01 Untouchable - Untouchable (15 page)

“
I guess you passed-out,
fainted—geez, you just went down like a rock. I thought I—I thought
I killed you.” His face was contorted as if he was really torn at
the moment as to what to do.

The tears came up without
any warning and spilled down my temples. “Please, Evan—don’t hurt
me, please. Please, take me home.”

“
How did you know I was
going to hurt you?” he asked, his fingers caressing my face as he
held my head up with his left hand.

“
Because, for a minute, you
weren’t Evan,” I sobbed. I pushed myself up on my elbows, forcing
myself to get some function back in my legs. I rose from the floor
and he rose with me.

“
This is crazy.” He was
shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
He walked into the bedroom, opened the dresser and grabbed a button
down the front shirt. Then he went back to the dresser and slowly
opened the top drawer. He reached inside but never withdrew his
hand. He just kept shaking his head.

“
Evan?”

He ignored me.

I slipped quickly from the
bathroom and headed for the door.

“
Where do you think you’re
going?” He didn’t sound anything like the guy I knew.

“
I’m going home.” My voice
was quivering yet confident.

“
I can’t take you home,” he
said, still standing at the dresser.

“
Then I’ll walk,” I stated
and I stepped out from the room. The walk turned to a run as I
entered the great room. Which way? The garage door was closed and I
could see a keyed dead-bolt on the front door. It was either out
through the pool area, which I didn’t know where I’d end up, or
grab his keys and try for the front door before he caught me. I
dashed to the counter where he’d set his keys. I’d just wrapped my
fingers around them when he stepped into the great room.

He was straightening his
collar and buttoning the shirt so nonchalantly, he looked like he
was getting ready for a dinner date. He looked at me and smiled,
“You aren’t going anywhere.”

And that was when the idea
hit me. I turned and grabbed the door to the garage. I could hear
the sound of him as he started to run for me from across the room.
I slammed the door and fumbled my way to the car in the darkness. I
found the handle and the light inside came on just as the door to
the kitchen opened, sending a shaft of light into the void. I
jumped inside and hit the automatic door locks. Opening the glove
box and scattering the contents, I pressed the button to open the
garage. The lights in the garage came on as the door began to
rise.

He was at the driver’s door
as I struggled to make the key fit in the ignition.

“
OPEN THE DOOR,
LEESE!”

The car cranked. I saw his
fist draw back getting ready to smash out the window when I found
reverse and burned the tires backwards out the not fully open
garage door. I heard the roof of the car scrape, but I didn’t care.
I floored it backwards until I hit the road. Spinning at a
forty-five degree angle, I hit all six gears within six seconds and
was traveling more than seventy miles per hour.

I crossed the bridge,
sobbing and crying, feeling like my heart had been ripped
completely out of my chest. What was wrong with him? What was wrong
with me? Did I do something to turn him into an animal? What was
going to happen? Would he get a taxi and be at my house soon? Dear
God in heaven, I cried, he knows too much about me. I may have just
become that little thing that would send my mother over the
edge.

It was two thirty in the
morning as I cut the lights and parked on the street just before
the driveway to Matt and Bev’s house. I looked at myself in the
rearview mirror and realized I was a wreck. I didn’t know if anyone
was waiting up for me, but I couldn’t go in like this. I dug for my
small purse in all the clutter that had fallen from the glove
compartment. I found it and opened it up on the passenger’s seat,
searching for my hair brush. I quickly pulled it through my hair,
grabbed a tissue and dabbed my eyes, wiping away the mascara. I
moved past my wallet and cell phone to find my tinted lip gloss in
the bottom of my bag. I put a little on and checked myself in the
mirror one more time. My eyes were still wild, like I’d been on
drugs.

“
Calm down, Leese,” I said
aloud. “Pull it together and get inside.” I was grabbing up my
things when something caught my eye. It was the registration slip
for Evan’s car. I picked it up and stared at it recognizing
something was wrong. The registration was for a Nissan 370Z, but it
wasn’t registered to Evan Lewis. It belonged to a Micah Gavarreen.
The car didn’t belong to him? No wonder he was so concerned about
me wrecking it.

Headlights turned onto our
street and my heart felt like it instantly exploded. I ducked in
the seat, fully expecting the car to stop and I would be trapped,
but to my relief, it continued and turned left at the next
corner.

I had dug around so much in
my purse that I couldn’t find my house keys. I finally turned it
over and they tumbled out. I quickly stuffed my purse full and
stepped out into the street. There was a light on in the living
room. I tip-toed up the steps and slowly unlocked the door; no one
was waiting. I locked the door and slipped off my shoes as I moved
silently to my room. I set everything down, feeling like I could
finally take a breath—a real breath—one where my lungs actually
moved.

I needed a shower badly,
but it was like one of those stupid horror movies coming back to
mind. Do you take a shower when you are being chased by a deranged
killer? I was sure that Evan wasn’t a deranged killer, but I had
definitely done something tonight to cause his male libido to
replace his brain.

I felt the urge to double
check that I had locked the front door, and then the urge to check
the back door. I was really starting to feel like I was flipping
out. Every door was locked. I peeked on Kimmy and she was sleeping
peacefully. I went back to my room to get my pajamas and my towel.
I couldn’t put my clothes in the bathroom hamper because my jacket
and shirt both had blood on them—that would freak out Bev, for
sure. I would undress in my room and then wash my clothes
tomorrow—or throw them away if the blood didn’t come
out.

