“Aveline and I will get through this. You, however, are done. I’m going to enjoy taking you home tonight. After this, mom and dad will be done with you. No more free rides, no more enabling. But, because I’m nice I’m going to give you two choices. Either you go to rehab or you never come home again.”
Jamie’s face was beginning to swell. “Mom would never-”
“She will,” Greer assured him. “After this, she will.” Fucking over family was one thing but assaulting a woman was on a whole other level. Their mom would disown him for tonight and both of them knew it. “Come on Jamie, you are an idiot but you aren’t stupid. Let me pay for rehab. Clean yourself up and try for once, try to be a decent human being.”
Jamie was silent but his head wobbled up and down enough for Greer. He let his brother go and stepped back. “Don’t think that you can cut out once you get there. If you do then Aveline will be pressing charges.”
Jamie dabbed at his eye with the bottom of his shirt. He tried to look pissed off but with a black eye almost fully swollen over and a broken nose, it was hard for him to look anything but in pain. “I fucking hate you.”
“Right back at you, Brother.”
Chapter Twelve
Greer rubbed a hand down his face as he walked out of his parent’s house. They all talked over the “deal” Greer had made with Jamie and all had agreed. If he didn’t stick with rehab then Jamie was cut off from the family.
When he came through the door with his brother in tow, his mom had looked so happy. For a split second he could actually read her thoughts. Content that her boys were there, together, under one roof. But she couldn’t ignore the bruises on Jamie’s face or the anger reverberating from Greer. His mom had been broken hearted as Greer explained what Jamie had been doing to Aveline. How he had found her, torn shirt and tear streaks. She hadn’t looked once at her son. Hurting them time and time again was one thing but the moment that it went outside of the family, all bets were off. Especially since it was a woman. Their dad had taught them better than that. Even if he got clean in rehab, Jamie might not get back in their mother’s good graces.
His mom then chastised Greer for not going after Aveline to make sure she was ok.
Well, that was Greer’s next step.
He pulled out his phone and called Jason. Greer needed a ride, he had driven his parent’s car back over and he didn’t want to leave one of his parents alone with Jamie, even if it was for five minutes. Jason was the closest and he already knew part of what was going on.
The drummer picked up on the first ring.
“What’s going on?” He was irritated. Greer wanted to welcome him to the club. “Last I heard Aveline had run out of the room. Is she ok?”
Greer sat on the front step. His body was exhausted, the adrenaline from earlier had worn off.
“I don’t know. I was hoping she had gone back to your house.”
He cursed. “No. I hung up when I heard you yelling after her and tried to call but she didn’t pick up. I’ve left a few voicemails and called all the guys to keep an eye out for her. None of them have talked to her.”
“Could you give me a ride? I’m at my parents.”
“Of course.” There was a jingle of keys. He had probably been considering coming over anyway. “What did they say?”
“Well, I gave him an ultimatum. He can get clean or be gone. He agreed to get clean. Dad is packing up the car right now to drive him down to Florida where he has a room booked at that place Nix had gone to. Mom won’t even look at Jamie. This killed her. I shouldn’t feel satisfaction that I was right about him, but I do and it sucks.”
Jason grunted in agreement. “What are you going to do about Aveline?”
Greer sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t even know where she is.” No calls. No texts. He had sent her a quick message asking if she was ok but never got a response. He’d try calling but if Jason hadn’t gotten a hold of her, Greer wouldn’t either.
“I’m gonna smack you when I get there,” Jason grumbled. “Go after her you dipshit! She is going to need someone.”
“You don’t get it,” he said in a humorless laugh. “She was scared of me. When she saw me her face had gone white. Jamie and I might not look identical because of his drug abuse but we are enough alike that I reminded her of him.”
He saw headlights coming up the drive and then Jason was there. Greer hung up and jogged over to the passenger side. When he was inside, Jason smacked him upside the head as promised.
“Of course you scared her but that was because you were there in that same moment. I’m sure she regrets it right now.”
He shook his head. He wasn’t so sure of that.
“Call her cousin.” Jason snapped his fingers trying to think of the name. “Rob. Yeah, call him and tell him what’s up. Then get your ass on the road.”
There was nothing Greer wanted more than to pull her into a hug and hold her but as much as he wanted to protect her, he also feared the rejection that he felt was inevitable. Jason, apparently, disagreed.
“She’s not going to want to see me,” he said as they came up to the gate to his house.
Jason punched in the security number and drove through. “Well tough shit. You hang around until she does. If you are serious about her then you gotta show it.”
He smiled a little. “When did you become such an expert?”
Jason parked but didn’t look at him. He stared at Greer’s front door like he was waiting for someone to come out of it. “What you have with Aveline is real. Don’t discard that like it’s lint on your shirt.” The envy in his voice was what made Greer not respond. He had though that Jason liked the carousel of groupies and women fawning over him. Maybe he had thought wrong.
