I heard a flush and some water running. A moment later the door creaked open and I stood, the blood racing through my veins intensifying.
Something crimson popped out. And short. A girl with red hair bumped into me leaving the bathroom. “Excuse me,” she mumbled with her head down.
After she left I went into the restroom to see if there was another door or window, but nothing. I went back to the front and talked to the guy at the counter. “Did a man with black hair and a leather jacket come into the shop moments before me?”
He tilted his head back contemplating my question before nodding his head. “Yeah, dude. He just like scurried inside and back behind the counter. I went after him but he raced out the back door. Crazy.”
Fuck.
“Did the dude dine and ditch you?”
“What?” I asked.
He pointed to the flowers still in my hand. “You know, dine and ditch your date to pay for it? That’s a dick move.”
“Something like that. Where does that back door lead?”
“Just the alleyway.”
He was gone. Damien must have realized I was following him. That means he saw me. I wonder if he recognized me. I was only a young teenager when he last saw me.
I made my way back to Evaleen’s apartment, determined to get her out of that building.
Checking the front door, I noticed it was locked which made me feel a little better for her safety; but as I stood there someone came out of the building and held the door open for me. Whatever relief I felt evaporated. I could have been Damien standing here just waiting for the door to open.
I remembered her apartment from a few weeks ago and took the stairs to the third floor. There was a woman at the door talking to Evaleen’s mom.
“No, thank you, Mrs. Charles. I would love to have some of your new batch of cookies but I just started that new lemon-peppermint-cayenne cleanse,” her mom said.
I moved closer, frowning at the terrible things she must be drinking for the cleanse.
“Oh, well these would be perfect because those are the ingredients in my cookies!”
“Really? Doesn’t that sound interesting? Edgar! What a perfect surprise. Please excuse me, Mrs. Charles, but I have a guest.”
“Oh, maybe he would—” Mrs. Charles smiled turning toward me with a tray of gray-colored cookies.
“No! Uh, Edgar’s severely allergic to lemon.”
Evaleen’s mom stared at me, daring me to question her untruth.
“I made some without lemon.”
“He’s also allergic to peppermint and cayenne.”
Evaleen’s mom pushed past Mrs. Charles and grabbed my arm pulling me into her apartment.
“Good day, Mrs. Charles.” She shut the door and turned to lean her back against it.
“Oh, Edgar, I’m sorry I lied about your allergies. But trust me when I say, I may have saved your life.”
She pushed off the door and began to remove my coat for me before taking it to the coat rack.
“Wow, those are beautiful.” She smiled.
“Oh,” I lifted the bouquet, “yes, they are for Evaleen.”
“Of course. Let me get her for you.” She didn’t move, instead she continued to stare at me as she yelled, “Evaleen. Flower delivery.”
We stood there listening to some noise coming from down the hall. Evaleen’s mother’s smile grew wider as I became increasingly more uncomfortable.
“Is it from your secret admirer again, Mom?” Evaleen’s voice turned my head and my jaw dropped.
Her golden hair flowed down her shoulder over a coffee-colored dress. It was a wrap dress and it fit her like a glove. I had seen Evaleen naked, but I had never seen her wear something that added to her beauty.
“Oh, Edgar. Why are you here?” Evaleen asked.
THIRTY-FOUR
Evaleen
Edgar was staring at my chest.
I went to pull my top closed but realized there wasn’t enough fabric there. As comfortable as this dress felt in my bedroom, it now seemed to be suffocating. I wanted it off and back into my oversized sweater and pants.
“You look beautiful,” Edgar said before swallowing and pushing his arm out straight to me. A bouquet of pink and red flowers was in his hand.
I took them and noticed they were various shades of pink peonies with a red rose tucked in the middle. “Wow, these are lovely, Edgar.”
“She said they would be perfect for you.” Edgar’s eyes were still glued to my chest.
“Who said that?”
