Fractured Hearts (Shattered Lives, Book Three) (44 page)

“I know,” she murmured.

“Then what’s the issue?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not? I don’t understand why you don’t know. Goddammit, this is so fucking frustrating!” he yelled. Grey startled awake and cried. “Shit…” Gunther took the baby from Quinn and paced with him against his shoulder.

She watched him as he loved on his son. James was never like that with Carrie or Max. He would only hold them when they were happy. Gunther, on the other hand, wanted to help quiet and calm, as well as be there during the happy moments. Clarity.

She heard whispering, realizing he was singing to Grey, calming him down while swaying. Her heart melted. This love was natural for him. She didn’t need to tell him how to care for Grey. She just had to let it happen.

When Grey calmed and went back to sleep, Gunther carried him back to their room, Quinn following. She got into bed and Gunther, with high hopes of not disturbing Grey, passed him over to her. He walked around the bed, grabbed his pillow and a blanket.

Quinn’s heart sank. “Where are you going?”

“I thought you committed to me when I put that ring on your finger. I can’t sleep next to you unless you can commit yourself to me one hundred percent. If Grey needs me, I’ll be in the gym.”

He turned around and walked out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind him, leaving her alone in a room that was as dark and as empty as she felt, Quinn broke down. She clutched her baby boy to her chest while she sobbed.

Elaina and I were going to get a workout in. We took one step into the gym and found Gunther curled in a ball, asleep on the floor. She looked at me and I shrugged.

The door slammed shut behind us and he jumped up, his Sig pointed directly at us. Elaina belted out a scream.

“Jesus suffering fuck! What the hell are you two doing scaring me like that?”

“Sorry. We didn’t expect anyone to be sleeping in here,” I said. “What’s going on, mate?”

Gunther sat back down, setting his gun next to him. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Did you have a fight with Quinn?” Elaina asked.

“You could say that,” he muttered.

“What happened?” she urged.

“She’s still hung up on James, so I told her I can’t sleep next to her until she resolves this. I thought she had worked through all those issues when she agreed to be my wife. I may need to be set up with another room, but I didn’t want to bug you in the middle of the night.” Gunther shook his head and scrubbed his fatigue-ridden face. He was crushed. The bloke’s heart was torn out and trampled on like it was trash.

The look on Elaina’s face said it all. She was pissed and I should have stopped her before she even began.

“I can’t believe she still has feelings for him. Look how he acts? He’s a dickhead!”

“Elaina…,” I warned, needing to stop her rant before she got Gunther all riled up. With all the weight and muscle he had put on, there was no way I could stop him from doing something really fucking stupid.

“No, really. Look at him and look at James. It’s obvious who the real man is in this situation. Look at him, Henry!”

“I see him, Elaina. I’m standing right here.”

“I’m in the room, you know,” Gunther mumbled.

“Yes, sorry. I just don’t understand it,” she muttered.

“Quinn said she committed nearly two decades to him and it’s hard for her to shake him free. I don’t know how she can hold a torch for him. Look what he did to her…to their daughter and grandson. I would never leave my wife, let alone my child. It was an easy out for him. I would have crawled back if that was the only way to get to her. I don’t understand how he could have done that to them, but she still has feelings for him. Maybe I should treat her like shit, fuck everyone else, and never be around.”

Elaina knelt in front of him. “She’ll come around.”

His sad laugh bounced off the walls. He stood again, folded the blanket, and stacked the pillow on top of it, leaving them in the corner. “I need some food.” Gunther grabbed his shirt and left the room.

She turned and looked at me. “This is not good, Elaina.”

“I hope she doesn’t leave him. Can you imagine what he would be like?”

“Christ, it would be like a bloody atomic bomb going off. I don’t even want to know. I know how I was when we broke up. Him? Catastrophic.” The next sound I heard was a loud crash just outside the door. “Shit! Stay in here, just in case.”

I ran out of the gym, expecting the worst.

Luckily for Gunther, James had turned the corner the same time he did.

James glanced at him, lips curled into a devious smile, when Gunther growled under his breath. “Living in the gym? How lovely is this? Just getting her to push you away has me feeling joy.”

The adrenaline pumped hard throughout Gunther’s stiffening body. He charged and slammed James into the wall so viciously his body imprinted into the sheetrock. Gunther ground his forearm into his chest and stared him down.

“Get off me!” James strained.

“Not until I’ve had my fill…”

He lunged. A split second before he tore out his throat, Henry screamed at him.

As soon as I exited the gym, all I saw was Gunther going for James’ throat.

“Gunther!
No
!” I ran and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Let him go! Now!”

Seething, he held James onto the wall with unyielding strength. His desire to kill must have clouded all thoughts of keeping our secret.

After several long seconds, Gunther finally released him, and James dropped to the floor like the sack of shit he was.

I dragged him away while he was screaming at James, “That’s what you get for putting false pretenses into her head, motherfucker! You don’t want her. You just don’t want her to be happy!”

Once we got to the cafeteria door, I stopped. “You can’t be doing that shit, mate,” I growled in a heated whisper. “No matter how much you want him gone, you can’t be acting that way. I won’t have it.”

