Bound by Rapture (8 page)

I turned and slammed my fist against the wall. The rough plaster cutting into my skin was like a balm, a sweet release to all that anger and hate. It bubbled over and I slammed my fist into the wall again, relishing in the way my knuckles cracked desperately under the pressure. 

“Cole, fuck man, stop!” Randy’s voice broke through the haze. I didn’t let him stop me, though. I smashed my fist against the wall again, letting the pain seep into my soul. “What the hell?” He gripped my shoulders and wrenched me back. “What is it?”

I glanced over at him. Leon and Jesse stood next to him; both men looked almost comical, as if I was some sort of basket case.
I am. 

“That stupid bitch is playing with me again.” I shook my head. 

“Who?” Jesse asked, and Leon and Randy gave him a
go to hell
look. 

My mother’s face popped into my head. Her bleach blond hair, her calculating smile. “I’m going to kill her. Just like I killed him, and anyone else who’s helping her fuck with me and what’s
mine
.” I thought of Julia, just feet away inside the apartment. “I’m going to slaughter them.” 

SIX

Julia.

The air in the limo was tense surrounding myself, Vic, Chris, and Cole. I sat in between my two friends and Cole sat across from us. His gaze had been on me the entire time, not wavering even for a moment since I’d stepped out of my apartment. There was something else going on. Something more intense. It couldn’t have just been what happened between us yesterday. 

He’d come home the night before from
God knows where
to climb into my bed and give me his back. I thought he would want to talk. I was even tempted to demand to know where he’d been. But I hadn’t, not wanting to shrink to his level, to reveal my jealousy, my shock that he’d left me in the bathroom wet, wanting him. I’d wanted him so badly I’d fucked my hand in the shower and moaned his name as I came.
So pathetic. 

But now he stared at me, his dark eyes pools of something sinister. Something brooding and utterly focused. He never even glanced at Vic or Chris as they made quiet conversation with one another and with me. I tried to pay attention to them, to focus on their words as they talked about their lives, their experiences in New York. I should have been gushing with them, striving to focus on anything but our current destination. But I didn’t even need their mindless chatter. Cole held my attention completely. 

What’s going on in that head of his?

His fists were clenched on top of his knees. A dark gray suit cloaked his body, denoting money and fashion sense. His hair was loose, the wavy locks free and perfect; I wanted to comb my fingers through them. He’d shaved and his face was smooth. The firm slash of his lips not frowning but utterly straight as if he was emotionless, dead on the inside. 

“Dude, what is your fucking problem?” Vic’s voice startled me and I jerked my head toward him, unconsciously smoothing my black skirt over my hips.

“You should advise your friend he shouldn’t fuck with me. Not right now.”

Cole was still staring right at me. 

“No. You’re looking at her like you want to murder her or some shit.”

“Is that what this look says?” Cole’s lips tipped up into a smirk. 

“Don’t get involved, babe,” Chris muttered next to me, and I was in firm agreement with him. 

“You should listen to Chris. Looks like he’s the smart one of the two of you.”

“You wanna insult me, huh?” Vic pushed his hair of his face. “Go ahead, call me stupid. At least I didn’t let Jewel get hurt.”

“Julia is fine.” Cole’s gaze was still on me. “Now that you’re here, she’s perfect.”

I frowned and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “What is that supposed to mean?”

His lips flattened into that uncaring slash. “Whatever you want it to mean.”

“You were supposed to watch over her. You promised me she would be okay. You knew I couldn’t afford to come back and take care of her, yet you let all kinds of shit happen to her. You would think a man with as much money as you would be able to protect one fucking woman,” Vic spat. 

Cole still didn’t move. His knuckles were white. The Old English lettering stretched to the max. 

“Wait, what?” I glanced between Vic and Cole. “What are you talking about?” 

Vic adjusted the sleeve button on his light blue shirt. “He didn’t tell you? I called him just after you told me about who he really was. And then he told me about how you were going to work at some piece of shit gas station. I made him promise he would protect you. Watch over you. Since I couldn’t.”

I blinked rapidly, touching one of my hands to my head. “Are you kidding me? You called him?” I didn’t know what to make of any of this. 

“He promised to watch over you, to help you get your job back at Rapture. But instead, here we are going to a funeral for a dead girl and you have a scar on your neck. Yet this
asshole
here is sitting across from you, staring at you like you belong to him, like he is one fuck away from cutting your throat.”

Cole moved so quickly I barely saw him. One second his eyes were focused on me, the next his hand was around Vic’s neck. 

“Cole, no!” I jerked at his hands, but he was too strong. 

“She is
mine
. And you would do well to remember it.” 

Vic shoved Cole’s chest and he let go, sliding back into his seat. “Fuck you!” Vic shouted. He tried to lunge at Cole, but I grabbed his arm and Chris leaned across me, helping me hold him back.

“Stay out of their shit, Vic. You know what we talked about.”

Vic glanced over at Chris. Something silent passed between them and Vic relaxed.

