Always You (39 page)

"Clay are you coming here on your own?" I whispered, praying he would say no. He didn't say anything and I took his silence as a yes. He didn't like to lie to me so usually he just avoided the question he didn't want to answer or changed the subject. I felt my heart sink, "Please don't. Please let the police handle it Clay, please baby." I begged grabbing a wad of tissue to wipe my constant stream of tears.

There was a loud banging on the door making it shake, I yelped in surprise which of course started Clay panicking down the phone shouting desperately for me to tell him what happened, but I couldn't speak. My eyes were fixed on the door as it rattled on its hinges again.

"Jailbait open the fucking door!" Blake shouted angrily from the other side.

I pushed myself up onto my feet, standing in the corner pressing my cell phone too hard against my ear making it feel a little numb and my eardrums to ring from Clay's constant steam of panic that was blasting through the earpiece.

What do I do? Do I go out there and try to keep him talking or do I just stay locked in here and hope that he can't get in? What if I didn't open the door and he got in here anyway - he'd be even more pissed and I really didn't want to get hurt again.

"Jailbait I swear to God you need to open this fucking door right now!" Blake shouted banging the door hard again.

I turned to look at the window trying it again before I made my decision, but the damn thing was definitely locked. I gulped and knew I needed to open the door, how long would the police be? If I could just keep him talking until they got here.....

"Clay I need to hang up and go out before he breaks the door down!" I hissed down the phone getting ready to disconnect the call.

"NO! Riley don't hang up, just put your phone in your pocket and keep the line open! Please? I'll be quiet, please just don't!" he cried desperately.

"JAILBAIT!" Blake screamed angrily.

"I'm now coming!" I called squeezing my eyes shut willing myself to be strong. The banging stopped almost immediately but I could still hear it in my ears, it honestly was a terrifying sound and I knew I'd be hearing it in my dreams. Hell I bet I'd never be able to lock a bathroom door ever again after this!

"Don't hang up." Clay begged.

"Ok baby, I won't. I need to go out now." I whispered swiping at my face trying to stop crying, but it was useless. "I love you Clay."

"I love you too Riley bear, I'll see you soon and don't worry everything will be just fine." he said softly. I gulped and pushed my cell down into the pocket of my jeans praying that it wouldn't disconnect by accident or something because then Clay would freak the heck out.

Blake banged on the door again just once making me jump. I gulped and clasped my hands together holding my wedding ring tightly as I took the three steps towards the door, feeling my heart sink with every inch I got closer to it. I held my breath as I flicked the lock. As soon as the lock clicked, the door was wrenched open and Blake stood there looking at me accusingly. He looked so pissed off that the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand on end.

"Sorry." I muttered looking at the floor. How did he get so messed up? What on earth was wrong with him that he would do this to me? He barely even knew me, and he was acting like we'd been dating for years or something. He really was deranged.

He stepped closer to me and put his finger under my chin forcing my face up, but I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye, so I looked at his lip ring instead trying not to break down in hysterical sobs for my husband to come and take me away.

"Have you been crying Jailbait?" he asked, it surprised me how soft and tender his voice was after how hard his face had looked when he opened the door. I nodded and bit my lip not really trusting my voice to speak. "Why?" he asked brushing my hair behind my ear softly.

"Blake I want to go home. Will you just take me home to my parents house? I shouldn't be here because of the police and everything, I'm not allowed to see you." I mumbled looking at him pleadingly.

He frowned and shook his head, "Well that's just stupid. This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. I told you I was sorry for hurting you, maybe you should just cancel the restraining order or something. Then there would be nothing in our way and we can move on." he suggested shrugging. Did he really think that it was just the restraining order in our way? Wow, just wow.

I gulped and grasped for anything to say to make this situation better, but what do you say when you don't want to upset a sociopath? "You broke my arm Blake." I whispered.

He almost growled as he gripped his hands in his hair looking really frustrated. "That was an accident! I'd been drinking, I didn't actually mean to hurt you it just happened!" he cried clearly annoyed with my comment.

