“You don’t mean that, Dustin.”
“You know what, I think for the first time, I might actually mean it. When was the last time you spent any time with me, Paige?”
“I was in the hospital for a couple days, Dustin, and now I’m trying to get caught up on my school work.”
“I thought you were going to take off the next semester?”
“There isn’t a reason for me to miss school anymore.”
She was right. Now without a baby on the way, she could go back to school and everything would go back to normal except things weren’t normal anymore. Our baby was gone, and Paige was going back to her regularly scheduled life while I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do.
“I’m taking off for a couple of days, Paige, I’ll talk to you when I get back.”
“Dustin, just wai-” I ended the call before I could listen to all the reasons she had for why I shouldn’t leave.
I needed to get out of town and try to figure out what the hell I was going to do next.
I did something I never should have done that night. Something I’ve regretted ever since.
__________
Chapter 6
Paige
“Well, shit.” When I had left the house this morning, I had walked because I didn't really see the point in driving my car to the store that was only two blocks away. Except I hadn’t figured in the snow that had started falling as soon as I had walked into the store and had been falling heavy since.
The whole reason I had gone to the store last night was to get dinner and then a few things I would need for the weekend so I could be snowed in with all of the necessities. I, of course, only bought dinner because my brain was so fried last night. Gambler and Gwen had only stayed for an hour before I started to nod off on the couch and they took the hint that I really was tired and wasn’t just trying to get out of hanging out with them.
This morning I had run over to Rose’s to make sure she was ready for the storm and stayed for a couple of hours helping her do a puzzle, and then I had headed out. I had parked my car behind my apartment and then walked to the store for wine, chocolate ice cream, and Swiss roll cakes. Only the necessities.
I stood at the door watching the snowfall and knew I had miscalculated when the snow was going to start falling, and now I needed to walk home in a snowstorm.
“Oh well,” I mumbled. I pulled my coat tight around me, pulled my hat firmly down over my ears and slid my gloves on. If I was going to make a run for it, it was now or never.
The snow was falling so heavily that I could barely see across the street, and the two blocks back to my apartment had never seemed longer. I glanced over my shoulder and saw an old truck slowly following me down the street. “What the hell?” I whispered.
The truck pulled up next to me, and they rolled down their window. “Paige, get in the truck.” Shit, it was Demon. I had done so good these past weeks not seeing him, and now here he was.
“I’m fine,” I hollered. I swung my arms, walking faster. Demon sped up the truck and turned down the next street and stopped in front of the sidewalk, blocking me.
“Demon, just please leave me alone.” I pleaded.
He leaned over, opening the passenger door and pushed it open. “Just a ride, Paige. It’s a fucking blizzard out here.”
The snow seemed to get heavier with his words, and my fingers were already numb. Damn him. Why did he have to show up when I actually needed him? I stood there staring at his truck deciding if I was going to be stubborn and get frost burn on my fingers or just get in the truck. “Just a ride.”
Demon held up his hands and moved back over to his side of the truck. I cautiously stepped to the truck and put my bags on the floor. I slid in, careful not to get too close to Demon and slammed the door shut. “That storm sure did come out of nowhere.” Demon pulled away from the curb, turning the truck around and headed down the street.
“Do you know where I live?” I pulled my gloves off and held my fingers up to my mouth and blew on them. It had to be below zero out there right now and with the gusting wind, it was probably colder than that.
“No, as much as you’d like to think I was stalking you, I wasn’t. I had to run and pick up a part from the parts store only to see that they had closed because of the storm blowing in.
“Oh. Well, I live over the pet store.” Demon slowly crept down the road, leaning into the windshield, trying to see where we were going.
“That place can’t be very big.”
“It’s big enough for me. All I need is a place to sleep, eat and watch a little TV at night.”
“And room enough for all of your cows.” Demon glanced over at me, a smirk on his lips.
I ducked my head and looked out the side window. “Yes, I guess that, too.”
Demon pulled up in front of my apartment and thought how ridiculous I was that I couldn’t walk the rest of the way home. I pulled my gloves back on and grabbed the bags from between my legs. Demon had opened his door and jogged around the front of the truck and opened my door before I had a chance to put my hand on the handle. The air blew in bringing the huge snowflakes with it, and I remembered why I chickened out and took the ride that Demon offered. “Oh, buckets,” I mumbled as I stepped out of the truck.
“What did you say?” Demon asked as he shut the door behind me and moved to grab the bags out of my hands.
“Huh? What?”
“Did you say ‘Oh, buckets’?” Demon laughed. “You always did say the weirdest shit when you didn’t want to cuss.”
I batted at his hands as he tried to take the bags, but he didn’t care and still grabbed them. “I can carry my own bags, Demon. I don’t need any more help from you.”
