“I know.”
I challenged him, “She’s the reason you came back here, isn’t she? You said you came here for someone. Was it for her?”
I didn’t know where all of this courage was coming from but it just seemed like I needed to know the answers.
“She’s the reason I do everything, Sidney,” he answered, still lost in his mind, fixated on my necklace.
Feeling I was gaining the upper hand in the conversation, I took advantage and took a step closer.
“Then why are you here now?” I whispered seductively. This time it was my turn to get close to him and breathe my words in his face, intoxicating him as he did to me.
But he wasn’t easily intimidated, and instead of retreating from me, he took my hand and pulled me close.
Why do I insist on playing with fire?
Pressing his nose against my cheek he inhaled deeply. His mouth moved across my cheek to my ear.
“You ask too many questions, Sidney Sinclair,” he whispered in a throaty growl, taking back the control of this verbal rollercoaster. When it came to us, I was not as adept at this game. So, I folded. I closed my eyes and waited, his warm breath tickling my ear as it moved closer to my mouth. My lips parted, waiting for his to meet mine.
And then I heard someone call my name.
My eyes snapped open to the sound of his familiar voice. I turned my head and saw Ray standing in front of the bar, fists clenched, glaring at Adrian.
For an instant, I wanted to hide behind Adrian’s leather jacket. Instead I just froze, hoping he wouldn’t cause a scene. But that wasn’t our style. Although I’d always tried to avoid making one, drama was a constant when your boyfriend was Ray Ryker.
Ray headed straight over to us, his icy blue eyes focused solely on Adrian, who seconds before was about to kiss me.
He took a moment to glare at me with overwhelming anger and hurt so that for a moment, I almost wanted to apologize, especially when I saw the black eye from my cell phone toss. But then I remembered that it was he who was the cheater, not me. He was the one constantly leaving me alone and it was he that was continuing to lie to me about Lilly.
“What’s your problem, Ray?” I reacted, allowing all of my anger to resurface.
His response was a mixture of anger and self-pity. “I guess I finally get to see you for who you really are, Sid. I’ve loved you since I was fourteen years old and you throw me away like I’m a piece of trash. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to trust you.”
I was shocked. How dare he accuse me of such atrocities? I was the most loyal girlfriend he could ever ask for. I had stood by his side, silent for months, while he hurt me over and over again.
Then a torrent of cruel words rolled off his tongue, spilling sloppily out of his mouth as he allowed each one to lash my skin like the whips they were. Standing tall, I took the abuse. I would no longer give him that control.
“I can’t do this anymore, Ray. I’m sick of getting my heart broken over and over. We sit and talk and we try to work through our problems, but we can’t because the past lurks in every corner waiting for an opportunity to emerge again. Well, tonight it did emerge, Ray. It emerged when you decided to keep seeing Lilly.”
I pushed him hard in his chest as I said that final word.
I had never seen such anger in his eyes. He charged me like a wild bull, grabbed my neck, and slammed me hard against the cement as the side of my head crushed into the bar wall. It took only seconds before I felt the warm liquid ooze down the side of my face. I reached my arm up and touched my face, the blood was now pouring from the freshly opened stitches from my earlier wound.
“I hate you, Ray Ryker!” I screamed, and flailed my arms wildly, trying to make any contact with his body.
From that moment on everything was a blur.
I saw Adrian’s black leather jacket as he came between us in an attempt to protect me, but Ray was like a wild animal, swinging his fists everywhere. He caught Adrian with a right hook and I watched as blood began to spill out of his perfect mouth. Adrian just stood there in disbelief.
“Damn you, Ray!” I screamed, lunging at him like a crazy woman.
“Whoa, whoa,” I heard a man’s voice say as Dave’s hairy tattooed arm came between me and Ray in an attempt to break up the fighting.
But I wasn’t backing down and neither was Ray. Our fight was a long time coming and we both felt betrayed. We were fighting not only because our feelings were hurt but also for our self-respect.
Soon I felt Chrissy’s soft hands grab my arm as she pulled me out of the chaos.
“Sidney. What in the hell are you doing?”
Snapping out of the moment, I froze and scanned the area.
We were now in the middle of the street and a small crowd had gathered outside of the bar to watch the commotion. Out of breath, I whipped my head around looking for Adrian, but didn’t see him anywhere. Chrissy grabbed a napkin from her purse and placed it on my forehead.
“Here, honey. Keep the pressure on that. We’re going to need to get you to the hospital to have that cut reclosed.”
“No. I need to find Adrian,” I yelled.
Ray shouted back, “Oh yeah, worry about your new boyfriend—who cares about me, right?”
At that point, he attempted to push past Dave and come at me again.
It was apparent that he had drunk way too much alcohol. I’d known Ray since we were kids and I had never seen him like this. Now people began to take their phones out and snap pictures of the home town rock star as he dueled with his girlfriend in the middle of the street.
Unable to get to me, Ray turned his anger on a new target as he pushed Dave and yelled at him to get out of his way, but Dave was the only thing protecting me from my ex, the lunatic, since Adrian seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
Chrissy ran out and put herself between Ray and Dave in an attempt to calm them down.
