Chapter Forty-Seven

Tessa

“I can’t believe it, either,” I say to Skye on the phone a few minutes later. “He told me he loves me, and then he just left.”

“And you wanted to say it back?”

I sigh into the phone. “I did, Skye. I know it’s soon, but I’ve never felt this way. Ben helped me help myself. He… He’s special.”

“That I can believe. His brother is pretty damned special, too.”

I can hear Skye’s smile through her voice. “He is. You both saved me that day.”

“Tess…”

“No, you did. And after I was so unfair to you, asking you to change your plans and have dinner with Garrett and me.”

“Well, if I had—”

“Don’t go there. We both know why it happened.”

“I hope he rots in prison,” Skye says.

“Me too, but he’s the least of my concerns. Right now, Ben is off to work without knowing that I love him back.”

“That does seem odd. Most men want to hear it back once they say it.”

“Right? I don’t get it.” I sigh. “I need to get dressed and get to work. I worked all of two days at this new job before I took off for Jamaica and then asked for another week of bereavement leave.”

“I hear your boss is a tyrant, too.” Skye laughs. “But seriously, Tess, I’m happy for you. Truly. You deserve everything good.”

“I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel the same after Garrett, but I had such a nice time with Ben in Jamaica, and he didn’t so much as kiss me, Skye. Then my dad…”

“I know, Tess. I’m sorry.”

“It’s almost like he left me all his strength. I know that sounds silly.”

“I don’t think it sounds silly at all,” Skye says. “Losing him helped you to remember who you are. Not that losing him was a good thing.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” I say. “And it makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for the chat, Skye. I’ve got to get to work.”

“You want to have lunch today?” she asks.

“I’d love to, but I’m planning to work through lunch. I want them to know I’m serious about this job and didn’t get it just because I’m in love with the boss.”

I dress quickly in a narrow black skirt and white blouse, and I’m putting on my black pumps when someone knocks at my door. Rita goes berserk.

“Coming!” I yell.

I pick up a squirming Rita and look through my peephole.

And I gasp.

…

Several Months Earlier

“No… Stay… Please…”

“I’m out of here. I have an early morning meeting.”

I hold the vodka bottle. Where did it come from? I’m not sure. I’m not naked. Just my bottom half. Just…

He’s a blur. It’s Garrett, I think. He’s leaving. The blur is leaving, and I’m on the floor holding a bottle.

Didn’t mean to do it. Wasn’t going to. Don’t even remember some of it. The room goes black for a moment.

I try to stand when the light returns. Dizziness sweeps through me. And I feel… I feel…

Phone?

Where’s my phone?

Skye should have been here with me. She let me down. My bestie let me down. She’s too wrapped up in her billionaire boyfriend.

Bladen Brack.

Baden Back.

No.

Braden Black.

Phone. I crawl toward the couch where I left it, pick it up. Skye. Skye. Skye.

I call Skye.

“Hey, Tess.”

“Skye?” My voice sounds squeaky.

“Yeah? Are you okay?”

“Not even slightly.” I choke back a sob and then—

A-choo! A sneeze rips from my mouth. My allergies have been killing me lately. I’m on all kinds of herbal crap for them. Echinacea sometimes helps, but not today.

“What’s the matter?” Skye asks. “Why are you crying?”

“Damn these allergies,” I say. “I need you. Please.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down. What do you need?”

“It’s Garrett. I… I slept with him.”

“Okay.”

Okay? It’s not okay. Why would Skye even say that? I’m not even sure why I did it. Why it happened. “Why couldn’t you come to dinner with us? You knew what was going to happen.”

“Tess, I—”

“I needed you tonight.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” She pauses a moment. “Where are you? I’ll come to you.”

“At my place. He left, Skye. He fucked me, and then he left.”

“Did you ask him to stay?”

“I did. He said he had an early meeting in the morning. But tomorrow’s Sunday.” My whole body heaves. “He lied to get out of spending the night with me. How could I have been so stupid as to let him in my bed again?”

“Are you drinking?”

I sniffle and glance at the bottle of vodka. “A little.”

“Tell me you didn’t take anything else. Please.”

