Текст книги "Keeping Her"
Автор книги: Alexis Noelle
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 10 страниц)
Chapter Twenty Two
Brian
As I walk through the third house I’ve looked at today, I still can’t shake the feeling that something is up with Jules. She seemed off when I went to see her, like she was scared of something. I hope she isn’t having doubts about us. Being with her last night was what I have wanted since I thought she left me eight years ago.
Hearing her say she loved me again was amazing. Little does she know that I’m not looking at houses to flip today. I’m looking at homes for us. Both of our houses are really uncomfortable right now. Her house has all of her memories of Dan. On the other hand every time we are in my bedroom I feel like she is staring at the window I was having sex in front of with that random chick from the bar. Not to mention my house faces hers, so it’s still a constant reminder of her old life.
We need a fresh start. A new place where we can make new memories instead of being haunted by old ones. I felt her freeze last night when I hinted at marriage. I don’t want to push her into something she isn’t ready for but I would marry her at the drop of a hat. She has always been the only girl for me, even when she wasn’t mine. Did I hate her for leaving me? Yea, but the amount of love I have for her was triple any of that.
Now that I know she didn’t choose him over me, that I was the one she wanted, all I can think about is the amount of time that we have wasted being apart. As I walk through this last house, I realize it’s perfect. All of the walls are white and the rooms are bare and open. It’s a perfect house for her to decorate, for her to make our home like I had always hoped.
The realtor is still talking and I swear to God she is lucky I like this house in spite of her. I thought about asking Lacey, but I didn’t want Jules knowing what I was up to yet. “I’ll take it.”
She stops mid-sentence and looks over at me. “Okay, Mr. Evans. What number were you thinking of offering?”
“Give them whatever they are asking for it.” I’m not rich but I know that selling my house will give me a pretty sizable chunk of what this one will cost.
She starts rambling again but I tune her out looking at the backyard and imagining all of the things that will happen here.
***
“What if they don’t like me?”
I look over at Jules in the passenger seat of my car. “They don’t have a fucking choice.”
“Brian, I’m serious!” She is so damn cute when she gets mad. I swear if we weren’t already late I might turn around and drag her into my bed.
“I am too.” She punches me in the arm and I fake the pain from the punch. “Babe, they will like you so stop stressing out.”
I pull into a parking spot at the restaurant and go over to Jules’ side of the car opening the door for her. “I want you in my bed again tonight.”
Something flashes in her eyes but I don’t catch it before it’s gone again. “I think I am going to stay at my place tonight.”
“Why? We had such a good night. You seemed happy.” I feel like she is pushing me away again and that is the last thing that I want.
She stands on her tiptoes and kisses me. “I did. I just need to get up early and don’t need you distracting me all night.” She begins to walk toward the restaurant but I grab her hand and pull her against my front.
“Distracting you all night long is my favorite thing.” My dick is already hard and we haven’t even gone inside yet.
“Exactly why I need to stay at my house.” She laughs before pulling me with her toward the building. I see the guys once we walk in and lead Jules over. After talking to her the night before, I grilled them all and warned them to be nice to her. Jake copped to being the one who went up to her in Cancun and I swear I almost clocked him for it.
“Guys, this is Jules. Jules, this is Ryan, Hunter, Mason, and I think you already know Jake.” She waves and smiles clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. That is just another thing that makes me feel like something is up. Jules has never been shy or unsure of herself around people, it just isn’t her.
“So, I know you guys were all in the same unit, but what do you do now?” she looks around at the guys.
I’m about to answer when Ryan speaks up. “Hunter does private security, Jake and Mason work on the houses with Brian, and I just joined the police force.”
“You’re a cop?” she asks and the tone of her voice has me on edge.
“Yea, so if you have any overdue parking tickets, I’m your man.” She gives him an uncomfortable laugh before looking down at the menu as a welcome distraction. The rest of dinner went okay, everyone made small talk and it was actually fun. We say our goodbyes to the guys before we leave and I hate knowing that she wants to go to her house.
“They are all really great, Brian.” Her voice is so level that it makes me uneasy.
“Please talk to me, Jules. I know something is wrong. Whatever it is I can help you. I just can’t take not knowing what it is.”
“Nothing is wrong. I’m just really tired.”
I pull into my driveway and sit there staring out of the window. “Bullshit. I know you too well. There is something wrong and for some reason you won’t tell me what it is.”