“Huh?” His eyes lifted with surprise.
I smirked. “Yes, there is a head and body attached to this chest.”
My mom snorted and tried to cover it up with a cough. “Oh dear. I think I should take a walk to get a breath of fresh air.”
Edgar turned and grabbed her arms. “No. Don’t go out there.”
I went and pulled him away from my mother. “What is wrong with you?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, it’s just um, maybe I could make you both dinner. Have a night in with the two most beautiful women in the world.” He released his dimples and my mother sighed. Despite my mother’s gullibility, I wasn’t easily fooled.
I gave the flowers to her and asked to put them in water. Once she walked off to the kitchen, I poked Edgar in the chest. “What is this? Do you even cook?”
He nodded furiously, but after a moment it slowed until it changed into a shake of his head. “Not really. I can boil hot dogs.”
I folded my arms. “That’s sad, Edgar. And we don’t have hot dogs in our apartment. What is going on? First, you bring me flowers and then, you attack my mom as she tries to leave.”
He held up his hands in innocence. “I did not attack her. I simply placed my hands around her arms. It was gentle. You can ask her yourself if I hurt her. As for the flowers, it was because I came here tonight to ask you on a date.”
My heart tripped on his words.
“You want to take me out? Not just have sex?”
I found his gray eyes and was surprised at the honesty there. They say you can tell when a man is lying by his eyes, but I saw only truth shining back at me.
“Of course.” He stepped closer and slipped his hand around the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. “Evaleen, I want to spend time with you. Get to know you. The past two weeks have been fun, but I want more. I want you.”
My ears began to ring and I could already feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. None of that made sense. Edgar had never had a girlfriend before. At least, none that I knew of. Was that what this was? Was he asking to be my boyfriend?
“This isn’t some ploy to get both me and my mom in bed for a threesome because that’s gross, Edgar. Even for you.” I pushed away. Wanting to run into my bedroom and shut the door.
He couldn’t be asking to be with me, only me. There had to be something else involved.
Edgar chuckled but stepped toward me. “No, Evaleen. I don’t want a threesome. Your mother is beautiful, but I only have eyes for you.”
“Awww.” I heard my mom’s voice from the kitchen.
I turned my head to yell back to her, “Mom, I can hear you.”
“Well, it’s about time your storybook hero came to his senses and came after you.”
I groaned and covered my face with my hands. Edgar took hold of my wrists and lowered them.
“She’s right, you know. I should have done this five years ago, but I was young and scared.”
“You were twenty-nine. It’s not like you were nineteen when you first met me.”
I shook my head as his lips thinned. My mother chose that moment to come back into the room and stop pretending she wasn’t listening.
“None of that matters, Evaleen. Nineteen, twenty-nine, or any age, you are never too old or too young to find love.” She placed the flowers on the coffee table and stepped back admiring her work.
“Then take me out, Edgar. I’ll go change.” I turned but was
stopped by the other two people in the room yelling no at me.
“That dress looks amazing on you, Evaleen. Why would you change?” my mother said.
“It was just something Aria didn’t want anymore and thought would look good on me. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s me.”
“Oh, it’s you, Evaleen. It’s so you.” Edgar’s voice deepened the more he spoke.
I didn’t feel comfortable in it, but the way Edgar looked at me made me want to wear it. So he would never look at me any other way.
“Okay, I’ll just grab my jacket.”
“No,” Edgar said.
“But it’s still chilly out there. I think there is a freeze warning tonight.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets as his eyes darted around the room. “Remember, I’m making you two dinner?”
My mother came over to stand next to me. “Are you sure you don’t want me to leave. There’s a new Vin Diesel movie I have been wanting to see.” Her eyebrows wiggled as she stepped closer to the door.
“No, we should all stay here.” Edgar held out his hands in front of us.
“Edgar, what is going on?” I asked, fed up with his hot and cold routine.
