by Stacey Lynn
I learned it only had a toothbrush in it and some other essentials, but it didn’t contain clothes.
I glanced at him, my mouth opening to ask him if he was okay, when he raised a hand and silenced me.
“Later,” he snapped in an unusually gruff tone.
Whether he was saying see you later, or we’d talk about it later, I had no clue. I also had no time to even ask him before the front door was slamming closed behind him. I was at the door, opening it, when I heard the growl of his truck’s engine and then the squeal of his tires as he pulled out of my driveway.
“What the hell just happened?”
I muttered it to myself on the way back to the bedroom, wondering if I’d somehow offended him. But that couldn’t be right. We’d gone to bed, at peace, deciding to move forward.
I tried to shake it off while I was in the shower, but it was impossible.
Even when I got to school, I felt the same sense of foreboding all around me. It hung in the air like a thick, invisible fog, weighing me down all day.
I was missing something.
Something important and something that would change everything.
Yet I had no idea what it was.
—
“I’ll be there, I promise,” I told Suzanne into the phone. It was lunchtime and while I didn’t usually answer personal calls on my cell during the day, I knew my friends were concerned about my own lack of communication lately.
My run with Camden yesterday showed me that I’d been so in my own head, lost in trying to fix men I didn’t even really know and had no business trying to fix, that I’d dropped my friendships.
Again. Admittedly, I had done the same thing when I’d found out I wouldn’t be able to have kids, and when Cory walked away. Apparently, when difficult things happened, I turned into a turtle and curled into my shell.
Not that that was surprising; I always tended to shrink back from attention anyway.
When I saw Suzanne’s name light up my cellphone, I didn’t want to cause her more worry. Which was why I agreed to meet her at Fireside Grill for a pitcher of margaritas and chips and salsa on her.
How could I say no to that?
“See you at seven then,” she sang, because Suzanne was all happy all the time. Someone I really needed to spend time with. “Don’t be late.”
I smiled into the phone after she disconnected. Suzanne telling someone not to be late was laughable. It was common knowledge among our group that if you showed up for plans with Suzanne and were five minutes late, you were still at least five minutes early.
As the day went on I tried to look forward to the night out. A night filled with laughter and margaritas and kicking back and relieving my stress.
I needed it. I needed to remember that there were still good things happening to the people in my life, the people I loved more than anything, and who had been there, supporting me since I’d known them.
Yet as hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake the dark feeling growing inside of me.
As I got ready to meet Suzanne, I just hoped that laughing with her and drinking too much tequila could help me shake the creepy-crawling feeling I’d had following me all day.
—
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” I told David with a grin as soon as I slid onto a barstool. “I thought you were just visiting.”
He didn’t look like he was visiting. He looked like he’d made himself completely at home, working behind the bar at Fireside.
David smiled. It was an easygoing grin and one that I was certain had the power to melt panties if he wanted to.
But while he was handsome, with dark blue eyes, and nicely cropped blondish-brownish hair, it did nothing for me. I was particularly fond of a man who embodied tall, dark, and sexy-as-hell.
“Thought I’d stick around for a while, help Declan out. Be here for Aidan.”
I nodded and tapped my fingers on the bar. “You talk to him much?”
David narrowed his eyes, shot me a look filled with confusion. “I thought you did.”
“I do.” I nodded quickly. “Sort of. I don’t know. We don’t really talk much when we’re together.”
Oh my god. I didn’t mean that. My cheeks burst with heated embarrassment.
“Not what I meant,” I said, looking to the front doors, silently begging Suzanne to appear.
“No,” David said, his head dipped, and he stared at me until I brought my eyes back to his. “I thought you spent the day with him.”
My head jerked back. “What?”
That creepy-crawling feeling I’d had all day slithered down my spine, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
I rolled my shoulders, trying to get it off me. “Why would you think that?”
His eyes instantly narrowed, his jaw tightened, and he pushed off the bar, pointing a finger at me. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I was stunned into silence. My lips twisted in confusion as he hopped the bar counter and barreled into the kitchen like a linebacker.
I was certain I’d managed one blink when David returned, crashing through the double swinging metal doors, and Declan was quickly trailing behind him.
He wiped his hand on a greasy-looking white apron, and when they reached me, Declan’s hands flew to his hips.
He was intimidating. Large, muscular, with dark olive skin and a shaved head that I knew was that way because it made him look badass, not because he suffered from early hair loss.
One of the reasons Suzanne and Paige always wanted to come eat there was because of Declan, so they could ogle the beautiful man. We now knew he was also incredibly patient and protective, since he’d saved Trina from her abusive ex-husband and brought out a sassy side to the southern beauty, all while he made her feel safe for the first time in her life. He wasn’t just large, he also had a massive heart. I thought Declan kicked ass.
Now his jaw and throat were lined with black five o’clock shadow, and I almost stopped breathing when his black eyes narrowed on mine.
He looked pissed. Panting-like-a-bull-in-front-of-a-red-cape pissed.
“Um.” I looked to David. His expression wasn’t that much different, just less I could kill you with my bare hands scary. “What’s going on?”
