“I thought you pulled away because you were mad at me. It was as if every time I called, you were upset with me for leaving you.”
“I was never mad at you. I totally understand why you left. I would have too. It was just better for me to not talk to you for a while, to let him do his thing.”
“And what thing is that?”
“He has to be the one to tell you. He at least deserves that.”
“Ugh! Why is everyone protecting him? He lied, Sam. He begged me to trust him and then he lied.”
“You’re right, and you have every reason to be upset, but do yourself a favor and just hear him out.”
“What if what he tells me just breaks me even more?”
“It won’t,” she said with a surprising amount of certainty in her voice. “He might be able to put you back together.”
“Did you fly all the way out here just to tell me you’re on his side?” I asked my question with a pout, but regardless, I was glad Sam was there for any reason. I’d missed her more than I realized.
“I’m on your side, always.”
“Well, I need to run before I can even think straight. Want to come with me?”
“I just took the red-eye over an ocean,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay, point taken. Wanna take a nap on my bed?”
“I knew we were best friends for a reason.”
Sam changed into some comfy clothes and crawled into my bed as I put on my running gear. I left the house and made it to the beach. The sky was still watercolor hues of red and orange. It looked like a painting and I took just a moment to breathe in the clean air and appreciate the fact that I was, in fact, in paradise. If there was anywhere to have some sort of quarter-life crisis, this was the place.
With a little bit of the weight lifted from my shoulders, I began my run, again seeking that place where my brain could empty out and let clarity seep in. I needed clarity more in that instant than ever before.
I don’t know why I was surprised to see Parker jog up next to me at our usual spot, but I was. I guess I figured that since the jig was up, there was no need for him to run with me anymore.
“Hey, Lena,” he said easily as he fell into pace beside me.
“Parker,” I replied, coolly.
“Good to see you out and about. I was worried you’d close up and hide in your apartment. Or even worse, run.”
“I am running.”
“I meant run away, like you did before when you left Oregon.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped, stopping in my tracks. “I didn’t run away from anything in Oregon. There was nothing left there to run away from.”
“Except Preston.”
“You’re delusional,” I said as I started to run again, only this time I went faster.
“Just promise me you’ll at least listen to him, Lena. Give him a chance to explain.”
“For crying out loud! How is every single person I know on his side? Do you know what he did to me? Did he tell you he did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do? That he lied to me? That he made me believe he was working for me when, in fact, he was working against me?”
“He wasn’t against you. Please, you just have to listen to him.”
“Why does it matter so much to you?”
“Because he’s my brother and, even though this might be hard for you to see right now, he’s never cared for anyone like he cares for you.”
I scoffed. “Well, yippee. How did I get so lucky to be the one he cares about so much he lies and manipulates me?”
“Lena…”
Parker was pushy; I could give him that.
“Fine! I’ll let him explain, but if I listen to him and ask him to leave and never speak to me again, you all have to leave me alone. It has to end when I say so.”
“Deal,” he said without hesitation.
I looked over at him and slowed my pace until I was stopped and Parker was facing me. “You really believe in him, don’t you? You think he’s going to explain himself and I’m just going to fall all over him again?”
“I just think he deserves the opportunity to explain his side of the situation. And you deserve to hear it, too.”
I couldn’t argue with him. I did deserve to hear what happened. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“Can I run by myself now?” I kicked some sand, feeling a little like a petulant child. “I’d like a few minutes alone to get my thoughts in order.”
“Sure,” Parker smiled. “And thank you, Lena.”
“He really cares?” The question slipped from my mouth before I even realized I’d thought it. It tumbled right out in the open and my heart stopped, waiting for the answer.
“I don’t think ‘cares’ is a big enough word to wrap around how he feels about you.” His voice was soft and careful. It was also honest. I could tell he believed what he just said, and for the first time in months, I let myself believe too. But just a little and only for a moment. Then I tamped it back down. There was no one who was going to protect me except me.
After over an hour of running, I made my way back to the apartment and purposefully took the back staircase to avoid walking past the apartment containing Preston. I’d listen to him as I’d promised Parker, but it didn’t mean I wanted him to see me all sweaty and sandy.
When I entered the apartment, Piper was sitting on the couch with a mug in her hand. She looked as if she was waiting for me. She opened her mouth and I immediately held my hand up to stop her.
“Parker already got to me. I told him I’d listen to Preston, so you can save the diatribe. I’ve been converted.”
She smiled at my words. “I knew Parker would get his point across.”
“Yeah, well, he can be pretty convincing when he wants to be.”
“He’s a lawyer,” she said with a shrug.
“You know what? I’m pretty sure I knew that. Dammit! I shouldn’t have let him corner me.”
“It’ll all be good, Lena. I promise.”
“Well, just because I agreed to hear him out doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. You lied to me too,” I said as I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. It surprised me in the moment when I realized I wasn’t really upset with Piper. Or Parker for that matter. They didn’t hurt me with their lies. If anything, they were a distraction when I was in such a dark place and they helped me. I couldn’t be mad at them for that. But I could give them both a hard time about it. I took a long drink of cold water and then looked back to Piper.
