Jeez. He was getting heavy.
The clock read nine pm, I guess that meant we wouldn’t be going out. If I was honest, I was relieved. I carried Eli to bed and tucked him in.
“Hey, baby.” He sneered when I walked into the kitchen.
“Hi, Max,” I said and turned the tap on.
I washed the dishes from Eli’s dinner and felt Max’s eyes on me the whole time. I tried my best to ignore it by opening the fridge and looking inside. Mainly for a distraction.
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked with my head still in the fridge.
“What do I want for dinner?” he slurred.
“Yes.”
A hand grabbed my arm in the exact place that Tyson had earlier in the day. This touch was much rougher. I shivered and not in the same way that Ty’s touch had made me shiver.
“Ow Max, you’re hurting me. Let go.” I moved my arm, but his grip tightened.
“You telling me what to do?” He pulled me closer to him, the fridge door shut as he pushed me against it.
His nose touched mine as he pushed his face closer to me. The green in his eyes swirled with anger, there were times like this that I wished I couldn’t read him when he was angry. It was the only time that I knew what would happen.
The only time I could read him.
“Answer me!” he roared, spittle flying on my face.
“No Max, I’m not telling you what to do.”
“Tut. Tut.” He shook his head and backed away a couple of inches.
“I’m sorry, Max.” It was an automatic answer when it came to him.
His brows lifted and he let me go. I sagged against the fridge and blew out a breath. He backed away and then started to laugh.
I couldn’t help but compare it to the laughter that came from Evan. This one was sinister and cruel. He wasn’t laughing with me; he was laughing at me.
He flew forward and gripped my head in his hands, spun me around and slammed my face against the fridge door.
“This is for not having my dinner ready.”
“But-” I was cut off when he pulled my head back and slammed it back into the fridge.
Pain exploded across my face wetness trickling down past my eye and rolling onto my cheek. He pulled me back again by my hair.
“This one is for not keeping your mouth shut.” He slammed my face into the door a second time.
“You’re so selfish,” he gritted out. “For making me do this.”
He pulled me back, this time he used twice the force than he did before. My face hit the fridge and I was sure that he had broken something. I sobbed at the pain and slumped down the fridge smearing blood as he let me go. I kept my head down, not wanting to make it any worse.
The first drop of blood landed on the floor, followed by a second drop mixed in with tears as they slid down my face.
“So sick and tired of this,” he muttered as he walked away. “You’ll never learn.”
His boots thudded on the tiled floor, then the carpet in the hallway. The slam of the front door followed him out.
I agreed with him.
I was sick and tired of this too.
Chapter Eight
I woke up the next morning, my eye throbbed and it felt like I had the worst hangover in the existence of hangovers. I lifted my head off the pillow and pushed myself up off the bed. Shuffling into the kitchen I started the coffee machine. I pushed the door to the living room open relieved that Max wasn’t in there.
He was the last person that I wanted to see. I made my coffee and went straight to the bathroom, needing to do something with my eye before Eli woke up.
I hadn’t checked it the night before, afraid that it would be my undoing. Instead, I went straight to bed and cried myself to sleep.
I lifted onto my toes and pushed my face up into the mirror to get a closer look.
My whole eye was swollen with a gash underneath my eyebrow all covered in a horrible green and purple bruise and dried blood. I dipped my head, not wanting to see it. If I couldn’t see it then I could pretend that it wasn’t there.
I jumped in the shower before I tackled it.
I thought about what had happened last night while the water washed it all away. Normally, I could say I knew what I had done wrong but last night was different. All I had done was ask what he wanted for dinner.
If anyone should have been pissed then it should have been me, he was the one who was meant to take us out last night.
But I should have known to tread carefully when he came home slurring. It was always when he had been drinking. It did something to him, made him have a short fuse, he’d told me several times that he blacked out. I believed that he did because the man that would hurt me wasn’t the man that I had known these last five years.
I wrapped a towel around me and wiped at my eye with some cotton wool pads. The cut opened, and I watched as blood trickled down my face before I caught it with the cotton pad.
I rummaged through the cupboard for the first aid kit and got to work. I cleaned the cut with some antiseptic and applied some butterfly stitches cleaning the dried blood as best as I could. It looked better than it had but there would be no way to disguise it.
The bruises from my arms were nearly gone now, I looked down at them. He’d never hurt my face before; it was always somewhere that I could cover up easily.
The sound of Eli’s bed squeaking alerted me to him waking up. I pushed the first aid kit back just as he walked down the hallway.
“Morning, sweetie!” I called as he went past.
“Mornin’, mama,” he mumbled back.
I went into the bedroom, threw a t-shirt and leggings on and went to make his breakfast. I hadn’t got anything planned today apart from visiting with Miss Maggie. I hadn’t seen her since I told her that I got the job.
I cleaned the apartment while Eli ate his breakfast. I hadn’t had much of a chance to clean it to Max’s liking. If he had noticed I hadn’t done it that could have had an effect on him. Maybe that was part of the reason why he had been upset with me last night.
