Chapter Twenty-Five

Grace

Ithrew myself into both work and school for the next week.

The premiere for A Streetcar Named Desire loomed large, casting its shadow across everything else in my life.

West was discharged from the hospital three days after I’d visited him. I sent food and get-well cards while he was at the hospital, but I hadn’t summoned the courage to visit him again. The ball was in his court now.

A couple days after West got back to Sheridan, he showed up in the middle of rehearsal. He was still banged up, his face puffy, and a few pounds down, but that didn’t stop my breath from catching when he appeared between the grand double doors of the auditorium, flashing his signature cocky grin, a candy stick peeking from the side of his mouth.

I was onstage when I saw him. Aiden stomped in with a dummy package of meat. The scene was our first encounter as Stanley and Blanche. Even though I knew I needed to retune my mind to the play, I couldn’t help but follow West’s movements with my eyes as he took a seat directly under the stage, in the front row, watching me with his cool, attentive eyes.

“H’lo. Where’s the little woman?” Aiden rumbled, puffing his chest.

I finally realized how West had felt when I came to see him fight all those weeks ago. We couldn’t be in the same room and not be consumed by one another somehow.

Pretending to light a cigarette and puff on it, I tore my gaze from West, throwing myself into the role.

“In the bathroom.”

Aiden shot his lines at me, and I quipped mine right back. We had good chemistry onstage. The more time had passed, the more I began to forget West was there and allowed myself to drown in the sweet magic of performing.

When the scene came to an end, with Tess walking in delivering her lines, Finlay clapped from his place in the first row, next to West, springing up to his feet.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but that was utter perfection. Take five. Grace—don’t go too far, please.”

I nodded, hopping offstage. West sauntered over to me. My pulse jackrabbited, pounding against the side of my throat. We stood in front of each other. I waited for him to say something, anything, to relieve me of the gushing rip-your-veins pain that I experienced every time I thought about him.

He was already turning back to being his old, beautiful self.

“Tex.”

“Maine.”

He grinned. I rarely called him that, but when I did, it always had a dazzling impact and made me feel like a siren taking her clothes off for the very first time.

“Look at you,” he whispered in awe.

I ducked my head down, blushing. “We’ve been workin’ pretty hard. Thanks.”

“We? I’ve only seen you. Were there other people?” he said matter-of-factly, a hint of possessiveness in his voice.

Ask me out.

Tell me you can’t live without me.

That I’m not the only one feeling like I’m walking around with half a heart.

He shoved his fists into his front pockets, shifting from foot to foot.

“Wanna grab coffee later? As friends,” he rushed to clarify. My heart sank. Friends. Of course. I’d told him I wouldn’t settle for anything less than everything, and he figured I wasn’t worth it. That was fair. I needed to come to terms with that. I couldn’t ask him for something he was incapable of giving me.

“Sure.” I mustered a weak smile. “Coffee sounds great.”

“I’ll pick you up in a couple hours.”

He turned around and walked away. I spun back to the stage, catching Tess’ gaze. She looked miserable. My cheeks heated when I realized she’d heard our exchange.

They say the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I was anxiously waiting to hear the thud that West’s love for me would make when it finally overpowered his stubbornness.

West

Payback and Karma had one thing in common—they were both bitches.

Today, I got to deliver them to Kade Appleton, wrapped in a toxic bow.

I’d tried to accommodate his small-dick syndrome. Truly, I had. I’d gone to extreme lengths to minimize the damage in this situation. I’d bitten my tongue and let him have his moment in the sun, but now all bets were off.

I wanted to ensure he was never coming after me and mine again.

Not only because I wasn’t going to put up with his bullshit, but also because I wanted my girlfriend back.

This time, she was going to be safe.

From him.

From me.

From anyone who wished her harm.

I parked my trashed Ducati in front of Max’s house. Christina was at the shop for days, and still looked like shit.

I’d never been to Max’s place before. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know who he lived with. By the nice, Craftsman-style digs and manicured front lawn, I bet he lived with his parents. Sad, because he didn’t need any more obstacles standing in his way on his quest to lose his virginity.

Baked leaves crunched beneath my boots as I made my way to the door. Max opened up with a somber face, glancing behind my shoulder, to see if I brought reinforcements.

“Is he here?” I stepped into his house without technically being invited.

Max nodded quickly. “Told you I’d make it work.”

“Alone?”I stressed.

He tugged his shirt down his round belly. “I ain’t stupid. Don’t want you to kill me.”

“The former isn’t true, and the latter is still fucking likely.” I sauntered into a neat living room full of flowery furniture and family pictures that proved Max wasn’t the only person in the family who was grossly unfuckable.

I found Kade slumped on the couch, smoking a blunt, watching a football rerun on a flat TV screen, a can of beer in his lap.

“Somethin’ stinks.” He sniffed the air, refusing to unglue his eyes from the screen.