“I’m sorry.” Gunther paced, jamming his big hand through his hair. “I’m just… I’m just not dealing with this well. I need her and I don’t understand what the fuck is going on.”

“Accepted and I understand. I’d want to kill him myself if I was in your position. You’ll get all this figured out. It just may take a little time. Go get some food and try to calm down. When I’m done in the gym, I’ll get you set up in another room.”

Nodding, Gunther turned around and saw Quinn lingering in the doorway. They locked eyes, then Gunther looked away.

“Excuse me…,” he said as politely as he could, gently touched Grey’s foot, and pushed past her.

I looked at Quinn, waiting for her to say something. She didn’t. Her eyes were swimming with tears. She was hurting as much as Gunther. Goddamn, it was a rough thing to witness. Those two belonged together, just like Elaina and I did. Two pieces of a puzzle, purely connected.

I took a peek around the cafeteria. Josie was playing guitar in Nick’s corner again—one depressing song after another. Josiah sat near the windows watching her with lust-filled eyes. I shook my head, wondering what other messes I would have to clean up.

I decided to go back to the gym since, seemingly, things had cooled off. I suspected James wouldn’t go near Gunther again. At least I hoped so because it was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

Quinn headed into the cafeteria, sitting a couple tables away from Gunther. He watched her every move, yearning for her closeness. Once she sat, he put his elbows on the table and held his face in his hands until he heard the chair next to him pull out.

“I think you’re right,” her voice broke.

Gunther looked up at her, tears streaming down her face. He realized she heard his confrontation with James. He stared at her for a few moments, then wrapped his arm around her.

She cried into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve to be treated how I’ve treated you. You make me feel like a queen.”

“You
are
my queen,” he murmured, stroking her hair. She looked up at Gunther. “Next to this little bear here, you are everything to me.
Everything
. Hear me when I say that. I can’t express it in words. If I lost you, I would be as good as dead. My heart sank when you told me how you felt about him.”

“I’m so–”

He put his finger to her lips. “Hush. Let’s forget it even happened.” She nodded. He looked down when he heard Grey grunting. “Hey, my little bear.” He took him from Quinn’s arms and cuddled him in his.

Grey was trying to focus on Gunther and his eyes kept crossing, making Gunther chuckle. Quinn wiped her face dry as she laughed. Then, as if Grey was in on the joke, he cooed.

Gunther looked at Quinn. “I just want to tell you that you can talk to me about anything. It doesn’t matter what it is. If you want to talk about the varying shades of grass, I don’t give two fucks.
Just fucking talk to me
. Open up to me. I’m available for you like you’ve been for me. You can trust me with your feelings no matter what they are. Okay?”

“Yeah. Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

“I mean it, Quinn. I intend to spend the rest of my life with you. We cannot hide feelings, especially ones that make us crippled to point of hurting each other.”

“You’re right. Can we go back to our room and talk?”

“Abso-
bloody
-lutely.”

Gunther was so relieved to have his life back. One night away from her was hell. Any more would leave him futile.

Josiah couldn’t take his eyes off of Josie. He just wanted to talk to her, but he knew she wouldn’t want to hear a word of what he had to say. The pain in his heart was incessant and the ache for her was perpetual.

Day and night, his thoughts were about her. Her voice haunted his dreams. The pale skin of her face called to him. He remembered what she looked like writhing under him.

With sheer determination, he crossed the room. She was going to talk to him whether she wanted to or not. Josiah stood before her, his hands on his hips. Josie glanced up at him.

“Josie, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to say,” she muttered.

“Bullshit. What you’ve done… It’s hurtful. My heart is breaking.”

“Why, Josiah? Why do you have such a need for me?”

“I don’t know. I’m drawn to you. You don’t feel it? There’s something here.” He motioned between them.

“Josiah, stop torturing yourself. There is nothing on this end. Please understand that. I don’t know what else to say to you.”

He pursed his lips, feeling his heart spit and sputter, wanting to quit. “So…that’s it then? You have sex with me twice and leave me hanging? I want to give my heart to you, but you kick me in the balls?”

She got up and tried to head for the door, but he stopped her. “Josiah, please let go of me. I beg you.” Her eyes were full of pain.

Bitterness made its way to the surface when she tried to run away from him once again. “Did you think of him when we were together?” he spat.

“Don’t,” she scolded with teary eyes. “That’s not fair.”

“Not fair? You did, didn’t you? The whole time you were calling my name out, you wished it was him.”

“How about you shut the fuck up?”

“How about you give me a little goddamn truth? Because what I’m feeling is true, not some teenage crush, or a faked out fantasy,” he growled.

“You want the truth?!” she chided.

“Yeah, actually, I do!” he yelled back in her face.

“I thought of him the first time. I imagined it was him moving inside of me, moaning. I imagined it was him enjoying me and coming in me. Is that what you wanted to hear, Josiah?”

“I’ve heard enough.” He stormed past her and left the cafeteria, his heart completely broken.

In a mad rush, Josie bolted through the door, only to slam right into Jake. “Whoa… Watch it, little bitty,” he murmured, an air of annoyance in his voice.