Mine: A Romantic Suspense Thriller (A Back to Me Series Book 2)

by Brittany Taylor

  I couldn’t wait to go back home and explore her body once more. Lena and I were finally in a good place. I no longer felt the shadows chasing me, following me at every turn. I decided not to tell Max about Natalie. Ever since I had finished training her, she mostly stayed out of my way. She never mentioned the kiss again, clearly taking the hint her and I were never going to happen. I loved being married to Lena and there was no way I was going to mess it up.

  Lena was even happier these past few weeks. Her sense of humor had come back, reassuring me she hadn’t regretted the day we became husband and wife. She loved her new job and it showed. Her face brightened every time she saw me, even begging me not to leave for work most days. I didn’t want to leave her, but my entire career had been building up to this night. The night where Max and I catered an event for Gavin James.

  The night has already ended for the service Max and I were providing. Max mostly stuck to talking to the guests, claiming it was for gaining more business contacts and opportunities. He’d allowed me to run the night, ensuring all drinks and food when out at the precise time it was supposed to. The night surprisingly went off without a hitch.

  I’ve already sent my crew home when Gavin walks up to me. I’ve untied my hair, relieving the pressure of it being tied back. I tuck some of it behind my ear, hoping Gavin doesn’t find it unprofessional.

  “Hey, Logan.” He’s beaming, his arms spread wide. He grasps on to my hand, shaking it ferociously. “What an exceptional night this turned out to be. The food was excellent, and your staff was great.”

  “Thank you.” I nod, grinning myself. My cheeks grow sore from smiling. “I’m happy we were able to help make this night a success for you.”

  “You did,” Gavin says. “We’ve already raised five million dollars and the number keeps climbing.”

  I try to hide my widened eyes from Gavin, shocked to hear such a large number. Gavin was a man of many talents. Apparently, even when it came to driving up donation money.

  “Anyway.” He claps me on the back. “I’ve got to get back to the party, I just wanted to say thank you. We’ll be in touch in the future.”

  “Sounds great.”

  Gavin disappears into the crowd and I turn to finish packing up the rest of the supplies. Max catches up to me as I’m loading the last bit into the company van. One of our servers was supposed to drive it back to the restaurant.

  He picks up one of the storage containers, sliding it into the back. “Great job tonight, Logan.”

  “Thanks,” I grunt, lifting another tote, sliding it beside the one Max carried.

  “I mean it,” he says, shutting the back doors. He rests his hand on the back, leaning all his weight on it. “I wasn’t even worried about checking in on you. All the drinks were served the right way. Appetizers went out on time. Everyone couldn’t stop talking about the dessert.”

  “Seriously, Max.” I laugh. “Your compliments are too much.” I place my hand on my stomach, pretending his comments are making me sick.

  He releases a small laugh, a serious expression quickly replacing it. “I didn’t tell you, but tonight was a test.”

  “A test?” I ask. I cross my arms over my chest, knitting my eyebrows.

  “Yeah.” Max nods. He pushes off the van, sliding his hands into the front pockets of his black pants. The sleeves of his chef jacket are rolled up, lined with gold stitching. Max’s jacket was gold since he was the owner of Bistro 59. Since I was executive chef, second in line to Max, mine was silver. “It was a test to see how you could handle this job under a different kind of pressure than in the restaurant. You’ve proven it to me twice now. The first was Gavin’s other fundraiser, which we know was significantly smaller and more intimate than this one.”

  When I don’t answer him immediately, he sighs, grinning. “I wanted to offer you the chance to become co-owner of Bistro 59 with me.”

  “What?” I ask, breathless. My jaw drops and I run my hands through my hair, pushing it off my forehead. “You want to make me your business partner?”

  “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “No, I’m sorry.” I blink in disbelief, shaking my head. “You just caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting it.”

  “Does that mean you’re in then?” Max stands in front of me, his eyebrows raised, three lines creasing his forehead.

  “Yeah.” I nod, closing my dropped jaw. “Fuck, yeah, I’m in.”

