Twisted Love

by R. C. Stephens

  “Let’s go,” I said taking her by the hand. I guided her out of her room toward the front entrance of the apartment. I put her coat on for her. I even did up the buttons on her coat since it was freezing outside and I didn’t want her to be cold. I knew I was acting like a lunatic. I could see that she was nervous and it meant a lot to me that she was trusting me on this despite my behavior.

  We briskly walked back out to the car, my heart was racing out of my chest and I couldn’t get her in there fast enough. I looked over my shoulder every second to make sure we weren’t being followed. I opened the door for her and slammed it shut once she was in. Then I ran around to my side checking the perimeter again. I also ducked to the floor to check under my car, I felt a little crazy doing it, but I grew up on Godfather movies, maybe it was paying off now. Once we were in the car I locked the doors and speed out of there like a bat out of hell.

  “Tell me what’s going on now,” she demanded frantically as her eyes filled with tears.

  “Can we please get back to my condo and then I will tell you,” I pleaded hoping she would agree. I knew how close her and Anna were and her reaction was going to be bad, I couldn’t be driving while consoling her. A part of me wanted to go to Luc and ask him if he was a part of this and insist he return Anna, but that was a dangerous move. I had to keep Lexi safe.

  I pulled into the parking garage at my condo a few minutes later and pulled into my usual spot in front of the door, coming to an abrupt stop. Lexi was a shaking mess, and I knew it wasn’t going to get any better. I hopped out of the car and ran around to open the door for Lexi, throwing her gym bag and backpack on my back. Taking her by the hand I felt her warm clammy hands in mine, she was already scared and she didn’t even know what the threat was. I lead her inside toward the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse, but the elevator stopped in the lobby and the doors opened.

  Henry my doorman waved. “Good evening Dylan,” he said with a wide grin on his face, probably because I had a lady with me. He was an older man that took good care of the building.

  “You live in an apartment that has a doorman?” Lexi asked surprised.

  “Yeah,” I responded curtly. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

  We got off the elevator at the top level and I had my key ready in my hand. I opened the door while holding Lexi’s hand as I walked around my apartment making sure we didn’t have any visitors. She looked wide eyed and bewildered and I knew I would have more explaining to do. My apartment was too fancy for a resident, just like the car. Everything was clear so I walked over to the alarm system activating it.

  “Dylan, you tell me what’s going on right now, is it Luc? Or his family? What is happening?” she yelled out, clearly losing her patience with me. I couldn’t blame her, I had been acting like an overbearing idiot for the past twenty minutes.

  “Sit down.” I pointed to a long table and chairs behind her. “Give me your coat,” I said lifting it off her back as she helped me shrug it off. “Lex.” I took her hand in mine. There was no easy way to say this. I ran my fingers through my hair and braced myself. “The note says that they took Anna, they will return her unharmed as long as you testify and say what they want.” She gasped long and hard and smacked her hand to her face as her eyes swelled with tears.

  “Anna, they took Anna?” she sobbed.

  “That’s what the letter says, I think you should try calling her though,” I said passing her my phone. I realized that Lexi didn’t have her own cell phone and I was going to need to rectify that immediately. She quickly shot up from the chair and began pacing back and forth at a frantic pace.

  “Call her Dylan, I can’t, I can’t…I’m shaking too hard,” she said shaking out her hands beside her. She was very worked up.

  “What’s her number Lex?” I asked as she continued with the same distressed pace.

  “I don’t know…shit…I can’t think…my heart is beating so fast…”

  I stood up and put my arm on her shoulder trying to make eye contact with her, but she was so worked up her eyes were darting everywhere except on me. “Take a deep breath and try to remember the number. Maybe we can find her if you do.” My last words seem to have hit home. She takes a long intake of air and doesn’t let it out. Then she blurts out the number and continues to pace.

  “There’s no answer,” I say regrettably having to break more bad news. Lexi grabs on to her stomach and leans forward as if she’s in physical pain.

  “I can’t do this Dylan, I can’t imagine this world without Anna in it. I can’t handle that this happened to her because of me…shit, I think I’m going to be sick,” she smacks her hand to her mouth.

  “Here come to the bathroom,” I say guiding her to my room. At first she dry heaves over the toilet. I knew this was bad. I wish I had a way to make her feel better. Then she finally vomits. When she’s done she falls to the floor in a fit of tears. I begin to rub her back soothingly. I try to embrace her in a hug but she pulls away and grabs a piece of toilet paper to wipe off her mouth.

  “I don’t care about the vomit,” I say with a small smile. She doesn’t respond, she just glares at me with the saddest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I need to make this okay for her. I have to make it okay, but I feel so damn hopeless.

  “Dylan, show..me…the…letter,” she says while swiping the tears from her eyes. She extends her hand waiting.

  Hesitantly, I placed it in her hand. Her hand instantly flew over her mouth and she gasped loudly, then she began sobbing again. “Anna, poor Anna, this is all my fault, how do we get her back? I’m calling Luc,” she said reaching for my phone.

  I placed my hand on hers to stop her from dialing his number. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, what if he’s involved?”