“I don’t have the energy to do this with you, Brian.” She opens the door and quickly shuts it once she is out. I can see her walking home in my rearview mirror. I want to go after her and force her to be honest with me, but I don’t think it would make a difference. Whatever is upsetting her is not something she is willing to talk to me about.
I hate that she doesn’t feel like she can talk to me. I would never judge her or make her feel bad about whatever it is, I just want to help her. If she can’t trust me, what does that say about our relationship? This thing will never work if all she is going to do is rely on herself and shut me out. I decide to go over there in the morning and force her to talk to me.
***
I couldn’t sleep at all last night. All I could think of is what Jules is hiding. Thousands of scenarios played through my head and at this point it can’t be worse than what I’m already thinking.
When I look across the street, I don’t see Jules’ car, but I do see her parents. The car is in the driveway and both of them are standing on the steps knocking repeatedly. I walk over to Jules’ house to let them know she isn’t home. Here we go.
“She isn’t home.” I say a few steps away from them, hating that I need to have any interaction with them.
“You!” her father points his finger at me. “You’re behind all of this aren’t you?”
“Listen I don’t—“
“No I know that it’s you. She hasn’t touched it in her entire life and now by chance she does?”
What in the fuck is he talking about? “Touched what? I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Spencer.”
“Her trust fund! The bank called us and told us that she withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars. Was that what you were after all along? I bet you just—” I run bacl toward my car and pull out my phone calling Ryan. “I need you and all of the guys now. I’ll text the address once I have it.” My stomach dropped when her father mentioned the money.
Did they find her? Did they hurt her? Is that why she was acting so off yesterday?
Fear runs rampant through my body as I think of everything that could happen to her.
I just got her back
No one is taking her from me.
Chapter Twenty Three
Julia
As I walk up to the old brick building, my heart starts to pound. The duffel bag I have weighing down my shoulder is full of money, and I don’t even know who I’m meeting. All the message had was an address and it said not to be late. I look down at my watch, exactly noon. I knock on the door feeling like I might pass out at any moment. My hands clench and unclench while I wait for whoever I am supposed to be meeting.
The door opens but no one is standing there. I hesitate, feeling like I should have just told Brian. I didn’t want to risk him or Lacey getting hurt though.
“Come in.”
It’s all I hear and the voice sends chills down my spine. I don’t move. It’s like I’m frozen in place, paralyzed by the unknown waiting for me behind the door. A hand reaches out grabbing my arm and yanking me into the darkness. I scream and am instantly hit across the face. I fall to the floor the duffel bag sliding away from my body. Pain shoots through my head and I bring my hand to my cheek. It’s so dark in here that I can’t even see my own hand in front of my face.
“You scream again bitch and I’ll knock you the fuck out.” The voice is so cold, distant, emotionless. I was stupid to think I could handle this on my own. That I could just walk in here, give them their money, and leave.
A pair of hands grab my arms wrapping something around my wrists and securing them together. What feels like tape is placed over my mouth. “What do we do now?” I hear a voice from behind me say. It’s different than the one I heard before.
“We wait for him.” For who? The guy in the suit?
“What if he doesn’t come?” The voice behind me sounds worried, unsure, I can tell he is not the one spearheading this whole operation.
“He will, because we have her.”
The voices stop and I hear footsteps retreating. I start to cry feeling like there is no way I’m making it out of here at this point. I thought I could handle this shit and I was so wrong. I don’t know how long I sit here before I hear it. Tires screeching. Doors slamming. Pounding on the door. a small spotlight is turned on near the door illuminating only about an eight foot circle of the room.
A laugh sounds from behind my ear making me jump. “Guess he does love you.” Who is he talking about? I would think that it might be Brian, but he has no idea where I am or what I’m doing.
The door opens and I hear footsteps running into the room. When they step into the light I gasp. It’s Brian and the guys. “Where is the fucking light?”
“This is no good, brother.” I think I hear Mason’s voice but I can’t be sure.
“No shit, but she is here.” I want to scream that I’m right here. I want to yell for him to run, I know the other men are in here. He’s walking into a trap.
“What are we doing, Brian?” I can’t figure outse voice yells next.
“I don’t fucking know! We need to find her!” Brian’s voice is panicked as he frantically tries to scan the darkness around him.
“If only that was all you needed to worry about.” It’s that voice again. The light above me turns on but again it’s only a small circle and everything behind me is still shrouded in darkness. They move to come to me but freeze. Their eyes are trained on something behind me and when I turn around I see the shadows of at least a dozen men. There isn’t much light behind me so I can’t see their faces. The one behind me has a gun pointed directly at my head.
