Anguished (Crimson Elite Book 2)

by T. L Smith

  “You’re fucking someone else?”

  Selena groans loudly, standing up with bag in hand. “Of course, that’s all you hear. I’m leaving you, Echo. And I’m not coming back this time. I can’t.”

  She’s left me before. But she’s always come back the next day once she’s cooled down, but seeing someone else hasn’t happened before. She pulls the bag up her shoulder, and it takes me a moment longer to realize what she’s saying.

  “You can’t do that to me. To us.”

  She scoffs at my words while she reaches for her cell and places it in her pocket. “I’ve already done it, Echo. See, you’re not listening again. It goes in one ear and out the other. I don’t love you anymore, I love someone else.” Her hands are flying around, but the words coming from her mouth don’t make sense. I look at the bed which shows evidence of our sex. How the fuck can she say that after what we’ve just done?

  “You don’t love me anymore?” Pinning her with my stare, I will her to tell me the truth.

  She looks at the floor then back to me. Conviction in her eyes. “I want more. You aren’t more for me, Echo.”

  I can feel the knife she’s just placed in my heart twist, and it twists so fucking hard.

  “You want to leave me?” I say the words more to myself, but she answers them anyway.

  “I am… leaving you. Not want. I am, Echo. I’m sorry. I know this isn’t easy. But when you really think about it and move on, you’ll see that you don’t love me the way you think you do. You just don’t.” My hands reach for her, gripping her arms tightly. Her eyes go wide as if she’s afraid. But I would never hurt her, so I remove my hands but stay in front of her.

  “Don’t tell me how I love or who. I love you, Selena. I have from the moment I met you. Don’t twist this to make yourself feel better by finding someone else.”

  She steps back as if I’ve slapped her. “I was hoping we could end this on good terms, Echo. I want to be friends. Because I do love you.”

  “Friends,” I grunt at her, then point to the door. “Leave my house.”

  “See, was it ever ours? Your house. You don’t do that to people you love. This was meant to be a partnership, Echo.” She walks past to leave me forever.

  “I hope to never see you again, Selena. I really fucking do.”

  She smiles a sinister smile before she walks out shutting the door behind her.

  I drink myself to sleep that night. And the next, and the next.

  3

  Storm

  Yep, it’s my last time. I swear it is. I shake my head as I laugh at the show, the one that suckers me in every time I’m bored out of my brain. Which seems to happen a lot lately, work and no friends do that to you.

  Yes, I have no friends.

  That’s because I know no one in this goddamn city, and left everyone I love back home. I’m being a grown-up, doing grown-up things and standing on my own two feet with no one around me to tell me how proud they are. Is it smart? Possibly not. But I did it anyway. My job’s demanding, and when it isn’t, I don’t want to do much anyway. I’m surrounded by women and very few men all day. Being the boss though, doesn’t work well with mingling with my staff. I prefer for them to see me in the light I show them, not this girl who likes to sit in her non-fashion pajamas and eat popcorn mixed with chocolate all night watching some stupid comedy.

  I groan loudly when my cell starts binging, alerting me to more emails. Even though I say I won’t work when I’m home, I do every time. Get suckered in, and work until I pass out then get up, get dressed and do it all over again.

  How interesting am I?

  Full on, I know.

  Not.

  I need a new life. I was hoping by now I would have at least met a few people to socialize with. It’s been three months and not once have I gone out by myself in this city.

  It also doesn’t help that I’m one of the youngest in my office and effectively their boss which I know more than a few are not happy about. Many of them tried out for my job, but I worked damn hard to get where I am today and even if I get snotty comments or looks behind my back—because they think my age is a factor in how I do my job—I won’t let it affect me.

  I’m damn good at it.

  Have been since I was sixteen when I first took on a job at a fashion magazine.

