I needed to talk to Ren and just hear his voice, but I didn’t have my phone anymore as it had been crushed in the accident, and with Luke in France meeting with a possible new client and it being 2 am, I couldn’t call my aunt and uncle. I had no choice but to go to bed and try and get some sleep hoping and praying that this trip ended quickly so I could get home.
* * *
After two days of discussions and research, we decided on a scheme for the Mackays’ new building, and I had a copy of the blueprints to take back with me. It was now Thursday, and we were flying home tomorrow. I’d asked the Mackays to keep my accident quiet until I could get home and tell everyone face to face so that they didn’t worry. I also knew it would get back to my parents and with them being so far away, I didn’t want them to panic for no reason either.
Amy had gone apeshit and threatened to hunt the ‘tiny pricked dick’ down herself when I’d told her and Lucy yesterday swearing them to secrecy until I could tell our family myself. To be honest, I wouldn’t put it past Amy; she was a bit of an act now ask question later type of girl. Fortunately, she had the innocent face and eyes that got her out of trouble ninety-nine percent of the time.
Tony had set up a night out with our old friends, and as always it was at a club with gay pride flags flying from the ceilings, people in drag milling around and cocktails named after famous actresses like - the Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers and Doris Day. I had wanted to stay home as I was still limping and feeling the pain from my badly swollen knee, but I did want to see my friends too so I’d agreed to go out for a bit. After a couple of hours though I called it a night when the alcohol wasn’t sitting well with the antibiotics and pain meds in my system. I was also conscious of the fact that I had managed to steer clear of Andy until that point, but it would be unwise to court danger especially if it had been him driving that SUV. In 12 hours I would be flying back to Ren, and I couldn’t wait.
21
____
Ren
I hadn’t heard from Maya since she’d left three days ago and whenever I called her phone, it went to voicemail which worried me. What if she’d had an accident? What if she was unconscious? What if that asshole had kidnapped her?
Walking out of the garage because I couldn’t focus for shit, I took a left and bumped right into the man that I’d been going to see, George.
“Ah, Ren; just the boy.”
“Is she OK George?”
“Seems she had an issue with her phone, and it was broken, but she’ll be back tomorrow and Tony’s coming with her.”
I felt three days worth of stress and tension deflate out of my body and slumped against the wall shaking my head to clear it. “Why didn’t she call?” I croaked.
“Uh this is Maya we’re talking about son,” George replied shaking his head at the same time that I nodded mine in understanding. “That girl has her entire life in that damn phone of hers. She even had to go on Google to find my office number to update me on the case she’s working on. When she gets back, though, I need to have a long chat with her; there have been quite a few accidents on different job locations. On further inspection, they found evidence suggesting that it wasn’t accidental.”
My head snapped up, and I took in the firm line of his mouth and how pissed off he looked. “She’s in danger?” It took every ounce of self-control that I had to stop myself from getting on a plane and going to her. If I hadn’t just found out that she was on her way home tomorrow, then I would have.
“We don’t know for sure, but I’m not taking any chances. Luke is back tomorrow too, and I’ll be arranging security and going through things with them as soon as I can. As it is, I contacted the Twyman’s and got their permission to install the best security system I could get in Maya’s house. Luke already has one in his…”
“George with all due respect, I have no doubt that it’s a top of the line, but Maya will stay with me after she gets back. I am not risking her getting hurt!”
Already in my mind, I was thinking through getting Cole to take over the garage so I could watch her and calling the alarm company to see if there were any possible upgrades for my own system.
“Good man, I wish you the best of luck convincing her,” George said as he patted my shoulder, and then walked away.
I was so engrossed in my thoughts as I walked to meet Cole, that I didn’t see the bitch from hell until I walked into her. The slimy snake put her arms around my waist to steady herself and then pressed against me. “Ren!”
“Francheska,” I used my bored tone reserved for her and tried to detangle myself from her python-like grip.
“I’m so sorry about Maya.”
I paused my bid for freedom as her words registered. Had she done something? No, she was too dumb for that. Then I remembered that movie where the chick boiled the bunny and stopped to look at her carefully. Seeing she had my attention, she rubbed my arm.“I can’t believe she went back to him, I mean he’s a good looking guy and all, but still.”
“What the fuck are you on about?” Is this chick actually insane? She hated that asshole with a passion, so there was no way the viper was telling the truth.
