They backed down the alley to the street, where they turned and ran.
I reached down to yank the mask off the man I’d hit. Blood gushed down his face from a serious looking gash in his temple. I still recognized the face—Tim, the man in the crew who’d always hated me. Derek would have had no problem recruiting him on a mission to try to destroy me.
“Yes, they ran away,” Leah said. She spoke into her cell phone. “We knocked one of them out, he looks pretty hurt. Please come quickly.”
“9-1-1?” I asked. She nodded, and I fought the impulse to run away from the scene before the police could show up. I wasn’t that kind of person any longer. “Are you okay?”
I went to embrace her, but she pulled away and put her hand on my chest to hold me back.
“Did you know these men?” she asked. Her eyes were hurt and her hand trembled where it lay on my chest.
“I did. This one’s Tim, and the one who grabbed you was Derek. I know the other one, too, but I’m not sure exactly who it was.” I took her face in my hands. “They aren’t going to get away with it, Leah. I will kill them for this.”
“How are you feeling this morning?”
The nurse was bright and cheerful. It was unnatural that someone could be so happy when the world was full of awful people.
“I’m fine,” I said, irritated. “I still don’t think I should have needed to stay here overnight.”
“The doctors wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong suppressed by the adrenaline and emotions of last night. It’s standard, in these cases.”
These cases.
Attempted rape and maybe worse. That was what happened to me last night. I’d been attacked, and not by just anyone—by Chris’ old friends.
I shivered. There was so much about Chris and his past I knew nothing about. The first impression I’d gotten of him was that he was dangerous to know and be around, and that had proven truer than I’d ever imagined. The look in his eyes when he said he was going to kill them—that left a deep chill inside of me, and it had more to do with Chris than I wanted to admit even to myself.
Even if he made me feel more alive than anyone else, what good was that if I ended up dead?
“Do you have a newspaper?” I asked. “I’d like to check something.”
“Let me grab you one,” she said. “Although if you’re looking for a news report about your attack last night, it’s far too early for that.”
I shook my head. “No, not that.”
The Entertainment section was behind the front page news, the Sports and the Business sections.
Nothing on the front page.
Wait…
At the top of the page there was a little teaser image. Worst play of the year? See page D3 for a review of Courtly Intrigue.
Lump in my throat, I thumbed over one more page.
“Half a star?” It didn’t seem possible. I’d never seen a review that low.
From uncertain acting to uninspired sets and laborious pacing, Courtly Intrigue has few redeeming qualities. At times feeling like a first stage rehearsal, the company’s decision not to have any preview showings before opening night backfired tremendously. While glimmers of a clever script showed themselves at times, most of the interminably long three hours was spent with the audience in confused silence.
It went on and on. I couldn’t read any more.
Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes and threatened to spill over.
What a terrible fucking night.
I couldn’t hold them any longer. Hot trails burned down my cheeks as the tears rolled down and dropped to the paper below.
My life had gone to shit. The play was even worse than a failure. If it had just been mediocre then I could have moved past it. This was something else entirely. It was an indelible mark against me I would carry for the rest of my career.
If I ever have one after this.
“Miss Allen?” A man in a white coat poked his head into the room. “I’d like to do another checkup. Are you feeling all right?”
I grabbed a tissue from the handy box on the bedside table and used it to wipe away the worst of the damage.
“As good as I can. Might as well get this over with. I want to go home.”
He nodded, sympathy on his face. “I understand that events like this can be very traumatic, Miss Allen. We have counselors available if you need one. Accessing the resources is encouraged. Just let me know and I will get help for you.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. It’s not like I actually got raped, and there’s something else that I found out that’s not helping the situation.”
“Rape is not necessarily only the physical penetration by an attacker,” he said. “You were victimized as a woman by men with a strong intention of using your body. Don’t bury your feelings or try to brush them off as insignificant; that can lead to more problems later.”
“I’m fine,” I said again. I even mustered a shaky smile. “Can we just get this over with?”
“Very well.”
The examination was quick and relatively painless, except for the prodding where bruising had developed to check for broken or fractured bones.
“That’s everything, Miss Allen. I understand we have your insurance information and you’ve already given your statement to the police, so you can leave whenever you feel able. Let the staff at the desk know if you need to call someone and they will aid you.”
I gave the doctor my thanks and excused myself. I wandered out of the wing.
“Leah! There you are. I’ve been waiting for you for hours.” Chris stood from a waiting room seat and stretched.
At least, he tried to. His arm was in a sling, and his shirt fit bulkier than usual—evidence of the bandages underneath.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I said, walking by him.
He fell into step beside me. “Why not?”
I stopped and rounded on him. “Why not? My life has gone to shit, Chris. Before I met you, I was confident, successful, just a regular student at college. Now my school work has slipped, the play is a failure, and friends of yours almost raped me. If you’re going after them like you say you are—if you’re going to throw away everything we’ve built for revenge—then I can’t be around you any more.”
