Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) (29 page)

She gasps. Her shot goes awry. For the first time, she misses Rylan.

“You know he’s going to take the one thing you refused to give him.”

She stills.

“And because he’s a sick twisted bastard, he'll tell her about it, and make her believe it was you. And your latest attempt to break them apart. You’re the bad guy, Ashleigh, and you know it!” And then I add the one word I know will send her over the edge. The nickname Wayne had used. “Don’t you…
sweetheart?
”

She turns so fast I don’t see it coming. Her fist comes so close to my face I feel its warmth, and then the cool air as she misses me. “Get off me, Rylan!”

Rylan stopped her? I swallow the breath trapped in my throat as she wrestles against his straitjacket grip. “I'm going to kick your ass, Darryl, and I'm gonna enjoy every second of it!”

“Do you think I'm scared of you? Do you think because you're a big mean scary martial arts expert, I won't take you on?”

Rylan glares at me as her nails dig deeper into his forearms.

I push again. “Your threats are empty. You haven’t fought outside a controlled combat environment for years. So if I hit you back, you wouldn't know what to do. You live and die by the values of your training. Or you would have hurt him by now, Ashleigh. He needs stopping, and you don't know how!”

“Do you think I don't know what he's doing?” she screams, “I don’t need a fucking psychiatry degree to know he wants me to hurt him, Darryl!”

Even with Rylan constraining her, she suddenly lunges forward. A frustrated cry bursts from her lips. As her feet touch the padded floor, she forces all of her body weight forward. She drops to her knees, and takes his entire weight over her shoulder. His back hits the deck with a thud. She pins his chest with her knees. “I said. Get. The fuck. Off me!”

He mutters a curse as he gasps for breath.

Her long ponytail whips over her shoulder as she spins her attention on me. “Don't you get it?” she cries, "He wants me to snap.” She squeezes her eyes shut. “He’s pushing and pushing, because I’ve done it before, remember? And he knows the second I hurt him, Julia will never forgive me.”

“You have to tell her about this,” I say quietly.

“No!”

“If you don’t, I will.”

“You can’t!” she cries, “She won't believe you. Don’t you get it? I’m invincible, D. Krystal Valentina doesn’t get hurt, she gets angry. You only have to ask Mimi what I did. My own twin sister. Or Sean, the man I love. I hit them, Darryl. Am I proud of it? No. But they drove me to a point where I couldn’t control myself anymore. This is karma biting me in the ass!”

As the tears cut a path through her make-up, I’m not sure if they’re from her temper or the realization that is settling into her expression. Her voice cracks, “I can't … I can’t do anything … to stop him.” A shiver runs through her as she whispers, “But he won’t … he will not …” She rolls into a ball, with her hands smothering her face and her forehead touching the padded floor. Her shoulders shake violently as she sobs, “I … won’t … let him!”

Chapter Twenty

I SIT THERE WITH ASHLEIGH
on the cold floor of the gym for the whole of Friday evening and into the early hours of Saturday morning. I’ve asked Rylan to keep Julia away because she won’t move. She’s still curled in the same ball, from that moment she cracked. Only now, she lies on her side with her cheek pressed to the floor and worrying her thumbnail.

I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve never felt guiltier in my entire life, and I’ve had a lot to be guilty for. But what I’ve done to Ashleigh? That’s right at the top of the list. I’ve reduced the bad-ass ice queen with the super-bitch flip switch … to an emotional train wreck.

The only thing worthy of the overkill I’ve put her through is the fact that she is now talking to me, and like she never has before. Wayne used to say things, things about Mimi and Sean, that he knew hurt her. Some things he’d say in front of Julia, but for the most part she was never around. The hardest thing for her to take was he didn’t love Julia. He’d chosen her specifically, to get back at Sean for stealing Ashleigh from him. He’d take Ashleigh back in a heartbeat. He’d even propositioned her once or twice. But ever since she’d learned about abuse, she’d known his plan was to isolate Julia from those who could see it. But she couldn’t see how he’d isolated her from everyone too.

It wasn’t until she’d finally told him she’d had enough, that Wayne had grabbed her by the throat. He’d taken her clean off her feet when he’d shoved her up against the door of her mother’s office, and told her she wasn’t going to do anything to him—because if she did, Julia would pay for it. Wayne had dropped her on the floor, and told her he’d be back to make sure she understood.