An hour later, Greer did go. Jason was handling things at his house while Rory headed over to Jason’s place to see if she showed up there, but Greer felt it in his gut that she went home. It was a six hour drive to Elizabeth City, Greer called her every twenty minutes. Even as her phone stopped ringing and went straight to voicemail he didn’t stop the obsessive calling.
The “what if’s” were driving him crazy. Every time she didn’t answer, his mind rolled further into the cyclone of worry that told him she had wrapped her car around a tree because she was crying so hard that she missed the deer that was standing on the side of the road and jumped as she was driving past. He all but stopped to look at every disabled car he passed to see if it was her. It took him a good hour before he realized he didn’t know what she drove.
The voicemails were getting more desperate as well. First he tried explaining what happened. Then he apologized a few hundred times. Then he told her what was being done about Jamie. Then he asked for her to call her back. Then he told her that by not responding he was imagining the worst. Then he said that all he needed was some confirmation that she was alright. Each time he recorded a message, he became angrier and more annoyed.
When he was an hour out the phone rang again instead of going straight to voicemail.
It was Rob who picked up.
“Aveline?” So stunned that it wasn’t her generic voicemail system, Greer’s voice wavered.
“No. You need to stop calling.” Rob held no love for Greer.
“Fuck, Rob, tell me she is ok.”
“If I do will you go away?”
Hell no. “Rob,” he warned. “I need to talk to her. Hand Aveline the phone.”
He scoffed. “No can do. Aveline is in the bath washing away whatever damage that brother of yours inflicted. I am under strict order to not turn on her phone but I knew you would just keep calling her until you got a hold of her and since she is in no shape to deal with you or your feelings, I took it upon myself to help my girl out. She is fine. She will be fine. Everything is fucking fine. Now, you need to give her some time to process before you suffocate her.”
Greer felt the roll of his stomach breaking like the tide. “I need to…”
“You don’t need to do anything.
This happened to her, not you. I’m calling you because I acknowledge your feelings for her and figured you would be freaking out right about now. Am I right?”
Greer grunted.
“So, because I believe that you didn’t purposefully sick your brother on her, I am informing you of her condition. But stop calling, seriously. It’s going to stress her out.”
“I don’t know if I can,” he admitted.
“Try.”
The line went dead. Greer considered turning around but he was so close already. He wanted to be there when she agreed to talk to him. Not only there, but on her doorstep. He needed to see her now. Hearing her would not be enough anymore. He needed to hear, see, touch and hold her. He’d wait outside all night if he had to but Greer was not going home without explaining.
*****
She wanted another shower.
Or maybe fifty more showers.
Even safe and warm in her bed, Aveline’s skin crawled and shivered with memory of Jamie.
Yeah, she had figured out who he was. It had taken her an hour on the road to do so but it came and she felt like a fool for running away. Jason’s desperate calls and texts had been too much at the time. She had to turn off her phone but she knew when she turned it back on that Greer would have bombarded her with messages. As much as she wanted to talk to him, she didn’t think she could. Every time she closed her eyes and saw Jamie, she also saw Greer. How was she supposed to face him and not flinch?
Her heart was conflicted. It wanted Greer but didn’t want to see him. What she really needed was time. Time to think and figure out her next step. Maybe make a list or two.
Unfortunately, time was not something she had.
Rob knocked on her door before coming in. He saw she was awake and pushed the door open with his shoulder. A tray of oatmeal, fruit, eggs, toast, coffee, tea and juice was placed on the bed beside her. She stared at it, wondering if he actually expected her to eat all of that.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d want so I brought a little of everything.”
She sat up and moved over so that he could sit with her. “Thanks. Tea and toast, I think.”
“You got it.” He handed her the buttered toast as he got the tea ready. She ate a bite but didn’t have an appetite. It was dry and felt like cardboard in her mouth.
“How you doing?”
“Ok, I think.”
He handed her the cup of tea. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”
Aveline frowned over the top of her mug. “No and stop asking me that.” Every five minutes the night before she heard that question.
“Ok fine,” he said giving up on the hope that she could get checked out. She had let him look her over and that was as close to an examine room that she would get.
“I have some news,” he said cautiously like he was testing the waters.
In no mood for games, Aveline made the continue motion with her hand as she sipped the warm tea.
“Greer is here.”
Her chest kicked a beat.
She should have figured he would come when she didn’t answer any of his calls. Aveline looked to the table where her phone sat, dead. It was in a different spot from where she put it last night.
“You answered it, didn’t you?”
Rob bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Baby Girl. I turned it on and when he called, I answered. He’s a mess. Keeping it together and all, but the worry comin’ off that boy is dangerous.”
Aveline turned her head. Rob’s feelings to the unasked question of what she should do were obvious.
“He got here a few hours ago but hasn’t come to the door. I told him that you needed time but he must have already been on the road.”
“Where is he?” she asked looking at her tea cup.
“Outside. He slept in his car.”
She nodded.
“Do you want to see him? I’ll go out there and send him on his way if you don’t.”
Aveline wasn’t sure what she wanted. Would seeing him be too much? Would she even be able to look at him? Maybe she should wait a few days to let the dust settle, or at least until she could stop feeling Jamie’s breath on her neck.
