Kiss Kiss

by Various Authors

  “Ember?” Bo gripped his hand on my sweat-soaked back.

  “Get me out of here, now!” I raced toward the exit, not looking back.

  Bo was just a second behind me as I sucked the cool, calming air in to my lungs outside McCarthy’s.

  “What the hell happened? Ainsley just-”

  “This isn’t about Ainsley, Bo. Those - those guys, Bill . . . and Max . . .” My erratic breathing was doing nothing to help my voice.

  Bo grasped my shoulders and squared me to him, “They what, Ember? Did they say anything to you?” His fingers pressed in deep urgency against my skin.

  “No. Those fucking guys were the ones, the ones behind the garage that I dropped my car off at two weeks ago. Why the fuck were they in Barnstable? Are they blackmailing other people?” I spewed all at once.

  I became more aware of the sound of my breathing in the silent night. My eyes darted around, noting the desertion around Bo and me.

  “I don’t think so, Ember.” Bo looked toward the door in growing fear.

  “Well I’ve got news for you, they beat the hell out of some guy named Spike, and I-”

  “What the fuck did you do, Cavanaugh?” the all-too familiar sneer followed us out to the sidewalk.

  “Bill, not now.” Bo stood in front of me so I wasn’t in the line of verbal fire.

  “She knows something, Golden Boy, or she wouldn’t have called you by your high school football name - no one calls you that anymore.”

  Bo’s back stiffened as Bill’s words hammered incoherently in to my head.

  “Wait . . .” I stepped back slowly, dragging my toes with each step.

  Bo turned to me and his pain-seared face nearly knocked me over.

  “S-spike, is your nickname?” My head swirled as blackness overtook my peripheral vision.

  In a flash, Bill was lunging past Bo and toward me. Bo threw up his forearm like a steel beam and stopped Bill from colliding with me; but he still managed to grab at my shoulder, knocking me off balance. Bo turned to steady me, giving Bill another swipe at me. He wrapped his hand around my arm.

  “What’d he tell you, huh? Did he tell you about his slutty sister? Tell you how much money she owes me, that I took the job with DROP to get it back, but it wasn’t coming fast enough?” He spoke through adrenaline, as Bo was lunging toward him.

  I tried to pull my arm away but he only tightened his grip. Tears threatened, but for some reason I couldn’t scream. I ducked in time for Bo’s fist to connect with Bill’s face, causing him to release my arm.

  “Run, Ember! Go!” Bo hollered right through me. Thankfully, my fight-or-flight response chose flight in agreement with Bo, and I turned and ran. I heard nothing other than my heart beat and my heels on the sidewalk. My shoes did nothing to steady my frantic gait as I realized I had no idea where I was going.

  Away.

  My sight cleared as I focused on someone walking - no, running - down the sidewalk in my direction.

  Adrian.

  “Adrian! Adrian, help!” I managed a scream that tore through the quaint street.

  I paid less attention to the scene behind me, and more attention to his face as we got closer. In one step, the pavement was no longer under my feet - it was under my face.

  “Ember! What the hell is going on?” Adrian knelt beside me and grabbed my shoulders.

  Stallion-like foot beats approached behind me as I pushed myself from the sidewalk. Ouch. For the first time since I ran, I looked back. Bo, Bill, and Max were a block behind me and Bo was holding them both back; but just barely.

  “Those guys, Bill . . . and Max . . . they’re involved . . .”

  “Jesus Christ,” Adrian fished through is pocket and produced a plastic credit-card looking thing, “here’s my key for The Centennial, room 323, go!” He pointed in the direction he came from as he helped me to my feet before running toward Bo.

  I kicked off my shoes and kept running, leaving them where I fell.

  * * *

  Taupe. That’s the color I named the walls of Adrian’s room at The Centennial. There was only a digital clock in the room, but I could hear the ticking of impossible time. I was growing anxious at the unknown fates of the men I’d left behind on the sidewalk

  I must have been a real sight showing up to the classy hotel bloody and shoeless. I kept my head down as I ran to the elevator, praying not to run into anyone as I opened his door.