She’s thinking of the ecstasy. The pill that said Sky. Damn Betsy, anyway. I told her specifically not to tell Skye. “No. Not yet. But I’m a mess. Can you come over?”

“Yeah. Sure. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there, okay?”

“Thanks, Skye.”

“No need to thank me. Get hold of yourself, and I’ll be there soon.” She ends the call.

I stay on the couch. Can’t move. Or don’t want to move. But I find my leggings and force them over my legs and ass. Don’t want to have my ass hanging out when…

I don’t feel right. I know where I am. Who I am. But some of it is so fuzzy, and I feel…sick. Really sick.

Rita nudges me. I pet her soft head.

Then a knock, and Rita runs to the door barking. I swallow back nausea, gather my strength to rise, walk to the door, and open it.

It’s Skye. And she brought Braden, of course. The two of them are joined at the fucking hip.

“Hey,” I say weakly. “Hi, Braden.”

“Hello, Tessa.” Braden walks straight into my apartment. “What can we do for you?”

“Braden…” Skye begins, scooping up Rita and closing the door.

“Have you eaten?” Braden asks.

Right. He’s talking to me. “I had dinner with Garrett.”

He picks up my nearly empty bottle of vodka. “How much of this have you had?”

“Braden…” Skye again.

“A few shots,” I reply.

At least I think I did. I don’t even like vodka.

Skye grabs Braden’s arm and steers him out my door, whispering something to him. Probably something lovey-dovey.

Skye closes the door and turns to me. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry to ruin your evening.”

“You didn’t.”

She’s lying, but I love her for it. I love my bestie. Except when I’m angry with her. Except when—

“Come on,” Skye says. “Spill it.”

I sigh. “It’s so stupid. I went and fell in love with the jerk.”

“That’s not stupid.”

“Why couldn’t I meet a man like Braden? He treats you with so much respect and love.”

“Have you forgotten he dumped me a couple weeks ago?”

“No. But things seem fine now.”

“They’re good, but it took a lot of work on both our parts. I even started therapy to get to the bottom of everything.”

“I know.” I shake my head. “I guess I just want more than Garrett wants to give me right now.”

She grips my shoulders. “So you’re not in the same place. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. He did come back to you, and he’s willing to be exclusive.”

“That’s what he says, anyway.”

“Do you think he’s lying?” she asks.

“I don’t know. He could be. After all, he lied about having an early meeting tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s Sunday, Skye.”

“Braden has meetings during the middle of the night sometimes. We flew out to New York early on a Sunday morning that one time so he could deal with some kind of contract in China.”

Yeah. I remember that well. She neglected to cancel our shopping date, and…

God…I can’t go there right now.

“So maybe he has a breakfast meeting with the boss,” Skye continues. “Or a racquetball date or something.”

“Then that’s what he should have said. But what he actually said was ‘I have an early meeting tomorrow.’”

Skye frowns and looks around the room. “It’s too late to order pizza. How about I run across the street to the convenience store and grab a few pints of Ben Jerry’s?”

I smile, even though the thought of ice cream makes me want to hurl. “Would you?”

“I absolutely would. As long as you promise no more drinking. Alcohol solves nothing.”

“I know. I know.”

“This isn’t like you, Tessa.”

I sigh again.

“Are you really in love?” she asks.

Am I? I feel something. Intense attraction. It’s similar to how I’ve felt before when I’ve been in love. Or thought I was. “I think so. I realize I haven’t known him very long.”

Skye shrugs. “You’ve known him as long as I’ve known Braden, and we’re in love. Sometimes you just know.”

“And sometimes one person feels something the other doesn’t.”

Skye shakes her head. Her two heads. I don’t feel so well.

“Tessa, you’re a catch. We both know it, and so does Garrett.”

“I’m not sure he does.”

“Then honestly? He’s not worth it.” She grabs her purse. “I’ll be back in a flash. Dump the rest of that.” She nods to the vodka bottle.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Once she’s gone, I take the bottle to the bathroom and dump the tiny bit that’s left in the toilet.

Then I slide to the tile floor and—

“Oh, shit.”