My duties at home were slipping, I’d have to rectify that.
“Come on, sweetie, let’s get you dressed,” I said when I had finished.
“But, maaaa, I’m watching this,” he groaned, his head moved from left to right when I stood in front of the TV.
“Now, Eli.” He huffed and crossed his arms. “Come on, we’ll go to Miss Maggie’s.” I smiled.
He shot up off the couch then. There was nothing that got him moving more than the prospect of seeing those damn cats.
I didn’t see the appeal myself. I’d much prefer a dog any day, I’d always wanted a dog but Max hated them.
I followed Eli into the bathroom, watched him brush his teeth, then let him pick his clothes for the day. He chose a pair of shorts and a winter jumper.
I smiled at the odd combination, but one of my favorite things to do was to see what he would choose to wear on the weekends.
“Let’s go, mama!” he called on his way to the door.
We went into Miss Maggie’s. Eli headed for the couch, he hadn’t even sat down before the cats jumped up to him. The same cartoon channel that Eli had just been watching was playing on the TV.
“Hi, dear!” Miss Maggie waved, not bothering to look at me as she was just as engrossed in the TV as Eli was.
I’d never seen anyone watch cartoons the way that she did. At least not anyone over the age of twelve.
I made us tea like usual, cursing myself for not thinking to bring over some coffee again, picked up both cups and sat on the couch next to Eli.
My mind wandered as I sat there with them, not a word spoken as they both stared wide eyed. I couldn’t help but wonder what the guys at the compound would get up to today. Did they have weekends off?
I’d never thought to ask.
I found that I missed seeing Ty’s face and listening to Evans silly jokes. I’d tried to tell Eli one the other day, he looked at me li
ke I was losing my mind. I think there was a knack to the way they were told. Evan always got it spot on.
I hadn’t been able to talk to Kitty much. She told me that she wouldn’t be as busy next week so we could sit and chat. I looked forward to that, I’d never had a real girlfriend.
The ones at school had used me to get closer to my brother, little did they know that he disliked them even more when they did that. I was the one person who never fit into any of the cliques. I wasn’t smart enough for the nerds, too cheery for the goths, not cheery enough for the cheerleaders and not popular enough for the ‘in’ crowd.
“What the hell happened to your face?” Miss Maggie practically shouted.
“Jeez, you scared me,” I croaked, my hand flying to my chest.
She raised her brows at me. I cut my eyes to Eli, knowing that his little ears heard everything.
“I fell.” The lie rolled right off my tongue with such ease that it scared me a little.
Her face told me that she didn’t believe me but she knew that there was nothing else that I would say.
That I could say.
“So I finished my first week at work.” I said trying to change the subject.
It would only work for so long, she wouldn’t get an explanation to what had happened.
She knew that.
*~*~*
I spent the meeting with my head down, my face half covered by my hair. The bruise was even darker now and no amount of makeup I tried to put on could cover it, at least I’d been able to take the butterfly stitches off.
Max had come home late last night whilst I was in bed, I hadn’t seen him since Friday. I didn’t get up to go and see him, instead I stayed where I was and waited until he was gone this morning.
The thought of seeing his face made me sick to my stomach.
Unlike last week, when everyone would scatter to whatever jobs they needed to do, Evan and Kitty stayed at the table talking. Luke headed for the gym equipment and Ty leaned back in his chair looking through some files.
I took my chance to go unnoticed and fled to the office. I turned the chair to the side when I sat down, knowing that the right side of my face couldn’t be seen from this angle and started typing the files up.
“You good?” Ty said when he came in half an hour later.
“Mmmhmm.” I clicked save on the computer and opened up a new blank document.
“Kay?” I winced at his tone.
“Yes?”
“Look at me.”
I started to type, I had nothing to type so I just pressed random keys and clicked the mouse every couple of words. I didn’t want to have this conversation, I didn’t want to lie again. Not to him.
The door clicked shut. His boots didn’t make a sound as he moved closer to me, I felt him rather than saw him.
“Kay?” He breathed my name. I moved my eye to the side, his hands landed on the desk as he leaned down.
“Ty.” Click…. Click. Click. Click. Just carry on typing.
“Look. At. Me”
Sighing, I realized I couldn’t hide away from him forever.
“Here’s the thing.” I moved my hands from the keyboard. “I fell over Friday night. And…well….you see-”
I turned then, his eyes went straight to my eye. His jaw clenched as he pulled his hands from the desk and stood to his full height.
“You fell over?” he gritted out.
“Yeah, you know what it’s like right? You’re standing one minute then the next thing you know you’re face down on the floor.” I laughed, the sound shrill to my own ears.
His eyes scanned my face, searching for the truth. I put my walls up, successful this time.
“It happens all the time, you should have seen the amount of bruises I had as a child” I rolled my eyes, wincing at the pain.
I just hoped that he didn’t mention it to Corey. But knowing that he had gone dark again was a relief in itself. By the time Ty would talk to Corey he would have forgotten all about it.
I hoped.