“I’ll walk you to your door, Paige.” He looked down at me, and his tone took me back seven years ago. When I knew if he would say something with that matter of fact tone, I knew that there was no arguing. I generally didn’t argue with him, though, because I usually agreed with whatever he said. Except for this time, I didn’t. Things were different, and that one huge difference from now to then, was that I wasn’t Demon’s anymore.
“Thank you, but no thank you.” I lunged for the bags, but he spun away as they slipped through my fingers and he stepped to the left. I stumbled forward, barely catching my balance before I went ass over tea kettle into the bench that was in front of the pet store. “Darn it, Demon. Give me the bags.”
“I will, as soon as you let me walk you to your door. And why are you calling me Demon? You never used to do that.”
“Correction, I only called you Demon when I was mad and upset at you.” I stomped my foot and lunged at him again. At the last second, he saw me coming and jumped backward into the street. I wasn’t as lucky as the last time and tripped on the curb and face planted in the fresh snow.
Demon roared with laughter above me, and I glanced up to see him bent over, his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. I rolled over, completely aware of the fact that I was laying on the side of the road in a snowstorm with a crazy man laughing like a loon at me. “I see your gentlemanly manners disappeared after all of these years.”
“Baby, I can’t help but laugh when you’re so insistent that you don’t want my help that you’d dive into the snow just to get rid of me.”
“I didn’t dive into the snow.” I managed to pull myself off of the road and tried to brush all of the snow off of me. “I was trying to get my bags from you that you stole from me.”
“I stole from you! I’m trying to help you, Paige. The last I checked the definition of stealing had nothing to do with helping.” He crouched down in front of me and worked on brushing all of the snow off of my legs. “We need to get you inside. Once this snow starts melting on you, you’re going to get cold fast.” He stood and grabbed my hand and tugged me over to the side entrance of the pet shop and opened the door. “Why in the hell isn’t this door locked?” He asked as he pulled me in behind him and shut the door.
“I never lock it. The one at the top of the stairs is locked most of the time. There’s no point in having both of them locked. I’m the only one who lives here.” I stomped up the stairs, snow falling off of my legs and body with each stomp of my feet. I reached the top of the landing and turned around to look down at Demon who was two stairs down from me. “Just leave the bags here. Thank you.” I turned back around to the door, hoping that he would get the point and leave. I fished around in my purse for the key, stabbed it into the lock and threw the door open. I turned back around to grab the bags Demon should have set down, but he was still standing there looking up at me.
“I’m not leaving until you get warmed up and you damn sure better lock both of these doors from now on.” He moved up a step and my jaw dropped, speechless. He pushed past me and walked into my apartment like he lived there. “Get in here, Paige, before you catch a cold.”
I looked down at the keys in my hand and wondered when in the heck I had stepped into the twilight zone.
__________
Demon
Paige eyed me up and down but didn’t budge from the steps. The snow that was covering her was melting, and she shivered. “Get your ass in this apartment, Paige, before I make you get in here.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but she skirted around me into the apartment, and I slammed the door shut. She was crazy to think that I was going to just drop her on her doorstep without making sure she was OK.
“I don’t understand why you are here, Demon. You were my knight in shining armor and delivered me home. Now you can go.” She pointed to the door and grabbed the bags out of my hands.
“Because you obviously need someone to look out for you since you were outside traipsing around in a fucking blizzard.” I took the bags back from her and headed into her small kitchen. “This place is fucking tiny.”
“It suits me just fine. It’s only me who lives here.” As soon as I had the bag empty, Paige ripped it from my hands and shoved it under the sink.
“I see some things never change. You remember that one time you had so many bags under your sink that you broke the damn pipe off and had water gushing out of the cabinet?” There were so many memories I had with Paige, that it was hard to remember them all. We had only been together for a year, but it had felt like we had known each other forever.
“I learned my lesson. I only put a handful under there and toss the rest in the pantry.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the sink. “You can go now, Demon. I plan on changing and then just reading for the rest of the day.”
“Still a bookworm, too, I see.” I picked up the huge container of cocoa she had bought and stepped towards the cabinet. “How about I put-” My words died as the lights flickered and then the apartment went completely dark.
“Oh hell,” Paige cursed.
“That was a heavy snow coming down, but I didn’t think the power would go off this soon.” I walked over to the window in the living room and looked up and down the street. Just as I stepped back, a squad car came streaking down the street with his siren blaring and his lights flashing. “Must be an accident somewhere for him to be going so fast.”
“You think that’s why the power went out?” Paige wrapped her arms around herself and looked around.
I opened all the curtains on the windows, letting in any light possible. “More than likely. Does that fireplace work?” I crouched down in front of the old fireplace she had in the corner of the living room and opened the glass doors.
“As far as I know it works. The landlord said it did, but I haven’t used it yet.”
I opened the flue and peaked my head into the chimney to make sure it was clear. Thankfully no birds or anything was obstructing it so now all I had to do was light a fire. “You know if he had any wood downstairs?”
“Um, I think by the back door he does.”