Chris stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “I can’t let them get away with this. And the cops aren’t gonna do shit. You know it. I know it. That’s just the way things are. If I let this go, they’ll come after you again. Hell, as long as Derek’s still alive…”
He paused. Then his voice dropped to a low, dangerous level. “I have to end this. For you. For us.”
I shook my head in disgust. “So what? You’ll kill them? Like you put that one guy into a coma and probably gave him brain damage?” I took a step back. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I can’t be a part of that life. I can’t have that influence around me. I need to get my life back on track. And if you value what we have, then you’ll let this go and move on—with me.”
Chris stepped close to me again. His voice was low, urgent. “Leah. I need you. You make me so much better. I’ve changed because of you. But I need you to trust that when it comes to these guys, I know what’s best. Don’t give up on me now.”
I couldn’t let him get any closer. I couldn’t think straight when his body was next to mine, when he looked at me like that.
“No, Chris. Don’t call me and don’t talk to my friends. I don’t want a criminal—a murderer—around.”
I turned down the hallway and fled, not looking back.
“Hello, you’ve reached Kevin. I’m busy at the moment, so please leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can.”
I hung up and threw the phone onto the couch.
“Fuck!”
Radio silence. Not just from Leah, but everyone. All of my new friends, even the closest ones I’d spent so much time with learning about music. No matter how much time we had spent together, they were s
till better friends with Leah and had known her longer than me. All it took was two days for word to get out that Leah wanted nothing to do with me, and it was over.
No job, no friends. No Leah.
Things had never been so bad. At least when life had been a dark hole with no hope, I’d still had an income and a group of friends, even if I despised them and the things we did together.
There was still the music. But without Leah and her friends, I was right back at square one. I’d had one successful show, but no connections to set another up. For the first time I regretted leaving so quickly with Leah that night—there had been so many people waiting to talk and I had blown them all off to get home a couple minutes sooner with the woman who wanted nothing more to do with me.
Even the business cards handed to me that night had disappeared. No matter where I looked, they didn’t turn up.
I picked up the stack of bills on the coffee table as if the business cards might lay underneath.
Bills…
The small savings I had were on the verge of drying up. If I didn’t find work, I’d soon be homeless.
I retrieved the phone from where I’d thrown it and dialed one more number. I hadn’t talked to her since before I quit because I didn’t want her to worry, but the time for secrets was up.
“Hello?”
Her voice was always calming. It was the one that had been reasonable every time Dad had said something that you shouldn’t say to your own sons.
“Mom.” I couldn’t help it. My voice cracked.
“Christian? What’s wrong, dear?”
“I messed up.”
“What happened? What did you mess up?”
“Everything.” I took a trembling breath and then told her. About how I quit my job. About how I’d ditched the crew. About the DJ gig Leah got me, and how well it went. I even told her about how Leah and I got together. I also told her about the events of Thursday night, Leah’s play and the attack later on that night.
“Oh, Christian. You’ve been so strong for so long, it’s hard to remember that you’re still young. You’ve never faced true heartbreak before or had to deal with the consequences of picking the wrong friends. I’m just glad you and Leah are safe for now. We can figure everything else out later.”
“Figure what out?” Frustration laced my voice. “My chances in music are worse off now than since before Leah and I met, and there’s no getting my job back at the warehouse. Especially not when those assholes are still there, running free after what they did. I swear to God, Mom, I’ll kill Derek. He’ll pay for what he’s done.”
“Christian! Promise me you won’t go after those punks! You’ll get yourself hurt. Didn’t you tell the police everything you know?
I scoffed. “Yeah, and it will just be our word against theirs with no evidence. They won’t get anywhere near what they deserve.”
“Christian! Promise me!”
“Fine. I won’t go after them. Happy?” It was hard to hide the insincerity in my voice.
“I suppose,” she said. “They’ve shown that they don’t care about the law, I don’t want you to get hurt even worse than you already have.”
“Trust me, I’m not a big fan of that myself,” I said. “A fractured forearm is enough damage for one week.”
She tsked. “I really wish you would move out of the city. It worries me, having you down there.”
It was a perfect opening. “Actually, that’s part of the reason I called,” I said. “You remember the job that Jerry offered to me a few months ago? Do you think he’d still be able to get it for me?”
“Dad!” I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him. “This is a big surprise.”
He stepped into the apartment and looked around. It was the first time he’d seen it.
“Nice place. Bit small.”
I smiled. Of course that was the first thing he said. “It’s perfect, Dad. I wouldn’t want anything bigger. Then I’d have to fill it with more useless crap. Why are you here? Not that I don’t love it, but you hate the city. You said you’d never come in.”
There was only one thing that would have made him break his word, but I held my breath, hoping it wasn’t the case.