We stayed like that for what felt like hours, him watching me with narrowed eyes while I smiled at him. In reality, it was only a couple of minutes.
“Right,” he finally gritted out. The set of his jaw told me that he didn’t believe me.
“You remember last week when I fell over with Evan?” I shrugged and fidgeted in my seat. “I’ve always been the same.”
He sat down, his head in his hands.
“How was your weekend?”
“Changing the subject?” He looked up at me a slight smile on his face.
“Not at all.” I smiled back. “Do you work weekends?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“What?” His smile grew.
“I was thinking…” I leaned forward. “Do you work weekends? You know like go out and be all bad ass?”
“Bad ass?”
“Uh huh.”
He shook his head and chuckled.
“Come on, let’s go.” He headed for the door.
“Go where?” He grabbed his coat, turned to look back at me with a smirk kicked up on his face.
“Out.” He opened the door. “Were not done talking about this.” He pointed to my eye and walked off.
I scrambled after him, grabbing my coat and bag as I went.
“Evan get the phone if it rings.”
“What? Why? That’s Kaylee’s job.”
“Ah, don’t whine Evan.” I pinched his cheek when I got to him.
“What the-”
“Kay lets go.” I looked up to Ty, his jaw clenched again.
I rushed forward, ducked under his arm that held the door open and waited for him. He walked to the big black SUV, its rims a matte black, every window tinted. I pulled the door open when the lights flashed, placed my foot on the little step thing and grabbed the OS handle.
“You okay there sweetheart?” Ty said from behind me.
Right. Behind. Me.
I turned to find him holding back his laughter. It must have been sooo funny to watch me struggle to get up into this beast of a thing.
“Me and this OS handle got it. Thanks.” I jumped into the seat and Ty closed the door behind me.
“OS handle?” he asked when he turned the key in the ignition.
“Oh. Shit.”
“What?”
“Oh. Shit.”
He turned his head to me, brows furrowed.
“The. Oh. Shit. Handle”
“Oh right.”
“No.” I shook my head “Oh. Shit.”
“Ha, funny.” He rolled his eyes at me then reversed out of the spot. The gates opened up and then we were driving down the private road that led to the compound.
I felt giddy with excitement, I’d never done anything like this before. I had to stop myself from bouncing in the seat on several occasions.
“So, what are we doing?”
“Just a quick surveillance thing.” I clapped my hands at that. The thought of watching people who had no idea they were being watched excited me.
Ty stayed silent most of the fifteen minute drive while I talked nonstop.
I told him all about my weekend, minus the Max thing. Eli and I had painted a picture on Sunday, my side was neat whereas Eli’s had been a big blob of about ten different colors all mixed together. The result was a dark gray kind of color. It always ended up that way.
“And when I picked him up on Friday, he painted me a picture for the office,” I said.
“Yeah?” He pulled the car to a stop on a little side road.
“Would it be okay to put it up in there?”
“Sure.” He turned the ignition off, his eyes never leaving the house a few doors down.
“What are we looking for?” I whispered.
“We need to wait until he leaves and then follow him,” he whispered back.
“Okay, what does he look like?”
He handed me a photo. The man looked like any other man, nothing distinct about him. He wore a beige shirt and br
own tie in the photo, old glasses sat on his round face with a receding hairline.
“What are we watching for?”
“I think he has something to do with an underground ring.”
“What like under the ground?”
He cut his eyes to me. “Seriously?”
“What?”
“It’s not actually under the ground.” He shook his head then looked back.
“I know that.”
“And why the fuck are we still whispering?” I laughed then, I had no idea why we were still whispering.
Ty smiled at me, the sight taking my breath away. I turned to stop the butterflies swarming my stomach, it was happening more often than I’d like to admit. But it didn’t mean anything. I could have this feeling over a good looking man. Right?
“There he is.” I pointed.
Ty waited until he had left in his car, then started the ignition.
“Ready?” He raised his brows.
“As I’ll ever be.” I clutched my seat belt, trying to hold in all of the bubbling excitement.
Chapter Nine
The next couple of days flew by. Ty had taken me out on a job a couple of times, yesterday he had even let me take some photos. It was something that I’d never thought I’d enjoy, but I did. The photos had come out okay, I wouldn’t be a professional anytime soon but Ty was pleased with them so that was all that mattered.
We’d spent most of the last couple of days just the two of us while we watched other people. I got to know him a little better and we found that we both loved people watching. I told him that I couldn’t stand to do any sort of exercise and he told me that he had to do some everyday or he felt like something was missing.
It would explain his muscles, not that I was complaining. I found myself smiling more and more. He started telling me some more stories about Corey but after the first day he told me more about himself.
He said that it had never been a question of joining the Special Forces, he’d wanted to for as long as he could remember. I admired him for how hard he had worked. He asked a couple of times what Eli and Max were like and I told him story after story about Eli.
But never anything about Max. I knew that he noticed but I just brushed it off like it didn’t matter and it didn’t. I wanted to keep my two worlds separate, the less they knew about Max the better.
Fractured Lies: Book 1 MAC Security Series Page 7
