Falling Sweetly (Starling Falls #2) (16 page)

I vaguely registered Josh calling my name behind me, but ignored him. I was up and out of my seat, before I even realised it, and headed towards to the door.

As I exited the bar I saw Niki shake her head rapidly at the slimy fucker, but he dipped his head down towards Niki, who looked visibly panicked.

I was amused when she covered his mouth with her hand, but that amusement quickly disappeared when she stepped backed suddenly and her head hit the brick wall of the bar.

Anger streaked through me as I saw pain spread across her features.

He is a fucking dead man.

Annika

“… and that’s how I became the youngest partner ever in the history of the firm.” Douglas adjusted the obnoxiously large, flashy watch at his wrist and took another sip of his beer.

“Wow, that was a very… detailed story,” I told him, as I finished the rest of my white wine.

“You want another?” he asked, as he gestured towards the empty glass.

Oh my God, yes. I’ll need it if I have to sit through another one of your anecdotes.

“No thanks, I’m driving.” I sent him a small, forced smile whilst playing with the rim of the empty wine glass.

I wondered whether or not I should just be honest and excuse myself, as I was pretty sure this date was another one for the ‘Well, that was a waste of time’ pile.

Douglas was probably one of the blandest, yet most arrogant men I’d ever met in my life. In the half an hour we’d been at The Whiskey Jar, he had done nothing but talk about himself, his questionable moral principles concerning his work and his stupid new car.

He was a good looking man, in a cold aristocratic kind of way; his blond hair had been slicked into a neat, hairstyle, but his brown eyes held no warmth behind them. Even the way he held himself gave off an air of indifference. With his pressed grey suit, white collared shirt and black tie, he stood out like a sore thumb in the bar where everyone was casually dressed.

I had questioned if I was being unfairly harsh on Douglas as I realised I’d been subconsciously comparing him to Jake, however as the date progressed I concluded that he was genuinely just a major tool.

“Interesting place you chose,” he said haughtily as he looked around the rustic, noisy bar.

“I like it here. The food is good, the atmosphere is fun and people are always friendly,” I told him firmly, rapidly losing my patience with his snobby criticisms.

His tone changed when he finally seemed to sense that I was less than happy with our date. “How’d you end up running your own… bakery, was it?”

“Yes,” I said curtly, and began to retell the story of how I’d ended up in Starling Falls. Halfway through my tale I noticed him take his phone out of his pocket and open his email account.

Is he for real?

I paused the telling of the story, and he looked up from the screen. “Go on, I’m listening,” he said with a tight smile.

As I began telling him about Liya deciding to move to Starling Falls with me, I realised he really wasn’t listening to a word I was saying at all.

What the hell, I may as well have some fun with this.

“The airline offered us a choice of a magic carpet ride or winged unicorns. We chose the unicorns, obviously.”

“Mmhm.”

“When we finally got here on our winged unicorns, I realised my grandaunt’s bakery wasn’t doing so well. We decided to make the cookies and cakes more addictive we should put weed in them, and it totally worked. People were hooked and couldn’t figure out why.”

“That’s great.”

“I know. My grandaunt had a cat too. Well, he lives with me now. Over time we discovered that there was something odd about him. It turns out that Shadow is kind of magical. One day he’s a rabbit, the other days he’s a horse. No one can understand it. We’re thinking about taking him on the road in some form of travelling show.”

“Interesting.”

“I think so too. I was part of a travelling circus when I was teenager. But the ringmaster had to smuggle me out of England because my parents weren’t keen on the idea of me becoming a trapeze artist. I flew through the air with the greatest of ease. You would not believe how flexible I am.”

“Mmhm.”

“Sadly, that phase didn’t last very long. Bobo the clown was a jealous little thing, and ended up sabotaging one of my swings. I broke my left arm in five places. I’m basically half robot.”

“Mmm.”

“Yes. Now I set off metal detectors everywhere I go. Though, my bionic hand does come in useful when I need to open jars.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It is nice. Very nice indeed. You know what else in nice, my collection of poisonous spiders, snakes and scorpions I keep in my basement for my second job as freelance interrogator for the FBI.