But she also knew he would be a comfort to her. Greer always was.
“Fine. I’ll see him but no promises.”
Rob kissed her cheek and with a smile he was out the door. It made her wonder whose side he was really on here.
Two sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway. Aveline pulled her knees to her chest. Maybe she’d see him and instead of seeing the similarities, she’d see the differences. Maybe all she would see was Greer.
As far as pep talks went, it was pretty feeble.
Rob came in first. He was watching her reaction to see if she would run screaming or handle herself like a proper southern woman.
And then came Greer. He was disheveled in his slept in clothes and dirty hair. There was dried blood on his knuckles and a bruise blossoming on his jaw. The dark circles of worry and little sleep made his face have a thinner, more sunken appearance.
Every single one of those things made her look away with a whole body shiver that didn’t seem to stop. He looked more like his brother now than he had last night.
A heavy barrage of tears pressured her eyes. Why couldn’t he have a paternal twin? Why did they have to look so similar?
“Ava?” he asked, his voice thick with remorse. Closing her eyes she soaked in the voice she knew so well. That was different. His voice wasn’t the raspy and thin tone of Jamie.
“Doll, you want me to stay?” Rob asked coming over to her and rubbing a hand across her shoulders.
She shook her head. “No. It’s ok.”
He left but she wanted to grab his hand and make him stay. She wanted Rob to stand guard against Greer. Her mind found it incredible frustrating that her body found Greer to be a villain. So as much as she wanted the protection, she refused it. No matter what his part in all this, Greer was not the villain.
Rob left, the door still open, but left them to it. Greer came over the bed, walking slowly in case she spooked and sat on the foot of it. He was as far away as he could be and still be pushing the boundaries. Aveline snuck a peak at him. He was checking her over for damages, his frown so deep that a crevasse formed between his eyes.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Aveline forced herself to meet his eyes, even though looking at him made all the moister dry up in her mouth. “I’m ok. Shaken but fine.”
He nodded and dropped his head. “I wanted to explain.”
“I think I pieced it together already.”
Greer looked up and smirked at her with no happiness in the expression. “Amuse me?” When she nodded, he continued. “He just got out of prison. He was at my parent’s house for dinner. I normally would have left him there and ignored his presence but he had both my mom and dad under a spell. Some bullshit about him changing. I couldn’t get a feel for him there so I brought him back home with me. Had I known you were coming…”
“It was supposed to be a surprise. Sorry,” she murmured and laid her head on her knees. She didn’t look at him directly but kept him in her field of vision.
“No. Don’t apologize. I would have been thrilled to find you at my door. If it had been me answering it. I was on the phone. Jason had called to tell me that I needed to get home. He didn’t know I had Jamie there. He had never been invited to my house before.” He paused which made her flick her eyes over to him but as he looked now, her stomach flopped over onto itself. “You can’t look at me, can you?”
She wanted to cry. The devastation in his voice matched that of her heart. She couldn’t. She couldn’t look at him. How were they to move forward if she couldn’t even meet his eyes?
“I keep seeing him, Greer. The shape of your mouth, your tired eyes, the paleness of your skin all match his.”
He recoiled like her words were a blade that just sliced his heart.
“I am not my brother,” he stated.
“I know,” she whispered, wishing she could take back the admission. “But you share a face and right now, I just can’t…”
“What?” he asked. His voice shaking with grief underneath the insult. “What can’t you?”
She let out her breath in a flurry. The tears had begun to fall as her worst case scenario came to a head. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t do us. It’s all so new right now.” Her hands twisted the blanket. “And I need some time here. Time and space to get my head on straight.”
The wall had come down so hard and fast on his emotions that she stole a glance in his direction. Nothing. There was nothing there anymore. “So we are breaking up?” he asked with a flatness that made her stomach sink.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to. I…care for you a lot, Greer. But I think it would be best for you to go home. When I’m ready, I’ll call you.”
Greer nodded in a stony way. He didn’t believe a word she was saying. The lack of trust cut her. “Ava, don’t do this.”
She turned her head toward the windows, shutting him out as effectively as he had done to her.
Greer sighed and stood. She felt him pause at the door but he didn’t say anything else as he walked from her house.
She just hoped it wasn’t from her life as well.
Chapter Thirteen
Their suite looked out over Austin. A view that usually would entice a smile from Greer, but for all he cared today, he could be at a rundown roadside motel. Ten days with no word from Aveline confirmed what he had known all along.
They were done.
Time and space were the kiss of death to any relationship. He knew it the moment the words left her lips that he would never see her again. So Greer had left. He honored her time and respected her space and went home to punch a hole in his wall.
Greer had gone back on tour as was expected of him. He played at shows, talked and took pictures with fans, and jumped when told. Greer joked with the guys like he always had. Played in midnight Cornhole tournaments with the roadies. He even ate Rory’s cooking with no complaint to the phallic references that always seemed to litter his plate.
Chance (Rusted and Reckless Book 1) Page 12