She shook her head as she pulled out her phone and opened up her FaceBook. That in itself proved she was all kinds of crazy because who stalks people on FaceBook?
“Here you go sweetie,” she passed her phone to me. On the screen was a photo of Tony with his arm around my girl. She was grinning while being pulled towards some guy who was kissing her on the cheek.
“That proves nothing.”
“Look at who’s tagged in the photo Ren,” she said pointing back at the screen. “I didn’t want to believe it, but why else who her ex be kissing her?”
Sighing I look back down, and above the photo, Tony had written that he was with Maya and Andy. I looked back down at the picture and saw she had her arm around this Andy guy too, and she didn’t look like she was unwilling or unhappy with his proximity and the kiss.
I thrust the phone back at Francheska and walked away as quickly as I could with her yelling my name behind me. Shoving open the Diner door so hard that it hit the wall, a majority of the people inside looked up at me as Jeff to glared at me from behind the counter. Ignoring all of that I looked for Cole, I needed to show him before I lost my shit. Seeing him in a booth in the corner I stormed up to him, “Open your FaceBook!”
Cole’s eyes were huge as he looked at me and saw how close to losing it I was and quickly did as I asked; handing it to me. Typing in Tony’s name in the search field, I pulled up the photo and tossed the phone to Cole to look at. His hand shot out to stop it from flying off the table, and a grin broke across his face as he saw the photo.
“Really man, you’re this pissed because some dude is kissing her cheek?” Chuckling he shook his head slowly and looked at me.
“Look at the name of the guy kissing her.”
Cole looked back down and stared at the screen. I saw the moment it hit him when his eyes widened, and he moved his thumb up and down obviously reading all of the comments.
“Is this him?”
“Looks like it!”
“Listen, man,” Cole said in a tone that he’d only used a handful of times with me. “We don’t know that this is him. We were both there when she got the call that day and how upset she was because of it. I don’t think it's what you think; she really hated that guy.”
Just as he finished, the scent of sickly perfume engulfed us.
“Oh my God Ren, I’m so glad I caught up with you,” Francheska squeaked beside me.
“Not now,” Cole snapped at her and turned back to me.
“I’m so sorry that I had to be the one to break the news…”
“How did I not guess that it was you,” Cole sneered at her, hatred and disbelief all over his face.“You were stalking Maya on FaceBook, do you know how twisted that is? To actually stalk someone waiting for shit like this so that you could run up to Ren, who gives not one single shit about you, and sh
ow him. I bet you planned this all night didn’t you? Are you happy now?” He gestured to me, and I realized I was shaking that hard that the table was visibly moving.
“No,” she replied looking horrified. “I’m devastated for him! It breaks my heart that she’s putting him through this and that she’s blasted her infidelity all over FaceBook for everyone to see. That is just embarrassing and such a dirty thing to do. I couldn’t listen to any more bullshit and got up that quickly that my chair crashed to the floor and stalked out of the Diner with Cole shouting and yelling behind me.
I didn’t want to talk to or see anyone, so I went to the garage, got into my car and blasted out the lot almost hitting the barrier beside the exit. I finally stopped driving when I got to the lake where I’d brought Maya on our first date and walked to a place that I went to when I needed peace.
I’d just sat down on a rock when I heard branches breaking behind me. “Fuck off Cole; I want to be alone!”
“It’s me, honey,” the viper squeaked. How the fuck did she know about this place?
“Leave me alone Fran.”
Not taking the hint, she sat beside me and put her arm around my waist. “Oh Ren, I’m just so sorry about all of this. I remembered what you told me that first night we were together about this place and figured when you drove away that this was where you’d come. Listen, I’m not here for any other reason but as a friend okay?”
“I don’t know what to think or believe.”
“I know it’s hard to get your head around, but Ren; family and friends are meant to have your back, not take the side of the person who broke your heart.” Pausing she bit her lip and then asked hesitantly, “what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know what to do,” I rubbed my hands down my face and then moved them up through my hair and grabbed two handfuls and pulled. “FUCK!” I roared as I jumped up.
“You know Ren,” she got up to come and stand next to me. “No, actually that’s not good advice to give.” She started walking away from me with her finger on her lips tapping away as she thought hard about something.
I wasn’t going to chase after her and before for her to tell me. Nothing she had to say would be useful.
“Well,” she finally said, drawing out the word and tilting her head. “My gammy used to tell me - don’t get mad, get even.” She trailed off and stood looking at me.
