One More Minute With You

by Sierra Hill

  It had all gone to hell. Kenzie was gone; he’d pushed her away and now she wasn’t coming back. And he was 100 percent to blame. It was all his fault for getting so livid when he saw Brian practically mauling her the other day when he came home from the studio. He rarely lost his temper but all of his long-buried emotions came boiling to the surface, like magma expelling from the earth, hot liquid rage like he’d never before experienced.

  All he could feel in that moment was his heart ripping in two, the anguish of losing yet another woman he’d trusted and had fallen head-over-heels in love with. He’d just lost it. And now all he wanted was to take it all back for just one more minute with Kenzie. He’d do anything for one more minute with her.

  So he poured out his regret and longing for another chance in the song – hoping someday she would hear him sing it for her. Or better yet, the part that was missing was her voice. That’s what the bridge and chorus needed to make it right – the beautiful and soulful sound of her magical voice, interlacing with his own.

  Strumming the chords, he let the lyrics float through the air, like the ribbons flowing gracefully from a rhythmic gymnasts hands.

  You were my ray of sunshine, streaming through the clouds of gray.

  You were impossible to resist, your heart beating with mine.

  As if right on cue, you were the melody and the tune.

  And then it all faded, the light turning dark with gloom.

  When all I ever wanted, all I ever needed,

  Was just one more minute with you.

  Remy had been avoiding the calls and texts from his dad over the last few days. He knew he’d been cruel to his father and was willing to admit that Kenzie was right. It wasn’t his father’s fault what happened between Brian and Kenzie. They were both innocent parties in Brian’s perverted quest for young pieces of ass.

  And yes, he truly believed Kenzie wasn’t to blame for Brian’s behavior. God, he’d said some awful things to her and regretted them with every fiber of his being. He snorted, thinking back to what his mother had always told him. Never say anything in the heat of the moment that you might regret.

  Wouldn’t you know it? His mother was a smart freaking woman. But did he heed her advice? Hell no. He did exactly what she told him not to and said horrible things to Kenzie. He implied that she brought it on herself because of the way she dressed. He’d basically called her a whore.

  Jesus. He was such an asshole.

  After everything she’d confided in him about her past and how she’d been beaten and nearly raped, how could he have been so insensitive to hurl that insult on her? It was the dirtiest play in the book. And he’d never forgive himself.

  His self-loathing was interrupted by the beep of his phone, an incoming text message lighting up his display. Remy closed his eyes, wanting to wish away the torture of knowing it wouldn’t be from Kenzie. No, that ship had sailed. His harsh words had all but nailed the coffin closed on their relationship and any love she may have ever felt for him.

  The phone beeped again and Remy heaved a loud sigh of exasperation. Couldn’t he just be left alone to wallow in his own self-pity for once?

  He picked up the phone and read the message.

  He blinked. And then read it again.

  Kenzie.

  I need to talk to you. Are you there?

  He scrambled to his feet and paced the room. Yes. Yes he was there. Goddamn, he was wherever she wanted him to be.

  His thumbs flew across the keypad.

  Yes, I’m here.

  Within under two seconds, his phone vibrated with an incoming call. He swallowed down the fear that had lodged in his throat and answered.

  “Hi.”

  “Hey, Remy.”

  Her voice was breathy. As if she’d just finished a marathon and crossed the finish line before calling him.

  “I need to talk to you. Are you at home?”

  Holy shit, this was it. She was going to tell him it was over for good, that he’d fucked up so bad that she never wanted to see him again. She was going to move out and leave him behind with nothing but heartache and memories.

  He looked around, for a second unable to remember exactly where he was or how long he’d been there.

  “Uh, no. I’m at the studio. Do you want to meet me back at home?” As soon as he said the word home, their home, his voice cracked. It had been their home, even temporarily, until he screwed it all up. And now she was probably regretting ever even meeting him.