  Max laughs, pulling me in for a hug. He claps his hands on my back. He steps back, holding out his hand. “Sounds like a deal. I’ll have Candace Sawyer draft up some paperwork and then we’re all set to go.”

  “Wait.” I narrow my eyes. “Candace? I thought you hated her.”

  “I never said that.” He grins. “She may have been a shitty girlfriend, but she’s an incredible fucking attorney. Woman knows her shit.”

  “Unbelievable,” I mutter, still laughing.

  Only Max would hire his ex-girlfriend as his attorney.

  I say goodbye to him, anxious to get home and tell Lena the good news.

  By the time I pull into my driveway, the sky is an intense shade of black. Clouds roam across the black canvas, blanketing over the moon.

  I open the door and disarm the security system, then lock it again after I close the door. I remove my chef jacket and hang it on the hook, turning around to find Lena sitting at the dining room table. All the lights are off except for the small glow coming from her phone sitting on the table in front of her.

  I narrow my eyes. “Lena?” My hand searches the wall for the light switch. When I finally find it, I turn it on, the lights shining bright from the chandelier overhead. “What are you sitting in the dark for?”

  Her skin is pale, black mascara running down her cheeks. Tears continue to fall, wet marks seeping into the cotton of her T-shirt. Her pale brown eyes are rimmed with a crimson shade of red, swollen from crying. She clears her throat. “Um.” She swallows. “Are you having an affair?”

  “What?” I ask her. My throat sounds hollow, empty. Blood drains from my face and my heart hammers in my chest.

  “Are you having an affair?” she asks again. This time her voice is strong, pounding through her clenched teeth.

  “No,” I tell her. “Of course not.”

  She doesn’t speak and I step farther into the room. I place my hands on the back of the chair in front of me. Her phone is still illuminated but I can’t tell what’s on the screen from where I’m standing.

  “Don’t lie to me, Logan.”

  “I’m not lying.” I lean forward, dipping my head to get a better view of her face. She’s staring down at the table. “Lena,” I say her name, begging her to look at me, repeating the same words. “I’m not lying. Why would you even think such a thing?”

  Slowly, she lifts her gaze, her tear-filled eyes meeting mine. Her blonde hair falls around her face, half-covering her tear-stained cheeks. The silence swells between us, and my stomach climbs into my throat. I’ve never seen her this way. Hurt weighs on her shoulders. Her hands are resting on her lap, below the table. She bites her bottom lip, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at me. They dart away from me, staring at the wall. She lifts her hand from below the table and slides her phone to me.

  I lean over the chair, bending to pick it up. The closer I bring the phone up to look at it, the more I understand what she’s showing me. Pictures of me and Natalie. Pictures of us at work, at the market, the night in the parking lot where she kissed me.

  I quickly snap my head up to Lena. “Who sent you these?” I can’t help it. It’s the wrong question to ask but I need to know. I knew I was being followed at the market that day and this just proved it.

  “It doesn’t matter who sent them to me, Logan.” Lena’s yelling, her voice echoing off the walls. Her eyes engulf in flames, clouding over the tears she’s still shedding. She’s a mixture of anger and pain, combusting.

  “Yes, it does.” I lean forward, pressing my palms flat on the table, leve
ling with her. “It matters because whoever sent you these is trying to make it seem like I’m having an affair. I’m not, Lena. I promise you.”

  “Seem like you’re having an affair?” She points to her phone. “Looks pretty clear to me.” Her chin quivers, the sadness filling her face once again. A sharp pain twists in my chest at the way she’s looking at me.

  “How could you do this to me?” she asks. “To us? And with Natalie. After everything...” she rolls her eyes away from me again. The fact that she can’t even look me in the face breaks me even more.

  “This is such bullshit,” I tell her. “I’m not cheating on you with Natalie.”

  “Then explain those pictures then.”

  I’m noticing she won’t look at the pictures anymore. Her phone rests on the table between us, the phone finally timing out, the screen fading to black.