Shit I needed to just change the subject because this was just making him madder at me! "I know it was. It's fine, let's just forget it." I said putting on a fake smile and sniffing through my semi-blocked nose. "Why don't you show me around or something?"

His face softened and he broke out the heartbreaking smile that he first caught my attention with when I met him. "Yeah, I'd like that. Let's start in the kitchen and I can make drinks and stuff. You hungry?" he asked as he took my hand and immediately tugged me up the hallway.

How long had I been here now? Were the police almost here? Oh God please let them get here before Clay does! I desperately tried not to think of Clay bursting in here on his own and beating Blake to a pulp and then being towed away in handcuffs or something.

"Jailbait? I said are you hungry." He squeezed my hand a little and I quickly snapped back into myself, I needed to stop spacing out and stay in the moment so I could keep him calm! Relax Riley everything's fine, and tonight Clay will kiss everything better and hold you when you wake up screaming because of this whole waking nightmare.

"Umm not right now, but after we've looked around then maybe we could make dinner together or something?" I suggested. That would kill some time!

He smiled happily as he grabbed two cans of coke from the fridge passing me one and gesturing around the room. "Kitchen." he stated before pulling me back out of the room, I didn't even get a chance to look around before we were back out of the door. "Lounge." he stated waving his hand at the room. He pulled me back out again and I groaned internally, this was going to be the quickest house tour in history. So much for my great
killing time
plan!

Probably less than a minute later he stopped outside another door, "And this.... this one's my room." he smirked at me as he pushed a key into the door unlocking it.

I felt my body jerk at the thought of going in his room, why didn't I think this through? Why did I ask for a tour? Shit maybe he completely read something into it thinking I wanted to see his room or something! Damn it Riley you're so freaking stupid sometimes.

He smiled at me and I felt so sick I wondered if I was going to actually throw up all over him. He pushed the door open and gestured for me to go in first. I swallowed my sob and forced myself to walk over the threshold. I just prayed that he would wave his hand around again like he did for every other room and then we could go and make dinner or something. My eyes flicked to his bed and I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood willing myself not to panic and pass out or something leaving myself completely exposed and vulnerable to him.

His room was a typical boys room, just plain and painted a royal blue, a little messy but not unlike what Clay's room used to look like at his parents house.

"Like it?" he asked, I tried not to flinch as his hand rubbed the small of my back softly.

I nodded and put on a fake smile, "Yeah it's nice."

He grinned happily and I noticed that his eyes flicked to the bed too as he stepped closer to me, oh God here it comes. "You didn't see my favourite part yet." he murmured looking at me so intently that it made my heart stop at the passion on his face. His favourite part? I looked around the room again wondering what it would be, maybe a games console or something probably in typical boy fashion.

He laughed and took hold of my shoulders turning me around facing the wall behind me, the one that the door was on. I felt my heart stop as my blood ran cold, this was so much worse than I thought! I was in some serious trouble and I needed to make sure that Clay didn't come anywhere near Blake, because this guy was crazier than both of us gave him credit for.

I couldn't take my eyes off of the wall. There were pictures everywhere of me, not just me though that was the scary thing, Clay was there as well. There were pictures of us together laughing or hugging, but in every picture Clay's face had either been scratched out leaving it white, or burned out leaving a ragged hole. I knew it was him because of his clothes and where we were. These weren't pictures of us as kids, these were pictures of things we'd done recently. Us at the football game, us at the store, at the movies, damn there was even one of us loading paint cans into Clay's trunk so I knew that one was less than a week old.

How long had he been following me, taking these pictures? Why hadn't I seen him, he literally must have been following me all the time. The ones that scared me the most were the ones of me or Clay at our apartment, there was even one taken from the street outside where Clay was closing the drapes in just his boxers so he must have been ready for bed. That meant that Blake was camping outside our apartment at night with a damn camera just waiting and knew that we lived together.

