Be Here Now: A Cedar Creek Novel (26 page)

Chris thought about that for a minute. “I see what you mean.”

“Yeah. As much as I don’t like him simply for the fact that he’s gonna try and steal my woman, I don’t want her hurting over losing a friend either.”

“You think he’s gonna go for it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Shit,” Chris swore after he watched Nick for a few moments.

Jason didn’t answer.

LORELEY

I was following
Breaking Habit
off the stage with only Nick behind me. We had just finished the song Nick and I had written together and the band was going on a short break. Playing that song while Jason was watching had worried me. It was a deeply emotional and heartfelt song. I was concerned he would misinterpret it and get angry or upset. But when I had looked over to where he was standing with Chris and had smiled at him, his return grin had been nothing but proud and loving.

“Lore! You have a minute?” I was about to head to the restroom to freshen up when Nick’s voice stopped me.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I just…I wanted to ask you something.” He stepped closer to me, so close that I could see the sheath of sweat covering the skin on his neck and arms.

“Actually, I want to show you something.”

“Okay,” I said, confused as to where he was going with this.

He leaned in as if to whisper something into my ear, but to my complete horror instead of heading for the ear, his mouth landed on mine and he started kissing me. Soft and gentle, almost hesitant, but still urging me to reciprocate. His body was now touching mine, his hands at my hips holding me in place. In my total and utter confusion and shock, I gasped. Nick took that as an invitation and his tongue entered my mouth. The touch of his tongue to mine was what snapped me out of my complete surprise. I pushed against his upper arms at the same time I stepped back.

“No, Nick. No,” I shook my head from side to side rapidly, trying to clear it. This couldn’t be happening. He must have made a mistake, got carried away in the moment or something.

Nick’s face fell. “I love you Loreley. I’ve been in love with you for years but I knew you weren’t ready for anything—”

“No. No, no, no, no, no. This isn’t happening. You don’t mean that.” I was still shaking my head, my eyes wide, begging him to take back what just happened.

“I do mean it, Lore,” he sounded agitated now. “I was giving you time, but I waited too long and now that asshole has moved in and—”

My back straightened instantly and I stiffened. “No, Nick. I’ll stop you right there. I appreciate your concern for me, but you don’t know the whole story.”

“I know that he didn’t want you and Jesse six years ago. He cheated on you and abandoned you. What makes you think he’s gonna stick around this time?”

“I told you. You don’t know the whole story, Nick. He didn’t cheat on me and he didn’t abandon us. He didn’t know anything about Jesse. I thought he did but he didn’t. It was all a misunderstanding.”

“Bullshit, Lore, you’re just using that as an excuse—”

“No. I am not.” I was getting mad now and Nick could hear it in my voice. He stopped and looked at me, really looked at me. I’m not sure what exactly he was seeing, but his face fell even further.

“You don’t feel anything for me then?” His voice had lost the desperation and urgency and sounded defeated.

I sighed, my anger gone instantly. “I do feel something for you, Nick. You’re one of my closest friends and I love you. As a friend.” My eyes were beseeching him. “Isn’t that enough?”

Now it was him who shook his head. “I’m not sure, Lore. I don’t think I can be in love with you and be your friend at the same time, knowing that you don’t feel the same way about me and watching you with
him
.”

“Nick, I—” I stepped closer to him and went to touch his arm, but Nick retreated from my touch.

“No, Lore. I…I’ll talk to you later.” Then he was gone. He walked past me and disappeared out the back door. I wanted to go after him but decided that was probably not a good idea.

Shit.

I went to the restroom to freshen up. Staring into the mirror, I hoped I hadn’t just lost a friend. Nick was an important person in my life and I cared deeply about him, but not in that way. I was in love with Jason, had been since college. I finally had him back and I was happy.

“Shit,” I murmured.

I decided to give Nick some time. We would figure this out. We had to.

I dried my hands and walked out the restroom door. I could hear the band starting up again when I walked into someone. Someone big and strong.

“Oh, excuse me,” I said and tried to walk around the person. Not only did he not budge, but he stepped towards me, making me take a step back so as to not being pushed by his big body. It was then that I looked up.

Brad was glaring down at me.