I started to undress when I
decided my window blinds could be closed just a little bit tighter,
but when I went to pull the chain I noticed my window lock was
open. I never opened these windows. How did one of my windows get
unlocked? My mind drifted back to what seemed like an eternity ago
when Evan was walking around in my room. Would he have done that? I
locked the window, my head beginning to pound from all the
questions. I undressed and headed for the shower.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I overslept the next
morning. I didn’t dream about the fight, but I did dream about the
way Evan’s body looked as he stood next to me in just his jeans. I
dreamed that I didn’t tell him no. I didn’t stop him before his
mouth tried to meet mine. I told him, in my dream, that I was so
very much in love with him. And then all I remember from the dream
was his refusal to take me home. The way he looked at me as he
buttoned his shirt. The last image I had was of his fist hurling
toward the driver’s window, but this time smashing through it. I
sat straight up in bed, gasping for air.

I glanced at the clock and
it was almost ten. I moaned and rubbed my temples as if I could
drive the tired cotton clouds out of my muddled brain.

“
Hey, sleepy head,” Bev
said, poking her face into my room. “I heard you rolling around so
I figured it was okay to come in.”

“
Yeah, sure that’s fine. I
can’t believe I slept so late.”

She smiled and came into
the room and sat on the edge of my bed. I drew up my knees and went
to put my arms around them when I winced in pain. That was when I
remembered how hard Evan had grabbed my right arm. Thank goodness
my pajamas were long sleeved.

“
So did you guys have
fun?”

“
It was alright. The movie
was awful, though.” I said shaking my head. “We went out to West
Beach for a little while afterward.” I added it so that she
wouldn’t, hopefully, continue to ask questions.

“
Evan seems like a sweet
guy,” she grinned. “So do you think this is going to bloom into
something serious?”

“
Wow, didn’t expect that
question, Bev,” I dodged.

“
Well, he is really
handsome.”

“
Yeah,” I rolled my eyes.
“He is definitely that. But…” I looked down, picking at my
fingernails.

“
What?”

“
What if Mom says to come
home? What then?”

“
You could work that out,
Leese. I’m sure you could still see each other, and…”

“
On weekends? I won’t be
here at school anymore. Senior year will be West Palm Beach—and,” I
said, suddenly remembering one of the biggest factors. “He’ll know
I lied about everything—everything other than my first
name!”

Bev reached out touching my
face lightly, “If he’s the right guy for you then that part won’t
matter.” She got off the bed and headed to the door, then turned
back.

“
I’m going to the grocery
store in about fifteen or twenty minutes. You want to
come?”

“
Sure,” I said, rolling out
of bed. “Just give me a couple minutes to get dressed.”

I closed my doors and
peeled off my pajamas, “Oh, crap!” I said a little too
loudly.

“
You okay?” Bev called from
the living room.

“
Yeah, I—uh—stepped on
my—shoe and twisted my ankle a little, that’s all.” That was a load
of baloney. I had just taken off my top and got a good look at my
arm in the daylight. That was scary. It was deep purple and
greenish with a yellowed rim—and it was big. I recalled the sound
of the guy getting his elbow broken, and I swallowed as it occurred
to me that he could have just as easily broken my arm.

I grabbed a pair of shorts
and a tank top, then I slipped on a button up the front over-shirt,
but left it unbuttoned. I pulled my hair into a pony-tail and put
some lip gloss on my chapped lips.

We walked outside into a
picture-perfect Florida Saturday morning. I buckled Matt Junior in
the back seat beside Kimmy, then climbed into the front. Bev was
backing down the driveway when I remembered that Evan’s car would
be sitting out there in the road. I was trying to come up with a
believable excuse for why it should be there, but my mind was a
total blank. Bev was cutting her wheels to the right and I was
afraid she might back into it.

“
Bev, you need to be
careful…” but as she backed out I was shocked to see the car was
gone.

“
Huh?”

“
Oh, never mind. I—I
thought I saw a car coming.”

We went around the grocery
store collecting the items from her list and then we finally made
it to check out. I had picked up a few things for myself, shampoo,
a couple magazines and a vitamin-water. She checked out and then
waited patiently for me to pay for my items.

“
That will be
twenty-three-ninety-five.”

I opened my purse and
looked where my small wallet should have been. I moved my brush,
phone, gum, keys, change purse, lip gloss. “Oh no,” I cried out in
disbelief.

“
What’s wrong, Leese? Don’t
you have your wallet?”

I just stood there looking
for what wasn’t in my purse. “No, no, no—oh, I’m such an
idiot!”

“
Leese, it’s okay,” She
said, stepping up to the counter to pay for my items. “You can pay
me back when you find it.”

“
I must
have dropped it in Evan’s car.” I pictured myself in the dark
digging for my keys, dumping my purse. “Bev it’s got my card
inside—
my Visa
card
,” I said hoping she would understand
the hundred thousand dollar problem.

“
Oh,” she responded,
finally catching my drift. “That’s okay, just call Evan and tell
him to drop it by the house.”

What was I going to tell
her? Hey, sorry, I can’t do that ‘cause the guy went crazy on me
last night and tried to keep me prisoner. He tried to punch out the
window of his car to get me as I was stealing it. I scraped the
roof of a car that really doesn’t even belong to him on the garage
doors at his house during my escape. Getting my Visa might not be
so easy.

We loaded the groceries
into her car and started the journey home. I was staring out the
window, thinking about calling and canceling my card and having
another reissued, as we passed a Pensacola police officer. I
laughed to myself thinking about Ryan and his near ticket when I
suddenly felt sick. My driver’s license—my real driver’s license
was in my wallet. It had my Palm Beach address and the one thing
that he was insistent to know, my real name. The last person I
wanted to see today was Evan, but I had to get my
wallet.

As soon as the groceries
were put away, I told Bev I was going to take a ride over to his
house. She smiled and told me to have fun. Kimmy begged to come,
but I turned her down a little too gruffly and she went crying to
her room.