Finding Ever After (20 page)

           
“Yeah, he is.” I sighed

           
“Where you guys parked at?”

           
“We’re out front on the street.” I answered.

           
“Okay, well I’m out back so I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” We said goodnight and
then Kyden and I exited the front of the bar and walked down the sidewalk
toward where we were both parked. He was walking just slightly ahead of me,
enough that his body partially blocked my view of my car as we neared it so it
took me longer to notice what had made him stop dead in his tracks.

           
All four of my tires were flat, not just a little, but completely flat. Kyden
stepped toward my car and bent down to examine the first one. “Fuck.”

           
“What?” But he didn’t need to answer me, when I got closer I saw what had set
him off. They had been slashed. I wanted to cry but somehow I managed to hold
it together. I had become complacent, confident that Connor had backed off, but
this was a cruel reminder of just how relentless and cunning he could be. I’m
sure it was his plan to let me think I was safe before striking. He would drag
this out and play games until he got what he wanted or someone stopped him.

           
“What do I do?” I had never been in a situation like this and because of my
fear I wasn’t thinking clearly either.

           
“I’ll take care of, just get anything valuable out. We’ll leave it here for now
and in the morning I’ll have it towed. You can ride with me to your house.” I
nodded, thankful that he was calm and collected enough to take control and tell
me what to do. I dug my keys out of my jacket pocket and walked around to the
driver’s side so that I could get my purse out from under my seat. When I got
around the car and reached for my door my heart stopped and I froze. Scratched
into the door was a message:

           
See you soon lover.

           
My hands were shaking and my
breathing became shallow. I couldn’t focus on anything except those four words.
My knees were ready to give out when I felt strong arms wrap around me. He
pulled me back into his chest and started whispering in my ear. “It’s okay
Princess. You’re
okay,
nobody is going to hurt you.
I’ve got you. Just breathe. That’s it, just concentrate on breathing in and
out.” His arms didn’t leave me and I leaned back into him, resting my head against
his chest until the sense of terror passed. When I was finally calm enough to
stand on my own he released me and took the keys from my hand and unlocked the
door.

           
“Under the seat.”
I managed to croak out. He reached
in and pulled out my purse, then locked the car back up and led me over to his
bike. It was probably a good thing I was still partially in shock or he might
never have gotten me onto the back of his bike.

           
Only when the powerful machine roared and began vibrating beneath me did I
fully realize what I was doing. I squeezed my arms tighter around his waist as
the bike shot forward. I pressed my cheek into his back and closed my eyes. I
inhaled deeply, taking in his scent; clean and masculine with just a light hint
of whatever body wash or cologne he used. Whatever it was, was delicious and
all sexy man. I didn’t loosen my grip the entire ride to my house as the city
became a blur around us.

           
“Kyden?”
I called out hesitantly. I had already
crawled into bed but I sat back up. He poked his head into my room with a
concerned look on his face.

           
“Yeah Princess?”

           
“Umm . . .” I was afraid to ask. I didn’t want to look
desparate
or give him the wrong idea.

           
“What is it Princess?” He stepped all the way inside the room clothed only in
his boxer briefs. He really wasn’t shy at all and now I was having a hard time
stringing words together for an entirely different reason. Finally I managed to
get out what I wanted to ask him.

           
“Will you stay in here with me?” Almost as soon as I heard myself say it out
loud I regretted it. He would think I was
weak,
or
looking for pity or possibly even something else. “I mean, you don’t have to if
you don’t want to. It’s not a big deal. I’ll be fine; I think I’m still just a
little freaked out but really
I
-”

           
“Shh, Princess, scoot over.” I was relieved when he slid in next to me. I
really didn’t want to be alone. I knew I was going to have nightmares. I turned
on my side facing away from him and I was thankful that he didn’t make a move
to get any closer to me. I wasn’t looking for comfort like that. I’d just
gotten so used to Bas sleeping next to me that the idea of being by
myself
, after what happened tonight was more than I could
deal with.

           
“When you’re ready Princess, you can tell me what he did to you and I’ll
listen.” I squeezed my eyes tightly to stop the moisture from leaking out. I knew
that he was being sincere, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. I didn’t
want him to think I was more broken.
Seeing the pity in his
eyes when he looked at me after he knew, would be unbearable.
Even
though he was probably forming his own ideas and making assumptions about what
had happened, I couldn’t confirm anything. As long as he didn’t know for sure
how screwed up I was, I could face him. He didn’t bring it up again and before
long I was sound asleep.