  I inhale a deep breath and close my eyes. When I reopen them, I make sure I’m staring straight at Lena, even if she won’t face me. “Okay. One of those were from the day I had to go to the market to place an order. I didn’t know Natalie was going to be there. She invited herself. We went to place the order then she wanted a smoothie before we left.” I wave my hand out, continuing my explanation. “The one in the parking lot was when we were walking out to our cars after we closed up the restaurant. I don’t know why, but she kissed me. It was completely out of the blue and caught me off guard.” I squeeze my eyes shut, rubbing the pressure away with my fingertips.

  “Oh,” she says, not believing me. She bites the inside of her cheek. “If that’s true then why didn’t you just tell me?”

  Her swollen eyes widen, two orbs filled with tears.

  I pause, swallowing. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “Wow,” she scoffs. “Like this hurts any less.” Her voice is now intertwined with her tears, vibrating as her chest rises and falls with every breath.

  She slides her chair back, pulling herself to a stand. Tears still fall onto her T-shirt as she spins around, heading for the stairs.

  “Where are you going?”

  She ignores me, taking the stairs two at a time. I follow her down the hall and to our bedroom. She emerges from the closet with a large overnight bag. Still unable to face me, she stalks over to her drawers, grabbing at anything she can find. She grabs a large handful of socks and underwear, tossing them into the bag.

  “I’m going to stay with Abby,” she mutters. Her full bottom lip quivers, sniffing as the tears continue to spill.

  I shake my head. “No. Stay here and talk to me about this.” My eyes follow her as she disappears back into the closet. She comes back out with an armful of clothes.

  “Why should I bother giving you the chance to talk about this when you didn’t even give me the chance before?”

  “This is ridiculous,” I tell her, resting my hands on my hips. Our breaths are heavy and weighted, moving in unison.

  We breathe in then out. In. Out.

  “No,” she yells. Her eyebrows dip in anger, her eyes sparking with flames again. “What’s ridiculous is you saying this is bullshit. What’s ridiculous is you buying me a brand-new laptop and pretending our marriage is some perfect fairy tale. It only makes you more of a liar and it only makes those pictures more true.”

  “You think I gave you that laptop as a way of buying you off?” I lean back, wounded by her strike. Every organ in my body is damaged, her words used as weapons against me. “As a way to make up for this affair I’m supposedly having?” Her anger fuels the fire raging inside me. Up until now, I’ve listened to Lena as she accused me of keeping secrets when I know she’s been keeping them too. “No. You want to know why I didn’t tell you about Natalie?”

  Lena steps back from the bed, surprised by my sudden change in direction. She holds her breath, preparing herself for what I’m about to say.

  “I didn’t tell you because you’ve been keeping secrets too.” I smirk, releasing a humorless laugh. “Oh, and don’t you even try denying it. I can see it behind your eyes, Len. Something has been going on with you these past few months and you’re not as good at hiding it as you think you are. That’s why I didn’t tell you about Natalie kissing me.” I can feel the anger building. Again, I’m touching the flame, allowing it to burn down around me. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you could handle it. I can see your demons, Len. They aren’t so different from mine.”

  I step closer to her, allowing my words to hang between us. The air is hot, sticky with our continued secrets and lies.

  She closes the space between us, looking up at me. “So, what?” she asks, yelling again. “You think that you could just rip us away from Providence and start over without bringing the past with us? It doesn’t work that way, Logan. No matter what spin you try putting on it.”

  “Tell me who sent you those pictures, Lena,” I’m begging her again. I don’t want her to leave. I want her to stay and tell me everything she’s been hiding these past few months. The secrets held between me and Lena were wrong. We’ve spent the last few weeks hiding behind a thin veil of new jobs and shed rebuilding. All of it was a performance, convincing one another we weren’t torturing ourselves on the inside. When we both knew what was really going on.

  She pulls back slightly, resting back on her heels. She picks up one of her shirts, stuffing it into her bag. This time her shoulders fall in defeat. “I can’t,” she chokes out. She’s on the verge of telling me, the words sitting on the tip of her tongue. I can feel it. Instead, she decides against it. “I don’t know who did.”

  “You’re lying. Don’t you realize how hypocritical you sound?”

  She stares at me, her eyebrows knitting.