  Now, I’m Chief Editor at one of the best and well-known magazines worldwide. My age helps me keep up to date with all the things my generation wants. Plus, my experience helps me know the business. I see it as a win-win. Others think that I shouldn’t be in the position I’m in. My cell starts ringing and I know straight away it’s Melissa, as I have a set ringtone for her.

  “I want this conversation to start off with… Mel, you won’t believe the piece of ass I hit last night. Actually, he’s still in bed with me, and I’ll say… give me all the details. So, give me all the details?”

  “Harry isn’t a fine piece of ass,” I say laughing at her words.

  “Oh my God, every time I call you’re watching that ridiculous movie. Enough already.” I can hear music in the background.

  “Where are you?”

  “Roger’s Bar,” she answers like I should know. I probably should. Roger’s is the local bar where we used to go until close to every weekend. Oh, how my life has changed. “He’s here, too, with her wrapped around his waist.”

  I pull the cell away and take a deep breath. Fuck him, and his wandering dick. “I don’t care.”

  This time Mel stays silent. One thing you need to know about Mel is she’s never silent.

  “You do! And your life seems to be sucking up there. How about I come up next weekend, and we can paint the town pink?” I smile despite hearing what he’s doing with another woman not even two months after me being gone. Asshole. Being with someone most of your teenage and adult life doesn’t mean shit. I was with Matthew since I was fifteen, little did I know until a few months ago he liked to stick his dick in places that weren’t me.

  So this new start came at the perfect time. I wouldn’t have to watch him chasing after other women and kissing up on them. I could start afresh.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes! How many more yeses do you need?” I say sitting up pausing my movie.

  “No more When Harry Met Sally all week, Storm.”

  I poke my tongue out, but I know she can’t see me. “I wasn’t really watching it.”

  She scoffs at me. “You’re lying, but that’s okay. Have your When Harry Met Sally shit now, but be prepared to not put it on at all next weekend.”

  “I’ve only watched it once this week.”

  “Lies, but that’s okay. I can handle that one lie.”

  She’s right, I’ve watched it every day this week.

  My life really does suck.

  “Maybe it wasn’t so smart to start over,” I say putting my fingers to my mouth biting on my fingernail as I lay back on my couch.

  “Please, it’s a great thing. You’re starting over. So many people dream about doing that, and here you are actually doing it. Stormi, you got this, babe. I’ll be there next week and we can explore together.” I trust her words and hope to God I can survive because the last thing I want to do is go home.

  The week went super slow, but also super-fast. It was a nightmare and a blessing all in one to finally see Friday roll around. I needed to leave this office and see my best friend. Desperately.

  “Plans for the weekend?” Vicki asks me as my cell starts ringing and Mel’s ringtone blasts through the office. I quickly place it on silent as all eyes fall to me from her booty-shaking song and smile a fake smile. Vicki, in the whole time I’ve been here, not once has she been nice to me. She’s one of the editors and ten years older than me. I’m sure she wanted my job, hell, she possibly even applied for it. Who knows?

  “Yes, actually. You?”

  She smiles and looks at the ring on her finger. “Yes. My husband is surprising me with something. I can’t wait. It’s so good to go home to someone who loves you
, you know?”

  I nod my head and keep my fake smile plastered on my face. “Have a good weekend.”

  Vicki nods while looking at the rock on her finger as I walk past her out the door. The minute the cold air hits me, I breathe in the fresh air and call out the nearest cab, so I can get home. Mel should be on her way by now as she messaged me she was driving and wasn’t too far away. Tonight she wants to go out, and I’m all for it. After the week I’ve had at work and faking smiles I’m so over it. To not have to force a smile this weekend will be good.

  Mel’s wearing her favorite color as the cab comes to a stop out the front of my house—pink dress with pink heels. She waves like a crazy lady as I slide out and she almost tackles me to the ground when she reaches me. I have to try and not fall back, so I don’t land on my ass in or even possibly ruining my new designer shoes that cost the price of one week’s rent around this city. Not happening.