The convulsions start in my stomach and rise. Acid, bile, vodka, everything putrid…

It all comes up and out into the toilet bowl…

My head… Spinning… The toilet goes blurry… And… And…

Darkness.

…

Present Day…

“I know you’re in there, Tessa,” Garrett Ramirez says. “There’s someone here who wants to say hello.”

The man with Garrett on the other side of the door is the bartender from Jamaica, the one Ben got fired.

He holds up something white. “Recognize these, Tessa?”

Rita scrambles out of my arms, and I lean against the wall for support. My heart is racing, and the familiar tingle of panic hits my fingers.

No. Fucking. Way.

That’s why that bartender looked so familiar. He was the altar boy. The one whose name began with D. David. I remember now. David Conrad. My first communion. He took my panties, and he—

I gulp back the nausea that threatens to make its way up my throat. What kind of sicko keeps a little girl’s panties?

Must focus. Must stay strong. Can’t panic. Won’t panic.

“You two get the hell away from here. I have a restraining order against you, Garrett. I’m calling the cops.”

“You might want to talk to your new boyfriend before you do that,” Garrett says. “Because if you call the cops, things could get real dicey for him.”

My new boyfriend? Ben? How do they even know about Ben?

Right. Jamaica. The bartender he got fired. Of course.

The urge to protect Ben swarms through me, overruling my own panic and fear, and in a flash I’m a lioness, ready to strike.

“Get out of here right now,” I demand.

“You going to sic your ferocious little dog on us?” Garrett says, laughing.

What a fucking creep! How did I ever think I was in love with this asshole? I didn’t even understand what love was.

I couldn’t date until I was seventeen, and I went wild in college. All those physical feelings were new to me, and I mistook them for love.

Every single time, I mistook them for love.

Not anymore. What I feel for Ben goes so far beyond anything I thought I felt for Garrett or anyone else. We didn’t get physical right away, which was my MO before.

We didn’t…

He wouldn’t even kiss me.

And now that we’ve been together? I know how much better the physical is when the emotion is also present.

My God…

Both of these men took something from me. David stole my innocence, and Garrett stole my spirit.

My innocence may be gone forever, but my spirit has been restored. Ben helped me with that. He showed me what’s important. What I have to fight for.

Myself.

David and Garrett may have both taken something from me that was not theirs to take, but I can survive.

I can thrive.

My heart still beats.

And damn it, I won’t let these two assholes harm Ben in any way.

“We’re waiting, Tessa.” Garrett’s voice slithers like a snake over my skin.

“Get the fuck out of here.” I hold up my phone. “I’ve got 911 punched in. All I have to do is hit send.”

“Do that,” Garrett says, “or call anyone else, and Ben Black goes up the river.”

Do they think I’m stupid? “Ben Black is a billionaire,” I say through gritted teeth. “And the best man I know. Save your idle threats for someone who believes them.”

“I think you might need to talk to my brother,” David says.

“I don’t need to talk to anyone.”

“Open the door,” Garrett says, “and we’ll tell you everything we know.”

“You’ll tell me lies, and I’m not interested. Now get the hell out of here.” I reach to hit send on the 911 call, but something holds me back.

Why won’t they leave? Why do they think I won’t call the cops?

They’ve both done something horrible to me, and now that I remember what David did, I can have him arrested too. I think I can, anyway. I’m not sure about the statute of limitations.

“I’m not going to prison for a little cunt like you,” Garrett seethes.

“Uh…yeah. You are.”

“Let’s put it this way,” he says. “Open the fucking door, Tessa. Because if I go to prison, your boyfriend goes too.”

“You’re full of it. Now get out of here.”

Garrett shakes his head. “We tried to warn you. Have it your way.”

They walk down the hallway and out of view of my peephole.

I shiver as I slide down the wall into a sitting position, my phone still ready to call 911.

Rita rushes to me, but I can’t bring myself to pet her.

I’m numb. Frozen. My heart has gone mad. And my skin feels like ice.

Do they truly have something on Ben?

They can’t. It’s not possible.

Still…

I can’t call their bluff. I can’t risk it. I delete the one, the one, and the nine.

Then I wrap my arms around my knees and stay there.