Chapter 13

thirteen

. . .

Romeo

Another week had passed,and I’d buried myself in my workouts because kissing her had been a huge fuckup. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. About her.

I knew going there was a bad idea because one taste wasn’t enough.

There was too much shit between us.

And she was na?ve enough to think I would go train at her parents’ house? On their property? She didn’t have a fucking clue how deep this ran for me.

But hearing her talk about her brother and how much she loved him—I hated the dude. He’d fucked me and River over.

Caused my family a shit ton of unnecessary pain.

I couldn’t tell her that and devastate her. This shit had gotten complicated quickly. She’d dropped off a bunch of shakes, and I’d been working out with Joey when she came to train with Pinky after work. She’d texted a few times, and I hadn’t responded.

What was the point?

If I was with her and told her the truth, she’d end up blaming me and hating me for it.

And if I didn’t tell her the truth, there’d be this big lie between us, and she’d hate me anyway.

The guys all thought I was being a pussy and should just tell her. Let her decide.

I was at my mom’s house for dinner, and Mimi had made her famous lasagna.

“You look really tired, honey,” my mom said, as she sat beside me on the couch.

“That’s a good thing. I need to end my days exhausted. I pushed an enormous tire up and down a hill this morning after my run. Joey doesn’t mess around.”

“I’m proud of you for working this hard.” She smiled as Mimi came to sit in the chair across from us.

“I want to hear about the girl,” my grandmother said.

My mom chuckled. “You haven’t talked much about Demi this week.”

“Yeah. I’m putting some space there.”

She raised a brow. “She scares you, doesn’t she?”

“I’m not scared of her, Mom.”

“You’re scared of how you feel about her. I saw the way you were with her when we stopped in her shop last week, and you just happened to be there.”

“I was picking up my protein shakes. Her business is next door to mine.” I really didn’t want to get into this with them tonight, or any night, for that matter.

“You’re reading into it.” I pushed to my feet. “I need to get some sleep. Thanks for dinner.”

I kissed each of them on the cheek and slipped on my coat.

“Love you,” they both said at the same time.

“Love you.”

I made my way home, and just as I was putting the key in the door, the sound of gravel beneath someone’s feet had me turning.

Demi was storming toward me. A ball of fire.

She slammed me in the chest with the bag in her hand. “Here are your shakes for the next few days.”

And then she turned on her heels and started marching across the alley.

“Hey.” I chased after her because avoiding her was one thing, but seeing her and staying away was a completely different thing.

I couldn’t.

I wrapped my arm around her wrist, and she shook me off. “Leave me alone, Romeo.”

“Stop.”

She whipped around, and there were tears streaming down her face. My chest was so tight that it was painful. I reached forward to wipe the tears from her cheeks with the pad of my thumb, and she slapped my hand away.

“I can’t figure you out. You spend all this time with me and then you kiss me, and what? You didn’t like it, so you just decided that you won’t talk to me again? You avoid me at your gym, and you won’t make eye contact with me.” Her lip quivered, and the need to pull her against me was strong, but I crossed my arms over my chest to stop myself.

“That’s what you think? Come on, Demi. You’re smarter than that.”

“So, tell me what it is. Tell me why you hate my family. Why are you punishing me for something that I’m unaware of? Because all I think about is you, and now you’re shutting me out!”

“I think about you every fucking second of the day. That’s the problem!” I was shouting now, and I set the shakes on the ground and threw my hands in the air. How could she not know this?

“So do something about it. Don’t run from it.” She shook her head. “I didn’t take you for a coward.”

“I’m not a coward. It’s not me that I’m protecting. It’s you.”

“Tell me what it is, then. Let’s figure it out,” she said, as she swiped at the tears that continued to fall.

“The way that you told me what scared you enough that you actually fainted at my gym? Trust works both ways. And the difference here is that you’re protecting someone else by not telling me what happened. I’m protecting you by not telling you what happened. There’s a difference.”

“Okay. You want to know so badly? My dad’s business partner and our good family friends have a son, Ronny Waterstone. We grew up together. We went to college together.” She let out a long breath. “We never dated. It was never, ever romantic. At least not on my side. But right before my college graduation a few months ago, he showed up drunk at my house on campus. My roommates weren’t home. He said that he’d had too much to drink and needed a place to crash.”

My hands fisted, and I could feel the rage coursing through my veins. “What the fuck did he do to you?”

