“I have to get back to work.”
“You look like you just had sex.”
“Well then they’re all going to be jealous, I guess.”
But I didn’t let go of her hand.
“Stay.”
“Teddy, I can’t.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Well, first I’m going to awkwardly put my underwear back on.”
“I mean, what are you going to do about your column?”
“My job. Teddy, I’m going to do my job.”
Good God, the girl drove me crazy.
“So I should expect a review on my performance in tomorrow’s paper?”
She chuckled, cupping my face in her hands. “No. This is between us. I can respect that.”
“So you are dropping it?”
“I’m dropping writing about you, yes.”
I wrapped my hands around her wrists and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“Apparently I have a new adversary that needs to know I’m not afraid of him.”
“Who?” But I barely got the word out before I processed her meaning. “No. Ashley, no.”
“He asked for it. He started this. I can’t let him finish it too.”
“You don’t know him.”
“That’s about to change.”
“He sent you on a dream tour of the world for a year and a half. Even if his intentions weren’t pure, he took a pretty high road on the execution. But he won’t always do that. Just as he can offer you a chance at your dreams, he can also take them away.”
“I’m well aware.”
“Then drop this, please.”
“And let him win? Not a chance in hell. And the fact that you would ask me to do that…”
“Means I care about you, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I will never sit idly by and allow someone else to choose my destiny for me.”
“Ashley…”
She quickly wrapped her arms around my neck and planted the sweetest kiss on my lips.
“Today was amazing. You were amazing. I kind of wish I could tell the world.” She smiled up at me, no doubt hoping she could gloss over the more heated conversation we were just having.
I ran my thumbs softly over her cheekbones. “You are… something else, Ashley Leigh.”
We slowly walked down the beach, hand in hand, until we reached her car. Anytime I tried to bring up my father, she shot me down. There was no talking to her. I watched her pull away and disappear down the narrow street before I turned and made my way toward my house.
“Teddy, is that you?” I heard my father call as I walked into the front door.
“Yup.” I yelled back.
“Could you come back to the study? I have a question for you.”
I sauntered back through the foyer, under the sweeping staircase, and to the doorway to his mahogany-walled study. Had I not been so naïve, I would’ve seen it this next bit coming from a mile away.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“Teddy, you know Raymond Turner, yes?” A stout, bearded man turned to face me.
“I do. How are you doing, sir?”
“Fine, thank you.” He nodded at me.
“And you know why we employ Mr. Turner?”
“As a private investigator? Yes.”
“So since you’ve been having such trouble with this little reporter girl, I figured we’d try to dig up some dirt on her.”
No. No. No.
“You see where I’m going with this, son?”
I felt my face redden and my nostrils flare. How could I have been so stupid? He touched his finger to his computer screen, and the printer began printing.
“Let’s watch this together.”
The three of us stared as a picture began to print from the device. But it wasn’t just a picture. It was a picture of Ashley, pinned up against the cliff, and me, pinning her there.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I can fuck whomever I God damn well please.” I spat at him.
“Except when it’s the woman who has made it her mission to paint you as some sort of hell raiser in every single article she writes. Was that her you were screwing Friday night? And she wrote about it? You don’t think she’ll write about your little daytime rendezvous today?”
“She won’t.”
“You’re smarter than this, Teddy. What the hell is happening to you?”
“Just drop it.” I had no words. It was as if everything I had ever wanted to say to him was right there, on the tip of my tongue, but the words refused to be spoken aloud. I couldn’t fight back. Why was I so scared of him?
“No, you drop her. You’ve proved you can’t handle these sorts of situations on your own, so now it’s up to me. Have my car brought around.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To have a little conversation with our favorite journalist, that’s all.” He raised his eyebrows at me, letting me know he wasn’t to be argued with. Any other day, I knew what that meant, but not today, not when it dealt with Ashley. I couldn’t have him going to her. I couldn’t fathom what he was capable of.
So I swung. I don’t know why I did it, but I couldn’t stop my fist once it started. I connected right at his jaw line, sending his face sweeping in the same trajectory.
He recovered quickly, bringing his hand to his cheek. Then I saw that look in his eyes… the one that had haunted me since childhood. I knew exactly what I had done, and I brought it on myself.
“I’m sorry sir.”
“Raymond, your services are no longer needed here. I will transfer the money to your account.”
Raymond snuck by without a single word. It was just the two of us standing in the center of the room.
“Sir, I didn’t mean to…”
“Punch me? You didn’t mean to punch me? Yes you did.”
