”

  I couldn’t answer him. Professing my willingness to die for him was probably not a good move in front of someone who had a vast interest in me. Xander might die anyway, but I was going to do everything I could to keep that from happening.

  Even if that meant leaving with whoever was down there with Xander.

  I descended on the steps, ignoring Xander’s curses, and made my way towards the living room. Every step was taken with fear and resignation. I was terrified, but I also knew I couldn’t live like this anymore. This person has taken six years of my life from me, and finally finding some happiness in Brant with Karla nearby and Xander as a possible future, I couldn’t let him take anymore. I didn’t want to die, but I wanted to live. Actually live.

  Two steps into the living room, I saw Thomas Fischer. It’s been ten years, but there was no mistaking that man who had a gun pointing at Xander was Thomas Fischer. He looked exactly as I remember, just older and healthier.

  Thomas had always been a bright kid, and had he not been a poor foster kid, he’s the type of guy who would have run with the popular kids. Thomas had always been a good-looking sonofabitch, and he had just grown into a good-looking man. He had light brown hair that paired with a stunning set of hazel eyes that always seemed to look right through you. However, he had been a little on the scrawny side because, half the time, we were barely fed enough to keep us alive. But looking at him now, he had filled out and was nearly as tall as Xander at a little over six-foot.

  We had been friends back then, but that’s all.

  I ignored a pissed off Xander and focused all my attention on Thomas. “Thomas, what are you doing?”

  He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his eyes roamed over every inch of me. It reminded me that I was only dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of panties. The shirt came down pass my hips, but not by much. Thomas was getting an eyeful without a bra or pants on. I didn’t dare look at Xander because he was probably noticing the same thing.

  “Fallon…” My name came out of his mouth like a prayer. It spoke of, both, reverence and insanity.

  “Thomas, what are you doing?” I repeated. “Put the gun down.” It never worked in the movies, and I suspected it wouldn’t work now, but I had to try something-anything.

  He shook his head. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he replied. “You were supposed to wait for me.”

  Okay.

  He was talking.

  That was a good thing. It meant I could buy some time until the police got here. Xander’s alarm had surely tripped with the broken windows.

  “Wait for you to do what, Thomas?” I took a step closer and it was enough to set Xander off.

  “Stay where the fuck you are, Fallon,” he growled.

  “Don’t talk to her like that!” Thomas roared. “You don’t get to talk to her like that!”

  I needed to regain Thomas’s attention. “Thomas?” He looked over at me again. “W…wait for you to do what?”

  “You were supposed to wait for me for when I was ready,” he said vaguely, and telling me nothing.

  “Why don’t you let Xander go, and…and we can talk about-”

  “The fuck I’m leaving, Fallon,” Xander spat, not helping the situation at all. I understood
he was upset and scared for me, but Thomas hadn’t shot him yet, and I was trying to prevent that.

  “If you don’t shut the fuck up, I will put a bullet in your head,” Thomas seethed. “Don’t think I won’t.” He pushed the tip of his gun against the side of Xander’s head. “I should shoot you for touching what’s fucking mine anyway.”

  Xander turned until the gun was pressed up against the center of his forehead. “Then do it,” he challenged. “Because the only way Fallon is leaving with you is over my dead body.”

  “Xander!”

  I didn’t think.

  I ran towards them and stepped in between the two men until Thomas had to pull back or point the gun in my face.

  “Are you fucking crazy?!” Xander grabbed me and threw me behind him.

  I didn’t let him have his way, though. As soon as he released me to face Thomas again, I stepped up from behind him until I was practically standing next to Thomas. “Thomas?”

  He looked at me and his eyes were wild and hurt. “You’d die for him?”

  “Thomas, the police-”

  He threw his head back and laughed. When he looked back down at me, the hurt was gone, but the wild was still there. “The police aren’t coming, Fallon,” he said. “Our childhood might have been shit, but I’ve spent the past ten years becoming one of the best hackers in the country. How do you think I’m always able to find you?” I figured as much. Both, Karla and I had. It explained everything. “The alarm’s been disabled.”

  “Why are you doing this, Thomas? I thought we had been friends.” It was in that one sentence that I realized I messed up.

  “We were?” he disputed.

  “I…I thought we had been,” I replied, scared of where this might go.

  Those stunning eyes of his narrowed. “Then why did you never look back after you left?”

  Thomas was a year younger than I was, and he was right. When I had turned eighteen and left foster care, I never reached out to anyone other than Karla. I had been so busy trying to get my life together and putting all those years of rejection behind me, I hadn’t considered the other friends I had left behind.

  I thought of feeding him some fairy tale, in hopes of calming him, but I couldn’t risk him going off on Xander. Plus, he was right. I had been an asshole. “Thomas, I’m sorry,” I told him truthfully. “I was so wrapped up in trying to get my life together, I hadn’t thought to reach out to you, or Bonnie, or Samuel, or…well, anyone, really.”

  “Fuck that shit,” Xander barked. “Why the fuck have you been terrorizing her all these years?”

  The gun pointed at Xander this entire time, Thomas looked over at him. “I wasn’t terrorizing her,” he denied. “I was…waiting until I wasn’t mad at her anymore before approaching her.”

  With men, it really all comes down to the basics. “Well, you waited too long,” Xander snapped. “Fallon’s mine.”

  I turned to face him. “Xander!” What in the hell was he doing trying to antagonize Thomas?

  “She can’t belong to you if you’re dead, Xander Raynes,” Thomas pointed out.

  I turned back towards Thomas. “Thomas, don’t…let’s calm down,” I urged. “Let’s just…calm down a bit.”