  My muscles started to ring from the fall I took in those damn shoes. I rose and limped to the bathroom to survey the damage; my skinned elbows and knees were crusted in dried blood. My eyes lifted to meet themselves in the wall-length mirror; a fairly deep looking gash oozed blood from my right eyebrow- I turned aimlessly back to the room and sat carefully on the bed.

  Taupe. Tick. Tock.

  A soft knock on the door didn’t startle me as it would have even two hours ago; I rose indolently and moved toward the door. There was another knock.

  “It’s Adrian, Ember.”

  I turned and walked back to the bed as I opened the door so he wouldn’t see my face immediately. Adrian closed the door softly; more to appease me than the other guests, I assumed. I heard a clunk on the dresser and turned to see him set my shoes down; I cracked a half-smile but winced against the pain.

  “Fuck, Blue, hang on,” he said as he went to the bathroom and turned on the water. He returned with a wet washcloth and sat next to me on the bed, “I’m just going to clean off your face, OK?” I nodded, my eyes never leaving the infinite spot on the wall they’d chosen. When the warm washcloth connected with my wound, I leaned in to Adrian’s hand and was able to finally start processing the events of the last couple of hours.

  “Does anything else hurt?” he continued. I just shook my head.

  “Where’s Bo? Did he get hurt?” I asked, not moving my head from his hand.

  “No, Cavanaugh’s fine, don’t know why those pricks messed with him in the first place - he’s much stronger. They’re at the police station; Bill and Max will be staying the night. Bo hung around a while to make sure you didn’t have to come down and give a statement.”

  “What? Of course I do, right?”

  “You didn’t really have anything to do with the fight those three got into on the sidewalk; you ran away. Bo wants you as far away from this as possible.” Adrian draped his arm around my shoulder.

  “But, in Barnstable the three of them-”

  “The three of them were in Barnstable? When?” Adrian leaned back, forcing me to hold my own weight. I noticed Adrian was wearing a tight red t-shirt, and wanted to smile at our wardrobe telepathy. I chose, however, to remain on the task at hand.

  I told Adrian the story of the night when I dropped my car off at the garage, and the events that transpired thereafter. He listened intently, like the lawyer he’d become; furrowing his brow, nodding, and rubbing his chin.

  “So you didn’t see any of them.” Adrian asserted.

  “No, just heard their names and they were talking about Rae . . . but I thought it was ‘Ray’. They called the other guy ‘Spike,’ which I now know to be some high school nickname given to Bo . . .” My thoughts drifted to Rachel who was still, hopefully, unaware of the situation.

  As Adrian opened his mouth to speak, there was a frantic knock on the door.

  “Adrian? November? It’s Bo - let me in.”

  I rose, but Adrian’s hand forced me back to the bed.

  “Just sit, you’re a mess,” he said as he headed toward the door.

  Inexplicably, Adrian opened the door just a crack.

  “What the hell Turner, let me in! I need to see her, is she OK?” Bo was frantic.

  “Just, OK, stay calm dude, she hasn’t cleaned up yet,” Adrian said as he backed away from the door.

  “What the hell? Oh my God, Ember!” Bo fell to his knees in front of me, wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his face in my lap.

  The dam broke, and in the span of time it took for him to utter the wo
rd ‘God’, I went from near-catatonic to a heaving, shuddering mess. He rose and met me on the bed, using tender strength as he pulled me toward him. When I finally pulled away, I saw my blood-stained tears resting on his shirt, and Adrian standing uncomfortably by the bathroom door.

  “Bo, what the fuck was all of that?” I finally managed as I stood and crossed toward the bathroom to clean myself off. Adrian walked to the other side of the room as Bo remained seated.

  I walked out after my face, elbows and knees were sufficiently cleaned, and found the guys in the exact same positions.

  “Ember,” Adrian started, “you were telling me that you saw, or heard, something with Bill and Max a couple weeks ago in Barnstable?” His tone was prompting.

  “Yea, and apparently Bo - but they called him Spike . . .”

  “That was my nickname in high school-long story,” he chuckled.