“Stop it!” I yelled at them. But no one was listening to me. It was total chaos.
I searched through the mass of people who had now come over to help break up the fight, but I still didn’t see Adrian anywhere. Chrissy was in Ray’s face and Ray wasn’t backing down. Dave was ready to fight and I was beginning to believe that all of this was my fault.
I screamed inwardly, I should have never come here tonight.
Not knowing what else to do, I began to sob and scream some more for them to stop before the cops came. But it was too late. I looked to the left just in time to see two police cruisers screeching up to the bar with their lights and sirens in full force and watched several officers emerge from the vehicles.
“Oh God,” I moaned, and ran over the crowd. “The cops are here. Everybody calm down,” I pleaded.
But Ray was out of control.
He punched the wall in an angry fit as he yelled, “Arrest me then. I’ll make bail tonight and then I’m outta this shithole town. Forget you, Sid. I can’t believe I‘ve wasted these last few years on you.”
I couldn’t even believe what I was hearing. He wasted his time on me? He was out of his mind.
A tall officer with strawberry blond hair walked directly up to Ray. It was Detective Albright, the investigating officer handling Nouri’s murder case.
Just great.
“Turn around and put your hands against the wall, Mr. Ryker.” Ray obliged him. Detective Albright patted him down before placing the steel cuffs on his wrists. Ray turned his head and glared at me.
“Remember, this is your fault, Sid.”
“Don’t forget to charge him with domestic assault. He just put his hands on his girlfriend. She needs a medic,” Chrissy shouted.
I pushed her and shook my head, begging her to shut her mouth.
Detective Albright turned Ray away and led him to the squad car as he read him his Miranda rights. Impulsively, I stepped in their path. The detective opened his mouth, ready to object, but I held up my hand.
“Please sir, I would like one word with him
before he goes.” The detective reluctantly agreed.
I stood there a long time, staring at Ray as words failed me. I was in shock at how things had unraveled so fast and left us in this sad, emotional place.
“You’ve completely disrespected me in every way possible,” he growled. There was so much hate and disdain in his voice that I could almost taste it. There was no question that I felt it.
“I didn't mean it, Ray. I take back everything I said.”
Unfortunately, I was a glutton for punishment, a co-dependent waste of a human being.
I reached up and grabbed his face to kiss him but he resisted and turned his head to the side.
Astonished, I stepped back. His blue eyes turned black as they smoldered with fury.
“You don’t get to take those words back, Sid. Your accusations were like arrows, each one piercing my heart. Now it’s broken and there’s nothing you can do to fix it.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes as he pleaded his case of poetic justice. It reminded me of all the times we’d gotten into arguments. Instead of talking them out like a normal person, Ray would run to his notebook and spin his words of anger into another song, one that told his side of things and always portrayed me as some emotionless bitch. I hated him for doing that, and again the earlier feelings of my initial anger resurfaced.
I leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. “A broken heart can be mended. But you’ve ripped my heart out and crushed it. You’ve done irreparable damage to me and I will never forgive you.”
There I had finally said it.
I was now comfortable leaving this conversation and walking away from Ray. But Ray wanted to continue our bloody battle of words.
“Your sadness is like a disease infecting everyone around you,” he spat.
I shot back, “And your love is like a cancer, invading every inch of my body and sucking the life right out of me.”
I couldn't help the tears that slid down my cheeks as I spewed the venomous words from my mouth.
Ray stood with his hands cuffed behind his back, staring at my face.
He mocked me, “More sad tears, is that all you have to offer?”
I straightened my spine and stood tall. I had a right hook that I could have so easily given him. But I knew the bruises would heal and I wanted to inflict a pain that would last forever. The pain of losing me.
“My tears will dry once you’ve gone. They always do. Just like the clouds disappear and the sky turns to sunshine once the storm passes. My life will get better once you’re out of it. Just let me go, Ray. Undo this spell you have on me so I can be happy.”
But as straight as I stood, Ray always knew how to stand taller. He puffed out his chest and peered down his nose at me as a condescending smile spread across his face. “I was never holding on.”
And just like that, he released me. I was dismissed from his life like nothing more than a roadie in his band’s entourage.
Detective Albright placed Ray in the squad car and then led me over to a waiting ambulance with an EMT ready to stitch my head wound back up.
“Does your boyfriend have a history of domestic abuse?”
I wiped my eyes and shook my head. “No. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened. I found out he was seeing another girl behind my back and well, one thing just led to another. I’m terribly sorry for causing any trouble.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for Ms. Sinclair, all you did was act in self-defense.”
I chose not to mention that I may or may not have been the one who started the whole thing by throwing a cell phone directly in Ray’s eye. I was thankful when the detective didn’t ask how my boyfriend got the black eye.
“You do realize that this incident has moved your Mr. Ryker to the top of the list of suspects.”
“I understand, Detective, but I don’t agree. I told you that Ray was still seeing Lilly Lavelle, which meant that she knew I was leaving on Friday to come to L.A. and be with him. Because of her jealousy towards me, I think you need to take a longer look at her.”
