NEXT TO ME (A Love Happens Novel Book 1) (22 page)

Collecting herself, she walked calmly back to the keypad at the front door instead of the one closer and clearly in view at the gaping back door, hoping he wouldn’t notice. With her back to him, her body blocking her motions, she reached up with her right hand and slowly punched in the code that would silence the alarm, using her left hand to unlock the deadbolt on the front door at the same time. The incessant peeling of the siren stopped, but left her ears ringing as she quickly pushed the panic button, the flashing red light obvious to anyone looking. Praying someone in law enforcement was on the receiving end of the silent emergency signal—and could now enter easily through the front door and save her sorry ass—she squared her shoulders, turned toward Danny and barely suppressed a gasp. His face was a battered, bruised mess and his lower lip was split, tiny drops of blood pooling near the ugly gash.

“I don’t see any suitcases.” He spread his arms out and looked around the large, open room. “I assume you’ll want me to buy you all new clothing then, right?”

Grinning when she stayed silent, he strode casually toward the kitchen, grimacing slightly as he rifled through several cabinet drawers before finally finding what he sought and reaching into the freezer, filling the plastic bag with ice cubes. “No matter, dollface. You still have closets full of things at home.” Wincing as he placed the bag gingerly over his left eye, he surveyed her from head to toe, adding, “Although, it looks like you’ve put on a few pounds. Indulging in too much bread with dinner was always a problem for you. You know it makes me sad when you eat carbohydrates, Alexandra.”

Chuckling at his own joke, he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out the bottle of booze, groaning a bit as he settled down onto her sofa. Whoever had taken those shots at his face must have gotten a lick or two at his ribs, as well. Good. She hoped every last one of them was cracked. And she had only gained six pounds, thank you very much, just enough that she no longer saw a gaunt and defeated woman staring back at her in the mirror. Carefully measuring her breath, she sat down in the chair next to the sofa, ignoring his gesture that she sit beside him. Tucking her hands into the front pockets of her baggy sweatshirt, her trembling fingers traced the phone hidden in one pocket and the small can of mace in the other. It seemed a paltry weapon compared to what else he might have tucked inside his suit jacket, but as long as he was within a few feet of her, it would do the job.

And so began their silent stand off, the battle of wills lasting several minutes while they each waited for the other to say uncle.

Ali carefully glanced at the clock. Thirty-one minutes, eighteen seconds.

Her pocket vibrated again, the phone ringing silently several times before stopping, only to start again a few minutes later. She didn’t know who the persistent caller was and there was no way she could look with Danny’s watchful eyes glued to her. Surely the police would send a cruiser to check out the reason for the triggered alarm rather than just call her, right? What the hell had she paid so damn much money to Sam’s company for, if not to summon some assistance when the blasted thing went off? Unfortunately, there was no sound of a swat team on the roof or a police siren in the distance. And whoever was on the other end of the phone wasn’t going to help her anymore than the police had when she’d called them earlier in the day to report Danny’s unlawful visit. Informing the detective on duty that her ex-husband had just knowingly violated a restraining order was apparently the equivalent of telling him she’d just spotted Sasquatch. Until he saw it with his own eyes, or there was indisputable video evidence, along several credible witnesses to substantiate it, her complaint meant jack shit.

“You’re testing my patience, Alexandra.” Danny’s weary voice finally broke the tension. “This is getting tiresome and I’m ready to go home.” Downing a good portion of the vodka, he rested his head back against the sofa and stared at her.

She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, knowing his temper could flare at any moment, sending him into an uncontrollable rage. “Then go.”

“Not without you.”

She slowly shook her head, treading carefully, and while his hooded stare never wavered, there was no malice in his tone as she’d expected.

“Things will be better this time. I’ll try harder, I promise,” he said, telling the same lie he always did. “All we need is to reconnect. Take a nice vacation. I can get away from the firm for a few weeks and we could tour Spain on motorbikes. Or ski the Swiss Alps.”

It was pointless to remind him of the many times he’d said exactly that in the last six years. “Don’t do this, Danny. Don’t make this harder.”