He’s played her, and boy has he done it well. He’s kept her perpetually on her toes because she doesn’t know how he’s going to behave. She’s guarded around him all the time, which means she’s the one who looks bad, bitter, and bitchy.

“That’s why I left Mom’s,” she whispers. “That’s why I hired Rylan. I can tell him whatever the hell I like, and he never calls me on it. But I know he knows the truth.”

“C’mon, Ash.” I look at my watch. It’s ten a.m. “Let’s get you into bed. You need to rest, and we can talk some more later.”

There’s movement in the shadows. A foot scrapes against the mat. Her gaze seeks mine. Her pupils grow bigger and her breathing gets shorter and faster. She’s scared. She’s scared all the time. But the Ashleigh I know isn’t scared of anything. I reach for her hand as I look over my shoulder. “It’s just Sean.”

“I don’t sleep,” she mumbles, as though she hadn’t heard me. “He smothers me with a pillow every time I close my eyes.”

I look at Sean. He’s frozen still, staring at her.

“He’s been here. In my bedroom while I slept. He left a flower, a rose, and a polaroid of me sleeping next to it.” She shudders again. “He very nearly had it.” What does she mean? “The one thing I won’t give him.”

I know immediately she’s talking about sex. Did he try to rape her? Shit. “When?”

“The night I came to your house in New York,” she admits. Her hand tightens around mine. “I was helpless, because the only way to stop him was to fight back. So I did nothing. If Macaulay hadn’t woken up and come looking for me when she did, he’d have taken it.”

“You have to report this!”

She just shakes her head.

I look at Sean, almost begging him to talk sense into her. But he mouths one word and when I mouth back the culprit’s name, his eyes widen. “What the fuck has he done?”

“She hasn’t moved in over eighteen hours,” I reply as he crosses the room and kneels down on the other side of her. “Sean, I don’t know what to do!”

“Sparkle?” His gentle voice only just reaches my ears as he reaches toward her. She flinches under his touch and his startled gaze fires accusations in my direction. “You doing okay down there?” She nods and he strokes the hair from her cheek. He freezes when it reveals the blackened finger marks around her neck. Another glare finds its way to me, as though the marks were from my hand. She doesn’t move, but a lone tear runs down her cheek. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“You wouldn’t believe me. No one believes me.” He leans over her, and whatever he whispers into her ear has her rolling back to look at him. "Really?” She gingerly rights herself and sits up. “You don’t know how much that means to me, right now."

“Actually,” he slips a hand over her cheek. “I do.” She collapses in his arms and begins to sob all over again. “Fighting with you is the reason I get out of bed every day. Don’t ever forget that. You and Stephi, you’re my whole world.”

He sweeps her off her feet, cradles her in his arms and carries her out of the gym. But I remain on the padded floor. The problem remains: the guy Julia is married to, the guy who’s had the strongest person I have ever known, besides my sister, on edge for years. I’ve pushed Julia further back into this guy’s arms by lying to her. And there’s nothing I can do to stop her from going home.

Chapter Twenty-One

28
th
October 2012

THE ROAR OF JULIA’S VOICE
rises above the thumping in my head. I've come to lie down, because frankly I feel like my head's about to pop. But I listen as she shouts every insult in the dictionary and then some. And if it wasn't Ashleigh she was shouting at, I'd probably leave it alone. But Ashleigh’s confession from yesterday plays on my mind, so I get out of bed. I don’t think she can handle Julia losing it.

I open my bedroom door and instantly spot Ashleigh standing by the stairs. Sean is standing behind her, one hand on her hip as Julia rages. Ashleigh appears passive to the whole outburst. Part of me wonders why she just hasn’t walked away, when she’s just a few paces from her bedroom. Neither woman notices my approach. Sean’s gaze flickers in my direction for just a second and then he steps closer to Ashleigh, his grip tightening as if he thinks I’m more of a threat than Julia is right now.

“How long would you have kept it up for?” Julia asks.

“For as long as it took,” Ashleigh replies, and Julia's temper goes again. When her abusive tirade eventually ends, she finishes it with an evil twist. “Thank you for competing for control over my life, but you lose!”