  “Yeah. I’ll be there in a few minutes. There’s something important I need to tell you. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you before now. I’ll see you soon.”

  The line went dead and he slipped the phone in his pocket, zipping up his guitar case and walking into the main lobby to lock up. The tone in her voice had him curious as to what was so important that she needed to meet him right away. In fact, she had sounded almost panicked.

  What had she been sorry about not telling him? Maybe she was going to tell him that she really had lied and had been using him. Shit, that would just take the cake. He’d bury his head in the sand and never come up for air again if that was the case.

  Something in the back of his mind told him that wasn’t it, though. He walked out into the late afternoon sun, the warm fall air filled with a tinge of coolness. Lifting his head to the sky, he took a steadying breath and said a silent prayer that she’d take him back. Whatever it was she had to tell him, he hoped it would be the forgiveness he needed but didn’t deserve. There was nothing more he wanted than to move on from this pain and to hold her in his arms again and make things right.

  The past be damned.

  ****

  Donita had protested – very loudly and colorfully, in fact – when Kenzie left the diner by herself to head over to her apartment. She was acting like a protective mama bear over her weakling little cub. It was sweet, honestly it was. But Kenzie was too worried about the potential backlash on Remy to be concerned about whether Seth was going to do anything to her in broad daylight. He wouldn’t be that stupid and she told Donita just as much.

  When they had returned to the front of the diner after Donita had contacted Darryl, Seth was long gone. He’d probably been spooked when Carlos and Big Gary, the line cook, had gone out there looking like two bouncers, and scared him off. They’d made plans to head over to the police station to file a police report and provide a description of Seth to the Sergeant on Duty, as per Darryl’s instructions.

  However, when Kenzie said she needed to run home first, Donita threw a full-blown hissy fit, decorated with more curse words than she’d ever heard her use before. But it didn’t deter Kenzie from her mission. She had to speak directly to Remy to let him know what was going on. In case…well, in case Seth knew about him and knew where they lived. Remy had to be warned and over the phone wasn’t the way to handle it. Plus, she had to show him a picture of Seth so he could be on the look-out.

  She and Donita came to a compromise. Kenzie would leave her car in the parking lot at the diner and Donita would chauffer her over to apartment, drop her off at the front door and allow her some time to talk privately with Remy. She wasn’t exactly sure which direction the conversation would might take, considering the last time she was with him, Remy told her to get lost.

  She couldn’t think about the heartache right now. Not when so much was on the line and there was a potential madman on the loose. Even if Remy no longer wanted anything to do with her, at least she could make sure he was safe from her bat-shit crazy ex.

  Technically, she didn’t know with 100 percent certainty that Seth was indeed her stalker or had been the one sending her the harassing text messages. Yet, the shear fact that he was in town and showed up at the diner led her to believe he was behind a lot of things recently. And there was no way in hell she was going to take a chance at him getting too close, considering his violent behavior the last time she was in his midst.

  Kenzie checked the vicinity outside her building before steppi
ng out of the car and made her way up to her apartment steps. She unlocked the entryway door, turned to give Donita the thumbs up sign and stepped into the building. Walking up the stairs to their apartment, she noticed the door was slightly ajar.

  Good, Remy was already there.

  She stepped in and called out his name.

  “Hey Rem. I’m here.” She scanned the room in front of her and down the hallway when she suddenly felt a sharp, cold object poke her from behind and an arm came around her front. She had just opened her mouth to scream when it was covered by a sweaty palm.

  She jerked hard to try and pull away, a scream of panic muffled before it even hit the atmosphere. Her assailant’s breath was hot and putrid, like the stench of garbage on a sweltering hot New York summer day.

  “Hello, beautiful,” Seth wheezed from behind her. He pressed his body against hers, pushing her forward out of the doorway. “I was sorely disappointed with the rude welcome I received from you earlier at the diner. You must have been having a bad morning to treat me so unkindly.”