“I’ll run down and grab an armful. Who the hell knows how long the power will be out for. This place is going to cool down real quick with no heat pumping into it.” I stood up and brushed my hands on my jeans.
“You don’t have to do that; I can go get some when I need it.”
“You need it now, Paige. If you wait too long, you’ll be too cold. I’ll grab some and get the fire going. Why don’t you put some coffee or, hell, even some of that cocoa going?” I slipped out the door before Paige could protest and jogged down the stairs.
I don’t know how we had both missed the pile of wood at the bottom of the stairs, but we had. I stacked the wood into my arms trying to grab smaller pieces that would be good for kindling and headed back up the stairs.
Paige was standing at the sink filling a teapot as I walked by and kneeled back in front of the fireplace. “You still drink that tea crap I see.”
Paige sighed and slammed the teapot down on the stove. “If you don’t like my crap, you are more than welcome to leave. The last I checked, I didn’t need to put up with your shit attitude.”
“Just make me some damn coffee, woman, and we’ll be good.” I grabbed a newspaper she had laying on one of the side tables and ripped it apart.
“I had planned on it, Demon.” She reached up into the cabinet and pulled down a canister of coffee.
“You wanna tell me why the hell you call me Demon now? I remember correctly you only knew my road name was Demon for about ten seconds before you split.”
She set the coffee down and turned around to look at me. She propped her hands on her hips and cocked her head at me. “You really can’t figure out why the hell I’m calling you Demon and not Dustin?”
“Well, I mean, I think I know why, but thought I’d rather hear it straight from you why you’re calling me my road name that you swore before I even got it that you would never call me.”
“Because the man who is in my apartment right now is a stranger.” She stared me down and crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re both different people now, Demon. The Paige you knew is gone, just like the Dustin I knew is gone.”
“They’re not gone, baby. Just different.”
“You’re wrong, Demon. That young, naive, stupid girl is long gone. Just like our baby. Neither one is coming back. Please,” she whispered, “just leave.” She fled down the hallway and slammed the door behind her.
I fell down to my knees and bowed my head. Son of a bitch, that was not how I had seen this going. I didn’t want to hurt Paige anymore. That was the last thing I wanted to do. We had both been through so much back then, and I could tell that even now, years later, Paige still wasn’t over it. I had royally fucked up that day when I had left her apartment, and it looked like there was no coming back from that.
I had lost Paige before, and there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was ever going to get her back. No matter how much I still loved her, I couldn’t take back the things and words that I had said to her.
Fuck.
__________
Chapter 7
Paige
I had no idea where the hell Dustin was. I had looked for him all over and called him fifteen times, but he never answered. There was one last place to look, and I was terrified to go there. I was parked outside of the crowded clubhouse, my hands gripping the steering wheel trying to work up enough courage to walk through the door and find Dustin.
Dustin had invited me to the clubhouse many times before, but I had never taken him up on it because the timing never seemed to work out. Now I wished that I had made the time to come before. There were groups of people lingering by the door, and I could hear the music from the too loud stereo pouring out into the quiet night.
I hated the way Dustin and I had ended our phone call, but I didn’t know what to do anymore. I felt like I was drowning and there was no one there to save me. Dustin and I never had the chance to really talk about losing the baby, and I didn’t have any friends I could talk to who could relate to what I was feeling inside. I was alone, and the one person who should be there for me was blaming me for what had happened.
<
br /> The doctor had told me till he was blue in the face that there was nothing I could have done differently to have helped the baby live. It wasn’t meant to be, and I just had to learn how to accept that. Except I didn’t know how to do that, especially with the way Dustin was acting.
I opened my door, stepped out of my car and slowly made my way to the front door, praying that I would find Dustin right away. I knew that he lived a life that I wasn’t sure I was ready to be a part of with the club but knew that I wanted to be with him. This was my opportunity to see what this part of his life was like. He was still only a prospect, and he eagerly talked about getting his road name and becoming one of the brothers.
The door burst open before me, and two girls drunkenly stumbled out, and I managed to grab the door before it slammed shut. I slipped inside, my eyes scanning the vast room, hoping to see Dustin right away. The music was so loud I could barely see straight, and there was such a cloud of smoke in the room that I rubbed my eyes trying to make out the people who were walking past me.
This was the kind of party Dustin had been trying to get me to come to. He said if I ever came to the clubhouse, I would need to be with him, especially on party nights. The girls walking by me were barely dressed, and some had two or three men trailing after them trying to get their attention.
I had no idea where to look for Dustin. I knew that he had a room that was his, but again, I had never been here before, so I was completely lost. I shuffled my way over to the bar, dodging half naked bodies and grabby hands. It was like I was at a frat party but ten times worse. I set my purse down on the bar and pulled my phone out, hoping that when I called Dustin, this time, he would answer.
“What can I get you to drink?” I looked up from my phone into the eyes of a well-built man behind the bar and put my cell to my ear.
Fighting Demon: Devil's Knights Series Page 3