I get that Julia wants Ashleigh to hurt, but she has no idea what those words will do to her. With a clearer view of the bigger picture, I recognize Ashleigh’s disinterest as something else. It’s subtle. I’m not even sure Julia has noticed that she’s now shouting at
Krystal
. I know I sound crazy, but they really are two different people. Soft and squishy Ashleigh, who’s a touch girly and very easy to read, is hiding behind her celebrity persona: the hard and harsh as the arctic Krystal, who’s fun, doesn’t take anything seriously, doesn’t give a damn about anything, and is unfazed by the criticisms of others. So Julia is not going to get the rise she wants from Ashleigh, because she’s not there right now.

“You and me? We’re done, Ash! I quit!”

Ashleigh looks down, “Okay.”

“Oh my God!” Julia’s cry bounces off the walls and Ashleigh’s head snaps back up, as her lips part in surprise. “You don't even care! This is my life, Ashleigh!
My life!
And you're fighting over me like I'm the last item of a precious black Friday sale!”

I find myself, just a little bit, internally applauding Julia. And I wonder if betraying her as we have has actually been good for her, in a way I’d have never seen. Maybe she feels caged, trapped by Ashleigh and me, and I guess in some parts by her brother as well. After all, he’s crossed over to Ashleigh’s side and they’ve now been inseparable all day.

“You sell yourself short, Julia.” Ashleigh replies calmly, “You would never be in a black Friday sale, because you'd be exclusively one of a kind.”

“Then why would you make me feel like I'm not good enough for a ninety-nine cents store?” Julia asks, but there’s not a single crack in Ashleigh’s expression.
Really?
If only she’d give Julia something, instead of Krystal.
This whole thing could be dealt with so differently, if she’d just be herself and just tell Julia the truth. Why can't she see that?
“Either you have no idea how much damage this has done, or you don’t fucking care. Either way, I hate you, and I will never forgive you!”

“If it saves your life, Julia, then I’ll consider our friendship a sacrifice worth making.”

“My husband isn’t abusing me!” she yells at the top of her voice. “It’s you!” She slams her hands into Ashleigh’s shoulders, shoving her back against Sean. “I don’t know if it’s all in your head, or if this is about revenge, but this is about you, not me! The only time I ever get hurt is when we’re fighting over you!” Finally, Ashleigh flinches, and Julia takes it and runs. “You're right, Ashleigh. You're always so fucking right about everything, you can't admit when you're wrong. I shot my husband because
you
insisted I go to New York. I'm facing the rest of my life in jail because
you
don’t know when you’ve crossed the line. I’m more scared of you than I am of Wayne. I’m so worried about what you'll do, I can't even tell you I didn't go ahead with the abortion.”

“What abortion?” Sean repeats, but Ashleigh cuts over him.

“You were never going through with it.
Never
. That baby is a fucking miracle, and I knew that!” A sliver of her true feelings escapes through her sharp, clipped words. “But while you’re questioning my feelings for you, and what our friendship means to me, maybe you should look at yourself.”

“Nu-huh.” Julia shakes her head and laughs. “You are
not
turning this on me. You crossed a line. In fact, you went so far across that line, you’d need a telescope to see it!”

“Yes,” Ashleigh admits. “And I’d do it a thousand times, if it means you see Wayne for the person he really is. But
you
, you’re hardly the perfect friend either, Julia.”

I see the super-bitch rising. “Ashleigh, don’t,” I say, making my presence known. She ignores me.

“Firstly, if you were any friend at all, you wouldn’t have asked me to arrange that appointment for you, when you know given the choice I’d be outside the clinic protesting against them. But I did what you asked, Julia.
I
made those calls. No one else. Me. And I kept my fucking mouth shut and my opinions to myself. And secondly, you told the only guy I’ve ever loved that I’m pregnant with your husband’s child, because you didn’t want him to know it was you who’s pregnant. I watched his heart break and I’ve endured hell ever since, for you. Because
you
asked me to. And lastly, but most importantly, you’ve had your tongue down my boyfriend’s throat. Again! Twice, Julia. Fucking twice! At least I have a reason for doing what I did. So, unless you’re about to tell me you’re leaving Wayne, and running away with Darryl—”