Tangled Hearts (Evermore 4 Book Box Set)

by ANDREA SMITH

  What the fuck was wrong with Neely anyway?

  She was naked from the waist down, and I could hear the wetness of their fucking. My heart pounded in my chest, and my fists clenched at my side, wanting nothing more than to tear the two of them apart. To break between their joined bodies and make Neely come to her senses.

  He’d made her wet. I hated that fact. It was a punch in the gut to me for some odd reason. Why was I still so possessive of someone that had never really been mine?

  I was standing in the aisle, right next to the reclined theater seat where he had her buried down underneath his writhing body. They were both oblivious to my presence, only caring about the carnal pleasure each was taking from the other.

  The scent of her pussy wafted up to my nostrils, and I felt them flare in raw, primal anger. I wasn’t going to remain a voyeur much longer I’d decided, wanting nothing more than to snatch Knight by his long dark locks and pull him the fuck off of her.

  Neely deserved so much better than Jasper Knight. Everyone knew what a whore dog opportunist he was. And just then she arched her back beneath him and clutched his pivoting ass tightly to her, letting a high-pitched wail escape from her lips. I froze in that instant. And then I just fucking lost my shit.

  “You fucking whore!” I snarled, startling the both of them and essentially putting the kibosh on their impending orgasms for the moment.

  “What the hell!” Jasper growled loudly, his eyes popping open and losing the heavy lidded lustiness they’d had only moments before. “Get the fuck outta here, mate!” he hollered, now up to speed on who it was that cockblocked him at the eleventh hour.

  My eyes caught Julia’s (not Neely’s) horrified look as my words registered. “Gladly,” I growled, my eyes locking with her frightened ones right before I spun around and walked back up the aisle and out the door of the studio.

  I rounded the curve that led from the hallway into the large entry hall at the front entrance, and collided with a body. “Sorry,” I muttered, not even looking to see who it was I’d nearly mowed down.

  “Seth?”

  I stopped abruptly and turned to look in the direction of the voice. It was Neely. Her brow knitted in concern or maybe it was confusion, I really couldn’t tell.

  “Are you…okay?” she asked studying me closely.

  “I’m better than okay, Tennessee. I’m fucking fantastic. Thanks for asking,” I snapped as I turned and made my exit out the front door.

  I could give two shits how Julia was going to get home. All I knew was when she finally managed to drag her sorry, cheating ass through our door she’d find me long gone.

  Chapter 12

  One week later . . .

  August 10, 1999

  “By the power vested in me by the State of Tennessee, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Merle, you may now kiss your lovely bride,” the minister said. I watched as my new stepfather, Merle K. Jeeter, turned and brushed a fleeting kiss on my mama’s lips. She was beaming.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Merle Jeeter,” the minister said, outstretching his arms to the handful of people in attendance. Besides Grandma and me, there was Merle’s sister and brother-in-law and a few members of their Christian AA group.

  Mama turned and took the small bouquet of carnations I’d been holding for her while they repeated their vows and she gave me a smile and a wink.

  The organist began banging out the final hymn and Mama and Merle made their way down the aisle of our small church and out into the steamy August heat. I followed with Merle’s brother-in-law, Grady, who’d served as his best man for the ceremony.

  Such a small ceremony, hardly worth my trip back to Tennessee, but I had my own reasons for being here. And before I left to go back to California the following day, I would have some answers from Mama.

  I’d been here for two days already, but with the flurry of preparations and the huge ‘to do’ list she’d given me, there hadn’t been time to sit down and have the conversation we needed to have.

  Merle seemed like a nice enough guy, and he definitely doted on Mama, which was exactly the kind of man she needed, but he always seemed to be at her side. And that fact hadn’t given us much one-on-one time with each other.

  “He’s a bit overbearing don’t you think, Neely?” Grandma had commented to me the first day I arrived and we’d all had dinner together. “Always taking charge, making the decisions for the both of them. I don’t trust a man like that.”

