Relentless Rhythm (Tempest #4) (32 page)

My gaze swung to April. “He’s hurt you, hasn’t he? I can tell. What’d he do to you this time?”

“Nothing.” April paled. “He’s done nothing.”

I noticed James edging closer.

Mrs. Barrie’s eyes narrowed. “Is that true?” she asked her daughter touching her on the arm. “You’re ok, aren’t you? Why would he suggest something like that?”

“I don’t know.” April shook her head. But why was I the only one who noticed that she was favoring her left side?

“She’s lying.” I looked James straight in the eye, daring the bastard to deny it. “This guy gets off on her pain. I’ve seen the bruises.”

Her mom gasped.

“You’re out of your mind,” James snapped. “You’re so desperate you’ll say anything to get her back. But that’s not happening. You need to go.” He lifted his chin and two huge dark suited goons I’d missed bled out of the shadows. Before I had a chance to react they grabbed my arms and dragged me backward.

“April,” I shouted, and she flinched. I saw something flicker in her eyes as she looked at me that I wanted to believe meant she gave a damn.

Say something, Kitten. Please, right now, before it’s too late. Say you belong with me that you can’t stay with him anymore. That you need me as bloody much as I need you.

Her lips parted as if she’d heard my plea and was going to answer, but then James latched onto her arm and pulled her away. It busted something up inside when I saw her lean against him like maybe she wanted to be there.

She got in the van without saying anything, and it was James who looked back over his shoulder, his triumphant eyes declaring his victory, his buddies saying the rest in a way that got his point across and left me with my own bruises to remind me in case I forgot.

“Why’d you bring me here?” Missy Rivera asked me with a puzzled frown. “I thought we were going to go back to your hotel.”

“No, I changed my mind.” The same way War had changed his mind and slammed the door on the extracurricular group activity we’d planned for the girls earlier at Miriam’s birthday party. Granted, the mini orgy had been mostly my idea, but my heart hadn’t been in it. Quite frankly, neither had my dick. Both seemed to be working in concert to sabotage every plan I came up with to try to get over April.

Being back in Southside and attending Bryan’s sister’s party with old high school friends like Missy was messing with my head, too, making me think about things I’d rather not remember.

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair as I surveyed my old lady’s apartment, the one Lace and I had survived in until CPS moved us out. The place she lived until she died, her body nothing but an overdosed shell.

The same ratty old couch sat in the center of the room. Same trash. Same needles. Same discarded drug paraphernalia. I don’t know what I came expecting to find. There weren’t any answers here. The entire abandoned building was condemned and scheduled to be imploded, razed to the ground to be replaced with new public housing. The old building was just too messed up to be salvageable.

Like me.

The soles of my boots crunched on the broken glass as I walked through the space that had been my home as a kid. Scenes from the past haunted my mind.

“But why? I wanna stay with you. I’m scared.”

“You can’t, Lace. Stay here.” I shoved her into the cabinet under the sink. “Don’t make a sound, and don’t come out till I get you.”

“Ok.” My five year old sister had looked up at me, her amber eyes round and filled with tears as I closed the door on her.

My old lady’s pimp and his buddies were twisted bastards, but at least I’d kept the horror far away from Lace’s innocent ears and eyes.

I managed to protect her then.

But it was ripping me up inside that I couldn’t save April now.

I turned back to Missy. “Let’s get out of here.” My voice was rough reflecting my inner turmoil. “I’ll take you somewhere to get something to eat. I don’t know why I came here.”

“I do,” she said softly.

“Yeah?” I raised an inquiring brow.

She nodded. “I grew up in a place just like this, not far from here.” She looked away. “No matter how far or how fast you run, you can never escape your past.”

I had to agree. Only with April I believed that it could be different. I thought with her I could be someone better. Guess I’d been wrong. She’d rejected me along with that fantasy. In the end, you could take the boy out of Southside, but you couldn’t take Southside out of the boy.

I clicked out of the entertainment website, my throat so tight it hurt like hell. Of course he’d moved on. I should have expected it. What I shouldn’t have done was go looking for proof of it.

Don’t cry
, I told myself. You’ve done enough of that lately.

So you got taken in by a handsome face and pretty words. You aren’t the first, and seeing Dizzy with his arm around that beautiful blue eyed brunette, I knew I wouldn’t be the last, either.

At some point I had to stop dreaming about faith and magic and a guy with a sexy grin swooping in to save me. George had it wrong. The key to getting what you wanted wasn’t to be found within some esoteric belief system, but in working the angles and stacking the deck to your own advantage the way my husband did.

“April?” I heard James call from the living room as the front door slammed behind him. “Get in here!”

Shit.
I quickly cleared the history on the computer and rose from my chair, hurrying down the hall and into the living room.

“Yes. What do you need?” I pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

“Get me the paper shredder.” He placed his laptop on the coffee table. “And then get me something to eat, and make enough for three. Smith and Lorenzo are coming over.”

“Ok.” I went to the bedroom and brought out the shredder we kept next to the computer desk. He didn’t acknowledge me as I set it on the floor beside him. His brow was furrowed, and his face was glowing from the reflection of the computer screen. I went on to the kitchen and made up sandwiches, the extent of my culinary skills, and was just pulling out a few beers when I heard him let his buddies in.

I noticed their expressions were all serious and that they stopped talking when I placed the food and plates in front of them. Wondering what was up, I glanced a little too long at James’ computer screen.

“April,” James grabbed my hand. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, I…”

“None of this stuff concerns you,” he cut me off. “Why don’t you go back to the bedroom? Call Tan. Tell him you’re ready to go back to work.”

Immediate joy shot through my body, but I kept my expression neutral. “Alright.” I started toward the bedroom, but he had more to say.

“You stay away from Lowell, or he’s a dead man.”

The joy turned to dread.

“Smith and Lorenzo will go with you to make sure you don’t forget. You understand?”

I turned back around, the blank mask in place, the one that more and more felt like it reflected the real me. “Yes, I do.”

“I don’t understand.” John gave me a look that told me he wasn’t happy with the turn my story had taken at the end. “Why’d Daniel take Astral back to her parents?”

“That just stinks!” Michael was more direct with his response. He bounced on my mom’s couch and folded his arms over his chest.

I sighed, fiddling with the end of my ponytail. I’d finished the story, but that was the only productive thing I’d done in weeks. I understood how they felt. Sometimes life, like in stories, takes unexpected and unwanted turns.

Sometimes you just had to stop wishing for things that would never happen and just deal.

That was when I set aside the childish notions, making the choice to get on with my life, leaving the fragments of my heart on the living room floor alongside the pieces of my useless cell phone.

Day by day hour by hour I waded through a life that seemed even emptier than before, clinging to my mom and my brothers, the three who never let me down and who I could always count on to be my bright beacons.

James remained the same, a genuine bully to the core. He hadn’t
physically
hurt me since the night he told me the truth about Dizzy. After that initial display of violence, he only verbally bullied me. When he failed to get the response he was seeking, he gradually lost interest in torturing me. Except when Dizzy had shown up at the funeral. That had rekindled his ire, and he’d given me a reminder that night. Sickened by his renewed attention, I’d showered three times trying to cleanse myself of his taint. I think he believed he’d beaten me. But I knew something that he didn’t.