He must have slipped through the cracks. He wasn’t welcome at Cooper’s anymore since last week’s incident.

“Brad. What do you want? You’re not allowed in here.” I was annoyed. I didn’t want to deal with him right now or ever again.

Brad’s big body advanced on me once more in a threatening move so that I had to retreat until my back hit wall.

This was not good.

I had managed to take him by surprise last time but I knew that if he really wanted to hurt me, I didn’t have a prayer. And if his body language was any indication, I had reason to worry.

I looked over his shoulder in the hopes of seeing someone who could help me out, but we were hidden from view in the corner of the hallway that led to the restrooms.

“Nobody here to save you this time.” Oh, yes, I had reason to worry. Brad’s voice was a lethal hiss. He was out for revenge. His eyes were narrowed into slits and his upper body was looming over me. I wasn’t short, but Brad was a huge man. I knew I was in trouble.

“Now listen, Brad—” I tried to placate him in a calm tone, but he didn’t let me finish.

The left side of my face burned hot and angry and my head pounded as it ricocheted off the wall.

Holy shit!

He hit me!

Without preamble, he had full on hit me across the face. I tasted blood on my tongue as I licked my lips and I could already feel the bump that was forming at the back of my head. His hand was at my throat when we heard a voice from behind him. I would have been happy to know that someone was there to help me if the voice hadn’t been Ivey’s.

“Hey! Get your hands off her!”

Brad’s head turned to look at her but he didn’t let me go.

“Walk away,” he said, his voice a dark warning.

Oh hell no, he would not touch her. Ivey had been hit enough in her life, had endured enough from her abusive father and ex-boyfriend. And she was pregnant. I would not let Brad touch her. I started to struggle and kick as I tried to pry his hand away from my throat.

“Let go of me you motherfucking asshole!”

His hand tightened and choked me. His eyes were still on Ivey when he repeated his warning. “Walk away.”

Instead of listening to Brad and walking away or maybe getting someone to help, Ivey launched herself at Brad. My eyes grew wide with panic when she landed on Brad’s back and started hitting and biting him.

“No, Ivey,” I gasped. “Don’t—” but I was too late. Brad had already thrown her off and she was sitting on her ass on the floor, her face grimaced in pain.

“No!” I tried to shout, but it came out as little more than a whisper since Brad’s hand around my throat was suffocating me. Tears were pooling in my eyes as I tried in vain to breathe. Then I was on my knees and bowled over as he dropped me abruptly and I coughed as air flowed into my lungs again.

I heard a commotion and looked up to see Cal holding Brad against the wall by his throat now. He was seething. And then he was punching Brad in the face once, twice, three times and Brad’s nose was bleeding.

“Tell me you didn’t put your hands on my woman and my sister.”

Brad was struggling to get a word out. His face was turning red. Yeah, he was a big guy but so was Cal. And Cal was hanging on to his control by a threat. It wouldn’t take much for him to completely lose it. I got up off the floor and glanced at Ivey. She was still sitting on the floor a few feet away from me, her eyes wide. I had seen Cal angry, but never like this. I imagined this was what he must have looked like when Ivey was taken and beaten last fall. Or close to it.

“From what I hear your wife can take it,” Brad managed to say through his choking. Ivey’s body locked at the same time Cal pulled Brad’s body away from the wall only to slam it right back into it.

“What the fuck is going on?”

Jason was standing at the mouth of the hall, his eyes going from Cal to me to Ivey before they shot back to me and zeroed in.

“Why are you bleeding?” His voice had turned from surprised to murderous in less than half a second. “And what…are those marks around your neck?” He was close to shouting, his face twisted in horror and absolute fury.

“I walked in on this asshole with his hands around Lore’s neck, choking her, after he threw my wife on her ass.” Cal kept his eyes on Brad as he explained to Jason.

“He hit her and tried to choke her. I jumped on his back to make him let go of her and he threw me off,” Ivey chimed in. Cal moved only his eyes to glance at his wife. “I’ll deal with you later,” he promised her in a dark voice. Ivey opened her mouth to retort something, but Jason beat her to it.