  “I hope you’re ready? I brought all my good dresses, and I’m ready to dance all night.” She lets me go and spins on the spot.

  “I’m not wearing pink,” I tell her while picking up my bag which fell to the floor when she hugged me so tightly I almost fell over. Getting to my door, I open it then help her with her bags because she never leaves her house with just one. Melissa’s over the top, but I love that about her dearly. It’s who she is.

  “Please, you can’t clash with me. No. You can wear black like you usually do, just please break it up with some color.” I laugh at her full explanation about what I can and can’t wear. We chose the same field of work—fashion. Except she’s into designing. But we both equally love our work and where we’re headed in the fashion industry.

  “How long am I going to have to wait? I don’t want to wait forever. I desperately need a drink and to discuss how I may or may not have punched Matthew in the honkey donks.” I stop walking into my room at her words and turn to face her, my hands gripping the wall.

  “You did not?” I ask. However, she nods her head in confirmation.

  “Get dressed quickly if you want to know.”

  “That’s not fair,” I whine. Running into my room, tearing off my clothes and getting changed, I throw my hair up in a messy bun pulling loose curly strands free, and placing on some rose gold hoops. When I come back out slipping on my heels, Mel’s already at the door knowing I don’t pussyfoot around and she smiles.

  “I knew I could make you move fast. So where to?” We start walking because I chose an area to live that’s close to the restaurants and nightlife.

  “Now, tell me why you punched him in his baby making balls.” She giggles as we cross the street.

  “He was trying to get with Maddy. Can you believe him? Like I would let that happen.”

  “Oh my God.” Maddy’s Mel’s little sister, she’s just turned eighteen.

  “Yep, God, believe it. The minute I saw it I knew what he was trying, so I walked straight up to him and punched him where he deserved it,” she says laughing.

  We sit at the local Thai restaurant to eat before we go out. I order a watermelon margarita and instantly decide it’s my new favorite drink. Mel, on the other hand, orders a bottle of wine and doesn’t share.

  “I sometimes miss it, you know?”

  She shakes her head at me as the first course of the food comes out.

  “No, you don’t. You’re just bored. Once you meet people, it’ll be different.”

  I shrug. Maybe.

  4

  Echo

  “It’s been one year, Echo. Seriously...” I cringe at his words. Falcon wouldn’t know love if it slapped him in the fucking face. “It’s time to move on. Obviously, she has.”

  Fuck her.

  “Fuck you,” I reply in answer. Why did I come back from the beach, who fucking knows? I should have stayed and given up on this life, but it’s like a sinkhole you can’t get fucking out of. Luckily, I love it.

  “I can make it better. I know Creed’s on the straight and narrow, but I can always put him onto her. He could be fast. You wouldn’t even have to know he killed her.”

  “He’s going to kill you if you keep that shit up.”

  Falcon flips me off as he walks away. Elicea walks in with my mail. She passes it to me not saying a word then she walks out. Shit! Did she just hear everything we said? Yeah, she probably did. Creed and she have been doing well together, and I don’t want to fuck it up. He needs normal, and she’s his normal. Just took him a while to see it.

  “We can hear you two fighting. You know that, right?” Darby says as he walks in shutting the door behind him. “Especially when you don’t shut the fucking door. You know she’s pregnant? She doesn’t need to listen to you two fight over who Creed’s going to kill next.”

  Fuck! I cringe at his words. He’s right. If we brought that baby on early due to stress, we would be the next ones dead without a shadow of a doubt.

  “What the fuck.” The shiny fucking envelope falls from my hand that I’ve just opened, and the invitation tucked inside also spins slowly on the wind to the floor. And now I want to light every fucking thing on fire.

  The door opens, and Elicea and Falcon stand there waiting to see what’s happened. My foot meets my desk as I kick it, then I turn and punch the wall. Hard. My knuckles start to bleed, but it does nothing for this feeling that’s taken root inside me.