His right arm left its resting place at his side and came straight for my stomach. I doubled over, trying to find my breath. He pushed me to the ground, straddling me between his knees. He punched right and then left, leaving the strong taste of blood in my mouth. The man was almost thirty years older than me; there was no way he should have been able to exert so much force as to cripple me to the ground, but I was too scared to fight back. So I let him. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. There would eventually be a last time I let him beat me without putting up a fight, but this wasn’t it.
It’s weird to sit back and watch a memory of a time when you felt helpless. You know it’s a memory. You know there’s nothing you can do about it, and yet, you still feel the need deep inside to tell your younger self that it gets better, that there’s something to look forward to. You wish you could tell yourself not to give up. You wish you could tell yourself how to fight back.
But mostly, you wish you didn’t have to see it again. Although I’ve become a remarkably stronger person in the last five years, not just physical strength, but emotional, watching myself take the repeated swings to my face brought me back to the state of a scared child. But what did I have to be scared of now?
I watched him get up, I watched him kick me twice in the ribs, and I watched him leave before the lights began to fade.
“What did you do to him? What did you do to him?” I heard my mother cry before the memory faded completely.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Teddy
“Mr. Stoneguard?”
The next flash popped up quickly, but it was only sound. Where was the picture?
“Mr. Stoneguard, can you hear me?”
Wait… it was that same voice. It was the voice I had heard when they briefly brought me back to life. The picture began to lighten in front of me. Blonde hair, high cheekbones, red lipstick… red lipstick?
Yes… the red lipstick. It was Ashley’s mom. Of course. She was a nurse. I was in the hospital.
I was in a brief state of confusion regarding my current situation. Was I i
n the hospital in my memory? Or did they revive me again? I didn’t feel the room suck out this time, though. Did it always work the same way? Were there rules when it came to death and dying?
Oh wait, that’s a smell I certainly remembered. It was a memory. It was only a memory. And Ashley’s mom was holding smelling salts under my nose.
Being that I heard her before I coded again, it was weird to think that Ashley’s mom was most likely standing above me in both my unconscious state and my flash at the same time. Oh life…
Or death?
The picture finally cleared into focus.
“There you are.”
“Where?” I groggily asked.
“You’re right here, silly.” I looked up at the nurse who had woken me. She looked oddly familiar.
This was before I knew she was Ashley’s mom. Now, five years later, I knew it was Ashley’s mom, so she was, of course, familiar. But in this moment, in this flash, she just looked oddly familiar.
“No, I mean, where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital. Apparently you took quite a tumble down your staircase.”
A tumble down my staircase… I’ve heard that one before.
“Teddy?” My mom rushed into the room, reaching for my hand.
“Hey Mom.”
“Baby, are you okay?”
“Yeah, you know those stairs just come out of nowhere sometimes.” I squeezed her hand at her reaction.
“I keep telling you to be careful.”
“I know, Mom. Sometimes I just can’t help but run up and down them.”
She nodded, obviously hurting tremendously from seeing me this way. Even if she was weak when it came to him, I knew she cared about me.
“Mrs. Stoneguard, I just need to ask Teddy a few medical questions, if you wouldn’t mind stepping out of the room for a minute.”
“But…”
“Mom, I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
She kissed my cheek and quickly whispered in my ear, “Please don’t tell her anything. For me.”
I made a sound, letting her know I had understood, and watched as the pretty nurse escorted my mom out of the room. She closed the door behind her, grabbed the clipboard, and moved to the machines.
“How long was I out?”
“Not long. I only got you in the bed a few minutes before I woke you up. Just enough time to hook you up to all these fun tubes.”
“That’s good. I’d hate to lose a full day just because I slipped.”
“Those must be some stairs.”
“You have no idea.”
“Weird that you managed to only bang up your face and ribs.”
“I’m a very talented tripper.”
“I see that. Broken wrists, fractured femur—ouch--, fractured ribs, scapula, sternum, ruptured spleen… should I go on?”
“We have a lot of steps in our house.”
She knelt down beside the bed. “Teddy, you’re an adult, so I legally can’t do anything unless you report a crime.”
“I’ve tried suing the stairs before, but their lawyer is just better than I am.”
She sarcastically chuckled. “I see where my daughter gets all of her material.”
“Your daughter?”
“Ha, yes. My daughter. She writes for the town newspaper. She’s going to be a big time journalist one day.”
“You mean Ashley? Ashley is your daughter?”