“Get out of my way, Cal.” His body was vibrating with rage and I knew if he got his hands on Brad, he would kill him. Cal didn’t move but kept Brad exactly where he was: pinned against the wall, unable to move. I stepped in front of Jason and put my hands on his chest. He was so focused on Brad he didn’t even glance at me.

“Jason—”

“Get the fuck out of my way, Cal,” Jason repeated, completely ignoring me in my effort to calm him down.

But Cal ignored Jason and kept Brad locked against the wall. “Someone call Rick to get his ass in here. You’re pressing charges. Both of you.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ivey get up and pull out her phone. A minute later, Rick shot into the hallway, the phone still at his ear and stopped short at what he saw. Brad was still pressed against the wall by Cal. He wasn’t quite choking anymore but he had trouble breathing. Jason was still seething with rage and ready to rip Brad’s head off, while I still had my hands on his chest and tried to calm him down.

“Jesus fuck, Brad. How stupid can you be?” He closed his phone, opened it again, and pushed a few buttons before he put it back to his ear. “Rick here. Need you to send a car to Cooper’s. Take in Brad Williams. Yeah. We’re in the back hall.” Then he hung up and walked to Cal and Brad.

“You can let him go now,” Rick murmured to Cal as he laid a hand on his shoulder. It took Cal a few moments, but then he did as Rick asked and stepped back, but not before he gave Brad one last shove. Ivey moved into his side and Cal closed his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him, as he watched Rick put handcuffs on Brad.

“You okay, baby?” Ivey nodded and Cal kissed her forehead. “You ever do something stupid like that again, I will spank you raw,” he murmured against her skin. I didn’t hear what Ivey said in return because in that moment, Jason roughly pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly to his body.

“Fucking hell,” he murmured into my hair.

“I’m okay.” His arms tightened around me. One of his hands moved to the back of my head and I flinched in pain. Jason pulled back and looked at me questioningly. I didn’t want to tell him but I knew this was not something he would let go.

I sighed. “My head. It hit the wall when he backhanded me.”

Jason clenched his jaw so hard I could see the muscles in his cheeks jump. Then he moved his fingers tentatively through my hair until he found the bump.

“You need some ice,” he rumbled roughly. Then he cupped my face and held my face up to his for closer inspection. He softly touched his thumb to my split lip then moved his fingers down to run along my neck gently. It stung a little.

“I’m taking you to the hospital.” He took my hands in his and kissed my knuckles. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, Jason. Really, I’m okay now.”

“No, Lore. You’re not. I want you checked out and I want this on record.” I opened my mouth to protest but didn’t get there.

“He’s right, Lore. You should get checked out, make sure you don’t have a concussion. Then come to the station tomorrow morning. Bring the medical report,” Rick said in a strained voice.

“We’re coming with you,” Cal announced. “He threw Ivey to the floor and she landed hard. I want her and the baby checked out, too.” He didn’t give Ivey a chance to have a say in that as he strode past us to the back door with her still tucked to his side.

“Let’s go,” Jason repeated. He gave Rick a chin lift, who returned it, and then we were following Cal and Ivey out the back door. Luckily, there were no paparazzi back here to take pictures of my bruised face and we made it out of the parking lot without them noticing, which probably had to do with the fact that we were all riding in Cal’s truck.

“This was not how I envisioned this day to end.”

We were lying in bed, my head on Jason’s chest, our legs tangled under the blanket. Jason’s fingers were drawing patterns on the small of my back under my shirt.

Cal had dropped us off at my house rather than driving us back to the bar. My car was still in the parking lot. We would pick it up tomorrow.

“Me neither,” he replied as my fingers stroked his chest.

I didn’t have a concussion, just a goose egg that the doctor told me to put ice on as often as I could during the night and the next day. My lip was all cleaned up and hadn’t needed any stitches. My throat was the worst of my injuries. It was still burning and it hurt when I swallowed. The doctor had said it would be like that for the next few days and to eat soft foods until the pain was gone. He had also given me ointment for the angry red welts that decorated my skin that Jason had applied carefully after our shower a few minutes ago.

What a day. So much had happened over the past twenty-four hours it was hard to wrap my head around it all: Jason and I had forgiven each other and were back together, we had lots of make-up sex, he was moving in with me, we got engaged, had more sex, decided to start a family, and then I got beat up at my own birthday party.