  “Why didn’t I know about this, Bo?”

  Bo stood and faced Adrian, “Those assholes knew I’d be in Southern New England for a couple weeks on business and they were getting impatient. I knew if I just got it out of the way at the beginning of the trip it would buy me a couple of weeks . . .”

  “Damn it, Cavanaugh!” Adrian yelled. “A fight? Behind a garage!”

  “Calm down, Turner.” Bo held up his hands and dropped his voice.

  “But you didn’t see anyone?” Adrian continued, shifting his glance back to me.

  “No, I told you that,” I said as I crossed passed Bo, toward Adrian. I was their geographic center for the moment; I’d seen enough fights for one night, “It was dark, I was hiding behind a fucking tree, and I”- I stopped myself mid-sentence, dropping my jaw, and widening my eyes in horror at Adrian.

  “What?” Adrian reached for me, but I turned to my right.

  “What?” Bo asked.

  I turned slower than I’d ever turned in my life and addressed Bo.

  “When did you know it was me?” I choked, shaken by my own words.

  One . . .

  Two . . .

  Three . . .

  “When did you know it was me, Bowan?” I took one purposeful step forward and heard Adrian shift behind me.

  “Ember,” Adrian touched my shoulder, turning me back around, “what the hell are you talking about?”

  “I saw him that night.” The weight of the revelation did its best to crush me.

  Bo touched my back, “Nov-”

  “Shh!” I replied, not turning around, “I saw ‘Spike’ that night. It was nearly dark, he was shadowed under a street light more than fifty feet away. I heard the fight, one car pull away, I checked to see . . . ”

  I turned back to Bo.

  “November . . .”

  “When . . . the fuck . . . did you know it was me?” I recoiled as he reached for me.

  Anxious sweat highlighted his forehead, “We were fifty feet away, I had no idea-”

  “Bullshit! You realize there was a potential witness to whatever the hell happened and you don’t use every single second to memorize every detail of what I look, sound, act like? Tell me, Bo . . .”

  His shoulders sank and my rage ignited unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I lunged toward him with feral strength, and was as surprised as he when my palms connected with his chest, and he staggered backwards.

  “You knew it was me?” How long did it take? Was it the second you saw me at Finnegan’s, when I sang with you on stage?” I kept pushing and pushing him until he was against the wall. When there was nowhere left to push, I clenched my fists and pounded them in to his chest and shoulders.

  “Ember, fuck, stop!” Bo tried to grab for my arms, but I was thrashing so erratically, he couldn’t catch up.

  “Was it after we kissed, after we had sex?!” Heavy sobs replaced desperate anger. “When was it, Bo, when did you realize that I was the scared shitless girl? Was it right away? Were you thrilled by the coincidence that I walked in to Finnegan’s so you could hold onto me as an insurance policy; that I wouldn’t say anything if I remembered who you were?” My fists pounded harder in to him and my voice was lost in my tears. Bo did nothing to stop the blows.

  Suddenly, two hands gripped my shoulders from behind and yanked me away, “Ember! Get off him!” Adrian yelled as he moved one hand around my waist.

  Adrian forced me down on to the bed and held his hands on my shoulders as Bo slid down the wall and buried his face in his hands.

  “Will someone, calmly tell me what is going on?”

  “When the fight behind the garage was done, I walked over to see if the guy who came by himself was OK. I couldn’t see him because of the darkness, the distance, and the fact that I was scared as hell,” I’d never attacked anyone before, and it left me quite breathless, “I’m now finding it quite convenient that it was him and he made himself so available to me.”

  “November, it’s not like that, I had no idea it was you until-”

  “Until when? Are you honestly telling me that you didn’t know I was the girl at the garage before tonight?” I stayed seated and took a deep breath, which caused Adrian to relax his defensive stance in front of my body.

  “When you walked on stage at Finnegan’s you looked familiar, but I couldn’t place from where.” I started to respond but both Adrian and Bo held up their hands. “Then Monica mentioned that you saw some sort of altercation near your house, I thought it was a coincidence . . .”