           
“Please no, oh God, please don’t do this.” I cried out but he didn’t stop. I
screamed again, even though I knew there wasn’t anyone around to help me. They
had made sure it would just be the two of us here tonight. I kicked and jerked
as hard as I could
hoping
to throw him off, but he was
too strong. He had me trapped beneath him. The tears streamed down my face and
my throat was raw from all the crying and screaming but I couldn’t give up. I
felt sharp pain from the gravel digging into back and bare legs.

           
His hand traveled roughly across my skin and bile rose in my throat. I finally
managed to break one of my hands free from his grasp where he had them pinned
above my head. I swung my hand and caught him across the face. I dug my nails
in as hard as I could
hoping
the pain would be enough
to get him to let go. Instead it only infuriated him more and he brought his
fist down hard on my jaw. It took everything I had to stay conscious after his
strike. My vision was dark and spotty so I couldn’t see what he was doing but I
felt him shifting around on top of me. I felt something cold and sharp on my
stomach, and then all I felt was a burning sensation followed by the most
intense pain I had ever felt. Another scream tore from my throat.

           
“Come on Princess, wake up. I’m right
here, it’s just a nightmare. Please wake up.”

           
My eyes popped open and I shot up ready to kick and scream to get Connor off of
me before he- it was then that he wasn’t the person gripping my arms and
shaking me. It was Kyden and he looked horrified as he stared down at me and I
realized I had been dreaming about that night again. I wasn’t really back
there. I was safe and the morning light was peeking through the curtains. I
breathed a deep sigh of relief and squeezed my eyes shut to cut off the flow of
tears streaming down my face.

           
“You’re okay now.” Kyden said gently sitting down beside me then rubbing his
hand down my back and pulling me into his chest. He ran his fingers up through
my hair and gripped my head tightly to him all the while still whispering that
I was okay. When I stopped shaking and the tears were finally done falling
Kyden pulled me away from him, far enough that I could look up into his face.

           
“Pack a bag Princess, we’re leaving.”

           
“What do you mean we’re leaving? Where are we going?” I wiped at my eyes and
tried to pull myself together.

           
“The cape.”

           
“Vi’s place?”

           
“Yeah, I called Chris and Sebastian this morning and filled them in on
everything. They took care of the arrangements. Everyone is driving down today.
They should be here in about an hour.”

           
“How long are we going to be gone?” We had planned to head to Cape Cod on
Wednesday for the 4
^th
of July celebration, but today was only Saturday.

           
“A while.
I don’t know, just pack whatever you might
need for a week, we can always make trips back to town for more stuff later if
we end up staying longer.”

           
A week?
I couldn’t just take off and
disappear for a week.

           
“I can’t be gone that
long,
I have a job interview on
Friday I have to be back for.” I had enough left over from my Mom’s insurance
that I didn’t have to work, and I had saved practically every penny from my job
in Portland, but I needed something to do. I wanted to feel like I was
accomplishing something, to be productive in some way. I had stopped in several
of the local galleries in Boston with
Vi
and one of
them had a position open. Thankfully they were willing to overlook my lack of
art degree because of my experience at the gallery in Portland, which was quite
well known.

           
My former boss had taken a chance on me then when I all I knew of art was what
I had learned in my high school classes. She took me under her wing and taught me
everything she knew about the art world. Eventually I had been promoted and put
in charge of the website and all social media interaction as well as promoting
artists, events and showings. From what I understood the position I was
interviewing for here would be similar. It was work that I really enjoyed and I
was not going to let Connor ruin it for me.

           
“I’ll bring you back for the interview, but you are going. It’s not up for
discussion. So unless you want me digging around in your panty drawer I suggest
you start packing.” I quickly climbed out of my bed and ushered him out the
room. He wasn’t going anywhere near my under things.

           
Forty five minutes later I had packed, showered and eaten the French toast
Kyden made me. I could get used to having him around if he was going to keep
cooking me breakfast. I was going to have to start running again though.

           
“Don’t you guys have a gig tonight, it is Saturday?” I asked Kyden as we stood
at the kitchen sink and washed and dried the dishes together once again.

           
“Nah, we cancelled it. The guys wanted a break anyway. We’ve been hitting the
bars and clubs hard the last few months.”

           
“You guys won’t get in trouble for cancelling? Won’t that make them not want to
let you play there anymore?” He just snorted.

           
“We play where we want Princess. We bring in a big enough crowd to make up for
cancelling one night. Besides it was one of the smaller bars here in the city,
they can find someone else easy.
Next weekend we play in
Worcester again before we‘re back at The Scott.”