Declan leaned forward. “You didn’t spend the day with Aidan?”
“No.” I replayed the morning in my head, the joking about getting up, the way he’d wanted to stay with me and then turned arctic when I’d told him I couldn’t. “He wanted me to but I had to go to work. Why?”
“He said he was going to be with you today and we haven’t been able to get ahold of him.”
“All day?” I tilted my head. Why would he lie?
My head spun. Declan shot David a glare that clearly said something was wrong.
“Why? What is it?”
David cursed before his head fell forward.
Something ugly and hard sank into my gut, stealing my breath.
“It’s Derrick’s birthday today,” Declan explained in that growly, deep voice. Had I taken the time, I might have been jealous of the kind of man Trina had in her bed. As it was, I was too surprised to think about that.
“What?” I gasped, looking at both of them. “I don’t…I didn’t know. He never said anything to me.”
They glared at each other again, another silent conversation taking place in their eyes. I knew it was done and decisions were made without them ever speaking a word when Declan said, “Fucking hell…that asshole. Take her with you.”
He turned on his heel and stalked back to the kitchen right as David reached for my elbow and tugged me off my stool. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I barely had time to reach back and grab my purse as he led me out of the restaurant. “What’s going on?”
My mind was spinning and began pounding with worry…Why hadn’t he told me about Derrick? Why hadn’t he said anything? “Oh God. This is bad.”
The kick of a bass drum slammed against my chest as I trailed behind David, not be
ing given much of a choice in the matter.
Once we finally hit the fresh air, my head cleared slightly, enough to at least think about Suzanne.
“I’m supposed to be meeting Suzanne,” I told David, trying to dig my feet into the cement.
He didn’t look back. “Declan will keep an eye out for her.”
I frowned, looking back at the restaurant. He’d just totally left his position behind the bar and I didn’t see anyone else able to do drinks.
“You can just walk out like that?”
I mean, I knew Declan and he were friends, good friends, obviously, but could he just stop working whenever he felt like it? Maybe he wasn’t working at all. Maybe he was just getting himself a drink when I’d walked in.
David pulled to an abrupt stop and let go of my elbow to spin around and face me. “You worried about my job right now or are you worried about Aidan? Because Dec and me…we’ve been with that guy through a lot. Through all the shit with that crazy bitch Mandy, and we’ve been there for Derrick.” He stopped, scrubbed his hand through his short hair, and swore. “We were there for Derrick. And now…fuck.”
The last curse was barely muttered before he turned and started walking away from me.
I quickly caught up, my high-heeled sandals clip-clopping along the pavement.
“So, why are you taking me?” I asked.
He stared at me incredulously and blinked like he couldn’t believe I had the gall to ask such a stupid question.
“Because you’re you.”
David turned a corner, headed down the back alley behind Fireside Grill, and pushed a button on his key fob.
Lights blared in the quickly darkening night and the horn beeped.
“I don’t know what that means,” I said as he opened the passenger door to a very large, very shiny black Escalade.
He huffed and gestured for me to climb in with a wave of his hand. “It means you’re Aidan’s.”
The door slammed on my shocked face. My skin chilled at the words and all the blood left my face, pooling somewhere south.
It felt warm and tingly. Good. After last night, I wanted it to be true.
I didn’t have time to say anything else before he hopped into his SUV, shoved his shifter into drive, and peeled out of the alley like we were on some high-speed chase.
We were silent on the short drive to Aidan’s house. At least, I figured that was where we were headed as David whipped his large and shiny Escalade around the corners like Satan’s minions were chasing us.
At some point along the way, my blood began pumping faster…adrenaline coursing through my veins…and I tried not to stare as David rapidly tapped his thumb against the steering wheel, or every time he sighed and quietly cursed when we hit a red light.
So many questions rolled through my head, but most of all, I was worried.
Terrified.
Fear had already dug its heavy roots into my stomach as we pulled into Aidan’s driveway. The last time I was there, it hadn’t gone so well. Based on the events of tonight and the information I’d just been given, I doubted the outcome of this visit was going to go any better.
If Aidan had wanted to tell me about it being Derrick’s birthday then he would have.
Although it definitely explained his sudden mood swing and the way he’d stomped out of my house.
My cellphone buzzed in my purse and I dug it out as David shifted the SUV into park.
He looked at me and arched one brow when I looked at the screen.
“Oh shit,” I muttered. My face twisted into worry. I expected it to be Suzanne, but it wasn’t.
Beth Johnson: Have you talked to Shane by any chance lately? I can’t find him.
My heart sank, knowing how bad Shane had been, and now knowing tonight was his best friend’s birthday.
“Who is it?” David asked, his voice tight. “Aidan?”
“No.” I shook my head and whispered. “Shane’s mom, Beth Johnson.”
“Shit.”
He knew. He had to know who that was.
“Yeah.”
Slowly, I turned to him as tears began to burn my eyes. I couldn’t cry. Not now.
I typed back a quick message to Beth as David climbed out of his side of his SUV.