There… that’s when I figured it out. And the reason she looked so familiar was because she looked a hell of a lot like Ashley. It was kind of creepy. I mentally reminded myself to tell Ashley never to wear red lipstick. It might freak me out a little too much.
“So you know of her?”
“Please, I need to talk to her.”
“She’s stubborn. She’s not going to stop writing just because you asked her to.”
“No, it’s not that. I just need to see her.”
“Why don’t you try to get some rest? I think your concussion is making you a little disoriented.”
I tried to sit up, to reason with her, but my bruised ribs stopped me.
“Shit, that hurts.” I barked.
“Let me see what I can do about getting you some pain medication.” She turned to walk out the door, but stopped short. “Ashley, what are you doing here?”
“Where is he, Mom?”
“Who?”
“Teddy. Where is he?”
“Ashley, this isn’t the best idea.”
“Move.”
Ashley stumbled into the room, followed closely by her mother. A look of terror came over her eyes as she saw my bruised face. At that point, I hadn’t even seen what I looked like. But watching it all happen in the flash, I could. I could see exactly how banged up I really was from those stairs. I’ll tell you something: it wasn’t good.
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“He fell down the stairs.” Her mother smugly called to her.
“How’d you know I was here?”
“I work at a newspaper. I hear things.”
“So, um…”
I wanted to ask if my father had been to see her, but if he hadn’t made it there yet, I didn’t want to give her any cause for alarm.
“Well, I didn’t see that one coming. How long have you two been sleeping together?”
“What? We’re not…” Ashley turned around to her mother.
“Oh, don’t try to fool me. You two look like love sick puppy dogs right now.”
“Mom…”
“Hey, you’re an adult. I’m not judging. Just make sure you don’t get between him and whoever used his face as a punching bag. Teddy, if she ends up in here looking like you, you’re the first one I’m coming after.”
She threw her arms in the air and closed the door behind her, leaving the two of us alone.
“So your mom works here.”
“My mom works here.”
“She’s… nice.”
“Teddy, what happened?”
“I tripped.”
“You don’t get to lie to me.”
“Your mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“He came to my office.”
“Shit. No. Fuck. What did he say?”
“In so many words? He recommends I stay away from you, or else I’ll be taking up permanent residence in Jordan.”
“Ashley…”
“I told him I actually enjoyed Jordan. I have a thing for camels and the Arabic language.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Because he beat you?”
“No.”
“But that’s what this is, right? What, did he dislike my last article that much?”
“He had a P.I. follow us onto the beach.”
“What?”
“He has pictures.”
She briefly let go of my hand and stood.
“Ha. Okay. Okay.” She started pacing at the foot of my bed.
“What?”
“He said he had something on me, but I didn’t think it could be… wow. I stupidly thought it was that I cheated on a test in fourth grade. That’s probably the only time I’ve ever broken a rule, so I thought it could only be that, but no. Wow, well, wow, he’s good.”
“Listen, you should lay low.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Or at least stay away from me.”
“Oh no, no, no, Teddy. We’re standing up to him.”
“I can’t do that, Ash.”
She was still pacing; it was making me nervous. “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to be able to literally stand up just yet, but he should know you’re not afraid of him just because he threw a few punches.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I just stared at her, half hoping she could read my mind, like she usually did, while the other half hoped she’d change the subject.
But she didn’t change the subject. She read my mind. Or just my face.
“Teddy…”
“Just
stop, please.”
She grabbed my chart off the bed, reading what her mom had read only moments before.
“What the hell is this?”
“Put it down, Ashley.”
“No. What is this?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Oh my God. It goes back… fourteen years?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then enlighten me.”
I was a tough kid. He had a tough job. I didn’t help any situation. I craved attention. He was busy. He had to provide for his family. He didn’t have time to deal with me.
The excuses I told myself over the years, the reasons I gave for his behavior: all of a sudden, they didn’t seem to hold any clout. I had been telling myself a lie my entire life.
“Well at least now you know why I’m so screwed up, huh?”
Her entire demeanor changed from anger to pity as she made her way back to my side. “Teddy, don’t say that. You’re not screwed up.”
“I’m so screwed up.”
“Okay, you’re a little screwed up.” She gave me a tiny otter laugh, which made me laugh even harder.
“Ribs.”
Ashley’s mom, my nurse, came back in the room to give me a new saline bag. “Ashley, Teddy’s father is here. You may want to clear out.” She eyed us both as she offered her opinion.
“I’m staying.”
“Well, it’s not like I’ve ever been able to change your mind otherwise.”
Billionaire Badboy Page 11