  He suddenly let her go and then he grabbed her wrists, yanking them behind her, and quickly binding them with some sort of plastic tie. Kenzie was then sent sailing into a chair, as she floundered to get her arms out from underneath her.

  As she adjusted her butt in the seat, a dark object on the floor behind the couch nearest the window caught her attention.

  Oh my God, it couldn’t be.

  “Remy!” she screamed. Her entire body trembled with the horrific realization that she may have been too late. His body laid limp on the wood floor, eerily unmoving.

  A painful slap across her cheek snapped her attention back to Seth, the smack echoing against the walls in the small room. His cruel, monster-like features and darkly hooded eyes were on her, searing into her flesh and bone.

  He shrugged, his chin gesturing to where Remy lay. “Your boyfriend here was in quite the hurry to get into your apartment. He didn’t even see me coming when I hit him over the head.” Seth rubbed an invisible spot on the top of his own head. The same spot she hit with the pewter beer mug months before.

  “W-what do you want, Seth? If it’s me, then just let him go. Remy has nothing to do with what happened between us. You know that. So why involve him?”

  She tested out the ties that bound her hands, wiggling them to find some form of leverage or weakness in the binding. Nope, they just got tighter. This was so not good. The only thing she could do now was to try and appeal to his sensibilities to let Remy go.

  Seth stood up from his spot where he’d sat on the coffee table, pacing idly back and forth in front of the couch, like a tiger in a cage, before kicking at Remy’s outstretched legs. He sneered, turning back to face Kenzie.

  “Why indeed? Well, let’s just look at it from my perspective, shall we, Kenz? You see, you left me. You left me bleeding on the floor, my heart ripped out and torn up by your fucking whorish ways. And then you ran off to tattle on me to your fucking bastard of a father, filling him with outlandish lies about me. And on top of all that, you left town, without so much as a good-bye or a change of address. You fucking left me, Kenz! And then you know what happened?”

  No. She didn’t want to know. She knew, based on what was in front of her, that he’d lost it. He abso-fucking-lutely lost his ever-loving mind. But then again, it was a rhetorical question, right? Because he was hell bent on telling her.

  She shook her head, closing her eyes, hoping he wouldn’t proceed. When he did, the spittle from his angry words hit her in the face. She nearly gagged.

  “I worked so hard to make your father proud. To be a future son-in-law that he could count on to someday take care of you and his business. But because of the egregious lies you told him about me, he fired me! I tried to explain that you were a lying whore-slut and nothing you said was the truth, but he wouldn’t listen to me. His own daughter ran off without so much as a word as to where she went and he still chose to stand up for you – the fool!”

  As he spoke, he shifted the knife blade from hand to hand, as if it were too hot to hold on to. He paced, back and forth, alternating his grip between hands. Kenzie had no idea how he wasn’t slicing up his hands, his attention clearly not on what he was doing.

  “I knew I had to find you – to give you a chance to apologize to me for what you’d done. And then once I decided to take you back, after you begged for me to take you back,” his hand darted out, the cold blade of the knife poking at the buttons of her uniform, his sardonic smile on his face sending icy shivers down her spine.

  “After you made things better between us, you’d come back to Seattle with me and tell your dad the truth. You’d tell him how you made everything up. You lied about me because you’re a whoring cunt. Because you know, beautiful, I would never do anything to hurt you. I love you too much. I would kill for you.”

  The panic escalated, the dread washing through her veins like mudslide seeping through a flood plain after heavy rains. Was Remy dead already? Had Seth killed him?

  Kenzie wrenched against the ties, the feeling in her hands slowly evaporating. She needed time to think. This was all too much. She’d never seen Seth this crazed - this mental. She’d seen him angry, for sure. And drunk, lots of times. But this right here was flat-out insane. And she was not equipped to handle it.

  The pounding on the door had both of their heads spinning, turning to the source of the sound. Within a second, Seth had launched himself at Kenzie and yanked her up off the chair, her feet dragging to keep up with the rest of her body.