“I’ll start seeing a therapist. We can try marriage counseling. ” He smiled sadly and despite his cut lip and black eye, Ali caught a glimpse of the man she had so regretfully fallen in love with on the front steps of a Tribeca brownstone all those years ago.

“We’re not married anymore.” A deep sorrow for what their marriage should have been, and for the man that Danny could have been, filled her heart. It was all such wasted time.

“But I love you, Al. So much.”

He was the only one who called her that. And only when he was sick with the flu, or on the rare occasion when he wanted sex, or when he was groveling because he’d roughed her up a little too much. And when he was drunk.

“No, you don’t, Danny.” She held up her hand, speaking over his immediate denial. “You love yourself. Maybe you even love the person I saw you with in your office or the numerous other ones that I didn’t see. But you don’t love me.”

He brushed the comment off with a flick of his wrist. “I was satisfying a curiosity.”

“It looked like a lot more than that to me, but it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”

“What is it you want from me, Alexandra?” He stood up abruptly, his docile demeanor evaporating as he paced the floor, his voice steadily rising. “I have given you everything you could ever want. A fancy house three times the size of this one. A new car every year. And jewelry that cost a damn fortune! It was because of me that you never wanted for anything. You were wearing thrift store clothes the night I met you and this is how you repay me? By running clear across the country and spreading your legs for the first dog that comes sniffing?”

“I did want for something, Danny.” Her firm voice was steady, giving no hint of her nervousness. “And how I live my life now is none of your business.”

He scoffed, looking at her with true surprise. “What? What did you want, Al? I bought you everything.”

“You bought me things out of guilt!” Ali leaned forward but didn’t stand, knowing it gave him the impression of being in control. “Because a diamond necklace helped to hide the bruises on my neck when dinner wasn’t as good as you thought it should be. And when you came home from work with dozens of roses and season tickets to the opera because you were running late and didn’t call. Three days late, Danny! You disappeared with God only knows who, doing God only knows what, for three entire days. And you thought a few predictable gifts would make it all better?” She could see the vein in his temple start to throb, his face turning red with anger, but she couldn’t stop the flow of words. “News flash, Danny. I don’t like gaudy jewelry or obligatory roses. Or the fucking opera! And I don’t like you.”

“Then what did you want?” he yelled, standing over her, sounding like a demented broken record.

She had to crane her neck to maintain eye contact. “To be loved! To feel kindness and affection from you, along with all the other emotions a normal man feels for his wife! I didn’t sign up to be your decoy or your possession to display at work functions. Or your punching bag when you had a bad day. What I wanted was to be happy.”

The truth in her simple words hung heavy in the air and he finally stepped back from her, his anger dissolving into defeat in a matter of seconds. Regaining his composure by straightening the sleeves on his jacket and taking a few sips from the nearly empty bottle, his rigid body relaxed when he sat back down.

“Do you remember that week we spent in Nantucket? The summer after our second anniversary?” Looking pensive, his voice croaked with unshed tears. “We rented a boat and sailed over to Martha’s Vineyard.”

Impossible, Ali thought. She had never seen Danny cry. Not even when his saint of a stepmother—who had raised him from a baby after his own mother had run off with his father’s best friend—had died unexpectedly.

His mood swings, a result of the liquor, she guessed, were throwing her. “I remember.”

She watched cautiously when he stared out the windows overlooking the ocean, seeing only their reflection in the glass as a small sob shook his shoulders. “We sat at a green painted picnic table eating baskets of fried clams and drinking Cabernet until one in the morning. They lit fireworks off the pier at dusk and kicked us out when they caught me carving our initials into the peeling paint with my lobster fork. You looked so beautiful. Your hair was red then, and the long strands would blow in your face and get stuck in your strawberry lip gloss. And you would laugh...” He smiled, his eyes watery when he looked back at her. “That was a happy time for us, wasn’t it? We were happy. Do you remember, Al?”

She nodded. Ali did remember that trip, along with her idiotic decision to dye her hair russet red. It was all the rage and seemed like a good idea at the time. “I remember you pulling a good chunk of it out the next day. When I wore a bikini you thought was too revealing.”

His gaze was pained before he closed his eyes, keeping them shut as he said, “I’m sorry for that. So very sorry.”