  Did I mean absolutely nothing? What the fuck is this shit. How could she even do this to me? Who does that to someone they once said they loved?

  “Oh shit.”

  I turn, taking in deep breaths and notice Darby reading the very bright invitation. He shakes his head as Falcon tears it from his hand.

  “Do you want me to call, Creed?” Elicea asks. She’s the only calm one in the room, it’s because she doesn’t know much. Not really. Only bits and pieces. She doesn’t know how it feels to have your heart torn from your chest and then put back together piece by piece all by yourself.

  “Probably should just leave, El,” Darby tells her. She nods her head as she backs out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

  “We can drink on it! Burn it, then drink some more,” Falcon says making that sparkly piece of shit invitation disappear.

  “Yes, we can drink,” Darby says. We both look at him. He shrugs. “I fucking need one, but you need it more.”

  “How could she?” I ask, my fists clenching hard. I want to punch the fucking wall again but this time I want to destroy it.

  “Let’s go, now,” Falcon says changing the subject.

  “Then him…” I take a huge breath in and continue, “… he’s my fucking brother. How could he?”

  They both don’t speak. Honesty, what can they say? None of the boys ever liked my brother. More than on one occasion Falcon has ended up in fists fights with him.

  “Should we tell Creed?” Darby asks.

  “No. He doesn’t leave her alone for long periods of time. You should know this. He will only come if she comes. And to be honest, we’re going out to drink and hopefully find Echo a fuck.”

  Darby nods his head then walks out leaving the door open.

  “Can I beat him up again, for old time’s sake?” Falcon jokes, although I know he’s serious.

  “No.”

  It’s busy, women are standing around us in circles as we sit in the private booth. Falcon has a woman on either side of him, both women are clutching his waist and holding his ass. Darby sits opposite me with a drink in his hand listening to the owner of the club dribble a whole lot of shit about his business. Darby’s well known in the nightclub business, he’s helped some become what they are today with his great advice. Word spreads fast when someone offers to assist you to make your business better. He has his reasons for doing it, though. If business boomed in places near ours, it would attract a higher clientele coming to look for women. With their business booming ours tripled.

  “None of these?” Falcon asks pushing a woman with blonde hair toward me. I don’t even bother smiling at
her as I turn away, but she sits beside me placing her hand on my leg. I get up not wanting her touching me in places where Selena used to touch me when she wanted something.

  “I’m going to the bar.”

  Falcon laughs at me. We don’t need to go to the bar, the bar comes to us, but I want out of this nightmare. It wasn’t what I was expecting. The women are easy and caked with make-up with breasts so fake I could bounce a ball off of each one. Selena was like that, though. I once loved her fake breasts as much as I loved her. Fuck! I even gave her the money for them when she complained about not being able to afford it.

  Ordering shots seems to be the best option right now. The quickest way to get fucked up is to drink as much as humanly possible in a short time. So, I order almost the fucking bottle and line the shots up. A woman beside me knocks one from my hand spilling it all over my white dress shirt. I drink the remaining amount quickly before I turn to face her. She’s looking at my tray, not me when I see her. Her mouth moves making my eyes follow each curve of her lips.

  “That’s a whole lot of drinks for one person.” That’s when she lifts her eyes to look at me. Brown as the dirt but with specs of green and blue littered through them.

  “I planned to drink every last one of them but you lost me one.”

  She looks away then calls the bartender over, ordering me another one. I watch in fascination as she orders almost another bottle, the same as what I just did.

  “It’s expensive,” I say watching her purely intrigued by the way her eyebrows raise and her lips thin.

  “I can afford it.”

  I grunt at her and turn back to my drinks while she pushes one over my way. “To make up for your drink, enjoy blondie.” She picks up the tray and walks away. Despite my situation, I smirk and turn to see where she went. She’s easy to spot, her hair is as red as fire, and she stands out amongst all the women who surround her. Even the one who’s dressed in bright pink.