The detective nodded his head as he jotted down some notes and began taking some pictures of my injuries. “We will be looking into Lilly Lavelle as a possible suspect as well, Ms. Sinclair. Thanks again for your cooperation. Now do me a favor and go home. A night out at a dive bar is the last place you should be after what you’ve been through.”
He got no argument from me.
Chapter 11
Take It Out On Me
Rest was the last thing I could think of as I raced past the rustic flagpole and up the stairs to pound on the big red door.
Adrian didn’t answer, so I continued to bang away. I had to know that he was okay, and most of all I had to apologize for what Ray had done to him. I tried to shake the image of Ray’s fist making contact with Adrian’s face, and the blood that had spurted from his mouth when the cut had been opened. I put all of my force into the door as I beat it feverishly and finally it gave way.
I halted as the door slowly opened like Moses parting the red sea.
I took a tentative step inside, but suddenly became apprehensive. I could hear my voice echo through the large house as I called out Adrian’s name. There was no answer.
As I walked stealthily inside, I picked up his muffled voice deep in the bowels of the house. Stepping over the threshold, I boldly entered the white mansion unannounced. I called his name again but still no answer. I listened quietly, trying to pinpoint where his voice was coming from.
“I said we need to let bygones be bygones. What happened was so long ago. We can move past it, we can go back to how it was before. Just tell me where you are, before this gets even further out of hand.”
I wondered if I should leave before he did notice me. I didn’t know who Adrian was speaking to but it sounded serious. Was he in the middle of begging his girlfriend to take him back? It sure sounded like it.
Now my feelings were hurt. Was I about to lose two men in one night? I shook the foolish thought from my head. Adrian was never mine to lose. But it still hurt just the same. Less than an hour earlier, his hand was brushing my face as our lips had almost met. Before then, he was trapping me in his house, declaring he would let me into his heart, and now here he was asking some anonymous stranger to go back to the way it was before.
Before I had entered his life.
It seemed Adrian was just as much of a liar as Ray. I turned around to leave but stopped dead in my tracks as his voice grew louder. Initially, I thought he had spotted me and so I turned around to explain that I had just stopped by to check on him, but then I realized he was still hidden away in a room behind the staircase.
He was shouting into the phone.
“Just tell me where you are, dammit!”
I could hear things crashing to the ground as items were being thrown. “I’m done playing these frivolous games with you. You are still the conniving character that you have always been. Give yourself up or I will make it my life’s work to find you, and when I do, you will regret it, believe me.”
There was a brief pause. “Thank you. As I stated before, let’s now move on from this, okay?”
Then all was silent.
I stood in the foyer shaking, realizing for the hundredth time I did not know this man at all. If that was indeed his ex-girlfriend, she was obviously hiding from him for a reason. Not to mention the undeniable fact that he had traveled all the way across the country with the sole intention to find her.
And now it seemed he was threatening her if she didn’t give herself up.
My little altercation with Ray seemed like a walk in the park compared to this. Adrian’s ex-girlfriend was running all over the country trying to escape him. I figured he must be crazy or something.
Then I had a horrible thought.
Was he crazy enough to kill Nouri when he found out I was leaving?
I probably should have left the house at that very moment, but good judgment was never my str
ong suit. Adrian was obviously hiding something and it sounded like nothing good. But I still wanted to make sure he was okay. And besides, I really didn’t believe he could be the killer. Whatever antics he had with his ex had nothing to do with me. Adrian was a gentleman when it came to me. He had promised me he would knock down his walls and allow me in if I wanted him. I was sure that all I had to do was agree and he would tell me everything I wanted to know about him. I headed down the dark hallway and stopped at the set of double doors.
Taking a deep breath, I summoned all of my courage and knocked lightly before I entered the massive library. Straight ahead were two windows placed side by side that reached from the ceiling to the floor. The remaining three walls housed large bookcases that were as tall as the fifteen foot ceilings. The shelves even had one of those rolling ladders to help you climb to the top shelf to retrieve a book.
Adrian was standing at the desk, urgently writing on a pad of paper. I noticed for the first time that he was left handed. No wonder he seemed so intellectual. I watched curiously as he tossed the pen onto the desk and strode across the room to the far corner. There was a pile of books thrown from the bookcase in total disarray on the floor. He looked over at me but he seemed too busy to acknowledge my presence. Leaning his upper body against the shelf, he began to push the heavy piece of furniture away from the wall. Behind the shelf was a safe built into the wall. He quickly punched in a code and opened it, retrieving an old book. The pages were yellowed and the red hard cover was deeply faded.
Adrian tossed the book onto his desk and looked up as he finally met my eyes. As he did this it looked as if he was just now seeing me standing in the library for the first time. His mood changed.
Dramatically.
“Hey Sidney.” He smiled, allowing me to see his mouth caked with blood from the cut he had suffered there.
I was stunned, but polite. “Sorry for intruding. The door was open. I knocked but you didn't answer.”
Between Loves (The Pendant Series Book 2) Page 7