“I’m sorry. I know I lied to you, but really, I was just trying to make sure you were all right. Preston didn’t want you all alone.”
I let her words sink in and took them for what they were worth: a sister doing a favor for her brother. She wasn’t trying to hurt me, or harm me, she was just making sure I wasn’t sad and alone. I pushed off the edge of the counter I’d been leaning against. “I know. It’s all right.”
She looked relieved at my words. “You know, Preston asked me to come out here and watch over you, but he never asked me to be friends with you. I wanted to be your friend that first day we met. I never lied to you about the important stuff. I’m exactly the person I portrayed to you.”
“Ha. Except for that one important fact of who your brother is.” I dropped my tired body onto the couch next to her, leaning my head back on the cushion.
“Well, I got the impression that if I told you I was his sister, you would’ve run in the other direction.”
“You would’ve been correct,” I said with a smile. I heard a door open down the hallway, followed by footsteps. Sam came around the corner, hair a mess, eyes half closed.
“Your phone keeps vibrating,” she said as she walked toward me with her arm out like a zombie, handing my phone to me.
“Piper, this is my best friend, Sam.”
Sam and Piper had identical, guilty looks on their faces.
“Let me guess, you already know each other?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
They both exchanged small smiles with each other and then gave me identical shoulder shrugs. “Shut up.”
“We met in Portland before I came out here,” Piper said sheepishly.
“Of course you did.” I didn’t even have the energy to let that bother me. “Anything else I should know about?”
Again, Piper and Sam exchanged looks.
“I don’t think so,” Sam said.
I looked down at my phone and saw a text from Preston.
**Please tell me I can see you today.**
I sighed and tried to ignore the part of me that was secretly excited to see him again. I hadn’t been able to really look at him the night before.
**Meet me for coffee in two hours.**
I sent him a link to the coffee shop I’d met Piper in and then looked up to my two friends who were eyeing me with expectant looks on their faces.
“I’m going to have coffee with him,” I said reluctantly. I stood up from the couch to get ready and shook my head, half in exasperation and half in amusement, when Piper and Sam gave each other a loud high-five.
I sat in the far corner of the coffee shop watching the door nervously. I arrived thirty minutes early, wanting to arrive before Preston to avoid having him buy me coffee. I needed this meeting to be nothing like a date. I didn’t want him thinking I’d agree to see him and we would immediately fall back into that wild, passionate affair we’d had before. No. I needed to maintain the upper hand, needed to be the one in control of the situation. I knew the instant I conceded the control, Preston would take it and I’d never get it back. I took a deep breath in, trying to ignore the goose bumps spreading over my skin at the thought of Preston wielding control over me.
I heard the tinkling of the bells that hung over the door to the coffee shop and my eyes landed on Preston as he entered. I was instantly reminded of the first time I’d seen him when he came into Bartini. He wore his amazing black leather jacket, dark jeans faded in all the right places, but this time he had on his Converse. I ignored all the live wires coming back to life throughout my body, all the prickling of attraction, all the tightening of muscles that itched to be touched by him.
He didn’t bother stopping at the counter to order a drink. He marched right toward me, our eyes never losing each other. He stopped when he was just feet from me and I just sat there, staring at him.
After a few silent but tense moments, he spoke. “Mind if I sit?”
I shook my head and he pulled the chair out across from me and sat. It was then I noticed that he held a motorcycle helmet in his hand. It was him on that bike. “How long have you been in Hawaii?”
“Just a week.”
“You’ve been here a whole week?”
He nodded, saying nothing.
“Well,” I sighed. “You’re here for a reason, I imagine.”
“You know why I’m here.”
“I really don’t. All I know is I came here to get away, to start over, and I find myself surrounded by you and your immediate family.”
“I need to tell you the truth. To explain to you what happened. You made the decision to leave without all the pertinent information.”
“Because you lied to me the entire time we were together!”
“That’s only sort of true,” he said as he shifted in his seat. “The things I didn’t tell you were only to keep you safe, Lena. And I always intended on telling you the truth. I never imagined I would wake up one day and you’d be gone.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you take someone and their trust for granted. You lose it all.”
“I’m here to win it back.” His voice was firm and low, and I was proud of myself for reining in all the reactions my body wanted to have to his words, merely fluttering my eyelids.
“Start from the beginning, Preston.”
Chapter Seven
“Six months ago, Piper called me. She was frantic. She had been dating a guy, Caleb, for a little over a year. She’d never brought him home, but the whole family knew of him and we also knew they were pretty serious. But Piper was living on an actress’ pay in New York City, so we understood why flying home to Oregon to introduce her boyfriend to her family wasn’t a reality for her.”
“Piper’s an actress? That explains a lot,” I muttered.
The corner of his mouth perked up and I watched as he pushed his amusement down. I watched that part of his mouth, the part that was aching to smile, as he continued to talk.