He frowned. I knew that face. It was his concerned mother face. Growing up, that face always told me when he’d decided that he needed to step in for my deceased mother.
“I heard about what happened the other night. I wanted to come and see for myself that you’re okay.”
“Chris told you.” My voice was flat.
“He told your stepmother. She filled me in.”
I could tell it hurt him he’d had to get the story secondhand.
“I didn’t want to worry you. It was scary, but it ended up okay. Chris and I weren’t the only ones to go to the hospital—one attacker went, too. Last I heard, he still hasn’t woken up.”
He put his arms around me. It was protective, and safe. The fatherly hug that promised everything would turn out okay.
The tension eased from my body. I hadn’t realized how bad it had gotten over the past few days.
“I’m sorry,” he said from over my head. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, honey. I wish there was a way I could go back in time and prevent it from happening. These things are terrible, horrendous, and there’s no explaining how deviant men can get.”
I hugged him tight. “Thanks, Dad.”
When we backed away, my shoulders felt lighter, as if the emotional catharsis had lifted an actual weight from my back.
“Can I get you a beer?” I asked him.
“Do you have any wine?”
Of course. I should have known. “Just give me a sec.”
Once we settled in the living room, I couldn’t take my eyes off him sitting on my couch. “I can’t believe you’re actually here.”
“Well, my baby is having a tough week. Some things are more important than a distaste for the city. Why don’t you tell me about the play?”
Dad was my first fan, my first director, and my primary cheerleader. It was only his willingness to sacrifice everything for his daughters that had given me such a step forward in my acting. He’d seen it all, and I knew how much he wished he’d been at the play the other night.
“It should have been great,” I said. “The script was fantastic. But there was some history with the writer and the director that I guess scared off most of the seasoned and best-qualified actors. I had no clue until it was too late and we already started rehearsals. I guess the only thing to be happy about is that it tanked so completely that they canceled the rest of the run. All that time and effort put into rehearsing, and it got canned after one show.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having a failure, Leah. It happens, and you learn from it and move on.”
“Everyone keeps saying that!” I exploded. “ ‘It’s just a learning experience. No one will remember it. You did well and that’s all that matters.’ Can someone please just agree with me that life sucks right now? This should have been a big break, and then I found out I got the part only because everyone else knew how big of a train wreck it would be before auditions even started. I feel like an idiot.”
“Did you read the reviews, Leah?” Dad asked.
I nodded. “One of them.” The way he looked at me like he knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth forced the rest of it out of me. “Okay, I read the first couple paragraphs and couldn’t read any more. It was brutal, Dad.”
I could feel the tears start to come back the way they had when I first read the things the reviewer said about the play. After being there, being in it, I knew it would be bad; I should have been prepared for it.
“Well, as your father, I tracked down every single review written about the play. There were four, in different papers and websites. You know the things they all had in common?”
I shook my head and used a finger to wipe away the moisture that had collected in my eyes. “I bet they all said it sucked.”
He lau
ghed. “Oh, yeah. That was a common theme. But they all also said that it could have been much worse. That if it weren’t for the female lead, Leah Allen playing the part of Annie, then it would have been an absolute travesty.”
I sniffed. “They said that?”
“It’s right there in every one.” He smiled. “Every time someone digs up and reads a review of the play, they’ll get an account of how brilliant you were even with everything going to shit around you.”
“Dad! You aren’t supposed to say ‘shit.’ ” Getting Steph and I to tell on each other when we said bad words was his way of keeping our language as clean as possible when we were little, and I never broke the habit around him.
“Sorry, pumpkin. Point is, I don’t think this will set you back as badly as you think it will.”
I took a sip of my wine, mulling it over. The situation was definitely better than I’d thought.
“That’s not the only reason I came, Leah.”
We’d already covered the assault and the play. What else was there?
“It’s about Chris.”
My heart skipped a beat. He can’t know about me and Chris, can he?
I didn’t know how he would react to that. Besides, Chris and I were done. Beyond done. I never wanted to see him again. At least that’s what my brain said. My body screamed a different story, and so did my dreams over the past couple nights.
“What about Chris?” I tried to keep my voice neutral and not say anything I would regret without knowing how much he knew.
“He’s in a tough spot,” Dad said. “He’s asked me if I could get him a job at my company. He’ll be moving out of the city to come and stay with us if things don’t turn around in the next couple months, since he won’t be able to make rent.”
“He’s leaving?” I couldn’t believe it. “But he hates it out in the country!”
Dad shrugged. “He doesn’t have a choice, sweetness. He doesn’t have a job, and I guess he’s been dabbling with some music stuff but it’s not working out for him. I didn’t talk to him but it sounded like he could use a friend right about now.”
He knows. I could tell from the way Dad looked at me. Chris had told his mom everything, and she’d shared with Dad.
Pulse: A Stepbrother Romance Page 14