  When she stays silent, I answer the question for her. “You’re accusing me of being the one who’s keeping secrets when you have them too. I’m the one who’s having this affair with Natalie, destroying our marriage, right? But you’re a liar too, Lena. You don’t think your secrets haven’t been hurting me too? You don’t think that every day I look into your eyes that it doesn’t feel like you’ve stabbed me in the chest, knowing you’re pretending as if you’re okay?”

  “Don’t turn this around on me, Logan.” She shakes her head. “You have no idea the kind of damage Julian did. You have no idea how hard it’s been to move on from a relationship like the one we had. He damaged me, left me broken in ways you can’t see. And ripping us away from Providence wasn’t going to make it vanish. You have no fucking clue the things he did to me. I can’t simply unpack this baggage.”

  “Wow.” I stand back, stunned. “You think you’re alone in this, don’t you?” I challenge her, stepping closer to her again, feeling the muscles in my jaw tic. My face is within inches of hers, the scent of her invading my space. “You think you were the only one who suffered at the hands of Julian? He nearly killed me, Lena. There are scars forever imprinted on my body because of what he did. Every time I look in the mirror, I’m forced to remember how his fist felt against my skin and bone. And every time I look at my reflection, I see a man different than the one I used to know. Or have you conveniently forgotten that part?”

  “Of course, I haven’t forgotten.” Her jaw tenses, her eyes widened. Behind the anger, I can tell I’ve wounded her more than she already is. My chest pricks with pain, knowing I’m the cause of it.

  I stare into her eyes once again, hoping she’ll finally tell me the truth.

  “Who sent you those pictures Lena?” I ask again.

  Our voices are smaller, quieter. The flames of our anger gradually turning into smoldering embers.

  A tear slips from her eye, trailing down her wet cheek. “Knowing the person who sent the pictures doesn’t change the fact that there were pictures to begin with. Whether I can believe you or not, it doesn’t change how bad this hurts. It doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been with another woman. I may be struggling with my own demons, Logan. But I never cheated on you. I never hurt you the way you’re hurting me now.” She bends o
ver, tugging her phone charger from the outlet beside her nightstand, adding it to her already full bag.

  “Lena, just stop.” I reach out, wrapping my hands around hers, begging her to stay. “We need to talk about this. I’m your husband, this is what married couples do. They work these things out.”

  “I just...” She shakes her head, her hair swaying with her movements. “I don’t know,” she sighs, her breath catching.

  “Stay here. I’ll sleep on the fucking couch if you want me to. I just need to know you’re safe.”

  “I think I need some time. Time to think about this.” She slides her hand out from mine. “I’ll be safe if I’m at Abby’s.” She zips her bag shut, slinging it on her shoulder. “I’ll text you when I get there.”

  She doesn’t meet my eyes. Instead, she simply turns to walk out of the bedroom. I follow her out and down the stairs, watching helplessly as she unlocks the security alarm and closes the door behind her.

  I want to beg her to stay. To keep fighting for her. Even taking us yelling at one another if that’s what was needed for her to listen.

  But I don’t, knowing I need to give her the space she says she needs. I was stuck in a pool of quicksand, sinking fast.

  I stand in our empty house, alone. The walls close in on me, swallowing me whole. Lena’s gone. I just hope to fucking hell she’ll come back to me.

  Twenty

  Lena

  Hypocrite.

  Logan had called me out, seeing straight through the mask I’d tried to put on the last three hundred and sixty-five days. There was truth to his accusation, but I couldn’t bring myself to face the reality of what was truly going on. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Logan and risk the chance of him pulling our lives apart and moving us from Seattle like he had Providence. I was a hypocrite and I knew it.

  I was falling apart. The stitches I had wrapped around my broken heart were coming undone, snapping one by one.

  I didn’t want to leave Logan. I wanted to believe that what he was telling me was the truth, believing he would never cheat on me. Ever since I’d met Logan, even before we fell for each other, he was the only person I could rely on besides Abby. Logan made it easy for me to fall in love with him and I trusted him wholeheartedly. Trusted that when he said he would love me forever; he meant every word. It’s one thing to be in a relationship with someone, it’s another to be married.