Why did we all have to stay inside? He liked me in the dress but not enough for anyone else to see me in it?
“Edgar, you aren’t some crazy dominant asshole who refuses to let another man even look at me, are you?”
He ran his fingers through his hair in obvious frustration.
I hoped he didn’t want to keep me in a cage and pee on me. That would be a hard no.
“No, listen, I didn’t want to tell you this but I saw Damien outside before I came in here.”
My heart rate picked up and I had the sudden urge to hide my mother in the closet.
“What? Oh no,” I said.
“Whose Damien?” my mother asked.
She didn’t know. I never told her anything Edgar said about Damien being Shane and that his friend saw him at the airport. I especially didn’t tell her Damien and Ashton were pictured together.
How does a daughter tell her mother that her worst nightmare had come back? The man that drove her daughter to run away on her eighteenth birthday.
I felt the tears again, but this time they were justified. I turned to my mother and put my arms around her. “I’m sorry, Mom, but he’s back.”
She tried to pull away but I held her tight. “Who’s back. What are you . . . oh God. No. No.”
We held on to each other for a few minutes. Both of us crying until we gathered ourselves enough to let go.
“Is that his name now? Is Shane, Damien?” Her brown eyes wide as she gazed at Edgar.
“Yes. That’s his real name, Damien Rosen.”
Edgar guided us to the couch as he sat on the leather chair next to us.
“Why did you never tell me?” my mother asked. She gazed at Edgar but I knew the question was meant for me.
“Damien was involved in some way with a missing coworker of Edgar’s. The police contacted us and showed us a picture of them together. I knew he was back in Chicago, but I had no reason to believe he would want anything to do with us.”
“The detective I know seems to believe Damien is with some big crime syndicate. That somehow Ashton got involved. That’s how he ended up dead,” Edgar said while rubbing the back of his neck.
I glared at Edgar. I wished he hadn’t mentioned Ashton’s death.
“Dead? Oh God.” My mom clasped her hands at her chest.
I knew that would freak her out. That was why I didn’t want to tell her anything.
“According to the police he committed suicide, but how do you cut your arm off before you drown yourself in the Chicago River?” Edgar wouldn’t shut up.
“Okay, Edgar. I think my mom is upset enough,” I spoke through gritted teeth.
He looked at her and recognition widened his eyes. “Oh yeah, right. Right.”
I rubbed my mom’s back as she silently wept. She took a deep breath and pointed to Edgar. “You promised me he would never return. You promised my daughter and I would be safe. You lied, Edgar.”
Rearing my head back, I turned to gaze at Edgar. When did Edgar and my mother ever talk about Damien before now?
THIRTY-FIVE
Edgar
May 31, Fifteen Years Ago
As much as the house appeared tiny and run down on the outside, the inside was well kept with a feminine touch.
“I just finished making some soup. Would you like some?” The beautiful woman stood in front of me as I sat at her small pine kitchen table. Her smile was warm, inviting, and everything I wasn’t expecting.
I thought she would be just as bad as Damien. A terrible mother who put her boyfriend before her daughter, causing the girl to run away. That’s the scenario I made up in my head last night before I ripped open the letter her daughter left behind in that tree and read it.
“That would be nice. Thank you. There’s a bit of a cool wind out there.”
She nodded and gazed toward the window. Her smile faded as she became lost in the rustling leaves waving at her from outside.
“Ms. Bechmann?”
My voice broke her from her trance and she peered over at me, grinning once again. But it wasn’t as bright as before. “Right, I’ll scoop you a bowl.”
She puttered around the kitchen and it gave me a minute to look around.
There were two pictures in gold frames that were hanging on the wall between the kitchen and the eating nook. They were both of her daughter. One was when her daughter was in elementary school. A huge smile on her face, all teeth, except for two missing in the front.
The other, a sharp contrast, and I suspected more recent. She stood in the front driveway with her arms wrapped around herself as Damien draped his arm across her shoulders. Her head was turned away while his smile was wide and lazy and on full display for the camera.
