by West, Sinden
Memory
Book Two: Scars Series
By
Sinden West
Copyright © 2014 Sinden West
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com
Table Of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter One
I sat on the beach with the sun beating down on me, running my fingers through the warm sand as I read my book. Perfect. Everything was perfect right there at that moment; being alone on that beach with the ocean stretching out ahead of me, endless and full of promise. Yachts and huge launches dotted the landscape, riding out the swell of the water, and I wondered about what adventures their occupants were going on and what they were escaping.
A blonde boy jogged down the beach and for a moment I thought he was Finn, my ex-boyfriend who belonged to another life. But that wasn’t really another life; that had merely been playing pretend. This was my life now, where mistrust and deceit reigned, except whereas before my mother was the queen and I a mere handmaiden, now Aaron ruled and I was never sure of my place. I fingered the necklace that lay at the base of my throat, its symbolism never far from my thoughts.
It wasn’t Finn. This boy was older, much older, a man really, with broader shoulders and a well-developed chest which was bared and shiny with sweat. He veered away from his route by the water’s edge and headed up to where I sat as I enjoyed my solitude.
“Hey.” He was breathing hard, hands on his hips and showing off his physique. This guy was broader than Aaron, like he worked out just to show off; unlike Aaron whose rigorous training regime had the end goal of being as lethal and effective as possible.
“Hi,” I replied coolly, slightly resentful that my tranquility was interrupted but I didn’t know why. Much of my time was spent alone. Thomas was my only friend, along, perhaps, with Antony, and of course there was Aaron…
If my icy tone bothered him, he didn’t let it show. He held out his sweaty hand and I shook it with my sandy one. “I’m Ryan. I live a few doors down from you.” He flashed a grin of perfect teeth that were an example of dentistry at its finest. This guy had money dripping from him. The address, the looks…this was privilege and wealth wrapped up in one perfect package.
“I’m Paige.” It was funny how the name didn’t roll off my tongue with ease anymore. I was so used to being called Rachel that sometimes I was scared that I would forget who Paige was. At night I would lie awake in the dark, mouthing Paige, Paige, Paige, over and over as Aaron lay in an untroubled sleep next to me.
“Nice to meet you.” He sat down beside me. “I’ve seen you around here for a while now and always wanted to say hi.” His chest muscles moved as he breathed. He was the embodiment of health and normality. For a bizarre instant I imagined myself in black and white next to him, while he was vivid in Technicolor.
I forced myself to smile in response, and it felt like a foreign action, as if I were ice and my face had to crack for that smile to form.
“Anyway, we’re having a party on the beach tonight. It’d be cool if you could come.” That perfect grin never died.
“I’m not really into parties,” I told him, and that was the truth. I liked them well enough when Mara and Torrance were alive, but that felt forever ago now.
He lifted a shoulder like it didn’t matter, rejection probably just bounced off someone like him. “Just come for a drink, if you want.” He got to his feet. “I hope I see you later. Bye, Paige.”
“Bye, Ryan.”
The teeth flashed and he was off, running like he had somewhere to go and I watched until he disappeared down the beach before I gathered my book and stood. I made my way up the sandy path that led up to the wall which kept Aaron’s house divided from the beach. It was strange that someone who had such a high tech security system in his home would have a property that bordered the public beach where anyone could walk up undetected. It made me think of him as human, that maybe he needed the freedom and openness that only the ocean could bring. Sometimes, I allowed myself the fantasy that he needed that wide ocean on his doorstep due to a fear that one day he would end up locked in a prison and confined to a tiny, dark cell. Although, the idea was a silly notion; Aaron feared nothing.
I entered the code to the gate and it swung open, buzzing sharply in contrast to the sounds of the beach and nature around us as a signal that I was entering a different world. The disturbing sound only ceased once I had the gate securely closed behind me and the picturesque ocean was locked away from my view. I padded up the stone path and past the lap pool in my bare, sandy feet, wiping them as I arrived at the door of the glass architecturally designed house in which I cohabited with Aaron. Of course, I made sure that I was clean before I entered. He did not like mess, and his home always needed to be pristine, perfect, and blinding white.
I found him in his gym, on the treadmill and sprinting hard. I stood in the doorway and watched him, his muscles moved under his skin like he was some kind of machine. As far as men went, he was perfectly formed. Slim but muscled, everything about him was hard. On those occasions that we went out together, other women would stare at him. They always seemed to be the pretty innocent type; they could obviously tell that there was something dark lurking within him and subconsciously perhaps, they wished that he would eat them up like the big bad wolf. If he were darkness, then I was the ice queen: unsmiling with frozen blood locked in my veins.
The treadmill faced the mural that stained an entire wall. The twisted tree with the creepy faces hidden within kept me out of this room normally, and I wondered why he was running toward it. He slowed the treadmill down to a slow jog before he stopped it altogether. He stepped off it easily, grabbing a towel and wiping his face.