“I gave him a pillow and blanket and said that he could sleep on the couch, and I went to sleep. I’ve known him my whole life.” Her voice trembled. “But he wandered into my room an hour later while I was sleeping, and he climbed on top of me in my bed. He was so heavy, and it was terrifying. I tried to scream because I knew my roommates had most likely come home, but he pressed his forearm against my throat, making it hard for me to breathe. His eyes were—empty. Like he was a complete stranger. He tried to force himself on me, and I knew if I didn’t do something, he’d kill me because he was pressing so hard against my throat. I don’t know how I did it, but my leg broke free, and I kneed him hard enough in the balls that he fell off the bed and onto the floor. Then I hit him with a lamp before my roommate, Liz, came running into the bedroom. He acted like it was all a big misunderstanding. He told Liz that he’d walked in his sleep into my room by mistake. But that’s not what happened.”

“Did you call the police?”

She shook her head. “I called my dad.”

“What the fuck did he do about it?”

“He was really mad. He told me not to call the police. Ronny had run out of our place and apologized on his way out the door.”

“And your father just let him get away with this?”

“No. Not at all. He was furious. He didn’t want me to go to the police because Ronny’s family was in politics, and this would make the news. He didn’t want to have me dragged through the mud, so he thought we should keep it quiet.”

“Why the fuck would you be dragged through the mud? That dude is a psychopath.”

“Because I’d agreed to let him sleep on the couch? I don’t know,” she said, as she cried harder. “My dad filed a restraining order for me and requested that it stay private, and he called Ronny and let him know that he would make it all public if he came near me ever again. He insisted that Ronny get help, and apparently, he’s seeing a therapist weekly to deal with his issues.”

This was not adding up to me.

A private restraining order and she wasn’t involved in the process?

Her dad had handled it?

I’d bet a lot of fucking money he didn’t do jack shit.

How the hell was he making sure this asshole was in therapy? It was a load of bullshit from where I was standing.

Her father wasn’t worried about her being dragged through the mud; he was worried about his business relationship.

I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her, kissing the top of her head.

“I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you. If I see this dude, I will put my fist through his face.”

She stayed right there, little whimpers escaping her lips, and I just held her until her breathing calmed.

She tipped her head back, her eyes puffy under the moonlight. She was the most beautiful fucking woman I’d ever laid eyes on.

“Romeo, I’m trusting you with this. If you tell your friends, or you tell anyone at all, it will cause a lot of trouble for my family. It’s very messy, and as long as he stays away and gets help, that’s all I can ask for. You can’t go after him or do anything—promise me.”

I nodded. “As long as he doesn’t come near you, I won’t do anything. Has he contacted you at all?”

Her eyes darted away from me, and I fucking knew the answer to my question before she even spoke.

“Tell me.” My voice was hard because this rich prick didn’t live by the same rules as everyone else.

“I don’t know for sure if it’s him. I’ve gotten some texts from unknown numbers, asking if we can talk, and he calls me D in the texts, which is what Ronny always called me. My gut tells me that they’re from him.”

“Do you respond?”

“No. I block the number after he texts. I told my dad, and he said he’d handle it.”

The fuck he would. He was handling the whole situation in a way that behooved him.

“Let’s get you inside.” I grabbed the shakes and walked her back to my place and pushed the door open. This was foreign territory for me. Sure, I’d dated my fair share, but never someone like Demi.

Sweet and genuine and good.

With a complicated fucking family that I’d have to navigate, because she loved them, and I saw them for who they were.

I kicked the door closed and led her to the couch before pulling her onto my lap. She unzipped her jacket and dropped it onto the couch, burying her head beneath my neck.

“Thank you for telling me what happened.”

“I trust you, and I hope you trust me and will tell me what your hang-up is with my family. I can take it. I’ve dealt with my fair share of shit, too. Just because my family has money does not mean our lives are perfect.” She pushed up to meet my gaze. “My brother broke into the coffee shop and is a drug addict. My parents aren’t speaking to him. I’ve got a family friend who attacked me in the middle of the night. I’m not made of porcelain. I’m tougher than I look.”

I nodded because she was right. And she’d trusted me with her fucked-up secret, so I’d tell her mine.

I tugged her back down and settled her head beneath my chin so I could tell her this without looking at her. Because if she looked upset, I wouldn’t go through with it. This was the only way I could get through this.