  He cocked his head at my suggestion. “Does calming down a bit turn this outcome in my favor, Fallon?” he asked rhetorically. “You know, I knew you were going to hit the ground running when you turned eighteen. I could see your determination. You were shy and quiet, but you were strong. You had a quiet strength that wasn’t going to hold you down. It’s why I took your rabbit. It’s all I was going to have left of you when you left.”

  “You took it when I was sixteen, though,” I pointed out. We had been housed in foster care together since I was thirteen, he could have taken it sooner.

  “I hadn’t known I was going to need it until I overheard you on the phone with Karla telling her how you were going to beat feet the second you turned eighteen.” He sighed. “I needed to keep a piece of you.”

  And he’s been taking pieces of me ever since.

  Chapter 22

  Thomas~

  This is not how I imagined it happening. I hadn’t planned on having to murder anyone, but I’ll do it if I have to. I didn’t come this far and devote years of my life to Fallon all for her to end up with someone else.

  I also wasn’t stupid, though. I knew she was trying to coax me into talking to try to buy some time until she could figure out what to do or talk me down.

  Newsflash: There was no talking me down.

  “Thomas, I’m sorry if I-”

  I shook my head at her. “I don’t want to hear your apologies, Fallon,” I told her honestly. “Apologies don’t garner results. I’m no longer that seventeen-year-old boy who misses you.” I kept the gun pointed towards Xander, but I stepped towards Fallon. “I don’t think you fully understand what is going on here.”

  Her composure slipped a bit. “You have a gun on someone,” she spat. “Of course, I understand what is going on here.”

  God, she was so fucking beautiful. Even as kids, she just radiated beauty. It didn’t matter that she was dressed in hand-me-downs or that she never wore makeup; Fallon Reese was stunning.

  “The day you left, I did what I should have always done, Fallon,” I began. “I put my intelligence to use.” I had always had a high level of smarts. It had been one of the things that had labeled me as weird. But no one had known just how smart I really was. “I spent years becoming one of the best IT techs around. Also, I ended up becoming one of the best hackers in the nation. Once I perfected my craft, I searched for you. And I always found you.”

  She ran her hands through her soft, luscious locks. “But why? Why not just…approach me? Why play games, Thomas?”

  Was she for real?

  I couldn’t help the curl in my lip. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I snarled. “You left me without a backward glance, Fallon. Why would I think you’d meet up with me if I had asked?!”

  “If you’re so smart, you have to know this is not going to work out the way you want,” Xander said, the man having no regard for the fact that I had a gun pointed at his face.

  My eyes didn’t stray from Fallon’s as I said, “She ends up with me, or she ends up with no one.”

  “Thomas, I…”

  She trailed off, but I knew it was because she couldn’t bring herself to utter the words she knew would end Xander’s life. Fallon wasn’t going to go with me voluntarily. She probably believed herself in love with Xander. But that didn’t matter. While I’d like to have her love, I didn’t need it. I just needed her.

  I stepped towards Xander and pressed the mouth of the gun against the side of his head. “Do I kill him, Fallon?” I asked. “Do I really leave here with you only over his dead body?”

  Fallon finally cracked.

  Tears started streaming down her face as she whispered in complete anguish, “No.”

  “Yes!” Xander growled at the same time.

  “Xander-”

  “I’m not letting him leave here with you, Fallon,” he snapped. “The only way you’re leaving here is with me dead.”

  The exchange of sacrifices should anger me, or at the very least, disgust me, but it didn’t. I got it. I was willing to kill for a chance to have a woman like Fallon in my life, so it was completely reasonable for a man to be willing to die for her as well. If I were in Xander’s shoes, I’d probably be kissing my life goodbye right now, too. In all actuality, knowing he’s slept with her, Xander should be happy to be leaving this world having experienced what it’s like to exist inside Fallon Reese.

  Fallon’s face was pure beautiful agony as she begged, “Don’t kill him, Thomas. I’ll…I’ll go with you. I’ll do whatever you want.” I smiled, ready to bask in my win when the unprecedented happened.

  I hadn’t counted on Xander initiating the inevitable.

  The impact of his right arm coming up and knocking my arm back set in motion a fight for our lives when X
ander landed a punch with his left into my ribs, causing the gun to fly out of my hand. I heard screaming, but Fallon’s lyrical pain was a distant observation. Xander Raynes wasn’t fucking around. But then, neither was I.

  After recovering from the blindside, I went at him full force. I tackled him, and we both went flying over the back of the couch. Punches were being landed by both of us, but then, we both knew what was at stake here.

  Fallon.

  The man who won would win her and I refused to be the loser in this. I’ve been in love with Fallon Reese long before Xander Raynes even knew she existed. Fallon and I shared a childhood together. Xander would never know her the way I did.

  The grappling was life or death, and while Xander landed some fierce blows, I had love on my side. A love that even Fallon would never be able to comprehend. “She’s mine,” I grunted as I took another blow to my stomach.

  “Never,” Xander swore through bloody teeth. “You’ll never have her.”

  The blows didn’t let up and Fallon’s crying symphony rang in my ears as I fought Xander with everything I had. The hits were vicious, but then that’s what men have been doing since the beginning of time; fighting for that one woman who they can’t live without.

  I ignored the blood. I ignored the pain. I ignored the destruction of furniture under my body. I ignored everything that could distract me from winning this fight.

  Glass shattered as I slammed Xander against one of the windows and I knew the noise would bring someone running. Sure, I had disabled the alarm system, but I hadn’t counted on a full-on brawl that would disturb the neighbors, so it was now or never.

  Xander rushed me, unconcerned with the glass shards or the blood, and we landed hard on the floor. It also gave him the advantage of lording over me. While I wasn’t a delicate flower, Xander Raynes was fit and strong.

  I could still hear Fallon’s cries, but that was good. It meant she hadn’t run off to call the police. It meant she was still going to be here when I finished Xander off.