“I’m going out soon.” He hadn’t even turned to look at me, nor given any indication that he knew I was in the room. I didn’t act surprised; Aaron was like an animal with razor sharp instincts and I had made it my mission to never show surprise or weakness in front of him, but it wasn’t always that easy.
I moved into the room, lifting my chin and acting like the mural didn’t creep me out. I gave my attention instead to the other wall. Old weapons hung there — crossbows, longbows and swords. He collected them and it was the only interest he had that I knew of.
I plucked a crossbow from the wall. The wood was intricately carved and I wondered how old it was. Aaron was watching me now openly, and on impulse I raised the crossbow to my eye level and pointed it at him. I had his still figure right in my sights, and if it were loaded I was confident in my ability to unload an arrow right between his eyes. He stood still, as if waiting for something and I had the distinct feeling that he was laughing at
me.
I looked away, just for an instant. It took a mere moment for him to be at my side and twisting the weapon from my grip. Before I knew what had happened, the crossbow was now firmly in his possession and I had been turned so my back was against his hard chest and my wrists held tightly in front of me.
I let out a barely perceptible huff of indignation, but he heard it. It was rare that he missed anything. “You’re weak,” he told me, his breath hot on my cheek. “You should start lifting weights.”
I turned my head so I could look him in the eye. “Strength would never help me against you.”
He watched me with his predator eyes, and then released me just as suddenly as he had taken me. His lips flicked up slightly as he positioned the crossbow back on the wall, taking great care to ensure that it was secure.
“You’re probably right.”
I liked it when he smiled, even if often it was in mocking, or if it were just an attempt at normality or manipulation. It was because of that smile that I gripped the bottom of my white tank top and pulled it over my head before slipping out of my denim shorts so I stood before him in my bra and panties. I wanted sex, I wanted contact. Someone needed to touch me. Once my body had been used to get me things, but now I yearned for touch for selfish reasons.
His eyes were on me but unlike most men, they didn’t rake down my body. Instead they stayed on my face like that was more important, and for an instant that annoyed me. I wanted him to look at me like that Ryan guy had, with undisguised lust. With Aaron, it was impossible to know what he was thinking, and if he looked at me with animal-like desire in his eyes then I knew that I had him. That he would be whipped by me and, to an extent, controlled. I frowned as I realized that I was thinking like my mother, and then my frown became deeper as I realized that he wasn’t making a move toward me.
“Well?” I said, pissed off and hands on my hips to show him all I had to offer.
“I’m going to take a shower.” He slung his towel over his shoulder and walked past me. I didn’t move, keeping my face frozen as if its immobility were protection for my pride. Motherfucker. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My toned limbs, my long blonde hair… men had rarely ever rejected me. Even when they knew that what they were doing was wrong on every level, they were still drawn to me almost like an addiction. Not that Aaron was really a man, only when he was drunk perhaps. Otherwise he was a machine: cold and calculating in a perfect body.
I lifted my chin. I’d be damned if I let him know that he bothered me.
I was in the kitchen when he came down, freshly showered and hair wet and slicked back to show off every sharp feature of his pretty face. As always, he wore dark clothes and moved silently. The kitchen was a mess. I was baking chicken drumsticks and the marinade had run over the pristine white counter top. I had yet to clean it up and it sat like a dark scar on the pale stone. I knew it would irritate him. He liked everything clean as if no one lived here and it was just for show.
“Dinner’s nearly ready,” I told him as I finished chopping a tomato, its red juice staining the board. Vegetables always seemed brighter in this house, more vibrant and their color more vivid against everything else in this structure.
His eyes moved from the mess to me. “I’ll get something when I’m out. I need to leave in a minute.”
Don’t you eat before kills, Aaron? I had never asked that question, although there was no doubt in my mind that it was true. In the time that we had been living together, I had noticed that there was a pattern in that he rarely ate before going out to ‘work.’ It gave me some comfort to know that what he did obviously unsettled his stomach somewhat, it made him nearly human.
Nearly, but not quite.
“Okay. When will you be back?” I finally took a cloth and began to mop up the mess, but not before I saw him look at me with a raised eyebrow. I never asked him this. I accepted his comings and goings, and once I had relished having this glass house to myself, but more and more I found myself hunger for company, or so I told myself. Sometimes I feared that it were really him that I was craving.
“Tonight.”
“Okay. Well…okay.” It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘be safe’ but I didn’t because it was a stupid thing to say to Aaron, and furthermore, it would indicate that I cared somewhat and it was far easier to never let those kind of things cross my mind.
He stepped toward me, trapping me in the corner of the kitchen so that there would be nowhere to go. He was good at that — trapping people. He captured my chin between his thumb and forefinger and gave me a kiss on the lips. It was brief, but had me yearning for more. But then he released me and took a step back, his face emotionless like the kiss had meant nothing to him.