  I remembered Bo’s over-concerned reaction that night, and more pieces fell into place.

  “You brushed it off so effortlessly that I had no reason to believe it was you,” he continued.

  “When, did you know it was me?” Fresh tears formed and tumbled down my cheeks.

  Bo sighed heavily as he stood and walked cautiously toward me, “Ember, that night when I came back early from my meeting here, and we walked on the beach . . .” He reached toward me but leaning back was my only response as he planted his knees in front of my feet.

  “When we walked on the beach what?” I said blankly.

  “We got to the parking lot, and there was a truck . . . ”

  “It was their truck.”

  “Yes.” His head was hanging so low I could see the very top of the tattoo on his back where his collar opened.

  “And they were in it.”

  “Yes,” he mumbled, still looking at the floor.

  I stood slowly, brushing off Adrian’s hand, “It’s fine, Adrian.” I paced toward Bo.

  My knees were level with the top of Bo’s head as I continued, “I told you that the truck looked exactly like the one that night behind the garage - exactly. So that night you had all the confirmation you needed, and you still didn’t say anything to me?”

  Bo lifted his head and his face was twisted in regret. “What would have been the point?”

  “The point,” I snarled, “is that you chose not to tell me that it was you the entire time. The point is that the next day, and the day after that, we said we loved each other.”

  Adrian wiped his palms on the front of his pants and headed back to the window; this conversation was sucking the life out of the room.

  “Ember, I had my suspicions, sure. But, what was I supposed to do? Tell a girl I just met that I was beaten up behind some garage? At that point I couldn’t have told you about the blackmail without scaring you away or risking Rae’s safety - I didn’t know you. By the time I knew it was you, it was too late; I was in love with you.” His shaky hand trembled against my arm, but I didn’t move.

  “That’s the reason you should have told me!” I roared as I took one step back, causing him to drop his grip.

  “Ember!” Bo raked his hands furiously through his hair as he stood, “I was backed into a corner! You were never supposed to find out about the blackmail, but it was all spiraling out of control so fast!”

  “Holy - that’s the reason my dreams of that night didn’t start until after we met . . . it was your voice . . .” My eyelashes touched my eyebrows at the thought. �
��And even after I told you about the nightmares, nothing? Shit, that bruise you had on your stomach, that wasn’t from helping your friend-that was from that night!”

  “Ember, it shouldn’t have ever happened like this! It was too late, I was so fucking in love with you I couldn’t think straight . . .” I answered his step forward with one back of my own.

  “You were never planning on telling me, were you? We were talking about forever and you were going to leave that out - forever.”

  “November-”

  “Don’t! It’s too late.” I raised my hands in defense as more tears plummeted down my face.

  “No!” Panic rang through the room with a deafening howl.

  I turned toward Adrian to avoid Bo’s face.

  “Get out,” I said as emotionless as possible.

  “Come on, Ember, it was just-”

  I felt a breeze behind me and turned to see him on his knees again, hands clenched in his hair. I looked back at Adrian, who had to turn away.

  “November, please, please try to understand,” he pleaded painfully as he reached for my calves.

  When his hands wrapped around my calves they slid a little under the sweatiness of his palms. He tried to stop their shaking by tightening his grip around me as he buried his face in my bloodied knees.

  “Bowan when I met you. . .” My soul shifted; my heart pulsed with fresh blood. “Never mind, it was all a lie; I was just a pawn in some high-society bullshit blackmail.”

  “No! November, no!” His fingers dug deeper in to my legs.

  I bent at the knees slightly, forcing him to look at me through tears and blood. When our eyes locked I took a deep breath, aiming for clarity.

  “Trust, Bo. All that keeps two people together is trust. Love isn’t enough. I don’t trust you. I don’t want to see you ever again. Get out.” My throat locked and threw away its own key against the words.

  Bo reached up and pulled me to my knees by the wrist, causing Adrian to rush to my side.

  “Ember, please. Calm down. We can work this out, come on!” His plea wretched through my soul, and for a split-second I wanted to concede, but couldn’t. I had been purposefully put in danger, lied to, and deceived.