It sickened me the way he touched her.
“He’s gone you know,” Ms. Bechmann said as she ladled out the soup from a large metal pot on the old black stove.
“What?”
She carefully took the bowl to the counter and turned to me. “Shane. He’s gone. Left this morning and said he wouldn’t be back. Do you know him? Is that why you’re here?”
I took a moment to look at her. Really see Ms. Bechmann. Her eyes held sadness with a tinge of worry. But the way her eyes held me, they were full of suspicion. If what her daughter wrote in that note was true, her mom was scared right now.
“Yes and no.”
After getting out a plate that she placed the soup on, she brought it over to me with a spoon.
“Be careful, it’s quite hot.”
“It smells wonderful.”
It did. My stomach rumbled as I realized I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I sipped at the broth on the spoon and my eyes widened at the amazing flavor. I took another spoonful, getting a chunk of beef and carrot. Blowing on it, I finally pushed it past my lips and the beef practically melted in my mouth.
“Wow. This is amazing.” I moaned the words.
“Thank you. It’s my daughter’s favorite.” She glanced away. Her lip trembled so I placed my hand on her arm for reassurance.
“That’s why I came here tonight, Ms. Bechmann.”
As she turned back to face me, her eyes widened with hope.
“I do know Shane, but I’m not one of his friends. You see, he used to be my mother’s boyfriend several years ago.”
“Oh, I see. You want to meet the woman who took him from your mother? Well, I have to tell you, I didn’t know Shane had been with another woman when we met. Trust me, I would never have gone out with him if I had known. Besides, we only met a few months ago.” She took a deep breath.
I shook my head. “No, I’m not here for that. I mean, I was here last night to find Shane. I sat right outside your house in my truck with a gun in my hand waiting for him to come outside, but someone else came outside instead.”
&n
bsp; She jolted from her chair. Pushing it back so hard it fell backward. “What? Oh God, Evaleen. Did you hurt her?”
She backed away so I got up and put my hands up showing her my palms. “No, Ms. Bechmann. No, I didn’t hurt her. I didn’t even get out of my truck or talk to her. But I did see her jump out of the second-story window with a large bag. That’s why I am here, to tell you I saw her. And to say that she saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life.”
Her eyes searched the floor trying to make sense of my words. Finally, she lifted her head. “So did she even see you? Last night in you truck?”
“No, she didn’t. I could tell she was scared, and then Damien, uh, I mean Shane, came to the window looking out and she hid behind the front tree.”
The corner of her mouth curved slightly. “Our tree. When she was little I used to tell her that if she was ever scared she could use that tree for protection. Hide in it, leave notes in the hollow, or take its fallen branches as weapons. She was eight at the time, so it seemed magical to her. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I . . .” Her breath caught and tears fell. I walked over and cradled my arms around her shaking frame.
Once she calmed, I guided her back to the kitchen table to sit in a chair. I took my seat and explained the reason for my visit. “Shane didn’t see her and when he stopped looking out the window, she put an envelope in the tree and left. I tried to follow her but she slipped away. I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “Thank you anyway. You said she left an envelope? I looked for something, anything, this morning in the tree but I didn’t see anything.”
I put that off long enough. It was time to give her back what her daughter left for her. “Here it is. I took the envelope.” I pulled it out of the inside of my jacket pocket and handed it to Ms. Bechmann.
“Why did you take it? The envelope says Mom on it.”
“This may sound creepy but your daughter, she had this hold on me. I don’t know. Maybe it was my mental state last night. I mean, I wanted to shoot Shane so you could say I wasn’t in my right mind last night. I was angry for the way he stole from my mother and left us. I’m sorry, but your daughter felt like this angel appearing to remind me that hate isn’t the answer. That being there for your loved ones is the answer.”
The Attraction File (Cake Love Book 2) Page 17