“Don’t forget to set the alarm system after I’m gone.” With that, he picked up his bag and left without giving me a second glance. I stared at the door long after he had gone, until I finally sat and ate by myself at the cold stone counter.
Chapter Two
From the bedroom, I could see the bonfire burning brightly on the beach. There were a ton of people my age, laughing and drinking, while I stood behind glass and watched them like I was on some other planet. Their fun seemed so innocent, although it probably wasn’t completely. I yearned to be that carefree and innocent, as if I were a vampire and wanted to suck all of that from them.
I sat high in that glass castle and watched them as I slowly drank a beer. The alcohol loosened up the knots that were tied so tightly within me, and it wasn’t long before I decided to take up Ryan’s invitation. I changed into a summer dress. It was floaty and feminine and just maybe I could pass for normal. Grabbing another beer, I went down the path that led to the beach. I had to enter the code for the gate to get out as well as in, as if this really were a prison. I made sure that it closed securely behind me before I walked barefoot up the sand to the party.
Laughter, yelling, fighting…it was all so normal that I nearly turned back. I didn’t belong with these people; they had futures, they had hope. I had a psychopath and a cold, glass home. A few girls were dancing in the firelight, contorting their slim limbs into sultry rhythmic sways as they became aware that preying eyes were on them, lusting and admiring. A pang of homesickness swept through me as this scene reminded me of when I had just moved to the new town and my bruises had healed. Mara and Torrance had taken me in and overwhelmed me with friendship, and my days and focus were on flirting with Finn and making him chase me. It had been easier then, to forget all that had occurred before.
I took a step back. I didn’t belong here. Before I could turn though, my name was called as a light touch was on my wrist.
“Hey, you made it.” Ryan’s bright white teeth glowed in the dark.
“Yeah. I ended up with some free time so I thought that I’d come take a look.” I smiled at him, a real smile, the type that I used to give to Finn in the beginning that said come and get me little boy. But then I frowned, what the hell was I doing? I wasn’t here to flirt or encourage.
“C’mon, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
I let him take my hand and lead me to his friends. They were all the same, their lives consumed with college and their futures glowing so brightly that my eyes nearly hurt. The boys were all the carbon copies of each other — Jock types with the world at their feet and arrogance to match. The girls were more personable, some friendly, and I felt sorry for them because they were lambs to the slaughter with probably no idea what anyone was really capable of. One in particular took it upon herself to try and make me feel welcome. Her name was Ollie, and she had a crooked grin and corkscrew curls that gave her an adorable and youthful look. She was the kind of girl who would fawn over Aaron. His looks and air of dangerousness would have her creaming her panties if he ever so much as dared throw her a smile or smirk.
Why the fuck was I thinking about Aaron? I took another sip of beer and tried to concentrate on what Ollie was saying.
“What are you studying, Paige?”
She looked at me like she really wanted to know.
“Oh, I’m not. I’m just working at the moment.” I could see Ryan staring at me from where he sat further around the bonfire.
“Are you trying to find out what you want to do? I totally get that. It’s so scary to think that I might be studying the wrong major and it will put me on the back foot later on.”
I continued to sip my beer while she babbled on. When she paused to take a breath, I asked, “How long have you known Ryan for?”
Ollie shook her head. “I don’t really. He just started hanging out with these guys a few months back. I don’t know where he’s from or where he lives.”
“He said he lives on the street that backs onto this part of the beach.”
She frowned. “That’s weird that I didn’t know that. My mom knows practically everything about everyone who buys real estate around here…”
As I leaned my head back to take the last drips of my drink into my mouth, another bottle was held out to me. I set my empty bottle in the sand and took the new one.
“Thanks,” I told Ryan. He had squeezed in between me and Ollie, and I nearly laughed as she rolled her eyes at his back. His attention was fully on me as if there were no one else here. He wanted me, and he wasn’t shy about it. I let my lips curve into a slight smug smile. This was a good feeling; knowing that I held the upper hand for once.
“So what do you do?” he asked.
“I work at a diner down town.” His hand was rubbing my bare shoulder, an act that was anything but innocent, but I didn’t shrug it away. If anything, there was an urge to lean in closer and enjoy the feel of his fingers on my skin. The other hand stroked my cheek, brushing it with his thumb like he was wiping away a tear. Or maybe that was my imagination, or maybe the alcohol, creating an imaginary world where there was someone to soothe me and wipe away my misery.
He leaned in closer, and for a moment I thought that he would kiss me and I didn’t know what I would do if he did. I wanted to feel precious and coveted, I wanted to feel adored in a way I never would be with Aaron who knew all the bad things about me. But with this handsome man who touched me with soft hands, with him I could be someone else and happy for just an instant.