I stared back as it finally registered what she mean. She was even crazier than I thought if she thought for even a second that I’d do anything with her, let alone hurt Maya.
Turning around, I walked back to my car without saying a word; doing that would only encourage her psychotic-ness.
As I got into my truck, I looked up and saw her standing there smiling at me; images of cute white bunnies popped into my head making me shudder. Thankful that we didn’t have rabbits, I started the engine and drove away; something about the whole conversation with her had left a bad taste in my mouth.
Needing to talk to someone sensible, I picked up my phone and called Brett; he’d know what to do.
Maya
Luke arrived at the airport forty minutes before Tony, and we did, so George was collecting us both at the same time. He’d also got me a new phone, so all I had to do was get all of my numbers from my computer in the office and load them onto the new handset. I don’t know how he’d managed it, but he’d also got my number transferred to the new phone so that I didn’t have the hassle of contacting two hundred people with my new number; I hated doing that.
After making the introductions and getting our baggage from the conveyor belt, we all got in my Uncle’s SUV and started the thirty-minute drive back to Piersville. George and Luke went very quiet when I told them about what had happened, before exploding at the same time.
“What the fuck!” Luke roared and turned round in his seat to glare at me. “How could you not tell us that? You could have been killed, Maya!”
“You should have told us, Maya; that’s not some tiny thing that people don’t deserve to know. Where are you hurt?”
I’d managed to hide the dressing on my hand, and my knee was covered by my leggings, so I told them and that I’d been checked out by the Mackay’s Doctor that same night. The journey continued in silence after that with only mine and Tony’s voices in the car as he asked questions about the area and I pointed things out to him.
As we pulled up in front of my home, George and Luke got out of the car and went to get our luggage out the trunk.
“Was it just me or was that totally hot?” Tony said, making me giggle.
Climbing out of the car, I walked around to them. “I’m sorry guys. It was such a shock when it happened, and I knew that if I told you over the phone that it would scare you, and you’d end up leaving what y’all were doing…” As I said it out loud, I realized how weak my reasons for not telling them were. “I also didn’t want to scare my parents,” I whispered looking up at them both.
Luke gave me a hug and got into the passenger side of the car as my Uncle hugged me. “I don’t understand your reasons for not telling us the severity of the situation, but I love you honey, and I hate that we could have lost you. You also need to call Ren because when I saw him yesterday, he was out of his mind with worry about you.”
“I’ll do that tonight,” I reassured him and gave him a weak smile. I hated upsetting any member of my family and this was the first time I’d done that to them, and it broke my heart. Kissing me on the forehead and telling me he’d see me tomorrow, he said bye to Tony and got into the car and drove off.
“Girl, your family, is hawt,” Tony fanned his face watching my Uncle’s car drive away making me giggle. “If I wasn’t trying things with Andy, I would have been all over that!” Laughing, we made our way up to the porch to the front door where Luke had put our luggage.
Walking into my house, I was hit with memories of Ren so deciding not to wait any longer to talk to him; I rang Luke.
“What Maya?”
“Can you text me Ren’s number right now?”
“Sure thing,” he replied, and hung up.
Hearing the ping of a text on my phone, I opened the message and hit the number that Luke had just sent me. As the phone rang in my ear, I begged Ren to pick up. “Pick up pick up pick up!” Maybe he was working on a car? The garage could get noisy with all of the machinery, and I’d imagine that that would mean that a lot of calls went unanswered during the day because of it, so I tried again.
After the seventh call, I gave up and text Luke.
Me: Can u send me Cole’s number pls?
Seconds later another text pinged on my phone with the number on it. Figuring it might be better to send a text message if the garage was that busy, I text both Cole and Ren.
Me: Hey, can u tell Ren to call me asap pls? I need to talk to him. Hope ur ok and see you soon?
Me: I’m home and have just got my new phone. I’ve missed you so much so call me as soon as you get this x <3 x <3 x
Sighing I put my phone down.
“Don’t worry baby doll,” he said giving me a hug. “He’s a man and we’re prone to being stupid and doing things like not answering the phone. Well not me because I’m the best of both worlds,” he winked. “But the non-perfect males of my sex, well they aren’t perfect and do stupid shit; he’ll be okay once you explain it. Are you gonna tell him exactly what happened?”
“Of course! He deserves to know!”
Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) Page 20