           
“Do you guys play a lot of shows outside of Boston?”

           
“We play all over the state and we’ve played a few gigs in New Hampshire,
Connecticut and New York City. We’re hoping to tour the whole east coast
eventually.” I could see it. They were bigger than just Boston, or even
Massachusetts. They belonged on the stages of sold out arenas. “You should come
with us next weekend to Worcester.”

           
“Hmm . . . following the band around the state? Wouldn’t that make me a
groupie?”

           
“No,
smartass, that
would make you a friend. You’d
have to let me sleep with you for you to be groupie.”
He
teased and quirked an eyebrow at me.

           
“I’ll think about it.” When he grinned I realized my mistake. “I meant I’d
think about going, not the other part.” I smacked him playfully with the
dishtowel I had just used to dry the last pan.

           
“Oh Princess, bad move.”
His eyes darkened. I backed
away slowly but he stalked after me. I watched him closely, waiting for him to
make his move. He pounced so quickly I didn’t have time to run. I twisted
around and the towel was yanked from my grasp. A second later I felt the snap
of the towel just barely graze my backside. I took off toward the living room
with him close on my heels. We circled the couch until he decided just to leap
over the top and I ran toward the entry way so I could make the loop back to
the kitchen and get something to defend myself.

           
Right as I skidded onto the hardwood floor of the entryway the front door
opened and Bas stepped into house, closely followed by Chris and I could hear
the rest of the gang out on the porch. I tried to stop, but my momentum was too
much and I slid smack into his chest and he stumbled backwards, knocking into
Chris. Kyden was close on my heels but managed to stop before joining the pile
up.

           
I felt one more sharp snap on my butt, I yelped and jumped further into Bas’
chest. The guys laughed at
my
and I gave them each a
dirty look.

           
“I see you two are getting a long great, Jazz. “

           
“When we heard all the squealing and thumping around from outside I thought we
were
gonna
walk in and find you guys naked wrestling.
Glad to see you’re fully dressed this time Tink. Seeing you in your panties
once was enough for this lifetime.”

           
“
Unhhh
.”
I groaned, and they
all laughed again.

           
“I’m so glad you told us that story.” Spade pushed his way into the house. “You
got your bikini packed Rainbow?
Looking forward to tossing
you in the lake in it.”
My heart dropped at the thought of putting a
bikini on in front of anyone. I could never openly show off my body like that,
not without getting looks of horror. “If not, it’s okay you can go in the lake
in your little Tinkerbell
panties,
or in no panties at
all. We won’t mind.” He winked and I wanted to bang my head against the wall
repeatedly.

           
“Um I would mind. I would mind very much.” Bas chimed in. “Can we just load her
stuff in the car and get out of here?”

           
“I second
that,
let’s get this show on the road. I am
ready for a week of sun, swimming and getting sloshed! Woo!”
Vi
was much too chirpy and enthusiastic. It should be illegal to be so obnoxiously
cheery before noon. I could tell she had already had at least two cups of
coffee but I would bet it was more like three or four.

           
My duffel and bathroom tote were sitting on the floor beside the door. Chris
picked them up, “This
it
Tink?”

           
“Yeah, I just have to grab my purse and put the garbage and recycling bins by
the curb, so they’ll get picked up on Tuesday.”

           
“Hey Marcus.”
Spade called out.

           
“On it.”
His voice came from out on the porch.

           
“He doesn’t have to move them, I can do it.”

           
“Nah, Rainbow that’s what the runt is for.” I could only imagine how bad of a
time they all gave him. He was like the baby brother to five unruly egomaniacs.

           
I did a quick check of the house to make sure all the lights were off and the
windows locked. Outside everyone was standing around the porch waiting.

           
“Thank you Marcus, for moving the bins.” Even though I’m sure he was used to
being bossed around I still wanted him to know that I appreciated it. Noticing
Vi’s
Beemer in the driveway and the black vintage looking
car parked behind it, reminded me last night’s events. “What about my car?” I
stopped on the steps.

           
“All taken care of Rainbow.
I had it towed to our shop
this morning and they’ll get new tires put on it and take care of the door. I
told them to leave it locked up in the garage until you’re ready to pick it
up.”

           
“You’re a mechanic?” I never really thought about what the guys did outside of
the band. I knew Chris worked for a construction company, and Kyden told me he
gave music lessons on the side because he refused to take his parents money,
but I had no idea about the rest of them.