Don't Lie to Me (26 page)

“I may have overdone it,” he said, smiling sheepishly. We left Logan in his room to enjoy the insanity.

“You may need to reign that in a little bit.” Marcus frowned and I felt bad for chastising him, sort of. “I get it. You haven’t been around him and you want to make up for it. But I guarantee you – the only thing that kid in there wants – is your love.”

Marcus nodded and walked me to the door. “So what are you doing tonight?”

“I’m meeting Macy, Tate and their friend Dean out for drinks and dancing.”

Marcus chuckled and ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t believe you and Macy are still friends. That girl was crazy in school.”

I laughed at what I can only imagine the memories Marcus was re-living. Macy had been wild and crazy in school. She ran from party to party, boy to boy, with sometimes a girl thrown in to shake things up a bit, and still managed to make the Dean’s List every single semester. I often wondered why she ‘settled’ on working for Jack in the first place since her finance degree, grades, and sparkling personality could have gotten her a job anywhere. Not to mention that her dad was loaded and she probably had a trust fund and didn’t need to work. But she was all about making it on her own while having fun in the process.

“She’s calmed down…..some,” I admitted with a small smile as I grabbed my purse. “You have my number if he needs me. He hasn’t slept away from home very much so if he gets scared, just call me and I’ll come get him. I’ll be here in the morning to get him. I don’t want you to have to bring him back.”

“Emma,” Marcus put his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t realize I had been rambling until I forced myself to take a deep breath. “We’ll be fine. If I need help, I’ll call. I promise, okay?”

I breathed again and nodded. “It’ll be fine.”

He laughed as if he didn’t believe a single word I said. I’m not sure I did either.

“Go.” He made a waving motion with his arm towards the door and I threw my hands up in defense.

“I’m going, I’m going.”

I heard his laughter after the door closed and smiled. Maybe Marcus wasn’t so bad after all. Besides, this co-parenting thing could be good. I’d get free nights out alone every once in a while which could only help my social life, and my monthly income would increase if I didn’t have to pay Penny so much. Not that I ever had to worry about that before, but suddenly focusing on my lack of income caused my mood to plummet.

By the time I reached Sips, the club where I was meeting Macy and the guys, my mood had shifted from wallowing to planning. I had enough money saved where I’d be okay for a few months on my own, and I’d always considered going back to school. I could do this without any help from Jack. Logan and I would be just fine. At least that’s what I was going to continue telling myself. Hopefully, it would sink in.

“Drink up!” Macy ordered as she slid me another shot. I threw the vodka straight back and grimaced while the alcohol burned its way down my throat. I coughed and took a swig of my vodka tonic, which didn’t help much.

Macy smiled and Dean looked at me wide-eyed, concern etched all over his face.

“You had enough yet?”

I shook my head. My head had begun reeling of thoughts of Jack and the other night as soon as I saw the looks of pity on my friend’s faces and I was determined to keep drinking until my mind was completely blank. I was numb….just not blank yet.

“Nope,” I said, popping the p.

Macy threw her arms in air and cheered for me, almost smacking Tate in the face behind her. He moved her off to the side and set his beer on the table.

“Do we need to go kick his ass, Emma?” He asked me with all the seriousness of a big brother. Dean crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at me, looking fierce. And slightly blurry. Maybe it was time to slow down on the shots.

I snorted. “Like you guys could do it.”

I watched their faces morph into wounded ego expressions and laughed. “Seriously, guys. Look, I’m sorry. Jack was a prick, but that’s nothing I didn’t know was possible before I hopped into his bed. It’s over and everything will be fine.”

I was a rotten liar and they all knew it. I wanted so badly to believe everything really was going to be fine, but no matter how many times I repeated it to myself, it wasn’t sinking in yet.

I grabbed Dean’s fist and opened his fingers so he could hold my hand. “Dance with me.”

I pulled him down to the dance floor, stumbling on my heels the entire way.

“You’re completely wasted,” he said as we got to the dance floor and began moving our hips close together.

I was. I couldn’t deny it. I just wasn’t drunk enough yet to forget. No matter how many times I tried to brush Jack out of my head, I kept seeing visions of him professing his love for me in the back of the limo, before everything went to shit. For a moment, I thought I had found something special. Someone special.

I turned around so Dean couldn’t see tears fill my eyes as I remembered the way Jack made love to me, the way he made me feel as soon as he put his arm around my waist, and the pain I felt when he took me so roughly in his living room.

With my back to his chest, I tried to relax, wrapping an arm around the back of his neck, moving against him as I lost myself in the music. I kept my eyes open, worried that if I closed them, I would think he was Jack.

One song turned into another and soon, I was starting to feel hot and sweaty, not having any idea how long we’d been on the dance floor.

Slowly, one of Dean’s hands moved up to my neck and brushed my hair to one shoulder. I felt his breath on my neck, and then my ear.

“If you weren’t so completely in love with another man, I might be willing to forget that I think of you as a sister.”

My eyes widened and I spun around, shocked. Did he seriously just say that to me? With a mischievous grin, Dean grabbed my hand and spun me out into a full circle. I tripped on my heels and wobbled, grabbing onto his arm with my free hand before my ass landed on the dance floor. I squealed as my body swayed to the side, and I started falling but then Dean’s free hand grabbed my waist.