I took a seat on a recliner to his right, studying him. He fidgeted, his fingers dancing around his beer. I noticed a tic in his right eye.

“Heard you were in the hospital.” He made a show of flexing his muscles as he rearranged himself. “You sure look fine to me.”

“Thanks for the medical assessment, Dr. Shit-for-brains.”

He took a sip of his beer, trying to appear calm. But his knee was jerking, and his lower lip trembled. He knew as well as I did that I could thrash him right here, right now, and end things the way they were intended to happen if I wanted to. There was no dispute I was a better fighter. The fact of the matter was, I’d thrown the fight for him, and he’d greedily decided to almost kill me, punishment for my being better.

I stared at him wordlessly, watching him unravel.

“Why’d you call me in here, anyway?” He huffed. “An apology?”

Max slouched next to him, shoving his face between his own knees.

“Just want y’all to know my parents should be here in an hour, so dirtying up the carpet with blood …”

“Better spit it out, then, St. Claire.” Kade ripped his eyes from the screen, eyeballing me. “You wanted to do this without the buffer of our boys. That means whatever’s gonna go down should stay between us. Tell me why I’m here.”

Maybe he wasn’t as dumb as a brick. Maybe he was just as stupid as a rock. Still an object, but half as deadly.

“I want half the money from the fight—and a promise you will never go after me, my friends, my parents, and most of all …” I raised an octave, my tone cutting the air like a blade. “My girlfriend.”

Grace and I weren’t together, but a guy could dream.

Kade rolled his head on the couch, a metallic laugh slipping between his lips.

“You ain’t getting a dime of my money. I won it fair and square, and while you have my word I won’t hurt your girl, I can’t promise I won’t hit on her. A nice piece of ass, you got yourself there. And I hear she’s newly single now. Well, whaddaya know? I happen to have lost my Vegas contract and moved here permanently. Can’t think of better entertainment than pounding into your sexy ex.”

“Now, Kade, let’s not—” Max started, but Appleton hurled his half-full beer can across the room at the TV. The thick, white fluid rolled down on it, foam hissing on the floor.

“Shut your suck, Riviera, the men are speaking now.”

“I …” Max stuttered.

“Go clean it up,” Kade barked. “Pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Fugly don’t want beer on their carpet just as much as they don’t want blood.”

I choked my armrests, feeling my jaw flexing. I needed to play this right, even if my natural response was to kill the bastard. Getting dragged into his hysterics would be amateur and unconstructive to the end goal.

“You might want to rethink that, Appleton,” I said serenely.

“Oh, yeah? And why’s that?” He shot me a stony glare.

I hunted my phone out of my front pocket, found what I was looking for, and held it out for him to see. He crouched forward reluctantly, watching.

It was a video of him and Shaun, launching two pit bulls at each other. The dogs ripped at each other savagely, with Kade and his manager cheering them on, laughing and making faces. There was a circle of people around the bloodied canines. You could see their faces clearly, and you could tell none of those assholes knew they were being taped.

One of the dogs plowed its teeth into the other’s neck, producing so much blood, the injured dog whimpered and plopped sideways, fighting violent spasms as it bled out. It didn’t stop the winning dog from tearing into it.

One of the pit bulls ate the other one alive, while it was crying for help.

It was so brutal, even my desensitized ass couldn’t watch it. When Kade’s ex-girlfriend agreed to send me those videos, I’d promised I would put an end to his dog-fighting days. That wasn’t a promise I intended to break. In fact, I was going to make sure that from this point forward, every time I promised someone anything, I’d see it through.

“Where’d you get this?” He sat up straight, looking alert now. He tried to snatch the phone from my hand, but I swiftly tucked it back into my pocket.

“None of your goddamn business. Now, just so we’re clear, you arranging dog fights with the human brick also known as Shaun, on top of the probation you’re on for beating up your ex-girlfriend? Yeah, that’s a big ol’ pile of offenses. Me thinks your fighting skills may be handy in prison, unless you’re fine with being everyone’s little bitch.”

“I’m not doing that anymo—”

“Spare me the bullshit. I have copies of these videos all over my cloud. These videos are recent. That’s your new gig, now that you can’t get into the ring anymore. I’ll make sure this is all over YouTube and on the sheriff’s desk by nighttime if you don’t listen very carefully. Now, I’ll ask again—half the money from the fight, plus a promise you never get close to my people. Ever. That especially applies to Grace Shaw. If I hear you as much as farted in her direction, I will kill you twenty-six times, a death for each of your birthdays. Am I clear?”

His throat worked, his jaw moving back and forth. Whatever he was stoned on had worked its way out of his system completely. He was clearheaded now and aware of the massive pile of shit I’d just dumped at his feet.

“I mean it,” I growled. “I threw one fight for you. I will not extend my good intentions beyond that. I will kill you if you harass her.”

“If I do this, I’ll want those videos back.” He stabbed his finger against the table.

Didn’t this schmuck know how the internet worked?