“So this Caleb guy, turns out he was a huge asshole. Piper will tell you he didn’t start out that way, but he eventually just went down the wrong path. Regardless, he’s a douchebag.” He shifted in his chair again, obviously upset by thinking about Piper’s ex. I made a mental note to talk to her about him later. “He got into online gambling and that led to him seeking out bookies and making real live bets with some pretty dangerous men.” Preston’s hand came up to rub his chin, his new beard still there, making a grainy noise as his hand moved over it. “Well, he did okay for a while, but he was a dumbass and eventually he started getting in over his head. So much so, in fact, that he ended up betting all of Piper’s savings and losing it.”
He shook his head. “Piper should have known better, should have kicked him to the curb, but she let him stay on the condition he started a treatment program. He told her he would get help, and it seemed like he was. He went to meetings. Had a sponsor. Everything looked like it was improving.”
I saw a muscle in his jaw start to twitch and the hand resting on the top of the table clenched into a hard fist.
“One day a man shows up at her apartment and beats the crap out of her.”
I gasped and my hand flew to my mouth. “Oh, my God,” I whisper. Piper was so small and sweet and lovable. Who could lay a hand on her?
“Yeah. It was pretty bad. My parents got the call in the middle of the night that she was in the ICU. I flew out there with them to see her. She was a mess, but after a day or two, she woke up and, amazingly, made a full recovery. Well, nearly. She’s still emotionally damaged, as one would be.” He cleared his throat, bringing a fist to his mouth, and I wanted so badly to wrap my arms around him in that moment. “But she’s so strong.”
“Preston,” I whispered, not really knowing what to say. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch your twin sister fighting for her life in a hospital bed.
“Anyway,” he continued, powering through. “Once she woke up and told us what happened, I found Caleb and beat him within an inch of his life.” The steel with which he spoke those words chilled me. “Piper said someone came to their apartment looking for payment. Said Caleb owed this guy twenty grand and he took part of the payment out on her. So I found Caleb, kicked his ass until he could barely talk, got the name of the person he owed the money to, and then I kicked his ass until he was barely breathing.” He paused again, this time tapping his fingers on the top of the table. “I’m not one-hundred-percent sure he lived, but I’m assuming he did because I haven’t been able to find a death certificate for him. And no one’s come to look for me yet.”
I didn’t really know what I was expecting Preston to say to me, but this story definitely wasn’t on my short list. I was a little taken aback by all the new information. “You might have killed him?” I asked, my voice small and quiet.
He shrugged. “It’s possible. I wasn’t concerned at the moment with sparing him, but I didn’t intend to kill him. I just wanted to do to him what his loan shark had done to my sister.”
I nodded like I understood, but I didn’t. I couldn’t relate to what he was saying at all. I was shocked and surprised and caught off guard. I’d seen Preston protective and forceful, but I’d never seen him violent.
“Anyway, I found the loan shark and made an arrangement with him. He’d forgive the debt, to which my sister was linked to through her sleazy boyfriend, and I would be in his pocket. It was a good deal. He had no idea who I was, or any real proof that I could be of any help to him, and could have told me
to fuck off, but he took the bait. I gave him all my information and was told he would be in contact when he needed my assistance. It just so happened that he liked the idea of having his hands reach all the way to the West Coast. Stroked his ego, so to say.”
He took a deep breath in then let it out and I watched as some of the tension that had appeared when he was talking about Piper release.
“Funny thing about mobsters and people of that nature, they trade favors like picks in the NFL draft. So eventually I was approached by Edgar.”
My mind raced trying to place the name. I’d heard it before.
“He’s the guy who followed us in his car after the gala. He cornered us in the alley,” he supplied when he noticed I was trying to put the pieces together.
“Right,” I said, remembering the round guy who’d known who I was even though I had no idea about him.
“Turns out, Derrek and Edgar were buddies. Edgar owed Derrek, for what I’m not sure, but when you made that call to the private investigation firm, you set everything in motion. Derrek wasn’t lying when he said he’d been waiting for you to make your move. And,” he continued, “if it’s any consolation, I didn’t work for Derrek I worked for Edgar.”
“It’s not,” I said quickly, even though I was still a little confused about the specifics.
“Well, I got a call from Edgar and he told me I was to meet my mark, you, and my job was to get you into bed.”
My stomach rolled at his admission and I knew he could see the unease in my eyes. He reached across the table to take my hand, but I quickly slipped them below to my lap. My defenses went up automatically. “Well, congratulations. Mission accomplished.” My voice was shaky, emotions coming out that I was desperate to keep in.
“Lena,” he said softly. “I watched you walk into that bar and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why any man would want to give you up, would want to jeopardize you in any way. Then I met you, got a taste of your sass, learned how incredibly smart you were, and I knew instantly I was fucked.”
Just like the first time we’d met, his use of that word sent unwanted, yet delicious, jolts of electricity to the core of me. I trembled and hoped he didn’t notice.
The Private Serials Box Set Page 22
