Heavy: A Contemporary Romance (21 page)

“No
. You just made an excellent argument as to why you can never trust me to ever be alone with your son. You also clearly illustrated how getting involved with me would completely overturn the life you’ve made for yourself and him here in Vegas. I’m the ‘Girl Who Cried Wolf’ after all, and I eventually wreck everything. I won’t be responsible for wrecking your life, too.”

“I thought you were all about new beginnings and putting your old life behind you, California
? Isn’t that what this coming to Vegas thing was all about?” Thatch asked.

“If I’m completely honest, my transformation and desire to really confront my issues happened that night I met you,” I continued,
dodging his questions and hurrying to get everything off my chest before I could chicken out and change my mind. “I don’t understand the how or the why, and I know we played it like a one-night-stand, which is all I really have ever had in my sexual past, but there was a connection between us that I couldn’t explain. I mean, from my end there was a connection I’d never had with anyone else before. Thinking of you and watching that damn video of you on that course in Dallas is what got me through rehab.

“I thought that comparing my progressive success at the Recovery Center to your achievements on
Ultimate Ninja Athlete
was a perfectly natural thing to do. Everyone has a little something that helps motivate them, and in my case I put it all onto you – someone who I didn’t even know at all, but yet had shared an intense experience with. You’ve asked me before why it is I came to Vegas, well here it is… within an hour of being released from the Center, I was facing some of my most powerful triggers: Lake and Talullah.

“
I didn’t know what to do or where to go. In danger of relapsing back into the lifestyle I was desperate to get away from, I headed toward the thing that had provided me with the motivation I needed to make it through rehab – you. It was unfair of me to do this, but as you’ve pointed out before, I’m self-absorbed and wasn’t completely aware and didn’t really think anything through. Thaddeus is absolutely the most important thing in your life and you are absolutely one-hundred percent right to be wary of getting involved with me. You were let down and Thaddeus almost died because you trusted a user. You cannot and should not trust me. Fuck, I don’t even trust me. Now please, get out of my house so I can start packing.”

Thatch still didn’t move
. He just stood there staring at me, trying to digest all of that I had just thrown at him.

“Look, Thatch,
” I repeated for emphasis, “I assigned some sort of unhealthy parallel between your success in that competition and my success in rehab. I would’ve never made it through those last couple of months had I not used you as motivation. I see now that it wasn’t only unhealthy, but unfair to you. I should never have come to Vegas and upset your comfortable way of life with all my drama. If I’m to ever be successful in my life goals, I need to stop using you – and our mutual lust – as a crutch. Please just leave so we can
both
get back to our lives.”

I walked
out of the room and headed straight for the front door and heard him following me. Opening it, I stood next to it, looking anywhere but in his direction. It was taking everything I had in me to not break down right there and then.

Thatch paused
at the threshold, putting his T-shirt back on and looking as if he was about to say something.

“I’m giving you a way out, Thatch
. Please take it,” I begged softly.

Shaking his head, he walked out of the door
. I closed it and stood waiting until I heard the sound of his car door slam, then I sank to my knees and let the pent up tears flow freely down my face, my body convulsing as I sobbed violently.

It took a full twenty minutes before I could calm myself down
. My head and heart were filled with thoughts of Bellamy, more than just my sponsor here in Vegas, he was a father-figure and dear friend. I thought about the Solanos and how they’d taken me in as family from the very first day I met them. Leaving them all was going to be hard.

But
, it wasn’t until I thought about Thaddeus that I really broke down again. Seeing him before I left was not an option and it broke my heart. Leaving Thatch was equally as painful. Some of what I said to him earlier to get him to leave was true. I probably had developed some sort of unhealthy obsession with him due to using him as a motivation in rehab. But why did it hurt so much to leave?

Fuck, I wasn’t just in lust with him
. I was in love with him. This realization kicked me straight in the chest and knocked the air out of my lungs. I’d admitted to an obsession, but love was something else entirely. If I really thought about it, coming to Vegas, my heart on my sleeve, I’d always known it had to be love. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it. I
had
to be in love with him or why else would I be about to do what I was about to do.

Thatch

I’d gone over to California’s ho
use to apologize for this afternoon, and to tell her why we could never have a relationship. It hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but the outcome had fallen into line with my original and intended goal.

So w
hy was I still sitting in my car outside her house thirty minutes after she gave me the way out I wanted? At least my head had wanted the way out. My heart, on the other hand, told a different story. Even when she’d flat out agreed with all my reasons to not get involved, once she voiced them, I still couldn’t convince myself we were one hundred percent right.

I expected her to fight for us
– to talk me out of my decision. Maybe that’s what I
wanted
her to do. Instead, she did a complete about-face right after that phone call. What the fuck had happened? She might think she had the acting thing down pat, but her performance tonight wasn’t going to win any awards any time soon.

I heard the sound of her garage door opening, and I instinctively ducked down in my seat
. She didn’t even look my way as she backed out of the drive and headed off down the road.