“Take one fucking step and you’ll be covered in her.”
Brian looks at me and I want to cry. He looks frantic, and his body is so tight with tension that it seems like his muscles might snap at any moment. The rest of the guys are all standing behind him guns in hand but frozen in the same state.
“Drop your guns or I’ll drop her.” The voice seethes with hate and violence. I look back needing to see his face. Put an image to the monster standing behind me. I can only see half of it though and it is covered in scars from what I assume is a really bad burn.
“Who the fuck are you?” I turn my attention back to Brian as his voice fills the room. “She brought you the money that asshole owed you. Let her the fuck go.”
“See it might have been that simple if you and I didn’t have some unfinished business.” I have so many questions running through my head. How does Brian know him? How did he know about the money Dan owed? How did he find me?
“Listen, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about. I have never gotten involved with this organization and I—“
The figured steps forward so he is next to me and now fully engulfed in the light. Brian stops mid-sentence a look of disbelief and fear on his face. He is looking at the man next to me like he knows him. “What’s wrong? You look like you have seen a ghost, son.”
Son? Brian said his dad died in a fire. Oh my God. I look up at the man and his partially burned face. This can’t be real. I remember all of the stories Brian used to tell about his dad. The way he beat him. When I look back at Brian, I swear I see a glimpse of a scared child.
“How the fuck are you alive?” he almost whispers in disbelief.
“Brian, what the fuck is going on?” Ryan says from behind him.
“Ah, the cop. You know Brian at least when I told your bitch not to go to the police she fucking listened.” He raises his gun and quickly fires a shot. Ryan falls to the floor and I scream. Mason drops down to Ryan, strips his shirt off and holds it against his body.
The other guys draw their guns once more and point them at Brian’s dad. He trains his gun on me once more. As I hear multiple clicks behind me. “Go ahead and shoot, pussies, one of us will hit her in the head.”
“Put the fucking guns down!” Brian yells as he looks at me with a tormented expression on his face.
“What the fuck is going on!” Jake yells next to him.
“What’s going on is my son thought I was dead, and that he got away with murder.” Murder?
“What is he talking about, Brian?” Hunter asks behind him.
“You thought you won, you little shit, but you will never win against me. I told you that a thousand times. You are nothing compared to me. I have been waiting five years for you to find something that you cared about just so I could rip it the fuck away from you. Unfortunately, the first time you and your little slut were together I didn’t have the connections I do now. When you got involved with her again, it was like fucking Christmas.” He leans down his hand gripping a chunk of my hair and pulling me to my feet. “I’ll be nice and give you a choice. Do you want her or your friends to die first?”
I can see Brian’s chest rising and falling. His eyes are boring into his father’s. “You need to get your fucking hands off of her.”
“You may have all these dip shits fooled but I know you’re still the same little bitch you were when you were younger. Now…” His fist tightens in my hair and I scream. “Who. Goes. First?” Tears start to fall from my eyes as I take in the sight of the men before me. They came here to save me from a stupid decision I made, and now I’ve possibly led them to their death.
“Let her go, fucker.” Brian takes a step forward and the barrel of the gun is pressed into my temple. Pain shoots through my head eliciting another scream.
“Back the fuck off.” Brian begrudgingly takes a step back. “Now like I said you can choose if you want. If not I’ll pick for you. 5…4…3…2…1…” A laugh sounds before a gunshot rings out and I drop to the floor.
I curl into the fetal position not wanting to look up to see what happened. I feel arms circle me and I scream and kick. “Jules, it’s me stop.” Brian’s voice pleads with me and I freeze. His hands undo the material holding my wrists together and when I turn toward him he grips the end of the tape. “This is gonna hurt.” He yanks the tape off and I yelp.
“Get up.” A voice demands.
Brian stands his hands on my waist helping me up with him. Once I’m on my feet he moves me behind him and backs me toward his guys. I look over Brian’s shoulder to see his father lying on the floor blood pouring from a hole in his head.
A man comes out from behind the darkness. It’s the guy in the suit, the one from my office yesterday. “Did you bring the money?” I know he is talking to me but I can’t bring myself to answer.
“She did.” My hands tighten their grip on Brian’s arm.
“I didn’t ask you, now did I? Move.” The man seems so polished and sophisticated, the expensive suit he is wearing is flawless, and his dark hair is slicked back. He talks like he is educated and elicits an air of power.