  “Oh Grandma,” I replied, “Maybe it’s what Mama needs right now. God knows she wasn’t making wise choices before she went into that sanitarium.”

  “I suppose so,” she conceded. “Still, I’m not so sure hooking up with a fellow that has the same…problem that she has is such a wise idea.”

  I couldn’t disagree with my grandmother on that one. I’d done a bit of research myself about the AA 12-Step Program. I’d wondered if Mama ever intended to get to the eighth and ninth steps. Because if she claimed she had when we had our talk, I was determined to call her out on it.

  My opportunity presented itself the following morning as I helped Mama get everything packed for her honeymoon. Merle was taking her to Niagara Falls for a week.

  “I just love the idea of a traditional honeymoon spot like that,” she said. “Your daddy took me to Vegas, of all places, on our honeymoon,” she muttered. “Nothing romantic at all about that.”

  “Mama,” I started, sitting down on the bed, “I need to ask you something, and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.”

  She looked over at me from where she was standing next to the dresser in the room she had at Grandma’s. “Well it sounds kind of serious, Neilah Grace. Should I stop what I’m doing for this?’

  “You might want to,” I replied. “Can you come sit here for a minute so we can talk?”

  She nodded and her face became solemn as she took a seat on the edge of the bed.

  “Now Mama, I know you’ve been in the AA program and I’m really happy that you’ve stayed on your path to recovery. In fact, I want to say how proud of you I am, because I know it’s been hard for you these past few years. But I have to ask you something. Is there…well, is there anything you need to say to me? Anything you need my forgiveness for?”

  She remained quiet, her forehead creased in confusion. It was quite possible Mama had no memory of things she’d done while under the influence, I knew that, but I hated to have to spell it all out for her. “I’m talking about Steps 8 and 9, Mama.”

  “I know that Neilah Grace,” she snapped. “I’m thinking, okay? Look here, I know I wasn’t always a good mother to you, so if it’s an apology you’re wanting from me, well you have it. I’m sorry.”

  She was acting kind of petulant now, and it pissed me off. “No, Mama, what I’m talking about are specific things you did that caused pain or suffering to people. Like these,” I finished, standing up and going over to my purse and pulling Seth’s letters from it. I handed them to her. “These letters that came to me from Seth. You never gave them to me. I didn’t see these until Grandma told me about them a couple years back.”

  She looked at the envelopes now clutched in her hand, but remained silent. Her head lowered as if she felt ashamed. “I’m sorry, Neely. I did keep those from you, I admit. I was just so scared you’d up and leave me. I thought you’d go live with your daddy to be near that boy and I just couldn’t let that happen,” she sobbed, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. “Will you ever forgive me, Neely?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, Mama. I forgive you.”

  She looked up at me, her eyes still tearing up. “And that boy,” she said, “I know I owe him an apology, too, but I just didn’t figure I’d ever see him again, which I know, is no excuse. The things I put in that letter to him must’ve been pretty nasty. He never did write back after that,” she continued, the sobs getting a bit louder. “Do you still see him, Neely? Or h
as he moved away from his mama too?”

  “Wait. What are you talking about, Mama? What letter?”

  She got up from the bed and walked over to the window so she was no longer facing me. “That second letter he sent to you saying he was coming to Tennessee and all. I couldn’t let that happen. I knew if he showed up here, Mama would’ve felt obligated to tell him where we lived and then he’d show up there and convince you to go back to California. He’d see just how sick I was and tell your daddy to take custody of you,” she wailed, wringing her hands.

  “Mama, what did you do?”

  She finally turned back around to face me. “I got on my typewriter and I typed him a letter. I signed your name to it. And don’t ask me what all it said, Neely, because I was drunk when I did it and I don’t remember. That’s the God’s honest truth. I just know that it had to have been hateful enough so that he’d leave you alone. Leave us alone. Don’t you see? I was sick then, Neely. I didn’t want to lose you.”