Baking cakes just doesn’t bring in the money it used to since our pot dealer got arrested. Luckily the woods surrounding Starling Falls makes for an excellent place to bury all the corpses of my victims. The woods are so large, they’re usually never found.”

He finally looked up from his phone. “Wait… what did you say?”

I smiled bitterly at him as I picked up my clutch from the table.

“Goodbye, Douglas,” I said as I turned and left the bar, walking out into the chilly evening.

I was headed straight to my car when I heard Douglas follow me out of the bar and turned to face him angrily.

“I’m sure I just said goodnight to you, Douglas.”

“Okay, I get that you’re angry. I had some emails to respond to. That’s all. It’s nothing personal. I thought our date was going great.”

“Really? What date were you on?” I asked incredulously as I pulled on my jacket.

“Annika. I like you. I think you’re a nice girl-”

“A nice girl?! No, I’m a stupid girl for not leaving this awful date twenty minutes ago when you started bragging about taking credit for a colleague’s work because it got you a promotion. You’re a horrible,
horrible
person.”

“Look, we got off on the wrong foot. I think there could be something between us.”

I snorted in disbelief and shook my head vehemently. “No, I’m really not interested.”

“You’d like me if you got to know me better, Annika,” he said as he took a step closer towards me.

I watched in horror as his head descended towards mine, and I realised he wanted to kiss me.

Oh hell no! Retreat! Retreat!

I covered his mouth with my hand, and at the same time as I stepped back too quickly, moving my head away from his sharply.

I felt a blinding pain course through my skull as the back of my head hit the brick wall of the bar hard, and a bright white light flashed under my closed eyelids.

Ouch.

My poor head is just not having a good day today.

I opened my eyes to see that Douglas no longer stood in front of me, but was being pinned to the wall by a furious Jake, who had his forearm across the shorter man’s neck, and judging by the colour Douglas was turning, I assumed he was pressing very hard on the man’s wind pipe.

Oh no, this is not good.

CHAPTER 14

Annika

“Jake, let him go, man.” Josh had followed Jake out of the bar, and he had his arms around his brother, trying to pry him off a panicked looking Douglas.

“He hurt her!” Jake yelled at his brother, not loosening his hold.

I walked over to Jake, trying to ignore the dizziness I was feeling, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Jake, he didn’t hurt me, it was an accident. Please, just let him go.”

“He tried to kiss you,” he growled, pressing down harder on the other man’s throat.

“I know. He’s an idiot, but this isn’t helping anything, Jake. Let him go,” I told him urgently, tugging on his arm. I blinked rapidly trying to clear my blurry vision.

Jake finally drew his murderous stare away from Douglas to look at me. When he saw me rubbing the back of my head, he immediately let go of the smaller man who was struggling to breath and gently turned me to inspect my scalp.

Douglas was bent over coughing as he tried to get air into his lungs. He looked up angrily at Jake, still gasping for breath.

“You should get of here, right now,” Josh said coldly whilst looking down at the now red-faced man.

“You contact her again, and I swear I’ll finish what I started here,” Jake grunted threateningly at Douglas, who nodded dismissively and headed towards his car, still coughing slightly.

“There’s a cut on your scalp,” he said, and I winced as he touched a tender area. He unwound the small, thin scarf that was around my neck and pressed it against my scalp. “Hold this tightly against the cut.”

Sighing, I did as he said, trying to focus my gaze on his face in the hopes that I would stop seeing two of him.

“You don’t look okay at all. We’re going to the hospital.”

“No, we are not! Jake, it’s just a little cut. I’m really- Oh my God! What are you doing? Josh! Make him put me down!” I squealed as I found myself in Jake’s arms being carried down the street.

I looked over at Josh for help only to find him smiling widely as he waved at me and re-entered the bar.

“This is ridiculous! Put me down, we’re not going to the hospital! Where did you even come from? Were you in the bar the whole time?”