Where the hell was she going at this time of night?

Why did I care?

I couldn’t help myself
. I turned on my engine and took off after her.

I followed her for
twenty minutes before she made the turn into the parking garage of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Sliding my car into a spot several rows away from hers, I kept about a hundred feet of distance between her and me as she made the long walk through the casino and over towards the elevators to the rooms.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I reached down to answer it, never taking my eyes off California.

“Thatch, it’s me,” my dad’s voice said once I answered.

“Thaddeus okay?”
I asked, my heart jumping into my throat for a second.

“He’s fine, son, that’s not why I’m calling
. And where the hell are you? You sound like you’re in a casino.”

“I am.”

“Well, there’s something you, and Heavy, need to know. That douchebag Steve from the across the street posted all over Twitter that she’s working at Reston’s. The media is going crazy. We already have some local stations camped out in front of the shop.”

“Shit.”
I then remembered that was exactly what California had said on the phone earlier. She knew already. She was leaving in the hopes the media attention would follow her – and away from us.

“Exactly
. Now tell me why you’re in a casino – and is she with you?”

“She knows about Twitter, Pops
. She didn’t tell me she knew; she just kicked me out of the house and told me she was leaving. Don’t ask me how it happened, but I ended up following her to the MGM. She just got here.”

“Look Thatch, don’t you let our girl out of your sight, you hear
. She’s going to do something noble, and selfless, and stupid to try, and attract the media away from us. You stop her. You don’t let her fall off the wagon for us, understand?”

“My thoughts exactly, Pops
. I’ll keep you posted.”

I hung up the phone just as California stopped in front of a burly-looking security guard standing in front of the elevator to the private suites.

“I’m going to the penthouse – Lake Rivers’ suite. I’m California Huntington.”

“Go right on up, Miss Huntington,” the guard nodded to her.

As soon as the doors closed behind her I walked up to him.

“
I’m here to see Lake Rivers in the penthouse suite.”

“And you are…?”
The guard asked, giving me the stink-eye.

“Thatch Reston
. I came with California Huntington.”

“
Oh, you did, did you? Let me just call up to Miss Rivers to confirm.”

The guard put in a call to the room and asked for Lake
. She apparently came right to the phone and after he told her why he was calling, there was a brief pause before the guard finally hung up the phone.

“Go right on up, Mr. Reston,” he said with undisguised annoyance
. I think he was bored and itching for some sort of confrontation. He was disappointed I wasn’t the gatecrasher he expected me to be.

Only I was, but he just didn’t know it.

I wondered why Lake had invited me up. It didn’t matter. Lake was one of California’s triggers and I needed to get her the hell away from that bitch.

Cali

The elevator let me out into Lake’s suite and I headed towards the living room area.

“There she is!” Lake announced in a loud voice to the two other occupants in the room. “I knew you’d come as soon as you heard I was in town, sister darling.”

She gave me a smug smile and I glance
d between her and the two businessmen either side of her.

The one on her left was young, dark haired, shirtless and completely tanked
. The other, older, still wearing his shirt opened to his abs and the tie undone but still hanging around his neck, was on his knees in front of the coffee table and doing a long line of coke.

“Here I am, Lake
. In the flesh. Didn’t expect to see you this soon. I thought you were ‘over’ Vegas.” I couldn’t keep the snark out of my tone.

“My, my, my
. Looks like someone went and grew a pair since she’s been in hiding,” Lake laughed. “I can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to for the last few weeks. Ronald here,” she said pointing to the older guy on his knees, “was particularly interested in meeting you. He generously flew us out in his private jet just so he could,” she added with a sly look on her face.

Bitch!

“You show him a good time, Cali,” she continued, “and we can all fly back to L.A. first thing in the morning.”

In other words, if I didn’t, her and her media entourage w
ere heading straight over to Reston’s Tattoos instead. I knew
exactly
what she meant. The look she gave me was explicitly clear.

“Now, come sit down and have a drink with us, sister dear,” Lake coo
ed. “We’re drinking cognac in your honor, my love,” she smiled.

I shrugged my shoulders in defeat and took a seat across the table from Ronald
. What other choice did I have? I needed her as far away from Vegas as possible.

“Here,” the shirtless guy on the right said with a wink as he threw me a vial of cocaine, which landed on my lap
. “You have some catching up to do.”

“I don’t think California is going to be catching up with any of you tonight,” a low voice came from behind me.

“Thatch!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Right on cue,” Lake giggled
. “I was so anxious to meet the reason why Cali has been hiding out in Vegas all this time.” She then turned to me. “A tattoo guy, Cali? Really? Did rehab cure you of all your standards too?”

“Wait a minute,” Ronald said, stumbling to his feet
. “I thought you said she was a sure thing, Lake. What’s going on here?”

Tha
tch stepped into the room and walked right up to Ronald, his stance intimidating and with a heated gaze boring into the man like it could cut through metal.