  And then it suddenly all made sense to me for the first time. Seth’s anger towards me. I had thought it was about that stupid note I’d left in his room. I was talking note and he was talking letter. A letter that I’d never composed or sent. But he hadn’t known that; he still didn’t know that.

  “Oh Mama,” I breathed, “you lost me anyway, didn’t you? And it had nothing to do with Seth and everything to do with you and the choices you made at the time. And you were never going to apologize to me about any of it until I brought it all up today.”

  She rushed over to stand next to me. “Neely, you have to forgive me. I’m your mama and I was sick back then.”

  I shook my head. “I know, Mama. And the truth is, I will forgive you. I’m just not sure I can do it right this minute and mean it.”

  Her face fell and she nodded her head quietly. “I understand,” she said quietly, “and I am sorry, for what it’s worth. You tell that boy the truth if you have a mind to, Neely. And you let him know that I’m sorry for what I’ve done to the both of you.”

  Chapter 13

  Three days later.

  August 14, 1999

  “Okay, spill girlfriend,” Jazzy said barging into my room. “You’ve been holed up in here since you got back from Tennessee and I’ve got questions.”

  I was on my computer, checking emails, and responding as needed. I received an email from Malcolm with the subject line Re: Manzone’s Party. I’d emailed him that I was back and would meet him at his office this evening so we could discuss the matter. I hadn’t even clued Jazzy in on that before I’d left for Tennessee.

  I turned my back on my computer and faced her. “Ask away,” I replied with a grin. “The wedding was lovely. My mom’s a shit. I’ll most likely forgive her in time. Anything else you wanna know?”

  “That I already knew. No, I want to know what the hell happened at that party! Blake’s been all shady and quiet, and I know something went down that day because now he’s crashing over at Jack’s place. Seth apparently has moved to some undisclosed location, and it appears his relationship with Julia is over. Now, what the hell is going on?”

  She was doing that whole eye bugging out thing, which was kind of funny, but she was dead serious. I didn’t want to lie to my best friend, but I obviously couldn’t tell her everything due to professional courtesy and confidentiality. I started telling her about Seth’s near collision into me that day at the party, which was pretty benign information when her cell phone rang.

  “Hold that thought,” she said grabbing it from her pocket and answering it.

  “What?” she shrieked, her eyes widening in shock. “Are you serious?”

  Countdown.

  5

  4

  3

  2

  1

  “Let me call you back.”

  I looked over at my best friend as she broke out into a wide grin. “Pull up The Tattler’s web page,” she instructed, folding her arms in front of her.

  I turned back to my computer and pulled it up. There it was. Front page, top banner. “Knight Moves On.” And there was a picture, a bit shadowed, but not enough to hide the clarity of who the subjects were: Jasper Knight, lead singer of Maple Plaid and Julia Cantrell, television star from the hit series, Lotus Pointe.

  “Hmm, great pic,” I commented. “Looks like someone got a candid shot of something they weren’t supposed to have seen. Why yes…there it is. Grace Evangelista.”

  “You beotch!” she screamed, grabbing my ponytail and giving it a hard jerk. But she was laughing and I knew I was forgiven. “You could have at least told me before it hit the rags!”

  “Couldn’t do it. I freelance, remember? I sell the pics. I don’t guarantee they’ll be published. In fact, some pics are purchased to keep them from being published. This one could’ve gone either way.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “Really? Well who bought this one?”

  “Now that,” I said standing back up and stretching, “is none of your business. I cannot disclose my client list to anyone.”

  “You know that just sucks,” she muttered. “So, I guess that answers my question about Seth leaving. You didn’t talk to him at the party at all?”

  “Nope,” I replied. “Not a word. It was a big party. Lots of people.”

  “Well, it looks like Jasper Knight gets around plenty.”