“I’m keeping the videos as a guarantee,” I said, point-blank.

“How do I know you won’t flip your shit on me?”

“A—because I’m a man of my word.” At least, I was going to be. I’d been shitty about keeping up with my promises. But that was about to change. “And B—because no part of me wants your newborn daughter to grow up with a daddy who’s in jail, even though that’s exactly where you belong. So if I walk away from here after being assured you’ll be getting a legal job, stop the dog fighting, provide for your ex, and leave me and mine alone, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

I sounded like the morality police, but the truth was, uncovering everything that went down in the last few years at the Plaza was going to drag all of us into shit, and deep down, I believed in second chances.

I didn’t trust Kade Appleton a hundred percent. But that was why I had Max. He was going to keep an eye on him. Make sure he was keeping up his end of this bargain.

Kade looked away. “Fine. Fuck.”

“I’ll expect that money in my mailbox in the next twelve hours. Oh, and, Kade?”

I stood up. He turned his head to face me reluctantly. My mouth quirked.

“I mean it. If I hear there was a dog fight with your name on it, or that you got anywhere near my people, I’m killing you, and that’s a promise I won’t break.”

Grace

West and I went for coffee every day that week. Always at the same place—the little diner on the outskirts of town, where Grams went the night he helped me.

They didn’t even have my kind of coffee. I liked cappuccino, which wasn’t on the menu. I noticed West wasn’t touching his filter coffee either. We were just bracketing our cups with our hands, talking.

We talked about everything, other than us.

About how his parents made him swear he wouldn’t fight again, and he’d agreed—and that this time, he intended not to break his word.

About my upcoming visit to Grams on Saturday. How she was adjusting well to the nursing home, even though she had her ups and downs. It had been a struggle to get her to the CT test, but Nurse Aimee called to tell me that by the end of the day, Grams was so exhausted that she went to bed at seven and woke up the next morning brand-new, singing along with Ethel in the breakfast room.

She was now being medicated, and even though it was going to take time to find the right medicine and doses that would work for her, it was a start.

I loved spending time with West. Just talking and laughing, rebuilding what had been broken that day in the cafeteria. And it wasn’t just our daily coffee that pieced my heart back together. West had made it a point to pick me up from my house for school every day—even on days our schedules weren’t aligned—and waited for me outside my lectures.

The new auditorium theater was finally ready, and we moved our final rehearsal into the massive newly built hall.

West carried my backpack and laughed at my jokes, even when they weren’t funny. When I showed up at the cafeteria, taking a seat next to Karlie, he somehow materialized out of thin air to sit beside us. He didn’t even seem to mind when all we talked about was nineties shows. He was content just spending time with me.

It was sweet.

And romantic.

It made me want to kill him.

“I want to strangle him,” I confessed to Karlie the day before A Streetcar Named Desire’s premiere. I truly did. Wholeheartedly. Which was ironic, because I got so freaked out when it was Kade Appleton who’d almost ended his life.

“You’ll need to be more specific. Even though I’m not his biggest fan, he hasn’t done anything shitty recently. Definitely nothing to inspire murdering him.” Karlie flipped through a thick textbook, highlighting the hell out of it.

I plopped down next to her on her bed, blowing a lock of hair out of my face. I was no longer wearing ball caps. Just a healthy amount of makeup. It felt extremely liberating, both for my body temperature and scalp.

“He’s actin’ like the perfect boyfriend.” I groaned.

“Yuck!” Karlie pretended to gag. “How dare he? The bastard.”

“But he is not my boyfriend. He hasn’t asked me out. We haven’t discussed our relationship ever since he got out of the hospital. We’re just … platonic.”

The word tasted like acid in my mouth. I didn’t regret the fact we’d broken up. But I didn’t understand why he insisted on spending time with me and didn’t make any move to become anything more. The ball was in his court now. He was the one who needed to figure out if he was ready for this commitment, and I made it clear to him at the hospital.

“Maybe he is treading carefully. He screwed up pretty royally when you were together,” Karlie suggested, capping her yellow marker and producing a green one. She had a highlighting system that made her textbooks look like a rainbow.

“Maybe he is just tryin’ to make it up to me. Maybe this whole thing is just him being nice to me before he finally graduates and moves away.”

It was West’s last semester before graduation. Technically, he could be out of Sheridan as soon as next month. Nothing kept him here anymore.

The thought made me break out into a cold sweat.

Karlie noticed and slammed her textbook shut, scooting over next to me, wrapping an arm over my shoulder.

“Dang, you really love him, don’t you, Shaw?”

I closed my eyes, nodding.

“I don’t know what to do, Karl,” I whispered. “I can’t move away from the Austin area. Grams is here. But watchin’ him go …” I tried to take a breath but couldn’t suck in enough air. “Watchin’ him go is going to be the end of me.”

Karlie rubbed my arm, perching her chin over my shoulder.

“Sorry, Gracie-Mae. That’s what you get for playing with fire.”