I make quick rounds, but it doesn’t look like Henley came back. Not that she promised she would, but I sort of expected it. We are growing close. Close enough that I thought she might be willing to move in with me. Or at least come back at night. Especially after the night we had. I put the ring away in my nightstand drawer, and climb in the shower. Rinsing the day away should be cathartic, but it only brings up new worries. By the time I climb into bed it’s almost midnight, and I haven’t gotten a single call from Henley. I text her, hopefully she is still up, but even after I’ve fallen asleep, no message comes through.
Chapter 22
“What. The. Fuck. Is. Your. Problem!” Each word is punctuated with an almost painful slap, jarring me awake.
My hands reach out, and grab onto whoever is on top of my bed swinging wildly at me, and when I finally pin them down, I turn on the bedside light. Gwen’s tear streaked face is staring up at me.
“Gwen whats wrong? Are you okay?”
She just keeps sobbing, and shaking her head before turning her angry blue eyes on me. “You couldn’t do it could you? Not once in your life? Even for the girl you said you loved.”
I keep my body still trying to keep her from assaulting me but her words are really bothering me. “What are you talking about Gwennie? I didn’t do anything…”
“This! You stupid, stupid…” her eyes are rimmed in red from crying, as she slaps me again with a newspaper. I snatch it out of her hand, before she can go back to abusing me with it, and flatten it out so I can look at the front page. Oh my fucking shit. There in super close zoomed in volume, is Adalin sticking her tongue down my throat. Sonofabitch.
“Did Henley see this?” my voice is three octaves higher than it should be, as I glare back at Gwen. “Did she?”
“Of course she did everyone got a fucking copy. It’s the morning fucking newspaper you shit. But Henley saw it yesterday not long after it happened. I was on the phone with her… it showed up all over the place online. She just said she had to go and hung up… I haven’t… she won’t answer my calls.” Gwen is sobbing now, her voice coming out between short hiccups. “How could you?”
“I didn’t… listen that’s not what it looks like.”
“Oh what she is just checking what you fucking had for lunch?”
“She forced that kiss on me,” I snap back angrily.
“Oh please,” at Gwen’s Exaggerated eye roll, something snaps, and I am beyond pissed.
“That is what fucking happened,” I rip the nightstand drawer open and snatch up the small ornate box, slinging it at Gwen. “I want to fucking marry that girl. I’d kill for her. Do you fucking understand me? I wouldn’t fuck that shit up for some bitch!” My chest is heaving by the time I’m done, and Gwen is just staring at the small box in silence.
“This is so fucked up.”
“Yeah think about how I feel,” even as I glare down at her, she flinches. If Henley really disappeared… if Henley ran. Fuck. “I need to make some phone calls.”
I pull and my phone and dial Micky’s number.
“Hello boss. What would you like this morning.” He sounds chipper.
“I need Nora’s number… Dr. Castillo. You have it right?” It’s a lot to assume Micky picked up her number as scary as he is, but I don’t want to have to drive all the way out and track her down, wasting time.
There is a short span of silence, before he finally answers. “I’m gonna take that as you seein’ the paper this morning.”
“The number Micky.”
He rattles off a number, and I make sure to remember it long enough to hang up on him and start dialing.
“Dr. Castillo speaking.”
“Nora. This is Connor McKerrick.” I leave it at that to wait and see what she says.
“I entrusted her to you, and what do I see a week later? I bet you can answer that can’t you?” her voice is deceptively sugar coated.
“It’s not what it looks like… is Henley there with you?”
“Nope. Have you tried her house?”
“I’m about to head that way.” I end the call and glance toward Gwen. She is watching me with a remorseful look in her eyes.
“It’s fine Gwennie my reputation usually precedes me, but I would never hurt Henley.”
Gwen follows me out of the house, and into the elevator, she casts me one last sideways look, before she makes her way toward her car and I climb into the Maserati.
I push the pedal down, eating up the miles between my place and Henley’s, but I’m worried. The other shoe has dropped. That aching pain is back. How in the world can I get her to trust me? I know it’s got to be hard when I tell her I love her then she gets slapped in the face with something like this. But I would bend over backwards for this girl, why can’t she see that?
When I pull up to her place, the doors are locked, the lights off, and her car is gone. I knock on the door, but Mr. Darcy doesn’t bark from within. With a sigh I pull my phone back out.
“Aiden.”
He lets out a long sigh. “Gwen told me. I’m already looking for leads, but… I’ve got nothing.”
“Shit. How could she just fucking disappear?”
“There is a hit on her car leaving town, picked it up on one of the traffic cameras, but thats it man. She’s silent after that.”
“When?”