Hurting Demi Crawford was not something that I was looking forward to doing.

“Tell me,” she whispered. “We can’t move forward until we get it all out there.”

“Do you remember years ago when River and I got into trouble at The Daily Market?” Small-town gossip was real, and two local kids getting busted didn’t go unnoticed by many.

“I remember hearing something about it, but I was young, so I don’t know the story.”

“My dad had just gone to prison, and I was angry and nervous for my mom and my sister. Wondering how we were going to survive. It had been a long road with my father, so I was dealing with a lot of shit back then.”

“I’m sure that must have been really hard. Seeing someone you love battle addiction is emotionally exhausting.”

I took my time. Reliving that day was not something I did often. “I was fourteen years old, and I’d ditched school because I was too pissed off at the world for my own good. And River, he was seventeen years old at the time. And the five of us, you know, we’re more like brothers— but with River being the oldest, he almost took on a paternal role in my life back then.”

“I can see how close you all are.”

I nodded, wrapping my arms around her, keeping her close. “He left school and came and found me hiding out at the park. We talked for a while, and he told me they’d all have my back and my family would be fine. Then we went over to The Daily Market to get some junk food.”

“I’m glad he was there for you,” she whispered.

“Your brother was there with another kid. He wasn’t from here, and I don’t know who he was. Your brother was River’s age, so older than me. And they were fucked up.”

She sat up to look at me. “Slade was drunk?”

I raised a brow. “I think he was drunk and high. It was no secret back then that your brother was partying hard, Demi.”

Her gaze searched mine, and I motioned for her to lean back because I couldn’t do this if she kept looking at me with that sadness in her eyes. She rested her head on my chest, and I stroked her hair.

“I didn’t think he did any of that until after the boating accident.”

“Well, I’ve had my fair share of experience with people who mess with drugs and booze, and your brother was doing both back then.” I cleared my throat. “Oscar wasn’t working that day. He was home sick, apparently. It was a guy who worked part-time at the store covering him, Walt Salden. And he didn’t know how to handle your brother and his friend, because they started pushing things off the shelves and breaking shit.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What did you do?”

“River gave me a look like we needed to get the fuck out of there. And then your brother shoved a bottle of booze down his pants, and Walt came running around the counter to stop him.”

“I never heard anything about this.”

I wasn’t surprised. They’d brushed it under the rug.

“Walt started shouting, and your brother got in his face. There was a lot of shoving and yelling going on. River and I made a run for it. We wanted to get the hell out of there.”

“And did you?”

“We ran out the door, but we turned back just as Slade shoved Walt hard enough that the dude fell into a display of booze, which tipped over and shattered. The old guy went down hard on his head, and your brother and his friend took off, laughing and running.”

“Oh my God,” she said, and I could hear the pain in her voice. “What did you do?”

“River and I… we were fucking young, you know? I was scared, and he wouldn’t admit it, but I know he was, too. We ran back inside, and Walt was unconscious. We called 9-1-1 and got him help. We stayed with him until they got there.”

“Was he okay?”

“He had bleeding on the brain from hitting his head and was in the hospital for a week.”

“How do I not know about this? Slade must have gotten in trouble for this. And who was the other kid?”

“He didn’t, and I never knew who the other kid was because your brother denied even being there. The surveillance cameras miraculously didn’t work that day, according to the police report. River and I were blamed for what happened. We’d been on the scene when the ambulance arrived. We’d explained what happened to the police officers assigned to the case, and they’d claimed that your brother wasn’t at the store, and neither was his friend. Slade had a watertight alibi that he was fishing with your dad. Your father had visited Walt at the hospital, from what River and I later found out, and once Walt was up for talking, he’d corroborated the story. And they’d come down hard on me and River because we’d been skipping school, and we’d been blamed for the damage at the shop and for shoving Walt so hard that he’d been hospitalized.”

She pushed up now, looking me right in the eyes as tears streamed down her face. “What happened after that?”

“We were sent to juvenile detention. They’d said we were violent and dangerous. Neither of us had families who could protect us at that point. My mom was in way over her head, and all she could do was cry. My father had just gone to prison, so no one thought it was a stretch that I’d have done this. And River and King were being raised by their elderly grandparents, who weren’t equipped to go to bat for us either. Slade had found the perfect scapegoats.”

And I’d hated them every day since.