  “He can’t be involved…he can’t be involved,” she repeated to herself. I didn’t think he was either. This must have been his family’s way of ensuring she testified.

  With shaky fingers she dialed his number, I could hear his voice. “Alexis,” he said with a concerned tone.

  “Did you take Anna?” she asked sadly, but there was no accusation in her tone.

  “You know I would never do that,” he sighed. “I warned your friend about my family, I warned him,” he muttered. Of course he was referring to me and wanting to make me look bad.

  A part of me felt like an outsider listening in on their conversation. After what he’d done to her it seemed like she still trusted him, it made me angry. Maybe even jealous.

  “Will they hurt her?” her voice cracked.

  There was silence for a few moments.

  “I don’t think so Alexis, they just want to make sure you say what they want and that you don’t go to the police, if they think you are capable of going to the police…” his voice drifted off.

  “I will testify Luc, but please, don’t let them hurt her. What are they doing to her?” she pleaded with him. The truth was that he sounded hopeless, like he had no control of this situation at all and maybe he didn’t.

  “I don’t know where they have her. My family is not exactly happy with me Alexis, if these charges are dropped I plan on leaving the family business, my father views me as a disgrace.”

  Lexi’s face turned remorseful causing my heart to twist.

  “Okay, I need to go Luc.”

  “We still need to talk,” he answered but she didn’t reply. What else did that bastard have to say to her?

  “Bye,” she whispered. I could tell she felt helpless. She closed the phone and passed it back to me looking into my eyes. I don’t know what she was searching for but I wanted to give her whatever it was.

  “This is all my fault, I bring havoc into people’s lives. My mom was right all those years ago, I’m a worthless stupid bitch.” Her head fell into her arms and she began to sob even harder. This was tearing her up and it was tearing me up too, I wanted to do something to ease her pain but I felt just as helpless as her.

  “Lex, don’t talk
that way about yourself, there’s nothing we can do right now, and blaming yourself isn’t right. You had no idea that Luc came from a criminal family and you had no idea that they were capable of doing bad things. If you knew, I know you would have walked away from him.” With the back of my hand I caressed her cheek. Her red eyes stared at me looking lost. Suddenly she stood up and put her hand to her throat. “I can’t breathe Dylan, my throat is closing up on me,” she said frantically. She walked quickly to the couch and sat down on it, then she began rocking nervously.

  “Relax Lex, this is probably just a panic attack.”

  “No Dylan, no, I can’t breathe, I feel light headed, I think I’m going to faint. I have no air, I need air. Is there a balcony? I need air.” She got up quickly from the couch and started pacing my apartment frantically looking for the balcony. For some reason I didn’t want her going out on the balcony, we were on the penthouse floor.

  I placed my hands on her shoulders. “Look at me Lex, you’re okay, Anna will be okay.” I hoped to calm her down, but I knew that with a panic attack the best method would be distraction.

  “No, no,” she cried out and I was scared she was moments away from fainting.

  I ran over to my entertainment system, lucky I had a special song on my MP3 list and I quickly put on 'I’ll Be,' by Edwin McCain. It was our song in high school.

  “Dylan, please I need air, what are you doing?” she looked at me as if I were crazy.

  I took her into my arms and started singing to her, at first she looked wary. “The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful stop me and steal my breath.”

  “Dylan please,” she asked still looking pale. “My throat is closing, please let me go,” she pleaded.

  That’s when I high noted, “And emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky never revealing their depth,” her eyebrows scrunched together and despite the fact that she looked nervous the left side of her lip twitched a bit. “Tell me that we belong together,” I sang throwing back my head as she watched me intently. “Dress it up with the trappings of love I’ll be captivated. I’ll hang from your lips,” I sang but then paused to move in and kiss her. The moment my lips touched hers, her eyes flitted shut. “I love you babe, just breathe,” I said soothingly into her lips. I could feel her tense body relaxing beneath my touch and her breathing slowly became less labored. She opened her eyes when I pulled my lips away but I continued to sing knowing she still needed the distraction. “I’ll be your crying shoulder, I’ll be love suicide.” Her forehead smoothed out and both sides of her lips were now curved into a perfect smile. I decided a dip was in order. I tilted her back dipping her while continuing to sing the song close to her face, “I’ll be better when I’m older. I’ll be the greatest fan of your life.” I pulled her back up from the dipped position. Her eyes had turned serious, but the way she was looking at me almost set me on fire.

  “It’s strange how that was our song at prom, I mean it was like that song was really meant for us, when we were younger love was like suicide for us driving us in bad directions. And now, now we are better when we’re older,” she said meaningfully looking into my eyes. I was relieved to see that I was successful in distracting her from the panic.

  “I will be the greatest fan of your life Lexi, I never want to let you go again and I only want to do what will make you happy,” I said holding her in my arms. We were face to face and things suddenly went from very panicked to intimate in less than five minutes. She took both her hands and placed them on each of my cheeks then she leaned in and kissed me softly, swirling her tongue with mine. Shit, how I missed the taste of her. She was like a drug I could never get enough of, but I knew she was feeling fragile and I didn’t want us to do something she would regret later.