I laughed at my mishap and stumbled some more as he pulled me back to him.

“I’m just screwing with you, Emma. I just wanted to see you smile.” He winked and tapped my nose. “Let’s get you another shot.”

“Drunk enough?” Macy asked as I reached our table. Tate’s hands were wrapped possessively around her waist and he was licking her neck, not bother caring – or noticing - that Dean and I had come back.

“Ew,” I said with a scrunched up nose at the slobber he was leaving all over the place.

Macy laughed and brushed him off. “He won’t remember this in the morning.”

I waved down the cocktail waitress as she walked by and asked for another round of shots and a refill on my vodka tonic. While I waited, I pulled out my phone and saw five missed calls. Panic seized me at the thought that it was Marcus needing help with Logan or something. Just as I was swiping my finger across the screen to unlock it, it started buzzing in my hand.

It was Jack.

Tate grabbed the phone from me instantly, probably recognizing the look of either fear or fury that crossed my face and held it out so I couldn’t reach it.

“Hey!” I yelled, and jumped for it. Except he was so tall and his arm was so far away, I practically dove over the table and crashed a bunch of our shot glasses into the floor. Tate caught me with his free hand and steadied me so I didn’t fall over again.

Everyone at the table busted out laughing, but I was pretty sure my face was purple in anger.

I held out my hand and put another on my hip. “Give me my phone, Tate.”

He shook his head. “No way. You’re going to talk to him and say something stupid, or take him back when he apologizes for being such a prick.”

I huffed in frustration. They knew Jack fired me, and that was reason alone to be concerned about me, but they didn’t know the other details. I wasn’t going to explain the feral and cold way he looked at me after he got done forcefully screwing me against his couch. It was mortifying. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell Macy afraid of what she would say, or do, to Jack at work.

She’d probably lace his coffee with diuretics.

My phone lit up and I knew he was calling again so I put my hands on the table and glared at Tate. “I want my phone. I’m not going to be stupid. I promise.” I crossed my heart with an x over my heart and smiled sassily.

Slowly, he handed me my phone and I answered it.

“What do you want Jack?” I yelled into my phone over the noise in the club.

“Where are you?” He demanded. Seriously?

“None of your fucking business,” I yelled back but started walking back toward the bathroom hallway so I could hear what he was saying to me. Tate shook his head while I walked away, clearly not believing my story about not being stupid.

“Damn it, Emma. I need to know you’re safe. Where are you?”

“I don’t think you have any right to know where I am or what I’m doing.”

I heard him sigh through the phone and I could imagine him leaning against his kitchen counter, gripping a fistful of his hair.

“I know. I know. And I can’t explain what happened. I just…” His voice trailed off and I said nothing. I stared at the graffiti along the bathroom walls like I was actually planning on calling Damien for a good time like the carving on the stall door suggested. Jack spoke again, his voice a little bit softer. “Where are you?”

“I told you. It’s none of your business.”

I think I heard his teeth grind together, and maybe I was pushing his buttons intentionally, but I was drunk and didn’t care.

“I can tell you’re wasted. I just need to make sure you’re okay.”

I scoffed. “Sure you do, Jack. Because you always take such good care of me. You don’t need to worry about me; Dean will take good care of me tonight.”

I closed my eyes, knowing I had gone too far when Jack growled a string curse words through the phone.

“Emma.”

“Whatever Jack. I need to go.” I hung the phone up.

I cleaned up in the bathroom and walked back to everyone at the table.

As soon as I got there, my phone started buzzing in my hand again.

“What?” I yelled, not even bothering to look at the number, but just assuming it was Jack again.

“It’s Marcus. Logan had a nightmare and can’t go back to sleep. I hate to ask, but can you come help?”

I swayed a little bit. A mixture of the alcohol, my argument with Jack, and worry about Logan. I put a hand on the table and closed my eyes, trying to get my balance under control.

“Emma?” He shouted through the phone.

“I’ll be right there,” I said and then turned my phone off. I could be at Marcus’s in five minutes and already the realization of how drunk I must have sounded to Jack made me realize he was going to start blowing it up in a few minutes anyway.

Dean frowned, seeing the concern on my face.

“There’s never a dull moment with you around, is there?”

I snorted. He was right. In the last two months, I’d started a passionate affair with my boss, fell in love, been faced with my ex walking – literally – back into my life, attacked by a well-known Senator, introduced ex to his son, ended a passionate affair, and lost my job. My life was anything but dull.

Having a dull and boring life suddenly sounded absolutely perfect.

“I need to get going, can you help me get a cab?” I asked. At least I was sober enough to realize being alone wasn’t a smart idea.

“Tell me you’re not going over that asshole’s house, Emma.”

I shook my head at Tate. “No, that was Marcus. He needs some help with Logan.”

Macy hiccupped. “Sure…Logan. Of course that’s what he needs help with.”

My eyebrows pulled in. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She grinned at me and I rolled my eyes, figuring out what she meant.

“Whatever,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Logan had a nightmare and can’t go back to sleep.” I looked at Dean. “Can you walk me outside?”

He nodded, and once a cab pulled up, he slid in next to me.

“I can get there by myself, you know.” I felt a little uncomfortable with him sitting so close, remembering what he said to me in the bar. He was probably joking, but still.