“What’s going on is that California is
not
a sure thing. She will never be a sure thing. And the next time you speak of her, it will be with respect.”

“Now listen here, asshole
—”

But before Ronald could finish his verbal attack, Thatch’s fist connected
with his face and Ronald fell back onto the couch, blood gushing from his nose.

“What the fuck, man
! You fucking broke my nose!”

“Oh,
now
I see the appeal,” Lake said insidiously, moving away from Ronald so he couldn’t get any blood on her, her eyes running up and down Thatch’s body salaciously. “Is he as aggressive in the bedroom too, Cali?”

Ignoring Lake, Thatch turned back to me
.

“Get up, California, we’re leaving.”

Placing the vial on the coffee table with shaking hands, I stood up to face him.

“I can’t go, Thatch
. If I don’t stay she’s going to try and poison your life any way she can.”

“Oh, you flatter me too much, Cali,” Lake laughed
from her seat behind Thatch.

We both ignored her and I’m sure she wasn’t going to like that.

“Be honest with me, California,” Thatch said, his eyes burning straight into mine, unwavering, unblinking, and deadly serious. “Do you want to do a line, get drunk, and fuck the old rich guy here?”

“Hey, I’m not that old,” Ronald quipped up between groans of pain.

“Shut the fuck up!” Thatch snapped over his shoulder before turning back to me.

“You know I don’t,” I whispered to him.

“Then let’s get the hell out of here then,” he said, pulling me by the arm towards the elevator.

“I can’t go with you, Thatch,” I repeated, my eyes brimming with unshed tears.

“Yes, you can. You’re not going to fuck up your life again for me, California. The press is already outside the shop now. The damage has already been done.”

“
Wha—”

“I know you think you’re doing the honorable thing for me, for my dad
, and for Thaddeus, but we won’t let you do this just to protect us.” His voice went soft and he pulled me in closer to his chest to whisper in my ear. “Please come with me, Cali. If you stay here she’ll win. We can handle everything else together, okay?”

I nodded at him, scrubbing the back of my hand over my eyes to clear my watery vision.

“Okay.”

Thatch took my hand and we walked from the room without a backward glance.

“See you real soon, sister dear,” Lake called out after us as we stepped into the elevator.

“You should have taken the way out, Thatch,” I said softly to him as the door closed behind us.

“And face the wrath of my dad?” he asked with a small smile. “I don’t think so.”

Thatch

“I’m going to
fucking kill that asshole, Steve,” I said once we were in my car. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight so we left hers back at the MGM. I had this feeling she was still ready to run at a moment’s notice. I refused to think about why I cared.

“It would’ve got out eventually, Thatch,” California said as she stared blankly out the passenger side window
. “I was naïve to think it wouldn’t.”

She suddenly turned in her seat to face me
. “I don’t think you realize what you’ve just done, do you? This is going to be huge and the media is going to hound us – you, me, Thaddeus, Bellamy – everyone. They’re going to hash up everything about your past – including New York. Thaddeus’ accident, Bellamy’s alcoholism, your court case. They’ll be cruel and relentless. I’ve been through all of this before. It’ll be the ‘Girl Who Cried Wolf’ all over again. If you just let me leave, I might be able to lead them all back to L.A. with me.”

She was right
. It was the other big reason why I hadn’t wanted to get involved with her in the first place. But now that it was already happening, I was confused at my unexpected reaction to the whole mess. I was angry at the situation itself, not her.

“Tell me about the ‘Girl Who Cried Wolf,” Cali,” I asked softly.

She sighed and looked out the window again. “I owe you that much,” she replied in a small voice.

Shifting slightly in her seat, California stayed facing away from me as she spoke.
“Soon after this… lifestyle… Lake and I started up, I made the decision to try and get out of it. I just turned eighteen and felt it was time to move out on my own. Of course,” she gave a dry laugh, “by ‘on my own’ I don’t mean I went and got a job or anything. I mean I harassed my father until he agreed to buy me an apartment close to home, and I tried to separate myself from Lake and her mother. It was a small way to feel independent when really it was just like living in another wing of the main house, only down the street from it.

“I was only there a few weeks when one night three
masked men accosted me in the parking lot and threw me into a van. I was tied up and blindfolded, driven out into the middle of nowhere, and then chained up in a basement.”

I gave a sharp intake of breath.

“They didn’t really hurt me physically,” California added, in response to the sound I made. “But I was held there for three days. I was terrified.”

“I’m so sorry, California.”

“On day two, I realized I recognized one of their voices. It was a kid I used to go to school with when I was twelve. Jimmy. Once the kidnappers were aware I’d recognized him, they began to panic over what to do with me. The original plan was to get a ransom of a million dollars from my father, and then let me go. I remembered that Jimmy had an older brother that was always in trouble with the police, so I assumed he’d been dragged into this scheme by him, as I was pretty sure his brother was one of the other two men.”