Her pulse tripped when she caught a trace of movement over his shoulder, near the front foyer, but when she looked that direction there was nothing. Not even a shadow. Her mind must be playing tricks because she swore she’d seen something. And because, as she looked back at Danny breaking down in front of her, she believed him. He’d said the same words to her a dozen times or more over the years but this time, she saw actual contrition.

“You should leave now, before you do anything else you might regret. This isn’t going to end the way you want it to, Danny. I’m not going back.”

“I wouldn’t have had to do it, you know.” There was a razor sharp edge in his regretful tone, his
Come to Jesus
moment quickly passing. “If you didn’t feel the need to flaunt your tits and ass to everyone who would look, I wouldn’t have needed to scold you. To show all those trust fund assholes that you belonged to me.” He took another drink, half of the clear liquid spilling down his chin. Wiping it away, he added, “He did this to me, you know.”

Not understanding, she looked at him in puzzlement. “What? Who?”

“Your playmate.” He nodded his head toward Sam’s house. “Captain America.”

Ali didn’t believe that for a second.

Laughing suddenly, Danny slapped his knee as if he’d just heard the funniest joke ever told. “He was so pissed at you this morning. Oh my God, Alexandra, it was a sight to see, I’ll tell you. And watching you grovel like a little bitch as he walked away? I haven’t seen anything that entertaining in a long time.”

“Sam didn’t do that. I wish I’d done it, though.”

He let out a short bark of laughter. “I bet you do, dollface. I bet you do.” Glancing at his watch, he added, “Now, enough of this silly chitchat, we’ve got a plane to catch.”

It was Ali’s turn to laugh. “Not gonna happen.”

“Well, then.” His voice held no hint of a slur, his tone deadly soft. “You can either come home with me and our lives go back to normal or your boyfriend is facing some pretty serious felony assault charges.”

“Danny, the police don’t randomly charge people with crimes. There has to be proof and some kind of evidence.” Ali had that on good authority from the unconcerned detective she’d spoken with earlier in the day. “You can’t control everyone and everything.”

“True, but there will be an investigation. And to see him get no jail time would be a pity, but it really doesn’t matter. Just the mere rumor of an assault charge, false or not, will get around quickly considering the business he’s in.” He shrugged, taking another sloppy sip of vodka. “His reputation will be ruined and his company, along with his livelihood, will go down with it.”

“You’re sick in the head. You do realize that, don’t you? Seek treatment, Danny.”

“I disagree, dollface. In fact, thanks to my brilliant mind, I’ve thought of everything. You come with me and I’ll let your little indiscretion go. We’ll never speak of it again. If I must force you, then the people who did this?” He pointed to his face. “They will do it to him. And they might not stop until he takes his last breath. You get me?”

She got him. And it scared the hell out of her. “One cracked out junkie doesn’t stand a chance against him. They’ll be on the wrong side of that beating when it’s done.”

Danny tilted his head and stood, surprisingly steady on his feet. “Let’s say your right. He might come out on top, but not entirely unscathed. Do you think anyone will want to hire his company when he can’t even pass a background check? After all, it’s against the law to go around beating people up. There are repercussions for doing such a thing. He’ll be damn lucky if he can find a job parking cars at the stadium downtown, much less providing security for anyone.” He leaned down, his arms bracketing her in place, his mouth only a breath away from hers. “Or maybe I’ll decide to just do away with him for good. As you said, one junkie won’t cut it with someone as skilled as he is, but a handful will. And the promise of an eight ball of cocaine can be a powerful motivator, Alexandra. It’s stronger and more pure than any drug these losers have done in years. So much so, that it will probably kill them before the month is over. An overdose is a tragic ending, but it covers my ass nicely. You can’t confess to a murder when you’re dead, too, right?” He grabbed a fistful of her sweatshirt and yanked hard, pulling her right out of the chair. “And all because he made the mistake of banging my wife!” he shouted, spittle collecting on his chin.

“That’s some plan you’ve got.” Sam’s steadfast voice filled the room and Ali gasped, the deadly look that flashed in Danny’s eyes sending a shiver down her spine. “You’re gonna need an army of junkie’s, though.”