  “Yeah. Man whore that he is,” I remarked. “Well, I gotta get ready for an appointment downtown. I’ll see you later if you’re going to be around.”

  “I’ll be here. I wanna hear all about the wedding.”

  Oh. Fuck.

  Not my favorite subject considering how I’d left things with my mother. But I knew Jazzy would be supportive of me on this one. She had never cut my mother any slack. And now I’d done the same thing after what she’d disclosed to me. I’d left without a word. And I didn’t feel a bit sorry about it either.

  “You got it, and oh Jazz?”

  She looked over at me expectantly.

  “You might want to share this article with Nelson if you run into him in the near future. He might get a kick out of it.”

  Malcolm had a shit-eating grin on his face when I walked into his office in Hollywood later that afternoon. I immediately held my hand out and was rewarded with an envelope stuffed with cash.

  “My client was happy to pay for the picture, but obviously needed to sit on it for a week or so before deciding whether to go public with it or not. Either way, you got your five grand.”

  “Hey, you sure you don’t want to take a cut of it?” I asked him. “I mean you’re the one that clued me in on why you were playing bartender at Manzone’s party that day. I did the easy part. You never were good with the camera though, admit it.”

  Malcolm laughed and sat down behind his desk. “I swear to God, Neely, I thought for sure those hidden video thingamajigs I was wearing would be failsafe. But with everybody hitting the bar every ten seconds the way they did, I didn’t factor in the time I’d need to stalk the idiot.”

  “So,” I replied, taking a seat opposite him. “You know, I can pretty well figure out who your client is in all of this.”

  “Have at it, but I will neither confirm nor deny. I keep my client list confidential, you know that.”

  “Yeah, well for fun let me give it a shot. Obviously, it wasn’t Romanski, because if it had been him, he would’ve had you tailing Devon. Not that he probably hasn’t hired someone to do just that, but she wasn’t at the party. So, I’m betting Devon hired you to keep an eye on Jasper Knight. Funny how cheaters don’t trust other people not to cheat isn’t it? Such flawed characters I guess.”

  “Yes, they are,” he replied with a chuckle.

  “But what I don’t understand is how you knew Jasper and Julia planned to hook up at Manzone’s party?”

  “Ah, I have my ways, Neely. My instincts are polished to perfection, you know that.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him
how close I came to being underneath Jasper Knight that day. If I hadn’t insisted that Jasper go find a condom, I might never have lifted the wine glass to finish it off, and then seen the note scribbled on the cocktail napkin.

  You’re in my mix, Neely. Lose the Brit.

  That was when the realization hit me that Jasper was the subject of Malcolm’s undercover surveillance. Shit. I owed it to Malcolm to not fuck it up.

  I’d scrambled to my feet and hightailed it out of the studio before Jasper got back. I actually had gone in a different direction so I wouldn’t run into him on the way back. But once I realized I couldn’t get back to the deck without going back down the hallway I’d come from, I cautiously retraced my steps. Right before I turned the corner in the hall, I’d heard Jasper’s voice.

  “What the fuck are you trying to do, Julia, and who assigned you the task of being my own personal cockblocker, huh? What’d you do, run her off?”

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Jasper,” Julia hissed. “And keep your voice down before everyone hears you. Are you stoned out of your mind again?”

  “You don’t give a flying fuck who hears me as long as it isn’t that wanker you live with, am I right?”

  “Please don’t do this,” she replied quietly. “I told you how it was with me. I have to consider my options.”

  “Oh, your options? While you chase mine away?”

  “I’m not following you, Jasper. Can we go somewhere and talk about this quietly and calmly? You’re not making sense.”

  But it was all making sense to me as I continued to eavesdrop from around the corner, a potted plant offering me the opportunity to peek around to see where they were without them seeing me.

  Holy fuck. They’d been standing right in front of the studio door. I’d reached into my bag and pulled my camera out. Glad that the party seemed to be winding down and nobody else was in this wing of the house right now.