“No.” Brian’s muscles tense under my hands.
The man raises his gun at Brian’s head. “There are two ways you can move, by using your feet, or by a bullet.”
I step to the side and Brian grips me keeping me in place. I push harder making my way around him. The man looks me up and down before smiling. “So sorry for my ex-associate. He has been with me for five years and this is the first time he has ever done anything to make me doubt his loyalty. I was unaware of his connection to you both.” Connection is putting it lightly. “Now, did you bring the money?”
“Yes.” My voice is barely a whisper. I’m scared out of my mind and completely at the disposal of the man standing in front of me.
“Get it.” I move toward the place I fell when I first came in, but Brian grabs my arm. “Let her go if you know what’s good for you.” Brian’s hand slowly lets my arm go, and I move toward the bag bringing it back to the man. “Is it all here?”
“Yes.” My voice shakes as I answer him.
“As long as you are true to your word, Miss Fisher, then we are done here.” He tosses the bag to a man standing behind him. “I didn’t intend for this to get so…” he looks behind me at Ryan on the floor, “messy.”
Messy? An innocent man is shot and that’s “messy?”
“You are all free to go. I don’t think I need to warn you about the repercussions of opening your mouths.”
He walks away and chaos breaks out around me. The guys pick up Ryan and carry him outside.
“Brian, call 911, tell them that there is an officer down!” Mason shouts his hand still pressing the shirt to what I think is Ryan’s chest.
I want to help, to do something. Everything is just happening so fast and I feel like I can’t breathe. A hand wraps around me and I jump before realizing it’s Brian. He pulls me to him. “Are you okay?” I nod, not finding the words. He takes a deep breath, gives me a kiss on the forehead, and then goes to help the rest of the guys.
I can hear the siren of the ambulance and within a minute, EMTs are jumping out of the truck and rushing over to Ryan. What the hell are they going to say happened to him? Brian comes up to me, takes my hand, and starts to lead me away toward one of the cars.
“Where are we going? Aren’t you going with him to the hospital?” I look back as we are walking and see they are strapping Ryan to the gurney.
“No, the guys and I agreed I needed to get you out of here before the cops show up and start questioning us.”
He opens my door and I sit down in the car. Once he gets in, he speeds away not saying another word to me. I want to talk to him. To ask him all the questions on my mind. There is an air of uncertainty between us, and I have no idea why.
When we pull up to Brian’s house, I get out and start to walk across the street.
“Don’t even fucking think about it, Jules.”
Chapter Twenty Four
I follow Brian into his house and quietly shut the door.
“What were you thinking, Jules? Why would you not have come to me? Do you understand what could have happened to you?” His tone is harsh and his hands are clenched at his sides. I can tell that he is angry, and I understand because of how stupid my actions were.
I start to cry as the gravity of the situation begins to settle over me. The adrenaline fading and the realism coming to light. “I’m sorry. He said he would kill you or Lacey. I didn’t know what to do!”
“You fucking come to me! You don’t go to meet goddamn criminals to pay them off on your own!” His face is red with anger and the muscles in his neck strain with each word.
I run my hands through my hair. I know meeting them was stupid. I know I should have asked him for help. That’s when all the questions I had come back. “How did you know about the money that Dan owed them?”
His face drops. “It’s not important.”
“The hell it isn’t! How did you know? And what was your father talking about when he said you got away with murder?” His voice still haunts me, the look on his face as he pointed the gun at me.
Brian sits down on the couch and buries his face in his hands.
“When I was eight years old, I woke up one night to get a drink of water. I saw the lit cigarette fall out of my mom’s hand and land on the carpet. I saw the few flames that started to rise and I thought about putting them out. Then I thought about what it might be like if they weren’t around anymore. If I didn’t have to live in constant fear and pain from their abuse. My father was passed out in the bedroom exhausted from beating the shit out of me earlier that night. Lying down on the floor by the door, I watched the fire grow. After it started to get bigger, I called 911. By the time they got there, the whole house was engulfed, I was lying on the floor when the fireman came in. He carried me outside but before he could go back in the roof collapsed. I let them die because I felt like if I didn’t they would eventually kill me.”
I walk over to him, sit down and wrap my arms around him.
“As far as I knew, my father died in that fire with my mother. I didn’t cry at all that night. Everyone said it was because I was in shock, but I wasn’t. In a way I was relieved. I escaped them.”