He was still silently fuming as we reached his car.

“Jake, you are seriously overreacting. I don’t need to go to the hospital. I feel fine, honestly, and I’m pretty sure the bleeding has stopped.”

He looked at me angrily, finally setting me on my feet. “You just hit your head against a brick wall. I can tell you feel faint, and there is an open wound on your head. You don’t have an option here. We’re going to the ER. Get in the damn car, Niki,” he growled while opening the door.

“I’m not a fan of being bossed around, Jake,” I said with a frown, trying to ignore the throbbing that was intensifying in my head.

Jake took a deep breath, closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. When he opened his eyes, he looked slightly calmer.

“Niki, it’s obvious that you’re in pain,” he said stiltedly, through a tightly clenched jaw. “So, please, before I lose my fucking mind, will you get in the damn car, so we can get to the ER and make sure that it’s nothing serious?”

His intense, light blue eyes bore into me, and I felt my pulse quicken.

I nodded and stepped into the car.

“Thank fuck.” I heard him mutter as he closed the car door.

The drive to the hospital felt longer than the fifteen minutes it actually took due to Jake’s reluctance to respond to my questions with anything more than abrupt one-worded answers.

I eventually gave up trying to engage him in any kind of conversation and rested my head on the back of the seat, wincing when I touched the wound on my head.

My life is a joke.

After another five minutes of silence, Jake finally asked through gritted teeth, “What did you even see in that asshole?”

I sighed, “He wasn’t an arsehole in his emails. It doesn’t matter anyway. After that date tonight, I’m done.”

Jake’s body visibly stiffened. “What do you mean done? Done with finding jerks like The Suited Asshole online?”

“I mean I’m done completely. I think I’m going to take a break from dating. I’m obviously not cut out for it. The date you saw tonight was just the tip of the iceberg of awfulness that all the dates have been.”

Jake looked like he was going to respond, but changed his mind as he turned into the parking lot of the hospital.

We walked into the surprisingly calm emergency room and spoke to an older nurse with green eyes and black hair in a bun who was sitting behind the reception desk. She gave me a form to fill out and told us to take a seat.

As I handed the form back to her, she looked at my name and then back at me.

“Aren’t you Liya’s sister?” the nurse asked curiously.

I groaned internally, but nodded.

“Oh, honey. I’ll ring the children’s ward and let her know you’re here.”

“Oh, no. That’s really not necessary. I don’t want to worry her.” My protest was pointless, as the nurse had already picked up the phone and was pressing the necessary buttons to unleash upon me the hellhound that was my overprotective sister.

Oh great.

Maybe if I hit my head against something else, it’ll just knock me out completely, and I won’t have to deal with Liya.

I sat back down next to Jake, and within ten minutes Doctor Turner had walked into the waiting room and was calling my name.

“You want me to go with you?” Jake asked, looking concerned.

“No. I’ll be fine,” I said, as I walked in the examination room with the doctor, wishing desperately for this night to end.

* * * * *

Jacob

I fucking hate hospitals.

My knee bounced nervously as I waited for Niki to return. From the corner of my eye I saw a familiar figure in pink scrubs walk over to the reception desk and speak to the nurse who gestured towards me.

Liya hurried over to me, wearing a worried expression. I stood
,
as she got closer, and opened my arms to give her a hug.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here, Jake? Where’s Niki?” she asked anxiously.

“She went to get checked out with Dr Turner.”

“What the hell happened?” she asked, as she repeatedly smacked me hard on both arms.

“Why are you attacking me?!” I asked trying to deflect her hits.

“Because I’m worried and mad, and you’re here and somehow connected to my sister being hurt.”

She took a deep breath and stopped her assault on my poor arms. “Now tell me what happened!”

Rubbing the back of my neck, I tried to ease some of the tension that had built up there. I remained standing as Liya sat in the empty seat in front of me, and looked up at me expectantly. As I retold the story of Niki and her douchebag date, her frown deepened.