  The knife was poised at her throat and once again his hot sickly breath was at her ear.

  “Do exactly as I say, do you hear me?”

  She nodded, a squeak escaping her throat.

  The door banging intensified, this time followed by a loud, deep voice.

  “Kenzie Daniels. This is the Nashville Police. Open the door.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  There was pounding in his head. It was so loud. It made his temple throb in pain.

  Please. Would someone please stop the pounding?

  Remy opened one eye, and then the other. There was something warm and sticky dripping down his face, causing his vision to blur. He tried lifting his hand to wipe it away, but his arm was stuck behind his back.

  What the fuck?

  He yanked and pulled to no avail. His hands were tied, the sharp plastic edge cutting into his circulation. His brain was fuzzy, but it was starting to come back to him.

  A phone call from Kenzie.

  Locking up the studio.

  Sprinting home.

  Opening up the exterior apartment door.

  A man stepping out from around the corner. Asking him if Kenzie lived there.

  Huh? What?

  Being pushed through the door from behind, a knife poking into his ribs.

  Forced into his apartment and then wham.

  Blackout.

  Kenzie.

  The pounding on the door came again, and he heard a hostile whisper, then a gasp from Kenzie. She was here. He couldn’t see her, but he heard her.

  “Kenzie Daniels. This is the Nashville Police. Open the door.”

  The whispering intensified and there was scuffling across the wood floor.

  “Y-yes, officer. This is Kenzie Daniels. I’m here and I’m okay. Thank you for your concern.”

  More whispering. A male voice. The man inside his apartment?

  “I don’t need your assistance. You can go now, officer.” Her voice was shaking and unstable. He heard it in her shallow, lifeless tone.

  There was a pause and then the police officer volleyed back.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do that. It’s police procedure for the attending officer to visually verify that the victim is physically okay when we respond to a domestic violence call. That means you need to open the door for us, ma’am, before we can leave.”

  Remy heard a muffled cry from Kenzie and more shuffling of feet.

>   He slowly and awkwardly got to his knees, keeping as quiet as he could be and crouched low to the ground as he peered around the edge of the couch. The man had his back to him, facing the door, one of his arms clutching Kenzie tightly around her waist and the other holding the knife pointed at her throat.

  He nearly lost it right there. He could understand now how people actually blacked out in moments of violent rage, because that’s almost what happened when he saw the scene in front of him. Blind rage fueled him into action, without thought of consequence or safety. His only thought was to rescue Kenzie from this man’s hold.

  He was ten feet away and had the good fortune to be hidden, all the focus being directed to the front door. Quietly positioning himself on the balls of his feet, he pushed off just as another knock sounded at the door, charging at the back of the man who held Kenzie at knife point.

  Without the use of his hands, he was helpless to do anything but to slam his body like a linebacker against his opponent, sending the man off balance. They toppled over in a tangled mess on the floor. Kenzie screamed a blood-curdling sound and the front door flew open, two officers with guns drawn, charging into the chaotic mess.

  Within seconds, the police had the three of them to their feet, the man disarmed and assessing both Kenzie and him for injuries. Added to the mix of hysteria was a shrieking and wailing Donita, who came flying in like the Tasmanian devil, trying her damnedest to land some sucker punches on the deranged man. By what he could gather through Donita’s cursed howls, the man the police now had in custody was Seth, Kenzie’s ex-boyfriend.

  A few minutes passed and one of the officers took a handcuffed Seth out the door to an awaiting vehicle. Both he and Kenzie’s wrists had been freed and the moment they were, Remy grabbed Kenzie’s shoulders, pulling her off the ground and into his lap.

  Her body shook from the shock of everything that had transpired, taking its toll on her fragile state. His hand smoothed over her hair, pressing her head into the curve of his neck, rocking her back and forth, murmuring warm words of assurance.