Me: No, not yet. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. I’m at Aidan’s. Just found out it was Derrick’s birthday today.
Her reply was almost instant.
Beth Johnson: Oh no. I totally forgot.
Oh no, was right.
And oh crap, oh shit, oh God, oh hell. All of those ohs seemed appropriate.
With goosebumps prickling my skin, and adrenaline buzzing in my veins, I slowly climbed out of the vehicle and met David at the front where he’d been waiting for me.
His hands were in his pockets and his eyes were on the front door.
There were no lights on and it didn’t look like Aidan was home.
I checked my phone, to see if I’d missed any texts or calls from him, but there was nothing.
“It doesn’t look like he’s home,” I said quietly, although I didn’t know why I was whispering. No one was around to hear us, but it seemed to fit the tense mood.
Even the air felt thick and damp, like the trees and sky were in the mood to cry for whatever we were about to walk into.
“Come on.” David took my hand, clasped his palm around mine, and pulled me toward the front door. He flipped through his keys when we hit the front stoop and had a key in the lock, turned it, and opened the door before I could tell him about Shane, or Beth, or any of my concerns.
He was purely focused on Aidan anyway.
“Damn.”
I cleared my throat as soon as we got inside the house.
It reeked of stale pizza and beer and a host of other smells I couldn’t and didn’t want to identify.
The front room, which looked like a small office, was completely trashed. A lamp was tossed over, shattered all over the carpeted floor, and papers were strewn everywhere.
Even a laptop was broken and lying upside down on the floor.
“Oh no,” I muttered, and quietly began to follow David through the house.
He flicked light switches on the wall on his way, illuminating the mess. It looked like the house had been broken into, and as much as that thought concerned me, I knew it hadn’t been.
This was the damage done by a broken man in pain. An angry man who had no other outlet but to destroy everything in his path.
“Aidan!” David’s loud voice boomed through the house. It echoed off the walls and the two-story foyer we’d just walked through, but we didn’t get an answer.
“Check the garage,” he muttered, pointing me toward a door. “See if his truck’s here.”
I did, hesitantly, and exhaled when I saw his truck parked at an angle inside the garage.
“It’s here.”
David kept walking until we hit the kitchen. The stench made me gag and I suddenly realized why Aidan had been spending so much time at my house.
It was a miracle rats hadn’t taken up residence in his house with the mess piled all over the counters and sink. Dirty dishes and food boxes were strewn all over the place. Some of them I recognized as food dishes I had helped him with the night of the funeral.
Tears fell from my eyes. I didn’t even bother stopping them or wiping them away.
How long had it been this bad?
“Aidan, you fucker!” David shouted again, and I jumped, unable to peel my eyes away from the disaster in front of me. “Where the hell are you?”
A loud crash came from the back and my head snapped to David. “This way,” he said, and stared back at me.
“I think I should go.” I whispered the words and cringed at my suddenly dry throat.
I knew I was right. There was no way, absolutely no way in hell, Aidan would want me to see his house like this.
“No. He needs you.”
“David.” I shook my head and took another step back. “He won’t want m
e here.”
He got the same odd look on his face that he’d had earlier, grabbed my hand, and pulled me toward the back of the house.
“Bullshit. He’s barely spoken to any of his friends. Won’t tell us fucking shit except he’s been hanging out with you. Don’t know why he won’t talk to us when we’ve been fucking with him since that crazy bitch took off when Derrick was too damn young to remember her, but we were the ones with him on campus, helping him raise his fucking kid. Derrick was all of ours, and he’s shut down on all of us completely. But you,” he said, pointing a finger at me, “he talks to you. He hangs with you when he wants not one damn thing to do with us no matter how hard we’ve been trying. Don’t know the pull you have on him, but we know he likes it. So you’re here and you’re not leaving.”
My mind couldn’t even process all of that, what with the disaster we saw when we reached the living room. It was a thousand times worse than the front room and impossible to miss.
Cushions thrown. A couch tipped over. A broken television. Glass and picture frames that at one time had probably hung on the wall in a collage were shattered all over the floor.
“Holy crap,” I muttered to myself more than to David. Had the Incredible Hulk broken in here? It looked like the disaster that creature could create in a nanosecond, and even while I wanted to pretend it was the force of some Marvel comic character, it only made the tears fall harder.
David was wrong. By hanging out with me, I’d allowed Aidan to ignore dealing with anything.
He made a grunt of acknowledgment, but didn’t stop moving.
When we reached the back door he finally turned to me and placed both of his hands on my shoulders. “You’re insane if you think you mean nothing to that man. I’ve listened to him talk about you for years. Why he’s finally started hanging around you now, I’m not completely sure, but he’s wanted you for a long time. He’s going to be angry out there, and he’s going to take it out on us, but I need you to be strong. He lets loose fast and hard but it boils over quickly.”
My eyes grew wide with the warning and I stared at him, tongue-tied, while I forced everything he’d said to make sense.
I was way too startled by everything we’d seen, and everything he’d just spewed at me with determined eyes, to object.