  “Come,” I said lifting her hand, she gave me her hand and I lifted her up in my arms.

  “Dylan what are you doing?” She looked to me with surprise and maybe a hint of mischief.

  “Let me take care of you Lexi,” I said with a low deep voice filled with emotion. She placed her head on my chest as I walked her into my room and placed her gently on the bed. Her silent response was enough for me to know that she would let me take care of her. “Do you want me to run a bath for you?”

  She shook her head. “I will just have a quick shower, I’m too nervous to sit in a bath.”

  “Okay.”

  She got up from the bed looking like a lost little girl, it reminded me of all the times she came to me broken and bruised, fear in her eyes. I hated seeing the fear, I always wanted her to smile, she was always meant to smile her perfect smile. She walked off into my bathroom and a moment later I heard the water running.

  I lay back on my bed, hoping that Anna would be okay and that they didn’t do anything too traumatizing to her. Lexi mentioned that she was seeing some guy that worked in national security. I didn’t think we could tell him, it could anger Luc’s father and we didn’t need them retaliating.

  A moment later she sauntered out of the bathroom with her hair tied in a bun and a white towel wrapped around her body. Her skin was wet and glistening and I couldn’t help but feel turned on even though I knew it wasn’t the time or place. The problem was I couldn’t look away or control my heated gaze.

  “I left my overnight bag in the hall,” she said as she passed me by with a grief stricken look on her face.

  “Sure I’ll get it for you.” I hopped off the bed and fixed my straining dick. Get it together man.

  I walked back in the room a moment later, noticing how she was drowning in her sadness. “What can I do Lex? How can I make it better for you?” I asked, massaging her tense shoulders. She rolled her head around enjoying my touch.

  “You’re making it better just by being here for me,” she smiled sadly. Her words touched my soul and gave me hope.

  I reached forward to hug her and realized a moment too late that hugging a half-naked Lexi was probably a bad idea. I enveloped her in my arms taking in her sensuous scent that drove me wild. When I pulled away my eyes must have been smoldering and her eyes looked heated too.

  “I, uh…I’m going to hop in the shower,” I stuttered pulling back.

  She nodded in understanding and I didn’t know in that moment if I should make mad passionate love to her and make her forget all her problems or help her deal with the problem at hand. It only took a brief second for rational Dylan to take control. I couldn’t have her. Not yet. I still had to come clean about my past, she had been deceived enough and I would not do that to her again.

  Chapter 21

  Never Get Too Comfortable

  Lexi

  I put on my pajamas and curled into the fetal position on Dylan’s bed. I was not sure if I was supposed to sleep in here or if he had a guest room. I couldn’t stop thinking of Anna and how she must be feeling. What must be going through her mind? It was a Sunday night and tomorrow was supposed to be my first day back to school since Luc attacked me. I couldn’t help but wonder or maybe dream when my life would return to normal. I realized that my life had never been normal, there had always been something crazy to deal with. I’d been faced with challenge after challenge and I was starting to wear out. I didn’t know how much more I could handle.

  I was glad to have Dylan back in my life, it felt good to lean on him again. He still hasn’t made it clear what prevented him from coming home or coming back to me for so many years. With all the drama I couldn’t overlook that I don’t know many things about him and the man he’d become. Seven years was a long time to be separated and we’d both changed in so many ways. I wondered how he had the money for such an expensive car and why he was living in a fancy condominium with a doorman. So many things still didn’t make sense.

  The bathroom door opened shining light into his room. “I have a spare bedroom Lex, but if you don’t mind I would feel better if you slept beside me so I know you’re safe. You don’t need to worry either way, the apartment is safe, it has a state of the art security system…�
� he trailed off clearly nervous.

  “I can sleep here. I think I need the company anyway, I can’t get myself to calm down thinking what Anna must be going through. Are they feeding her? Does she have a safe place to sleep? I saw Maurice Blanchard Dylan and honestly he was the scariest man I have ever met.”

  “Come here,” he said opening his arms and bracing me against his chest. “You should get some rest. Hopefully they keep their word¸ you go to testify on Tuesday and they release Anna.”

  “I hope it will be that simple but it never seems to be the case with anything associated with Luc.”

  “Lex, can I ask you a question?”

  I nodded.

  “Have you forgiven him? You know, for what he did, for how he attacked you?”

  My head lifted off his chest and my eyes narrowed, I couldn’t read his expression but I heard vulnerability in his tone.

  “He was on drugs and alcohol, my psychiatrist said he suffered from a drug induced psychosis by the sounds of it and I do believe him that he doesn’t remember. A part of me doesn’t want to blame him, because he wasn’t in his right mind, but that doesn’t take the pain he caused away. He will always be the man that killed our baby…” I trailed off.

  “Do you still…uh…still…have…feelings for him?” he asked looking like he was bracing for impact.

  I inhaled and exhaled a long breath. “A part of me understands his demons Dylan. He grew up like I did with abuse, and the truth is until he began to unravel he was good to me, he treated me well, he supported me…” I paused mid-sentence because it suddenly looked like Dylan was holding his breath and in physical pain. “You don’t need to hear this,” I nodded my head.