We sit there in silence. I have no idea what to say to him. He has been through more than I could ever imagine. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I didn’t know what you would think of me, Jules. I killed them.”
My hand touches his cheek and he looks up at me. “I would have thought that you were a scared kid who didn’t know what to do. Who had no one to stick up for him and chose the path he thought was best.” He kisses me and pulls me closer to him. I lay my head on his chest and run my hand over his stomach. “Thank you for saving me.”
His hand tips my chin up so that I’m looking at him. “You saved me, babe, not the other way around. You saved me the first day I met you by showing me how amazing life could be if you let the right people in.”
I kiss him once more before laying my head back down. “How did you know where to find me?”
“I tracked your phone.”
I sit up and look over at him. “How did you do that?”
“Ryan ran a trace on it.”
I shake my head. “I hope that he is gonna be okay. It’s my fault he got shot. If I didn’t go there alone. If I would have just told someone… how did you know about the money that Dan owed.” When I look over at Brian he won’t make eye contact with me. What is he hiding? “Brian?”
“You need to drop the subject, Jules.” His voice is cold, and monotone as he responds to me.
“No, I’m not just going to drop it. Tell me what is going on! Stop hiding shit from me!”
He stands up and starts to pace the floor in front of me. “You shouldn’t ask questions that you don’t want the answer to.”
“I do want the answer.” I look him in the eyes letting him know that I am not dropping the subject.
“When I got back, I started to look into Dan. He was not the man you thought you knew.”
“Obviously, considering he owed that money to those people! Stop dancing around the damn topic and just tell me what is going on!”
“I found out that when he got out of college, he borrowed money from the Andre family, which is who you just paid. His parents were not as well-off as they wanted everyone to think and they couldn’t help him. He borrowed all that money to start his company, and to have money so that you didn’t get suspicious. The company struggled from the very first day and it went under about a month before he died. He was pretending to go to work each day while he tried to figure out how to fix the shit storm he created. Desperate times will cause people to do desperate things.” He looks up at me.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Can you stop with the vague bullshit?” I’m really getting tired of the push and pull that he is trying to do with me.
“It means that the day he was killed, your husband pulled your life insurance policy and your will. He took it to a fucking lawyer to see what he was entitled to. That night I waited for him to get home and went over to warn him that I knew what he was up to and there was no way I would let him fucking hurt you. When I walked in, he was getting his fucking gun. He was going to kill you and stage it as a home invasion!”
I gasp. No. It’s not possible. Is it? Dan knew about the money my parents had for me, and when we got married I made him the sole beneficiary. “How do you know this?” I whisper in disbelief.
“Because I confronted the mother fucker that night. He got cocky and started telling me his plan saying how I just made it even better because he would off me and make it look like I killed you.” Brian turns away from me. “He didn’t know that I grabbed my gun and tucked it into the back of my pants when I walked over. When he raised his at me, I shot him before he could follow through.”
He turns back to me and I’m in shock. Brian shot Dan? How? Why wouldn’t he have just went to Ryan with all this stuff? “There is no way. What about the guy they caught?”
“I had to throw suspicion at someone else. That guy is a damn pedophile who got off on a technicality. He deserves to be in jail.”
“Are you kidding me? You killed my husband, and framed some other guy for it? And then you started a relationship with me built entirely on fucking lies? I can’t take this. I need to leave.” I walk away but he grabs my arm, I yank it away from him. “Keep your damn hands off of me.”
“He was going to kill you, Jules! What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just sit by and—“
“You could have gone to the cops! God forbid, you could have come and talked to me! That’s a crazy suggestion though right? Why would you tell me about things that are happening in my own life?” I walk away and out of the door.
“Jules!” I stop in the driveway and turn to him. “Please don’t go. I love you.”
I walk closer to him. “Love can’t live when it’s built on lies, Brian. You should have told me this, you should have trusted me enough to let me know. I can’t trust you. No matter how much I love you, it doesn’t mean anything without trust.”
I walk away and run to my house before the tears start to fall.
I pick up the phone. “Lacey, I need you to come pick me up.”
I can’t believe how badly Dan betrayed me and lied to me. He was going to kill me for money I would have given him had I known anything that was going on. Brian decided instead of coming to talk to me he would take the law into his own hands and kill my husband.
The pain is so bad that it’s like I can feel myself breaking apart. Each lie, each deception, each betrayal shattering a different part of my soul and my heart.
I survived this once.
I’m not sure I will this time.