I felt lightheaded and my lungs were starting to burn because I just couldn't remember how to breathe. Every inch of the wall was covered in photo's, but why would he take Clay out of the pictures? And in such a violent way too, did he want to hurt Clay? Oh God what if he comes here without the police and Blake goes crazy? He has totally lost his mind so he could literally do anything.

He was looking at me, obviously waiting for some sort of reaction and I didn't know what to do. How could I pretend this was normal? How could I put on a fake smile and pretend like this didn't make my blood run cold in my veins? I couldn't, my reaction was already starting and I had no control over it at all.

I felt the scream trying to force its way out so I clamped my jaw tight so all that came out was a little whimper. Oh crap, oh crap, OH CRAP! My hands were shaking, my legs felt weak and all I wanted to do was run from the house screaming for Clay to run as far away from here as possible so Blake didn't do anything to him.

"This one's my favourite." He moved me forward, closer to the sick shrine on the wall as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms softly, making bile rise in my throat. He pointed to a picture of me sitting on the bleachers on a game night, I was laughing at something, you could see I was wearing Clay's jersey but I had a jacket over the top so that's probably why he didn't scratch off Clay's number or something. There was another photo of me overlapping this one, obviously cutting off who I was sitting with but I knew it would be Rachel, I always sat with her at the games.

"You look so happy here, I love it when you smile. It lights your whole face, makes you look so damn hot. Actually I love all the pictures, but that one's special." he whispered, his breath blowing down my neck as he pressed his chest against my back.

"Because Clay isn't in it?" My voice broke when I said his name as I tried desperately not to have a full blown panic attack. As soon as I said the words, I immediately wanted to punch myself for mentioning his name. Why? Why did I say that? Wow I'm so stupid!

His hands immediately tightened on my arms, his fingers digging into my skin making me wince. He made an angry snort. "That f*cker ruins all the pictures; I never get a nice one of you on your own. Little $hit. You need to stop hanging around with him Jailbait!" he ordered looking at me hard and accusing.

How long had I been here now? It was literally only a few minutes since I'd called Clay, how long would it be before the police turned up? Surely they hadn't seen this freaking shrine on his wall otherwise they would be taking my complaint more seriously.

The pain in my upper arms started to get worse as his grip tightened on me. "Blake you're hurting me," I whispered as my eyes filled with tears.

He frowned angrily and let me go running a hand through his hair, his eyes not leaving mine. "Why do you have to hang around with that asshole? Why not someone else? A girl? Any other guy than Preston!" he growled angrily.

Wow he had such a problem with Clay, what one earth is this about? "Blake, why do you hate him so much?" I whispered as I turned away from the wall of photo's, I couldn't look at it anymore it was making me feel lightheaded and I didn't want to pass out with him here and leave myself vulnerable.

"He took everything from me! He took the only things I've ever cared about, he's living my f*cking life!" he shouted, making me flinch from his anger.

What? What had Clay done to him? "What do you mean?" I asked trying to keep my voice calm hoping to calm him down.

He growled in frustration and slammed his hand down on the dresser. "When my parents died the only thing I had left was football," he stated.

I nodded, he'd told me that before that he got injured and Clay took his spot while he recovered and then when Blake came back they had to share the running back position.

"So when he took my spot on the team I had nothing, I was in such a bad place and that was the only thing keeping me sane and grounded, but that asshole stole it from me! I missed the talent scouts because coach decided to play Preston instead of me on the day they came, so I didn't get any college offers. I got stuck in a dead end job, earning $hit money and no hopes for anything because of him. Everything's his fault and now he's trying to steal you! You're the only girl I've ever liked and he wants to take you away from me too!" he shouted, he was clenching his jaw so tight I'm surprised his teeth hadn't cracked and broken from the pressure.

"Blake, none of that is Clay's fault! He didn't ask to take your spot, he didn't ask to be played on those games when the scouts were there!" I cried, swiping at the tear that fell down my face. How could he hold Clay responsible for that?