“Uh, four-fifteen p.m. Yesterday. Right after the online news started circulating.”
Fuck. Wherever she is headed she is long gone by now. I hang up with Aiden, and stare at my phone in silence.
‘Where are you?’ the text doesn’t convey the worry I feel, or the repressive need to see her. It barely conveys anything. After a while of her not responding I send another one. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Fine.’
It’s only one single word but when it beeps through and it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And my fingers begin tapping over the keys at an erratic pace.
‘There is nothing going on between me and that woman. I was there to break off a business deal. Nothing else.’
The line is silent for a while, but when she responds its with a few links to the Internet. I click on them, and each one opens a picture with some words underneath, and each one is of me and Adalin at different events. Each one is dated. And in all of them Adalin is hanging all over me. Articles, they are articles covering the events. Events I went to with Adalin when I was with Henley. Each and every one explains us away as lovers.
‘That’s not how it is, they always skew things Henley. Yes I went to those events with her, and yes I know I shouldn’t have. But there wasn’t anything going on. When she kissed me it was forced on me. I swear. I told you I love you Henley. I wouldn’t hurt the girl I love.’
‘I need some time.’
Time? She needs fucking time? ‘Take all the time you need, I’ll wait.’ I force myself to type the words and hit send, even though what I want her to do is cough up her fucking address, so I can go show her how much time and space she doesn’t need.
I stare at her house in silence, there is nothing I can do. I said I’d wait so I’ll wait. But I swear to God the moment she comes back I’m putting a ring on her finger so that she can’t just up and run anymore. Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.
Epilogue
It has been twenty-four days to this point. Twenty-four long days. The first seven I didn’t shave. Shit I didn’t even shower. All I could do was sit in a practical coma waiting for that next text from Henley. It never came. The ache was terrible, and I’m not afraid to admit that I cried myself to sleep every night for those first seven nights.
But as I stand here on the evening of the twenty-fourth day, it was worth it. The waiting was worth it.
She stands there, drenched to the bone, and I can’t help but wonder how long she was out in the rain for. It’s a cold bone chilling rain this late in the season. Her hands are trembling, and one is clamped down on the keycard I gave her nearly a month ago. She finally came hom
e.
My hand reaches out of it’s own accord like it is trying to make sure I’m not just imagining this, like its trying to verify that she really is there, or if the next step of this withdrawal is hallucinations. She smiles a small, absolutely terrified smile, and when my hand makes contact with her, her skin is ice cold.
“What the hell, why were you out in this weather?” I snatch her hand up and drag her back toward the shower. I turn the water on, letting the hot steam fill the room and I turn back and start pulling off Henley’s clothes.
“It’s the middle of winter, how can you just wander around in the fucking rain?” she is trembling with the cold, and her clothes are soaked as I pull them off.
“Pacing,” she replies lifting her arms up so I can get off her sweater.
“Pacing? Could you not pace inside the lobby or something?” I start unbuttoning her undershirt.
“It’s hard. I was nervous… You said you’d wait… but you didn’t say how long. I thought… maybe you would have…”
With an aggravated sigh I tug the button down shirt off. She stands there in nothing but her jeans and bra, both of which are soaked through, her body trembling. My eyes drag down, to her waist, where thin black lines show, where there was only bare skin before. With trembling hands she pulls the rest of her clothes off and hops into the shower before I can investigate it further.
I lean in past the glass door, getting a better look at the new tattoo. It looks like a chemical structure, and it throws me for a loop.
“What is that?” I’m frowning at her now.
“Ah, new tattoo,” I must put off some kind of look, because she laughs gently, easily, before continuing. “It’s Vasopressin, it’s well, a chemical released by the brain, that lets you feel love.”
“Henley, is that my tattoo?” her eyes wander everywhere else but directly toward me, and she has a flush on her cheeks that isn’t from the hot water. “Does that mean you love me?”
She looks up at me with those too green eyes, and a shy smile on her lips. She braces herself against the wall and gets up on her tippy toes and plants a soft kiss against my lips. It’s not wild, there is no tongue. It’s just a gentle melding of mouths, and I know I’ve found my forever. I know she feels the same for me as I do for her.
“Stay.” The words are out my mouth, and I’m running to my nightstand, shedding my clothes as I go. Naked shower proposal? It’s not how I wanted it but it’s going to have to do. I need to get this ring on her finger before she changes her mind.
When I get back into the bathroom, I hope into the shower with her, snatch up her hand and put the ring on. I can feel her stiffen, so I grab her face in my hands, and kiss her for everything I’m worth.
“Welcome home lover.”
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Torn (The McKerricks Book 1) Page 20