I sat there completely miffed, glancing at the men surrounding me. The tension was still thick, but I didn’t care. I was always the last person to know anything, apparently. Vic had talked to Cole about watching me. My
fucking
stalker. He didn’t know I had cared for him. He didn’t know how hard it was for me to walk away from Cole that day in his office. I hadn’t shared any of those intimate details with Vic. They were too raw, too honest. And when I told him the truth, that Cole had stalked me, followed me, followed all of us for years, I had expected him to come to my rescue and help me forget. But he hadn’t. 

It had hurt me at the time, but now it hurt even more. He’d called my stalker and asked him to protect me. It sounded like some sort of bad joke.

“You’re both assholes.” I glanced between them, both were breathing hard, staring daggers at each other, and then at Chris. His shoulder length blond hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and a light growth of beard was on his cheeks. “But not you, Chris.” I gave him a weak smile, acknowledging he was probably the only normal man in the car. The only guy I wasn’t tempted to punch in the face right now.

“I completely agree with you.” He smiled back. “They are
both
assholes.”

I sniffled into the handkerchief Cole had pressed into my hand some twenty minutes ago. It was already soaked, covered in snot and smeared mascara. I knew better than to wear make-up, but I had anyway. The funeral was over and we stood outside in the hot sunshine in the cemetery. The group of pallbearers had just unloaded Mandi’s casket. 

It was surreal to be standing here at all. Living, breathing while she laid in there. Just an empty shell of the vibrant woman I’d come to call a friend. There weren’t many people there, not like I expected there to be. She was young. There should have been a hundred people or more to tell her goodbye, but instead there were a sparse few, maybe fifteen people at the most. I could tell several of them were reporters because they kept scribbling furiously into notepads. 

Cole stood to my left, his shoulder only inches from mine. He hadn’t said a word since the incident in the limo, and neither had Vic who stood on my right. 

The casket was a silvery gray that sparkled in the sunlight, making my heart catch in my chest. “This is all my fault,” I whispered to no one in particular.

Cole reached down, snagged my fingers within his and squeezed. “Don’t.”

“But it is.” I swiped my hand under my eyes. “She was such a wonderful person.” I thought back to the time we spent together, just the two of us. When Cole walked out of my life and she was all I had—her and Gran. She’d spent the night with me multiple times. The first time I’d ever really felt like I had a true girlfriend. She was so understanding, always there for me. “She didn’t deserve any of this.” Fresh tears trailed down my cheeks. 

Cole pulled me into his side and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “You couldn’t have helped it.”

“Are you kidding me? I slept through her murder. I—”

The image of it all. Waking up to the horror. That wasn’t what scared me, what pressed at the inside of my skin with revulsion. It was knowing how terrible it must have been. How horrendous and scary for Mandi. She had been murdered while I laid there sleeping, probably pleading for her life, begging me to wake up.

But I never did. And now she was dead. In a casket. About to be lowered into the ground. I turned away from the sparkling tomb and pressed my face into Cole’s jacket. Great sobs exploded from my chest like someone was ripping them out of me. I tried to get it together, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop. All I could see was her face. Her pretty face smiling at me, laughing. And then knowing she would never get to do those things again. She would never laugh. She wouldn’t cry. This was it for her. 

And it was all my fault. 

I tried to reason with myself, to figure out what I could have done differently. I should have never fallen for Cole. For the big brooding man who held me against his chest. Maybe that would have saved me. But things pointed to Kevin now, and I just didn’t know. Mandi was dead and I couldn’t change that no matter how much I wanted to. 

“Julia, we should go,” Cole said sometime later.

I looked up at him, and he motioned to the sweaty guys who were approaching the casket. “It’s already over?” 

Cole nodded. 

“But I’m not ready.” I pulled away from him and hurried under the green tarp that shaded the body. The other people, even the preacher, were gone. “This can’t just be it.” The spray of flowers had sunflowers in them. Some of them had already started to wilt in the intense heat. I fingered one of them. Letting the soft petals brush against my flesh. “I’m so sorry, Mandi. I hope you can forgive me.” I pressed my cheek against the smooth surface. It was silly, really. But I needed to do it. I needed to feel as close to her as I could. I needed her to know I was there, that I was sorry. I never wanted this. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, least of all her. 

“What are they doing here?” The sound of Chris’s voice startled me, and I pulled back. 

Behind me, on the little road that led through the cemetery, two police cars had pulled up. Blue and red lights spun round and round on the roofs. Four men got out. I vaguely recognized one as Officer Dillon, the policemen who took my statement in the hospital. 

As they approached, Cole’s men surrounded us. I had forgotten about them, as they’d followed us in different cars and had kept their distance during the funeral and graveside service. But now they were everywhere, at least ten of them. I caught glances of others a little farther off, posted around the cemetery. They all wore suits. 

“Can I help you, officers?” Cole asked as he pulled me to his side. 

Officer Dillon eyed the men surrounding us and smirked. “Is there a reason you’re surrounded by secret service? I didn’t realize owning a business made you as protectable as the President of the United States.”

“These are dangerous times.” Cole glanced behind us to Mandi’s casket. “Is there a reason you’re here at the funeral of my girlfriend’s best friend?” The fact that Cole called me his girlfriend shouldn’t have made my heart pound, but it did. 

“Sorry about that. But we didn’t know where you’d been staying. We’ve been looking for you since yesterday and took a wild guess you would be here.”